124 
plint's nattjeal history. 
[Book VII. 
this effect, among the most illustrious of whom are Herodotus 
and Aristeas of Proconnesus.^^ 
Beyond the other Scythian Anthropophagi, there is a country 
called Abarimon, situate in a certain great valley of Mount 
Imaus,^^ the inhabitants of which are a savage race, whose 
feet are turned backwards,*^ relatively to their legs : they pos- 
sess wonderful velocity, and wander about indiscriminately 
with the wild beasts. We learn from Eeeton, whose duty it 
was to take the measurements of the routes of Alexander the 
Great, that this people cannot breathe in any climate except 
their own, for which reason it is impossible to take them be- 
fore any of the neighbouring kings ; nor could any of them 
be brought before Alexander himself. 
The Anthropophagi, whom we have previously mentioned 
as dwelling ten days' journey beyond the Borysthenes, accord- 
ing to the account of Isigonus of Mcsea, were in the habit of 
drinking out of human skulls,^^ and placing the scalps, with 
the hair attached, upon their breasts, like so many napkins. 
The same author relates, that there is, in Albania, a certain 
race of men, whose eyes are of a sea-green colour, and who 
have white hair from their earliest childhood/^ and that these 
people see better in the night than in the day. He states also 
38 We have an account of the Arimaspi, and of Aristeas, in Herodo- 
tus, B. iv. cc. 13, 15, and 27. Most of the wonderful tales related in this 
Chapter may be found in Aulus Gellius, B. ix. c. 4. "We have an account, 
also, of the Arimaspi in Solinus, very nearly in the words of Pliny» "We 
have some valuahle remarks by Cuvier, on the account given by Pliny of 
the Arimaspi and the Griffins, and on the source from which it appears 
to have originated, in Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 16, and Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 164, 
165.— B. 
39 The modern Himalaya range. 
Aulus Gellius relates this, among other wonderful tales, which are 
contained in his Chapter " On the Miraculous Wonders of Barbarous 
Nations," B. ix. c. 4. He cites, among his authorities, Aristeas and Isi- 
gonus, whom he designates as ^'writers of no mean authority." — B. 
In B. iv. c. 26, and B. vi. c. 29. 
^2 One of the pleasures promised to the Gothic warriors, in the paradise 
of Odin, was to drink out of the skulls of their enemies. — B. 
The variety of the human species to which the term Albino has 
been applied, from the whiteness of their hair and skin, is supposed by 
Cuvier to be more frequently found in the close valleys of mountainous 
districts, and may therefore have been very often met with in Albania, 
which is composed of valleys in the Caucasian range. — B. 
