Chap. 2.] WONDERFUL EOEMS OF DIFFEIIEIS'T NATIONS. 
129 
duced to ashes together with the other portions of his body ; 
upon which it was placed in a coffer, and preserved in a 
temple. 
India, and the region of ^Ethiopia more especially, abounds 
in wonders.^^ In India the largest of animals are produced ; 
their dogs,^^ for example, are much bigger than those of any 
other country.^^ The trees, too, are said to be of such vast 
height, that it is impossible to send an arrow over them. This 
is the result of the singular fertility of the soil, the equable 
temperature of the atmosphere, and the abundance of water ; 
which, if we are to believe what is said, are such, that a single 
fig-tree^* is capable of affording shelter to a whole troop of 
horse. The reeds here are also of such enormous length, that 
each portion of them, between the joints, forms a tube, of 
which a boat is made that is capable of holding three men.^^ 
It is a well-known fact, that many of the people here are more 
than five cubits in height.^^ These people never expectorate, 
are subject to no pains, either in the head, the teeth, or the 
eyes, and rarely in any other parts of the body ; so well is the 
heat of the sun calculated to strengthen the constitution. 
Their philosophers, who are called Gymnosophists, remain in 
one posture, with their eyes immovably fixed upon the sun, 
from its rising to its setting, and, during the whole of the day, 
they are accustomed to stand in the burning sands on one 
foot, first one and then the other.^''' According to the ac- 
^1 Horace, Odes, B. i. 0. 22, characterises the Hydaspes, a river of India, 
by the title of " fabulosus." — E. 
62 See B. viii. c. 40. 
63 ^lian, Hist. Anim. B. xvi. c. 11, and B. xvii. c. 26, refers to the 
large size of many of the animals of India ; and in B. iv. c. 19, he especially 
describes the size and fierceness of the Indian dog.— B. 
6^ The Ficus reUgiosa of Linnseus, the branches of which have the 
property of taking root when they are bent down to the gi-ound, and of 
forming new stems, which again produce other branches, that may be bent 
down in the same way, so as to cover an indefinite space. — B. More popu- 
larly known as the "banyan tree." See B. xii. c. 11. 
6' The bamhos arundinacea, or bamboo cane, is a reed or plant of the 
gramineous kind, which frequently grows to the height of the tallest trees. 
The stem is hollow, and the parts of it between the joints are used by the 
natives to form their canoes. "We have an account of them in Herodotus, 
B. iii. c. 98. — B. See also B. xvi. c. 65 of this work. 
66 It does not appear that the stature of the Indians exceeds that of the 
inhabitants of the temperate zones. — B. 
67 Some practices very similar to these exist in certain parts of IndLi, 
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