Chop. 2.] WONDERFUL FOEMS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS, 131 
Among the mountainous districts of the eastern parts of 
India, in what is called the country of the Catharcludi, we 
find the Satyr, ^ an animal of extraordinary swiftness. These 
go sometimes on four feet, and sometimes walk erect ; they 
have also the features of a human being. On account of their 
swiftness, these creatures are never to be caught, except when 
they are either aged or sickly. Tauron gives the name of 
Choromandae to a nation which dwell in the woods and have 
no proper voice. These people screech in a frightful manner ; 
their bodies are covered with hair, their eyes are of a sea-green 
colour, and their teeth like those of the dog.*^"^ Eudoxus tells 
us, that in the southern parts of India, the men have feet a 
cubit in length ; while those of the women are so remarkably 
small, that they are called Struthopodes."^^ 
Megasthenes places among the ISTomades''^ of India, a people 
who are called Scyritse. These have merely holes in their 
faces instead of nostrils, and flexible feet, like the body of 
the serpent. At the very extremity of India, on the eastern 
side, near the source of the river Ganges, there is the nation 
of the Astomi, a people who have no mouths ; their bodies 
are rough and hairy, and they cover themselves with a down^^ 
plucked from the leaves of trees. These people subsist only 
by breathing and by the odours which they inhale through the 
usual exaggerated statements of the ancient travellers. Aulas Gellius 
also repeats this fable, B. ix. c. 4. — B. 
''^ These are the great apes, which are found in some of the Oriental 
islands ; this name was given them from their salacious disposition, which, 
it would seem, they have manifested in reference to even the human spe- 
■ cies. We have an account of the Satyrs in ^lian, Hist. Anim. B. xvi. 
c. 21.— B. 
'^'^ We may suppose that this description is taken from some incorrect 
account of a large kind of ape ; but it seems impossible to refer it to any 
particular species. — B. 
'^^ Sparrow," or " ostrich-footed it does not appear that the com- 
mentators have attempted to explain this passage ; may we not conjecture 
that it refers to the Chinese With respect to the word employed, it has 
been generally derived from arpbvOog, *'a sparrow Dalechamps, how- 
ever, as it would appear, with much plausibility, thinks that it is derived 
from " struthio," the ostrich. — B. It is not improbable, however, that 
these were so called, from the resemblance of their gait to that of a spar- 
row, as they would be unable to step out, and be obliged to jump from 
place to place. 
79 Or wandering tribes." 
80 On this subject see B. vi. c. 20. It is clear that either silk or cotton 
is here alluded to. 
K 2 
