134 pliisty's KATUEAL HISTOET. [Book VII. 
Artemidorus states that in the island of Taprcbane,^^ life is 
prolonged to an extreme length, while, at the same time, the 
body is exempt from weakness. According to Durisis, some of 
the Indians have connection with beasts, and from this union 
a mixture of half man, half beast, is produced.^^ Among the 
Calingae, a nation also of India, the women conceive at five 
years of age, and do not live beyond their eighth year.^^ In 
other places again, there are men born with long hairy tails,^^ 
and of remarkable swiftness of foot; while there are others that 
have ears so large as to cover the whole body.^ 
The OritsB are divided from the Indians by the river 
Arabis ;^ they are acquainted with no food whatever except 
lish, which they are in the habit of tearing to pieces with their 
nails, and drying in the sun.^ Crates of Pergamus states, that 
the Troglodytee, who dwell beyond ^Ethiopia, are able to out- 
run the horse ; and that a tribe of the Ethiopians, who are 
known as the Syrbotse, exceed eight cubits in height. 
There is a tribe of Ethiopian JN'omades dwelling on the 
banks of the river Astragus, towards the north, and about 
than in the more temperate regions, but the age here mentioned is an ex- 
aggeration. The female also, in such climates, ceases to bear at an earlier 
age, probably before the fortieth year. — B. 
This is the Island of Ceylon, of which Pliny has given an account 
in the last Book, c. 24. 
Such unnatural unions may have taken place occasionally, but no- 
thing has ever been produced from them. — B. 
This is a still greater exaggeration than that mentioned above, in 
Note 95.— B. 
Cuvier remarks that this story must have been originally told with re- 
ference to the race of large apes. He says, however, that some men have 
the OS coccygis " greatly prolonged, and mentions a painter of celebrity 
in Paris who had this malformation. " But from this to an actual tail," 
says he, the distance is very great.'* In these times we have the (per- 
haps doubtful) account by M. de Couret, of the Niam Mams, a race in 
Abyssinia or Nubia, with tails at least two inches in length. Few will 
fail to recollect Lord Monboddo's theory, that mankind originally had 
tails, but wore them off in lapse of time by climbing up the trees. 
1 As far as there is any truth in this account, it must refer to certain 
kinds of apes : but with respect to the size of the ears, it is, of course, 
greatly exaggerated. — B. 
2 Or Cophes, see B. vi. c. 25. 
3 There are many tribes who live on the sea-coast, and who inhabit a 
barren country, with a bad climate, whose diet is almost confined to fish, 
and who feed their cattle on it. This is the case in some parts of Iceland, 
and even, to a certain extent, among the people of the Hebrides. — B. 
