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90
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH, 1876.
to this day the Indian traders who bring their Wares to our markets eagerly buy up as such and carry away, while it is even more greedily bought up by the wealthy Romans of to-day, as it was wont to be by the wealthy Greeks long ago. This article is the sea-pearl, called in the Indian tongue margarita. But Hercules, it is said, apprecinting its beauty as a wearing ornament, caused it to be brought from all the sea into India, that he might adorn with it the person of his daughter.
Megasthenes informs us that the oyster which yields this pearl is there fished for with nets, and that in the same place the oysters live in the sea in shoals like bee-swarms: for oysters, like bees, have a king or a queen, and if any one is lucky enough to catch the king he readily encloses in the net all the rest of the shoal, but if the king makes his escape there is no chance that the others can be caught. The fishermen allow the fleshy parts of such as they catch to rot away, and keep the bone, which forms the ornament: for the pearl in India is worth thrice its weight in refined gold, which is a metal Indian mines produce.
IX. Now in that part of the country where the daughter of Hercules reigned as queen, it is said that the women when seven years old are of marriageable age, and that the men live at most forty years, and that on this subject there is a tradition current among the Indians to the effect that Hercules, whose daughter was born to him late in life, when he saw that his end was near, and he knew no man of equal rank with himself to whom he could give her in marriage, had incestuous intercourse with the girl when she was seven years of age, in order that a race of kings sprung from their common blood might be left to rule over India; that Hercules therefore made her of suitable age for marriage, and that in consequence the whole natiun over which Pardæa reigned obtained this same privilege from her father. Now to me it seems that, even if Hercules could have done things so marvellous, he must also have made himself longer-lived, in order to have intercourse with his daughter when she was of mature age. But in fact, if the age at which the women there are marriageable is correctly stated, this is quite consistent, it seems to me, with what is said of the men's age, that those who live longest die at forty; for where men so much
sooner become old and die, it must needs be that they attain their prime sooner, the sooner their career of life is to end. It follows hence that men would there at the age of thirty be turning old, and young men would at twenty be past the season of puberty, while the stage of full puberty would be reached about fifteen. And, quite compatibly with this, the women' might be marriageable at the age of seven. And why nct, when Megasthenes declares that the very fruits of the country ripen faster than fruits elsewhere, and decay faster ?
From the time of Dionysus to Sandra. cottus the Indians counted 153 kings and & period of 6042 years, but among thuse a republic was thrice established . * * . and another to 300 years, and another to 120 years. The Indians also tell us that Dionysus was earlier than Hercules by fifteen generations, and that except him no one made a hostile invasion of India, -not even Cyrus the son of Cambyses, although he undertook an expedition against the Scythians, and otherwise showed himself the most enterprising monarch in all Asia; but that Alexander indeed came and overthrew in war all whom he attacked, and would even have conquered the whole world had his army been willing to follow him. On the other hand, a sense of justice, they say, prevented any Indian king from attempting conquest beyond the limits of India.
X. It is further said that the Indians do not rear monuments to the dead, but consider the virtues which men have displayed in life, and the songs in which their praises are cel brated, sufficient to preserve their memory after Sath. But of their cities it is said that the number is so great that it cannot be stated with precision, but that such cities as are situated on the banks of rivers or on the sea-coast are built of wood instead of brick, being meant to last only for a time,-so destructive are the heavy rains which pour, down, and the rivers also when they overflow their banks and inundate the plains, while those cities which stand on commanding situstions and lofty eminences are built of brick and mud; that the greatest city in India is that which is called Palim bothra, in the dominions of the Prasians, where the streams of the Erannoboas and the Ganges unite, - the Ganges being the greatest of all rivers, and the Erannoboas being perhaps the third largest
