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THE INDIKA OF MEGASTHENES.
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it is derived from the rivers, or from the rains of the summer season, which are wont to fall every year at a stated period with surprising regularity; while the great heat which prevails ripens the roots which grow in the marshes, and especially those of the tall reeds.
"But, further, there are usages observed by the Indians which contribute to prevent the occurrence of famine among them; for whereas among other nations it is usual, in the contests of war, to ravage the soil, and thus to reduce it to an uncultivated waste, among the Indians, on the contrary, by whom husbandmen are re- garded as a class that is sacred and inviolable, the tillers of the soil, even when battle is raging in their neighbourhood, are undisturbed by any sense of danger, for the combatants on either side in waging the conflict make carnage of each other, but allow those engaged in hus. bandry to remain quite unmoleated. Besides, they neither ravage an enemy's land with fire, nor cut down its trees.
(37.) India, again, possesses many rivers both largo and navigable, which, having their sources in the mountains which stretch along the northern frontier, traverse the level country, and not a few of these, after uniting with each other, fall into the river called the Ganges. 16 Now this river, which at its source is 30 stadia broad, flows from north to south, and ompties its waters into the ocean forming the eastern boundary of the Gangaridai, a nation which possesses a vast force of the largest-sized elephants. Owing to this, their country has never been conquered by any foreign king : for all other nations dread the overwhelming number and strength of these animals. 15 [Thus Alexander the Macedonian, after conquering all Asia, did not make war upon the Gangaridait as he did on all others; for when he had arrived with all his troops at the river Ganges, and had subdued all the other Indians, he abandoned as hopeless an invasion of the Gangaridai when he learned that they possessed four thousand elephants well trained and equipped for war.] Another river, about the same size as the Ganges, called the Indus, has its sources, like its rival, in the north, and
falling into the ocean forms on its way the boundary of India; in its passage through the vast stretch of level country it receives not a few tributary streams which aro navigable, the most notable of them being the H u panis, the Hudas pês, and the Akesin ds. Besides these rivers there are a great many others of every description, which pormeate the country, and supply water for the nurture of garden vegetables and crops of all sorts. Now to account for the rivers being so numerous, and the supply of water so superabundant, the native philosophers and proficients in natural science advance the following reasons - They say that the countries which surround Indiathose of the Skythians and Baktrians, and also of the Aryans-are more elevated than India, so that their waters, agreeably to natural law, flow down together from all sides to the plains beneath, where they gradually saturate the soil with moisture, and generate a multitude of rivers.
A peculiarity is found to exist in one of the rivers of India, -that called the Sillas, which flows from a fountain bearing tho samo name. It differs from all other rivers in this respect, that nothing cast into it will float, but everything, strange to say, sinks down to the bottom.
(38.) **It is said that India, being of enormous size when taken as a whole, is peopled by races both numerous and diverse, of which not even one was originally of foreign descent, but all were evidently indigenous ; " and moreover that India neither received a colony from abroad, nor sent out a colony to any other nation. "The legends further inform us that in primitive times the inhabitants subsisted on such fruits as the earth yielded spontaneously, and were clothed with the skins of the beasts found in the country, as was the case with the Greeks; and that, in like manner as with them, the arts and other appliances which improve human life were gradually invented, Necessity herself teaching them to an animal at once docile and furnished not only with hands ready to second all his efforts, but also with reason and a keen intelligence.
* The men of greatest learning among the
+ Conf. Lassen, Pentapot. lo. 11 Conf. Fragm. xxi. in Ind. Ant. vol. V. p. 88, c. vi. 2-3.
15.10 Conf. Fragm. x. in Ind. Ant. vol. V. p. 87, c. iv. 8-18.
15 Conf. Fragm. xlvi.
15 et seqq. Conf. Fragm. lvii.
15.30 Conf. Fragm. 1. in Ind. Ant. vol. V. p. 89, c. vii.-" He tells us further," &c. to c. viii.--"on the principle 1 of merit."
