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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1877.
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 of catching the others. 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, gold being a product of the Indian mines.
IX. Now in that part of the country where the daughter of Herakles 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 Herakles, 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 Herakles therefore made her of soituble age for marriage, and that in consequence the whole nation over which Pandaia reigned obtained this same privilege from her father. Now to me it seems that, even if Hérakles could have done a thing so marvellous, he could also have made himself longer-lived, in order to have intercourse with his daughter when she was of mature age. Bat 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 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 not, when Megasthenes declares that the very fruits of the country ripen faster than fruits elsewhere, and decay faster?
From the time of Dion usos to Sandra. kottos the Indians counted 153 kings and a period of 6042 years; among these a republic was thrice established * * * * and another to 300 years, and another to 120 years. The Indians also tell us that Dionusog was earlier than Herakles by fifteen generations, and that except him no one made a hostile invasion of India, -not even Kuros the son of Kambuses, although he undertook an expedition against the Skuthians, 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.
Should they be caught, the others are easily enclosed in the nets as they go wandering about. They are then put into earthen pots, wbere they are buried deep in salt. By this process the flesh is all eaten away, and the hard concretions, which are the pearls, drop down to the bottom.
FRAGM. LI. Phlegon. Mirab. 33. Of the Pandaian Land.
(Cf. Fragm. XXX. 6.) Megasthens says that the women of the Pandaan realm bear children when they are six years of age.
FRAGM. L.O. Plin. Hist. Nat. VI. xxi. 4-5. Of the Ancient History of the Indians. For the Indians stand almost alone among the
nations in never having migrated from their own country. From the days of Father Bacchus to Alexander the Great their kings are reckoned at 154, whose reigns extend over 6451 years and 3 months.
Solin. 52. 5. Father Bacchus was the first who invaded India, and was the first of ali who triumphed over the vanquished Indians. From him to Alexander the Great 6451 years are reckoned with 3 months additional, the calculation being made by counting the kings who reigned in the intermediate period, to the number of 153.
(To be continued.)
