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OCTOBER, 1881.)
FRAGMENTS OF THE INDIKA OF KTÉSIAS.
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call out men by their names, and when they come forth at their call, to fall upon them and devour them. This animal has the courage of the lion, the speed of the horse, and the strength of the bull, and cannot be encountered successfully with weapons of steel." In Euboea about Khalkis the sheep have no gall," and their flesh is so extremely bitter that dogs even will not eat it. They say also that in the parts beyond the Maurusian Straits“ rain falls in the summer-time, while the same regions are in wintertime scorched with heat. In the country of the Kyônians" there is, according to his account, a certain fountain, which instead of water has springs of oil-this oil being used by the people in the neighbourhood for all kinds of food. In the region also called Metadrida there is another fountain, this being at no great distance from the sea. At midnight it swells with the utmost violence, and in receding casts forth fish upon dry land in such quantities that the people of the place cannot gather them, and are obliged to leave them lying rotting on the ground."
33. Ktosias thus writing and romancing professes that his narrative is all perfect truth, and, to assure us of this, asseverates that he has recorded nothing but what he either saw with his own eyes, or learned from the testimony of credible eye-witnesses. He adds more over that he has left unnoticed many things far more marvellous than any he has related, lest any one who had not a previous knowledge of the facts might look upon him as an arrant story-teller.
The Séres" and the natives of Upper India are said to be men of huge stature, so that among them are found some who are 13 cubits in height and who also live till they are above 200 years old. There are besides some. where in the river called the Gaïtêses men of a brute-like appearance who have a hide like that of a rhinoceros being quite impervious to darts," while in India itself in the central parts of an island of the ocean the inhabitants are said to
have tails of extraordinary length such as satyrs are represented with in pictures."
FRAG. II. From Arrian, Anab. Book V. 4, 2. And Ktêsias (if any one considers him a competent authority) asserts that the distance from the one bank of the Indus to the other where the stream is narrowest is 40 stadia, and where it is widest, so much even as 100 stadia, though its breadth in general is the mean be. tween these two extremes.
Frag. III.
Strabo, Geog. Book XV. From this we can see how greatly the opinions of the others differ,- Ktôsias asserting that India is not less than all the rest of Asia, and Onesikritos that, &c.
From the Indika of Arrian, 30. Ktësias the Knidian states that India is equal to the rest of Asia, but he is wrong.
FRAG. IV. Ælian, De Nat. Anim. Book XVII, 29. When the King of the Indians goes on a campaign, one hundred thousand war-elephants. go on before him, while three thousand more, that are of superior size and strength, march, I am told, behind him, these being trained to demolish the walls of the enemy. This they effect by rushing against them at the King's signal, and throwing them down by the overwhelming force with which they press their breasts against them. Ktêsias reports this from hearsay, but adds that with his own eyes he had seen elephants tear up palm trees, roots and all, with like furious violence; and this they do whenever they are instigated to the act by their drivers."
Frag. V. (A) Aristotle, De Gener. Anim. II, 2. What Ktësias has said regarding the seed of the elephant is plainly false, for he asserts that thus commonly for Muriotparov (Antigon. Mirab. 154). Conf. also Aristot. Mir. ausc. c. 123.
This seetion is found only in the MS. of Münich, and perbape does not belong to Kterias. * This fragment in the Münich MS. forms a part of the 15th Section of the text of Photios.
3 Cf. Lucian Macrob. c. 5. ” Var. lect.-Gaitres.
** Cf. Ptolemy, Geog. VII, iii, where the same words are used. " Cf. same chapter of same Book p. 178.
Conf. Diodor. II., 17, Strabo, XV, 1, 41 ff.; Curtius, VIII, 9, 17; Kosmos Indikoploustes, XI, p. 339.
* Regarding the Krokotta, a sort of hyæna, vide Diodor. III, 34; Elian, Hist. Nat. VII, 22; Pliny. H. N. VIII. 81 Porphyr. De Abstin. III, p. 223. Conf. Hesych. s. h. voc.; Bruce's Travels, vol. V, p. 113.
Conf. Theophr. A. Plant. IX, 18, and Arist. Hist. An. I, 27.
68 Μαυρουσίων πυλών-understand of the Pillars of Hercules. We have Maurusios in Pliny, Hist. Nat. V, 2; Strabo, Geog. XVII, iii, 2.
* 'Ev Tô Kvaviay xopa appears to be corrupt. We might suggest Cio in Myain. The same thing is told of the fountain ev Sukávov xbpy at the city KurioTpaToy
