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NOVEMBER, 1881.]
FRAGMENTS OF THE INDIKA OF KTESIAS.
(C) Strabo, Geog. XVI, 4.
Ktêsias the Knidian mentions a fountain which discharges into the sea water of a red colour and full of minium (red-lead).
FRAG. XXVIII. Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXXI, 2.
Ktêsias records that in India is a pool of water called Side118 in which nothing will float, but everything sinks to the bottom.
FRAG. XXIX.
(A) Antigonos, Mirab. Nar. Cong. Hist. c. 182. Ktêsias mentions the water which falls from a rock in Armenia, and which casts out black fish which cause the death of the eater.
(B) Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXXI, 2.
Ktésias writes that in Armenia there is a fountain with black fish which, if taken as food, produce instantaneous death, and I heard the same said of the Danube, that where it rises, the same kind of black fish is found in it till you come to a fountain adjoining its channel, and that this fountain is therefore commonly believed to be the head of the river. They tell the same thing of the Nymph's pool in Lydia.
FRAG. XXX.
(A) Tzetzês, Chil. VII, v, 638.
This Skylax (of Karyanda) writes other such stories by the myriads, stories of one-eyed men, and of men that sleep in their ears, and thousands of other wonderful creatures, all which he speaks of as really existing, and not fictitious; but for my part, as I have never met with any of them, I do not believe in them, although there are multitudes, such as Ktêsias, Iamboulos, Hêsigonos, Rhêginos, who not only believe that these, but that still greater monstrosities, are to be found in the world.
(B) Pliny, Hist. Nat. VII, 2.
And he affirms that there is a tribe of Indians whose women bear offspring once only in their lifetime, and whose hair turns white in the very childhood. He mentions also a race of men called Monosceli (one-legged), who, though they had but a single leg, could hop upon it with wonderful agility, and that they were also called. Sciopodae, because that when they lay on their back in very hot weather, they shaded themselves from the sun with their feet. They lived not very far from the Troglodytes (cave-dwellers). To the west of these, he adds,
113 Isidor. Origg. xiii, 13; Conf. Antigon. c. 161; Diodorus, II, 36, 7; Arrian, Ind. c. 6; Strabo, XV, i,
313
lived men without a neck, and who had their eyes placed in their shoulders. (C) From the same.
According to Ktêsias the Indian people which is called Pandore and occupies the valleys, live for 200 years, and have in early youth hoary hair which turns black as they become old. There is a people on the other hand whose life-time does not exceed forty years. They are next neighbours to the Macrobii, and their women produce offspring once only. Agatharchidês asserts the same, and adds that they live upon locusts and are fleet of foot. [To these Clitarchus gave the name of Mandi, and Megasthenês reckons the number of their villages at 300. Their women bear children when they are seven years old, and they are in their old age at forty.]
FRAG. XXXI.
Gellius, Noct. Attic. IX. c, 4.
When we were returning from Greece into
Italy, and had made our way to Brundusium, and having disembarked, were walking about in that famous seaport which Ennius, using a somewhat far-fetched but sufficiently wellknown word, called the fortunate (praepes), we saw a number of bundles of books lying exposed for sale. I lost not a moment, but pounced with the utmost avidity upon these books. Now, they were all in Greek and full of wonders and fables-containing relations of things unheard of and incredible, but written by authors of no small authority-Aristeas of Proconnesos and Isigonos of Nicaea, and Ktêsias, and Onêsikritos and Polystephanos and Hegesias. The volumes themselves however were musty with accumulated mould, and their whole condition and appearance showed that they were going fast to decay. I went up to the stall however, and enquired the prices, and being induced by the wonderful and unexpected cheapness, I bought a great lot of the books for a few coppers; and occupied myself for the next two days in glancing over the contents. As I read I made some extracts, noting the wonderful stories which none of our writers have as yet aimed at composing, and interspersing them with these comments of my own, so that whoever reads these books may not be found quite a novice in stories of the
38; and Ind. Ant. vol. V, pp. 333, 334, and vol. VI, Pp. 121, 130.
