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LASSEN ON THE INDIKA OF KTESIAS.
NOVEMBER, 1881.]
withdrawn; but it would be going too far to absolve him entirely from lying, although in most cases his corruptions of the truth originate in his desire to tell unheard of stories.
He composed his work, which consisted of one book, after his return to his own country in the year 398 B.C., but how long afterwards cannot be determined. He did not consult Herodotos or any other of his predecessors. Whether his coincidence with Skylax about the fabulous peoples is a plagiarisin is dubious. Besides what I shall presently have to say about his Indian reports, it will suffice to mention only what is of essential importance, as it would be unsuitable in this place to enter into detailed researches on as yet unexplainable reports, while, as regards the fabulous nations, it will suffice to point out their Indian origin.
According to Ktêsias, India was not smaller than all the rest of Asia-which is a palpable exaggeration. Like Herodotus he considered the Indians to be the greatest of nations and the outermost, beyond whom there lived no other. Of the Indian rivers he knows strictly speaking only the Indus, for it must remain undecided whether the Hyparkhos be the Ganges. As the Persians had obtained exact information only of the Indus region, we must expect to find that his more accurate communications have reference to that region exclusively. Of the former river he assumed the breadth where it was smallest at forty, and where it was widest at one hundred stadia, while in most parts it was a mean between these two extremes. These figures are, however, without doubt excessive, but one need not be surprised thereat, since at that time no measurement had been made. On the other hand it is correctly stated that it flows through the mountains as well as through the plains. Of the Indian sea Ktêsias had learned that it is larger than the Grecian, but it must be considered as an invention that to the depth of four finger breadths, the surface is so hot that fish on that account do not approach it, but live in the deep below.
It must also be ascribed to fiction that in India the sun appears ten times larger than in other countries, and that the heat there is so powerful that it suffocates many persons; that there are neither storms nor rain in India, but that the country is watered by the river; there are on the other hand violent hurricanes which carry away everything that stands in their course. 10 The last remark may be considered as correct, but the assertion that India has no rain is on the
3 Müller, p. 16.
Schwanbeck's Megasth. Ind. p. 8. Frag. iii. Lassen, Ind. Alt. vol. II, p. 568.
Frag. i, 1, 2.
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contrary false, for it is known to possess regular rainy seasons, whereby the soil is watered. The Indus region is inundated by the river only in the Delta and, to a slight extent, in the upper country, while in the north under the mountains it has heavy rains, and lower down is not unvisited by slight showers. On the other hand, it is correctly remarked that in most parts of India the sun at his rising brings coolness, while during the rest of the day he causes vehement heat."1
His statements about the precious stones have already been elucidated. Concerning the iron taken from the bottom of a well, of which iron swords were manufactured possessing the property of turning off hail, clouds and lightning, I have already remarked that they were probably lightning conductors. As to the method of obtaining it there is no information, but there is some how gold was obtained.13 Every year a spring filled itself with fluid gold which was drawn from it in one hundred earthen pitchers. It was necessary that they should be of clay, because the gold afterwards congealed, and the pitchers had to be broken in order to get it out. The spring was quadrangular, eleven ells in circumference, and about two yards deep. Each pitcher contained one talent of gold. The sense of this passage can only be that auriferous ores were melted, and that the gold obtained from them was drawn out in a fluid state. That there was a spring, must be a misapprehension, and we must imagine instead that there was a cistern prepared to receive the gold. As a pitcher need not be very large to contain one talent (which is only somewhat more than fiftythree pounds) of gold, this particular may be considered as correct, but no stress need be placed on the statement that this operation was repeated every year. If this supposition is right, it follows that the Indians knew how to extract gold from the ore by melting.
Of the gold it is said also, that it is not obtained from rivers by washing, (which, however, is a mistake), but that it was met with on mountains that stretched far away, and was there guarded by griffins. This, as has already been remarked, is the fiction which had reached the cars of Ktêsias, whereas according to the account given by others it was dug out of the ground by the ants. Of silver-mines, it is said that there are many of them, although not as deep as those in Baktriana. This agrees with the reality, because in India silver mines seem to occur only in Udayapura in Ajmir: on the other hand Badakshan, in the upper Oxus valley, is rich in silver. His report Frag. ii and i, 1. Frag. i. 6. 11 Frag. i, 8. 13 Frag. i, 4. 18 Yale's Marco Polo, vol. I, p. 106; Cathay, p. 95.
10 Frag. i, 2, 5, 8. 1 Frag. i, 5 and 2.
Frag. i. 12.
