The Boys' and Girls' Pliny: Being parts of Pliny's "Natural History" edited for boys and girls, with an IntroductionPliny, the Elder
History
The Boys' and Girls' Pliny: Being parts of Pliny's "Natural History" edited for boys and girls, with an Introduction
Pliny, the Elder
Animals -- Juvenile literature; Natural history -- Juvenile literature; Physical sciences -- Juvenile literature
On many of the mountains again, there is a tribe of men who have the
heads of dogs,[60] and clothe themselves with the skins of wild beasts.
Instead of speaking, they bark; and, furnished with claws, they live by
hunting and catching birds. According to the story, as given by Ctesias,
the number of these people is more than a hundred and twenty thousand.
He speaks also of another race of men, who are known as Monocoli, who
have only one leg, but are able to leap with surprising agility. The
same people are also called Sciapodæ, because they are in the habit of
lying on their backs, during the time of the extreme heat, and protect
themselves from the sun by the shade of their feet. These people, he
says, dwell not very far from the Troglodytæ; to the west of whom again
there is a tribe who are without necks, and have eyes in their
shoulders.
Among the mountainous districts of the eastern parts of India, in what
is called the country of the Catharcludi, we find the Satyr,[61] an
animal of extraordinary swiftness. These go sometimes on four feet, and
sometimes walk erect; they have also the features of a human being. On
account of their swiftness, these creatures are never to be caught,
except when they are either aged or sickly. Tauron gives the name of
Choromandæ to a nation which dwell in the woods and have no proper
voice. These people screech in a frightful manner; their bodies are
covered with hair, their eyes are of a sea-green color, and their teeth
like those of the dog. Eudoxus tells us, that in the southern parts of
India, the men have feet a cubit in length; while those of the women are
so remarkably small, that they are called Struthopodes or
sparrow-footed.[62]
Megasthenes places among the Nomades of India, a people who are called
Scyritæ. These have merely holes in their faces instead of nostrils, and
flexible feet, like the body of the serpent. At the very extremity of
India, on the eastern side, near the source of the river Ganges, there
is the nation of the Astomi, a people who have no mouths; their bodies
are rough and hairy, and they cover themselves with a down[63] plucked
from the leaves of trees. These people subsist only by breathing and by
the odors which they inhale through the nostrils. They support
themselves upon neither meat nor drink; when they go upon a long journey
they only carry with them various odoriferous roots and flowers, and
wild apples, that they may not be without something to smell at. But an
odor, which is a little more powerful than usual, easily destroys
them.[64]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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