India, and the region of Æthiopia more especially, abounds in wonders.[893] In India the largest of animals are produced; their dogs,[894] for example, are much bigger than those of any other country.[895] The trees, too, are said to be of such vast height, that it is impossible to send an arrow over them. This is the result of the singular fertility of the soil, the equable temperature of the atmosphere, and the abundance of water; which, if we are to believe what is said, are such, that a single fig-tree[896] is capable of affording shelter to a whole troop of horse. The reeds here are also of such enormous length, that each portion of them, between the joints, forms a tube, of which a boat is made that is capable of holding three men.[897] It is a well-known fact, that many of the people here are more than five cubits in height.[898] These people never expectorate, are subject to no pains, either in the head, the teeth, or the eyes, and rarely in any other parts of the body; so well is the heat of the sun calculated to strengthen the constitution. Their philosophers, who are called Gymnosophists, remain in one posture, with their eyes immovably fixed upon the sun, from its rising to its setting, and, during the whole of the day, they are accustomed to stand in the burning sands on one foot, first one and then the other.[899] According to the account of Megasthenes, dwelling upon a mountain called Nulo, there is a race of men who have their feet turned backwards,[900] with eight toes on each foot.[901] On many of the mountains again, there is a tribe of men who have the heads of dogs,[902] 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: and the same author tells us, that there is a certain race in India, of which the females are pregnant once only in the course of their lives, and that the hair of the children becomes white the instant they are born. He speaks also of another race of men, who are known as Monocoli,[903] who have only one leg, but are able to leap with surprising agility.[904] The same people are also called Sciapodæ,[905] 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;[906] to the west of whom again there is a tribe who are without necks, and have eyes in their shoulders.[907]