[58]The bambos arundinacea, or bamboo cane, is a reed or plant of the grass kind, which frequently grows to the height of the tallest trees. The stem is hollow, and the parts of it between the joints are used by the natives to form their canoes. We have an account of them in Herodotus, B. iii.
[59]It does not appear that the stature of the Indians exceeds that of the inhabitants of the temperate zones.
[60]This account probably originated in a species of monkey generally considered to be the baboon, with a projecting muzzle, called, from this circumstance, “cynocephalus,” or the “Dog’s head.” This account of the cynocephali is repeated by Aulus Gellius. It is a pity that Pliny should have adopted so many ridiculous fables, on the doubtful authority of Ctesias.
[61]These are the great apes, which are found in some of the Oriental islands. We may suppose that this description is taken from some incorrect account of a large kind of ape; but it seems impossible to refer it to any particular species.
[62]Can these be the Chinese?
[63]Either silk or cotton.
[64]Cuvier remarks, that these accounts are not capable of any explanation, being mere fables.
[65]Iliad, B. iii. l. 3-6. Their story is also referred to by Ovid and Juvenal.
[66]Pliny, elsewhere, speaks of the use of vipers’ flesh as an article of diet, and gives some minute directions for its preparation. It was supposed to be peculiarly nutritive and restorative, and it has been prescribed for the same purpose by modern physicians. There is a medal in existence, probably struck by the Emperor Commodus, in order to commemorate the benefit which he was supposed to have derived from the use of the flesh of vipers.
[67]Cuvier remarks that this story must have been originally told with reference to the race of large apes.