A still more remarkable circumstance is, the fact that these persons have two pupils in each eye.[886] Apollonides says, that there are certain females of this description in Scythia, who are known as Bythiæ, and Phylarchus states that a tribe of the Thibii in Pontus, and many other persons as well, have a double pupil in one eye, and in the other the figure of a horse.[887] He also remarks, that the bodies of these persons will not sink in water,[888] even though weighed down by their garments. Damon gives an account of a race of people, not very much unlike them, the Pharnaces of Æthiopia, whose perspiration is productive of consumption[889] to the body of every person that it touches. Cicero also, one of our own writers, makes the remark, that the glances of all women who have a double pupil is noxious.[890]
To this extent, then, has nature, when she produced in man, in common with the wild beasts, a taste for human flesh, thought fit to produce poisons as well in every part of his body, and in the eyes even of some persons, taking care that there should be no evil influence in existence, which was not to be found in the human body. Not far from the city of Rome, in the territory of the Falisci, a few families are found, who are known by the name of Hirpi. These people perform a yearly sacrifice to Apollo, on Mount Soracte, on which occasion they walk over a burning pile of wood, without being scorched even. On this account, by virtue of a decree of the senate, they are always exempted from military service, and from all other public duties.[891]
Some individuals, again, are born with certain parts of the body endowed with properties of a marvellous nature. Such was the case with King Pyrrhus, the great toe of whose right foot cured diseases of the spleen, merely by touching the patient.[892] We are also informed, that this toe could not be reduced to ashes together with the other portions of his body; upon which it was placed in a coffer, and preserved in a temple.
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]
Among the mountainous districts of the eastern parts of India, in what is called the country of the Catharcludi, we find the Satyr,[908] 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 colour, and their teeth like those of the dog.[909] 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.[910]
Megasthenes places among the Nomades[911] 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[912] plucked from the leaves of trees. These people subsist only by breathing and by the odours 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,[913] that they may not be without something to smell at. But an odour, which is a little more powerful than usual, easily destroys them.[914]
Beyond these people, and at the very extremity of the mountains, the Trispithami[915] and the Pygmies are said to exist; two races which are but three spans in height, that is to say, twenty-seven inches only. They enjoy a salubrious atmosphere, and a perpetual spring, being sheltered by the mountains from the northern blasts; it is these people that Homer[916] has mentioned as being waged war upon by cranes. It is said, that they are in the habit of going down every spring to the sea-shore, in a large body, seated on the backs of rams and goats, and armed with arrows, and there destroy the eggs and the young of those birds; that this expedition occupies them for the space of three months, and that otherwise it would be impossible for them to withstand the increasing multitudes of the cranes. Their cabins, it is said, are built of mud, mixed with feathers and egg-shells. Aristotle, indeed, says, that they dwell in caves; but, in all other respects, he gives the same details as other writers.[917]
Isigonus informs us, that the Cyrni, a people of India, live to their four hundredth year; and he is of opinion that the same is the case also with the Æthiopian Macrobii,[918] the Seræ, and the inhabitants of Mount Athos.[919] In the case of these last, it is supposed to be owing to the flesh of vipers, which they use as food;[920] in consequence of which, they are free also from all noxious animals, both in their hair and their garments.