According to Onesicritus, in those parts of India where there is no shadow,[921] the bodies of men attain a height of five cubits and two palms,[922] and their life is prolonged to one hundred and thirty years; they die without any symptoms of old age, and just as if they were in the middle period of life. Crates of Pergamus calls the Indians, whose age exceeds one hundred years, by the name of Gymnetæ;[923] but not a few authors style them Macrobii. Ctesias mentions a tribe of them, known by the name of Pandore, whose locality is in the valleys, and who live to their two hundredth year; their hair is white in youth, and becomes black in old age.[924] On the other hand, there are some people joining up to the country of the Macrobii, who never live beyond their fortieth year, and their females have children once only during their lives. This circumstance is also mentioned by Agatharchides, who states, in addition, that they live[925] on locusts,[926] and are very swift of foot. Clitarchus and Megasthenes give these people the name of Mandi, and enumerate as many as three hundred villages which belong to them. Their women are capable of bearing children in the seventh year of their age, and become old at forty.[927]
Artemidorus states that in the island of Taprobane,[928] life is prolonged to an extreme length, while, at the same time, the body is exempt from weakness. According to Durisis, some of the Indians have connection with beasts, and from this union a mixture of half man, half beast, is produced.[929] Among the Calingæ, a nation also of India, the women conceive at five years of age, and do not live beyond their eighth year.[930] In other places again, there are men born with long hairy tails,[931] and of remarkable swiftness of foot; while there are others that have ears so large as to cover the whole body.[932]
The Oritæ are divided from the Indians by the river Arabis;[933] they are acquainted with no food whatever except fish, which they are in the habit of tearing to pieces with their nails, and drying in the sun.[934] Crates of Pergamus states, that the Troglodytæ, who dwell beyond Æthiopia, are able to outrun the horse; and that a tribe of the Æthiopians, who are known as the Syrbotæ, exceed eight cubits in height.
There is a tribe of Æthiopian Nomades dwelling on the banks of the river Astragus, towards the north, and about twenty days’ journey from the ocean. These people are called Menismini; they live on the milk of the animal which we call cynocephalus,[935] and rear large flocks of these creatures, taking care to kill the males, except such as they may preserve for the purpose of breeding. In the deserts of Africa, men are frequently seen to all appearance, and then vanish in an instant.[936]
Nature, in her ingenuity, has created all these marvels in the human race, with others of a similar nature, as so many amusements to herself, though they appear miraculous to us. But who is there that can enumerate all the things that she brings to pass each day, I may almost say each hour? As a striking evidence of her power, let it be sufficient for me to have cited whole nations in the list of her prodigies.
Let us now proceed to mention some other particulars connected with Man, the truth of which is universally admitted.
CHAP. 3.—MARVELLOUS BIRTHS.
(3.) That three children are sometimes produced at one birth, is a well-known fact; the case, for instance, of the Horatii and the Curiatii. Where a greater number of children than this is produced at one birth, it is looked upon as portentous, except, indeed, in Egypt, where the water of the river Nile, which is used for drink, is a promoter of fecundity.[937] Very recently, towards the close of the reign of the Emperor Augustus, now deified, a certain woman of the lower orders, at Ostia, whose name was Fausta, brought into the world, at one birth, two male children and two females, a presage, no doubt, of the famine which shortly after took place. We find it stated, also, that in Peloponnesus, a woman was delivered of five[938] children at a birth four successive times, and that the greater part of all these children survived. Trogus informs us, that in Egypt,[939] as many as seven children are occasionally produced at one birth.[940]
Individuals are occasionally born, who belong to both sexes; such persons we call by the name of hermaphrodites;[941] they were formerly called Androgyni, and were looked upon as monsters,[942] but at the present day they are employed for sensual purposes.[943]