amount of a thousand talents.—Independent of the tributes before fpecified, thefe were the prefents which the king received. XCVIII. The Indians procure the great number of golden ingots, which, as I have observed, they prefent as a donative to the king, in this manner:That part of India which lies towards the east is very fandy; and indeed, of all nations concerning whom we have any authentic accounts, the Indians are the people of Afia who are nearest the east, and the place of the rifing fun. The part most eastward, is a perfect defert, from the fand. Under the name of Indians many nations are comprehended, ufing different languages; of these fome attend principally to the care of cattle, others not: fome inhabit the marfhes, and live on raw fish, which they catch in boats made of reeds, divided at the joint, and every joint 112 makes one canoe. Thefe Indians have a drefs made of rufhes ", which 20 having 12 Every joint.]This affertion feems wonderful; but Pliny, book xvi. chap. 36, treating of reeds, canes, and aquatic fhrubs, affirms the fame, with this precaution indeed, "if it may be credited." His expreffion is this:-Harundini quidem Indica arborea amplitudo, quales vulgo in templis videmus.-Spiffius mari corpus, fœminæ capacius. Navigiorumque etiam vicem præftant (fi credimus) fingula internodia.-T. 113 Cloaths made of rufbes.]To trace the modern drefs back to the fimplicity of the first skins, and leaves, and feathers, that were worn by mankind in the primitive ages, if it were poffible, would be almost endless; the fashion has been often changed, while the materials remained the fame; the materials have been different I 3 having mowed and cut, they weave together like a mat, and wear in the manner of a cuirafs. XCIX. To the east of these are other Indians, called Padai "4,who lead a pastoral life, live on raw flesh '', and different as they were gradually produced by fucceffive arts, that converted a raw hide into leather, the wool of the sheep into cloth, the web of the worm into filk, and flax and cotton into linen of various kinds. One garment alfo has been added to another, and ornaments have been multiplied on ornaments, with a variety almoft infinite, produced by the caprice of human vanity, or the new neceffities to which man rendered himself fubject by thofe many inventions which took place after he ceafed to be, as God had created him, upright.-See hiftorical remarks on dress, prefixed to a collection of the dreffes of different nations, ancient and modern. The canoes and dreffes here defcribed, will strike the reader as much refembling those feen and defcribed by modern voy agers to the South Seas.-T. 114 Padai.] Impia nec fævis celebrans convivia menfis Tibull. 1. iv. 144. 15 On raw flesh.]-Not at all more incredible is the custom faid to be prevalent among the Abyffinians, of eating a flice of meat raw from the living ox, and efteeming it one of the greatest delicacies. The affertion of this fact by Mr. Bruce, the celebrated traveller, has excited a clamour against him, and by calling his veracity in queftion, has probably operated, amongst other causes, to the delay of a publication much and eagerly expected. This very fact, however, is alfo afferted of the Abyffinians by Lobo and Poncet. If it be allowed without referve, an argument is deducible from it, to p prove that bullock's blood, in 'contradiction to what is afferted by our hiftorian, in ch. 15. of this book, is not a poifon; unlefs we fuppofe that the quantity thus taken and are faid to observe these customs :-If any man among them be diseased, his nearest connections put him to death, alledging in excufe that fickness would waste and injure his flesh. They pay no regard to his affertions that he is not really ill, but without the finalleft compunction deprive him of life. If a woman be ill, her female connections treat her in the fame manner. The more aged among them are regularly killed and eaten ; but to old age there are very few who arrive, for in cafe of fickness they put every one to death. C. There are other Indians, who, differing in manners from the above, put no animal to death "16) fow no grain, have no fixed habitations, and live folely upon vegetables. They have a particular grain, nearly of the fize of millet, which the foil fpontaneously produces, which is protected by a calyx, the whole of this they bake and eat. If any of these be taken fick, they retire to fome folitude, and there remain, no one expreffing the leaft concern about them during their illness, or after their death. CI. Among all these Indians whom I have specified, the communication between the fexes is like taken into the ftomach would be too fmall to produce the effect. Lobo, as well as Mr. Bruce, affirms, that the Abyffinians eat beef, not only in a raw ftate, but réeking from the ox.- -T. 116 Put no animal to death.]-Nicolas Damafcenus has preferved the name of this people. He calls them Aritonians. Larcher. L 205 360 120 € THAL I A. that of the beasts, open and unrestrained. They are all of the fame complexion, and much resembling the Ethiopians. The femen which their males emit is not, like that of other men, white, but black like their bodies "7, which is alfo the cafe with the thiopians. These Indians are very remote from Perfia towards the fouth, and were never in fubjection to Darius. Ju 112 ah 22 CII. There are ftill other Indians towards the north, who dwell near the city of Cafpatyrum, and the country of Pactyïca. Of all the Indians these in their manners most resemble the Bactrians; they are diftinguished above the reft by their bravery, and are thofe who are employed in fearching for the gold. In the vicinity of this diftrict there are vaft deferts of fand, in which a fpecies of ants is produced, 118 not Black like their bodies.]-Semen fi probe concoctum fuerit, colore album et fplendens effe oportet, ut vel hinc pateat quam parum vere Herodotus fcribat femen nigrum Æthiopes promere. Rodericus a Caftro de univerfa mulierum medicina.-Ariftotle had before faid the fame thing, in his hiftory of animals.Larcher. 118 Species of ants.]Of thefe ants Pliny alfo makes mention, in the following terms: "In the temple of Hercules, at Erythra, the horns of an Indian ant were to be seen, an astonishing object. In the country of the northern Indians, named Danda, thefe ants cat up gold from holes within the earth. In colour they resemble cats, and are as large as the wolves of Egypt. This gold, which they throw up in the winter, the Indians contrive to fteal in the fummer, when the ants, on account of the heat, hide themselves under ground. But if they happen to smell them, the ants rush from not fo large as a dog, but bigger than a fox. Some of these, taken by hunting, are preserved in the palace of the Perfian monarch. Like the ants common in Greece, which in form alfo they nearly refemble, they make themselves habitations in the ground, by digging under the fand. The fand thus thrown up is mixed with gold dust, to collect which the Indians are dispatched into the deferts. To this expedition they proceed each with three camels faftened together, a female being fecured between two males, and upon her the Indian is mounted, taking particular care to have one which recently has foaled. The females of this description are in all respects as from their holes, and will often tear them in pieces, though mounted on their swifteft camels, fuch is the fwiftness and fiercenefs they display from the love of their gold." Upon the above Larcher has this remark:-The little communication which the Greeks had with the Indians, prevented their investigating the truth with refpect to this animal; and their love of the marvellous inclined them to affent to this defcription of Herodotus. Demetrius Triclinius fays, on the Antigone of Sophocles, doubtlefs from fome ancient Scholiaft which he copies, that there are in India winged animals, named ants, which dig up gold. Herodotus and Pliny fay nothing of their having wings. Most of our readers will be induced to confider the defcription of these ants as fabulous; nevertheless, de Thou, an author of great credit, tells us, that Shah Thomas, fophi of Perfia, fent, in the year 1559, to Soliman an ant like thefe here defcribed. They who had feen the vast nefts of the termites, or white ants, might easily be perfuaded that the animals which formed them were as large as foxes. The difproportion between the infect, though large, and its habitation, is very extraodinary. -T. " |