Ἰνδικά 11: Aelian. N. A. XVII, 39

11

Ἐν τῇ Πραξιακῇ χώρα, Ἰνδῶν δὲ αὕτη ἐστίν, Μεγασθένης φησὶ πιθήκους εἶναι τῶν μεγίστων κυνῶν οὐ μείους, ἔχειν δὲ καὶ οὐράς πηχῶν πέντε· προσπεφυκέναι δὲ ἄρα αὐτοῖς καὶ προκόμια, καὶ πώγωνας καθειμένους καὶ βαθεῖς· καὶ τὸ μὲν πρόσωπον εἶναι πᾶν λευκούς, τὸ σῶμα δὲ μέλανας ἰδεῖν, ἡμέρους δὲ καὶ φιλανθρωποτάτους, καὶ τὸ τοῖς ἀλλαχόθι πιθήκοις συμφυὲς οὐκ ἔχειν τὸ κακόηθες.

Megasthenes indicates the fertility of India by the fact of the soil producing two crops every year both of fruits and grain. [Eratosthenes writes to the same effect, for he speaks of a winter and a summer sowing, which both have rain : for a year, he says, is never found to be without rain at both those seasons, whence ensues a great abundance, since the soil is always productive. Much fruit is produced by trees ; and the roots of plants, particularly of tall reeds, are sweet both by nature and by coction, since the moisture by which they are nourished is heated by the rays of the sun, whether it has fallen from the clouds or been drawn from the rivers. Eratosthenes uses here a peculiar expression : for what is called by others the ripening of fruits and the juices of plants is called among the Indians coction, which is as effective in producing a good flavour as the coction by fire itself. To the heat of the water the same writer ascribes the wonderful flexibility of the branches of trees, from which wheels are made, as also the fact of there being trees on which wool grows.
Conf. Eratosth. ap. Strabo. XV. i. 13,— p. 690 :—
From the vapours arising from such vast rivers, and from the Etesian winds, as Eratosthenes states, India is watered by the summer rains, and the plains are overflowed. During these rains, accordingly, flax is sown and millet, also sesamum, rice, and bosmorum, and in the winter time wheat, barley, pulse, and other esculent fruits unknown to us.