Ἰνδικά 29: Strabo II, p. 70

29

Ἀπαντες μὲν τοίνυν οἱ περὶ τῆς Ἰνδικῆς γράψαντες ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ ψευδολόγοι γεγόωασι, καθ’ ὑπερβολὴν δὲ Δηίμαχος· τὰ δὲ δεύτερα λέγει Μεγασθένης· Ὀνησίκριτος δὲ καὶ Νέαρχος καὶ ἄλλοι τοιοῦτοι παραψελλίζοντες ἤδη. Καὶ ἡμῖν δ’ ὑπῆρξεν ἐπὶ πλέον κατιδεῖν ταῦτα, ὑπομνηματιζομένοις τὰς Ἀλεξάνδρου πράξεις· διαφερόντως δ’ ἀπιστεῖν ἄξιον Δηιμάχῳ τε καὶ Μεγασθένει. Οὗτοι γάρ εἰσιν οἱ τοὺς Ἐνωτοκοίτας καὶ τοὺς Ἀστόμους καὶ Ἄρρινας ἱστοροῦντες, Μονοφθάλμους τε καὶ Μακροσκελεῖς καὶ Ὀπισθοδακτύλους· ἀνεκαίνισαν δὲ καὶ τὴν Ὁμηρικὴν τῶν Πυγμαίων γερανομαχίαν, τρισπιθάμους εἰπόντες· οὗτοι δὲ καὶ τοὺς χρυσωρήχους μύρμηκας καὶ Πᾶνας σφηνοκεφάλους ὄφεις τε καὶ ἐλάφους σὺν κέρασι καταπίνοντας· περὶ ὧν ἕτερος τὸν ἕτερον ἐλέγχει, ὅπερ καὶ Ἐρατοσθένης φησίν. Ἐπέμφθησαν μὲν γὰρ εἰς τὰ Παλίμβοθρα, ὁ μὲν Μεγασθένης πρὸς Σανδρόκοττον, ὁ δὲ Δηίμαχος πρὸς Ἀλλιτροχάδην τὸν ἐκείνου υἱὸν κατὰ πρεσβείαν· ὑπομνήματα δὲ τῆς ἀποδημίας κατέλιπον τοιαῦτα, ὑφ’ ἡσδήποτε αἰτίας προαχθέντες. Πατροκλῆς δὲ ἥκιστα τοιοῦτος· καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι δὲ μάρτυρες οὐκ ἀπίθανοι, οἷς κέχρηται ὁ Ἐρατοσθένης.

But deviating into fables he says there are men five spans and even three spans in height, some of whom want the nose, having only two orifices above the mouth through which they breathe. Against the men of three spans, war, as Homer has sung, is waged by the cranes, and also by partridges, which are as large as geese. These people collect and destroy the eggs of the cranes, for it is in their country the cranes lay their eggs, and thus the eggs and the young cranes are not to be found anywhere else. Frequently a crane escapes having the brazen point of a weapon in its body, from wounds received in that country. Equally absurd is the account given of the Enotokoitai, of the wild men, and of other monsters. The wild men could not be brought to Sandrakottos, for they refused to take food and died. Their heels are in front, and the instep and toes are turned backwards. Some were brought to the court who had no mouths and were tame. They dwell near the sources of the Ganges, and subsist on the savour of roasted flesh and the perfumes of fruits and flowers, having instead of mouths orifices through which they breathe. They are distressed with things of evil smell, and hence it is with difficulty they keep their hold on life, especially in a camp. Referring to the other monstrosities, the philosophers told him of the Okupedes, a people who in running could leave the horse behind;

of the Enotokoitai, who had ears reaching down to their feet, so that they could sleep in them, and were so strong that they could pull up trees and break a bowstring. Of others the Monommatoi, who have the ears of a dog, their one eye set in the middle of their forehead, the hair standing erect, and their breasts shaggy; of the Amuktêres also, a people without nostrils, who devour everything, eat raw meat, and are short-lived, and die before old age supervenes. The upper part of the mouth protrudes far over the lower lip. With regard to the Hyperboreans, who live a thousand years, they give the same account as Simonides, Pindaros, and other mythological writers. The story told by Timagenês, that showers fall of drops of copper, which are swept together, is a fable. * * Megasthenes states — what is more open to belief, since the same is The dancing virgins range, And melting lyres and piercing pipes resound, With braids of golden bays entwined Their soft resplendent locks they bind, And feast in bliss the genial hour : Nor foul disease, nor wasting age, Visit the sacred race ; nor wars they wage, Nor toil for wealth or power." (10th Pythian ode, ll. 46 to 69, A. Moore's metrical version.)

Megasthenes had the penetration to perceive that the Greek fable of the Hyperboreans had an Indian source in the fables regarding the Uttarakurus. This word means literally the 'Kuru of the North.' * * 'The historic origin,' says P. V. de Saint-Martin, "of the Sanskrit appellation Uttarakuru is unknown, but its acceptation never varies. In all the documents of Upavedic literature, in the great poems, in the Puranas, — wherever, in short, the word is found, — it pertains to the domain of poetic and mythological geography, Uttarakuru is situated in the uttermost regions of the north at the foot of the mountains which surround Mount Meru, far beyond the habitable world. It is the abode of demigods and holy Rishis whose lives extend to several thousands of years. All access to it is forbidden to mortals. Like the Hyperborean region of Western mythologists, this too enjoys the happy privilege of an eternal spring, equally exempt from excess of cold and excess of heat, and there the sorrows of the soul and the pains of the body are alike unknown It is clear enough that this land of the blest is not of our world.

"In their intercourse with the Indians after the expedition of Alexander, the Greeks became acquainted with these fictions of Brahmanic poetry, as well as with a good many other stories which made them look upon India as a land of prodigies. Megasthenes, like Ktesias before him, had collected a great number of such stories, and either from his memoirs or from contemporary narratives, such as that of Deimachos, the fable of the Uttarakurus had spread to the West, since, from what Pliny tells us (vi. 17, p. 316) one Amometus had composed a treatise regarding them analogous to that of Hecataeus regarding the Hyperboreans. It is certainly from this treatise of Amometus that Pliny borrows the two lines which he devotes to his Attacorae, 'that a girdle of mountains warmed with the case in Iberia—that the rivers carry down gold dust, and that a part of this is paid by way of tribute to the king.