Ἰνδικά 29.p2

29.p2

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.)