Ἰνδική 25.1

25.1

ἐνθαῦτα νεωλκέουσι τὰς νέας, καὶ ὅσαι πεπονηκυῖαι αὐτέων ἐπισκευάζουσι. τῇ δὲ ἕκτῃ ἡμέρῃ ἐστέλλοντο, καὶ πλώσαντες σταδίους ἐς τριηκοσίους ἀπικνέονται ἐς χῶρον, ὃς δὴ ἔσχατος ἦν τῆς Ὠρειτέων γῆς· Μάλανα τῷ χώρῳ οὔνομα.

shore and repair all that had been damaged. On the 6th day they weighed again, and after a course of 300 stadia reached a place called Malana, the last on the coast, of the Oreitai. In the interior these people dress like the Indians, and use similar weapons, but differ from them in their language and their customs. The length of the coast of the Arabies, measured from the place whence the expedition had sailed, was about 1,000 stadia, and the extent of the coast of the Oreitai 1,600 stadia. Nearkhos mentions that as they sailed along the Indian coast (for the people beyond this are not Indians), their shadows did not fall in the usual direction, for when they stood out a good way to the southward, their shadows appeared to turn and fall southwards. Those constellations, moreover, which they had been accustomed to see high in the heavens, were either not visible at all, or were seen just on the verge of the horizon, while the Polar constellations which had formerly been always visible now set and soon afterwards rose again. In this Nearkhos appears to me to assert nothing improbable, for at Syéné in Egypt they show a well in which, when the sun is at the Tropic, there is no shadow at noon. In Meroé also objects project no shadow at that particular time. Hence it is probable that the shadow is subject to the same law in India which lies to the south, and more especially in the Indian ocean, which extends still further to the southward.