Naturalis historia 7.25

7.25

Megasthenes gentem inter Nomadas Indos narium loco foramina tantum habentem, anguium modo loripedem, vocari Sciratas. ad extremos fines Indiae ab oriente circa fontem Gangis Astomorum gentem sine ore, corpore toto hirtam vestiri frondium lanugine, halitu tantum viventem et odore, quem naribus trahant. nullum illis cibum nullumque potum, radicum tantum florumque varios odores et silvestrium malorum, quae secum portant longiore itinere, ne desit olfactus; graviore paulo odore haut difficulter exanimari.

Megasthenes places among the Nomades of India, a people who are called Scyritæ. These have merely holes in their faces instead of nostrils, and flexible feet, like the body of the serpent. At the very extremity of India, on the eastern side, near the source of the river Ganges, there is the nation of the Astomi, a people who have no mouths; their bodies are rough and hairy, and they cover themselves with a down plucked from the leaves of trees. These people subsist only by breathing and by the odours which they inhale through the nostrils. They support themselves upon neither meat nor drink; when they go upon a long journey they only carry with them various odoriferous roots and flowers, and wild apples, that they may not be without something to smell at. But an odour, which is a little more powerful than usual, easily destroys them.