The Classical Accounts of India c7.6

c7.6

I will now describe the method by which the Indians obtain the great quantity of gold which enable them to pay the above-mentioned quantity of gold-dust. That part of India towards the rising sun is all sand. Indeed of all the inhabitants of Asia of whom we have any reliable information, the Indians are the most easterly—beyond them the country is uninhabitable desert. There are many tribes of Indians who speak different languages; some of them are pastoral and nomadic, and others not. Some inhabit the marsh-country by the river. The people eat raw fish which they catch by going out in boats made of reeds,—each boat made from a single joint. These Indians make their garment from a sort of rush which grows in the river, gathering it and beating it out, and then weaving it into a kind of matting which they wear to cover their chests, like a breastplate.