Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c7.34

c7.34

On the whole, the account given by Herodotus of the Indian satrapy is careful and accurate. It is no doubt drawn from the lost narrative of Skylax, or from other first-hand evidence⁴. He mentions, among other things, the extremes of heat and cold of the Panjāb, the size of the animals and birds, the crocodiles in the Indus, the horses (which he considers inferior to the Median breed), and the excellent wild-cotton, superior to sheep's wool, of which the Indians made their clothes¹. Besides the legend of the gold-ants, one or two Indian fables have crept, through Persia, into his narrative. Thus the famous story of Hippokleides², who "didn't care" when he danced away his wife, seems to have a close parallel in the *Jātaka* story of the silly young Peacock, who danced so indecently that he shocked the father of the golden Goose, and lost his wealthy bride. The story of the wife of Intaphernes³, who pleaded for her brother's life, because she could get another son or husband, but not another brother, has been traced to the *Ucchaṅga Jātaka*⁴. The Hyperboreans, who play such a large part in contemporary Greek legend, are the Indian Uttarakuru, transferred rather pointlessly from their home in the holy Himālaya to Europe, where they are quite out of place. Perhaps this legend may be traced to Hekataeus, whose lost work "on the Hyperboreans" is cited by Pliny. It is difficult, however, to see where Hekataeus obtained his information, unless the legend was current in Persia at an early date.