Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/102

 83 Indian root which MegasthenSs says a race of men who neither eat nor drink, and in fact have not even moaths, set on fire and burn like incense, in order to sustain their existence with its odorous fumes, unless it received mois- ture from the moon ? BOOK III. Fkagm. XXXJI. Arr. Ind. XI. 1..XII..9. Of. Epit. 40-58, and Plin. Hist. Nat. VI. xxii. 2, 3. (See the translation of Arrian's Indika,) Fkagm. XXXIII. Strab. XV. 1. 39-41, 46-49,— pp. 708-4, 707. Of the Seven Castes among the Indians. (39) According to him (Megasthenes) the popu- lation of Ilidia is divided into seven parts. The philosophers are first in rank, but form the smallest class in point of number. " Their services are employed privately by persons who wish to offer sacrifices or perform other sacred rites, and also pubhcly by the kings at what is called the Great Synod, wherein at the beginning of the new year all the philosophers are gathered together before the king at the gates, when any philoso- pher who may have committed any useful sug- gestion to writing, or observed any means for im- proving the crops and the cattle, or for promot- ing the public interests, declares it publicly. * If any one is detected giving false information thrice, the law condemns him to be silent for the rest of his life, but he who gives sound advice is ex- empted from paying any taxes or contributions^ Digitized by Google