Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/129

 110 Dionysos, Megastheues and some few aa- tliors with him consider entitled to credit, "[but the majority, among whom is Eratosthenes, consider them incredible and fabnlous, like the stories current among the Ghreeks ] 8. On snch grounds they called a particnlar race of people Nyssaians, and their city Nyssa,^ which Dionysos had founded, and the moun- tain which rose above the city M e r o n> assigning as their reason for bestowing these names that ivy grows there, and also the vine, although its fruit does not come to perfection, as the clusters, on account of the heaviness of the rains, fall off the trees before ripening. They further called the Oxydrakai descendants of Dionysos, be- cause the vine grew in their country, and their processions were conducted with great pomp, and their kings on going forth to war and on other occasions marched in Bacchic fashion, with drums beating, while they were dressed in gay- coloured robes, which is also a custom among other Indians. Again, when Alexander had captured at the first assault the rock called A o r u o s, the base of which is washed by the In- dus near its source, his followers, magnifying the affair, affirmed that Herakles had thrice assaulted the same rock and had been thrice repulsed. * They % V. U. Nucratovff, Nvcrav. Cunningham ^dth the mined fortress of B&^tgat, situated immediately above the small village of Nogrfim, which lies about sixteen miles north by west from Digitized by Google
 * This celebrated rock has been identified by General