Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/175

 156 king keeps in his pay at all times 60,000 fool 30,000 horse, and 8000 elephants. Beyond Palibotra is Mount M a 1 e n s, || on which shadows in winter fall towards the north, in sum- mer towards the south, for six months alternately. In that region the Bears are seen but once a year, and not for more than fifteen days, as Beton in- forms ns, who allows that this ht^pens in many parts of India. Those liying near the riyer Indus in the regions tl^t turn southward are scorched more than others by the heat, and at last the com- plexion of the people is visibly affected by the great power of the sun. The mountains are in- habited by the Pygmies. But those who live near the sea haye no kings. The Pandas an nation is goyerned by fe- males, and their first queen is said to haye been the daughter of Hercules. The city N y s a is assigned to this region, as is also the moun- tain sacred to Jupiter, M e r o s by name, in a caye cm which the ancient Indians affirm Father Bacchus was nourished ; while the name has giyen rise to the well-known fantastic story that Bacchus was born from the thigh of his father. Beyond the inouth of the Indus are two islands, Chryse and Argyre, which yield such an abundant supply of metals that many writers allege their soils consist of gold and of silyer. H Possibly, fts stiggested by Yule, Mount PAravan&tha, near the Damndft, and not far from the Tropic; vide Ind, Ant vol. VI. p. 127, note §, and conf. vol. I. p. 46ff. The Malli (see above), in whose country it was, are not to be confounded with another tribe of the same name in the Pttnj&b, mentioned by Arrian ; see vol. V. pp. 87, 96, 388.— £d. Ind, Ant. Digitized by Google