Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/31

 THE RIVERS AND RAINS OF INDIA 7 rivers. What is said by Herodotus of the Nile, and of the land about it, namely, that it is the gift of the Nile (wherefore Nearchos says that the Nile was synon- ymous with Egypt), may be applied equally well to this country. Aristoboulos, however, says that rain and snow fall only on the mountains and the country immediately below them, and that the plains experience neither one nor the other, but are overflowed only by the rise of the waters of the rivers; that the mountains are cov- ered with snow in the winter; that the rains set in at the commencement of spring, and continue to increase; that at the time of the blowing of the Etesian winds they pour down impetuously, without intermission, night and day till the rising of Arktouros, and that the rivers, filled by the melting of the snow and by the rains, irrigate the plains. These things, he says, were observed by himself and by others on their journey into India from the Paropa- misadai. This was after the setting of the Pleiades, and during their stay in the mountainous country in the territory of the Hypasioi, and in that of Assakanos during the winter. At the beginning of spring they descended into the plains to a large city called Taxila; thence they proceeded to the Hydaspes (Jihlam) and the country of Poros. During the winter they saw no rain, but only snow. The first rain which fell was at Taxila. 1 After their descent to the Hydaspes (Jihlam) 1 The ruins of Taxila (Skt. Takshasila) are still to be seen near Rawal Pindi in Northern India.