Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/53

 THE COUNTRY OF MOUSIKANOS 27 parts are chiefly under the influence of winds blowing from the sea. He expatiates also in praise of the country of Mou- sikanos and relates of the inhabitants what is common to other Indian tribes, that they are long-lived, and that life is protracted even to the age of 130 years (the Seres [Chinese], however, are said by some writers to be still longer lived), and that, although the country produces everything in abundance, they are temperate in their habits and healthy. The following are their peculiarities. They have a kind of Lacedaemonian common meal, where they eat in public. Their food consists of what is taken in the chase. They make no use of gold or silver, although they have mines of these metals. Instead of slaves, they employ youths in the flower of their age, as the Kretans employ the Aphamiotai, and the Lacedaemoni- ans the Helots. They study no science with attention except that of medicine ; for they consider the excessive pursuit of some arts, as that of war and the like, to be committing evil. There is no process at law except against murder and outrage, for it is not in a per- son's own power to escape either one or the other; but as contracts are in the power of each individual, he must endure the wrong, if good faith is violated by another; for a man should be cautious whom he trusts, and not disturb the city with constant lawsuits. Such are the accounts of the persons who accom- panied Alexander in his expedition. A letter of Krateros to his mother Aristopatra is