Pliny: Fabulous Indian Races

BOOK XVI. c. 17. About the Attacori, Amometus composed a volume for private
circulation similar to the work of Hecataeus about the Hyperboreans. Next to the Attacori
are the nations of the Thuni and the Forcari; then come the Casiri, an Indian people who
look towards the Scythians and feed on human flesh. In India there are also to be found
nomadic tribes which wander from place to place. According to some writers these
nations on the north touch upon the Ciconae and Brisari.

BOOK VII. c. 2. India and the regions of the Ethiopians are particularly abundant in
wonders. In India the largest of animals are produced; their dogs, for instance, are much
bigger than any others, and as for their trees, they are said to be of such vast height that it
is impossible to shoot arrows over them. Such besides is the fertility of the soil, the
geniality of the climate, and the abundance of water, that if we may believe what is said,
troops of cavalry can find shelter under a single fig-tree. The reeds are here also of so
prodigious a length that a section between two nodes can make a canoe, capable, in some
instances, of holding three men. It is an acknowledged fact that many of the Indians are
more than five cubits in stature-that they do not spit, that they are not affected with pains
in the head, in the teeth or the eyes, and but rarely in other parts of the body, and that
their constitutions are strengthened under the moderate heat dispensed by the sun. Their
philosophers, whom they call Gymnosophists, are accustomed to remain in one posture
with their eyes immovably fixed on the sun from his rising till his going down, and to
stand on the burning sands all day long now on one foot and then on the other.... Among
the mountains on the east of India in the country of the people called Catharcludi are
found satyrs, animals of extraordinary swiftness, which go sometimes on four feet and
sometimes walk erect. In their features they resemble human beings. On account of the
speed with which they run they are never caught unless when they are old or diseased.
Tauron gives the name of Choromandae to a nation which dwells in the jungles and has
no proper voice. They utter a horrid screech, their bodies are covered with hair, their eyes
are of a bluish grey, and their teeth like those of the dog. Eudoxus informs us that in the
southern parts of India the soles of the men's feet are a cubit long, while those of the
women are so small that they are called Struthopodes.... Isigonus states that the Cyrni, a
people of India, live to their hundred and fortieth year . . . . We learn from Onesicritus
that in those parts of India where there is no shadow the bodies of men attain height of 5
cubits and 2 palms, and their life extends to 130 years. They do not suffer from the
infirmities of old age, but die as if they had lived only half their lifetime. Crates of
Pergamus calls the Indians who live a hundred years and more Gymnetae, but many call
them Macrobii . . . . Among the Calingae, a nation also of India, the women conceive at
five years of age, and do not live beyond their eighth year. In other places, again, men are
born with tails covered with shaggy hair, and these men are remarkable for their
swiftness of foot. Others have ears that cover them all over. The Oritae, who are
separated from the Indians by the river Arabis, know no kind of food but fish, which they
tear in pieces with their nails, dry in the sun, and make into bread, as Clitarchus relates.

From: McCrindle, J. W. Ancient India as Described in Classical Literature. Westminster:

Archibald Constable, 1901, 113-114.