CHAPTER V. INDEPENDENT ASIA : OR SOUTHERN INDIA, COLCHIS, AND ARABIA. Three Asiatic nations independent of the Persian empire, viz. Southern Indians, Colchians, and Arabians.-I. SOUTHERN INDIA.-General description of the India of Herodotus.-Morning the hottest part of the day. Superior size of the birds and quadrupeds.-Camels.-Dogs.Gold.-Cotton-trees.-Two nations of Indians.-Southern Indians of Northern Hindostan.-The most easterly of all the Asiatic nations.Divided into tribes who spoke different languages.-Four tribes mentioned by Herodotus.-Herodotus's superior and correct knowledge of India derived from the report of Scylax.-Great merit of Scylax.-Indian fishermen on the marshes of the Indus.-Identified with the pullafishers of Sinde.-Singular coincidence between the report of Scylax and that of Lieut. Wood.-Nomade Indians or Padaei. — Killed and ate their sick relations.-Identified with the barbarous tribes of the deserts of Sinde. — Vegetarian Indians, who lived chiefly on rice.— Identified with the Hindoos.-Calatians, who ate their parents.-Probably the same as the Padaei. - Shameless manners and black complexion of the Indians.-Probably referred to the Jauts of Rajpootana. II. COLCHIS. Description of the country.-Political relations with Persia. -Costume.-Manufacture of linen.-Gifts to Persia.-Colchians believed by Herodotus to be of Aegyptian origin, from their complexion and hair, their practice of circumcision, their manufacture of linen, and their life and language.-Value to be placed on his testimony.-III. ARABIA. General description of the country.-Herodotus's description.African mountain range between the Nile valley and Arabian Gulf, included in Arabia.-Land of frankincense.-His account of the Arabian Gulf. Supposed it to be much narrower than it is in reality.-Causes of his error.-More correct as to its length. His real knowledge of Arabia confined to Arabia Petraea.-Assigns the Philistine territory to the Arabs. -Nature of the soil.-City of Patumos.-River Corys.-Defile near Buto containing the bones of winged serpents.-Fabulous story concerning the serpents.-Rare productions of Arabia.--Frankincense guarded by serpents. Cassia guarded by bats.-Curious manner of obtaining cinnamon from the nests of large birds.-Ledanum obtained from the beards of goats.-Sheep with enormous tails.-Political relations of the Arabians with Persia -Costume. Manner of making contracts.-Worship of Dionysus, named Orotal, and of Urania, called Alilat and Alitta. Χ ASIA. CHAP. V. ASIA. CHAP. V. independ UNDER the name of Independent Asia we purpose developing our author's geography of those three naThree Asia- tions which to some extent were independent of the tic nations Persian empire, namely, the Southern Indians, the ent of the Colchians, and the Arabians. Of these the Southern Indians were never subject to Darius,1 and though we find that both the Colchians and Arabi ans sent gifts to the Persian king, and served in the army of Xerxes, yet they were not included in the satrapical arrangement; and, indeed, their geographical position would have defied every effort to reduce them to absolute submission. Persian em- and Ara bians. I. SOUTH- I. The INDIA of Herodotus appears to have inGeneral de- cluded the valley of the Indus, and to have stretchscription of ed eastward as far as the sandy desert of Shamo on Herodotus. the north, and that between Moultan and Guzerat the India of Morning the hottest day. towards the south. This country our author describes as being characterized by many peculiarities. Here the hottest period of the day was not at noon, part of the but in the morning, and continued until about the same hour that the Greeks left their markets. At this time the sun was much hotter in India than it ⚫ was at mid-day in Greece, and it was reported that the Indians were accustomed to refresh themselves during these hot mornings by standing in water. Noon in India was about as warm as noon elsewhere, but the afternoon became as cool as the morning in other countries. Thus the warmth decreased as the day declined, and at sun-set it was exceedingly cold.2 Superior size of the Camels. The The birds and quadrupeds of India were much birds and larger than those of any other country, but the quadrupeds. horses were an exception to this rule, as they were surpassed by the Nisacan breed of Media. camels have been already noticed. The dogs were greatly esteemed by the Persians. The satrap of Babylon kept such an immense number, that four Dogs. 1 iii. 101. 2 iii. 104. This account is probably based upon Scylax's reports of the morning lustrations of the Indians, and of the great heat of the coast country, from sun-rise until the forenoon, when the sea-breezes set in. See page 301. 3 iii. 106. CHAP. V. considerable towns were exempted from taxation, ASIA. on condition of supplying them with food; and we learn that an immense number followed in the army of Xerxes.2 Gold was obtained in large quantities, Gold. partly by digging, but mostly by robbing the antheaps in the manner already described. Curious Cotton trees. wild trees also grew in India, bearing wool (or cotton) instead of fruit; and this wool surpassed that of sheep in beauty and quality, and was used by the natives as a material for their clothing.* 5 3 The Indians themselves were the most numerous Two nations people known to Herodotus. We have followed of Indians. Herodotus in dividing them into two nations, viz. 1. The Northern Indians, who formed the twentieth satrapy, and lived in the neighbourhood of Bactria 6 Indians of and Cabul. 2. The Southern Indians, who occu- Southern pied Northern Hindostan. The latter people are Northern those which now demand our attention, as we are Hindostan. assured by our author that they were never subject to Darius. 7 easterly of The Indians of Sinde, who thus maintained their The most independence, were the most easterly of all the all the AsiaAsiatic nations known to Herodotus, for beyond tic nations. them the country was desert by reason of the sands. They were divided into a variety of tribes, who Divided into spoke different languages. Of these Herodotus spoke differdescribes four, viz. 1. The Fishermen, who lived on ent lanthe marshes of the Indus. 2. The nomad Padaeans, Four tribes farther to the east. 3. The Vegetarians. 4. The by HerodoCalatians. 8 tribes who guages. mentioned tus. superior and of India de the report Before, however, we proceed further to develope Herodotus's our author's geography of the Indians, we cannot correct but remark, upon the striking contrast between his knowledge graphic pictures of these distant tribes and the rived from meagre notices of the nations of Khorassan and of Seylax. Afghanistan, included in the geography of the satrapies. But a ray of light had been cast upon these 2 vii. 187. 3 See page 300. 4 iii. 106. 1 j. 192. 5 iii. 94. 6 The country of these Northern Indians approximated to the Punjab, and the people have been already described at page 299. ASIA. far-off regions by the exploring expedition of Scylax CHAP. V. down the mysterious stream of the Indus.' We are at once carried away to the royal archives of Susa. The eager curiosity of the laborious traveller had enabled him to master the list of the satrapies of Darius, and to catalogue the nations in the armament of Xerxes. But his mind was weary of the dry detail. The mere names of barbarous tribes called up no new ideas or pleasing visions. At last the report of Scylax is before him. He reads the narration of the voyage with the fullest conviction of its truth. No Aegyptian priest is misleading him with absurd stories; no cunning Phoenician merchant is puffGreat merit ing off his commodities by lying fables.' He at once adopts the report as the groundwork of his description. And whilst we gladly testify to the truth-loving genius of Herodotus by comparing his geographical details with the researches of later travellers, we would also place the name of SCYLAX of CARYANDA high on the list of those noble labourers in the cause of geographical discovery, who have been but too often the martyrs to that science of which they themselves were the originators. of Scylax. Indian fish ermen on dus. With this tribute to the memory of an almost unknown discoverer, we proceed to enter upon the geography of those four tribes of Indians already named, viz. the Fishermen, the Nomades, the Vegetarians, and the Calatians. The Fishermen, Herodotus informs us, lived on the marshes the marshes of the river Indus, and subsisted on the of the In- fish, which they ate raw, and took by means of canoes made of canes. A single joint of this cane was sufficient to form a canoe. These Indian fishermen made garments of river plants, which they cut and beat, and then plaited like a mat, and wore as a corselet.1 Identified with the The position of these people is here distinctly pulla-fishers pointed out. They inhabited the marshes of the of Sinde. The particulars of this expedition are already commented on at page 198. 2 See ii. 28, 121–123. 3 iii. 111, 115. iii. 98. ASIA. Indus, by which we understand the country in the lower course of that river. Many of the Sindians CHAP. V. at the present day still live chiefly by fishing. The lower course of the Indus is portioned out into sections, where the right of pulla-fishing is strictly confined to their respective villages. The season for taking the pulla fish commences in March, and ends in September. The fishermen launch out upon the river, supported only by earthen jars, or dry reeds. The latter soon become sodden, and the fisherman can then only keep his head above water; otherwise the bark costs him no care, and at every trip he sets forth upon a new one. Upon the banks of the river grows a gigantic grass which attains the height of twelve and eighteen feet, and is often so dense that it is difficult to force a path through it. It has a graceful stalk, often three-eighths of an inch in diameter, from the top of which droops a fringe resembling a feather. The Sindian name is Cânâ. The stalk is jointed like the bamboo, but one-third of its whole length, measuring from the top, is continuous. This portion is called teli, and used in the construction of baskets, while of the other part a useful description of mat is fabricated, known by the name of Keri.2 coincidence Scylax and Lieut. The reader will scarcely believe that we have ex- Singular tracted the above information, nearly word for word, between the from Lieut. Wood's Personal Narrative. All further report of comment is unnecessary. The description of He- that of rodotus, written more than two thousand years ago, Wood. is almost identical with that of Lieut. Wood, written, as it were, yesterday; and yet the gallant English officer neither quotes nor alludes to Herodotus throughout his valuable volume. Strange, that the log books of Lieut. Wood and Seylax of Caryanda, the last and the first of Indus navigators, should thus bear ample testimony to the truth of each other's The delta of the Indus must have been anciently a marsh, for the whole country is alluvial, and some of its spontaneous productions exhibit the growth of a century. See Wood's Journey up the Indus to the source of the Oxus. (London, 1841.) 2 Wood's Journey, pp. 15, 45. |