Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/37

In the country of Mousikanos there grows, he says, spontaneously grain resembling wheat, and a vine that produces wine, whereas other authors affirm that there is no wine in India. Hence, according to Anacharsis, they had no pipes or any musical instruments, except cymbals, drums, and rattles, which were used by jug glers.

Both Aristoboulos and other writers relate that India produces many medicinal drugs and roots, both of a salutary and noxious quality, and dyes yielding a variety of colours. He adds that, by a law, any person discovering a deadly substance is punished with death unless he also discover the antidote; in case he discovers the antidote, he is rewarded by the king.

Southern India, like Arabia and Ethiopia, produces cinnamon, nard, and other aromatics. It resembles these countries as regards the effect of the sun's rays, but it surpasses them in having a copious supply of water, whence the atmosphere is humid, and on this account more conducive to fertility and fecundity; and this applies to the earth and to the water, hence those animals which inhabit both one and the other are of a larger size than are found in other countries.'

At this point Strabo allows himself to digress for a couple of pages on the subject of resemblances between India and Egypt in regard to the water-supply of both countries, and then he returns to the more specific question of the rivers of India and the fertility caused by their overflow – a topic of interest to any one who is concerned with India's history.