Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/64

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ACCOUNT OF INDIA BY STRABO

Persons wounded by them bleed from every pore, suffer great pain, and die, unless they have immediate assistance; but this assistance is easily obtained by means of the virtues of the Indian roots and drugs.

A SNAKE-CHARMER AT BENARES.

Few crocodiles are found in the Indus, Aristoboulos says, and these are harmless, but most of the other animals, except the hippopotamus, are the same as those found in the Nile; though Onesikritos says that this animal also is found there. On account of the crocodiles, according to Aristoboulos, none of the sea fish, except the shad, the gray mullet, and dolphin, ascend the Nile from the sea; but great numbers ascend the river Indus. Small crawfish go up as far as the mountains, and the larger as far as the confluence of the Indus and the Akesines.

So much then on the subject of the wild animals of India. We shall return to Megasthenes and resume our account of the castes at the point where we digressed.

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