digression about india.

the following are statements about the river indus which are quite unquestionable, and therefore let me record them. the indus is the largest of all the rivers in asia and europe, except the ganges,637 which is also an indian river. it takes its rise on this side mount parapamisus, or caucasus, and discharges its water into the great sea which lies near india in the direction of the south wind. it has two mouths, both of which outlets are full of shallow pools like the five outlets of the ister (or danube).638 it forms a delta in the land of 271the indians resembling that of egypt639; and this is called pattala in the indian language. the hydaspes, acesines, hydraotes, and hyphasis are also indian rivers,640 and far exceed the other rivers of asia in size; but they are not only smaller but much smaller than the indus, just as that river itself is smaller than the ganges. indeed ctesias641 says (if any one thinks his evidence to be depended upon), that where the indus is narrowest, its banks are forty stades apart; where it is broadest, 100 stades; and most of it is the mean between these breadths.642 this river indus alexander crossed at daybreak with his army into the country of the indians; concerning whom, in this history i have described neither what laws they enjoy, nor what strange animals their land produces, nor how many and what sort of fish and water-monsters are produced by the indus, hydaspes, ganges, or the other rivers of india. nor have i described the ants which dig up the gold for them,643 nor the guardian griffins, nor any of the other tales that have been composed rather to amuse than to be received as 272the relation of facts; since the falsity of the strange stories which have been fabricated about india cannot be exposed by any one.644 however, alexander and those who served in his army exposed the falsity of most of these tales; but there were even some of these very men who fabricated other stories. they proved that the indians whom alexander visited with his army, and he visited many tribes of them, were destitute of gold; and also that they were by no means luxurious in their mode of living. moreover, they discovered that they were tall in stature, in fact as tall as any men throughout asia, most of them being five cubits in height, or a little less. they were blacker than the rest of men, except the ethiopians645; and in war they were far the bravest of all the races inhabiting asia at that time. for i cannot with any justice compare the race of the ancient persians with those of india, though at the head of the former cyrus, son of cambyses, set out and deprived the medes of the empire of asia, and subdued many other races partly by force and partly by voluntary surrender on their own part. for at that time the persians were a poor people and inhabitants of a rugged land, having laws and customs very similar to the laconian discipline.646 nor am i able with certainty to conjecture whether the defeat sustained by the persians in the scythian land was due to the difficult nature of the country invaded or to some other error on the part of cyrus, or whether the persians were really inferior in warlike matters to the scythians of that district.