Kitap 15
1.13
By the exhalation of vapours from such vast rivers, and by the Etesian winds, India, as Eratosthenes affirms, is watered by summer rains, and the plains are overflowed. During the rainy season flax,λίνον, probably the λίνον τὸ ἀπὸ δενδοͅέων, or cotton, of Arrian. millet, sesamum, rice, and bosmorumβόσμοοͅον. § 18. are sowed; and in the winter season, wheat, barley, pulse, and other esculent fruits of the earth with which we are not acquainted. Nearly the same animals are bred in India as in Ethiopia and Egypt, and the rivers of India produce all the animals of those countries, except the hippopotamus, although Onesicritus asserts that even this animal is found in them.
1.13
The inhabitants of the south resemble the Ethiopians in colour, but their countenances and hair are like those of other people. Their hair does not curl, on account of the humidity of the atmosphere. The inhabitants of the north resemble the Egyptians.
1.14
TaprobaneCeylon. is said to be an island, lying out at sea, distant from the most southerly parts of India, which are opposite the Coniaci, seven days’The voyage from the Ganges to Ceylon, in the time of Eratosthenes, occupied seven days, whence he concluded that Ceylon was seven days’ sail from the continent. sail towards the south. Its length is about 8000 stadia in the direction of Ethiopia.Groskurd reads 5000 stadia. B. ii. c. i. § 14. It produces elephants.
