In the summer [23 CE] our travellers, together with their guide, left Babylon and started out, mounted on camels; and the king had supplied them with the camel-drover, and plenty of provisions, as much as they wanted.

*

And they say that a pard [leopard] was once caught in Pamphylia which was wearing a chain around its neck, and the chain was of gold, and on it was inscribed in Armenian lettering : "The king Arsaces to the Nysian god." Now the king of Armenia was certainly at that time Arsaces, and he, I imagine, finding the pard, had let it go free in honour of Dionysus because of its size. For Dionysus is called Nysian by the Indians and by all the Oriental races from Nysa in India.

*

Having passed the Caucasus, our travellers say they saw men four cubits high, and that they were already black, and that when they passed over the river Indus they say others five cubits high. But on their way to this river our wayfarers found the following incidents worthy of notice. For they were travelling by bright moonlight, when the figure of an empusa or hobgoblin appeared to them, that changed from one form into another, and sometimes it vanished into nothing. And Apollonius realised what it was, and himself heaped abuse on the hobgoblin and instructed his party to do the same, saying that this was the right remedy for such a visitation. and the phantasm fled away, shrieking even as ghosts do.

*

And having passed beyond the mountain, they at once came upon elephants with men riding on them; and these people dwell between the Causasus and the river Cophen, and they are rude in their lives and they are nomad riders on the herds of elephants; some of them, however, rode on camels, which are used by Indians for carrying despatches, and they will travel 1,000 stades a day without ever bending the knee or lying down anywhere.

[1,000 X 606' = 606,000' = 114.77 miles.]

*

And we are not far away from this god, for you hear the guide saying that the mountain of Nysa is close by, upon which Dionysus works, I believe, a great many miracles.

*

They crossed the river Cophen, themselves in boats, but the camels by a ford on foot; for the river has not yet reached its full size here. They were now in a continent subject to the king, in which the mountain of Nysa rises covered to its very top with plantations, like the mountain of Tmolus in Lydia; and you can ascend it, because paths have been made by the cultivators.

They say then that when they had ascended it, they found the shrine of Dionysus, which it is said Dionysus founded in honour of himself, planting round it a circle of laurel trees which encloses just as much ground as suffices to contain a moderate sized temple.

He also surrounded the laurels with a border of ivy and vines; and he had set up inside an image of himself, knowing that in time the trees would grow together and make themselves into a kind of roof; and this had now formed itself, so that neither rain can wet nor wind blow upon the shrine.

And there were sickles and baskets and wine-presses and their furniture dedicated to Dionysus, as if to one who gathers grapes, all made of gold and silver. And the image resembled a youthful Indian, and was carved out of polished white stone. And when Dionysus celebrates his orgies and shakes Nysa, the cities underneath the mountain hear the noise and exult in sympathy.

Now the Hellenes disagree with the Indians, and the Indians among themselves, concerning this Dionysus. For we declare that the Theban Dionysus made an expedition to India in the role both of soldier and of reveller, and we base our arguments, among other things, on the offering at Delphi, which is secreted in the treasuries there.

And it is a disc of Indian silver bearing the inscription : "Dionysus the son of Semele and of Zeus, from the men of India to the Apollo of Delphi."

But the Indians who dwell in the Caucasus and along the river Cophen say that he was an Assyrian visitor when he came to them, who knew the religious rites of the Theban. But those who inhabit the district between the Indus and the Hydraotes and the continental region beyond, which ends at the river Ganges, declare that Dionysus was son of the river Indus, and that the Dionysus of Thebes having become his disciple adopted the thyrsus and devoted himself to the orgies; that this Dionysus on saying that he was the son of Zeus and had lived safe inside his father's thigh until he was born, gained from this Dionysus a mountain called Merus or "Thigh" on which Nysa borders, and planted Nysa in honour of Dionysus with the vine of which he had brought the suckers from Thebes; and that it was there that Alexander held his orgies.

But the inhabitants of Nysa deny that Alexander ever went up the mountain, although he was eager to do so, being an ambitious person and fond of old-world things; but he was afraid lest his Macedonians, if they got among vines, which they had not seen for a long time, would fall into a fit of home-sickness or recover their taste for wine, after they had already become accustomed to water only.

So they say he passed by Nysa, making his vow to Dionysus, and sacrificing at the foot of the mountain. Well, I know that some people will take amiss what I write, because the campaigns did not write down the truth in reporting this, but I at any rate insist upon the truth, and hold that, if they had respected it more, they would never have deprived Alexander of the praise due to him in this matter; for, in my opinion it was a greater thing that he never went up, in order to maintain the sobriety of his army, than that he should have ascended the mountain and have himself held a revel there, which is what they tell you.

*

And the statements made by Nearchus and Pythagoras, about the river Acesines, to the effect that it debouches into the Indus, and that snakes breed in it seventy cubits long, were, they say, fully verified by them; but I will defer what I have to say till I come to speak about dragons, of whose capture Damis gives an account.

But when they reached the Indus and were inclined to pass over the river, they asked the Babylonian whether he knew anything of the river, and questioned him about how to get across it. But he said that he had never navigated it, nor did he know whence they could get a boat on to it.

"Why then," they said, "did you not hire a guide?"

"Because," he said, "I have one who will direct us."

And with that, he showed them a letter, written to that effect, and this gave them occasion to marvel afresh at the humanity and foresight of Vardanes. For he had addressed the letter in question to the satrap of the Indus, although he was not subject to his dominion; and in it he reminded him of the good service he had done him, but declared that he would not ask any recompense for the same, "for," he said, " it is not my habit to ask for a return of favours."

But he said he would be very grateful, if he would give a welcome to Apollonius and send him on wherever he wished to go. And he had given gold to the guide, so that in case he found Apollonius in want thereof, he might give it to him and save him from looking to the generosity of anyone else.

And when the Indian received the letter, he declared that he was highly honoured, and would interest himself in the sage as much as if the king of India had written in his behalf; and he lent his official boat for him to embark in and other vessels on which the camels were ferried across, and he also sent a guide to the whole of the country which is bordered by the Hydraotes, and he wrote to his own king, begging him not to treat with less respect than Vardanes a man who was a Greek and divine.

Thus they crossed the Indus at a point where it was nearly 40 stades broad, for such is the size of its navigable portion; and they write the following account of this river.

They say that the Indus arises in the Caucasus and is bigger at its source than any of the other rivers of Asia; and as it advances, it absorbs into itself several navigable rivers and, like the Nile, it floods the land of India and brings down soil over it, and so provides the Indians with land to sow in the manner of the Egyptians.

Now it is said that there is snow on the hills in Ethiopia and in the land of the Catadupi, and I do not choose to contradict, out of respect for the authorities; nevertheless, I cannot agree with them, when I consider how the river Indus effects the same results as the Nile, without any snow falling on the country that rises behind and above it.

And moreover, I know that God has set the Ethiopian and the Indian at the two extremes or horns of the entire earth, making black the latter who dwell where the sun rises no less than the former who dwell where it sets; now how should this be in the case of the inhabitants, unless they enjoyed summer heat even in the winter?

But where the sun warms the earth all through the year, how can one suppose that it ever snows? And how could it ever snow there so hard, as to supply the rivers there with water, and make them rise above their normal levels? But even if there were frequent snowfalls in regions so exposed to the sun, how could the melted snow ever cover such an expanse as to resemble a sea? And how could it ever supply a river which deluges the whole of Egypt?

*

While the sage was engaged in this conversation, messengers and an interpreter presented themselves from the king, to say that the king would make him his guest for three days, because the laws did not allow of strangers residing in the city for a longer time; and accordingly they conducted him into the palace.

I have already described the way in which the city is walled, but they say that it was divided up into narrow streets in the same irregular manner as is Athens, and that the houses were built in such a way that if you look at them from outside they had only one storey, while if you went into one of them, you at once found subterranean chambers extending as far below the level of the earth as did the chambers above.

And they say that they saw a Temple of the Sun in which was kept loose a sacred elephant called Ajax, and there were images of Alexander made of gold, and others of Porus, though the latter were of black bronze. But on the walls of the Temple there were red stones, and gold glittered underneath, and gave off a sheen as bright as sunlight. But the statue was compacted of pearls arranged in the symbolic manner affected by all barbarians in their shrines.

And in the palace they say that they saw no magnificent chambers, nor any bodyguards or sentinels, but, considering what is usual in the houses of magnates, only few servants, and three or four people who wished, so I suppose, to converse with the king. And they say that they admired this arrangement more than they did the pompous splendour of Babylon, and their esteem was enhanced when they went within. For the men's chambers and the porticoes and the whole of the vestibule were in a very chaste style.

*

Apollonius asked him [King Phraotes] about his diet, and he replied : "I drink just as much wine as I pour out in libation to the Sun; and whatever I take in the chase I give to others to eat, for I am satisfied with the exercise I get. But my own meal consists of vegetables and of the pith and fruit of date palms, and of all that a well-watered garden yields in the way of fruit. And a great deal of fruit is yielded to me by the trees which I cultivate with these hands."

When Apollonius heard this, he was more than gratified, and kept glancing at Damis.

And when they had conversed a good deal about which road to take to the Brahmans, the king ordered the guide from Babylon to be well entertained, as it was customary so to treat those who came from Babylon; and the guide from the satrap, to be dismissed after being given provisions for the road.

Then he took Apollonius by the hand, and having bidden the interpreter to depart, he said : "You will then, I hope, choose me for your merry companion."

And he asked the question of him in the Greek tongue.

But Apollonius was surprised, and remarked : "Why did you not converse with me thus, from the beginning?"

"I was afraid," said the king, "of seeming presumptuous, seeming, that is, not to know myself and not to know that I am a barbarian by decree of fate; but you have won my affection, and as soon as I saw that you take pleasure in my society, I was unable to keep myself concealed. But that I am quite competent in the Greek speech I will show you amply."

"Why then," said Apollonius, "did you not invite me to the banquet, instead of begging me to invite you?"

"Because," he replied, "I regard you as my superior, for wisdom has more of the kingly quality about it."

And with that he led him and his companions to where he was accustomed to bathe. And the bathing-place was a garden, a stade in length, in the middle of which was dug out a pool, which was fed by fountains of water, cold and drinkable; and on each side there were exercising places, in which he was accustomed to practise himself after the manner of the Greeks with javelin and quoit-throwing; for physically he was very robust, both because he was still young, for he was only twenty-seven years old, and because he trained himself in this way.

And when he had had enough exercise, he would jump into the water and exercised himself in swimming. But when they had taken their bath, they proceeded into the banqueting chamber with wreaths upon their heads; for this is the custom of the Indians, whenever they drink wine in the palace.

*

"For in many cases a man's eyes reveal the secrets of his character, and in many cases there is material for forming a judgment and appraising his value in his eyebrows and cheeks, for from these features the dispositions of people can be detected by wise and scientific men, as images are seen in a looking-glass." [Phraotes to Apollonius]

*

[Phraotes to Apollonius]

"It is related, anyhow, that Hercules of Egypt and Dionysus after they had overrun the Indian people with their arms, at last attacked them in company, and that they constructed engines of war, and tried to take the place by assault; but the sages, instead of taking the field against them, lay quiet and passive, as it seemed to the enemy; but as soon as the latter approached, they were driven off by rockets of fire and thunderbolts which were hurled obliquely from above and fell upon their armour.

"It was on that occasion, they say, that Hercules lost his golden shield, and the sages dedicated it as an offering, partly out of respect for Hercules' reputation, and partly because of the reliefs upon the shield. For in these Hercules is represented marking the frontier of the world at Gadira, and using the mountains for pillars, and drawing the ocean into the inner sea. Thence it is clear that it was not the Theban Hercules, but the Egyptian one, that came to Gadira, and marked the limits of the world."

*

After this conversation they laid themselves down to repose; but when the day dawned, the king himself went to the chamber in which Apollonius and his companions were sleeping, and gently stroking the bed he addressed the sage, and asked him what he was thinking about. "For," he said, "I don't imagine you are asleep, since you drink water and despise wine."

Said the other : "Then you don't think that those who drink water go to sleep?"

"Yes," said the king, ""they sleep, but with a very light sleep, which just sits upon the tips of their eyelids, as we say, but not upon their minds."

"Nay, with both do they sleep," said Apollonius, "and perhaps more with the mind than with the eyelids. For unless the mind is thoroughly composed, the eyes will not admit of sleep entirely. For note how madmen are not able to go to sleep because their mind leaps with excitement, and their thoughts run coursing hither and thither, so that their glances are full of fury and morbid impulse, like those of the dragons who never sleep.

"Since then, O King," he went on, "we have clearly intimated the use and function of sleep, and what it signifies for men, let us examine whether the drinker of water need sleep less soundly than the drunkard."

"Do not quibble," said the king, "for if you put forward the case of a drunkard, he, I admit, will not sleep at all, for his mind is in a state of revel, and whirls him about and fills him with uproar. All, I tell you, who try to go to sleep when in drink seem to themselves to be rushed up on to the roof, and then to be dashed down under the ground, and to fall into a whirl, as they say happened to Ixion. Now I do not put the case of a drunkard, but of a man who has merely drunk wine, but remains sober; I wish to consider whether he will sleep, and how much better he will sleep than a man who drinks no wine."

Apollonius then summoned Damis and said : "'Tis a clever man with whom we are discussing and one thoroughly trained in argument."

"I see it is so," said Damis, "and perhaps this is what is meant by the phrase 'catching a Tartar.' But the argument excites me very much, of which he has delivered himself; so it is time for you to wake up and finish it."

Apollonius then raised his head slightly and said : "Well, I will prove, out of your own lips and following your own argument, how much advantage we who drink water have in that we sleep more sweetly. For you have clearly stated and admitted that the minds of drunkards are disordered and are in a condition of madness; for we see those who are under the spell of drink imagining that they see two moons at once and two suns, while those who have drunk less, even though they are quite sober, while they entertain no such delusions as these, are yet full of exultation and pleasure; and this fit of joy often falls upon them, even though they have not had any good luck, and men in such a condition will plead cases, although they never opened their lips before in a law-court, and they will tell you they are rich, although they have not a drachma in their pockets.

"Now these, O King, are the affections of a madman. For the mere pleasure of drinking disturbs their judgment, and I have known many of them who were so firmly convinced that they were well off, that they were unable to sleep, but leapt up in their slumbers, and this is the meaning of the saying that 'good fortune itself is a reason for being anxious.'

"Men have also devised sleeping draughts, by drinking or anointing themselves with which, people at once stretch themselves out and go to sleep as if they were dead; but when they wake up from such sleep, it is with a sort of forgetfulness, and they imagine that they are anywhere rather than where they are.

"Now these draughts are not exactly drunk, but I would rather say that they drench the soul and body; for they do not induce any sound or proper sleep, but the deep coma of a man half dead, or the light and distracted sleep of men haunted by phantoms, even though they be wholesome ones; and you will, I think, agree with me in this, unless you are disposed to quibble rather than argue seriously.

"But those who drink water, as I do, see things as they really are, and they do not record in fancy things that are not; and they were never found to be giddy, nor full of drowsiness, or of silliness, nor unduly elated; but they are wide awake and thoroughly rational, and always the same, whether late in the evening or early in the morning when the market is crowded; for these men never nod, even though they pursue their studies far into the night.

"For sleep does not drive them forth, pressing down like a slave-holder upon their necks, that are bowed down by the wine; but you find them free and erect, and they go to bed with a clear, pure soul and welcome sleep, and are neither buoyed up by the bubbles of their own private luck, nor scared out of their wits by any adversity. For the soul meets both alternatives with equal calm, if it be sober and not overcome by either feeling; and that is why it can sleep a delightful sleep untouched by the sorrows which startle others from their couches.

"And more than this, as a faculty of divination by means of dreams, which is the divinest and most god-like of human faculties, the soul detects the truth all the more easily when it is not muddied by wine, but accepts the message unstained and scans it carefully. Anyhow, the explainers of dreams and visions, those whom the poets call interpreters of dreams, will never undertake to explain any vision to anyone without having first asked the time when it was seen.

"For if it was at dawn and in the sleep of morningtide, they calculate its meaning on the assumption that the soul is then in a condition to divine soudly and healthily, because by then it has cleansed itself of the stains of wine. But if the vision was seen in the first sleep or at midnight, when the soul is still immersed in the lees of wine and muddied thereby, they decline to make any suggestions, and they are wise.

"And that the gods also are of this opinion, and that they commit the faculty of oracular response to sould which are sober, I will clearly show. There was, O King, a seer among the Greeks called Amphiarus."

"I know," said the other, "for you allude, I imagine, to the son of Oecles, who was swallowed up alive by the earth on his way back from Thebes."

"This man, O King," said Apollonius, "still divines in Attica, inducing dreams in those who consult him, and the priests take a man who wishes to consult him, and they prevent his eating for one day, and from drinking wine for three, in order that he may imbibe the oracles with his soul in a condition of utter transparence. But if wine were a good drug of sleep, then the wise Amphiaraus would have bidden his votaries to adopt the opposite regimen, and would have had them carried into his shrine as full of wine as leathern flagons.

"And I could mention many oracles, held in repute by Greeks and barbarians alike, where the priest utters his responses from the tripod after imbibing water and not wine. So you may consider me also as a fit vehcle of the god, O King, along with all who drink water. For we are rapt by the nymphs and are bacchantic revellers in sobriety."

"Well, then," said the king, "you must make me too, O Apollonius, a member of your religious brotherhood."

"I would do so," said the other, "provided only you will not be esteemed vulgar and held cheap by your subjects. For in the case of a king a philosophy that is at once moderate and indulgent makes a good temper, as is seen in your own case; but an excess of rigour and severity would seem vulgar, O King, and beneath your august station; and, what is more, it might be construed by the envious as due to pride."

*

And they rode out of Taxila, and after a journey of two days reached the plain, in which Porus is said to have engaged Alexander; and they say they saw gates therein that enclosed nothing, but had been erected to carry trophies. For there was set upon them a statue of Alexander standing in a four-poled chariot [i.e., with eight horses], as he looked when at Issa he confronted the Satraps of Darius. And at a short distance from one another there are said to have been built two gates, carrying the one a statue of Porus, and the other one of Alexander, of both, as I imagine, encountering one another after the battle; for the one is in the attitude of one man greeting another, and the other of one doing homage.

And having crossed the river Hydraotes and passed by several tribes, they reached the Hyphasis, and thirty stades away from this they came on altars bearing ths inscription : "To Father Ammon and Heracles his brother, and to Athena Providence and to Zeus of Olympus and to the Cabeiri of Samothrace, and to the Indian Sun and to the Delphian Apollo."

And they say there was also a brass column dedicated, and inscribed as follows :

"Alexander stayed his steps at this point."

The altars we may suppose to be due to Alexander who so honoured the limit of his Empire; but I fancy the Indians beyond the Hyphasis erected the column, by way of expressing their pride at Alexander's having got no further.

*

It is now time to notice the river Hyphasis, and to ask what is its size as it traverses India, and what remarkable features it possesses. The springs of this river well forth out of the plain, and close to its source its streams are navigable, but as they advance they soon become impossible for boats, because spits of rock alternating with one another, rise up just above the surface; round these the current winds of necessity, so rendering the river unnavigable. And in breadth in approaches to the river Ister, and this is allowed to be the greatest of all the rivers which flow through Europe.

Now the woods along the bank closely resemble those of the river in question, and a balm also is distilled from the trees, out of which the Indians make a nuptial ointment; and unless the people attending the wedding have besprinkled the young couple with this balm, the union is not considered complete nor compatible with Aphrodite bestowing her grace upon it.

Now they say that the grove in the neighbourhood of the river is dedicated to this goddess, as also the fishes called peacock fish which are bred in this river alone, and which have been given the same name as the bird, because their fins are blue, and their scales spotty, and their tails golden, and because they can fold and spread the latter at will.

There is also a creature in this river which resembles a white worm. By melting this down they make an oil, and from this oil, it appears, there is given off a flame such that nothing but glass can contain it. And this creature may be caught for the king alone who utilises it for the capture of cities; for as soon as the fat in question touches the battlements, a fire is kindled which defies all the ordinary means devised by men against combustibles.

And they say that the wild asses are also to be captured in these marshes, and these creatures have a horn upon the forehead, with which they butt like a bull and make a noble fight of it; the Indians make this horn into a cup, for they declare that no one can ever fall sick on the day on which he has drunk out of it, now will anyone who has done so be the worse for being wounded, and he will be able to pass through fire unscathed, and he is even immune from poisonous draughts which others would drink to their harm. Accordingly, this goblet is reserved for kings, and the king alone may indulge in the chase of this creature.

And Apollonius says that he saw this animal, and admired its natural features; but when Damis asked him if he believed the story about the goblet, he answered : "I will believe it, if I find the king of the Indians hereabout to be immortal; for surely a man who can offer me or anyone else a draught potent against disease and so wholesome, will he not be much more likely to imbibe it himself, and take a drink out of this horn every day even at the risk of intoxication? For no one, I conceive, would blame him for exceeding in such cups."

At this place they say that they also fell in with a woman who was black from her head to her bosom, but was altogether white from her bosom down to her feet; and the rest of the party fled from her, believing her to be a monster, but Apollonius clasped the woman by the hand and understood what she was; for in fact such a woman in India is consecrated to Aphrodite, and a woman is born piebald in honour of this goddess, just as is Apis among the Egyptians.

They say that from this point they crossed the part of the Caucasus which stretches down to the Red Sea; and this range is thickly overgrown with aromatic forests. The spurs then of the mountain bear the cinnamon tree, which resembles the young tendrils of the vine, and the goat gives sure indication of this aromatic shrub; for if you hold out a bit of cinnamon to a goat, she will whine and whimper after your hand like a dog, and will follow you when you go away, pressing her nose against it; and if the goatherd drags her away, she will moan as if she were being torn away from the lotus.

[Comment: Although I cannot find the exact citation, at some point in this work I ran across the detail that the Red Sea was given its name by the King of Erythrae, an Ionian kingdom, near modern Ritri. Since Apollonius and Damis boarded a ship at the Red Sea to head for Babylon, and since the Red Sea also bordered Egypt, as now, in those days the term "Red Sea" meant all that is included today by both the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Back then, too, there was no Suez Canal connected the modern Red Sea to the Mediterranean. This "bay" of the Greater Red Sea would have ended at the "Gaza Strip," so to speak.]

But on the steeps of this mountain there grow very lofty frankincense trees, as well as many other species, for example the pepper trees which are cultivated by the apes. Nor did they neglect to record the look and appearance of this tree, and I will repeat exactly their account of it.

The pepper tree resembles in general the willow of the Greeks, and particularly in regard to the berry of the fruit; and it grows in steep ravines where it cannot be got at by men, and where a community of apes is said to live in the recesses of the mountain and in any of its glens; and these apes are held in great esteem by the Indians, because they harvest the pepper for them, and they drive the lions off them with dogs and weapons.

For the lion, when he is sick, attacks the ape in order to get a remedy, for the flesh of the ape stays the course of his disease; and he attacks it when he is grown old to get a meal, for the lions when they are past hunting stags and wild boars gobble up the apes, and husband for their pursuit whatever strength they have left.

The inhabitants of the country, however, are not disposed to allow this, because they regard these animals as their benefactors, and so make war against the lions in behalf of them. For this is the way they go to work in collecting the pepper; the Indians go up to the lower trees and pluck off the fruit, and they make little round shallow pits around the trees, into which they collect the pepper, carelessly tossing it in, as if it had no value and was of no serious use to mankind.

Then the monkeys mark their actions from above out of their fastnesses, and when the night comes on they imitate the action of the Indians, and twisting off the twigs of the trees, they bring and throw them into the pits in question; then the Indians at daybreak carry away the heaps of the spice which they have thus got without any trouble, and indeed during the repose of slumber.

After crossing the top of the mountain, they say they saw a smooth plain seamed with cuts and ditches full of water, some of which were carried crosswise, whilst others were straight; these are derived from the river Ganges, and serve both for boundaries, and also are distributed over the plain, when the soil is dry. But they say that this soil is the best in India, and constitutes the greatest of the territorial divisions of that country, extending in length towards the Ganges a journey of fifteen days and of eighteen from the sea to the mountain of the apes along which it skirts.

The whole plain is a dead level, black and fertile of everything; for you can see on it standing corn as high as reeds, and you can also see beans three times as large as the Egyptian kind, as well as sesame and millet of enormous size. And they say that nuts also grow there, of which many are treasured up in our temples here as objects of curiosity.

But the vines which grow there are small, like those of the Lydians and Maeones; their vintage, however, is not only drinkable, but has a fine bouquet from the first. They also say that they came upon a tree there resembling the laurel, upon which there grew a cup of husk resembling a very large pomegranate; and inside the cup there was a kernel as blue as the cups of the hyacinth, but sweeter to the taste than any of the fruits the seasons bring.

*

Now the hill the summit of which is inhabited by the sages is, according to the account of our travellers, of about the same height as the Acropolis of Athens; and it rises straight up from the plain, though its natural position equally secures it from attack, for the rock surrounds it on all sides. On many parts of this rock, you see traces of cloven feet and outlines of beards and of faces, and here and there impressions of backs as of persons who had slipt and rolled down.

For they say that Dionysus, when he was trying to storm the place together with Hercules, ordered the Pans to attack it, thinking that they were thunderstruck by the sages and fell one, one way, and another, another; and the rocks as it were took the print of the various postures in which they fell and failed.

And they say that they saw a cloud floating round the eminence on which the Indians live and render themselves visible or invisible at will. Whether there were any other gates to the eminence, they say they did not know; for the cloud around it did not anywhere allow them to be seen, whether there was an opening in the rampart, or whether on the other hand it was a close-shut fortress.

Apollonius says that he himself ascended mostly on the south side of the ridge, following the Indian, and that the first thing he saw was a well four fathoms deep, above the mouth of which there rose a sheen of deep blue light; and at midday when the sun was stationary about it, the sheen of light was always drawn up on high by the rays, and in its ascent assumed the look of a glowing rainbow. But he learnt afterwards that the soil underneath the well was composed of realgar, but that they regarded the water as holy and mysterious, and no one either drank it or drew it up, but it was regarded by the whole land of India all around as binding in oaths.

And near this there was a crater, he says, of fire, which sent up a lead-coloured flame, though it emitted no smoke or any smell, nor did this crater ever overflow, but emitted just matter enough not to bubble over the edges of the pit. It is here that the Indians purify themselves of involuntary sins, wherefore the sages call the well, the well of testing, and the fire, the fire of pardon.

And they say that they saw there two jars of black stone, of the rains and of the winds respectively. The jar of the rains, they say, is opened in case the land of India is suffering from drought, and sends up clouds to moisten the whole country; but if the rains should be in excess, they are stopped by the jar being shut up.

And the jar of the winds plays, I imagine, the same role as the bag of Aeolus : for when they open this jar ever so little, they let out one of the winds, which creates a seasonable breeze by which the country is refreshed.

And they say that they came upon statues of Gods, and they were not nearly so much astonished at finding Indian or Egyptian Gods as they were of finding the most ancient of the Greek Gods, a statue of Athene Polias and of Apollo of Delos and of Dionysus of Limnae and another of him of Amyclae, and others of similar age. These were set up by these Indians and worshipped with Greek rites. And they say that they are inhabiting the heart of India, and they regard the mound as the navel of this hill, and on it they worship fire with mysterious rites, deriving the fire, according to their own account, from the rays of the sun; and to the Sun they sing a hymn every day at midday.

Apollonius himself describes the character of these sages and of their settlement upon the hill; for in one of his addresses to the Egyptians he says, "I saw Indian Brahmans living upon the earth and yet not on it, and fortified without fortifications, and possessing nothing, yet having the riches of all men."

He may indeed be thought to have here written with too much subtlety; but we have anyhow the account of Damis to the effect that they made a practice of sleeping on the ground, and that they strewed the ground with such grass as they might themselves prefer; and, what is more, he says that he saw them levitating themselves two cubits high from the ground, not for the sake of miraculous display, for they disdain any such ambition; but they regard any rites they perform, in thus quitting earth and walking with the Sun, as acts of homage acceptable to the God.

Moreover, they neither burn upon an altar nor keep in stoves the fire which they extract from the sun's rays, although it is a material fire; but like the rays of sunlight when they are refracted in water, so this fire is seen raised aloft in the air and dancing to the ether.

And further they pray to the Sun who governs the seasons by his might, that the latter may succeed duly in the land, so that India may prosper; but of a night they intreat the ray of light not to take the night amiss, but to stay with them just as they have brought it down.

Such then was the meaning of the phrase of Apollonius, that "the Brahmans are upon earth and yet not upon earth." And his phrase "fortified without fortifications or walls," refers to the air or vapour under which they bivouac, for though they seem to live in the open air, yet they raise up a shadow and veil themselves in it, so that they are not made wet when it rains and they enjoy the sunlight whenever they choose. And the phrase "without possessing anything they had the riches of all men," is thus explained by Damis : All the springs which the Bacchanals see leaping up from the ground under their feet, whenever Dionysus stirs them and earth in a common convulsion, spring up in plenty for these Indians also when they are entertaining or being entertained.

Apollonius therefore was right in saying that people provided as they are with all they want offhand and without having prepared anything, possess what they do not possess. And on principle they grow their hair long, as the Lacedaemonians did of old and the people of Thurium and Tarentum, as well as the Melians and all who set store by the fashions of Sparta; and they bind a white turban on their heads, and their feet are naked for walking, and they cut their garments to resemble the "exomis." [An overmantle leaving one arm and shoulder bare. Buddhist monks still wear a similar garment. The so-called wool was asbestos.]

But the material of which they make this raiment is a wool that springs wild from the ground, white like that of the Pamphylians, though it is of softer growth, and a grease like olive oil distills from off it. This is what they make their sacred vesture of, and if anyone else except these Indians tries to pluck it up, the earth refused to surrender its wool. and they all carry both a ring and a staff of which the peculiar virtues can effect all things, and the one and the other, so we learn, are prized as secrets.

When Apollonius approached, the rest of the sages welcomed him and shook hands; but Iarchas had sat down on a high stool -- and this was of black copper and chased with golden figures, while the seats of the others were of copper, but plain and not so high, for they sat lower down than Iarchas -- and when he saw Apollonius, Iarchas greeted him in the Greek tongue and asked for the Indian's letter.

And as Apollonius showed astonishment at his gift of prescience, he took pains to add that a single letter was missing in the epistle, namely a "delta," which had escaped the writer; and this was found to be the case.

Then having read the epistle, he said : "What do you think of us, O Apollonius?"

"Why," replied the latter, "how can you ask, when it is sufficiently shown by the fact that I have taken a journey to see you which was never till now accomplished by any of the inhabitants of my country."

"And what do you think we know more than yourself?"

"I," replied the other, "consider that your lore is profounder and much more divine than our own; and if I add nothing to my present stock of knowledge while I am with you, I shall at least have learned that I have nothing more to learn."

Thereupon, the Indian replied and said : "Other people ask those who arrive among them, who they are that come, and why, but the first display we make of our wisdom consists in showing that we are not ignorant who it is that comes. And you may test this point to begin with."

And to suit his word, he forthwith recounted the whole story of Apollonius' family both on his father's and his mother's side, and he related all his life in Aegae, and how Damis had joined him, and any conversations that they had had on the road, and anything they had found out through the conversation of others with them. And this, just as if he had shared their voyage with them, the Indian recounted straight off, quite clearly and without pausing for breath.

And when Apollonius was astounded and asked him how he came to know it all, he replied : "And you too come with a share in this wsdom, but you are not yet an adept."

"Will you teach me, then," said the other, "all this wisdom?"

"Aye, and gladly, for that is a wiser course than grudging and hiding matters of interest; and moveover, O Apollonius, I perceive that you are well endowed with memory, a goddess whom we love more than any other of the divine beings."

"Why," said the other, "have you really discerned by your penetration of my exact disposition?"

"We," said the other, "O Apollonius, can see all spiritual traits, for we trace and detect them by a thousand signs. But as it is nearly midday, and we must get ready our offerings for the Gods, let us now employ ourselves with that, and afterwards let us converse as much as you like; but you must take part in all our religious rites."

"By Zeus," said Apollonius, "I should be wronging the Caucasus and the Indus, both of which I have crossed in order to reach you, if I did not feast myself on your rites to the full."

"Do so," said the other, "and let us depart."

Accordingly they betook themselves to a spring of water, which Damis, who saw it subsequently, says resembles that of Dirce in Boeotia; and first they stripped, and then they anointed their heads with an amber-like drug, which imparted such a warmth to these Indians, that their bodies steamed and the sweat ran off them as profusely as if they were washing themselves by a fire; next they threw themselves into the water and, having so taken their bath, they betook themselves to the temple with wreaths upon their heads and full of sacred song.

And they stood round in the form of a chorus, and having chosen Iarchas as conductor, they struck the earth, uplifting their rods, and the earth arched itself like a billow of the sea and sent them up two cubits high into the air. But they sang a song resembling the paean of Sophocles which hey sing at Athens in honour of Asclepius.

But when they had alighted upon the ground, Iarchas called the stripling who carried the anchor and said : "Do you look after the companions of Apollonius?"

And he went off swifter than the quickest of the birds, and coming back again said : "I have looked after them."

Having fulfilled then the most of their religious rites, they sat down to rest upon their seats, but Iarchas said to the stripling : "Bring out the throne of Phraotes for the wise Apollonius that he may sit upon it to converse with us."

And when he had taken his seat, he said : "Ask whatever you like, for you find yourself among people who knw everyting."

Apollonius then asked him whether they knew themselves also, thinking that he, like the Greeks, would regard self-knowledge as a difficult matter.

But the other, contrary to Apollonius' expectations, corrected him and said : "We know everything, just because we begin by knowing ourselves; for no one of us would be admitted to this philosophy unless he first knew himself."

And Apollonius remembered what he had heard Phraotes say, and how he who would become a philosopher must examine himself before he undertakes the task; and he therefore acquiesced in this answer, for he was convinced of its truth in his own case also. He accordingly asked a fresh question, namely, who they considered themselves to be; and the other answered, "We consider ourselves to be Gods."

Apollonius asked afresh : "Why?"

"Because," said the other, "we are good men."

This reply struck Apollonius as so instinct with trained good sense, that he subsequently mentioned it to Domitian in his defence of himself.

He therefore resumed his questions and said : "And what view do you take of the soul?"

"That," replied the other, "which Pythagoras imparted to you, and which we imparted to the Egyptians."

"Would you then say," said Apollonius, "that, as Pythagoras declared himself to be Euphorbus, so you yourself, before you entered your present body, were one of the Trojans or Achaeans or someone else?"

And the Indian replied : "Those Achaean sailors were the ruin of Troy, and your talking so much about it is the ruin of you Greeks. For you imagine that the campaigners against Troy were the only heroes that ever were, and you forget other heroes both more numerous and more divine, whom your own country and that of the Egyptians and that of the Indians have produced. Since then you have asked me about my earlier incarnation, tell me, whom you regard as the most remarkable of the assailants or defenders of Troy."

"I," replied Apollonius, "regard Achilles, the son of Peleus and Thetis, as such, for he and no other is celebrated by Homer as excelling all the Achaeans in personal beauty and size, and he sings of mighty deeds of his. And he also rates very highly such men as Ajax and Nireus, who were only second to him in beauty and courage, and are celebrated as such in his poems."

"With him," said the other, "O Apollonius, I would have you compare my own ancestor, or rather my ancestral body, for that was the light in which Pythagoras regarded Euphorbus.

"There was then," he said, "a time when the Ethiopians, an Indian race, swelt in this country, and when Ethiopia as yet was not : but Egypt stretched its borders beyond Meroe and the cataracts, and on the one side included in itself the fountains of the Nile, and on the other was only bounded by the mouths of the river.

"Well, at that time of which I speak, the Ethiopians lived here, and were subject to King Ganges, and the land was sufficient for their sustenance, and the gods watched over them; but when they slew this king, neither did the rest of the Indians regard them as pure, nor did the land permit them to remain upon it; for it spoiled the seed which they sowed in it before it came into ear, and it inflicted miscarriages on their women, and it gave a miserable feed to their flocks; and wherever they tried to found a city, it would give way and sink down under their feet.

"Nay more, the ghost of Ganges drove them forward on their path, a haunting terror to their multitude, and it did not quit them until they atoned to earth by sacrificing the murderers who had shed the king's blood with their hands. Now this Ganges, it seems, was ten cubits high, and in personal beauty excelled any man the world had yet seen, and he was the son of the river Ganges; and when his own father inundated India, he himself turned the flood into the Red Sea, and effected a reconciliation between his father and the land, with the result that the latter brought forth fruits in abundance for him when living, and also avenged him after death.

"And since Homer brings Achilles to Troy in Helen's behalf, and relates how he took twelve cities by sea and eleven on land, and how he was carred away by wrath because he had been robbed of a woman by the king, on which occasion, in my opinion, he shewed himself merciless and cruel, let us contrast the Indian in similar circumstances.

"He on the contrary set himself to found sixty cities, which are the most considerable of those hereabouts -- and I would like to know who would regard the destruction of cities as a better title to fame than the rebuilding of them -- and he also repulsed the Scythians who once invaded this land across the Caucasus.

"Surely it is better to prove yourself a good man by liberating your country than to bring slavery upon a city, and that too on behalf of a woman who probably was never really carried off against her will. And as he had formed an alliance with the king of the country, over which Phraotes now rules, although that other had violated every law and principle of morality by carrying off his wife, he yet did not break his oath, and so stable, he said, was his pledged word, that, in spite of the injury he had suffered, he would not do anything to harm that other.

"And I could enumerate many more merits of this great man, if I did not shrink from pronouncing a panegyric upon myself; for I may tell you I am the person in question, as I clearly proved when I was four years old. For this Ganges on one occasion fixed seven swords made of adamant in the earth, to prevent any monster approaching our country; now the gods ordered us to offer a sacrifice if we came where he had implanted these weapons, though without indicating the spot where he had fixed them. I was a mere child, and yet I led the intepreters of their will to a trench, and told them to dig there, for it was there I said that they had been laid.

"And you must not be surprised at my transformation from one Indian to another; for here is one," and he pointed to a stripling of about twenty years of age, "who in natural aptitude for philosophy excels everyone, and he enjoys good health as you see, and is furnished with an excellent constitution; moreover, he can endure fire and all sorts of cutting and wounding, yet in spite of all these advantages, he detests philosophy."

"What then," said Apollonius, "O Iarchas, is the matter with this youth? For it is a terrible thing you tell me, if one so well adapted by nature to the pursuit refuses to embrace philosophy, and has no love for learning, and that although he lives with you."

"He does not live with us," replied the other, "but he has been caught like a lion against his will and confined here, but he looks askance at us when we try to domesticate him and caress him. The truth is that this stripling was once Palamedes of Troy, and he found his bitterest enemies in Odysseus and Homer; for the one laid an ambush against him of people by whom he was stoned to death, while the other denied him any place in his Epic; and because neither the wisdom with which he was endowed was of any use to him, nor did he meet with any praise from Homer, to whom nevertheless many people of no great importance owe their renown, and because he was outwitted by Odysseus in spite of his innocence, he has conceived an aversion to philosophy, and deplores his ill-luck. And he is Palamedes, for indeed he can write without having learned his letters."

Whilst they were thus conversing, a messenger approached Iarchas and said : "The King will come early in the afternoon to consult you about his own business."

And Iarchas replied : "Let him come, for he too will go away all the better for making the acquaintance of a man of Hellas."

And after saying this, he went on with his former discourse. He accordingly asked Apollonius the question : "Will you tell us," he said, "about your earlier incarnation, and who you were before your present life?"

And he replied : "Since it was an ignoble episode, I do not remember much about it."

Iarchas therefore took him up and said : "Then you think it is ignoble to have been the pilot of an Egyptian vessel, for I perceive that this is what you were?"

"What you say," said Apollonius, "is true, Iarchas; for that is really what I was; but I consider this profession not only inglorious but also detestable, and though of as much value to humanity as that of a prince or the leader of an army, nevertheless it bears an evil repute by reason of those who follow the sea; at any rate, the most noble of the deeds which I performed no one at the time saw fit to praise."

"Well, and what would you claim for yourself in the way of noble achievement? Is it your having doubled the capes of Malea and Sunium, by checking your ship when it was drifting out of its course, and your having discerned so accurately the quarters from which the winds would blow both fore and aft, or your getting your boat past the reefs in the Hollows of Euboea, where any number of ships' ornamental signs show sticking up?"

But Apollonius replied : "Since you tempt me to talk about pilotage, I would have you hear what I consider to have been my soundest exploit at that time. Pirates at one time infested the cities to pick up information about the cargoes which different people had. The agents of the pirates spied out accordingly a rich cargo which I had on board my ship, and having taken me aside in conversation, asked me what was my share in the freight; and I told them that it was a thousand drachmas, for there were four people in command of the ship.

"'And,' said they, 'have you a house?'

"'A wretched hut,' I replied, 'on the Island of Pharos, where once upon a time Proteus used to live.'

"'Would you like then,' they went on, 'to acquire a landed estate instead of the sea, and a decent house instead of your hut, and ten times as much for the cargo as you are going to get now? And to get rid of a thousand misfortunes which beset pilots owing to the roughness of the sea?'

"I replied that I would gladly do so, but that I did not aspire to become a pirate just at a time when I had made myself more expert than I ever had been, and had won crowns for my skill in my profession. However, they persevered and promised to give me a purse of ten thousand drachmas, if I would be their man and do what they wanted. Accordingly I egged them on to talk by promising not to fail them, but to assist them in every way.

"Then they admitted that they were agents of the pirates, and besought me not to deprive them of a chance of capturing the ship, and instead of sailing away to the city whenever I weighted anchor thence, they arranged that I should cast anchor under the promontory, under the lee of which the pirate ships were riding; and they were willing to swear that they would not only not kill myself, but would spare the life of any for whom I interceded.

"I for my part did not consider it safe to reprehend them, for I was afraid that if they were driven to despair, they would attack my ship on the high seas and then we should all be lost somewhere at sea; accordingly I promised to assist their enterprise, but I insisted upon their taking oath to keep their promise truly. They accordingly made oath, for our interview took place in a temple, and then I said : 'You betake yourselves to the ships of the pirates at once, for we will sail by night.'

"And they found me all the more plausible from the way I bargained about the money, for I stipulated that it must all be paid me in current cash, though not before they had captured the ship. They therefore went off, but I put straight out to sea after doubling the promontory."

"This then," said Iarchas, "O Apollonius, you consider the behaviour of a just man?"

"Why yes," said Apollonius, "and of a humane one too! For I consider it was a rare combination of the virtues for one who was a mere sailor to refuse to sacrifice men's lives, or to betray the interests of merchants, so rising superior to all bribes of money."

Thereupon the Indian smiled and said : "You seem to think that mere abstention from injustice constitutes justice, and I am of opinion that all the Greeks do the same. For as I once learned from the Egyptians that come hither, governors from Rome are in the habit of visiting your country, brandishing their axes naked over your heads, before they know whether that have bad men to rule or not; but you acknowlege them to be just if they merely do not sell justice. And I have heard that the slave merchants yonder do exactly the same; for when they come to yo with convoys of Carian slaves and are anxious to recommend their characters to you, they make it a great merit of the slaves that they do not steal.

"In the same way do you recommend on such grounds the rulers whose sway you acknowledge, and after decorating them with such praise as you lavish upon slaves, you send them away, objects, as you imagine, of universal admiration. Nay more, your cleverest poets will not give you leave to be just and good, even if you want to. For here was Minos, a man who exceeded all men in cruelty, and who enslaved with his navies the inhabitants of continents and islands alike, and yet they honour him by placing in his hand a sceptre of justice and give him a throne in Hades to be umpire of spirits; while at the same time they deny food and drink to Tantalus, merely because he was a good man and inclined to share with his friends the immortality bestowed on him the by the Gods.

"And some of them hang stones over him and rain insults of a terrible kind upon this divine and good man; and I would much rather that they had represented him as swimming in a lake of nectar, for he regaled men with that drink humanely and ungrudgingly."

And as he spoke, he pointed out a statue which stood upon his left hand, on which was inscribed the name "Tantalus." Now this statue was four cubits high, and represented a man of fifty years who was clad in the fashion of Argolis, though he differed in his cloak, that being like a Thessalian's, and he held a cup sufficient at least for one thirsty man and drank your health therefrom, and in the goblet there was a liquor, an unmixed draught which frothed and foamed, though without bubbling over the edge of the cup.

Now I will presently explain what they consider this cup to be, and for what reason they drink from it. In any case, however, we must suppose that Tantalus was assailed by the poets for not giving rein to his tongue, but because he shared the nectar with mankind; but we must not suppose that he was really the victim of the gods' dislike, for, had he been hateful to them, he would never have been judged by the Indians to be a good man, for they are most religious people and never transgress any divine command.

While they were still discussing this topic, a hubbub down below in the village struck their ears, for it seems the king had arrived equipped in the height of Median fashion and full of pomp. Iarchas then, not too well pleased, remarked : "If it were Phraotes who was halting here, you would find a dead silence prevailing everywhere, as if you were attending a mystery."

From this remark Apollonius realised that the king in question was not only inferior to Pharotes in a few details, but in the whole of philosophy; and as he saw that the sages did not bestir themselves to make any preparations or provide for the king's wants, though he was come at midday, he said : "Where is the king going to stay?"

"Here," they replied, "for we shall discuss by night the objects for which he is come, since that is the best time for taking counsel."

"And will a table be laid for him when he comes?" said Apollonius.

"Why, of course," they answered, "a rich table too, furnished with everything which this place provides."

"Then," he said, "you live richly?"

"We," they answered, "live in a slender manner, for although we might eat as much as we like, we are contented with little; but the king requires a great deal, for that is his pleasure. But he will not eat any living creature, for that is wrong to do here, but only dried fruits and roots and the seasonable produce of the Indian land at ths time of year, and whatever else the new year's seasons will provide."

"But see," said he, "here he is."

And just then the king advanced together with his brother and his son, ablaze with gold and jewels. And Apollonius was about to rise before him, when Iarchas checked him from leaving his throne, and explained to him that it was not their custom for him to do so. Damis himself says that he was not present on this occasion, but he heard from Apollonius what happened and wrote it in his book.

He says that when they had sat down, the king extended his hand as if in prayer to the sages, and they nodded their assent as if they were conceding his request; and he was transported with joy at the promise, just as if he had come to the oracle of a God. But the brother of the king and his son, who was a very pretty boy, were not more considered than it they were mere retainers.

After that, the Indian rose from his place, and in a formal speech bade the king take food, and he accepted the invitation and that most cordially. Thereupon, four tripods [robots] stepped forth like those of the Pythian temple, but of their own accord, like those which advanced in Homer's poem, and upon them were cupbearers of black brass resembling the figures of Ganymede and of Pelops among the Greeks. And the earth strewed beneath them grass softer than any mattress.

And dried fruits and bread and vegetables and the dessert of the season all came in, served in order, and set before them more agreeably than if cooks and waiters had provided it; now two of the tripods flowed with wine, but the other two supplied, the one of them a jet of warm water and other of cold.

Now the precious stones imported from India are employed in Greece for necklaces and rings because they are so small, but among the Indians they are turned into decanters and wine coolers, because they are so large, and into goblets of such size that from a single one of them four persons can slake their thirst at midsummer. But the cupbearers of bronze drew a mixture, he says, of wine and water made in due proportion; and they pushed cups round, just as they do in drinking bouts.

The sages, however, reclined as we do in a common banquet, not that any special honour was paid to the king, although great importance would be attached to him among Greeks and Romans, but each took the first place that he chanced to reach.

And when the wine had circulated, Iarchas said : "I pledge you to drink to the health, O King, of an Hellene," and he pointed to Apollonius, who was reclining just below him, and he made a gesture with his hand to indicate that he was a noble man and divine.

But the king said : "I have heard that he and the persons who are halting in the village belong to Phraotes."

"Quite right," he answered, "and true is what you heard : for it is Phraotes who entertains him here also."

"What," asked the king, "is his mode of life and pursuit?"

"Why, what else," replied Iarchas, "except that of that king himself?"

"It is no great compliment you have paid him," answered the king, "by saying that he has embraced a mode of life which has denied even to Pharotes the chance of being a noble man."

Thereupon Iarchas remarked : "You must judge more reasonably, O King, both about philosophy and about Phraotes : for as long as you were a stripling, your youth excused in you such extravagances. But now that you have already reached man's estate, let us avoid foolish and facile utterances."

But Apollonius, who found an interpreter in Iarchas, said : "And what have you gained, O King, by refusing to be a philosopher?"

"What have I gained? Why, the whole of virtue and the identification of myself with the Sun."

Then the other, by way of checking his pride and muzzling him, said : "If you were a philosopher, you would not entertain such fancies."

"And you," replied the king, "since you are a philosopher, what is your fancy about yourself, my fine fellow?"

"That I may pass," replied Apollonius, "for being a good man, if only I can be a philosopher."

Thereupon the king stretched out his hand to heaven and exclaimed : "By the Sun, you come here full of Phraotes."

But the other hailed this remark as a godsend, and catching him up said : "I have not taken this long journey in vain, if I am become full of Phraotes. But if you should meet him presently, you will certainly say that he is full of me; and he wished to write to you in my behalf, but since he declared that you were a good man, I begged him not to take the trouble of writing, seeing that in his case no one sent a letter commending me."

This put a stop to the incipient folly of the king; for having heard that he himself was praised by Phraotes, he not only dropped his suspicions, but lowering his tone, he said : "Welcome, goodly stranger."

But Apollonius answered : "And my welcome to you also, O King, for you appear to have only just arrived."

"And who," asked the other, "attracted you to us?"

"These gentlemen here, who are both Gods and wise men."

"And about myself, O stranger," said the king, "what is said among Hellenes?"

"Why, as much," said Apollonius, "as is said about the Hellenes here."

"As for myself, I find nothing in the Hellenes," said the other, "that is worth speaking of."

"I will tell them that," said Apollonius, "and they will crown you at Olympia."

And stooping towards Iarchas, he said : "Let him go on like a drunkard, but do you tell me why do you not invite to the same table as yourself nor hold worthy of other recognition those who accompany this man, though they are his brother and son, as you tell me?"

"Because," said Iarchas, "they reckon to be kings one day themselves, and by being made themselves to suffer disdain they must be taught not to disdain others."

And remarking that the sages were eighteen in number, he again asked Iarchas, what was the meaning of their being just so many and no more.

"For," he said, "the number eighteen is not a square number, nor is it one of the numbers held in esteem and honour, as are the numbers ten and twelve and sixteen and so forth."

Thereupon the Indian took him up and said : "Neither are we beholden to number nor number to us, but we owe our superior honour to wisdom and virtue; and sometimes we are more in number than we now are, and sometimes fewer. And indeed I have heard that when my grandfather was enrolled among these wise men, the youngest of them all, they were seventy in number, but when he reached his 130th year, he was left here all alone, because not one of them survived at that time, nor was there to be found anywhere in India a nature that was either philosophic or noble. The Egyptians accordingly wrote and congratulated him warmly on being left alone for four years in his tenure of this throne, but he begged them to cease reproaching the Indians for the paucity of their sages.

"Now we, O Apollonius, have heard from the Egyptians of the custom of the Eleans, and that the Hellanodicae, who preside over the Olympic Games, are ten in number; but we do not approve of the rule imposed in the case of these men; for they leave the choice of them to the lot, and the lot has no discernment, for a worse man might be as easily chosen by lot as a better one.

"On the other hand, would they not make a mistake, if they had made merit the qualification and chosen them by vote? Yes, a parallel one, for if you are on no account to exceed the number ten, there may be more than ten just men, and you will deprive some of the rank which their merits entitle them to, while if on the other hand there are not so many as ten, then none will be thought to be really qualified. Wherefore the Eleans would be much wiser-minded, if they allowed the number to fluctuate, merely preserving the same standard of justice."

Whilst they were thus conversing, the king kept trying to interrupt them, constantly breaking off their every sentence by his silly and ignorant remarks.

He accordingly again asked them what they were conversing about, and Apollonius replied : "We are discussing matters important and held in great repute among the Hellenes; though you would think of them but slightly, for you say that you detest everything Hellenic."

"I do certaintly detest them," he said, "but nevertheless I want to hear; for I imagine you are talking about those Athenians, the slaves of Xerxes."

But Apollonius replied : "Nay, we are discussing other things; but since you have alluded to the Athenians in a manner both absurd and false, answer me this question: Have you, O King, any slaves?"

"Twenty thousand," said the other, "and not a single one of them did I buy myself, but they were all born in my household."

Thereupon Apollonius, using Iarchas as his interpreter, asked him afresh whether he was in the habit of running away from his slaves or his slaves from him.

And the king by way of insult answered him : "Your very question is worthy of a slave; nevertheless I will answer it : a man who runs away is not only a slave but a bad one to boot, and his master would never run away from him, when he can if he likes both torture and card him."

"In that case," said Apollonius, "O King, Xerxes has been proved out of your mouth to have been a slave of the Athenians, and like a bad slave to have run away from them; for when he was defeated by them in the naval action in the Straits, he was so anxious about his bridge of boats over the Hellespont that he fled in a single ship."

"Yes, but he anyhow burned Athens with his own hands," said the king.

And Apollonius answered : "And for that act of audacity, O King, he was punished as never yet was any other man. For he had to run away from those whom he imagined he had destroyed; and when I contemplate the ambitions with which Xerxes set out on his campaign, I can conceive that some were justified in exalting him and saying that he was Zeus; but when I contemplate his flight, I arrive at the conviction that he was the most ill-starred of men. For if he had fallen at the hands of the Hellenes, no one would have earned a brighter fame than he.

"For to whom would the Hellenes have raised and dedicated a loftier tomb? What jousts of armed men, what contest of musicians would not have been instituted in honour of him? For if men like Melicertes and Palaemon and Pelops the Lydian immigrant, the two former of whom died in childhood at the breast, while Pelops enslaved Arcadia and Argolis and the land within the Isthmus, -- if these were commemorated by the Greeks as Gods, what would not have been done for Xerxes by men who are by nature enthusiastic admirers of the virtues, and who consider that they praise themselves in praising whose whom they have defeated?"

These words of Apollonius caused the king to burst into tears, and he said : "Dearest friend, in what an heroic light do you represent these Hellenes to me?"

"Why then, O King, were you so hard upon them?"

"The visitors who come hither from Egypt, O guest," replied the king, "malign the race of Hellenes, and while declaring that they themselves are holy men and wise, and the true lawgivers who fixed all the sacrifices and rites of initiation which are in vogue among the Greeks, they deny to the latter any and every sort of good quality, declaring them to be ruffians, and a mixed herd addicted to every sort of anarchy, and lovers of legend and miracle mongers, and though indeed poor, yet making their poverty not a title of dignity, but a mere excuse for stealing.

"But now that I have heard this from you and understand how fond of honour and how worthy the Hellenes are, I am reconciled for the future to them and I engage both that they shall have my praise and that I will pray all I can for them, and will never set trust in another Egyptian."

But Iarchas remarked : "I too, O King, was aware that your mind had been poisoned by these Egyptians; but I would not take the part of the Hellenes until you met some such counsellor as this. But since you have been put right by a wise man, let us now proceed to quaff the good cheer provided by Tantalus, and let us sleep over the serious issues which we have to duscuss tonight. But at another time I will fill you full with Hellenic arguments, and no other race is so rich in them, and you will delight in them whenever you come hither."

And forthwith he set an example to his fellow-guests by stooping the first of them all to the goblet, which indeed furnished an ample draught for all; for the stream refilled itself plenteously, as if with spring waters welling up from the ground; and Apollonius also drank, for this cup is instituted by the Indians as a cup of friendship; and they feign that Tantalus is the wine-bearer who supplies it, because he is considered to have been the most friendly of men.

And when they had drunk, the earth received them on the couches which she had spread for them; but when it was midnight, they rose up and first they sang a hymn to the ray of light, suspended aloft in the air as they had been at midday; and then they attended the king, as much as he desired. Damis, however, says that Apollonius was not present at the king's conversation with them, because he thought that the interview had to do with secrets of state.

Having then at daybreak offered his sacrifice, the king approached Apollonius and offered him the hospitality of his palace, declaring that he would send him back to Greece an object of envy to all. But he commended him for his kindness; nevertheless, he excused himself from inflicting himself upon one whom he was on no sort of equality. Moreover, he said that he had been longer abroad than he liked, and that he scrupled to give his friends at home cause to think they were being neglected.

The king thereupon said that he entreated him, and assumed such an undignified attitude in urging his request, that Apollonius said : "A king who insists upon his request in such terms at the expense of his dignity, is laying a trap."

Thereupon, Iarchas intervened and said : "You wrong, O King, this sacred abode by trying to drag away from it a man against his will; and moveover, being one of those who can read the future, he is aware that his staying with you would not conduce to his own good, and would probably not be in any way profitable to yourself."

The king accordingly went down into the village, for the law of the sages did not allow a king to be with them more than one day; but Iarchas said to the messenger : "We admit Damis also hither to our mysteries; so let him come, but do look after the rest of them in the village."

And when Damis arrived, they sat down together, as they were wont to do, and they allowed Apollonius to ask questions; and he asked them of what they thought the Cosmos was composed; and they answered : "Of elements." ...

As the Indian concluded this discourse, Damis says that he was transported with admiration and applauded loudly; for he could never have thought that a native of India could show such mastery of the Greek tongue, nor even that, supposing he understood that language, he could have used it with so much ease and elegance. And he praises the look and smile of Iarchas, and the inspired air with which he expressed his ideas, admitting that Apollonius, although he had a delivery as graceful as it was free from bombast, nevertheless gained a great deal by contact with this Indian, and he says that whenever he sat down to discuss a theme, as he very often did, he resembled Iarchas.

As the rest of the company praised no less the contents of Iarchas' speech than the tone in which he spoke, Apollonius resumed by asking him, which they considered the bigger, the sea or the land; and Iarchas replied : "If the land be compared with the sea, it will be found to be bigger, for it includes the sea in itself; but if it be considered in relation to the entire mass of water, we can show that the earth is the lesser of the two, for it is upheld by the water."

This discussion was interrupted by the appearance among the sages of the messenger bringing in certain Indians who were in want of succor. And he brought forward a poor woman who interceded in behalf of her child, who was, she said, a boy of sixteen years of age, but had been for two years possessed by a devil. Now the character of the devil was a mocker and a liar.

Here one of the sages asked, why she said this, and she replied : "This child of mine is extremely good-looking, and therefore the devil is amorous of him and will not allow him to retain his reason, nor will he permit him to go to school, or to learn archery, nor even to remain at home, but drives him out into desert places. And the boy does not even retain his own voice, but speaks in a deep hollow tone, as men do; and he looks at you with other eyes rather than with his own.

"As for myself, I weep over all this, and I tear my cheeks, and I rebuke my son so far as I well may; but he does not know me. And I made up my mind to repair hither, indeed I planned to do so a year ago; only the demon discovered himself, using my child as a mask, and what he told me was this, that he was the ghost of a man, who fell long ago in battle, but that at death he was passionately attached to his wife. Now he had been dead for only three days when his wife insulted their union by marrying another man, and the consequence was that he had come to detest the love of women, and had transferred himself wholly into this boy.

"But he promised, if I would only not denounce him to yourselves, to endow the child with many noble blessings. As for myself, I was influenced by these promises; but he has put me off and off for such a long time now, that he has got sole control of my household, yet has no honest or true intentions."

Here the sage asked afresh, if the boy was at hand; and she said not, for, although she had done all she could to get him to come with her, the demon had threatened her with steep places and precipices and declared that he would kill her son, "in case," she added, "I haled [sic] him hither for trial."

"Take courage," said the sage, "for he will not slay him when he has read this."

And so saying, he drew a letter out of his bosom and gave it to the woman; and the letter, it appears, was addressed to the ghost and contained threats of an alarming kind. ...

Both Apollonius and Damis then took part in the interviews devoted to abstract discussions; not so with the conversations devoted to occult themes, in which they pondered the nature of astronomy or divination, and considered the question of foreknowledge, and handled the problems of sacrifice and of the invocations in which the gods take pleasure. In these Damis says that Apollonius alone partook of the philosophic discussion together with Iarchas, and that he embodied the results in four books concerning divination by the stars, a work which Moiragenes has mentioned.

And Damis says that he composed a work on the way to offer sacrifice to the several gods in a manner suitable and pleasing to them. Not only then do I regard the work on the science of the stars and the whole subject of such divination as transcending human nature, but I do not even know if anyone has these gifts; but I found the treatise on sacrifices in several temples, and in several cities, and in the houses of several learned men; moreover, if anyone should translate* it, he would find it to be a grave and dignified composition, and one that rings of the author's personality.

[*In Book IV, ch.19, we are told that this book was written in the Cappadocian tongue. Hence the need of translation. Here is the verbatim citation : Many were the discourses which according to Damis the sage delivered at Athens; though he did not write down all of them, but only the more indispensable ones in which he handled great subjects. He took then for the topic of his first discourse the matter of rites and ceremonies, and this because he saw that the Athenians were much addicted to sacrifices; and in it he explained how a religious man could best adapt his sacrifice, his libation, or prayers to any particular divinity, and at what hours of the day and night he ought to offer them. And it is possible to obtain a book of Apollonius, in which he gives instructions on these points in his own words. But at Athens he discussed these topics with a view to improving his own wisdom and that of others in the first place, and in the second of convicting the hierophant of blasphemy and ignorance in the remarks he had made; for who could continue to as one impure in his religion a man who taught philosophically how the worship of the gods is to be conducted?]

And Damis says that Iarchas gave seven rings to Apollonius named after the seven stars, and that Apollonius wore each of these in turn on the day of the week which bore its name.

As to the subject of foreknowledge, they presently had a talk about it, for Apollonius was devoted to this kind of lore, and turned most of their conversations on to it. For this Iarchas praised him and said :

"My good friend Apollonius, those who take pleasure in divination, are rendered divine thereby and contribute to the salvation of mankind. For here we have discoveries which we must go to a divine oracle in order to make; yet these, my good friend, we foresee of our unaided selves and foretell to others things which they know not yet. This I regard as the gift of one thoroughly blessed and endowed with the same mysterious power as the Delphic Apollo.

"Now the ritual insists that those who visit a shrine with a view to obtaining a response, must purify themselves first; otherwise, they will be told to 'depart from the temple.' Consequently, I consider that one who would foresee events must be healthy in himself, and must not have his soul stained with any sort of defilement nor his character scarred with the wounds of any sins; so he will pronounce his predictions with purity, because he will understand himself and the sacred tripod in his breast, and with ever louder and clearer tone and truer import will he utter his oracles. Therefore, you need not be surprised, if you comprehend the science, seeing that you carry in your soul so much ether."

And with these words he turned to Damis and said playfully : "And you, O Assyrian, have you no foreknowledge of anything, especially as you associate with such a man as this?"

"Yes, by Zeus," answered Damis, ""at any rate of the things that are necessary for myself; for when I first met with Apollonius, here he at once struck me as full of wisdom and cleverness and sobriety and of true endurance; but when I saw that he also had a good memory, and that he was very learned and entirely devoted to love of learning, he became to me something superhuman; and I came to the conclusion that if I stuck to him, I should be held a wise man instead of an ignoramus and a dullard, and an educated man instead of a savage; and I saw that, if I followed him and shared his pursuits, I should visit the Indians and visit you, and that I should be turned into an Hellene by him and be able to mix with the Hellenes.

"Now of course you set your oracles, as they concern important issues, on a level with those of Delphi and Dodona and of any other shrine you like; as for my own premonitions, since Damis is the person who has them, and since his foreknowledge concerns himself alone, we will suppose that they resemble the guesses of an old beggar wife foretelling what will happen to sheep and such like."

And the sages all laughed, of course, at this sally; and when the laughter had subsided, Iarchas led back the argument to the subject of divination, and among the many blessings which that art had conferred upon mankind, he declared the gift of healing to be the most important.

"For," he said, "the wise sons of Asclepius would have never attained to this branch of science, if Asclepius had not been the son of Apollo; and as such had not in accordance with the latter's responses and oracles concocted and adapted different drugs to different diseases; these he not only handed on to his own sons, but he taught his companions what herbs must be applied to running wounds, and what to parched and dry wounds, and in what doses to administer liquid drugs for drinking, by means of which dropsical patients are drained, and the bleeding is checked, and diseases of decay and the cavities due to the ravages are put an end to.

"And who," he said, "can deprive the art of divination of the credit of discovering simples which heal the bites of venomous creatures, and in particular of using the virus itself as a cure for many diseases? For I do not think that men without the forecasts of a prophetic wisdom would ever have ventured to mingle with medicines that save live these most most deadly of poisons."

And inasmuch as the following conversation also has been recorded by Damis as having been held upon this occasion with regard to the mythological animals and fountains and men met with in India, I must not leave it out, for there is much to be gained by neither believing nor yet disbelieving everything.

Accordingly Apollonius asked the question, whether there was there an animal called the man-eater (martichoras); and Iarchas replied : "And what have you heard about the make of this animal? For it is probable that there is some account given of its shape."

"There are," replied Apollonius, "tall tales current which I cannot believe; for they say that the creature has four feet, and that his head resembles that of a man, but that in size it is comparable to a lion; while the tail of this animal puts out hairs a cubit long and sharp as thorns, which it shoots like arrows at those who hunt it."

And he further asked about the golden water which they say bubbles up from a spring, and about the stone which behaves like a magnet, and about the men who live underground and the pigmies also and the shadow-footed men; and Iarchas answered his questions thus :

"What have I to tell you about animals or plants or fountains which you have seen yourself on coming here? For by this time you are as competent to describe these to other people as I am; but I never yet heard in this country of an animal that shoots arrows or of springs of golden water.

"However, about the stone which attracts and binds to itself other stones, you must not be skeptical; for you can see the stone yourself if you like, and admire its properties. For the greatest specimen is exactly of the size of this finger nail," and here he pointed to his own thumb, "and it is conceived in a hollow in the earth at a depth of four fathoms; but it is so highly endowed with spirit, that the earth swells and breaks open in many places when the stone is conceived in it.

"But no one can get hold of it, for it runs away, unless it is scientifically attracted; but we alone can secure, partly by performance of certain rites, and partly by certain forms of words, this 'pantarbe,' for such is the name given to it. Now in the nighttime it glows like the day just as fire might, for it is red and gives out rays; and if you look at it in the daytime, it smites your eyes with a thousand glints and gleams. And the light within it is spirit of mysterious power, for it absorbs to itself everything in its neighborhood.

"And why do I say in its neighborhood? Why, you can sink anywhere in river or in sea as many stones as you like, and these not even near to one another, but here there and everywhere; and then if you let down this stone among them by a string, it gathers them all together by the diffusion of its spirit, and the stones yield to its influence and cling to it in a bunch, like a swarm of bees."

And having said this, he showed the stone itself and all that it was capable of effecting. and as to the pigmies, he said that they lived underground, and that they lay on the other side of the Ganges and lived in the manner which is related by all. As to men that are shadow-footed or have long heads, and as to the other poetical fancies which the treatise of Scylax recounts about them, he said that they didn't live anywhere on the earth, and least of all in India.

As to the gold which the griffins dig up, there are rocks which are spotted with drops of gold as with sparks, which this creature can quarry because of the strength of its beak.

"For these animals do exist in India," he said, "and are held in veneration as being sacred to the Sun; and the Indian artists, when they represent the Sun, yoke four of them abreast to draw the imaged car; and in size and strength they resemble lions, but having this advantage over them that they have wings, they will attack them, and they get the better of elephants and of dragons.

"But they have no great power of flying, not more than have birds of short flight; for they are not winged as is proper with birds, but the palms of their feet are webbed with red membranes, such that they are able to expand them, and make a flight and fight in the air; and the tiger alone is beyond their powers of attack, because in swiftness it is akin to the winds.

"And the phoenix," he said, "is the bird which visits Egypt every five hundred years, but the rest of that time it flies about in India; and it is unique in that it is an emanation of sunlight and shines with gold, in size and appearance like an eagle; and it sits upon the nest which is made by it at the springs of the Nile out of spices. The story of the Egyptians about it, that it comes to Egypt, is testified to by the Indians also, but the latter add this touch to the story, that the phoenix which is being consumed in its nest sings funeral strains for itself. And this is also done by the swans, according to the account of those who have the wit to hear them."

In such conversations with the sages Apollonius spent the four months which he passed there, and he acquired all sorts of lore both profane and mysterious. But when he was minded to go on his way, they persuaded him to send back to Phraotes with a letter his guide and camels [sic]; and they themselves gave him another guide and camels, and sent him forth on his way, congratulating both themselves and him.

And having embraced Apollonius and declared that he would be esteemed a god by the many, not merely after his death, but while he was still alive, they turned back to their place of meditation, though ever and anon they turned towards him, and showed by their action that they parted from him against their will.

And Apollonius, keeping the Ganges on his right hand, but the Hyphasis on his left, went down towards the sea a journey of ten days from the sacred ridge. And as they went down, they saw a great many ostriches, and many wild bulls, and many asses and lions and leopards and tigers, and another kind of apes than those which inhabit the pepper trees, for these were black and bushy-haired and were dog-like in features and as big as small men.

And in the usual discussion of what they saw, they reached the sea, where small factories had been built, and passenger ships rode in them resembling those of the Tyrrhenes. And they say that the sea called Erythra or "red" is of a deep blue colour, but that it was so named, as I said before, from a King Erythras, who gave his own name to the sea in question.

Having reached this point, Apollonius sent back the camels to Iarchas, together with the following letter:

"Apollonius to Iarchas and the other sages, greeting.

"I came to you on foot, and yet you presented me with the sea; but by sharing with me the wisdom which is your, you have made it mine even to travel through the heavens. And this I shall mention to the Hellenes; and I shall communicate in my words with you as if you were present, unless I have in vain drunk the draught of Tantalus. Farewell, ye goodly philosophers."

He then embarked upon the ship and was borne away by a smooth and favourable breeze, and he was much struck at the formidable manner in which the Hyphasis discharges itself into the sea at its mouth; for in its later course, as I said before, it falls into rocky and narrow places and over precipices, and breaking its way through these to the sea by a single mouth, presents a formidable danger to those who hug the land too closely.

They say, moreover, that they saw the mouth of the Indus, and that there was situated on it the city of Patala round which the Indus flows. It was to this city that the fleet of Alexander came, under the command of Nearchus, a high trained naval captain.

But as for the stories of Orthagoras about the sea called Erythra, to the effect that the constellation of the bear is not to be seen in it, and that the mariners cast no reckoning at midday, and that the visible stars there vary from the usual positions, this account is endorsed by Damis; and we must consider it to be sound and based on local observations of the heavens.

They also mention a small island, of the name of Biblus, in which there is the large cockle, and where there are mussels and oysters and such like organisms, clinging to the rocks and ten times as big as those which we find in Greece. And there is also taken in this region a stone, the pearl in a white shell, wherein it occupies the place of the heart of the oyster.

And they say that they also touched at Pegadea in the country of the Oreitae. As for these people, they have rocks of bronze and sand of bronze, and the dust which the rivers bring down is of bronze. But they regard their land as full of gold because the bronze is of such high quality.

And they say that they came across the people called the Fish-eaters, whose city is Stobera; and they clothe themselves in the skins of very large fishes, and the cattle there look like fish and eat extraordinary things; for the shepherds feed them upon fish, just as in Caria the flocks are fed on figs. But the Indians of Carman are a gentle race, who live on the edge of a sea so well stocked with fish, that they neither lay them by in stores, nor salt them as is done in Pontus, but they just sell a few of them and throw back most they catch panting into the sea.

They say that they also touched at Balara, which is an emporium full of myrtles and date palms; and there they also saw laurels, and the place was well watered by springs. And there were kitchen gardens there, as well as flower gardens, all growing luxuriantly, and the harbours therein were entirely calm. But off the place there lies a sacred island, which was called Selera, and the passage to it from the mainland was a hundred states long. Now in this island there lived a Nereid, a dreadful female demon, which would snatch away many mariners and would not even allow ships to fasten a cable to the island.

It is just as well not to omit the story of the other kind of pearl : since even Apollonius did not regard it as puerile, and it is anyhow a pretty invention, and there is nothing in the annals of sea fishing so remarkable. For on the side of the island which is turned towards the open sea, the bottom is of great depth, and produces an oyster in a white sheath full of fat, for it does not produce any jewel.

The inhabitants watch for a calm day, or they themselves render the sea smooth, and this they do by flooding it with oil; and then a man plunges in in order to hunt the oyster in question, and he is in other respects equipped like those who cut off the sponges from the rocks, but he carries in addition an oblong iron block and an alabaster case of myrrh.

The Indian then halts alongside of the oyster and holds out the myrrh before him as a bait; whereupon the oyster opens and drinks itself drunk upon the myrrh. Then it is pierced with a long pin and discharges a peculiar liquid called ichor, which the man catches in the iron block which is hollowed out in regular holes. The liquid so obtained petrifies in regular shapes, just like the natural pearl, and it is a white blood furnished by the Red Sea.

And they say that the Arabs also who live on the opposite coast devote themselves to catching these creatures. From this point on, they found the entire sea full of sharks, and whales gathered there in schools; and the ships, they say, in order to keep off these animals, carry bells at the bow and at the stern, the sound of which frightens away these creatures and prevents them from approaching the ships.

And when they had sailed as far as the mouth of the Euphrates, they say that they sailed up by it to Babylon to see Vardan, whom they found just as they had left him before. They then came afresh to Nineveh, and as the people of Antioch displayed their customary insolence and took no interest in any affairs of the Hellenes, they went down to the sea at Seleucia, and finding a ship, they sailed to Cyprus and landed at Paphos, where there is the statue of Aphrodite.

Apollonius marvelled at the symbolic construction of the same, and gave the priests much instruction with regard to the ritual of the temple. He then sailed to Ionia, where he excited much admiration and no little esteem among all lovers of wisdom.