Book 15
1.57
Similar to this is the account of the Enotocoitae,Men who slept on their ears. See b. i. c. ii. § 35. of the wild men, and of other monsters. The wild men could not be brought to Sandrocottus, for they died by abstaining from food. Their heels are in front, the instep and toes are turned backwards. Some have been taken, which had no mouths, and were tame. They live near the sources of the Ganges, and are supported by the smell of dressed meat and the fragrance of fruits and flowers, having instead of mouths orifices through which they breathe. They are distressed by strong-smelling substances, and therefore their lives are sustained with difficulty, particularly in a camp.
1.57
With respect to the other singular animals, the philosophers informed him of a people called Ocypodae, so swift of foot that they leave horses behind them; of Enotocoitae, or persons having ears hanging down to their feet, so that they lie and sleep upon them, and so strong as to be able to pluck up trees and to break the sinew string of a bow; of others (Monommati) who have only one eye, and the ears of a dog, the eye placed in the middle of the forehead, the hair standing erect, and the breasts shaggy; of others (Amycteres) without nostrils, devouring everything, eaters of raw meat, short-lived, and dying before they arrive at old age; the upper part of their mouths projects far beyond the lower lip.
1.57
With respect to the Hyperboreans, who live to the age of a thousand years, his description is the same as that of Simonides, Pindar, and other mythological writers.
1.57
The story told by Timagenes of a shower of drops of brass, which were raked together, is a fable. The account of Megasthenes is more probable, namely, that the rivers bring down gold-dust, a part of which is paid as a tax to the king; and this is the case in Iberia (of Armenia).
