herodotus

those[84] who dwell about Nysa, which is called "sacred," and whocelebrate the festivals in honour of Dionysos: these Ethiopians andthose who dwell near them have the same kind of seed as the CallantianIndians, and they have underground dwellings.[85] These both togetherbrought every other year, and continue to bring even to my own time,two quart measures[86] of unmelted gold and two hundred blocks ofebony and five Ethiopian boys and twenty large elephant tusks. TheColchians also had set themselves among those who brought gifts, andwith them those who border upon them extending as far as the range ofthe Caucasus (for the Persian rule extends as far as these mountains,but those who dwell in the parts beyond Caucasus toward the North Windregard the Persians no longer),--these, I say, continued to bring thegifts which they had fixed for themselves every four years[87] evendown to my own time, that is to say, a hundred boys and a hundredmaidens. Finally, the Arabians brought a thousand talents offrankincense every year. Such were the gifts which these brought tothe king apart from the tribute.98. Now this great quantity of gold, out of which the Indians bring into the king the gold-dust which has been mentioned, is obtained bythem in a manner which I shall tell:--That part of the Indian landwhich is towards the rising sun is sand; for of all the peoples inAsia of which we know or about which any certain report is given, theIndians dwell furthest away towards the East and the sunrising; seeingthat the country to the East of the Indians is desert on account ofthe sand. Now there are many tribes of Indians, and they do not agreewith one another in language; and some of them are pastoral and othersnot so, and some dwell in the swamps of the river[88] and feed uponraw fish, which they catch by fishing from boats made of cane; andeach boat is made of one joint of cane. These Indians of which I speakwear clothing made of rushes: they gather and cut the rushes from theriver and then weave them together into a kind of mat and put it onlike a corslet. 99. Others of the Indians, dwelling to the East ofthese, are pastoral and eat raw flesh: these are called Padaians, andthey practise the following customs:--whenever any of their tribefalls ill, whether it be a woman or a man, if a man then the men whoare his nearest associates put him to death, saying that he is wastingaway with the disease and his flesh is being spoilt for them:[89] andmeanwhile he denies stoutly and says that he is not ill, but they donot agree with him; and after they have killed him they feast upon hisflesh: but if it be a woman who falls ill, the women who are hergreatest intimates do to her in the same manner as the men do in theother case. For[90] in fact even if a man has come to old age theyslay him and feast upon him; but very few of them come to be reckonedas old, for they kill every one who falls into sickness, before hereaches old age. 100. Other Indians have on the contrary a manner of