Indika, by Ktesias of Knidos----------------------------explanation
1. [according also to Herodotos 3:94, and Strabon 2, v. 32] Indians "almost outnumber all other men taken together" |
this would be the case only if "India" be so defined as to include China |
5. hounds the size of lions |
Chinese leonine hounds (so repraesented in art) |
5. "the sun ... ten times larger than in other countries" |
Chinese mythical 10 suns (in S^an Hai Jing) |
7. animal whose "stings are about a foot in length, and not thicker than the finest thread." |
this is a description of jellyfish-stings -- jellyfish are a class of S^intoo deity (mentioned in the Kojiki) |
8. 35-day period, associated with coolness |
35-day cycle of the Balinese (Javanese) calendar; 35-text system of the rN~in-ma of Bod, which is perpetually cool |
8. hurricanes |
tai-fung (typhoon) of the China Sea |
10. allusion to volcanoes |
volcanoes of Philippines, Indonesia, or Solomon Is. |
11. pygmies, diminutive people |
pygmy tribes of Malaya |
11. snub-nosed people |
snub-nosed people of Burma |
19. the river HUpArkHOs |
HUAng-HO in China |
20. hound-people |
Chinese fable of a tribe whose ancestors were a woman and a dog |
21. red insect yielding dye; purple dye |
cochineal-insect (? formerly only in Mexico); Chinese imperial purple |
these red dye-insects are said by Aelianus (4:46) to the in the same region as the hound-people |
so the allusion may be to the Huichol legend of their ancestry in a man and a bitch |
23. males who wash merely their hands: they reside in caves |
related to Christ's law against hand-washing? or to Pilate's hand-washing? Christ cave-tomb? |
24. people who "neither eat grain nor drink water" |
Daoist rule against eating of grain |
25. unicorn |
Chinese unicorn (in S^an Hai Jing) |
26. river-residing worms who seize on animals with their teeth |
this is a description of a leech (which is a class of S^intoo deity) |
30. bathing in mineral-springs |
this is a Chinese custom |
31. huge-eared people |
this is a favorite Chinese fable |
33. the Seres ["SILk" folk] |
SILLa of Korea |
Frag. 20 [Plinius 37:2]. river HUpobAros, acc. to) |
HUAi river; or else z^U-jiAng ("Pearl River") in China |
Frag. 28 [Plinius 31:2]. "water called Side in which nothing will float" |
this is the "weak water" in which nothing will float, so well-known in the S^an Hai Jing |
Frag. 30B [Plinius 7:2]. neckless people "who had their eyes placed in their shoulders" |
Chinese myth of warrior whose face was in his thorax [this text is older than the similar story in the Rama-ayana] |
J. W. McCrindle (transl.): Ancient India. 1882. |