Notes on the Indica of Ctesias |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
according Ælian amber amongst ancient animal appear Arrian ASHMOLEAN SOCIETY Asiatic Researches Asiatic Society asserted Baber Badakhshan Balkh bambu belief Bengal bird Bokhara breadth Buffon Burnes called cochineal colour compound Ctesias Ctesias says cubits Deimachus demulcent derived dogs drinking dwarf elephant especially fable flesh former fruit goats gold greater number Greek hair head Heeren Himalaya Hindu Theatre horn horse hunting Indian origin Indra Indus inhabitants Kafirs Kalystrii khora king lac insect latter Lieut lion Martichora Megasthenes monkeys moun mountains native north-west of India notion observes onager Onesicritus Oxus parrot Persian Persian language pigmies Pliny poison probably Ptolemy Purána purple race Reland remarks rhinoceros river Royal Asiatic Society Royle Sanscrit sheep Siah-posh Sipta snake stadia stature Strabo supposed sweet tails tained teeth Tibet tion Trebeck tree tribes ture Tychsen Vishnu whilst wild ass word writers
Popular passages
Page 40 - ... we might have found them all depicted in his writings, if these had come down to us entire. Nearly the same descriptions are repeated in the History of Animals of JElian, and in his Various History ; most of the particulars being taken from Ctesias. The elements of this mythological creation were all real animals ; — the lion, the bull, the horse, the onager or wild ass, the rhinoceros, the ostrich, the eagle, and the scorpion, blended together in a variety of monstrous combinations, to which...
Page 39 - M. de Meyendorff appears to approve of the raptures with which these writers speak of its exquisite melons, its plums, its pomegranates, and its grapes ; but he is silent as to the excellence of its wines. ' There is no wine,' says the emperor Baber, ' superior in spirit and strength to that of Bokhara : when I drank wine at Samarcand, in the days of my drinking-bouts, I always used the wine of Bokhara.
Page 42 - In shrill respondent shrieks is echoed round. Well, be it so. I seek and must address them. Demons of ill, and disembodied spirits, Who haunt this spot, I bring you flesh for sale ; The flesh of man, untouched by trenchant steel, And worthy your acceptance.
Page 3 - Society desire it to be understood that they are not answerable, as a body, for any facts, reasonings, or opinions, advanced in papers printed by them.
Page 44 - Roars the wild elephant inflamed with love, " And the deep sound reverberates from above ; " His ample front, like some rich lotus, shews " Where sport the bees, and fragrant moisture flows.
Page 31 - ... than ours; they never cut their nails, but they (have their eye-brows*. A long narrow cloth made of the bark of a tree round their waift nnd between their thighs, with one extremity hanging down behind I, is all their drefs.
Page 64 - The animals, when single, ran about pretty briskly, but in general, on opening the cells, they were so numerous, as to be crowded over one another. The substance of which the cells were formed cannot be better described, with respect to appearance, than by saying it is like the transparent amber of which beads are made. The external covering of the cells is about the twenty-fourth part of an inch in thickness, it is remarkably strong, and able to resist injuries; the partitions are much thinner....
Page 58 - ... laccaic acid, is closely related to the carminic acid of cochineal. Some have related this lac dye to DIOSCORIDES "kankamon" (25) but we have a report by KTESIAS which might refer either to cochineal or more likely to the lac dye of India. He tells us, that "there are in India insects of the size of a beetle, of the colour of minium, having very long feet and as soft as worms. They are found on the trees which bear amber, and feed upon and spoil the fruit in the same manner as the Phthires do...
Page 72 - In buildings belonging to the isth century we find griffes cut out of the solid plinth and presenting no point of contact with the torus. Griffin. (Arch, and Her.) An imaginary animal with the head and wings of an eagle, and the body and feet of a lion. In the heraldic griffin the front feet as well as the head and wings are often those of an eagle, only the back half of the creature being in the form of a lion.
Page 60 - This river worm is described as having two teeth, one above and one below, and with them devouring whatever comes within its reach. During the day it burrows in the mud, but at night emerges on the land, and carries off oxen, and even camels. It is taken with a large hook, to which a goat or sheep is fastened with an iron chain. When captured, it is hung up for a month, with vessels placed underneath, into which runs as much oil as would fill ten Attic cotylse.