I. HYDASPES.

[p. 477] THIS is a river of India, which falls with an extraordinary swift stream into the Saronitic Syrtis. Chrysippe,by the impulse of Venus, whom she had offended, fell inlove with her father Hydaspes, and not being able to curbher preternatural desires, by the help of her nurse, in thedead of the night got to his bed and received his caresses;after which, the king proving unfortunate in his affairs, heburied alive the old bawd that had betrayed him, and crucified his daughter. Nevertheless such was the excess ofhis grief for the loss of Chrysippe, that he threw himselfinto the river Indus, which was afterwards called by hisname Hydaspes.

Moreover in this river there grows a stone, which iscalled lychnis, which resembles the color of oil, and isvery bright in appearance. And when they are searchingafter it, which they do when the moon increases, the pipersplay all the while. Nor is it to be worn by any but thericher sort. Also near that part of the river which is calledPylae, there grows an herb which is very like a heliotrope,with the juice of which the people anoint their skins toprevent sunburning, and to secure them against the scorching of the excessive heat.

[p. 478] The natives whenever they take their virgins tardy, nailthem to a wooden cross, and fling them into this river,singing at the same time in their own language a hymnto Venus. Every year also they bury a condemned oldwoman near the top of the hill called Therogonos; atwhich time an infinite multitude of creeping creaturescome down from the top of the hill, and devour theinsects that hover about the buried carcass. This Chrysermus relates in his History of India, though Archelausgives a more exact account of these things in his Treatiseof Rivers.

Near to this river lies the mountain Elephas, so calledupon this occasion. When Alexander the Macedonianadvanced with his army into India, and the natives wereresolved to withstand him with all their force, the elephantupon which Porus, king of that region, was wont to ride,being of a sudden stung with a gad-bee, ran up to the topof the mountain of the sun, and there uttered these wordsdistinctly in human speech: ‘O king, my lord, descendedfrom the race of Gegasius, forbear to attempt any thingagainst Alexander, for he is descended from Jupiter.’ Andhaving so said, he presently died. Which when Porusunderstood, afraid of Alexander, he fell at his feet andsued for peace. Which when he had obtained, he calledthe mountain Elephas;—as Dercyllus testifies in his ThirdBook of Mountains.