"
And in this paradise there was a temple, and before it a column,
about which, in Panchaian characters, ran a history of ancient
kings, who, to the astonishment of the tourist, were found to be
none other than the gods whom the universe worshipped, and who in
earlier days had announced themselves divinities, the better to
rule the hearts and minds of man.
With other guides Tiberius journeyed through lands where dreams
come true. Aristeas of Proconnesus led him among the Arimaspi, a
curious people who passed their lives fighting for gold with
griffons in the dark. With Isogonus he descended the valley of
Ismaus, where wild men were, whose feet turned inwards. In Albania
he found a race with pink eyes and white hair; in Sarmatia another
that ate only on alternate days. Agatharcides took him to Libya,
and there introduced him to the Psyllians, in whose bodies was a
poison deadly to serpents, and who, to test the fidelity of their
wives, placed their children in the presence of snakes; if the
snakes fled they knew their wives were pure. Callias took him
further yet, to the home of the hermaphrodites; Nymphodorus showed
him a race of fascinators who used enchanted words. With
Apollonides he encountered women who killed with their eyes those
on whom they looked too long. Megasthenes guided him to the
Astomians, whose garments were the down of feathers, and who lived
on the scent of the rose.
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