Tj2 THE VOYAGE OF PYTHEAS. [CHAP.

were habitual amongst them1 ; and Lassen has remarked, when
noting the striking contrast which these traits present to the
morals of the Indians at the present day, that it was under their
Mahometan rulers that that people lost the virtues of truthfulness
and honesty3. The repulsive custom of suttee or widow-burning
is not mentioned by Megasthenes, but it was reported by
Alexander's companion Aristobulus, though he attributes it only
to one particular tribe8. Megasthenes accurately describes the
method of catching and taming elephants— which is still in use at
the present day — by means of the keddah or stockade, into which
a wild herd is driven, then starved into submission, and tamed by
animals already domesticated4. Most interesting of all is his

notice of the Brahmans, whose tenets he has faith-
sŁtenans. fully detailed. He describes the four stages of

their life, as it is known to have existed in ancient
times : the first stage being that of the student ; the second that
of the householder ; the third that of the forest- dweller or hermit,
who retires after his sons are grown up to lead a contemplative
life in the forest ; the fourth that of the religious mendicant, who
renounces intellectual as well as domestic interests in preparation
for his final absorption into the deity, and wanders about living on
alms. In one respect, however, his account varies from that just
given, namely that he speaks of those who were passing through
the two last of these stages, the forest-dwellers and the mendicants,
as if they formed a separate order ; but this was probably to a
great extent the case when he visited the country, as it is with the
fakirs at the present day, because in the course of time those who
proceeded to the higher stages greatly diminished in number6.

We must now turn our thoughts westwards, to consider a

The voyage voyage which disclosed to the ancients a world of

of Pytheas new ideas concerning the outlying parts of Europe,

Hitherto the discoveries, the course of which we

1 Strabo, 15. i. 53.

8 Indischt Alterthumskunde, vol. 2, p. 773.

8 Strabo, 15. r. 62 ; of the tribe of Taxili Strabo reports— vapd run 5'
' Kal cnryKaTcwcaio^as rds yvvtoKas rots todptow

Strabo, 15. i. 42 ; Arrian, 13, * Strabo, 15. i. 59, 60.