batants on either side, in waging the conflict, make carnage of each other, but allow those engaged in husbandry to remain quite unmolested. Besides, they neither ravage an enemy's land with fire, nor cut down its trees."
Megasthenes tells us that the Indian tribes numbered 118 in all. On the north of India and beyond the Himalaya the country "is inhabitated by those Scythians who are called the Sakai." Such is the brief mention made of that powerful tribe which hung like an ominous cloud on the northern slopes of the Himalaya in the fourth century before Christ, but which in the course of a few centuries burst like a hurricane on the plains of Western India.
Of the peaceful and law-abiding people in India, Megasthenes gives an account which is well-nigh Utopian:—"They live happily enough, being simple in their manners and frugal. They never drink wine, except at sacrifices. Their beverage is a liquor prepared from rice instead of barley, and their food is principally a rice pottage. The simplicity of their laws and their contracts is proved by the fact that they seldom go to law. They have no suits about pledges and deposits, nor do they require either seals or witnesses, but make their deposits and confide in each other. Their houses and property they generally leave unguarded. These things indicate that they possess sober sense. Truth and virtue they hold alike in esteem. Hence they accord no special privileges to the old unless they possess superior wisdom."
