60 ACCOUNT OF INDIA BY STEABO which happens to man is bad or good, for otherwise the same things would not be the occasion of sorrow to some and of joy to others, opinions being merely dreams, nor that the same persons could be affected with sorrow and joy by the same things on different occasions. With regard to opinions on physical phenomena, they display, says Megasthenes, great simplicity, their actions being better than their reasoning, for their belief is founded chiefly on fables. On many subjects their views are the same as those of the Greeks. According to the Brachmanes, the world was created and is liable to corruption; it is of a spheroidal figure; the god who made and governs it pervades the whole of it; the prin- ciples of all things are different, but the principle of the world's formation was water; in addition to the four elements there is a fifth nature, of which the heav- ens and the stars are composed; the earth is situated in the centre of the universe. Many other similar things they say of the principle of generation and of the soul. They weave in fables also, after the manner of Plato, on the immortality of the soul, and on the pun- ishments in Hades, and other things of this kind. Such is the account which Megasthenes gives of the Brach- manes. Of the Garmanes (Sarmanes), the most honourable, he says, are the Hylobioi, who live in the forests and subsist on leaves and wild fruits; they are clothed with garments made of the bark of trees, and they abstain from intercourse with women and from wine. The kings hold communication with them by messengers,
