[p. 33]some again,
to a plain of bare and parched land. For the seasons which modify
their natural frame of body are varied, and the greater the varieties
of them the greater also will be the differences of their shapes.
PART 14
I will pass over the smaller differences among the nations, but will
now treat of such as are great either from nature, or custom; and,
first, concerning the Macrocephali. There is no other race of men
which have heads in the least resembling theirs. At first, usage was
the principal cause of the length of their head, but now nature cooperates
with usage. They think those the most noble who have the longest heads.
It is thus with regard to the usage: immediately after the child is
born, and while its head is still tender, they fashion it with their
hands, and constrain it to assume a lengthened shape by applying bandages
and other suitable contrivances whereby the spherical form of the
head is destroyed, and it is made to increase in length. Thus, at
first, usage operated, so that this constitution was the result of
force: but, in the course of time, it was formed naturally; so that
usage had nothing to do with it; for the semen comes from all parts
of the body, sound from the sound parts, and unhealthy from the unhealthy
parts. If, then, children with bald heads are born to parents with
bald heads; and children with blue eves to parents who have blue eyes;
and if the children of parents having distorted eyes squint also for
the most part; and if the same may be said of other forms of the body,
what is to prevent it from happening that a child with a long head
should be produced by a parent having a long head? But now these things
do not happen as they did formerly, for the custom no longer prevails
owing to their intercourse with other men. Thus it appears to me to
be with regard to them.
PART 15
As to the inhabitants of Phasis, their country is fenny, warm, humid,
and wooded; copious and severe rains occur there at all seasons; and
the life of the inhabitants is spent among the fens; for their dwellings
are constructed of wood and reeds, and are erected amidst the waters;
they seldom practice walking either to the city or the market, but
sail about, up and down, in canoes constructed out of single trees,
for there are many canals
