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The way in which the Indians get the plentiful supply of gold which
enables them to furnish year by year so vast an amount of gold-dust to
the kind is the following: eastward of India lies a tract which is
entirely sand. Indeed of all the inhabitants of Asia, concerning
whom anything certain is known, the Indians dwell the nearest to the
east, and the rising of the sun. Beyond them the whole country is
desert on account of the sand. The tribes of Indians are numerous,
and do not all speak the same language - some are wandering tribes,
others not. They who dwell in the marshes along the river live on raw
fish, which they take in boats made of reeds, each formed out of a
single joint. These Indians wear a dress of sedge, which they cut in
the river and bruise; afterwards they weave it into mats, and wear it
as we wear a breast-plate.
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