_Of two other iles, the one is called Pitan where in be little
men that eate no meat, and in that other ile are the men all
rough of fethers._
THERE is another yle that men call Pitan, men of this lande till no
lande, for they eate nought and they are smal, but not so smal as
Pigmes. These men liue with smell of wild aples,[1] & when they go
far out of the countrey, they beare apples with them, for anon as they
lose that savour of apples they dye, they are not reasonable but
as wyld beastes. And there is another yle where the people are all
fethers,[2] but the face and the palmes of theyr handes, these men go
as well about the sea as on the lande, and they eate fleshe & fish
all raw, in this yle is a great river that is two mile brode & a halfe
that men call Renemar.
[Footnote 1: Pliny (book 7, cap. 2) says: "At the very
extremity of India, on the eastern side, near the source of
the River Ganges, there is the nation of the Astonei, a people
who have no mouths; their bodies are rough and hairy, and they
cover themselves with a down plucked from the leaves of trees
(_probably cotton_). These people subsist only by breathing
and by the odours which they inhale through the nostrils. They
support themselves upon neither meat nor drink: when they
go upon a long journey they only carry with them various
oderiferous roots & flowers, and wild apples, that they may
not be without something to smell at. But an odour which is a
little more powerful than usual easily destroys them."]
[Footnote 2: Other editions read, _rough hair_.]