fpects it is faid that they venerate the principles of justice; and that their females enjoy equal authority with the men. 192 XXVII. The Iffedones themselves affirm, that the country beyond them is inhabited by a race of men who have but one eye, and by Gryphins who are the anniversary of a perfon's death. Amongst many other cuftoms which diftinguished thefe reveσia, fome were remarkable for their fimplicity and elegance. They ftrewed flowers on the tomb, they encircled it with myrtle, they placed locks of their hair upon it, they tenderly invoked the names of those departed, and lastly they poured fweet ointments upon the grave. Thefe obfervances, with little variation, took place both in Greece and Rome.-See the beautiful Ode of Anacreon: Thus rendered by Cowley: Why do we precious ointments fhow'r, Beauteous flowers why do we fpread Crown me with rofes whilst I live. See alfo the much-admired apoftrophe addreffed by Virgil to the memory of Marcellus: Heu miferande puer, fi qua fata afpera rumpas, T. See 183 47! are guardians of the gold.-Such is the informa- XXVIII. Through all the region of which we have been speaking, the winter feason, which continues for eight months, is intolerably fevere and cold. At this time if water be poured upon the ground, unless it be near a fire, it will not make clay. The fea itself ", and all the Cimmerian Bofphorus, is congealed; and the Scythians who live within the trench before mentioned make hoftile incurfions upon the ice, and penetrate with their waggons as far as India. During eight months the climate is thus fevere, and the remaining four are fufficiently cold. In this region the winter is by no 31 The fea itself.]-The Greeks, who had no knowledge of this country, were of opinion that the fea could not be congealed; they confequently confidered this paffage of Herodotus as fabulous. The moderns, who are better acquainted with the 4 regions of the north, well know that Herodotus was right.— Larcher. Upon this fubject the following whimfical paffage occurs in Macrobius. Nam quod Herodotus hiftoriarum fcriptor, contra omnium ferme qui hæc quæfiverunt, opinionem fcripfit, mare Bofporicum, quod et Cimmerium appellat, earumque partium mare omne quod Scythicum dicitur, id gelu conftringi et confiftere, aliter est quam putatur; nam non marina aqua contrahitur, fed quia plurimum in illis regionibus fluviorum eft, et paludum in ipfa maria influentium, fuperficies maris cui dulces aquæ innatant, congelafcit, et incolumi aqua marina videtur in mari gelu, fed de advenis undis coa&tum, &c. means 231 means the fame as in other climates; for at this time, when it rains abundantly elsewhere, it here scarcely rains at all, whilft in the fummer the rains are inceffant. At the feafon when thunder is common in other places, here it is never heard, but during the fummer it is very heavy. If it be ever known to thunder in the winter, it is confidered as ominous. If earthquakes happen in Scythia, in either feafon of the year, it is thought a prodigy. Their horfes are able to bear the extremest severity of the climate, which the affes and mules frequently cannot, though in other regions the cold which destroys the former has little effect upon the latter. XXIX. This circumftance of their climate seems to explain the reason why their cattle are without horns 3; and Homer in the Odyffey has a line Affes and mules frequently cannot.]-This affertion of Herodotus is confirmed by Pliny, who fays, " Ipfum animal (afinus) frigoris maxime impatiens: ideo non generatur in Ponto, nec æquinoctis verno, etcætera pecua admittitur fed folftitio." The afs is a native of Arabia; the warmer the climate in which they are produced, the larger and the better they are. "Their fize and their spirit," fays Mr. Pennant, " regularly decline as they advance into colder regions." Hollingfhed fays, that in his time "our lande did yeelde no affes." At prefent they appear to be naturalized in our country; and M. Larcher's observation, that they are not common in England, must have arisen from misinformation. That the English breed of affes is comparatively lefs beautiful must be acknowledged.-T. 33 Without horns.]-Hippocrates, fpeaking of the Scythian chariots, fays, they are drawn by oxen which have no horns, and that the cold prevents their having any.-Larcher, which confirms my opinion:-" And Libya, where the sheep have always horns 34;" which is as much as to fay, that in warm climates horns will readily grow; but in places which are extremely cold they either will not grow at all, or are always diminutive. XXX. The peculiarities of Scythia are thus explained from the coldness of the climate; but as I have accustomed myself from the commencement of this history to deviate occafionally from my fubject, I cannot here avoid expreffing my furprize, that the district of Elis never produces mules; yet the air is by no means cold, nor can any other satisfactory reafon be affigned. The inhabitants themfelves believe that their not poffeffing mules is the effect of fome curfe 35. When their mares require the 34 Always borns.]-The line here quoted from Homer is thus rendered by Pope : And two fair crescents of translucent horn The brows of all their young increase adorn. T. 35 Of fome curfe.]-The following paffage is found in Plutarch's Greek questions. 2. Why do the men of Elis lead their mares beyond their borders when they would have them covered? A. Was it becaufe Enomaus, being remarkable for his great. love of horses, imprecated many horrid curfes upon mares that should be (thus) covered in Elis, and that the people in terror of his curfes will not fuffer it to be done within their diftri& ? It is indifputably evident, that something is omitted or cor rupted in this paffage of Plutarch. As it ftands at present it appears that the mares were to be covered by horfes, and fo. the the male, the Eleans take them out of the limits of their own territories, and there fuffer affes to cover them; when they have conceived they return. XXXI. Concerning those feathers, which, as the the tranflators have rendered it; but the love of Enomaus for horfes, would hardly lead him to fo abfurd an inconfiftency as that of curfing the breed of them within his kingdom. The truth is, it was the breed of mules which he loaded with imprecations; and it was only when the mares were to be covered by affes, that it was neceffary to remove them, to avoid falling under his curfe. Some word expreffing this ought therefore to be found in Plutarch, and the fufpicion of corruption naturally falls at once on the unintelligible word ivódag, which is totally omitted in the Latin verfion, and given up by Xylander as inexplicable; Weffeling would change it to léges, but that does not remove the fault; if we read ỏvodenas all will be easy. The queftion will then stand thus: " Why do the men of Elis lead thofe mares which are to receive affes, beyond their borders to be covered?" And we must render afterwards, "that should be thus covered," instead of covered only: ovodoxos, being a compound formed at pleasure, according to the genius of the Greek language, but not in common ufe, might eafily be corrupted by a careless or ignorant tranfcriber. I fhould not have dwelt fo long on a verbal criticism of this kind, had not the emendation appeared important, and calculated to throw additional light on this paffage of Herodotus. Conformable to this is the account of Paufanias: -"In Elis," fays he, "mares will not produce from affes, though they will in the places contiguous: this the people impute to some curse.". book v. p. 384.-Kubnius Edition. And Euftathius has a fimilar remark in his Comment on Dionyfius, 1. 409. Upon the above Larcher remarks, that this doubtless was the reafon why the race of chariots drawn by mules was abolished at the Olympic games, which had been introduced there in the feventieth Olympiad by Therfias of Theffaly.-T. 4 Scythians |