performance of these rites, afterwards use the following mode of purgation:-After thoroughly wafhing the head, and afterwards drying it, they do thus with regard to the body: they place in the ground' three stakes, inclining towards each other, round these they bind fleeces of wool as thickly as poffible, and finally, into the space betwixt the stakes they throw red-hot ftones.

LXXIV. They have amongst them a fpecies of hemp resembling flax, except that it is both thicker and larger; it is indeed fuperior to flax, whether it is cultivated or grows fpontaneously. Of this the Thracians make themselves garments, which fo nearly resemble thofe of flax, as to require a skilful eye to distinguish them: they who had never feen this hemp, would conclude thefe vefts to be made of flax.

81

LXXV. The Scythians take the feed of this hemp, and placing it beneath the woollen fleeces

It is not perhaps without its ufe to obferve, that barbarous nations have cuftoms barbarous like themfelves, and that these customs much refemble each other, in nations which have no communication. Captain Cook relates, that in Otaheite they leave dead bodies to putrefy on the furface of the ground, till the flesh is entirely wafted, they then bury the bones.-Larcher. See Hawkfworth's Voyages.

* Of this the Thracians.]-Hefychius fays that the Thracian women make themselves garments of hemp: confult him at the word Kanabis:-"Hemp is a plant which has some resemblance to flax, and of which the Thracian women make themfelves vests.”—T.

1

which we have before defcribed, they throw it up on the red-hot stones, immediately a perfumed vapour 82 afcends ftronger than from any Grecian ftove. This to the Scythians is in the place of a bath, and it excites from them cries of exultation. It is to be obferved, that they never bathe themfelves the Scythian women bruise under a stone fome wood of the cyprefs, cedar, and frankincense; upon this they pour a quantity of water, till it becomes of a certain confiftency, with which they anoint the body 3 and the face; this at the time

imparts

82 A perfumed vapour.]-As the ftory of the magic powers imputed to Medea feem in this place particularly applicable, I tranflate, for the benefit of the reader, what Palæphatus fays, upon the fubject.

Concerning Medea, who was faid by the procefs of boiling to make old men young again, the matter was this: fhe first of all difcovered a flower which could make the colour of the hair black or white; fuch therefore as wifhed to have black hair rather than white, by her means obtained their wish. Having alfo invented baths, fhe nourished with warm vapours those who wished it, but not in public, that the profeffors of the medical art might not know her fecret. The name of this application was ragenos, or the boiling." When therefore by these fomentations men became more active, and improved in health, and her apparatus, namely the caldron, wood, and fire, was difcovered, it was fuppofed that her patients were in reality boiled. Pelias, an old and infirm man, ufing this operation, died in the process.-T.

$3 Anoint the body.]-When we read in this place of the" cuftom of anointing the body amongst an uncivilized race, in a cold climate, and afterwards find that in warmer regions it became an indifpenfable article of luxury and elegance with the politeft nations, we paufe to admire the caprice and verfatility of the human mind. The motive of the

Scythians

imparts an agreable odour, and when removed on the following day gives the fkin a foft and beautiful appearance,

LXXVI. The Scythians have not only a great abhorrence of all foreign cuftoms, but each province feems unalterably tenacious of its own, Thofe of the Greeks they particularly avoid, as appears both from Anacharfis and Scyles. Of Anacharfis it is remarkable, that having perfonally

Scythians was at first perhaps only to obtain agility of body, without any views to cleanlinefs, or thoughts of fenfuality. In hot climates fragrant oils were probably firft ufed to difperfe thofe fœtid fmells which heat has a tendency to generate; pre-cious ointments therefore foon became effential to the enjoy-. ment of life; and that they really were fo, may be easily made appear from all the best writers of antiquity. See Anacreon, Ode xv.

Έμοι μέλει μύρισε
Καταβρέχειν υπηνην
Εμοι μέλει ξοδοισι

Κατάσεφειν καρηνα.

Let my hair with unguents flow,
With rofy garlands crown my brow.

See alfo Horace:

- funde capacibus

Unguenta de conchis.

The fame fact alfo appears from the facred fcriptures; fee the threat of the prophet Micah: "Thou shalt tread the olive, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil."-These inftances are only adduced to prove that fragrant oils were used in private life for the purpofes of elegant luxury; how they were ap-. plied in athletic exercifes, and always before the bath, is fufficiently notorious.-T.

vifited

vifited a large part of the habitable world, and
acquired great wisdom, he at length returned to
Scythia. In his paffage over the Hellefpont, he
touched at Cyzicus 84, at the very time when the
inhabitants were celebrating a folemn and mag-
nificent feftival to the mother of the gods. He
made a vow, that if he fhould return safe and
without injury to his country, he would institute, in
honour of this deity, the fame rites he had feen
performed at Cyzicus, together with the folem-
nities obferved on the eve of her feftival 85. Ar-
riving therefore in Scythia, in the district of Hylæa,

near the Courfe of Achilles, a place abounding with 20
trees, he performed all the particulars of the above-
mentioned ceremonies, having a number of small
ftatues fecured together 6, with a cymbal in his

211

hand.

134

84 Cyzicus.]An account of the ruins of this place may be found in Pococke. It now produces a quantity of rich wine in great repute at Conftantinople.

of confiderable territory, and
There was here a temple built
This must not be confounded

This city was once poffeffed
was governed by its own laws.
to Dindymene by the Argonauts.
with the Cyzicus, a city of Myfia, on the Propontis, built by
the Milefians.-T.

ss Eve of her feftival.]-Thefe feftivals probably com-
menced early on the evening before the day appointed for their
celebration; and it feems probable that they paffed the night
in finging hymns in honour of the god or goddefs to whom the
feast was inftituted. See the Pervigilium Veneris.-Larcher.

The Pervigilia were observed principally in honour of Ceres and of Venus, and as appears from Aulus Gellius, and other writers, were converted to the purposes of excess and debauchery.-T.

36 Statues fecured together.]-Thefe particularities are related

at

hand. In this fituation he was observed by one of the natives, who gave intelligence of what he had feen to Saulius, the Scythian king. The king went inftantly to the place, and feeing Anacharfis fo employed, killed him with an arrow.-If any one now make enquiries concerning this Anacharfis, the Scythians difclaim all knowledge of him, merely because he visited Greece, and had learned fome foreign cuftoms: but as I have been informed by Timnes, the tutor of Spargapithes, Anacharfis was the uncle of Idanthyrfus, a Scythian king, and that he was the fon of Gnurus, grandfon of Lycus, and great-grandfon of Spargapithes. If therefore this genealogy be true, it appears that Anacharfis was killed by his own brother; for Saulius, who killed Anacharfis, was the father of Idanthyrfus.

LXXVII. It is proper to acknowledge that from the Peloponnefians I have received a very different account: they affirm that Anacharfis was fent by the Scythian monarch to Greece, for the express purpose of improving himself in science;

at length in Apollonius Rhodius, book i. 1139-This circumftance of the small figures tied together, is totally omitted by Mr. Fawkes in his verfion, who satisfies himself by saying,

The Phrygians ftill their goddess' favour win
By the revolving wheel and timbrel's din.

The trueft idea perhaps of the rites of Cybele, may be ob tained from a careful perufal of the Atys of Catullus, one of the most precious remains of antiquity, and perhaps the only perfect specimen of the old dithyrambic verse.-T.

and