HERODOTUS. B. O, OK V. TERPSICHOR E. CHA P. I HE Perfians who had been left in Europe by Darius, under the conduct of Megabyzus, commenced their hoftilities on the Hellefpont with the conqueft of the Perinthii', who had refused to acknowledge the authority of Darius, and had formerly been vanquished by the Pæonians. This latter people, inhabiting the banks of the མ་་་་་ ་ Perinthi] Perinthus was firft called Mygdonia, afterwards Heraclea, and then Perinthus.-T. 2 Paonians.]-As the ancients materially differed in opinion concerning the geographical fituation of this people, it is not to be expected that I should speak decifively on the subjea. Herodotus here places them near the river Strymon; Dio, near mount Rhodope; and Ptolemy, where the river Haliacmon rifes. Paonia was one of the names of Minerva, given her from her fuppofed skill in the art of medicine.-T. Strymon, 210 226 Strymon, had been induced by an oracle to make war on the Perinthians: if the Perinthians on their meeting offered them battle, provoking them by name, they were to accept the challenge; if otherwife, they were to decline all conteft. · It happened accordingly, that the Perinthians marched into the country of the Pæonians, and encamping before their town, fent them three fpecific challenges, a man to encounter with a man, a horse with a horse, a dog with a dog. The Perinthians having the advantage in the two former contefts, fung with exultation a fong of triumph; this the Paeonians conceived to be the purport of the oracle: "Now," they exclaimed, "the oracle will be fulfilled; this "is the time for us." They attacked, therefore, the Perinthians, whilft engaged in their imaginary triumph, and obtained fo fignal a victory that few of their adverfaries efcaped. 11. Such was the overthrow which the Perin 3 Song of triumph.]-Larcher renders this paffage "Sung the pron,and fubjoins this note: " Of this fong there were two kinds, one was chaunted before the battle, in honour of Mars, the other after the victory, in honour of Apollo; this fong commenced with the words " Io Paan." The allufion of the word Paon to the name of the Paonians, is obvious, to preserve which I have rendered it."fung the Pæon."-The ufage and application of the word Paan, amongst the ancients, was various and equivocal: the compofition of Pindar, in praise of all the gods, was called Paan ; and Pæan was alfo one of the names of Apollo. To which it may be added, that Pæan, being originally a hymn to Apollo, from his name Pan, became afterwards extended in its ufe to fuch addreffes to other gods. thians received, in their conflict with the Pæonians on the prefent occafion they fought valiantly, in defence of their liberties, against Megabyzus, but were overpowered by the fuperior numbers of the Perfians. After the capture of Perinthus, Megabyzus over-ran Thrace with his forces, and reduced all its cities and inhabitants under the power of the king: the conqueft of Thrace had been particularly enjoined him by Darius. III. Next to India, Thrace is of all nations the moft confiderable if the inhabitants were either under the government of an individual, or united amongst themselves, their ftrength would in my opinion render them invincible; but this is a thing impoffible, and they are of course but feeble. Each different diftrict has a different appellation; but except the Getæ, the Traufi', and those beyond Crestona, they are marked by a general fimilitude of manners. IV. Of the Getæ, who pretend to be immortal, I have before fpoken. The Traufi have a general uniformity with the reft of the Thracians, except in what relates to the birth of their children, and the burial of their dead. On the birth of a child, he is placed in the midft of a circle of his relations, who 4 Moft confiderable.]-Thucydides ranks them after the Scythians, and Paufanias after the Celta.-Larcher. 5 Traufi.]-Thefe were the people whom the Greeks called Agathyrfi.-7. 148 VOL. II. B b lament lament aloud the evils which, as a human being, he muft neceffarily undergo, all of which they particularly enumerate'; but whenever any one dies, the body is committed to the ground with clamorous joy, for the deceafed, they fay, delivered from his miferies, is then fupremely happy. V. Those beyond the Crestonians have thefe obfervances -Each perfon has several wives; if the husband dies, a great contest commences amongst his wives, in which the friends of the deceased interest themselves exceedingly, to determine which of them 6 Particularly enumerate.]-A fimilar fentiment is quoted by Larcher, from a fragment of Euripides, of which the following is the verfion of Cicero: Nam nos decebat cætum celebrantes domus At qui labores morte finiffet graves Hunc omni amicos laude et lætitia exfequi. See alfo on this fubject Gray's fine Ode on a distant Profpect of Eton College: Alas! regardless of their doom, The little victims play; No fenfe have they of ills to come, Nor care beyond to-day: Yet fee how all around them wait had been most beloved. She to whom this honour is afcribed is gaudily decked out by her friends, and then facrificed by her neareft relation on the tomb of her husband, with whom he is afterwards 7 Tomb of her husband.]This cuftom was alfo obferved by the Getæ at this day, in India, women burn themselves with the bodies of their hufbands, which usage must have been continued there from remote antiquity. Propertius mentions it: Et certamen habent leti quæ viva fequatur Conjugium, pudor eft non licuiffe mori Ardent victrices et flammæ pectora præbent Imponuntque fuis ora perufta viris. Cicero mentions alfo the fame fact. Larcher quotes the paffage from the Tufculan Questions, of which the following is a tranflation. The women in India, when their husband dies, eagerly contend to have it determined which of them he loved beft, for each man has feveral wives. She who conquers, deems herfelf happy, is accompanied by her friends to the funeral pile, where her body is burned with that of her husband; they who are vanquished depart in forrow."-The civil code of the Indians, requiring this ftrange facrifice, is to this effect: "It is proper for a woman, after her husband's death, to burn herself in the fire with his corpfe, unless fhe be with child, or that her husband be abfent, or that the cannot get his turban or his girdle, or unlefs the devote herself to chastity and celibacy: every woman who thus burns herself fhall, according to the decrees of destiny, remain with her husband in paradise for ever.""This prac tice," fays Raynal, "fo evidently contrary to reafon, has been chiefly derived from the doctrine of the refurrection of the dead, and of a future life: the hope of being ferved in the other world by the fame perfons who obeyed us in this has been the caufe of the flave being facrificed on the tomb of his master, and the wife on the corpfe of her husband; but that the Indians, who firmly believed in the tranfmigration of fouls, should give |