Darius had a groom, a shrewd man, whose name was Œbares, to whom, when the assembly had broken up, Darius said: "Œbares, we have determined that he whose horse shall neigh first at sunrise, when we ourselves are mounted, is to have the kingdom. Now, if you have any ingenuity, contrive that I may obtain this honor, and not another." Œbares answered: "If, sir, it depends on this, whether you shall be king or not, keep up your spirits; for no one else shall be king before you; I know a trick that will make him neigh." At dawn of day, the six, as they had agreed, met together on horseback; and as they were riding round the suburbs, Darius' horse, at the signal from Œbares, ran forward and neighed, and at that instant lightning and thunder came from a clear sky. These things consummated the auspices, as if done by appointment, and the others, dismounting from their horses, did obeisance to Darius as king.
EGYPTIAN WAR CHARIOT, WARRIOR AND HORSES.
Accordingly Darius, son of Hystaspes, was declared king, and all the people of Asia, except the Arabians, were subject to him. The Arabians never submitted to the Persian yoke, but were on friendly terms, and gave Cambyses a free passage into Egypt; for without the consent of the Arabians the Persians could not have penetrated into Egypt. Darius contracted his first marriages with Persians; he married two daughters of Cyrus, Atossa and Artystona; Atossa, you remember, had been before married to her brother Cambyses, and afterward to the magus. He married another also, daughter of Smerdis, son of Cyrus, whose name was Parmys; and he had besides, the daughter of Otanes who detected the magus. His power was fully established on all sides. He erected a stone statue, representing a man on horseback; and he had engraved on it the following inscription: "Darius, son of Hystaspes, by the sagacity of his horse, (here mentioning the name,) and by the address of Œbares, his groom, obtained the empire of the Persians." In Persia, he constituted twenty governments, which they call satrapies; set governors over them, and appointed tributes to be paid to him from each. In consequence of this imposition of tribute, and other things of a similar kind, the Persians say Darius was a trader, Cambyses a master, and Cyrus a father. The first, because he made profit of every thing; the second, because he was severe and arrogant; the last, because he was mild, and always aimed at the good of his people. If the total of all his revenues is computed together, fourteen thousand five hundred and sixty Euboic talents were collected by Darius as an annual tribute,[18] passing over many small sums which I do not mention. This tribute accrued to Darius from Asia and a small part of Libya; but in the course of time another revenue accrued from the islands, and the inhabitants of Europe as far as Thessaly. This treasure the king melts and pours into earthen jars, and knocking away the earthen mould when he wants money he cuts off as much as he has occasion to use.
The Cilicians were required to send each year to Darius three hundred and sixty white horses, one for every day. The Persian territory alone was not subject to tribute; but the Persians brought gifts. The Ethiopians bordering on Egypt, whom Cambyses subdued when he marched against the Macrobian Ethiopians, and who dwell about the sacred city of Nysa, celebrate festivals of Bacchus, use the same grain as the Calantian Indians, and live in subterraneous dwellings. These brought every third year two chœnices of unmolten gold, two hundred blocks of ebony, five Ethiopian boys, and twenty large elephants' tusks.
CHAPTER III.
INDIANS, ARABIANS, AND ETHIOPIANS.
That part of India toward the rising sun is all sand; for of the people with whom we are acquainted, and of whom any thing certain is told, the Indians live the farthest toward the east of all the inhabitants of Asia; and the Indians' country toward the east is a desert, by reason of the sands. There are many nations of Indians, and they do not all speak the same language; some of them are nomads, and they inhabit the marshes of the river, and feed on raw fish, which they take going out in boats made of bamboo, one joint of which makes a boat. These Indians wear a garment made of rushes cut from the river, beaten flat, platted like a mat, and worn as a corselet. Other Indians, living to the east of these, are nomads, and eat raw flesh; they are called Padæans. When any one of this community is sick, if it be a man, the men who are his nearest connections put him to death, alleging that if he wasted by disease his flesh would be spoiled; and no matter if he denies that he is sick, they are not likely to agree with him, but kill and feast upon him. And if a woman be sick, the women who are most intimate with her do the same as the men. And whoever reaches to old age, they sacrifice and feast upon; but few among them succeed in growing old, for before that, every one that falls into any distemper is put to death. Other Indians have different customs: they neither kill any thing that has life, nor sow any thing, nor are they wont to have houses, but they live upon herbs, and have a grain of the size of millet, in a pod, which springs spontaneously from the earth; this they gather, and boil and eat it with the pod. When any one of them falls ill, he goes and lies down in the desert, and no one takes any thought about him, whether dead or sick. All these Indians whom I have mentioned have a complexion closely resembling the Ethiopians. They are situated very far from the Persians, toward the south, and were never subject to Darius.
Those who border on the city of Caspatyrus and the country of Pactyica are the most warlike of the Indians, and these are they who are sent to procure the gold. In this desert, and in the sand, there are ants in size somewhat less indeed than dogs, but larger than foxes. Some of them which were taken there, are in the possession of the king of the Persians. These ants, forming their habitations under ground, heap up the sand, as the ants in Greece do, and in the same manner; and they are very much like them in shape. The sand thus heaped up is mixed with gold. The Indians go to the desert to get this sand, each man having three camels, on either side a male harnessed to draw by the side, and a female in the middle; this last the man mounts himself, having taken care to yoke one that has been separated from her young as recently born as possible; for camels are not inferior to horses in swiftness, and are much better able to carry burdens. What kind of figure the camel has I shall not describe to the Greeks, as they are acquainted with it; but what is not known respecting it I will mention. A camel has four thighs and four knees in his hinder legs. The Indians then, adopting such a plan of harnessing, set out for the gold, having before calculated the time, so as to be engaged in their plunder during the hottest part of the day, for during the heat the ants hide themselves under ground. Amongst these people the sun is hottest in the morning, and not, as with us, at mid-day; during this time it scorches much more than at mid-day in Greece; so that, it is said, they then refresh themselves in water. But as the day declines, the sun becomes to them as it is in the morning to others; and after this, as it proceeds it becomes still colder, until sunset, then it is very cold. When the Indians arrive at the spot with their sacks, they fill them with the sand, and return as fast as possible. For the ants, as the Persians say, immediately discovering them by the smell, pursue them, and they are equalled in swiftness by no other animal, so that if the Indians did not get the start of the ants while they were assembling, not a man of them could be saved. Now the male camels (for they are inferior in speed to the females) would otherwise slacken their pace, dragging on, not both equally; but the females, mindful of the young they have left, do not slacken their pace. Thus the Indians obtain the greatest part of their gold.
