A great part of Asia was explored under the direction of Darius. Being desirous to know where the Indus, which is the second river that produces crocodiles, discharges itself into the sea, he sent in ships Scylax of Caryanda and others on whom he could rely to make a true report. They accordingly set out from the city of Caspatyrus, sailed down the river toward the sunrise to the sea; then sailing on the sea westward, they arrived in the thirtieth month at that place where the king of Egypt despatched the Phœnicians, whom I before mentioned, to sail round Libya. After this Darius subdued the Indians, and frequented this sea. Thus the other parts of Asia, except toward the rising sun, are found to exhibit things similar to Libya.
Whether Europe is surrounded by water either toward the east or toward the north, has not been fully discovered by any man; but in length it is known to extend beyond both the other continents. Nor can I conjecture for what reason three different names have been given to the earth, which is but one, and why those should be derived from the names of women, Libya is said by most of the Greeks to take its name from a native woman of the name of Libya; and Asia, from the wife of Prometheus. But the Lydians claim this name, saying that Asia was so called after Asius, son of Cotys, son of Manes, and not after Asia the wife of Prometheus; from whom also a tribe in Sardis is called the Asian tribe; nor is it clear whence Europe received its name, nor who gave it, unless we say that the region received the name from the Tyrian Europa: yet she evidently belonged to Asia, and never came into the country which is now called Europe by the Greeks.
The Euxine Sea exhibits the most ignorant nations: for we are unable to mention any one nation of those on this side the Pontus that has any pretensions to intelligence; nor have we ever heard of any learned man among them, except the Scythian nation and Anacharsis. By the Scythian nation one of the most important of human devices has been contrived more wisely than by any others whom we know; their other customs, however, I do not admire. This device has been contrived so that no one who attacks them can escape; and that, if they do not choose to be found, no one is able to overtake them. For they have neither cities nor fortifications, but carry their houses with them; they are all equestrian archers, living not from the cultivation of the earth, but from cattle, and their dwellings are wagons,—how must not such a people be invincible, and difficult to engage with? The country and the rivers aid them: for the country, being level, abounds in herbage and is well watered; and rivers flow through it almost as numerous as the canals in Egypt. The Ister, which is the greatest of all the rivers we know, flows always with an equal stream both in summer and winter, and has five mouths.
In each district of the Scythians, in the place where the magistrates assemble, is erected a structure sacred to Mars, of the following kind. Bundles of faggots are heaped up to the length and breadth of three stades, but less in height; on the top of this a square platform is formed; and three of the sides are perpendicular, but on the fourth it is accessible. Every year they heap on it one hundred and fifty wagon-loads of faggots, for it is continually sinking by reason of the weather. On this heap an old iron scimetar is placed by each tribe, and this is the image of Mars; they bring yearly sacrifices of cattle and horses; and to these scimetars they offer more sacrifices than to the rest of the gods. Whatever enemies they take alive, of these they sacrifice one in a hundred, not in the same manner as they do the cattle, but in a different manner; for after they have poured a libation of wine on their heads, they cut the throats of the men over a bowl; then having carried the bowl on the heap of faggots, they pour the blood over the scimetar. Below at the sacred precinct, they do as follows: having cut off all the right shoulders of the men that have been killed, with the arms, they throw them into the air; and then, having finished the rest of the sacrificial rites, they depart; but the arm lies wherever it has fallen, and the body apart. Swine they never use, nor suffer them to be used in their country at all.
When a Scythian overthrows his first enemy, he drinks his blood; and presents the king with the heads of the enemies he has killed in battle; for if he brings a head, he shares the booty that they take; but not, if he does not bring one. He skins it in the following manner. Having made a circular incision round the ears and taking hold of the skin, he shakes it from the skull; then having scraped off the flesh with the rib of an ox, he softens the skin with his hands, makes it supple, and uses it as a napkin; each man hangs it on the bridle of the horse which he rides, and prides himself on it; for whoever has the greatest number of these skin napkins is accounted the most valiant man. Many of them make cloaks of these skins, to throw over themselves, sewing them together like shepherd's coats; and many, having flayed the right hands of their enemies that are dead, together with the nails, make coverings for their quivers; the skin of a man, which is both thick and shining, surpasses almost all other skins in the brightness of its white. Many, having flayed men whole, and stretched the skin on wood, carry it about on horseback. The heads themselves, not indeed of all, but of their greatest enemies, they treat as follows: each, having sawn off all below the eye-brows, cleanses it, and if the man is poor, he covers only the outside with leather, and so uses it; but if he is rich, he covers it with leather, and gilds the inside, and so uses it for a drinking-cup. They do this also to their relatives, if they are at variance, and one prevails over another in the presence of the king. When strangers of consideration come to him, he produces these heads, and relates how, though they were his relatives, they made war against him, and he overcame them, considering this a proof of bravery. Once in every year, the governor of a district, each in his own district, mingles a bowl of wine, from which those Scythians drink by whom enemies have been captured; but they who have not achieved this, do not taste of this wine, but sit at a distance in dishonor; this is accounted the greatest disgrace: such of them as have killed very many men, having two cups at once, drink them together.
Soothsayers among the Scythians are numerous, who divine by the help of a number of willow rods, in the following manner. They lay large bundles of twigs on the ground and untie them; and having placed each rod apart, they utter their predictions; and whilst they are pronouncing them, they gather up the rods again, and put them together again one by one. This is their national mode of divination. But the Enarees, or Androgyni, say that Venus gave them the power of divining by means of the bark of a linden tree: when a man has split the linden-tree in three pieces, twisting it round his own fingers, and then untwisting it, he utters a response.
When the king of the Scythians is sick, he sends for three of the most famous of the prophets, who prophesy in the manner above mentioned. When any of these prophets are proved to have sworn falsely, they put them to death in the following manner: they fill a wagon with faggots, and yoke oxen to it, then tie the feet of the prophets, bind their hands behind them, gag them, and enclose them in the midst of the faggots; then having set fire to them, they terrify the oxen, and let them go. Many oxen are burnt with the prophets, and many escape very much scorched, when the pole has been burnt asunder. Of the children of those whom he puts to death, the king kills all the males, but does not hurt the females.
The sepulchres of the kings are in the country of the Gerrhi. There, when their king dies, they dig a large square hole in the ground, to receive the corpse. Then, having the body covered with wax, the belly opened and cleaned, filled with bruised cypress, incense, parsley and anise-seed, and sewn up again, they carry it in a chariot to another nation; those who receive the corpse, brought to them, do the same as the Royal Scythians; they cut off part of their ear, shave off their hair, wound themselves on the arms, lacerate their forehead and nose, and drive arrows through their left hand. Thence they carry the corpse of the king to another nation whom they govern; and those to whom they first came accompany them. When they have carried the corpse round all the provinces, they arrive at the sepulchres among the Gerrhi, who are the most remote of the nations they rule over. Then, when they have placed the corpse in the grave on a bed of leaves, having fixed spears on each side of the dead body, they lay pieces of wood over it, and cover it over with mats. In the remaining space of the grave they bury one of the king's wives, having strangled her, and his cup-bearer, a cook, a groom, a page, a courier, and horses, and firstlings of everything else, and golden goblets; they make no use of silver or bronze. Then they all heap up a large mound, vieing with each other to make it as large as possible. At the expiration of a year, they take the most fitting of his remaining servants, all native Scythians; for whomsoever the king may order serve him, and they have no servants bought with money. Now when they have strangled fifty of these servants, and fifty of the finest horses, they take out their bowels, cleanse them, fill them with chaff, and sew them up again. Then placing the half of a wheel, with its concave side uppermost, on two pieces of wood, and the other half on two other pieces of wood, and preparing many of these in the same manner, they thrust thick pieces of wood through the horses lengthwise, up to the neck, mount them on the half-wheels; the foremost part of the half-wheels supporting the shoulders of the horses, and the hinder part the belly near the thighs, while the legs on both sides are suspended in the air; then, having put bridles and bits on the horses, they stretch them in front, and fasten them to a stake; they then mount upon each horse one of the fifty young men that have been strangled. They drive a straight piece of wood along the spine as far as the neck, and a part of this wood which projects from the bottom they fix into a hole bored in the other piece of wood that passes through the horse. The horsemen are then placed round the monument, and they depart.
When the other Scythians die, their nearest relations carry them about among their friends, laid in chariots; each one receives and entertains the attendants, and sets the same things before the dead body, as before the rest. In this manner private persons are carried about for forty days, and then buried. After the burial the Scythians purify themselves by wiping and thoroughly washing their heads and bodies. They set up three pieces of wood leaning against each other, extend around them woollen cloths; and having joined them together as closely as possible, they throw red-hot stones into a vessel placed in the middle of the pieces of wood and the cloths. They have a sort of hemp growing in this country, much like flax, except in thickness and height; in this respect the hemp is far superior: it grows both spontaneously and from cultivation; and from it the Thracians make garments like linen, nor would any one who is not well skilled in such matters distinguish whether they are made of flax or hemp, but a person who has never seen this hemp would think the garment was made of flax. The Scythians take seed of this hemp, creep under the cloths, and put the seed on the red-hot stones; this smokes, and produces such a steam, as no Grecian vapor-bath could surpass. Transported with vapor, they shout aloud; and this serves them instead of washing, for they never bathe the body in water. Their women pound on a rough stone pieces of cypress, cedar, and incense-tree, pouring on water; and then this pounded matter, when it is thick, they smear over the whole body and face. This at the same time gives them an agreeable odor, and when they take off the cataplasm on the following day, they become clean and shining.
I have never been able to learn with accuracy the amount of the population of the Scythians. There is a spot between the river Borysthenes and the Hypanis, called Exampæus, containing a fountain of bitter water, which renders the Hypanis unfit to be drunk. In this spot lies a bronze cauldron, in size six times as large as the bowl at the mouth of the Pontus, which Pausanias, son of Cleombrotus, dedicated. For the benefit of any one who has never seen this, I will describe it: The cauldron easily contains six hundred amphoræ; and is six fingers in thickness. The inhabitants say that it was made from the points of arrows; for their king, Ariantas, wishing to know the population of the Scythians, commanded the Scythians to bring him each one point of an arrow, and threatened death on whosoever should fail to bring it. Accordingly, a vast number of arrow points were brought, and resolving to leave a monument made from them, he made this bronze bowl, and dedicated it at Exampæus. Their country has nothing wonderful, except the rivers, which are very large and very many in number, and the extensive plains. They show the print of the foot of Hercules upon a rock near the river Tyras; it resembles the footstep of man, and is two cubits in length.