herodotus

not admit at all as true. However, the country to the East of thebald-headed men is known with certainty, being inhabited by theIssedonians, but that which lies beyond both the bald-headed men andthe Issedonians towards the North Wind is unknown, except so far as weknow it from the accounts given by these nations which have just beenmentioned. 26. The Issedonians are said to have these customs:--when aman's father is dead, all the relations bring cattle to the house, andthen having slain them and cut up the flesh, they cut up also the deadbody of the father of their entertainer, and mixing all the fleshtogether they set forth a banquet. His skull however they strip of theflesh and clean it out and then gild it over, and after that they dealwith it as a sacred thing[31] and perform for the dead man greatsacrifices every year. This each son does for his father, just as theHellenes keep the day of memorial for the dead.[32] In other respectshowever this race also is said to live righteously, and their womenhave equal rights with the men. 27. These then also are known; but asto the region beyond[20] them, it is the Issedonians who report thatthere are there one-eyed men and gold-guarding griffins; and theScythians report this having received it from them, and from theScythians we, that is the rest of mankind, have got our belief; and wecall them in Scythian language Arimaspians, for the Scythians call thenumber one /arima/ and the eye /spu/.28. This whole land which has been described is so exceedingly severein climate, that for eight months of the year there is frost so hardas to be intolerable; and during these if you pour out water you willnot be able to make mud, but only if you kindle a fire can you makeit; and the sea is frozen and the whole of the Kimmerian Bosphorus, sothat the Scythians who are settled within the trench make expeditionsand drive their waggons over into the country of the Sindians. Thus itcontinues to be winter for eight months, and even for the remainingfour it is cold in those parts. This winter is distinguished in itscharacter from all the winters which come in other parts of the world;for in it there is no rain to speak of at the usual season for rain,whereas in summer it rains continually; and thunder does not come atthe time when it comes in other countries, but is very frequent,[33]in the summer; and if thunder comes in winter, it is marvelled at as aprodigy: just so, if an earthquake happens, whether in summer or inwinter, it is accounted a prodigy in Scythia. Horses are able toendure this winter, but neither mules nor asses can endure it at all,whereas in other countries horses if they stand in frost lose theirlimbs by mortification, while asses and mules endure it. 29. I thinkalso that it is for this reason that the hornless breed of oxen inthat country have no horns growing; and there is a verse of Homer inthe Odyssey[34] supporting my opinion, which runs this:--