BABYLON AND PERSIA

4l6MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.or "Agricultural Scythians,"'whose pursuit was farm¬ing, and who raised most of the corn that was soldat Olbia and exported.Beyond these he places adesert region or steppe-land, ranged over by nomadicScythians, and there, at no great distance from theriver, he tells us the torhbs of the Scythian kingswere situated. Modern research has proved thisparticular also to be correct, by discovering and ex¬ploring the largest of the innumerable barrows ormounds which there cover the plain, varying its flat¬ness with some undulation, and leading us to thinkthat those steppes served as a burying-ground, notto the kings alone, but to the nation at large.4. As he gets farther away from the sea-shore andthe Greek settlements, his descriptions naturally be¬come less distinct, less accurate, and at last growquite vague and fabulous in their details.But eventhen agood many traits remain which are easy torecognize or, at least, to interpret.So his accountof the climate, asfar as his personal observationgoes, is perfectly true to nature as well as amusingwith the quaintness of the impression produced ona Greek by the to him unfamiliar phenomenon of afrozen ground : -" The whole district whereof we have discoursed,." he says, " haswinters of exceeding rigor. '. . . The frost is so intense, thatwater poured upon the ground does not form mud, but if a fire belighted on it, mud is produced. The sea freezes . . .At thatseason the Scythians make warlike expeditions upon the ice. ....For winter there is scarcely any rain worth mentioning, while insummer it never gives over raining . . . and thunder comesonly in summer, when it is very heavy. , , , Horses bear thewinter well, cold 'as it is ...",