"our work is next:" and immediately they fell upon the Perinthians as they were singing the Paan, and were so completely superior, that they left but few of them.

:

II. In this manner the Perinthians were defeated by the Pæonians but against Megabyzus they behaved themselves with valour in defence of their liberty; and were oppressed only by the numbers of the Persians. After the taking of Perinthus, Megabyzus advanced with his army, and reduced all the cities and nations of Thrace to the obedience of the king. For Darius had commanded him to subdue the Thracians.

III. This nation is the greatest of any among men, except the Indians and in my opinion, if the Thracians were either under the government of one person, or unanimous in their counsels, they would be invincible, and by far the strongest people of the world. But this is impracticable, and it is impossible for it ever to take place, and therefore they are feeble. They go under several names, according to the places they inhabit; but all observe the same customs, except the Getæ, the Trausi, and those who dwell above the Crestonæans.

1V. I have already spoken of the customs of the Geta, who pretend to be immortal. The Trausi differ in nothing from the rest of the Thracians, except in the customs they observe with regard to the birth of a child or the death of a person. When a child is born, his relations, sitting in a circle about him, deplore his condition, on account of the evils he must fulfil, since he has been born; enumerating the various calamities incident to mankind. But when a man is dead, they inter him with exultation and rejoicings, repeating the miseries he has exchanged for a complete felicity.

V. Those who live above the Crestonæans have each many

e Thucydides places them after the Scythians. See book ii. ch. 97. Pausanius after the Celta. Attic. i. 9.

As this country is confined on the east and south by the sea, and on the north by the Danube, and as Macedonia and Pæonia are mentioned by Herodotus as distinct countries, the extent of Thrace, even allowing it to extend into Dardania and Mæsia, must be much more circumscribed than the idea our author allows. It has, however, more extended limits in his geography, than in succeeding authors, and perhaps it might have included most of the space along the south of the Danube, between the Euxine and Istria, meeting the borders of Macedonia, Pæonia, &c. on the south; and the Sigyn

wives; when any of them dies, a great contest arises among the wives, and violent interests among their friends, on this point, which of them was most loved by the husband. In the end, she who is adjudged to have merited that honour, having received great commendations both from the men and women, is killed upon the tombs by the nearest of her relations, and buried together with her husband; the other wives consider it as a great misfortune, for this is accounted to them as the utmost disgrace.

VI. The rest of the Thracians sell their children to be carried out of the country. They keep no watch over their daughters; but suffer them to entertain any men they like. Nevertheless they keep their wives under a strict guard, and purchase them of their relations at a great rate. To be marked with punctures" is accounted a sign of noble birth; to be without such marks, ignoble. Idleness is esteemed most honourable; husbandry most dishonourable; and to subsist by war and rapine is thought glorious. These are the most remarkable customs of this nation.

VII. They worship the following Gods only, Mars, Bacchus, and Diana. But their kings alone particularly venerate Mercury; they swear by his name alone, and pretend to be descended from him.

VIII. The funerals of wealthy men are celebrated in this manner. They expose the corpse to public view during three days; and after they have performed their lamentations, they sacrifice all kinds of animals, and apply themselves to feasting. Then they complete the rites of sepulture, after having

kind in India,) how many points of resemblance there are between what we saw and the mode described by Herodotus. Rennell, p. 46. See also p. 311, and seq.

If Plutarch (de Serâ num. vindict. P. 557.) may be credited, the Thracians in his time made these punctures on their wives, to revenge the death of Orpheus. If this be the true reason, it is remarkable, that what was in its origin a punishment, became afterwards a mark of nobility and an ornament. Larcher.

'Αργός opposed to γῆς ἐργάτης, signifies one who does not labour in the fields. He went, as is presently explained, to war and plunder, &c. Valckenaer.

k Oάnt in Greek, sepelio in Latin; and hence sepultura are generic terms, and express every way in which the last duties are paid to the dead. Larcher brings a great number of examples to shew this.

burnt him or buried him in the earth; and having thrown up a mound of earth' over the grave, celebrate all manner of games, in which the greatest rewards are adjudged to single combat, on account of the estimation in which it is held. And such are their funeral rites.

IX. Concerning the northern parts of this region, no man can certainly affirm by what people they are possessed. But those beyond the Danube appear to be desert and unbounded, inhabited by no other men, that I have heard of, but the Sigynnæ, who wear the Median habit, and have horses covered over with shaggy hair, which is five digits long, they are -low of stature, and have short flat noses and are unable to carry men; yet they draw a chariot with exceeding swiftness, and therefore the natives use chariots. Their confines extend as far as the Veneti on the Adriatic. They affirm that they are a colony of the Medes". But by what means that colony came thither I cannot say; though nothing be impossible to happen in length of time. The Ligurians, who inhabit beyond Marseilles, call merchants, Sigynne, and the Cyprians call javelins also by that name.

X. The Thracians say, that the parts which lie beyond the Danube are full of bees, and on that account impassable. But I think their assertion carries no appearance of truth, because that animal cannot endure the cold; and I am inclined to believe that the excessive frosts of the northern climates, are the only cause why those countries are uninhabited. This is what is related of these parts, of which Megabyzus reduced all the maritime places to the obedience of Darius.

XI. No sooner was Darius arrived at Sardis, after he had repassed the Hellespont, than remembering the good offices

Over the place of burial of illustrious persons, they raised a kind of tumulus of earth. This is expressed by Virgil, “In66 gens adgeritur tumulo tellus." Æneid. iii. ver. 63. Larcher.

m The context, as it stands, appears contradictory; for the Sigynnæ are said to lie beyond the Danube, and yet to extend almost to the Eneti on the Adriatic. Now, he had been speaking of Thrace, and of its northern part, concerning which nothing decisive had been ascertained; and after this, he introduces the country, north of the Danube, as a vast and almost endless space; and says, that it is inhabited by the Sigynna, who extend almost to the Adriatic. May it not be suspected, that the sentence respecting the country beyond the Danube is misplaced al~ together, and that the author intended to say that "the Sigynnæ inhabited the nor

"thern part of Thrace," which lay, however, on the south, or Grecian side of the Danube? Signia is a position in ancient geography, on the Adriatic, towards the ancient seats of the Veneti. Query, has it any connection with the Sigynne of our author? Rennell, p. 43, 44.

n When the Scythians subjugated part of Asia, they were the cause of several colonies going from it, and among others one from the Assyrians, which transplanted itself into Asia Minor, and another from the Medes, which went towards the Tanais and formed the nation of the Sauromatæ. Diodorus Siculus ii. 43. Were the Sigynnæ descended from a branch of these Sauromatæ ? Larcher. • See also Sophocles. Ajax. v. 655. P This is also mentioned by Aristot. Poetic. 35.

of Histiæus the Milesian, and the counsel of Coes of Mitylene, he sent for both those persons, and gave them the choice of their recompence. Histiæus, as being already tyrant of Miletus, demanded no other dominion; but asked for the Edonian Myrcinus, in order to build a city there. But Coes, who was a private man, and possessed of no government, requested the dominion of Mitylene. They easily obtained all they desired, and then departed to take possession.

XII. About the same time it happened that Darius, having witnessed a circumstance of the following kind, became desirous of commanding Megabyzus to transplant the Paonians out of Europe into Asia. For Pigres and Mantyes, two Pæonians, being desirous to become masters of Pæonia, came to Sardis, after the return of Darius, accompanied by their sister, who was a tall and beautiful person; and having watched the opportunity when Darius was sitting in public in the suburbs of the Lydians, they dressed their sister in the best manner they could, and sent her for water, carrying a pitcher on her head', leading a horse by a bridle hanging upon her arm, and at the same time spinning thread. As she passed by Darius, it excited his attention; and because what she was doing was altogether different from the customs of the Persians and Lydians, and also of any other people in Asia, he ordered some of his guards to observe what she would do with the horse. The guards followed her, and when she came down to the river, she watered the horse, and having filled her pitcher, returned again by the same way, carrying the water on her head, leading her horse, and turning her distaff.

XIII. Darius, surprised with the account they gave, and with what he himself had seen, commanded her to be brought into his presence; where she was no sooner introduced, than her brothers, who at no great distance had kept a look-out, appeared likewise; and when Darius asked of what country she was, the young men made answer, that they were Pæonians, and that the maid was their sister. The king proceeding to inquire, what sort of men the Pæonians were, in what part of the world they lived, and upon what motive they themselves came to Sardis, received for answer, That they came to put themselves under his protection; that Pæonia and its towns are situate upon the river Strymon, not far from the

mon.

a Edonis is a small country of Thrace, between mount Orbelus and the StryA country called Phyllis lay to the north and on the south side, it extended to the Ægean, and was nearly opposite to Thasus. Myrcinus was on the Strymon, a little to the north of Novemviæ or Amphipolis.

r Nicholas Damascenus tells a similar story of Alyattes king of Sardis, with regard to a woman of Mysia in Thrace. Excerpt. pag. 494, &c.

s The Paonians of Appian (de Illyricis 22.) are the Pannonians of the Latins. Wesseling.

Hellespont; and that the people are a colony of Teucrians, from the city of Troy. When they had given account of these particulars, Darius farther demanded, if all the women of that country were as industrious as their sister; and the Pæonians, who had contrived the whole design to no other end, readily answered they were.

XIV. Upon which Darius writes letters to Megabyzus, general of his forces in Thrace, requiring him to compel the Pæonians to leave their country, and to bring them to him with their wives and children. Immediately a messenger on horseback proceeded with expedition to the Hellespont; and having passed it, delivered the letters to Megabyzus, who, after he had read the contents, taking guides in Thrace, led his army towards Pæonia.

XV. When the Pæonians heard that the Persians were coming to invade them, they drew all their forces towards the sea, thinking the Persians would attempt to enter that way, and prepared to dispute their passage. But Megabyzus, understanding that the whole strength of Pæonia was in readiness to receive him on that side, took his way, by the direction of his guides, towards the upper part of the country; and having escaped the notice of the Pæonians, came suddenly on their towns and easily got possession of them, since they were empty. The Pæonians no sooner heard that their cities were taken, than they dispersed themselves; and every man returning home, the whole country submitted to the Persians. And in this manner all those Pæonians, who were known by the names of Siropæonians and Pæoplæ, together with the people of those parts as far as the lake Prasias, were forcibly removed from their ancient seats, and transported into Asia.

XVI. But those Pæonians who dwell near mount Pangæus and near the Doberes, Agrianæ, and Odomanti; and those next adjoining to the lake, were not at all conquered by Megabyzus. Yet he attempted to subdue those, who live upon the lake in dwellings contrived after this manner: long piles are fixed in the middle of the lake, upon which planks are placed, which being joined by a narrow bridge to the land, is the only way that leads to their habitations. These piles were formerly erected at the common charge; but afterwards they made a law, to oblige all men, for every wife they should marry, to fix three of them in the lake, and to cut the timber upon mount Orbelus. On these planks every man has a hut, with a trap-door opening through the planks, down to the wa

Thcerkask, the capital of the Cossacks

of the Don, is built in the same manner; but as the waters of the lake Prasias are

tranquil, and the Tanais is a very rapid river, this construction is more wonderful. Larcher.