falls into another river, the Tigris, which, rolling its waters through the city of Opys, disembogues in the Erythræan sea. As Cyrus, therefore, was endeavouring to get across this river Gyndes, which is only passable in barges, one of the sacred white horses, full of mettle, rushed into the stream, and tried to swim over: but the torrent seized the animal, and, whirling him under the surface, dashed him down the stream. The Persian king was much enraged by this insult on the part of the river; and pronounced a threat, that he would pull down his strength, so that for evermore even women should cross him readily, without wetting the knee. This threat pronounced, he suspended the campaign against Babylon, and divided his troops into two bodies: this being done, he marked out, by line, one hundred and eighty channels on each side of the river, diverging from the direction of the Gyndes in all quarters. He then stationed the men, and commanded them to dig. With such a multitude of hands, the work was indeed brought to a completion: the troops, nevertheless, passed at that place the whole of the summer in the task 283. Cyrus having wreaked his venge-190 ance on the Gyndes river, by distributing its stream into three hundred and sixty channels, proceeded, at the first gleam of spring, to march on to Babylon. The Babylonians, encamped on the field, awaited his onset: the Persian leader brought his army near the city, where the Babylonians gave battle; and, being routed, shut themselves within their walls. But, as they were long before convinced that Cyrus would never rest, and saw him fall on every nation indifferently, they collected beforehand provisions for many years. They cared, therefore, nothing for the blockade. Cyrus, however, found himself in difficult circumstances; a long time having slipped away, without his affairs making any progress. Whether, therefore, any person suggested the thing to him in 191 the midst of his difficulties, or he himself conceived a plan of acting, he did as I will now describe. He stationed the greater part of his army at the opening by which the river enters the town, placing also a few companies at the opposite opening by which the river makes its exit: he then gave his orders to the men, that when they found the stream fordable, they should push into the town: having thus dispersed his army, and given the above directions, he himself marched away with the unarmed train of his army. He came to the 283 The Historiad attributed this undertaking of the Persian hero to a ridiculous grudge against the Gyndes. The fact was, it seems, that this la borious work was undertaken for the purpose of rendering this part of Assyria more easily accessible by a vast army, in subsequent progresses. lake, the work of the queen of the Babylonians, and did the same by the lake and the river as she had done before; that is to say, opening the sluice into the lake, then a morass, and turning in the waters of the river, made the old bed fordable. This being the case, the Persians stationed on that service close to the Euphrates, which now had sunk to at least the mid thigh of a man, made their ingress into Babylon. If, therefore, the Babylonians had been apprised beforehand, or had heard of what Cyrus was about, which they did not, they might have handled their foes in the most dreadful manner: they would have closed all the little gates leading down to the river, and, mounting themselves on the quays stretching along both sides of the stream, would have caught them as in a net: but in this instance the Persians took them by surprise. It is related by the people who were then residing at Babylon, that, in consequence of the immense extent of the town, the extreme limits of the city had been taken before the people dwelling in the centre of Babylon knew any thing of the capture; but—for it was with them a festive day-they were dancing at the very time, and enjoying themselves, until they also were at last brought acquainted with the truth. Thus was Babylon captured for the first time. 192 The most cogent proof I can give, among many others, of the resources of the Babylonians, is this one thing: the whole extent of lands over which the rule of the great king stretches, besides tributes, furnishes the sovereign and his army with provisions for food: the Babylonian district supplies this during four months of the twelve: the eight remaining months are provided by all Asia together. Thus the Assyrian soil possesses one third of the resources of the whole of Asia. Moreover, the superintendence of this province, called satrapy by the Persians, is, of all the governments, the most lucrative. When Tritantæchmes, son of Artabazus, held that government from the king, his daily income was a full artaba of silver 284-the Persian measure, called artaba, contains above the Attic medimnus three Attic chonixes. The horses belonging to himself personally, besides the army horses, were eight hundred stallions, and sixteen thousand mares; one stallion for twenty mares. So numerous were his packs of Indian dogs that he kept, that four large villages in the plain, which were relieved from all other taxes, were appointed to supply their food. Such were 193 the advantages accruing to the governor of Babylon. The 28 According to Arbuthnot, four pecks and ten pints. land of the Assyrians is visited with little rain, and that little water is what feeds the root of the corn: the crop, however, is made to grow up to give a harvest, by constant irrigation from the river: this irrigation does not take place, as in Egypt, by the spontaneous overflow of the river on the lands, but is done by the hand or swipe; for the whole of Babylonia is intersected by canals, the same as Egypt: the largest of these canals is navigable, and stretches in the direction of the winter sun-rise: it communicates from the Euphrates, with the Tigris, at the spot where Nineveh stood: this is, of all the lands we know any thing of, by far the best 25 for the produce of Ceres' gifts: other plants do not even make a show of growing in this quarter, neither the fig, nor the grape, nor the olive; but the wheat it bears is beautiful in the extreme: it returns, on an average, twohundred-fold; but when it produces its best, the return is three-hundred-fold 286. The blades of wheat and barley acquire easily a breadth of four fingers. Although I am well. aware to what size of tree the sesame seed does grow, I shall not mention it; being fully convinced, that, to those who have never been in Babylonia, what I have already said of its products will be considered too exaggerated to be given credit to. They make no use of olive-oil, but make theirs from sesame. Palm-trees spring up all over the plain: most of these are fructiferous; and from the fruit they procure bread, wine, and honey; they cultivate them in the same manner as fig-trees, particularly as to what concerns the male palms, as the Hellenes call them; the fruit of which they tie about the branches of the date-bearing trees, in order that the fly may come out and enter into the dates, and so prevent the fruit of the palm from falling off; for the male palins have flies in their fruit, just like our wild figs 27. The greatest wonder of all things here, next of course to 194 the city, is, in my opinion, what I am now going to explain 288. Their boats, that ply down the river to Babylon, 285 Matt. 461. 286 Matt. 460. 987 The date-tree, a sort of palm, has the male and female on different plants: the pollen from the male is carried to the female, either by the hand of man, the bees and flies, or by the soft breeze. The fig-tree of Greece, Malta, and the Levant, are of two kinds, the cultivated and wild; the latter of which is not eatable, but serves as a receptacle for a sort of jet-black fly: the peasants make chaplets of the figs of this wild plant, called the caprificus, and ap- are all circular, and consist of leather: after making the frames in Armenia, which lies above Assyria, from the osiers they cut in that country, they stretch on the outside a leather covering, in the room of planking; making no distinction between stem or stern, but perfectly round, like a buckler. They line the inside of this craft with straw, launch it into the river, and then stow it with merchandise. Their freight consists principally of casks filled with datewine they are managed, with two poles, by two men standing erect; one of whom hauls his pole in, while the other shoves his out 289. Very large barges are made on this pattern, and so are smaller craft: the largest of all are of five thousand talents' burthen. On board of every barge there is seen a live ass: in the larger barges there are several. When they have floated down to Babylon, and disposed of their cargo, they put up to auction the ribs of the bark, and the straw; and the skins are piled on the pack-saddle of the ass, who is driven back into Armenia. To re-ascend the river, in the same manner, is out of the question, so rapid is the current; in consequence of which, also, they are obliged to make their boats of leather, and not of wood. When they have driven their asses back to Armenia, they construct other 195 barges in the same manner. The costume of the Babylonians consists of a cotton shirt, reaching down to the feet; over which they throw a woollen cloak, and a close white cape their covering for the feet is after a fashion peculiar to this country, closely approaching to the Baotian clogs. Their flowing hair they bind up under a mitre, and anoint the whole body with perfumes. Every individual has a seal; and a staff, made by hand, on every one of which is carved an apple, a rose, a lily, and so forth: for they are not allowed to carry a stick, unless it bear some mark. 196 The following are some of their customs: the wisest in my idea is this, which I understand holds 20 also among the Venetians of Illyria. Once every year the following scene took place in every village: whatever maidens might be of marriageable years 291, were all collected, and brought into one certain place, around which stood a multitude of men. A crier called up each girl separately, and offered her for sale: he began with the prettiest 292 of the lot; and when she had found a rich bidding, he sold her off; and called up another, the next he ranked in beauty. All these girls were 289 The mode of steering a barge on the Seine, when that river is highly swollen, is exactly the same as this description of Herodotus. 290 Matt. 550, obs. 3. sold off in marriage: the rich men, that were candidates for a wife, bade against one another for the handsomest: the more humble classes, desirous of getting partners, did not require absolutely beauty, but were willing to take even the ugly girls for a sum of money. Therefore, when the crier had gone through the list of the prettiest women, and disposed of them, he put up the ugliest, or some one that was a cripple, if any there were, and, offering to dispose of her, called out for the bidder that would, for the smallest sum, take her to live with him so he went on, till he came to her that he considered the least forbidding. The money for this was got by the sale of the pretty maidens; so that the handsome and well shaped gave dowries to the ugly and deformed. It was not lawful for any one to give his daughter to whom he chose; nor for a person to take a girl away that he had purchased, without giving bond that he verily proposed to marry her; when he might take her with him. If the couple could not agree, the law permitted the money to be returned. It was also allowed to any man coming from another village to make a purchase, if he chose. This was the best of their institutions. Lately, they have hit upon an expedient, that their daughters might not be maltreated or carried off to some other town for since they have been conquered, they are illtreated and ruined by their lords; and all the lower orders, for the sake of getting a livelihood, prostitute their female offspring. The following is another of their institutions. 197 They bring out into the public square all their sick; for they have no regular doctors. The persons that meet the sick man, give him advice; and exhort him to do the same that they themselves have found to cure such a disease, or have known some other person to be cured by. They are not allowed to pass by any sick person, until they have asked him what ailing he has.-They embalm the dead in ho- 198 ney: their lamentations are nearly the same as in Egypt. Every Babylonian that has conversed with his own wife sits down near the smoke of burning perfumes; the woman, on her part, does the same; and at dawn of day both wash; for until they have done so, they will not touch any vase: the same practice holds with the Arabians. The most disgraceful of the Babylonian customs is this: 199 every native woman must, once in her life, sit down in the holy preciuct of Venus, and have communication with some stranger. Many of these women disdaining to mix with the others, and inflated by their riches, go to the temple in covered carriages, followed by a numerous retinue of servants. But the majority act in the following manner: |