route. The northern boundary was formed by a EUROPE. line drawn from this lake Ivan, or else from the ford CHAP. VII. eastward to that lake, out of which the Dniester (or Tyras) flows, that is, to the circle of Sambor in Gallizia, about the 49th degree of latitude.' Lastly, the western boundary was a line from thence to the Danube.2 The modern countries included within these boundaries we have already described at page 138. nations. The map of Scythia with its boundaries and rivers Scythian is now before us; it only remains to fix the territories of the different tribes. Eight of these are mentioned by Herodotus, viz. Callipidae, Alazones, Aroteres, Georgi, Nomades, Royals, Tirytae, and Tauri; and it is to be noticed that our author commences his description at the Greek port of Olbia, at the mouth of the river Borysthenes, because he considered it to be the most central point of the Scythian sea-coast." 4 3 Borythenes The Scythian nations on the west of the Borys- West of the thenes are first noticed, and then those to the east of or Dnieper. the river. 6 dae. I. The CALLIPIDAE, or Hellenic Scythians, were I. Callipithe first nation, after leaving the port. They occupied the lower course of the river Hypanis, (or Bog,) and 1 Herodotus, as we have already seen, was acquainted with Lake Ivan at the source of the Don, though the caravan route into the interior crossed the river much nearer to its mouth. 2 By a rough measurement on a modern map, we find that this entire tract of country was about 750 miles from east to west, and 300 or 400 miles from north to south, in straight lines: a very different result from that based by our author upon the number of days occupied in the winding route along the coast, and the caravan route towards the Ural mountains. See p. 139. 3 For a description of the nations which surrounded Scythia, see chap. viii. Olbia stood on the right bank of the Hypanis, (Bog,) about six miles above the junction of that river with the Borysthenes, (Dnieper,) near the village of Ilinsky, and about 70 miles from Odessa, which has succeeded to its commercial importance. The site of the ancient city is called Stomogil, or the Hundred Mounds, from the numerous sepulchral tumuli scattered around. See Cooley's valuable edition of Larcher's Notes, vol. ii. p. 10. 5 iv. 17. A decree of the Olbiopolitae has been found, in which allusion is made to the Mi¿λŋves, or half-bred Greeks, dwelling in the vicinity. Köppen, Nordgestäd. d. Pontus, pp. 92-95, quoted by Cooley. EUROPE. followed the usages of the other Scythians; only they CHAP. VII. Sowed wheat, and also used it themselves for food, as well as onions, garlic, lentils, and millet.' Their country, according to modern geography, appears to have been included in the government of Kherson, between the Bog and the Dnieper. They were apparently a mixture of Greeks and Scythians. Eichwald changes their name to Callipidae, i. e. having handsome horses. II. Alazones III. Aratores. Exampaeus. II. The ALAZONES lay above the Callipidae, and led the same kind of life. In their territory the rivers Tyras and Hypanis (Dniester and Bog) inclined towards each other: they must therefore be placed in the government of Podolia, and perhaps the southern part of Kieff. Eichwald supposes that their name was not a Scythian proper name, but a Greek epithet signifying "the wanderers." 5 III. The ARATORES, or "tillers," dwelt above the Alazones. They also cultivated wheat, but not so much for the supply of their own wants as for the sake of the profits they derived from its sale. As the nation beyond them is stated to be the Neuri, we may fix them on the Scythian frontier to the north-west; perhaps in the government of Volhynia, and the northern part of Kieff. 6 Between the Aratores and the Alazones was the bitter spring Exampaeus, already mentioned, which also appears to have given its name to the surrounding district; and between the mouths of the Hypanis and Borysthenes (Bog and Dnieper) was a projecting piece of land called the promontory of Hippoleon. Hippoleon, upon which was a temple of Demeter." Crossing the Borysthenes to its eastern bank near the course of Achilles lies the woody district, called Hylaca, which is full of trees and watered by the river Panticapes. This tract is that part of the steppe between the Dnieper and the Sea of Azoff which the Nogai Tartars call Yambogluk." Hylaca. 1 iv. 17. 8 2 Eichwald, Alte Geograph. p. 299, note. 3 iv. 17. 5 iv. 17. 6 iv. 52, 81. 7 iv. 53. 8 iv. 54, 76. 4 iv. 52. IV. The GEORGI, or agriculturalists, were named EUROPE, Borysthenitae, by the Olbiopolitae Greeks settled on CHAP. VII. the Hypanis, (Bog,) but called themselves Olbiopoli- IV. Georgi. tae. They occupied the country above Hylaea, and extended three days' journey eastward as far as the river Panticapes, and eleven days' northward along the Borysthenes (or Dnieper). According to their own account, they were descended from Milesians, and we learn that their city had walls and gates and a tower, together with suburbs outside the walls. Here also the Scythian king Scylas built a large and magnificent palace, surrounded by griffins and sphinxes made of white marble; but the building was struck by lightning and burnt down.2 Beyond the country of the Georgi was a desert." 4 mades. V. The NOMADES occupied a tract beyond the river V. NoPanticapes, and both sides of the river Hypacyris; stretching fourteen days' journey' eastward as far as the river Gerrhus. They neither sowed nor ploughed. All their country, excepting Hylaea, was destitute of trees.6 VI. The ROYAL SCYTHIANS inhabited the parts VI. Royal Scythians. beyond the Gerrhus. Their country extended southward to Taurica, (or Crimea,) then (through the isthmus of Perekop) eastward to the slave-trench; also to the port on the lake Maeotis called Cremni; and some of them reached to the river Tanais. They were the most valiant and numerous of all the Scythians, and regarded all the other Scythians as their slaves.' The country of these Georgi, Nomades, and Royal having once existed is preserved in the popular traditions of the country. Some old maps present the name of the Black Forest near the same place, and this may have had a much wider extent in earlier times. The wood country now does not occur until we come to the banks of the Don. The forest commences near Tcherkask on the Don, and extends to the Dnieper near Tchernigoff, in 52° 30′ north lat., having the appearance of a long black line on the horizon; it is here succeeded by a steppe, which continues to the Black Sea, and presents a considerable number of monumental mounds. Cf. Heeren, Asia, vol. ii. p. 8. 4 iv. 55. 2 iv. 78, 79. 3 iv. 18. 1 iv. 18. Here Herodotus contradicts his own statement, that Scythia only extended for ten days' journey from the Borysthenes eastward to the lake Maeotis. Bobrik suggests that we should either change the 14 to 4, or else for ini read avà, "they dwelt 14 days' journey along the Gerrhus." 6 iv. 19. 7 iv. 20. EUROPE. Scythians may be included in the modern governCHAP. VII. ments of Taurida, Ekaterinoslaff, and a part of the Don Cossacks; but the impossibility of identifying the rivers renders it equally impossible to fix the boundaries. VII. Tyri tac. VIII. Tauri Carcinitis. Course of VII. The TYRITAE ought scarcely to be reckoned amongst the Scythian tribes, as they were an Hellenic colony, who dwelt at the mouth of the river Tyras.' VIII. The TAURI, whose peculiarly barbarous customs we shall have hereafter to describe, occupied the Chersonesus called after them Taurica, and appear to have inhabited the mountains along the southern coast.2 This Chersonesus is the modern Crimea. Herodotus also notices the city of Carcinitis to the right of Hylaea, and near the mouth of the Hypacyris. In the vicinity was the district named the Course of Achilles, which is recognised in two long and exceedingly narrow slips of land named Teutra, which extend in opposite directions into the sea, forming together the shape of a sword or scimetar. We shall now give a brief sketch of the history of Anciently Scythia. In ancient times, according to the account occupied by most credited by Herodotus, Scythia was occupied by the Cimmerians, whilst the Scythians' dwelt in History of Cimme rians. Pliny, lib. iv. c. 12, quoted by Rennell, who identifies these slips with the Course of Achilles. 5 That the Scythians were a Mongolian tribe is placed beyond a doubt by the descriptions of the two great contemporaries, Hippocrates and Herodotus. Hippocrates describes their gross and bloated bodies, their joints buried in fat, their swollen bellies, and their scanty growth of hair.* This is a picture of the native tribes of Northern Asia, for whom there is no more generally suitable name than that of Mongols. The Chinese Mongolian remedy of burning,† which the Scythians universally employed, the state of their bodies, as well as their mode of life and customs, all point to this race of mankind. The adoration of the god of war under the figure of a holy scimetar, (Herod. iv. 62,) which took place at the time of Attila, and again at the elevation of Genghis Khan, is a Mongolic custom; the milking of mares, the huts made of skins, the swinish filthiness, the paste with which the women plastered themselves (Herod. iv. 75) in order from time to time to remove the filth which closely adhered to their bodies, their sluggish listlessness,-all these are Siberian features, and neither Sclavonian nor Germanic. Again, intoxication from the vapour of hemp seeds placed on red-hot stones and confined 3 of the Cim pursuit of Asia. The Scythians having been driven from their EUROPE. abodes by the Massagetae, crossed the Araxes, (or CHAP. VII. Volga,2) and entered the Cimmerian territory. The Scythian Cimmerians then resolved on retreating, but their invasion. kings were desirous of fighting to the last. Accordingly they quarrelled amongst themselves, and a battle was fought, in which the royal party were defeated and slain. The Cimmerians buried their Sepulchre kings near the river Tyras, where the sepulchre was merian still to be seen in the time of Herodotus. They then kings. abandoned their country to the invaders, and en- Scythian tered Asia pursued by a large army of Scythians, the Cim under their king Madyes. The Cimmerians entered merians. Asia Minor by the shore of the Euxine, and through the Colchian Gates, now called the Pass of Dariel, in the western portion of the Caucasian range; but the Scythians missed their way, and after proceeding eastward along the north side of Caucasus, they passed through the defiles of Derbend, at the eastern extremity between Caucasus and the Caspian, and thus entered Media. The Cimmerians entered Asia Cimmerians Minor in the reign of Ardys, king of Lydia, ravaged the country, and established themselves on the peninsula where the city of Sinope' afterwards stood, but were at length driven out by Alyattes. Mean under close coverlets (ibid.) is Siberian; only Herodotus confounds this with the vapour-baths which the barbarians in those parts enjoyed, and perhaps carried to a luxurious excess. Moreover, Hypocrates remarks that all the Scythians resembled each other, and this universal resemblance will apply neither to the Tartars nor to the Sclavonians or Germans. That the Scythians had no connexion with the latter nations is proved by the Scythian words mentioned by Herodotus (iv. 6). Whether these, or something like them, occur in any languages of Northern Asia, Niebuhr cannot determine. He, however, ventures to affirm that in no Tschudian dialect are there even apparent resemblances, which can favour the hypothesis, that the Scythians belonged to the Finnish race; and that there is no conceivable connexion between the name of Scythians (which had perhaps belonged to an earlier people before it was applied by the Pontic Greeks to the Scoloti, Herod. iv. 6) and Tschud, a contemptuous name, arising from the hereditary hatred of the Russians to the Fins. See Niebuhr, Researches into the History of the Scythians, Getae, etc., pp. 46–48. Oxford, 1830. 1 iv. 11. 2 Three different rivers are mentioned by Herodotus under the same name of Araxes, namely, the Volga, the Aras, and the Jaxartes. See the account of the river Araxes in chap. viii. 3 iv. 11. 4 i. 103, 104. 5 iv. 12. 6 i. 15, 16. in Asia Mi nor. |