| [p. 119]
red-hot a bronze instrument constructed for this
very purpose and apply it to the right breast and
cauterise it, so that its growth is arrested, and all
its strength and bulk are diverted to the right
shoulder and right arm.
PART 18
XVIII. As to the physique of the other Scythians,
in that they are like one another and not at all like
others, the same remark applies to them as to the
Egyptians, only the latter are distressed by the heat,
the former by the cold. | Both people are of peculiar physique, and the cause of
the peculiarity is in the one case extreme heat, and in the
other extreme cold. |
What is called the Scythian
desert is level grassland, without trees,| Or, reading ὑψηλή, "a plateau." |
and fairly
well-watered. For there are large rivers which drain
the water from the plains. There too live the
Scythians who are called Nomads because they have
no houses but live in wagons. The smallest have
four wheels, others six wheels. They are covered
over with felt and are constructed, like houses,
sometimes in two compartments and sometimes in
three, which are proof against rain, snow and wind.
The wagons are drawn by two or by three yoke of
hornless oxen. They have no horns because of the
cold. Now in these wagons live the women, while
the men ride alone on horseback, followed by the
sheep they have, their cattle and their horses. They
remain in the same place just as long as there is
sufficient fodder for their animals ; when it gives
out they migrate. They themselves eat boiled
|
