Chap. 2.] WONDERFUL FOEMS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 123 



gions, and not far from the spot from which the north wind 

 arises, and the place which is called its cave,^^ and is known 

 by the name of Geskleithron, the Arimaspi are said to exist, 

 whom I have previously mentioned, ^^ a nation remarkable for 

 having but one eye, and that placed in the middle of the fore- 

 head. This race is said to carry on a perpetual warfare with 

 the Griffins, a kind of monster, with wings, as they are common- 

 ly 35 represented, for the gold which they dig out of the mines, 

 and which these wild beasts retain and keep watch over with 

 a singular degree of cupidity, while the Arimaspi are equally 

 desirous to get possession of it.^^ Many authors have stated to 



33 Pliny, in describing the Riphsean mountains, B. iv. c. 26, calls them 

 "gelida Aquilonis conceptacula," "the cold asylum of the northern 

 blasts ;" but we do not find the cavern mentioned in this or any other passage. 

 The name here employed has been supposed to be derived from the Greek 

 words, yjjg K\si6pov, signifying the limit or boundary of the earth. — B. 

 " Specuque ejus dicto," most probably means "the place called its cave," 

 and not the "cave which I have described," as JJr. B. seems to have 

 thought. 



3* They are merely enumerated among other tribes of Scythians, in- 

 habiting the country beyond the Palus Mseotis. See B. iv. c. 26, and 

 B. vi. c. 19.— B. 



2= The figures of the Gryphons or Griffins are found not uncommonly 

 on the friezes and walls at Pompeii. In the East, where there were no 

 safe places of deposit for money, it was the custom to bury it in the earth ; 

 hence, for the pui-pose of scaritig depredators, the story was carefully cir- 

 culated that hidden treasures were guarded by serpents and dragons. 

 There can be little doubt that these stories, on arriving in the western 

 world, combined with the knoAvledge of the existence of gold in the Ura- 

 Uan chain and other mountains of the East, gave rise to the stories of the 

 Griffins and the Arimaspi. It has been suggested that the Arimaspi were 

 no other than the modern Tsheremis, who dwelt on the left bank of the 

 Middle Volga, in the governments of Kasan, Simbirsk, and Saratov, not far 

 from the gold districts of the Uralian range. 



^ It has been conjectured, that these fabulous tales of the combats of 

 the Arimaspi with the Griffins, were invented by the neighbouring tribes 

 of the Issedonae or Essedones, who were anxious to throw a mystery over 

 the origin of the gold, that they might preserve the traffic in their owu 

 bands. The Altai Mountains, in the north of Asia, contain many gold 

 mines, which are still worked, as weU as traces of former workings. The 

 representation of an animal, somewhat similar to the Griffin, has been 

 found among the sculptures of Persepolis, and is conceived to have had 

 some allegorical allusion to the religion of the ancient inhabitants of 

 the place. iElian, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 27, gives an account of the 

 Griffin, and its contests with the Indians, for the gold, similar to that 

 here given.— B. 



