24 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOEY. [Book VI. 



the first place that is known is Lytarmis, 11 a promontory of 

 Celtica, and next to it the river Carambucis, 12 where the chain 

 of the BiphaBan Mountains terminates, and with it the extreme 

 rigour of the climate ; here, too, we have heard of a certain 

 people being situate, called the Arimphsei, 13 a race not much 

 unlike the Hyperborei. 14 Their habitations are the groves, and 

 the berries their diet ; long hair is held to be disgraceful by the 

 women as well as the men, and they are mild in their manners. 

 Hence it is that they are reported to be a sacred 15 race, and 

 are never molested even by the savage tribes which border 

 upon them, and not only they, but such other persons as well 

 as may have fled to them for refuge. Beyond these we 

 come straight to the Scythians, the Cimmerii, the Cisianthi, 

 the Georgi, and a nation of Amazons. 16 These last extend 

 to the Caspian and Hyrcanian Sea. 17 



CHAP. 15. THE CASPIAN AND HYRCANIAN SEA. 



Bursting through, this sea makes a passage fronrthe i Scythian 

 Ocean into the back of Asia, 18 receiving various names froni the 



11 D'Anville supposes that he means the headland called Cande-Noss or 

 Kanin-Noss, in the White Sea. Parisot, who thinks that Pliny had no 

 idea of the regions which lie in those high latitudes, supposes that he 

 refers to Domnes-Ness in the Baltic, and that by the Carambucis he means 

 the river Niemen. 



12 Ansart thinks that lie means the Dwina, which falls into the Gulf of 

 Archangel. 



13 Previously mentioned in c. 7. 



14 For a full description of them, see B. iv. c. 26. 



15 See the Note to c. 7, p. 15. This description is borrowed from that 

 given by Herodotus. Their sacred character has heen explained as re- 

 ferring to the class or caste of priests among this Eastern people, whoever 

 they may have been. 



16 Ansart thinks that the Cicianthi, the Georgi, and the Amazons, in- 

 habited the modern governments of Archangel and Vologda. It seems 

 almost akin to rashness to hazard a conjecture. 



17 It has been already stated that the Caspian Sea was, in one portion 

 of it, so called, and in another the Hyrcanian Sea. 



18 His meaning is, that the Scythian ocean communicates on the northern 

 shores of Asia with the- Caspian Sea. Hardouin remarks, that Patrocles, 

 the commander of the Macedonian fleet, was the first to promulgate this 

 notion, he having taken the mouth of the river Volga for a narrow passage, 

 by means of which the Scythian or Northern Ocean made its way into the 

 Caspian Sea. 



