BOOK IV.] History of Nature. 29 



the Isthmus, which Place is called Taphrae, to the Mouth of 

 Bosphorus, it containeth 260 Miles. From Taphrae, the 

 Continent within is inhabited by the Anchetae, among whom 

 the Hypanis springeth : and Neuri, where Borysthenes hath 

 his Head ; also, the Geloni, Thussagetae, Budmi, Basilidse, 

 and the Agathyrsi, with blue Hair on their Heads. Above 

 them, the Nomades ; and then the Anthropophagi. From 

 Buges, above Mreotis, the Sauromates and Essedones dwell. 

 But along the Borders, as far as Tanais, the Mreotae, from 

 whom the Lake was so called ; and the last behind them, 

 the Arimaspi. Within a little are the Riphaean Mountains, 

 and a Country called Pterophoros, for the resemblance of 

 Wings (Feathers 1 ) occasioned by the continual fall of 

 Snow : a Part of the World condemned by the nature of 

 Things, and immersed in thick Darkness, having no shelter- 

 ing Places but. the work of Cold, the produce of the freezing 

 North Wind. Behind those Mountains, and beyond the 

 North Pole, there is a happy Nation (if we may believe it) 

 whom they call Hyperborei 2 , who live exceeding long, and 



1 " A race of men there are, as fame has told, 

 Who shivering suffer Hyperborean cold, 

 Till nine times bathing in Minerva's lake 

 Soft feathers, to defend their naked sides, they take." 



DRFDEN'S Onid. Metam. lib. xv. 



Herodotus, Melpo. 31, says: " In respect to the feathers wherewith 

 the Scythians affirm the air to be filled, my opinion is this : above that 

 country snow falls continually ; now any one that has seen snow falling 

 thick, and close to himself, must understand what I say. The snow does, in 

 fact, bear great resemblance to feathers. I think, therefore, that the 

 Scythians and the surrounding nations compare the snow to feathers. 

 LAURENT. Wcrn. Club. 



2 The ancients denominated those people and places Hyperborean 

 -which were to the northward of the Scythians. They had, indeed, but 

 very little acquaintance with these regions;. and all they tell us of them 

 is very precarious, while much of it is false. Herodotus, as well as Pliny, 

 doubts whether or not there were any such nations ; while Strabo pro- 

 fesses to believe that they really existed. See a very amusing account of 

 these fabulous Hyperboreans in Herodotus, Melpo. 32-36. From whence 

 much that Pliny says was borrowed. Wcrn. Club. 



