Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 127 



bitten." He also thought that the rigorous cold was the 

 reason why the Scythian oxen had not horns. Strabo^ remarks 

 that asses are not reared in the region of the Borysthenes 

 because of the cold, and he ascribes the diminutive size of the 

 horses to the same cause. As he has already stated that ' wild- 

 asses ' roamed the steppes, he is here referring (like Herodotus) 

 to the domestic ass, which being derived, as we saw (p, 54), 

 from the Abyssinian ass, was naturally not constituted to 

 endure the rigours of a Russian winter. 



The Scythians do not appear to have used their horses 

 for draught, for it is clear from Herodotus^ and Hippocrates^ 

 that the waggons which formed their homes, and from which 

 they derived their name of Hamaxoeci (' Waggon-dwellers '), 

 were regularly drawn by oxen. Similarly the Kalmucks and 

 Nogais of modern times, though possessing great numbers of 

 horses, employ oxen for draught purposes^ 



Herodotus^ describes how the Scythians blinded their 

 captives to use them in preparing the milk of their mares, 

 and their method of milking the latter. " The milk thus 

 obtained is poured into deep wooden casks, about which the 

 blind slaves are placed, and then the milk is stirred round. 

 That which rises to the top is drawn off, and considered the 

 best part ; the under portion is of less account." This koumiss 

 is still prepared from mares' milk by the Kalmucks and Nogais, 

 who keep the milk in continual movement whilst making it. 



There can be no doubt that the Scythians, under the name 

 of " the milk-drinking Mare-milkers " (Hippemolgi), were known 

 to the Greeks in Homeric days, since in the Iliad^ they are 

 represented as living in the same part of the world as the 

 Thracians, who bordered on southern Russia in classical 

 and later times, whilst Hesiod^ as cited by Eratosthenes, 

 applies the very name of ' Mare-milkers ' as an epithet to the 

 Scythians. The fact that the Scythians and allied tribes and 

 their descendants down to modern times preferred and still 



1 307. 2 jv, 69, 



3 Be Aere, Aqua, et Locis, 44, p. 353. ■» Pallas, Vol. i. p. 532, PI. 6. 



5 IV. 2; Clarke's Travels, Vol. i. p. 313 ; cf. Kawlinson, ad loc. 



" XIII. 5. 7 strabo, 300. 



