Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 129 



by Herodotus^ lyrcae, but Turcae by Pliny and Pomponius 

 Mela (from which some have thought that this is the earliest 

 appearance of the Turks of later times). These people sub- 

 sisted by hunting in the following way. As the country was 

 well wooded the hunter climbed a tree and there waited for his 

 quarry, his horse being trained to lie down and thus conceal itself, 

 and his hound being close at hand. As soon as he espied the 

 game he shot it with an arrow, and then mounting his horse 

 rode the animal down with the aid of his dog. 



To the east of Scythia, in Strabo's^ time, lay the Mas- 

 sagetae and the Sacae, both of whom the ancients regarded 

 as of the same race as the nomad Scythians. Some of the 

 Massagetae dwelt in the mountains, others in the marshes 

 of the river Araxes, others on the islands in the marshes, and 

 others again in fertile plains. Their only deity was the Sun, 

 and to it they sacrificed a horse. They were excellent horse- 

 men, and also fought well on foot. They used bows, swords, 

 breastplates, and bronze battle-axes (sagareis), they wore golden 

 belts, and turbans on their heads in battle. Their horses had 

 bits of gold and golden breastplates. They had no silver, and 

 iron only in small quantities, but plenty of gold and copper. 

 They did not cultivate the soil, but subsisted on their flocks 

 and on fish, "after the manner of the nomads and Scythians." 

 The inhabitants of the marshes and islands, like other lake- 

 dwellers, lived on fish, and wore the skins of seals, while the 

 mountaineers lived on wild fruits and the milk of their few 

 sheep. 



More than four centuries earlier Herodotus ^ when narrating 

 the great battle in which the Massagetae, under queen Tomyris, 

 had defeated and slain Cyrus, says that the Massagetae dressed 

 and lived just like the Scythians, that their forces consisted 

 of horsemen and footmen, armed with bows and spears, and 

 battle-axes, and that they used gold and copper for all their 

 equipment — copper for their spears, arrow-heads, and axes, 

 whilst they decked with gold their head ornaments, their 

 girdles, and their corselets ; that they protected their horses 



^ IV. 22. 2 513. 3 I. 215. 



R. H. 9 



