Ill] 



AND HISTORIC TIMES 



191 



and sixty white horses, one for every day in the year, and five 

 hundred talents of silver \" a fact which shows that white horses 

 were especially plentiful in that region. On the march of Xerxes' 

 host the following order was observed. First came a thousand 

 picked horsemen, then a thousand chosen spearmen, after whom 

 came ten sacred Nisaean horses, splendidly caparisoned. These 

 horses were called Nisaean because they were reared in Media, 

 on the wide Nisaean plain, which produced horses of large size. 

 After these ten horses came the sacred car of Zeus, drawn by 



Fig. 60. The Turk. 



eight white horses, followed by the charioteer on foot, and holding 

 their bridles, for no mortal was allowed to mount the seat. 

 After him followed Xerxes himself in a chariot drawn by 

 Nisaean horses, with his charioteer beside him-. 



When Cyrus was about to cross the large river Gyndes, 

 a tributary of the Tigris, we are told that one of the sacred 

 white horses having in wantonness entered the river and tried 

 to cross it he was swept away by the stream. Whereupon Cyrus 

 was very wroth with the river, and threatened that he would 

 so reduce its stream that henceforth even women might cross 



1 Herod, in. 90. 



2 Herod, vii. 40. 



