BOOK VI. XIV. 22-\v. 36 



and Iiulian Ocean on tlie soxith ; and it is subdivided 

 into a variety of designations according to the bays 

 that it forms and the people dwelHng on its coasts. A 

 great portion of Asia however also, adjoining the north, 

 owing to the severity of its frosty cHmate contains 

 vast deserts. From the extreme north-north-east to 

 the northernmost point at which the sun rises in 

 summer" there are the Scythians, and outside of them 

 and beyond the point where north-north-east begins 

 some have placed the Hyperboreans, who are said 

 by a majority of authorities to be in Europe. After 

 that point the first place known is Lytharmis, a 

 promontory of Celtica, and the river Carambucis, 

 where the range of the Ripaean Mountains termin- 

 ates and with it the rigour of the chmate relaxes ; 

 here we have reports of a people called the Arim- 

 phaci, a race not unHke the Hyperboreans. They 

 dwcU in forests and hve on ben*ies ; long hair is 

 deemed to be disgraceful in the case of women and 

 men ahke ; and their manners are mild. Conse- 

 quently they are reported to be deemed a sacred race 

 and to be left unmolested even by the savage tribes 

 among their ncighbours, this immunity not being con- 

 fined to themsehes but extended also to people who 

 have fied to them for refuge. Beyond them we come 

 directly to the Scythians, Cimmerians, Cissi, Anthi, 

 Georgi, and a race of Amazons, the last reaching to 

 the Caspian and Hyrcanian Sea. 



XV. For the sea actually forces a passage from riie caipian 

 the Scythian Ocean to thc back of Asia, where the %Zt)^^ 

 inhabitants call it by a variety of names, but it is best Ocean. 

 known by two of them, as the Caspian Sea and the 

 Hyrcanian. CHtarchus is of opinion that the Caspian 

 is as large as the Black Sea ; Eratosthenes also gives 



363 



