BOOK VI. XIX. 5i-.\x. S3 



And in regard to no other region is there more 

 discrepancy aniong the authoritics, this being due 

 as I beheve to the countlcss numbcrs and the 

 nomadic habits of the tribcs. The water of the 

 Caspian Sea itself was said by Alexander the Great 

 to be SAvect to drink, and also Marcus Varro states 

 that good drinking water Avas conveyed from it for 

 Pompcv whcn he was operating in the neighbourhood 

 of the rivcr during thc Mithridatic War;" doubtless 

 the size of the rivers flo^ving into it overcomes thc 

 salt. Varro further adds that exploration imder the 

 leadership of Pompey ascertained that a seven days' 

 journey from India into the Bactrian country rcachcs 

 the river Bactrus, a tributary of the Aniu Darya, and 

 that Indian merchandize can be convcycd from the 

 Bactrus across the Caspian to tlie Kur and thence 

 with not more than five days' portagc by land can 

 rcach Phasis in Pontus. 



lliere are many islands in all parts of the Caspian 

 Sea, but only one of thcm, Zazata, is particularly 

 notable. 



XX. After leaving the Caspian Sca and the The Fanher 

 Scj-thian Ocean our course takes a bend towards ^''*'* 

 the Eastern Sea as the coast turns to face eastward. 

 The first part of thc coast after the Scythian pronion- 

 tory is iminhabitable on account of snow, and the 

 neighbouring region is uncultivated because of the 

 savagerj' of the tribes that inhabit it. This is the 

 country of the Cannibal Scythians who eat human 

 bodies ; consequently the adjaccnt districts are 

 waste deserts thronging with wild beasts lying in 

 wait for human bcings as savage as themselves. 

 Then we come to more Scythians and to more 

 deserts inhabited by wild beasts, until we reach 



. 377 



