Chap. 26.] ACCOtmT OP COrXTBrES, ETC. 335 



The width of the Cimmerian Bosporus^ is twelve miles and 

 a hall": it contains the towns of Hermisium', Myrmecium, 

 and, in the interior' of it, the island of Alopece. From the 

 spot called TaphrsB^ at the extremity of the isthmus, to the 

 mouth of the Bosporus, along the Ime of the Lake Mseotis, 

 is a distance of 260 miles. 



Leaving Taphrae, and going along the mainland, we find 

 in the interior the AuchetsB*, in whose country the Hypania 

 has its rise, as also the Neurce, in whose district the Bory- 

 Bthenes has its source, theGeloni',theThyssageta?,theBudini, 

 the Basilid», and the Agathyrsi' with their azure-coloured 

 hair. Above them are the Nomades, and then a nation of 

 Anthropophagi or cannibals. On leaving Lake Buges, above 

 the Lake Maeotis we come to the ISauromats& and the Esse- 

 dones*. Along the coast, as far as the river Tanais^, are 



* He alludes here, not to the Strait bo called, but to the Peninsula 

 bordering upon it, upon which the modem town of Kertsch is situate, 

 and which projects from the larger Peninsula of the Crimea, as a sort of 

 excrescence on its eastern side. 



2 Probably Hermes or Mercury was ita tutelar diyinity : ita site 

 appears to be unknown. 



' Probably meaning the Straits or passage connecting the Lake MseotiB 

 with the Euxine. The fertile district of the Cimmerian Bosporus was 

 at one time the granary of Greece, especially Athens, which imported 

 thence annually 400,000 medimni of com. 



* A town so called on the Isthmus of Perekop, from a Td<ppos or 

 trench, which was cut across the isthmus at this point. 



5 Loraonossov, in his History of Kussia, says that these people were 

 the same as the Sclavoni : but that one meaning of tlie name ' Slavane * 

 being " a boaster," the Greeks gave them the corresponding appellation 

 of Auchetse, from the word aux^> which signifies "boasting." 



6 Of the Gfeloni, called by Virgil " picti," or " painted," nothing cer- 

 tain seems to be kno^Ti : they are associated by Herodotus with the 

 Budini, supposed to belong to the Slavic family by Schafarik. In B. iv. 

 c. 108, 109, of his History, Herodotus gives a very particular accoimt of 

 the Budini, who had a city built entirely of wood, the name of wliieh was 

 Gelonus. The same author also assigns to the Geloni a Greek origin. 



7 The Agathyrsi are placed by Herodotus near the upper course of the 

 river Maris, in the S.E. of Dacia or the modem Transylvania. Pliny 

 however seems here to assign them a different locaHty. 



8 Also called "Assedones" and "Issedones." It has been suggested by 

 modem geographers that their locality must be assigned to the east of 

 Icliim, on the steppe of the central horde of the Kirghiz, and that of the 

 Arimaspi on the northern dechvity of the chain of the Altai. 



^ Now the Don. 



