﻿34 THE FIFTH DISCOURSE : 



killed on a hunting party with an arrow, shot by his 

 own brother, a Scythian, chieftain. Such was the 

 philosophy of M. Baillfs Atlantes, the first and most 

 enlightened of nations ! We are assured, however, by 

 the learned author of the Dabistan, that the Tartars 

 under Chengiz, and his descendants, were lovers of 

 truth, and would not even preserve their lives by a 

 violation of it. De Guignes ascribes the same veracity, 

 the parent of all virtues, to the Huns ; and Strabo, 

 who might only mean to lash the Greeks by praising 

 Barbarians, as Horace extolled the wandering Scythians 

 merely to satirize his luxurious countrymen, informs 

 us that the nations of Scythia deserve the praise due 

 to wisdom, heroic friendship, and justice; and this 

 praise we may readily allow them on his authority, 

 without supposing them to have been the preceptors 

 of mankind. 



As to the laws of Zamolxis, concerning whom we 

 know as little as of the Scythian Deucalion, or of 

 Abaris the Hyperborean, and to whose story even He- 

 rodotus gave no credit, I lament, for many reasons, 

 that if ever they existed they have not been preserved. 

 It is certain that a system of laws, called Yasac, has been 

 celebrated in Tartary since the time of Chengiz, who 

 is said to have republished them in his empire, as his 

 institutions were afterwards adopted and enforced by 

 Taimur ; but they seem to have been a common or 

 traditionary law, and were probably not reduced into 

 writing till Chengiz had conquered a nation who were 

 able to write. 



III. Had the religious opinions and allegorical fables 

 of the Hindus been actually borrowed from Sythia, 

 travellers must have discovered in that country some 

 ancient monuments of them ; such as pieces of gro- 

 tesque sculpture, images of the Gods and Avatars, 



