Chap. 7.] ACCOTTNX OF COTTNTEIES, ETC. 15 



itself into the sea by two mouths, and the banks of which are 

 inhabited by the Sarmatse, the descendants of the Medi, it is 

 said, a people divided into numerous tribes. The first of these 

 are the Sauromatse Gyneecocratumeni,*' the husbands of the 

 Amazons. Next to them are the Mvazes,*^ the 001188,*' the 

 Cicimeni, the Messeniani, the Costobocci, the Choatrse, the 

 Zigse,*' the Dandarii, the Thyssagetse, and the lyrcse,*' as far as 

 certain rugged deserts and densely wooded vallies, beyond which 

 again are the Arimphsei,™ who extend as far as the Eiphaean 

 Mountains.'' The Scythians call the river Tanais by the name 

 of Silis, and the MseotiB the Temarunda, meaning the " mother 

 of the sea." There is°* a city also at the mouth of the Ta- 



several smaller ones. Strabo says that the distance between the two larger 

 mouths is sixty stadia. 



** From the Greek yvvatKOKparovfievoi, " ruled over by women." It is 

 not improbable that this name was given by some geographer to these Sar- 

 matian tribes on finding them, at the period of his visit, in subjection to the 

 rule of a queen. Parisot remarks, that this passage affords an instance of 

 the little care bestowed by Pliny upon procuring the best and most correct 

 information, for that the Eoman writers had long repudiated the use of the 

 term " Sauromatse." He also takes Pliny to task for his allusion to these 

 tribes as coupling with the Amazons, the existence of such a people being 

 in his time generally disbelieved. 



*^ Hardouin suggests from tvaZoi, " to celebrate the orgies of Bacchus." 



*' Perhaps from soirri, a " den" or " cavern," their habitation. 



*8 Parisot suggests that they may have been a Caucasian or Circassian 

 tribe, because in the Circassian language the word nig has the meaning of 

 " man." He also suggests that they were probably a distinct race from 

 the Zingi previously mentioned, whom he identifies with the ancestors of 

 the Zingari or Bohemians, the modern Gypsies. 



*' The more common reading is " Turcse," a tribe also mentioned by 

 Mela, and which gave name to modem Turkistan. 



5° The Argippsei of Herodotus and other ancient authors. These people 

 were bald, nat-nosed, and long-chinned. They are again mentioned by 

 Pliny in C. 14, who calls them a race not unlike the Hyperborei, and then, 

 like Mela, abridges the description given by Herodotus. By different 

 writers these people have been identified with the Chinese, the Brahmins 

 or Lamas, and the Calmucks. The last is thought to be the most probable 

 opinion, or else that the description of Herodotus, {)orrowed by other 

 writers, may be applied to the Mongols in general. The mountains, at the 

 foot of which they have been placed, are identified with either the Ural, 

 the western extremity of the Altai chain, or the easternpart of the Altai. 



" Generally regarded as the western branch of the tlral Mountains. 



'^ The former editions mostly have "there was," implying that in the 

 time of Pliny it no longer existed. The name of this place was Tanais ; 

 its ruins are stiU to be seen in the vicinity of KassatcheL It was founded 



