Chap. 7.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTEIES, ETC. 
15 
itself into the sea by two moutlis, 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 Gynsecocratumeni/^ the husbands of the 
Amazons. JSText to them are the JEvazse/^ the Coitse/"^ 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 Maeotisthe 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. 
4^ From the Greek yui/ai/cofcpotrov/xti/oi, ruled over by women." It is 
not improbable that this name was given by some geographer to those 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 Roman writers had long repudiated the use of the 
term " Sauromatae." He also takes Pliny to task for his allusion to these 
tribes as coupling with tlie Amazons, the existence of such a people being 
in his time generally disbelieved. 
Hardouin suggests from tvaZ,o), " to celebrate the orgies of Bacchus." 
Perhaps from jcotr?;, a "den" or "cavern," their habitation. 
Parisot suggests that they may have been a Caucasian or Circassian 
tribe, because in the Circassian language the word zig 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 "Turcee," a tribe also mentioned by 
Mela, and which gave name to modern Turkistan. 
50 The Argippsei of Herodotus and other ancient authors. These people 
were bald, flat-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 difi'erent 
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, borrowed 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 eastern part of the Altai. 
^1 Generally regarded as the western branch of the Ural Mountains. 
^2 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 Kassatchei. It was founded 
