Chap. 2.] WONDERrUL FOEMS OF DIFFEEENT NATIO^fS. 123 
gions, and not far from the spot from which the north wind 
arises, and the place which is called its cave,^^ and is known 
by the name of Geskleithron, the Arimaspi are said to exist, 
whom I have previously mentioned,^* a nation remarkable for 
having but one eye, and that placed in .the middle of the fore- 
head. This race is said to carry on a perpetual warfare with 
the Griffins, a kind of monster, with wings, as they are common- 
lj35 represented, for the gold which they dig out of the mines, 
and which these wild beasts retain and keep watch over with 
a singular degree of cupidity, while the Arimaspi are equally 
desirous to get possession of it,^^ Many authors have stated to 
22 Pliny, in describing the Riphsean mountains, B. iv. c. 26, calls them 
"gelida Aquilonis conceptacula," "the cold asylum of the northern 
blasts but we do not find the cavern mentioned in this or any other passage. 
The name here employed has been supposed to be derived from the Greek 
words, yrjg KXeiOpov, signifying the limit or boundary of the earth. — B. 
" Specuque ejus dicto," most probably means " the place called its cave," 
and not the "cave which I have described," as l)r. B. seems to have 
thought. 
2i They are merely enumerated among other tribes of Scythians, in- 
habiting the country beyond the Palus Maeotis. See B. iv. c. 26, and 
B. vi. c. 19.— B. 
25 The figures of the Gryphons or Griffins are found not uncommonly 
on the friezes and walls at Pompeii. In the East, where there were no 
safe places of deposit for money, it was the custom to bury it in the earth ; 
hence, for the purpose of scaring depredators, the story was carefully cir- 
culated that hidden treasures were guarded by serpents and dragons. 
There can be little doubt that these stories, on arriving in the western 
world, combined with the knowledge of the existence of gold in the Ura- 
lian chain and other mountains of the East, gave rise to the stories of the 
Griffins and the Arimaspi. It has been suggested that the Arimaspi were 
no other than the modern Tsheremis, who dwelt on the left bank of the 
Middle Volga, in the governments of Kasan, Simbirsk, and Saratov, not far 
from the gold districts of the Uralian range. 
26 It has been conjectured, that these fabulous tales of the combats of 
the Arimaspi with the Griffins, were invented by the neighbouring tribes 
of the Issedonse or Essedones, who were anxious to throw a mystery over 
the origin of the gold, that they might preserve the traffic in their own 
hands. The Altai Mountains, in the north of Asia, contain many gold 
mines, which are still worked, as well as traces of former workings. The 
representation of an animal, somewhat similar to the Griffin, has been 
found among the sculptures of Persepolis, and is conceived to have had 
some allegorical allusion to the religion of the ancient inhabitants of 
the place. jElian, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 27, gives an account of the 
Griffin, and its contests with the Indians, for the gold, similar to that 
here given. — B. 
