886 S C Y 
only a part extended from the Ister, or Danube, that is, from 
about the 25th to almost the 116th degree of E. longitude. 
It was divided into Scythia in Europe, and Scythia in Asia ; 
including, however, the two Sarmatias, or Sauromatias, now 
the Circassian Tartary, which lay between and separated the 
two Scythiasfrom each other. Sarmatia was also distinguished 
into European and Asiatic, divided from the European 
Scythia by the river Don or Tanais, which falls into the 
Palus Maeotis, and from the Asiatic by the Rha, now Volga, 
which empties itself into the Caspian sea. (See Sarmatia.) 
Accordingly the two Scythias were only parted by the 
boundaries of Europe and Asia, that is, by the river Tanais, 
descending, as it is supposed, from the Riphaean mountains 
into the Palus Maeotis. For, beyond those mountains 
northward, the Scythians did not advance into any of those 
remote regions ; so that these were the proper confines of the 
Asiatic Scythia on the west. The northern boundaries 
reached to the Hyperborean or Frozen Sea, called also by the 
ancients the Scythian Sea, the Cronian, Amalchian or 
Almachian, the Dead Sea, and by some other names equally 
expressive of extreme cold and ice. On the east, they are 
supposed to have extended to the promontory of Tabis, and 
to have been bounded by the Cassian mountains, which 
parted Scythia from the kingdom of Seres, now Katai, 
Cathay, or Northern China; and even this last was by some 
of the ancients taken for part of Eastern Scythia; so that, 
on that side, it had no other boundaries, according to 
Ptolemy, than the unknown tracts beyond it: and on the 
south it was bounded by the Indian sea, by Mount Caucasus, 
and the Caspian. As to the more northern parts of Scythia, 
it is, on account of its extreme cold, uninhabitable, except 
by wolves and other wild beasts; and hence they seem to 
have been unknown to the ancients beyond the 50th degree 
north. The territory beyond that degree was denominated 
Terra incognita. But the southern regions, better known to 
them, were dividedin to three parts, viz., Scythia within, and 
Scythia without, or beyond Itnaus, and Sarmatia, which, as 
we have already said, lay between the former and the 
European Scythia, and which had been so blended with it, 
that the only difference between them was the name. 
Accordingly, Ptolemy bounds the Scythia on this side of 
Imaus on the west by Asiatic Sarmatia, by mount. Imaus on 
the east, by the Terra incognita on the north, and on the 
south and south-east by the Sacse, Sogdiani, and Margiana. 
SCYTHIAN, a word used very often in the old Greek 
writers on the materia rnedica, to distinguish the peculiar sort 
of gum, or other drug, brought from the Scythians. 
SCYTHIANS, the inhabitants of Scythia, considered by 
some geographical authors as the same people with the 
Tatars, or, as they are commonly, though erroneously, called 
Tartars. (See Tartars.) With regard to the etymology 
of the name of Scythians we have many different conjectures. 
Pliny seems to intimate, that this appellation is derived from 
Sacai, a people known by a similar name to the Greeks and 
Persians. Bryant deduces it from Cutliia. Colonel Val- 
lancey traces its origin to words denoting navigation : others 
derive it from the Greek a-Kv^eo-Sai, which expresses the 
.fierceness of their countenance and natural temper; and 
others again deduce it from the Teutonic word scheten or 
shuten to shoot, in which art this nation is said by Hero¬ 
dotus, Lucian, and others, to be so expert, that the name 
is given them on that account, tha word Scythian properly 
signifying a great shooter or archer. As the Tartars and 
Muscovites called themselves Mogli, supposed to be an ab¬ 
breviation of Magogli, the sons of Magog; that of Scy¬ 
thian might be either given to them by other nations, or 
perhaps by the Celtes, whose language did not originally 
much differ from the Scythian or Teutonic. Sir William 
Jones observes, that neither Scythian nor Tartar is a name 
by which the people now under our consideration have ever 
distinguished themselves. 
Passing over the obscure accounts of Herodotus, and the 
earlier writers, we shall extract from Justin (lib. 2. cap. 2.) 
the following account of the Scythians. They were a 
S C Y 
nation, which, though inured to labour, fierce in war, and 
of prodigious strength, could nevertheless so controul their 
passions, that they made no other use of victories than to 
increase their fame. Theft among them was reckoned so 
great a crime, and was so severely punished, that they could 
let their numerous flocks wander from place to place without 
danger of losing them. These they esteemed their greatest 
wealth, living upon their milk, and clothing themselves 
with their skins. Instead of houses, they used to convey 
their wives and children about in covered waggons, drawn 
either by horses or oxen, and made capacious enough to 
carry all their other furniture. Gold, silver, diamonds, 
pearls, and other costly stones, were as much despised by 
them, as they were esteemed by other nations, so that they 
could not covet that which was of no use. What is still more 
wonderful, those virtues which the Greeks in vain endea¬ 
voured to attain by learning and philosophy, were natural 
to them, and they reaped those advantages from their igno¬ 
rance of vice, which the others could not derive from their 
knowledge of virtue. A nation of this character and way 
of life could therefore want but few laws to secure their 
property; some others they had with relation to religion, 
customs and polity, which forbade, under pain of death, 
any alteration in either ; which excluded their womeu from 
the benefit of marriage, and every man from assisting at 
their royal feast, till he had killed an enemy. 
If we may reason from some successions we find men¬ 
tioned in history, it seems their crown was hereditary, and 
yet their kings not so despotic as not to be deposed, or even 
put to death, for the violation of their laws. 
SCYTHICUM LIGNUM, a name given by the ancients 
to a tree called scytharion by the Greeks. 
SCYTHROPS, in Ornithology, a genus of birds of the 
order Pica. The Generic Character is—bill large, convex, 
sharp-edged, channelled at the sides, hooked at the point; 
nostrils naked, rounded at the base of the bill; the tongue 
is cartilaginous, split at the point; the feet are formed for 
climbing. This genus, of which only a single species- is 
known, is nearly allied to the Ramphastos , from which it 
principally differs in the greater strength and stoutness of the 
bill, and in having the tongue entire at the sides, and bifid 
at the tip. 
Scythrops psittaceus.—This bird has obtained different tri¬ 
vial names. From the circumstance that it is found in New 
Holland; where, by the way, it is sometimes seen in small 
flocks, but more frequently in pairs,, generally in trees, and 
uttering, during flight, a loud screaming noise, not unlike 
the crowing of a cock; it is called by some the Australasian 
Channel-bird; by others, the New Holland Channel-bird; 
and by some, Psittaceous Hornbill. By Dr. Shaw, it is spe¬ 
cifically described as the lead-coloured channel-bill, with the 
tail-feathers barred with black and white. It is about the 
size of a crow, and measures in total length about seventeen 
inches, of which the bill measures four inches. The general 
proportions of the bird somewhat resemble those of the 
cuckoo, but with a longer and more cuneated tail. The 
colour of the upper parts of the body, wings, and tail, is 
deep blueish ash-brown; the tips of the feathers somewhat 
more intense than the rest; the head, neck, and under parts 
of the bird, are of a pale grey, or dove-colour; the two 
middle tail-feathers have a black bar near the tip, which is 
white; all the remaining tail-feathers are ash-brown exter¬ 
nally, but on the inner webs are white, crossed by numerous 
black bars, and marked, like the middle ones, by a broader 
black bar near the end, the tips being white; the eyes and 
nostrils are seated in a reddish naked skin ; the bill and legs 
are of a pale yellow ; the former are marked on the upper 
mandible by a longitudinal dusky streak or two, and on the 
lower by three or four dusky bars near the base. 
To SDAIN, or To Sdein, v. a. [sclegnare, Ital.] To 
disdain. Obsolete. —For doubt of being sdayned. Spenser. 
—-Unfitting thee, and sdeyned of thy skill. Drayton. 
Lifted up sc high, 
I sdein'd subjection. Milton. 
SDAIN, 
