numerous examples are cited from Herodotus, Paufanias, Xenophon, and other ancient writers. The fhorteft fpace affigned to the itinerary flade is that calculated from the measures of Xenophon, of which 750 are equal to a degree. That of Herodo tus is rather longer, and gives only 732 to a degree. The longest is that of Polybius; 696 of his ftades amounting to a degree. The mean ftade, deduced from the measures of eight authors, is that of 717, or 718 to a degree; which makes each stade equal to 505 feet, English measure. As a pace must have been the elementary part of itinerary measure, and as the natural pace, that is, the return of the fame foot, is nearly about five feet, the author thinks it probable, that the ftade in ordinary use was 100 of thefe paces, or 500 feet; which comes within two feet of the mean stade above remarked. All this deduction is fingularly acute and valuable.

The author enters more immediately upon his subject at the third fection. This, and the four which fucceed, are confined to the defcription of Europe, as reprefented by Herodotus, and more particularly with refpect to Scythia.

From this part, we fhall make an extract, with which we fhall conclude our obfervations for the prefent month.

appear, when "To return to the Scythians of Herodotus. It will the countries on the east of the Mootis and Tanais are described, that he fpeaks of a nation of Scythians, who, according to the circumftances of the defcription, fhould have occupied the Debt Kipzak, at the head of the Cafpian Sea, together with a large proportion of the Steppe, now in the poffeffion of the Kirgees tribes; and these he styles the Scythians, who had feceded from the Royal Scythians, at the Moeotis;--Melp. 22.

"It is obvious, however, that if this statement was true, the country affigned by our author to the Maffagete on the borders of the Jax. artes (and Aral taken by him and others for part of the Cafpian) would be confounded with the fpace affigned by him to the feceding Royal Scythians, and which error, from his incorrect ideas of relative pofition, he might not be able to detect. Either then he erred in extending the lands of thefe Royal Scythians, too far to the east, or he has confounded them with the Maffagetæ; and as he wrote from the information of others, and perhaps alfo, from very vague notices, it is not altogether improbable, that the Royal Scythians might be a tribe of the fame nation with the Maffagetæ at the Jaxartes: in which cafe, the story of Arifteas, which makes the Iffedones to drive the Scythians weftward, would be more probable than the other ftory, of the Maffagete driving out the Scythians; fince the Massagete and Scythians would be tribes of the fame nation.

"At all events, the Royal Scythians at the Euxine, and those who, from the defcription of Herodotus, are placed in the Defht Kipzak and Steppe, are confeffedly of the fame nation; the doubt remaining is, whether they occupied likewife the feats of the Mallagete? The Defht Kipzak indeed may have been their original feat, in which either

a part

a part of the nation remained at the first migration; or to which colony might return after the nation was fettled at the Maotis. The Kalmucs in their late migration did no more than return to their former feats, near the Palkati Nor*.

"It is a question, which perhaps can never be determined, whether the Maffageta, or Scythians of the Jaxartes, and thofe of the Euxine, were of the fame ftock; but it appears highly probable that they were: and the feeming doubt of our author, whether he fhould clafs the Maffagete with the Scythians, Clio, 201, 215, 216, furnishes in our idea fome proof of it. The fimilitude in point of manners and cuftoms between them, gave occafion to the ancients (though at a fome what later date than the time of Herodotus) to apply the name of Scy thians to the Maffagetæ, with whom they became later acquainted. We confefs, that we cannot help regarding these notices on the whole, as tending to a proof that the Maffagetan Scythians were the most ancient of the two, and probably the ancestors of those at the Euxine. The ftory of Targitaus feems to refpect Turkeftan, rather than Euxine Scythia; and Targitaus, if meant for Turk, fhould have been the common ancestor of all the Scythianst.

"It is unquestionable that there is a great fimilarity in many of their customs, and which can only be referred to imitation. We fhall enumerate a few of them.

"Not to mention the Nomadic life common to both, fince it might also have been followed by others in North Afia, we shall only obferve,

"1. That the clothes and food of the Massageta, resemble those of the Scythians, Clio 215.

2. That both nations lived in waggons, or carriages, Clio 216; Melp. 46, 121..

3. They fought chiefly on horfeback; Clio 215; Melp. 46, 136, and,

66

4. That they facrificed borfes to their deities; the Maffagete in particular, to the fun. They facrifice horses to the fun, their only deity, thinking it right to offer the fwifteft of mortal animals to the fwifteft of immortal beings." Clio at the end. See alfo Melp. 61.

"It however happens unfortunately, that Herodotus is much too brief in his account of the customs of the Maffagetæ, to allow any

"Nor fignifies lake or fea.

"+ Diodorus lib. 2. C. 3. derives the Maffagete, Sace, and Arimafpi, from the fame Scythian stock; which Scythians were first fettled at the Araxes (no doubt Jaxartes is meant as well as by Herodotus) from whence they extended themselves weftward to the Euxine and Mootis, and finally beyond the Tanais: and eastward to the ocean. This account appears probable.

"Juftin remarks it alfo. He defcribes the Scythians generally as a patioral people, living in waggons covered with fkins, lib. 3. ch. ii. he adds, that the ignorance of vice has been of more advantage to them than the knowledge of virtue has to others."

The circumftance of their living in waggons was fo familiarly known, that Lucian speaks of it in his Toxaris."

great

great scope of comparifon; otherwise it is probable, that more points of refemblance would have been found*.

"The Persians of the time of Xenophon, and the Parthians of later times, both of whom, but particularly the latter, being to be regarded as defcendants of Maffagera; whatfoever particulars we difcover in the Perfians and Parthians, that are akin to the Scythians, ferve to fhew a common origin between Maffagete and Scythians.

"Herodotus fays, Melp. 70, "whenever the Scythians (of the Euxine) form alliances, they obferve thefe ceremonies: a large earthen veffel is filled with wine, into this is poured fome of the blood of the contracting parties, obtained by a flight incifion of a knife or fword: in this veffel they dip a symetar, fome arrows, a hatchet, and a spear, after this they perform folema prayers, &c."

"Xenophon, Anab. lib. ii. fays, that the commanders of the Greeks, and Ariæus (the Perfian) took an oath not to betray one another, and to become allies,&c. which oath, "was preceded by the fa crifice of a boar, a bull, a wolf, and a ram, whofe blood being all mixed together in the hollow of a fhield, the Greeks dipped a fword into it, and the barbarians a fpear." As the Scythians refined by becoming ftationary in Perfia, one may fuppofe that the blood of brute animals was fubftituted for human bloodt.

"Strabo abfolutely calls the Parthians, Scythians, in his account of the origin of the city of Ctesiphon, p. 743, and in fact most of the ancient hiftorians regard the Parthians as defcendants of Scythians; that is, of Maffaget, and there is no doubt but that the resemblance of character between the Maffagetan race and the Scythians of the Euxine, led them to regard both as being of the fame flockt.

"Juftin, who feems to have known no other Scythians than those of the Euxine, to whom he refers whatsoever regards the Scythians at

**Herodotus relates of the Maffagete, who had their wives in common, that the fignal of retirement and privacy was the hanging up of the quiver of the individual before his waggon, Clio 216. Amongst the Nafamones in Africa, whofe habits were nearly the fame, a faff was fixed in the ground before the tent, Melp. 172. Dowe fays, in his differtation prefixed to his Indian Hiftory, p. 37, that the Facquirs of fome part of India leave one of their flippers at the door, when engaged in certain vifits, in which they are fuppofed to be privileged by the fanctity of their order. Some of our ancestors are accused of the fame want of delicacy as the Maffagetæ and the Nafamones; but we have no particular record of their domestic cuftoms. Herodotus acquits the western Scythians of this practice, fo contrary to decency and fentiment.

"The above modes are reprefented as permanent customs, in the above countries; but we find it practifed occafionally in a more horrible manner in Egypt, Thalia 11, and by Catiline as told by Salluft.

In Melpom. 65, it appears that the Western Scythians (our ancestors probably) decided certain of their differences by combat, in prefence of the king. This agrees exactly with one of our ancient cuftoms; but we are daily getting rid of our Scythian habits.”

Tt

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XVII. JUNE, 1801,

large,

large, affigns them a high degree of antiquity: for he makes them more ancient than even the Egyptians. His arguments to prove it are very curious. He fays, that Scythians inhabited an elevated tract, which was therefore fit for the reception of men, at an earlier period than Egypt, which had been covered with water; lib. i. c. i. But although much the fame idea of the early state of Egypt was entertained by Herodotus*, yet he fuppofes, with much reafon, Euterpe 15, that this circumstance does not make any alteration in the cafe, as the Egyptians would have migrated lower and lower down, as the newly formed land became habitable; wherefore the inhabitants of lower Egypt would have been drawn from upper Egypt (or Thebes) and Ethiopia. And according to him the Scythians themselves did not pretend to antiquity, fince they affirmed that their country was, of all others, the laft peopled. Melpom. 5.

Few tracks could be better fuited to a pastoral life than the feats of the Euxine Scythians (the Ukraine and its neighbourhood) in which particular they had greatly the advantage of the Eastern Scythians. The foil was rich, and abundantly watered; and the grafs, as Herodotus obferves, Melp. 58, "is of all that we know the fulleft of moifture, which evidently appears from the diffection of their cattlet.” They poffeffed the greatest abundance of provifion, 59, and were of courfe very populous, 81, but were generally deftitute of wood, 61. They held in abhorrence foreign cuftoms, 76, and, like most of the eastern nations, kept no fwine, 63; like other Nomadic nations, they were impatient of dependance, and poffeffed a great fhare of courage. Having no towns, and few cultivated fields, they could never be conquered. Our author regarded Scythia as a country exempt from the character of abfolute barbarism, although furrounded by nations the most barbarous, and fays, "Even of the Scythians I cannot, in general, fpeak with extraordinary commendation," Melp. 46. He has recorded their barbarous facrifices to their deities, and at their funerals; their practice of fcalping (which more than any other circumftance has fixed the character of barbarifm on the American Indians) their horrid cuf

"His idea, Euterpe 4, et feq. being that all the tract below the lake Maris, which is at the diftance of feven days' journey from the fea, had been formed by the mud of the Nile, and was no better than a marsh in the reign of Menes. See also his reasoning, in chap. 10

to 13.

"+Bell speaks of the fertility of the foil, and rich pafturage of the Ukraine. He alfo fays that there are good horfes, and large black cattle, which afford as good beef as any in the world (Journey from Moscow to Conftantinople).

"Mr. Bell has (in the fame journey) a curious remark refpecting the nature of the river banks, in the line between Moscow and Ifmael, on the Danube. By what I could obferve (fays he) all the great rivers, from the Wolga to this place, have for the most part high lands for their weftern banks, and low, flat ones to the eastward." It fhould be remarked that his tract lay very far inland, and confequently very wide of Baron Tott's."

tom

tom of drinking the blood of enemies, and making drinking veffels of their skulls *. If these are not the acts of barbarians, what are to be deemed fucht?

Notwithstanding fome ambiguities, and apparent contradictions, in the geography of Scythia, Herodotus had certainly paid uncom mon attention to the fubject; and by the folemnity of his declaration, at fetting out, we may suppose that he meant to be very impreffive : for, after faying, Melp. 16, that Ariftéas had gone no farther than the country of the Iffedones, he adds, "for my own part, all the intelligence which the most affiduous researches, and the greatest attention to authenticity, have been able to produce, fhall be faithfully related," and perhaps it has feldom happened, that a traveller who collected his information concerning the geography of fo extenfive a tract, in fo cafual a way, has produced a defcription in which fo many circumftances have been found to agree‡."

It feems neceffary to inform the reader, that Mr. Rennel candidly acknowledges that he is unacquainted with the original language of Herodotus; and that he has availed himself of Mr. Beloe's tranflation, from which he takes his extracts as occafion requires.

(To be continued.)

ART. VIII. A Treatife on the Chemical Hiftory and Medical Powers of fome of the most celebrated Mineral Waters; with Practical Remarks on the Aqueous Regimen. To which are added, Obfervations on the Ufe of Cold and Warm Bathing. By William Saunders, M. D. F. R. S. Fellow of the Royal College of Phyficians of London, and Senior Physician to Guy's Hofpital. 8vo. 483 pp. 8s. Phillips. 1800...

IN treating his fubject, this author firft confiders water in its pureft ftate, and then as mixed with the various fubftances that impart thofe properties, whence it obtains the name of mineral or medicated water. Pure water is faid, by the che

"See Melpomene, 60, 64, 65, and 72.

"Our author fays, Melp. 46, that amongst the Scythians and the bordering nations, there has been found no individual of fuperior learning and accomplishments, fave Anacharfis the Scythian. See more of him in Melpom. 76, 77

Scythia, together with the nations bordering on it, and which are included in our author's defcription, comprized about half of the length of Europe, in the line between the Tanais, and the Bay of Bifcay."

Tt 2

mifts,