Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/255

 MANNERS OF THE SCYTHIANS. 239 been the influence of the Grecian settlement of Olbia at the mouth of the latter river in creating new tastes and habits, that two tribes on its western banks, the Kallippidaa and the Alazones, had become completely accustomed both to tillage and to vegetable food, and had in other respects so much departed from their Scythian rudeness as to be called Hellenic-Scythians, many Greeks being seemingly domiciled among them. Northward of the Alazones, lay those called the agricultural Scythians, who sowed corn, not for food but for sale. 1 Such stationary cultivators were doubtless regarded by the predominant mass of the Scythians as degenerate brethren ; and some historians maintain that they belonged to a foreign race, standing to the Scythians merely in the relation of subjects, 2 an from the Scythians, tdvor EOV Uiov Kac ovtiapuf ZicvdiKbv (iv, 18), whereas when we compare Strabo vii. p. 302 and Skymn. Chi. 105-115. we see that Ephorus talked of the Androphagi as a variety of Scythians, e The valuable inscription from Olbia (No. 2058 Boeckh) recognizes Mtfe'/l- A^vff near that town. 1 Herod, iv, 17. We may illustrate this statement of Herodotus by an extract from Heber's journal as cited in Dr. Clarke's Travels, ch. xv, p. 337 : " The Nagay Tartars begin to the west of Marinopol : they cultivate a good deal of corn, yet they dislike bread as an article of food." 110), and Ritter (Vorhalle der Geschichte, p. 316) advance this opinion. But we ought not on this occasion to depart from the authority of Herodotus, whose information respecting the people of Scythia, collected by himself on the spot, is one of the most instructive and precious portions of his whole work. He is very careful to distinguish what is Scythian from what is not : and these tribes, which Niebuhr (contrary to the sentiment of Herodotus) imagines not to be Scythian, were the tribes nearest and best known to him; probably he had personally visited them, since we know that he went up the river Hypanis (Bog) as high as the Exampajus, four days' journey from the sea (iv, 52-81). That some portions of the same ci?i>of should be uporftpsf, and other por- tions vofiadf^, is far from being without parallel ; such was the case with the Persians, for example (Herodot. i. 126), and with the Iberians between the Euxine and the Caspian (Strabo, xi, p. 500). The Pontic Greeks confounded Agathyrsus, Gelonus. and Scythes in the same genealogy, as being three brethren, sons of Herakles by the mjoTap- tfevoc 'Exidva of the Hylaea (iv, 7-10). Herodotus is more precis* h distinguishes both the Agathyrsi and Geloisi from Scythians.
 * Niebuhr (Dissertat. ut sup. p. 360), Boeckh (Introd. Inscrip. ut sup. p.