Page:Key to Easy Latin Stories for beginners.djvu/55

 troubled with any disease of the head. For this leason they say that they enjoy admirable health. For truly the Libyans enjoy the strongest health of any men we know. Whether this happens from this reason, I, for my part, cannot say for certain, but they are certainly very strong. Moreover, I relate things which are told by the Africans themselves.  

144.Darius, king of the Persians, waged war on the Scythians. Therefore he crossed the river Danube with a bridge, and gave the bridge to the Ionian Greeks to guard. Then he set out against the Scythians with all his forces. The Scythians, however, were unwilling to fight. So when the time was being prolonged, and no end was appearing, Darius having sent a horseman to the king of the Scythians, inquired why he always fled? He also said, ‘that he ought either to fight or to come to a conference, bringing earth and water.’ 145.To this the king of the Scythians replied as follows: ‘That they were unwilling to fight, since they had neither towns nor cultivated fields which they ought to defend. However, instead of the earth and water which he had demanded, he would send other gifts. Accordingly let him go and be hanged.’ So that was the answer the herald brought back to Darius. At length the Scythians sent a herald, who was carrying giftsa bird, and a mouse, and a frog and five arrows. The Persians asked the bearer of these gifts what was the inteYition of the senders. The herald replied: ‘That no other order had been given him, except to go away as soon as possible after presenting these things. The Persians themselves, however, if they were wise, could find out what those gifts meant.’

146.Darius indeed thought ‘that the Scythians were surrendering themselves and earth and water; because the mouse 