Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/465

 n. vii. c. n. $ 4. CIMBRI. 451 platform, which one of the priestesses having ascended, and holding the prisoner above the vessel, cut his throat ; then, from the manner in which the blood flowed into the vessel, some drew certain divinations ; while others, having opened the corpse, and inspected the entrails, prophesied victory to their army. In battle too they beat skins stretched on the wicker sides of chariots, which produces a stunning noise. 4. As we have before stated, the northernmost of the Ger- mans inhabit a' country bordering on the ocean ; but we are only acquainted with those situated between the mouths of the Rhine and the Elbe, of which the Sicambri 1 and Cimbri 2 are the most generally known : those dwelling along the coast 3 beyond the Elbe are entirely unknown to us ; for none of the ancients with whom I am acquainted have prosecuted this voyage towards the east as far as the mouths of the Caspian Sea, neither have the Eomans as yet sailed coastwise beyond the Elbe, nor has any one travelling on foot penetrated farther into this country. But it is evident, by the climates and the parallels of distances, that in following a longitudinal course towards the east we must come to the countries near the Dnieper, and the regions on the north side of the Euxine. But as for any particulars as to Germany beyond the Elbe, or of the countries which lie beyond it in order, whether we should call them the Bastarnse, as most geographers suppose, or whether other nations intervene, such as the Jazyges, 4 or the Roxolani, 5 or any others of the tribes dwelling in waggons, it is not easy to give any account. Neither can we say whe- ther these nations extend as far as the [Northern] Ocean, along the whole distance, or whether [between them and the Ocean] there are countries rendered unfit for habitation by the cold or by any other cause ; or whether men of a different race are situated between the sea and the most eastern of the Germans. The same uncertainty prevails with regard to the other 1 The Sicambri, or Sugambri, dwelt to the south of the Lippe. 2 The Cimbri occupied Jutland, the ancient Cimbrica Chersonesus. 3 The shores of the Baltic. between the Dniester and the Sea of Azoff. 5 Gossellin considers that the name of Russia is derived from these Roxolani. 2 G 2
 * Gossellin places the Jazyges in the southern districts of the Ukraine,