Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/243

 B. xi. c. v. 1. AMAZONS. 235- in general. It is regarded as impious to show any concern for the dead, or to mention their names. Their money is buried with them, hence they live in poverty, having no patrimony. So much concerning the Albanians. It is said that when Jason, accompanied by Armenus the Thessalian, undertook the voyage to the Colchi, they advanced as far as the Caspian Sea, and traversed Iberia, Albania, a great part of Armenia, and Media, as the Jasoneia and many other monuments tes- tify. Armenus, they say, was a native of Armenium, one of the cities on the lake Bcebeis, between Pheras and Parisa, and that his companions settled in Acilisene, and the Suspiritis, and occupied the country as far as Calachene and Adiabene, and that he gave his own name to Armenia. CHAPTER V. 1. THE Amazons are said to live among the mountains above Albania. Theophanes, who accompanied Pompey in his wars, and was in the country of the Albanians, says that Gelas and Legas, 1 Scythian tribes, live between the Amazons and the Albanians, and that the river Mermadalis 2 takes its course in the country lying in the middle between these people and the Amazons. But other writers, and among these Metrodorus of Scepsis, and Hypsicrates, who were themselves acquainted with these places, say that the Ama- zons bordered upon the Gargarenses 3 on the north, at the foot of the Caucasian mountains, which are called Ceraunia. 1 Strabo mentions the Gelee again, c. vii. 1, but in a manner which does not agree with what he here says of their position. We must per- haps suppose that this people, in part at least, have changed their place of residence, and that now the greater part of their descendants are to be found in Ghilan, under the name of Gele, or Gelaki. The name of Leges, or Legae, who have continued to occupy these regions, is recog- nised in that of Legi, Leski. Gossellin. 2 The Mermadaiis seems to be the same river called below by Strabo Mermodas. Critics and modern travellers differ respecting its present name. One asserts that it is the Marubias, or Marabias, of Ptolemy, another takes it to be the Manitsch, called in Austrian maps Calaus. Others believe it to be the small stream Mermedik, which flows into the Terek. Others again recognise the Mermadalis in the Egorlik. Gossellin. 3 Unknown. Pallas thought that he had discovered their name in