eeding speed, and fond of
surprising their enemies. With a view to this, they suddenly disperse,
then reunite, and again, after having inflicted vast loss upon the
enemy, scatter themselves over the whole plain in irregular formations:
always avoiding the fort or an intrenchment.

And in one respect you may pronounce them the most formidable of all
warriors, for when at a distance they use missiles of various kinds,
tipped with sharpened bones instead of the usual points of javelins, and
these bones are admirably fastened into the shaft of the javelin or
arrow; but when they are at close quarters they fight with the sword,
without any regard for their own safety; and often while their
antagonists are warding off their blows they entangle them with twisted
cords, so that, their hands being fettered, they lose all power of
either riding or walking.

None of them plough, or even touch a plough handle; for they have no
settled abode, but are homeless and lawless, perpetually wandering with
their wagons, which they make their homes; in fact, they seem to be
people always in flight. Their wives live in these wagons, and there
weave their miserable garments; and here, too, they sleep with their
husbands, and bring up their children till they reach the age of
puberty; nor, if asked, can any one of them tell you where he was born,
as he was conceived in one place, born in another at a great distance,
and brought up in another still more remote.

In truces they are treacherous and inconstant, being liable to change
their minds at every breeze of every fresh hope which presents itself,
giving themselves up wholly to the impulse and inclination of the
moment; and, like brute beasts, they are utterly ignorant of the
distinction between right and wrong. They express themselves with great
ambiguity and obscurity; have no respect for any religion or
superstition whatever; are immoderately covetous of gold; and are so
fickle and irascible that they very often, on the same day that they
quarrel with their companions without any provocation, again become
reconciled to them without any mediator.

This active and indomitable race, being excited by an unrestrainable
desire of plundering the possessions of others, went on ravaging and
slaughtering all the nations in their neighborhood till they reached the
Alani, who were formerly called the Massagetae; and from what country
these Alani came, or what territories they inhabit--since my sub