them and cut up the flesh, they cut up also the dead body of the
father of their entertainer, and mixing all the flesh together they set
forth a banquet. His skull however they strip of the flesh and clean it
out and then gild it over, and after that they deal with it as a sacred
thing 31 and perform for the dead man great sacrifices every year.
This each son does for his father, just as the Hellenes keep the day of
memorial for the dead. 32 In other respects however this race also is
said to live righteously, and their women have equal rights with the
men.

27. These then also are known; but as to the region beyond them, it
is the Issedonians who report that there are there one-eyed men and
gold-guarding griffins; and the Scythians report this having received it
from them, and from the Scythians we, that is the rest of mankind, have
got our belief; and we call them in Scythian language Arimaspians, for
the Scythians call the number one arima and the eye spu.

28. This whole land which has been described is so exceedingly severe in
climate, that for eight months of the year there is frost so hard as to
be intolerable; and during these if you pour out water you will not be
able to make mud, but only if you kindle a fire can you make it; and
the sea is frozen and the whole of the Kimmerian Bosphorus, so that the
Scythians who are settled within the trench make expeditions and drive
their waggons over into the country of the Sindians. Thus it continues
to be winter for eight months, and even for the remaining four it is
cold in those parts. This winter is distinguished in its character from
all the winters which come in other parts of the world; for in it there
is no rain to speak of at the usual season for rain, whereas in summer
it rains continually; and thunder does not come at the time when it
comes in other countries, but is very frequent, 33 in the summer; and if
thunder comes in winter, it is marvelled at as a prodigy: just so, if
an earthquake happens, whether in summer or in winter, it is accounted
a prodigy in Scythia. Horses are able to endure this winter, but neither
mules nor asses can endure it at all, whereas in other countries horses
if they stand in frost lose their limbs by mortification, while asses
and mules endure it.

29. I think also that it is for this reason that the hornless breed
of oxen in that country have no horns growing; and there is a verse of
Homer in the Odyssey 34 supporting my opinion