, which runs this:--

"Also the Libyan land, where the sheep very quickly grow horned,"

for it is rightly said that in hot regions the horns come quickly,
whereas in extreme cold the animals either have no horns growing at all,
or hardly any. 35

30. In that land then this takes place on account of the cold; but
(since my history proceeded from the first seeking occasions for
digression) 36 I feel wonder that in the whole land of Elis mules cannot
be bred, though that region is not cold, nor is there any other evident
cause. The Eleians themselves say that in consequence of some curse
mules are not begotten in their land; but when the time approaches for
the mares to conceive, they drive them out into the neighbouring
lands and there in the land of their neighbours they admit to them the
he-asses until the mares are pregnant, and then they drive them back.

31. As to the feathers of which the Scythians say that the air is full,
and that by reason of them they are not able either to see or to pass
through the further parts of the continent, the opinion which I have is
this:--in the parts beyond this land it snows continually, though less
in summer than in winter, as might be supposed. Now whomsoever has seen
close at hand snow falling thickly, knows what I mean without further
explanation, for the snow is like feathers: and on account of this
wintry weather, being such as I have said, the Northern parts of this
continent are uninhabitable. I think therefore that by the feathers the
Scythians and those who dwell near them mean symbolically the snow. This
then which has been said goes to the furthest extent of the accounts
given.

32. About a Hyperborean people the Scythians report nothing, nor do any
of those who dwell in this region, unless it be the Issedonians: but
in my opinion neither do these report anything; for if they did the
Scythians also would report it, as they do about the one-eyed people.
Hesiod however has spoken of Hyperboreans, and so also has Homer in the
poem of the "Epigonoi," at least if Homer was really the composer of
that Epic.

33. But much more about them is reported by the people of Delos than by
any others. For these say that sacred offerings bound up in wheat straw
are carried from the land of the Hyperboreans and come to the Scythians,
and then from the Scythians the neighbouring nations in succession
receive them and convey them Westwards, finally as far as the Adriatic:
thenc