Hellenes whom they
can capture by putting out to sea against them; 103 and their manner
of sacrifice is this:--when they have made the first offering from the
victim they strike his head with a club: and some say that they push
the body down from the top of the cliff (for it is upon a cliff that
the temple is placed) and set the head up on a stake; but others, while
agreeing as to the heads, say nevertheless that the body is not pushed
down from the top of the cliff, but buried in the earth. This divinity
to whom they sacrifice, the Tauroi themselves say is Iphigeneia the
daughter of Agamemnon. Whatsoever enemies they have conquered they
treat in this fashion:--each man cuts off a head and bears it away to his
house; then he impales it on a long stake and sets it up above his house
raised to a great height, generally above the chimney; and they say that
these are suspended above as guards to preserve the whole house. This
people has its living by plunder and war.

104. The Agathyrsians are the most luxurious of men and wear gold
ornaments for the most part: also they have promiscuous intercourse with
their women, in order that they may be brethren to one another and being
all nearly related may not feel envy or malice one against another. In
their other customs they have come to resemble the Thracians.

105. The Neuroi practise the Scythian customs: and one generation before
the expedition of Dareios it so befell them that they were forced
to quit their land altogether by reason of serpents: for their land
produced serpents in vast numbers, and they fell upon them in still
larger numbers from the desert country above their borders; until at
last being hard pressed they left their own land and settled among the
Budinoi. These men it would seem are wizards; for it is said of them by
the Scythians and by the Hellenes who are settled in the Scythian land
that once in every year each of the Neuroi becomes a wolf for a few
days and then returns again to his original form. For my part I do not
believe them when they say this, but they say it nevertheless, and swear
it moreover.

106. The Androphagoi have the most savage manners of all human beings,
and they neither acknowledge any rule of right nor observe any customary
law. They are nomads and wear clothing like that of the Scythians, but
have a language of their own; and alone of all these nations they are
man-eaters.

107. The Melanchlainoi wear all of them black cloth