he frost.

*** Irrigation was effected formerly, as now, by means of
subterranean canals with openings at intervals, known as
_kanat_.

The fauna include, besides wild beasts of the more formidable kinds,
such as lions, tigers, leopards, and bears, many domestic animals,
or animals capable of being turned to domestic use, such as the ass,
buffalo, sheep, goat, dog, and dromedary, and the camel with two humps,
whose gait caused so much merriment among the Ninevite idlers when
they beheld it in the triumphal processions of their kings; there were,
moreover, several breeds of horses, amongst which the Nisasan steed was
greatly prized on account of its size, strength, and agility.* In
short, Media was large enough and rich enough to maintain a numerous
population, and offered a stable foundation to a monarch ambitious of
building up a new empire.**

* In the time of the Seleucides, Media supplied nearly the
whole of Asia with these animals, and the grazing-lands of
Bagistana, the modern Behistun, are said to have supported
160,000 of them. Under the Parthian kings Media paid a
yearly tribute of 3000 horses, and the Nisaean breed was
still celebrated at the beginning of the Byzantine era.
Horses are mentioned among the tribute paid by the Medic
chiefs to the kings of Assyria.

** The history of the Medes remains shrouded in greater
obscurity than that of any other Asiatic race. We possess no
original documents which owe their existence to this nation,
and the whole of our information concerning its history is
borrowed from Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions, and from
the various legends collected by the Greeks, especially by
Herodotus and Ctesias, from Persian magnates in Asia Minor
or at the court of the Achaemenian kings, or from fragments
of vanished works such as the writings of Borosus. And yet
modern archaeologists and philologists have, during the last
thirty years, allowed their critical faculties, and often
their imagination as well, to run riot when dealing with
this very period. After carefully examining, one after
another, most of the theories put forward, I have adopted
those hypotheses which, while most nearly approximating to
the classical legends, harmonise best with the chronological
framework--far too imperfect as yet--furnished by the
inscriptions dealing