Hippocrates, though drawn in the fifth
century before our era, as applying, in all their main points, to the
same race two hundred years earlier. These writers describe the
Scythians as a people coarse and gross in their habits, with large
fleshy bodies, loose joints, soft swollen bellies, and scanty hair. They
never washed themselves; their nearest approach to ablution was a
vapor-bath, or the application of a paste to their bodies which left
them glossy on its removal. They lived either in wagons, or in felt
tents of a simple and rude construction; and subsisted on mare's milk
and cheese, to which the boiled flesh of horses and cattle was added, as
a rare delicacy, occasionally. In war their customs were very barbarous.
The Scythian who slew an enemy in battle immediately proceeded to drink
his blood. He then cut off the head, which he exhibited to his king in
order to obtain his share of the spoil; after which he stripped the
scalp from the skull and hung it on his bridle-rein as a trophy.
Sometimes he flayed his dead enemy's right arm and hand, and used the
skin as a covering for his quiver. The upper portion of the skull he
commonly made into a drinking-cup. The greater part of each day he spent
on horseback, in attendance on the huge herds of cattle which he
pastured. His favorite weapon was the bow, which he used as he rode,
shooting his arrows with great precision. He generally carried, besides
his bow and arrows, a short spear or javelin, and sometimes bore also a
short sword or a battleaxe. [PLATE CXLVI., Fig. 3.]

The nation of the Scythians comprised within it a number of distinct
tribes. At the head of all was a royal tribe, corresponding to the
"Golden Horde" of the Mongols, which was braver and more numerous than
any other, and regarded all the remaining tribes in the light of slaves.
To this belonged the families of the kings, who ruled by hereditary
right, and seem to have exercised a very considerable authority. We
often hear of several kings as bearing rule at the same time; but there
is generally some indication of disparity, from which we gather that--in
times of danger at any rate--the supreme power was really always lodged
in the hands of a single man.

The religion of the Scythians was remarkable, and partook of the
barbarity which characterized most of their customs. They worshipped the
Sun and Moon, Fire, Air, Earth, Water, and a god whom Herodotus calls
Hercules. But their principal religious