k erected for their arrows, and, when they had
passed it a considerable way, turn themselves round upon their horses
and transfix it with an unerring aim. I saw many who vaulted upon their
horses, and placed themselves between two naked swords, which would have
given them certain death, had they swerved ever so little from the just
direction. In another part of the camp I observed the children, who
imitated all the actions of their fathers, bended little bows adapted to
their strength, or guided horses of an inferior stature along the plain.
Their women were indeed inferior to the Syrians in beauty and elegance,
but seemed to be of a more robust constitution, and more adapted to
produce and educate warriors. I saw no gold, no jewels, no vain and
costly apparel; but all seemed busy in domestic cares, preparing the
food of their families, or tending upon their infants.

"'At length I reached the royal tent, which scarcely differed from the
rest in its structure or simplicity; and was immediately introduced to
the great Arsaces. He received me with a courtesy which had nothing of
the barbarian in it; seated me familiarly by his side, and entered into
a long conversation with me upon the laws, and manners, and customs of
the different nations I had seen. I was surprised at the vigour and
penetration which I discovered in this untutored warrior's mind.
Unbiassed by the mass of prejudices which we acquire in cities, even
from our earliest childhood, unencumbered by forms and ceremonies which
contract the understanding while they pretend to improve the manners, he
seemed to possess a certain energy of soul which never missed the mark;
nature in him had produced the same effects that study and philosophy do
in others. But, what amazed me more than all, was to find this Scythian
chief as well acquainted with the state and consequence of _our_
manners, as if he had passed his life in Greece or Syria, instead of the
plains and forests of his own domain. He entertained a rooted contempt
for all the arts which softened the body and mind, under the pretence of
adding to the elegancies of life; these, he said, were more efficacious
agents to reduce men to slavery, than the swords and arrows of their
enemies.

"'One day I remember that some of our principal men, judging of the mind
of their conqueror by their own, brought to him a celebrated dancer;
who, at that time, engaged the whole attention of our city, and seemed
to interest it