92 MELPOMENE.

I

horses are able to bear the extremest severity of the j
climate, which the asses and mules frequently cannot)
though in other regions the cold which destroys the |
former has little effect upon the latter.

XXIX. This circumstance of their climate seem* |
to explain the reason why their cattle are without
horns; and Homer in the Odyssey has a line which
confirms my opinion:—" And Libya, where the sheep
have always horns;" which is as much as to say, that
in warm climates horns will readily grow; but io
places which are extremely cold they either will not
grow at all, or are always diminutive.

XXX. The peculiarities of Scythia are thus ex­
plained from the coldness of the climate; but as I have
accustomed myself from the commencement of this
history to deviate occasionally from my subject, I can­
not here avoid expressing my surprise, that the dis­
trict of Etis never produces mules; yet the air is by
no means cold, nor can any other satisfactory reason
be assigned. The inhabitants themselves believe that
their not possessing mules is the effect of some curse.

- When their mares require the male, the Eleans take
them out of the limits of their own territories, and
there suffer asses to cover them; when they have conJ
ceived, they return. -M

XXXI. Concerning those feathers, which, as the
Scythians say, so cloud the atmosphere that they cam
not penetrate, nor even discern what lies beyond
them, my opinion is this:—in those remoter region*
there is a perpetual fall of snow, which, as may be
supposed, is less in summer than in winter. Who*
ever observes snow falling continually, will easily
conceive what I say ; for it has a great resemblanca
to feathers. These regions, therefore, which are thud
situated remotely to the north, are uninhabitable!
from the unremitting severity of the climate; and
the Scythians, with the neighbouring nations, mistake
the snow for feathers. But on this subject I have
said quite enough.

XXXII. Of tho Hyperboreans neither the Scythiani
nor any of the neighbouring people, the Issedonei
alone excepted, have any knowledge; and indeed