98 MELPOMENE.

from women, have been assigned. To one of these
divisions some have given as a boundary the Egyptian
Nile, and the Colchian Phasis; others the Tanais, the
Cimmerian Bosphorus, and the Palus Maeotis. The
names of those who have thus distinguished the earth,
or the first occasion of their different appellations, I
have never been able to learn. Libya is, by many of
the Greeks, said to have been so named from Libya, a
woman of the country; and Asia from the wife of
Prometheus. The Lydians contradict this, and affirm
that Asia was so called from Asias, a son of Cotys,
and grandson of Manis, and not from the wife of Pro­
metheus; to confirm this, they adduce the name of a
tribe at Sardis, called the Asian tribe. It has cer­
tainly never been ascertained, whether Europe be
surrounded by the ocean : it is a matter of equal un­
certainty, whence or from whom it derives its name.
We cannot willingly allow that it took its name from
the Syrian Europa, though we know that, like the
other two, it was formerly without any. We are
well assured that Europa was an Asiatic, and that she
never saw the region which the Greeks now call
Europe; she only went from Phoenicia to Crete, from
Crete to Lycia. I shall now quit this subject, upon
which I have given the opinions generally received.

XLVI. Except Scythia, the countries of the Euxine,
against which Darius undertook an expedition, axe
of all others the most barbarous; among the people
who dwell within these limits, we have found no in­
dividual of superior learning and accomplishments,
but Anacharsis the Scythian. Even of the Scythian
nation I cannot in general speak with extraordinary
commendation; they have, however, one observance,
which for its wisdom excels every thing I have met
with. The possibility of escape is cut off from those
Who attack them; and if they are averse to be seen,
their places of retreat can never be discovered: for
they have no towns nor fortified cities, their habita­
tions they constantly carry along with them, their
bows and arrows they manage on horseback, and they
support themselves not by agriculture, but by their
cattle; their constant abode may be said to be in I heir