semblance; and the authority upon which I proceed is that of Herodotus, to whom he sends me. This author takes notice both of the Bactrians and the Sacæ. He says that the Bactrians were archers, and used bows made of their country reed or cane, and had short darts. In other respects, they were accoutered like the Medes, who wore tiaras, tunics, and breeches, with a dagger at their girdle. The Sace, or Amyrgians, had caps upon their heads which terminated above in a point; they had also breeches. Their chief arins were bows and arrows with a dagger; also battle-axes and sagars. Let us now turn and view the habiliments of the Celta, and see if any resemblance subsisted. Their chief weapons, according to Polybius, Livy, and Cæsar, were a long dart, or framea; and a long cutting sword, but pointless; and they used an immense shield, which covered the whole body. They had helmets upon their heads which were ornamented with the wings of a bird for a crest, or else with the horns of some wild animal. To bows and arrows they were strangers, or did but seldom use them. From hence we may see that they were in nothing similar, but breeches and bravery; and of the former they were divested when they fought, for they went into battle naked.

Great respect is certainly due to men of learning, and a proper regard should be paid to their

memory but they forfeit much of this esteem when they misapply their talents, and put themselves to these shifts to support an hypothesis. They may smile at their reveries, and plume themselves upon their ingenuity in finding out such expedients, but no good can possibly arise from it, for the whole is a fallacy and imposition. And a person who gets out of his depth, and tries to save himself by such feeble supports, is like an ideot drowning without knowing his danger, who laughs, and plunges, and catches at every straw. What I have said in respect to these two learned men will, I hope, be an argument to all those who follow their system.

OF THE

SCYTHE, SCYTHIA, SCYTHISMUS,

AND HELLENISMUS:

ALSO OF THE

IONES AND HELLENES OF BABYLONIA;

AND OF THE

HELLENES OF EGYPT.

As

we have been for so many ages amused with accounts of Scythia; and several learned moderns, taking advantage of that obscurity in which its history is involved, have spoken of it in a most unwarrantable manner, and extended it to an unlimited degree it may not be unsatisfactory to inquire what the country originally was; and from whence it received its name. It is necessary first of all to take notice, that there were many regions, in different parts of the world so called.

2

There was a province in Egypt, and another in Syria, styled Scythia. There was also a Scythia in Asia Minor, upon the Thermodon above Galatia, where the Amazons were supposed to have resided. The country about Colchis, and Iberia; also a great part of Thrace, and Moesia; and all the Tauric Chersonesus, were styled Scythic. Lastly, there was a country of this name far in the east, of which little notice has been hitherto taken. It was situated upon the great Indic Ocean; and consisted of a widely-extended region, called Scythia Limyrica. But the Scythia spo ken of by the antient Greeks, and after them taken notice of by the Romans, consisted of those countries which lay upon the coast of the Euxine; and especially of those upon the north, and north-eastern parts of that sea. In short, it was the region of Colchis, and all that country at the foot of Mount Caucasus, as well as that upon the Palus Mæotis, and the Borysthenes, which was of old esteemed Scythia. As the

4

'Ptolem. Geog. 1. 4. c. 5.

2

p. 121.

Σκυθια ύπερ την Γαλατίαν. Diod. Sic. 1. 5. p. 302. 3 Arriani Periplus Maris Erythræi.

'I he people were of Cuthite original; a part of that body which came from Egypt. Αιγυπτιων αποικοι εισιν δι Σκύθαι· δια σατο και μελανοχροας αυτές είναι λεγεσιν. Schol. in Pindar. Pyth, ød. 4. v. 376.