shelter during the night on a lower hill for the army, together with the women and children. Astyages followed quickly, and his army was already between the two mountains, and bravely attacked that held by the Persians, the approach to which, lying through deep gorges, thick oak forests, and wild olive trees, was very difficult. The Persians fought still more bravely; in one place Cyrus dashed forward, and in another Oebares, who urged them not to let their wives, mothers, and old men be massacred and tortured by the Medes. So they rushed down with a cry, and when their javelins failed, they threw down stones in great numbers. The Medes were driven back, and Cyrus chanced to come to the house in which he once lived with his father as a boy, when he pastured goats. He kindled a fire of cypress and laurel-wood, and offered the sacrifice of the man who is distressed and in desperate circumstances. Then followed thunder and lightning, and when Cyrus sank down in prayer, birds of good omen settled on the roof, as a sign that he would again reach Pasargadae. So the Persians remained for the night on the mountain, and when on the following morning the Medes renewed the attack, they fought yet more bravely, relying on the happy omens. But Astyages placed 50,000 men at the foot of the mountain behind those who were attacking, and bade them slay all who came down. Thus pressed, the Medes fought more zealously than on the previous day, and the Persians retired to the top of the mountain on which were their women and children. These ran to meet the fugitives, and cried out to them, 'Cowards, whither would ye fly, will ye creep back into the bosoms that bore you?' Seized with shame, the Persians turned, and in one onslaught drove the Medes down the mountain, and slew sixty thousand of them."