216. These are the customs which they have:—Each marries a wife, but they have their wives in common; for that which the Hellenes say that the Scythians do, is not in fact done by the Scythians but by the Massagetai, that is to say, whatever woman a man of the Massagetai may desire he hangs up his quiver in front of the waggon and has commerce with her freely. They have no precise limit of age laid down for their life, but when a man becomes very old, his nearest of kin come together and slaughter him solemnly 222 and cattle also with him; and then after that they boil the flesh and banquet upon it. This is considered by them the happiest lot; but him who has ended his life by disease they do not eat, but cover him up in the earth, counting it a misfortune that he did not attain to being slaughtered. They sow no crops but live on cattle and on fish, which last they get in abundance from the river Araxes; moreover they are drinkers of milk. Of gods they reverence the Sun alone, and to him they sacrifice horses: and the rule 223 of the sacrifice is this:—to the swiftest of the gods they assign the swiftest of all mortal things. ————— NOTES TO BOOK I 1 [ {'Erodotou 'Alikarnesseos istories apodexis ede, os k.t.l.} The meaning of the word {istorie} passes gradually from "research" or "inquiry" to "narrative," "history"; cp. vii. 96. Aristotle in quoting these words writes {Thouriou} for {'Alikarnesseos} ("Herodotus of Thurii"), and we know from Plutarch that this reading existed in his time as a variation.] 2 [ Probably {erga} may here mean enduring monuments like the pyramids and the works at Samos, cp. i. 93, ii. 35, etc.; in that case {ta te alla} refers back to {ta genomena}, though the verb {epolemesan} derives its subject from the mention of Hellenes and Barbarians in the preceding clause.] 3 [ Many Editors have "with the Phenicians," on the authority of some inferior MSS. and of the Aldine edition.] 4 [ {arpages}.] 401 [ "thus or in some other particular way."] 5 [ {Surion}, see ch. 72. Herodotus perhaps meant to distinguish {Surioi} from {Suroi}, and to use the first name for the Cappadokians and the second for the people of Palestine, cp. ii. 104; but they are naturally confused in the MSS.] 6 [ {ex epidromes arpage}.] 7 [ {tes anoigomenes thures}, "the door that is opened."] 8 [ Or "because she was ashamed."] 9 [ {phoitan}.] 10 [ {upeisdus}: Stein adopts the conjecture {upekdus}, "slipping out of his hiding-place."] 11 [ This last sentence is by many regarded as an interpolation. The line referred to is {Ou moi ta Gugeo tou polukhrosou melei}.] 12 [ See v. 92.] 13 [ i.e. like other kings of Lydia who came after him.] 14 [ {Kolophonos to astu}, as opposed apparently to the acropolis, cp. viii. 51.] 15 [ See ch. 73.]