The other men followed his example, and made it a sort of game, enjoying the sensation, pleasant alike to old and young, of courting danger for a moment, and then quickly escaping it. When the stones were almost exhausted, the soldiers raced one another over the exposed part of the road, each eager to be the first to reach the fortress. The Taochians made no further resistance, but, fearing the vengeance of the Hellenes, men, women and children flung themselves over the edge of the cliff and were dashed to pieces. One of the soldiers, seeing a Taochian who appeared to be better dressed than the rest, about to throw himself over the precipice, ran up to him and tried to pull him back, but the Taochian grasped him in his strong arms and dragged him forward with him over the edge, so that both perished together. The Hellenes took few prisoners, but much spoil, cattle and asses in abundance, and whole flocks of sheep. XXXVII THE SEA! THE SEA! The next country through which the Hellenes had to make their way was inhabited by the Chalybeans, who like the Taochians, were a free people, not subject to the Great King. In their country were iron mines which they had worked from the most ancient times, and they knew how to smelt the iron and make it into steel. When they went out to fight, the Chalybeans wore a cuirass made of many folds of linen, with a thick fringe at the bottom, of twisted cords. They wore also greaves and helmet, and carried a spear twenty-two feet in length, and a short curved sword, with which they cut off the heads of their fallen enemies. These they carried about, singing and dancing, and displayed them to the foe with horrible delight. Like the Taochians, the Chalybeans were possessed of strong castles, to which they had carried off all the food in the country, and the Hellenes would have fared badly but for the cattle which they had recently taken from the Taochians. It was not the custom of the Chalybeans to meet their enemies in the open field, and they contented themselves with harassing the Hellenes whenever they could do so at an advantage, although if their castles had been attacked, they would have defended them with the utmost bravery. As it was, the Hellenes suffered considerable loss during the seven days that they spent in passing through this country, and at the end of the whole march, Xenophon declared that the Chalybeans were the most warlike of all the many tribes with whom they had exchanged blows in Asia. After leaving their country, the Hellenes marched for four days through the land of the Scythinians, until they came to some villages where they rested for three days, and took in a fresh supply of food.