while at the same time it was arranged into a large mass of
similar small close ringlets at the back of the head and over the ears.
[PLATE IV., Fig. 1.]

[Illustration: PLATE IV.]

Of the Median women we have no representations upon the sculptures; but
we are informed by Xenophon that they were remarkable for their stature
and their beauty. The same qualities were observable in the women of
Persia, as we learn from Plutarch, Ammianus Marcellinus, and others.
The Arian races seem in old times to have treated women with a certain
chivalry, which allowed the full development of their physical powers,
and rendered them specially attractive alike to their own husbands and
to the men of other nations.

The modern Persian is a very degenerate representative of the ancient
Arian stock. Slight and supple in person, with quick, glancing eyes,
delicate features, and a vivacious manner, he lacks the dignity and
strength, the calm repose and simple grace of the race from which he
is sprung, Fourteen centuries of subjection to despotic sway have left
their stamp upon his countenance and his frame, which, though still
retaining some traces of the original type, have been sadly weakened and
lowered by so long a term of subservience. Probably the wild Kurd or Lur
of the present day more nearly corresponds in physique to the ancient
Mede than do the softer inhabitants of the great plateau.

Among the moral characteristics of the Medes the one most obvious
is their bravery. "_Pugnatrix natio et formidanda_," says Ammianus
Marcellinus in the fourth century of our era, summing up in a few words
the general judgment of Antiquity. Originally equal, if not superior, to
their close kindred, the Persians, they were throughout the whole
period of Persian supremacy only second to them in courage and warlike
qualities. Mardonius, when allowed to take his choice out of the entire
host of Xerxes, selected the Median troops in immediate succession to
the Persians. Similarly, when the time for battle came he kept the Medes
near himself, giving them their place in the line close to that of
the Persian contingent. It was no doubt on account of their valor, as
Diodorus suggests, that the Medes were chosen to make the first attack
upon the Greek position at Thermopylae, where, though unsuccessful, they
evidently showed abundant courage. In the earlier times, before riches
and luxury had eaten out the strength of the race, their valor and
military prow