ntry, a clod
from the soil still passes, or passed lately, from seller to purchaser,
as a symbol of the transfer of possession. The Persian king, then,
discerned in these singular presents a similar surrender of territorial
jurisdiction. But another version, less favourable to his vanity and his
hopes, was suggested by one of his courtiers, and it ran thus: "Unless
you can fly like a bird, or burrow like a mouse, or swim the marshes
like a frog, you cannot escape our arrows." Whichever interpretation was
the true one, it needed no message from the enemy to inflict upon Darius
the presence of the dilemma suggested in this unpleasant interpretation.
He yielded to imperative necessity, and hastened his escape from the
formidable situation in which he had placed himself, and through great
good fortune succeeded in effecting it. He crossed the sea just in time;
for the Scythians came down in pursuit, as far as the coast, and
returned home laden with booty.

This is pretty much all that is definitely recorded in history of the
ancient Tartars. Alexander, in a later age, came into conflict with them
in the region called Sogdiana which lies at the foot of that high
plateau of central and eastern Asia, which I have designated as their
proper home. But he was too prudent to be entangled in extended
expeditions against them, and having made trial of their formidable
strength, and made some demonstrations of the superiority of his own, he
left them in possession of their wildernesses.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Isai. xli. 25: Jer. i. 14; vi. 1, 22; Joel ii. 20; etc., etc.

[2] Gibbon.

[3] Gibbon.

[4] Caldecott's Baber.

[5] Vid. Mitford's Greece, vol. viii. p. 86.

[6] Pritchard's Researches.

LECTURE II.

_The Tartars._

1.

If anything needs be added to the foregoing account, in illustration of
the natural advantages of the Scythian or Tartar position, it is the
circumstance that the shepherds of the Ukraine were divided in their
counsels when Darius made war against them, and that only a portion of
their tribes coalesced to repel his invasion. Indeed, this internal
discord, which is the ordinary characteristic of races so barbarous, and
the frequent motive of their migrations, is the cause why in ancient
times they were so little formidable to their southern neighbours; and
it suggests a remark to the philosophical historian, Thucydides, which,
viewed in the light of subsequent history, is almost prophetic. "As