ng of the
temple, must be in the archives at Ecbatana.

They were followed by a deputation from Syria, and by the Greeks
of Ionia; and then, winding up the long train, appeared a band of
wild-looking men, dressed in the skins of animals, whose features
bespoke them foreigners in Babylon. They wore girdles and shoulderbands
of solid, unwrought gold; and of the same precious metal were their
bow-cases, axes, lance-points, and the ornaments on their high fur caps.
They were preceded by a man in Persian dress, whose features proved him,
however, to be of the same race as his followers.

The king gazed at first on these envoys with wonder; then his brow
darkened, and beckoning the officer whose duty it was to present
strangers, he exclaimed "What can these men have to crave of me? If I
mistake not they belong to the Massagetae, to that people who are so
soon to tremble before my vengeance. Tell them, Gobryas, that an armed
host is standing on the Median plains ready to answer their demands with
the sword."

Gobryas answered, bowing low: "These men arrived this morning during
the sacrifice bringing huge burdens of the purest gold to purchase your
forbearance. When they heard that a great festival was being celebrated
in your honor, they urgently besought to be admitted into your presence,
that they might declare the message entrusted to them by their country."

The king's brow cleared and, after sharply scrutinizing the tall,
bearded Massageta, he said: "Let them come nearer. I am curious to know
what proposals my father's murderers are about to make me."

Gobryas made a sign, and the tallest and eldest of the Massagetae came
up close to the throne and began to speak loudly in his native tongue.
He was accompanied by the man in a Persian dress, who, as one of Cyrus'
prisoners of war, had learnt the Persian language, and now interpreted
one by one the sentences uttered by the spokesman of this wandering
tribe.

"We know," began the latter, "that thou, great king, art wroth with the
Massagetae because thy father fell in war with our tribe--a war which he
alone had provoked with a people who had done naught to offend him."

"My father was justified in punishing your nation," interrupted the
king. "Your Queen Tomyris had dared to refuse him her hand in marriage."

"Be not wroth, O King," answered the Massagetan, "when I tell thee that
our entire nation approved of that act. Even a child could see that the
great Cyrus onl