substance
by no kind of labour, but only by defrauding and plundering
their neighbours.

Once upon a time when they were out hunting beside the Sea of
Azof, a hind suddenly appeared before them, and having entered
the water of that shallow sea, now stopping, now dashing
forward, seemed to invite the hunters to follow on foot. They
did so, through what they had before supposed to be trackless
sea with no land beyond it, till at length the shore of Scythia
lay before them. As soon as they set foot upon it, the stag that
had guided them thus far mysteriously disappeared. This, I trow,
was done by those evil spirits that begat them, for the injury
of the Goths. But the hunters who had lived in complete
ignorance of any other land beyond the Sea of Azof were struck
with admiration of the Scythian land and deemed that a path
known to no previous age had been divinely revealed to them.
They returned to their comrades to tell them what had happened,
and the whole nation resolved to follow the track thus opened
out before them. They crossed that vast pool, they fell like a
human whirlwind on the nations inhabiting that part of Scythia,
and offering up the first tribes whom they overcame, as a
sacrifice to victory, suffered the others to remain alive, but
in servitude.

With the Alani especially, who were as good warriors as
themselves, but somewhat less brutal in appearance and manner of
life, they had many a struggle, but at length they wearied out
and subdued them. For, in truth, they derived an unfair
advantage from the intense hideousness of their countenances.
Nations whom they would never have vanquished in fair fight fled
horrified from those frightful--faces I can hardly call them,
but rather--shapeless black collops of flesh, with little points
instead of eyes. No hair on their cheeks or chins gives grace to
adolescence or dignity to age, but deep furrowed scars instead,
down the sides of their faces, show the impress of the iron
which with characteristic ferocity they apply to every male
child that is born among them, drawing blood from its cheeks
before it is allowed its first taste of milk. They are little in
stature, but lithe and active in their motions, and especially
skilful in riding, broad-shouldered, good at the use of the bow
and arrows, with sinewy ne