the east and north, does not affect the uplands, which abound in mountain springs, although there is no room for long and wide rivers, the five ridges which stretch across the country being broken only by narrow and precipitous passes. The wooded pastures on the mountain sides and the rich meadows in the valleys were a very paradise for cattle, so that the Eranian settlers had every encouragement to follow the two pursuits recommended to them as essentially worthy and holy-farming and cattle-rais

37. PERSIAN AND MEDIAN FOOT-SOLDIERS.

ing. The Greeks ascribed much of the endurance and warlike qualities for which they respected the Persians to the fact of their living so much out-ofdoors and being trained to watchfulness by their occupation of guarding flocks and herds by day and by night. Riding, also, was in much favor among them, and hunting of every kind was their favorite exercise and pastime, for their mountains swarmed with pheasants, partridge, grouse, and other small game, while the open country teemed with lions, bears, antelope, wild asses, etc., and invited to all

the royal sports of the Assyrians. It naturally follows that the Persians were accomplished bowmen. Indeed Herodotus, in a celebrated passage, expressly says that "their sons were carefully instructed from their fifth to their twentieth year in three things alone—to ride, to draw the bow, and to speak the truth." Of course this description applies only to the class of warriors or nobles-as the agriculturists and the priests would have many more things to learn; but it gives one the idea of a simple and manly training, wholly in accordance with the principles of the purest Mazdeism. The national garb, too, was hardy and simple: a short coat and trousers, both of dressed leather, with a plain belt, the whole calculated to favor the greatest freedom and ease of motion. But when they came in contact with the luxurious and effeminate Medes, the Persians, being naturally imitative to excess, soon began to adopt, together with more refined and courtly manners, the long-flowing, wide-sleeved robe, wrapped round the body and gathered up on one side in graceful folds, which was known to the Greeks as "the Median robe," being characteristic of and probably invented by that nation. It is clear that the costliness of this garment could be increased to any amount by the fineness of the material and of the dye (Tyrian purple for instance), and by the addition of embroidery and ornament.

13. The population of Persia proper was not more unmixed than that of Media. The native inhabitants were, as usual, not extirpated by the new-comers, but reduced to subjection. This is

how it comes about that, of the ten or twelve tribes into which Greek historians divide the Persian nation, only three are named-the PASARGADÆ, the MARAPHIANS, and the MASPII-as "the principal ones, on which all the others are dependent.” (Herodotus, I., 125.) These are clearly the Eranian conquerors, the ruling class, the aristocracy. Of "the others," four are expressly said to be nomads, and were surely not Aryan at all, while the rest may have been of mixed race. Of the nomad tribes the only one which we can identify with any degree of certainty, is that of the MARDIANS, who lived in the western highlands of Persis, and were probably a branch of or identical with the better known AMARDIANS. These latter were a people probably of a mixed race, akin to the Elamites and Kasshi, and occupied the mountain region now known as BAKHTIYARI MOUNTAINS. Their language appears to have been quite, or very nearly, that spoken in Elam, the SUSIANA of the Greeks, and to have belonged to the agglutinative type (Turanian or Ouralo-Altaïc *), consequently to have been closely related to the ancient language of Shumir and Accad. It is most probably this region which is repeatedly mentioned in the Assyrian royal annals under the name of ANZAN, ANSHAN, and sometimes ASSAN and ANDUAN. It was a part or a dependence of the kingdom of Elam, figuring at

* The Turanian race is frequently called "Ouralo-Altaïc," from the fact that the valleys of the Oural and Altaïc ranges have always been the chief nests and strongholds of its tribes.

times among its allies, and at others included in the title of the kings of Elam.

14. The beginnings of Persia as a nation were not different from those of Media, or, indeed, any other nation. The process is always the same. It is the gathering of the separate and in a great measure independent clans or tribes under the leadership of one more numerous, more powerful, more gifted than the others. That such a movement can be effected only through the agency and authority of one master-spirit stands to reason, and the successful chieftain naturally becomes the king of the state he has created. Such was the origin of the Persian hereditary monarchy, the founder of which is known, from testimony too public and solemn to be disputed, to have been HAKHAMANISH (more familiar under the Greek form of the name as AKHÆMENES), a prince of the clan of the Pasargadæ, which was always held to be the noblest of the three ruling tribes. (See p. 278.) He must have been a contemporary of Asshurbanipal, and was succeeded by a long line of kings, famous under the name of AKHEMENIDE or Akhæmenian dynasty, the last scion of which lost his crown and life in the struggle with the young Greek conqueror, Alexander of Macedon (331 B.C.). The tribal city of the clan, also called Pasargadæ, became the royal capital of the united nation. It was regarded with great reverence ever after as the cradle of the monarchy, and when that monarchy extended into the mightiest empire that the world had yet seen, and its kings had the choice of four great capitals for their residence, the

sacredness attached to their modest ancestral city was so great that each succeeding king came there to be inaugurated. It was like the French kings going to Reims, or the Scotch kings to Scone, for their coronation. The place where Pasargadæ stood is now called MURGHÂB, and there are some ruins there, the oldest in Persia.

15. The Persians were by nature a conquering people; and although not strong enough at this early stage of their national life to undertake distant expeditions, they found close at hand an opportunity for an easy acquisition too tempting to be neglected. Elam was utterly destroyed; its people carried away and scattered, its princes slain or dragged into bondage, its cities and temples sacked and turned into dens for beasts to lie in, its trees burned, and its wells dried up.* Not a condition this, in which a country could defend its very heart against an invader, much less its outlying provinces. The land of Anshan was open to its Persian neighbors; and it must have been at this time that TEÏSPES, (CHISHPAÏSH), the son of Akhæmenes, occupied it, and assumed the title of "Great King, King of Anshan, or "of the city of Anshan." After his death, the royal house of the Akhæmenians split itself into two lines: one of his sons, KYROS I. (KURUSH) succeeded him in Anshan, while another, ARIARAMNES (ARIYÂRÂMANA), reigned in Persia. These were followed respectively by their sons, KAMBYSES I., in Anshan, and ARSAMES (ARSHÂMA), in Persia. It is extremely probable that Kyros and Ariaramnes were Story of Assyria," pp. 399–401.

* See