modern Calmucks), says Herodotus,[1] "the country is well known; and also that of the other nations which we have mentioned before. For it is often visited either by the Scythians, of whom inquiry may easily be made, or by the Greeks of the commercial towns on the Borysthenes [Dnieper] and Pontus. The Scythians who go into these districts usually carry on their affairs in seven different languages, by the assistance of the same number of interpreters."
Their caravan routes. The Scythian caravans probably crossed the southern end of the Ural mountains, and passed on, round the Caspian Sea, to Great Mongolia and the Sea of Aral. Travelling with immense herds and numerous beasts of burden, they were able to conduct with advantage the overland trade through Asia Minor; following, during part of their journeys, a road which Herodotus carefully describes and to which reference will hereafter be made.
Herodotus states that their principal trade was in furs, and that it had been carried on from time immemorial. They also probably dealt largely in horses,[2] and other beasts of burden, and exchanged the manufactures of the West for such animals, and for furs and metals of various kinds, including gold, which was apparently to be procured in considerable quantities.
To India, via the Caspian. These routes, as well as those through Bactra (Balkh) and Maracanda (Samarcand), the two principal marts for Indian merchandise, were all in connection with the Caspian Sea, across which, Herodotus informs us, there existed an organised system of
