DARIUS AND THE SCYTHIANS. 119

a tenth of his army as a sacrifice to his mad ambi-
tion.

The story told by Herodotus is probably as much
a product of the imagination as that of Ctesias,
though it reads more like actual history. He says
that the Scythians retreated northward, sending
their wives and children before them in wagons,
and destroying the wells and ruining the harvests
as they went, so that little was left for the invaders
to eat and drink. On what the vast host lived we
do not know, nor how they crossed the various
rivers in their route. With such trifling considera-
tions as these the historians of that day did not
concern themselves. There were skirmishes and
combats of horsemen, but the Scythian king took
care to avoid any general battle. Darius sent him
a herald and taunted him with cowardice, but King
Idanthyrsus sent word back that if the Persians
should come and destroy the tombs of the fore-
fathers of the Scythians they would learn whether
they were cowards or not.

Day by day the monster Persian army advanced,
and day by day its difficulties increased, until its
situation grew serious indeed. The Scythians de-
clined battle still, but Idanthyrsus sent to his dis-
tressed foe the present of a bird, a mouse, a frog,
and five arrows. This signified, according to the
historian, “Unless you take to the air, like a bird;
to the earth, like a mouse; or to the water, like a
frog, you will become the victim of the Scythian
arrows.”

This warning frightened Darius. In truth, he