88 HERODOTUS. |CHAP.
which also is in use among the Kalmucks* This was a kind of
cake, prepared from the fruit of a tree (the bird-cherry) \ and the
juice, which was strained off in the process of making it, was
drunk mixed with milk1. The Issedones, who, as
they were situated eastward of the Argippaei and
northward of the Massagetae8, must have lain to
the north-east of the Caspian, are noticeable on account of the
historian's statement that among them women had equal rights
with men: by which is probably meant that they practised
"Mutterrecht" and inheritance in the female line, In the midst
of all this curious information we are struck by one remarkable
omission. The great river of these parts, the Volga, which the
trade-route just mentioned must have crossed, is altogether un-
noticed.
The account which Herodotus has given of Asia is in many
respects different, and follows different lines, from
his notices of the other continents. The amount
of information which he has to communicate is ample, but where-
as elsewhere he usually treats of the people, whom he mentions,
in connexion with the features of the countries which they in-
habited, in this part of his work ethnography becomes altogether
predominant and geography falls into the background. The
f reason of this is not far to seek. The reirion of
Sources of e
IMS informa- Asia to which his description is limited is its western
taon' portion, and, with the exception of Arabia, nearly
the whole of this area was at that time included in the Persian
empire. Concerning these districts a large amount of intelligence
was obtainable, and it is this which Herodotus has introduced
into his History. In his third book he gives us an account of the
twenty satrapies into which that kingdom was divided\ and this
notice, we can hardly doubt, was based on a Persian record of a
statistical nature, drawn up primarily with a view to taxation,
since it enumerates the various nations that occupied those
satrapies, together with the amount of tribute that they paid8.
The details concerning the inhabitants of western Asia which are
1 4. 23; cp. Bunbury, History of 'Ancient G&graphy, 1. p. 197.
s4-*5; i. aoi. » 3. 89 foil.