[p. 37] fact, they change gradually; and therefore their
figures resemble one another, as they all equally use the same food,
and the same clothing summer and winter, respiring a humid and dense
atmosphere, and drinking water from snow and ice; neither do they
make any laborious exertions, for neither body nor mind is capable
of enduring fatigue when the changes of the seasons are not great.
For these reasons their shapes are gross and fleshy, with ill-marked
joints, of a humid temperament, and deficient in tone: the internal
cavities, and especially those of the intestines, are full of humors;
for the belly cannot possibly be dry in such a country, with such
a constitution and in such a climate; but owing to their fat, and
the absence of hairs from their bodies, their shapes resemble one
another, the males being all alike, and so also with the women; for
the seasons being of a uniform temperature, no corruption or deterioration
takes place in the concretion of the semen, unless from some violent
cause, or from disease.
PART 20
I Will give you a strong proof of the humidity (laxity?) of their
constitutions. You will find the greater part of the Scythians, and
all the Nomades, with marks of the cautery on their shoulders, arms,
wrists, breasts, hip-joints, and loins, and that for no other reason
but the humidity and flabbiness of their constitution, for they can
neither strain with their bows, nor launch the javelin from their
shoulder owing to their humidity and atony: but when they are burnt,
much of the humidity in their joints is dried up, and they become
better braced, better fed, and their joints get into a more suitable
condition. They are flabby and squat at first, because, as in Egypt,
they are not swathed (?); and then they pay no attention to horsemanship,
so that they may be adepts at it; and because of their sedentary mode
of life; for the males, when they cannot be carried about on horseback,
sit the most of their time in the wagon, and rarely practise walking,
because of their frequent migrations and shiftings of situation; and
as to the women, it is amazing how flabby and sluggish they are. The
Scythian race are tawny from the cold, and not from the intense heat
of the sun, for the whiteness of the skin is parched by the cold,
and becomes tawny.
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