[p. 123]
neither great nor violent, the seasons being uniform
and altering but little. Wherefore the men also are
like one another in physique, since summer and
winter they always use similar food and the same
clothing, breathing a moist, thick atmosphere, drinking
water from ice and snow, and abstaining from
fatigue. For neither bodily nor mental endurance
is possible where the changes are not violent. For
these causes their physiques are gross, fleshy, showing
no joints, moist and flabby, and the lower bowels
are as moist as bowels can be. For the belly cannot
possibly dry up in a land like this, with such a nature
and such a climate, but because of their fat and the
smoothness of their flesh their physiques are similar,
men's to men's and women's to women's. For as
the seasons are alike there takes place no corruption
or deterioration in the coagulation of the seed,
| As a modern physiologist might put it, "abnormal
variations in the formation of the embryo." |
except through the blow of some violent cause or of
some disease.
PART 20
XX. I will give clear testimony to their moistness.
The majority of the Scythians, all that are Nomads,
you will find have their shoulders cauterized, as well
as their arms, wrists, breast, hips and loins, simply
because of the moistness and softness of their constitution.
For owing to their moistness and flabbiness
they have not the strength either to draw a bow or
to throw a javelin from the shoulder. But when
they have been cauterized the excess of moisture
