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As for the Araxes, it is, according to some accounts, larger,
according to others smaller than the Ister (Danube). It has
islands in it, many of which are said to be equal in size to Lesbos.
The men who inhabit them feed during the summer on roots of all kinds,
which they dig out of the ground, while they store up the fruits,
which they gather from the trees at the fitting season, to serve them
as food in the winter-time. Besides the trees whose fruit they gather
for this purpose, they have also a tree which bears the strangest
produce. When they are met together in companies they throw some of it
upon the fire round which they are sitting, and presently, by the mere
smell of the fumes which it gives out in burning, they grow drunk, as
the Greeks do with wine. More of the fruit is then thrown on the
fire, and, their drunkenness increasing, they often jump up and begin
to dance and sing. Such is the account which I have heard of this
people.
The river Araxes, like the Gyndes, which Cyrus dispersed into
three hundred and sixty channels, has its source in the country of the
Matienians. It has forty mouths, whereof all, except one, end in
bogs and swamps. These bogs and swamps are said to be inhabited by a
race of men who feed on raw fish, and clothe themselves with the skins
of seals. The other mouth of the river flows with a clear course into
the Caspian Sea.
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