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As regards the region lying north of this country no one can say with
any certainty what men inhabit it. It appears that you no sooner cross
the Ister than you enter on an interminable wilderness. The only
people of whom I can hear as dwelling beyond the Ister are the race
named Sigynnae, who wear, they say, a dress like the Medes, and
have horses which are covered entirely with a coat of shaggy hair, five
fingers in length. They are a small breed, flat-nosed, and not
strong enough to bear men on their backs; but when yoked to chariots,
they are among the swiftest known, which is the reason why the people
of that country use chariots. Their borders reach down almost to the
Eneti upon the Adriatic Sea, and they call themselves colonists of
the Medes; but how they can be colonists of the Medes I for my part
cannot imagine. Still nothing is impossible in the long lapse of
ages. Sigynnae is the name which the Ligurians who dwell above
Massilia give to traders, while among the Cyprians the word means spears.
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