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Such then were the governments, and such the amounts of tribute at
which they were assessed respectively. Persia alone has not been
reckoned among the tributaries - and for this reason, because the
country of the Persians is altogether exempt from tax. The following
peoples paid no settled tribute, but brought gifts to the king:
first, the Ethiopians bordering upon Egypt, who were reduced by
Cambyses when he made war on the long-lived Ethiopians, and who
dwell about the sacred city of Nysa, and have festivals in honour of
Bacchus. The grain on which they and their next neighbours feed is
the same as that used by the Calantian Indians. Their
dwelling-houses are under ground. Every third year these two nations
brought - and they still bring to my day - two choenices of virgin
gold, two hundred logs of ebony, five Ethiopian boys, and twenty
elephant tusks. The Colchians, and the neighbouring tribes who dwell
between them and the Caucasus - for so far the Persian rule reaches,
while north of the Caucasus no one fears them any longer - undertook
to furnish a gift, which in my day was still brought every fifth year,
consisting of a hundred boys, and the same number of maidens. The
Arabs brought every year a thousand talents of frankincense. Such
were the gifts which the king received over and above the tribute-money.
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