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The two camps were then joined in one, the Scythians living with the
Amazons as their wives; and the men were unable to learn the tongue of
the women, but the women soon caught up the tongue of the men. When
they could thus understand one another, the Scyths addressed the
Amazons in these words - "We have parents, and properties, let us
therefore give up this mode of life, and return to our nation, and
live with them. You shall be our wives there no less than here, and
we promise you to have no others." But the Amazons said - "We
could not live with your women - our customs are quite different from
theirs. To draw the bow, to hurl the javelin, to bestride the
horse, these are our arts of womanly employments we know nothing.
Your women, on the contrary, do none of these things; but stay at
home in their waggons, engaged in womanish tasks, and never go out to
hunt, or to do anything. We should never agree together. But if you
truly wish to keep us as your wives, and would conduct yourselves with
strict justice towards us, go you home to your parents, bid them give
you your inheritance, and then come back to us, and let us and you
live together by ourselves."
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