Histories

And in my opinion it is for this reason that the hornless kind of cattle grow no horns in Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia. A verse of Homer in the Odyssey attests to my opinion:

1. “Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya, the land where lambs are born with horns on their foreheads,”

In Scythia (region (general)), AsiaScythia, then, this happens because of the cold. But I think it strange (for it was always the way of my history to investigate excurses) that in the whole of +Elis [21.4,37.8833] (Perseus) Elis no mules can be conceived although the country is not cold, nor is there any evident cause. The Eleans themselves say that it is because of a curse that mules cannot be conceived among them;

but whenever the season is at hand for the mares to conceive, they drive them into the countries of their neighbors, and then send the asses after them, until the mares are pregnant, and then they drive them home again.

But regarding the feathers of which the Scythians say that the air is full, so thickly that no one can see or traverse the land beyond, I have this opinion. North of that country snow falls continually, though less in summer than in winter, as is to be expected.