Chapter Scriptores post Bedam to Sea of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

thing. They agreed to give the crown to him whose horse neighed first. Darius’s horse won, and thus Darius became king of the Persian empire.

That brave Scythian,
Who found more sweetness in his horse’s neighing
Than all the Phrygian, Dorian, Lydian playing.
   —Lord Brooke (1554–1628).

N. B.—Marlowe calls Tamburlaine of Tartary “a Scythian.”

You shall hear the Scythian Tamburlaine
Threatening the world with high astounding terms.
   —Marlowe: Tamburlaine (prologue, 1587).

Scythian’s Name (The). Humber or Humbert king of the Huns invaded England during the reign of Locrin, some 1000 years B. C. In his flight, he was drowned in the river Abus, which has ever since been called the Humber, after “the Scythian’s name.”—Geoffrey: British History, ii. 2(1142); and Milton: History of England.

Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythian’s name.
   —Milton: Vacation Exercise (1627).

Sea (The Great). The Mediterranean was so called by the ancients.

Sea (The Waterless). Prester John, in his letter to Man uel Comnenus emperor of Constantinople, says that in his country there is a “waterless sea,” which none have ever crossed. It consists of tumbling billows of sand, never at rest, and contains fish of most excellent flavour.

Three days’ journey from the coast of the Sand Sea is a mountain whence rolls down a “waterless river,” consisting of small stones, which crumble into sand when they reach the “sea.”

Near the Sand Sea is a fountain called Mussel, because it is contained in a basin like a mussel-shell. This is a test fountain. Those who test it, strip off their clothes, and, if true and leal, the water rises three times, till it covers their head.