34 ,
MINES OF ASIA
CHAP. II.
the supply of gold. The knowledge of theGreeks in the time of Herodotus was com-prised in an acquaintance with those peoplewho lived to the south of the Altai mountains,which the discoveries of the Russians haveproved to be the barrier between Bactriana andSiberia . Now it is stated, respecting several ofthe Nomadic tribes to the north of those moun-tains, that they had gold in abundance. It is notwith a design to show the credulity of our author,but to account for the apparent discrepancieswhich represent gold as an abundant article in thePersian dominions, and yet describe the sources ofit so few and feeble, that reference is here madeto Herodotus . That writer says, that “ in thenorth there is a prodigious quantity of gold, buthow it is produced I am not able to tell withcertainty. It is affirmed indeed that the Ari-maspi, a people who have but one eye, take thegold away by violence from the griffins; but Ican never persuade myself that there are anymen who, having but one eye, enjoy in all otherrespects the nature and qualities of all otherhuman beings V’ A modern would scarcelygive more credit to the story of griffins beingthe guardians of gold than to that of their plun-derers, the nation of the Arimaspi , having butone eye ! The researches of travellers from