THE climate is very unequal; that part which lies be- Climate. tween the mountains and the fea is exceeding cold, and the earth swampy, and full of marshes, where innumerable swarms of venomous infects are bred (D), which, together with the vapours rifing from the Caspian sea, render that part very unhofpitable. The provinces that are more remote from the fea enjoy a very wholfome air, though liable to heavy rains, and violent ftorms, especially in the fpring and autumn. Befides the cattle and game of all forts, which the inland provinces abound with, fome of them have been for many ages remarkable on account of the various forts of excellent wines they produce, efpecially the neighbourhood of Tauris, where no fewer than fixty different kinds of grapes, all of an exquifite flavour, are to be tafted at this day b. From its productions in the present ftate, we may judge what it must have been in better times. of Media. We cannot dismiss this fubject without fome obferva- The Caftions on the Cafpian fea, which is the northern boundary pian Sea. This large body of waters was by the antients called indifferently the Cafpian and the Hyrcanian fea, from the Cafpians and Hyrcanians, whofe fhores it washed. However Pliny makes fome difference be a CHARDIN ubi fupra. STRABO, 1. xi. p. 83. 1. vi. c. 13. & 16. b CHARDIN, vol. i. p. 185. "must look for the Nyfean" gentlemen of learning; but 66 plain, fo famous for the "horfes of that name. Ste"phanus the geographer fays, "that Nyfa was in the country of the Medes. I told "this fame nobleman fome "could never understand, that (D) Ælian tells us (12), that (12) Alian. de animal. I. x. e. 26. tween these two appellations, telling us, that on the Cafpian coafts it bears the former denomination, and on those of Hyrcania the latter. The antient, and likewise the modern geographers, had but a very imperfect knowlege of the true fituation, extent, coafts, and bays of this fea, before the discoveries made lately by a very able navigator and geographer (E); and therefore what has been faid by others is only to be relied on fo far as it agrees with the accounts he has given us. Ptolemy, and even Herodotus, knew that the Cafpian was furrounded on all fides by land, without any communication with other feas, or visible efflux; whence fome thought, that it ought to be called a lake rather than a fea. However Strabo, Pliny, Pomponius. Mela &, and Arrian h, wrote that it was joined either to the Indian or northern ocean; but we are well aflured by experience, that they were mistaken. They were perhaps led into this error by fuch as had made their obfervations when the Wolga had overflown its banks, at which time it appears more like a fea than a river, covering with its waters, as a modern traveller informs us, the whole country to the extent of fixty miles : this they might easily have mistaken for a ftreight joining the Cafpian to the ocean. Ptolemy, though not guilty of this error, was greatly mistaken as to its extent from eaft to weft; for he reckons it to have been about twenty-three degrees and an half; whereas it does not exceed, where wideft, three degrees forty-two minutes, and where narroweft, one degree twenty-two minutes. He likewife places it three degrees more to the north than it really is. These mistakes were observed, and in fome degree redreffed, by Abulfeda an Arabian prince, and able geographer, who in 1320 difcovered the true fituation of the Cafpian, and abridged its extent by a third of what Ptolemy had allowed it. By this alteration its length was no more in longitude, as Ptolemy had placed 8 POM • STRABO, 1. x. p. 83. f PLIN. 1. vi. c. 13. PON. MEL. 1. iii. c. 5. h ARRIAN. 1. vii. p. 477- i LE BRUYN Voy. par la Mofcov. tom. iii. p. 465. (E) M. Vanverden, who, by orders of the late Czar, formed a very exact chart of the Cafpian, from obfervations made by him on the fpot in 1710, 1721, 1722. Thefe obfervations, together with M. Vanverden's new chart, were, by the Czar's orders, communicated to the royal academy of fciences at Paris. it, but in latitude, as it truly is. Abu'lfeda's obfervations were greatly improved by Bourrous, Olearius, and Jenkinfon; but the true dimenfions of this fea were not af certained till the late obfervations above-mentioned; by which we are affured, that it lies between the thirtyfeventh and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, and does not exceed three degrees forty-two minutes in its greatest longitude, which gives it a quite different figure from what it is reprefented to have in the maps of Ptolemy, and in the writings of the other antient geographers. THE Perfians call this fea Kulfum, or the fea of Afracan; the Ruffians, the fea of Gualenkoi; the Georgians, Sowa; the Armenians, Soof. It receives the river Wolga, which itself is like a fea, and near two hundred others, into its bofom; and yet is never increased or diminished, nor obferved to ebb or flow. This conftant plenitude has given rife to many fpeculations; and fome have imagined, that it must neceffarily have fome fubterraneous communication either with the Black fea, though a hundred leagues diftant, or with the Perfian gulf, which is near 200 leagues diftant from it. Father Avril, a modern traveller, seems to favour the latter opinion, and alleges this proof to confirm it; viz. that over-against the province of Xilan in Perfia there are two immenfe whirlpools, which with an incredible rapidity, and frightful noise, fuck in and fwallow whatever comes near them, and are confequently caused by fome great cavity in the earth. He adds, that every year about the latter end of the autumn a great quantity of willow-leaves are obferved floating on the water by those who inhabit the coafts of the Perfian gulf; and as this tree is no-where to be found near the Perfian gulf, and on the other hand the coafts of the Cafpian towards the province of Xilan are covered with them, he rightly concludes, that there must be some subterraneous intercourse between these two feas. This obfervation, if true, is a strong proof of fome fecret communication between these two bodies of water, the leaves being conveyed through fubterraneous fiffures from the one to the other. The water of this fea is falt like that of other feas, notwithstanding the opinion of the antients to the contrary; and its freshness in fome parts near the fhore, is only owing to the rivers that discharge themfelves into it. It is neither of a different colour from other feas, nor without various forts of fifh, as Olearius, an eye-witnefs, affures us, and thereby difproves the opinion of the antients, who who believed it to be of a blackish colour, and to have but one kind of fish, and that of a monstrous form. Wę fhall conclude this fection with obferving, that the ignorance of the antients, with relation to this fea, or lake, as fome are pleased to call it, may be urged as an argument of the imperfect knowlege they had of these northern parts of the Perfian empire, and at the fame time warn us not to depend on their accounts, unless vouched by the teftimonies of modern travellers, who have with far greater care, and better fuccefs, furveyed those remote regions. Their ori gin. Govern ment. SECT. II. Of the antiquity, government, laws, religion, cuf toms, arts, learning, and trade of the Medes. WE k E have already derived the Medes * from Madai, the third fon of Japhet, and thereby put them upon the level with the most antient nations. In process of time, feveral colonies from the adjacent countries fettled among them, being invited thither by the fruitfulness of the foil, which gave rife to the various tribes into which that people was antiently divided. The Greek writers will have them to be originally Perfians; and Herodotus tells us, that they were called Arians till the time of Medus, the fon of Medea, from whom they took the name of Medians m But our etymology is far more natural, and confirmed by the authority of all the antient interpreters, who by Madai in Scripture conftantly understand the Medes ". THEIR government was originally monarchical, like that of the other primitive nations, and they seem to have had kings of their own in the earliest times. Some are of opinion, that one of the four kings, who, in the days of Abraham, invaded the fouthern coafts of Canaan, reigned in Media. Lactantius mentions one Hydafpes, who, according to him, reigned long before the Medes were con * Vide fupra, vol. i. p. 379. I CEDREN. p. 18. • Vide HIERONYM. in cap. quered quered by the Affyrians. And Diodorus tells us, that Pharnus, king of the Medes, was with his seven fons defeated and taken prifoner by Ninus, in the very beginning of the Affyrian empire . But his accounts of thofe early times are no-ways to be relied on, it being plain both from Scripture, and from the authority of the moft judicious among the antient and modern chronologers, that the Affyrian empire did not begin till the days of Pul, as has been already fully fhewn ; whereas Ctefias, and his copyift Diodorus, have made this empire as old as the flood, and given us the names of all the Affyrian kings from Belus, and his feigned fon Ninus, to Sardanapalus. According to the fucceffions of the Affyrian kings, as ftated by them, that empire continued about 1360 years; whereas Herodotus tells us, that it lafted only five hundred years, and even his numbers are all too long. They were first brought under the Affyrian yoke by Pul, according to us the founder of that mo→ narchy, or by his immediate fucceffor Tiglath-pilefer. Till that time they were probably governed by their own kings, as were, according to holy writ, the neighbouring nations (H). In the reign of Sennacherib they fhook off the Affyrian yoke, and fell into an anarchy, which lasted till the reign of Dejoces, as we fhall fee in the following fection. Their kings, after the revolt, were quite abfolute, and controuled by no law; nay, they claimed an equal refpect with the gods themselves, |