Descendants of the Scythians - Страница 51

“The great and formidable King Darius of Persia had conquered almost all the world. He had subjugated many countries by sword and fire, and no one dared to oppose him. Then he learnt that there still was a land not subject to him — the land of the Skolots. The Skolot warriors were fearless and undaunted. No other nation could conquer them. Knowing this, King Darius fixed his mind on making war on the Skolots and subject them to his rule as he had done with other nations. But his counselors advised him against the expedition, given the uncertainty of the outcome in view of the intrepidity and bravery of the Skolot warriors. But King Darius, blinded as he was by his great successes elsewhere, ignored this advice, calling his counselors cowards. So, King Darius assembled a great army and marched against the Skolots. It was a terrible and formidable force: the sky was dark with the dust raised by thousands upon thousands of feet of Persians and soldiers of other nations dependent on King Darius as the army advanced into the Skolots’ lands. As this army advanced, rivers disappeared — the Persian soldiers drank them all up. As the army advanced, it left but naked earth behind — all the grass was eaten to the last stem by the horses.

“King Darius proudly reviewed his innumerable troops and said: ‘If every soldier of my army takes a rock and hurls it at the Skolots, and if four out of five miss, even then not a single Skolot will be left alive!’ And King Darius advanced his army further into the wilderness of the steppes in search of the Skolots and their forces to fight a single decisive battle against them and win it, thus subjugating the Skolots…

“But the Skolot chieftains saw that they did not have sufficient forces to fight a battle in the open field against the overwhelming Persian multitudes. So the wise Skolot chieftains resovled to retreat covertly, with all their women, possessions and herds, and divided their forces into two bodies. They resolved to make it very difficult for the Persians to move freely through their lands, to make them lose strength as they marched. The wise Skolot chieftains resolved to fill up the wells and the springs as they passed and to destroy the herbage as they went…

“The Skolots retired in two groups to the North and to the South. One of the groups drove their cattle and herds of horses before them, the women, children, and old people riding in the kibitkas. The Skolot warriors made up the rear, but did not engage in battles with the Persians. That was how the first group travelled…

“Meanwhile, the other group, made up of warriors alone, went South in fulfillment of what had been resolved by the wise chieftains, to meet the Persian army halfway, to harrass the Persians and delay their progress so the other group could retreat safely to the North with all the women, children, and cattle. The courageous Skolot warriors knew that they did not stand a chance in open battle against the innumerable army of King Darius but they had been told by the Skolot chieftains to meet the Persian army halfway, and they did. The Skolots attacked the Persian camp at night when the Persians, lulled by the absence of the enemy, were sleeping. Rudely awakened from sleep, they rushed to arms thinking that they had the Skolots’ army that was to be routed in one decisive battle before them, thus bringing under eternal subjugation the entire Skolot nation. After the initial attack had been repelled, King Darius ordered his men to prepare for battle in the morning, saying, blinded as he was by his power and successes: ‘One day of fighting — and we’ll rout the Skolots. Then my power and might will be boundless.’

“But the wise Skolot chieftains and the courageous Skolot warriors had something quite different in minds when they undertook the nocturnal attack on the Persian camp. Before the sun was up, they again retreated swiftly to the north, filling up the wells and setting fire to the dry grass as they retreated. And in the morning, the Persian army stood ready for battle but there were no Skolots to be seen anywhere around. Only the vultures, circling in the sky above, were crying over the absence of carrion.

“King Darius became exceedingly angry and marched his army further north in pursuit of the Skolots, wishing to catch up with them and force them into battle. But the Skolots continued retreating further and further north, not stopping to do battle with the Persians. And now, before the dread Persian army had passed, the springs and wells went dry, being filled with dirt and rocks by the Skolots. And now it was not after the Persians passed that the grass disappeared, having been eaten by the Persian horses, but before the advancing Persian army, for it was set afire by the Skolots as they retreated northward. The sky was again darkened with dust raised by the Persian multitudes as they passed over the scorched stretches of land seeking battle, but in vain.

“The Persian army continued its march northward, but nowhere did it encounter the enemy to be routed and subjugated. The formidable Persian army was seeking battle, but there was no one to do battle with, as the Skolots kept retreating, fulfilling the command of their wise chieftains… And the Persians’ rage grew greater as they continued to march without encountering the ellusive Skolots and without finding water in the springs and wells that had been filled with rocks and sand by the Skolots. The Persians were seething with such rage they would have destroyed and ground to dust anything they came across on their way, but there was nothing at all to destroy as they marched through the deserted, devastated land…

“The Skolots, meanwhile, having made a detour through their Northern territory, returned to their Southern lands without once engaging the Persians in a pitched battle. The dread and all-powerful Persian king then resolved, albeit very reluctantly, to turn west as he had lost so many soldiers who had died of thirst and starvation. But when King Darius took his decision to turn west and leave the Skolots’ lands, he did not know that about two days’ march ahead of him the Skolot divisions had burned and razed everything wherever the Persian army was to pass. It took King Darius several days to realize the cause of the devastation the Persians encountered in the formerly fertile lands, and when he did, he ordered his troops to throw themselves in hot pursuit to engage the Skolots in battle at last…

“But the wise Skolot chieftains told their warriors to retreat rapidly, not allowing the Persian army to catch up with them. And the hearts of the Persians were filled with despair. The vultures fell behind, feeling there would be no battle to provide them with food galore. The dread and formidable King Darius was overcome with rage, and he sent several horsemen to the Skolot chieftains on horses carefully chosen from the thousands of mounts in his army so they would be able to catch up with the Skolots. He sent the following message: ‘Most miserable of men, why do you continually take flight when you have two other choices? If you think you are able to resist my power, stand, and having ceased your wandering, fight us. But if you are conscious of your inferiority, cease your hurried march and acknowledge me as your master, bringing me gifts, or I shall subject both you and your land to ruin and destruction!’

“But the senior Skolot chieftain Idanthyrsus answered as follows: ‘This is the case, o Persian! Neither I nor my people have ever fled from any man out of fear, nor do we now so flee from thee; nor have we done anything but what we are wont to do even in time of peace. Before thou hast come or after thou leavest, my people will continue to move from one place to another as they have always done. We do not fight thee forthwith because there are so many other matters we must attend to. Do not issue empty threats, for we have no cities nor cultivated lands nor orchards — nothing which we fear might be taken or ravaged; and therefore, there is no reason why we should offer you Persians battle to defend anything. The grass that has burned will soon grow up again even higher, as it will get nourishment from the earth fertilized by the ashes of the burned grass and the corpses of thy fallen soldiers. So, why should we hasten to do battle with thee? Yet if it is by all means necessary for thee to do battle with us, we have the sepulchers of our ancestors. Come, find them and attempt to disturb them, then thou wilst learn whether or not we can fight. But until then, do not seek to do battle with us, for we will not fight you unless we choose to do so!’

“The Skolot chieftain Idanthyrsus concluded his message thus: ‘I will send thee only such gifts as are befitting, o miserable King! And in reply to thy boast that thou art my master, thou and thy soldiers will pay dearly for it!’

“Meanwhile, the number of deaths in the Persian army from starvation and thirst, from disease and fatigue increased manifold, and the vultures appeared above the Persians, circling in a black mass, waiting for their chance, never leaving again, as there was a growing amout of food for them; It was not the bodies of enemies killed in battle by the Persians, but the Persians themselves who died by the hundreds every day…

“The wise Skolot chieftains, having ascertained that Kang Darius was in dire straits, sent him a herald with the promised gifts. King Darius became mighty glad, as he was already prepared to make peace with the Skolots without any more attempts to subjugate them, and return home without further humiliation. King Darius desired to accord a solemn reception to the Skolots who were the bearers of the gifts, but they cast the gifts on the ground, turned around, and galloped away so fast none of the Persians on their exhausted mounts could catch up with them. When he saw the gifts, King Darius became exceedingly angry, because the wise Skolot chieftains had sent him a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows making the king wonder what the meaning of these gifts was.