PART 13
But concerning those on the right hand of the summer risings of the
sun as far as the Palus Maeotis (for this is the boundary of Europe
and Asia), it is with them as follows: the inhabitants there differ
far more from one another than those I have treated of above, owing
to the differences of the seasons and the nature of the soil. But
with regard to the country itself, matters are the same there as among
all other men; for where the seasons undergo the greatest and most
rapid changes, there the country is the wildest and most unequal;
and you will find the greatest variety of mountains, forests, plains,
and meadows; but where the seasons do not change much there the country
is the most even; and, if one will consider it, so is it also with
regard to the inhabitants; for the nature of some is like to a country
covered with trees and well watered; of some, to a thin soil deficient
in water; of others, to fenny and marshy places; and of
[p. 33]some again,
to a plain of bare and parched land. For the seasons which modify
their natural frame of body are varied, and the greater the varieties
of them the greater also will be the differences of their shapes.