Finally, towards the east lay the great salt desert, sparsely inhabited
by various nomadic races, among which the most important were the
Cossseans and the Sagartians. To the latter people Herodotus seems to
assign almost the whole of the sandy region, since he unites them with
the Sarangians and Thamanseans on the one hand, with the Utians and
Mycians upon the other. They were a wild race, probably of Arian origin,
who hunted with the lasso over the great desert mounted on horses, and
could bring into the field a force of eight or ten thousand men. Their
country, a waste of sand and gravel, in parts thickly encrusted with
salt, was impassable to an army, and formed a barrier which effectively
protected Media along the greater portion of her eastern frontier.
Towards the extreme north-east the Sagartians were replaced by the
Cossseans and the Parthians, the former probably the people of the
Siah-Koh mountain, the latter the inhabitants of the tract known now
as the Atak, or "skirt," which extends along the southern flank of the
Elburz range from the Caspian Gates nearly to Herat, and is capable
of sustaining a very considerable population. The Cossseans were
plunderers, from whose raids Media suffered constant annoyance; but they
were at no time of sufficient strength to cause any serious fear.
The Parthians, as we learn from the course of events, had in them the
materials of a mighty people; but the hour for their elevation and
expansion was not yet come, and the keenest observer of Median times
could scarcely have perceived in them the future lords of Western Asia.
From Parthia, moreover, Media was divided by the strong rocky spur which
runs out from the Elburz into the desert in long. 52° 10' nearly, over
which is the narrow pass already mentioned as the Caspian Gates. Thus
Media on most sides was guarded by the strong natural barriers of seas,
mountains, and deserts lying open only on the south, where she adjoined
upon a kindred people. Her neighbors were for the most part weak in
numbers, though warlike. Armenia, however, to the north-west, Assyria to