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["SISU!" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

> The only thing this offers your topic is that if it is so, they had 
> little to do with the Finns since Finnish is not an Indo-European 
> language.

I know, it's Ugric, Finno-Ugric..
> The Scythians are also credited with inventing the compound bow which
>  operates very much as those modern monstrosities with pulleys.  They
>  nearly lived on horseback or in their charriots and it is
> exceedingly difficult to use a staight bow (called a 'simple' bow)
> from horseback.  So they invented a way of laminating horn onto thin 
> strips of wood making a bow that when released, would propel the 
> arrow slowly at first and then 'flip' it very hard just at the last, 
> exactly like a modern compound bow does.  The huge recurves on the 
> Scythian bow operated just exactly like the pulleys on the modern 
> bow.

Cool.  I knew they were archers...

> For centuries no army could touch them, a lesson for our modern 
> times, because they acted much like moder terrorists:  No central 
> command, no fixed location, and no supply lines.

I read that they acted as mercenaries for 'foreign' armies, too, like
for the Huns.


 They traded or
> raided settlements for grain and wine, ate a lot of meat, and most of
>  the time didn't live in any type of housing. They were reluctant to 
> take prisoners and when they did, they blinded the prisoners before 
> making slaves of them and didn't keep them for long.  Most of this 
> comes from Herodotus and is not to be conidered unbiased.

Right...the Greeks wrote quite a bit about the Scythians, much of it
related to their barbaric nature.
> They were defeated by Alexander the Great who understood that their 
> mobility and lack of a base gave them a devastating advantage.  He 
> sent in light calvary and the Scythian horsemen surrounded them, 
> pelting them with arrows.  He sent in light infantry javelin troops 
> whom the Scythias knew were no threat since they could get away on 
> their horses much faster than the infantry could respond.  But behind
>  the infantry and hidden by them was the heavy calvary who were able 
> to completely surround the Scythians and cut them down.

Thanks for the added bit of knowledge, James....

Bev
--
Bevanron of EarthNSky Farm      GO NAVY!
Proud SUBMARINE Parents of a USS Key West Sailor
Sleep well tonight for somewhere in the ocean's depths,
MY son is protecting YOUR freedom.