"milking their mares," as an epithet applicable to numerous tribes, since the oldest of the Samatian nomads made their mares' milk one of their chief articles of diet. The epithet abion or abion, in this passage, has occasioned much discussion. It may mean, according as we read it, either "long-lived," or "bowless," the latter epithet indicating that they did not depend upon archery for subsistence. 230 Compare Chapman's quaint, bold verses:-- "And as a round piece of a rocke, which with a winter's flood Is from his top torn, when a shoure poured from a bursten cloud, Hath broke the naturall band it had within the roughftey rock, Flies jumping all adourne the woods, resounding everie shocke, And on, uncheckt, it headlong leaps till in a plaine it stay, And then (tho' never so impelled), it stirs not any way:-- So Hector,--" 231 This book forms a most agreeable interruption to The continuous round of battles, which occupy the latter part of the Iliad. It is as well to observe, that the sameness of these scenes renders many notes unnecessary. 232 --_Who to Tydeus owes, i.e._ Diomed. 233 Compare Tasso:-- Teneri sdegni, e placide, e tranquille Repulse, e cari vezzi, e liete paci, Sorrisi, parolette, e dolci stille Di pianto, e sospir tronchi, e molli baci." Gier. Lib. xvi. 25 234 Compare the description of the dwelling of Sleep in Orlando Furioso, bk. vi. 235 "Twice seven, the charming daughters of the main-- Around my person wait, and bear my train: Succeed my wish, and second my design, The fairest, Deiopeia, shall be thine." Dryden's Virgil, Ćn. i. 107, seq. 236 --_And Minos._ "By Homer, Minos is described as the son of Jupiter, and of the daughter of Phoenix, who