Page:Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran.djvu/114

I cannot pretend to the knowledge of Zend and Pehlavi that would enable me to discuss with any profit the proper sense of the much-debated expression on which Mr. Sanjana has expended such close and searching criticism. I will but offer a few remarks on the general aspects of the question which he has handled with so much learning and zeal. It is evident, on a reference to Herodotus, who is the only one of the Greek writers quoted to whom I have been able to make a direct reference, but equally evident from the, no doubt, correct quotations from the other Greek authors, that they wrote rather from loose popular stories, and with a view to satisfy their reader's taste for the marvellous than from a thorough and critical examination of the subject of consanguineous marriages as one of momentous importance.

Herodotus has been confirmed in so many instances in which it seemed most unlikely that he has gained, and well deserves just confidence whenever he relates anything as within his personal knowledge; but of the subject of King Cambyses' marriage, he must needs have gathered his information at second-hand. The other Greek