Massa'getæ, a wild and warlike people, who inhabited the broad steppes on the north-east of the Caspian Sea, to the northward of the river Araxes or Jaxartes. Herodotus says that they had a community of wives; that they sacrificed and devoured their aged people; that they worshipped the sun, and offered horses to him; that they lived on the milk and flesh of their herds, and on fish, and fought on horseback and on foot with lance, bow, and double-edged axe. Cyrus is said to have lost his life in fighting against them, 530 B.C.
Massa'getæ
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 7: Maltebrun to Pearson, p. 83
Source scan(s): p. 0092