white people

n Book 4 – MELPOMENE: Herodotus describes the Budini people, east of the Ister (Danube) River, thusly: [4.108] The Budini are a large and powerful nation: they have all deep blue eyes, and bright red hair. There is a city in their territory, called Gelonus, which is surrounded with a lofty wall, thirty furlongs each way, built entirely of wood. All the houses in the place and all the temples are of the same material. Here are temples built in honour of the Grecian gods, and adorned after the Greek fashion with images, altars, and shrines, all in wood. There is even a festival, held every third year in honour of Bacchus, at which the natives fall into the Bacchic fury. For the fact is that the Geloni were anciently Greeks, who, being driven out of the factories along the coast, fled to the Budini and took up their abode with them. They still speak a language half Greek, half Scythian. [4.109] The Budini, however, do not speak the same language as the Geloni, nor is their mode of life the same. They are the aboriginal people of the country, and are nomads; unlike any of the neighbouring races, they eat lice. The Geloni on the contrary, are tillers of the soil, eat bread, have gardens, and both in shape and complexion are quite different from the Budini. The Greeks notwithstanding call these latter Geloni; but it is a mistake to give them the name. The Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (56-118 A.D.) said this about the Germanic tribes (Not the same as Germans): All have fierce blue eyes, red hair, huge frames, fit only for a sudden exertion. The Chinese describe the Yuezhi [Kushans] thusly: The skin of the people there is reddish white.