The omen pleased Cyrus well, and he bowed in worship to Zeus the King, and said to his company, "This shall be a right noble hunt, my friends, if God so will." [20] When he came to the borders he began the hunt in his usual way, the mass of horse and foot going on ahead in rows like reapers, beating out the game, with picked men posted at intervals to receive the animals and give them chase.

And thus they took great numbers of boars and stags and antelopes and wild-asses: even to this day wild-asses are plentiful in those parts.

[21] But when the chase was over, Cyrus had touched the frontier of the Armenian land, and there he made the evening meal.

The next day he hunted till he reached the mountains which were his goal.
And there he halted again and made the evening meal.

At this point he knew that the army from Cyaxares was advancing, and he sent secretly to them and bade them keep about eight miles off, and take their evening meal where they were, since that would make for secrecy.