IX.] THE NORTHERN MONGOLS. 321 







from those attributed to the Yuetschi [Yue-chi] and the kindred 

 tribes [Suns, Kushans etc.] by the writers cited by Klaproth and 

 Abel Remusat, who say that they are of sanguine complexion 

 with blue eyes 1 ." 



We now know that these characters present little difficulty 

 when the composite origin of the Turki people is borne in mind. 

 On the other hand it is interesting to note that the above- 

 mentioned Ta-Hia have by some been identified with the warlike 

 Scythian Dahae", and these with the Dehiya or Dhe, one of the 

 great divisions of the Indian Jats. But if Prof. G. Rawlinson 3 is 

 right, the term Dahce was not racial but social, meaning rustici, 

 -the peasantry as opposed to the nomads ; hence the Dana? are 

 heard of everywhere throughout Irania, just as Dehwar* is still 

 the common designation of the Tajik (Persian) peasantry in 

 Afghanistan and Baluchistan. This is also the view taken by 

 De Ujfalvy, who identifies the Ta-Hia, not with the Scythian 

 Dahce, or with any other particular tribe, but with the peaceful 

 rural population of Baktriana 5 , whose reduction by the Yue-chi, 

 possibly Strabo's Tokhari, was followed by the overthrow of the 

 Grceco-Baktrians. The solution of the puzzling Yue-chi-Jat pro- 

 blem would therefore seem to be that the Dehiya and other Jats, 

 always an agricultural people, are descended from the old Iranian 

 peasantry of Baktriana, some of whom followed the fortunes of 

 their Greek rulers into the Kabul valley, while others accompanied 

 the conquering Yue-chi founders of the Indo-Scythian empire into 

 northern India. 



Then followed the overthrow of the Yue-chi themselves by 

 the Ye-tha ( Ye-tha-i-li-to] of the Chinese records, that is, the 



1 Quoted by W. Crooke, who points out that " the opinion of the best Indian 

 authorities seems to be gradually turning to the belief that the connection 

 between Jats and Rajputs is more intimate than was formerly supposed " ( The 

 Tribes and Castes of the North- Western Provinces and Ottdh, Calcutta, 1896, 

 ill. p. 27). 



- Virgil's "indomiti Dahse" (sn. vm. 728): possibly the Dehavites 

 (Dievi) of Ezra, iv. 9. 



3 Herodotus, Vol. I. p. 413. 



4 From Pers. O, dih, dak, village (Parsi dahi). 



5 Les Aryens, etc. p. 68 sq. 



K. 21 



