XIV.] THE CAUCASIC PEOPLES. 555 



now commonly divided into Lowland, and Highland or Hill Tajiks, 

 of whom the former were always Parsivan, whereas the Hill Tajiks 

 did not originally speak Persian at all, but, as many still do, an 

 independent sister language called Galchic, current in the Pamir, 

 Zerafshan and Sir-darya uplands, and holding a somewhat inter- 

 mediate position between the Iranic and Indie branches. 



This term Galcha, although new to science, has long been 

 applied to the Aryans of the Pamir valleys, being 



, * J TheGalchas. 



identified with the Calcienses populi of the lay Jesuit 

 Benedict Goez, who crossed the Pamir in 1603, and describes 

 them as " of light hair and beard like the Belgians." Meyendorff 

 also calls those of Zerafshan " Eastern Persians, Galchi, Galenas." 

 The word has been explained to mean "the hungry raven who 

 has withdrawn to the mountains," probably in reference to those 

 Lowland Tajiks who took refuge in the uplands from the pre- 

 datory Turki hordes. But it is no doubt the Persian galcha, 

 a peasant or clown, then a vagabond, etc., whence galchagi, 

 rudeness. 



As shown by J. Biddulph 1 , the tribes of Galchic speech range 

 over both slopes of the Hindu-Kush, comprising the natives of 

 Sarakol, Wakhan, Shignan, Munjan (with the Yidoks of the Upper 

 Lud-kho or Chitral river), Sanglich, and Ishkashim. To these he 

 is inclined to add the Pakhpus and the Shakshus of the Upper 

 Yarkand-darya, as well as those of the Kocha valley, with whom 

 must now also be included the Zerafshan Galchas (Maghians, 

 Kshtuts, Falghars, Machas and Fans), but not the Yagnobis. All 

 these form also one ethnic group of Alpine type, with whom on 

 linguistic grounds Biddulph also includes two other groups, the 

 Khos of Chitral with the Siah Posh of Kafiristan, and the Shins 

 (Dards), G6rs, Chilasi and other small tribes of the Upper Indus 

 and side valleys, all these apparently being long-heads of the blond 

 Aryan type. Keeping this distinction in view, Biddulph's valuable 

 treatise on the Hindu-Kush populations may be followed with 



for T, so that TCUTIKCU would be the nearest possible Greek transcription of 

 Tajik. Major Raverty (Kafiristan and elsewhere) writes Tajzik, which comes 

 very near to Da-zhik, the old sound of the Chinese Tiao-chi or Ta-shih given 

 by Chang Kiao, who visited the West in 122 B.C. (Desguignes). 

 1 Tribes of the Hindoo-Koosh, passim. 



