OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN ASIA. 199 
as Indians. In order to estimate these authorities, however, 
we must consider their dates. It is not till two or three cen- 
turies after Priny and Protemy, that the name of Serindi oc- 
curs; nor is it till the sixth and eighth centuries, that these 
come to be confounded with the Seres. The decline of the 
Roman empire, and the irruption of the Turcoman hordes, 
broke off this grand Jine of commerce across Asia; silk, then, 
which had become the luxury of all ranks, was again sold for 
its weight in gold. The consequence was, that the geography 
of this part.of the world, more than shared the general eclipse 
in which all branches of science were involved. Of this, the 
statements of the Ravenna geographer afford the clearest evi- 
dence. He evidently knew nothing of the coast of India be- 
yond the Ganges ; and the appellation of India Serica compre- 
-hends, with him, not, only the whole interior of Indostan, but. 
the whole of Central and Eastern Asia, to Bactriana inclusive. 
It is clear, therefore, that he viewed those regions in the man- 
ner natural to ignorance, as a dim and indistinct mass, the fea- 
tures. of which were all blended together. In regard to other 
parts of the world, that were at all remote, he displays errors 
that belong only to the infancy of science. He makes the Cas- 
_pian.a gulf of the Northern Ocean ; he extends Britain entire- 
ly from east to west, making one extremity border on Norway, 
and the other on Spain. His age seems therefore to be cha- 
racterised. by the almost total extinction, as to all remote re- 
gions, of those geographical lights which had shone upon the 
age of Puiyy and Proremy ; and in preferring his authority to 
_ theirs, M. Gossexi prefers, if not darkness, at least deep twi- 
light, to the light of day. , 
With regard to the origin of the name Serinda, it does not 
_ appear, very difficult to trace. Serica was known to the an- 
cients as the country of silk; that substance itself was called 
sericum. 
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