THE HUMAN SPECIES. 353 



Arabian name for the great central table land of Asi a 

 is here referred to a particular locality, perhaps the 

 chain of Demavend, or one of the several peaks bear- 

 ing the name of Alburs, or rather, Kohi-Baba, where 

 Argenk's palace is described to have been adorned with 

 statues of monsters, endowed with reason, " such as 

 existed in former creations." There were pictures 

 upon the walls relating to those times, poetical em- 

 bellishments in the legend, which, since the late 

 discoveries in the ruins of Nineveh, show that the 

 narrations are drawn from buildings adorned with 

 Andro- Sphinxes, Sirens, and Taurine monsters, similar 

 to those of Persepolis. The locality may even be much 

 more towards the north and east^^ince a sculptured 

 sphinx has been discovered about the .Altaic gold 

 mines, and similar objects are frequent in the ruins 

 of ancient cities about the river Amour, in Chinese 

 Tartary. The name of Temendoun, a giant with one 

 hundred arms, defeated by Kayomurs, first king of 

 Persia, but who escaped and fled to Oman, in Arabia ; 

 one more, named Anthalous (Antaeus), with a thousand 

 arms, who was captured and sentenced to death by 

 Soliman Ben Hakki, who could never accomplish his 

 decree, indicate that they are reminiscences of ancient 

 legends, notwithstanding the evident plagiarisms from 

 Greek fables and Hindoo relations, and that the 

 colour, the direction of the flight, and the indestruc- 

 tible character of these enemies, whose many arms im- 

 ply the strength of their forces, and the region and 

 antiquity of their occurrence. They are, moreover, 



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