254 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AXD SPORT. 



ies, and do much of the creative work of discovery 

 and lead others up to it, but do not bring it into 

 clear light. Everywhere Colonel Tod's originative 

 mind threw a new light upon the vital relationships 

 of Indian archaeology, and he anticipated, in a semi- 

 imaginative way, much of that vast and most valu- 

 able glimpse of the past which has been elaborately 

 worked out by Lassen and his successors. His was 

 essentially what J. S. Mill, speaking of Coleridge, 

 has called " a seminal mind ; " and he added to that 

 power a great literary talent which enabled him to 

 realise and reproduce for others the scenes which he 

 witnessed and the ideas to which they gave rise. 



On coming into slight contact with the Kathis in 

 another part of the peninsula, Colonel Tod's mind at 

 once perceived this relationship to far-distant tribes, 

 and he elaborated the idea in a manner which over- 

 ran his facts, but which was suggestive, and in the 

 main correct. Not in this particular instance alone, 

 but in others, he anticipated later discovery ; and in 

 his vital contribution to Indian archaeology deserved 

 to be named with such early pioneers as Leyden, Sir 

 William Jones, and Prinsep. 



Colonel Tod's ideas in regard to the Kathis, as 

 developed in the fifteenth chapter of his ' Western 

 India,' were at once taken up, and passed as a sort 

 of archaeological gospel, while the origin of them was 

 very much ignored. At once the Kathis appeared as 

 Scythians, and as Scythians they have remained ever 



