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therefore the Malli must necessarily mean the people of Multan, 

 or Malli-sthan, the region of the Malli. The district of Outch is 

 not far distant, and the Greeks, fond of softening the Indian words 

 by any resembling term expressive of the physical appearance of 

 the people, called these people Oxydracae, from their sharp sighted- 

 ness*. Against these three tribes of warlike Indians, whose union of 

 numbers and courage rendered them, in a high degree, formidable, 

 Alexander thought it prudent to lead the concentrated force of a 

 Grecian army. 



These people, Arrian informs us, had already resisted, on a former 

 occasion, the combined armies of Porus and Abissares, and the city 

 of Sangala, to which they had now retired, was strong by na- 

 ture, and rendered still stronger by all the skill in fortification 

 known to a barbarous people. It seems to have been situated on one 

 of those eminences, though not of the loftiest kind, with which this 

 part of Asia abounds, and on the summit of which the Indians de- 

 light to erect their laboured forts. An extensive lake secured it 

 from assault on one quarter, and on all others it was defended by 

 high walls, flanked with strong bastions. Before the gates of this 

 city, the three great tribes above-mentioned, combining their strength 

 against the common foe, had encamped, and intrenched themselves 

 within the centre of a range of carriages, strongly fastened together, 

 and drawn round them, as an impregnable rampart, in three circular 

 lines of considerable depth. Mounting on the carriages that formed 

 the outermost of these lines, they perpetually darted thence their 

 missive weapons, and, with their unerring javelins, struck with death 

 all that came within a certain distance. As the city lay immediately 

 behind them, it was their intention, if unsuccessful in this mode of 

 defensive combat, to retreat within its walls, and defend it to the last 



* Sir W. Jones in Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 2. 



