516 ON MOUNT CAUCASUS. 



me not, spare me, d ! Ndgdntacay or destroyer of 

 snakes. Gar ud'a granted his request, and placed 

 him by way of ornament round his neck. 



Bactria was also the native country of the Sacas 

 and Sacasenas -, and it is remarkable, that wherever 

 the Saoas went, there we find also the Griffins. 



It appears, that at an early period some emigra- 

 tion took place from Bactria into Colchis, the inha- 

 bitants of which country were called hidi and Sindi. 

 There was a powerful tribe called Augoi, Augdn, 

 Abasgoi and Abasgoji, which appear to be the same 

 with the present Afghans or AuganSy called Aspa- 

 gonos by Pliny. These carried with them their 

 original legends, such as the story of Prometheus 

 and the eagle ; and in the course of time they even 

 supposed, that the events they alluded to, did really 

 happen in the country they were now inhabiting. 

 According to the PurdnaSy the Sacas and Sacashias, 

 leaving Bactria, went into the dwip of Placsha, or 

 Asia the lesser, which was afterwards denominated 

 from them the dwip of Sdca. The appellation of 

 Placsha or P lacy a in the vulgar dialects, was not 

 entirely lost in the time of Herodotus, who takes 

 particular notice of a place called Placia, the inha- 

 bitants of which, and of the adjacent country, still 

 retained the old language. As the word Placsha 

 is sometimes written Lacsha, I suspect that the 

 Legzi or Lqsgi, formerly a powerful nation in Col- 

 chiSy were the remains of the ancient inhabitants of 

 the dzvip of Lacsha or Placsha : for they lived for- 

 merly in the more southern parts of lesser Asia, to- 

 ward Syria, and w^ere the same with the Leuco- 

 Syrii perhaps for Lesgo-Syri, or Lachya-Syri. 



Deo-Cal-yun, the adopted son of the lord para- 

 mount of the Yavanas, lived in the country of the 



Cdmhoj^ 



