524 ON MOUNT CAUCASUS. 



whole range as far as Gazni is called by Ptolemy 

 the Paruetoi mountains, probably from the Fdr'vafa 

 or Pdravdty which signifies a dove. The peak of 

 Ohaisa-ghar is called also Cdld-Roh or the black 

 mountain : the summit alone being covered with 

 snow, is not always seen at a great distance ; but 

 the body of the mountain, which looks black, is by 

 far more obvious to the sight. Persian romances say, 

 that there were seventy or seventy-two rulers called 

 Suleiman, before Adam; this has an obvious re- 

 lation to the seventy-one Manivantaras of the Hin- 

 dus : and of course Noah or SatyAvrata was a 

 Suleiman. 



The followers of Buddha acknowledge that the 

 ark might have been fastened to Naii-bandha near 

 Cashmir ; but surely they say, the ark could not 

 have been riding perpendicularly above this peak, 

 and such a vessel required a vast length of cable : 

 in short though the cable was made fast at Nau- 

 bandha, the ark was riding above C'hdisd-ghar, 

 According to the Pauranics and the followers of 

 Buddha, the ark rested on the mountain of Arya- 

 varta, Aryaivart or India, an appellation which 

 has no small affinity with the Araraut of scripture. 

 These mountains were a great way to the eastward 

 of the plains o^ Shinar ox Mesopotamia, for it is said 

 in Genesis^ that, some time after the flood, they 

 journeyed from the east, till they found a plaip in 

 the land of Shinar, in which they settled. This 

 surely implies that they came from a very distant 

 country to the eastward of Shinar. The region 

 about Tuckt- Suleiman is the native country of the 

 olive tree, and I believe the only one in the world. 

 There are immense forests of it on the high grounds j 

 for it does not grow in plains. From the saplings, 

 the inhabitants make walking sticks, and its wood is 

 used for fuel all over the country; and, as Pliny 



justly 



