322 Memoir on the Topes and [July, 



nated, and they themselves became extinct ? and who were their suc- 

 cessors till the period when the frenzy of Muhammedan religion over- 

 turned the whole institutions of the country ? These questions, which 

 involve many others, may yet be answered by these memorials. 



Ancient history is sufficiently intelligible, and conducts us to the 

 path, and even the allocation of Macedonian conquest in Afghanistan ; 

 and if identity in the appellations of places is still perplexing, and even 

 apparently inaccessible, it must be assigned rather to a deficiency in 

 ourselves, than to a result produced by any interchange of language 

 that may have occurred during the lapse of ages ; for instance, if a per- 

 son, familiar with Sanscrit, were to visit these regions, there is no 

 doubt that things would speak to us, instead of awaiting to be inter- 

 rogated. 



We are indebted to Col. Wilford for a knowledge of the fact, that 

 the names of all the places in Alexander's route from Bamidn to 

 Multdn, are pure Sanscrit. 



The Persian will also assist us in the inquiry. I need scarcely men- 

 tion the single word Panjdb (i. e. panj-db), five waters ; or Hydaspes 

 (JhilamJ, the initial syllable of which answers to the Greek term for wa- 

 ter, and the last to the Persian word " asp," a horse ; and it is notorious, 

 that the Dodb (two waters, or rather the land between them), 

 of the Jhilam, is famed for a breed of fine horses called dhani*, 

 and also of fine women. It is related to us, that so many honors were 

 reported to be paid to beauty in the country of the Cathsei under 

 King Sophites, that even dogs and horses were selected for their 

 quality ; and farther, that notwithstanding their barbarism, this nation 

 was first in wisdom, being ruled by salutary customs, one of which 

 was, that children born with disproportions in any part of their body 

 were to be killed ; nuptials being only influenced by beauty of exterior 

 in children : a commentary upon this will readily occur in the practice 

 of the present day, and the usages which prevail in the territory 

 watered by the Hydaspes. In Turkistdn, the field for etymological 

 affinities is equally prolific : the r iver Jaxartes, we are told, is read in 

 the Mongol Ixiartis ; but the Turks also call it Secandriee or Alex- 

 ander's river. The river Sogd retains its name, as we find from Issit 

 Oolah's Journal. The Sogdrians are therefore readily recognised as 

 the people inhabiting the course of that valley. The Getae must be 

 identified with the Jogatai, who inhabit Zataria ; beyond the limit of 

 Yarkand and Kashgar, and of which stock the present king of Delhi 

 and his relative, the sovereign of China, are descendants. Balkh, I 

 think, Colonel Wilford designates in the Sanscrit Bahalac ; also Ba- 



* Maha Rajd Runjeet Singh gets his best steeds from that district. 



