1863.] Aornos. 419 
ing all unwinged things. If, however, it be not Greek, it is not 
necessarily Sanscrit, for we have undoubted proof that the Pushtoo 
language was in use at that time in that region, and that the Afghan 
race held the region to which Aornos appertains. It might therefore 
be either a, Pushtoo, or a Sanserit, or an Aboriginal, or a Persian word. 
There are several Hindi names of Forts which would have been 
rendered by the Greeks Aornos,—Urniya cr the unapproachable, 
Woorna, Awur, Aon} or Wunj. The first of these, (now called 
Kotta,) stands at Umb Balimah (Hmbolimah,) and so overhangs the 
Indus on its eastern face, that water is ordinarily drawn up from the 
Indus by the garrison. But this rock, like Hodi’s hill, is too con- 
temptible to be the Aornos of history. 
When first L approached the Indus at Torbaila, I felt that I was 
in presence of the veritable Aornos. And on discovering that the 
mountain rising like a green wall to the height of 3000 feet above 
the water, bore the name of Wunj or Aonj which the Greeks would 
have written Aornos, I deemed it almost certain that this particular 
rock was the stronghold in request. It was only when I learnt that 
Mount Aonj has no arable land and little water, so that although 
quite inaccessible against sudden invasion, it cannot hold out long ; 
and that the Mahabunn, which has abundance of water, grass, firewood 
and arable land, is the ordinary refuge of the Husufzyes of the plains 
with their families and cattie, that I was obliged to prefer the Maha- 
bunn, a spur of which falls sheer into the Indus. 
The Mahabunn itself, however, is invisible from the western brink of 
the Indus, bemg concealed behind Mount Aonj. The Greeks there- 
fore might easily have confounded the two and have thought they 
were ascending the mountain pomted out to them as Aonj or Aornos. 
From the junction of the Burrendor torrent (flowing out of Boo- 
nair) with the Indus, down to Atuk, the river margin has been most 
earefully searched, but although it seems improbable that Aornog 
should be below Atuk, this should not be left in doubt. The river’s 
bank should be explored, as opportunity offers, down to Neeldb at 
least, bearing in mind that it is not a castle we must seek for, but a 
stupendous rock or mountain to which the people of the plains flee 
for refuge. 
It is difficult to understand why Mr. Loewenthal supposes the 
author of the “ Gradus ad Aornon” to have followed Curtius rather 
