£0 PLINTS NATTIEAL HISTOKr. [Book Vl. 



here, the Peucolaite," the Arsagalitse, the Geretse, and the 

 Assoi. 



The greater part of the geographers, in fact, do not look 

 upon India as bounded by the river Indus, but add to it the 

 four Satrapies of the Gedrosi,'^ the Arachotae," the Aiii,'*- and 

 the Paropanisidse,'^ the river Cophes '^ thus forming the extreme 

 boundary of India. All these territories, however, according 

 to other writers, are reckoned as belonging to the country of 

 the Arii. (21.) Many writers, too, place in India the city of 

 Ifysa,^ and the mountain of ilerus, sacred to Father Bacchus ; 

 in which circumstancb^ originated the stoiy that he sprang from 

 the thigh of Jupiter. They also place here the nation of the 

 Astacani, whose country abounds in the vine, the laurel, the 

 box-tree, and all the fruits which are produced in Greece. As 

 to those wonderful and almost fabulous stories which are re- 

 lated about the fertility of the soil, and the various kinds of 

 fruits and trees, as well as wild beasts, and birds, and other 

 sorts of animals, they shall be mentioned each in its proper 



''^ Parisot supposes that these were the inhabitants of the district which 

 now bears the name of Pekhcli. 



"" Gedrosia comprehended proh^ibly the same district as is now known 

 by the name of Mokran, or, according to some, the whole of modem Be- 

 luochistan. 



*' The people of the city and district of Arachotus, the capital of Ara- 

 chosia. M. Court has identified some ruins on the Ai-gasan riTcr, near 

 Kandahar, on the road to Shikarpur, with those of Arachotus ; but Pro- 

 fessor Wilson considers them to be too much to the south-east. Colbuel 

 Eawlinsou thinks they are those to be seen at a place called Ulan Robat. 

 lie states that the most ancient name of the city, Copheii, (mentioned by 

 Pliny inc. 25 of the present Book), has given rise to the territorial desig- 

 nation. See p. 57. 



"' The people of Aria, consisting of the eastern part of Khorassan, and 

 the western and north-western pai-t of Afghanistan. This was one of the 

 most important of the eastern provinces or satrapies of the Persian empire, 



•^ This was the collective name of several peoples dwelling on the 

 southern slopes of the Hindoo Koosh, and of the country which they in- 

 habited, which was not known by any other name. It corresponded to the 

 eastern part of modern Afghanistan and the portion of the Punjaub lying 

 to the west of the Indus. 



" It is supposed that the Cophes is represented by the modern river of 



'^^ The place here alluded to was in the district of Goi7a)a, at the 

 north-western corner of the Punjaub, near the confluence of the rivers 

 Cophen and Choaspes being probably the same place as Nagata or Diouy- 

 sopolLs, the modern Nugar or Naggar. 



'^ The word /iqpot, lu Greek, signifying a " thigh." 



