744 Lassen on the History traced [No. 104. 



counts however afford the great advantage of having originated 

 with a nation, which had entered upon various relations with 

 those Scythians, and was informed by embassies of their cir- 

 cumstances.* 



These accounts however require a critical examination in va- 

 rious points, and even here, though only limiting myself to the 

 most remarkable facts, I cannot quite omit this task. 



The Yuetchi, a nomad tribe of inner Asia first appear in 

 the upper Hoangho, whence they are repelled by the grooving 

 power of the Hioungnus ; one sept* called the little, turn south- 

 wards to Tibet ; the larger division bearing the name of the 

 great, set out farther westwards to the countries beyond the 

 Jaxartes; this event happened in the first half of the second 

 century before our era.f This division originally consisted of 

 five hordes. 



In the country recently occupied by them, they fall in with 

 the people of an earlier emigration, called the Szus, Sais, Ses, 

 also nomades under some petty chiefs. This tribe is forced to 

 retire further west, and as the Yuetchis conquered new pastures 

 on the borders of the Hi, the Szus must have been removed to 

 the Jaxartes. In these Szus the Saces have been long ago 

 recognized 5 this corresponds with the fact, that the Saces had 



* The most important facts are already put together by De Guignes : 

 " Sur quelques 6v6nements qui concernent I'histoire des Rois Grecs de 

 la Bactriane et particuli^rement la destruction de leur Royaume par les 

 Scythes, etc" in Memoires de 1' Academic Roy ale des inscriptions et belles 

 lettres. Tome XXV. II. p. 17. Abel Remusat has supplied information of 

 this kind in some writings, viz. in the " Recherches Tartares," in his 

 " Melanges," in his " notes to Foe Koue Ki". Klaproth in the " Tableaux 

 Historiques de I'Asie." It is true, great mistakes have been pointed out 

 in the work of De Guignes with respect to his interpretation of Chinese 

 names ; but he is not prepossessed, as his successors are, by the monoma- 

 nia of recognising in the Chinese accounts German tribes in inner Asia, as 

 Goths, Getes, Jutes, Juetes, Jits, and Jats. The reading Yueti instead 

 Yuetchi, originates in this visionary idea, and the Russian Sinolog, father 

 Hyacinth, who was not acquainted with this beautiful discovery, quietly 

 continued writing Yuetchi. 



t De Guignes, p. 21. Klaproth, p. 57. p. 132. Remusat to Fog K. 

 p. 83. The year 163 b. c. is mentioned. 



