1851.] Indo -Scythian Princes. 147 



which it cannot well have that signification. Neither (none ?) of the 

 others bear a resemblance to any Turkish title, as Beg or Khan. It is 

 said indeed that the Sakas when subdued by the Yui-chi had no king : 

 and it is elsewhere mentioned (?), that in the century before our era 

 they had abolished royalty, and remained under the command of mili- 

 tary chiefs ; and hence possibly the adoption by them of the portraits 

 and types of Hermaeus at various times, and the insertion of names and 

 epithets unconnected with royalty. These coins therefore might be 

 the issues of different military officers of the Sakas, during the latter 

 half of the century that preceded the Christian era, and the esta- 

 blishment of the kingdom of the Yui-chi ; in which case the con- 

 jecture that these coins bear the name of the Yui-chi prince, Kiu-tsiu- 

 kio, would fall to the ground." (v. also Ar. Ant. on the same subject 

 pp. 358-59, 4to.) 



In dealing with the difficulties above set forth, it must be recollected 

 that we have to do with a dialectic difference, as I read it, of the Greek, 

 which had, as we have already seen, become even in Grseco-Bactrian 

 periods, incorrect, not to say corrupt ; but strange to say, it is not the 

 less in its elements Grecian, as I shall proceed to show. Should my 

 brief dissertation appear a little pedantic, I trust it may be excused on 

 the ground that the subject is new and curious, and one which the 

 savans of Europe have, by their tacit concurrence with the dicta of 

 Professor Wilson, pronounced inexplicable. 



As to the first word then, in the legend No. 1, Kopa-o, I must remark, 

 with reference to those which will form the matter of our sequent 

 enquiry, that it is intended to be in the genitive case, the legends of 

 this period giving us o, and even v for the genitive ov : the nominative 

 of this word would therefore be Kopcros. The word Koparj which in old 

 Homeric Greek* (II. 4, 502, 5, 584,) is used plurally for the temples, 

 or sides of the head, and more modernly in a poetic sense for the head, 

 is the root whence this barbarized substantive has been derived. There 

 is a legitimate Greek noun kooo-^s (one who cuts or shaves the hair), 

 but it springs from quite another origin (Ketpw — to clear or shave). 

 The attempt has been evidently made in the rude word before us to 

 impersonize the head y as alluding to the qualifications of the individual 



* Sans. ?eersha : root, Ka5a. 



H. T. 



u 2 



