152 Translation of some Greek legends, fyc. [No. 2. 



Indeed I rather think our Bactrian and Indo-Scythian barbarisms 

 gain by the comparison. Our Kopavo is surely preferable to the drawl- 

 ing feminised Kopavva of Triballus ; while the /3ao-iAio-cra of Queen 

 Agathokleia is so superior to the Triballic corruption of f3acn\Lvav, 

 that one utterly forgives her the ungrammatical memory in which her 

 name is perpetuated. It is a curious and not unvaluable coincidence 

 that gives us in this one line, two of the words for comparison of our 

 slender numismatic vocabulary. 



It now only remains to record one or two reflections which naturally 

 ensue upon a review, such as has been here attempted, of indistinct 

 and obscure material for history. The question that suggests itself is, 

 — if the subject does not contain much in itself, to what does it point 

 as a subject for enquiry ? The exploration of Kafiristan is one point ; 

 and the study of the immigration of nomad tribes into this country 

 another. The first must of course depend upon far other than 

 scientific authority : the second is in the power of any man reasonably 

 familiar with the language and manners of the natives of Upper India. 

 Passing by the latest colony that has settled itself in the land, the 

 Pathans of Rohilkhund, I would suggest the study of that singular 

 race, the Goojurs stamped still with the type of nomads, so lately 

 has their immigration been into Upper India, and from them to the 

 Juts or Jats, the Thuggas, and other anomalous tribes. All have 

 their traditions, and their simple records, and I suspect that it will be 

 eventually from them, critically examined, that the real internal and 

 popular history of the country will be, if it ever is to be, elicited. 



Numismatics are but partially available to this end ; but their value 

 is immense ; and, with reference to dark portions of history in parti- 

 cular, their study should never be remitted, nor discouraged. It is 

 always unfortunate when any declaration is made ex cathedra in 

 science to the effect that a thing is " impossible :" it is equivalent to 

 the act of the disappointed votary who would brick up the archway of 

 the temple because it was not his fortune to make his entry into its 

 penetralia. Much as we owe to Professor Wilson, we do not the less 

 feel that the study of Indo-Bactrian numismatics sustained a check in 

 his announcement that philological discovery was not to be thought of 

 in some of the most salient points of our most interesting period.* 



* With reference to the march of discovery, I may mention that whereas in a 



