1860.] Is ilie Puslito a Semitic Language ? 331 



And we shall find the cause to be a very common source of error, 

 namely a pre-conceived theory. Capt. Raverty seems hastily to have 

 taken up the opinión that the Afghans are children of Israel, and so 

 all goes wrong. 



Let the reader bear in mind that it is desired to keep the linguistic 

 question quite unencumbered, and that the writer of this notice does 

 not intend to enter upon the ethnological question in this place. But 

 it is difiicult to pass over a remarkable phenomenon in the Introduc- 

 tion here spoken of. In p. 30, Capt. Raverty sornewhat pertinently 

 observes that had the Afghans " been the aborigines of the country 

 at present known as Afghanistan, we must have heard something of 

 them from ancient writers, for we find that even in the time of 

 Herodotus, Darius had sent an exploring expedition under Scylax 

 of Caryanda and others as far as the Indus." He then goes on to 

 cite two passages from some English translation of Herodotus, in 

 both of which the Afghans are mentioned, but he does not see it. 

 The first passage states that Scylax " set out from the city of Cas- 

 patyrus and the country of Paktyica, and sailed down the Indus." 

 The second says, " there are other Indians bordering on the city of 

 Caspatyrus and the country of Paktyica, settled northwards of the 

 other Indians." 



Had the Afghans, says Capt. Raverty, been then in these regions, 

 their ñame must have occurred in these passages. Granted ; what 

 ñame ? Not Afghan, for that is a modern ñame, given them by the 

 Persians, not acknowledged by themselves, and certainly not occur- 

 ring before the time of Abu Said, who ruled in Khorasan during the 

 fifteenth century. Their own ñame in the country near the Indus, 

 to which the citations refer, is Paklitu (n) ; how would a Greek have 

 spelled this ? ILolktv, I trow. This word, in the plural number, the 

 reader will find in Hdt. VII. 67, where the different nationalities are 

 enumerated that constituted Xerxes' army. The HaKTves (Pakhtus) 

 are described as wearing posteens, and carrying native bows and 

 knives, not a bad description of Afghans at any time ; and they are 

 duly mentioned after the Bactrians, Parthians, Khwarismians, 

 Sogdians, and Grandarii (Kandaharís ?) — Even the peculiar form of 

 the ñame Paktuika as the ñame of their nation or their country finds 

 its explanation in the fact that the Afghans cali themselves collec- 



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