1854.] Some Remarks on the Origin of the Afghan people. 551 



tain countries of no great extent, a variety of languages, totally 

 distinct from each other, was used ; whilst on the other hand again, 

 the same language, with slight variations in its dialects, was spoken 

 throughout regions of very great extent. The first remarks are 

 applicable to nearly all mountainous districts, inhabited like Afghan- 

 istan by various tribes, for the most part independent of each 

 other. 



Throughout the boundless steppes of the Asiatic continent were 

 spread the more prevalent languages. The limits of the various 

 dialects also, were the same stupendous ranges of mountains, and 

 the same noble and mighty rivers, which formed the boundaries 

 of the different territories. Between the Attak or Indus, the 

 iEman or Oxus, and the banks of the Dajlah or Tigris, one language 

 appears to have predominated, a second between the Tigris to the 

 Halys or Kizil Irmak, and a third betwixt the latter river to the 

 iEgean sea. 



To commence with the language which appears to have been most 

 widely prevalent in ancient times, we find that from the Caucasian* 

 range of mountains on the north, to the Eed sea on the south, and 

 from the banks of the Euphrates on the east to the Halys on the 

 west, one mighty tongue was spoken, which, with some slight varia- 

 tions, retained a primitive and distinct character, known as the 

 Semitic, and of which the Arabic, Assyrian, Chaldaic, Cappadocian, 

 Hebrew, Sarmatian, and Phoenician were merely dialects. t 



From the Tigris eastward, as far possibly as the mountain range 

 which forms the western barrier of the Indus, and from the Oxus to 



I the Indian sea, another great language prevailed — the various dia- 

 lects of which, both in elements and construction-, as also in vocabu- 

 lary and phraseology, were so totally distinct, as to preclude the 

 possibility of their being of the same family as the Semitic. One 

 peculiar feature of the ancient dialects of Persia is, that every vowel, 

 whether short or long, has a distinct character. We are indebted 

 to the labours of several eminent scholars in Zend literature for 

 many important facts on this subject, particularly in the Zend Avesta 



* That is to say, what is at present known as the Caucasian range, not the Koh-i- 

 Kaf of the ancient Arabian authors, 

 t Heeren. 



