1854.] Some Remarks on tlie Origin of the Afghan people. 573 



Mithridates vol. 1st, page 225, considers Pushto an original and 

 peculiar dialect, but at the same time acknowledges his acquaintance 

 with it to be very slight. 



Mr. Elphinstone, in his work on Kabul, vol. 1st, page 302, with 

 reference to the Afghanian language, considers that its origin cannot 

 be easily discovered. He remarks, " a large portion of the words 

 that compose it, as also most of the verbs and particles belong to an 

 unknown root, and in this portion are included most of those words, 

 which from the early necessity for designating the objects they re- 

 present, must have formed parts of the original language ; yet some 

 of this very class belong to the Zend and Pihlavi, such as the terms 

 for father and mother, sister and brother." He also further states, 

 that out of two hundred and eighteen Pushto words, not one had 

 the smallest appearance of being deducible from any of the Semitic 

 languages, but that a resemblance (five out of one hundred and ten 

 words) can be traced between it and the Kurdish, considered to be 

 an Indu-Germanic tongue. 



One of the most decided proofs against the erroneous idea that the 

 Afghans are the aborigines of the territory they at present inhabit 

 and that the Pushto is the original dialect of those countries, con- 

 sists in the facts brought to light in the decyphering of the Bactrian, 

 and Indu-Scythian coins. M. Lassen in his interesting and erudite 

 work* on this subject, very truly observes ; " I indeed know that 

 some have pretended to recognize the Afghans in eastern Kabul, 

 even as early as Alexander's time ; not so Mr. Elphinstone,t who 

 rather proves their immigration into Kabul at a much later period. 

 This conjecture has originated with professor WilkenJ, who thinks 

 he recognizes the Afghans in the Assakanes. If these were indeed 

 Afghans, the Afghan language would have been spoken throughout 

 Kabul, and the language of the coins must be the source of the 

 Pushto. Without observing, that neither ancient authorities nor 

 modern Afghan history § admit or require this supposition, the cor- 



* Points in the history of the Greek and Indu-Scythian Kings in Bactria, Kabul, 

 and India. Page 116. 



t Account of Kabul. Volume II. pp. 10, 33, 44, 50 & 56. 



X Abhandlg. der Berlin, Acad. 1818-19 p. 261. 



§ Baber does not mention any thing about Afghans at Kabul, when he took 

 that city. 



