<$ On the BORDERERS, MOUNTAINEERS, 



Between' that country and Iran are fome iflands, which,' from their 

 inlignificance In our prefent inquiry, may here be neglected ; and, as to the 

 Curds, or other independent races, who inhabit the branches of Taurus or the 

 banks of Euphrates and Tigris, they have, I believe, no written language, nor 

 any certain memorials of their origin : it has, indeed, been afferted by travellers, 

 that a race of wanderers in Diydrbecr yet fpeak the Chaldaick of our fcripture; 

 and the rambling Turcmdns have retained,! imagine, fome traces of their Tar- 

 tarian idioms i but, fince no veftige appears, from the gulf of Perjia to the ri- 

 vers C^rand Aras, of any people diftinctfrom the Arabs, Perfians, or Tartars , 

 we may conclude, that no fuch people exifts in the Iranian mountains, and re- 

 turn to thafe, which ieparate Iran from India. The principal inhabitants of 

 the mountains, called Pdr/ici,whcre they run towards the weft, Parveti, from. 

 a known Swnfcrit word, where they turn in an eaftern direction, and Paro- 

 f ami/us, where they join Imaus in the north, were anciently diftinguifhed 

 among the Brdhmans by the name of Deradas, but feem to have been de- 

 frayed or expelled by the numerous tribes of Afghans or Patans, among 

 whom are the Balojas, who give their name to a mountainous diftrict ; . and 

 there is very folid ground for believing, that the Afghans defcended from the 

 Jews ; becaufe they fometimes in confidence avow that unpopular origin, 

 •which id general they feduloufly conceal, and which other Mufelmans 

 pofitively aflert ; becaufe Hazaret, which appears to bethe^ra^of Esdr As, 

 is one of their territories >, and, principally, becaufe their language is evi- 

 dently a dialed of the fcriptural Chaldaick. 



We come now to the river Sindhu and the country named from it : near 

 its mouths we find a diftrid:, called by Nearch us, in his journal, Sangdda; 

 which jVLD'Anville juftly fuppofes to be the feat of the Sangdriians, alar- 

 fearous and piratical nation mentioned by modern travellers, and well 



