Chap. 19.] 
ACCOUKT OP COUNTRIES, ETC. 
33 
back of Mount Paropanisus,^^ over against the sources of the 
river Indus, and is bounded by the river Ochus.^^ Eeyond it 
are the Sogdiani,^^ the town of Panda, and, at the very extremity 
of their territory, Alexandria, founded by Alexander the 
Great. At this spot are the altars wiiich were raised by Her- 
cules and Pather Liber, as also by Cyrus, Semiramis, and 
Alexander ; for the expeditions of all these conquerors stopped 
short at this region, bounded as it is by the river Jaxartes, 
by the Scythians known as the Silis, and by Alexander and 
his officers supposed to have been the Tanais. This river was 
crossed by Demodamas, a general of kings Seleucus and An- 
tiochus, and whose account more particularly we have here 
followed. He also consecrated certain altars here to Apollo 
Didymaeus.^^ 
CHAP. 19. (17.) THE IfATIOIsS OF SCTTHIA AND THE C0T7NTEIES 
ON THE EASTEEN OCEAN. 
Eeyond this river are the peoples of Scythia. The Persians 
have called them by the general name of Sacse,^'^ which properly 
S3 Now known as the Hindoo-Koosh ; a part of the great mountain- 
chain which runs from west to east through the centre of the southern 
portion of the highlands of Central Asia, and so divides the part of the 
continent which slopes down to the Indian ocean from the great central 
table-land of Tartary and Thibet, The native term, Hindoo-Koosh, is 
only a form, of the ancient name ^^Indicus Caucasus," which was some- 
times given to this chain. The ancient name was derived probably from 
the Persian word paru^ a " mountain." 
8* Flowing from the north side of the Paropanisus. According to Pliny 
and Ptolemy, this river flowed through Bactria into the Oxus ; but ac- 
cording to Strabo, through Hyrcania into the Caspian Sea, Some suppose 
it to have been only another name for the Oxus. Ansart suggests that it 
may have been the river now known as the Bash. 
85 D'Anville says that there is still the valley of Al Sogd, in Tartary, 
beyond the Oxus. The district called Sogdiana was probably composed 
of parts of modern Turkistan and Bokhara. The site of Panda does not 
appear to be known. 
8^ It was built on the Jaxartes, to mark the furthest point reached by 
Alexander in his Scythian ^pedition. It has been suggested that the 
modern Kokend may possibly occupy its site. 
2^ The *Hwin," of the same birth with Diana. 
^8 The Sacae probably formed one of the most numerous and most pow- 
erful of the Scythian Nomad tribes, and dwelt to the east and north-east 
of the MassagetoD, as far us Servia, in the steppes of Central Asia, which 
VOL. II. B 
