BORASAN 
767 
we know at what date it terminated. But what we do 
know with absolute certainty, seeing that we are told it by 
the cuneiform inscriptions of Bisutun (or Behistun) in 
Western Persia — inscriptions written in three languages, 
Persian, Medo-Scythian, and Babylonian, and interpreted 
by Brugsch — from these we know that Darius, son of 
Hystaspes the Achaemenian, who reigned from 521 to 
485 B.C., counted amongst the thirty-two satrapies of his 
empire the two tributary peoples of the Hindhu, who 
dwelt along the river Indus, and the Gandhara, an Aryan 
tribe located south of the Cabul river. In the beginning 
of his reign the great king (Darius) was mainly occupied 
with the suppression of numerous rebellious vassals ; but, 
that task accomplished, he set himself, according to 
Herodotus, “ to explore vast regions in Asia.” One of 
the exploring parties sent out by him, under command 
of Skylax of Karyanda, a town of Caria, sailed from 
Peukelaotis in the land of the Pactyans (Pakhtu, Afghans) 
down the Indus, then round Arabia and up the Red 
Sea to the Gulf of Suez. 
Herodotus tells us, that the Saca; or Scythians, as 
well as the Caspii, paid a yearly tribute of 250 silver 
talents to the Great King. The Sacae (Saki) dwelt in 
the region now known as Kashgaria ; in that region there 
are numerous geographical names still extant witnessing 
to their presence there in ancient times, such as Saki, 
Soku-tash, Tokkusak, and others. By what route the 
taste for Persian standards of art reached Borasan it is 
difficult to .say ; nor is that a matter of vital importance. 
There can in any case be little doubt, that that part of 
Central Asia was in direct communication with Gandhara 
(Gandara), as also that from the remotest antiquity there 
was a trade-route connecting Merv via Kara-teghin with 
Khotan, the capital of the Seres. 
My collection contains also numerous representations 
of lions’ heads ; and they, like several of the ape pictures, 
exhibit a strong tendency towards anthropomorphism. 
Their shapes seem to indicate that they were employed 
to decorate jars ; hence they occupy an intermediate 
