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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[May, 1879.
the course is northerly, passing a variety of barbarous tribes, among which are the Kirrhadai, sayages whose noses are flattened to the face, and another tribe, that of the Bargusoi, as well as the Hippiopros 8 poi or Makroprosopoi (the horse faced or long faced men), who are reported to be cannibals.
63. After passing these the course turns again to the east, and if you sail with the ocean to your right and the coast far to your left, you reach the Ganges and the extremity of the continent towards the east called Khruse (the Golden Khersonese). The river of this region called the Ganges is the largest in India ; it has an annual increase and decrease like the Nile, and there is on it a mart called after it, Gange, through which passes a considerable traffic consisting of betel, the Gangetic spike- nard, pearl, and the finest of all muslins--those called the Gangetio. In this locality also there is said to be a gold mine and a gold coin called 1 Kaltis. Near this river there is an island of the ocean called Khruse (or the Golden), which lies directly under the rising sun and at
the extremity of the world towards the east. It produces the finest tortoise-shell that is found throughout the whole of the Erythræan Sea.
64. Beyond this region, immediately under the north, where the sea terminates outwards, there lies somewhere in Thina a very great city, -not on the coast, but in the interior of the country, called Thina,-- from which silk, whether in the raw state or spun into thread and woven into cloth, is brought by land to Barugaza throngh Baktria, or by the Ganges to Limurikê. To penetrate into Thina is not an easy undertaking, and but few merchants come from it, and that rarely. Its situation is under the Lesser Bear, and it is said to be conterminous with the remotest, end of Pontos, and that part of the Kaspian Sea which adjoins the Maiðtic Lake, along with which it issues by one and the same mouth into the ocean.
65. On the confines, however, of Thinai an annual fair is held, attended by a race of men of squat figure, with their face very broad, but mild in disposition, called the Sêgatai, who in
Krishni, which is perhaps Ptolemy's Tuna. The name Maisolia is taken from the Sanskrit Mausala, preserved in Machhlipatana, now Masalipatam, Beyond this, after an intervening gulf running eastward is crossed, another district occurs, Des. arênê noted for its elephants. This is not mentioned by Ptolemy, but a river with a similar name, the Dôsa rôn, is found in his enumeration of the rivers which occur between the Maisôlos and the Ganges. As it is the last in the list it may probably be, as Lassen supposes, the Brahmini. Our author however places Desarênê at a much greater distance from the Ganges, for he peoples the intermediate space with a variety of tribes which Ptolemy relegates to the East of the river. The first of these tribes is that of the Kirrådai. (Sanskrit, Kirátas), whose features are of the Mongolian type. Next are the Bargusoi, not mentioned by Ptolemy, but perhaps to be identified with the cannibal race he speaks of, the Barousa i thought by Yule to be perhaps the inhabitants of the Nikobar islands, and lastly the tribe of the long or horse-faced men who were also cannibals.
(63) When this coast of savages and monsters is left behind, the course lies eastward, and leads to the Ganges, which is the greatest river of India, and adjoins the extremity of the Eastern continent called Khrusê, or the Golden. Near the river, or, according to Ptolemy, on the third of
its mouths.stands & great emporium of trade called Gange, exporting Malabathrum and cottons and other commodities. Its exact position there are not sufficient data to determine. Khrusên is not only the name of the last part of the continent, but also of an island lying out in the ocean to eastward, not far from the Ganges. It is the last part of the world which is said to be inhabited. The situation of Khrush is differently defined by different ancient authors. It was not known to the Alexandrine geographers. Pliny seems to have preserved the most ancient report circulated regarding it. He says (VI. xxiii. 80): "Beyond the mouth of the Indus are Cbry sê and Argyre abounding in metals as I believe, for I can hardlv believe what some have related that the soil consists of gold and silver." Mela (III. 7) assigns to it a very different position, asserting it to be near Tabis, the last spur of the range of Taurus. He therefore places it where Eratosthenes places Thinai, to the north of the Ganges on the confines of the Indian and Skythian oceans. Ptolemy, in whose time the Transgangetic world was better known, refers it to the peninsula of Malacca, the Golden Khersonese.
(64) The last place which the Periplus mentions is Thinai, an inland city of the Thinai or Sinai, having a large commerce in silk and woollen stuffs. The ancient writers are not at all agreed as to its position, Colonel Yule thinks it
