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402
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1884.
a rising ground, a Koh-ak, a little hill' or
hillock,' which lies to the east of the city. Accord ing to Strabo, this river traversed Sogdiana and was lost in the sands. Curtius describes it as entering a cavern and continuing its course under ground. The river actually terminates in & small lake to the south of Bokhara, the Dangiz, but in the dry weather the supply of water is too scanty to force its way to the lake, and it is dispersed and evaporated in the sands. What the original appellation may have been does not appear, but the denominations given by the Greeks and Persians 'the much-honoured' or 'the gold shedding' stream convey the same idea, and intimate the benefits it confers upon the region which it waters." Ptolemy is wide astray in making it enter the Kaspian.
The mountains enumerated are the Alana, Rhymmika, Norosson, Aspisia, Tapoura, Syeba, and Anarea. By the Alana Mountains, which lay to the east of the Hyperboreans, it has been supposed that Ptolemy designated the northern part of the Ural Chain. If so, he has erroneously given their direction as from west to east. The Rhymmik mountains were probably another branch of that great meridian chain which consists of several ranges which run nearly parallel. The Noros. son may be taken as Ptolemy's designation for the southern portion of this chain. The As. pisia and Tapours mountains lay to the north of the Iazartes. The latter, which are placed three degrees further east than the Aspisia, may be the western part of the Altai. The Syéb & stretched still farther eastward with an inclination northward.. To the southward of them were the Anarea, which may be placed near the sources of the Obi and the Irtish, forming one of the western branches of the Altai. Ptolemy errone. ously prolongs the chain of Imaos to these high latitudes.
Ptolemy has named no fewer than 38 tribes belonging to this divieion of Skythia. Of these the best known are the Alani, who belonged also to Eurppe, where they occupied a great portion of Southern Russia. At the time when Arrian the historian was Governor of Kappadokia under Hadrian, the Asiatic Alani attacked his province, but were repelled. He subsequently wrote a work on the tactics to be observed against the Alani (thats Kar 'Alavar) of which some fragmenta remain. The seats of the Alani were in the north of Skytlia and adjacent to the unknown land, which may be taken to mean the regions stretch ing northward beyond Lake Balkash. The posi. tion of the different tribes is fixed with sufficient clearness in the text. These tribes were essenti. ally nomadic, pastoral and migratory-hence in
Ptolemy's description of their country towns are singularly conspicuous by their absence,
CAP. 15. THE POSITION OF SKYTHIA BEYOND INAUS.
1. Skythis beyond Mount Imaos is bounded on the west by Skythia within Imaos, and the Sakai along the whole curvature of the mountains towards the north, and on the north by the unknown land, and on the east by Serike in a straight line whereof the extremities lie in ........................................ 150° 63° and ....................................... 160° 35° and on the south by a part of India beyond the Ganges along the parallel of latitude which cuts the southern extremity of the line just mentioned.
2. In this division is situated the western part of the Auxakian Mountains, of which the extremities lie ........................... 149° 49° and ........................ .............. 165° 54° and the western part of the mountains called Kasia, whose extremities lie in 152° 41° and.......................................... 162° 44° and also the western portion of Emôdos, whoge extremities lie in ................. 153° 36° and...............
......... 165° 36° and towards the Auxakiang, the source of the River Oikhardês lying in...... 153° 51°
3. The northern parts of this Skythia are possessed by the A bioi Skythai, and the parts below them by the Hippophagoi Skythai, after whom the territory of Anxakitis extends onward, and below this again, at the starting place already mentioned, the Kasian land, below which are the Khatai Skythai, and then succeeds the Akha sa land, and below it along the Emôda the Kharaunaioi Skythai.
4. The towns in this division are these Auxakia ............ ..............143° 49° 40' Issêdôn Skythike ..................150° 49° 30' Khaurana...............................150° 37° 15' Soita ............
..145° 350 20 Skythia beyond Imaos embraced Ladakh, Tibet, Chinese Tartary and Mongolia. Its mountains were the Aurakian and Kasian chains, both of which extended into Sêrike, and Emodos, The Auxakians may have formed a part of the Altai, and the Kasians which Ptolemy places five degrees further south are certainly the mountains of Kashgar. The Emô dos are the Himalayas.
The only river named in this division is the
