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DECEMBER, 1884.
PTOLEMY'S GEOG. BK. VI, CH. 16.-SERIKE.
403
Oikhardes, which has its sources in three | Regarding Ptolemy's Skythian geography, different ranges, the Auzakian, the Asmiraean Bunbury says (vol. II, p. 597): “It must be admitand the Kasian. According to a writer in Smith's ted that Ptolemy's knowledge of the regions Dictionary the Oikhardês "may be considered on either side of the Imaos was of the vagueat to represent the river formed by the union of the possible character. Eastward of the Rhá (Volga), streams of Khotan, Yarkand, Kashgar and Ushi, which he regarded as the limit between Asiatic and which flows close to the hills at the base Sarmatia and Skythia, and north of the laxartes, of the Thian-shan. Saint-Martin again inclines which he describes like all previous writers as to think Echardês may be a designation of falling into the Kaspian-he had, properly the Indus, while still flowing northward from its speaking, no geographical knowledge whatever. sources among the Himalayas. "Skardo," he says, Nothing had reached him beyond the names of (Etude, p. 420) " the capital of the Balti, bears tribes reported at second-hand, and frequently to the name of the Eikhardês (Chardi in Amm. derived from different authorities, who would Marc. 2) a resemblance with which one is struck. apply different appellations to the same tribe, or If the identification is well founded, the river extend the same name to one or more of the Echardês will be the portion of the Indus which wandering hordes, who were thinly dispersed over traverses Balti and washes the walls of Skardo." this vast extent of territory. Among the names
In the north of the division Ptolemy places the thus accumulated, a compilation that is probably A bioi Skytha i. Homer, along with the Galak- as worthless as that of Pliny, notwithstanding its tophagoi and Hippêmolgoi, mentions the Abioi. greater pretensions to geographical accuracy, we Some think that the term in the passage designates find some that undoubtedly represent populations a distinct tribe of Skythians, but others take it to be really existing in Ptolemy's time, such as the a common adjective, characterizing the Skythians Alani, the Aorsi, &c., associated with others that in general as very scantily supplied with the were merely poetical or traditional, such as the means of subsistence. On the latter supposition Abii, Galaktophagi and Hippophagi, while the the general term must in the course of time have Issêdones, who were placed by Herodotos imme. become a specific appellation. Of the four towns diately east of the Tanais, are strangely transferred which Ptolemy assigns to the division, one bears by Ptolemy to the far East, on the very borders a well-known name, Issed on, which he calls of Serika; and he has even the name of a town Skythike, to distingaish it from Isaedon in which he calls Issedon Serika, and to which he Serike. The name of the Issêdônes occurs very assigns a position in longitude 22° east of Mount early in Greek literature, as they are referred to by
Imaos, and not less than 46° east of Baktra. In the Spartan poet Alkman, who flourished between one essential point, as has been already pointed 671 and 631 B. 0. He calls them Assedo nes out, Ptolemy's conception of Skythia differed from Frag. 94, ed. Welcker). They are mentioned also that of all preceding geographers, that instead of by Hekataios of Miletos. In very remote times regarding it as bounded on the north and east by they were driven from the steppes over which the sea, and consequently of comparatively limited they wandered by the Arimuspians. They then extent, he considered it as extending without drove out the Skythians, who in turn drove out
limit in both directions, and bounded only by the the Kimmerians. Traces of these migrations are unknown land,' or in other words limited only by found in the poem of Aristeas of Prokonnesos, his own knowledge." who is fabled to have made a pilgrimage to the
CAP. 16. land of the Issêdones. Their position has been assigned to the east of Ichin, in the steppe of the
POSITION OF SERIKË. central horde of the Kirghiz, and that of the
Serikê is bounded on the west by Skythia, Arimaapee on the northern declivity of the Altai. beyond Mount Imaos, along the line already (Smith's Dict. 1. v.) This position is not in mentioned, on the north by the unknown land accordance with Ptolemy's indications. Herodotos,
along the same parallel as that through Thule, while rejecting the story of the Arimaspians and on the east, likewise by the unknown land and the griffins that guarded their gold, admits
along the meridian of which the extremities at the same time that by far the greatest quantity of gold came from the north of Europe, in which
...........................180° 63° he included the tracts along the Ural, and Altai
and ..........
.....................180° 55° ranges. The abundance of gold among the
and on the south by the rest of India boyond Skythians on the Euxine is attested by the the Ganges through the same parallel as far as contents of their tombs, which have been opened the extremity lying ....................173° 55° in modern times. (See Bunbury, vol. L p. 200.) and also by the Sinai, through the line prolonged
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