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404
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1884.
till it reaches the already mentioned extremity towards the unknown land.
2. Serikê is girdled by the mountains called Anniba, whose extremities lie ... 153o 60° and .......................... .......171° 56° and by the eastern part of the Auxakians, of which the extremity lies ......165° 54° and by the mountains called the Asmiraia whose extremities lie ...............167° 47° 30' and ....................................174 47° 30' and by the eastern part of the Kasia range, whose extremities lie ...............162° 44° and ....................................171° 40° and by Mount Thagouron whose centre lies..............................170° 43° nud also by the eastern portion of the mountains called Emôda and Sérika, whose extremity Jies................
...................165° 36° and by the range called Ottorokorrhas, whose extremities lie ........
........169° 36° and ..............
........176° 38° 3. There flow through the far greatest portion of Serike two rivers, the Oikhardês, one of whose sources is placed with the Auxakioi, and the other which is placed in the Asmiraian mountains lies in.....................174° 47° 30' and where it bends towards the Kasia range .............
........160° 48° 30' but the source in them lies ........161° 44° 15' and the other river is called the Bautisos, and this has one of its sources in the Kasia range
.....................................160° 43° another in Ottorokorrha............176° 39° and it bends towards the Emôda in 168° 39° and its source in these lies.........160° 37°
4. The most northern parts of Sêrike are inhabited by tribes of cannibals, below whom is the nation of the Anniboi, who occupy the slopes and summits of the homonymous moun. tains. Between these and the Auxakioi is the nation of the Syzyges, below whom are the Dâmnai, then as far as the river Oikhardes the Pialai (or Piaddai), and below the river the homonymous Oikhardai.
5. And again farther east than the Anniboi are the Garinaioi and the Rhaban nai or Rhabbanaioi, and below the country of Asmiraia, above the homonymous mountains. Beyond these mountains as far as the Kasia range the Is se dones, great race, and further east than these the Throa noi,
and below these the Ithagouroi, to the east of the homonymous mountains, below the Issêdones, the Aspakarai, and still below those the Bâtai, and farthest south along the Emôda and Sérika ranges the Ottorokorrhai.
6. The cities in Serik e are thus named :Damna ............. .........156° 51° 20' Piala (or Piadda)...............160° 49° 40' Asmiraia ........................170 48°
..............174° 40' 47° 40' 7. Issêdon Serike .............162° 45° Aspakara (or Aspakaia) ......162° 30' 41° 40' Drôsakhê (or Rhosakla) ......167° 40' 42° 30' Paliana ............
..162° 30' 41° Abragana ............
..163° 30' 39° 30' 8. Thogara .................171° 20 39 40 Daxata ..........................174° 39° 30' Orosana ...........................162 37° 30 Ottorokorrha....................165
37° 15' Solana ...........................169° 37° 30' Séra, metropolis ...............1770
38° 35' The chapter which Ptolemy has devoted to Sérik 6 has given rise to more abortive theories and unprofitable controversies than any other part of his work on Geography. The position of Serike itself has been very variously determined, having been found by different writers in one or other of the many countries that intervene be. tween Eastern Turkistan in the north and the province of Pegu in the south. It is now how. ever generally admitted that by Sérikê was meant the more northern parts of China, or those which travellers and traders reached by land. At the same time it is not to be supposed that the names which Ptolemy in his map has spread over that vast region were in reality names of places whose real positions were to be found so very far eastward. On the contrary, most of the names are traceable to Sanskrit sources and applicable to places either in Kasmir or in the regions imme. diately adjoining. This view was first advanced by Saint-Martin, in his dissertation on the Serike of Ptolemy (Étude, pp. 411 ff.) where he has discussed the subject with all his wonted acuteness and fulness of learning. I may translate here his remarks on the points that are most promi. nent: "All the nomenclature," he says (p. 414), "except some names at the extreme points north and east, is certainly of Sanskrit origin. ..... To the south of the mountains, in the Panjab, Ptolemy indicates under the general name of Kaspiraei an extension genuinely historical of the Kasmirian empire, with a detailed nomenclattare
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