ASIA. CHAPTER I. GENERAL SURVEY. Two great mountain ranges of Asia: the Altai, and the Taurus or plateau of Iran. Rivers of Asia.-Separation of the continent into three divisions. -Extent of the Asia of Herodotus.-Discoveries of Scylax of Caryanda. -Herodotus's own map of Asia. The four central nations.—The two western Actae: Asia Minor; Syria and Libya.-Ancient division of Asia between the Lydians, Babylonians, and Medes.-Establishment of the Persian empire of Cyrus.-Division into twenty satrapies by Darius Hystaspes.-Extent of Herodotus's travels in Asia.-His general acquaintance with Phoenicia and Asia Minor.-Visit to Babylon.-Travels along the great highway between Sardis and Susa.-Visit to Ecbatana very doubtful.-Examination of the list of twenty satrapies.-Reasons for including distant tribes in the same satrapy.-General want of geographical order arising from Herodotus's ignorance of the more distant satrapies: -Catalogue of nations in the army and navy of Xerxes.-Value of a comparison of the catalogue with the list of satrapies.-Catalogue to be further digested in a future chapter.-Topography of the languages of Asia.-Languages of Asia Minor from the Aegean to the Halys.-Semitic dialects between the Halys and Tigris.-Persian dialects between the Tigris and Indus.-Conclusion. ASIA. Two great ranges of THE continent of Asia, according to the division of modern geographers, comprises an area five times CHAP. I. greater than that of Europe, and nearly a fourth larger than that of Africa. It is divided into three mountain parts by two vast mountain ranges, which stretch Asia. across it from west to east, and form by their ramifications to the north and south the skeleton of the whole country. The first of these ranges is called The Altai. the Altai chain, and begins at the sources of the rivers Sirr-deria and Irtish,' and traverses southern 1 Heeren thought that the Altai was connected with the Ural (Asia, vol. i. p. 4); but an immense mass of low country separates the western extremity of the former from the southern ranges of the latter. ASIA. Siberia to the shores of the Pacific, becoming wider CHAP. 1. and sending out more considerable ramifications The Taurus as it approaches the east. The other range, under or plateau the general name of Taurus, was far better known of Iran. Rivers of to the ancients." It commences in Asia Minor, and stretches through Armenia and the countries south and south-east of the Caspian, until it approaches the sources of the Indus. Here it divides into two principal branches, one running towards the north-east, and the other towards the southeast, thus enclosing the great sandy desert of Gobi or Shamo. The northern branch formed part of the ancient Imaus, and now goes by the name of Belurtagh, or mountains of Kashgar, and at length unites itself with the Altai chain on the borders of Siberia. The southern branch was comprehended by the ancients, as far as known, under the general name of Paropamisus, and was probably also considered as a part of the Imaus; at present it is known as the Hindoo Koosh and Himalayas. It protects Hindostan on the north, and, passing through Thibet, loses itself in central China near the shores of the Pacific. 3 The courses of these great chains also determine those of the rivers. From the southern slopes of Taurus the Euphrates, Tigris, and Indus flow towards the Persian and Indian Oceans; whilst from the northern declivities the Jihoon or Oxus, and the 1 Strabo says that the Taurus chain extended through the whole continent from west to east, with a breadth in many places of 3000 stadia. This seems to indicate the great plateau of Iran, which we shall have occasion to describe in the third chapter of the present division; the courses of the Taurus Proper and the Anti-Taurus will be distinguished in the chapter on Asia Minor. 2 Gobi in the Mongolic language signifies "a desert:" Shamo is the Chinese for "sand-sea." 3 The name of Bolor or Belur Tagh is a corruption of the Turkish words Beloot Tagh, or "cloudy mountain." The writer in the Penny Cyclopaedia (art. Bolor) says that it is called by the natives Tartash Tagh; but Elphinstone, in his account of Cabul, says that he knows of no general name applied by the people of Turkestan to this range. The name of Belur-Tagh rests on the authority of Marco Polo, and the Arabian geographer Nasir Eddin, but an examination of the passages in which it is referred to, renders it evident that the name is imperfectly applied, and it is uncertain whether it can be applied to any mountain range at all. ASIA. Sirr-deria or Jaxartes, take a westerly direction through Independent Tartary into the Sea of Aral, CHAP. I. though it is certain that the Oxus, and perhaps the Jaxartes also, formerly reached the Caspian. of the con sions. The two mountain chains separate Asia into three Separation grand divisions. First, the northernmost portion, tinent into under the name of Siberia, extends from the back of three divithe Altai ridge to the Arctic Ocean, and was unknown to the ancients, except by the dim light of traditionary legend.' Secondly, the vast and elevated tract of level steppes enclosed between the Altai and Tauric ranges, and partly filled up by those mountains, extends from the Caspian to the Pacific under the names of Mongolia and Tartary. Thirdly, the great southern division, comprehending the plateau of Iran, and including Asia Minor, extends in the form of a vast continent as far south as the tropic of Cancer, and then terminates in the three great peninsulas of Arabia, Hindostan, and Malacca. 3 2 the Asia of The Asia of Herodotus comprised but little more Extent of than a fourth of the entire continent. The northern Herodotus. half was assigned to Europe, and the eastern half of the remainder was totally unknown. On the north, as we have already seen, it was bounded by the river Phasis, the Caspian Sea, and the castern Araxes or Jaxartes; and on the east by the great desert of Gobi, and the sandy waste stretching from Moultan to Guzerat. On the south it was washed by the Erythraean. The western boundary, which separated it from Libya, or rather from the modern con The story of the men who lived on the Altai mountains and had goats' feet, (Herod. iv. 25,) and the tradition of the people who slept for six months in the year, (ibid.) evidently refer to this Siberian region. The former story possibly referred to the warm boots of fur and extraordinary activity of the mountaineers of the Altai; whilst in the latter we can perceive a ray of truth, inasmuch as we know that the polar regions continue for six months, more or less, without having the light of the sun. 2 The confusion between the names of Tartars and Mongols has been already pointed out by Heeren. They are distinct races. The principal territory of the former lies to the north, and that of the latter to the south, of the Sirr-deria or Jaxartes, which thus forms the proper limit of the two races. ASIA. CHAP. I. Discoveries of Scylax of tinent of Africa,' requires some little explanation. By a reference to the geography of Arabia in the present volume, it will be seen that Herodotus considered the Arabian Gulf to be little more than a river, being probably misled by supposing that the entire gulf was nowhere broader than at the western arm, or Gulf of Suez, which was the only part with which he was apparently acquainted. Judging, therefore, from the physical character of the soil, he considered Arabia to include a territory on both sides of the Arabian Gulf, and to embrace the mountainous ridge which extends from north to south along the eastern side of the valley of the Nile. The western boundary of Asia would thus be formed by the Aegyptian frontier, near Suez, and the Arabian frontier, along the eastern edge of the Nile valley. The discoveries in eastern Asia were the results Caryanda. of an exploring expedition sent out by Darius Hystaspes. This monarch was desirous of knowing the spot where the river Indus, the second river that produces crocodiles,2 discharges itself into the sea. He accordingly fitted out some ships, and sent some scientific men, on whom he could rely for bringing back a true report. Scylax of Caryanda appears, from the especial mention of his name, to have been at the head of the expedition. Seylax and his companions embarked at the city of Caspatyrus (or Cabul) and the country of Pactyica. They sailed from the river eastwards until they reached the open sea, at which point they changed their course, and proceeded in 1 It will be seen in the introduction to the geography of Africa, that the name Libya appears to have two significations: I. Libya Proper, or the nations of northern Africa westward of Aegypt. 2. The Libyan continent, which embraced all that was known of the continent of Africa, and included Aegypt and Aethiopia as well as Libya Proper. 2 The Nile was considered to be the first river that contained crocodiles. It is related that when Alexander the Great saw crocodiles in the Indus, he conceived a notion that this river was connected with the Nile, and that its navigation downwards would conduct into Aegypt. This anecdote however is hardly credible, though frequently repeated. The general arrangement of his plans both in Aegypt and India bespeak a share of geographical information totally irreconcilable with such a blunder. Cooley, Hist. of Maritime and Inland Discovery, vol. i. p. 59. 2 ASIA. a westerly direction, and at length, in the thirtieth month of their voyage, reached the port from CHAP. I. whence the Aegyptian Neco despatched the Phoenicians to circumnavigate Libya.' This city of Caspatyrus, Heeren considers to be the same as Cabul, which is situated on a western tributary of the Indus, and this tributary does really flow in an easterly course for some distance, as Herodotus describes. We need scarcely add that our author was mistaken in supposing that the Indus itself flowed from west to east. Perhaps Scylax reported that the entire river took this course for the sake of enhancing the merit of his voyage by increasing its supposed distance. How the ships were carried to Caspatyrus Herodotus does not inform us. own map of Our author's notions of Asia generally may be Herodotus's best derived from the following survey. Between Asia. the Erythraean on the south and the Pontus Euxinus of the north, he describes four great nations, which The four he evidently regarded as the kernel of Asia, viz. the tions. Colchians on the north, then the Saspeires, next the Medes, and lastly the Persians. From this central territory two actae1 projected toward the west. One 1 iv. 44. 3 2 Heeren, Asia, vol. i. p. 189. This author also considers that the name of Pactyica is preserved in that of Pokua, though he thinks that the limits of the ancient territory may have extended northwards as far as Budakshan, and southwards as far as Pakholy. The writer of the article on Caspatyrus in Dr. Smith's Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Geog. follows the opinion that this city refers to Cashmere; because the Sanscrit name of Kashmir is Kasyapa pur, which, condensed to Kaspapur, gives us the form κασπáжуроg, which is found in Hecataeus; and in this case Scylax would have started on the Jelum tributary, and probably at the lake Ooller. If, however, we were to adopt this view we should find no portion of the river flowing from west to east; but perhaps the most fatal objection to this theory would lie in the extreme improbability that Scylax should not have stopped at the Indus, but have crossed over the main stream, and still held on his journey over-land to the Jelum. 3 iv. 37. An acte is a piece of land jutting out a considerable distance into the sea, and having only one side joining the main-land. A chersonesus is a peninsula properly so called. This is Niebuhr's definition, but Dahlmann makes some exceptions to it. The peninsula of Athos, which is joined to the continent only by a narrow strip of land, is commonly called Acte (Thucyd. iv. 109). But Herodotus calls that mountain Chersonesus (vii. 22). The Thracian peninsula on the Hellespont (in what respect different from the other?) is commonly called Chersonesus. central na |