98. North of Tsiu-ts'üen and, the Chinese established the [two districts of] and to protect Tsiu-ts'üen.

99. If Üan, a small State, is not subdued, such as Ta Hia will despise China.......Wu-sun and Lun T'ou [] will then probably molest the Chinese envoys.

100. Lun-t'ou would not surrender, and was taken by storm: thence it was plain sailing westward to, [in which it explained there were no wells, and which depended on a river for water: this river the Chinese temporarily diverted. Compare No. 22].

101. [The Chinese] set up a Üen noble named as the new king of en. [In order to propitiate the Chinese, the king had been killed by his dastard subjects, who, on the second retirement of the Chinese, killed Mei-ts' ai [Misrah ?] and set up Mukwa's younger brother. Compare No. 53].

102. The nobles offered to let the Chinese have their pick of the splendid horses. [Mr. Kingsmill, who strangely identifies Erhshih with Urdu, is probably on the right track when he speaks of the Nesaean horses of Strabo (Nnoaiovs inяovs). The characters are still pronounced Neisü and Ngisz in that part of China which I identify most with old China, and, moreover, is pronounced in modern Greek, not like the vowel in say, but as that in see; and there is no call gratuitously to suppose that ancient Greek was less like modern Greek than like other modern languages].

EXTRACTS FROM KANG-HI.

103. His subjects called him?KAIT. The Huns call "heaven" têngli or ch'engli [Tengri], and "son" kudu. [From this 2,000 year old remark it is evident that the four first characters are equivalent to F, and that the usual translation by the Chinese of as T'ien-tsz is analogous to the taking of "Arsak" and "Caesar" as equivalents for "King" and "Emperor." is still tang in Foochow].

104. Fu-lin [], Ta-shih, and all the other Tartars, [] to the number of 72 states, gave in submission. 105. The chief surname [of

] is M.

[It is probably

and

this which causes Bretschneider to remark that were both beyond the Ganges. On the contrary, both places, were in Annam, (see China Review, Vol. xi, Page 44), as is frequently mentioned in the Chinese History of Annam, where is placed in籠州. Eitel says 跋濫摩 or婆羅門, Brâhmana, is used (1) as a term of purely social distinction (surname); (2) in a religious sense, meaning "a man whose moral conduct is pure."]

CRITICAL NOTES.

One of the most important extracts in Dr. Hirth's coming book runs 從安息陸道繞海北行出海西 &c. Now the question whether taken as a whole, the sentence refers to a sea-route or a land-route, or what construction this or that pair of characters usually bears, and whether they can bear more than one,-all this it is for secondary evidence to settle. Dr. Hirth translates:Coming from the land-road of An Sih, you make a round at sea, and, taking a northern turn, come out from the western part of the sea," &c. The two words we have underlined have been interpolated by Dr. Hirth upon the original, in order, apparently, to bring out more forcibly his view that what was here meant was the sea-route down the Persian Gulf, round Arabia, and up the Red Sea. Apart from all secondary evidence, the words seem to us to have the following plain meaning. "Following the An Sih land-route, skirt"ing the sea, and going northwards, you emerge from Hai-si," &c. We think that this is meant, viz; "It is otherwise said" that, if you prefer the land-road, you must coast the Caspian Sea north of the Elburz Mountains, (which, as Rawlinson shews, confine the high-road into a narrow space), and go northwards in the direction of Antioch in North Syria, through South Armenia, leaving as you go the Mesopotamian Region altogether. In other-words, just as Ta Ts'in (undoubtedly proved by Dr. Hirth to be Syria) was also vaguely used at times to signify the Roman Empire, of which it was or had been a part, so Hai-si, another name for Ta Ts'in, was vaguely used in the sense of the whole Syrian Empire, though strictly meaning Mesopotamia. "This country is on the west of "the sea, whence it is commonly called Hai-si," says another of Dr. Hirth's quotations, referring to Ta Ts'in. Mesopotamia is equally west of both the Caspian and the Persian Gulf, and we have the parallel case of "Asia" and "all Asia" being applied by Greek and Latin authors to whatever portion of Western Asia this or that conqueror may have held.

As to there having been a good land-road from Parthia to Constantinople long before Chang K'ien's time, we read in Cary's Herodotus that, after the battle of Salamis, Xerxes sent an express to Susa. "They say that, as many days as are occupied in the "whole journey, so many horses and men are posted at regular "intervals, a horse and a man being stationed at each day's "journey." Moreover, Aristagoras informed Cleomenes that it was three months' journey from the Ionian Sea to the [Persian] king's residence. "There are royal stations all along, and excellent inns, "and the whole road is through an inhabited and safe country."

The exact road from Sardis, through Lydia, Phrygia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Armenia, Matiene, to the Persian capital of Susa is carefully described (though on hearsay, or borrowed official evidence) by Herodotus, who counts up 111 stations, and 13,500 stades, thirty stades being equal to one parasang, "the parasangs being four "hundred and fifty, and, by those who travel 150 stades every day "just 90 days are spent on the journey." Now, that Dr. Hirth's authors were referring to part of this land-route from Parthia (then including Susa) is evident from the language of Dr. Hirth's own translation: "The country is densely populated; every ten li are "marked by a t'ing; thirty li by a chih. One is not alarmed by "robbers." In several other places, Dr. Hirth translates passages manifestly relating to the sea-route round Arabia, but this route is sufficiently well authenticated by Dr. Hirth without the necessity of his seeking to strengthen it by forcing on to a strong chain weak links fairly belonging to quite another chain. The terms and

, and the expression "from the western frontier of Parthia" invariably occur when the sea route is unmistakably meant. Further, that "the land-route round by the sea" is intended in the other cases, and not "following the land-route and going round by sea," is abundantly evident from the circumstance that danger from lions, safety from robbers, and a few words about chih or hou, (i.e. parasangs, as justly concluded by Dr. Hirth, of which 30 li or stades made up each one), invariably accompany the words "landroute." Finally, it is monstrous to suppose that the Chinese writers would ignore a land route if it existed; and we have shewn that it did exist, and was described by Herodotus exactly as by the Chinese: and, as the Chinese mention a great flying bridge further on, leading to the countries north of the sea, we may conclude that these were traditions of Xerxes' bridge of boats across the Hellespont. It is probable, too, that Herodotus' history, indirectly at least, supplied the Chinese traveller Chang K'ien with some of his facts, gathered doubtless in bazaars and temples. According to Herodotus, "in a long day a ship usually makes "70,000 orgyae, and in a night 60,000": that is, about 140,000 and 120,000 yards, or 75 and 66 miles. The stade consisted of 100 orgyae, or 200 yards, whereas a Chinese li is nearly three times the length; so that the taking of stades as li is somewhat a historian's licence, and may need reconsideration.

With reference to Dr. Hirth's identification of Ta Ts'in with Syria, this was suggested by Dr. Bretschneider as the meaning in the 10th century, when Syria was under the dominion of the Caliphs, and an Arab captain told the Chinese Emperor that Ta

shih was conterminous with Ta Ts'in. On Page 38 of Renaudot's Mahomedan Travellers in China it is stated that: "The Chinese "are more handsome than the Indians; and come nearer to the "Arabs, not only in countenance, but in their dress," whereas the Chinese say, [China Review, Vol. XIII, Page 120], "Its inhabitants "[] are fine-made, proper-minded people like the Chinese ; "hence the name Ta Ts'in." The use of the term Ts'in may have suggested itself to the Chinese on hearing the word Syria. Just asforms the syllable Ar in Arsak, so does Sir stand for Sin, and Ts'in is still pronounced Zing and Zang in those parts of modern China whose dialects seem most likely to represent old Chinese. Moreover the same natural law, under which to tchange in English becomes changer in French, is in active working in China, where ts and s, tsh and sh are often interchangeable. In Japanese, where the same law works, the character is still read shin, and it is to be presumed that Shir was, amongst the Jews, as common as Sir. There is evidence that Chinese called themselves men of Ts'in long after the Han conquest, and, anyhow, the early Chinese travellers all started from Ts'in, i.e. Shen Si. During the attack by Han Wu Ti's generals upon, it was found that there were a number of Chinese [A] prisoners in the Turkestan capital. The fact that the ts and s law (or confusion) had its influence on the two Arabs is evident from the circumstance that they talk of sah [ts'a or tsh'a,—tea] as a favourite Chinese beverage. Finally, the two Arab travellers in the ninth century use the word Sin for China; their translator adding that the Persians more correctly pronounce it Tchin, and that the Arabs got the word from Ptolemy, who wrote Zival. Father Martini in the 13th century uses Cyna, Hana, and Cyna for the Ts'in, Han, and Tsin Dynasties, and Chinese History often calls men of the Sz-ma Tsin Dynasty 晋人A. The Tartars and posterity probably assumed that the præ-Han Ts'in and the post-Han Tsin were the same.

According to Forster's "Lost Ten Tribes," these are the Afghans, whom he identifies with Ptolemy's Baborana and Doroacana, (Kabulistan), and Elphinstone's Douraunees and Babours: they appear to have been a strong power in the second century A.D. Nebuchadnezzar removed a number of what are now "Black Jews" to Malabar and Spain, and Titus, 600 years later, removed a number of "White Jews" to Cochin. The descendents of these recount the names of other Jewish colonies in northern India, Tartary, and China. The remainder of the Ten tribes, according to the Cochin History Roll, migrated through Media and Persia in the direction of Chinese Tartary, and the tribes of Simeon, Ephraim

says:

and Manasseh are represented to have settled in the country of the Chozar Tartars, when they became ferocious Tartar nomades, celebrated for their horses, and dreaded for their warfare. Moreover, "the Royal Family in this great Tartar tribe were Jews, and the "Chagan or king of the Chozars was always chosen from this Jewish stock." Forster quotes Ebn Haukal's Oriental Geography to the effect that "the king of Asmed city, in Khozar, is a Jew, "and on good terms with the Padshah of Serir." He also "From the sixth to the tenth century the Chozars were the lords of "central Asia." Ricci's cross-examination of the Ho Nan Jews led him to believe that they were part of the Lost Ten Tribes, so that Forster is not without support. The Jews in Cochin are also mentioned by Renaudot. Asahel Grant proves to his own satisfaction that the Nestorians, converted about A.D. 1-25, and the Yeziddees and Jews in their vicinity, are the Lost Ten Tribes, and shows that Simeon or Shimon has been, and is still, the official name of their Patriarchs. This sheds light upon Dr. Hirth's "Nestourin Sz-mông.”

Dr. Hirth is not to be blamed for occasional mistranslations, for, in addition to treating with mercy the tremendous errors of Pauthier, he disarms criticism by a frank acknowledgement of his difficulties. Nothing but an extensive reading of Chinese History will enable one to readily seize the point involved in many a Chinese sentence, and it was such extensive reading, and the probable fact that he made careful collection of explanatory scholia, that placed Julien so far ahead of others. As the following case is not only a mistranslation, but involves the position of the Parthian capital, notice must be taken of it. In Mr. Kingsmill's excellent copy of the Shih-ki, the sentence runs and AR

A. This is a perfectly simple sentence, and means, as Julien correctly has it, (without, however, laying down a rule,-for there is, indeed, none), "going then arriving," and "the population is very thick all the way as you go." Dr. Hirth either misreads H and for, or has a defective edition.* He translates "Proceeding to the north one came, &c.," and "with very many inhabitants allied to that country." There is little use consulting any but the very best Chinese teachers on points of this sort: the only safe guides are examples gathered from general reading. Dr. Hirth himself elsewhere correctly translates "the country is densely A±E populated." The last character is chuh, upper series, and not shuh, I have since found that some of Dr. Hirth's books have and some 北. The former word makes the better Chinese, and is probably correct. It is very common for such words as to be printed in error.