48 VI. THE HELLENES. Ελληνος δ ἐγένοντο θεμιστόπολοι βασιλήες Chiefs of the War-car, guards of holy Right, The land of Hellas, a name so dear to civilisation and the arts, was so called from the magnificent range of heights situated in Beloochistan, styled the "hela" mountains. "Their lofty range," observes Thornton,1 "stretches from north to south generally, between the meridians 67° G8°. They are connected with the elevated region of Afghanistan by the Toba mountains, of which they may be considered a prolongation, and which rise in the two summits of Tukatoo, in lat. 30° 18', long. 67°, to a height estimated at between 11,000 and 12,000 feet. If we consider this mountain as the northern limit of the Hela range, it will be found to extend from north to south, a distance of about four hundred miles, and to terminate at Cape Monze, projecting into the Arabian Sea, in lat. 24° 48'. About lat. 29° 30', a large offset extends eastward, forming the mountains held by the Muree tribe of Kalum, and joining the Suliman range about Hurrund and Dagel. Southward of this the Hela range becomes rapidly depressed towards the east, descending with considerable steepness in that direction to the low level 1 Thornton's Gazetteer of the Punjab, vi., p. 221. tract Cutch Gundava; viewed from which, these mountains present the appearance of a triple range, each rising in succession as they recede westward." Such, on the excellent authority above quoted, are the Hela mountains, which sent forth the first progenitors of Greece. The chiefs of this country were called "Helaines," or the "Chiefs of the Hela." I have not the slightest doubt, however, that both the name of this mountain, and that of the chiefs of the country, was of a secondary form, viz., "Heli," "the sun," demonstrating that they were of the genuine race of Rajpoots, who were all worshippers of that luminary. In this case the formation of the term Helenes in Sanscrit, would be identical with the Greek. Of this fact there can be no reasonable doubt, from the following considerations. Hel-en (the Sun King)2 is said to have left his kingdom to Aiolus, his eldest son, while he sent forth Dorus and Zuthus to make conquests in foreign. lands.3 Haya is the title of a renowned tribe of Rajpoot warriors, the most extensive of the north-western worshippers of Bál, or the sun. They were also called "Asii," or "Aswa," and their chiefs were denominated "Aswa-pas," or the "Aswa Chiefs," and, to use the words of Conon, as quoted by Bishop Thirlwall,4 "The patrimony of Aiolus (the Haiyulas) is described as bounded by the river Asopus (Aswapas)5 and the Enipeus." Such then was the Asopus, the settlement of the Haya tribe, the Aswa chiefs, the sun worshippers, the children of the "Sun King," or Helen,6 1 From Hela, and Ina a king; Hela-ina, by the rules of Sandhi, or combination, making Helaines, "The Chiefs of Hela." 2 Heli, sun; Ina, king. 3 Apollod., 1731. Thirlwall, Hist. Greece, vol. i., p. 101. 4 Hist. Greece, vol. i., p. 101. 5 Aswa-pos (As-opos), "Aswa chiefs " (Aswa, a horse, and pos, a chief). 6 The misunderstanding of the familiar use of the term "Sons" in the earliest historians of Hellas-who, in plain terms, are the Indian writers of early Greece has led to a total negation of its historical value, and the F whose land was called in Greek, HELLA-DOs, in Sanscrit, HELA-DES (Hela, Hela; des, land). Of Achilles, sprung from a splendid Rajpoot stock, I shall briefly speak when developing the parent geography of the Dolopes; but as that magnificent race, and the Abantes, who were likewise worshippers of the sun, play such a distinguished part in the history—not mythology of Hellas, I cannot better illustrate their position in the most venerable annals of Greece than by presenting the reader with the brilliant yet faithful picture of the noble tribes of the Aswas, drawn from Colonel Tod's "Annals of Rajasthan." Meanwhile, I would remark that these were the clans, who, descending from the Amoo, or Oxus-in fact the "Ox-ud-racæ," " or "Rajas of the Oxus," boldly encountered the Macedonian hero. These were the chiefs who founded a kingdom around, and gave an enduring name to, the Euxine Sea. They were the chiefs of the Oxus, and their kingdom was that of the OOX-INA (EUX-INE), or kings of the Oxus, a compound derived from Oorus, and ina, a king. Of this the Greeks made Euxinos. The old tale ran, that this sea was first called AXEINOS, or the inhospitable; that it was then changed to EU-XEINOS, or the hospitable. We have thus a most fortunate preservation of the old term; ooxa with ina, will, by the rules of Sandhi, exactly make good the old name Ookshainos (Ağewos). Thus, the Greek Myth is "Ağewos, "the inhospitable" (sea); substitution of the theory of mythological invention, which has no guarantee from the plain facts of the case. The ancient chieftains of Afghanistan, like the Scots, their immediate descendants (of whose ancient power, position, and rule in the north of this island, I hold the most interesting and undeniable proofs), used the term in the ordinary phraseology, of the clan, as "Hector of the Mist," "Sons of the Mist," "Sons of the Douglas," "Sons of Mac Ivor." The same misapprehension of the nomenclature of the Sacha tribes, other Hellenic settlers, has still further propped up the feeble claims of mythology. "The Serpent," "The Eagle," "The Sun," are, simply and ordinarily, the "Serpent-tribe," "Eagletribe," "Sun-tribe." 1 Oxus (Ud, water; Raja, a king). . the Sanscrit History—Ookshainos, "the chiefs of the Oxus." These were the mighty tribes, who by their numbers and their prowess, gave, from their appellation "Asii," its enduring name to the continent of "Asia." 3 "The Aswas," observes Colonel Tod, "were chiefly of the Hindoo race; yet a branch of the Suryas also bore this designation. It appears to indicate their celebrity as horsemen. All of them worshipped the horse, which they sacrificed to the sun. This grand rite, the Aswamedha,4 on the festival of the winter solstice, would alone go far to exemplify their common Scythic origin with the Getic Sacæ, authorising the inference of Pinkerton, that 'a grand Scythic nation extended from the Caspian to the Ganges.' "The Aswamedha was practised on the Ganges and Sarjoo5 by the Solar Princes, twelve hundred years before Christ, as by the Getes in the time of Cyrus; 'deeming it right,' says Herodotus, 'to offer the swiftest of created, to the chief of uncreated beings' and this worship and sacrifice of the horse, has been handed down to the Rajpoot of the present day. The milk-white steed was supposed to be the organ of the gods, from whose neighing they calculated future events: notions possessed also by the Aswa, sons of Boodha, on the Yamuna and Ganges, when the rocks of Scandinavia, and the shores of the 6 1 The Greek "Oxus" should be properly "Ooksha," so called from Ooksha, an ox; which, as the reader will perceive, is at once very fair English and Sanscrit. 2 "Suryas," the Sun-tribes (from Surya, the sun). 3 Aswa and Hya are synonymous Sanscrit terms for "Horse"--Asp in Persian; and as applied by the prophet Ezekiel to the Getic invasion of Scythia, B.C. 600,"the sons of Togarma, riding on horses "—described by Diodorus; the period the same as the Tacshak invasion of India. 4 Aswa, a horse, and Medha, a sacrifice. 5 The Gogra or Gharghara River. Woden. The "b" is interchanged with "v," and this again with the "w"—Bodhan, Vodhan, Woden. 1 Baltic, were yet untrod by man. The steed of the Scandinavian god of battle was kept in the temple of Upsala, and always found foaming and sweating after battle.' Similarity of religious manners affords stronger proofs of original identity than language. Language is eternally changing—so are manners; but an exploded custom or rite, traced to its source, and maintained in opposition to climate, is a testimony not to be rejected. When Tacitus informs us that the first act of a German on rising was ablution, it will be conceded, that this habit was not acquired in the cold climate of Germany, but must have been of Eastern origin; as were the loose flowing robe, the long and braided hair, tied in a knot at the top of the head." And here I would pause to direct the attention of the reader to the well-known passage of Thucydides, so forcible an evidence of the Scythic origin of the Athenians, and so amply confirmed by the geographical evidences I shall bring forward. "It is not long since," observes that sagacious writer, "that the more elderly among the rich Athenians, ceased to wear linen tunics, and to wreathe. their hair in a knot, which they clasped by the insertion of a golden grasshopper. Hence, also, this fashion was, on a principle of national affinity, extensively prevalent among the more ancient Ionians.” 2 The original land of the people of Attica, practically shown, with the powerful aid of latitude and longitude, and exhibiting that people as dwelling among the Ionians of the parent-stock, will amply account both for their linen dress and the style of arranging their hair. "The Rajpoot," continues Colonel Tod,3 "worships his horse, his sword, and the sun, and attends more to the martial song of the bard than to the litany of the Brahmin. In the martial mythology, and warlike poetry of the Scandinavians, a wide field exists for assimilation; and a 1 Rajast., vol. i., p. 65. 2 Rajast., vol. i., c. 65. 2 Thucyd. i., c. 6. |