History of India, as Told by its own Historians: The Muhammadan Period - The History of India, Volume 1

The Jats.

[General Cunningham in his Archælogical Report for 1863-4, says, “The traditions of the Hindu Játs of Biána and Bharatpur point to Kandahar as their parent country, while those of the Muhammadan Játs generally refer to Gajni or Garh-Gajni, which may be either the celebrated fort of Ghazni in Afghanistan or the old city of Gajnipur on the site of Rawul-Pindi. But if I am right in my identification of the Játs with the Xanthii of Strabo, and the Iatii of Pliny and Ptolemy, their parent country must have been on the banks of the Oxus, between Bactria, Hyrkania, and Khorasmia. Now in this very position there was a fertile district, irrigated from the Margus river, which Pliny calls Zotale or Zothale, and which, I believe to have been the original seat of the Iatii or Játs. Their course from the Oxus to the Indus may perhaps be dimly traced in the Xuthi of Dionysius of Samos, who are coupled with the Arieni, and in the Zuthi of Ptolemy who occupied the Karmanian desert on the frontier of Drangiana. As I can find no other traces of their name in the classical writers, I am inclined to believe, as before suggested, that they may have been best known in early times, by the general name of their horde, as Abars, instead of by their tribal name as Játs. According to this view, the main body of the Iatii would have occupied the district of Abiria and the towns of Parda-bathra and Bardaxema in Sindh, or Southern Indo-Scythia, while the Panjab or Northern Indo-Scythia was chiefly colonized by their brethren the Meds.

[When the Muhammadans first appeared in Sindh, towards the end of the seventh century, the Zaths and Meds were the chief population of the country. But as I have already shown that the original seat of the Med or Medi colony was in the Panjab proper, I conclude that the original seat of the Iatii or Ját colony, must have been in Sindh. * * * * At the present day the Játs are found in every part of the Panjab, where they form about two-fifths of the population. They are chiefly Musulmans, and are divided into not less than a hundred different tribes. * * * * To the east of the Panjab, the Hindu Játs are found in considerable numbers in the frontier states of Bikaner, Jesalmer, and Jodhpur, where, in Col. Tod's opinion, they are as numerous as all the Rajput races put together. They are found also in great numbers along the upper course of the Ganges and Jumna, as far eastward as Bareli, Farak-habad, and Gwalior, where they are divided into two distinct clans. * * * To the south of the Panjab, the Musulman Játs are said by Pottinger to form the entire population of the fruitful district of Haraud-Dajel, on the right bank of the Indus, and the bulk of the population in the neighbouring district of Kach-Gandava. In Sindh, where they have intermarried largely with Buluchis and Musulmans of Hindu descent, it is no longer possible to estimate their numbers, although it is certain that a very large proportion of the population must be of Ját descent.]

The Kerks.

The pirates, whose insolence led to the final subjugation of Sind, are stated, by a very good authority, to be of the tribe of Kerk, Kruk, Kurk, Karak, or some name of nearly similar pronunciation. The reading is too clear to be discarded in favour of ‘Kurd,’ or ‘Coorg,’ as has been proposed; and M. Reinaud, while he suggests the latter reading, which has been shown to be highly improbable, on the ground of Coorg being not a maritime, but an inland hilly country — nevertheless informs us that, in the annals of the Arabs, the Kurk are more than once spoken of as desperate pirates, carrying their expeditions even as far as Jidda, in the Red Sea.⁵⁰⁹ We must, therefore, necessarily be content to consider them as of Sindian origin, otherwise Ráí Dáhir would not have been called to account for their proceedings.

Though the name of Kerk be now extinct, and declared to be entirely incapable of present identification, we must enquire whether we cannot find any trace of their having occupied the banks of the Indus at some remote period. And, first of all, the resemblance of the name of Krokala, which has conspicuous mention in the voyage of Nearchus, is sufficiently striking to attract our observation. Dr. Vincent and Heeren consider Krokala to be the modern Karáchí. A later authority says Chalna, a small rocky island, about four miles from Cape Monze.^509a Neither of these authorities knew that there is at present a large insular tract, which bears the name of Kakrála, at the mouth of the Indus, answering exactly all the requirements of Arrian's description—“a sandy island, subject to the influence of the tides.”^509b It is situated between the Wanyání and Pittí mouths of the river; but modern travellers differ about its precise limits. Captain Postans places it further to the west, and makes it include Karáchí.^509c This is no shifting, or modern name. We can see from the Ayín-i Akbarí, and from some of the works quoted in this volume, that it has been known, and similarly applied, for the last three centuries at least; and it may, without question, be regarded as the Krokala of Arrian. Its origin is easily accounted for, by conceiving it to mean the “abode of the Krok,” or whatever their real designation may have been before its perversion by the Greeks. The only other vestige of the name is in Karaka, a place three miles below Haidarábád.

In pointing out another possible remnant of this ancient name, I am aware I shall be treading on dangerous and very disputable ground. Nevertheless, let us at once, without further preliminary, transfer ourselves to the north-eastern shores of the Euxine sea, where we shall find, among other peoples and places recalling Indian associations, the tribe of Kerketæi or Kerketæ⁵¹⁰ —the bay of Kerketis^510a —the river of Korax^510b —the mountains of Korax^510c —the town of Korok-ondame^510d —the river and peninsula of Korok-ondame^510e —the sea, or lake, of Korok-ondametis^510f —the tribe of Kerketiki^510g — the city of Karkinitis^510h —the city of Karkine⁵¹⁰ⁱ —the bay of Karki-nitis ^510j —the city of Kirkæum^510k —the river of Karkenites^510l —the region of Kerketos^510m —the tribe of Koraxi⁵¹⁰ⁿ —the wall of Korax^510o — and other similar names,—all within so narrow a compass as to show, even allowing many to be identical, that they can have but one origin, derived from the same fundamental root—Kerk, Kurk, Karak, Korak, Kark—retaining immutably the same consonants, but admitting arbitrary transpositions, or perhaps unsettled pronunciations of unimportant vowels.

It may be asked what connection these names can possibly have with our Sindian stock. Let us, then, carry the enquiry a little further, and many more Indian resemblances may be traced:—for, next to these wild Kerketiki, we are struck with finding the very Sindians themselves.

KERKETIKIque, ferox ea gens, SINDIque superbi.⁵¹¹

We have also a Sindikus portus^511a —a town of Sinda^511b —the tribe of Sindiani^511c —the town of Sindica^511d —the tract of Sindike^511e —the town of Sindis^511f —the tribe of Sindones^511g —the town of Sindos^511h —the tribe of Sinti⁵¹¹ⁱ Here, again, it may be admitted, that some of these may be different names for the same tribes and the same places.

The old reading of the passage in Herodotus, where the Sindi are mentioned (iv. 28), was originally Indi, but commentators were so struck with the anomaly of finding Indians on the frontiers of Europe, and they considered it so necessary to reconcile the historian with geographers, that they have now unanimously agreed to read Sindi, though the reading is not authorized by any ancient manuscripts. It is impossible to say what is gained by the substitution; for Sindi must be themselves Indians, and the difficulty is in no way removed by this arbitrary conversion. Hesychius, moreover,—no mean authority—says that the Sindi of the Euxine were, in reality, Indians; nay, more, though writing two centuries before our Kerks are even named or alluded to, he expressly calls the Kerketæ also “an Indian nation.”^511j

It has been remarked, that even if no such direct testimony had been given, the hints that remain to us concerning the character and manners of these Sindi, the peculiar object of their worship, and their dissolute religious rites and sorceries, would leave no doubt as to the country from which they were derived.

It is from this region that the Indian merchants must have sailed who were shipwrecked in the Baltic, and presented by the king of the Suevi, or of the Batavi, to L. Metellus Celer, the pro-consul of Gaul; for they could not have been carried round from the continent of India to the north of Europe by the ocean. Various solutions of this difficulty have been attempted. It has been surmised that they might have been Greenlanders, or mariners from North America, or even painted Britons: but the fact cannot be disputed, that they are called plainly “Indians,” by all the authors who have recorded the fact, however improbable their appearance in those regions might have been.⁵¹²

Their nautical habits were no doubt acquired originally in the Indian Ocean, and were inherited by generations of descendants. It is even highly probable that their inveterate addiction to piracies, which led to the Muhammadan conquest, and has only now been eradicated by the power of the British, may have been the cause of this national dislocation, which no sophistry, no contortion of reading, no difficulty of solution, can legitimately invalidate. The very term of ignobiles, applied to them by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxii. 8), and the curious expressions used by Valerius Flaccus (vi. 86),—

Degeneresque ruunt Sindi, glomerantque, paterno
Crimine nunc etiam metuentes verbera, turmas,—

imply a punishment and degradation, which are by no means sufficiently explained by reference to the anecdotes related by Hero-dotus (iv. 1-4), and Justin (ii. 5).^512a

Whether this degradation adheres to any of their descendants at the present time will form the subject of a future essay; but before closing the subject of these early Indian piracies, we should not omit to notice the evident alarm with which they always inspired the Persian monarchy, even in the days of its most absolute power. Strabo and Arrian inform us, that in order to protect their cities against piratical attacks, the Persians made the Tigris entirely inaccessible for navigation. The course of the stream was obstructed by masses of stone, which Alexander, on his return from India, caused to be removed for the furtherance of commercial intercourse. Inspired by the same dread, and not from religious motives, (as has been supposed), the Persians built no city of any note upon the seacoast. ⁵¹³

We may here make a passing allusion to another memorial of Indian connexion with these parts. The southern neighbours of these Euxine Sindi were the Kolchians. C. Ritter, in his Vorhalle, quoted at the end of this Note, asserts that they came originally from the west of India. Pindar^513a and Herodotus^513b both remark upon the darkness of their complexion. The latter also mentions that they were curly-headed. He states that he had satisfied himself, not only from the accounts of others, but from personal examination, that they were Egyptians, descended from a portion of the invading army of Sesostris, which had either been detached by that conqueror, or, being wearied with his wandering expedition, had remained, of their own accord, near the river Phasis. He also mentions the practice of circumcision, the fabrication of fine linen, the mode of living, and resemblance of language, as confirmatory of his view of an affinity between these nations. He has been followed by Diodorus and other ancient writers, as well as many modern scholars, who have endeavoured to account for this presumed connection.^513c I will not lengthen this Note by pursuing the enquiry; but will merely remark that this Egyptian relationship probably arises from some confusion (observable in several other passages of Herodotus), respecting the connection between the continents of India and Ethiopia,—which pervaded the minds of poets and geographers from Homer⁵¹⁴ down to Ptolemy,^514a —or rather down to Idrísí and Marino Sanuto;^514b and which induced even Alexander, when he saw crocodiles in the Indus, although their existence therein had already been remarked by Herodotus, to conceive that that river was connected with the Nile, and that its navigation downwards would conduct into Egypt.^514c

It is admitted that grave objections may be raised, and have been urged with some force, against carrying these presumed analogies too far; and sceptics are ready to exclaim with Fluellen, “there is a river in Macedon, and there is also, moreover, a river at Monmouth * * * there is salmons in both.” But, while some have endeavoured to trace the indications of a direct Indian connection between the inhabitants of the Euxine shores and India, on the ground of such names as Acesines,^514d Hypanis,^514e Kophes, or Kobus,^514f Typhaonia,^514g Phasis,⁵¹⁵ Caucasus, and such like, being found in both one country and the other; and while the resemblance between the worship of Odin and Buddha has been strongly urged by similar advocates;^515a it may, on the other hand, and with great reason, be asserted that these names are not local in India, and that they have generally been grafted on some Indian stock, offering a mere partial likeness, either through the ignorance of the Greeks, or with the view of flattering the vanity of Alexander, by shifting further to the eastward the names and attributes of distant places, already removed almost beyond mortal ken and approach, and lying far away—

“Extra flammantia mœnia mundi.”^515b

In the grossness of their indiscriminate adulation, they were at all times ready to ascribe to that conqueror the obscure achievements of mythical heroes, whose glory was inseparably connected with certain streams and mountains, which even they, in the plenitude of their power, had found it no easy matter to traverse and surmount. Strabo, indeed, informs us that the Argonautic monuments were industriously destroyed by Alexander's generals, from a ridiculous alarm lest the fame of Jason might surpass that of their master. Parmenio is especially mentioned both by him and Justin, as one whose jealousy was prompted to destroy several temples erected in honour of Jason, “in order that no man's name in the east might be more venerable than that of Alexander.”^515c

Hence, it has been justly remarked, even by early writers, open to the influence of reason and philosophy, and guided by the results of an extended observation, that the Greeks have transposed these localities upon very slender foundations, and that many of the barbaric names have been Hellenised.”⁵¹⁶

We find frequent instances of the same tendency to corruption in our own Oriental nomenclature, but with even greater perversions. Thus, we have heard our ignorant European soldiery convert Shekh-awatí into ‘sherry and water;’ Siráju-d Daula into a belted knight, ‘Sir Roger Dowler;’ Dalíp into ‘Tulip;’ Sháh Shujá'u-l Mulk into ‘Chá sugar and milk,’ and other similar absurdities; under which, in like manner, “many of the barbaric names have been Anglicised,”

But when we apply the same argument to the cases under consideration, we shall see it has no force; for here there has been no room for the corruptions and flatteries to which allusions have been made; nor did it ever occur to the Greeks to enter upon the same comparisons which are engaging our attention. When we carry these identifications yet further, we shall find names with which the Greeks were not even acquainted; and it is not between streams, towns, and mountains, that the similitudes exist, but between peoples in the one country and places in the other,—the latter known, the former unknown, to ancient historians and geographers,—who have, therefore, left the field open for moderns alone to speculate in.

Now, it is not merely in the two instances already adduced that these striking monuments of connection attract our observation; but, when we also find the Maidi next to the Sindi and Kerketæ,^516a a tribe of Arii or Arichi,⁵¹⁷ an island of Aria or Aretias,^517a a river Arius,^517b a tribe of Maetes or Mæotai,^517c a town of Madia,^517d a town of Matium,^517e a tribe of Matiani,^517f a town of Mateta,^517g a tribe of Kottæ,^517h a country of Kutaïs,⁵¹⁷ⁱ a city of Kuta,^517j a city of Kutaia,^517k a tribe of Kolchi,^517l a district of Kolchis,^517m a Kolchian sea,⁵¹⁷ⁿ a tribe of Koli,^517o the mountains of Koli,^517p a district of Koli,^517q a province of Iberia,^517r a tribe of Iberes,^517s a tribe of Bounomai,^517t a district of Minyas,^517u a city of Male,^517v a tribe of Baternæ,^517w a river of Bathys,^517x a port and town of Bata;^517y when we find all these names in close juxtaposition, reminding us in their various forms of our own Meds, Káthis, Koles, Abhírs, Mínas, Mallinas, and Bhatis, tribes familiar to us as being, at one time, in and near the valley of the Indus; and when we consider, moreover, that all these different names, including the Sindi and Kerketæ, were congregated about the western region of the Caucasus, within a space scarcely larger than the province of lower Sind, and when again we reflect upon the curious coincidence, that Pliny⁵¹⁸ calls the former province “Scythia Sendica,” while Ptolemy^518a calls the latter “Indo-Scythia;” that even as late as the fifth century, the judicious ecclesiastical historian, Socrates,^518b as well as the accurate geographer, Stephanus,^518c continued to call the former by the name of “India,” it is very difficult to resist the conviction, that these cumulative instances of combinations and affinities cannot be altogether accidental, or the mere result of diligent and ingenious exploration.

But, even allowing that all these miscellaneous instances of resemblance, brought forward in the preceding paragraph, are indeed purely fortuitous,—and it is willingly acknowledged that there is “ample room and verge enough” for a sharp eye, a nice ear, and a playful fancy, in the selection of such alliterative illustrations,— even if we reject them altogether as the products of a wild and dreamy imagination, and since they add little to the cogency of our argument, they may be resigned as such without a murmur, still it is impossible to yield the Sindi, the Kerketæ, or even the Maidi, to the cavils of such an illiberal and hostile spirit of criticism, for, with respect to them, it must be confessed by all but the most obstinately sceptical, that they, at least, stand boldly and prominently forth, as undoubted evidences of actual Indian occupancy on the shores of the Euxine.

It is not the purport of this Note to show how these coincidences could possibly have arisen; how nations, separated by so many mountains, seas, forests, and wastes, could have preserved any signs whatever of original identity, much less of such close approximation in names, as has been here adduced. Ukert, the strongest opponent of this supposed connection between the Caucasus and India, mentions that the ancients are express in asserting that the Indians never sent out of their country any armies or colonies;⁵¹⁹ but migrations might easily have arisen from other causes, and a hint has been thrown out above, that in this particular instance, the expatriation might perhaps not have been altogether voluntary.

In another part of this work I have traced, step by step, the progress of one Indian family from the banks of the Indus to the remotest shores of Europe; and in the following Note upon the Meds, I have shown several instances of compulsory transportations to countries nearly as remote; so that this branch of the enquiry need not engage our attention further in this place, the object of showing the probable existence of a tribe of Kerks, both on the Indus and Euxine, having, it is hoped, already been sufficiently proved to the satisfaction of every candid and unprejudiced mind.^519a

The Meds.

We find the Meds frequently mentioned by the Arab authors on Sind, and, together with their rivals the Jats, they may be considered the oldest occupants of that province, who, in their names as well as persons, have survived to our own times.

The first account we have of them is in the Mujmalu-t Tawáríkh, That work mentions that the Jats and the Meds are reputed to be descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, and that they occupied the banks of the Indus, in the province of Sind. The Meds, who devoted themselves to a pastoral life, used to invade the territories of the Jats, putting them to great distress, and compelling them to take up their abode on the opposite side of the river; but, subsequently, the Jats, being accustomed to the use of boats, crossed over and defeated the Meds, taking several prisoners and plundering their country.

At last these two tribes, seeing the inutility of protracting their contests any longer, agreed to send a deputation to Duryodhana, the king of Hastinápur, begging him to nominate a king to rule over them. Duryodhana accordingly nominated his sister Dassal (Duh-sálá), the wife of Jayadratha, who exercised the functions of government with great wisdom and moderation. The families and adherents of 30,000 Bráhmans, who were collected from all parts of Hindústán, were sent by Duryodhana to her court, and from that time Sind became flourishing and populous, and many cities were founded. The Jats and the Meds had separate tracts of land assigned to them, and were governed by chiefs of their own election.

The queen and Jayadratha made the city of 'Askaland their capital; the same place, apparently, which is called in a subsequent passage 'Askaland-úsa, perhaps the Úchh of later times, as has been shown in another Note of this Appendix (p. 365).

Jayadratha was killed in the fatal field of Thanesar, and his faithful wife ascended the funeral pile, after their reign had continued for more than twenty years. On the same field was extinguished the dynasty called after the name of Bharata, he being the most celebrated ancestor of Dhritaráshtra, the father of Duryodhana and the Kurus. On the transfer of the empire to the Pándavas, Yudhish-thira conferred Sind upon Sanjwára, the son of Jayadratha and Dassal (Duhsála), and from him Hál was descended (supra, p. 103). As the Great War, in which these heroes enacted a conspicuous part, has been supposed, on astronomical grounds, to have taken place during the twelfth century B.C.,⁵²⁰ we must assign an equal antiquity to their contemporaries the Meds of Sind, if we put faith in this narrative; but as this early settlement is not, in Lassen's opinion, opposed to probability in the case of the Jats, we need not withhold our faith in its correctness with respect to the Meds. Indeed, admitting that the ‘Jartikas’ of the Mahá-bhárata and the Puránas represent the Jats, we cannot but consider the ‘Madras’ as representing the Meds—confirming thereby the antiquity and synchronism of these two races on the banks of the Indus.⁵²¹

During the period of Arab occupation, Muhammad Kásim is represented as making peace with the Meds of Suráshtra, “seafarers and pirates, with whom the men of Basra were then at war.” This gives a great extent to their dominion at that period towards the south-east.

In the time of Mu'tasim Bi-llah, 'Amrán, the Barmekide, governor of Sind, directed an expedition against the Meds, in which he killed three thousand of them, and constructed an embankment, which he called the Meds' embankment, probably for the purpose of depriving them of the means of irrigation, as was done so effectually in 1762 and 1802 at Mora and Ali Bandar, when the Sindians ruined the prosperity of north-western Kachh. The word Sakar, ‘embankment,’ is preserved in the town of that name opposite to Rorí, where, however, the mound is a natural limestone formation of about one hundred feet high, and not an artificial causeway.^521a Nevertheless, we might, if we could be sure that any Meds were then on the western side of the Indus, pronounce this to be the identical locality; for certainly, in Biládurí (supra p. 128), the whole transaction seems to be closely connected with 'Amrán's proceedings against Kandábel and the Jats on the Aral river, not far from Sakar, insomuch that, immediately after settling affairs with them he returns to attack the Meds, having the chief of the Jats in his company. But, as on the occasion of this second attack, he dug a canal from the sea to their lake, rendering their water salt and nauseous, there can be no question of this scene, at least, being in the southeastern portion of the province, where they were settled in the greatest numbers; and here, therefore, we must also look for the embankment raised in the first incursion. They are said to have been attacked by 'Amrán from several different directions, and were thus doubtless reduced to great extremities.

During the reign of the same Khalif, we find an Arab chieftain, Muhammad bin Fazl, who had taken possession of Sindán, in the Abrása district of Kachh, attacking the Meds with a squadron of seventy vessels;⁵²² on which occasion he took Málí, of which the position may be identified with Mália on the Machú. This powerful armament seems to have been directed against the sea-board of the tract invaded by 'Amrán, now occupied by the Ran of Kachh; where Vígogad, Vingar, and Ballyárí, on the northern, and Phang-warrí, Nerona, Bitáro, etc., on the southern shore, are all known, both by concurrent native tradition, as well as by independent European observation, to have been once washed by the sea.

All these various expeditions, however, had but little permanent effect in reducing the power of the Meds, for Mas'údí informs us that, when he visited Sind, the inhabitants of Mansúra were obliged continually to protect themselves against their aggressions.^522a

Ibn Haukal notices them under the name of Mand (p. 38), and though, without the diacritical point, the word might be read Med, yet as all the MSS., few as they are, concur in this reading, it must be retained. He describes them as dwelling on the bank of the Indus from the borders of Multán to the sea, and in the desert between that river and Fámhal, the frontier town of Hind. They had many stations which they occupied as pasture grounds, and formed a very large population, unconverted to the faith. What Abú-l Fidá says of them is taken from this passage, and we do not read of them in any subsequent author.^522b

Hence we might suppose that the tribe is entirely extinct, and have left no memorial of their existence, except the passages above quoted. M. Reinaud, indeed, observes that he finds it impossible to apply the name of Med or Mand, to any known population, and therefore conceives that the denomination is disfigured. But he is mistaken in this supposition, for the tribe of Med still exists, both to the east and the west of the Indus;^522c and those on the coast, being unable now to practice piracy after the mode of their ancestors, devote themselves to the more tranquil pursuit of fishing. To the east, we find them roving on the borders of Sind and Jodhpúr, the site of their occupation during the Arab period; and to the west, they are found in the little ports of Makrán, from Súnmíání to Charbar, divided into the clans of Gazbúr, Hormárí, Jellar-záí, and Chelmar-záí.

It is possible that the Meds, or some offshoot of that stock, may have been designated as Mand, for that syllable enters into the name of several native tribes and places existing to this day: as the Mand-ar, the Mand-hor, the Mind-hro, besides the Bulúch tribe of Mond-rání, as well as the ancient towns of Mand-rá and Mand-ropat, in Cháchagám, to the east of the Gúní, Mand-rása to the north of the Makalí hills, and Mund-ra and other similar names in Kachh.

That the Mers of the Árávalí mountains and Káthíwár are descendants of the same family, is also not beyond the bounds of probability. The native pronunciation, especially in the western and north-western provinces of Hindústan, tends so much to an intermixture of the cerebral letters r and d,—the written character, indeed, being the same in both, and the diacritical marks being a mere modern innovation—that Mer and Med may be identical: and the addition of the aspirate, which sometimes makes the former into Mher, or, as we commonly write it Mhair, offers still no argument against identity, for that also is an optional excrescence, especially in the names of peoples and families. For the same reason, the connection of the Mahr of Úbáro, and other tracts in the Upper Sind, where they are reckoned by their neighbours as the aboriginal inhabitants of the country between Bhakkar and Baháwalpúr, is equally plausible.⁵²³

Tod pronounces the Mers to be of Bhattí origin, and derives their name from Meru, “a mountain.” But at the same time that he pronounces them to be Bhattís, he says they are a branch of the Mína, or Maina, one of the aboriginal races of India. These statements are obviously incompatible, and the Bhattí hypothesis must be rejected. During the whole period of their known history, they have been conspicuous for their lawless and predatory habits, from the time when four thousand Mer archers defended their passes against Pirthí-Ráj,⁵²⁴ down to A.D. 1821, when their excesses compelled the British government to attack them in their fastnesses, and reduce them to complete obedience. Since which period, it is gratifying to observe that they have emerged from their barbarism, and, under the judicious management of European officers, have learnt to cultivate the arts of peace, and set a notable example of industry to the surrounding tribes.

Taking into consideration, therefore, the fact that the Mers of the Árávalí are but little advanced beyond the tract where the Meds are known, a thousand years ago, to have formed a numerous and thriving population; that their brethren, the Mínas, can themselves be traced in their original seats to the banks of the Indus; that Káthíwár, or the Saurashtran peninsula, was the very nursery of the piractical expeditions for which the Meds were about the same period celeberated and feared, and where Mers still reside, we may conclude that to declare them identical, is doing no great force to reason and probability.^524a

The simple permutation of a letter—not unnaturally forced, but based upon a law of common observance—introduces us to a new connexion of considerable interest; for we may make bold to claim, as an ancient representative of this race, Meris, or Moeris, the king of Pattala, who, on the approach of Alexander, deserted his capital, and fled to the mountains. The site of this town, at the head of the Delta of the Indus, answers well to the position which we may presume the chief of the Meds to have occupied at that period; and, that the name was not personal, but derived from his tribe, we may be satisfied, from the common practice of Alexander's historians, as exemplified in the instances of Abisares, Porus, Sambus, Musicanus, Assacanus, and Taxiles, who have these names severally attributed to them from the nations, countries, or towns over which they ruled. Dr. Vincent, in admitting, as the etymon of Moeris, the Arabic words Mír Rais, “the ruling chief,” has suffered his too easy credulity to be played upon by an ambitious young orientalist. Bohlen has attempted to trace in the name of Moeris a corruption of Mahárájá, “the great king,” in which he is followed by Ritter; but, independent of the fact that his kingdom was circumscribed within very narrow limits, he is expressly noticed by Arrian, under the humble title of , which invariably implies subordination, and not supremacy.⁵²⁵ A more probable, but still unlikely, origin has been suggested, from the tribe of Maurya;^525a but they were far away in the east, remote from Sind, so that altogether locality and verbal resemblance are most favourable to the present hypothesis, that Meris is a Grecised form for the “chief of the Mers.”

We may even extend our views to a still more remote period, and indulge in speculations whether this tribe may not originally have been a colony of Medes. There is nothing in the distance of the migration which would militate against this supposition, for Hero-dotus mentions the Sigynnæ, as a colony of the Medes settled beyond the Danube:—“How they can have been a colony of the Medes,” he observes, “I cannot comprehend; but anything may happen in course of time.”^525b The Medians are also said to have accompanied the expedition of Hercules, when he crossed over from Spain into Africa.^525c The Sauromatæ were Median colonists beyond the Tanais, or Don.^525d The Matienoi, or Matienes,^525e the Kharimatai,^525f and possibly the Mares,^525g were Caucasian colonists from Media, preserving in their names the national appellation of Mata or Madia.

They may either have been transplanted to the banks of the Indus when the Medo-Persian empire extended so far to the eastward; or they may have migrated thither at some indefinitely early period; or they may have sought an asylum there upon the occupation of their country by the Scythians; or during the persecution of the Magi, who consituted one of the six tribes of Medes, just as the Pársís did in Guzerát, at a later period and on similar occasion. It is worthy of remark that Ibn Haukal places the Budhas, or Budhyas, in the same category with the Mand, representing them as comprising several tribes to the west of the Indus. Now, the Budii were also one of the six Median tribes, and the juxtaposition of these two names in the province of Sind should not escape notice, for they also may have formed a body of similar emigrants.⁵²⁶

All arguments against the probability of such dispersions stand self-confuted, when we consider that Sindians were on the Euxine;^526a and that, besides the familiar instances of Samaritans and Jews under the Assyrians, we read over and over again in Persian history, of the deportations of entire tribes, expressly termed by Herodotus.^526b Thus we have the removal of Pæo-nians to Phrygia,^526c of Barcæans from Africa to Bactria,^526d of Milesians to Ampe, near the Tigris,^526e of Egyptians to Susa,^526f of Eretrians from Eubœa to Ardericca,^526g and to Gordyene,^526h of Antiochians to Mahúza,⁵²⁶ⁱ and others which it would be tedious to specify.

There is another curious coincidence worthy of notice. It is well known, that from below the junction of the Panjáb rivers down to Sihwán, the Indus takes the name of Sar, Siro, or Sira, and from below Haidarábád to the sea, that of Lár. It is more correct, but unusual, to add an intermediate division, called Wicholo, “central,” representing the district lying immediately around Haidarábád, just as on the Nile, the Wustání, “midlands,” of the Arabs represented the tract between Upper and Lower Egypt.⁵²⁷ Sir A. Burnes says that Sir and Lár are two Bulúch words for “north” and “south.” But the first is a Slavonic word also, which Gatterer and Niebuhr tell us is retained in Sauro-matæ, signifying “northern” Medes. There were also a province of Siracene, and a tribe of Siraceni, and other similar names north of the Caucasus.^527a The Slavonic and Persian show a great similarity: thus, spaco signifies “a bitch” in both, and the same with the first syllable of Sauromatæ, or Sar-matæ. ^527b Hence Sar for the “northern” Indus, was more probably a remnant of Median than Bulúch emigration, though the Persian element could be accounted for, even on the latter supposition, seeing what a strong tincture the Bulúchí language retains of its original Íránian connection.^527c

Moreover, amongst the several tribes of Kshatriyas, who, having neglected to observe the holy customs, and to visit the Bráhmans, became so degenerate that they were expelled their caste, and regarded as “Dasyus,” or robber tribes, Manu enumerates the “Pah-lavas.” ^527d “They are,” continues the holy legislator, “Dasyus, whether they speak the language of Mlechchhas, or that of Áryas.” Árya in Sanskrit, airya in Zend, means “noble,” “sacred,” “venerable;” hence a portion of Upper India is called Áryavarta, “the holy land,” or “country of the Áryas.” The Medes being also of the same original stock, were universally called Arii. The Áryas of Manu, therefore, are not necessarily, as some interpret, only degenerate natives, but may likewise have been Medes occupying the valley of the Indus. It is probable that a still earlier, and more degenerate branch of the same family may be spoken of under the name of “Meda,” in the code of Manu, “who must live without the town, and maintain themselves by slaying beasts of the forest.” Allusion seems here to be made to the Mers of the Árávalí.⁵²⁸

These indications need not be enlarged on further in this place. Many will, of course, look upon them as fanciful and extravagant. Others, who feel so disposed, must pursue the investigation for themselves; for it is foreign to the main design of this Note, which has merely been to show that we have the Meds of the Arabs retaining their own name to this day, as well as probably under a slightly varied form, in and around the original seats of their occupation. That object has, it is hoped, been accomplished satisfactorily, and with regard to all extraneous matter, to use the words of Cicero, sequimur probabilia, nec ultrà quam id, quod verisimile occurrerit, pro-gredi possumus, et refellere sine pertinaciâ et refelli sine iracundiâ parati sumus.^528a

[General Cuuningham, in his Report for 1863-64, says:—“The Meds or Mands are almost certainly the representatives of the Man-drueni , who lived on the Mandrus river, to the south of the Oxus; and as their name is found in the Panjáb from the beginning of the Christian era downwards, and in none before that time, I conclude that they must have accompanied their neighbours, the Iatii, or Játs, on their forced migrations to Ariana and India. In the classical writers, the name is found as Medi and Mandueni, and in the Muhammadan writers, as Med and Mand.” To show that these two spellings are but natural modes of pronunciation of the same name, the General notices the various ways in which the name of a village on the Jhelam is spelt in different maps and books— Meriala, Mandiali, Mámriála, Mandyála, Mariála, and Merali.]

[“The earliest notice of the Meds is by Virgil, who calls the Jhelam Medus Hydaspes. The epithet is explained by the statement of Vibius Sequester, which makes the Hydaspes flow “past the city of Media.” Now this is clearly the same place as Ptolemy's Euthy-media , or Sagala, which was either on or near the same river, and above Bukephala. Lastly, in the Peutingerian Tables, the country on the Hydaspes, for some distance below Alexandria Bucefalos, is called Media. Here then we have evidence that the Medi, or Meds, were in the Panjáb as early at least as the time of Virgil, in B.C. 40 to 30, and as we know that they were not one of the five tribes of Yuchi, or Tochari, whose names are given by the Chinese writers, it may be inferred, with tolerable certainty, that they must have belonged to the great horde of Sus, or Abars, who entered India about B.C. 126, and gave their name to the province of Indo-Scythia.”

[As the date of the Peutingerian Table is not later than A.D. 250, we have a break of upwards of four centuries before we reach the earliest notices of the Muhammadan writers. In these we find the Meds or Mands firmly established in Sindh, along with their ancient rivals the Játs, both of whom are said to be the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah. Rashíd-ud dín further states that they were in Sindh at the time of the Mahá-bhárata, but this is amply refuted by the native histories of the province, which omit both names from the list of aborigines of Sindh. Ibn Haukal describes the Mands of his time (about A.D. 977), as occupying the banks of the Indus from Multan to the sea, and to the desert between Makrán and Famhal. Masudi, who visited India in A.D. 915-16, calls them Mind, and states that they were a race of Sindh, who were at constant war with the people of Mansura. These notices are sufficient to show, that at some time previous to the first appearance of the Muhammadans, the Meds must have been forced to migrate from the Upper Panjáb to Sindh. There they have since remained, as there can be no doubt that they are now represented by the Mers of the Árávalí Range to the east of the Indus, of Káthiáwar to the south, and of Biluchistán to the west.”

[“The name of Mer, or Mand, is still found in many parts of the Punjáb, as in Meror of the Bari and Rechna Doabs, in Mera, Mandra, and Mandanpur of the Sind Ságar Doab, and in Mandali, of Multan. Mera, which is ten miles to the west of Kalar Kahár, is certainly as old as the beginning of the Christian era, as it possesses an Arian Pali inscription, fixed in the side of a square well. The Mers would seem also to have occupied Lahore, as Abú Ríhán states that the capital of Loháwar was named Medhukur or Mandhukur.⁵³⁰ This place is said to have been on the east bank of the Ravi, and, if so, it was most probably Lahore itself, under a new name. There is an old place called Mandhyawála, on the west bank of the Ravi, and only twelve miles to the south-west of Lahore, which may possibly be the Mandhukur of Abu Ríhán. But the old mound of Mirathira, in the Gugera district, in which figures of Buddha and moulded bricks have been discovered by the railway cuttings, is a more likely place. This frequent occurrence of the name in so many parts of the Panjáb, and always attached to old places, as in Mera, Mandra, and Meriali, of the Sindh Ságar Doab, and in Med-hukur or Mandhukur, the capital of Loháwar, offers the strongest confirmation of the conclusion which I have already derived from the notices of the classical authors, that the Meds or Mers were once the dominant race in the Panjáb. The special location of the Medi on the Hydaspes by classical writers of the first century of the Christian era, the evident antiquity of Mera, Meriali, and other places which still bear the name, and the admitted foreign origin of their modern representatives, the Mers, all point to the same conclusion, that the Medi, or Meds, were the first Indo-Scythian conquerors of the Panjáb.”

[* * * * “About this time (30 to 20 B.C.) the Meds may be supposed to have retired towards the south, until they finally established themselves in Upper Sindh, and gave their name to their new capital of Minnagara. As this could scarcely have been effected with the consent of the former occupants of Upper Sindh, whom I suppose to have been the Iatii, or Jats, I would refer to this period as the beginning of that continued rivalry, which the historian Rashídu-d dín attributes to the Jats and Meds.^530a To this same cause I would also refer the statement of the Erythræan Periplus, that about A.D. 100, the rulers of Minnagara were rival Parthians, who were mutually expelling each other.”]

The Wairsí and Sodha Tribes.

Wairsí, we are told in the Beg-Lar-náma (MS. p. 55), was a chief among the Sodhas. It would have been more correct to say that Wairsí was the chief clan among the Sodhas; for Wairsí was not a personal designation, as is evident from many passages of that work. It is written indiscriminately Wairsí and Wairsa, and a cognate, but then hostile, clan bore the closely similar name of Waisa (MS. pp. 190, 191). The Sameja tribe, often mentioned in the same work, is also a branch of the Sodhas.

An exact translation of the text to which this note refers would represent Rájia as the daughter of the Ráná (which, by the way, is spelt throughout in the original as Ra'ná); but at p. 61 we learn that she was his sister's son, and so she is also styled in the Tuhfatu-l Kirám (MS. p. 73). Indeed, had she been his own daughter, we should not have found Abú-l Kásim Khán-i Zamán, who was the issue of the marriage with Mír Kásim Beg-Lár, passing his childhood among the Bhattís of Jesalmír after his father's death, but rather among the Sodhas of 'Umarkot.

The Soda or Sodha tribe (spelt Soda by Col. Tod, and Sodá by the Rev. Mr. Renouard) is an offshoot of the Pramára, and has been for many centuries an occupant of the desert tracts of Western India, into which they have receded, like their predecessors, when driven forward by more powerful neighbours from the banks of the Indus. Col. Tod contends that they are the descendants of the Sogdi of Alexander's time, in which there is greater probability than in most of his speculations. Sogdi may be a corruption, derived from the greater familiarity of historians with the northern nation of that name. The Sodræ of Diodorus offers an equal resemblance of name and position. It is not plain which bank of the river the Sodræ or Sogdi then occupied. They are not mentioned by Q. Curtius, and Arrian's use of “right” and “left,” as applied to the banks of the Indus, is so opposed to the modern practice of tracing a river from its source downwards, that it adds to the confusion.

The transaction mentioned in the text shows the early period at which the Hindús began to disgrace themselves by their intermarriages with Muhammadans; and the high repute of the beauty of the Sodha women has served to maintain that practice in full vigour to the present time.

At the period treated of, we find the Sodhas in possession of 'Umarkot, of which the name and consequence have been subsequently much increased, independant of its importance as a border fortress, by being the birth place of the renowned Akbar.

The Ráná of the Sodhas was expelled from 'Umarkot by the Tálpúrs of Sind; and the present representative of the family, who still retains his title of Ráná, resides at Chor, a few miles north-east of his former capital, shorn of all power, and hard pressed for the means of subsistence.⁵³²

NOTE (D).—MISCELLANEOUS.

The Terrors of the Moghal Helmet.

(PAGE 276).

The reader of the history of the Crusades will recognize a similar anecdote, relating to a hero more familiar to him than Daryá Khán. The chivalrous Sire de Joinville tells us, that Richard's name acted as a powerful sedative upon the children of the Saracens, and that even their very horses were presumed to start at his shadow:—

“Le roy Richard fist tant d'armes outremer a celle foys que il y fu, que quant les chevaus aus Sarrasins avoient pouour d'aucun bisson, leur mestres leur disoient:—‘Cuides tu,’ fesoient ils à leurs chevaus, ‘que se soit le roy Richart d'Angleterre?’ Et quant les enfans aus Sarrasins bréoient, elles leur disoient:—‘Tay-toy! tay-toy! ou je irai querre le roy Richart qui te tuera.’”⁵³³

It is curious that we should learn this from a Frenchman only. Our English chroniclers, who exhaust the language of panegyric in speaking of Richard, omit this anecdote, which appears to be derived from a mere eastern mode of expressing terror.

In the passage taken from the Táríkh-i Táhirí we have not only children taking fright, but women even bringing forth prematurely, at the name of Daryá Khán. The same effect is ascribed in that work (pp. 48, 52) to the Moghal cap:—“Such fear of the Moghals fell upon both men and women, that the men lost all courage, and the women miscarried at the very sight of the Moghals with their terrific head-pieces.” But the shape and feature of this alarming helmet, or Tákí, are not described. The Tuhfatu-l Kirám (p. 42) tells us that even horses started at it, as those of the Saracens at Richard of England.

We might, from the expressions used, conceive that their helmets, like those of Ulysses and some of the barbarous nations of antiquity, were covered with alarming devices of open jaws and fiery dragons, and that the Moghals in Sind stalked about,—

—— tegmen torquens immane leonis,
Terribili impexum setâ, cum dentibus albis,
Indutus.^533a

but had this been the case, we should have most probably had more frequent mention of the circumstance, especially by Khusrú, who was their prisoner, and delighted to record their hideous faces and fashions.

But neither in Khusrú, nor in any other author, do we find notice of such an helmet, or chapelle de fer, as would give rise to the fears here depicted. A good European observer of their manners merely remarks that the upper part of their casque was of iron or steel.^533b The tail of hair, if it was worn according to its present dimensions, might, notwithstanding its being honoured as a royalty,⁵³⁴ have excited surprise, and perhaps ridicule, but no alarm. From an early period, ever since the Moghal tribes were known to Europe, this appendage has naturally excited observation, just as it does now, where they border on European nations.^534a Procopius^534b and Priscus^534c remark upon it as a peculiarity of the Huns.

It is probable that these Moghals in Sind may, in their day, have worn a head-dress, such as Rubruquis, more than two centuries before, had attributed to their women. Even at present, the Turk-man female cap is no pigmy, being higher than a military chako, over which a scarf is thrown, reaching down to the waist. But this is nothing to what it was in the time of our adventurous traveller. That was indeed calculated to inspire terror, and produce the results attributed to the Tákí. It must have been more formidable than European courts ever produced, even in the horned and steeple coiffure of the fifteenth century.

“Their women have an ornament for their heads, which they call Botta, being made of the barke of a tree. * * * It hath a square sharp spire rising from the toppe thereof, being more than a cubite in length, and fashioned like unto a pinacle. * * * * Upon the midst of the sayd spire, or square toppe, they put a bunch of quills or of slender canes, another cubite long, or more. * * * Hereupon, when such gentlewomen ride together, and are beheld afar off, they seem to be souldiers with helmets on their heads, carrying their lances upright; for the sayd Botta appeareth like a helmet with a lance over it.”^534d

This is like the fantastic fontange of Europe, raised an ell above the head, and pointed like steeples, which caused our pious preachers infinite trouble, as well as missionary perambulations, for its suppression. So like, indeed, that it would really seem to be derived direct from the eastern model, but that these comical fashions are the product of no particular age or country; for even before the decline of the Empire, the Roman lady—

“Tot premit ordinibus, tot adhuc compagibus altum
Ædificat caput; Andromachen a fronte videbis.”⁵³⁵

Nevertheless, when we consider that, about the time of the capture of Constantinople, Turkish turbans were all the rage in Western Europe, we may perhaps admit, that, had we not become acquainted with Tartar costume, the marvellous absurdity of the steeple-cap never could have been introduced amongst us. Paradin describes it as—“Made of certain rolls of linen pointed like steeples, about an ell in height. These were called by some, great butterflies, from having two large wings on each side, resembling those of that insect. The high cap was covered with a fine piece of lawn, hanging down to the ground, the greater part of which was tucked under the arm.”^535a

This must evidently be the same as the Tartar Botta, and the illuminations of that period make the dimensions still more portentous, and the resemblance to the eastern original still more striking. The paysannes of Normandy have to this day preserved this monstrous extravagance for the gratification of modern eyes.^535b

If this was not the Alpine chapeau which spread such dismay in Sind, it may have been the lofty dark sheepskin Tilpak,^535c which the Turkmans now wear, about a foot high. An exaggerated form of this would have been alarming enough to produce the effect described.

Dismounting for Combat.

We find that the practice of dismounting, previous to coming to close combat, is frequently alluded to in these local histories, as being of common observance among many of the border tribes between Sind and Rájpútána.

Here in the Extract from the Beg-Lar-náma, at p. 293, it is the Sodhas and Ráthors who adopt it. A few pages before, we find the Jhárejas of Guzerát, who accompanied Jám Fíroz against Mirza Sháh Husain, appealing to that custom, as established among themselves; declaring that they always fought with the enemy on foot.

We have seen above (p. 411) that Ráí Chach and Mahrat of Chitor contend against each other on foot; the former representing that, being a Brahman, he was unable to fight on horseback; then again mounting his horse unexpectedly, he slays his antagonist with the most deliberate treachery.

It is probable that the Ráná of Chitor would not have so readily been deceived by this insidious challenge, had it been at all opposed to the military practice of those times. Indeed, to the present day, we find Sindians, unlike most Asiatic nations, still somewhat repugnant to fighting on horseback, and priding themselves more on being foot soldiers than cavalry.

I allude in a subsequent note to the dismounting being followed by binding those fighting on the same side, one to the other, by their waistbands: but this seems to have been resorted to only in desperate circumstances, when there was no chance, or intention, of escape. The mere dismounting appears not to have been attended with any vow of self-sacrifice.

In Persian history we meet with similar instances of this dismounting to engage in single combat. Thus, after the fatal battle of Kádisíya, the Persian general, Takharján, dismounts to fight with the Arab champion, Zahír.

The practice was very common in the Middle Ages in Europe, being introduced chiefly for the purpose of obviating the inconvenience of the cumbersome armour of that period. The cavalry dismounted, leaving their horses at some distance, and combated with their lances on foot. William of Tyre (xvii. 4) says of the Emperor Conrad's cavalry, in the second Crusade:—“De equis descendentes, et facti pedites; sicut mos est Teutonicis in summis necessitatibus bellica tractare negotia.” The English did the same in their engagement with the Scotch, in 1138, near North Allerton, commonly called the Battle of the Standard. Comines also (i. 3) observes upon it as a Burgundian fashion: “Entre les Bourgig-nons, lors estoient les plus honorez ceux que descendoient avec les archers.”

In the wars of Edward III. dismounting was not uncommon; and Sir John Hawkwood, one of his knights, the famous partizan leader, disguised by contemporary writers under the name of Aucud or Agutus, introduced it into Italy. And it was, as we learn from Mon-strelet (ii. 10, 20), practised by the English in their second wars with France, especially at the battles of Crevant and Verneuil.⁵³⁷

Colligation in Fighting.

The extraordinary custom alluded to in the Beg Lár-náma, of a devoted band tying themselves together by their waistbands, before fighting à tout outrance, is mentioned in the same terms in the Tárikh-i Sind (MS. p. 173).

“When they saw the army of the Moghals, they dismounted from their horses, took their turbans from off their heads, and binding the corners of their mantles, or outer garments, to one another, they engaged in battle; for it is the custom of the people of Hind and Sind, whenever they devote themselves to death, to descend from their horses, to make bare their heads and feet, and to bind themselves to each other by their mantles and waistbands.”

These people appear most of them to have been Sammas; and it is among their descendants in Kachh that we find this curious custom again alluded to (Táríkh-i Sind, MS. p. 194), when Mirzá Sháh Husain attacked Ráí Khangár. Here we have a new feature added, of serrying shields together like a compact phalanx.

“The men under Khangár, having set themselves in battle array, dismounted from their horses, locked their shields together, seized their spears in their hands, and bound the corners of their waistbands.”

The Tarkhán-náma omits all mention of the proceedings between Ráí Khangár^537a and Mirzá Sháh Husain, but they are noticed in the Tuhfatu-l Kirám (MS. p. 194); and the observance of this strange practice is also there alluded to, in words similar to those quoted from the Táríkh-i Sind.

The dismounting from horseback, prior to actual contact in the field of battle, is mentioned in a previous note of this Appendix, and appears to have been a more common occurrence; but the colligation evidently implies desperation, even unto death.

Some barbarous nations of antiquity seem to have adopted the same practice, but more with the object, apparently, of keeping their ranks unbroken, than symbolizing any vow of self-destruction. So, at the battle of Campi Raudii, we read of the Cimbri binding themselves together by long chains run through their belts, avowedly for the purpose of maintaining an unbroken line.⁵³⁸ There is good reason to suppose that the Soldurii of Gaul and the Comites of Germany showed their devotion occasionally in a similar fashion.^538a

Even as late as the days of chivalry, we find a resort to the same singular mode of showing a desperate resolve to die in the field. See what the heroic king of Bohemia, together with his faithful and devoted companions did at the glorious battle of Creçy:—

“The valyant kynge of Behaygne (Bohemia), called Charles of Luzenbourge, sonne to the noble Emperour Henry of Luzenbourge, for all that he was nyghe blynde, whan he vnderstode the order of the batayle, he sayde to them about hym, “Where is the lorde Charles, my sonne.” His men sayde, “Sir, we can nat tell; we thynke he be fightynge.” Than he sayde, “Sirs, ye ar my men, my companyons, and frendes in this iourney; I requyre you bring me so farre forwarde, that I may stryke one stroke with my swerde.” They sayde they wolde do his commaundement; and to the intent that they shulde not lese hym in the prease, they tyed all their raynes of their bridelles eche to other, and sette the kynge before to accom-plysshe his desyre, and so they went on their ennemyes. The lord Charles of Behaygne, his sonne, who wrote hymselfe Kynge of Be-haygne, and bare the armes, he cam in good order to the batayle; but whan he sawe that the matter went awrie on their partie, he departed, I can nat tell you whiche waye. The kynge, his father, was so farre forewarde, that he strake a stroke with his swerde, ye and mo than foure, and fought valyantly, and so dyde his company; and they adventured themselfe so forewarde, that they were ther all slayne; and the next day they were founde in the place about the kynge, and all their horses tyed eche to other.”⁵³⁹

A curious instance occurred even lately, when Muhammad 'Ali gained his victory over the Wahábís at Bissel. Several bodies of the Azir Arabs, who had sworn by the oath of divorce, not to turn their backs on the Turks, were found by the victors tied together by the legs, with the intent of preventing each other from running away, and in that unbroken and desperate line of battle were literally cut to pieces.^539a

Barge, an Arabic word.

The term used by Biládurí to represent a vessel of war is Bárija. He uses the same word, in the plural, in speaking of the vessels which were captured by the Meds, on their voyage from Ceylon to to the Persian Gulf, an act of piracy which led to the Arab conquest of Sind (supra, p. 118).

Bírúní says also, a century later, that the Bawárij are established at Kachh and Somnát, and are so called because they devote themselves to the pursuit of piracy, in ships which are called Bera (supra, p. 65).^539b This is a native word still in use for a boat, but the origin of the term Bawárij must be sought, not in the Indian Bera, but rather in the Arabic Bárija, which Golius, on the authority of the Kámús, tells us to mean a large vessel of war.^539c

From the same source our English Barge seems to be derived, which, though at first view it may appear rather a startling assertion, will perhaps be admitted, when we see how our best etymologists have failed in their endeavours to trace its real origin. Johnson (Todd) says it is derived from old French Barje, or Barge, and Low-Latin Barga. He should have ascertained whence the French Barje is itself derived. Tooke says, Barge is a strong boat, and Bark is a stout vessel, derived from the past participle of beorgan, “to protect,” “to strengthen.”⁵⁴⁰ Crabb says from Barca.^540a Richardson, from the Gothic bairgan, “to fortify.” Webster, from Dutch Bargie. Palgrave tells us that the piratical boats of the Danes were called Barga and Barka;^540b and Barca is used by the Monk Abbo, in his unpolished poem (A.D. 891) on the siege of Paris by the Normans.

Barcas per flumina raptant.^540c

But we have no occasion to look for any connection between our words Bark and Barge. The former is confessedly an old word, the latter comparatively modern. The former is, indeed, much older than even the Danish or Norman piracies. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, who died A.D. 431, applies it thus:—

Ut mea salubri Barca perfugio foret
Puppis superstes obrutæ.^540d

In consequence of its use by Byzantine authors, altered into by Nicetas,^540e Salmasius and J. C. Scaliger have sought for a Grecian origin of the word, and the latter finds it in , quasi, “a ship of burden.”^540f Others, again, say from “Barca, a city of Africa;” and Roderic of Toledo, from “Barco, a city of Spain.”^540g

Our more immediate concern, however, is with Barge, respecting which it is obvious to remark, that, though its present use is confined to fluviatile transits and pageantries—whether for the conveyance of coals or cockneys, merchandize or Lord Mayors—it was, on its first introduction, designed for higher purposes. Our oldest writers apply it solely to sea-going craft. Thus Chaucer:—

He knew wel alle the havens, as they were,
Fro' Gotland to the Cape de Finistere,
And every creke in Bretagne and in Spaine:
His barge ycleped was the Magdelaine.^540h

Even as late as the fifteenth century, the great Swedish ship of 1000 tons burden was called the King's barge;⁵⁴¹ and the largest vessel hitherto built in Scotland was called the Bishop's barge.^541a But what is more to the purpose is, that we do not find mention of the word till the Crusades had introduced it, through the Arabic language, into our vocabulary,^541b and then only as a large ship, used chiefly on military expeditions. So, in the very old Romance of Richard Cœur de Lion:—

Among you partes^541c every charge.
I brought in shippes and in barge,
More gold and silver with me,
Than has your lord and swilke^541d three.

Again, a little further on:—

Against hem comen her navey,
Cogges,^541e and dromounds,^541f many galley,
Barges, schoutes, and trayeres fele,^541g
That were charged with all weal,
With armour, and with other vitail,
That nothing in the host should fail.^541h

Coupling this early and distinctive use of the term with the fact of its being first used during the Holy Wars, and with the unsatisfactory guesses of our lexicographers, we may safely conclude that the English Barge is no other than the Arabic Bárija, however much it may now be diverted from the original design of its invention.