ILUS, the fourth king of Troy, was the son of Tros and of Callirhoë, the daughter of the Scamander. He married Eurydice, the daughter of Adrastus, king of Argos, and became by her the father of Themis (the grandmother of Æneas) and of Laomedon, the predecessor of Priam. Ilus embellished Troy, which had been so called from his father Tros, and gave to it the name of Ilium. According to tradition, it was he who received from Jupiter the Palladium, and who, in the wars which had been excited by the animosity of Tantalus and Tros, made an attempt to rescue this statue from the flames, in which the temple of Minerva was wrapped, although he was aware that the city would be impregnable as long as it remained within the walls. For this misplaced zeal, he was, at the moment, struck with blindness by the goddess, but was subsequently restored to sight. (Apollod., 3, 12, 3.)

to the numerous tribes which were anciently in pos- | ate. So far, however, from making any concessions, session of the countries situated to the west of Mace- Teuta proceeded to a still greater outrage, by causing donia, and which extended along the coast of the Adri- one of the Roman deputies to be put to death. The atic from the confines of Italy and Istria to the borders senate was not slow in avenging these injuries; a pow of Epirus. Still farther north, and more inland, we erful armament was fitted out, under the command of find them occupying the great valleys of the Saave two consuls, who speedily reduced the principal forand Drave, which were only terminated by the junc-tress held by Teuta, and compelled that haughty queen tion of those streams with the Danube. This large to sue for peace. (Polyb., 2, 12.-Appian, Bell. tract of country, under the Roman emperors, constitu- Illyr., 7.) At a still later period, the Illyrians, under ted the provinces of Illyricum and Pannonia.-Anti-their king Gentius, were again engaged in a war with quity has thrown but little light on the origin of the the Romans, if the act of taking possession of an unIllyrians; nor are we acquainted with the language and resisting country may be so called. Gentius had been customs of the barbarous hordes of which the great body accused of favouring the cause of Perseus of Macedon, of the nation was composed. Their warlike habits, and of being secretly in league with him. His terrihowever,and the peculiar practice of puncturing their tory was therefore invaded by the prætor Anicius, and bodies, which is mentioned by Strabo as being also in in thirty days it was subjugated by the Roman army. use among the Thracians, might lead us to connect Gentius himself, with all his family, fell into the hands them with that widely-extended people. (Strabo, 315) of the enemy, and was sent to Rome to grace the It appears evident, that they were a totally different prætor's triumph. (Liv., 44, 31.—Appian, Bell. Ilrace from the Celts, as Strabo carefully distinguishes lyr., 9.) Illyria then became a Roman province, and them from the Gallic tribes which were incorporated was divided into three portions; but it received afterwith them. (Strabo, 313.) Appian, indeed, seems ward a considerable accession of territory on the reto ascribe a common origin to the Illyrians and Celts, duction of the Dalmatians, Iapydes, and other petty for he states that Illyrius and Celtus were two broth- nations by Augustus, these being included from that ers, sons of Polyphemus and Galatea, who migrated period within its boundaries. So widely, indeed, were from Sicily, and became the progenitors of the two na- the frontiers of Illyricum extended under the Roman tions which bore their names (Bell. Illyr., 2); but emperors, that they were made to comprise the great this account is evidently too fabulous to be relied on. districts of Noricum, Pannonia, and Moesia. (Appian, It is not unlikely that the Illyrians contributed to the Bell. Illyr., 6-Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 1, p. 29.) early population of Italy. The Liburni, who were undoubtedly a part of this nation, had formed settlements on the Italian shore of the Adriatic at a very remote period. The Veneti, moreover, were, according to the most probable account, Illyrians. But, though so widely dispersed, this great nation is but little noticed in history until the Romans made war upon it, in consequence of some acts of piracy committed on their traders. Previous to that time, we hear occasionally of the Illyrians as connected with the affairs of Macedonia; for instance, in the expedition undertaken by Perdiccas, in conjunction with Brasidas, against the Lyncestæ, which failed principally from the support afforded to the latter by a powerful body of Illyrian troops. (Thucyd, 4, 125.) They were frequently engaged in hostilities with the princes of Macedonia, to whom their warlike spirit rendered them formidable neighbours. This was the case more especially while under the government of Bardylis, who is known to have been a powerful and renowned chief, though we are not positively acquainted with the extent of his dominions, nor over what tribes he presided. Philip at length gained a decisive victory over this king, who lost his life in the action, and thus a check was given to the rising power of the Illyrians. Alexander was likewise successful in a war he waged against Clytus, the son of Bardylis, and Glaucias, king of the Taulantii. The Illyrians, however, still asserted their independence against the kings of Macedon, and were not subdued till they were involved in the common fate of nations by the victorious arins of the Romans. The conquest of Illyria led the way to the first interference of Rome in the affairs of Greece; and Polybius, from that circumstance, has entered at some length into the account of the events which then took place. He informs us, that about this period, 520 A.U.C., the Ilyrians on the coast had become formidable from their maritime power and the extent of their depredations. They were governed by Agron, son of Pleurastus, whose forces had obtained several victories over the Etolians, Epirots, and Achæans. On his death, the empire devolved upon his queen Teuta, a woman of an active and daring mind, who openly sanctioned, and even encouraged the acts of violence committed by her subjects. Among those who suffered by these lawless pirates were some traders of Italy, on whose account satisfaction was demanded by the Roman sen

IMAUS, the name of a large chain of mountains, which in a part of its course divided, according to the ancients, the vast region of Scythia into Scythia intra Imaum and Scythia extra Imaum. It is, in fact, merely a continuation of the great Tauric range. That part of the range over which Alexander crossed, and whence the Indus springs, was called Paropamisus. Farther on were the Emodi Montes, giving rise to the Ganges; and still farther to the east the range of Imaus, extending to the Eastern Ocean. Imaus is generally thought to answer to the Himalaya Mountains of Thibet; strictly speaking, however, this name belongs to the Emodi Montes; and Imaus, in the early part of its course, is the modern Mustag, or the chain which branches off to the northwest from the centre of the Himalaya range. The word Himalaya is Sanscrit, and is compounded of hima, "snow," and alaya, “an abode." (Wilson's Sanscrit Dict.) The former of these Sanscrit roots gives rise also to the name Imaus and Emodus among the ancients, and it also brings to mind the Hamus of Thrace, the Hymettus of Attica, the Mons Imaus of Italy, and the different mountains called Himmel in Saxony, Jutland, and other countries. It is the radix, also, of the German word himmel, denoting heaven.-As the chain of Imaus proceeds on to the east, it ceases to be charac terized as snowy, and, in separating the region of Scythia into its two divisions, answers to the modern range of Altai. It is only of late that the height of

ing into the bay of Nauplia. Its real source was in Mount Lyrceius, on the confines of Arcadia; but the poets, who delighted in fiction, imagined it to be a branch of the Inachus of Amphilochia, which, after mingling with the Achelous, passed under ground, and reappeared in Argolis. (Strabo, 271.-Id., 370.) According to Dodwell (vol. 2, p. 223), the bed of this river is a short way to the northeast of Argos. It is usually dry, but supplied with casual floods after hard rains, and the melting of snow on the surrounding mountains. It rises about ten miles from Argos, at a

the Himalaya Mountains on the north of India has anus, the common parent of all rivers. They who been appreciated. In 1802, Col. Crawford made some make Inachus to have come into Greece from beyond measurements, which gave a much greater altitude to the sea, regard his name as a Greek form for the Orithese mountains than had ever before been suspected; ental term Enak, denoting "great" or "powerful," and Col. Colebrook, from the plains of Rhohilcund, and this last as the root of the Greek åvaš, “a king.” made a series of observations which gave a height of The foreign origin of Inachus, however, or, rather, his 22,000 feet. Lieut. Webb, in his journey to the source actual existence, is very problematical.-According of the Ganges, executed measurements on the peak to the mythological writers, Inachus became the father of Iamunavatari, which gave upward of 25,000 feet. of Io by his sister, the ocean-nymph Melia. (Apollod., The same officer, in a subsequent journey, confirmed | 2, 1, 1.-Heyne, ad loc.)—II. A river of Argolis, flowhis former observations. This conclusion was object-ing at the foot of the Acropolis of Argos, and emptyed to, on account of a difference of opinion respecting the allowance which ought to be made, for the deviation of the light from a straight direction, on which all conclusions drawn from the measurement of angles must depend. In a subsequent journey, however, this same officer confirmed his conclusions by additional measurements, and by observing the fall of the mercury in the barometer at those heights which he himself visited. It was found by these last observations that the line of perpetual snow does not begin till at least 17,000 feet above the level of the sea, and that the banks of the Setledge, at an elevation of nearly 15,000 feet, afford-place called Mushi, in the way to Tripolitza in Arcaed pasturage for cattle, and yielded excellent crops of dia. In the winter it sometimes descends from the mountain-wheat. This mild temperature, however, at mountains in a rolling mass, when it does considerable so great a height, is confined to the northern side of damage to the town. It is now called Xeria, whica the chain. This probably depends on the greater means dry. (Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, p. 245.) height of the whole territory on the northern side, in-III. A river of the Amphilochian district in Acarnaconsequence of which, the heat which the earth re- nia. There were phenomena connected with the deceives from the solar rays, and which warms the air scription given by ancient geographers of its course, immediately superincumbe:it, is not so much expand- which have led to a doubt of its real existence. It is ed by the time the ascending air reaches these greater from Strabo more especially that we collect this inelevations, as in that which has ascended from a much formation. Speaking of the submarine passage of the lower country. Mr. Frazer, in a later journey, inferred Alpheus, and its pretended junction with the waters that the loftiest peaks of the Himalaya range varied of Arethusa, he says a similar fable was related of the from 18,000 to 23,000 feet; but he had no instruments Inachus, which, flowing from Mount Lacmon, in the for measuring altitudes, and no barometer, and he chain of Pindus, united its waters with the Achelous, probably did not make the due allowance for the ex- and, passing under the sea, finally reached Argos, in traordinary height of the snow-line. The point, how- the Peloponnesus. Such was the account of Sophoever, is now at last settled. The Himalaya Mount- cles, as appears from the passage quoted by the geogains far exceed the Andes in elevation; Chimborazo, rapher, probably from the play of Inachus. (Compare the highest of the latter, being only 21,470 feet above Oxford Strabo, vol. 1, p. 391, in notis.) Strabo, howthe level of the sea, while Ghosa Cote, in the Dhaw- ever, regards this as an invention of the poets, and alaghiri range, attains to an elevation of 28,000 feet, says that Hecatæus was better informed on the suband is the Lighest known land on the surface of the ject, when he affirmed that the Inachus of the Amphiglobe. lochians was a different river from that of the Peloponnesian Argos. According to this ancient geographical writer, the former stream flowed from Mount Lacmus; whence also the Eas, or Aoüs, derived its source, and fell into the Achelous, having, like the Amphilochian Argos, received its appellation from Amphilochus. (Strab., 271.) This account is sufficiently intelligible: and, in order to identify the Inachus of Hecateus with the modern river which corresponds with it, we have only to search in modern maps for a stream which rises close to the Aous or Voioussa, and, flowing south, joins the Achelous in the territory of the ancient Amphilochi. Now this description answers precisely to that of a river which is commonly looked upon as the Achelous itself, but which would seem, in fact, to be the Inachus, since it agrees so well with the account given by Hecatæus; and it should be observed, that Thucydides places the source of the Achelous in that part of Pindus which belonged to the Dolopes, a Thessalian people, who occupied the southeastern portion of the chain. (Thucyd., 3, 102.) Modern maps, indeed, point out a riv. er coming from this direction, and uniting with the Inachus, which, though a more considerable stream, was not regarded as the main branch of the river. Strabo elsewhere repeats what he has said of the junction of the Inachus and Achelous. (Strab, 327.) But in another passage he quotes a writer whose report of the Inachus differed materially, since he represented it as traversing the district of Amphilochia, and falling into the gulf. This was the statement

IMBRACIES, a patronymic given to Asius, as son of Imbratrs. (Virg., Æn., 10, 123.)

IMBRALLES, a patronymic given to Glaucus and Lades, as tons of Imbrasus. (Virg., Æn., 12, 343.)

IMBROS, an island of the Egean, 22 miles east of Lemnos, according to Pliny (4, 12), and now called Imbro Like Lemnos, it was at an early period the seat of the Pelasgi, who worshipped the Cabiri and Mercury by the name of Imbramus. (Steph. Byz., s. v. "lubpoc.) Imbros is generally mentioned by Homer in conjunction with Lemnos. (Hymn. in Apoll., 36.-Ib., 13, 32.) It was first conquered by the Persians (Herod., 5, 27), and afterward by the Athenians, who derived from thence excellent darters and target eers. (Thucyd., 4, 28.) There was a town probably of the same name with the island, the ruins of which are to be seen at a place called Castro. (Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 1, p. 342.)

INACHIDA, the name of the first eight successors of Inachus on the throne of Argos.

INACHIDES, a patronymic of Epaphus, as grandson of Inachus. (Ovid, Met., 1, 704.)

INACHIS, a patronymic of Io, as daughter of Inachus. (Ovid, Fast., 1, 454.)

INACHUS, I. a son of Oceanus and Tethys, father of Io. He was said to have founded the kingdom of Argos, and was succeeded by his son Phoroneus, B.C. 1807. Inachus is said, in the old legend, to have given his name to the principal river of Argolis. Hence probably he was described as the son of Oce

madeby Ephorus (ap. Strab., 326), and it has led some | Arabs, who brought the produce of India from the modern geographers and critics, in order to reconcile modern Sinde, or the Malabar coast, to Hadramunt in these two contradictory accounts, to suppose that there the southwestern part of Arabia, or to Gerra on the was a stream which, branching off from the Achelous, Persian Gulf, from which place it was carried by means fell into the Ambracian Gulf near Argos. This is of caravans to Petra, where it was purchased by Phomore particularly the hypothesis of D'Anville; but nician merchants. A great quantity of Indian articles modern travellers assure us that there is no such river was also brought from the Persian Gulf up the Eunear the ruins of Argos (Holland's Travels, vol. 2, p. phrates as far as Circesium or Thapsacus, and thence 225); and, in fact, it is impossible that any stream carried across the Syrian desert into Phoenicia. Eushould there separate from the Achelous, on account rope was thus supplied with the produce of India by of the Amphilochian Mountains, which divide the val- means of the Phoenicians; but we cannot assent to ley of that river from the Gulf of Arta. Mannert con- the opinion of Robertson (Historical Disquisition m siders the small river Krikeli to be the representative India), that Phoenician ships sailed to India; for there of the Inachus (Geogr., vol. 8, p. 65), but this is a mere is no reason for believing that the Phoenicians had any torrent, which descends from the mountains above the harbours at the head of the Red Sea, as Robertson gulf, and can have no connexion with Mount Lacmus supposes, but, on the contrary, the Idumæans remainor the Achelous. All ancient anthorities agree in de- ed independent till the time of David and Solomon ; riving the Inachus from the chain. of Pindus. (Cra- and in the 27th chapter of Ezekiel, which contains a mer's Anc. Greece, vol. 2, p. 40, seqq.) list of the nations that traded with Tyre, we can disINARIME, an island off the coast of Campania, oth-cover none of an Indian origin; but the names of the erwise called Enaria and Pithecusa. Under an extinguished volcano, in the middle of this island, Jupiter was fabled to have confined the giant Typhoeus. (Consult remarks under the articles Enaria and Arima.) Heyne thinks that some one of the early Latin poets, in translating the Iliad into the Roman tongue, misunderstood Homer's eiv 'Apipois, and rendered it by Inarime or Inarima; and that the fable of Typhoeus, travelling westward, was assigned to Enaria or Pithecusa as a volcanic situation. (Heyne, Excurs. ad Virg., En., 9, 715.)

INARUS, a son of Psammeticus (Thucyd., 1, 104), king of that part of Libya which borders upon Egypt. Sallying forth from Marea, he drew over the greater part of Egypt to revolt from Artaxerxes, the Persian emperor, and, becoming himself their ruler, called in the Athenians to his assistance, who happened to be engaged in an expedition against Cyprus, with two hundred ships of their own and their allies. The enterprise at first was eminently successful, and the whole of Egypt fell under the power of the invaders and their ally. Eventually, however, the Persian arms triumphed, and Inarus, being taken by treachery, was crucified. (Thucyd., 1, 109; 1, 110.) Herodotus and Ctesias say he was crucified, ἐπὶ τρισὶ σταυpois, which might more properly be termed impalement. Bloomfield (ad Thucyd., 1. c.) thinks that he was of the ancient royal family of Egypt, and descended from the Psammeticus who died B.C. 617. It is not improbable, he adds, that, on Apries being put to death by his chief minister Amasis, his son, or some near relation, established himself among the Libyans bordering on Egypt, from whom descended this Psam

meticus.

INDIA, an extensive country of Asia, divided by Ptolemy and the ancient geographers into India intra Gangem and India extra Gangem, or India on this side, and India beyond, the Ganges. The first division answers to the modern Hindustan; the latter to the Birman Empire, and the dominions of Pegu, Siam, Laos, Cambodia, Cochin China, Tonquin, and Malacca.-Commerce between India and the western nations of Asia appears to have been carried on from the earliest historical times. The spicery, which the company of Ishmaelites mentioned in Genesis (37, 25) were carrying into Egypt, must in all probability have been the produce of India; and in the 30th chapter of Exodus, where an enumeration is made of various spices and perfumes, cinnamon and cassia are expressly mentioned, which must have come from India, or the islands in the Indian Archipelago. It has been thought by many, that the Egyptians must have used Indian spices in embalming their dead; and Diodorus Siculus says (1, 91), that cinnamon was actually employed by this people for that purpose. The spice trade appears to have been carried on by means of the

66

Arabian tribes are specified which supplied the Phonicians with the products of India (v. 19, 22). The conquest of Idumæa by David gave the Jews possession of the harbour of Ezion-geber on the Red Sea, from which ships sailed to Ophir, bringing "gold and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks." (1 Kings, 2, 28.Ib., 10, 11, 22.) Considerable variety of opinion prevails respecting Ophir; but it is most probable that it was an emporium of the African and Indian trade in Arabia. The Arabian merchants procured the gold from Africa, and the ivory, apes, and peacocks from India. The Hebrew words in this passage appear to be derived from the Sanscrit. In the troubles which followed the death of Solomon, the trade with Ophir was probably neglected; and till the foundation of Alexandrea the trade with India was carried on by the Arabians in the way already mentioned. The produce of India was also imported into Greece by the Phoeni cians in very early times. Many of the Greek names of the Indian articles are evidently derived from the Sanscrit. Thus, the Greek word for pepper (лéлEρL, pepperi) comes from the Sanscrit pippali: the Greek word for emerald is ouúpaydoç or pápaydos (smaragdos, maragdos), from the Sanscrit marakata: the βυσσίνη σινδών (byssine sindon), "fine linen" or muslin," mentioned by Herodotus (2, 86; 7, 181), seems to be derived from Sindhu, the Sanscrit name of the river Indus: the produce of the cotton-plant, called in Greek кúржασоç (karpasos), comes from the Sanscrit karpása, a word which we also find in the Hebrew (karpas.-Esther, 1, 6), and it was probably introduced into Greece, together with the commodity, by the Phoenician traders. That this was the case with the word cinnamon, Herodotus (3, 111) informs us. The term cinnamon (in Greek kivváμwμov or Kívvaμov, cinnamomum, cinnamon; in Hebrew kinnamon) is not found in Sanscrit; the Sanscrit term for this article is gudha trach, "sweet bark." The word cinnamon appears to be derived from the Cingalese kakyn nama, "sweet wood," of which the Sanscrit is probably a translation. We are not, however, surprised at missing the Sanscrit word for this article, since the languages in Southern India have no affinity with the Sanscrit. Tin also appears to have been from early times an article of exportation from India. The Greek term for tin, kaoσírepoç (kassiteros), which, occurs even in Homer, is evidently the same as thinscrit kastira. It is usually considered that the G:ceks obtained their tin, by means of the Phoenicians, from the Scilly Islands or Cornwall; but there is no direct proof of this; and it appears probable, from the Sanscrit derivation of the word, that the Greeks on ginally obtained their tin from India.-The wester nations of Asia appear to have had no connexion wit India, except in the way of commerce, till the time of Darius Hystaspis, 521 B.C. The tales which Diodo

History of India from the earliest times to the Mohammedan Conquest.

imports. According to this account, the two princi- of the exports and imports of the Indian trade, which pal ports in India were Barygaza on the northwestern, are enumerated in the Digest, and in Arrian's "Periand Barace or Neleynda on the southwestern coast. plus of the Erythrean Sea."-We have no farther acTo Barygaza (the modern Baroach, on the river Ner-count of the trade between Alexandrea and India till budda) goods were brought from Ozene (Oujein), the time of the Emperor Justinian, during whose reign Plithana (Pultaneh), and Tagara (Deoghur). But Ba- an Alexandrean merchant of the name of Cosmas, who race or Nelcynda seems, from the account of Pliny had made several voyages to India, but who afterward and Arrian, to have been the principal emporium of turned monk, published a work, still extant, entitled the Indian trade. The Roman ships appear to have" Christian Topography," in which he gives us severseldom sailed beyond this point; and the produce of al particulars respecting the Indian trade. But his countries farther east was brought to Barace by the knowledge of India is not more extensive than that of native merchants. The knowledge which the Romans Arrian, for the Alexandrean merchants continued to possessed of India beyond Cape Comorin was exceed- visit merely the Malabar coast, to which the produce ingly vague and defective. Strabo describes the Gan- of the country farther east was brought by native merges as flowing into the sea by one mouth; and though chants, as in the time of Arrian. Alexandrea conPliny gives a long list of Indian nations, which had not tinued to supply the nations of Europe with Indian arbeen previously mentioned by any Greek or Roman ticles till the discovery of the passage round the Cape writers, we have no satisfactory account of any part of Good Hope by Vasco de Gama in 1498. But the of India, except the description of the western coast western nations of Asia were principally supplied by by Arrian. Ptolemy, who lived about 100 years later the merchants of Basora, which was founded by the than Pliny, appears to have derived his information Calif Omar near the mouth of the Euphrates, and which from the Alexandrean merchants, who only sailed to soon became one of the most flourishing commercial the Malabar coast, and could not, therefore, have any cities of the East. In addition to which it must be accurate knowledge of the eastern parts of India, and recollected, that a land-trade, conducted by means of still less of the countries beyond the Ganges; still, caravans, which passed through the central countries however, he is the earliest writer who attempts to de- of Asia, existed from very early times between India scribe the countries to the east of this stream. There and the western nations of Asia. (Encycl. Useful is great difficulty in determining the position of any Knowl., vol. 12, p. 222, seqq.). of the places enumerated by him, in consequence of the great error he made in the form of the peninsula, which he has made to stretch in its length from west to east instead of from north to south; a mistake the more extraordinary, since all preceding writers on India with whom we are acquainted had given the general shape of the peninsula with tolerable accuracy. The Romans never extended their conquests as far as India, nor visited the country except for the purposes of commerce. But the increase of the trade between Alexandrea and India seems to have produced in the Indian princes a desire to obtain some farther information concerning the western nations. We read of embassies to Augustus Cæsar, sent by Pandion and Porus, and also of an embassy from the isle of Ceylon to the Emperor Claudius. Bohlen, in his work on the Indians (vol. 1, p. 70), doubts whether these embassies were sent; but as they are both mentioned by contemporary writers, the former by Strabo and the latter by Pliny, we can hardly question the truth of their statements. We may form some idea of the magnitude of the Indian trade under the emperors by the account of Pliny (6, 23), who informs us, that the Roman world was drained every year of at least 50 millions of sesterces (upward of 1,900,000 dollars) for the purchase of Indian commodities. The profit upon this trade must have been immense, if we are to believe the statements of Pliny, that Indian articles were sold at Rome at 100 per cent. above their cost price. The articles imported by the Alexandrean merchants were chiefly precious stones, spices, perfumes, and silk. It has usually been considered, that the last article was imported into India from China; but there are strong reasons for believing that the silkworm has been reared in India from very early times. Mr. Colebrooke, in his "Essay on Hindu Classes" (Miscellaneous Essays, vol. 2, p. 185), informs us, that the class of silk-twisters and feeders of silkworms is mentioned in an ancient Sanscrit work; in addition to which, it may be remarked, that silk is known throughout the Archipelago by its Sanscrit name sûtra. (Marsden's Malay Dictionary, 8. v. sûtra.) Those who wish for farther information on the articles of commerce, both imported and exported by the Alexandrean merchants, may consult with advantage the Appendix to Dr. Vincent's "Periplus of the Erythrean Sea," in which he has given an alphabetical list, accompanied with many explanations,

The materials for the history of this period are very few and unsatisfactory. The only ancient history written in the Sanscrit language which the researches of modern scholars have been able to obtain, is a chronicle of the kings of Cashmere, entitled " Raja Taringini," of which an abstract was given by Abulfazl in the "Ayin-i-Akbery." The original Sanscrit was obtained for the first time by English scholars in the present century, and was published at Calcutta in the year 1835. An interesting account of the work is given by Professor Wilson, in the 15th volume of the "Asiatic Researches." But, though this volume throws considerable light upon the early history of Cashmere, it gives us little information respecting the early history of Hindustan. The existence of this chronicle, however, is sufficient to disprove the assertion which some persons have made, that the Hindus possessed no native history prior to the Mohammedan conquest; and it may be hoped that similar works may be obtained by the researches of modern scholars. We may also expect to obtain farther information by a more diligent examination of the various inscriptions which exist on public buildings in all parts of Hindustan, though the majority of such inscriptions relate to a period subsequent to the Mohammedan conquest. The Brahmins profess to give a history of the ancient kingdoms of Hindustan, with the names of the monarchs who successively reigned over them, and the principal events of their reigns. But their accounts are derived from the legendary tales of the Puranas, a class of compositions very similar to the Greek Theogonies; and although these, and especially the two great epic poems, the “Ramayana” and "Mahabharata," are exceedingly valuable for the information they give us respecting the religion, civilization, and customs of the ancient Hindus, they cannot be regarded as authorities for historical events.— The invariable tradition of the Hindus points to the northern parts of Hindustan as the original abode of their race, and of the Brahminical faith and laws. It appears probable, both from the tradition of the Hindus and from the similarity of the Sanscrit to the Zend, Greek, and Latin languages, that the nation from which the genuine Hindus are descended must at some period have inhabited the plains of Central Asia, froin