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0165 Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1
Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1 / Page 165 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000196
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set of languages, with a new blood on the soil of their conquests there. Whilst
to the south and east the Indian peninsula similarly in its language, religion, and
feudalism bears testimony to the earlier and as complete transplantation of the
ancient Scythian element in that direction. Between these two great waves of
migration are the Persians.
Their historians romance on the theme of the wars of the early sovereigns of
Iran against the incursions of those kindred races, the terrible Scythians of Túrán.
Their poets sing the heroic combats and deeds of valour of their champions against
this northern tyrant, and tell of his final repulse beyond the Oxus, the limit between
the two empires.
The power of the Scythians in their native seat appears to have been first broken
by their western neighbours and old enemies of Irán, and finally extinguished
by the Macedonian conquest.
M.P. Syáwush, about 580 B.C., fleeing from his father, Kaikáos, crossed the Jyhon
and sought refuge with the enemy of his family, Afrásyáb, whose capital—near
N. the site of the modern Bukhárá—was Rámetan, not very long afterwards celebrated
M.P. for its magnificent átashkadah or "fire temple." The Scythian King received the
Persian refugee with kindness and, granting him an honorable asylum, gave him his
daughter, the beautiful Farangis, in marriage, with the provinces of Khutan and
Chín as her dowry. Thither Syáwush retired with his bride, and settling at
Kung—probably Katak, the ruins of which now exist near Lob at 12 or 14 days
journey north-east of Khutan—made it the capital of his government of Khutan and
Chín, or as it is usually styled Máchin which, together, comprised the southern and
eastern portion of the great basin known as Eastern Turkistan.