desolate and unproductive, became fertile and full of gardens. The lands thus restored to cultivation, the conqueror apportioned among sundry of his followers. The canal of Mahígír exists at this day, with the same name it received in the time of Timúr. A considerable village, about one mile west of Beghrám, has a similar appellation. This canal, derived from the river of Ghorband, at the point where it issues from the hills into the level country, irrigates the lands of Bayan and Mahigir, and has a course of about ten miles. Had the city of Beghram then existed, these lands immediately to the west of it would not have been waste and neglected, neither would Timúr have found it necessary to cut his canal, as the city when existing must have been supplied with water from the same source-that is, from the river of Ghorband; and from the same point-that is, at its exit from the hills into the level country; and the canals supplying the city must have been directed through these very lands of Bayán and Mahígír, which Timúr found waste and desolate. The courses of the ancient canals of Beghrám are now very evident, from the parallel lines of embankments still to be traced. The site of Beghrám has, to the north, the river formed by the junction of the Ghorband and Panjshir streams; and to the south, the river of Koh Damán; but neither of these rivers are applicable to the irrigation of the circumjacent soil, the former flowing in low lands, perhaps one hundred and fifty feet below the level of the plain, and the latter scantily furnished with water flowing in a sunken bed. It may be further noted, with reference to Timúr's colonization of Mahígír, that the inhabitants of the district of Khwajah Keddrí, while forgetful as to whom their forefathers owed their settlement in this country, acknowledge their Turkí descent, and alone, of all the inhabitants of the Kohistan, speak the Turki language. We might expect to detect a notice of Beghram in the Arabian records of the early Khalífs, in the histories of the Ghaznavi emperors, and in those of Genghiz Khán.

That Beghram was once a capital city, is evidenced by its Tope, a sepulchral monument of departed royalty; while a second, situated in Tope Darah, about nine miles west, may probably be referred to it, as may perhaps a third found at 'Alísahí, at the gorge of the valley of Nijrow, distant about twelve miles east. The appellation Beghram must also be considered indicative of the pre-eminence of the city it characterizes; undoubtedly signifying the chief city or metropolis. About three miles east of Kábul, we have a village and extensive pasture retaining this name, which indicates the site of the capital in which Kadphises and his lineage ruled, and whose topes we behold on the skirts of the neighbouring hills. Near Jalálábád, a spot called Beghrám, about a mile and a half west of the present town, denotes the site of the ancient Nysa; or, if the position of that city admit of controversy, of Nagara, its successor in rank and consequence. Near Peshawar we have a spot called Beghrám, pointing out the site of the original city; and that this epithet of eminence and distinction was continued, up to a recent date, to the city of Peshawar, we learn from Baber and Abú-'l-Fazl.

We have indications in the Kohistán of Kábul of two other ancient cities, which were undoubtedly considerable ones, but which we cannot suppose to have rivalled Beghrám in extent or importance. The principal of these is found in Perwan, about eight miles N., nineteen W., of Beghrám, and consequently that distance nearer to the grand range of Caucasus, under whose inferior hills it is in fact situated. The second is found at Korahtass, a little east of the famed hill; and Zíárat Khwajah, Raig Rawan, distant from Beghrám about six miles N., forty-eight E. There are also many other spots in various parts of the Kohistan which exhibit sufficient evidences of their ancient population and importance; but these must be considered to

have been towns, not cities. In the valley of Panjshir we have more considerable indications, and we are enabled to identify three very extensive sites of ancient cities; but which, from the character of the country, and the limited extent of its resources, we can hardly suppose to have flourished at the same epoch. In the Koh Damán of Kabul, or the country intervening between that city and the Kohistan, we discover two very important sites, which unquestionably refer to once capital cities; both occur in a direct line from Beghrám to Kábul, under the low hill ranges which bound Koh Damán to the east, and contiguously also east to the river of Koh Damán; the first commences about eight miles from Beghrám, and is known by the name of TartrungZar; the second is about the same distance farther on, and has no particular name, but is east of the seignorial castles of Luchú Khán and the village of Korinder; at this site we find a topo, an indubitable evidence of royalty; and connected with it is a stupendous artificial mound on the west bank of the river, constructed with elaborate care: the base appears originally to have been surrounded with a magnificent trench, supplied by the stream with water. Here, no doubt, was some important structure, a palace or citadel. At this day the summit is crowned with dilapidated mud walls of modern construction, and the spot is known by the name of Killah Rajput. In the district of Ghorband, west of the great hill range, which, radiating from the Hindú Kosh, or Caucasus, forms the western boundary of Koh Damán, we have very many important vestiges of antiquity, both in the principal valley and in its dependencies, particularly in one of them named Fendúkistán; we have reasons to believe that coins are found there in considerable numbers, and that there are some interesting mounds; but as we have not seen this spot, we refrain from speculating upon its character.

We have thus enumerated the principal ancient sites of cities in Koh Damán and Kohistan, both as shewing the former importance and illustrating the capabilities of these fine countries, and as exhibiting the fluctuations, in ancient times, of the seat of royalty in them. Beghrám, Perwán, Tartrung-Zar, and Killah Rajput have no doubt in succession been the abodes of sovereigns, as have most probably Panjshir and Korahtás. Our minuteness may moreover be excused, because in this part of the country we expect to detect the site of Alexandria ad Caucasum or Ad calcem Caucasi. It may be remarked, with reference to the sites of Beghrám and Perwán, that the former is called by the Hindús of the country ‘Balarám,' and is asserted by them to have been the residence of Rája Bal; the latter they call Milwán, and assert to have been the capital of Rája Milwán. Milwán may be a Hindú appellation, but it has been also assumed by Muhammadans.

It had been my intention this year to have secured every coin of every description that should be picked up from the dasht of Beghrám, and this purpose would probably have been effected, had I not been compelled to be absent at Jalálábád. A young man was however despatched thither, with recommendatory letters to my friends in the Kohistan, and to him was confided the collection of all he might be able to procure. On my eventually reaching Kábul, the young man joined with 1320 coins, from the appearance of which it was evident he had selected, and not, as ordered, taken all that were offered. It also appeared, that in consequence of the distracted political state of the Kohistan in the spring, the Afghán pastoral families had not as usual visited the plains of Beghrám at an early season. In the autumn, moreover, from apprehensions of a rising in this part of the country, the Afgháns sent their flocks to the Safi hills, the persons tending which are the principal finders of these coins. Under these unfavourable circumstances, I twice repaired to Beghrám, and at various intervals despatched my young men, and the total result of our collection this

year was five silver and 1900 copper coins. These are, of course, generally of the same description and types as those previously referred to (p. 80) . . . My stay at Jalálábád was, during the season of the year, unfavourable for the collection of coins; yet, independently of those extracted from topes, were procured 248 copper coins, among which two or three are novel ones, to be noted in their place.

Subsequent to my arrival in Kábul, I purchased in the bázár there, six gold, 176 silver, and 142 copper coins: some of these are important ones. I had also the fortune to secure a large parcel of silver Bactrians, a deposit discovered in the Hazárehját: among these are coins of a type likely to excite some interest. . . .

The coins of Eucratides I., so numerously found at Beghrám, are not to be discovered at Jalálábád any more than those of Apollodotus and Menander, considering always a single specimen no evidence that coins of that species were once current there, but rather that they were not.

It may be noted that these two coins of Demetrius, the only ones, we believe, hitherto discovered,' have been elicited at Bukhárá. Among the coins obtained by M. Honigberger at Bukhara, and which he thought worthy of enumeration, probably as being both Greek and silver ones, are transcribed in his memorandum,

1 Vasileos Antiochu.

1 Vasileos Dimitriu.

1 Vasileos Megalu Hiokraksu.

3 Vasileos Euthidimu.

5 Eucratides.

I have mentioned the discovery of a parcel of Bactrian drachmas and hemidrachmas in the Hazárahját, which we purchased from a Hindú at Charrakár, who some three years since received them from a Hazárah. I have not yet been able to ascertain the spot, or under what circumstances these coins were found. The parcel, 120 in number, comprised seven quadrangular silver coins of Apollodotus, 108 silver coins of Menander, and five silver coins of Antimachus. The day preceding that on which this parcel of coins came into my possession, I received from the dashts of Beghrám, a silver coin of the last-named prince, Antimachus. The beauty of the coins of Antimachus, the excellence of their execution and designs, with the purity of the Greek characters of the legend, allow us not to place this prince subsequent to Eucratides, whose coins in these particulars they surpass. Among 5000 or more copper coins, procured from the dasht of Beghrám, we have not discovered one of Antimachus; and the detection of a single silver coin does not seem to afford evidence that he ruled there, when the absence of his copper coins seemed to prove that he did not.

EXTRACTS FROM THE 'THIRD MEMOIR ON THE ANCIENT COINS DISCOVERED AT THE SITE CALLED BEGHRAM, IN THE KOHISTAN OF KABUL. BY C. MASSON.'

Two notices on the site of Beghrám, and of the nature of the coins found at it, have already been given. The collection of its antique treasures having been continued for three successive seasons, the results may be worthy of being presented in one view, both for exhibiting the exact state of discovery up to this time, and for

1 There is a beautiful little Demetrius in the Ventura collection; see vol. iv.— J.P.

providing data on which to found inferences or to hazard conjectures on the curious and intricate subject of Bactrian history and antiquities.

It is not the object of this memoir to convey a full account of the present state of knowledge on these and other points, upon which, in truth, light is only beginning to dawn; but simply to narrate the fruits of our own labors, happy if they prove useful to those who, with superior advantages, and when sufficient materials are collected, will, no doubt, favor the world with some important work. We have, therefore, only to descant upon the coins found at Behgrám, and such, allied or connected with them, which may have been procured by ourselves in Afghánistán; and refrain, in the same spirit, from the delineation of any coins not actually found by us; and if such are alluded to, it is from necessity, and to direct attention to them.

The site of Beghrám, whatever its original name may have been, and whoever may have been its founder, yields evidence, from the coins found at it, of its existence as a city, which must, at least, have flourished from the epoch of Euthydemus, the king of Bactria, to that of the Muhammadan Khalifs-or for a period of nine hundred years. We have speculated on the probability of its pointing out the situation of Alexandria ad Caucasum, or Ad calcem Caucasi, and see no reason to change the opinion, viz., that the honor of being considered such, must be assigned to it, or to Níláb of Ghorband. The detection of a coin of one of the Antiochi may prove that it flourished prior to the age of Euthydemus, as it undoubtedly will have done; and certain Hindú Bráhmanical coins1 described as Class Brahmanical, may, perhaps, verify that it existed subsequently to the Muhammadan Khalífs, or to the duration of their sway in Afghánistán,-at all events, it would appear to have been destroyed, in whatever manner, before the era when coins with Persian legends became current in these regions; as our aggregate collection of nearly seven thousand coins from its site has not been contaminated with a single Persian coin, unless fig. 9 of the just noted Hindú series have a Persian legend, which may seem to intimate that the city's extinction was about the period of the introduction of the language, which may have been contemporaneous with the rise of the Muhammadan sovereignty of Ghazní. The coins of its princes have Persian legends, to prove which, we have inserted a silver coin of the celebrated Sultan Mahmúd: none of his coins or of his father, Sabaktagín, have been found at Beghrám, where those of the Khalifs so numerously occur.

Although Beghrám, inferring from the presence of topes or sepulchral monuments on its site and in its vicinity, may be supposed at some period to have been a capital, which its name testifies, it will generally have been only a provincial capital; and this is worthy of note, because there may be reason to suspect that many of the former rulers in these countries, particularly the Greek-Bactrian princes, had distinct provincial coinages. Certain coins of Apollodotus, Antilakides, Ermaios, and Eucratides seem to countenance the suspicion.

It is presumed that coins constantly found, and in number, on any known spot, afford proofs of their having once been current there, and that the princes whom they commemorate, whether as paramount or tributary sovereigns, held also authority at that spot. The numbers in which coins may be found, may, perhaps, furnish a criterion upon which we may calculate,-first, generally, the duration of the dynasties denoted by the various types of coins; and next, particularly, that of the reign of each individual prince. A collection of one year would not furnish this criterion; a

1 Of the Rajput, or 'bull and horseman' group.-J.P.

collection of many years might,— -a statement is therefore annexed of the numbers in which the several descriptions of coins found at Beghrám have, during three years, been obtained;--and if it be seen that they are found annually in due numerical proportion, it may be of service in our speculations, assisted by the coins themselves. Indeed, of the recorded kings of Bactria, the coins are found in just the numbers we might expect, and confirm what we know as to the length of their reigns; and in some other instances of unrecorded princes, their coins and the frequency or rarity of their occurrence corroborate the conjectures as to the extent of their reigns, which other accidental discoveries seem to authorise.

The coins of Beghrám fortunately admit of ready classification, and may be reduced to five grand classes-I. Greek-Bactrian; II. Indo-Scythic or Mithraic; III. Ancient Persian, whether Parthian or Sassanian; IV. Hindú or Bráhmanical; V. Kufic or Muhammadan. The last class may chronologically be entitled to stand before its predecessor, the Brahmanical one.

ENUMERATION OF COINS COLLECTED FROM BEGHRÁM DURING THE YEARS 1833, 1834, AND 1835.

1 It is a very remarkable circumstance that none of the coins of Azos, which were so numerous in the Ventura collection from the Panjab, should have been met with at Beghrám.-J.P.