Masson ('Jour. As. Soc. Beng.,' v., 711, and 'Ariana Antiqua,' xvi., 18, 19, 20,) refers them to the Kaiáníán dynasty of Persian historians, to whom he would also attribute the Bámíán antiquities. He cannot of course here allude to the early branch, which includes Cyrus, Cambyses and Darius Hystaspes, for it is very evident that the coins before us cannot equal, much less surpass, in antiquity the celebrated Daric archers of Spartan notoriety. He must rather speak of their far descendants, to whom the present independent chiefs of Saístan still proudly trace their origin. This race, under the name of Tajik, claims proprietary right to the soil, though encroached upon by the Afgháns on all sides; and at Bámían they are found inhabiting the very caves and temples constructed by their infidel progenitors.

As to the probable date of these coins, then, little more can be conjectured than that they were contemporaneous with the Sassanian dynasty in Persia, viz., between the third and sixth centuries. Their frequent discovery in the Panjáb topes, accompanied by the Indo-Scythics having Greek legends, should give them a claim to the earlier period; but, as far as the fire-worship is concerned, we learn from Price's Muhammadan history, that 'as late as the reign of Masa'úd, son of Sultán Mahmud of Ghazní (A.D. 1034), a race, supposed to be the remnant of the ancient Persian stock, submitted to his arms,' who had doubtless maintained their national faith to that time unchanged.

The intimate relation between the worshippers of Mithra and the followers of the Vedas, is established by the affinity of the language in which the books of

Zoroaster is recorded, with the Sanskrit. The learned restorer of this ancient text, indeed, cites some reasons for giving priority to the Zend as a language, and he finds many occasions of interpreting the verbal obscurities of the Vedas from analogies in the latter. I cannot refrain in this place from noticing-in allusion to Masson's location of the Kaiáníans-a passage in Burnouf's most elaborate' Commentaire sur le Yaçna,' just received from Paris, bearing upon this point, and leading to the unexpected conclusion that the Kaiáníans of Persia, and the Súrya-vansas of India, are the same, or have a common origin; the word kai-prefixed to so many names (as Kai-umar, Kai-kubád, Kai-kaous, Kai-khusrau, etc.)— having the same signification as the Sanskrit afa kavi, 'the Sun.' Against such a hypothesis, however, M. Burnouf confesses that the Gujarátí translator of the 'Yaçna,' Neriosingha, renders the word kai simply by the Sanskrit equivalent for 'king.' I give the passage at length, as of first importance in a discussion on a mixed Indo-Sassanian coinage:—

'Je n'ai pu, jusqu'à présent, determiner si les Kaïaniens, ou les rois dont le nom est precédé de ké (en Zend, kavi), sont les rois soleil ou des rois descendant du soleil: en d'autres termes, si le titre de soleil a été joint au nom du chacun de ces rois, uniquement pour indiquer la splendure de leur puissance; ou bien, si le chef le cette dynastie a passé pour descendre du soleil, et s'il a laissé ce titre à ses successeurs, comme cela a eu lieu dans l'Inde pour les 'Suryavança.' Je ne veux pas ajouter une hypothèse étymologique aux traditions fabuleuses, dont les Parses ont mélé l'histoire de ces rois; mais il serait intéressant de retrouver la forme Zende du nom du premier des Kaïaniens, de Kobâd, nom dans lequel on decouvrirait, peut-être, le mot kavi (nom. kavá et kava), 'soleil.' Si Kobâd' pouvait signifier le soleil' ou fils du soleil,' la question que nous posions tout-à-l'heure serait resolue, et les autres Kaïaniens n'auraient reçu le titre de kavi (ké) que parceque la tradition