ART. IV. De l'Origine asiatique de quelques unes des anciennes Tribus de l'Europe establies sur les rivages de la mer Baltique, surtont les SEC, SUEDI, SUIONES, ASI, YEUTS, JUTS, ou GETES-GOTHS, etc, etc, par le Major Todd, Membre de la Societe Asiatique de Londres, &c.*

SUCH is the title of a pretty long article in the number of the Journal Asiatique for May, 1827; and though composed in French, it appears from the use throughout of the first person, to have been written by Major Todd himself. That a member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain should avail himself of a foreign Journal for the purpose of communicating the result of his learned researches to the public, must seem extremely singular. But Major Todd has in this article effected such a complete bouleversement of philology, mythology, geography, chronology and history that he judged correctly in supposing that a Memoir written in the same manner would be totally unadapted for a place in the Society's Transactions. The expression of so severe an opinion, with respect to any attempt to elucidate the origin and affinity of nations might be liable to censure; were it not that the mere residence in India may give considerable weight to the opinions relative to Indian antiquities and history which an author may express. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance, that such persons in Europe as direct their attention to these subjects should not be led into erroneous conclusions by ignorance, misinformation, and crude hypothesis.

THE object of Major Todd is to prove that the Djits, as he writes the word, or the people commonly called Jauts in Hindustan are of the same origin as the various people of the north of Europe, whose names are placed at the head of this article. With respect, however, to the former, Hamilton has very justly observed, "The tribe of Jauts, for the first time, attracted notice in Hindustan, about the year 1700, when having migrated from the banks of the Indus, into the lower part of the province of Mooltan, they were allowed to settle in the avocations of industry in several parts of the Dooab of the Ganges and Jumna. Their subsequent progress was uncommonly rapid, and during the civil wars, carried on by the successors of Aurungzebe, the Jauts found means to secure themselves a large portion of country, in which they built forts, and accumulated great wealth. The title of Raja is a Hindu distinction, which some of them have assumed, but to which they have no more real right than their ancestors had to the contents of the imperial caravans, which they were in the habit of plundering."+ But Major

THE underlines, except of proper names, marks of admiration, &c. which occur in the passages quoted in the following remarks, are not contained in the original.

DESCRIPTION of Hindostan, Vol. 1. p. 389.

Todd states (it is necessary to quote the original in order to prevent all suspicion of any misinterpretation of the Major's meaning)"De Guignes parle d'une colonie des Yu-chi, yuti ou Djits (this last word is not used by de Guignes) comme ayant etabli un royaume dans l' Inde propre, au 5me siccle apres Jesus Christ, et je possede une inscription dans un caractere ancien qui fut apportè par cette race dans l'Inde (et qui est evidemment le meme qui est encore en usage avec la hierarchie du Thibet), un caractere que j'ai deconvert dans les regions les plus lointaines ou la religion Bouddique ou Djaina ait existé. Cette inscription rappelle la ponvoir d'un prince Djit, dont la capitale fut Sal-Intra-Poura ou Salpoura, et qu'une autre inscription qui raconte les conquetes du roi Kowerpal de Balhara dans le 12me siccle, prouve avoir eté, dans le Pendjab, ou les autorité's Chinoises (citées par de Guignes) ont fixé les etablissemens des Yu-chi. Les meilleures autorités du 11me et du 12me siccle sout toutes d'accord en assignant aux Djits ou Yuts un rang parmi les trente six races royales, les tribus guerrieres de l'Inde; et quoique le noble Radjpoot de Radjwara ne voulût pas meler son sang avec le leur, le prince le plus puis sant et le plus independent qu'il y a maintenant est pourtant un Djit, et regne a l'endroit même ou ses ancetres, les Yu-chi, s'etoient fixé's dans le 5me siccle."*

MAJOR TODD does not specify the best authorities which prove that the Jauts are Rajputs, and to establish a point of this kind it must be obvious that Indian and not Chinese testimony is regarded. But M. de Guignes has no where given the name of Djits to the Yu-chi, and on the contrary, he has distinctly stated in a very interesting Memoire on India' "Nous connoissons une revolution arrivée environ deux cents ans avant J. C. dans laquelle les Scythes commencérent par ravager le royaume que les Grees successeurs d'Alexandre, avoient etabli dans la Bactriane; entrérent ensuite dans l'Inde, et s'y etablirent; ce sont eux que l'on appelle les Indoscythes."+ In another place of the same Memoire, "Dans d'autres Memoires j'ai deja parlé de ces Scythe's, nommé's par les chinois Yue-chi, qui se sont emparés ensuite de tonte l'Inde septentrionale. Ainsi voila une invasion des Scythes qui a due changer l'etat du pays, puisaqu' ils s'y sont maintenus."" ce fut vers l'an 162 avant J. C. qu'ils quitterent les environs de la Chine."t

THIS is explained in another passage as follows: "Rundjit Sing, prince de Lahore, et toute sa tribu, sont des Djits, quoique leur titre se perde dans relui de Sikh on disciple (de Nanek), L'ancienne capitale des Yu-chi pres de Lahor se trouvera etre celle des Djits modernes."

+ MEMOIRES de l'Academie des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres, Tom. 45. p. 156.

IBID, p. 199.

THIS is not the place to enter into an examination of the correctness of these statements, nor is it necessary, as they are merely adduced in order to shew that M. de Guignes does not support Major Todd's assertion that the Jauts had established a Kingdom in India in the fifth century after the Christian Era. But the manner in which the Djits of India and the Juts of the Baltic are identified with each other, is still more singular. For Major Todd states, "Le grande irruption des fils de Togarmah, de l'Asie centrale, de l'Oxus et du Jaxarte, le pays de grands Gete, est mentionée de même par le prophète Ezechiel et Herodote, environ 700 ans avant J. C. quand les rois bergers envahirent l'Asie Mineure et l'Egypte, et possédèrent la Syrie et les côtes. orientales de la Mediterranie, pendant trente ans, avant leur expulsion par le monarque egyptien." This is a perfectly new version of ancient his tory, for Major Todd must evidently intend by les rois bergers the Hyesos of Josephus, and no author has ever thought of bringing them from the banks of the Jaxartes, or ascribing to them the possession of Asia Minor, Syria, and the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean. They were, also, expelled from Egypt in 1806 B. C., and, consequently, they could not be the Scythians whose irruption. Herodotus describes, and which took place at least eleven hundred years afterwards.

BUT this strange anachronism does not impede the progress of Major Todd, who thus proceeds, "Que devinrent donc ces bergers tartares, ces Galates? l'histoire n'en dit rien, mais voila tres probablement la souche de la nation getique de Thrace et de Daice, qui, dans la suite se multipliant, atteignit enfin les rivages de la mer Baltique." According, therefore, to his own shewing, the ancestors of the Sec, Suevi, Suiones, Yeutan, Yeut, Jut, Geta on Goth, les Catti Hermanduri, and Sacimbri had established themselves in Dacia and Thrace eighteen hundred years before the Christian era, and the Jauts did not found a Kingdom in Hindustan until four hundred years after that era. Of this insuperable objection, however, to his hypothesis, Major Todd does not seem to have been aware; for he has not attempted to identify, by any regular process, the Yu-chi, Yuti, or Djits with les rois bergers!

ANOTHER rectification of ancient history will show how well qualified Major Todd is for tracing the origin and affinity of the people of antiquity. For he remarks, "Herodote ecrit ce nom (Sakatai) Getæ, les ecrivains asiatiques Djits, les Chinois Yu-chi, prononcé (selon l'autorité d'un ecrivain distinngué M. Klaproth) Yu-ti. Ils bouleversérent le royaume Grec de la Bactriane 250 ans avant J. C., et ils aidérent le fondateur de l'empire des Parthes

[CAN grands Getæ be intended as a translation of Massageta? for it was this last people, and not the Geta, who were settled on the Jaxartes.]

a etablir la race des Arsacido. Leurs combats avec la reine (regente seulement) Tomyris, avec Cyrus"" sont des faits bien connus des amateurs de l'histoire ancienne." But according to the generally received system of Chronology, Arsaces founded the Parthian empire in 256 B. C.; the Bactrian Kingdom endured until 130 B. C.; and Cyrus was put to death 580 B. C.; and, notwithstanding these wide intervals of time, the very same Djits were the principal actors in these occurrences!!

BUT should Major Todd appear to be no very safe guide in chronological and historical matters, he may perhaps succeed better in supporting his hypothesis by the assistance of etymology and mythology. Unfortunately, however, this note very soon presents itself: C'est apparemment du Saca Dwipa qu'est venu le mot Seythie, et de la les Tartares ont formé par corruption Tchagaitai, qui est la race des monarques mongols de l'Inde. Le Timur chef de cette race, n'etait qu'un serviteur de grand Khan Toglauk Timur, de la nation Gete on Yut." But if the Tartars understood or spoke Sanscrit, which is denied by Sir W. Jones, why should they corrupt a Sanscrit word, and if they did not, how did they become acquainted with the term Saka Dwipa? In the text also Major Todd asks a question in so peremptory a manner, that it may star tle a philologist, even M. Abel-Remusat himself, "Pourrait-il exister (says Major Todd) une donte raisonable que ce mume Sakatai, est la Seythic des anciens? quand ses habitans, les Geto-Sac de l'Araxe adoroient le soleil et son symbol le cheval (hi-hiwot en Sanscrit), qu'ils lui sacrifiaient dans le grande fete du solstice d'hiver"" Ainsi, quand les Getes ou Yuts emigrerent pour la Scandinavie, ils y parterent leur grande fete, et le hi-el"

"Ce hi-el de Jaxarte devint le hi-ul (jul) des rives de la Baltique." La derivation de la langue Grecque du Sanscrit, mettrait ceux qui s'occupent de la recherche des etymologies, en etat de tirer (de la derniere de ces langues) celle de mot hi-el. C'est de la que vient hippos et helios, tandis que nous tenons de mot hy-wot, horsa en saxon, et horse en anglais"!! But Wilson's Sanscrit Dictionary is as adverse to this hyhothesis as chronology and history, for there are no such words in Sanscrit as hi, hi-wot, and el; even if it could be conceived how hippos could be derived from hi-el and horse from hi-wot. Major Todd farther thinks that Kim·bri (Cimbri) may be derived from Kumara, the Hindu god of battle, because Ku signifies beautiful, and mara_from_marna to strike. From this etymology it is evident that Major Todd must be unacquainted with Sanscrit, as Kumara is not a compound

* [MAJOR TODD does not mention the language to which this term Sącatai belongs, and it is not used by Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus or Strabo.]

+ MAJOR TODD observes in a note-"Hi-el (cheval de soleil) quoique la premiere partie de ce mot soit Sanscrite, la dernière n'est pus d'ane usage or dinaire."

term, and Ku signifies not good but bad. But it may be justly thought that if an hypothesis is to be supported by Sanscrit etymologies, a knowledge of that language must be an indispensable requisite.

If, however, neither etymology, chronology, nor history can be compelled to attest the original affinity between the Jauts, and the people of Northern Europe, their identity may be evinced by a striking resemblance in their mythological systems. But in order to demonstrate the slightest similarity between them, Major Todd is obliged to advance this opinion. "Il y a long tems que je pense que le systeme religieux du Bouddhisme ou du Djainisme (pour inventer un mot) tire son origine de la Tartarie Scythique, et que de la il fut importé dans l'Inde, tandis que, selon l' idee generale, il serait né dans l' Inde. Je pense egalement depuis long tems, et cette opinion est celle des sectaires eux memes, que les religions des Bouddhistes et des Djainas sont la meme chose." That any person should hazard such an opinion after the publication of M. Abel-Remusat's very learned work sur les Langues Tartares must appear extremely singular. For he has in it most fully demonstrated the justness of this conclusion-"L' opinion qui placeroit en Tartarie le berceau du genre humain avec le peuple primitif, ou ses descendans immediats, ou la patrie des inventeurs des sciences, de l'astronomie, des alphabets de l'Asie, ou meme l'origine des doctrines de l' Hindoustan, de Bouddhah, on des Hindous euxmemes, ou des Chinois; cette opinion, non scule, ment ne repose sur aucun fait positif, mais elle se trouve, a la bien examiner, entierement irreconciliable avec les observations philologiques, et les traditions historiques de toutes les nations de l'Asie, a commencer par les Tartares eux-memes."+ It is equally surprising that after all which has been written upon the subject, any person should consider the Buddhist and Jain religion to be the same; and it would require strong evidence to controvert this most probable conclusion of Mr. Erskine; who has remarked, "upon the whole, until some proof is discovered of the existence of a Buddhist religion older than Gautama, or existing more than five hundred and forty years before Christ, I should be disposed to adopt the era as the origin of the sect, and to suppose the religion of the Brahmins to be older, and that of the Jains more modern than that date."I

It must be hence evident that it cannot have been from a Scythian Buddha that the fourth day of the week derived its name

• In another place Major Todd speaks of the boul-dan ou l'offrande du taureau; but, (though boul or rather bull is a very good English word, it is not a Sanscrit one, and dan does not signify a sacrifice. He has confounded it with the Bali dan Presentation of offerings, usually victims, to the spirits of earth and air, and to certain deities.

RECHERCHES Sur les Langues Tartares, p. 395. t TRANS. Bombay Lit. Soc. Vol. 3. P. 502.