Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/85

 ISSEDONES. filial jiii'ty by tlie practice of the Battns of Sumatra. It may be remarked that a similar story is told of the Indian Tadaei. (Herod, iii. 99.) I'omponius Mela (ii. 1. § 13) simply copies the statement of Herodotus, though he alters it so far as to assert that tiie Issedones used the skull as a drinking cup. The name occurs more than once in Pliny (iv. 26, vi. 7, 19) ; and Ptolemy, who has a town Issedon in Serica ('Itrcrr/Swi', vi. 16. § 7, viii. 24. § 5), men- tions in another place (viii. 24. § 3) the Scythian Issedon. (Comp. Steph. B. s. v.; Anim. Marc, sxiii. 6 § 66. Von Humboldt (Asie Centrale, vol. i. pp. 390 — 412) has shown that, if the relief of the countrie.s between the Don and the Irtysh be compared with the itinerary traced by Herodotus from the Thys- .sagetae to the Issedones, it will be seen that the Father of Hi>tory was acquainted with the e.xistence of vast plains separating the Ural and Altai, chains which modern geographers have been in the habit of uniting by an imaginary range passing through the steppe of the Kirghiz. This route (Ilerod. iv. 23, 24) recognises the passage of the Ural from W. to E., and indicates another chain more to the E. and more elevated — that of the ^//««. These chains, it is true, are not designated by any sjiceial names, but Herodotus was not acquainted even in Europe with the names of the Alps and Phipaean moun- tains ; and a comparison of the order in which the peoples are arranged, as well as the relief and de- scription of the countiy, shows that much definite information had been already attained. Advancing from the Pains JIaeotis, which was supposed to be of far larger dimensions than it really is, in a central direction towards the NE., the first people found occupying the plains are the " Black-clothed " Me- LANCHI-AENI, tlicn the BUDIXI, TllYSSAGETAE, the luitCAE (who have been falsely identified with the Turks), and finally, towards the E., a colony of Scythians, who had separated themselves from the " Koyal Scythians" (perhaps to barter gold and skins). Here tiie plains end, and the ground be- comes broken (AiSwStjs koX Tp-nx^v), rising into mountains, at the foot of which are the Ahgippaei, who have been identified from their long chins and flat noses with the Kalmucks or Mongolians by Niebuhr, Bockh, and others, to whom reference is made by Mr. Grote. (_Eist. of Greece, vol. iii. p. 320.) This identification has been disputed by Humboldt (comp. Cosmos, vol. i. p. 353 note. 440, vol. ii. p. 141 note, 202, trans.), who refers these tribes to the Finnish stock, assuming as a certain fact, on evi- dence which it is difficult to make out, that the ]Iongolians who lived around Lake Baikal did not move into Central Asia till the thirteenth century. Where the data are so few, for the language (the principle upon which the families of the human race are marked off) may be said to be unknown, ethno- graphic analogies become veiy hazardous, and the more so in the case of nomad tribes, the same under such wide differences of time and chmate. But if there be considerable difficulty in making out the analogy of race, the local bearings of these tribes may be laid down with tolerable certainty. The country up to the Argippaei was well known to the traders; a barrier of impassable mountains blocked up the way beyond. [Hvpep.borei.] The posi- tion of the Issedones, according to the indications of the route, must be assigned to the E. of Icldm in the steppe of the central horde of the Kirghiz, and that of the Arimaspi on the N. declivity of the ISSUS. C9 A Itu'i. The communication between the two peopl'Js for the purpose of carrying on tlie gold trade was probably made through the plains at the NW. ex- tremity of the Altai, where the range juts out in the form of a huge promontory. [E. B. J.] ISSICUS SINUS. [Issi'S.] ISSUS ("Icrcrds and 'Icrrroi, Xen. Anab. i. 2. § 24, and i. 4. § 1 ), a town of Cilicia, on the gulf of Issus ('lo-fTiKij Ki^ATros). Herodotus calls the gulf of Issus the gulf of Myriandros (iv. 38), from the town of ]Iyriandros, which was on it. The gulf of Issus is now named the gulf of Is- kendemn or Scanderoon, from the town of Scan- deroon, foi-merly Alexandria ad Issum, on the east side. It is the only large gulf on the southern side of Asia Jliiior and on the Syrian coast, and it is an important place in the systems of the Greek geo- graphers. This gulf runs in a NE. direction into the land to the distance of 47 miles, measured nearly at right angles to a line drawn from the promontory Jlegarsus (^Cupe Karadash), on theCilician coast, to the Rhosicus Scopulus (^Rds-el-Khdnzir, or llynzyr, as it has sometimes been written), on the Syrian coast ; for these two capes are respectively the Innits of the gulf on the west' and east, and 2.5 miles from one another. The width immediately norlli of the capes is somewhat less than 25 miles, but it docs not diminish much till we approach the northern extre- mity of the gulf. It seems certain that the ancient outlet of the Pyramus was west of and close to Cape Karadash, where Beaufort supposes it to have been ; and this is consistent with the old prophecy [Vol. I. p. 620], that the alluvium of the Pyramus would some time reach to the .shore of Cyprus; for if the river had entered the gulf where it does now, 23 miles further east, the prophecy would have been that it would fill up the gulf of Lssus. For the earth that the river formerly discharged into the sea is now sent into the gulf, where it " has pro- duced a jilain of sand along the side of the gulf, somewhat similar in shape, and equal in size, to that formed by the Ghiuk Sooi/oo [Calycadnt.s, Vol. I. p. 483] ; but the elbow where the current that sets round the gulf quits it, is obtuse and without any shoals. Perhaps the disappearance of the Ser- repolis of Ptolemy from the coast, may be accounted for by the progressive advance of the shore into the gulf, which has left the ruins of that town some miles inland" (Beaufort, Caramawm, p. 296). Pto- lemy's Serraepolis (SepfjaiVoAjs), which he calls a small place (/ccoycirj), is between Mallus, which is a little east of Cape IIegarsus, and Aegae or Ayaz. [Aegae.] The next city to Aegae on the coast is Issus, and this is the remotest city in this part of Cilicia which Ptolemy mentions. Xenophon also speaks of it as the last city of Cilicia on the ruad to Syria. The mountains which bound the gulf of Issus are described in the article Amanl'S. The bold lUiosicus Scopulus (5400 feet high), where the Syrian Amanus terminates on tlte coast, may be distinctly seen by the sailor when he is abreast of Seleuceia {Selefkeh), at the mouth of the Calycadnus, a distance of 85 geographical miles (Beaufort). A small stream flows into the head of the gulf of Issus, and a few from the Amanus enter the east side, one of which, the Pinarus, is the Deli Tsdiai ; and the other, the Carsus of Xenophon, is the Merkes. The Amanus which descends to the Phosicus Scopulus, and the other branch of the Amanus which shuts in the gulf of Issus on the s 3