Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/20



ancient history of this region is enveloped in considerable obscurity, but such glimpses as we are able to get at it through the stories of travellers, and the more or less fabulous tales of Mohammedan and other writers, are not without interest. For several centuries anterior to the Christian era it formed part of the empire of Turan, swayed by a long line of Scythian kings, who are referred to a common descent from the great family of Afrasyab.

The power of the Scythians appears to have been first broken by their western neighbours of Iran, and finally extinguished by the Macedonian conquest.

Syawush, about 580 B.C., fleeing from his father Kaikaos, crossed the Jyhoon, and sought refuge with the enemy of his family Afrasyab, who received him with kindness, and granted him an honourable asylum, and gave him his daughter, the beautiful Farangis, in marriage, with the provinces of Khoten and Chin as her dowry. Thither B