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44 S ECTION III.—''On the Hills and Rivers of Hindustán and Súdán (sic), which according to Abú Ríhán extend twelve thousand parasangs.'' Philosophers and Geometricians have divided the land of Hind into nine unequal parts, giving to each part a separate name, as appears from the book called Bátankal. Its shape resembles the back of a crab on the surface of the water. The mountains and plains in these nine parts of India are extensive, and occur one after the other in successive order. The mountains appear to stand near each other, like the joints of the spine, and extend through the inhabited world from the east to the midst of the west, i.e., from the beginning of China through Tibet, and the country of the Turks, to Kábul, Badakhshán, Tukháristán, Bámián, Ghúr, Khurásán, Gílán, A′zarbáíján, Armenia, Rúm, to the country of the Franks and Galicia on the west. In their course they spread out widely from the deserts and inhabited places; of that part. Rivers flow at their base. One which comes from the south from India is very large and