Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/130

said also that the S i b a e were descended from those who accompanied HSrakles on his expedi- tion, and that they preserved badges of their de- scent, for they wore skins like H^rakles, and car- ried clubs, and branded the mark of a cudgel on their oxen and mules.f In support of this story they turn to account the legends regarding Kau- kasos and Prometheus by transferring them hither from Pontos, which they did on the slight pretext that they had seen a sacred cave among the Paropamisadae. This they declared was the prison of Prometheus, whither Hera- kles had come to effect his deliverance, and that this was the Kaukasos, to which the Greeks represent Prometheus as having been bound. J Ohind, which he takes to be the Embolima of the ancients. " RA^lgat," he says, " or the Qneen's rock, is a large upright block on the north edge of the fort, on which B&ja V a r a's rM is said to have seated herself daily. The fort itself is attributed to B^a Vara, and some ruins at the foot of the hill are called B&ja Yara's stables ... I think, therefore, that the hill-fort of Aomos most probably derived its name from Btna Yara, and that the ruined fortress of B&^igat has a better claim to be identified with the Aomos of Alexander than either the Mah&ban hill of Gren- eral Abbott, or the castle of B^a Hodi jiroposed by Greneral Court and Mr. Loewenthal." See Grote's History of India, vol. YIII. pp. 487-8, footnote. t According to Curtius, the Sibae, whom he calls Sobii, occupied the country between the Hydasp^s and the Ake- sinds. They may have derived their name from the god 6vn,. t "No writer before Alexander's time mentions the Indian gods. The Makedonians, when they came into India, in accordance with the invariable practice of the Greeks, considered the gods of the country to be the same as their own. ^iva they were led to identify with Bacchus on their observing the unbridled license and somewhat Bacchic fashion of his worship, and because they traced