[613] This seems to be the Greek translation of the native name, meaning the place to which no bird can rise on account of its height. Cf. Strabo, xv. 1. This mountain was identified by Major Abbot, in 1854, as Mount Mahabunn, near the right bank of the Indus, about 60 miles above its confluence with the Cabul.
[614] Cf. Arrian, ii. 16 supra.
[615] Curtius (viii. 39) says that the river Indus washed the base of the rock, and that its shape resembled the meta or goal in a race-course, which was a stone shaped like a sugar-loaf. Arrian’s description is more likely to be correct as he took it from Ptolemy, one of Alexander’s generals.
[616] Near mount Mababunn are two places called Umb and Balimah, the one in the valley of the river and the other on the mountain above it. See Major Abbot’s Gradus ad Aornon.
[617] δαήμων, a poetical word. Cf. Homer (Odyssey, viii. 159).
[618] Probably Dyrta was at the point where the Indus issues from the Hindu-Koosh.
[619] Gronovius first introduced καὶ before τοὺς ψιλούς.
[620] The name Indus is derived from the Sanscrit appellation Sindhu, from a root Syandh, meaning to flow. The name Indians, or Sindians, was originally applied only to the dwellers on the banks of this river. Hindustan is a Persian word meaning the country of the Hindus or Sindus. Compare the modern Sinde, in the north-west of India, which contains the lower course of the Indus. In Hebrew India was called Hodu, which is a contraction of Hondu, another form of Hindu. See Esther i. 1; viii. 9. Krüger changed ὡδοποιεῖτο into ὡδοποίει.
[621] This city was probably on the site of Jelalabad.
[622] ἐπεί τε. This is the only place where Arrian uses this Ionic form for the simple ἐπεί.