[378] This was the collective name of several peoples dwelling on the southern slopes of the Hindoo Koosh, and of the country which they inhabited, which was not known by any other name. It corresponded to the eastern part of modern Afghanistan and the portion of the Punjaub lying to the west of the Indus.
[379] It is supposed that the Cophes is represented by the modern river of Kabul.
[380] The place here alluded to was in the district of Goryæa, at the north-western corner of the Punjaub, near the confluence of the rivers Cophen and Choaspes, being probably the same place as Nagara or Dionysopolis, the modern Nagar or Naggar.
[381] The word μήρος, in Greek, signifying a “thigh.”
[382] Supposed by some to have been Lower Scinde, and the vicinity of Kurrachee, with its capital Potala.
[383] Ansart suggests that these may be the Laccadives. Their name means the “gold” and “silver” islands.
[384] Probably an island near the mouths of the Indus.
[385] Probably the same as the Bibacta of Arrian. The present name of it is Chilney Isle.
[386] Although Poinsinet will not admit its identity, it is now universally agreed among the learned that the island of Taprobana is the modern Ceylon. As Gosselin observes, in the accounts said to have been given of Ceylon by the ambassadors to Claudius, great allowance must be made for the wrong interpretation which, owing to their ignorance of the language, the Romans must have given to much of their narrative.
[387] From ἀντὶ, “opposite,” and χθών, “the earth.” Its people being supposed to be the antipodes of those of Europe.