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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
During the latter part of 1876, I travelled along the Makrān coast from Gwādar to Jāsk, and as it appeared to me that the identifications of the various places on this coast mentioned by Arrian as having been touched at by Alexander's Admiral Nearchus, and others, mentioned by Ptolemy and Marcian, had not, up to the present time, been satisfactorily established by Dr. Vincent, Otter, Kempthorne, Müller, or, indeed, by any one who has touched on the subject, I collected all the names of places along the coast I could, and made notes regarding its physical aspect, in the hope of finding some traces of the spots mentioned by the geographers above alluded to, and which might be sufficient to fix their positions with somewhat more certainty.
page 129 note 1 “Final “t”is constantly dropped in Balôchee.
page 130 note 1 What is marked on the charts as the Kenj (properly “Kênzh” =blown sand) river, and with which Dr. Vincent identifies the Kandriakes of Marcian and the Tālmena of Arrian, is only a creek up which the sea runs for about a mile during the monsoon, and is at other times dry, with a natural “band” of sand thrown up by the sea and wind across its mouth (hence its name). Its depth never exceeds a few feet.
page 131 note 1 “Bag” means a “herd of camels;” Bagān is simply the plural. Bagee kôh or Bagānee kôh = hill of camel herds.
page 131 note 2 “Bandin” = harbour in Balôchee.
page 132 note 1 I found an Arsacíde silver coin in the ruins of one of the best-preserved of these cities, which might place the probable date of its occupation some 150 years B.C.
page 132 note 2 I may mention that this hill is full of “springs” (“zow” or “zei”), and may possibly have been called Koh-i-zei = “the hill of springs,” or Kuidza.
page 134 note 1 Final “d” is often dropped in Balôchee.
page 134 note 2 “p” and “f” are interchangeable in Balôchee, and the transition sound of “pf” is also met with, and his Tery name is pronounced Pasa and Fasa and Pfasa.
page 135 note 1 It is hardly necessary to say that “d” and “t,” “g” and “k,” “f” and “p,” often change into each other.
page 135 note 2 It is hardly necessary to say that “d” and “t,” “g” and “k,” “f” and “p,” often change into each other.
page 135 note 3 It is hardly necessary to say that “d” and “t,” “g” and “k,” “f” and “p,” often change into each other.
page 138 note 1 Dr. Vincent in a note states that the modern name of this point is “Bagia.” This statement is incorrect; neither the point, nor any place near it, bears that name, or anything approaching it. His information was probably derived from the same authority by which he calls Rohām point, on the opposite side of the bay, Noa point. Noa (properly “Now”) is the eastern extremity of the Gwādar headland (vide map).
page 147 note 1 The old bed of the Keer river, and which is the one in which it now runs, is that here alluded to, and shown in the map. Some 50 years ago it cut for itself another channel, and fell into the sea to the east of Rashadee, but does not run there now.
page 147 note 2 I may here note, that into the Geetô (quite a modern name) river there flows a stream from the hills called the Hasār, which might possibly be the Sārus of Ptolemy, and the old name of the Geetô.
page 148 note 1 The Greek name for Balôchistān=country of the Balôch was Gadrôsia = country of the Gadrôs, and I am inclined to think that Balôch and Gadrôs are the same word. “Day” in Balôchee is “rôch” or “rôsh” (in modern Persian “rôz”). The adjacent country of Siestôn was anciently called “nêmrôch” or “nêmrôch” or “nemrôsh,” that is, “half-day,” and generally understood to mean in this instance “the south,” whatever may have been its true signification. The name Gadrôs = Gadrôsh = Gadrôch = Barôch = Barôch = Balôch was probably used in contradistinction to it, and “gad” in old Persian or Pahlavee meant “bad, evil” (in modern Persian “bad”), and Gadrôs or Gadrôch or Gadrôz meant “bad-day.” An inhabitant of the country at the present day, if asked the meaning of the word Balôch, will invariably answer Balôch badrôch, that is, “straitened as to livelihood or daily subsistence.” In the neighbouring country of Sind, the Balôch are called the Barôch. The Zarangæ and Drangæ, the Zariaspæ and Darapsæ or Adriaspæ, afford, I think, other instances of this kind of name being applied to neighbouring tribes and their countries. In Balôchee “shar” = good, beautiful (adjectival from “sharên”), “bad” = bad, “rang” = colour, “aps or asp”= horse; therefore the Zarang = “shar-rang” = beautiful coloured (they were noted for the beautiful colour of their garments). The Drangæ = “bad-rang” = bad-coloured. Zariaspæ = “sharênaspee” = having beautiful horses. Darapsæ or Adriaspa = “badênapsee” = having bad horses.