Art. XI.—Hwen Thsang's Account of the Principalities of Tokháristán, etc

Extract

In my recent paper on Hwen Thsang's Geography of Tokháristán, I made what may have seemed a rash suggestion, that the Folichisitangna of the Traveller, a territory at the foot of Hindu Kush, might represent the country of the Parâchis of Baber. But the suggestion has received corroboration from a passage that I recently observed in the Travels of Sidi ' Ali (Journ. As., tom, ix., p. 203). The admiral being at Kàbul, and about to cross the Hindu Kush, the Governor sent Mir Nezir, chief of the Tribes of Farâshi and Bashâtsi ( and ) to demand 300 men of those tribes to conduct the horses and camels across the Pass. The party then proceeded by Karâbâgh and Chârikarân to Parwân. There they entered on the territory of Mir Nezir, and found the tribesmen assembled. This seems to show that the territory of the Farâshis (or Parâchis) was about Parwán, i.e. close to Hupiân, which is supposed to be the Hupinah of Hwen-Thsang, called by him the capital of Folichisitangna. Bashâtsi is, I imagine, a clerical error for Bashâi (), the well-known name of a tribe (Pashâis) which I have supposed to be possibly connected with that of the adjoining kingdom of Kapiçca or Kapisha.