-European and
Turanian races indifferently, provided that they are nomads, dwelling
in tents or carts, living on the produce of their flocks and herds,
uncivilized, and, perhaps it may be added, accustomed to pass their
lives on horseback. We cannot, therefore, assume that a nation is
Turanian simply because it is pronounced "Scythic." Still, as in fact
the bulk of those races which have remained content with the nomadic
condition, and which from the earliest times to the present day have led
the life above described in the broad steppes of Europe and Asia, appear
to have been of the Turian type, a presumption is raised in favor of a
people being Turanian by decided and concordant statements that it is
Scythic. The presumption may of course be removed by evidence to the
contrary; but, until such evidence is produced it has weight, and
constitutes an argument, the force of which is considerable.

In the present instance the presumption raised is met by no argument
of any great weight; while on the other hand it receives important
confirmation from several different quarters. It is said, indeed, that
as all, or almost all, the other nations of these parts were confessedly
Arians (e.g. the Bactrians, the Sogdians, the Chorasmians, the
Margians, the Arians of Herat, the Sagartians, the Sarangians, and the
Hyrcanians), it would be strange if the Parthians belonged to a wholly
different ethnic family. But, in the first place, the existence of
isolated nationalities, detached fragments of some greater ethnic mass,
embodied amid alien material, is a fact familiar to ethnologists; and,
further, it is not at all certain that there were not other Turanian
races in these parts, as, for instance, the Thamanasans. Again, it is
said that the Parthians show their Arian extraction by their names; but
this argument may be turned against those who adduce it. It is true that
among the Parthian names a considerable number are not only Arian, but
distinctly Persian--e.g., Mith-ridates, Tiridates, Artabanus, Orobazus,
Rhodaspes--but the bulk of the names have an entirely different
character. There is nothing Arian in such appellations as Amminapes,
Bacasis, Pacorus, Vonones, Sinnaces, Abdus, Abdageses, Gotarzes,
Vologeses, Mnasciras, Sanatroeces; nor anything markedly Arian in
Priapatius, Himerus, Orodes, Apreetseus, Ornos-pades, Parrhaces,
Vasaces, Monesis, Exedares. If the Parthians were Arians, what account
is to be given of these words? T