hat they employed a certain number of
Persian names is sufficiently explained by their subjection during more
than two centuries to the Persian rule. We are also distinctly told that
they affected Persian habits, and desired to be looked upon as Persians.
The Arian names borne by Parthians no more show them to be Arians in
race than the Norman names adopted so widely by the Welsh show them to
be Northmen. On the other hand, the non-Arian names in the former case
are like the non-Norman names in the latter, and equally indicate a
second source of nomenclature, in which should be contained the key to
the true ethnology of the people.

The non-Arian character of the Parthians is signified, if not proved, by
the absence of their name from the Zendavesta. The Zendavesta enumerates
among Arian nations the Bactrians, the Sogdians, the Margians, the
Hyrcanians, the Arians of Herat, and the Chorasmians, or all the
important nations of these parts except the Parthians. The Parthian
country it mentions under the name of Nisaya or Nisaea, implying
apparently that the Parthians were not yet settled in it. The only ready
way of reconciling the geography of the Zendavesta with that of later
ages is to suppose the Parthians a non-Arian nation who intruded
themselves among the early Arian settlements, coming probably from the
north, the great home of the Turanians.

Some positive arguments in favor of the Turanian origin of the Parthians
may be based upon their names. The Parthians affect, in their names,
the termination -ac or -ah, as, for instance, in Arsac-es, Sinnac-es,
Parrhaces, Vesaces, Sana-trseces, Phraataces, etc.--a termination which
characterizes the primitive Babylonian, the Basque, and most of the
Turanian tongues. The termination -geses, found in such names as
Volo-geses, Abda-geses, and the like, may be compared with the -ghiz
of Tenghiz. The Turanian root annap, "God," is perhaps traceable in
Amm-inap-es. If the Parthian "Chos-roes" represents the Persian "Kurush"
or Cyrus, the corruption which the word has undergone is such as to
suggest a Tatar articulation.

The remains of the Parthian language, which we possess, beyond their
names, are too scanty and too little to be depended on to afford us
any real assistance in settling the question of their ethnic character.
Besides the words surena, "Commander-in-chief," and Jcarta or Jcerta,
"city," "fort," there is scarcely one of which we can be assured that it
was really