known to the Chinese as the Yüeh-chi, who dwelt in the province of Kansu, were attacked by their neighbors, the Hsiung-nu or Huns. As a blow delivered on the last of a series of balls is transmitted to others in contact with it, so this movement of the Huns was reflected far and wide among the tribes to the west. The Greek name for the Yüeh-chi is somewhat uncertain; they were a composite group of which the Tochari formed the bulk and the Arsi the ruling or most important element.[1] When the Yüeh-chi were driven from their homeland, they came into conflict with a tribe known as the Sak (modern Sai or Sē), who lived in the region of the Jaxartes River. These were the Sacae or Scyths of the Greek and Roman writers, and in this case probably the Sacaraucae, one of the two principal divisions of the Sacae.[2] The
- ↑ Karl Charpentier, "Die ethnographische Stellung der Tocharer," ZDMG, LXXI (1917), 347–88, esp. pp. 387 f.; cf. similar conclusions reached by W. W. Tarn, "Sel.-Parth. Studies," Proc. Brit. Acad., XVI (1930), 106–11. See also Sylvain Lévi, "Le Tokharien," JA, CCXXII (1933) 1–30, and H. W. Bailey, "Ttaugara," Bull. School of Or. Studies, VIII (1935-37), 883-921.
- ↑ Tarn, op. cit. p. 116, and in CAH, IX, 582 f. See also Franke, "The Identity of the Sok with the Sakas," JRAS, 1907, pp. 675–77;
O. Franke, Beiträge aus chinesischen Quellen zur Kenntnis der Türkvölker und Skythen Zentralasiens (APAW, 1904, No. 1), pp. 29 and 46; Hirth, "The Story of Chang K'ien," JAOS, XXXVII (1917), 133; W. E. Clark, "The Importance of Hellenism from the Point of View of Indic-Philology" (I), Classical Philology, XIV (1919), 312; Rapson in CHI, I, 565; V. A. Smith, The Early History of India (4th ed.; Oxford, 1924), p. 240; de Groot, Chinesische Urkunden zur Geschichte Asiens. II. Die Westlande Chinas, p. 17; Franke, Geschichte des chinesischen Reiches, I, 332. On the language of the Yüeh-chi see Berthold Laufer, The Language of the Yüe-chi or Indo-Scythians (Chicago, 1917).
