the place for assembly," or for "coming together"
(Lat. comitium); the place, i.e., where the tribes met, and where,
consequently, the capital grew up.

Bagistan, which was "a hill sacred to Jupiter" according to Diodorus,
is clearly a name corresponding to the Beth-el of the Hebrews and the
Allahabad of the Mahometans. It is simply "the house, or place, of
God"--from baga, "God," and gtana, "place, abode," the common modern
Persian terminal (compare Farsi-stan, Khuzi-stan, Afghani-stan,
Belochi-stan, Hindu-stan, etc.), which has here not suffered any
corruption.

Aspadana contains certainly as its first element the root acpa, "horse."
The suffix dan may perhaps be a corruption of ctana, analogous to that
which has produced Hama-dan from Hagma-ctan; or it may be a contracted
form of danhu, or dairihu, "a-province," Aspadana having been originally
the name of a district where horses were bred, and having thence become
the name of its chief town.

The Median words known to us, other than names of persons or places, are
confined to some three or four. Herodotus tells us that the Median word
for "dog" was spaka; Xenophon implies, if he does not expressly state,
that the native name for the famous Median robe was candys; Nicolas of
Damascus informs us that the Median couriers were called Angari; and
Hesychius says that the artabe was a Median measure. The last-named
writer also states that artades and devas were Magian words, which
perhaps implies that they were common to the Medes with the Persians.
Here, again, the evidence, such as it is, favors a close connection
between the languages of Media and Persia.

That artabe and angarus were Persian words no less than Median, we have
the evidence of Herodotus. Artades, "just men" (according to Hesychhis),
is probably akin to ars, "true, just," and may represent the ars-data,
"made just," of the Zendavesta. Devas (Seven), which Hesychius
translates "the evil gods" is clearly the Zendic daiva, Mod. Pers. div.
(Sans, deva, Lat. divus). In candys we have most probably a formation
from qan, "to dress, to adorn." Spaka is the Zendic cpa, with the
Scythic guttural suffix, of which the Medes were so fond, cpa itself
being akin to the Sanscrit cvan, and so to hvoov and canis. Thus we may
connect all the few words which are known as Median with forms contained
in the Zend, which was either the mother or the elder sister of the
ancient Persian.

That the Medes were acquainted with t