, the name Kundashpi
with that of Vindaspa by Gutschmid, and, later on, Ball has
added to these a long list of names in Egyptian and Assyrian
inscriptions which he looks upon as Iranian. Kundashpi
recalls at first sight Gundobunas, a name of the Sassanid
epoch, if this latter form be authentic. Tiele adopts the
identification of Kushtashpi with Vistaspa, and Justi has
nothing to say against it, nor against the identification of
Kundashpi with Vindaspa.

The main body, finding its expansion southwards checked by Urartu,
diverged in a south-easterly direction, and sweeping before it all the
non-Aryan or Turanian tribes who were too weak to stem its progress,
gradually occupied the western edge of the great plateau, where it soon
became mainly represented by the two compact groups, the Persians to
the south on the farthest confines of Elam, and the Medes between
the Greater Zab, the Turnat, and the Caspian. It is probable that the
kingdom founded by Deiokes originally included what was afterwards
termed _Media Magna_ by the Graeco-Roman geographers. This sovereignty
was formed by the amalgamation under a single monarch of six important
tribes--the Buzo, Paraatakeni, Struchatas, Arizanti, Budii, and Magi.
It extended north-westwards as far as the Kiziluzon, which formed the
frontier between the Persians and the Mannai on this side. Northwards,
it reached as far as Demavend; the salt desert that rendered Central
Iran a barren region, furnished a natural boundary on the east; on both
the south and west, the Assyrian border-lands of Ellipi, Kharkhar, and
Arrapkha prevented it from extending to the chief ranges of the Zagros
and Cordioan mountains. The soil, though less fertile than that of
Chaldaea or of Egypt, was by no means deficient in resources. The
mountains contained copper, iron, lead, some gold and silver,* several
kinds of white or coloured marble,** and precious stones, such as topaz,
garnets, emeralds, sapphires, cornelian, and lapis-lazuli, the latter
being a substance held in the highest esteem by Eastern jewellers from
time immemorial; Mount Bikni was specially celebrated for the fine
specimens of this stone which were obtained there.*** Its mountains were
in those days clothed with dense forests, in which the pine, the oak,
and the poplar grew side by side with the eastern plane tree, the cedar,
lime, elm, ash, hazel, and terebinth.****

* Rawlinson has collected t