É. Apor (ed.): Stein, Aurel: Old Routes of Western Iran. (Budapest Oriental Reprints, Ser. B 2.)

Chapter I.—In Westernmost Färs

42 IN WESTERNMOST FA RS [Chap. I number, however, escaped to the hills, where they encountered Craterus' force and were by this destroyed. These were then ' gifts ' they received from Alexander ; and it was only with difficulty that they obtained their request from him that they might retain their own territory and pay tributes to Alexander every year." A perusal of Arrian's account makes it clear that the pass at which Alexander bade the Uxian hillmen wait for payment was situated on the high-road leading through their hills towards the ' Persian Gates And on this road, as determined by topography and ancient remains alike, from the Behbehän plain up to Fahliün, there is certainly no point corresponding more closely to Arrian's text than the defile of Kötal-i-Sangar described above. The Uxian hillmen's claim was obviously to ' tribal allowances ', to use the term familiar on the North-West Frontier of India. There political expediency, supported by the experience and tradition of earlier periods, has led the British administration responsible for, and interested in, keeping the main line of communication from the Panjäb into Afghanistan open for trade and traffic, to pay such regular allowances to the Afrldl tribes holding the pass of the Khyber in return for their assuring safe transit to caravans and travellers. A similar arrangement is likely to have recommended itself also on the main route from Susiana to Persis. The payment of these ' allowances ' is likely to have fallen into arrears during the struggle of Darius against the Macedonian invader, perhaps even earlier. Hence the demand addressed to the successor of the Achaemenian regime may not have appeared unreasonable to the tribal mind. Its cavalier treatment by Alexander