As far as can be made out from our scanty data, it appears that all the nations of Asia Minor west of the river Halys, were, in a large sense, of kindred race with each other, as well as with the Thracians on the European side of the Bosphorus and Hellespont. East of the Halys dwelt the people of Syro-Arabian or Semitic race,—Assyrians, Syrians, and Kappadokians,—as well as Kilikians, Pamphylians, and Solymi, along its upper course and farther southward to the Pamphylian sea. Westward of the Halys, the languages were not Semitic, but belonging to a totally different family,[376]—cognate, yet distinct one from another, perhaps not mutually intelligible. The Karians, Lydians, and Mysians recognized a certain degree of brotherhood with each other, attested by common religious sacrifices in the temple of Zeus Karios, at Mylasa.[377] But it is by no means certain that each of these nations mutually comprehended each other’s speech; and Herodotus, from whom we derive the knowledge of these common sacrifices, acquaints us at the same time that the Kaunians in the south-western corner of the peninsula had no share in them, though speaking the same language as the Karians; he does not, however, seem to consider identity or difference of language as a test of national affinity. [376] Herodot. i, 72; Heeren, Ideen über den Verkehr der Alten Welt, part i, abth. i, pp. 142-145. It may be remarked, however, that the Armenians, eastward of the Halys, are treated by Herodotus as colonists from the Phrygians (vii, 73): Stephanus Byz. says the same, v. Ἀρμενία, adding also, καὶ τῇ φωνῇ πολλὰ φρυγίζουσι. The more careful researches of modern linguists after much groundless assertion on the part of those who preceded them, have shown that the Armenian language belongs in its structure to the Indo-Germanic family, and is essentially distinct from the Semitic: see Ritter, Erdkunde, West-Asien, b. iii, abth. iii; Abschn. i, 5, 36, pp. 577-582. Herodotus rarely takes notice of the language spoken, nor does he on this occasion, when speaking of the river Halys as a boundary. [377] Herodot. i, 170-171.