Nor is the idea that the Chaldean _Akkad_ were literally “the sons of _Ad_” without historical basis. According to Berosus, the first Babylonian dynasty was Median. What people were referred to by this name is still undecided. Professor Rawlinson supposes that they were really the same as the so-called Aryan Medes of later history, while Sir Henry Rawlinson, although treating the later Medes as Aryan, yet considers those of Bersosus to have belonged to a Turanian, or at least a mixed Scytho-Aryan, stock. Elsewhere Professor Rawlinson seems inclined to identify the Chaldean _Akkad_ with these Medes, as a Turanian people who at a very early date conquered the Babylonian Kushites and mixed with them. This is, in fact, the conclusion which appears to be required by other considerations. The name by which the Medes are first noticed on the Assyrian monuments is _Mad_. But if the initial labial is removed, this name is reduced to the more simple form _Ad_; and, supposing the explanation given of the primitive name of the Chaldean race to be correct, the _(M)ad_ who preceded them would really be the parent stock from which the _Akkad_, or Chaldeans, were derived. Confirmation of this notion may be supplied from another source. Among their Aryan neighbours the later Medes had the distinctive title of _Már_. This, Sir Henry Rawlinson supposes to have given rise, “not only to the Persian traditions of Zohák and his snakes, but to the Armenian traditions also of the dragon dynasty of Media, the word _Már_ having in Persian the signification of a snake.” But this must have been through ignorance of the real origin of the title, which had reference rather to the lion than to the snake. The Arab historian, Massoudi, in accounting for the application to the city of Babylon of the name of _Iran-Sheher_, observes that, “according to some, the true orthography should be _Arian-Sheher_,” which signifies in Nabathæan, “the city of Lions,” and that “this name of Lion designated the kings of Assyria, who bore the general title of Nimrud.” Sir Henry Rawlinson thinks that the title _Már_ is Scythic, and, if so, there can be little doubt of its signification. The primitive meaning of _Ar_ was “fire,” from which the lion, as the symbol of the Sun-god was called _ari_, the Sun-god himself having a name _Ra_. Strictly, therefore, _Már_ would denote “fire-worshippers,” a title which, as is well-known, was especially applicable to the ancient Medes. The _Aryans_ generally appear to have been Sun-or Fire-worshippers, and probably they received their name from this fact. This would seem to be much more probable than the ordinary derivation of the name Aryan from the root _ar_, “to plough;” and it would include the sense of “noble” preferred by Mr. Peile, “children of the Sun” being usually a special title of the priestly or royal caste.