[Mr. Rockhill writes (_Rubruck_, p. 88, note): “The Alans or Aas appear to be identical with the An-ts’ai or A-lan-na of the _Hou Han shu_ (bk. 88, 9), of whom we read that ‘they led a pastoral life N.W. of Sogdiana (K’ang-chü) in a plain bounded by great lakes (or swamps), and in their wanderings went as far as the shores of the Northern Ocean.’ (Ma Twan-lin, bk. 338.) _Pei-shih_ (bk. 97, 12) refers to them under the name of Su-tê and Wen-na-sha (see also _Bretschneider, Med. Geog._, 258, _et seq._). Strabo refers to them under the name of Aorsi, living to the north but contiguous to the Albani, whom some authors confound with them, but whom later Armenian historians carefully distinguish from them (_De Morgan, Mission_, i. 232). Ptolemy speaks of this people as the ‘Scythian Alans’ (Ἀλανοί Σκύθαι); but the first definite mention of them in classical authors is, according to Bunbury (ii. 486), found in Dionysius Periergetes (305), who speaks of the άλκήεντες Ἀλανοί. (See also _De Morgan_, i. 202, and _Deguignes_, ii. 279 _et seq._) “Ammianus Marcellinus (xxxi. 348) says, the Alans were a congeries of tribes living E. of the Tanais (Don), and stretching far into Asia. ‘Distributed over two continents, all these nations, whose various names I refrain from mentioning, though separated by immense tracts of country in which they pass their vagabond existence, have with time been confounded under the generic appellation of Alans.’ Ibn Alathir, at a later date, also refers to the Alans as ‘formed of numerous nations.’ (_Dulaurier_, xiv. 455). “Conquered by the Huns in the latter part of the fourth century, some of the Alans moved westward, others settled on the northern slopes of the Caucasus; though long prior to that, in A.D. 51, they had, as allies of the Georgians, ravaged Armenia. (See _Yule, Cathay_, 316; _Deguignes_, I., pt. ii. 277 _et seq._; and _De Morgan_, I. 217, _et seq._) “Mirkhond, in the _Tarikhi Wassaf_, and other Mohammedan writers speak of the Alans _and_ As. However this may be, it is thought that the Oss or Ossetes of the Caucasus are their modern representatives (_Klaproth, Tabl. hist._, 180; _De Morgan_, i. 202, 231.)” _Aas_ is the transcription of _A-soo_ (_Yuen-shi_, quoted by Devéria, _Notes d’épig._, p. 75). (See _Bretschneider, Med. Res._, II., p. 84.)—H. C.]