THE
PERIPLUS OF THE ERYTHRAEAN SEA
THE PERIPLUS
OF THE ERYTHRAEAN SEA
TRAVEL AND TRADE IN THE INDIAN OCEAN
BY A MERCHANT OF THE FIRST CENTURY
TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK AND ANNOTATED
BY
WILFRED H. SCHOFF, a. m.
Secretary of the Commercial Museum, Philadelphia

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK
LONDON, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA
1912
COPYRIGHT 1912
BY THE COMMERCIAL MUSEUM
PHILADELPHIA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
DATE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PERIPLUS 7
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE PERIPLUS 17
THE PERIPLUS OF THE ERYTHRAEAN SEA 22
NOTES 50
ARTICLES OF TRADE MENTIONED IN THE PERIPLUS. . 284
ARTICLES SUBJECT TO DUTY AT ALEXANDRIA 289
DATE OF THE PERIPLUS AS DETERMINED BY
VARIOUS COMMENTATORS 290
RULERS MENTIONED IN THE PERIPLUS 294
INDEX 295
MAP TO ILLUSTRATE THE PERIPLUS . . AT END OF BOOK
285425
FOREWORD
The Philadelphia Museums came into existence some
fifteen years ago with the avowed purpose of aiding the manu-
facturer in taking a larger share in the world's commerce.
They have lost no opportunity in presenting to the in-
quirer the trade conditions of all parts of the world.
More than four years ago the Museums undertook the
work of making a graphic history of commerce from the earliest
dawn of trade and barter down to the present time. The
author of this translation was entrusted with the study and
preparation of the exhibit, which in its early stages of develop-
ment was shown at the Jamestown exposition. It was in the
preparation of this exhibit that attention was directed to the
Periplus, and its interest in the early history of commerce
appreciated. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is the first
record of organized trading with the nations of the East, in
vessels built and commanded by subjects of the Western world.
The notes add great interest, giving as they do an exhaustive
survey of the international trade between the great empires of
Rome, Parthia, India and China, together with a collection of
facts touching the early trade of a number of other countries
of much interest.
The whole trade of the world is every day coming more
and more under exact laws of demand and supply. When the
history of commerce from its earliest • dawn to its present tre-
mendous international proportions shall be carefully written,
the Periplus will furnish a most interesting part of such early
history, and the Commercial Museum will not have to apologize
for rescuing this work from obscurity and presenting it to the
general public.
W. P. WILSON, Sc.D.,
Director.
The Philadelphia Museums
September, 1911
INTRODUCTION
The Periplus of the Erythraan Sea is one of those human docu-
ments, like the journals of Marco Polo and Columbus and Vespucci,
which express not only individual enterprise, but the awakening of a
whole race toward new fields of geographical discovery and commer-
cial achievement. It is the first record of organized trading with the
nations of the East, in vessels built and commanded by subjects of
the Western World. It marks the turning of a tide of commerce
which had set in one direction, without interruption, from the dawn
of history. For thousands of years before the emergence of the
Greeks from savagery, or before the exploits of the Phoenicians in
the Mediterranean and Atlantic, human culture and commerce had
centered in the countries bordering on the Persian Gulf; in Elam
and Babylonia, and in the "whole land of Havilah, where there is
gold: and the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and the
onyx stone/' With the spread of culture in both directions, Egypt
and the nations of Ancient India came into being, and a commercial
system was developed for the interchange of products within those
limits, having its center of exchanges near the head of the Persian
Gulf. The peoples of that region, the various Arab tribes and more
especially those ancestors of the Phoenicians, the mysterious Red Men,
were the active carriers or intermediaries. The growth of civilization
in India created an active merchant marine, trading to the Euphrates and
Africa, and eastward we know not whither. The Arab merchants,
apparently, tolerated the presence of Indian traders in Africa, but
reserved for themselves the commerce within the Red Sea; that
lucrative commerce which supplied precious stones and spices and
incense to the ever-increasing service of the gods of Egypt. This
was their prerogative, jealously guarded, and upon this they lived and
prospered according to the prosperity of the Pharaohs. The muslins
and spices of India they fetched themselves or received from the Indian
traders in their ports on either side of the Gulf of Aden; carrying them
in turn over the highlands to the upper Nile, or through the Red Sea
and across the desert to Thebes or Memphis. In the rare inter-
vals when the eyes of Egypt were turned eastward, and voyages of
commerce and conquest were despatched to the Eastern Ocean, the
4
officers of the Pharaohs found the treasures of all its shores gathered
in the nearest ports, and sought no further to trace them to their
sources.
As the current of trade gradually flowed beyond the Nile and
Euphrates to the peoples of the north, and their curiosity began to
trace the better things toward their source in India, new trade-routes
were gradually opened. The story of the world for many centuries
was that of the struggles of the nations upon the Nile and Euphrates
to win all the territory through which the new routes passed, and so
to prevent the northern barbarians from trading with others than them-
selves. It was early in this struggle that one branch of the people
known as Phoenicians left their home on the Persian Gulf and settled
on the Mediterranean, there to win in the West commercial glories
which competition in the East was beginning to deny them. The
Greek colonies, planted at the terminus of every trade-route, gained
for themselves a measure of commercial independence; but never
until the overthrow of the East by the great Alexander was the control
of the great overland caravan-routes threatened by a western people,
and his early death led to no more than a readjustment of conditions
as they had always existed.
Meantime the brethren of the Phoenicians and their kinsfolk in
Arabia continued in control of the carrying trade of the East, subject
to their agreements and alliances with the merchants of India. One
Arab kingdom after another retained the great eastern coast of Africa,
with its trade in gold and ivory, ostrich feathers and oil; the shores
of the Arabian Gulf produced an ever-rising value in frankincense
and myrrh; while the cloths and precious stones, the timbers and
spices—particularly cinnamon—brought from India largely by Indian
vessels, were redistributed at Socotra or Guardafui, and carried to
the Nile and the Mediterranean. Gerrha and Obollah, Palmyra and
Petra, Sabbatha and Mariaba were all partners in this commercial
system. The Egyptian nation in its later struggles made no effort to
oppose or control it. The trade came and the price was paid. And
the infusion of Greek energy after Alexander's day, when the Ptole-
mies had made Egypt once more mistress of the nations, led to
nothing more than the conquest of a few outposts on the Red Sea
and at the head of the Gulf of Aden; while the accounts of Agathar-
chides are sufficient proof of the opulence which came to Southern
Arabia with the increase of prosperity in Egypt. Here, indeed, the
trade control was more complete than ever; for changes in the topog-
raphy of India, the westward shifting of the Indus delta, the shoal-
ing of the harbors in the Cutch region, and the disorder incident to
5
great invasions of Asiatic peoples, had sapped the vigor of the Indian
sea-trade.
But in Arabia itself there were struggles for the control of all this
wealth and power, and in the days of the later Ptolemies kingdoms
rose and fell and passed into oblivion with bewildering frequency.
The African coast was left to its own people and to the remnants of
the Indian trade, and one Arab tribe maintained itself at the Straits,
while its defeated adversary, establishing itself in the old ' land of
Cush," was building up the kingdom of Abyssinia, whose ambitions
were bitterly opposed to the state which possessed its former home
in the ''Frankincense Country" of Arabia.
It was at this juncture that the rule of the Ptolemies came to an
end under Cleopatra, and the new ruler of the Western World, the
Empire of Rome, came into possession of Egypt, and thus added to
its control of the caravan-routes previously won in Asia Minor and
Syria, that of a direct sea-route to the East, by way of the Ptolemies'
outposts on the Red Sea.
The prize thus within reach of the Roman people was a rich
one. Successive conquests and spoliation of all the Mediterranean
peoples had brought to Rome treasures as yet unexampled, and a taste
for the precious things of the East was developed almost over-night.
The public triumphs of the conquerors of Asia Minor and Syria glit-
tered with new treasures, for which the people clamored. Money
was plentiful and merchants flocked thither from all quarters. Within
a generation the center of exchanges of the Mediterranean was moved
from Alexandria to Rome. But a wise decision of the Emperor
Augustus, only once departed from and that disastrously, limited the
Roman dominion to the bank of the Euphrates; so that all this rich
trade that flowed to Rome paid its tolls to the Empire of Parthia and
to the Arab kingdoms, unless Rome could develop and control a
sea-borne trade to India.
Against such an enterprise all the energy and subtlety of the Arab
was called into action. No information was allowed to reach the
merchants in Egypt, and every device the imagination could create
was directed toward discouraging the least disturbance of the channels
of trade that had existed since human memory began. And in an
unknown ocean, with only the vaguest ideas of the sources of the
products they sought, and the routes that led to them, it might have
been many years before a Roman vessel, coasting along hostile
shores, could reach the goal. But accidents favored Roman ambi-
tion. The new kingdom at Axum, smarting under the treatment of
its former neighbors in Arabia, was courting the Roman alliance.
6
r
The old trading-posts at Guardafui, formerly under Arab control, were
now free, through the quarrels of their overlords, and their markets
were open to who might seek. And then a Roman subject, perhaps
in the Abyssinian service, was driven to sea and carried in an open
boat to India, whence he returned in a few months with a favorable
wind and much information. Then Hippalus, a venturesome navPl
gator whose name deserved as much honor in Roman annals as that'
of Columbus in modern history, observed the periodic change of the!
Indian monsoon (doubtless long known to Arab and Hindu), and i
boldly setting sail at the proper season made a successful trading voy- \
age and returned with a cargo of all those things for which Rome |
was paying so generously: gems and pearls, ebony and sandalwood,
balms and spices, but especially pepper. The old channels of trade
were paralleled but not conquered; so strong was the age-long un-
derstanding between Arab and Hindu, that cinnamon, which had
made the fortune of traders to Egypt in earlier times, was still found
by the Romans only at Guardafui and was scrupulously kept from
their knowledge in the markets of India, where it was gathered and
distributed; while the leaf of the same tree producing that precious
bark was freely offered to the Roman merchants throughout the
Malabar coast, and as malabathrum formed the basis of one of their
most valued ointments.
Great shiftings of national power followed this entry of Roman
shipping into the Indian Ocean. One by one Petra and Gerrha,
Palmyra and Parthia itself, their revenues sapped by the diversion of
accustomed trade, fell into Roman hands. The Homerite Kingdom
in South Arabia fell upon hard times, its capital into ruin, and some
of its best men migrated northward and as the Ghassanids bowed the
neck to Rome. Abyssinia flourished in proportion as its old enemy
declined. If this state of things had continued, the whole course of
later events might have been changed. Islam might never have appeared,
and a greater Rome might have left its system of law and government
from the Thames to the Ganges. But the logic of history was too
strong. Gradually the treasure that fell to the Roman arms was ex-
pended in suppressing insurrections in the conquered provinces, in
civil wars at home, and in a constant drain of specie to the east in
settlement of adverse trade balances; a drain which was very real
and menacing to a nation which made no notable advance in produc-
tion or industry by means of which new wealth could be created. As
the resources of the West diminished the center of exchange shifted
to Constantinople. The trade-routes leading to that center were the
old routes through Mesopotamia, where a revivified power under the
7
Sassanids was able to conquer every passage to the East, including
even the proud Arab states which had not yielded submission to Ham-
murabi or Esarhaddon, Nebuchadrezzar or Darius the Great. Egypt,
no longer in the highway of commerce, became a mere granary for
Constantinople, and Abyssinia, driven from its hard-won footholds
east of the Red Sea, could offer the Byzantine emperors no effective
aid in checking the revival of Eastern power. And the whirlwind of
activity let loose by Mohammed welded the Eastern World as no force
had yet done, and brought the West for another millennium to its
feet. Not until the coming of those vast changes in industry and
transportation which marked the nineteenth century did the Western
nations find commodities of which the East stood in need, and laying
them down in Eastern markets on their own terms, turn back the
channels of trade from their ancient direction.
The records of the pioneers, who strove during the ages to stem
this irresistible current, are of enduring interest in the story of human
endeavor; and among them all, one of the most fascinating is this
Periplus of the Erythraan Sea—this plain and painstaking log of a
Greek in Egypt, a Roman subject, who steered his vessel into the
waters of the great ocean and brought back the first detailed record of
the imports and exports of its markets, and of the conditions and alli-
ances of its peoples. It is the only record for centuries that speaks
with authority on this trade in its entirety, and the gloom which it
briefly lighted was not lifted until the wider activities of Islam broke
the time-honored custom of Arab secrecy in trading, and by grafting
Arab discovery on Greek theory, laid the foundations of modern ge-
ography. Not Strabo or Pliny or Ptolemy, however great the store of
knowledge they gathered together, can equal in human interest this
unknown merchant who wrote merely of the things he dealt in and
the peoples he met—those peoples of whom our civilization still knows
so little and to whom it owes so much; who brought to the restless
West the surplus from the ordered and industrious East, and in so
doing ruled the waters of the "Erythraean Sea."
THE DATE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PERIPLUS
The manuscript copies of the Periplus at Heidelberg and London
do not enable us to fix either date or authorship. The Heidelberg
manuscript attributes the work to Arrian, apparently because in that
manuscript this Periplus follows a report of a voyage around the Black
Sea made by the historian Arrian, who was governor of Cappadocia
about 131 A. D. This is manifestly a mistake, and the London
manuscript does not contain that reference.
s
The only guidance to date or authorship must be found in the
Periplus itself.
Hippalus' discovery of the sea-route to India, described in § 57,
is fixed by Vincent at about 47 A. D.
Vincent reasons from Pliny's account (VI, 24) of the accidental
journey of a freedman of Annius Plocamus who had farmed from
the Treasury the revenues arising from the Red Sea. This freedman
was carried away by a gale and in fifteen days drifted to Ceylon, where
he was hospitably received and after a stay of six months returned
home; after which the Ceylonese kings sent an embassy to Rome.
Pliny says that this occurred during the reign of Emperor Claudius,
which began in the year 41. The discovery of Hippalus must have
come very soon after. (The first question suggested by this story is,
what the freedman was doing outside the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb and from whom Annius Plocamus farmed the revenues. As to this
Pliny is silent. Can it have been the friendly Abyssinians, or were the
Greek colonies in Arabia still in existence?)
The discovery of Hippalus, described in § 57, seems to have oc-
curred not long before the author of the Periplus made his voyage.
He evidently feels a deep respect for the discoverer, and goes on to
say that "from that time until now'' voyages could be made directly
across the ocean by the monsoon.
Pliny has but a passing reference to Hippalus, suggesting that
between 73 and 77 A. D. when he was writing, the memory of the
discoverer had faded somewhat from view.
Assuming 50 A. D. as a date earlier than which this Periplus
can not have been written, we must look next for a limit on the other
side.
In § 38 is mentioned "the sea-coast of Scythia" around the
mouth of the Indus, and the metropolis of Scythia, Minnagara, which
was "subject to Parthian princes at war among themselves."
In § 41 is mentioned another city Minnagara, which, as indicated
in the notes, is simply the Hindu name for "city of the invaders."
In § 47 is mentioned the "very war-like inland nation of the
Bactrians.
As explained in the notes, the Scythians of the Periplus are the
Saka tribe, who had been driven from Eastern Turkestan by the Yueh-
chi, and overran Beluchistan, the lower Indus valley, and adjacent
parts of the coast of India itself. They submitted to the Parthian
Kingdom, of which they formed an important part. Their south-
ern extension under Sandares, the ruler mentioned in § 52, indicates
a growing pressure from the Kushan kingdom on the north, but prior
9
to the conquest of this whole country by the Kushans, which occurred
soon after 95 A. D. The ''war-like nation of the Bactrians" is the
tribe of Yueh-chi or Kushans, formerly subject to China, who, after
being driven westward by the Huns, overran the Greek kingdom of
Bactria and set up there a powerful kingdom which, early in the second
century A. D., conquered most of northern India. The conditions in
the text indicate a time before this nation had commenced its conquests
in the valleys of the Indus and Ganges, and probably before the great
defeat of its king Kadphises by the Chinese general Panchao near
Khotan, which occurred in 90 A. D. A defeat of this magnitude
must certainly have been reported throughout India and would not have
led our author to refer to the nation as "very warlike." Thus we
arrive at two dates, 90 and 95 A. D., later than which this Periplus
can not have been written.
In §§ 4 and 5 our author mentions the city of the Axumites, and
the territory, coast and inland, ruled over by Zoscales; whom Henry
Salt identified with the name "Za Hakale" found by him in the
Tarik Negusti or Chronicles of the kings of Abyssinia. The duration
of this Za Hakale's reign, according to the Chronicle, was thirteen
years, and his dates Salt fixes at 76 to 89 A. D., following a note in
the Chronicle that the birth of Christ took place in the eighth year of
one of Za Hakale's predecessors, Zabaesi Bazen. The date of the
accession of this Zabaesi Bazen was 84 years prior to that of Za Ha-
kale. Salt's identification of the name is probably correct, but the
dates as they stand in the Chronicles were written some centuries
after the events, and can hardly be accepted as safe authority in the
absence of other evidence. The fact that nearly all the reigns are
given as lasting an even number of years, or else as so many years and
six months, shows that the chroniclers were only estimating the time.
Salt himself was obliged to rearrange their chronology in order to fit
it to known facts, and it is quite possible that his rearrangement has
slipped in a whole reign before that of Za Hakale. Obviously Salt's
names are worth more than his dates. South Arabian inscriptions dis-
covered by Glaser indicate the separation of Axum from its mother-land,
the Habash or Ethiopia of South Arabia, not long before the date of
the Periplus; and the fact that there is no mention of Axum in any
work earlier than the Periplus, and not even in Pliny, suggests the
same conclusion; namely, that the Abyssinian Chronicles are unrelia-
able, at any rate in their earlier portions. They count as independent
kings a number of rulers who must have been subject to the Arabian
mother-land; the order of events they relate is uncertain, and their
dates are merely approximations.
10
Even if the dates in the Chronicle, and Salt's identification of
Zoscales with Za Hakale were strictly correct, the date generally ac-
cepted for the birth of Christ, 5 B. C, would bring Za Hakale's
accession down to 71 A. D. and his death to 84.
Nearly all the commentators think that the Periplus is earlier than
Pliny's Natural History, which is known to have been published be-
tween 73 and 77 A. D. The principal indication is their similarity in
the description of Arabia Felix, where Pliny seems to condense the
Periplus; but, on the other hand, there are many statements in Pliny's
sixth book which describe facts in disagreement with, and probably
earlier than, the Periplus. Of course Pliny was a compiler and copy-
ist, and usually not very discriminating, and he may have chosen to follow
the Periplus only where it did not contradict the earlier accounts of
King Juba II of Mauretania, for whose knowledge he repeatedly ex-
pressed respect. Pliny has much more information about Meroe than
appears in the Periplus, but he does not mention Axum. He ends
the African coast at the Promontory of Mosyllum and says that the
Atlantic Sea begins there. In this he follows King Juba; but had he
known the Periplus he ought to have included the African coast as far
as Zanzibar. He has an account of Mariaba, the royal city of Arabia
Felix, which the Periplus has not. He quotes Aelius Gallus, writing
in 24 B. C, as stating that the Sabaeans are the richest tribe in south-
ern Arabia. The Periplus, however, has them subject to the Homer-
ites, who receive only passing mention from Aelius Gallus.
One is tempted to imagine that Pliny's account of the voyage to
India (VI, 26) in which he refers to "information on which reliance
may be placed, here published for the first time," refers to the Peri-
plus, then existing merely as a merchant's diary; and Glaser has based
much of his argument as to the authorship of the Periplus on that pass-
age; but Pliny goes on to describe a voyage different in many ways
from that of the Periplus, and giving quite a different account of the
coast of India. At the time Pliny wrote, the sea-route to India had
been opened for nearly thirty years, and he might have had this infor-
mation from any sea-captain, as indeed he might have had the facts
concerning Arabia Felix which seem to be in such close agreement
with the Periplus. The argument that Pliny, whose work was dedi-
cated in 77 A. D., borrowed from the Periplus is, then, suggestive and
even plausible, but by no means conclusive.
Returning to § 41, the reference to the anarchy in the Indo-Par-
,thian or Saka region does not suggest the consolidated power of that
King of Kathiawar and Ujjain who founded the so-called Saka era
of 78 A. D.; indicating for the Periplus a date earlier than that era.
•5.1
Mention of the "land of This" in § 64, is helpful. This seems
evidently to be the state of Ts' in in northwest China, at the date of
the Periplus the most powerful of the states of China, and actively en-
gaged in pushing Chinese boundaries and influence westward across
Turkestan. The capital city is supposed to be the modern Singanfu.
The text says that "silk is brought overland from that country to
Bactriaand India," butthat "few men come from there and seldom."
This suggests a time when the trade-routes across Turkestan were still
in turmoil and before the conquests of the Chinese general Panchao.
The route north of the desert of Turkestan was finally opened by him
in 94 A. D., while the route south of the desert was opened as early
as 73 A. D., indicating that the Periplus must be fixed before that date.
In § 19 is mentioned Malichas, king of the Nabataeans. As
Fabricius has pointed out, this is one of the most important indica-
tions of date contained in the text. Josephus in his Wars of the
Jews mentions a Malchus, king of Arabia, under which name he
always refers to the Nabataean kingdom, as having assisted Titus in
his expedition against Jerusalem, which he destroyed in the year 70
A. D. {Bell. Jud., Ill, 4, §2); and Vogue in his Syrie Centrale, Semitic Inscriptions, p. 107, confirms that a Nabataean king
Aretas (Hareth), contemporary with the Emperors Tiberius and Ca-
ligula, had a son Malik, or Malchus III, who reigned about 40 to 70
A. D. It was a sister of this Malchus who married Herod Antipas,
tetrarch of Galilee, and was abandoned by Herod for his brother Philip's
wife, Herodias, mother of Salome. (Josephus, Ant. Jud. XVIII, 8).
This action of Herod brought him to war with his father-in-law,
Aretas, and doubtless explains to some extent the policy of Malichas
in assisting Rome against Judea. This must have been the same as
the Malichas of the text, and his action against Jerusalem must have
been near the end of his reign. It is fair to infer that if the Periplus
had been written after that expedition, Malichas also would have been
called, like Charibael in § 23, a "friend of the Emperor," and there-
fore that the Periplus was written before Titus' campaign of the year 70.
In §§ 23 and 27 we have the names of Charibael, king of the
two tribes, the Homerites and the Sabaites, and of Eleazus, king of
the Frankincense Country. It was the opinion of Glaser, based on
inscriptions discovered by him in South Arabia, that both these names
were titles rather than personal names, and that they were borne by sev-
eral rulers during the first century A. D. His incription No. 1619
mentions a king Eleazus who was ruler in 29 A. D., and a king Cha-
ribael whose reign was from -bout 40 to 70 A. D. The mention of
Charibael as "a friend of the Emperors" might answer for a date
12
under Vespasian after the succession of short reigns that followed
Nero; but the years of turmoil throughout the Roman Empire, for sev-
eral years after the death of Nero, were not years of prosperous trade
such as the Periplus describes. This reference indicates a date early
in the reign of Nero, before the memory of his predecessor Claudius
had faded; roughly, any time between 54 and 60 A. D.
In § 23 is a reference to the recent destruction of Arabia Eudae-
mon. Our present knowledge of Arabian history does not give us
any positive date for the war leading to the destruction of this Sabaean
port, but the inscriptions discovered and commented on by Glaser
point to a time after the middle of the first century.
In § 2 our author mentions the city of Meroe. This capital of
the Nubian kingdom was severely treated by the Romans soon after
their occupation of Egypt. The Nubian queen Candace had attacked
Egypt; and an expedition sent out against her under Petronius annihi-
lated her army and destroyed many of her cities, including that of
Napata. This was in B. C. 22. That another queen Candace of
Nubia retained considerable power in the first half of the first century
A. D. is shown in Acts VIII, 27. After this, Pliny relates, the
savage tribes of the neighboring deserts came down and plundered
what was left of the Nubian Kingdom, so that an expedition of in-
quiry sent by the emperor Nero (Pliny, VI, 35) when he was
contemplating a campaign in the South, ventured as far as Meroe
and reported that they had met with nothing but deserts on their routes;
that the buildings in Meroe itself were but few in number and were
still ruled over by a queen named Candace, that name having passed
from queen to queen for many years. This state of things can be
fixed at about 67 A. D. It is obviously later than the account in the
Periplus.
Very soon after Pliny's time Meroe must have been destroyed,
as the name does not appear again for several centuries.
A suggestive fact is that the Periplus tells only of the great increase
in trade with India, and has no mention of a cessation or decline of
that trade consequent upon the burning of Rome, July 19-25 in the year
64. Ten out of the fourteen districts of the city were destroyed.
The loss was not equalized; fire insurance did not exist. It is true
that this great calamity hardly receives mention in Pliny's work. He
refers to the baseless story of Nero's having started the fire, and in
several passages to the destruction of buildings, temples and the like,
always with some reticence. In many places, however, once in so
many words, he mentions the crisis through which Rome passed in the
later years of Nero and his short-lived successors, and of the rest
13
brought an exhausted empire" by the strong hand of Vespasian.
But in a work distinctly of a commercial nature, written far from Rome
but relating to a commerce whose sudden expansion was due entirely to
Roman demand, some mention of the trade depression that must have
followed such a destruction of capital and the ensuing political dis-
order, would have been most probable. The facts of this conflagra-
tion and of its effects upon trade are thought to be stated in Revelation,
c. XVIII, and, notwithstanding the different point of view of the
writer of that book, the circumstances he describes are of importance
here.
"And the kings of the earth . . . shall bewail her, and lament
for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, . . . and
the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no
man buyeth their merchandise any more: the merchandise of gold,
and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and
purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all sweet wood, and all manner
vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and
of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and oint-
ments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and
wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves,
and souls of men .... The merchants of these things, which
were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her tor-
ment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city,
that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked
with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great
riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the com-
pany in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
and cried when they saw fhe smoke of her burning, saying, What
city is like unto this great city! And they cast dust on their heads
and cried, weeping andf wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city,
wherein were made riJa all that had ships in the sea by reason of her
costliness! . . . ./f For thy merchants were the great men of the
earth." /
Now our author was one of those same shipmasters trading by
sea; but in his account there is no suggestion of standing afar off,
weeping and wailing, such as would probably have appeared if he were
writing after that great disaster.
Following the discovery of Hippalus there seems to have been a
sudden and enormous increase in the Roman trade with India, and par-
ticularly in the importation of Indian products. The Periplus, in
§ 10, refers to the ''larger ships'' now needed-for the cinnamon trade.
This increase, particularly in the importation of luxuries, can be

ascribed to the fashion of extravagance set by Nero's court, during the
ascendancy of his favorite Sabina Poppaea, whose influence lasted
from 58 until her death in 65 A. D. Pliny's reference to the enor-
mous quantity of spices used at Poppaea's funeral (XII, 41) indicates
such an increased trade; which he further confirms (VI, 26) by stat-
ing that specie amounting to about £22,000,000 per year was required
to balance the trade, and that these' Indian imports sold in Rome at
one hundred times their cost. Pliny's figures are untrustworthy, as
in XII, 41, he estimates a little over $4,000,000 as the balance of
specie required for the entire trade with India, Arabia and China;,
but a sudden increase in commerce is none the less evident.
The absence of any description in the Periplus of trade with the
coasts of the Persian Gulf, then subject to Parthia, suggests that it
was written at a time when Rome and Parthia were at war. Our
author's descriptions, even of the southern coast of Arabia, stop,
at the Frankincense Country and its dependency, the island of Masira;
and he explains that the coast beyond the islands of Kuria Muria was
'' subject to Persia" and thus closed to him. According to the
account given by Rawlinson, (Sixth Monarchy, XVI,) conflicting claims
as to the Armenian succession led Rome to make war on Parthia in
55 A. D., the second year of Nero's reign. The Parthians, at the
time occupied with civil war in the South (possibly even in their
newly-acquired South Arabian possessions), gave hostages and aband-
oned their Armenian pretensions; which, however, they reasserted in
58, when war broke out anew. Hostilities continued in a desultory
way until 62, when the two powers agreed upon a mutual evacuation of
Armenia and a settlement of the dispute by a Parthian embassy which
was to visit Rome. This truce occurred in the summer of 62. The
embassy made its visit in the autumn and returned without a treaty.
The truce was broken the same winter by a Roman invasion of
Armenia, which was repulsed and the truce renewed. A second
Parthian embassy to Rome in the spring of 63 settled the matter by
placing a Parthian prince on the Armenian throne and requiring him
to receive investiture from the Roman Emperor. This ceremony
occurred in 65 A. D.
Hostilities between the two countries certainly ceased in the
winter of 62 and probably, as far as commercial interests were con-
cerned, in the summer of that year. Therefore, the date of the
Periplus, or at any rate the date of the voyage on which it was based,
can probably be fixed at not later than the summer of 62 and not earlier
than the summer of 58.
The possibilities are rather in favor of the second or third year of
15
the renewed Roman-Parthian war, when the Parthian power had fully
recovered from the disorders in the South.
The nearest single year that suggests itself as the date of the
Periplus is, therefore, 60 A. D.
As to the authorship, it is best to admit that nothing is known.
Fabricius in his first edition of the Periplus attributed it to an Alex-
andrian merchant named Arrian, but other editions, and Fabricius'
own second edition, remove the name altogether.
Glaser, in an article published in Ausland, 1891, pp. 45-46, pre-
sents an argument that seems too tempting to be true. He assumes
that the sixth book of Pliny quotes from the Periplus; that the here-
tofore unpublished account," which Pliny mentions, was that of our
author; that his work could have been quoted in no other book of
Pliny, and therefore that by comparison of the indices of authorities
which Pliny puts at the end of each book, any name appearing in the
sixth book only would be the name of our author. By such means
Glaser arrives at the name Basilis, and in all his references to the
Periplus after the date of that article, he is careful to cite—" Basilis,
author of the Periplus, 56 to 67 A. D." But Pliny himself in that
same book (VI, 35) refers to Basilis as the author of an account of
Meroe and the upper Nile, apparently considerably earlier than the
expedition of Petronius against Nubia in 24 to 22 B. C.; and a work
on India, also by Basilis, is quoted by Agatharchides (Ap. Phot. p.
454 b. 34, ed. Bekker), whose work on the Erythraean Sea was writ-
ten about 113 B. C, a century and a half before the Periplus. It
seems to be this same Basilis, rather than a later writer of like name,
whose Indica is quoted by Athenaeus (Deipnos. IX, 390, b), who
wrote about 230 A. D. Unless, therefore, Glaser assumes that the
Basilis of Pliny's text is a different man from the Basilis of his index,
his argument falls.
Then, too, a man of Pliny's standing would have been apt to
•refrain from mentioning by name a writer with no literary reputation in
Roman society. His index would omit an obscure sea-captain, just
;as his text omits him, referring merely to ''information on which reli-
ance can be placed." For the aristocracy of letters was very real in
imperial Rome, and the writer of the Periplus did not "belong."
The possibility that Pliny may have used his account does not imply
^he use of his name. Altogether, Glaser's argument is more ingeni-
-ous than probable.
That the author was an Egyptian Greek, and a merchant in active
16
trade who personally made the voyage to India, is evident by the text
itself 3 that he lived in Berenice rather than Alexandria is indicated by
the absence of any account of the journey up the Nile and across
the desert from Coptos, which Strabo and Pliny describe at length.
It is possible that he made the voyage from Cape Guardafui to Zan-
zibar, but the text is so vague and uncertain that he seems rather to
be quoting from someone else, unless indeed much of this part of the
work has been lost in copying. The coast of Arabia east of the
Frankincense Country, the entire Persian Gulf and the coasts of Persia
and Beluchistan as far as the Indus river, seem to have been known
to him only by hearsay. They were subject to Parthia, an enemy of
Rome.
That he was not a highly educated man is evident from his fre-
quent confusion of Greek and Latin words and his clumsy and some-
times ungrammatical constructions. The value of his work consists,
not in its literary merits, but in its trustworthy account of the trade of
the Indian Ocean and of the settlements around its shores; concern-
ing which, until his time, we possess almost nothing of an intel-
ligent and comprehensive nature.
17
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE PERIPLUS
Codex Pal. Gr^ec, 398. A parchment of the Tenth Century, in
the Library of the University of Heidelberg. It was taken to
Rome during the Thirty Years' War, and to Paris under Na-
poleon; and was restored to Heidelberg in 1816.
This manuscript contains twenty different titles, of which the
first six are as follows:
I. Argumentum a Leone Allatio. (Allazi, who packed
and shipped the Heidelberg Library to Rome.)
II. Fragmentum de Palude Maeotide et de, Ponto
Euxino.
III. Arrianus de venatione.
IV. Ejusdem epistola ad Trajanum qua periplus Ponti
Euxini continetu \
V. Ejusdem Periplus Maris Rubri.
VI. Hannonis periplus.
Manuscript 19,391. A parchment, supposed to be of the Four-
teenth or Fifteenth Century, in the British Museum. A portion
of it is supposed to have come from the monastery of Mount
Athos. Such matter as it contains in common with the Heidel-
berg manuscript seems to have been copied therefrom, or from a
common original.
In this the Periplus is anonymous.
Arriani et Hannonis Periplus: Plutarchus de fluminibus et
montibus: Strabonis epitome. Froben. B a si lea Anno
MDXXX11L Sigismundus Gelenius Anselmo Ephorino Medico S. This first printed text, corrupt and full of errors due to lack
of knowledge of the subject, served nevertheless for three cen-
turies as the basis of later editions, because of the disappearance
of the Heidelberg manuscript.
Delle Navigationi et Viaggi raccolta da Gio. Batt. Ramusio.
In V. netia, nella Stamperia de Giunti, MDLXXXVI1L
Vol. 1, pp. 281-283a has Discorso di Gio. Battista Ra-
musio, sopra la navigatione del Mar Rosso, Jino all' India Orientals
scritta per Arriano and p. 283a begins Navigations del mar
Rosso Jino A lie Indie Orientali scritta per Arriano in Lingua Greca,&
di quella poi Tradotta nella Italiana.
There were editions of Ramusio's Collection at Venice in
1550, 1554, 1563 and 1588.
18
ARRIANI H1STORICI ET PHILOSOPHI PoNTI EUXINI & MARIS ErYTHRTEX
Periplus, ad Adrianum CiESAREM. Nunc primum e Grecco
sermone in Latinum versus, plurimusque mendis repurgatus. Jo. Gvi-
lielmo Stvckio Tigvrino avthore. Geneva, apvd Evstathivm Vignon,
1577.
This text is based on that of Gelenius, with few material
emendations.
Arriani Ars Tactica, Acies contra Alanos, Periplus Ponti
Euxini, Periplus Maris Erythr^ei, Liber de Venatione,
etc., etc. Cum Interpretibus Latinis, & Notis. Ex Recensione &
Museo. Nicolai Blancardi, Amstelodami, Janssonio-Waesbergii, 1683.
This text is professedly based on that of Stuck.
Geographic Veteris Scriptores Grcci Minores. Cum Inter-
pretation Latina, Dissertationibus, ac Annotationibus. Oxonian. E
Theatro Sheldoniano, MDCXCVIII. (Praestitit Joannes Hud-
sonus. Dissertationes Henrici Dodwelli. )
This contains as its fifth title, Periplus Maris Erythrcei cidem
(Arriano) vulgo adscriptus. Interpretc Jo. Guilielmo Stuckio Tigurino.
The text is based on Gelenius and Stuck.
Syiloges ton en Epitomei tois palai Geographethenton typois -
ekdothentbn philotimbi dapanei ton ex Ibanninbn philogenestatbn adel-
phbn ZosiMlADON charin ton tes Hellenikes paideias ephierncnon
Hellenbn. En Biennei tes Austrias ek tes Schraimblikcs Typographias,
1807.
It contains, pp. 295-333 Arrianou Periplous tes Erythras
Thalasses, with notes translated from Hudson.
Flavii Arriani Nicomediensis Opera Greece ad optimas cditiones
collata. Studio Augusti Christiani Borheck. Lemgovia:, Meyer, 1809. This contains, pp. 91-121, Arrianou Periplous tes Erythras
Thalasses. The text is from Hudson.
The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea. Part the first, containing:
An Account of the Navigation of the Ancients, from the Sea of Suez
to the Coast of Zanguebar. With Dissertations. By William Vin-
cent. London: Cadell, Jun., & Davies, 1800.
The Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the Indian
Ocean. By William Vincent, D.D., Dean of Westminster. In
'two volumes. London: Cadell £ff Davies, 1807. Vol. I, The
Voyage of Nearchus. Vol. II, The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea.
Part the first containing, An, Account of the Navigation of the
■ Ancients from the Sea of Suez-to the coast of Zanguebar. With
Dissertations. Part the second containing, An Account of the
19
Navigation of the Ancients from the Gulph of Elana, in the Red
Sea, to the Island of Ceylon.
These two beautiful volumes, presenting the Greek text and
English translation in parallel columns, preceded by dissertations
that denote exhaustive geographical and historical research, are still
of deep interest and importance to the student of the Periplus.
The text is that of Blancard: "His edition I was obliged
to adopt, because I could obtain no other to use as copy." (Vol.
II, part II, preface, p. xi). Vincent's textual emendations are
generally less useful than his geographical and commercial notes,
which are still, in large part, illuminating and trustworthy, and
were, when written, the first intelligent presentation of the sub-
ject.
The Voyage of Nearchus and the Periplus of the Erythrean
Sea (ascribed to Arrian), translated by W. Vincent, Oxford,
1809.
Untersuchungen ueber einzelne Gegenstaende der alten Ge-
schichte, Geographie, und Chronologie. G. G. Bredow,
Altona, Hammerich, 1802.
This includes Vincent's Periplus, translated into German,
pp. 715-797.
SAMMLUNG KLEINER ScHRIFTEN AUS DEM GeBIETE DER MATHEMA-
tischen und alten Geographie. C. G. Reichard. Guns,
Reichard, 1836.
This includes Vincent's work, pp. 374-425 and 438-496.
Arriano Opuscoli, tradotti da vari. Milano, Sonzogno, 1'826-7\
S. Blandi.
Des Pseudo-ArriansUmschiffung des Erythraeischen Meeres—
die Erstcn neun Kapitel vollstandig, die ubrigen im Auszuge. Uebcr-
setzt von Streubel'm Jahres-Bericht iibcr die Stralaucr ho here Biergtr-
Schule fur das Schuljahr von Michaelis 1860 bis Michaelis 1861,
womit—einladet C. Hartung. Berlin, Druck von Hickethier,
1861.
This partial translation is based on the texts of Stuck, Hud-
son and Borheck, and is of little value.
Arriani Alexandrini Periplus Maris Erythrjei. Recensuit ei
brcvi annotatione instruxit B. Fabricius. Dresdtc, in commissis Gott-
schalcki, MDCCCXLIX.
20
Geographi Gr^eci Minores. E codicibus recognovit, prolegomenis, anno-
tatione, indicibusque instruxit, tabu lis <zri incisis illustravit Carolus
Mullerus. Parisiis, Didot, MDCCCLV.
Vol. I, pp. xcv-cxi has Prolegomena Anonymi Periplus Maris
Erythrcei, and pp. 257-305 Anonymi ( Arriani, ut fertur) Periplus
Maris Erythrai, being the eighth title included in that volume.
Vol. Ill contains four maps, xi-xiv, especially drawn to illustrate
the Periplus, and four more, vi-viii and xv, drawn for other
titles but presenting details that further elucidate this work.
This edition is a vast improvement over all its predecessors,
presenting a text which is still the standard, admitting of modifi-
cation only in minor details. The Greek text, carefully corrected
from the Heidelberg manuscript, and critically revised and im-
proved, is presented side by side with a Latin translation. The
notes, which are in Latin, reflect almost everything of importance
to the subject which had been written up to that time.
The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythraean Sea. By
J. W. McCrindle, M.A., LL.D., Calcutta, 1879. This volume
contains a translation (with commentary) of the Periplus Eryth-
RiEl Maris, by an unknown writer of the first Christian century, and of the second part of the Indika of Arrian.
The translation of the Periplus was also printed in the Indian
Antiquary of Bombay, Vol. VIII, pp. 108-151.
This excellent translation, while based professedly on Miil-
ler's text, is often reminiscent rather of Vincent's, and thus
repeats various errors which Miiller's notes had corrected.
The notes are valuable for the original material they contain
concerning Hindu names, places and commodities, but show
lack of acquaintance with German writers.
Der Periplus des Erythraeischen Meeres von Einem Unbekann-
ten. Griechisch und deutsch mit kritischen und erkiarenden Anmer-
kungen nebst vollstdndigem Worterverzeichnisse von B. Fabricius.
Leipzig, Verlag von Veit & Comp., 1883.
A most scholarly presentation of Greek text and German
translation on opposite pages, with clear and exhaustive notes.
The Greek text, which has been revised with extreme care,
contains many verbal corrections of Miiller's standard text, and
leaves little to be desired. The historical and commercial notes
call for revision where they omit conclusions previously reached
by English writers, and in so far as they are affected by later
research.
2i
The present translation is based on Miiller' s text, adopting
most of Fabricius, verbal emendations, but conforming as far as
possible with the results of later research. Vincent's text and
translation have also been consulted frequently. References in
the text to articles of commerce have been carefully collated with
Pliny and other contemporary writers, as well as with modern
authorities.
22
The Voyage around the Erythraean Sea
1. Of the designated ports on the Erythraean Sea,
and the market-towns around it, the first is the Egyp-
tian port of Mussel Harbor. To those sailing down
from that place, on the right hand, after eighteen hun-
dred stadia, there is Berenice. The harbors of both are
at the boundary of Egypt, and are bays opening from
the Erythraean Sea.
2. On the right-hand coast next below Berenice
is the country of the Berbers. Along the shore are the
Fish-Eaters, living in scattered caves in the narrow val-
leys. Further inland are the Berbers, and beyond them
the Wild-flesh-Eaters and Calf-Eaters, each tribe gov-
erned by its chief; and behind them, further inland,
in the country toward the west, there lies a city called
Meroe.
3. Below the Calf-Eaters there is a little market-
town on the shore after sailing about four thousand
stadia from Berenice, called Ptolemais of the Hunts,
from which the hunters started for the interior under
the dynasty of the Ptolemies. This market-town has
the true land-tortoise in small quantity; it is white and
smaller in the shells. And here also is found a little
ivory, like that of Adulis. But the place has no harbor
and is reached only by small boats.
4. Below Ptolemais of the Hunts, at a distance of
about three thousand stadia, there is Adulis, a port es-
tablished by law, lying at the inner end of a bay that
runs in toward the south. Before the harbor lies the
23
so-called Mountain Island, about two hundred stadia sea-
ward from the very head of the bay, with the shores of
the mainland close to it on both sides. Ships bound for
this port now anchor here because of attacks from the
land. They used formerly to anchor at the very head
of the bay, by an island called Diodorus, close to the
shore, which could be reached on foot from the land; by
which means the barbarous natives attacked the island.
Opposite Mountain Island, on the mainland twenty stadia
from shore, lies Adulis, a fair-sized village, from which
there is a three-days' journey to Coloe, an inland town
and the first market for ivory. From that place to the
city of the people called Auxumites there is a five days'
journey more; to that place all the ivory is brought
from the country beyond the Nile through the district
called Cyeneum, and thence to Adulis. Practically the
whole number of elephants and rhinoceros that are
killed live in the places inland, although at rare inter-
vals they are hunted on the seacoast even near Adulis.
Before the harbor of that market-town, out at sea on
the right hand, there lie a great many little sandy islands
called Alalaei, yielding tortoise-shell, which is brought
to market there by the Fish-Eaters.
5. And about eight hundred stadia beyond there is
another very deep bay, with a great mound of sand
piled up at the right of the entrance; at the bottom
of which the opsian stone is found, and this is the only
place where it is produced. These places, from the
Calf-Eaters to the other Berber country, are governed
by Zoscales; who is miserly in his ways and always
striving for more, but otherwise upright, and acquainted
with Greek literature.
24
6. There are imported into these places, undressed
cloth made in Egypt for the Berbers; robes from Ar-
sinoe; cloaks of poor quality dyed in colors; double-
fringed linen mantles; many articles of flint glass, and
others of murrhine, made in Diospolis; and brass, which
is used for ornament and in cut pieces instead of coin;
sheets of soft copper, used for cooking-utensils and cut
up for bracelets and anklets for the women; iron, which
is made into spears used against the elephants and other
wild beasts, and in their wars. Besides these, small axes
are imported, and adzes and swords; copper drinking-
cups, round and large; a little coin for those coming
to the market; wine of Laodicea and Italy, not much;
olive oil, not much; for the king, gold and silver plate
made after the fashion of the country, and for clothing,
military cloaks, and thin coats of skin, of no great value.
Likewise from the district of Ariaca across this sea, there
are imported Indian iron, and steel, and Indian cotton
cloth; the broad cloth called ?nonache and that called
sagmatogene, and girdles, and coats of skin and mal-
low-colored cloth, and a few muslins, and colored lac.
There are exported from these places ivory, and tortoise-
shell and rhinoceros-horn. The most from Egypt is
brought to this market from the month of January to
September, that is, from Tybi to Thoth; but season-
ably they put to sea about the month of September.
7. From this place the Arabian Gulf trends toward
the east and becomes narrowest just before the Gulf of
Avalites. After about four thousand stadia, for those
sailing eastward along the same coast, there are other
Berber market-towns, known as the "far-side" ports;
lying at intervals one after the other, without harbors
25
but having roadsteads where ships can anchor and lie
in good weather. The first is called Avalites; to this
place the voyage from Arabia to the far-side coast
is the shortest. Here there is a small market-
town called Avalites, which must be reached by boats
and rafts. There are imported into this place, flint glass,
assorted; juice of sour grapes from Diospolis; dressed
cloth, assorted, made for the Berbers; wheat, wine, and
a little tin. There are exported from the same place,
and sometimes by the Berbers themselves crossing on
rafts to Ocelis and Muza on the opposite shore, spices, a
little ivory, tortoise-shell, and a very little myrrh, but
better than the rest. And the Berbers who live in the
place are very unruly.
8. After Avalites there is another market-town,
better than this, called Malao, distant a sail of about
eight hundred stadia. The anchorage is an open road-
stead, sheltered by a spit running out from the east.
Here the natives are more peaceable. There are im-
ported into this place the things already mentioned, and
many tunics, cloaks from Arsinoe, dressed and dyed;
drinking-cups, sheets of soft copper in small quantity,
iron, and gold and silver coin, not much. There are
exported from these places myrrh, a little frankincense,
(thatknown as far-side), the harder cinnamon, duaca^
Indian copal and macir, which are imported into Arabia;
and slaves, but rarely.
9. Two days' sail, or three, beyond Malao is the
market-town of Mundus, where the ships lie at anchor
more safely behind a projecting island close to the shore.
There are imported into this place the things previously
set forth, and from it likewise are exported the mer-
26
chandise already stated, and the incense called mocrotu.
And the traders living here are more quarrelsome.
10. Beyond Mundus, sailing toward the east, after
another two days' sail, or three, you reach Mosyllum,
on a beach, with a b^d anchorage. There are imported
here the same things already mentioned, also silver
plate, a very little iron, and glass. There are shipped
from the place a great quantity of cinnamon, (so that
this market-town requires ships of larger size), and
fragrant gums, spices, a little tortoise shell, and mocrotu,
(poorer than that of Mundus), frankincense, (the
far-side), ivory and myrrh in small quantities.
11. Sailing along the coast beyond Mosyllum, after
a two days' course you come to the so-called Little Nile
River, and a fine spring, and a small laurel-grove, and
Cape Elephant. Then the shore recedes into a bay,
and has a river, called Elephant, and a large laurel-
grove called Acannae; where alone is produced the far-
side frankincense, in great quantity and of the best grade.
12. Beyond this place, the coast trending toward
the south, there is the Market and Cape of Spices, an
abrupt promontory, at the very end of the Berber coast
toward the east. The anchorage is dangerous at times
from the ground-swell, because the place is exposed to
the north. A sign of an approaching storm which is
peculiar to the place, is that the deep water becomes
more turbid and changes its color. When this happens
they all run to a large promontory called Tabae, which
offers safe shelter. There are imported into this market-
town the things already mentioned; and there are pro-
duced in it cinnamon (and its different varieties, gizir,
asypha, arebo, magla, and moto) and frankincense.
27
13. Beyond Tabae, after four hundred stadia, there
is the village of Pano. And then, after sailing four
hundred stadia along a promontory, toward which place
the current also draws you, there is another market-
town called Opone, into which the same things are im-
ported as those already mentioned, and in it the greatest
quantity of cinnamon is produced, (the arebo and moto), and slaves of the better sort, which are brought to Egypt
in increasing numbers; and a great quantity of tortoise-
shell, better than that found elsewhere.
14. The voyage to all these far-side market-towns
is made from Egypt about the month of July, that is
Epiphi. And ships are also customarily fitted out from
the places across this sea, from Ariaca and Barygaza,
bringing to these far-side market-towns the products of-/,
their own places; wheat, rice, clarified butter, sesame
oil, cotton cloth, (the monache and the sagmatogene),
and girdles, and honey from the reed called saccharL
Some make the voyage especially to these market-towns,
and others exchange their cargoes while sailing along
the coast. This country is not subject to a King, but •
each market-town is ruled by its separate chief.
15. Beyond Opone, the shore trending more to-
ward the south, first there are the small and great bluffs
of Azania; this coast is destitute of harbors, but there
are places where ships can lie at anchor, the shore being
abrupt; and this course is of six days, the direction being
south-west. Then come the small and great beach for
another six days' course and after that in order, the
Courses of Azania, the first being called Sarapion and
the next Nicon; and after that several rivers and other
anchorages, one after the other, separately a rest and a
28
run for each day, seven in all, until the Pyralaae islands
and what is called the channel; beyond which, a little
to the south of south-west, after two courses of a day
and night along the Ausanitic coast, is the island
Menuthias, about three hundred stadia from the main-
land, low and and wooded, in which there are rivers
and many kinds of birds and the mountain-tortoise.
There are no wild beasts except the crocodiles; but there
they do not attack men. In this place there are sewed
boats, and canoes hollowed from single logs, which
they use for fishing and catching tortoise. In this
island they also catch them in a peculiar way, in wicker
baskets, which they fasten across the channel-opening
between the breakers.
16. Two days' sail beyond, there lies the very
last market-town of the continent of Azania, which is
called Rhapta; which has its name from the sewed
boats {rhapton ploiaribn) already mentioned; in which
there is ivory in great quantity, and tortoise-shell.
Along this coast live men of piratical habits, very great
in stature, and under separate chiefs for each place.
The Mapharitic chief governs it under some ancient
right that subjects it to the sovereignty of the state that
is become first in Arabia. And the people of Muza
now hold it under his authority, and send thither many
large ships; using Arab captains and agents, who are
familiar with the natives and intermarry with them, and
who know the whole coast and understand the language.
17. There are imported into these markets the lances
made at Muza especially for this trade, and hatchets
and daggers and awls, and various kinds of glass; and
at some places a little wine, and wheat, not for trade, but
29
to serve for getting the good-will of the savages. There
are exported from these places a great quantity of ivory,
but inferior to that of Adulis, and rhinoceros-horn
and tortoise-shell (which is in best demand after that
from India), and a little palm-oil.
18. And these markets of Azania are the very last
of the continent that stretches down on the right hand
from Berenice; for beyond these places the unexplored
ocean curves around toward the west, and running along
by the regions to the south of Aethiopia and Libya and
Africa, it mingles with the western sea.
19. Now to the left of Berenice, sailing for two
or three days from Mussel Harbor eastward across the
adjacent gulf, there is another harbor and fortified place,
which is called White Village, from which there is a
road to Petra, which is subject to Malichas, King of
the Nabataeans. It holds the position of a market-town
for the small vessels sent there from Arabia; and so a
centurion is stationed there as a collector of one-fourth
of the merchandise imported, with an armed force, as
a garrison.
20. Directly below this place is the adjoining
country of Arabia, in its length bordering a great dis-
tance on the Erythraean Sea. Different tribes inhabit
the country, differing in their speech, some partially,
and some altogether. The land next the sea is similarly
dotted here and there with caves of the Fish-Eaters, but
the country inland is peopled by rascally men speaking
two languages, who live in villages and nomadic camps,
by whom those sailing off the middle course are plun-
dered, and those surviving shipwrecks are taken for
slaves. And so they too are continually taken prisoners
30
by the chiefs and kings of Arabia; and they are called
Carnaites. Navigation is dangerous along this'whole
coast of Arabia, which is without harbors, with bad an-
chorages, foul, inaccessible because of breakers and
rocks, and terrible in every way. Therefore we hold
our course down the middle of the gulf and pass on as
fast as possible by the country of Arabia until we come
to the Burnt Island; directly below which there are
regions of peaceful people, nomadic, pasturers of cattle,
sheep and camels.
21. Beyond these places, in a bay at the foot of the
left side of this gulf, there is a place by the shore called
Muza, a market-town established by law, distant alto-
gether from Berenice for those sailing southward, about
twelve thousand stadia. And the whole place is crowded
with Arab shipowners and seafaring men, and is busy
with the affairs of commerce; for they carry on a trade
with the far-side coast and with Barvgaza, sending their
own ships there.
22. Three days inland from this port there is
a city called Saua, in the midst of the region called
Mapharitis; and there is a vassal-chief named Cholae-
bus who lives in that city.
23. And after nine days more there is Saphar, the
metropolis, in which lives Charibael, lawful king of
two tribes, the Homerites and those living next to
them, called the Sabaites; through continual embassies
and gifts, he is a friend of the Emperors.
24. The market-town of Muza is without a har-
bor, but has a good roadstead and anchorage because
of the sandy bottom thereabouts, where the anchors
hold safely. The merchandise imported there consists
31
of purple cloths, both fine and coarse; clothing in the
Arabian style, with sleeves; plain, ordinary, embroi-
dered, or interwoven with gold; saffron, sweet rush,
muslins, cloaks, blankets (not many), some plain and
others made in the local fashion; sashes of different
colors, fragrant ointments in moderate quantity, wine
and wheat, not much. For the country produces grain
in moderate amount, and a great deal of wine. And
to the King and the Chief are given horses and sump-
ter-mules, vessels of gold and polished silver, finely
woven clothing and copper vessels. There are exported
from the same place the things produced in the coun-
try: selected myrrh, and the Gebanite-Minaean stacte,
alabaster and all the things already mentioned from
Avalites and the far-side coast. The voyage to this
place is made best about the month of September, that
is Thoth; but there is nothing to prevent it even earlier.
25. After sailing beyond this place about three
hundred stadia, the coast of Arabia and the Berber
country about the Avalitic gulf now coming close to-
gether, there is a channel, not long in extent, which
forces the sea together and shuts it into a narrow strait,
the passage through which, sixty stadia in length, the
island Diodorus divides. Therefore the course through
it is beset with rushing currents and with strong winds
blowing down from the adjacent ridge of mountains.
Directly on this strait by the shore there is a village of
Arabs, subject to the same chief, called Ocelis; which
is not so much a market-town as it is an anchorage and
watering-place and the first landing for those sailing
into the gulf.
26. Beyond Ocelis, the sea widening again toward
32
the east and soon giving a view of the open ocean, after
about twelve hundred stadia there is Eudaemon Arabia,
a village by the shore, also of the Kingdom of Chari-
bael, and having convenient anchorages, and watering-
places, sweeter and better than those at Ocelis; it lies at
the entrance of a bay, and the land recedes from it.
It was called Eudaemon, because in the early days of
the city when the voyage was not yet made from India
to Egypt, and when they did not dare to sail from
Egypt to the ports across this ocean, but all came to-
gether at this place, it received the cargoes from both
countries, just as Alexandria now receives the things
brought both from abroad and from Egypt. But not
long before our own time Charibael destroyed the
place.
27. After Eudaemon Arabia there is a continuous
length of coast, and a bay extending two thousand stadia
or more, along which there are Nomads and Fish-Eaters
living in villages; just beyond the cape projecting from
this bay there is another market-town by the shore,
Cana, of the Kingdom of Eleazus, the Frankincense
Country; and facing it there are two desert islands,
one called Island of Birds, the other Dome Island, one
hundred and twenty stadia from Cana. Inland from
this place lies the metropolis Sabbatha, in which the
King lives. All the frankincense produced in the
country is brought by camels to that place to be stored,
and to Cana on rafts held up by inflated skins after the
manner of the country, and in boats. And this place
has a trade also with the far-side ports, with Barygaza
and Scythia and Ommana and the neighboring coast
of Persia.
33
28. There are imported into this place from Egypt
a little wheat and wine, as at Muza; clothing in the
Arabian style, plain and common and most of it spuri-
ous; and copper and tin and coral and storax and other
things such as go to Muza; and for the King usually
wrought gold and silver plate, also horses, images, and
thin clothing of fine quality. And there are exported
from this place, native produce, frankincense and aloes,
and the rest of the things that enter into the trade of
the other ports. The voyage to this place is best made
at the same time as that to Muza, or rather earlier.
29. Beyond Cana, the land receding greatly, there
follows a very deep bay stretching a great way across,
which is called Sachalites; and the Frankincense Coun-
try, mountainous and forbidding, wrapped in thick
clouds and fog, and yielding frankincense from the
trees. These incense-bearing trees are not of great
height or thickness; they bear the frankincense stick-
ing in drops on the bark, just as the trees among us in
Egypt weep their gum. The frankincense is gathered
by the King's slaves and those who are sent to this ser-
vice for punishment. For these places are very un-
healthy, and pestilential even to those sailing along the
coast; but almost always fatal to those working there,
who also perish often from want of food.
30. On this bay there is a very great promontory
facing the east, called Syagrus; on which is a fort for
the defence of the country, and a harbor and storehouse
for the frankincense that is collected; and opposite this
cape, well out at sea, there is an island, lying between
it and the Cape of Spices opposite, but nearer Syagrus:
it is called Dioscorida, and is very large but desert and
34
marshy, having rivers in it and crocodiles and many
snakes and great lizards, of which the flesh is eaten and
the fat melted and used instead of olive oil. The island
yields no fruit, neither vine nor grain. The inhabitants
are few and they live on the coast toward the north,
which from this side faces the continent. They are
foreigners, a mixture of Arabs and Indians and Greeks,
who have emigrated to carry on trade there. The island
produces the true sea-tortoise, and the land-tortoise, and
the white tortoise which is very numerous and prefer-
red for its large shells; and the mountain-tortoise, which
is largest of all and has the thickest shell; of which the
worthless specimens cannot be cut apart on the under
side, because they are even too hard; but those of value
are cut apart and the shells made whole into caskets
and small plates and cake-dishes and that sort of ware.
There is also produced in this island cinnabar, that
called Indian, which is collected in drops from the
trees.
31. It happens that just as Azania is subject to
Charibael and the Chief of Mapharitis, this island is
subject to the King of the Frankincense Country.
Trade is also carried on there by some people from
Muza and by those who chance to call there on the
voyage from Damirica and Barygaza; they bring in
rice and wheat and Indian cloth, and a few female
slaves; and they take for their exchange cargoes, a
great quantity of tortoise-shell. Now the island is
farmed out under the Kings and is garrisoned.
32. Immediately beyond Syagrus the bay of Omana
cuts deep into the coast-line, the width of it being six
hundred stadia; and beyond this there are mountains,
35
high and rocky and steep, inhabited by cave-dwellers
for five hundred stadia more; and beyond this is a port
established for receiving the Sachalitic frankincense;
the harbor is called Moscha, and ships from Cana call
there regularly; and ships returning from Damirica
and Barygaza, if the season is late, winter there, and
trade with the King's officers, exchanging their cloth
and wheat and sesame oil for frankincense, which lies
in heaps all over the Sachalitic country, open and un-
guarded, as if the place were under the protection of
the gods; for neither openly nor by stealth can it be
loaded on board ship without the King's permission;
if a single grain were loaded without this, the ship could
not clear from the harbor.
33. Beyond the harbor of Moscha for about fifteen
hundred stadia as far as Asich, a mountain range runs
along the shore; at the end of which, in a row, lie
seven islands, called Zenobian. Beyond these there is
a barbarous region which is no longer of the same
Kingdom, but now belongs to Persia. Sailing along
this coast well out at sea for two thousand stadia from
the Zenobian Islands, there meets you an island called
Sarapis, about one hundred and twenty stadia from the
mainland. It is about two hundred stadia wide and six
hundred long, inhabited by three settlements of Fish-
Eaters, a villainous lot, who use the.Arabian language
and wear girdles of palm-leaves. The island produces
considerable tortoise-shell of fine quality, and small sail-
boats and cargo-ships are sent there regularly from
Cana.
34. Sailing along the coast, which trends north-
ward toward the entrance of the Persian Sea, there are
36
many islands known as the Calaei, after about two
thousand stadia, extending along the shore. The in-
habitants are a treacherous lot, very little civilized.
35. At the upper end of these Calaei islands is a
range of mountains called Calon, and there follows not
far beyond, the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where there
is much diving for the pearl-mussel. To the left of
the straits are great mountains called Asabon, and to
the right there rises in full view another round and
high mountain called Semiramis; between them the
passage across the strait is about six hundred stadia; be-
yond which that very great and broad sea, the Persian
Gulf, reaches far into the interior. At the upper end
of this Gulf there is a market-town designated by law,
called Apologus, situated near Charax Spasini and the
River Euphrates.
36. Sailing through the mouth of the Gulf, after
a six-days' course there is another market-town of Persia
called Ommana. To both of these market-towns large
vessels are regularly sent from Barygaza, loaded with cop-
per and sandalwood and timbers of teakwood and logs
of blackwood and ebony. To Ommana frankincense is
also brought from Cana, and from Ommana to Arabia
boats sewed together after the fashion of the place;
these are known as madarata. From each of these
market-towns, there are exported to Barygaza and also
to Arabia, many pearls, but inferior to those of India;
purple, clothing after the fashion of the place, wine, a
great quantity of dates, gold and slaves.
37. Beyond the Ommanitic region there is a coun-
try also of the Parsidae, of another Kingdom, and the
bay of Gedrosia, from the middle of which a cape juts
37
out into the bay. Here there is a river affording an
entrance for ships, with a little market-town at the
mouth, called Oraea; and back from the place an in-
land city, distant a seven days' journey from the sea, in
which also is the King's court; it is called (prob-
ably Rhambacia). This country yields much wheat,
wine, rice and dates; but along the coast there is
nothing but bdellium.
38. Beyond this region, the continent making a
wide curve from the east across the depths of the bays,
there follows the coast district of Scythia, which lies
above toward the north; the whole marshy; from
which flows down the river Sinthus, the greatest of all
the rivers that flow into the Erythraean Sea, bringing
down an enormous volume of water; so that a long
way out at sea, before reaching this country, the water
of the ocean is fresh from it. Now as a sign of ap-
proach to this country to those coming from the sea,
there are serpents coming forth from the depths to meet
you; and a sign of the places just mentioned and in
Persia, are those called grace. This river has seven
mouths, very shallow and marshy, so that they are not
navigable, except the one in the middle; at which by
the shore, is the market-town, Barbaricum. Before it
there lies a small island, and inland behind it is the me-
tropolis of Scythia, Minnagara; it is subject to Parthian
princes who are constantly driving each other out.
39. The ships lie at anchor at Barbaricum, but all
their cargoes are carried up to the metropolis by the
river, to the King. There are imported into this mar-
ket a great deal of thin clothing, and a little spurious;
figured linens, topaz, coral, storax, frankincense, vessels
38
of glass, silver and gold plate, and a little wine. On
the other hand there are exported costus, bdellium,
lycium, nard, turquoise, lapis lazuli, Seric skins, cotton
cloth, silk yarn, and indigo. And sailors set out thither
with the Indian Etesian winds, about the month of
July, that is Epiphi: it is more dangerous then, but
through these winds the voyage is more direct, and
sooner completed.
40. Beyond the river Sinthus there is another gulf,
not navigable, running in toward the north; it is called
Eirinon; its parts are called separately the small gulf
and the great; in both parts the water is shallow, with
shifting sandbanks occurring continually and a great
way from shore; so that very often when the shore is
not even in sight, ships run aground, and if they at-
tempt to hold their course they are wrecked. A prom-
ontory stands out from this gulf, curving around from
Eirinon toward the East, then South, then West, and
enclosing the gulf called Baraca, which contains seven
islands. Those who come to the entrance of this bay
escape it by putting about a little and standing further
out to sea; but those who are drawn inside into the
gulf of Baraca are lost; for the waves are high and very
violent, and the sea is tumultuous and foul, and has
eddies and rushing whirlpools. The bottom is in some
places abrupt, and in others rocky and sharp, so that
the anchors lying there are parted, some being quickly
cut off, and others chafing on the bottom. As a sign
of these places to those approaching from the sea there
are serpents, very large and black; for at the other
places on this coast and around Barygaza, they are
smaller, and in color bright green, running into gold.
39
41. Beyond the gulf of Baraca is that of Barygaza
and the coast of the country of Ariaca, which is the be-
ginning of the Kingdom of Nambanus and of all India.
That part of it lying inland and adjoining Scythia is
called Abiria, but the coast is called Syrastrene. It is
a fertile country, yielding wheat and rice and sesame
oil and clarified butter, cotton and the Indian cloths
made therefrom, of the coarser sorts. Very many
cattle are pastured there, and the men are of great stat-
ure and black in color. The metropolis of this country
is Minnagara, from which much cotton cloth is brought
down to Barygaza. In these places there remain even
to the present time signs of the expedition of Alexander,
such as ancient shrines, walls of forts and great wells.
The sailing course along this coast, from Barbaricum
to the promontory called Papica, opposite Barygaza,
and before Astacampra, is of three thousand stadia.
42. Beyond this there is another gulf exposed to
the sea-waves, running up toward the north, at the
mouth of which there is an island called Baeones; at
its innermost part there is a great river called Mais.
Those sailing to Barygaza pass across this gulf, which
is three hundred stadia in width, leaving behind to their
left the island just visible from their tops toward the
east, straight to the very mouth of the river of Barygaza;
and this river is called Nammadus.
43. This gulf is very narrow to Barygaza and very
hard to navigate for those coming from the ocean; this
is the case with both the right and left passages, but
there is a better passage through the left. For on the
right at the very mouth of the gulf there lies a shoal,
long and narrow, and full of rocks, called Herone,
40
facing the village of Cammoni; and opposite this on
the left projects the promontory that lies before Asta-
campra, which is called Papica, and is a bad anchorage
because of the strong current setting in around it and
because the anchors are cut off, the bottom being rough
and rocky. And even if the entrance to the gulf is
made safely, the mouth of the river at Barygaza is found
with difficulty, because the shore is very low and cannot
be made out until you are close upon it. And when
you have found it the passage is difficult because of the
shoals at the mouth of the river.
44. Because of this, native fishermen in the King's
service, stationed at the very entrance in well-manned
large boats called trappaga and cotymba, go up the
coast as far as Syrastrene, from which they pilot vessels
to Barygaza. And they steer them straight from the
mouth of the bay between the shoals with their crews;
and they tow them to fixed stations, going up with the
beginning of the flood, and lying through the ebb at
anchorages and in basins. These basins are deeper
places in the river as far as Barygaza; which lies
by the river, about three hundred stadia up from the
mouth.
45. Now the whole country of India has very many
rivers, and very great ebb and flow of the tides; in-
creasing at the new moon, and at the full moon for
three days, and falling off during the intervening days
of the moon. But about Barygaza it is much greater,
so that the bottom is suddenly seen, and now parts of
the dry land are sea, and now it is dry where ships were
sailing just before; and the rivers, under the inrush
of the flood tide, when the whole force of the sea is
41
directed against them, are driven upwards more strongly
against their natural current, for many stadia.
46. For this reason entrance and departure of ves-
sels is very dangerous to those who are inexperienced or
who come to this market-town for the first time. For
the rush of waters at the incoming tide is irresistible,
and the anchors cannot hold against it; so that large
ships are caught up by the force of it, turned broadside
on through the speed of the current, and so driven on
the shoals and wrecked; and smaller boats are over-
turned; and those that have been turned aside among
the channels by the receding waters at the ebb, are left
on their sides, and if not held on an even keel by props,
the flood tide comes upon them suddenly and under
the first head of the current they are filled with water.
For there is so great force in the rush of the sea at the
new moon, especially during the flood tide at night,
that if you begin the entrance at the moment when the
waters are still, on the instant there is borne to you at
the mouth of the river, a noise like the cries of an army
heard from afar; and very soon the sea itself comes rush-
ing in over the shoals with a hoarse roar.
47. The country inland from Barygaza is inhabited
by numerous tribes, such as the Arattii, the Arachosii,
the Gandaraei and the people of Poclais, in which is
Bucephalus Alexandria. Above these is the very war-
like nation of the Bactrians, who are under their own
king. And Alexander, setting out from these parts,
penetrated to the Ganges, leaving aside Damirica and
the southern part of India; and to the present day an-
cient drachmae are current in Barygaza, coming from
this country, bearing inscriptions in Greek letters, and
42
the devices of those who reigned after Alexander,
Apollodotus and Menander.
48. Inland from this place and to the east, is the
city called Ozene, formerly a royal capital; from this
place are brought down all things needed for the wel-
fare of the country about Barygaza, and many things
for our trade: agate and carnelian, Indian muslins and
mallow cloth, and much ordinary cloth. Through
this same region and from the upper country is brought
the spikenard that comes through Poclais; that is, the
Caspapyrene and Paropanisene and Cabolitic and that
brought through the adjoining country of Scythia;
also costus and bdellium.
49. There are imported into this market-town,
wine, Italian preferred, also Laodicean and Arabian;
copper, tin, and lead; coral and topaz; thin clothing
and inferior sorts of all kinds; bright-colored girdles a
cubit wide; storax, sweet clover, flint glass, realgar, an-
timony, gold and silver coin, on which there is a profit
when exchanged for the money of the country; and
ointment, but not very costly and not much. And for
the King there are brought into those places very costly
vessels of silver, singing boys, beautiful maidens for the
harem, fine wines, thin clothing of the finest weaves,
and the choicest ointments. There are exported from
these places spikenard, costus, bdellium, ivory, agate
and carnelian, lycium, cotton cloth of all kinds, silk
cloth, mallow cloth, yarn, long pepper and such other
things as are brought here from the various market-
towns. Those bound for this market-town from Egypt
make the voyage favorably about the month of July,
that is Epiphi.
43
50. Beyond Barygaza the adjoining coast extends
in a straight line from north to south; and so this re-
gion is called Dachinabades, for dachanos in the lan-
guage of the natives means "south." The inland
country back from the coast toward the east comprises
many desert regions and great mountains; and all kinds
of wild beasts—leopards, tigers, elephants, enormous
serpents, hyenas, and baboons of many sorts; and many
populous nations, as far as the Ganges.
51. Among the market-towns of Dachinabades
there are two of special importance; Paethana, distant
about twenty days' journey south from Barygaza; be-
yond which, about ten days' journey east, there is
another very great city, Tagara. There are brought
down to Barygaza from these places by wagons and
through great tracts without roads, from Paethana car-
nelian in great quantity, and from Tagara much com-
mon cloth, all kinds of muslins and mallow cloth, and
other merchandise brought there locally from the re-
gions along the sea-coast. And the whole course to
the end of Damirica is seven thousand stadia; but the
distance is greater to the Coast Country.
52. The market-towns of this region are, in order,
after Barygaza: Suppara, and the city of Calliena, which
in the time of the elder Saraganus became a lawful
market-town; but since it came into the possession of
Sandares the port is much obstructed, and Greek ships
landing there may chance to be taken to Barygaza
under guard.
53. Beyond Calliena there are other market-towns
of this region; Semylla, Mandagora, Pala?patmae, Meli-
zigara, Byzantium, Togarum and Aurannoboas. Then
44
there are the islands called Sesecrienae and that of the
Aegidii, and that of the Caenitae, opposite the place
called Chersonesus (and in these places there are pirates),
and after this the White Island. Then come Naura
and Tyndis, the first markets of Damirica, and then
Muziris and Nelcynda, which are now of leading im-
portance.
54. Tyndis is of the Kingdom of Cerobothra; it
is a village in plain sight by the sea. Muziris, of the
same Kingdom, abounds in ships sent there with car-
goes from Arabia, and by the Greeks; it is located on
a river, distant from Tyndis by river and sea five
hundred stadia, and up the river from the shore twenty
stadia. Nelcynda is distant from Muziris by river and
sea about five hundred stadia, and is of another King-
dom, the Pandian. This place also is situated on a
river, about one hundred and twenty stadia from the
sea.
55. There is another place at the mouth of this
river, the village of Bacare; to which ships drop down
on the outward voyage from Nelcynda, and anchor in
the roadstead to take on their cargoes; because the
river is full of shoals and the channels are not clear.
The kings of both these market-towns live in the in-
terior. And as a sign to those approaching these places
from the sea there are serpents coming forth to meet
you, black in color, but shorter, like snakes in the
head, and with blood-red eyes.
56. They send large ships to these market-towns
on account of the great quantity and bulk of pepper and
malabathrum. There are imported here, in the first
place, a great quantity of coin; topaz, thin clothing, not
45
much; figured linens, antimony, coral, crude glass,
copper, tin, lead; wine, not much, but as much as at
Barygaza; realgar and orpiment; and wheat enough
for the sailors, for this is not dealt in by the merchants
there. There is exported pepper, which is produced
in quantity in only one region near these markets, a
district called Cottonara. Besides this there are ex-
ported great quantities of fine pearls, ivory, silk cloth,
spikenard from the Ganges, malabathrum from the
places in the interior, transparent stones of all kinds,
diamonds and sapphires, and tortoise-shell; that from
Chryse Island, and that taken among the islands along
the coast of Damirica. They make the voyage to this
place in a favorable season who set out from Egypt
about the month of July, that is Epiphi.
57. This whole voyage as above described, from
Cana and Eudaemon Arabia, they used to make in small
vessels, sailing close around the shores of the gulfs; and
Hippalus was the pilot who by observing the location
of the ports and the conditions of the sea, first discov-
ered how to lay his course straight across the ocean.
For at the same time when with us the Etesian winds
are blowing, on the shores of India the wind sets in
from the ocean, and this southwest wind is called Hip-
palus, from the name of him who first discovered the
passage across. From that time to the present day ships
start, some direct from Cana, and some from the Cape
of Spices; and those bound for Damirica throw the
•ship's head considerably off the wind; while those
bound for Barygaza and Scythia keep along shore not
more than three days and for the rest of the time hold
the same course straight out to sea from that region,
46
with a favorable wind, quite away from the land, and
so sail outside past the aforesaid gulfs.
58. Beyond Bacare there is the Dark Red Mountain,
and another district stretching along the coast toward
the south, called Paralia. The first place is called Balita;
it has a fine harbor and a village by the shore. Beyond
this there is another place called Comari, at which
are the Cape of Comari and a harbor; hither come
those men who wish to consecrate themselves for the
rest of their lives, and bathe and dwell in celibacy; and
women also do the same; for it is told that a goddess
once dwelt here and bathed.
59. From Comari toward the south this region
extends to Colchi, where the pearl-fisheries are; (they
are worked by condemned criminals); and it belongs
to the Pandian Kingdom. Beyond Colchi there fol-
lows another district called the Coast Country, which
lies on a bay, and has a region inland called Argaru.
At this place, and nowhere else, are bought the pearls
gathered on the coast thereabouts; and from there are
exported muslins, those called Argaritic.
60. Among the market-towns of these countries,
and the harbors where the ships put in from Damirica
and from the north, the most important are, in order
as they lie, first Camara, then Poduca, then Sopatma;
in which there are ships of the country coasting along
the shore as far as Damirica; and other very large ves-
sels made of single logs bound together, called sangara;
but those which make the voyage to Chryse and to the
Ganges are called colandia, and are very large. There
are imported into these places everything made in Da-
mirica, and the greatest part of what is brought at any
47
time from Egypt comes here, together with most kinds
of all the things that are brought from Damirica and
of those that are carried through Paralia.
61. About the following region, the course trend-
ing toward the east, lying out at sea toward the west is
the island Palaesimundu, called by the ancients Tapro-
bane. The northern part is a day's journey distant,
and the southern part trends gradually toward the west,
and almost touches the opposite shore of Azania. It
produces pearls, transparent stones, muslins, and tor-
toise-shell.
62. About these places is the region of Masalia
stretching a great way along the coast before the inland
country; a great quantity of muslins is made there.
Beyond this region, sailing toward the east and crossing
the adjacent bay, there is the region of Dosarene, yield-
ing the ivory known as Dosarenic. Beyond this, the
course trending toward the north, there are many bar-
barous tribes, among whom are the Cirrhad^e, a race
of men with flattened noses, very savage; another tribe,
the Bargysi; and the Horse-faces and the Long-faces,
who are said to be cannibals.
63. After these, the course turns toward the east
again, and sailing with the ocean to the right and the
shore remaining beyond to the left, Ganges comes into
view, and near it the very last land toward the east,
Chryse. There is a river near it called the Ganges,
and it rises and falls in the same way as the Nile. On
its bank is a market-town which has the same name as
the river, Ganges. Through this place are brought
malabathrum and Gangetic spikenard and pearls, and
muslins of the finest sorts, which are called Gangetic.
48
w
It is said that there are gold-mines near these places,
and there is a gold coin which is called caltis. And
just opposite this river there is an island in the ocean,
the last part of the inhabited world toward the east,
under the rising sun itself; it is called Chryse; and it
has the best tortoise-shell of all the places on the Ery-
thraean Sea.
64. After this region under the very north, the sea
outside ending in a land called This, there is a very
great inland city called Thinae, from which raw silk
and silk yarn and silk cloth are brought on foot through
Bactria to Barygaza, and are also exported to Dami-
rica by way of the river Ganges. But the land of
This is not easy of access; few men come from there,
and seldom. The country lies under the Lesser B6ar,
and is said to border on the farthest parts of Pontus and
the Caspian Sea, next to which lies Lake Maeotis; all
of which empty into the ocean.
65. Every year on the borders of the land of This
there comes together a tribe of men with short bodies
and broad, flat faces, and by nature peaceable; they
are called Besatae, and are almost entirely uncivilized.
They come with their wives and children, carrying
great packs and plaited baskets of what looks like green
grape-leaves. They meet in a place between their own
country and the land of This. There they hold a feast
for several days, spreading out the baskets under them-
selves as mats, and then return to their own places in
the interior. And then the natives watching them
come into that place and gather up their mats; and
they pick out from the braids the fibers which they call
petri. They lay the leaves closely together in several
49
layers and make them into balls, which they pierce
with the fibers from the mats. And there are three
sorts; those made of the largest leaves are called the
large-ball malabathrum; those of the smaller, the me-
dium-ball; and those of the smallest, the small-ball.
Thus there exist three sorts of malabathrum, and it is
brought into India by those who prepare it.
66. The regions beyond these places are either
difficult of access because of their excessive winters
and great cold, or else cannot be sought out because
of some divine influence of the gods.
50
NOTES
(Numerals refer to paragraphs similarly numbered in the text.)
Title. PeriplllS was the name applied to a numerous class of
writings in Roman times, which answered for sailing-chart and trav-
eler's hand-book. The title might be rendered as "Guide-Book to
the Erythraean Sea."
Title. Erythraean Sea was the term applied by Greek and Ro-
iman geographers to the Indian Ocean, including its adjuncts, the Red
Sea and the Persian Gulf. Erythra means Red, so that the modern
name perpetuates the ancient; but we are assured by Agatharchides
that it means, not Red Sea, but Sea of King Erythras, following a
Persian legend.
The following is the account given by Agatharchides of the origin
of the name: (De Mart Erythrceo, § 5.)
"The Persian account is after this manner. There was a man
famous for his valor and wealth, by name Erythras, a Persian by
birth, son of Myozaeus. His home was by the sea, facing toward
islands which are not now desert, but were so at the time of the em-
pire of the Medes, when Erythras lived. In the winter-time he used
to go to Pasargadae, making the journey at his own cost; and he in-
dulged in these changes of scene now for profit, and now for some
pleasure of his own life. On a time the lions charged into a large
flock of his mares, and some were slain; while the rest, unharmed
but terror-stricken at what they had seen, fled to the sea. A strong
wind was blowing from the land, and as they plunged into the waves
in their terror, they were carried beyond their footing; and their fear
continuing, they swam through the sea and came out on the shore of
the island opposite. With them went one of the herdsmen, a youth
of marked bravery, who thus reached the shore by clinging to the
shoulders of a mare. Now Erythras looked for his mares, and not
seeing them, first put together a raft of small size, but secure in the
strength of its building; and happening on a favorable wind, he
pushed off into the strait, across which he was swiftly carried by the
waves, and so found his mares and found their keeper also. And
then, being pleased with the island, he built a stronghold at a place
well chosen by the shore, and brought hither from the main-land op-
posite such as were dissatisfied with their life there, and subsequently
51
settled all the other uninhabited islands with a numerous population;
and such was the glory ascribed to him by the popular voice because
of these his deeds, that even down to our own time they have called
that sea, infinite in extent, Erythraean. And so, for the reason here
set forth, it is to be well distinguished (for to say Erythra thalatta, Sea
of Erythras, is a very different thing from Thalatta erythra. Red Sea);
for the one commemorates the most illustrious man of that sea, while
the other refers to the color of the water. Now the one explanation
of the name, as due to the color, is false (for the sea is not red), but
the other, ascribing it to the man who ruled there, is the true one,
as the Persian story testifies."
Here is manifestly a kernel of truth, referring, however, to a
much earlier time than the Empire of the Medes and their capital
Pasargadae. It suggests the theory of a Cushite-Elamite migration
around Arabia, as set forth by Glaser and Hommel: the story of a
people from Elam, who settled in the Bahrein Islands and then spread
along South Arabia, leaving their epithet of "Red" or "ruddy" in
many places, including the sea that washed their shores and floated
their vessels: "Sea of the Red People," or, according to Agathar-
chides, "of the Red King." See under §§ 4, 23 and 27.
1. Designated ports.—Trade was limited to ports of entry
established, or, as the text has it, designated" by law, and super-
vised by government officials who levied duties. There were many
such ports on the Red Sea under the Ptolemies. There were also
ports of entry maintained by the NabataeanKingdom, by the Homerite
Kingdom in Yemen, and by the newly-established Kingdom of the
Axumites; the latter, possibly, farmed to Egyptian Greeks, now Ro-
man subjects.
Eabricius objects to "designated," and translates "frequented,"
thereby straining the meaning of the word and losing its obvious de-
scription of historical facts.
Under the early Ptolemies, who succeeded Alexander the Great,
Egypt went far toward recovering her former wealth and glory. Under
Ptolemy II, called Philadelphus (B. C. 285-246) the canal between
the Nile and the Red Sea (originally dug by one of the Sesostrises,
about the 20th century B. C, reopened under the Empire in the 15th
century, and partly reopened by the Persians under Darius in the 5th
century), was once more open to commerce; various caravan-routes,
carefully provided with wells and stopping-places, were opened be-
tween the river and the sea, and where they terminated ports of entry
were established and colonized. Egyptian shipping on the Red Sea
was encouraged, and regular trade was opened with the Sabaeans of
52
South Arabia, and the tribes of the Somali coast. The names of all
these ports, and a description of this newly-created commerce, in
terms of romantic enthusiasm, are given by Agatharchides in his work
on the Erythraean Sea. At the time of this Periplus, the remain-
ing settlements seem to be Arsinoe, Myos-hormus, Berenice, Ptolemais
and Adulis. The other places mentioned by Agatharchides had
probably lost their importance as the Egyptian ships ventured farther
beyond the straits and frequented the richer markets that fringed the
Gulf of Aden.
1. Mussel Harbor (Myos-hormus), is identified with the bay
within the headland now known as Ras Abu Somer, 27° 12' N.,
35° 557 E. It was founded by Ptolemy Philadelphia B. C. 274.
He selected it as the principal port of Egyptian trade with India, in
preference to Arsinoe (near the modern Suez), which was closer to
the Egyptian capital, but difficult of access because of the bad passage
through the upper waters of the Red Sea. Myos-hormus was distant
six or seven days from Coptos on the Nile, along a road opened
through the desert by Ptolemy Philadelphus. Strabo (XVII, I, 45)
says "at present Coptos and Myos-hormus are in repute, and they
are frequented. Formerly the camel-merchants traveled in the night,
directing their course by observing the stars, and, like mariners, car-
ried with them a supply of water. But now watering-places are pro-
vided; water is also obtained by digging to a great depth, and rain-
water • is found although rain rarely falls, which is also collected in
reservoirs." Coptos is the modern Koft, in the bend of the Nile.
Vessels bound for Africa and Southern Arabia left Myos-hormus
about the autumnal equinox, when the N. W. wind then prevailing
carried them quickly down the gulf. Those bound for India or Cey-
lon left in July, and if they cleared the Red Sea before the first of
September they had the monsoon to assist their passage across the
ocean.
1. Sailing.—The ship used by the author of the Periplus prob-
ably did not differ very materially from the types created in Egypt long
before, as depicted in the reliefs of the Punt Expedition in the Der-el-
Bahri temple at Thebes, and elsewhere. By the first century A. D.
the single square sail, with two yards, each much longer than the
height of the sail, which distinguished the shipping of the 15th century
B. C, had been modified by omitting the lower yard and by increas-
ing the height of the mast; while a triangular topsail had.come into
general use. The artimon or sloping foremast, later developed into a
bowsprit, was not generally used, even in the Mediterranean, until
the 2d century. The accompanying illustration of a modern Burmah
S3

( From a sketch by R. T. Pritchrtt. )
trader, which perpetuates in many ways the shipbuilding ideas of an-
cient Egypt, probably gives a better idea of our author's ship than any
of the Greek or Roman coins or reliefs, which were all of Mediter-
ranean shipping, built for different conditions and purposes.
In the Indian Ocean navigation depended on the trade-winds,
and voyages were timed so that the ship could run before the wind in
either direction, without calling the rudder into much use. This was
at the quarter, the steersman plying the tiller from his station high in
stern, overlooking the whole vessel.
Hippalus' discovery of the periodicity of the trade-winds, described
in § 57, carried with it a knowledge of steering the boat somewhat
off the wind, to reach a destination farther south than the straight
course would make possible. This was done partly by the rudder,
but largely by shifting the yard.
54
The lateen sail, as exemplified in the Arab dhow, the Bombay
kotia, and so on, came into use about the 4th century B. C, but was
used by Arab and Hindu, rather than Egyptian or Greek.
See Chatterton: Sailing Ships and their Story: Torr: Ancient Ships; Holmes:
Ancient and Modern Ships; Pritchett: Sketches of Shipping and Craft; Lindsay:
History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce; Charnock: History oj Ma-
rine Architecture; Jal: Arch'eologie Na^vale.
1. Stadia.—Three stadia were in use in the Roman world at
this time,—the Phileterian of 525 to the degree, the Olympic of 600,
and that of Eratosthenes, of 700. Reduced to English measure this
would make the Phileterian stadium equivalent to about 650 feet, the
Olympic about 600 feet, and that of Eratosthenes about 520 feet.
The stadium of the Periplus seems to be that of Eratosthenes. Gen-
erally speaking, ten stadia of the Periplus to the English statute mile
would be a fair calculation. But it must not be forgotten that all
distances named in this text are approximations, based principally on
the length of time consumed in going from place to place, which
naturally varied according to direction of the wind and current, of
sailing-course, and other factors as well. The distance is generally
given in round numbers; and without any means of arriving at an
exact calculation, the figures in the text can be considered only as
approximations.
According to the system of measurement laid down by Ptolemy,
the circumference of the earth was estimated at 180,000 stadia, with
500 stadia to the degree.
The true length of the degree is 600 stadia.
The Olympic or standard Greek stadium (being the length of
the race-course at Olympia), was 600 Greek feet, or 8 to the Roman
mile. There was a later stadium of which 7/2 went to the Roman
mile (1000 paces, 4854 English feet). This, the Phileterian stadium,
survived in Arabic science, and thence in the calculations of mediaeval
Europe; being very nearly the English furlong.
According to Col. Leake's calculations,
1 Olympic stadium = 606.75 English feet.
10" "=6067.50"
1 Nautical mile =6075.50"
1 Admiralty knot =6086.50
or, by Clarke's measurement, 6087.11
Therefore,
10 Olympic stadia = 1 minute of the equator.
600 = 1 degree
55
1 Roman mile = 1000 passus= 4854 English feet.
1 Old English mile = 1000 paces = 5090"
1 Modern Statute" = 5280"
75 Roman miles = 1 degree.
(or 75.09 to be exact).
4 Roman miles = 19,416 ft., English = 1 marine league.
The earth's circumference = 21,600 nautical miles, or
= 24,874 to 25,020 statute miles.
A degree on the equator = 69.1 to 69.5 statute miles.
The Tordesillas geographers, in 1494, gave 21.625 leagues to
the equatorial degree. They were wrong, but followed Eratosthenes,
who made the globe l-16th larger than it really is.
Vespucci, following Ptolemy and Alfragan, figured 6000 leagues,
or 24,000 Roman miles, as the measure of the earth's circumference;
so that dividing by 360, 16/^ leagues made a degree.
Columbus, following various Arabian geographers, made the
degree 56/^ miles, or W% leagues.
All this confusion goes back to some deduction based on Ptolemy.
By 1517, according to Navarrete, the valuation of 17/4 leagues
to the degree had become general. At the treaty of Zaragoza, in
1529, that ratio was admitted on both sides.
The correct figure is very close to 11% leagues.
All ancient calculations were based on dead reckoning. The
log-line did come into use until 1521.
See Vivien de Saint-Martin, Le Nord de P Afrique dans /''Antiquite grecque et
romaine. Paris, 1863: p. 197.
Samuel Edward Dawson: The Line of Demarcation of Pope Alexander VI,
and that of the Treaty of Tordesillas, in Transactions of the Royal Society of
Canada, 1899: Vol. V. § 2, pp. 467 ff.
1. Berenice (named for the mother of Ptolemy Philadelphus),
is identified with Umm-el-Ketef Bay, below Ras Benas, 23° 55' N.
and about 35° 34/ E. It is 258 Roman miles, or 11 days, from
Coptos, by a road across the desert. There are ruins still visible, even
the arrangement of streets being clear; in the center is a small
Egyptian temple with hieroglyphics and bas-reliefs of Greek workman-
ship. There is a fine natural harbor, but the bar is now impassable
at low water; and Strabo (XVI, IV, 6) mentions dangerous rocks
and violent winds from the sea.
At the time of this Periplus, Berenice seems to have been the
leading port of Egypt for the Eastern trade, and was probably the.
home of the author.
56
2. Berber Country.—This word means more than the "land
of the barbarians," and seems, like our modern Barbary States," to
refer to the Berber race, as representing the ancient Hamitic stock of
North Africa.
The name itself seems to be foreign to the people, and is prob-
ably related to the Arabic bar, a desert; and its application to North
Africa recalls that ancient race-opposition about the Gulf of Aden,
when the Red Men, or ruddy people, overcame the children of the
desert"; who spread over all North Africa and carried the name with
them, submitting time after time to similar Semitic conquests, Phoe-
nician, Carthaginian or Saracen.
The occurrence of the name throughout North Africa is re-
markable. We have the modern Somali port of Berbera, the Nile
town and district of Berber (and its inhabitants, the Barbara, Barbe-
rins or Barbarins, who appear in the ancient Theban inscriptions as
Beraberata); the Barbary States, the modern Berbers or Kabyles;
and at the western extremity, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, still
another tribe calling themselves Berabra.
The ancient Egyptians extended the word to include the meanings
of savage and outlander, or public enemies in general; and from them
the Greeks took the word into their own language, with like mean-
ings.
The Berbers of the Periplus probably included the ancestors of
the Bejas between the Nile and Red Sea, the Danakils between the
Upper Nile, Abyssinia and the Gulf of Aden, and the Somals and
Gallas.
2. Cave-Dwelling Fish-Eaters, Wild-Flesh-Eaters,
Calf-Eaters.—The original names, Ichthyophagi (Troglodytae),
Agriophagi, Moschophagi, add nothing to our ethnic knowledge, being
merely appellations given by the Greeks; and they are therefore
translated. These tribes are represented by the modern Bisharins.
"Calf-Eaters" seems to mean eaters after the style of calves, i. e. of
-green things, rather than eaters of calves. Some commentators would
replace Agriophagi by Acridophagi, locust-eaters.
2. Meroe was the final capital of the Kingdom of Nubia. It
became the royal seat about 560 B. C. and continued as such until a
few years after this Periplus, when the kingdom, worn out by con-
tinued attacks by the tribes of the desert and the negroes of the Sudan,
fell to pieces. It was located on the Nile, below the 6th cataract,
but just within the fertile region that begins above the confluence of
the Atbara; and is identified with the modern Begerawiyeh, about
16° 55' N.
57
The early Kingdom of Egypt comprised the Nile delta and the
fertile valley of the river as far as the 1st cataract, the modern Assuan.
Here a narrow gorge made the stream impassable for boats, and
formed a natural barrier. Above Assuan the desert hugs the river
close until above the 5th cataract, when it gives place to open fertile
country. Between the island of Elephantine and Assuan, and the
site of Meroe, the distance is about 480 miles in a direct line, and by
the river about 1000 miles. This narrow strip of river-bed was Nubia
proper. The Atbara, flowing into the Nile some 40 miles below
Meroe, rises in northern Abyssinia or Tigre; at Khartum, about 150
miles above Meroe, the river branches again; the Blue Nile flowing
down from the mountains of Central Abyssinia or Amhara, and the
White Nile from the Nyanza lakes. These regions were more or
less subject to Nubia at different periods, but their population varied
greatly. The Abyssinian highlands were peopled by a Hamitic stock
originally related to the Egyptians as well as to the still uncivilized
tribes of the eastern and western desert, but with a mixture of negro
blood and a strong strain of Arabian origin. The upper reaches of
the Nile were peopled by various negro tribes, entirely distinct from
Egyptian or Berber. From the mouth of the Red Sea there was a
regular trade-route across the Tigre highlands to the Atbara River and
so to the Nile; and other routes reached Meroe from the Sudan and
Uganda. Thence the products of trade found their way down-stream
to Elephantine, beyond which no negro was permitted to go. Here
was the market for all Egypt, and the modern town, Assuan, repeats
its history, as the very name means ''market." From the Sudan
came gold, ebony and ivory, panther skins and ostrich feathers; from
the Nubian desert east of the Nile, gold; from the Red Sea across
the Tigre, myrrh, frankincense, and various fragrant woods and resins:
all of which were in constant demand for the Egyptian treasury and
the service of the temples, and provided a constant reason for Egyp-
tian control of this important avenue of commerce.
In the early period of the Egyptian nation the power centered in
the Delta, but a loose control seems to have been maintained between
the 1st and 2d cataracts over tribes appearing in the inscriptions as
"Wa-wat," probably negroes. During the prosperous period of the
Old Kingdom, between the 30th and 25th centuries B. C, the river-
routes were kept in order, and Egyptian ships sailed the Red Sea as
far as the myrrh-country. Then came a period of disorder and the
fall of the Delta dynasties, followed in the 22d century by the rise of
the Theban or Middle Kingdom, the dynasties of the Amenemhets
and Sesostrises. These kings fully conquered the river tribes to the
58
2d cataract, as well as the "Nubian troglodytes" of the eastern desert,,
where they developed the gold-mines that added so much to their
wealth and power. In this period, from the 22d to the 18th cen-
turies B. C., the name "Cush" first appears in the inscriptions, indi-
cating, as Glaser thought, a migration overland to the Nile by the wan-
dering Cushite-Elamite tribes who had left their home at the head of
the Persian Gulf some 300 years previously, and who, after settling
in the incense-producing regions of Southern Arabia and Somaliland,
whence they had opened trade with Mesopotamia, had now traced
the same trade to its other great market in Egypt. The name "Ciish''
seems to have included not only the Nile valley between the 3d and
and 6th cataracts, but much of the highlands. These people, appar-
ently a mongrel race, were held in great contempt by the Egyptians,
whose annals contain numerous references such as the following:
"Impost of the wretched Cush: gold, negro slaves, male and
female; oxen, and calves; bulls; vessels laden with ivory, ebony,
all the good products of this country, together with the harvests of
this country."
After the fall of the Xllth dynasty, 1788 B. C, came a period
of feudal disorder, followed by an invasion from Arabia and a foreign
dynasty, the Hyksos, probably Minaean Beduins. This was ended
by the expulsion of the Arabs and the establishment of the Empire
under the XVIIIth dynasty (1580-1350 B. C). These great Pha-
raohs carried the Egyptian arms to their widest extent, from Asia Minor
to the 4th cataract and possibly even farther south. The collapse of
the Empire at the death of Rameses III (1167 B. C.) left Nubia still
Egyptian. Invasions from the west resulted in a series of Libyan
dynasties, which began, under Sheshonk or Shishak I, by reasserting
sovereignty over Syria and by plundering the temple of Solomon and
the treasures of the newly-established Kingdom of Israel; but the
latter part of this administration was so inefficient that Theban princes
established in Nubia separated from Egypt and formed a new king-
dom, now called Ethiopia (indicating a growing Arabian settlement),
with capital at Napata, below the 4th cataract (the modern Gebel
Barkal), subsequently invading Egypt and establishing their power
over the whole valley, from 722 to 663 B. C. Then came the As-
syrian invasions, first by Esarhaddon and then the definite conquest of
Egypt proper by Assurbanipal in 661 B. C. The ruin of Thebes is
vividly described by the prophet Nahum (III, 8-10). The Nubians
withdrew to Napata. There they were attacked by the restored
power of Egypt under Psammetichus II, and about 560 B. C, trans-
ferred their capital to Meroe; a much better location, less open to
59
attack from the north, in a fertile region instead of a narrow gorge in
the desert, and in the direct path of the rapidly-growing immigration
and trade from the south and east. Here they checked the army of
Cambyses, which made Egypt a Persian province in 525 B. C. The
capital fell into his hands for a time, but the country was not sub-
dued. The conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, 332 B. C.,
left them undisturbed; and with his successors, the Ptolemies, they
maintained an increasing commerce, notwithstanding the active policy
then pursued to assert Egyptian supremacy in the Red Sea. (See Breasted: A History of Egypt. N. Y., 1905.) In 30 B. C. Egypt became a Roman province and the Nubians
met a different foe. Their queen, Candace, attacked the Egyptians,
and a punitive expedition by Petronius destroyed their power. (Strabo,
XVII, 1, 54.) Gradually the enfeebled kingdom was engulfed by
the tribes of the desert; and Pliny, whose Natural History was
completed in 77 A. D., notes that of a long list of cities and towns
above Philae, described a century before, Nero's embassy in 67 A. D.
could find hardly a trace, and that the capital itself, Meroe, was but a
collection of a few wretched huts. National decay had done its work;
and the few remnants left from the attacks of the Berbers had joined
the new "Kingdom of the Axumites" in the highlands to the south-
east.
In later times, under the Byzantine Empire, Nubia again became
a center of culture and prosperity. Its new capital, the modern Khar-
tum, became a leader in Christian thought, and maintained its influ-
ence even after the Saracens had overrun Egypt; only finally to
repeat history by being utterly destroyed by a new irruption from the
desert, under the spur of Islam, and to leave again to the Abyssinian
highlands the defence of what remained of its Monophysite Christianity.
Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, II, 9) has an account of a war
of the Egyptians against the Ethiopians, under the command of Moses.
The Ethiopians were finally driven back into their capital, Saba, "to
which city Cambyses afterwards gave the name of Meroe, in compli-
ment to his sister .... it being situated at the conflux of the rivers
Astaphus and Astabora with the Nile.'' The city was finally delivered
up to the Egyptians as the condition of Moses' marriage with the
Ethiopian King's daughter Tharbis, who had fallen in love with him.
Aside from the obvious anachronisms in this story, one fact is of
interest: the name of the capital, Saba, indicates that Nubia was
ruled, if not mainly peopled, by Arabs, who had followed the ancient
trade-routes from the mouth of the Red Sea.
Glaser (Punt und die sudarabischen Reiche, 42-3) notes that Napata
60
also is a Semitic name, probably Nabat, allied to Nabatu of the Assy-
rian inscriptions, to Nebaioth (son of Ishmael), and to the later
Nabataeans of § 19.
Herodotus (II, 8) refers to the "mountain of Arabia" extending
from north to south along the Nile, stretching up to the Erythraean
Sea, and says that at its greatest width from east to west it is a two-
months' journey; and that "eastward its confines produce frankin-
cense." Here also is an indication of the connection of Nubia with
Somaliland, confirmed by the pompous titles of the later Cushite kings
in Meroe (Ed. Meyer: Geschichte Aegyptens, 359): "Kings of the
four quarters of the world and of the nine distant peoples.''
3. Ptolemais.—This is identified with Er-rih island, 18° 9' N.,
38° 27' E., the southern portion of the Tokar delta. It was fortified
by Ptolemy Philadelphus (B. C. 285-246), and became the center of
the elephant-trade. Being situated near the Nubian forest, where ele-
phants abounded, its location was very favorable. The Egyptians had
formerly imported their elephants from Asia; but the cost was high
and the supply uncertain, and Ptolemy sent his own hunters to Nubia,
against the will of the inhabitants, to obtain a nearer supply.
From very early times there was a trade-route from the Red Sea
to the Nile at this point, terminating near Meroe, and corresponding
closely to the railway recently built between Berber on the Nile and
Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
3. Adulis.—The present port is Massowa, center of the
Italian colony of Eritrea, which lies near the mouth of the bay of
Adulis. The ancient name is preserved in the modern village of
Zula. The location has been described by J. Theodore Bent, (&-
cred City of-the Ethiopians, London, 1896: pp. 228-230). It is on
the west side of Annesley Bay, and numerous black basalt ruins are
still visible there. Adulis was one of the colonies of Ptolemy Phila-
delphus, and was always of commercial importance because it was the
natural port for Abyssinia and the Sudan. It seems to have been
built by Syrian Greeks. Here was the famous inscription reciting the
conquests of Ptolemy Euergetes (B. C. 247-223) with an addition
by Aizanas, or El Abreha, King of Abyssinia about 330 A. D., for a
copy of which we are indebted to the Christian Topography of Cosmas
Indicopleustes.
4. Coloe.—The ruins of Coloe were found by Bent at Kohaito,
{Sacred City of the Ethiopians, Chap. XII). It is a large flat plateau
many miles in extent, high above the surrounding country (7000 feet)
and thus cool and comfortable. It seems to have been the main set-
tlement, and Adulis the trading-post, which was inhabited no more
61
than necessary because of its hot climate. There is a fine dam, 219
feet long, and in one place 74 feet 4 inches above bed-rock, with
sluice-gates 5 feet 3 inches wide; the whole built of large cut stones
without mortar. When in use a large lake would have formed.
There are numerous ruins of stone temples and dwellings; the ar-
chitecture resembling that at Adulis, apparently Ptolemaic Greek.
7^he town covered many acres.
Glaser thinks Kohaito is too near Adulis to be the ancient Coloe;
but he seems to overlook the stiff climb up the mountain, which would
naturally take longer in proportion than the subsequent road over the
table-land.
The name Coloe, Glaser notes (Punt uncidie sudarabischen Reiche, 23) is the same as the Arabic Kala'a, (which appears in the Adulis
inscription of King Aizanas), and is derived from the same source as
the Calaei Islands and Calon mountains in southeastern Arabia (in
S§ 34-5). He derives the Alalaei Islands in this § 4 from the same
tribal name, Kalhat, via Halahila.
4. Ivory.—In the inscriptions of Harkhuf, an Assuan noble
under King Mernere of the Vlth Dynasty (B. C. 2600) gccurs the
first definite record of ivory as a commercial article in Egypt.
"I descended (from the country of Yam, southern Nubia) with
300 asses laden with incense, ebony, grain, panthers, ivory, throw-
sticks, and every good product. I was more vigilant than any
caravan-conductor who had been sent to Yam before." (Breasted:
Ancient Records of Egypt, I, 336. )
There are numerous records of the receipt of ivory, in commerce
and as tribute, under the XVIIIth Dynasty; coming from Tehenu
(Libya, but cf. the Tenessis of Strabo); Punt (Somaliland), God's
Land (S. W. Arabia), Gnbti (vicinity of Kuria Muria Islands), Cush
(Nubia), the South Countries, Retenu (Syria) and Isy (Cyprus).
Also articles made of ivory: chairs, tables, chests, statues, and whips.
Similar records occur under the XlXth and XXth dynasties; the
latter, in the Papyrus Harris, being an item in a list of gifts of Ra-
meses III to the god Ptah.
King Solomon's throne was of ivory, overlaid with gold; and
his "navy of Tharshish" brought him the ivory every three years,
together with gold and silver, apes and peacocks (I Kings X, 18-22).
4. Cyeneum is the modern Sennaar—Eastern Sudan.
4. City of the people called Auxumites.—This is the
first known reference to the city of Axum, and serves very nearly to
fix the date of its foundation. Pliny and other writers of this period
mention the Asachae living south of Meroe and known as elephant-
62
hunters; and their stronghold, Oppidum Saca, probably the same
settlement as Axum. Bion speaks of Asachae five days from the sea,
and Ptolemy locates a "city of the Sacae" in the Tigre highlands, but
has no knowledge of Axum. Pliny (VI, 34) also speaks of the Ascitae
who brought myrrh and frankincense to South Arabia on their rafts
supported on inflated skins, and suggests a derivation of the name from
askos, bladder; but both names reproduce rather the mountainous
coast of South Arabia, east of Hadramaut, called Hasik (Asich in
§ 33 of the Periplus), and there is evidently an ethnic and geographic
connection between Hasik, the Asachae or Ascitae, and Axum.
Axum, the ancient capital and sacred city of the kingdom we call
Abyssinia, is still the place of coronation for its kings. Abyssinia is
the Latinized form of Habash, while its people call themselves Itio-
pyavan, Hellenized into Aethiopians. Habash is translated by modern
Arabs as "mixture," while Herodotus explained Aethiopia as "land
of the sunburned faces/' each explanation being, probably, incorrect.
The Habashat appear likewise along the eastern terraces of South
Arabia (Mahra) where they were the dominant race for several cen-
turies before the Christian era. Pausanias (de Situ Gracia, VI, 26-9),
speaks of a "deep bay of the Erythraean Sea, having islands, Abasa
and Sacaea" (probably Kuria Muria, Masira, and Socotra) ; the Roman
writers mention an Abissa Polis in this region, and Stephanus of By-
zantium says "beyond the Sabaeans are the Chatramotitae (Hadra-
maut) and the Abaseni." From the Egyptian inscriptions we learn
that one of the Punt-people visited in their trading voyages was called
Hbsti, and dwelt, apparently, not only in Mahra, but also in Socotra
and Eastern Somaliland.
Glaser derives the name Habash from a Mahri word, meaning
"gatherers." Synonymous with this is Aethiopian or Itiopyavan,
which he derives from atyob, "incense;" and it is significant that even
in the time of the Periplus their ancient home in Mahra was still the
''Frankincense Country." As 'gatherers of incense,'' then, we have
the mission of the Asachae or Axumites. This people, like their prede-
cessors from the same region, the Cushites who traded with Babylon
and Thebes, a branch of whom, "intermarrying with the natives"
(Periplus, § 16), helped found the Nubian Kingdom, and like the
Punt or Poen-people of the Theban inscriptions, left their settle-
ments in Mahra, Socotra and Somaliland (the true frankincense
country) and migrated westward, settling finally in the Tigre high-
lands, where for the first time they established an enduring power.
But their migration was different from the others, in that it was due
to warfare and oppression rather than trade.
63
In the 3d century B. C. the Habashat or ''gatherers'' were
supreme in their "incense-lands," and their allies and, perhaps, rela-
tives, the Sabaeans, worked with them in the spice and incense trade
to Egypt, then at the height of its power under the Ptolemies. The
prosperity of the trade is attested by Agatharchides. The Habashat
held Socotra and Cape Guardafui, and much of the East African
coast. But the succeeding centuries were turbulent. In order along
the south Arabian coast, from west to east, were the Homerites
(Himyar), the Sabaeans, Hadramaut, Kataban, and the Habashat.
Beyond were tribes under Persian influence. With the establishment
of the Parthian, or Arsacid, empire, came a wave of conquest by the
Parthians throughout eastern Arabia. Almost simultaneously came
the African campaigns of Ptolemy Euergetes, said to have reached
Mosyllum on the Somali coast (Periplus, § 10). The two incense-
lands were hard hit. Then came the conquest of Kataban by
Hadramaut and a threatening policy by Himyar against the Sabaeans.
Glaser has edited an inscription telling of an alliance of Djadarot,
King of the Habashat, with three successive kings of Saba, for mutual
protection against Hadramaut and Himyar. This dates from about
75 B. C. Isidorus of Charax Spasini, writing in the time of Augustus,
mentions a chief of the Omanites in the Incense-Country, named
Goaisos (cf. the language of the Habashat, Geex) who was apparently
of the same race. But very soon afterward the Parthians renewed
their attack from the East; Himyar overthrew Saba and demolished
its port, and Hadramaut moved on Habash. Egypt was in a bad way,
and the Romans who were taking over its government were encour-
aging a direct sea-trade from India, receiving Indian embassies, and
breaking up the system which had so long closed the Arabian gulf to
Indian shipping. Despoiled of their incense-terraces in Arabia and of
their commercial activities at Guardafui, the Habashat sought a new
home; and in the Tigre highlands built their stronghold, the Op-
pidum Saca?, which soon became the city of Axum. It lay across
the natural trade-route from India to Egypt; from Adulis, the sea-
port, to the Atbara River, was no great journey, and through a fertile
country instead of the desert to the north. Here, then, so long as
the "Berbers" of the lowlands could be dominated, a state could
flourish; and hence the picture of its King Zoscales in § 5, "miserly
in his ways and always striving for more.'' For six centuries the new
kingdom of Abyssinia kept up its alliance with Rome and Constanti-
nople against its ancient enemies the Homerites, and their allies the
Parthians and Persians. The kingdom grew apace, and twice it over-
ran southern Arabia; and not until the later Mohammedan conquests
(A
was its power broken and its people shut up in their mountains, there
to preserve, for hundreds of years unknown to the outside world,
their Monophysite Christianity.
The Abyssinian Chronicles make Zoscales at the time of the
Periplus, the successor of a long line of kings at Axum. Tt is probable
that Habashat had frequented the country for a century before, as tbe
power of Egypt receded, but as colonists rather than state-builders,
until driven from Arabia; and that most of Zoscales' predecessors
were local chiefs and not tribal kings. The final migration Glaser
places not far from the Christian era.
The Abyssinians were converted to Christianity about 330 A. D.
Before that time their strongest outside influence may have been
Buddhism. James Fergusson (History of Architecture^ I, 142-3) notes
<ff>

Monoliths at Axum
that the great monolith at Axum is of Indian inspiration; "the idea
Egyptian, but the details Indian. An Indian nine-storied pagoda,
translated in Egyptian in the first century of the Christian era!" He
notes its likeness to such Indian temples as Bodh-Gaya, and says it
represents "that curious marriage of Indian with Egyptian art which
we would expect to find in the spot where the two people came in
65
contact, and enlisted architecture to symbolize their commercial
union." Such an alliance was to the advantage of the Hindu traders.
The Homerites stopped their vessels at Ocelis on the Arabian shore
(Periplus, 8 25), taking their cargoes thence to Egypt by caravan;
here was a new power that allowed them to trade to Avalites and
Adulis, and even to march overland and take their wares to Egypt
themselves. Ujjeni and Bharukacha, Axum and Alexandria were in
close connection during the first and second Christian centuries, and

Temple of Bodh-Gaya, India, dating from early in
the 6th century
the ooserver of the early relations between Buddhism and Christianity
may find along this frequented route greater evidence of mutual influ-
ence than along the relatively obstructed overland routes through
Parthia to Antioch and Ephesus. By the third century, with the
decline of Rome, the growth of Antioch and Byzantium, and the fall
of the Arsacid dynasty, the tendency would be the other way.
66
See Glaser: Die Abessinier in Arabien und Afrika, Munich, 1895. (A
masterly marshaling of inscriptions in support of his thesis, above summarized.)
Punt und die s'udarabischen Reiche, Berlin, 1899; Sfozze der Geschichte und
Geographie Arabie?is, Berlin, 1890,- Dillmann: Geschichte des Axumitischen Reiches,
in Kon. Preuss. Akad. d. Wissenchaften, Berlin, 1880. For the interrelation
between Buddhism and early Christianity, and the historical causes leading thereto,
see Edmunds: Buddhist and Christian Gospels nonv first compared from the
originals, Philadelphia (4th edition), 1908.
4. Alalaei Islands.—These preserve the name, being called
Dahalak. They lie at the entrance to Annesley Bay.
5. Bay of the Opsian Stone.—This is identified with
HauakilBay, north of RasHanfilah, 14° 44'N., 40° 49' E. "Hanfilah"
is Amphila, the Antiphili Portus of Artemidorus.
Pliny (op. cit. XXXVI, 67) says the obsian stone (as he spells
it) of Aethiopia was very dark, sometimes transparent, but dull to the
sight, and reflected the shadow rather than the image. It was used in
his day for jewelry and for statues and votive offerings.
It was used by the Emperor Domitian to face a portico, so that
from the reflections on the polished surface he might detect any one
approaching from behind.
It seems to have been a volcanic glass, feldspar in a more or less
pure state, and the same as our obsidian.
It was found also, according to Pliny, in India, at Samnium in
Italy, and in Portugal; and it was extensively imitated in glass.
Henry Salt (A Voyage into Abyssinia, pp. 190-4), describes his visit
to the Bay of the Opsian stone, which was marked by a hill, near
which he ''was delighted with the sight of a great many pieces of a
black substance, bearing a very high polish, much resembling glass,
that lay scattered about on the ground at a short distance from the sea;
and I collected nearly a hundred specimens of it, most of which were
two, three, or four inches in diameter. One of the natives told me
that a few miles farther in the interior, pieces are found of much larger
dimensions. This substance has been analyzed since my return to
England and found to be true obsidian."
5. Coast subject to Zoscales.—Col. Henry Yule in his
Marco Polo, II, 434, says "To the 10th century at least, the whole
coast-country of the Red Sea, from near Berbera probably to Suakin,
was still subject to Abyssinia. At this time we hear only of 'Musal-
man families' residing in Zeila and the other ports and tributary to the
Christians." (See also Mas' udi, III, 34.)
5. Zoscales.—Salt (op. cit. 460-5) identifies this name with Za
Hakale, which appears in the Abyssinian Chronicles. The reign is
said to have lasted 13 years, and Salt fixes the dates as 76 to 89 A. D.
67
But he admits (p. 460) that "no great dependence can be placed''
upon the Chronicles.
The list begins with "Arwe, the serpent/' who reigned 400
years; Za Beesi Angaba, 200; Zagdur, 100; Zazebass Besedo, 50;
Zakawasya b'Axum,l; Za Makeda, 50; "in her 4th year she went
to Jerusalem, and after her return reigned 25 years." Then comes
Menilek, 29; followed by 15 others, 91 years 2 months; then Za
Baesi Bazen, 16 years, "and in the eighth year of his reign Christ
was born." Then follow 7 names, 68 years, and Za Hakale, 13;
then 15 more names, 227 years 4 months, and Aizanas (el Abreha),
and Saizanas (el Atzbeha), 26 years 6 months, "and.in the 13th year
of this reign Christianity was introduced," and so on.
If Za Makeda was the Queen of Sheba who visited King
Solomon in the 10th century B. C, there are evidently great omis-
sions before Za Baesi Bazen, whose reign is said to have begun in 8
B. C. And Salt was obliged to move Aizanas and Saizanas from their
places in the Chronicle, and to advance them 130 years, in order to
make them tally with their Axum and Adulis inscriptions, and the cor-
respondence known to have been carried on between them and the Ro-
man Emperors Constantine and Constantius. Therefore Za Hakale's
place in the list, in the absence of confirming evidence, can hardly
fix the date of the Periplus, as proposed by Miiller. More probable
is it that, like Salt's Aizanas, he must be advanced in the Chronicle to
meet known facts. By moving him up three places in the line his
accession is brought to 59 A. D., a very probable date.
The Abyssinian Chronicle was composed some time after the
conversion of the people to Christianity. Its earlier portions are,
therefore, mere tradition; and two versions of it which Salt examined
during his visit to that country were found to differ materially.
The reigns in the first Christian century, as given by Salt, are as
follows:
Za Baesi Bazen, 16 years, 0 months
Za Senatu,
26"
0
c <
Za Les,
10"
0
< c
Za Masenh,
6"
0
i i
Za Sutuwa,
9"
0
6 i
Za Adgaba,
10"
6
l i
Za Agba,
0"
6
< i
Za Malis,
6"
0
. c
Za Hakale,
13"
0
C (
Za Demahe,
10"
0
C C
Za Awtet,
2"
0
( (
68
The Za prefix, recalling the Dja of Glaser's Arabian inscriptions,
gives way in the 3d century to a long list beginning with El, indicating
perhaps a change of dynasty from the Habash stock to the Sabaean.
6. Egyptian cloth.—This was linen, made from flax.
6. Arsinoe was at the head of the Heroopolite Gulf, corre-
sponding to the modern Suez, but now some distance inland owing
to the recedence of the Gulf. It was named for the favorite wife of
Ptolemy Philadelphus. At one time it was important commercially,
as an entrepot for the Eastern trade; and while it soon lost that posi-
tion, it continued for centuries to be a leading industrial center, par-
ticularly in textiles.
6. Glass.—Pliny {op. at. XXXVI, 65) says that glass-making
originated in Phoenicia, and that the sand of the river Belus was long
the only known material suitable for the industry. He attributes the
discovery for the process to the wreck of a ship laden with nitre on
this shore, and the accidental subjection of nitre and sand to heat as
the merchants set caldrons on the beach to cook their food. Later
the Phoenicians applied themselves to the industry; and their experi-
ments led to the use of manganese and other substances, and to an
advanced stage of perfection in the product.
In Pliny's time a white sand at the mouth of the river Volturnus
was much used in glass-making. It was mixed with three parts of
nitre and fused into a mass called hammo-nitrum; which was sub-
jected to fusion a second time, and then became pure white glass.
Throughout Gaul and Spain a similar process was used, and this was
doubtless the process used in Egypt, as mentioned in the Periplus.
The color was added in the second fusion, after which the glass
was either blown, turned or engraved.
6. Murrhine.—See the note to .§ 49. It was probably agate
and carnelian from the Gulf of Cambay; but was extensively imitated
in glass by the Phoenicians and Egyptians. The murrhine mentioned
here was evidently a cheap trading product, probably colored glass.
6. Diospolis (City of God) was probably Thebes, the me-
tropolis of the Egyptian Empire—the modern Karnak. This was its
name under the Ptolemies and Romans. There was another Dios-
polis in Egypt, mentioned by Strabo; it was in the Nile delta, above
the Sebennytic mouth; but it was not of great importance. Still
another, known as Diospolis Parva, was on the Nile some distance
below Coptos. The greater Diospolis—Diospolis Magna—was a
center of commerce and industry, being no great way above Coptos>
from which the caravans started for Berenice.
69
As illustrating the fame of that city, Strabo quotes Homer {Iliad
IX, 383) "with her hundred gates, through each of which issues two
hundred men with horses and chariots." The prophet Nahum (III,
8-10) draws another picture of the city after its capture by the Assyr-
ians: "populous No (or No-Amon, City of God) that was situate
among the rivers, that had the waters round about it . . . . Ethiopia
and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim
(Cyrene and Libya) were thy helpers. Yet was she carried away,
she went into captivity; her young children also were dashed in pieces
at the top of all the streets; and they cast lots for her honourable
men, and all her great men were bound in chains."
6. Brass.—The Greek word is orcichalcos, "mountain-copper,"
which Pliny {op. cit. XXXIV, 2) makes into a hybrid, as aurichalcum, golden copper; brass, a yellow alloy, as distinguished from pure copper
or the darker alloys. Pliny describes it as an ore of copper long in
high request, but says none had been found for a long time, the earth
having been quite exhausted. It was used for the sestertium and double
as, the Cyprian copper being thought good enough for the as.
Oreichalch seems to have been a native brass obtained by smelting
ores abundant in zinc; the Roman metallurgy did not distinguish zinc
as a separate metal.
Mines yielding such ores were held in the highest estimation, and
their exhaustion was deeply regretted, as in the case of the "Corin-
thian brass." But later it was found by accident that the native earth,
calamine, an impure oxide of zinc, added to molten copper, would imitate the true oreichalch; and this the Romans did without under-
standing what the earth was, just as they used native oxide of cobalt
in coloring glass without knowing the metal cobalt.
(See Pliny XXXVII, 44, and Beckmann, History of Inventions,
11,32-3.)
Philostratus of Lemnos, about 230 A. D., mentions a shrine in
Taxila in which were hung pictures on copper tablets representing the
feats of Alexander and Poms. "The various figures were portrayed
in a mosaic of orichalcum, silver, gold, and oxidized copper, but the
weapons in iron. The metals were so ingeniously worked into one
another that the pictures which they formed were comparable to the
productions of the most famous Greek artists" (McCrindle: Ayicient
India, 192).
The Greek word is effectively used by Oscar Wilde in his poem
The Sphinx:
the God of the Assyrian,
Whose wings, like strange transparent talc, rose high above his hawk-faced head,.
Painted with silver and with red and ribbed with rods of oreichalch.
70
6. Sheets of soft copper.—The text is "honey-copper."
That the metallurgy of Roman days included a fusion with honey or
other organic substances, such as cow's blood, to produce greater
ductility, has been asserted, but not proven. Muller makes a more
plausible suggestion, that this was ductile copper in thin sheets, and
was called honey-copper" because the sheets were shaped like
honey-cakes. Ductile copper in Roman times generally meant an
alloy with 5 to 10 per cent of lead.
6. Iron.—Pliny (op. cit. XXXIV, 39-46) speaks of iron as "the
most useful and most fatal instrument in the hand of man." The ore,
he says, is found almost everywhere; "even in the Isle of Elba." It
is worked like copper, and its quality depends somewhat on the water
into which the red-hot metal is plunged. Bilbilis and Turiasso in
Spain, and Comum in Italy, are distinguished for the use of their
waters in smelting. The best iron is that made by the Seres, "who
send it to us with their tissues and skins." Next to this in quality
is the Parthian iron. In all other kinds the metal is alloyed, that is,
.apparently, the ore is impure.
6. Coats of skin. The text is kaunakai.—Originally these
were of rough skins with the hair left on; later they were imitated in
Mesopotamia by a heavy woolen fabric, suggesting the modern frieze
overcoat, which was largely exported. It is not known which is
meant here.
6. Ariaca.—This is the northwest coast of India, especially
around the Gulf of Cambay; the modern Cutch, Kathiawar and
Gujarat. As the name indicates, it was at the time of the Periplus
one of the strongholds of the Indo-Aryan races, and incidentally of
Buddhism, the religion then dominant among them.
6. Indian iron and steel.—Marco Polo (Yule ed. I, 93)
Book I, chap. XVII, mentions iron and ondanique in the markets of
Kerman. Yule interprets this as the andanic of Persian merchants
visiting Venice, an especially fine steel for swords and mirrors, and
derives it from hundwaniy "Indian" steel.
Kenrick suggests that the "bright iron" of Ezekiel XXVII, 19,
must have been the same.
Ctesias mentions two wonderful swords of such material which
he had from the King of Persia.
Probably this was also the ferrum candidum of which the Malli
and Oxydracae sent 100 talents' weight as a present to Alexander.
Ferrum indicum also appears in the lists of dutiable articles under
Marcus Aurelius and Commodus.
71
Salmasius notes a Greek chemical treatise "On the tempering
of Indian steel.''
Edrisi says "The Hindus excel in the manufacture of iron.
They have also workshops .wherein are forged the most famous sabres
in the world. It is impossible to find anything to surpass the edge
that you get from Indian steel.''
6. Cotton.—Sanscrit, karpasa; Hebrew, carpas; Greek, kar-
pasos; Latin, carbasm—the seed-fibers of Gossypium herbaceum and G.
arboreum (order, Malvacea) native in India, and woven into cloth by
the natives of that country before the dawn of history. The facts
concerning it have been admirably stated by Mr. R. B. Handy in The
Cotton Plant, a report of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, issued
in 1896. Cotton thread and cloth are repeatedly mentioned in the
laws of Manu, 800 B. C. Professor A. H. Sayce in his Hibbert
Lectures shows ground for the belief that it was exported by sea to the
head of the Persian Gulf in the 4th millennium B. C.; and it found
its way very early to Egypt. Herodotus describes it as a wool, better
than that of sheep, the fruit of trees growing wild in India.
The manufacture of cotton cloth was at its best in India until
very recent times, and the fine Indian muslins were in great demand
and commanded high prices, both in the Roman Empire and in
Mediaeval Europe. The industry was one of the main factors in the
wealth of ancient India, and the transfer of that industry to England
and the United States, and the cheapening of the process by mechani-
cal ginning, spinning and weaving, is perhaps the greatest single factor
in the economic history of our own time.
Pliny and Pollux state that cotton was grown in Egypt in their
time (1st and 2nd centuries A. D.), how extensively is unknown.
It was also grown in the island of Tylos in the Persian Gulf, and
according to Theophrastus, in Arabia; and the Periplus confirms this
by mentioning it as an article of export from Ommana.
Cotton seems also to have been grown in Syria, Cilicia and
Palestine; and the fiber known to Josephusas chedbn, Hebrew, kcionct-
Arabic, kufn, (the same sound appears in Phoenician, Syrian and
Chaldee), was perhaps cotton. Movers states that the inhabitants of
Palestine before the Hebrew migration made use of cotton, and that
the Phoenicians exported Syrian cotton cloth to Sabaea.
Pausanias describes cotton as growing in Elis, in Achaea, and
says that it was made into cloth by the women of Patrae; but this
could not have been an extensive industry. It was quite certainly not
produced or woven in Italy during Roman days.
Any generalizations based on the Arabic kut'n or the Greek
72
karpasos are uncertain, because those words were applied also to Max,
which was in very general use in all the Mediterranean countries.
It is noteworthy that the word used in the Periplus is uniformly
othonion, meaning simply * 'cloth," but usually cotton cloth; while the
himatismos, translated as ''clothing," was very likely cloth in suitable
lengths to be worn as tobe or toga.
6. Monache cloth.—Vincent says cloth ''singularly fine," and
for sagmatogene would read "the sort used for stuffing" (from sasso,
to stuff; sagma, a saddle) being the down from the tree-cotton, Gossyp-
ium arboreum. But these words may be Greek corruptions of some
Indian trade-names for different grades or dyes of cloth, as to the
particulars of which we cannot determine.
Fabricius alters monache to molochine because of the occurrence
of the same word in the following line, and makes a similar alteration
wherever the word appears in the text, but it is difficult to see just
what is gained.
This '' broad cloth'' was no doubt used for garments such as
the modern Somali "tobe," described by Burton (First Footsteps, p.
29): "It is a cotton sheet eight cubits long, and two breadths sewn
together. It is worn in many ways; sometimes the right arm is
bared; in cold weather the whole person is muffled up, and in sum-
mer it is allowed to fall below the waist. Generally it is passed behind
the back, rests upon the left shoulder, is carried forward over the
breast, surrounds the body, and ends hanging on the left shoulder,
where it displays a gaudy silk fringe of red and yellow. This is the
man's Tobe. The woman's dress is of similar material, but differ-
ently worn; the edges are knotted generally over the right, sometimes
over the left shoulder; it is girdled round the waist, below which
hangs a lappet, which in cold weather can be brought like a hood
over the head. Though highly becoming and picturesque as the
Roman toga, the Somali Tobe is by no means the most decorous of
dresses; women in the towns often prefer the Arab costume—a short-
sleeved robe extending to the knee, and a Futah or loin-cloth under-
neath."
McCrindle, Ancient India, p. 26, notes that India has two dis-
tinct species of cotton, Gossypium herbaceum, and Gossypium arboreum or
tree-cotton. The former only is made into cloth, while the latter
yields a soft and silky texture, which is used for padding cushions,
pillows, etc. Pliny says (XIX, 1) that Upper Egypt also produces
"a shrub bearing a nut from the inside of which wool is got, white
and soft."
73
6. Molochine, or mallow cloth, was a coarse cotton cloth
dyed with a preparation of a variety of the hibiscus native in India.
This purplish cloth must have corresponded closely to the coarse blue
drills still in demand on this coast.
6. Lac.—McCrindle notes that the Sanscrit is laksha, a later
form of raksha, connected with the root ranj, to dye. The Prakrit
form is lakkha. It was used by women for dyeing the nails and feet,
also as a dye for cloth.
The lac insect (Tacbardia Lacca, Kerr) is native in India and
still practically confined to that country.
According to Watt (Commercial Products of India, pp. 1053 ff.),
it yields two distinct products: a dye and a resin. The dye competed
on favorable terms with the Mexican cochineal until both were dis-
placed by manufactured aniline, when the resin shellac again became
more important.
The resin is formed around the young swarms as they adhere to
the trees; the lac being a minute hemipterous insect living on the
plant-juices sucked up by a proboscis.
The dye is taken from the bodies of the females, which assume
a bright red color during the process of reproduction. For a com-
plete account of the product and its uses see Watt.
Of somewhat similar nature to lac was the £ Hermes-berry" pro-
duced on the Mediterranean holm-oak; whence the dye known as
carmesin, cramoisi, .crimson or carmine; or, by another derivation,
scarlet; or, referring to the pupa-stage of the insect, vermiculum or
vermilion.
These insect dyes were used separately, or, associated with murex,
as an element in the so-called "Tyrian purple."
6. Tortoise-shell.—This was a great article of commerce in
the Roman world, being used for small receptacles, ornaments, and
for inlaying furniture and woodwork. It is one of the most fre-
quently-mentioned commodities in the Periplus. The antiquity of
the trade is uncertain, but this seems to be the "shell" brought from
the Land of Punt by Queen Hatshepsut's expedition in the 15th cen-
tury B. C.
6. Rhinoceros.—The horns and the teeth, and probably the
skin, were exported from the coast of Abyssinia, where Bruce found the
hunting of this animal still a trade and described it (Travels, Vol. IV).
7. Avalites is identified with the modern Zeila, 11° 20' N.,
43° 28' E. It is 79 miles from the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. The
ancient name is preserved by the village Abalit, on the north shore of
74
the bay. The Somali tribes call the place Ausal, apparently perpetu-
ating the Ausan of the South Arabian coast; which also at one time
possessed much of the coast of East Africa (called the "Ausanitic
coast" in § 15 of the Periplus). Avalites is thought by Forster {His-
torical Geography of Arabia, Vol. I) to perpetuate the name of Obal,
son of Joktan (Gen. IV) whose name is almost unknown in Arabia;
thus indicating a very early migration of this tribe to the Somali coast.
This name seems also to survive in Obollah at the Euphrates mouth on
the Persian Gulf; which was the Ubulu of the Assyrian inscriptions,
and the Apologus of § 35.
Of Zeila, Ibn Batuta, writing in the 14th century, said: "I then
went from Aden by sea, and after four days came to the city of Zeila.
This is a settlement of the Berbers, a people of Sudan, of the Shafia
sect. Their country is a desert of two months' extent; the first part
is termed Zeila, the last Makdashu. The greatest number of the in-
habitants, however, are of the Rafizah sect. Their food is mostly
camel's flesh and fish. The stench of the country is extreme, as is
also its filth, from the stink of the fish and the blood of the camels
which are slaughtered in its streets."
Zeila is described by Burton {First Footsteps in East Africa, p. 14)
as ''the normal African port—a strip of sulphur-yellow sand, with a
deep blue dome above, and a foreground of the darkest indigo. The
buildings, raised by refraction, rise high, and apparently from the
bosom of the deep. . . . No craft larger than a canoe can ride near
Zeila. After bumping once or twice against the coral reefs, it was
considered advisable for our ship to anchor. My companions put me
into a cockboat, and wading through the water, shoved it to shore.
The situation is a low and level spit of sand, which high tides
make almost an island. There is no harbor; a vessel of 250 tons
cannot approach within a mile of the landing-place; the open road-
stead is exposed to the terrible north wind, and when gales blow from
the west and south it is almost unapproachable. Every ebb leaves a
sandy flat, extending half a mile seaward from the town; the reefy
anchorage is difficult of entrance after sunset, and the coraline bottom
renders wading painful."
Zeila, the nearest port to Harrar in the interior, had, when Bur-
ton wrote, lost the caravan trade to Berbera, owing to the feuds of
its rulers; so that the characteristics of its people had not changed
from the account given in § 7 of the Periplus.
At that time the exports from Zeila were slaves, ivory, hides,
honey, antelope horns, clarified butter, and gums. The coast abounded
in sponge, coral, and small pearls. In the harbor were about twenty
75
native craft, large and small; they traded with Berbera, Arabia, and
Western India, and were navigated by ''Rajput" or Hindu pilots.
Burton (op. cit., pp. 330-1) says again:
4'I repeatedly heard at Zeila and at Harrar that traders had visited
the far West, traversing for seven months a country of pagans wear-
ing golden bracelets, till they reached the Salt Sea upon which Franks
sail in ships. I once saw a traveler descending the Nile with a store
of nuggets, bracelets and gold rings similar to those used as money
by the ancient Egyptians. Mr. Krapf relates a tale current in Abys-
sinia, namely: that there is a remnant of the slave trade between
Guineh (the Guinea coast) and Shoa. Connection between the east
and west formerly existed; in the time of Joao I, the Portuguese
on the river Zaire in Congo learned the existence of the Abyssinian
church. Travelers in Western Africa assert that Fakihs or priests,
when performing the pilgrimage, pass from the Fellatah country
through Abyssinia to the coast of the Red Sea. And it has lately been
proved that a caravan line is open from the Zanzibar coast to Benguela.''
The foregoing, written before modern discovery had altered the
trade of Africa, indicates the same condition as that existing in ancient
history: a well-established trade to Egypt and South Arabia, coming
from tribe to tribe through the heart of Africa, from great distances
West and South.
7. The "Far-side" coast.—According to Burton (op. cit. p.
12) the Somali tribes called their country the Barr el Ajam, which he
translates as "barbarian land," but goes on to explain \\i2XJjam means
all nations not Arab, just as among Egyptians and Greeks "bar-
barian" meant all nations not of their country.
The name seems to apply to the migration and trade from South
Arabia, the tribes who had crossed the gulf at Aden at various periods
of history being referred to by their countrymen as those "of the
farther side/' which our author has rendered into Greek asperatikos
(pera, beyond).
7. Juice Of SOUr grapes.—The text is omphakion. Pliny
says (XII, 60): "Omphacium is a kind of oil obtained from the
olive and the vine—the former is produced by pressing the olive while
still white; the latter from the Aminaean grape, when the size of a
chick-pea, just before the rising of the Dog-star. The verjuice is
put into earthen vessels, and then stored in vessels of Cyprian copper.
The best is reddish, acrid, and dry to the taste. Also the unripe grape
is pounded in a mortar, dried in the sun, and then divided into
lozenges.''
The Aminaean grape he describes in XIV, 4: also a lanata or
76
woolly grape—"so that we not be surprised at the wool-bearing trees
of the Seres or the Indians." These latter were cotton; the former
were mulberry trees with silkworm cocoons bred on them. cf. Virgil,
(Georgics, II, 121.)
Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres.''
Pliny (XXIII, 4) says again: "Omphacium heals ulcerations of
the humid parts of the body, such as the mouth, tonsillary glands, etc.
The powerful action of omphacium is modified by the admixture
of honey or raisin wine. It is very useful, too, for dysentery, spitting
of blood, and quinsy."
And in XXIII, 39: "The most useful of all kinds of oil (other
than olive) is omphacium. It is good for the gums, and if kept from
time to time in the mouth, there is nothing better as a preservative
of the whiteness of the teeth. It checks profuse perspiration."
7. Wheat.—Triticum vulgare, Villars, order Graminece. The
cultivation of wheat, says De Candolle, is prehistoric. It is older
than the most ancient languages, each of which has independent and
definite names for the grain. The Chinese grew it 2700 B. C. It
was grown by the Swiss lake-dwellers about 1500 B. C, and has been
found in a brick of one of the Egyptian pyramids dating from about
3350 B. C.
Originally it was doubtless a wild grass which under cultivation
assumed varying forms. In the early Roman Empire vast quantities
of wheat were raised in Sicily, Gaul, North Africa, and particularly
Egypt, for shipment to Rome. Later a great wheat area was opened
up in what is now Southern Russia, which finally supplanted Egypt
in the markets of Constantinople, after Alexandria and Antioch fell
into Saracen hands. The trade in wheat as described in the Periplus
is interesting. It shows that South Arabia, Socotra and East Africa
had wheat not only from Egypt but also from India, which has not
usually been considered as a wheat country at that time. Watt
{op. cit. p. 1082) thinks wild rice (Oryza coarctata) may have been
intended, but the Periplus distinguishes between wheat and rice as
coming from India. The Hindus might certainly have had the seed
from Egypt and cultivated it, but Watt notes the complete absence,
so far as known, of wild wheat in modern India.
7. Wine.—The fermented juice of Vitis vinifera, Linn., order
Vitacea. The culture of the vine seems to have begun in Asia Minor
and Syria, but within the period of written history it is almost uni-
versal. It introduction was ascribed to the gods: by the Greeks to
Dionysos, the Romans to Bacchus, the Egyptians to Osiris; or in
the case of the Hebrews, to the patriarch Noah. The vine and the
77
olive, requiring continued cultivation from year to year, almost dis-
tinguish settled civilization from nomadic conditions, and the product
of both industries appears in commerce from the earliest times.
The wine of the Damacus valley was an important export in the
time of Ezekiel (XXVII, 18); of the Greek wines the best were
from the Aegean islands and the Asiatic coast near Ephesus (Strabo,
XIV, 1, 15). The Phoenicians carried the vine to Spain, and the
Greeks to southern Gaul. It was unknown in early Italy, but was
fostered by the Roman republic, which restricted imports of foreign
growths, and stimulated exports by restricting viticulture in the prov-
inces. In the valleys of the Seine and Moselle wine was not
produced until the later days of the Roman Empire.
At the time of the Periplus, the popular taste demanded a wine
highly flavored with extraneous substances, such as myrrh and other
gums, cinnamon and salt.
The Periplus tells us that Italian and Laodicean wines were im-
ported into Abyssinia, the Somali Coast, East Africa, South Arabia,
and India. Arabian wine was also carried to India; this may have
included grape-wine from Yemen (§ 24) but was principally date-
wine from the Persian Gulf (§36). Italian wine was preferred to
all others (§ 49). This was from the plain of Campania, in the
vicinity of the modern Naples, whence Strabo tells us (V, VI, 13),
"the Romans procured their finest wines, the Falernian, the Statanian,
and the Calenian. That of Surrentum is now esteemed equal to
these, it having been lately discovered that it can be kept to ripen."
Petronius (Cena Trimalchionis) mentions a Falernian wine which had
been ripened 100 years.
The Laodicean wine was from Laodicea on the Syrian coast,
some 60 miles south of Antioch, the modern Latakia. Strabo (XVI,
II, 9) says: "it is a very well-built city, with a good harbor; the ter-
ritory, besides its fertility in other respects, abounds with wine, of
which the greater part is exported to Alexandria. The whole moun-
tain overhanging the city is planted almost to its summit with vines."
7. Tin.—Hebrew, bedil; Greek, kassiteros; Sanscrit, kasthira;
Latin, stannum. This metal, the product of Galicia and Cornwall,
was utilized industrially at a comparatively late period, having been
introduced after gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, and mercury. It
made its appearance in the Mediterranean world soon after the migra-
tion of the Phoenicians to Syria. The Phoenician traders may have
found it first on the Black Sea coast, coming overland from tribe to
tribe; very soon they discovered the Spanish tin and traced it to its
source, and finally that of Cornwall. The value of tin in hardening
78
copper was soon understood, and the trade was monopolized for cen-
turies by the Phoenicians and their descendants, the Carthaginians.
How carefully they guarded the secret of its production appears in
Strabo's story (III, V, 11) of the Phoenician captain who, finding
himself followed by a Roman vessel on the Atlantic coast of Spain,
ran his ship ashore rather than divulge his destination, and collected
the damage from his government on returning home.
There is much confusion in the early references to this metal,
because the Hebrew bedil (meaning "the departed") was also applied
to the metallic residue from silver-smelting—a mixture of silver, lead,
and occasionally copper and mercury. The same comparison applies
to kassiteros and stannum. Pliny, for example, distinguishes plumbum
nigrum, lead, and plumbum candidum, stannum. Without any definite
basis for determining metals, appearance was often the only guide.
Suetonius (Vitell. VI, 192) says that the Emperor Vitellius took
away all the gold and silver from the temples, (69 A. D.) and sub-
stituted aurichalcum and stannum. This stannum could not have been
pure tin, but rather an alloy of lead, like pewter.
The letters from the King of Alashia (Cyprus), in the Tell-el-
Amarna tablets, indicate the possibility of the use of tin there in the
15th century B. C., and of the shipment of the resultant bronze to
Egypt; and tin, as a separate metal, is thrice mentioned in the Papyrus
Harris, under Rameses III (1198-1167 B. C.). This confirms the
mention of tin in Numbers XXXI, 22. By the time of Ezekiel
(XXVII, 12) it was, of course, well known; here it appears with silver,
iron, and lead, as coming from Spain. The stela of Tanutamon de-
scribes a hall for the god Amon, build by the Pharaoh Taharka at
Napata (688-663 B. C), of stone ornamented with gold, with a tablet
of cedar incensed with myrrh of Punt, and double doors of electrum
with bolts of tin. (Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Vol. IV).
By the Greeks the true tin was understood and extensively used,
and the establishment of their colony of Massilia was largely due to the
discovery of the British metal coming overland to the mouth of the
Rhone. The Romans ultimately conquered both Galicia and Corn-
wall, and then controlled the trade; but to judge from Pliny's ac-
count, their understanding of it was vague.
According to the Periplus, tin was shipped from Egypt to both
Somaliland and India.
Lassen (Indisc/ie Alterthumskunde, lr 249) and Oppert, arguing
from the similarity between the Sanscrit kasthira and the Greek kassi-
teros, would transfer the earliest tin trade to India and Malacca; but
it seems probable that the Sanscrit word was a late addition to the
79
language, borrowed from the Greek with the metal itself; which, as
stated by the Periplus in §§ 49 and 56, came to India from the west. See also Movers, P/wni-zicr, Vol. Ill; Beckmann, op. cit., II,
206-230.
8. Malao is the modern Berbera, 10° 25' N., 45° 5' E. It is
now the leading port of this coast, the capital of British Somaliland,
and the center of the caravan trade to the interior. Glaser (.Skixze,

From Burton: First Footsteps in East Africa.
80
p. 196) would identify it with Bulhar, about 30 miles farther west;
but the description of the ''sheltering spit running out from the east"
in § 8, places it beyond doubt at Berbera, which has just such a spit,
while Bulhar is on the open beach.
Burton (op. cit., pp. 407-418) gives a detailed description of
the town and harbor, of the stream of sweet water flowing into
it, and of the interior trade and the great periodical fair, frequented
by caravans from the interior and by sailing vessels from Yemen, the
South Arabian coast, Muscat, Bahrein and Bassora, and beyond as far
as Bombay; the same trade as that described in § 14.
8. ''Far-side'' frankincense.—Concerning frankincense in
general, see under §§ 29-32. Somali frankincense figures in the trade
of Egypt at the time of the Punt expeditions, and probably much
earlier. It was different from, and often superior to, the Arabian.
It is, indeed, possible that the true frankincense (Boswellia neglecta)
was native here, and that the Arabian varieties (Boswellia serrata, etc.)
were a later cultivation. Yet Fabricius (p. 124) in curious disregard
of the text, thinks the Malao frankincense was imported from Arabia!
8. Duaca is identified by Glaser (Skizze, 197) with duakh, which
appears in several Arabic inscriptions as a variety of frankincense;
duka, he says, is a trade-name in modern Aden for a certain quality
of frankincense.
Burton (op. cit., p. 416) describes the range of mountains run-
ning parallel with this coast, some 30 miles inland from Berbera,
"4000 to 6000 feet, thickly covered with gum-arabic and frankincense
trees, the wild fig and the Somali pine."
8. Indian COpal.—The text is kankamon, which is mentioned by
Pliny as a dye (probably in confusion with lac); by Dioscorides as
the exudation of a wood like myrrh, and used for incense. Pliny
(XII, 44) says that it came "from the country that produces cinna-
mon, through the Nabataean Troglodytae, a colony of the Nabataei."
Glaser (Skizze, 196) is positive that it is no Arabian product. Col. Henry Yule identifies it with Indian copal, Malabar tallow, or white
dammar, the gum exuded from Vateria lndica, Linn., order Diptero-
carpex; which is described by Watt (op. cit., p. 1105,) as a "large
evergreen of the forests at the foot of the Western Ghats from Kanara
to Travancore, ascending to 4000 feet." This gum or resin dissolves
in turpentine or drying oils, and, like copal, is chiefly used for making
varnishes. The bark is also very astringent, rich in tannin, and is
used to control fermentation.
8. Macir is mentioned by Dioscorides as an aromatic bark.
Pliny (XII, 16) says that it was brought from India, being a red bark
81
growing upon a large root, bearing the name of the tree that produced
it. He was ignorant of the tree itself. A decoction of this bark,
mixed with honey, was used in medicine as a specific for dysentery.
Lassen (op. at., Ill, 31) identifies it with makara, a remedy for
dysentery, consisting of the root-bark of a tree native on the Malabar
coast; but he does not identify the tree.
This macir was doubtless the root-bark of Holarrhena antidysen-
terica, Wall., order Apocynacecc, described by Watt (op. cit. p. 640)
as 'a small deciduous tree, found throughout India and Burma,
ascending the lower Himalaya to 3500 feet, and to a similar altitude
on the hills of Southern India. . . . Both bark and seed of this plant
are among the most important medicines in the Hindu materia mcdica.
By the Portuguese this was called herba malaharica, owing to its great
merit in the treatment of dysentery, they having found it on the
Malabar coast. The preparation, generally in the form of a solid or
liquid extract, or of a decoction, is astringent, antidysenteric and
anthelmintic. The seeds yield a fixed oil, and the wood-ash is used
in dyeing. The wood is much used for carving, furniture and
turnery.
9. Mundus is probably the modern Bandar Hais, 10° 52'
N., 46° 50' E. Glaser (Ski%xe, 197) would identify it with Berbera.
But the text gives 'two or three days' sail'' between Malao and
Mundus, altogether too much for the 30 miles, more or less, between
Bulhar and Berbera. And just as the "sheltering spit" identifies
Berbera as Malao, so does the island close to shore" identify Hais
as Mundus. Vivien de Saint-Martin {Le Nord de VAfrique dans
lyantiquite grecque et rfimaine, p. 285) describes a small island protecting
this little harbor, and says it was much frequented by Arab and Somali
tribes.
Miiller's identification with Burnt Island (11° 15' N., 47° 15'
E.) is less probable because that island is too far from shore to afford
protection to small vessels.
9. MocrotU was probably a high grade of frankincense. Glaser
(Ski%%e, 199-201) notes that the Arabic name for the best variety is
mghairot, or in Mahri, mghar; and that the same word appears in
Somaliland as mokhr. From this to the Greek of the text the change
is negligible.
10. Mosyllum is placed by most commentators at Ras Hantara,
(1.1° 28' N., 49° 35' E.) Glaser prefers Ras Khamzir (10° 55' N.,
45° 50' E.) many miles farther west. The text gives no help in the
way of local description. It is noteworthy that Pliny says the Atlantic
Ocean begins here; ignoring not only the coast of Azania, as
82
described in § 15, but the Cape of Spices itself. Mosyllum was proba-
bly, therefore, rather a prominent headland on the coast, altogether
such as Ras Hantara.
This, by the way, was reputed to have been the eastward limit of
the conquests of Ptolemy Euergetes, King of Egypt, in the 3d
century B. C.
10. Cinnamon.—The text is kasia, from Hebrew kezia (Ps.
XLV, 8; Ezek. XXVII, 19, XXX, 24), the modern cassia. This
meant usually, in Roman times, the wood split lengthwise, as dis-
tinguished from the flower-tips and tender bark, which rolled up into
small pipes and was called kinnamomon, from Hebrew kheneh, a pipe;
khinemon (Exod. XXX, 23, Prov. VII, 17, Cant. IV, 14); Latin
canna, French cannelle.
Cinnamon and cassia are the flower-tips, bark, and wood of
several varieties of laurel native in India, Tibet, Burma and China.
Engler and Prantl, Die Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien, classify them as
follows:
Lauracea
Persoideae:
Cinnamomeae:
1. Cinnamomum
Sect. 1. Malabathrum
including C. javaneum
C. cassia
C. zeylanicum
C. culilawan
C. tamala
C. iners Sect 2. Camphora
including C. camphora
C. parthenoxylon
Cinnamon is mentioned as one of the ingredients of the sacred
anointing oil of the Hebrew priests (Exod. XXX). The Egyptian
inscriptions of Queen Hatshepsut's expedition, in the 15th century
B. C., mention cinnamon wood as one of the 4'marvels of the
country of Punt'' which were brought back to Egypt.
Cinnamon was familiar to both the Greeks and Romans, and
was used as an incense, and as a flavor in oils and salves. It is men-
tioned by Hippocrates, Theophrastus, and Pliny. Dioscorides gives
a long description of it. He says it 4'grows in Arabia; the best sort
is red, of a fine color, almost like coral; straight, long, and pipy, and
it bites on the palate with a slight sensation of heat. The best sort is
83
that called %/£■/>,. with a scent like arose. . . . The cinnamon has
many names, from the different places where it grows. But the best
sort is that which is like the casta of Mosyllum, and this cinnamon is
called Mosyllitic, as well as the cassia." And this cinnamon, he says,
when fresh, in its greatest perfection, is of a dark color, something
between the color of wine and a dark ash, like a small twig or spray
full of knots, and very fragrant."
Roman writers distinguish between true cinnamon and cassia;
the former was valued at 1500 denarii (about $325) the pound; the
latter at 50 denarii. The Periplus makes no distinction; cassia" it
mentions at Mosyllum and Opone, and the "harder cassia" at Malao.
Cinnamon, under the Empire, probably meant the tender shoots and
flower-tips of the tree, which were reserved for the emperors and pa-
tricians, and distributed by them on solemn occasions. Cassia was
the commercial article, and included the bark, the split wood, and the
root. The Romans could not distinguish between species, and their
classification was according to the appearance of the product as it came
to them.
As to the country of origin, Herodotus (book III) states that
cassia was from Arabia; naturally so, as the Phoenicians brought it
thence. He distinguishes cinnamon, and gives a fabulous story of its
recovery from the nests of great birds "in those countries in which
Bacchus was nursed," which in Greek legend meant India. The
Periplus says that it was produced in Somaliland, to which Strabo and
other Roman writers refer as the regio cinnamomifera in the same belief.
But there is no sign of a cinnamon tree in that region at present,
where the requisite conditions of soil and climate do not exist. Pliny
(VI, 29) indicates that it was merely trans-shipped there. Strabo
(XVI, IV, 14) says that it came from the "far interior" of this
region, and that nearer the coast only the "false cassia" grew. Pliny
(XXI, 42) says that it came from Aethiopia and was brought "over
vast tracts of sea'' to Ocelis by the Troglodytes, who took five years
in making the round trip. Here are indications that the true cinna-
mon was brought from India and the Far East to the Somali coast,
and there mixed with bark from the laurel-groves mentioned in § 11
and by Strabo, and taken thence to Arabia and Egypt. The Periplus
notes also (§10) the "larger ships" required at Mosyllum for the
cinnamon trade. This was probably the very midst of the "Land of
Punt" whence the Egyptian fleet brought cinnamon 15 centuries
before.
In India various barks and twigs are sold as cassia and cinnamon,
and according to Watt {op. cit, p. 313) it is still almost impossible to.
84
distinguish them. Cassia bark (C. cassia, or Cassia lignea) was his-
torically the first to be known, and the best qualities came from China,
where it is recorded first about 2700 B. C. The Malabar bark was
less valuable. Persian records invariably refer to cinnamon as Dar
Chini, "Chinese bark;" and between the 3d and 6th centuries A. D.
there was an active sea-trade in this article, in Chinese ships, from
China to Persia.
Marco Polo describes cinnamon as growing in Malabar, Ceylon,
and Tibet. The British East India Company's records show that it
came usually from China; and Millburn {Or. Comm. 1813, II, 500)
describes both bark and buds, and warns traders against the "coarse,
dark and badly packed" product of Malabar.
Since the later years of the 18th century the variety C. zeylanicum
has been extensively cultivated in Ceylon; but the best quality is still
shipped from Canton, being from C. Cassia, native throughout Assam,
Burma, and Southern China. It seems altogether probable that the
true cinnamon of the ancient Egyptian and Hebrew records, of
Herodotus and Pliny, reached the Mediterranean nations from no
nearer place than Burma, and perhaps through the Straits of Malacca
from China itself. Many, indeed, must have been the hands through
which it passed on its long journey to Rome.
The malabathrum of the Romans, which they bought in India
while still unable to obtain cinnamon there, was the leaves of three
varieties: that of the Malabar mountains from C. zeylanicum, and that
of the Himalayas from C. tamala, with a little from C. iners.
These trees are all of fairly large growth, evergreen, rising to
about 6000 feet altitude. The tree flowers in January, the fruit ripens
in April, and the bark is full of sap in May and June, when it is
stripped off and forms the best grade of cinnamon. The strippings
of later months are not so delicate and are less valued.
See Watt, op. cit., pp. 310-313; Lassen, op. cit., I, 279-285,
II, 555-561; Vincent, II, 130, 701-16; Fluckiger and Hanbury,
Pharmacographia, 519-527; Marco Polo, Yule Ed., II, 49, 56, 315,
389; and for malabathrum or folium indicum, see Garcia de Orta,
Coll., XXIII; also comment by Ball in Roy. Ir. Acad., 3d ser.,
I, 409; also Linschoten, Voy. E. Ind. (Ed. Hakl. Soc), II, 131. 11. Little Nile River.—The text is Neilopotamion, perhaps a
reflection of Egyptian Greek settlement. Another reading is Neilo-
ptolemaion, which might also suggest a connection with one of the
Ptolemies. But in Egyptian records there is no mention of settlement
or conquest so far east.
Muller identifies this river with the Tokwina (11° 30' N., 49°
85
55' E.) which empties below a mountain, Jebel Haima, 3800 feet
high; there are ancient ruins here. The ''small laurel grove" he
places at Bandar Muriyeh (11° 40' N., 50° 25' E.), below the Jebel
Muriyeh, 4000 feet high.
11. Cape Elephant seems to be the modern Ras el Fil, or
Filuk, 12° 0' N., 50° 32' E. It is a promontory 800 feet high, about
40 miles west of Cape Guardafui. The word fil is said also to
mean "elephant," and the shape of the headland suggests the name.
A river empties into the gulf just east of the promontory. Glaser
(Skix-ze, 199) thinks this is too far east, and prefers Ras Hadadeh
(48° 45' E. ). Elephant River he identifies with the Dagaan (49° E. )
or the Tokwina (49° 55' E.), from which the modern fusus frank-
incense is brought to Aden. But by placing Mosyllum at Ras Kham-
zir, Glaser is entirely too far west to admit of covering the remainder
of this coast in two days' journey, as stated in § 11. And the ' south-
erly trend" of the coast just before Guardafui, mentioned in § 12, fixes
Cape Elephant at Ras el Fil.
Glaser objects to the relatively short two days' sail between Ras
Hantara and Guardafui; but he fails to take into account the prevailing
calms north of the cape, which would justify a shorter day's sail in
that vicinity than farther west, where the winds are steadier.
Salt {op. at., 97-8) says: Scarcely had we got round the cape
(Guardafui) when the wind deadened. At daylight we found that
we had made scarcely any progress. The same marks on the shore
remained the whole day abreast of us.''
11. Acannae is identified with Bandar Ululah, 12° 0' N.,
50° 42' E. McCrindle notes that Captain Saris, an English navi-
gator, called here in 1611, and reported a river, emptying into a bay,
offering safe anchorage for three ships abreast. Several sorts of gums,
very sweet in burning, were still purchased by Indian ships from the
Gulf of Cambay, which touched here for that purpose on their voyage
to Mocha.
12. The Cape of Spices is, of course, the modern Cape
Guardafui, or Ras Asir, 11° 50' N., 51° 16'E. McCrindle de-
scribes it as "a bluff point, 2500 feet high, as perpendicular as if it
were scarped. The current comes round it out of the Gulf (of
Aden) with such violence that it is not to be stemmed without a brisk
wind, and during the S. W. monsoon the moment you are past the
Cape to the north there is a stark calm with insufferable heat."
86

Kae i . Ink W^S. 4 leagues Jistunt.

From Salt: A Voyage into Abyssinia.
This is the "Southern Horn" of Strabo, who says (XVI, IV,
14) after doubling this cape toward the south, we have no more de-
scriptions of harbors or places, because nothing is known of the sea-
coast beyond this point."
Pliny prefers the account of King Juba of Mauretania, compiled
from earlier information, in which the end of the continent is placed
at Mosyllum; so that if he had before him this Periplus, he ignored
completely the account it gives of this coast.
The Market of Spices is identified by Glaser (Skixze, II, 20)
with the modern Olok, on the N. W. side of the Cape.
Strabo's description is as follows (XVI, IV, 14): "Next is the
country which produces frankincense; it has a promontory and a
temple with a grove of poplars. In the inland parts is a tract along
the banks of a river bearing the name of Isis, and another that of
Nilus, both of which produce myrrh and frankincense. Also a lagoon
filled with water from the mountains; next the watchpost of the Lion,
and the port of Pythangelus. The next tract bears the false cassia.
There are many tracts in succession on the sides of rivers on which
frankincense grows, and rivers extending to the cinnamon country.
The river which bounds this tract produces rushes in abundance.
Then follows another river, and the port of Daphnus, and a valley
called Apollo's, which bears, besides frankincense, myrrh and cinna-
mon. The latter is more abundant in places far in the interior.
Next is the mountain Elephas projecting into the sea, and a creek;
then the large harbor of Psygmus, a watering-place called that of the
Cynocephali, and the last promontory of this coast, Notu Ceras (the
Southern Horn)."
12. Tabae is placed by Muller at the Ras Chenarif, 11° 5' N.
Glaser (Skizxe, 201) thinks the distance from Olok too great, and
places Tabae just behind the eastern point of the cape.
87
13. Pano is probably Ras Binna, 11° 12' N., 51° 7' E. There
is a modern village on the north side, a little west of the point, which
affords shelter from the S. W. monsoon.
13. Opone is the remarkable headland now known as Ras
Hafun, 10° 25' R, 51° 25' E., about 90 miles below Cape Guardafui. Glaser finds a connection between these names, Pano and Opone,
the Egyptian "Land of Punt" or Poen-at, the island Pa-anch of the
Egyptians (Socotra), the incense-land Panchaia of Virgil (Georgics, II,
139; "Totaque turiferis Panchaia pinguis arenis,") and the Puni or
Phoenicians; who, he thinks, divided as they left their home in the
Persian Gulf (the islands of King Erythras in the story quoted by
Agatharchides); one branch going to the coasts of Syria, the other to
those of South Arabia and East Africa.
13. Cinnamon produced.—A letter from Mr. R. E. Drake- Brockman, F. Z. S., F. R. G. S., (author of The Mammals of So-
?naliland, and now at work on Somali Flora) dated Berbera, January 7,
1910, says:
"The 'Horn of Africa' was known to the Romans as the regio
aromatifera on account of the large quantities of myrrh that were
exported. The country abounds in the various species of the acacias,
which produce gums of varying commercial value, also certain trees
producing resins.
"I have so far not come across any trees of the cinnamon group,
nor have I heard of their existence.
The tree producing myrrh, or malmal as it is known to the
Somalis, is called garron; but owing to the activities of the Mullah I
have never been able to penetrate the southern Dholbanta and Mijer-
tain countries where it grows."
And again, March 3: "I have never heard of the exportation of
cinnamon from this part of Africa. ... It is just possible that there
might be some species of laurels in the Dholbanta country and south
of it, but it is not possible to venture so far owing to the hostility of
the Mullah."
If there was any aromatic bark produced near Cape Guardafui
and not merely trans-shipped there, it seems almost certain that it was
an adulterant added there to the true cinnamon, that came from India. 14. Ships from Ariaca.—The antiquity of Hindu trade
in East Africa is asserted by Speke {Discovery of the Source of the
Nile, Chaps. I, V, X). The Puranas described the Mountains of
the Moon and the Nyanza lakes, and mentioned as the source of
the Nile the ''country of Amara," which is the native name of the
district north of Victoria Nyanza. A map based on this description,
88
drawn by Lieut. Wilford, was printed in the Asiatic Researches, Vol.
Ill, 1801.
"Nothing was ever written concerning their Country of the
Moon, as far as we know, until the Hindus, who traded with the
east coast of Africa, opened commercial dealings with its people in
slaves and ivory, possibly some time prior to the birth of our Saviour,
when, associated with their name, Men of the Moon, sprang into
existence the Mountains of the Moon. These Men of the Moon
are hereditarily the greatest traders in Africa, and are the only people,
who, for love of barter and change, will leave their own country as
porters and go to the coast, and they do so with as much zest as our
country-folk go to a fair. As far back as we can trace they have done
this, and they still do it as heretofore.
4'The Hindu traders had a firm basis to stand upon, from their
intercourse with the Abyssinians—through whom they must have
heard of the country of Amara, which they applied to the Nyanza—
and with the Wanyamuezi or Men of the Moon, from whom they
heard of the Tanganyika and Karague mountains. Two church
missionaries, Rebmann and Erhardt, without the smallest knowledge
of the Hindus' map, constructed a map of their own, deduced from
the Zanzibar traders, something on the same scale, by blending the
Victoria Nyanza, Tanganyika, and Nyassa into one; whilst to their
triuned lake they gave the name of Moon, because the Men of the
Moon happened to live in front of the central lake.''
This trading-voyage of the first century by Indian vessels, although
less extended, was in other respects similar to that of the Arab traders
of a century ago as described by Salt {op. at, p. 103):
"The common track pursued by the Arab traders is as follows:
they depart from the Red Sea in August (before which it is dangerous
to venture out of the gulf), then proceed to Muscat, and thence to
the coast of Malabar. In December they cross over to the coast of
Africa, visit Mogdishu, Merka, Barawa, Lamu, Malindi, and the
Querimbo Islands; they then direct their course to the Comoro
Islands, and the northern ports of Madagascar, or sometimes stretch
down southward as far as Sofala; this occupies them until after April,
when they run up into the Red Sea, where they arrive in time to refit
and prepare a fresh cargo for the following year."
14. The products of their own places.—For a discussion
of the products of India imported into the Somali ports, see later,
under § 41. The important thing to be noted here is that these ag-
ricultural products were regularly shipped, in Indian vessels, from the
Gulf of Cambay; that these vessels exchanged their cargoes at Cape
89
Guardafui and proceeded along the coast, some southward, but most
westward; and that, according to § 25, Ocelis, at the entrance to the
Red Sea, was their terminus, the Arabs forbidding them to trade
beyond. Between India and Cape Guardafui they apparently enjoyed
the bulk of the trade, shared to some extent by Arabian shipping and
quite recently by Greek ships from Egypt; on the Somali coast they
shared the trade in an incidental way; and they received their return
cargoes at Ocelis and shared none of the Red Sea trade, which in
former times the Arabs of Yemen had monopolized, but in the days
of the Ptolemies the Egyptians had largely taken over.
At the time of the Periplus, owing to the conquest of Egypt by
the Romans, the establishment of the Axumite Kingdom, and a settled
policy in Rome of cultivating direct communication with India, this
commercial understanding, or alliance, between Arabia and India
(which had existed certainly for 2000 years and probably much
longer), is shown to be at the point of extinction; but still to be
strong enough for the Romans to know the cinnamon-bark only as a
product of the Arabian tributary, Somaliland, while the cinnamon-leaf,
a later article of commerce, they knew (§§ 56, 65) under the name
of malabathrum, as a product of India and Tibet.
14. Clarified butter.—The text is boutyron. Some of the
commentators object to the word (Lassen and Fabricius especially)
and Fabricius, in his notes (p. 130) thinks it would be very wrong
to suppose that butter could have been brought from India, in this hot
climate, to the eastern coast of Africa." Therefore they propose
substitutes, as noted under § 41.
The voyage from India to Africa by the N. E. monsoon may
have averaged 30 to 40 days. As shown under § 41, clarified butter
will keep in the tropics not only for years, but for centuries; but the
account given by Burton {First Footsteps, pp. 136 and 247) shows that
modern caravans take it for trips of six weeks or more, under the same
hot climate of Somaliland; and Lieut. Cruttenden, in his description
of the Berbera Fair, tells of modern Cambay ships laden with ghee
in jars, bought in Somaliland for trade elsewhere; probably along the
Arabian coast. That is, the Somali had learned the art of clarifying
butter, and exported it in the 19th century by the same class of ships
that had brought it to them from India in the 1st century.
Mungo Park found the same product entering into the commerce
of the much more humid Senegal coast of West Africa:
''The Foulahs use the milk chiefly as an article of diet, and that
not until it is sour. The cream which it affords is very thick, and is
converted into butter by stirring it violently in a large calabash. This
90
butter, when melted over a gentle Hre, and freed from impurities, is
preserved in small earthen pots, and forms a part in most of their
dishes; it serves likewise to anoint their heads, and is bestowed very
liberally on their faces and arms." (Travels of Mungo Park, Lon-
don: 1799. Chap. IV.)
14. Honey from the reed called sacchari is the first men-
tion in the history of the European world of sugar as an article of
commerce. It was known to Pliny as a medicine. Sacchari is the
Prakrit form of the Sanscrit sarkara, Arabic sukkar, Latin saccharum.

Grinding sugar in Western India
The modern languages reflect the Arabic form—Portuguese, assucar,
Spanish azucar, French sucre, German zucier, English sugar. The
sugar is derived from Saccharum officinarum, Linn., order Gramineee.
It was produced in India, Burma, Anam and Southern China, long
before it found its way to Rome, and seems to have been cultivated
and crushed first in India.
14. Exchange their cargoes.—This trade of the Indian
ships at Opone and elsewhere, is so like that described on the same
91
coast by Lieut. Cruttenden in 1848, that his account deserves to be
quoted in full:
''From April to early October," (the quotation is from Burton,
First Footsteps, 408-10), "the place is deserted. No sooner does the
season change than the inland tribes move down toward the coast,
and prepare their huts for their expected visitors. Small craft from
the ports of Yemen, anxious to have an opportunity of purchasing
before vessels from the gulf could arrive, hastened across, followed two
or three weeks later by their larger brethren from Muscat, Sur, and Ras
el Khyma, and the valuably freighted bagalas from Bahrein, Bassora,
and Graen. Lastly, the fat and wealthy Banian traders from Pore-
bandar, Mandavi and Bombay, rolled across in their clumsy kotias,
and with a formidable row of empty ghee-jars slung over the quarters
of their vessels, elbowed themselves into a permanent position in the
front tier of craft in the harbor, and by their superior capital, cunning,
and influence soon distanced all competitors.
"During the height of the fair there is a perfect Babel, in con-
fusion as in languages 3 no chief is acknowledged, and the customs
of bygone days are the laws of the place. Disputes between the in-
land tribes daily arise, and are settled by the spear and dagger, the
combatants retiring to the beach at a short distance from the town, in
order that they may not disturb the trade. Long strings of camels are
arriving and departing day and night, escorted generally by women
alone, until at a distance from town; and an occasional group of
dusty and travel-worn children marks the arrival of the slave-caravan
from the interior.
"Here the Somali or Galla slave merchant meets his corre-
spondent from Bassora, Bagdad or Bandar Abbas; and the savage
Gudabirsi, with his head tastefully ornamented with a scarlet sheep-
skin in lieu of a wig, is seen peacefully bartering his ostrich feathers
and gums with the smooth-spoken Banian from Porebandar, who,
prudently living on board his ark, and locking up his puggaree, which
would infallibly be knocked off the instant he was seen wearing it,
exhibits but a small portion of his wares at a time, under a miserable
mat spread on the beach.
"By the end of March the fair is nearly at an end, and craft of
all kinds, deeply laden, and sailing generally in parties of three or
four, commence their homeward journey. By the first week in April
the place is* again deserted, and nothing is left to mark the site of a
town lately containing 20,000 inhabitants, beyond bones of slaughtered
92
camels and sheep, and the framework of a few huts, which is carefully
piled on the beach in readiness for the ensuing year."
15. The Bluffs of Azania are the rugged coast known as El
Hazin, ending at Ras el Kyi, 7° 44' N., 49° 40' E.
15. The Small and great beach is the Sif el Tauil or 4'low
coast," ending at Ras Aswad, 4° 30' N., 47° 55' E.; but this is
actually a longer course than the bluffs, whereas the Periplus rates-
them both as six days' journey.
15. The Courses of Azania are the strips of desert coast ex-
tending below the equator. The Arabs divide this coast into two
sections, the first called Barr Ajjan (preserving the ancient name),
the second Benadir, or ''coast of harbors." Sarapion may be the
modern Mogdishu, 2° 5' N., 45° 25' E. Nicon is, perhaps, the
modern Barawa, 1° 10'N., 44° 5'E. The "rivers and anchorages"
are along the modern El Djesair or "coast of islands."
Concerning the name Azania, R. N. Lyne, in his Zanzibar in
Contemporary Times, and Col. Henry Yule, in his edition of Marco
Polo, have much of interest. The name survives in the modern Zan-
zibar (the Portuguese form of Zanghibar), which Marco Polo applied
not only to the island, but to the whole coast; and it is popularly
derived from bar, coast, and zang, black: "land of the blacks." But
the name seems to be older, and to refer to the ancient Arabic and
Persian division of the world into three sections, Hind, Sind and Zinj,
wherefrom even European geographers in mediaeval times classified
East Africa as one of the Indies, and Marco Polo located Abyssinia
in "Middle India/' Cosmas Indicopleustes, writing in the 6th cen-
tury A. D., indicates that the whole "Zingi" coast, to a point cer-
tainly below Mogdishu, was subject to the Abyssinian Kingdom.
Yule notes that the Japanese Encyclopaedia describes a "country of
the Tsengu in the S. W. ocean, where there is a bird called pheng,
which in its flight eclipses the sun. It can swallow a camel, and its
quills are used for water casks." This is doubtless the Zanghibar
coast, the name and legend reaching Japan through the Arabs.
The lack of distinction in ancient geography between Asia and
Africa goes back to the dawn of letters. Hecataeus in the 6th century
B. C. divided the world into two equal continents—Europe, north of
the Mediterranean j Asia, south of it. Around them ran the ocean
stream. The distinction is supposed to have been based on temper-
ature. Tozer {History of Ancient Geography, p. 69) refers it to ancient
Assyria, a$u (sunrise) and irib (darkness) frequently occurring in in-
scriptions there.

94
15. The Pyralaae Islands are evidently Patta, Manda, and
Lamu, back of which there is a thoroughfare, the only protected
waterway on the whole coast. This is the £'channel;" several rivers
empty into it, and there is a passage to the ocean between Manda
and Lamu, 2° 18' S., 40° 50' E. Vincent's identification of the
channel" with Mombasa, on account of a canal now known to
have been dug there much later, is impossible.
15. Ausanitic Coast.—Ausan was a district of Kataban in
South Arabia, which had been absorbed by Himyar shortly before the
time of the Periplus; hence the natural result, that a dependency of
the conquered state should be exploited for the advantage of the
Homerite port, Muza.
15. Menuthias.—This whole passage is corrupt, and there are
probably material omissions. The first island south of Manda is
Pemba (at about 5° S.). But the topographic description is perhaps
truer to Zanzibar (about 6° S.), and the name seems perpetuated in
the modern Monfiyeh (about 8° S.). Our author was possibly un-
acquainted with this coast, and included in his work hearsay reports
from some seafaring acquaintance, in which he may have lumped the
three islands into one; or if he is describing places he has visited
(which is suggested by the mention of the local fishing-baskets and
the like), some scribe may have omitted a whole section of the text.
16. Rhapta.—This location depends on the condition of the
preceding text regarding the island Menuthias. If that be Pemba,
Rhapta would be the modern Pangani (5° 25' S., 38° 59' E.), at the
mouth of the river of the same name; if Zanzibar, it would be at or
near Bagamoyo (6° 31' S., 38° 50' E.); if Monfiyeh, the modern
Kilwa (8° 57' S., 39° 38' E.). Vincent's insistence upon Kilwa is
very likely well grounded, from the suggestion of the ancient name;
that is, if the text is a mutilated description of three islands known to
exist in close proximity, the "last market-town of the continent"
would naturally be below the southernmost island, Monfiyeh. But
the distances given by Ptolemy between Rhapta and Prasum suggest
for the former a location near Bagamoyo, perhaps Dar-es-Salaam,
(6° 42' S., 39° 5' E.). The Prasum of Ptolemy, the farthest point
in Africa known to him, is evidently Cape Delgado (10° 30' S.,
40° 30' E.). The later identification of Menuthfas with Madagascar
was due to the discoveries of the Saracens, and is impossible for Ro-
man times.
Rhapta, Glaser notes, has its name from an Arabian word rabta,
to bind.

96
16. Great in Stature.—"The whole system of slaveholding
by the Arabs in Africa, or rather on the coast or at Zanzibar, is ex-
ceedingly strange; for the slaves, both in individual strength and in
numbers, are so superior to the Arab foreigners, that if they chose to
rebel, they might send the Arabs flying out of the land. It happens,
however, that they are spell-bound, not knowing their strength any
more than domestic animals, and they seem to consider that they
would be dishonest if they ran away after being purchased, and so
brought pecuniary loss on their owners." (Speke, op. at., intro-
duction. )
16. Sovereignty of the state that is become first in
Arabia.—A vivid picture is here given us of the early policies of the
Arabs. Prevented by superior force from expanding northward, but
useful commercially to their stronger neighbors, they were free to
exploit Africa. The early Egyptian records bear testimony to their
activities in the second millennium B. C, if not earlier. The "Au-
sanitic Coast" mentioned in § 15 was probably a possession of Ausan
when that state was independent, which was not later than the 7th
century B. C. Later the coast became Katabanic, then Sabaean, then
Homerite. From the 3d to the 6th centuries A. D., according to
the Adulis inscription and Cosmas Indicopleustes, it was Abyssinian.
In Mohammedan times it returned to the Arab allegiance, and until
Zanzibar and the adjacent coast accepted the English protectorate they
were dependencies of the Sultan of Muscat.
Glaser has well expressed this undoubted fact of Arab dominion
(Skizze, II, 209): "We must finally abandon the idea that Moham-
med was the first to bring Arabia into a leading position in the world's
history. So long as Rome and Persia (and Egypt and Babylon before
them) retained their power, the Arabs could expand in Africa only.
But as soon as these states became exhausted, then Arabia burst forth
irresistibly and overflowed the northern world." (See also Punt und
die Sudarabischen Reiche, 20-23.)
Previous translators of the Periplus have much misunderstood the
meaning of this passage in the text.
16. Arab captains who know the whole coast.—The discovery by Carl Mauch in 1871, of strange temple-like structures in
northern Rhodesia, led to a great deal of wild assumption as to their
history. The ruins are loosely-built stone enclosures, some of them
irregularly elliptical in form, having conical pillars within, and ap-
parently facing North, East and West. The largest of them were
situated somewhat South of the present Salisbury-Beira railway line,
near the upper waters of the Sabi River and within reach of the trade
97
of Sofala, known to have been frequented by Arab traders in medi-
aeval times. It was at once assumed that they were of Sabaean or
Phoenician origin and of great antiquity. The subject was volumin-
ously but uncritically written up. See for instance Ancient Ruins of
Rhodesia, by Hall and Neal, London, 1894; Monomotapa, by A.
Wilmot, London, 1896, and The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland, by
J. T. Bent, London, 1902.
The appearance of the structures suggested the form of ancient
Arabian temples, and the locality was at once identified with the
ubiquitous "land of Ophir" of King Solomon's voyages. Professor
Miiller (Burgen und Sch/dsser, II, 20), noted a resemblance between
the Zimbabwe enclosure (20° 30' S, 31° 10' E.) and the temple
at Marib, the capital of the ancient Sabaean kingdom of Southern
Arabia. The whole argument was of course pure assumption, as
there is no reference in ancient literature to any knowledge of the
African coast within six hundred miles of the port of Sofala. Dr.
David Randall-Maciver made a careful investigation of the ruins in
1905, and proved conclusively in his account of that work, Medieval
Rhodesia, London, 1906, that the structures were the work of negroes,
probably Kaffirs, of the so-called kingdom of Monomotapa. A piece
of Nankin china of the late mediaeval period, found in the cement at
the bottom of one of the structures, showed that they could not date
earlier than the 14th or 15th century. They were enclosures for de-
fence, rudely built of loose stone, and their supposed orientation was
found to be inexact and probably accidental.
The service done by Dr. Maciver in disproving the antiquity of
this Kaffir kraal did not, however, need to be supplemented by his
denial (pp. 1-2) of the probability of Arabian trade far down this coast
at a very early age. The Periplus mentions Rhapta, some distance
south of the Zanzibar islands, as the last settlement on the coast; and
Ptolemy describes Cape Delgado. Dr. Maciver may have known the
Periplus only through the account given by Guillain in 1856 (Docu-
jncnts sur I'histoire, la g'eographie et le co?nmerce de F Afrique Orientate), but
at all events he ignores the detailed account given in both those works,
and in the Periplus the statement is definitely made that this whole
coast (to about 10° S.) was "subject under some ancient right to the
sovereignty of the power which held the primacy in Arabia;" that is,
in the 1st century A. D. the right was still so ancient as to be beyond
the explanation of the merchant who described it. The coast was
frequented by Arab ships in command of Arab captains who knew
the harbors, spoke the language of the natives and intermarried with
them.
98
This condition is corroborated by the known Arab infusion in the
negro peoples on the whole coast, which is of far earlier origin than
the Mohammedan colonization.
Who were the natives and what was their language, as men-
tioned in the Periplus? Rev. J. Torrend, S. J., in a paper read
before the Rhodesia Scientific Association, included in its Proceedings
(V, 2, Buluwayo, 1905), analyzes the languages of the coast and
finds a striking similarity between the speech of the Tana River, which
empties below the island of Lamu about 2° 40' S., and that of the
lower Zambesi (18°-19° S.). He gives a long comparative list of
words in these so-called Pokomo and Cizimba tongues, evidently
identical. He quotes Dr. Krapf and other German philologists as
saying that the Pokomo is the aboriginal language of the coast, and
that the modern Swahili is derived from it; and he himself believes
that the Cizimba is even more primitive, and that it gives the
key to most of the modern dialects of the southern coast. Father
Torrend, full of the Sofala-Ophir theory, argues that the language was
brought from the Tana River to the Zambesi, not by land because the
modern tribes are of peaceful disposition, but rather by sea, and par-
ticularly by sea-traders, assuming such to have come from Arabia.
The assumption is certainly far-fetched, as it is hardly likely that any
traffic, however busy, would have brought this negro language and
transplanted it 1500 miles down the coast to a different tribe. The
suggestion is rather that this branch of the Bantu race migrated south-
ward within historical times, through the African rift-valley, and that the
modern tribes of the lower Zambesi, said to be speaking to-day the
most primitive language, are their descendants, while those who re-
mained on the Tana have had their speech modified more notably by
later contact with the outside world.
The name Cizimba, borne by the modern dialect, suggests the
Agisymba of the Roman geographers; which was known to them
through the report of an adventurous youth, Julius Maternus, who
marched for four months southward from the Garamantes (Fezzan),
and brought back word of a region abounding in rhinoceros, inhabited
by negroes and bearing that name (Ptolemy, I, 8, 5>. It seems not
an unreasonable assumption that he did reach the head-waters of the
Nile and found somewhere in that great rift-valley the ancestors of
this Bantu tribe which later migrated southward and formed, among
other confederations, the so-called Monomotapaof the mediaeval geog-
raphers.
This rift-valley of East Africa is a striking feature of its topog-
raphy, and must have had a great bearing on its early trade. A good
99
description is given by Prof. J. M. Gregory, {The Great Rift Valley,
London, 1896). It is a natural depression beginning at the lower
shore of the Red Sea between Massowa and the straits, taking a south-
westerly direction through Abyssinia to the British and German East
African possessions, including lakes Rudolf, Nyanza, Tanganyika and
Nyassa, and running almost to the Zambesi. While it is unlikely
that this valley was ever at one time under the control of any Arabian
power, it is probable that the tribes inhabiting it were in more or
less regular commercial relations with the North, and that it was a
more important avenue of trade than the sea-coast with its broad un-
healthy swamps. It is indeed quite possible that the Mashonaland
gold, which lay at no great distance south of the valley, might to some
extent have found its way along this natural trade-route by exchange
from tribe to tribe; and it is entirely unnecessary, in disproving the
antiquity of the Mashonaland ruins, to attempt to disprove the manifest
fact of early Arab influence and infusion along the East African coast.
Neither is it necessary to deny the general infiltration of early Arabian
culture in two directions from the head-waters of the Nile, southward
down the rift-valley, and westward through the Sudan toward the Gulf
of Guinea. In fact this general spread of culture, folk-lore and religious
beliefs and practices, is too well attested to admit of denial.
17. Palm oil.—The word in the text, nauplios, is corrected to
nargilios, a word which appears in modified forms in other Greek
geographers. This is the Sanscrit narikela, narikera, Prakrit nargil,
''cocoariut," and the appearance of the word on the Zanzibar coast
is of course a confirmation of Indian trade there. (See Lassen, op.
cit., I, 267.) The Greek word was koix, whence the adjective koukio-
phoros, Latin cucifera, from which the Periplus, § 19, coins the Greek
adjective koukinos.
This palm oil was from Cocos nucifera, Linn., order Palmea\
probably native in the Indian archipelago, and carried by natural
causes as well as, Hindu activity to most of the tropical world. It
is one of the most useful plants known, providing timber for houses
and ships, leaves for thatch and fiber for binding and weaving, aside
from the food value of the nut, fresh and dried, and the oil. As a
medicine also it was of importance to the Hindus, the pulp of the
ripe fruit being mixed with clarified butter, coriander, cumin, carda-
moms, etc., to form their narikela-khanda, a specific for dyspepsia and
consumption. The nut was described by Cosmas Ihdicopleustes in
the 6th century as argellion: and by Marco Polo in the 13th century
(I, 102; II, 236, 248) as Indian nut. (See also Watt, op. cit.,
349-363.)
100

101
18. Unexplored ocean.—This reflects the settled belief of
the Greeks that Africa was surrounded by the ocean and could be
circumnavigated. Herodotus gives an account, by no means impossi-
ble (IV, 42) of a Phoenician expedition, under the Pharaoh Necho,
which did so about 600 B. C, returning to Egypt in the third year of
their journey. Eratosthenes and Strabo placed the southern ocean
immediately below Cape Guardafui; Pliny thought it began even at
"Mossylum" west of Guardafui; our author shifts it to the Zanzibar
Channel, and Ptolemy carried it as far as the Madagascar Channel.
The actual southern extension of Africa was not known to Europeans
until the Portuguese discoveries in the 15th century. The Saracens
seem to have discovered it in the 9th or 10th century, but their
knowledge did not reach Europe. The Guinea coast was known in
part to the Carthaginians and Romans, and they supposed that it
continued due eastward and thus joined the Indian Ocean, or 4'Ery-
thraean Sea.'9
The current ideas of geography at this time are reflected by the
accompanying map according to Pomponius Mela, about 44 A. D.
The contribution of the author of the Periplus was to establish the
southern extension of both Africa and India, to a distance never before
understood by his civilization.
19. To the left.—This section begins the account of a second
voyage, from Berenice to India.
19. White Village (Leu&e Komi) is placed by most commenta-
tors at El Haura, 25° 7' N., 37° 13' E., which lies in a bay protected
by Hasani island. The name Haura also means "white," and the
Arab name itself appears as Auara, in Ptolemy. The place is on the
regular caravan route that led, and still leads, from Aden to the Medi-
terranean.
The words ''from Mussel Harbor," in the text, are probably
there only through an error in copying. The distance and direction
are more nearly right from Berenice, which is the starting-point
named at the beginning of this paragraph.
19. Petra (30° 19' N., 35° 31' E.) lay in the Wady Musa,
east of the Wady-el-Araba, the great valley connecting the Dead Sea
with the Gulf of Akaba. It was the great trading center of the
northern Arabs, and the junction of numerous important caravan-
routes, running from Yemen northward, and from the Persian Gulf
eastward. Thus it controlled the Eastern trade from both directions,
and held its advantage until the results of Trajan's conquests trans-
ferred the overland trade to Palmyra; the sea-trade having been
already diverted to Alexandria.
102
The district of Arabia Petraea has its name from this city. The
native name, according to Josephus {Ant. Jud. IV, 7, 1) was Rekem,
referring to the variegated color of the rocks in the Wady Musa.
The Biblical name was Se/a, "a city of Edom" (2 Kings, XIV, 7;
Isaiah, XVI, 1; Judges, I, 36). Se/a (Arabic Sal) means a "hollow
between rocks," and Obadiah, 3, apostrophizes Edom as "thou that
dwellest in the clefts of the rqcks, whose habitation is on high."
Strabo (XVI, IV, 21) says "Petra is situated on a spot which is sur-
rounded and fortified by a smooth and level rock, which externally is
abrupt and precipitous, but within there are abundant springs of water
both for domestic purposes and for watering gardens. Beyond the
enclosure the country is for the most part a desert, particularly toward
Judaea. . . . Athenodorus, my friend, who had been at Petra, used
to relate with surprise, that he found many Romans and also many
other strangers residing there."
Ammianus Marcellinus (XIV, 8, 13) describes the place as "full
of the most plenteous variety of merchandise, and studded with strong
forts and castles, which the watchful solicitude of its ancient inhabi-
tants has erected in suitable defiles, in order to repress the inroads of
the neighboring nations."
The topography of Petra is well known through the descriptions
of Flinders Petrie and others. It was a fertile bit of valley surrounded
by precipitous cliffs, with a long, narrow and winding entrance, and
almost impregnable. It seems to have been, first, a place of refuge
and a safe storehouse for the myrrh, frankincense, silver, etc., coming
from Yemen. The Biblical references show it as an Edomite strong-
hold; but, being abandoned when the Edomites entered Palestine
after the Babylonian captivity, it was taken by the Nabataeans; whom
Josephus makes the descendants of Nebaioth, son of Ishmael, while
Glaser and others see rather Nabatu, an Aramaic tribe noted in an
inscription of Tiglathpileser III (745-727 B. C), who migrated to
the valley of Edom probably in the 6th century B. C.
Here the Nabataeans were at first nomadic and predatory, inviting
attack by land from Antigonus, and by sea on the Gulf of Akaba,
from the Ptolemies (Agatharchides, 88; Strabo, XVI, IV, 18).
Soon, however, they settled down to orderly commerce and prospered
exceedingly, as the ruins of Petra testify. One may suppose that a
part, at least, of their trouble with Syria and Egypt was due to their
commercial aggressiveness rather than their predatory habits. They
fought hard to maintain and control the caravan trade against the
competition of Egyptian shipping. In their dealings with Rome they
tried to carry water on both shoulders; helping Titus against Jem-
103
salem, but supporting the Parthians against Rome as occasion offered.
This conflict of interests was terminated in 105 A. D., when Trajan
reduced them to subjection (Dio Cassius, LXVIII, 14). After that
time Petra declined; the ship of the desert was blanketed by the ship
of the sea; and when the overland trade revived, toward the end of
the 2d century, it was Palmyra which reaped the advantage.
19. Malichas.—The mention of this king of the Nabataeans is
important in fixing the date of the text. Ordinarily the name might
be accepted as a transcription of the Arabic word malik—Hebrew
melech) king, which appears in such Hebrew names as "Abimelech'?
and Melchizedek;" but according to the writings of Josephus, who
as a Jew would have been likely to distinguish between the name and
the title, there were kings having that name in what he called the
"country of Arabia," which was certainly the same as that of the
Nabataeans. In his Antiquities of the Jews (XIV, 14, 1) he men-
tions Malchus, King of Arabia, who had befriended Herod and
who had loaned him money just before his case was taken up by
Mark Antony, and the Roman Senate agreed to make him King of
the Jews. This occurred in the year 38 B. C. This same Mal-
chus loaned cavalry to Julius Caesar for his siege of Alexandria (Aulus
Hirtius, Bell. Alex., I, i); and subsequently sent auxiliaries to
Pacorus, the Parthian emperor, for which Mark Antony compelled
him to pay an indemnity.
This .Malchus can not, of course, be the one mentioned in the
Periplus. But Josephus {Jewish War^ III, 4, 2) mentions a King
of Arabia, Malchus, who sent a thousand horsemen and five thousand
footmen to the assistance of Titus in his attack upon Jerusalem. These
events were in the year 70 A. D., and this King Malchus can hardly
be other than the Malichas mentioned in the text. See also Vogue,
Syrie Centrale, who quotes inscriptions of this Malichas or Malik, and
of his father Aretas Philodemus, or Hareth, a contemporary o'f Tibe-
rius and Caligula.
19. Small vessels from Arabia.—Strabo (XVI, IV, 24) has
the following account of this trade:
"Merchandise is conveyed from Leuce Come to Petra, thence
to Rhinocolura in Phoenicia near Egypt, and thence to other nations.
But at present the greater part is transported by the Nile to Alexandria,
ft is brought from Arabia and India to Myos Hormus, and is then
conveyed on camels to Coptus of the Thebais, situated on a canal of
the Nile, and to Alexandria."
The policy of the Ptolemies, in seeking to free Egypt from com-
mercial dependence on Yemen, and to encourage direct communica-
104
tion with India, had been continued by Rome at the expense of the
Arabs. The ''small vessels" of § 19 from Muza to the Nabataean
port are to be contrasted with the 4'large vessels" of § 10 that traded
from Mosyllum to Egypt. The caravan trade could not be reached
in the same way, and along the Red Sea the camel could always com-
pete with the ship. This remained in Arabian hands for another half-
century, when the Emperor Trajan reduced the Nabataeans to sub-
jection to Rome.
19. Centurion.—Vincent assumes that this was a Roman
officer, but the text does not indicate it. At this time the kingdom
of the Nabataeans was independent, powerful and prosperous; as it
might well have been, from the 25 per cent duty our author tells us
it levied on the rich trade between Arabia and Rome.
20. Arabia.—Two meanings are attached to this word in the
text; in this § 20 and in § 49 it refers to the entire peninsula; in every
other instance it means Yemen, the Homerite-Sabaite kingdom as
distinguished from the other kingdoms and political divisions of the
peninsula.
20. Differing in their Speech.—In the north the Naba-
taeans spoke a dialect of the Aramaic; along the coast the "Carnaites"
spoke various Ishmaelite dialects, out of which has grown the modern
Arabic; at the trading-posts of the true Minaeans, their own lan-
guage, allied to Hadramitic, was spoken; on reaching Yemen, the
speech was Himyaritic.
20. Similarly, that is, to the opposite coast below Berenice,
described at the beginning of the first voyage, in § 2.
20. Rascally men. — Compare the observations of other
writers concerning these same Beduin robbers:
4'The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:
and the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they
have slain the servants with the edge of the sword.'' (Job I, 14-15.
These are not the Sabaeans of Yemen, but men of Saba in Central
Arabia, the "nation tall and smooth" of Isaiah XVIII.)
"The Beduins have reduced robbery in all its branches to a
complete and regular system, which offers many interesting details."
(Burckhardt.)
"Before we lightly condemn the robber we must realize his sore
need. According to Doughty and other travelers three-fourths of the
Beduins of northwest Arabia suffer continual famine. In the long
summer drought when pastures fail and the gaunt camel-herds give
no milk they are in a very sorry plight; then it is that the housewife
cooks her slender mess of rice secretly, lest some would-be guest
105
should smell the pot. The hungry gnawing of the Arab's stomach is
lessened by the coffee-cup and the ceaseless 'tobacco-drinking' from
the nomad's precious pipe." (Zwemer, Arabia the Cradle of Islam,
p. 157.)
"Thou shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard
thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against
every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in
the presence of all his brethren." (Gen. XVI, 11-12.)
20. Carnaites.—These wild tribes are called in the text Can-
rakes, which cannot be identified with any other contemporary record.
Some commentators would change the name to Cassanites; and Fabri-
cius, following Sprenger, substitutes Cananites. Glaser's suggestion is
certainly preferable (Skizze, 165-6). He thinks that the n and r
should be reversed, making Carnaites; Kama being one of the north-
ern settlements of the ancient kingdom of the Minaeans, to which
the neighboring Beduin tribes were nominally subject. Pliny (VI,
32) and Ptolemy both mention this place as a city of the Minaeans;
whom Pliny describes as the oldest commercial people in Arabia,
having a monopoly in the trade in myrrh and frankincense, through
their control of the caravan-routes from the producing regions. He
refers doubtfully to their legend of the relationship of Minaeans and
Rhadamaeans to Minos of Crete and his brother Rhadamanthus.
Pliny need not have doubted, and is to be thanked for preserving this
evidence of early Arabian trade in the Mediterranean. Ptolemy adds
his testimony to the wide extent of this early Arabian trade, when
he describes the "people called Rhamnae who dwelt in the extreme
east near the banks of the Purali, and who planted their capital at a
place called Rhambacia.'' From Crete to the borders of India was
no mean sphere of activity. Compare Ezekiel XXVII, 22: The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they
occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious
stones, and gold."
Strabo also (XVI, III, 1) describes "the Minaei in the part
toward the Red Sea, whose largest city is Carna; next to them are the
Sabaeans, whose chief city is Mariaba.''
At the time of the Periplus the term "Minaean" was no longer
limited to the southern traders, but had been extended to include the
nomadic Ishmaelites over whom their settlements along the caravan-
routes exerted a varying measure of authority.
The Minaean kingdom had long since lost its identity, having
been conquered by the Sabaeans. When Saba fell before Himyar its
allegiance was transferred likewise; but we may assume that at the
106
date of the Periplus it was almost independent. When the Homerite
dynasty became powerful, it asserted its authority over most of the
Hejaz; when the Abyssinians conquered Yemen their rule was not
acknowledged so far north. The insurgence of the Ishmaelites under
the spur of Islam was a logical consequence of centuries of civil war
among their former overlords in Yemen.
20. Burnt Island is identified by Ritter and Muller with Jebel
Tair, 15° 35' N., 41° 50' E.; a volcanic island in the direct course
from Berenice to Muza. Fabricius prefers Disan, the most northerly
of the Farsan group, 16° 45' N., 41° 40' E.; but this location is
improbable, as being out of the course *'straight down the middle of
the gulf," and in the midst of "foul waters."
20. Chiefs and Kings of Arabia.—The turmoil in South
Arabia at this time has already been mentioned. Within a few years
the Habashat had been driven to Africa, Kataban and Saba had suc-
cumbed, and Hadramaut and Himyar remained. The Homerite
dynasty was not yet firmly established, and the condition of the country
was feudal, each tribe enjoying a large measure of independence.
Such is the condition here described, where Mapharitis, nominally
Homerite, levied its own taxes on commerce, and maintained its own
colonial enterprise in Azania.
21. Muza, mentioned by our author as a seaport, is identified
with the modern Mocha (13° 19' N., 43° 20' E.). According to
Pliny and Ptolemy, the market-town was some miles inland, probably
at the modern village of Mauza; and Pliny distinguishes the seaport
as Masala. Both names still exist (Glaser, Skizze, 138-40; 168).
In the Periplus the name of the city is, apparently, extended to include
the port.
21. Twelve thousand Stadia.—The actual distance is about
800 miles or 8000 stadia. It may be a mistake in the text (a very
easy matter with Greek numerals), or, as Bunbury suggests {History
of Ancient Geography, II, 455) our author may have calculated the dis-
tance as so many days' sail of 500 stadia each. No calls being made
on the coast, contrary winds might readily cause such an error in cal-
culation. Where no instruments existed for measuring distances,
estimates would necessarily be rather general.
21. Sending their own ships,—to the Somali coast and
India in competition with the Egyptian Greeks; down the east Afri-
can coast to their own possessions (§ 16) where they doubtless en-
joyed special privileges. Foreign shipping was unwelcome at Muza,
which preferred to supply the north-bound caravans. Roman subjects,
such as our author, had to pay dearly, in the form of gifts to the rulers,
107
I
for permission to trade there; Hindu shipping was stopped at Ocelis
(§25).
22. Saua is identified by Sprenger with the Sa'b of Ibn Mogawir,
(13° N., 44° E.). Ritter and Miiller, following Niebuhr, prefer
the modern Ta'is (13° 35' N., 43° 55' E.), in the mountains about
40 miles above Mocha.
22. Mapharitis is the country of the Ma'afir, a tribe belonging
to the Himyaritic stock, whose chief or sheikh had, evidently, especial
privileges from his "lawful king" (§ 23) Charibael. Their location
was in the southern Tehama.
22. Cholaebus is the Arabic Kula'ib.
23. Saphar, mentioned by Arabian geographers as Zafar, is
located by Niebuhr about 100 miles N. E. of Mocha on the road to
Sanaa, near the modern town of Yerim, some miles southeast of
which, on the summit of a circular hill, its ruins still exist. Zafar
was the.capital of the Homerite dynasty, displacing Marib, that of the
Sabaean, Timna of the Gebanite, and Carna of the Minaean. Here,
in the 4th century A. D., a Christian church was built, following
negotiations between the Roman Efmperor Constantius and the Ho-
merite King Tubba ibn Hassan, who had embraced Judaism. In the
6th century it was the seat of a bishopric, one incumbent of which,
St. Gregentius, resenting a profanation of the church at Sanaa by cer-
tain of the Koreish, inspired the Abyssinian government, then ruling
in Yemen, to undertake a disastrous expedition against Mecca.
23. Charibael.—This is the Arabic Kariba-il, and means
''God blessed (him)/' (Hommel, The Ancient Hebrew Tradition,
p. 84.) Glaser has shown this to be a royal title, rather than a name,
and has edited numerous inscriptions of a king named Kariba-il Watar
Julian'im who ruled about 40-70 A. D., and whom he identifies with
this Charibael. (Die Abessinier in Arabien unci Afrika, pp. 37-8.)
23. Homerites and Sabaites.—Both were of the Joktanite
race of South Arabia, the former being the younger branch. In the
tribal genealogy in Genesis X, we are shown their relation to the
Semites of the North. Three of the children of Shem are given as
Elam, Asshur, and Arphaxad. Arphaxad's son was Salah, and his
grandson Eber. These names are associated with Babylonia and
Chaldaea. Eber's second son was Joktan, of which the Arabic form
is Kahtan, which appears farther south along the Persian Gulf, in the
peninsula of El Katan. Of the sons of Joktan, most are identified
with the southern coast; two of them being Hazarmaveth (Hadra-
maut), and Jerah (cf. the Jerakon Kome of Ptolemy, north of Dhofar).
The last-named the Arabs call Yarab: his son was Yashhab {cf.
108
the Asabi in Oman, § 35), and his grandson "Saba the Great" (sur-
named Abd-es-Shems) is said to have founded the city of Marib, and
to have begun its great dam, on which the irrigation of the vicinity
depended. The Sabaeans are thus connected with this Saba, a de-
scendant of Jerah, and not with Sheba, son of Joktan, who is referred
rather to Central Arabia; whom Glaser and Hommel would make a
colony from Yemen, while Weber would reverse the process, having
the Sabaeans migrate southward for the conquest of the Minaeans.
According to Arab accounts the dam at Marib was finished by a cer-
tain King Zul Karnain, suggesting the primacy of the Minaean dynasty
at that time; but from about the 7th century B. C. the Sabaeans were
supreme in all southern Arabia, controlling the caravan-routes, and
forcing the wild tribes into caravan service. Colonies and resting-
stations were established at intervals along the routes. We learn from
the Koran (Chap. XXXIV) that the journey was easy between these
cities, and travel secure by night or by day; the distances being so
short that the heat of the day might be passed in one, and the night
in the next, so that provisions need not be carried. The number of
such settlements may be inferred from Strabo's statement that the cara-
vans took seventy days between Minaea and Aelana; and all the Greek
and Roman writers, from Eratosthenes to Pliny, testify to the value
of the trade, the wealth of those who controlled it, and their jealous
hindrance of all competition.
The entry of the fleets of the Ptolemies into the Red Sea, and
their establishment of colonies along its shores, dealt a hard blow to
the caravan-trade. If we sift fact from homily in the same chapter
of the Koran, we find that the result was abandonment of many
of the caravan-stations, and a consequent increase in the cost of
camel-hire and of the provisions which now had to be carried; im-
poverishment, dispersion and rebellion of the dwellers in the stations,
so that finally "most of the cities which were between Saba and Syria
were ruined and abandoned," and a few years later than the Periplus,
Marib itself, stripped of its revenues and unable to maintain its public
works, was visited with an inundation which carried away its famous
reservoir-dam, making the city uninhabitable and forcing the disper-
sion of its people. Many of them seem to have migrated northward
and to have settled in the country southeast of Judaea, founding the
kingdom of the Ghassanids, which was for generations a bulwark of
the Roman Empire at its eastern boundary.
The great expedition against Sabaea by the Romans under Aelius
Gallus, (Strabo, XVI, IV, 22-4; Pliny, VI, 32) never got beyond
the valley of the Minaeans; turning back thence, as Vincent surmised
109
(II, 306-311), and as Glaser proves (Skizze, 56-9), without reaching:
Marib, and probably without inflicting any lasting injury on the tribes
along their route. It was the merchant-shipping of the Romans, and
not their soldiery, that undermined the power of the Sabaeans.
As the wealth of Marib declined* its power was resolved into
its elements, and was reorganized by a neighbor of the same blood.
The oldest son of Saba the Great, founder of Marib, was Himyar,
whose descendants included most of the town-folk of the southwest
corner of Arabia. Two sons of Himyar, Malik and Arib, had carried
the Joktanite arms back toward the east again, subduing the earlier
inhabitants of the frankincense region north of Dhofar. The center
of the tribe was at Zafar, southwest of Marib, and some days' journey
nearer the sea. Allied with the sheikh at Zafar was he of the Ma'afir,
controlling the port of Muza. This combination was able to over-
throw the old order, Zafar supplanting Marib, and Muza stripping Aden
of its trade and its privileges along the African coast. Thereafter the
Himyarite dynasty—the Homerite kings—assumed the title "Kings
of Saba and Raidan." This was during the first century B. C.
The subsequent policy of the Kariba-ils of Zafar was to expand
both north and east, to regain the old supremacy over the ''Carnaites''
along the caravan-routes, and to control the shipping from the east.
(See Prof. D. H. Muller's article, Yemen, in the Encyclo-
paedia Britannica, 9th Edition; Glaser, Skizze and Die Abessinier, etc.;
Weber, Arabien vor dem Islam in Der alte Orient, III, Leipzig, 1901;
Prof. Hommel's chapter, Arabia, in Hilprecht, Explorations in Bible
Lands, Phila., 1903; Hogarth, The Penetration of Arabia, N. Y.,
1904; and the reports of the Austrian South-Arabian Expedition.)
23. Embassies and gifts.—This wooing of Yemen by Rome
was soon ended. It was no part of the Arab policy, whether Ho-
merite, Minaean, or Nabataean, to let Rome cultivate direct relations
with India, and as the empire expanded stronger measures were
necessary. Fifty years later than the Periplus, Trajan had captured
Petra, and Abyssinia was being subsidized to attack Yemen.
23. A friend of the Emperors.—Some commentators sup-
pose that this refers to a time when two Roman emperors ruled
together, thus dating the Periplus well into the 2d century A. D., but
there is nothing in the text to require it. The Homerite king, who
began to rule, probably, in the last days of Claudius, was simply,
(in the mind of our author, writing early in the reign of Nero), the
friend of both those Roman Emperors, as he was also of several others
whose short reigns coincided with his. A list of the Emperors of
the 1st and 2d centuries confirms this:
210
B.C. A.D.
Roman
39- 14 Augustus Caesar Phrases IV 37- 2
B.C.
A.D. B.C. A.D.
14- 37 Tiberius Phraataces 2-?
37- 41 Caligula Orodes II?
41- 54 Claudius Vonones I r- 16
54- 68 Nero Artabanus III 16- 42
68- 69 Galba Vardanes 42- 46
69 Otho Gotarzes 46- 51
69 Vitellius Vonones II 51
69- 79 Vespasian Volagases I 51- 78
79- 81 Titus Pacorus 78-108.
81- 96 Domitian Chosroes 108-130
96- 98 Nerva Volagases II 130-149
98-117 Trajan Volagases III 149-191
117-138 Hadrian Volagases IV 191-209
138-161 Antoninus Pius disputed succession:
( Marcus Aurelius Volagases V j
1 Lucius Verus Artabanus III )
209-215
169-180
Marcus Aurelius Artabanus III 215-226
180-192 Commodus (End of Parthian Empi
193
Pertinax
193 Didius Julianus
193-211 Septimius Severus
f Caracalla
i Geta
212-217
Caracalla
217-218 Macrinus
218-222 Heliogabalus
222-235 Alexander Severus
Two Roman Emperors serving together:
Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus—161-169.
Caracalla, Geta—211-212.
Valerian, Gallienus—253-259.
Diocletian, Maximian—286-305, and through several succeed-
ing reigns.
24. Saffron (Crocus satzvus, Linn., order Iridacea).—The part
that entered into trade was the stamens and pistils of the flower,
which were used medicinally, as a paint or dye, a seasoning in cook-
ery, and a perfume or ingredient of ointments.
As a perfume, halls, theatres and courts were strewed with the
Ill
plant, and it entered into the composition of many spirituous extracts,
which retained the same scent. (See Pliny, XIII, 2.)
Lucan (PAarsalia, IX, 809) refers to the c'sweet-smelling essence
of saffron that issues from the limbs of a statue."
Saffron also entered into many of the scented salves or balsams.
It was much adulterated by adding the stigmata of other plants, such as
the safflower (Carthamus tinctorius, order Composite), and the marigold
(Calendula officinalis, order Composite).
Pliny (XXI, 81) says, ''Saffron is blended with wine or water
and is extremely useful in medicine. It is generally kept in horn
boxes. Applied with egg it disperses all kinds of inflammations, those
of the eyes in particular; it is employed also for hysterical suffoca-
tions, and for ulcerations of the stomach, chest, kidneys, liver, lungs,
and bladder. It is particularly useful in cases of inflammation of those
parts, and for cough and pleurisy The flower is used locally
with Cimolian chalk for erysipelas." (See also Beckmann, op. cit., I, 175-7.)
24. Sweet rush.—The text is kyperos. There is much con-
fusion among the Roman writers between various species of aromatic
rush, some including the calamus of the Hebrew anointing oil (Exodus
XXX), which was probably Acorus calamus, Linn., order Aroidetz; a
semi-aquatic sub-tropical herb, useful medicinally and as a flavor.
But Pliny (XIII, 2) distinguishes between "Syrian calamus" and
"Syrian sweet-rush," both components of the Parthian "regal oint-
ment;" so that sweet-rush may rather have been Andropogon schcenan-
thus, Linn., order Graminea. An account of its production is given
by Pliny (XII, 48), and of its medicinal properties (XXI, 70). That
most highly esteemed, he says, came from near the temple of Jupiter
Ammon in Egypt; the next best from Rhodes. It had an odor re-
sembling that of nard; and aside from its use in perfumes and oint-
ments, it was employed as a diuretic, and with wine and vinegar for
throat ulcers, or in liniments for ulcerous sores generally.
It is possible, also, that the kyperos of the text may have been the
Egyptian papyrus (Cyperus papyrus, Linn., order Cyperacecz)\ used,
according to Pliny (XIII, 21-2) for boat-building, sails and mats,
cloths, coverlets and ropes, and the roots for fuel. He notes it as a
product of Syria, growing in conjunction with the sweet calamus, and
much favored by King Antiochus for cordage for his navy, instead of
spartum, which was preferred by the Romans. Again (XXXIII,
30) he says papyrus was used for smelting copper and iron, being
favored next to pine wood.
112
The suggestion in the text is, however, for an aromatic rather
than cordage or fuel, so that Andropogon schoenanthus is the more prob-
able identification.
McCrindle's suggestions of turmeric (Curcuma longa, Linn., order
Zingiberacea) and galangal (Alpinia officinarum, Hance, order Zingi-
beracea) are not borne out by Pliny's descriptions; and these are both
products of the Far East, while the text indicates an Egyptian or
Mediterranean product.
24. Fragrant ointments.—Pliny (XIII, 1) says that ''lux-
ury thought fit to mingle all known fragrant odors, and to make one
single odor of the whole; hence the invention of ointments. The
Persians use them extensively, and they quite soak themselves in it,
and so, by an adventitious recommendation, counteract the bad odors
which are produced by dirt."
His account of the manufacture of ointments (XIII, 2) throws
light on numerous articles of trade in his time. There were two
principal components. They consisted of oils or juices, and solids:
the former known as stymmata, the latter as hedysmata. A third ele-
ment was the coloring matter, usually cinnabar or alkanet. Resin and
gum were added to fix the odor. Among the stymmata were oil of
roses, sweet-rush, sweet calamus, xylo-balsamum, myrtle, cypress,
mastich, pomegranate-rind, saffron oil, lilies, fenugreek, myrrh, cassia,
nard, and cinnamon. The hedysmata included amomum, nard, myrrh,
balsam, costus, and marjoram.
Myrrh used by itself, without oil, formed an ointment, but it was
stacte only that must be used, for otherwise it would be too bitter.
The formula of the "regal ointment," made for the Parthian
Kings, included myrobalanus, costus, amomum, cinnamon, comacum,
cardamom, spikenard, marum, myrrh, cassia, storax, ladanum, opo-
balsamum, Syrian calamus and Syrian sweet-rush, cenanthe, malabath-
rum, serichatum, cypress, aspralathus, panax, saffron, cypirus, sweet
marjoram, lotus, honey and wine. 4
The Mendesian ointment included resin and myrrh, oil of bala-
nus, metopion (Egyptian oil of bitter almonds), omphacium, carda-
mom, sweet-rush, honey, wine, myrrh, seed of balsamum, galbanum,
and resin of terebinth.
Another included oils (the common kinds), sampsuchum, lilies,
fenugreek, myrrh, cassia, nard, sweet-rush, and cinnamon.
24. Myrrh,—a gum exuded from the bark of a small tree, native
in South Arabia, and to some extent in Oman, and the Somali coast
of Africa; classified as Bahamodendron Myrrha (Nees), or Commiphora
Abyssinica (Engl.), order Burseracea. It forms the underwood of
113
forests of acacia, moringa, and euphorbia. From earliest times it has
been, together with frankincense, a constituent of incense, perfumes,
and ointments. It was an ingredient of the Hebrew anointing oil
(Exod. XXX), and was also one of the numerous components of the
celebrated kyphi of the Egyptians, a preparation used in fumigations,
medicine, and embalming. It was the object of numerous trading
expeditions of the Egyptian kings to the Land of Punt." A monu-
ment of Sahure, 28th century B. C., records receipts of 80,000
measures of myrrh from Punt. The expedition of Hatshepsut (15th
century B. C.) again records myrrh as the most important cargo 3 its
list of the "marvels of the country of Punt" was as follows: All
goodly fragrant woods of God's Land, heaps of myrrh-resin, fresh
myrrh trees, ebony, pure ivory, green gold of Emu, cinnamon wood,
khesyt wood, ihmut incense, sonter incense, eye cosmetic, apes,
monkeys, dogs, skins of southern panther, natives and their children.
The inscription adds: "Never was brought the like of this for any
king who has been since the beginning." (Breasted, Ancient Records
of Egypt, II, 109; Fliickiger and Hanbury, op. cit., 140-6.)
Pliny (XII, 35) gives a clear account of the gathering of the
gum: "Incisions are made in the myrrh-tree twice a year, and at the
same season as in the incense-tree; but in the case of the myrrh-tree
they are made all the way up from the root as far as the branches
which are able to bear it. The tree spontaneously exudes, before the
incision is made, a liquid which bears the name of stacte (stazo, to
drop) and to which there is no myrrh that is superior. Second only
in quality to this is the cultivated myrrh; of the wild or forest kind,
the best is that which is gathered in summer."
Stacte, he says, sold as high as 40 denarii the pound; cultivated
myrrh, at a maximum of 11 denarii; Erythraean at 16, and odoraria
at 14. And he continues: "They give no tithes of myrrh to the god,
because it is the produce of other countries as well; but the growers
pay the fourth part of it to the king of the Gebanitae. Myrrh is
bought up indiscriminately by the common people and then packed
into bags; but our perfumers separate it without any difficulty, the
principal tests of its goodness being its unctuousness and its aromatic
smell.
"There ,are several kinds of myrrh: the first among the wild
myrrhs is the Troglodytic; and the next are the Minaean, which in-
cludes the aromatic, and that of Ausaritis, in the kingdom of the
Gebanitae. A third kind is the Dianitic, and a fourth is the mixed
myrrh, or collatitia ... a fifth again is the Sambracenian, which is
brought from a city in the kingdom of the Sabaei, near the sea; and a
114
sixth is known by the name of Ausaritic. There is a white myrrh
also which is produced in only one spot, and is carried for sale to the
city of Messalum." (This is the same as the port of Masala or
Muza. See Glaser, Skixze, 138.)
The name myrrh is from the Hebrew and Arabic mur, meaning
bitter." The ancient Egyptian word was bola or bal, and the San-
scrit was vola. The modern Persian and Indian call it bol or bola.
24. Gebanite-Minaean stacte.—The text is corrupt, having
gabeirminaia: Miiller and Fabricius alter this to "Abiraea and Minaea,"
which appear in Sprenger's map of Arabia, but not in the myrrh dis-
trict. Stacte has already been described as the gum yielded by natural
exudation from wild trees, as distinguished from that coming from
incisions on trees either wild or cultivated; while the qualifying ad-
jective can hardly be other than Gebanite-Minaean, which was among
the best varieties in Pliny's classification. (See also Glaser, Shzze,
88-9.)
24. Alabaster.—Pliny (XIII, 3), says, ''Ointments keep best
in boxes of alabaster, and perfumes when mixed with oil, which con-
duces all the more to their durability the thicker it is, such as the oil
of almonds, for instance. Ointments, too, improve with age; but
the sun is apt to spoil them, for which reason they are usually stowed
away in a shady place in vessels of lead." (See also Pliny, XXXVI,
12; Mark, XIV, 7; John, XII, 3.)
24. Avalites and the far-side coast.—The text is corrupt,
having Adulis; Fabricius translates "aus dem gegeniiber gelegenen
Adulis.'7 But Adulis was not opposite Muza, its exports were quite
different, and it is not mentioned that they went to Muza. The rela^
tions of Habash and Himyar, at the date of the Periplus, were not
those of friendly commerce, and Adulis was distinctly an Egyptian
trading-station. On the other hand, the text describes, in § 7, the
articles carried by the Berbers from Avalites to Ocelis and Muza for
sale there; to which this passage refers as already mentioned."
We must conclude, therefore, that the scribe copied ''Adulis"
instead of ''Avalites," which was what our author wrote.
25. A narrow Strait.—This is, of course, the strait of Bab-
el-Mandeb, or "Gate of Tears" (12° 35' N., 43° 12' E.), so called
because of its treacherous winds and currents.
25. The island Diodorus is the modern Perim (12° 38' N.,
43° 18'E.).
25. Ocelis is the Acila of Strabo, Artemidorus and Pliny; the
name surviving in the modern Cella. Forster traces in this name the
115
tribe of Uzal, son of Joktan (Genesis X, 27) with whom he also
connects Ausar (Ausal or Ausan) in the Frankincense Country—
which survives in the modern Ras el Sair. This is the district which
at one time held the "Ausanitic coast" near Zanzibar, as stated in
§15. The ancient city of Uzal is the modern Sanaa.
Ocelis is identified by Glaser with a bay on the northern side of
the promontory of Sheikh Sa'id (12° 48' R, 43° 28' E.), a volcanic
formation which juts out from the Arabian shore and is separated by
a narrow channel from the island of Perim. He notes the probability
that Indian ships were permitted to go no further than this place,
whence their cargoes went by land to Muza. The text says merely
that it was "not a market-town, but the first landing for those sailing
into the gulf/' but Pliny (VI, 104) states on the authority of Onesi-
critus, that Ocelis was the most convenient port for those coming
from India. He mentions two other ports, Muza (Masala) and
Cana, which were not frequented by Indian travellers, but were only
for the merchants dealing in frankincense and Arabian spices.
26. Eudaemon Arabia is the modern Aden (12° 48' N.,
45° 0' E.), from very early times an important trade center, where
goods from the east were trans-shipped for the Mediterranean markets.
It was, probably, the Eden of Ezekiel XXVII, 3, and the chief port
of the Minaean and Sabaean dynasties. While temporarily in eclipse
under the Homerite kings, it had regained its position by the 4th cen-
tury A. D. when Constantius negotiated for a church to be built there;
and the Arabian geographers and Marco Polo refer to its activities in
terms almost as glowing as those of Agatharchides.
The Periplus gives the port the name of the entire district;
Eudamon like Felix, being an attempt at translating Yemen, ''the country
to the right hand'' (as one faces the east); the Arabic, like the Greek
and Latin, attaching the idea of good fortune to the right hand. Eden
had the same significance, of good fortune.
26. Charibael destroyed the place.—The text is corrupt,
having Casar. It is quite certain that no Roman emperor attacked
this place during the 1st century, and the title is equally suspicious,
our author having more correctly referred to his sovereign, in § 23,
as autokrator. Miiller and Fabricius substitute Elisar, retaining the
second syllable of the word, and suppose him to have been a king of
the Frankincense Country. But Schwanbeck (Rheinischen Museum
fur Philologie, VII. Jahrgang, 1850) prefers Charibael, and Glaser sup=
ports him by proving that Eleazus, and not Elisar, was the name of
the king mentioned in § 27.
The indications are against a westward movement by the mon-
116
arch at Sabbatha; his outlook was in the other direction. The Peri-
plus indicates his control of the fertile frankincense valleys far beyond
the account of Strabo, who knew Chatramotitis as a producer of myrrh
only; this movement followed the Habash migration. The Chatra-
motitae had, it is true, to cope with an alliance of Homerites and Per-
sians which ultimately pressed them on either side and engulfed them;
but this was in a later century. Saphar and Sabbatha were not yet
beyond the period of expansion within their respective spheres.
From the Red Sea to the summits of the Arabian Alps was that of the
former; the Wadi Hadramaut, on the eastern slope, that of the latter.
Between the two lay precipitous mountains. Topography and history
alike discredit an attack upon Aden by the Chatramotitae.
But in the alliance of Muza with Sapharvwe have the motive for
the destruction of Aden. The foreign trade was centered at the
Homerite port, and Cholaebus gained for his merchants the rights
which those of Aden had enjoyed under the Sabaean kings. The loss
was not great; Ibn Khaldun (Kay's edition, p. 158) tells us that the
city was built mostly of reeds, so that conflagrations by night were
common there. It involved hardly more than the discontinuance of
an annual fair, as described in the account by Lieut. Cruttenden at
Berbera, quoted under § 14.
27. Cana may be identified with Hisn Ghorab ( 14° 10' N.,
48° 20' E.), a fine harbor, protected from all winds by projecting
capes on either side and by islands in the offing, as described in the
text. Here are numerous ruins and one famous Himyaritic inscrip-
tion, of which a version is given by Forster. The ''Island of Birds"
is described by Miiller as 450 feet high, covered with guano, and thus
has its name from the same cause as the promontory Hisn Ghorab
(Raven Castle). The modern town is called Bir Ali.
Fabricius (pp. 141-2), following Sprenger and Ritter, locates
Cana slightly farther west, at Ba-l-Haf. This seems not to accord
with the text, which says the port was ''just beyond the cape pro-
jecting from this bay,'' while Ba-l-Haf would be ''just before.3 9 The
identification depends too literally on the stated distance of the islands
and fails to take into account that they are described as "facing the
port." This is true of Hisn Ghorab and not of Ba-l-Haf.
Miiller (p. 278) and Glaser (S&zze, pp. 174-5) support the
Hisn Ghorab location by comparison of the distances given by Ptolemy
(VI, 7, 10) between his Kane emporion and the neighboring ports.
From Hisn Ghorab the way to the interior leads up the Wadi
Maifa, which empties into the ocean a short distance to the east.
117
The Cana of the Periplus is probably the same as the Canneh of
Ezekiel XXVII, 23.
The trade which it formerly enjoyed passes now through the port
of Makalla, some distance to the east, and the capital of the country
has shifted in like manner eastward to the modern city of Shibam.
27. Eleazus, King of the Frankincense Country.—This
is the Arabic Ili-azzu, "my God is mighty," a name which Glaser
shows to have belonged to several kings of the Hadramaut; and this
Eleazus he identifies with Ili-azzu Jalit, of whose reign, dating about
25-65 A. D., he gives an inscription {Die Abessinier^ 34, etc.).
The name given the kingdom, "Frankincense Country," is
notable, being a translation of the "Incense-Land" of the Habashat,
or Aethiopians, already mentioned. This ancient object of contention
among the nations was now divided between Hadramaut and Parthia,
and its name was, apparently, assumed by the king of the Hadramaut;
perhaps officially, but certainly by the popular voice, and by merchants
such as the author of the Periplus, interested in the product of the
country and not in its politics.
A glance at the topography of this Incense-Land will help toward
an understanding of its dealings with its neighbors. The southern
coast of Arabia from Bab el Mandeb to Ras el Hadd has a length of
about 1200 miles, divided almost equally in climatic conditions. The
western half is largely sandstone bluff, sun-scorched and arid; cut,
however, by occasional ravines which bring down scanty rains during
the monsoon to fertilize a broad strip of coast plain. On the western
edge the mountains of Yemen, rising above 10,000 feet, attract a
good rainfall which waters the western slope toward the Red Sea.
On the eastern slope the water-courses are soon lost in the sand,
but on the upper levels the valleys are protected and fertile. Such
were the Nejran, the Minaean Jauf, and the valley of the Sabaeans,
which last was made rich by the great dam that stored its waters for
irrigation; and these three valleys, the centers of caravan-trade bound
north toward the Nile and Euphrates, owed their prosperity mainly to
their position above the greatest of all the east-flowing courses, the
Valley of Hadramaut. This great cleft in the sandstone rock, (origin-
ally, Bent believes an arm of the sea, now silted up), which gathers
the streams from the highest peaks, runs parallel with the coast
for more than 200 miles, fertile and productive for nearly the entire
distance; then it turns to the south and its waters are lost, the mouth
of the valley being desert like the cliffs that line its course. This was
one of the best frankincense districts.
Beyond the mouth of the Wadi Hadramaut is Ras Fartak, nearly
118
north of Cape Guardafui. Here the climate changes; the monsoon,
no longer checked by the African coast, leaves its effect on the coastal
hills, which gradually rise above 4000 feet, clothed with tropical
vegetation; while the coast plains are narrow and broken. The north-
ern slopes of these mountains (known to our author as Asich, § 33)
feed the water-course now known as the Wadi Rekot, about 100 miles
long, which empties into the Kuria Muria Bay; beyond which are
fertile coast plains as far as Ras el Hadd. These mountains, and
the Dhofar and Jenaba districts, facing which lie the Kuria Muria
islands, were the oldest and perhaps the most productive of the frank-
incense districts of Arabia; and it was always the ambition of the
various powers of that region to extend their rule so as to include the
Dhofar mountains, the Hadramaut valley, and the opposite Somali
coast of Africa—thus controlling the production and commanding the
price; in short, forming a ''frankincense trust." The restricted area
of the Arabian incense-lands, bordered as they were by the steppe and
the desert, made them constantly subject to attack and control by
different wandering tribes; while at the same time their local con-
ditions, of intensive cultivation of a controlled product of great and
constant value, made for a peculiarly ordered state of society—for a
development of caste unusual in Semitic lands, and in which the cul-
tivator, the warrior, and the privileged slave, had their place in the
order given.
Of the age-long struggle for control of these sacred lands we
know today little more than the Greek writers of two thousand years
ago. The modern world takes its little supply of frankincense from
the Arab vessels that carry it to Bombay or Aden; its armies are sent
to the conquest or defence of lands in other lines of productivity—of
a Kimberley, a Witwatersrand, a Manchuria. But to the ancient
world the Incense-Land was a true Eldorado, sought by the great
empires and fought for by every Arab tribe that managed to enrich
itself by trading incense for temple-service on the Nile or Euphrates,
on Mount Zion, or in Persia, India, or China. The archaeological
expedition that shall finally succeed in penetrating these forbidden
regions, and recovering the records of their past, cannot fail to add
greatly to our store of knowledge of the surrounding civilizations, by
showing the complement to such records as those of Hatshepsut in
Egypt and Tiglath-Pileser III in Assyria, and by giving the groundwork
for the treasured scraps of information preserved by Herodotus, Theo-
phrastus, Eratosthenes, Agatharchides, Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy. At present we must be satisfied with such knowledge of the Incense-
Land as may be had from these, and from inscriptions found by
119
Halevy and Glaser in the homes of its neighbors, the Minaeans and
Sabaeans.
During the 2d and 1st centuries B. C, the greater part of the
Incense-Land was held by the Incense-People, the Aethiopians or
Habashat. Pressure by the Parthians on the East forced an alliance,
of which Glaser found the record at Marib, between the Habashat,
Hadramaut and Saba on one hand, against Himyar and Raidan on the
other. This was not far from 50 B. C. Soon afterwards we find
the Habashat gone into their African outposts, and Marib ruled by
Kings of Saba and Raidan/' while after a couple of generations
more the Periplus shows us a Homerite king who rules also over Saba
and Raidan and the East African coast; and a king of the Hadramaut
whose title is expanded to "King of the Frankincense Country," and
whose rule extends over the islands of Kuria Muria, Socotra and
Masira, all former dependencies of the Habashat.
By the 4th century A. D. the kings at Zafar had absorbed the
whole, being known as Kings of Saba, Raidan, Hadramaut and Yem-
en;" while the Abyssinian kings, who regained a foothold in Arabia
during that century, were known as "Kings of Axum, Himyar, Rai-
dan, Habashat, Saba," etc.
The name Hadramaut," the Hazarmaveth of Genesis X, means
"Enclosure of Death," referring probably to the crater of Bir Barhut,
whose rumblings were held to be the groans of lost souls (W. Rob-
ertson Smith: Religion of the Semites, p. 134, and authorities there quoted).
(See Wellsted: Narrative of a Journey to the Ruins of Nakcb cl
Hajar, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, VII, 20; H. von
Maltzan: Reisen in Arabien, Braunschweig, 1873; L. W. C. Van den
Berg: Le Hadramaut et les Colonies Arabes dans T Archipel Indien, Ba-
tavia, 1886; J. Theodore Bent: The Hadramaut, a Journey, Nine-
teenth Century, 1894; Expedition to the Hadramaut, Geographical
Journal, IV, 313; L. Hirsch: Reisen in Siid-Arabien, Mahra-J^and
und Hadhramut, Leiden, 1897; the works already cited of Glaser,
Hommel, Weber, Hogarth, and Zwemer; and the Austrian Expedi-
tion Reports.)
27. Sabbatha.—The native name of this capital of the Chatra-
motitae was Shabwa. It lies in the Wadi Rakhiya, some distance
above the Wadi Hadramaut, and about 60 miles west of the present
capital, Shibam. According to Bent (Geographical Journal, IV, 413:
1894) it is now deserted, save for a few Beduins, who work the salt
mines in the vicinity; while the natives are now all in the lower
Hadramaut valley.
120
This is the Sabota of Pliny (VI, 32) "with sixty temples within
its walls.''
27. Frankincense, one of the most ancient and precious
articles of commerce, is a resin exuded from various species of Bos-
vjellia, order Burseracea-, native in Somaliland and South Arabia.
Birdwood {Trans. Linn. Soc, XXVII, 1871), distinguishes particu-
larly B. Frereana, B. Bhau-Dajiana (the mocrotu of § 9), and B. Car-
terti, the last-named yielding the best incense. B. thurifera, native in
India, yields a resin of less fragrance, much used as an adulterant.
Frankincense is thus closely allied to myrrh, bdellium, and benzoin.
The Greek word is libanos, from Hebrew lebonah, Arabic luban,
meaning "white"; cf. laben, the Somali word for cream, and ' milk-
perfume," which is the Chinese term for frankincense. Marco Polo
always calls it "white incense.''
Another Hebrew name was shekheleth, Ethiopic sekhin, which
Hommel would connect with the "Bay of Sachalites" of § 29.

Frankincense trees, from the Punt Reliefs in the Deir el Bahri temple at Thebes;
dating from the 15th century B. C. After Naville.
The inscriptions of the early Egyptian dynasties contain, as we
might expect, few references to the trade in incense, which was
brought overland to the upper Nile by the "people of Punt and God's
Land'' and not sought out by the Pharaohs. That incense was in
use is sufficiently clear from the early ritual. The expedition to the
121
Incense-Land under Sahure, in the Vth dynasty (28th century B. C.)
was a notable exception. In the Vlth dynasty, under Pepi II (26th
century B. C.), a royal officer Sebni, sent to the Tigre highlands,
records how he "descended to Wawat and Uthek, and sent on the
royal attendant Iri, with two others, bearing incense, clothing (probably
cotton), one tusk, and one hide" (as specimens). In the Xlth dy-
nasty, under Mentuhotep IV (21st century B. C), a record of the
completion of a royal sarcophagus states that Cattle were slaugh-
tered, goats were slain, incense was put on the fire. Behold, an army
of 3000 sailors of the nomes of the Northland (Delta of the Nile)
followed it in safety to Egypt." And in the Xllth dynasty, under
Amenemhet I (20th century B. C.), another royal officer named Intef
was sent for stone to Hammamat along what was, in the time of the
Periplus, the caravan-route from Coptos to Berenice. He sought
for it eight days without success, then prostrated himself "to Min, to
Mut, to Great-in-Magic, and all the gods of this highland, giving
to them incense upon the fire. : . . Then all scattered in search,
and I found it, and the entire army was praising, it rejoiced with obei-
sance; I gave praise to Montu."
Then followed a period of disorder and Arabian domination in
Egypt, during which Arab merchants controlled the trade. This was
the condition described in Genesis XXXVII, 25, when "a traveling
company of IshmaeHtes came from Gilead, with their camels bearing
spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.'' It
was ended by a native reaction under the great Pharaohs of the
XVIIIth or Theban dynasty, under whom the land increased in power in
all directions. These monarchs were not content to remain in com-
mercial dependence upon Arabia, but organized great fleets which went
to the "Land of Punt" each season and brought back unprecedented
treasure. This land in former times, according to the Deir el Bahri
reliefs, the people knew not; it was heard of from mouth to mouth
by hearsay of the ancestors. The marvels brought thence under thy
fathers, the kings of Lower Egypt, were brought from one to another,
and since the time of the ancestors of the kings of Upper Egypt, who
were of old, as a return for many payments; none reaching them
except thy carriers." But Amon-Re, so the inscription continues,
led the Egyptian army by land and sea, until it came to the Incense-
Land, and brought back great store of myrrh, ebony and ivory, gold,
cinnamon, incense, eye-paint, apes, monkeys, dogs, panther-skins,
natives and their children. "Never was brought the like of this for
any king who has been since the beginning." Incense-trees were
planted in the court of the temple; "heaven and earth are flooded
122
with incense; odors are in the Great House/' and the heart of Amon
was made glad.
Then followed a series of campaigns in Syria, resulting in the
submission of that country, and annual remittances of great quantities
of Arabian and Eastern treasure—incense, oil, grain, wine, gold and
silver, precious stones—while even the ''Chief of Shinar" at Babylon
sent gifts of lapis lazuli, and the "Genabti" of the Incense-Land
came direct, offering their tribute. The sudden opulence of the
Theban dynasty made possible a great enrichment in the worship of
Amon, and the setting aside of enormous endowments for the tem-
ples, as well as annual gifts of princely value. So Rameses II, of the
XlXth dynasty (1292-1225 B. C), "founded for his father offerings
for his i#—wine, incense, all fruit, cultivated trees, growing for him 3''
while the court responded that Rameses himself was "the god of all
people, that they may awake, to give to thee incense.7' • His successor
Merneptah was bidden by the All-Lord to ''set free multitudes who
are bound in every district, to give offerings to the temples, to send
in incense before the god." And in the XXth dynasty, under Ra-
meses III (1198-1167 B. C), it seemed as if the resources of the
nation were poured bodily into the lap of Amon. The god opened
for the Pharaoh "the ways of Punt, with myrrh and incense for thy
serpent diadem;" "the Sand-Dwellers came bowing down to thy
name." And in the Papyrus Harris, that great record of his gifts and
endowments to Amon, compiled for his tomb, there are such entries
every year as ''gold, silver, lapis lazuli, malachite, precious stones,
copper, garments of royal linen, jars, fowl; myrrh, 21,140 deb en y
white incense 2,159 jars, cinnamon 246 measures, incense 304,093
various measures;" stored of necessity, in a special Incense House.''(The quotations are from Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt.) At this time the Hebrews ended their servitude in Egypt and
migrated to Palestine; and naturally among them also frankincense
was counted holy. The sacred incense of the priests (Exod. XXX,
34-5) was composed of "sweet spices, stacte, onycha, galbanum, with
pure frankincense; of each a like weight . . . a perfume . . . pure
and holy." And "when any will offer a meatoffering (Levit. II,
1-3) it shall be of fine flavor, and he shall pour oil upon it, and put
frankincense thereon . . . and the priest shall burn the memorial
upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto
the Lord." There were special rooms in the temple at Jerusalem
for storing it under priestly guard (I Chron. IX, 26-30); and later,
when one of these rooms was occupied as a dwelling, it was con-
sidered a sacrilege (Nehemiah XIII, 4-9). The trade in the days of
123
Israel's prosperity was important: "Who is this that cometh out of
the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frank-
incense, with all powders of the merchant?" (Song of Solomon III,
6.) "The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of
Midian and Ephah: all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring
gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the Lord."
(Isaiah LX, 6.) And the Queen of Sheba "gave the king an hun-
dred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices a very great store, and
precious stones; there came no more such abundance of spices as
these which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon." (1 Kings
X, 10.)
The Nimrud Inscription of the great Assyrian monarch Tiglath-
Pileser III, tells how "fear of the brilliance of Ashur, my lord, over-
came Merodach-baladan, of Yakin, King of the Sea-Country," and
how he came and made submission, bringing as tribute "gold—the
dust of his land—in abundance, vessels of gold, necklaces of gold,
precious stones, the product of the sea (pearls?), beams of us/iu-wood,
ellutu-wood, party-colored clothing, spices of all kinds."
In the Persian empire frankincense was equally treasured. Hero-
dotus tells us that the Arabs brought a tribute of 1000 talents' weight
every year to Darius (III, 97), and that a similar quantity was burnt
every year by the Chaldaeans on their great altar to Bel at Babylon
(I, 183). From the spoils of Gaza in Syria, 500 talents' weight of
frankincense was sent by Alexander the Great to his tutor Leonidas.
(Plutarch, Lives) who had rebuked him for loading the Macedonian
altars too lavishly, remarking that he must be more economical until
he had conquered the countries that produced the frankincense!
(Pliny XII, 32.) The temple of Apollo in Miletus was presented
with 10 talents' weight in 243 B. C., by Seleucus II, King of Syria,
and his brother Antiochus Hierax, King of Cilicia. The temple of
Venus at Paphos was fragrant with frankincense:
"Ipsa Paphum sublimis abit, sedesque revisit
Laeta suas ubi templum illi, centumque Sabaeo
Ture calent arae sertisque recentibus halant."
—Virgil, Aeneid, I, 416.
And to the infant Saviour in Bethlehem came "three wise men
from the east, with gifts,—gold, frankincense, and myrrh" (Matt. II,
11), signifying, according to a Persian legend quoted by Yule, "the
gold the kingship, the frankincense the divinity, the myrrh the healing
powers of the Child."
124
Likewise in funerals were its virtues required. The priests
of Amon under the XVIIIth dynasty were instructed to "be vigi-
lant concerning your duty, be ye not careless concerning any of
your rules; be ye pure, be ye clean concerning divine things . . .
bring ye up for me that which came forth before, put on the gar-
ments of my statues, consisting of linen; offer ye to me of all fruit,
give ye me shoulders of beef, fill ye for me the altar with milk, let
incense be heaped thereon." (Breasted, op. cit., II, 571.) "They
buried him in his own sepulchres . . . and laid him in the bed which
was rilled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the
apothecaries' art; and they made a very great burning for him."
(II Chron. XVI, 14). At the time of the Periplus this was par-
ticularly the fashion in Rome, as Pliny observes with disapproval
(VII, 42): —
"It is the luxury which is displayed by man, even in the para-
phernalia of death, that has rendered Arabia thus "happy;" and
which prompts him to bury with the dead what was originally under-
stood to have been produced for the service of the gods. Those who
are likely to be the best acquainted with the matter, assert that this
country does not produce, in a whole year, so large a quantity of per-
fumes as was burnt by the Emperor Nero at the funeral obsequies of
his wife Poppaea. And then let us only take into account the vast
number of funerals that are celebrated throughout the whole world
each year, and the heaps of odors that are piled up in honor of the
bodies of the dead; the vast quantities, too, that are offered to the
gods in single grains; and yet, when men were in the habit of offer-
ing up to them the salted cake, they did not show themselves any the
less propitious; nay, rather, as the facts themselves prove, they were
even more favorable to us then than they are now. How large a
portion, too, I should like to know, of all these perfumes really comes
to the gods of heaven, and the deities of the shades below?"
The customs ruling the gathering and shipment of frankincense
are carefully described by Pliny (XII, 30), as follows:
"There is no country in the world," (forgetting, however,
the Somali peninsula), "that produces frankincense except Arabia,
and indeed not the whole of that. Almost in the very center of
that region are the Atramitae, a community of the Sabaei, the capital
of whose kingdom is Sabota, a place situate on a lofty mountain. At
a distance of eight stations from this is the incense-bearing region,
known by the name of Saba (Jbasa?). This district is inaccessible
because of rocks on every side, while it is bounded on the right by
the sea, from which it is shut out by tremendously high cliffs
125
The forests extend 20 schoeni in length and 10 schoeni in breadth.
(A schoenus = 40 stadia = 4 English miles.)
''Adjoining are the Minaei, a people of another community,
through whose country is the sole transit for the frankincense, along a
single narrow road. The Minaei were the first people who carried on
any traffic in frankincense. ... It is the Sabaei alone, and no other
people among the Arabians, that behold the incense-tree;* and not all
of them, for not over 3000 families have a right to that privilege by
hereditary succession; for this reason these persons are called sacred,
and are not allowed, while pruning the trees or gathering the harvest,
to receive any pollution, either by intercourse with women or coming
in contact with the dead; by these religious observances it is that the
price of the commodity is so enhanced.
"The natural vintage takes place about the rising of the Dog-star,
a period when the heat is most intense; on which occasion they cut
the tree where the bark appears to be the fullest of juice, and ex-
tremely thin, from being distended to the greatest extent. The in-
cision thus made is gradually extended, but nothing is removed; the
consequence of which is, that an unctuous foam oozes forth, which
gradually coagulates and thickens. When the nature of the locality
requires it, this juice is received upon mats of palm-leaves, though in
some places the space around the tree is made hard by being well
rammed down for the purpose. The frankincense that is gathered
after the former method is in the purest state, though that which falls
upon the ground is the heaviest in weight.
"The forest is allotted in certain portions, and such is the mutual
probity of the owners, that it is quite safe from all depredation; indeed,
there is no one left to watch the tree after the incisions are made, and
yet no one is ever known to plunder his neighbor. But, by Hercules!
at Alexandria, where the incense is dressed for sale, the workshops
can never be guarded with sufficient care; a seal is even placed upon
the workmen's aprons and a mask put upon the head, or else a net
with very close meshes, while the people are stripped naked before
they are allowed to leave work. So true it is that punishments afford
less security among us than is to be found by these Arabians amid
their woods and forests!
"The incense which has accumulated during the summer is gath *Cf. Virgil, Georgics II, 116-117:
Divisa? arboribus patriae. Sola India nigrum
Fert ebenum, solis est turea virga Sabaeis.
And again, I, 57:
India mittit ebur, molles sua tura Sabasi.
126
ered in the autumn; it is the purest of all, and is of a white color. The second gathering takes place in the spring, incisions being made in the bark for that purpose during the winter; this, however, is of a red color, and not to be compared with the other incense."
And of the storage of all the incense of the country in the capital, Pliny gives a further account (XII, 32):
"The incense after being collected, is carried on camels' backs to Sabota, of which place a single gate is left open for its admission. To deviate from the high road while carrying it, the laws have made
a capital offense. At this place the priests take by measure, and not by weight, a tenth part in honor of their god, whom they call Sabis;
indeed, it is not allowable to dispose of it before this has been done;
out of this tenth the public expenses are defrayed, for the divinity
generously entertains all those strangers who have made a certain
number of days' journey in coming thither. The incense can only
be exported through the country of the Gebanitae, and for thus reason
it is that a certain tax is paid to their king as well.
"There are certain portions also of the frankincense which are
given to the priests and king's secretaries: and in addition to these,
the keepers of it, as well as the soldiers who guard it, the gate-keepers
and various other employees, have their share as well. And then be-
sides, all along the route, there is at one place water to pay for, at
. another fodder, lodging of the stations and various taxes and imposts
besides; the consequence of which is, that the expense for each
camel before it arrives at the shores of our sea (the Mediterranean)
is 688 denarii; after all this, too, there are certain payments still to
be made to the farmers of the revenue of our empire.
"Hence a pound of the best incense sells at 6 denarii, of the
second quality at 5, and of the third quality at 3 denarii."
27. To Cana on rafts.—This was the Dhofar, or "Sacha-
litic" frankincense, as distinguished from that of the Hadramaut
valley, which would naturally go by camel direct to Sabbatha. Pliny
(VI, 34) doubts the story of the inflated rafts, derived, he thinks,
from a fancied resemblance to the name given the African tribe
tribe using them—Ascites; the Greek word askos meaning "bladder."
But the Ascitae, as already shown, were from Asich (§ 33) and were
the founders of Axum. And the inflated raft is authentic, being the
well-known kelek, a type still in general use on the Euphrates, whence
the migrating Arabs no doubt brought it to the south coast. This is
probably, also, the "cargo-ship" of § 33, sent from Cana to Masira
Island for tortoise-shell.
127

Inflated raft, from a relief at Nineveh. After Layard.
27. The neighboring coast of Persia means that part of
the South Arabian coast between Kuria Muria Bay and Ras el Hadd,
which had recently been conquered by the Parthian Empire. The
word "Parthia" our author avoids, and it is likely that this coast
did likewise, knowing rather the independent sphere of influence of
the constituent Kingdom of Persia; which, while an integral part of
the Arsacid possessions, maintained its local government to an extent
never allowed the districts nearer Ctesiphon.
28. Imported into this place.—The list of imports indicates
the nature of the trade: a little wheat, wine, and cheap clothing for
the Hadramaut, and graven images for the household worship of its
king; and the Mediterranean products, copper, tin, coral and storax,
for re-shipment to India, where they were in demand (§ 49), and
whither they went in Hadramaut shipping (§ 57), along with the
frankincense produced in the country. The outlook of Hadramaut,
then as now, was toward India by sea, and toward Egypt by land.
Bent found the same conditions; the capital full of Parsee merchants,
the natives going to India, the Straits and Java, and returning when
they had amassed a competence; the English protectorate accepted
because of England's domination of India, in the face of the religious
convictions of rulers and people {Geographical Journal^ IV, 322).
Maltzan described the Hadrami traders in Cairo as the keenest of the
lot, and spoke of their activities in the East; while the Dutch gov-
ernment, finding the islands of Java and Sumatra overrun with Ha-
dramaut Arabs, stimulated inquiries of them in Batavia, which re-
sulted in Van den Berg's book on their country, comprising more
details than Bent could gather on the spot! An enterprising and
uncompromising people, these Chatramotitae, who may have been the
128
active power in the Minaean dynasty and the Sabaean that followed it,
both of whom subsisted mainly on the carriage of frankincense to the
north, in which they were the mediators between the profane world
and the unpolluted caste of those who were able by propitiating the
spirit of the sacred tree, to shed and gather its blood for the purifica-
tion of mankinJ.
28. Coral.—This was the red coral of the Mediterranean, which
commanded a high price in India and China, and was one of the
principal Roman exports thither, being shipped to Barbaricum, Bary-
gaza and Muziris. (See §§ 39, 49, and 56.) As an import at Cana
it was intended for reshipment to India in Arab or Hindu bottoms.
28. Storax in Roman times meant two different things: one, a
solid, was the resin of Styrax officinalis, order Styracacea, somewhat
resembling benzoin, and used in incense. Liquid storax was the sap
of Liquidambar orientalis, order Hamamelidacea, native in S. W. Asia
Minor, and exported, according to Fliickiger and Hanbury (Pharma-
cographia, pp. 271-6), as far as China. It was an expectorant and
stimulant, useful in chronic bronchial affections. The Periplus does
not distinguish between them, but Fliickiger thinks that the storax dealt
in at Cana was the liquid storax, destined for India and China; which
would have had little use for an incense of less value than their own.
There was, however, a local use for storax in defending the frank-
incense gatherers from the *'serpents" guarding the trees; seepp. 131-2.
Hirth in his China and the Roman Orient quotes Chinese annals
covering this period, which state that the Syrians ''collect all kinds of
fragrant substances, the juice of which they boil into su-ho"—which
he identifies with storax. Later, annals, referring to the 6th century,
are more complete. "Storax is made by mixing and boiling the juice
of various fragrant trees; it is not a natural product. It is further said
that the inhabitants of Ta-ts'in (Syria) gather the storax (plant, or parts
of it), squeeze the juice out, and thus make a balsam (hsiang-kao); they
then sell its dregs to the traders of other countries; it thus goes
through many hands before reaching China, and, when arriving here,
is not very fragrant."
These references indicate that the Chinese su-ho may not have
been the product of one particular tree.
Glaser notes the name su-ho, which the Chinese annals further
state to have been the name of the country producing the storax, and
connect with the city Li-kan, supposed to be the same as Rekam or
Petra, which was a point of shipment. He compares this with the
mil-woo^ mentioned in several Assyrian inscriptions a tribute received
from Arabia, and with a city called Usuu, placed by Delitzsch south
129
of Akko on the sea—but Glaser thinks it may have been farther north,
near Tyre.
28. Aloes, a bitter cathartic, being the dried juice exuded
from Aloe Perryi, Baker, order Liliacete. This was from very early
times an important article of commerce, and was produced almost
entirely in Socotra. Another variety, less in demand, was from Aloe
hepatica, native in South Arabia, particularly in the Hadramaut valley,
but also as far as northern Oman. The failure of the Periplus to
mention Socotrine aloes is surprising, unless the product of the island
was monopolized in Cana. This is quite possible, as the island was
subject to the Hadramaut.
In modern times these and many other varieties are in use, both
wild and cultivated, throughout the tropics. Bent {Southern Arabia,
p. 381) found very little aloes collected in Socotra, but many fields
enclosed by walls, where it had formerly been produced. He de-
scribes the ancient method still used to prepare the gum; the thick
leaves piled up until the juice exudes of their own weight, then allowed
to dry in the sun for six weeks and finally packed in skins for shipment.
29. The Bay of Sachalites.—Until the Arabian coast was
surveyed, there was an erroneous idea held by all the geographers, of
a deep indentation in the coast-line between Ras el Kelb (14° 0' N.,
48° 45' E.) and Ras Hasik (17° 23' N., 55° 10' E.), midway be-
tween which Ras Fartak, or Syagrus (14° 0' N., 52° 12' E.) bisected
the supposed gulf. The error is very evident in Ptolemy's observa-
tions, which make Ras Fartak one of the most striking features of the
coast, whereas its actual projection is unimportant, and its height less
than that of the ranges farther east.
The name as applied in § 29 seems to apply to this whole strip
of coast; in § 32 that part of it lying east of Ras Fartak is subdivided
as the district of Omana; but in § 33 the name is resumed. This
accords with the Arabian geographers, whose Shehr extended beyond
Dhofar.
The word Sachalites is Hellenized from the Arabic Sahil, "coast,"
the same word that appears in East Africa as Sawahil, where the
natives are called Swahili. This narrow strip of coast plain was dif-
ferent topographically and ethnologically from the Valley of Hadra-
maut.
The mediaeval form of the word was Sheher or Shehr, and the
mediaeval port that replaced Cana was Es-shehr (the Escier of Marco
Polo).
Ibn Khaldun (Kay's translation, p. 180) has the following ac-
count of this coast: "Ash-Shihr is, like Hijaz and Yaman, one of
130
the kingdoms of the Arabian peninsula. It is separate from Hadra-
maut and Oman. There is no cultivation, neither are there palm-
trees in the country. The wealth of the inhabitants consists of camels
and goats. Their food is flesh, preparations of milk and small fish,
with which they also feed their beasts. The country is also known
as that of Mahra, and the camels called Mahriyah camels are reared
in it. Ash-Shihr is sometimes conjoined with Oman, but it is con-
tiguous to Hadramaut, and it has been described as constituting the
shores of that country. It produces frankincense, and on the seashore
the Shihrite ambergris is found. The Indian Ocean extends along
the south and on the north Hadramaut, as if Shihr were the sea-shore
of the latter. Both are under one king.77
Hommel (in Hilprecht, op. cit 700-1) argues for a derivation of
this name from some word allied to the old Hebrew term for frankin-
cense, shekheleth; which does not seem to have been in use on the
south coast, while the evidence of the Arab writers is against him. (See
also Glaser, S&izze, 178-9.) The Periplus in § 32 is against him,
by using the adjective Sachalitic as qualifying 1 frankincense,'7 which
would be quite redundant.
Vaughn (Pharm. Journ. XII, 1853) speaks of the Shaharree
luban from Arabia, as yielding higher prices than that produced in
Africa; a term exactly corresponding to the Sachalitic frankincense'7
of the Periplus.
29. Always fatal.—The reports of the unhealthy character of
this coast, spread by the earliest traders, have been assumed to be their
device to discourage competition. The fate of Niebuhr's party in
Yemen, and the more recent tragic outcome of Bent's explorations,
sufficiently confirm the dangers from malaria, dysentery and the scorch-
ing sun.
But aside from the question of physical health, the tapping of the
frankincense tree was believed to be attended by special dangers, ex-
pressed in the faith of the people, and arising from the supposed
divinity of the tree itself.
W. Robertson Smith {Religion of the Semites, p. 427) recounts this belief as follows:
"The religious value of incense was originally independent of
animal sacrifice, for frankincense was the gum of a very holy species
of tree, which was collected with religious precautions. Whether,
therefore, the sacred odor was used in unguents or burned like an
altar sacrifice, it appears to have owed its virtue, like the gum of the
samora (acacia) tree, to the idea that it was the blood of an animate
and divine plant."
131
And again (p. 133): "In Hadramaut it is still dangerous to touch
the sensitive mimosa, because the spirit that resides in the plant will
avenge the injury. The same idea appears in the story of Harb b.
Omayya and Mirdas b. Abi Amir, historical persons who died a gen-
eration before Mohammed. When these two men set fire to an un-
trodden and tangled thicket, with the design to bring it under cultiva-
tion, the demons of the place flew away with doleful cries in the shape
of white serpents, and the intruders died soon afterwards. The jinn
it was believed slew them because they had set fire to their dwelling-
place. Here the spirits of the trees take serpent form when they
leave their natural seats, and similarly in Moslem superstition the jinn
of the 'os/ir and hamata are serpents which frequent trees of these
species. But primarily supernatural life and power reside in the trees
themselves, which are conceived as animate and even as rational . .
Or again the value of the gum of the acacia as an amulet is connected
with the idea that it is a clot of menstruous blood, /. e., that the tree
is a woman. And similarly the old Hebrew fables of trees that speak
and act like human beings (Judg. IX, 8 ff., 2 Kings XIV, 9) have
their original source in the savage personification of vegetable species.''
The Romans and Greeks, it is well known, believed that the
souls of the dead were incarnate in the bodies of serpents and revisited
the earth in that form; hence, as Frazer has shown {Golden Bough,
3d ed., IV, 74), such practices as that described in the Bacchce of
Euripides, when nursing mothers entered the Dionysiac revels clad in
deer-skins and girded with serpents, which they suckled. Hence,
also, the Roman custom of keeping serpents in every household, and
the serpent-worship connected with their god Aesculapius, to whose
shrines, as well as to those of Adonis in Syria, childless women re-
paired that they might be quickened by a dead saint, a jinn, or by the
god himself, in serpent form. Such was the belief concerning the
births of Alexander of Macedon and the Emperor Augustus.
Herodotus refers to this same belief in two passages (III, 107
and II, 75) which have been laughed at as travellers' yarns. "The
Arabians gather frankincense," he says, "by burning styrax, which
the Phoenicians import into Greece; for winged serpents, small in
size and various in form, guard the trees that bear frankincense, a
great number round each tree. These are the same serpents that in-
vade Egypt. They are driven from the trees by nothing else but the
smoke of the styrax." That is, the wrath of the incense-spirit was
appeased by the perfume provided by the styrax-spirit. And every spring,
he says, these winged serpents flew into Egypt through a narrow pass
near Buto, where they were met by the ibis and defeated; hence the
132
veneration for the ibis in Egypt. Here is evidently a belief that the
tree-spirit hovered over its blood as the traders carried it to market,
and that the danger that threatened the Egyptians was averted by the
defensive power of their own sacred bird. The location of this Buto
is disputed, but it was probably along some ancient desert trade-route
such as that between Coptos and Berenice at the time of the Periplus.
Buto was also the name of an Egyptian deity, borrowed from ''God's
Land" (Yemen).
Theophrastus has the same story of the tree guarded by winged
serpents, but refers it to cinnamon {Hist. Plant., IX, 6).
According to Herodotus, all the fragrant gums of Arabia were
similarly guarded, except myrrh; which may suggest that myrrh was
from a more purely Joktanite district, less imbued with the animism
of the earlier races of Arabia.
The same belief probably appears in the fiery flying serpents"
of Isaiah XXX, 60.
Medicinal waters were guarded by similar powers; a dragon
sacred to Ares protected the sacred spring above Ismenian Apollo
(Frazer, Pausanias, V, 43-5); while among the Arabs all medicinal
waters were protected by j'inns (W. Robertson Smith, op. cit., 168).
The faith of the Incense-Land presents many features in com-
mon with that of the Greeks. While Frazer is no doubt right in
warning against indiscriminate assimilation of deities Greek, Egyptian
and Semitic, there is certainly some truth in the words of Euripides'
Bacchus (son of Jove and Semele, daughter of the Phoenician Cad-
mus) who came to Greece "having Jeft the wealthy lands of the
Lydians and Phrygians and the sun-parched plains of the Persians,
and the Bactrian walls; and having come over the stormy land of the
Medes, and the happy Arabia, and all Asia which lies along the coast
of the Salt Sea, . . . there having established my mysteries"—and
"every one of these foreign nations celebrates these orgies."
According to Herodotus (III, 8 and I, 131), the only deities of
the Incense-Land were Dionysus and Urania, whom they called
Orotal and Alilat; while the Semitic people of Meroe (II, 29) wor-
shipped Zeus (Ammon) and Bacchus (Osiris) whom Glaser assimi-
lates with the Katabanic gods 'Am and Uthirat {Punt unddie Siidara-
hischcn Reiche, 43). Now the invocations of Dionysus in the mys-
teries were "Evoe, Sabai, Bacchi, Hues, Attes, Attes, Hues!" and
according to Cicero (De natura deorum, I, iii, 23) one of the names
of Bacchus was Sabazius; in whose mysteries at Alexandria, we are
told by Clement (Protrept. ii, 16) persons initiated had a serpent
drawn throueh the bosom of their robes, and the reptile was identified
133
with the god (Frazer, Golden Bough, IV, 76). Here seems to be
some basis, at least, for identification of the god of the Incense-Land
to whom Pliny gives the name Sabis; whom Glaser {Punt, etc., p.
46) thinks identical with Shams, the Sabaean sun-god, and whose
name appears also in the capital city, Sabota or Sabbatha (Shabwa).
There is a suggestive similarity in the legions concerning the
crater of Bir Barhut in the Hadramaut, and Aetna, on the top of
which an ancient Latin poem describes the people offering incense to
the celestial deities. Formerly, Frazer says, victims were sacrificed
also, probably to appease the spirits who were supposed to dwell
there.
The Abyssinian Chronicle, tracing the descent of the monarchs
of that people who migrated from the Incense-Land, heads the list
with "Arwe the Serpent" (Salt, op. cit., p. 460) and Ludolfus in his
Commentaries (III, 284) refers to the "great dragon who lived at
Axum,'' said to have been burst asunder by the prayers of nine Chris-
tian saints. (See also James Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship;
Plutarch, De hide et Osiride and De Defectu Oraculorum.)
30. Syagrus is unquestionably Ras Fartak, 15° 36'N., 52° 12'
E., a bluff headland rising to a height of about 2500 feet, visible for
many miles along the coast. This name, meaning "wild boar" in
Greek, is probably a corruption of the Arabic tribe-name saukar, plural
sawakir, appearing also in Saukira Bay, and in the modern village of
Saghar. This was an incense-gathering folk, whose name Pliny as-
similates .to the Greek for "holy"—sacros, from sakr, the root-form
of saukar. See Glaser, Shzze, 180.
Yet the modern name Fartak, according to Forster (op. cit.
II, 171), has the same meaning, "Wild Boar's Snout," the mediaeval
Arabic geographers having possibly followed Ptolemy's nomenclature.
30. Dioscorida, (nearer the Arabian coast than the African in
point of population and language, if not in location as our author
asserts), continues its name in the modern Socotra (12° 30' N., 54°
0' E. ). Both forms are corruptions of the Sanscrit Dvipa Sukhadara,
meaning "Island abode of bliss." Agatharchides refers to it as
Island of the Blest," a stopping-place for the voyagers between India
and Arabia. How ancient the Hindu name may be is unknown; the
sense possibly antedates the language in which it is expressed. An
Egyptian tale of the Xlllth Egyptian dynasty (18th century B. C.),
recounted by Golenischef (Report of the Vth Congress of Oriental-
ists, Berlin, 1881), speaks of it as "Island of the Genius," Pa-anch, the
home of the King of the Incense-Land; and in the "Genius" maybe
recognized the jinn or spirit of the sacred tree. There is good cause
134
/
for believing that this is also the "Isle of the Blest/' the farthest
point reached by the wandering hero of that Babylonian Odyssey, the
narrative of Gilgamesh; which joins to the story of a search over the
known world for the soul of a departed friend, found in the end by
prayer offered to Nergal, god of the dead, the material record of an
early migration around the shores of Arabia. The theory of this
Cushite-Elamite migration, outlined by Glaser (Skizze, vol. II) is thus
recounted by Hommel {Ancient Hebrew Tradition, p. 39):
"Egyptian records furnish us with an important piece of ethno-
logical evidence. From the Xllth dynasty (2200 B. C. ?) onwards
a new race makes its appearance on the Egyptian horizon: the Kashi
in Nubia. This name was originally applied to Elam (Babyl. kashu:
cf. the Kissioi of Herodotus, the modern Khuzistan; cf. also Cutch
and Kachh in India), and according to Hebrew translation, was
afterwards given to various parts of central and southern Arabia;
from this he argues that in very early times—prior to the 2d millen-
nium B. C.—northeast Africa must have been colonized by the Elam-
ites, who had to pass around Arabia on their way thither. This theory
is supported by the fact that in the so-called Cushite languages of
northeast Africa, such as the Galla, Somali, Beja, and other allied
dialects, we find grammatical principles analogous to those of the early
Egyptian and Semitic tongues combined with a totally dissimilar syn-
tax presenting no analogy with that of the Semites or with any Negro
tongue in Africa, but resembling closely the syntax of the Ural-altaic languages of Asia, to which . . . the Elamite language belongs.
According to this view, the much-discussed Cushites (the Aethiopians
of Homer and Herodotus) must originally have been Elamitic Kass-
ites, who were scattered over Arabia and found their way to Africa.
It is interesting to note that the Bible calls Nimrod a son of Cush, and
that the name Gilgamesh has an Elamitic termination. What the
Nimrod epic tells us of his wanderings around Arabia must therefore
be regarded as a legendary version of the historical migration of the
Kassites from Elam into East Africa. Nimrod is merely a personifi-
cation of the Elamitic race-element of which traces are still to be
found both in Arabia and in Nubia."
And in the same book, pp. 35-6, Hommel thus describes the
references in the epic, which in its present form he dates at about
2000 B. C.:
'£In the 9th canto we are told how he set out for the land of
Mashu (central Arabia), the gate of which (the rocky pass formed by
the cliffs of Aga and Salma), was guarded by legendary scorpion-men.
(Hence perhaps the name "land of darkness" applied to Arabia in
135
early Hebrew annals.) For 12 miles the hero had to make his way
through dense darkness; at length he came to an enclosed space by
the sea-shore where dwelt the virgin goddess Sabitu; who tells him
that "no one since eternal days has ever crossed the sea, save Sha-
mash, the hero.
"Difficult is the crossing, and extremely dangerous the way,
And closed are the Waters of Death which bolt its entrance;
How, then, Gilgamesh, wilt thou cross the sea?"
But Gilgamesh is directed to Arad-Ea, the sailor of Per-napishtim,
who is in the forest felling a cedar. Him he asks to ferry him across
to the "Isle of the Blest." After cutting 120 timbers 60 cubits long
(surely not "oars," as the translation has it, but rather logs for an
inflated raft) and smearing them with pitch,
"Then Gilgamesh and Arad-Ea embarked;
The ship tossed to and fro while they were on their way.
A journey of forty and five days they accomplished in three days,
And thus Arad-Ea arrived at the Waters of Death"—
which may have been Bab el Mandeb, and at the "Isle of the Blest"
where dwelt Shamash-Napishtim, great-grandfather of Gilgamesh.
The island Pa-anch of the Egyptian tale is obviously the same as
the incense-land Panchaia of Virgil (Georgics I, 213), and the tale
itself indicates that Socotra was an important center of international
trade not far from the time of Abraham. Here the occasional navies
of Egypt met the peoples of Arabia and Africa and the traders of India,
from the Gulf of Cambay and perhaps in greater numbers from the
active ports in that ruined sea of past ages, the Rann of Cutch (the
Eirinon of § 40); a condition not changed at the time of the Peri-
plus, when the inhabitants were a "mixture of Arabs and Indians and
Greeks," nor yet when Cosmas Indicopleustes visited the place,
noting its conversion to Christianity, and observing that the Greek
element was planted there by the Ptolemies. Marco Polo (III, 32)
found still "a great deal of trade there, for many ships come from all
quarters with goods to sell to the natives. A multitude of corsairs
(called Bawarij, from Cutch and Gujarat) frequent the island; they
come there and encamp and put up their plunder for sale; and this
they do to good profit, for the Christians of the island purchase it
knowing well that it is Saracen or Pagan gear."
The names Pa-anch and Panchaia Glaser would connect, as
already noted, with such others as Pano and Opone, the land of Punt
and the Puni or Phoenicians, whose sacred bird was likewise con-
nected with Panchaia. Pliny gives the story (X, 2):
"The Phoenix, that famous bird of Arabia ... the size of an
eagle, and has a brilliant golden plumage around the neck, while the
136
rest of the body is of a purple color; except the tail, which is azure,
with long feathers intermingled of a roseate hue; the throat is
adorned with a crest, and the head with a tuft of feathers. ... It is
sacred to the sun. . . . When old it builds a nest of cinnamon and
sprigs of incense, which it fills with perfumes, and then lays its body
upon them to die. From its bones and marrow there springs a small
worm, which changes into a little bird; the first thing that it does is
to perform the obsequies of its predecessor, and to carry the nest
entire to the City of the Sun near Panchaia, and there deposit it upon
the altar of that divinity. The revolution of the great year is com-
pleted with the life of this bird, and a new cycle comes round again
with the same characteristics as the former one, in the seasons and
appearance of the stars."
Seyffarth has supposed this to refer* to the passage of Mercury every
625 years, and Glaser connects the legend with the hawk-faced
Egyptian god Horus (Khor). Compare Job XXIX, 18: 4'Then I
said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the Phoe-
nix" {Khor or Khot). The bird came from an Arabian land, hence
his name from the people thereof; just as the Greeks gave the same
name phoinix to the date-palm, native in that land; which may be
assumed to have been the southern shore of the Persian Gulf, whence
convulsions of nature, climatic or political changes, drove its inhabit-
ants in opposite directions, carrying their culture with them and dupli-
cating Persian Gulf place-names continuously in the Mediterranean
and Erythraean Seas.
(See the introduction Ueber die Volker und Sprachen Afrikas in
Lepsius' Nubische Grammatik; Glaser, Punt und die Sudarabischen
Reiche, and the reports of the Austrian South Arabian Expedition.)
30. Great lizards, of which the flesh is eaten.—These
are probably Varanus niloticus, family Varanida, order Lacertilia, native
throughout the African region, and attaining a length of more than
five feet. Another species, V. sa/vator, while somewhat larger, seems
to be native only in India and farther east. The flesh of all the Var-
anida, although offensive to the smell, is eaten by the natives, and
considered equal to that of fowls. The name Varanus is from the
Arabic Ouaran, lizard; which by a mistaken resemblance to the Eng-
lish "warn" has been rendered into a popular Latin name, Monitor.
{Cambridge Natural History, VIII, 542-5.)
30. Tortoise.—It is uncertain what species are meant. The
tortoise-shell of commerce is from Chelone imbricata, family Chelonida, the so-called ''hawks-bill" turtle, found in all tropical waters, but sel-
dom reaching a length of more than thirty inches. This is a "true
137
sea-tortoise," as our author puts it, but he goes on to describe a
*'mountain-tortoise, the largest and with the thickest shell," which may
be Chelone mydas, the "green turtle" (also a sea-tortoise), but is more
likely one of the gigantic land-tortoises (family Testudinida) which ap-
pear in many of the islands of the Western Indian Ocean; of which
most are now extinct, (Testudo grandidieri only recently in Mada-
gascar), while others, like T. gigantea and T. daudini, are still found
in less frequented islands. The land-tortoise" and the "white-
tortoise" may include several species of Cinyxis, Pyxis and Testudo.
(See Cambridge Natural History, VIII, 364-387.)
30. Cinnabar, that called Indian.—(Dragons blood.) The
confusion between dragon's blood (the exudation of a dracaena) and
our cinnabar (red sulphide of mercury) is of long standing, but less
absurd than it seems at first sight. The story is given by Pliny
(XXXIII, 38, and VIII, 12). The word kinnabari, he says, is
properly the name given to the thick matter which issues from the
dragon when crushed beneath the weight of the dying elephant, mixed
with the blood of either animal. The occasions were the continual
combats which were believed to take place between the two.
The dragon was said to have a passion for elephant's blood; he
twined himself around the elephant's trunk, fixed his teeth behind the
ear, and drained all the blood at a draught; when the elephant fell
dead to the ground, in his fall crushing the now intoxicated dragon.
Any thick red earth was thus attributed to such combats, and given
the name kinnabari. Originally red ochre (peroxide of iron), was
probably the principal earth so named. Later the Spanish quicksilver
earth (red sulphide of mercury), was given the same name and pre-
ferred as a pigment to the iron. Later, again, the exudations of
Dracana cinnabari in Socotra and Dracana schizantha in Somaliland
and Hadramaut (order Dracanea), and Calamus draco in India (order
Palmea), were given the name kinnabari. Being of similar texture
and appearance, the confusion is not surprising, as the Romans had
no knowledge of chemistry.
Pliny noted errors made by physicians in his day, of prescribing
the poisonous Spanish cinnabar instead of the Indian; and proposed
a solution of the problem by calling the mercury earth minium, the
ochre miltos, and the vegetable product kinnabari, but usage did not
follow him. We now give the mercury earth the old Greek name
for dragon's blood, and the dried juice we give the same name in
English.
Wellsted {Travels in Arabia, 1838, II, 450-1) noted the two
varieties of Dracaena, one of which had leaves the camels could eat,
138
while the other was too bitter. Bent {Southern Arabia, 379, 381, 387)
gives a good description of this peculiar tree, with its thick, twisted
trunk and foliage resembling an umbrella turned inside out. He notes
that very little is now exported from Socotra, the cultivated product
from Sumatra and South America having superseded it. The method
of gathering is the simplest possible, the dried juice deing knocked
off the tree into bags, and the nicely-broken drops fetch the best price.
According to the Century Dictionary the word cinnabar \s "of
eastern origin: cf. Persian zinjarf, %injafr, — Hindu shangarf, cin-
nabar. ''
The bit of folk-lore quoted by Pliny confirms the Indian con-
nections of Socotra. Combats with a dragon or serpent for possession
of a sacred place, or for the relief of a suffering people, appear in all
the Mediterranean countries; such were related of Apollo at the
oracle of Delphi, of Adonis in Syria (perpetuated in the modern faith
in St. George in the same locality), to say nothing of Marduk and
Tiamat in the Babylonian creation-story. But in all these legends,
held by Semitic people or borrowed from them, the contender is a
hero or a god; while in Socotra it is an elephant. Pliny offers a ma-
terialistic explanation, which is unconvincing because elephants are
not found in Socotra or in the neighboring parts of Africa. It is evi-
dently a local faith rather than a natural fact, and light may be thrown
upon it by Bent's observation {Southern Arabia, 379) that dragon's
blood is still called in Socotra "blood of two brothers."
In the Mediterranean world this gum was used medicinally and
as a dye; in India it had also ceremonial uses. One must refer, not to
the Buddhism of the Kushan dynasty, apparently dominant as far south
as the modern Bombay at the time of the Periplus, but rather to the
earlier faith—Brahmanism overlaid upon nature-worship, then preva-
lent among the Dravidian races farther south. The members of the
Brahman triad were Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, the creator, preserver,
and destroyer; they were worshipped especially at a shrine on an
island in Bombay harbor, called Elephanta (in constant connection
commercially with the Gulf of Aden), and an elephant's head was
the visible emblem of the sacred syllable AUM, representing the
triad, which was pronounced at the beginning and the end of any
reading of the sacred books, and had many mystic properties. The
elephant signified more particularly the first person of the triad, Brahma
the creator, while the dragon or serpent, in the form of the cobra,
represented Siva the destroyer; and these combats of Pliny, between
an elephant and a dragon, the blood from which was called "blood
139
of two brothers," seem to be a reflection of the perpetual conflict be-
tween the first and third persons of the Hindu triad.
It is notable that the Hindu name for Socotra appears likewise
among the mysterious names of the seven manifestations of the power
of.AUM in their ritual: ''Earth, Sky, Heaven, Middle Region, Place
of Births, Abode of the Blest, Abode of Truth;" indicating that the
island had its name from the Indian merchants who had ''emigrated
to carry on trade there" (§ 30), especially in this legendary gum of
the dracaena, and suggesting that the name is as old as the XHIth
dynasty tale and the Gilgamesh epic.
Another survival of Hindu influence seems to be the mateb or
blue silk neck-cord, the badge of baptism in modern Abyssinian
Christianity, which suggests, more than any Arab custom, the %ennar
or sacred cord of the Brahman priest.
(See the references in J. G. Frazer's Pausanias and Golden Bough;
Porphyry, de Ant. Nymph., 268; Asiatic Researches, V, 348; Maurice,
Indian Antiquities. )
30. Yields no fruit.—This must be understood as referring
to agriculture; this island was particularly rich in natural products of
commercial value. Aloes, dragon's blood and frankincense were all
plentiful, also myrrh and other gums; but owing to the monopoly of
the Chatramotitae these went to market at Cana. Bent found many
evidences of this early trade, but no present exploitation; the walled
aloe-fields deserted, the frankincense, myrrh and dragon's blood un-
collected, and the energies of the people employed in the production
of clarified butter. The island seemed full of cattle, and the Sultan
kept a special dhow to carry the skins and jars of clarified butter to the
mainland, where it was in demand as far as Muscat and Zanzibar.
(Southern Arabia, p. 346).
31. Subject to the Frankincense Country.—By speech,
race and political allegiance Socotra has been joined to the Mahra
district of South Arabia from time immemorial. La Roque's map of
1716 showed it "depending upon the Kingdom of Fartach" (Ho-
garth, op. cit., p. 45); Wellsted, writing in 1838 (op. cit., 450-3)
found it jealously mentioned as a dependency of the Sheikh of Kissin,
"formerly called King of Furtak;" and Bent found the same. (See
also the numerous reports of the Austrian Expedition.)
31. Garrisoned; for defence against the two enemies of the
Chatramotitae, by whom they were hard pressed on either side:
namely, the Homerites and the Parthians.
32. The Bay of Omana, being that portion of the Bay of
Sachalites lying cast of Syagrus, is the modern Kamar Bay. (16°
140
15' N., 53° 30' E.). The "mountains, high and rocky and steep,
inhabited by cave-dwellers," are the modern Jebel Kamar and Jebel
Gara, reaching altitudes of over 3,000 feet.
The name "Omana," the same as the modern Oman, seems
to have extended at the time of the Periplus over a larger area, in-
cluding much of the south shore of the Persian Gulf as well as the
coast of South Arabia as far as Ras Hasik; all of which seems to have
been subject to the Parthians, but recently—for Isidorus of Charax
Spasini, writing in the time of Augustus, speaks of "Goaesus, King
of the Omanitae in the Frankincense Country." The coast between
Ras Hasik and Ras Fartak, likewise associated with the name Omana
in the Periplus, had fallen to the Chatramotitae in the recent partition
of the Incense-Land.
32. The harbor called Moscha.—This is identified with
Khor Reiri (17° 2' N., 54° 26' E.), a protected inlet (now closed
at low tide by a sand-bar); into which empties the Wadi Dirbat.
It is a couple of miles east of the modern town of Taka, in the east-
ern part of the plain of Dhofar, a fertile strip of some 50 miles along
the coast between Ras Risut and Ras Mirbat, surrounded by the Gara
Mountains. Marco Polo describes it (III, xxxviii) as "a very good
haven, so that there is a great traffic of shipping between this and
India." It is, no doubt, the "harbor of the Abaseni'' of Stephanus
Byzantius. The ancient capital, Saphar (whence the modern name
of Dhofar, confused by many mediaeval geographers with Saphar or
Zafar, the capital of the Homerites in Yemen) lay probably in the
western part of the plain, near the modern Hafa.
Saphar seems to mean no more than "capital" or *'royal resi-
dence," so that the true name of the ancient city is unknown.
Ptolemy calls it Abissa Polis, "City of the Habashat."
The Plain of Dhofar, and the mountains behind it and for some
distance beyond on either side, are the original, and perhaps always
the most important, Incense-Land of Arabia. We are fortunate in
having a vivid description of the whole region, by J. Theodore Bent
(Geographical Journal, VI, 109-134, with a map facing page 204; re-
printed in his Southern Arabia) with careful corrections by Glaser
(Die Abessinier in Arabien und Afrika, 182-192). The plain is alluvial
soil washed down from the mountains, which are of limestone, cav-
ernous, and high enough to attract the rains; so that instead of the
sandstone and volcanic rocks elsewhere on the south coast, here is
"one large oasis by the sea," abundantly v/atered the year round, and
producing crops of all kinds. The encircling mountains are the source
of many streams, gathering in lakes on the upper levels and falling to
141
the plain through densely wooded valleys. "Limes, cactus, aloes, and
mimosa form on all sides a delightful forest, and the mountains above
the lakes are clad almost to the summit with timber. Such a scene
we never expected to witness in Arabia; it reminded us more of the
rich valleys leading up to the tableland of Abyssinia. . . Sweet-scented
white jessamine hung in garlands from the trees, and the air was fra-
grant with the odor of many flowers. . . It is probable that a knowl-
edge of such valleys as these gained for Arabia its ancient reputation
for floral wealth." And following up the stream leading to the an-
cient harbor, which falls over a remarkable limestone cliff, Bent found
a broad grassy plain used for grazing, and in the midst a wooded lake,
the center of the local faith of the Gara tribe; they affirm that
jinnies live in the water, and that whoever wets his feet here is sure
to have fever. . . . Every November a fair is held here, to which all
the Beduins of the Gara tribe come and make merry. The fair of
Dirbat is considered by them the great festival of the year. A round
rock was shown us on which the chief magician sits to exorcise the
jinni of the lake, and around him the people dance."
A short way up the mountain-side just back of Hafa, the
modern town, is "a great cave hung with stalactites, below which
are the ruins of an ancient town, in the center of which is a natural
hole 100 feet deep and about 50 in diameter; around this hole are
the remains of walls, and the columns of a large entrance gate."
This, the natives told Bent, was the "well of the Adites," no doubt
an ancient oracle, mentioned as such by Ptolemy, Ibn Batuta and
others.
Near Hafa are the ruins of the ancient capital, "by the sea,
around an acropolis some 100 feet in height, encircled by a moat still
full of water; and in the center, still connected with the sea, but
almost silted up, is a tiny harbor. The ground is covered with the
remains of ancient temples, the architecture of which at once con-
nects them with that of the columns at Adulis, Coloe and Axum—
after seeing which no doubt can be entertained that the same people
built them all."
In Hafa the Bents found "a bazaar with frankincense in piles
ready for shipment, just as depicted in the Deir el Bahri temple,"
while a large tract of country was still "covered with frankincense
trees, with their bright green leaves like ash trees, their small green
flowers, and their insignificant fruit." (See later, p. 218.)
This plain, with its ancient capital, Saphar, was the center of the
ancient Cushite empire (or Adite, from Ad, grandson of Ham) which
included most of Southern Arabia and much of East Africa; having a
142
civilization and religion similar to and derived from the Chaldaean.
About 1800 B. C, according to the Arab historians, Joktanite tribes
entered and conquered South Arabia, but were largely absorbed by the
Cushite stock; as a result of which the second, or Sabaean, empire
of Ad was formed, in which the Joktanites became the sacred and
land-owning caste, while the political and economic activities remained
with the Cushites. This was probably the power that dealt with the
Egyptians under the XVIIIth dynasty, as pictured at Deir-el-Bahri;
concerning which the publication of the Egypt Exploration Fund
seems a little too positive that the "Land of Punt'' could not be in
Arabia because the faces of the Punt people were not Semitic. The
testimony of Arabia would be at fault if they were. Later the Sabaean
Cushites, conquered by the Banu Ya'rub, a Joktanite stock from Ye-
men, migrated into Africa, and establishing themselves in Abyssinia,
continued the ancient conflict for six centuries more.
The account of Ibn Khaldun (Kay's edition, pp. 179-80) gives
a hint of the northern origin of the "Adites." Hadramaut, Ash-
Shihr and Oman, he says, "originally belonged to Ad, from whose
people it was conquered by the Banu Ya'rub, son of Kahtan (Joktan).
It is said that the Banu Ad were led thither by Rukaym son of Aram,
who had formerly visited the country in company with the Prophet
Hud. He returned to the people of Ad and led them in ships to the
country and to its invasion. They wrested it from the hands of its
inhabitants, but they were themselves subsequently conquered by the
Banu Ya'rub, son of Kahtan. Kahtan ruled over the country, and it
was governed by his son Hadramaut, after whom it was named."
Makrizi varies the legend by making Ad son of Kahtan, by whom
he was made ruler over Babylonia, and his brother Hadramaut over
"Habassia;" and he preserves a memory of the trade of the Incense-
Land with India, in the tale of a hero of that land who came by night
to the land of the Indians in the form of a vulture, whence he re-
turned bearing seeds of the green pepper, as proof of his journey.
It is regrettable that Bent could not have learned more of the
local faith of the Gara tribe, exemplified at the annual reunion at the
Dirbat lakes, which is probably an interesting survival of the ancient
faith. For as the Mahri represent the Himyarite conquerors of
the incense coast-land, so do the Gara represent to some extent
the earlier inhabitants. Bent found a state of armed truce under the
restraining influence of Muscat; Haines, Carter, and Cruttenden
had found the villages of the plain fighting among themselves, and the
mountain folk fighting with the plain, the gatherers with the over-
lords, as of old. Bent tells enough, however, to indicate the worship
143
of the spirit of the lake, the waters of which might not be polluted by
the foot of man; the propitiation of the spirit by the *'chief magi-
cian'' at the time of gathering the frankincense, and the celebration
of the harvest by a 4'tribal dance" probably reminiscent of baccha-
nalian rites; after which the product is sent to Bombay for distribu-
tion, that the rest of the world, in the words of Pausanias (IX, 30)
may 'worship God with other people's incense."
The name Moscha is another of those place-names that are re-
peated along the coast from east to west, and survives in the modern
Muscat, with which Miiller mistakenly identifies this port. According
to Forster Cop. cit, II, 174-5) this is an Arabic word meaning "in-
flated skin," from the Genaba "Fish-Eaters" or "floaters on skins."
The word continues in the Greek moschos, calf. Glaser supposes the
word to be the same as Mocha, and to signify a "commercial harbor,"
and to the author of the Periplus, and to Ptolemy, it is probable that
Moscha limen meant "Incense Harbor;'' moschos meaning also "musk,''
or in later Greek any perfume, even to that of strawberries; as indeed
the same idea was uppermost with Camoes (Lusiad, X, 201) and with
Milton: —
Now gentle gales,
Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole
Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past
Mozambic, off at sea northeast winds blow
Sabean odors from the spicy shore
Of Araby the Blest, with such delay
Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league
Cheered with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles:
—Paradise Lost, IV, 156-165.
(See the works already cited of Bent, Wellsted, Glaser, Hommel,
Zwemer, and Hogarth; Lenormant and Chevalier, Manual of Ancient
History of the East, VII, 1-2; also J. B. Haines, in the Journal of the
Royal Geographical Society for 1839 and 1845; H. J. Carter, in Trans-
actions of the Bombay Asiatic Society, for 1845, 1847, and 1851;
Makrizi De Valle Hadramaut, Bonn, 1866; Wellhausen, Skizzen und
Vorarbeiten, III, 135-146.)
32. The ship could not clear.—Compare the trading of the
Egyptian expeditions with the "chiefs of the land of Punt" over these
"heaps of incense," and again Marco Polo's description (III, xxxvii):
''A great deal of white incense grows in this country, and brings in a
great revenue to the Prince; for no one dares sell it to any one else;
and whilst he takes it from the people at 10 livres of gold for the
144
hundredweight, he sells it to the merchants at 60 livres, so his profit
is immense.'' And according to the Marasid-al-lttila, an Arab geo-
graphical dictionary of about the same period, ''this incense is care-
fully watched, and can be taken only to Dhafar, where the Sultan
keeps the best part for himself; the rest is made over to the people.
But any one who should carry it elsewhere than to Dhafar would be
put to death.''
33. Seven Islands called Zenobian.—These are now called
Kuria Muria, about 17° 20' N., 56° E., and belong to England,
which acquired them from the Sultan of Oman. In the time of the
Periplus they belonged to their western neighbors, the Hadramaut.
The name Zenobian is Hellenized from the Arabic Zenab or
Genab; the tribe of Beni Genab having possessed the neighboring
coast. This same tribal name, in the form of Genabti, appears in
numerous Egyptian inscriptions as one of the peoples of the ''Land
of Punt.'' (See Glaser, Punt unddie Sudarabischen Reiche, p. 10.)
Concerning the relation of these islands to the early frankincense
trade, a bit of folk-lore preserved by Marco Polo is particularly im-
portant. Pauthier in his French text rightly connects the story with
the Kuria Muria group because of its geographical position; Yule and
Cordier repudiate it as nonsense. Vincent, in his edition of the Peri-
plus (II, 347) refers the "fable," without explanation, to these
islands. Its actual source, so far as known, has not been observed.
About half-way between Makran and Socotra, Marco Polo says
(III, xxxi), are the two islands ''called Male and Female, lying
about 30 miles distant from one another. ... In the island called
Male dwell the men alone, without their wives or any other women.
Every year when the month of March arrives the men all set out for
the other island, and tarry there for three months, to wit, March,
April, May, dwelling with their wives for that space. At the end of
these three months they return to their own island, and pursue their
husbandry and trade for the other nine months. ... As for the
children which their wives bear to them, if they be girls they abide
with their mothers; but if they be boys the mothers bring them up
till they are fourteen, and then send them to the fathers. Such is the
custom of these two islands. The wives do nothing but nurse their
children and gather such fruits as their island produces; for their
husbands do furnish them with all necessaries." (Yule's Marco Po/o,^
Cordier's edition, II, 404-6.)
This story is a reflection of the belief, already noted from Pliny,
that the ceremonial value of the incense depended on the personal
purity of the gatherers, who were considered sacred. No man touch-
145
ing the tree, whether a proprietor according to the caste system of the
Incense-Land, or a farmer or gatherer, slave or free, might undergo
pollution through the presence of women or of the dead. The spirit
of the tree was a woman, and the protecting serpents were the souls
of the dead. If gathered without pollution, the incense constituted
the most effective vehicle of prayer, and had also certain sovereign
uses in purification after conjugal intercourse, availed of by both
Arabians and Babylonians, as described by Herodotus (I, 198) and
Strabo (XVI, i, 20).
Pliny's account of the Ascitae, swimming to the mainland on
inflated skins, has been noted. Stephanus Byzantius, writing in the
4th century A. D., says "beyond the Sabaei and the Chatramotitae
dwell the Abaseni, whose land yields myrrh, aloes, frankincense,
cinnamon and the red plant which resembles the color of Tyrian
purple (dragon's blood)." Pausanias in the 2d century (de situ
Gracia, VI, 269) mentions a "deep bay of the Erythraean Sea
having islands, Abasa and Sacaea," which were the home of these
same Ascitae. Bent {Southern Arabia, p. 230) describes the "Jenefa"
tribe on these Kuria Muria islands, pursuing sharks on inflated skins,
and Wellsted (pp. cit.9 Chap. V) found the "Beni Geneba" spread
all along the coasts of South Arabia and Oman, "shark-fishers swim-
ming on inflated skins, and pastoral folk, living in skin tents, but
under the S. W. monsoon retreating to caves," as noted in § 32.
Lieut. Cruttenden (Trans. Bombay Geog. Soc., VII, 121; 1846)
and General Miles (J. Geog. Soc, 1872) observe that the coast of
South Arabia "is visited every season by parties of Somalis, who pay
the Arabs for the privilege of collecting the frankincense."
Here is obviously the foundation for Marco Polo's tale. The
wandering Beni Genab, whose locality included the Kuria Muria
islands and the coast north and east thereof, would act as fishermen
and herdsmen during certain seasons, while during the remainder of
the year they would engage in the more profitable occupation of in-
cense gathering; in which they were subjected to the rigid rules
maintained by the Sayyid or saintly caste of landed proprietors, them-
selves too dignified to do the work (Van den Berg, op. cit., 40-44).
When the first rush of sap occurred in the spring they left their wives
perforce, to gather the best of the white gum, remaining on the
incense-terraces for later gatherings until the trees became dormant
again, when their work for that year was over and they returned home.
And their sons would naturally remain, with their mothers only during
childhood; past which they would be under the same tabu as the
grown men, and would begin work as gatherers.
146
Far from being a fairy tale, it is quite possible that at the time
Marco Polo wrote—the caste-system of the Hadramaut being fully
crystalized under the rule of Islam—this story of the Christian dwellers
on the ''Male and Female Islands" was literally true, as it was in the
earlier times in the race-conflict between Joktanite overlords and
Cushite gatherers.
The "Male Island" was, of course, the coast, and the Female included the entire group of islands; the Arabic dialects failing to dis-
tinguish between "coast" and "island."
33. Beyond Moscha.—The "mountain range along the
shore" is the modern Jebel Samhan, and the name Asich is preserved
in the modern Ras Hasik, 17° 23' N., 55° 20' E., as well as in the
westernmost of the Kuria Muria Islands, which faces it.
33. Sarapis is the modern Masira Island, 20° 20' N., 58° 40'
E., the first syllable only being from the native name, which our
author assimilates to that of the Alexandrian Osiris of the bull-worship,
Osor-Hapi, Sarapis, or in the Latin, Serapis. (Concerning this wor-
ship, in high favor at the time of the Periplus, see Strabo, book XVII,
Plutarch, de hide et Osiride, Maspero, Histoire Ancienne^ pp. 30 ff.,
Frazer's Pausanias, II, 175-6.)
The syllable &?r-apis or Ma-^r-a is probably the same as the
tribe-name Au-sar or Ausan mentioned in § 15.
This island is curiously confused by Pausanias (VI, 26) with the
Seres. After describing the Chinese silk culture, he observes: "the
island of Seria is known to be situated in a recess of the Red Sea.
But I have also heard that the island is formed, not by the Red Sea,
but by a river named the Ser (this being Masira Channel), just as the
Delta of Egypt is surrounded by the Nile and not by a sea; such also,
it is said, is the island of Seria. Both the Seres and the inhabitants
of the neighboring islands of Abasa and Sacaea are of the Aethiopian
race; some say, however, that they are not Aethiopians, but a mixture
of Scythians and Indians."
Here are confirmations of the Periplus, as to the possession of
Masira and Kuria Muria by the Habashat, and as to the commercial
activity of the Indo-Scythians, then in possession of the Indus valley.
The use of the "Arabian language" (Himyaritic or Hadramitic,
represented by the modern Mahri), noted in § 33, confirms the ac-
companying statement that the island was then subject to Hadramaut,
and its trade controlled from Cana. Ordinarily the connection would
be rather with the "Fish-Eaters" of the adjoining Genaba coast,
subject at that time to the Parthians, so that the language spoken
would have been Aethiopic or Geez.
147
34. A barbarous region which now belongs to Persia.
The Arabian coast beyond the Kuria Muria Islands, being now recently
conquered by the Parthian Empire, at war with Rome, was inaccessi-
ble to the author of the Periplus and is described by him briefly and
apparently from hearsay. His own sailing-course carried him well
out at sea'' from Kuria Muria to Masira, and thence direct to the
mouth of the Indus.
34. Calaei Islands.—These are the Daimaniyat Islands N. W.
of Muscat (23° 48' N., 58° O'E.), the distance being calculated
from Masira. The name is obviously the same as the modern Kalhat,
just north of Sur (22° 35' N., 59° 29' E.) an ancient trading port,
mentioned by Pliny (VI, 32J) as Acila (not to be confused with
Ocelis in Yemen), "a city of the Sabaei (Asabi) a nation of tent
dwellers, with numerous islands. This is their mart, from which
persons embark for India."
On this coast, between Ras el Had and Muscat, are the modern
ports of Kuryat and Sur, which, in the words of General Miles (Journal of an Excursion in Oman, Geographical Journal, VII, 335-6) "are
the Karteia and Tsor, the Carthage and Tyre, of the race whom we
know as Phoenicians, and who, earlier than the time of Solomon,
had trading-stations along the southern coast of Arabia. Their con-
venient and important position just opposite India must have led to
their early occupation by the merchants of those times who were en-
gaged in exchanging the productions of the East and West."
An eastern migration of this tribe-name is strongly suggested in
Kalat, city and district, in eastern Beluchistan.
34. Very little civilized.—This follows Eabricius' reading
of a doubtful passage in the text; that offered by Miiller, "who do
not see well in the daytime," while less probable, recalls the fact noted
by numerous observers in Oman, that a good proportion of the in-
habitants suffer from ophthalmia or total blindness, due, largely, to the
terrific heat of this coast; which was picturesquely described by Abd-
ar-Razzak, a 15th century Persian, as follows:
"The heat was so intense that it burned the marrow in the
bones; the sword in its scabbard melted like wax, and the gems which
adorned the handle of the dagger were reduced to coal. In the plains
the chase became a matter of perfect ease, for the desert was filled
with roasted gazelles.'' ( Quoted from Curzon: Persia and the Persian
Question. See also Hakluyt Society's ed., XXII, 9. ^
35. Calon mountain.—While the name has a Greek form,
and was supposed to mean "fair," it is the same as that of the islands
and is probably a tribal name: "mountains of the Kalhat."
148
The range is the Jebel Akhdar, or ''Green Mountains," behind
Muscat, and about 10,000 feet in altitude. Good descriptions are
given by Wellsted, Zwemer, and Hogarth, and of especial interest is
the account of the fertile and populous Wadi Tyin, enclosed by these
mountains, visited by General S.'B. Miles (op. cit.).
35. The pearl-mussel, Meleagrina margaritifera, Ham., family
Aviculida, is found in many parts of the Indian Ocean,, but particularly
on the southern shores of the Persian Gulf and in the shallow water
between India and Ceylon. The pearl is a deposit formed around a
foreign substance in the mantle of the mussel, generally a parasitic
larva. Examination by Prof. Herdman at the Manaar fisheries indicated
that the nucleus of the pearl was generally a Platyhelminthian parasite,
which he identified as the larval condition of a cestode or tapeworm.
This cestode passes from the body of the pearl mussel into that of a
file-fish and thence into some larger animal, possibly the large Trygon
or ray. (Watt, op. cit., pp. 557-8; Cambridge Natural History, III,
100, 449.)
35. Asabon mountains.—This is another tribal name,
"mountains of the Asabi," or Beni Assab, whom Wellsted described
as still living there {op. cit., I, 239-242), a people very different from
the other tribes of Oman, living in exclusion in their mountains; and
whom Zwemer (Oman and Eastern Arabia,- in the Bulletin of the
American Geographical Society, 1907; pp. 597-606) considers a
remnant of the aboriginal race of South Arabia, their speech being
allied to the Mahri and both to the ancient Himyaritic; who were
probably not as Zwemer thinks, "driven northward by Semitic mi-
gration," but represent rather a relic of that pre-Joktanite southward
migration around this very coast.
The mountain preserves the name, being now the Jebel Sibi,
2800 feet, 26° 20' N., 56° 25' E., continued at the end of the cape
in the promontory of Ras Musandum.
35. A round and high mountain called Semiramis. Fabricius, following Sprenger and Ritter, identifies this with K6h-i-
mubarak, "Mountain of the Blest" (25° 50'N., 57° 19' E.), which,
while not high, being only about 600 feet, is of the shape here described
and directly on the strait.
Fabricius (p. 146) suggests that the name Semiramis is probably
the Arabic Shamarida "held precious." Ras Musandum has been a
sacred spot to Arabian navigators from time immemorial. The classic
geographers describe some of the practices of the ship-captains passing
it, and Vincent tells of those in his time as follows (II, 354): "All
the Arabian ships take their departure from it with some ceremonies
149
of superstition, imploring a blessing on their voyage, and setting afloat
a toy, like a vessel rigged and decorated, which, if it is dashed to
pieces by the rocks, is to be accepted by the ocean as an offering for
the escape of the vessel."
35. ApologUS.—This was the city known as Obollah, which
was an important port during Saracen times, and from which caravan-
routes led in all directions. As "Ubulu, in the land of Bit-Yakin"
it figures in many of the Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions. It
was among the conquered places named in the Nimrud Inscription of
Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 B. C.) whose arms were carried from
Bit-Yakin "as far as the river Uknu (Cynos, Wadi ed Dawasir?)
on the coast of the Lower Sea," and who received from Merodach-
Baladan, of Yakin, king of the sea, a tribute of "gold—the dust of
his land—precious stones, timber, striped clothing, spices of all kinds,
cattle and sheep."
The location of Obollah seems always to have given it importance
as a commercial center. Under the Seleucidae, and in the time of
Strabo, Teredon was the leading port; while in the time of the
Periplus Obollah had regained its former position.
The name seems derived from Obal, son of Joktan (Gen. X, 28).
35. Charax Spasini is the modern Mohammarah (30° 24' N.,
48° 18' E.), on the Shatt-el-Arab, at its confluence with the Karun.
Pliny says (VI, 31) that it was founded by Alexander the Great, whose
name it bore; destroyed by inundations of the rivers, rebuilt by Anti-
ochus Epiphanes under the name of Antiochia, again overflowed, and
again restored, protected by three miles of embankments, by Spasinus>
"king of the neighboring Arabians, whom Juba has incorrectly de-
scribed as a satrap of King Antiochus." Formerly, Pliny says, it
stood near the shore and had a harbor of its own; "but now stands a
considerable distance from the sea. In no part of the world have
alluvial deposits been formed by the rivers more rapidly and to a greater
extent than here." (At the present day it is about 40 miles from the
gulf.)
Pliny's reference to the possession of the lower Tigris by an
Arabian chieftain, the name of whose city he extends to the "Chara-
cene'' district of Elymais, or Elam, indicates how large a part in the
affairs of the Parthian Empire may have been played, at the date of
the Periplus, by its subjects south of the Persian Gulf. Charax was an
important stronghold of the Parthian Empire, protecting its shipping
trade; and was the home of that Isidorus whose works, written in the
time of the Roman Emperor Augustus, include the Mansiones Parthica,
a detailed account of the overland caravan-route from Antioch in Syria
150
to the borders of India; the same, probably, as the author of the
''description of the world" mentioned by Pliny (VI, 31) who was
commissioned by Augustus "to gather all necessary information in the
east, when his eldest son was about to set out for Armenia to take the
command against the Parthians and Arabians."
36 A market-town of Persia called Ommana-The
Roman geographers were much confused by similar statements con-
cerning this port, and supposed that it was geographically, instead of
politically, ."of Persia," and that the "six days' sail" from the straits
of Hormus mentioned in the Periplus, was eastward along the coast
of Makran. But Pliny this time is better informed, and locates it on
the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf, between the Peninsula of El
Katar and Ras Musandum, then a Persian or Parthian dependency.
Beyond the river Cynos (Wadi ed Dawasir?) he says (VI, 32) "the
navigation is impracticable on that side, according to Juba, on account
of the rocks; and he has omitted all mention of Batrasave, a town of
the Omani, and of the city of Omana, which former writers have made
out to be a famous port of Car?nania\ as also of Homna and Attana,
towns which at the present day, our merchants say, are by far the
most famous ones in the Persian Sea."
The spelling "Ommana," as distinct from "Omana," is due to
Ptolemy, and, while perhaps incorrect for the Periplus, it conven-
iently distinguishes between the two districts. Both are certainly
the same as the modern Oman, which maintains a nominal, as
a century ago a real, dominion over the whole coast-land from the
bay of El Katan to that of Kuria Muria. This was no doubt the
dominion of that Goaesus mentioned by Isidorus of Charax Spasini,
"King of the Omanitae in the Incense-Land," and had only re-
cently come under the Parthian control. After numerous alterna-
tions between dependence and freedom the whole country submitted
again to Persia in 1650, remaining under Persian control until 1741. The exact location of the port of Ommana is uncertain owing
to the limited knowledge yet at hand concerning this coast. Ptolemy
confirms Pliny in locating it east of the peninsula, by a river Ommano,
(possibly the Wadi Yabrin, an important trade-route) and Glaser
argues strongly for the bay of El Katan. (Skizze, pp. 189-194. ) Al-
most any location between Abu Thabi (24° 30' N., 54° 21' E.), and
Khor ed Duan (24° 17' N., 51° 27' E.) might be possible, but the
distance stated, six days, or 3000 stadia, from the straits, indicates
Abu Thanni or Sabakha, at both of which there are fertile spots on
the coast; El Mukabber on the Sabakha coast (24° N., 51° 45' E.)
being perhaps more closely in accord with Ptolemy.
151
Aside from the obvious linking of Apologus and Ommana as
Persian Gulf ports, in §§ 35 and 36, the text gives two further proofs.
The "sewed boats'' are such as are still made along this coast, and
the wine mentioned in § 36 as an export to India is referred to in
§ 49 as an import at Barygaza from Arabia. The many pearls"
exported, and in fact the whole list of imports and exports in § 36,
suggest such a trade as now centers at Bahrein.
Muller, Fabricius, and McCrindle locate Ommana in the bay of
Chahbar on the Makran coast (25° 15' N., 60° 30' E.), reckoning
the six days' sail eastward from the Straits of Hormus; and Sir Thomas
Holdich followed them in his Notes on Ancient and Mediceval Makran
(Geographical Journal, 1896; VII, 393-6). It is notable that in his
Gates of India, 1910, (pp. 299-300) he abandons this position and refers
the activity of the Chahbar ports to the mediaeval period. General
S. B. Miles (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, N. S., X, pp.
164-5) argues for Sohar, on the Batineh coast of Oman, north of
Muscat, the ocean terminus of an ancient and important caravan-route;
but the location does not tally with the statement in the text, that
Ommana was six days "through, or beyond, the Straits.
Ommana was the center of an active and extensive shipping trade
with India, conveniently located with reference to the trans-Arabian
caravan-routes; and Glaser points out the probability that this coast of
El Katan was also the "land of Ophir" of King Solomon's trading-
voyages; a trading center where the products of the East were re-
ceived and reshipped, or sent overland, to the Mediterranean.
36. Copper is here mentioned as an article of export from
India to the Persian Gulf. It is no longer extensively produced in
India, but was formerly smelted in considerable quantities in South
India, Rajputana, and at various parts of the outer Himalaya, where
a killas-like rock persists along the whole range and is known to be
copper-bearing in Kullu, Garhwal, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan. See
the authorities cited in Watt, Commercial Products of India, p. 401.
But it is possible that this copper imported at Ommana included
also European copper, exported from Cana (§ 28) to the Indus mouth
and Barygaza (§§ 39 and 49) and thence reshipped to the Persian
Gulf. During the suspension of trade between the Roman and Par-
thian Empires, owing to war, this would have been a natural trade
arrangement.
Pliny (VI, 26) speaks of copper, iron, arsenic, and red lead, as
exports of Carmania, whence they were shipped to Persian Gulf and
Red Sea ports for distribution; indicating again that Ommana was no
Carmanian port.
152
36. Sandalwood.—Santalum album, Linn., order Santalacea.
A small evergreen tree native in the dry regions of South India (as the
Western Ghats, Mysore, and Coimbatore); in North India chiefly as
a cultivated plant. Sandalwood has been known in India from the
most ancient times, the Sanskrit authors distinguishing various woods
according to color. Chandana is the name for the series, srikhanda the tree, or white, sandal, and pitachandana the inferior, or yellow,
sandal, both being derived from Santalum album. They distinguish
two kinds of red sandal or raktachandana, namely, Pterocarpus santalinus
and Gcesalpinia sappan.
This mention in the Periplus seems to be the earliest Roman
reference to sandalwood. It is mentioned by Cosmas Indicopleustes
(6th century A. D.) under the name Tzandana; and thereafter fre-
quently by the early Arab traders who visited India and China. Cos-
mas and the Arabs attributed it to China, this mistake arising, as Watt
points out (op. cit., p. 976) from the fact that Chinese vessels at this
time made the voyage between China and the Persian Gulf, stopping
to trade in Ceylon and India, and disposing of their cargoes finally to
the Bagdad merchants. The wood is not native of China.
According to experiments at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Cal-
cutta, sandalwood is a root-parasite on many plants.
For further references see Lassen: Indische Alterthumskunde,
I, 287..
36. Teakwood.—Tectona grandis, Linn., order Verbenacece. A
large deciduous tree indigenous in both peninsulas of India. The
wood is that chiefly exported from India at the present time, particu-
larly from Burma, and is the most important building timber of the
country.
Watt, {pp. at., p. 1068), quoting Gamble, says that the western
Indian teak region has for its northern limit the Narbada and Ma-
hanadi rivers, although it is occasionally found farther north. Climatic
changes since the date of the Periplus have probably restricted its
area. It is plentiful in Bombay and Travancore.
The wood owes its value to its great durability, ascribed to the
fact that it contains a large quantity of fluid resinous matter, which
fills up the pores and resists the action of water. Watt mentions one
structure known to be over 2000 years old, and the discovery of teak
in the Mugheir ruins indicates its use there under Nabonidus (6th
century B. C.), and possibly very much earlier.
36. Blackwood.—The text is sasamin, which Fabricius alters
and translates "white mulberry," from conjecture only. McCrindle
shows that the text refers to the wood still known in India as sisam,
153
which Watt describes {op. (it., pp. 484-5) as one of the best hard-
woods of the Panjab and Western India. It is very durable, does
not warp or split, and is highly esteemed for all purposes where
strength and elasticity are required—agricultural implements, carriage-
frames and wheels, boat-building, etc.—as well as furniture and
wood-carving. In Upper India the sisam takes the place of rosewood,
to which it is closely related.
Watt distinguishes the true sisam or blackwood, Dalbergia sissoo,
order Leguminosce. The Indian rosewood, native somewhat farther
south, is Dalbergia latifolia. D. sissoo is described as sub-Himalayan,
gregarious on the banks of sandy, stony, torrential rivers, such as the
Indus and Narbada, from which the Periplus says it was exported.
36. Ebony.—Diospyros, Linn., order Ebenacea. Diospyros
tbenum and D. melanoxylon are the leading varieties producing ebony
wood; India has also D. embryopteris and D. tomentosa.
This fine black heart-wood (from the date plum tree) has been
in favor since the dawn of civilization. An Egyptian inscription of
King Mernere, Vlth dynasty (B. C. about 2500), mentions ebony as
a product brought down from the negro-land" on the Upper
Nile; and the expedition of Queen Hatshepsut (XVIIIth dynasty,
B. C. about 1500) brought it from the "Land of Punt," in this case
probably from the Abyssinian highlands, although it might have come
from India.
The earliest definite Old Testament reference is in Ezekiel
XXVII, where it appears as a commodity in the trade of Tyre: "the
men of Dedan were they merchants; many isles were the merchan-
dise of thine hand; they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and
ebony." If the Oxford editor's identification of Dedan with the
south shore of the Persian Gulf be correct, this passage indicates a
steady trade in ebony from India prior to the 7th century B. C., and
exactly confirms the statement of the Periplus that it was shipped
from Barygaza to Ommana and Apologus.
Pliny (XII, 8, 9) says that ebony came to Rome from both India
and Egypt, and that the trade began after the victories of Pompey the
Great in Asia. He notes two kinds, one precious, the other ordinary.
Virgil (Georgics II, 116-117) speaks in glowing terms of the
ebony tree, as peculiar to India. Herodotus, however, has preferred
to ascribe it (III, 97) to Aethiopia, and states that the people of that
country were in the habit of paying to the King of Persia, every third
year, by way of tribute, 100 billets of ebony-wood, together with a
certain quantity of gold and ivory.
154
36. Sewed boats known as madarata.—Glaser (Ski%%e,
p. 190) shows this to be the Arabic muddarra at, "fastened with palm
fiber," which included, first, the fibers sheathing the base of the
petioles of the date; and second, those taken from the husks of the
cocoanut. This latter is what Marco Polo calls "Indian nut." It
was a later cultivation in Arabia than the date, and the Periplus does
not include it among Arabian exports, although noting it in § 33 as a
product of Sarapis or Masira Island.
The text notes that these sewed boats were exported to "Arabia,"
meaning the South Coast, Yemen and Hadramaut.

Marco Polo (I, xix) gives a description of these craft, as follows:
"Their ships are wretched affairs, and many of them get lost;
for they have no iron fastenings, and are only stitched together with
twine made from the husk of the Indian nut. They beat this nut
until it becomes like horse-hair, and from that they spin twine, and
with this stitch the planks of the ships together. It keeps well and is
not corroded by the sea-water, but it will not stand well in a storm.
The ships are not pitched, but are rubbed with fish-oil. They have
155
one mast, one sail, and one rudder, and have no deck, but only a
cover spread over the cargo when loaded. This cover consists of
hides, and on the top of these hides they put the horses which they
take to India for sale. They have no iron to make nails of, and for
this reason they use only wooden trenails in their shipbuilding, and
then stitch the planks with twine as I have told you. Hence 'tis a
perilous business to go a voyage in one of those ships, and many of
them are lost, for in that Sea of India the storms are often terrible.''
Gemelli Carreri, who visited this coast in 1693-9, gives a similar
description, quoted by Capt. A. W. Stiffe: Former Trading Centers of
the Persian Gulf: Geographical Journal, XIII, 294:
"Instead of nails, which they are without, they use pegs of bam-
boo or cane, and further join the planks with strings made of rushes.
For anchor, they have a large stone with a hole, and for oars, a stout
stick with a little round plank attached to the end.
"Stitched vessels," Sir B. Frere writes (Yule's Marco Polo, Cor-
dier's Ed., I, 117), "are still used. I have seen them of 200 tons
burden, but they are being driven out by iron-fastened vessels, as iron
gets cheaper, except where (as on the Malabar and Coromandel
coasts) the pliancy of a stitched boat is useful in a surf." But the
stitched build in the Gulf is now confined to fishing-boats.
The fish-oil used to rub the ships was whale-oil. The old Arab
voyagers of the 9th century describe the fishermen of Siraf in the Gulf
as cutting up the whale-blubber and drawing the oil from it, which
was mixed with other stuff, and used to rub the joints of ships' plank-
ing. (Reinaud, Relation des Voyages', I, 146.)
Friar Odoric (Journal, Chap. II), writing of "Ormes," says
here also they use a kind of barque or ship called Jase, being com-
pact together only with cords. And I went on board into one of
them, wherein I could not find any iron at all, and in the space of
twenty-eight days I arrived at the city of Thana" (on Salsette Island,
a short distance north of Bombay), "wherein four of our friars were
martyred for the faith of Christ."
Jase, Cordier observes, is the Arabic Djehaz. "Sir John Mandeville" gives a legend arising from this method
of construction (Voyage and Travel, Chap. LIII, p. 125, Ashton's
edition.) ''Near that isle (Hormus) there are ships without nails of iron
or bonds, on account of the rocks of adamants (loadstones), for they
are all-abundant there in that sea that it is marvellous to speak of, and
if a ship passed there that had iron bonds or iron nails it would perish,
for the adamant, by its nature, draws iron to it, and so it would draw
the ship that it should never depart from it."
156
Theodore Bent {Southern Arabia, p. 8) describes these boats as
having "very long-pointed bows, elegantly carved and decorated with
shells. When the wind is contrary they are propelled by poles or
paddles, consisting of boards of any shape, tied to the end of the poles
with twine, and the oarsman always seats himself on the gunwales.''
Zwemer, (op. cit., p. 101), further confirms the Periplus:
Even Sinbad the Sailor might recognize every rope and the odd
spoon-shaped oars. All the boats have good lines and are well built
by the natives of Indian timber. For the rest, all is of Bahrein manu-
facture except their pulley-blocks, which come from Bombay. Sail-
cloth is woven at Menamah and ropes are twisted of date-fiber in rude
ropewalks which have no machinery worth mentioning. Even the
long soft iron nails are hammered out on the anvil one by one.
Each boat has a sort of figurehead called the kubait, generally
covered with the skin of a sheep or goat which was sacrificed when
the boat was first launched. This blood-sacrifice Islam has never
uprooted. The larger boats used in diving hold from twenty to forty
men—less than half of whom are divers, while the others are rope-
holders and oarsmen."
36. Pearls inferior to those of India.—This is said still to
be the case, the Bahrein pearls being of a yellower tint than those of
the Manaar fisheries, but holding their lustre better, particularly in
tropical climates, and therefore always in demand in India.
36. Purple.—A dye derived from various species of Murex, family Muricida, and Purpura, family Buccinida. Pliny (IX, 60-63)
tells of its use at the time of our author: "The purple has that ex-
quisite juice which is so greatly sought after for the purpose of dyeing
cloth. . . . This secretion consists of a tiny drop contained in a white
vein, from which the precious liquid used for dyeing is distilled, being
of the tint of a rose somewhat inclining to black. The rest of the
body is entirely destitute of this juice. It is a great point to take the
fish alive; for when it dies it spits out this juice. From the larger
ones it is extracted after taking off the shell; but the smaller fish are
crushed alive, together with the shells, upon which they eject this
secretion.
"In Asia the best purple is that of Tyre, in Africa that of Meninx
and Gaetulia, and in Europe that of Laconia. ...
''After it is taken the vein is extracted and salt is added. They are
left to steep for three days, and are then boiled in vessels of tin, by
moderate heat; while thus boiling the liquor is skimmed from time to
time. About the tenth day the whole contents of the cauldron are in
a liquid state; but until the color satisfies the liquor is still kept on the
157
boil. The tint that inclines to red is looked upon as inferior to that
which is of a blackish hue.
''The wool is left to lie in soak for five hours, and then, after
carding it, it is thrown in again, until it has fully imbibed the color.
The proper proportions for mixing are, for fifty pounds of wool, two
hundred pounds of juice of the buccinum and one hundred and eleven
of the juice of the pelagite. From this combination is produced the
admirable tint known as amethyst color. To produce the Tyrian hue
the wool is soaked in the juice of the pelagia while the mixture is in
an uncooked and raw state; after which its tint is changed by being
dipped in the juice of the buccinum. It is considered of the best
quality when it has exactly the color of clotted blood, and is of a
blackish hue to the sight, but of a shining appearance when held up
to the light; hence it is that we find Homer speaking of purple blood.
(Wad, E. 83; P, 360.)
''Cornelius Nepos, who died in the reign of the late emperor
Augustus, has left the following remarks: 'In the days of my youth
the violet purple was in favor, a pound of which used to sell at 100
denarii; and not long after the Tarentine red was all the fashion.
This last was succeeded by the Tyrian dibapha (double dyed) which
could not be bought for even 1000 denarii per pound. Nowadays
who is there who does not have purple hangings and coverings to his
banqueting couches, even?'
36. Wine.—This was probably date wine. Its destination, ac-
cording to § 49, was India.
Sir B. Frere (Amoen. Exot., 750, quoted in Yule's Marco Polo,
Cordier's edition, I, 115) says "a spirit is still distilled from dates. It
is mentioned by Strabo and Dioscorides, according to Kampfer, who
says it was in his time made under the name of a medicinal stomachic;
the rich added radix China (rhubarb root), ambergris, and aromatic
spices; the poor, licorice and Persian absinth."
This may, however, have included grape wine also, the moun-
tain valleys of Oman having been the region originally producing the
muscatel grape.
36. Dates.—Phoenix dactylifera, Linn., order Palmece. Ac-
cording to De Candolle (L'Origine des Plantes Cu/tivees, 240), it has
existed from prehistoric times in the warm, dry zone which extends
from Senegal to the Indus basin, principally between the parallels 15°
and 20°. It was an important article of cultivation in Egypt, Arabia,
Mesopotamia, and the Indus valley, for its wood, fiber, juice, and
fruit.
158
Date-wine is mentioned as an Egyptian product shipped up the
Nile to the ''negro-land/' in an inscription of the reign of Mernere,
Vlth dynasty, about 2600 B. C (Breasted, Ancient Records, I, 336. )
Dates appear as food, in an Abydos inscription of the reign of Khen-
zer, 17th century B. C. (I, 785). In the coronation inscription of
Thothmes III and Queen Hatshepsut, XVIIIth dynasty, 15th cen-
tury B. C., divine offerings to Amon-Re included wine, fowl, fruit,
bread, vegetables, and dates (II, 159). Similar lists appear among
the feasts and offerings from conquests during the same reign. Under
Rameses III (IV, 244, 295, 299, 347) the Papyrus Harris notes as
''offerings for new feasts," dates, 65,480 measures, 3,100 cut
branches; again, 241,500 measures; and as "offerings to the Nile-
god," dried dates, 11,871 measures, 1,396 jars; dates, 2,396 meas-
ures. Later, under Psamtik II, XXVIth dynasty, 6th century B. C.
(IV, 944) the Adoption Stela of Nitocris says: "Sail was set; the
great men took their weapons, and every noble had his provision,
supplied with every good thing: bread, beer, oxen, dates, herbs."The Greek name for the date, phoinix, was the same as that
given the traders from Sidon and Tyre—Phoenicians—Phoinikes, whence numerous commentators, including Movers himself (Die
P/idnizier, II, i, 1) suppose the name of race and country to have
been derived from the date, which was one of the leading exports to
the northern Mediterranean; noting that the date-palm was a symbol
of that race. But this in itself is better evidence that the tree received
the name of the race, being truly, for Mediterranean peoples, the
"tree of the Phoenicians." (So Lepsius in the introduction to his
Nubian Grammar, Ueber die Volker und Sprachen Afrikas, and Glaser,
Punt und die Siidarabischen Reiche, 66-9).
Pliny (XIII, 7) has a long description of the date-palm and its
numerous uses; he says the Arabian date was the best, and describes
fully the different sexes of the trees, and the pollination of the flowers.
A specially fine variety of dates comes from the "southern parts,
called Syagri^" which Pliny translates wild boar," ascribing such a
taste to the fruit; but as he connects it with the story of the phoenix,
his account means no more, probably, than that the fruit came from
the southern coast of Arabia. (See under § 30.)
The date-palm being dioecious, the flowers must be artificially
fertilized in order to ripen the fruit, and this involves a knowledge of
the habit of the tree, and regular cultivation, in favorable surroundings,
including intense heat and drought during the fruiting season. These
conditions are only partially fulfilled on the Syrian coast, and not at
all on the Northern Mediterranean. They exist to perfection around
159
the Persian Gulf, still the principal, and probably the earliest, source
of supply. When the cultivation became important in Egypt is un-
certain. The earliest inscription, in the Vlth dynasty, refers not to
the fruit, but to wine (made from the sap), and the time is centuries
later than the first Egyptian Punt-voyages. Not until the 17th cen-
tury does the Egyptian date-fruit appear as food, and not until the
15th as temple-offering. It is by no means impossible that Egypt
owed this cultivation to its intercourse with Southern Arabia (the
/V/z-land) whence it had come in turn from the Persian Gulf, that
original Phoenician, Erythraean, or in a larger sense Arabian, Sea.
Among the classical references to this home-land of the Phoeni-
cians may be cited the Odyssey, IV, 81-5, where Sidonia and Aethi-
opia are conjoined, both clearly Arabian, (cf. Strabo, I, ii, 34-5; XVI,
iii, 4, iv, 27.) The Old Testament gives numerous accounts of
later migrations from that quarter to Palestine; e. g., Zechariah IX,
6; Ezra IV, 9. The historian Justin (XVIII, 3, 2) gives the reason
for the earlier migration: "the people of Tyre were sprung from the
Phoenicians, who left their own land, being greatly distressed by earth-
quakes, and dwelt some time in the marsh-land of Babylonia, but
later by the shores of the (Mediterranean) Sea, where they built a
town which they called Sidon because of the abundance of the fish;
for sidon is the Phoenician word for fish." For the relation of this
legend to the fish-god of Chaldaea, Oannes, see William Simpson,
The Jonah Legend. The connection is noted by the poet Priscian,
843-7:
sed litora iuxta
Phoenices vivunt, veteri cognomine dicti,
Quos misit quondam mare rubrum laudibus auctos,
Chaldaeo nimium decoratam sanguine gentem,
Arcanisque Dei celebratam legibus unam.
According to Eiselen, Sidon, p. 12: (N. Y., 1907), the word
sidon means to hunt rather than to fish; but Simpson shows how
readily the whole legend changed according to the surroundings of
the people.
As to the race-origin of the Phoenicians, Syncellus derives them
from "Iudadan," and Josephus (dntiq. Jud., I, 6, 2) from Dedan,
who was a son of Raamah, the son of Cush, according to the gene-
alogy of Genesis X. A later account (Chron. Pasch., I, 54) derives
them from Jobab, whom that genealogy makes a son of joktan. This
would indicate for Phoenicia precisely the same experience as that of
Southern Arabia: succeeding waves of migration, the later tending to
become absorbed by the earlier.
160
It is significant that even the Greeks knew Phoenice as Canaan.
Hecataeus refers to "Chna, as Phoenice was formerly called," and the
name survived as late as an inscription of Antiochus Epiphanes, being
connected with the legendary hero Chna, who can be no other than
the Canaan of Genesis X, a brother to Cush, and who ''begot Sidon,
his firstborn." This word, according to Movers, means ''lowland,"
particularly a strip of coast under the hills; and the same meaning is
attached to Cush, Cutch, or in its Indian form, Kachh (Holdich,
Gates of India, 35), and to the modern Sawahil of East Africa, and
Shehr of South Arabia, the Sachalites of the Periplus.
Another derivation of 6 'Phoenician" from phonioi, (bloody, mur-
derous), rests on the activities of that people as sea-folk, traders and
pirates. So do the habits of the race survive in the puns of the Greeks.
The author of the Periplus (§33) found the dwellers on Sarapis Island
anthropois ponerois, and the Roman shipping out of Egypt had always
to go armed or under convoy.
36. Gold.—The Periplus mentions gold coin as an export from
Rome to India, but gold itself as an export from Ommana only, and
as a product of the Ganges region.
Gold was an important product of Eastern Arabia, the best fields
being in the middle courses of the Wadi er Rumma, the Wadi ed
Dawasir, and the Wadi Yabrin. Glaser (Skizze, 347-9) locates alto-
gether ten Arabian gold-fields. It was this production that led the
Assyrian Tiglath-Pileser III to refer to gold as the "dust of the coun-
try" of Merodach-Baladan, king of Bit-Yakin, and to make the Per-
sian Gulf ports centers also for the gold produced farther to the east,
in Persia, Carmania, and the Himalayas. The watercourses of north-
eastern Arabia were probably the producing areas of the "land of
Havilah" of Genesis II, 11-12, which could readily supply caravans
for Chaldaea or Canaan; while El-Yemama and the southern fields, of
richer yield, were probably the "land of Ophir" of Solomon's voyages
(I Kings X); and according to the tribal genealogy (Genesis X, 29)
Ophir was a son of Joktan and therefore purely Arabian. Into this
voluminous controversy it is not necessary to go farther; the evidence
is summed up by Glaser (Skizze, 357-388).
To the Greeks and Romans the "gold of Ophir" was known as
apyron, which Diodorus Siculus (II, 50) assumes to be a Greek word,
"without fire," and goes on to explain that it was not reduced by
roasting the ores, but was found in the earth in shining lumps the size
of chestnuts. Agatharchides and Pliny (XXI, 11) are both acquainted
with this apyron gold, and Pliny (VI, 23) mentions also a river Apirus
161
in Carmania, in a region previously described by Alexander's admiral,
Onesicritus, as gold-producing.
To the mixed Cushite-Joktanite Havilah of Genesis, the Joktanite
Ophir of I Kings, and the Cushite Raamah of Ezekiel XXVII, the
cosmopolitan Ommana of the Periplus, under Parthian rule, was the
lineal successor.
36. Slaves.—The Arabs were inveterate slave-traders then as
now, and the ports of Oman were always active slave-markets. Ara-
bian dominion along the African coast had this as one of its principal
results, until checked by international agreement after European occu-
pation.
37. The Country of the Parsidae, of another kingdom.
The author of the Periplus gives the name Persis, or Persia, to the
whole Parthian Empire and refers to the recent conquests of that
power in East and South Arabia. This ''country of the Parsidae'' is
Persia proper, including Carmania; a vassal state in the Arsacid fol-
lowing, which would not have shared, as a state, in the Arabian spoils
of the empire. Ommana was subject to the Parthian monarchy, not
to Persia proper.
Pliny (VI, 28) says "Persia is a country opulent even to luxury,
but has long since changed its name for that of Parthia.'" Strabo
(VI, iii, 24) observes more exactly, "at present the Persians are a
separate people, governed by kings who are subject to other kings;
to the kings of Macedon in former times, but now to those of Parthia.''
37. The Bay of Gedrosia, while hardly a separate bay at
all, may be assumed to be that bounded by the strip of coast between
Ras Nuh (25° 7' N., 62° 18' E.) and Cape Monze (24° 45' N.,
66° 40' E.), while the "jutting cape" is Ras Ormara (25° 6' N.,
64° 36'E.).
37. Oraea.—The bay is the modern Sonmiani Bay (25° 0' N.,
66° 15' E.), and the river is the Purali. According to Holdich, the
Purali at the time of the Periplus emptied into a bay running some
distance inland, and now silted up to the coast lines. These are the
people described by Arrian {Anabasis of Alexander, VI, 21-2; Indica,
XXI, XXIV, XXV) under the name of Oritae or Oritians, their country
being called Ora. The river was called Arabis, and on its eastern
bank dwelt "an Indian nation called Arabians;" while the Oritae on
the western bank were "dressed like the Indians and equipped with
similar weapons, but their language and customs were different."
Their coast-line ran westward from the Arabis 160 miles; or, accord-
ing to Pliny (VI, 25-6), 200 miles. They dwelt on the inland hills,
162
and along the shore, the latter being distinguished as Fish-Eaters.
Alexander conquered the hill-folk and colonized their capital, Rham-
bacia, under his own name (Diodorus Siculus, XVI, 104); while
Nearchus fought the coast-folk, reporting them "covered with hair
on the body, their nails like wild birds' claws, used like iron for kill-
ing and splitting fish, and cutting softwood; other things they cut
with sharp stones, having no iron." Strabo (XV, ii, 2) describes
their dwellings, made of the bones of whales and great shells; the
ribs being used for beams and rafters, and the jawbones for doorways.
Here are more echoes of the early migrations that radiated out-
ward from the Persian Gulf. The river Arabis and the Arabians are
sufficiently reminiscent of Arabia, while the capital, Rhambacia, ap-
pears in Ptolemy as a city of the Rhamnae, derived from the same
source. The Oritae are represented by the modern Brahui. Both
names have the same meaning, "hill-folk," one in Greek and the
other in Persian; but this is probably no more than a punning trans-
lation, like that of Makran into Mahi Khuran, Ichthyophagi, "fish-
eaters." The country of Ora is rather related to the Uru of Chal-
daean place-names; being connected with the sun-worship that survived
well into the Christian era. The Brahui are a Dravidian tribe left
behind by their race on its way to Southern India; in earlier days the
connection of both with the Persian Gulf was less broken. The
name "Makran,'' as shown by Curzon {Geographical Journal\ VII,
557) is Dravidian3 while "Brahui" is thought to refer to the hero of
the tribe, Braho, a name having the same root as Abraham {Imperial
Gazetteer of India, IX, 15-17). These people are probably the same
as those called by Herodotus (III, 94) "Asiatic Aethiopians," and
again (VII, 70) as "Aethiopians from the sunrise," who were similar
to the Aethiopians of Southern Arabia, both peoples being represented
in the Persian army, and both having presumably sprung from the
same stock; as witness the record in Genesis X, 7, the sons of
Cush: Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabteca;
and the sons of Raamah: Sheba, and Dedan." The Cushite name
seems to survive in Kej, in the valley of Makran; the "Kesmacoran"
of Marco Polo.
The names of the Pharaohs of the XXVth or "Aethiopian"
dynasty in Egypt, point to a like origin: Kashta, Shabaka, Piankhi
(cf. Pa-anch, Poen, etc.), and Taharka (cf. Katar, Socotra).
Wellsted (I, ch. v) noted the strong racial similarity between the
Beni Genab in South Arabia and the people found on the Makran
coast. Holdich {Geographical Journal, VII, 388) finds the1 island of
Haftalu off the Makran coast—the Astola of Ptolemy, a center of the
163
sun-worship—locally known as Serandip; a name which the Saracens
gave to Ceylon, but which, apart from its last syllable, the Sanscrit
dvipa, island, seems to be related to the island of Sera, Sarapis, or
Masira, off the Arabian coast.
The evident connection between both wings of this system is
generalized by Gotz {Verkehrswege im Dienstedes Welthandels, 33-117)
as "Turanian-Hamitic."
Holdich {Gates of India, 36) seems to have in mind a race re-
sembling African negroes as the original of the "Asiatic Aethiopi-
ans" in Makran. But their descent should have been from the
Persian Gulf. "Sir John Mandeville" (chap, xxiv) gives a legend
which in some ways seems nearer the truth:
Noah had three sons, Shem, Cham and Japhet . . . Cham,
for his cruelty, took the greater and the best part, toward the east, that
is clept Asia, and Shem took Africa, and Japhet took Europe . . .
Cham was the greatest and the most mighty, and of him came more
generations than of the other. And of his son Chuse was engen-
dered Nimrod the giant, that began the foundation of the tower of
Babylon . . . And of the generation of Cham be come the Paynims
and divers folk that be in isles of the sea by all Ind."
See also Lassen, op. cit., II, 187-191; Sir Thomas Holdich, Gates
of India, pp. 146-161; and Gen. M. R. Haig, Geographical Journal,
VII, 668-674.
37. Rhambacia.—The name of the capital is not given in the
text, but Muller fills the lacuna with that mentioned by Arrian. Fabri-
cius prefers Parsis, the capital of Gedrosia according to Ptolemy; but
this place was probably much farther west.
Rhambacia was at no great distance from the, modern Las Bela
(26° 26' N., 66° 20' E.). According to Holdich {Gates of India,
320, 372), this whole neighborhood is full of evidences of early
Arabian occupation; but the exact site is undetermined (150-1).
The tribe-name, Rhamnae, Lassen connects with the Sanscrit
ramana, happy; which, while possibly a mere pun, may explain the
Hindu name "blessed" for Socotra, which had been identified with
Raamah, or Cushite stock generally. The root of So-cotr-a. is evidently
the same as El Katar peninsula, adjoining Bahrein.
Shamarida, "precious," an Arabic name for the mountain at the
Straits of Hormus; the "Island of the Blest" of the Babylonian
Gilgamesh epic; may these reflect a Cushite race-appellation, like
the "chosen people" of the Hebrews?
37. Bdellium is an aromatic gum exuded from Balsamodendron
mukul, order Burseracea, a small tree native in northwestern India,
164
Beluchistan, Arabia, and East Africa; closely allied to myrrh and
frankincense, and similarly employed from a very early date. Ac-
cording to Pliny (XII, 19) the best sort came from Bactria, and the
inferior from India and Arabia, Media and Babylonia. The gum, he
says, "ought to be transparent and the color of wax, odoriferous,
unctuous when subjected to friction, and bitter to the taste, though
without the slightest acidity. When used for sacred purposes it is
steeped in wine, upon which it emits a still more powerful odor."
The price in Rome he states as 3 denarii per pound, making it equal
only to the poorest quality of myrrh.
Bdellium was particularly the product of the hills between the
Hindu Kush and the Indian Ocean, and found its way westward
through the Persian Gulf ports or overland through Babylonia. Arrian
{Anabasis, VI, 22) tells how the army of Alexander, returning through
the country of the Oritae, came upon "many myrrh trees, larger than
usual," from which the Phoenician traders accompanying the army
gathered the gum and carried it away. It is probably the bdolach of
Genesis II, 12, which reached the Hebrews from the "land of
Havilah," the south shore of the Persian Gulf, the district of Ommana
of § 36. Bdolach, however, is thought by some Hebrew authorities
to be a crystalline gem; while the same word is used in the Itinerary
of Benjamin of Tudela (Adler's edition, p. 98) for the pearls of the
Bahrein fisheries, and with the same meaning in the Meadows of Gold
of Mas'udi (Sprenger's translation, p. 544). See also Watt, op. cit.,
p.400; Lassen, op. cit., 1,290; Glaser, Skizze, 324-5, 364-7.
A passage in the Book of Numbers (XI, 7) is perhaps of interest
as reflecting the ancient classification of fragrant gums by size and
shape of the piece, rather than by distinguishing the tree. The
manna of the Israelites is there said (in the R. V.) to have been "like
coriander seed," and the "appearance thereof as the appearance of
bdellium.'' The A. V. has the "color as the color of bdellium," in
contradiction to Exodus XVI, 31, where the color was said to be
white; bdellium being brown, like myrrh. The marginal note in
the Revised Version, "Hebrew, eye/' points to the true meaning.
Glaser has already shown the anti incense of the Egyptian Punt Reliefs
to be an Arabian word, a-a-nete, "tree-eyes" {Punt und die Sudarab- ischen Reiche, p. 7), and to refer to the large lumps, exuded through
cracks in the bark, or through substantial incisions, as distinguished
from the small round drops, which were supposed to be tree-tears
(§ 29) or the the tree-blood (as shown under § 29). The Hebrews
after the Exodus would have had the same classification; so we may
conclude that the author of Numbers meant to compare the small
165
crystalline particles of the tamarisk-root syrup, which this manna prob-
ably was, to the "coriander seed, white," while the larger and coarser
efflorescence was likened to the lumps of bdellium (or myrrh) with
which he was familiar in the Levitical ritual.
38. River Sinthus.—The Sanscrit is Sindhu, and this form
Sinthus is unusual in Greek, the river being generally known as Indus.
Hindu names reaching the West generally drop the s and substitute h
in Persian mouths. Sayce, in his Hibbert Lectures (pp. 136-138),
argues on that basis for an ancient sea-trade between India and the
Euphrates, from the word sindhu, or muslin, mentioned in an ancient
Babylonian list of clothing. This is the cadin of the Old Testament,
the sindon of the Greeks.
38. The greatest river.—The Indus is exceeded by the
Yangtse, Mekong, Irawadi, Brahmaputra, Ganges, and Shatt-el-Arab
(none of which had been seen by the author of the Periplus). Its
mean discharge is greater than that of the Hoang-ho. The sediment
brought down is very great, forming in a single year an island 65
square miles in area and 1 yard deep. The delta projects little beyond
the normal coast-line, owing to the distribution of silt along shore by
the ocean currents, and to the deposit of the remainder in a vast sub-
marine trough 1200 feet deep and upwards, due south of the river
mouths. (Reclus, Asia, III, 139.)
38. Graae is the Sanscrit graha. The presence of great water-
snakes is still observed along these coasts, in the bays and at the mouths
of rivers.
38. Barbaricum.—This name is evidently Hellenized from
some Hindu word—one suspects Bandar, port, or possibly some name
such as Bahardipur, which survives in the modern Delta. With the
steady silting of the Delta, the remains of this port are probably yards
deep in the soft alluvium, and very likely quite away from' any of the
present branches of the river.
Shah-bandar (Royal Port), formerly accessible to men-of-war,
now lies far inland to the east of the present main channel of the
Indus, while a similar fate has overtaken Ghora Bari or Vikkar, Keti,
and other places. Since the opening of the Karachi railway most
of these fever-stricken towns have been abandoned.
38. Minnagara was a name given temporarily to several cities
of India during the period of the occupation by the Scyths (the Saka
and Yueh-chi). After the collapse of the Indo-Scythian power these
cities resumed their former names with their autonomy.
166
This Minnagara may be identified with the Patala of Alexander's
expedition—the capital of the delta country. Vincent Smith locates
it at Bahmanabad, 25° 50' N., 68° 50' E., about six miles west of
the modern Mansuriyah. The site was discovered by M. Bellasis in
1854, and includes extensive prehistoric remains. The Indus delta
has grown greatly since our author's time, and the courses of the
Indus and all its tributaries have changed repeatedly. Vincent Smith
says that the apex of the delta was probably about forty miles north of
that place, approximately 26° 40' N., 68° 30' E. He cites numerous
facts to prove that the coast-line has advanced anywhere from 20 to
40 miles since Alexander's time. The Rann of Cutch (Eirinon),
now a salt marsh, he thinks was a broad open arm of the sea running
to 25° N., with the eastern branch of the Indus emptying into it.
Silt brought down by the river and formed into great bars washed
southward by the violent tides, has now closed the mouth of the Rann
almost entirely. The coast-line he thinks may have averaged 25° N.
from Karachi to the Rann of Cutch.
Reclus {Asia, III, 142-5) says the Rann was probably open sea
until about the 4th century, when a series of violent earthquakes ele-
vated this whole region considerably. He reports ruins at Nagar
Parkar, at the northeast corner, indicating a large sea-port trade there.
These changes may have been one cause of the great migration
from this region to Java in the 6th and 7th centuries A. D.
38. Parthian princes.—The reference to the rule of '/Par-
thian princes" over the "metropolis of Scythia" is very interesting.
The first horde from Central Asia to overrun the Pamirs was the
Saka, fleeing before the Yueh-chi. They settled in the Cabul valley,
Seistan (Sakastene), and the lower Indus. By about 120 B. C. their
leader Manes had established a kingdom at Cabul, subject to Parthia;
his line was known as the "Indo-Parthian," but his race was, roughly
speaking, "Scythian." Gradually the Yueh-chi pursued the Saka,
first conquering Greek Bactria (they are referred to in this text, §47,
as the "very warlike nation of the Bactrians," living in the interior).
Their king, Kadphises I, conquered Cashmere and the upper Indus;
his son, Kadphises II, who acceded about 85 A. D., after a disastrous
defeat at Kuche by the pursuer of the Yueh-chi, the Chinese con-
quering general Pan-Chao—about 90 A. D.—directed his armies
southward and rapidly overran the Panjab and the lower Indus, and
then reached the upper Ganges and interior points like Indore.
Both races were called by the Sanscrit "Min" or Scyths; the
Periplus shows the Indo-Parthians ruling in the "metropolis of
Scythia," then at the apex of the Indus delta; showing their power
167
in the Kabul valley to have been broken already by the Yueh-chi or
"Kushan'' dynasty, but their subsequent complete conquest by the
Yueh-chi had not yet been consummated.
The political conditions described in the Periplus were probably
those that followed the death of Gondophares, the last powerful Indo-
Parthian ruler in the Panjab. This is supposed to have occurred about
51 A. D. After some years of anarchy and civil war, the Saka power
was again consolidated under two lines of rulers; the ''Northern Sa-
traps" from the Indus to the Jumna, and the 4'Western Satraps" in
Kathiawar, Gujarat and Malwa. Both these dynasties were at first
tributary, and later subject to the Kushan power.
More distant southern raiding by the Indo-Parthians led to the
"Pallava" dynasties along the west coast, which after a couple of
centuries succeeded in gaining control of much of Southern India.
These princes were thought by Fabricius to be the ones referred to
in § 52 as ruling in Calliena, near Bombay.
39. Figured linens.—The text is polymita. Pliny (VIII, 74)
says: "Babylon was very famous for making embroidery in different
colors, and hence stuffs of this kind have obtained the name of
Babylonian. The method of weaving cloth with more than two
threads was invented at Alexandria; these cloths are called polymita;
it was in Gaul that they were first divided into chequers."
Martial's epigram, Cubiculariapolymita" (XIV, 150) indicates
that the Egyptian tissue was formed in a loom, like tapestry, and that
the Babylonian was embroidered with the needle.
39. Topaz. The text is chrysolithos. This stone, according to
Pliny, came from Aethiopia (Abyssinia) and islands in the Red Sea;
and he adds that the best sort came from India. Here is a confusion be-
tween two kinds of stone; the Red Sea gem being the true topaz and
the Indian either chrysolite or yellow sapphire. The knowledge of
the Romans in regard to precious stones was vague, and we are apt to
be led astray by assuming that because we have borrowed the Greek
or Latin name we have applied it to the same stone.
The chrysolithos mentioned in the text was almost certainly our
topaz, which was produced in abundance in the Red Sea islands, being
an important item in the east-bound exports of Egypt, under the
Ptolemies and Rome.
Strabosays: (XVI, iv, 6) "After Berenice is the island Ophiodes.
It was cleared of the serpents by the king, on account of the topazes
found there. ... A body of men was appointed and maintained by the
kings of Egypt to guard and maintain the place where these stones
were found, and superintend the collection of them."
168
It is remarkable that the Periplus does not mention emeralds also
as an export from Berenice to India. There was a large production
from mines in the hills just west of our author's home. They may
have fetched better prices in Rome than in India, where they would
have had to compete with the native beryls.
For a description of these mines, as well as of the present appear-
ance of the site of Berenice, see Bent, Southern Arabia, 291-7.
39. Coral. See also §§28 and 49. This was the red coral of
the Western Mediterranean, which was one of the principal assets of
the Roman Empire in its trade with the East. Pliny observes with
some surprise (XXXII, 11) that coral was as highly prized in India
as were pearls at Rome. The Gauls formerly ornamented their
swords, shields and helmets with coral, but after the Indian trade was
opened and its export value increased, it became extremely scarce
with them.
Tavernier (Travels in India, II, xxiii) found the same conditions
in his time: "Although coral does not rank among precious stones
in Europe, it is nevertheless held in high esteem in the other quarters
of the globe, and it is one of the most beautiful of nature's produc-
tions, so that there are some nations who prefer it to precious stones.
Ball, in his notes on Tavernier (II, 136), ascribes the preference
for coral to "the way its tints adapt themselves to set off a dark skin,
and also look well with a white garment."
It was also valued for its supposed sacred properties, and the be-
lief in its uses as a charm continued through the Middle Ages, and
even to the present day in Italy, where it is worn as a protection
against the evil eye.
The principal red coral fisheries, then as now, were in Sicily,
Sardinia and Corsica, near Naples, Leghorn and Genoa, in Catalonia,
the Balearic Islands and the coasts of Tunis, Algeria and Morocco.
Tavernier describes the method of fishing by "swabs"—crossed
rafters, weighted, and bound with twisted hemp, which were let down
and entangled amongst the coral on the rocky bottom, breaking more
than they caught. For a fuller description, see Encyclopedia Britannica,
art. "Coral."
Red coral is Corallium rubrum, family Gorgonidce.
There was black coral in abundance in the Red Sea, and others
along the Arabian coast, but these were not prized so highly. See
Haeckel, Arabische Korallen.
39. CostUS.—This is the cut root of Saussurea lappa, order Com-
posite, a tall perennial, growing on the open slopes of the vale of
Kashmir, and other high valleys of that region, at elevations of 8,000
169
to 13,000 feet. In the Roman Empire it was used as a culinary
spice, also as a perfume, entering into many of the ointments, though
in less quantity than pepper and cinnamon. The Revised Version
gives it as a marginal reading for Exodus XXX, 24, in place of cassia,
as one of the ingredients of the anointing oil of the Hebrew priests.
The root was dug up and cut into small pieces, and shipped to
both Rome and China. Vincent describes the root as being the size
of a finger; a yellowish woody part within a whitish bark. The
cortex is brittle, warm, bitterish, and aromatic, of an agreeable smell,
resembling orris.
Chishull (Antiq. Asiat., 71) notes that the gifts from Seleucus
Callinicus to the Milesians included frankincense, 10 talents; myrrh,
1 talent; cassia, 2 pounds; cinnamon, 2 pounds; costus, 1 pound.
By the Romans costus was often called simply radix, the root, as
distinguished from nard, which was called folium^ the leaf. The price
in Rome is stated by Pliny (XII, 25) to have been 5 denarii per
pound.
In modern Kashmir the collection of costus is a State monopoly,
the product being sent to Calcutta and Bombay, for shipment to China
and Red Sea ports. In China it is used in perfumes and as incense.
In Kashmir it is used by shawl merchants to protect their fabrics from
moths.
The word costus is from the Sanscrit kushtha, "standing in the
earth.''
See Watt, op. cit, 980; Lassen, op. cit., I, 287-8. .
39. Lycilim.—This was derived from varieties of the barberry
growing in the Himalayas, at elevations of 6,000 to 10,000 feet.
Berberis lycium, also B. aristata, B. asiatica, B. vulgaris, order Ber-
ber idace a.
From the roots and stems a yellow dye was prepared; while
from the stem, fruit and root-bark was made an astringent medicine,
the preparation of which is described by Pliny (XXIV, 77). "The
branches and roots, which are intensely bitter, are pounded and then
boiled for three days in a copper vessel; the woody parts then re-
moved, and the decoction boiled again to the thickness of honey. It
is mixed with various bitter extracts, and with a murca of olive oil,
and ox-gall. The froth of this decoction is used as an ingredient in
compositions for the eyes, and the other part as a face cosmetic, and
for the cure of corroding sores, fluxes, and suppurations, for diseases
of the throat and gums, for coughs, and locally for dressing open
wounds." Many empty lycium pots have been found in the ruins of
Herculaneum and Pompeii. (See also Watt, op. cit., 130.)
170
39. Nard (the root, from the lowlands, as distinguished from
spikenard, the leaf or flower, from the mountains, a totally different
species). This is the root of the ginger-grass, Cymbopogon schcenan-
t/ius, order Graminea, native in the Western Panjab, India, Beluchis-
tan and Persia, and the allied species, C. jwarancusa, native more to
the east and south. It is closely allied to the Ceylon citronella, C.
nardus.
From the root of this grass was derived an oil which was used in
Roman commerce medicinally and as a perfume, and as an astringent
in ointments.
This is no doubt the nard found by the army of Alexander on its
homeward march, in the country of the Gedrosians, of which Arrian
says {Anabasis, VI, 22): This desert produces many odoriferous
roots of nard, which the Phoenicians gathered; but much of it was
trampled down by the army, and a sweet perfume was diffused far
and wide over the land by the trampling; so great was the abundance
of it."
39. Turquoise.—The text has callean stone, which seems the
same as Pliny's callaina (XXXVII, 33), a stone that came from "the
countries lying back of India," or more definitely, Khorassan. His
description of the stone itself identifies it with our turquoise, which
occurs abundantly in volcanic rocks intruding into sedimentary rocks
in that district. The finest stones came from the mines near Maaden,
about 48 miles north of Nishapur (the Nisaea of Alexander, 36° 30'
N., 58° 50' E.). A natural trade-route from this locality would have
been down the Kabul river, thence by the Indus to its mouth, where
the author of the Periplus found the stones offered for sale.
(See also Heyd, Commerce du Levant au Moyen Age, II, 653;
Ritter, Erdkunde, 325-330; Yule's Marco Polo, Cordier's ed., I, 92;
Goodchild, Precious Stones, 284; Tavernier, Travels in India, II, xix: "Turquoise is only found in Persia in two mines, one near Nishapur, the other five days' journey from it;" Lansdell, Russian
Central-Asia, 515.)
39. Lapis lazuli.—The word in the text is sappheiros, and a
natural inclination would be to assume this to be the same as our
sapphire, which is also a product of India; but according to Pliny
(XXXVII, 39) the stone known to the Romans as sapphire was an
opaque blue stone with golden spots, which came from Media, that is,
in a general way, from the country we call Persia. It was not suited
for engraving because it was intersected with hard crystalline particles.
This can be nothing but our lapis lazuli, which has been in demand
from a very early time for ornament and also as a pigment, ultra-
171
marine, which was so extensively used by the Egyptians in their public
buildings. Our sapphire seems to have been rather a product of
southern India and Ceylon, and would hardly have been exported
from the Indus valley.
Dionysius Periegetes refers to the ''underlying rocks which gave
birth to the beauteous tablets of the golden hued and azure sapphire
stone which they detach from the parent rock," which seems to indi-
cate lapis lazuli rather than our sapphire.
Goodchild {Precious Stones, p. 240), also thinks that this stone was
almost certainly the sapphire of Theophrastus and other ancient
writers. He says, "It has been known from very remote times,
being much used by the Egyptians, and to a lesser extent by the
Assyrians. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, says the Tables of the
Law given to Moses were inscribed on lapis lazuli. The Romans
used it to some extent as a material for engraving on/'
Lassen is of the same opinion. Beckmann {Hist. lnv., 1, 467)
writing in the 18th century, says that the real lapis lazuli came from
Bokhara, particularly at Kalab and Badakshan; that it was sent thence
to India, and from India to Europe. Some came also through Russia
via Orenburg, but less than formerly. (The first route corresponds
with the Periplus.) "I consider it as the sapphire of the ancients" —
quoting Pliny, Isidori Orig. XVI, 9; Theophrast. de Lapid.; § 43;
Dioscorides, V, 157; Dionys., Orb. Desc.,V, 1105; Epiphanius^
xii gemmis, § 5; Marbodeus de Lapidibus, 55.
Tavernier, {Travels in India, II, xxv) speaks of a "mountain beyond Kashmir producing lapis," which Ball {Economic Geology of
India, 529) locates near Firgamu in Badakshan, 36° 10' N., 71° W.
For a fuller description see Holdich, Gates of India, 426, 507.
Ultramarine was probably not the cteruleum of the Romans, which
was rather copper ochre. Their blue glass was rather cobalt.
39. Seric skins.—Pliny (XXXIV, 41) says, "of all the dif-
ferent kinds of iron, the palm of excellence is awarded to that which
is made by the Seres, who send it to us with their tissues and skins;
next to which, in quality, is the Parthian iron." And again
(XXXVII, 77) "the most valuable products furnished by the cover-
ings of animals are the skins which the Seres dye."
These passages are sufficient answer to those who have doubted
this statement in the Periplus. (Vincent, II, 390; Muller I, 288,
opposed to whom see Fabricius, p. 151.) There is no more reason why
furs should not have been sent overland across Asia in the 1st century
than in the 16th to the 19th, when the trade was most important. Con-
sider, for instance,.the difficulty even to-day, in getting Russian sables
172
to market, and how much easier to get the various wild animal skins
from Tibet and Turkestan to the Indus mouth!
As to the "most excellent iron of the Seres" mentioned by Pliny,
it is open to question whether this was not Indian steel, more cor-
rectly described in the Periplus as coming from the Gulf of Cambay
to the Somali coast—and Egypt. It was produced in Haidarabad, a
short distance north of Golconda, and was shipped to the Panjab and
Persia to be made into steel; the famous Damascus blades of the
middle ages being derived mainly from this source. (Tavernier,
Travels, Ball's ed., I, 157.) See also under § 6.
39. Cloth.—It is uncertain whether this should be connected
with the following item, yarn, both being silk, or whether it is a
separate item. If the latter, as seems probable, it would be muslin,
as noted under §38—the sindon of the Greeks, long a staple product
of the Panjab and Sind.
39. Silk yarn.—According to the Periplus, the Roman traders
found silk at the mouths of the Indus and Ganges, at the Gulf of
Cambay, and in Travancore, whither it had been brought by various
routes from N. W. China.
The principal highway for silk, at this time as well as later, was
through Turkestan and Parthia. As the demand in Mediterranean
countries grew more insistent, the restrictions of the Parthian govern-
ment became more severe, and quarrels over the silk trade were at
the root of more than one war between Rome and Parthia, or later
between the Byzantine Empire and Sassanian Persia. This effort of
Constantinople to reach China direct, without dependence on Meso-
potamia, led to alliances with Abyssinia, for the sea trade, and with
the Turks, for a route north of the Caspian; but no permanent result
was reached until the 6th century, when a couple of Christian monks
under Justinian succeeded in bringing back from China the jealously-
guarded silk-worm's eggs, from which the silk culture was introduced
into Greece, and imports from the East diminished.
At the time of the Periplus, Rome and Parthia being at war, the
sea-route was the only one open to the Roman silk traders.
See also under §§ 49, 56 and 64.
39. IndigO, a dye produced from Indigofera tinctoria, Linn.,
order Leguminosce; and allied species, of which about 25 exist in West-
ern India alone, and about 300 in other tropical regions. Concerning
the modern production see Watt {op. cit., 664). It was valued in
Western Asia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean countries as a dye and
a medicine. Pliny says (XXXV, 25-7):
173
"We have indicum, a substance imported from India, with the
composition of which I am unacquainted. When broken small it is
of a black appearance, but when diluted it exhibits a wondrous com-
bination of purple and deep azure. There is another kind of it which
floats in the caldrons in the purple dye-houses, and is the scum of the
purple dye. ... If used as a medicine, indicum acts as a sedative
for ague and other shivering fits and desiccates sores."
Marco Polo says (III, xxii) "it is made of a certain herb which
is gathered, and (after the roots have been removed) is put into great
vessels upon which they pour water and lave it until the whole of
the plant is decomposed. They then put this liquid in the sun, which
is tremendously hot there, so that it boils and coagulates, and becomes
such as we see it. They then divide it into pieces of four ounces
each, and in that form it is exported to our ports."
40. The Gulf of Eirinon is the strange expanse now known
as the Rinn or Rann (Wilderness) of Cutch, the name coming from
the crescent-shaped rocky island bordering it on the south. It is a
uniform saline plain about 140 miles long, and reaching 60 miles from
shore to shore; and in the dry season (of the N. E. monsoon) it is
dry and firm, 10 to 20 inches above sea-level. It opens seaward by a
narrow channel, and west of Cutch the northern Rann communi-
cates through a second channel with the Rann, which is connected
with the low-lying coast of the Gulf of Cutch. In the rainy season
(of the S. W. monsoon) the sea is driven through these channels by
the wind, and the rain descending from the hills also flows into it,
forming a sheet of stagnant water about 3 feet deep. But the ground
is so level that the Rann is never deep enough to stop the camel cara-
vans, which cross it at all seasons, traveling by night, to avoid the
terrible heat and refraction, and the illusions of the mirages which
constantly hover over the Rann. The guidance of stars and compass
is preferred.
This saline plain was certainly at one time flooded by the sea,
as shown by the abundance of salt and by the remains of vessels dug
up near the neighboring villages. Old harbor works are observed
near Nagar Parkar, on the eastern side of the Rann. Within his-
torical times it was probably the scene of an active sea-trade; even in
modern times the port of Mandavi, on the southern coast of Cutch,
carries on a direct trade with Zanzibar, in small vessels averaging 50
tons, of less than 10 feet draught.
We are here again reminded of the ancient Turanian (Accadian-
Dravidian) sea trade, which must have centered in these bays.
The whole area was probably raised by some great earthquake.
174
The upheaval is too regular to have occurred by ordinary causes. At
the time of the Periplus it seems to have been open water, although
shoal, with a clear opening into the ocean below the Indus delta, and
with a branch of the Indus running into it. Now the Indus delta is
pushed very much farther south, and the scour of the tides has carried
its alluvium along the coast, almost blocking up the Rann; while the
branch that watered it no longer flows in that direction.
One is led to surmise that the great migration from Cutch and
Gujarat to Java, which occurred in the 6th and 7th centuries, and
which led to the establishment of Buddhist kingdoms there (surviving
in the tremendous temples of Boroboedor and Brambanan) may have
been due even more to this cause than to the invasion of hostile Aryan
tribes from the upper Indus. The conversion of a navigable bay into
a salt desert, and the diversion of the rivers that watered it, must have
spelled ruin and starvation to multitudes of its agricultural and seafar-
ing inhabitants, who would have been forced to migrate on a scale
unusual in history.
Geological considerations tend to confirm the tradition, other-
wise unsupported by historic evidence, that the Indus was formerly
deflected by the Rohri Hills directly into the Rann of Cutch, where
it was joined by the river which was supposed to have formed a con-
tinuation of the Sutlej and Sarasvati through the now dried-up Hakra
(Wahind) canal. During exceptional floods the waters of the Indus
still overflow into the eastern desert and even into the Rann. Other
channels traversing the desert farther south still attest the incessant shift-
ing of the main stream in its search for the most favorable seaward out-
let. According to Burns, a branch of the Indus known as the Purana, or
"Ancient," still flowed in 1672 about 120 miles east of the present
mouth.
The constant shiftings of the river-bed toward the west have
rendered the eastern regions continually more arid, and have changed
many river-channels into salt-pits. In the year 1909 a city of 25,000
inhabitants, Dera Ghazi Khan, was almost annihilated by the Indus.
The name Eirinon, Rinn or Rann is from the Sanscrit aranya or
irina, a waste or swamp.
40. The Gulf of Baraca is the modern Gulf of Cutch.
Whether the name survives in the modern Dwarka (22° 22' N.,
69° 5' E.), is uncertain. It seems to be the same as Bahlika, which
is associated with Surashtra in the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and
the Vishnu Purana.
41 Ariaca.—This word in the text is very uncertain. Lassen
thinks that the name is properly the Sanscrit Latica (pronounced Larka)
175
and included the land on both sides of the Gulf of Cambay. Ptolemy
also gives the name Larica. An inscription of Asoka mentions Latica.
The earliest form seems to have been Rastika or Rashtrika, belonging to the kingdom." This word appears also in Syrastrene. The
Prakrit form of this word Rashtra survives also in the modern Maratha
(Maharashtra). (Lassen, I, 108.) Another explanation derives
Ariaca from Aparantika, an old name for the western seaboard.
(Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji, in Indian Antiquary', VII, 259-263.) According to Reclus (Asia, III, 165) both Cutch and Kathiawar
(Baraca and Syrastrene) were originally islands. This whole area
has been raised in historical times. The land connecting Kathiawar
with the mainland is not over 50 feet above sea-level and is full of
marine remains.
Its position seaward made it early a centre of trade, and a great
mixture of races—also an asylum for refugees, political and religious.
41. Nambanus.—The text is Mambarus. This is probably
the same as the Saka ruler Nahapana. See under § 52.
41. Abiria.—This is the native Abhira, which Lassen (I,
538-9), argues must have been the Biblical Ophir. In the account
of the Ophir trade given in I Kings, IX, 26-28; I Kings, X, 11;
II Chronicles VIII, 17, and IX, 10, the products mentioned are
gold, sandalwood(?), precious stones, ivory, silver, apes and pea-
cocks. The word translated ape, Lassen remarks, is kophi, not a
Hebrew word, but derived from the Sanscrit word kapi. The word
for ivory is noted under § 49. The word for peacock, tukhi-im, is
the Sanscrit sikhi, called in Malabar, togei.
Sandalwood, Lassen thinks, was the almug or algum, which he
derives from the Sanscrit valgu, Malabar valgum. Lassen also refers
to the Indian city Sophir (the Suppara of § 52).
But the location of Ophir in India is impossible. The land of
Abhira, the modern Gujarat, is and was purely an agricultural country,
dealing in none of the products mentioned, and is at the northern end
of India's west coast, not the southern, from which these products
came. Later scholarship is sufficiently sure in locating Ophir on the
Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf,but the Indian names for the prod-
ucts mentioned proved clearly enough that it was a trading center
dealing with India, even if the land itself was not Indian.
The name, too, has a suggestive similarity. Just as we have
Cutch, Kachh, Khuzistan=Kassites, and "wretched Cush," so Ab-
hira, Apir, Ophir suggest the same Dravidian-Accadian activity be
tween India, the Persian Gulf, and Africa, which later gave way
176
to a Semitic, native Arabian activity. This would have been a couple
of thousand years before Solomon's day.
41. Syrastrene.—Sanscrit, Surashtra; the modern Kathiawar.
The name survives in the modern Surat, which owes its name to
Arabic domination. At the time of the Periplus this peninsula, to-
gether with the opposite coast of Cutch and Cambay, was subject to
the Saka or Indo-Parthian dynasties.
41. A fertile country.—Gujarat is still one of the richest
regions in India, its prosperity being largely due to the 60 seaports
fringing its coast-lines and to the fertility of its deep black soil, which
is particularly adapted to the cultivation of cotton. Horses, cattle,
sheep and grain are exported in large numbers to Bombay and other
parts of India.
41. Rice.—Oryza, Linn., order Graminea. The species now
most generally cultivated is Oryza sativa. There are various wild
varieties, one of importance being Oryza coarctata (Roxb.) or O. triti-
coides, which was native in the Indus and Ganges valleys, and also
apparently in Mesopotamia (see Watt, op. cit., 823-5). This wild
variety resembles wheat and seems to have been mistaken for it by
Strabo and some of the Greek writers on India.
Oryza sativa, the cultivated form, is native in India, Burma,
and Southern China. It is the principal food of Asia, and doubtless
was so at the time of the Periplus, when it was exported to Arabia
and East Africa. It was cultivated in China, according to Stanislas
Julien, as early as 2800 B. C, and probably somewhat later in India.
Watt thinks the cultivation began rather in Turkestan, whence it
spread to China, India and Persia in the order named, the changing
climate also forcing its wild habitat southwards. He thinks that coin-
cides with the region through which the Dravidian invaders passed
until they culminated in the Tamil civilization. He also cautions
against the tempting derivation of the Greek word oryza and the Arabic
al-ruzz (from which the modern rice, riso, riz, arroz, etc.), from the
Tamil arisi, thinking that they are rather from the old Persian virinzi
(Sanscrit vrihi)y indicating an early connection before migrations had
radiated from Central Asia.
41. Sesame oil, expressed from the seeds of Sesamum Indicum,
D. C, order Pedalinea; an annual plant cultivated throughout the
tropical and subtropical regions of the globe for the oil obtained from
the seed. Originally, perhaps, it was a native of Africa, but was
regularly cultivated in India long before it reached the Mediterranean
countries. At the time of the Periplus it is safe to assume that sesame
177
was an important crop throughout India and the warmer parts of Cen-
tral Asia. Our author shows us that the oil was exported from the
Gulf of Cambay to both Arabia and Africa, whence doubtless it was
reshipped to the Roman world.
According to the statistics given by Watt {op. cit., 982) the area
under cultivation in India in 1904-5 was over 4,000,000 acres, of
which about 700,000 was in the Cambay states.
In modern India the oil is largely used for culinary purposes, in
anointing the body, in soap manufacture, and as a lamp-oil. It is
also used as an adulterant of ghi or clarified butter.
It is a yellow oil, without smell, and not liable to become rancid.
In many properties it closely resembles olive oil, and is similarly used
where the olive oil is not cultivated. It is extracted by simple ex-
pression in mills. Strabo (XVI, i, 20) refers to the ancient custom
in Mesopotamia of anointing the body with sesame oil.
41. Clarified Butter.—The text is boutyron (see also under
§ 14). This is not fresh butter made from cream, but rather the
Indian ghi, an oil reduced from butter. Fabricius says that it could
not have been transported from India to Africa under the tropical
sun, and would read bosmoros, an Indian grain; but ghi stands long
journeys to-day and might very likely have been in demand in the 1st
century on the African coast, which produced no oil except from the
cocoanut palm. According to Watt {op. cit., 478) ghi is an oil de-
canted after heating the butter about twelve hours, during which the
moisture is driven off and the residue (casein, etc.) is deposited as a
sediment. The butter thus loses about 25 per cent of its bulk. It is
made from buffalo's milk rather than cow's.
Ghi is mentioned in some of the most ancient of the Hindu
classics.
If carefully enclosed in leather skins or earthen pots, while still
hot, it may be preserved for many years without requiring the aid of
salt or other preservatives. Fryer, in 1672-81, speaks of tanks of ghi
in the Deccan, 400 years old, of great value medicinally, and high
price.
This word boutyron has been variously emended by the commen-
tators, all of whom had fresh butter in mind, although Lassen should
have been familiar with the durability of clarified butter, and with the
probability of its export from the rich agricultural region of Gujarat.
Lassen, Oppert and others, following a mention of boutyros by
Theophrastus, identify it with asafcetida, by way of the Sanscrit bhutari
("the enemy of evil spirits"). But asafcetida was a product of Af-
ghanistan and would have been brought to the Indus mouth rather than
178
to Barygaza. While Theophrastus may have referred to it as boutyros,
the Romans knew it more intimately as laser, which is the word that
the author of the Periplus would probably have used. It entered into
Roman medicine as a remedy for fevers and tropical digestive disor-
ders. (Pliny, XIX, 15).
Fabricius needlessly alters the text to read bosmoros, a grain,
which he does not identify. McCrindle suggests wild barley or millet.
The following passages from Strabo throw some light on that question:
He says (XV, ii, 13) By the vapors which ascend from so
many rivers, and by the Etesian winds, India, as Eratosthenes states,
is watered by the summer rains, and the level country is inundated.
During the rainy season, flax and millet, as well as sesamum, rice and
bosmoros are sown; and in the winter season, wheat, barley, pulse,
and other esculents with which we are unacquainted." And again:
(XV, ii, 18) "Onesicritus says of bosmoros that it is a smaller
gra;n than wheat, and is grown in countries between rivers. It is
roasted after being threshed out, and the men are bound by oath not to
take it away before it has been roasted, to prevent the seed from being
exported.''
The treasuring of this bosmoros and the prejudice against its ex-
portation indicate the native millet, which was regarded as particularly
pure, and was the grain most used for temple-offerings.
Other grains which might suggest themselves, are the African
millets, Holcus sorghum (Hindu jucir) or Kaffir corn (see Pliny, XVIII,
10, for description of its remarkable size and prolific increase) and
Pennisetum typhoideum (Hindu, bajra) or spiked millet. Both are im-
portant crops in modern India, but were probably brought from Africa
more recently than the date of the Periplus, and being native in So-
maliland, would not be probable articles of import there.
Wild barley, suggested by McCrindle, was also native in Egypt
and Somaliland, and therefore not likely to have been imported.
Another possible grain is the Indus valley wild rice, Oryza coarc-
tata (Hindu, barirdhan), which has been confused with wheat. See
Watt, p. 823.
The common millet, Panicum miliaceum, while grown in India,
was native in Egypt and the Mediterranean countries.
Altogether the bosmoros of Strabo was most probably "Poor man's
millet," Panicum Crus-galli; which is extensively cultivated to-day in
China and Japan as well as India. The native name given it in Ben-
gal, bura shama, might readily be Hellenized into bosmoros.
According to Watt {op. cit., 843) Panicum Crus-galli, order
Graminea, is a large, coarse plant, preferring wet ground, such as
179
borders of ponds and banks of streams. It is extensively cultivated
as a rainy-season crop over most of India—on the Himalayas to 6500
feet. It thrives on light sandy soils and is often cultivated when the
rains are over, on the banks of rich silt deposited by rivers. The
yield is fifty fold in good soil. It is the quickest-growing millet,
harvested sometimes in six weeks, and is consumed chiefly by the
poorer classes, for whom it is useful because it ripens early and affords
a cheap article of food before bajra and the other millets.
41. Cotton and the Indian cloths.—These were the
monache, molochine, and sagmatogene of §§ 6 and 14. The account
given by Tavernier throws some light on the earlier production. He
says (op. at., II, xii) "White cotton cloths come to Renonsari (near
Surat) and Broach, where they have the means of bleaching them in
large fields, on account of the quantity of lemons growing in the
neighborhood. . . . The cloths are 21 cubits long when crude, but
only 20 cubits when bleached. There are both broad and narrow
kinds. T'he broad are 1/6 cubit wide, and the piece is 20 cubits
long." And again: "The cotton cloths to be dyed red, blue, or
black, are taken uncolored to Agra and Ahmadabad, because these
two towns are near the place where the indigo is made, which is used
in dyeing. The cheaper kinds are exported to the coast of Melinde
(the Azania of the Periplus), and they constitute the principal trade
done by the Governor of Mozambique, who sells them to the Kaffirs
to carry into the country of the Abyssins and the kingdom of Saba,
because these people, not using soap, need only rinse out these
cloths.''
Vincent's translation of sagmatogene by stuffing," that is, un-
spun cotton, is supported by Tavernier, who says 'the unspun cottons
from Gujarat do not go to Europe, being too bulky and of too small
value, and they are only exported to the Red Sea, Hormus, and
Bassora."
Marco Polo (III, 26) says of this locality: "They have also a
great deal of cotton. Their cotton trees are of very great size, grow-
ing six paces high, and attaining to an age of 20 years. (Gossypium
arboreum.) It is to be observed, however, that, when thei -trees are
so old as that, the cotton is not good to spin, but only to quilt or stuff
beds withal. Up to the age of 12 years, indeed, the trees give good
spinning cotton, but from that age to 20 years the produce is inferior..''
Pliny also (XII, 21) quotes from Theophrastus a description of
the tree cotton, contrasting it with silk: trees that bear wool, but
of a different nature from those of the Seres; as in these trees the
leaves produce nothing at all, and indeed might very readily be taken
180
for those of the vine, were it not that they are of smaller size. They
bear a kind of gourd, about the size of a quince, which when ripe
bursts asunder and discloses a ball of down, from which a costly kind
of linen cloth is made."
41. Minnagara.—This capital was identified by Miiller with
the modern Indore, but according to Vincent Smith (op. cit, 192-3)
may be the ancient town of Madhyamika or NagarT, one of the oldest
sites in India, of which the ruins still exist, about eleven miles north
of Chitor (24° 53' N., 74° 39' E.).
McCrindle and Fabricius prefer, but quite conjecturally, to place
it in Kathiawar; but the text indicates the mainland in observing that
from Minnagara cotton cloth was "brought down," by river pre-
sumably, to Barygaza.
The name Minnagara means "City of the Min," which was
the Hindu name for the Saka invaders.
41. Barygaza.—This is the modern Broach (21° 42' N., 72°
59'E.). The Greek name is from the Prakrit Bharukacha, supposed
to be a corruption of Bhrigukachha^ ''the plain of Bhrigu," who was
a local hero. Here is at least a suggestion of Dravidian connection
with the Brahui of Gedrosia, their hero Braho and their Kach place-
names.
The district of Barygaza was an important part of the empire of
Chandragupta Maurya, who is said to have resided at Suklatirtha.
After the collapse of his dynasty it fell into the hands of the Saka
princes, who were in power at the time of the Periplus.
41. Signs of the Expedition of Alexander.—The Greek
army reached Jhelum (32° 56' N., 73° 47' E.) on the river of the
same name. Somewhat above that place, on the opposite side of the
river, Vincent Smith locates the field of his battle with Porus. (Early
History of India, 71-8.) Alexander then penetrated to Gurdaspur, on
the Sutlej river, about 50 miles N. E. from Amritsar. Here he began
his retreat. The author of the Periplus is mistaken in supposing that
the Macedonians got beyond the Indus region, and is probably quot-
ing what was told him by some trader at Barygaza, who would hardly
have distinguished Alexander from Asoka. Under the caste system
the traders were not concerned with the religious or political activities
of the country, and those concerned with foreign trade were often, as
now, mere outcasts; while even had they been informed, they would
have been quite equal to attributing anything, for the moment, to
Alexander, out of deference to their Greek customers, who were far
more interested in his exploits than any Hindu could be.
181
41. The promontory of Papica is Goaphat, or Gopinath
Point.
42. Another gulf.—This is the Gulf of Cambay.
42. Baeones is Piram Island opposite the mouth of the Narbada
(21° 36' N., 72° 21' E.), as shown on the following map. Diu
Island, the modern Portuguese possession, preferred by Vincent,
does not conform to the sailing-course of the Periplus, as shown
by Muller (I, 290.)

0 to 30 Feet. SO 10 75 Feet. 75 Feet and upwards.
________ 30 Miles.
According to the Imperial Gazetteer, XX, 149-150, it is a reef of
rock partly covered by brown sand, and is surrounded by rocky reefs
rising to the surface from a depth of 60 to 70 feet. To avoid the
tide-currents, chopping sea and sunken reefs, boats have still to follow
the course toward the Narbada, as described in the Periplus.
182
42. The great river Mais is the modern Mahi, emptying
into the head of the gulf, at the city of Cambay. (22° 18' N., 72°
40' E.)
42. The river Nammadus—Hindu, Narmada—is the mod-
ern Narbada or Nerbudda.
4Hard to navigate.—The sketch-map on the preceding
page, from Reclus, Asia, Vol. Ill, illustrates the difficulties.
Herone shoal is no doubt the long bar at the eastern side of the
gulf, and Cammoni would be at the end of the promontory that lies
to the N. W. of the mouth of the Tapti River, the entrance to the
prosperous mediaeval port of Surat. This is, perhaps, the same as
the Camanes of Ptolemy.
44. Trappaga and Cotymba.—The first word Lassen de-
rives (II, 539) from trapdka, a type of fishing boat mentioned by other
travellers to this region. The second suggests the modern kotia, a
craft from these waters found by Burton in the Somaliland ports (First
Footsteps, 408).

Fishing-boats entering Bombay Harbor
44. Anchorages and basins.—The maintenance of this
regular service of pilotage, under which incoming vessels were met
at least 100 miles from Barygaza, indicates an active and regular com-
merce, such as our author describes. The use of "stations" in the
river is still necessary here, and in other rivers such as those of Burma,
where modern sailing traffic is more active.
183
45. Very great tides.—The vivid description of the tidal
bore, in this and the following paragraph, is certainly the result of
personal experience. To a merchant familiar with the all but tideless
waters of the Red Sea, it must indeed have been a wonder of nature.
The same thing occurs in many places where a strong tide is forced
into a narrow, shallow and curving estuary, as in Burma, the Bay
of Fundy, the Bay of Panama, and elsewhere. According to the
Imperial Gazetteer of India, IX, 297, high spring tides in the Gulf of
Cambay rise and fall as much as 33 feet, and run at a velocity of
6 to 7 knots an hour. Ordinary tides reach 25 feet, at 4/^ to 6
knots. The inevitable damage to shipping, under such difficulties,
was the cause of the desertion of the Cambay ports for Surat and,
more recently, Bombay.
46. The sea rushing in with a hoarse roar.
"Through hoarse roar never remitting,
Along the midnight edge by those milk-white combs careering.''
Walt Whitman: Patrolling Barnegat.
47. Arattii.—This is a Prakrit form of the Sanscrit Arashtra,
who were a people of the Panjab; in fact the name Ardtta is often
synonymous with the Panjab in Hindu literature.
47. Arachosii.—This people occupied the country around the
modern Kandahar (31° 27' N., 65° 43' E.). McCrindle {Ancient
India, 88) says "Arachosia extended westward beyond the meridian
of Kandahar, and was skirted on the east by the river Indus. On the
north it stretched to the western section of the Hindu Kush and on
the south to Gedrosia. The province was rich and populous, and
the fact that it was traversed by one of the main routes by which
Persia communicated with India added greatly to its importance."
47. Gandaraei.—(Sanscrit, Gandhara.} This people dwelt on
both sides of the Cabul River, above its junction with the Indus; the
modern Peshawar district. In earlier times they extended east of the
Indus, where their eastern capital was located—Takshasild, a large
and prosperous city, called by the Greeks Taxila.
(See also Holdich, Gates of India, 99, 114, 179, 185; Vincent
Smith, Early History, 32, 43, 50, 52, 54; Foucher, Notes sur la geo-
graphic ancienne du Gandhara.)
The trade-route briefly referred to in the mention of Gandhara
and Pushkalavati was that leading to Bactria, whence it branched west-
ward to the Caspian and the Euphrates, and eastward through Turke-
stan to China, the "Land of This" of § 64.
47. Poclais.—(Sanscrit, Pushkardvati,ovPushkalavati, "abound-
184
ing in lotuses/9 Prakrit, Pukkalaoti, whence the Peucelaotis of Arrian.)
This was the western capital of Gandhara (cf. Strabo, XV, 26-8;
Arrian, Anabasis, IV, xxii; Indica,lVLassen, II, 858), the modern
Charsadda, 17 miles N. E. of Peshawar, on the Suwat River.
47. Bucephalus Alexandria.—This is identified by Vincent
Smith {op. at, 62) with the modern town of Jhelum. (See under
§ 41.) Its position is marked by an extensive mound west of the
present settlement. The mound is known as Pindi, "the town," and
yields large ancient bricks and numerous Graeco-Bactrian coins. Its
position at a ferry on the high-road from the west to the Indian inte-
rior gave it great commercial importance.
47. Warlike nation of the Bactrians.—This passage, with
its reference to Graeco-Bactrian coins current in Barygaza, presents a
view of Indian history which does not appear in any other contempo-
rary work. The sequence of events in Bactria during the four cen-
turies between Alexander and the Periplus, which is fully set forth by
Vincent Smith {op. at., IX, X) is summarized as follows:
The Empire of Alexander was broken up at his death and the
whole Eastern section from Syria to India fell to Seleucus, one of his
generals. The Indian conquests were lost immediately, but the inter-
vening country remained under Greek control for nearly 100 years
under Antiochus Theos. The two northeastern provinces of Parthia
and Bactria revolted. The Parthians, an Asiatic race akin to the
Turks, set up for themselves, and built up a military power which later
absorbed the country beyond the Euphrates. The Bactrian country,
which was then populous and productive, remained under the govern-
ment of Greek princes, and its independence was finally recognized in
208 B. C. The Greek monarchs in Bactria immediately set about
enlarging their domains by striving to gain an outlet to the sea through
the Indus Valley. In 190 B. C. Demetrius conquered the whole
Indus Valley and that part of Afghanistan lying around the modern
Cabul.
During his absence in India a relative, Eucratides, revolted and
Demetrius returned home but his name does not reappear. From
160 to 156 there seems to have been anarchy in Bactria which ended
in the assassination of Eucratides by his son Apollodotus, whose reign
seems to have been very short.
In the years 155-153 a Greek King Menandei, apparently a
brother of Apollodotus, whose capital was Cabul, annexed the entire
Indus Valley, the peninsula of Surashtra (Syrastrene) and other terri-
tories on the western coast; occupied Mathura; besieged Madhya-
mika (now Nagari near Chitor), and threatened the capital, Patali-
185
putra, which is the modern Patna. Menander had to retire, however,
to Bactria. He is supposed to have been a convert to Buddhism, and
has been immortalized under the name of Milinda in a celebrated dia-
logue entitled The Questions of Milinda, which is one of the most noted
books in Buddhist literature.
Heliocles, son of Eucratides, seems to have been the last Greek
king to rule north of the Hindu Kush Mountains.
This phase of Asiatic history is reflected by the mention of the
Greek coinage of Apollodotus and Menander, current in Barygaza at
the time of the Periplus. The coins must have been over 200 years
old, and the preservation of small silver coins in commercial use for
that length of time is remarkable.
To understand the Very warlike nation of the Bactrians' which
our author mentions as 'living in the interior under their own king,'
one must go to the history of central Asia. Chinese annals mention
that in the year 165 B. C, a nomadic Turki tribe in northwestern
China and owing allegiance to the Chinese emperors, known as the
Yueh-chi, were driven out of their territory by the Hiongnu or Tar-
tars, and migrated westward. This displaced numerous savage tribes
in central Asia, who in turn moved westward; and thus the great
waves of migration were begun which inundated Europe for centuries,
overwhelmed the Roman Empire, and long threatened to extinguish
white civilization.
The Yueh-chi in their westward movement drove out a tribe
known as the Saka, who had lived between the Chu and Jaxartes
rivers. These tribes in the years 140-130 poured into Bactria, over-
whelmed the Greek Kingdom there and continued into the country
known as Seistan, then called, from its conquerors, Sakastene. Another
branch of the Saka horde settled in Taxila in the Panjab and Mathura
on the Jumna, where Saka princes ruled for more than a century
under the Parthian power. These Saka tribes seem to have been
originally connected with the Parthians. Another section of the Sakas
at a later date pushed on southward and occupied the peninsula of
Surashtra, founding a Saka dynasty which lasted for centuries. This
country is referred to by the author of the Periplus in § 38 as "subject
to Parthian princes who were constantly driving each other out."
The Sakas of India seem to have been subject to the Parthians,
and Indo-Parthian princes appear at Cabul and in the Panjab about
120 B. C. There is a long line of Parthian princes recorded as rul-
ing in Cabul; among them Gondophares, who acceded in 21 A. D.
and reigned in Cabul and the Panjab for thirty years. This is the
same prince who is mentioned in the apocryphal 'Acts of St. Thomas,'
186
which, although not composed until the third century A. D., reflects
the prominence with which his name was regarded in the history of
the time.
The Indo-Parthian princes were gradually driven southward by
the advancing Yueh-chi, who had expelled the last of them from the
Panjab before the end of the first century A. D.—that is, at the time
of this work.
The Yueh-chi, whose westward migration started all this
trouble, had settled in Bactria north of the Oxus River about 70
B. C. The scattered tribes were gradually brought together under a
central power, and their wandering habits were changed for agricul-
ture and industry; so that when the Yueh-chi nation was unified
under Kadphises I, who began to rule in 45 A. D., it represented a
different people from the savages who had overwhelmed the Greek
Kingdom of Bactria. Kadphises reigned over Bokhara and Afghani-
stan for 40 years, and was succeeded by his son Kadphises II, who
extended his conquests into India.
The Chinese emperors had never abandoned their assertion of
sovereignty over the Yueh-chi. An embassy was sent from China
to the Oxus River in the years 125-115 B. C. to try to persuade the
Yueh-chi to return to China, but the mission was unsuccessful, and
subsequent revolutions kept Chinese interest at home between 100
B. C. and 70 A. D.
A Tartar army under the Chinese General Pan Chao reasserted
Chinese supremacy over all of Central Asia, extending its conquests
as far as the Caspian Sea. Thus, with the submission of Khotan and
Kashgar to Chinese armies in 73 A. D., the route south of the Cen-
tral Asian desert was thrown open to commerce from end to end.
With the reduction of Kuche and Kharachar in 94 A. D., the route
north of the desert was also thrown open, and for the first time regular
commerce between East and West was made possible.
It should be borne in mind that this route was still policed by
savage tribes only nominally subject to the Chinese Empire, and
while communication was opened up immediately, trade was not
carried on in large volume until the time of the Roman Emperor
Marcus Aurelius, 100 years later.
Kadphises II, ruler of the Yueh-chi, who had in the meantime
extended his conquest into India but not yet as far as the Indus delta,
sent an army of 70,000 cavalry against the Chinese General Pan Chao,
and was totally defeated near Kashgar; and was obliged for some
years to send tribute to China.
187
About 95 A. D. he began his further conquests of India, and
his kingdom reached as far as Benares and Ghazipur on the Ganges
River.
The Yueh-chi opened up the commerce between India and
the Roman Empire. Here, as in Central Asia, the trade had been
merely incidental and subject to depredations of numerous savage
tribes. The Parthians had done what they could to control and or-
ganize it and to levy tribute on the Roman merchants, but they had
not controlled it to the eastward. The existence of unified power in
the Indus Valley and Afghanistan made possible a regular trade from
the Ganges to the Euphrates. The rapid growth of such trade is
indicated by the coinage of the Yueh-chi Kings in India. Kadphises I
struck coins in bronze only, which were imitated from those of Au-
gustus. Kadphises II imitated the gold coins of the Roman Empire,
which were then pouring into India in a steady stream. In Southern
India, where there was an active Roman maritime trade, there was
no native gold coinage, the Roman being sufficient.
It is probable that the Indian embassy, which offered its con-
gratulations in Rome to the Emperor Trajan, was dispatched by
Kadphises II, to announce his conquest of Northwestern India.
47. Alexander penetrated to the Ganges.—This is, of
course, quite untrue, the Panjab having been the turning-point of his
expedition. The great mass of India was entirely unaffected by his
invasion, except as it led to the subsequent centralization of power
under Chandragupta Maurya. Our author is confusing Alexander with
Menander.
"The East bowed low before the blast
In patient, deep disdain;
She let the legions thunder past,
And plunged in thought again."
Matthew Arnold: Obermann.
48. Ozene.—This is the modern Ujjain, 23° 11' N., 75° 47'
E., the chief city of Malwa. The Sanscrit form is Ujjayirit, "vic-
torious." The Prakrit is Ujjenz, from which the Greek is derived.
Ujjain is one of the seven sacred cities of India, not yielding
even to Benares. In Hindu legend it was here that the elbow of
Satifell, on the dismemberment of her body by Siva. The river Sipra,
on which it is located, is also sacred. The place was important under
the earliest Aryan settlements in Malwa. In early times it was known
as Avanti, a kingdom which is described in Buddhist literature as one
of the four great powers of India. As Ujjeni it is very prominent
in Buddhist records, having been the birthplace of Kachana, one of
188
Sakyamuni's greatest disciples. Here was a Buddhist monastery known
as the Southern Mount, while it was the principal stage on the route
from the Deccan to Sravasti, then the capital of the great kingdom of
Kosala. Here also in his younger days Asoka, later emperor, and
the greatest patron of Buddhism, was stationed as viceroy of the
western provinces of the Maurya Empire. This was the custom also
in several subsequent dynasties, on both sides of the Vindhyas, for the
heir-apparent to act as viceroy in the western provinces.
Ujjeni was the Greenwich of India, the first meridian of longi-
tude of its geographers. By its location it was a trade center for all
produce imported at Barygaza, whence distribution was made to the
Ganges kingdoms. At the time of the Periplus it was no longer a
capital, the royal seat being at "Minnagara." The Aiaurya empire
had broken up, and in the anarchy following the irruptions in the
northwest, its western provinces of Surashtra and Malwa had been
raided by Saka freebooters, who finally established themselves in power
as the ''Western Satraps/' or Kshatrapa dynasty. For a generation
or so before the formal proclamation of the dynasty the invaders'
stronghold was their capital. After their claims were recognized they
probably ruled from Ujjeni, which Ptolemy describes as the capital of
Tiastenos or Chashtana, the Kshatrapa ruler of his time. It re-
mained, apparently, in Saka hands until about the 5th century A. D.,
when it reverted to Brahman power under the Gupta Empire; this
expulsion of the "misbelieving foreigners" giving rise to the tradition
of Vikramaditya of Ujjain, the King Arthur of India, at whose court
the "nine gems," the brightest geniuses of India, were supposed to
have flourished.
(See Imperial Gazetteer, VIII, 279-280; XXIV, 112-114; Las-
sen, I, 116.)
48. Spikenard: Nardostachysjatamansi, order Valerianacea. A
perennial herb of the alpine Himalaya, which extends eastward from
Garhwal and ascends to 17,000 feet in Sikkim. "The drug consists
of a portion of the rhizome, about as thick as the little finger, sur-
mounted by a bundle of reddish-brown fibers, the remains of the
radical leaves. It is aromatic and bitter,, and yields on distillation an
essential oil. In India it is largely used as an aromatic adjunct in the
preparation of medicinal oils, and is popularly believed to increase the
growth and blackness of the hair." (Watt, op. at., 792.)
According to Pliny (XII, 26), ''Leaf nard varies in price accord-
ing to the size; for that which is known by the name of hadrosphae-
rum, consisting of the larger leaves, sells at 40 denarii per pound.
When the leaves are smaller, it is called mesosphaerum, and is sold
189
at 60. But that which is considered the most valuable of all, is known
as microsphaerum, and consists of the very smallest of the leaves;^ it
sells at 75 denarii per pound. All these varieties of nard have an
agreeable odor, but it is most powerful when fresh. If the nard is
old when gathered that which is of a black color is considered the
best."
Pliny observes that leaf nard, or spikenard, held the first place in
Rome among the ointments of his day. Compare Mark XIV, 3-5,
which tells of the ''alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very pre-
cious," valued at more than 300 denarii.
See under § 24: also, for further references, Lassen, I, 288-9.
48. Caspapyra.—This is the Greek form of the Sanscrit
Kasyapapura, "city of the Kasyapa." The same word survives in
the modern Kashmir, which is from the Sanscrit Kasyapamata (pro-
nounced pamara), and meaning home of the Kasyapa" (one of the
previous Buddhas.') According to the division of the Greek geog-
raphers, Gandhara was the country below Cabul, while Kasyapamata
was che adjoining district in India proper. (See Lassen, I, 142;
II, 631.)
It was from a town named Caspapyra, that Scylax of Caryanda
began his voyage of discovery at the command of the Persian king
Darius. The story is given by Herodotus (IV, 44). He refers to
the place as being in the Pactyan land," and Hecataeus calls it a city of the Gandaraeans." It could not have been far above the
modern Attock (33° 53' N., 72° 15' E.). Vincent Smith {Early
History, 32) doubts the connection of the name with Kashmir; but
while outside the present limits of that district, it is not impossible
that its earlier extension was wider. The fact that the Periplus dis-
tinguishes it from Gandhara points in that direction.
48. ParopanisilS was the name given the mountain-range
now called Hindu Kush. It was made the boundary between the
empire of Seleucus, Alexander's successor, and that of Chandragupta
Maurya, by a treaty ratified in 303 B. C.; by which the newly-estab-
lished Indian empire received the provinces of the Paropanisadae,
Aria, Arachosia and Gedrosia. "The first Indian emperor, more
than two thousand years ago, thus entered into possession of 'that
scientific frontier' sighed for in vain by his English successors, and
never held in its entirety even by the Mogul monarchs of the 16th
and 17th centuries." (Vincent Smith, Early History, 113; also
132-4; Strabo, XV, i, 10 and ii, 9; Plutarch, Alexander, lxii; Justin,
XV, 4; Pliny, VI, 20; Arrian, Anabasis, V, 5; Indica, II. See
also Holdich, Gates of India.}
190
48. The Cabolitic country is, of course, the modern Cabul
valley, above the Khyber Pass; being within the present limits of
Afghanistan.
48. Scythia.—See under § 41. This was the region which was
subject to the Parthian princes, weak successors of Gondophares,
whose reign had ended about 51 A. D.'
49. Lead.—Pliny (XXXIV, 47-50) distinguishes between black
lead and white lead; the former being our lead, the latter tin (see
also under § 7). White lead he says came from Lusitania and
Galicia, doubting its reported origin in £'islands of the Atlantic," and
its transportation in <£boats made of osiers, covered with hides.''
Black lead, he says, came from Cantabria in Spain, and his de-
scription suggests galena, or sulphide of lead and silver. It came also
from Britain, and from Lusitania—where the Santarensian mine was
farmed at an annual rental of 250,000 denarii.
Lead was used in the form of pipes and sheets, and had many
medicinal uses, being used in calcined form, made into tablets in the
same way as antimony (see under this §), or mixed with grease and
wine. It was used as an astringent and repressive, and for cicatriza-
tion; in the treatment of ulcers, burns, etc., and in eye preparations;
while thin plates of lead worn next the body were supposed to have
a cooling and beneficial effect.
As an import at Barygaza lead was required largely for the coinage
of the Saka dominions.
49. Bright-colored girdles.—These were probably for the
Bhils, a Dravidian hill-tribe, who worked the carnelian mines then as
now. The modern Coorgs, a related tribe, still wear a distinctive
"girdle-scarf" which is now made at Sirangala. (Imp. Ga%., VIII,
101-4; IX, 36.)
49. Sweet clover.—This is Trifolium melilotus, order Legn-
minostf, the "melilote" of the Greeks and Romans, used for making
chaplets and perfumes, and medicinally. Pliny (XXI, 29) says the
best sorts were from Campania in Italy, Cape Sunium in Greece, also
from Chalcidice and Crete; native always in rugged and wild localities.
"The name sertula, garland, which it bears sufficiently proves that
this plant was formerly much used in the composition of chaplets.
The smell, as well as the flower, closely resembles that of saffron,
though the stem itself is white; the shorter and more fleshy the leaves,
the more highly it is esteemed." And again (XXI, 87), "the melilote applied with the yolk of an egg, or else linseed, effects the cure
of diseases of the eyes. It assuages pains, too, in the jaws and head,
191
applied with rose oil; and employed with raisin wine, it is good for
pains in the ears, and all kinds of swellings or eruptions on the hands.
A decoction of it in wine, or else the plant itself beaten up raw, is
good for pains in the stomach."
Concerning the use of chaplets in the Roman world, Pliny gives
many details (XXI, 1-10). The chaplet was a crown of honor
given the victors in the sacred games. Originally laurel and other
tree foliage was used; flowers were added by the painter Pausias, at
Sicyon, about 380 B. C. Then came the ''Egyptian chaplet" of
ivy, narcissus, and pomegranate blossoms, and then a durable article
of thin laminae of horn, and of leaves of gold, silver, or tinsel, plain
or embossed.
Chaplets were won by personal prowess in the games, or by that
of slaves or horses entered by the winner, and gave the victor "the
right, for himself and for his parents, after death, to be crowned
without fail, while the body was laid out in the house, and on its
being carried to the tomb. On other occasions, chaplets were not
indiscriminately worn.
The use of chaplets by those not entitled to them was forbidden
by law, and Pliny cites several cases of punishment for the offence.
Chaplets were used also in honor of the gods, the Lares, the
sepulchres and the Manes; this custom still surviving in the laying.of
immortelles on tombs of departed friends.
"Atque aliquis senior veteres veneratus amores,
Annua constructo serta dabit tumulo. '*
—Tibullus, II, 4.
For such uses the plaited chaplet, the rose chaplet, and various
devices embroidered by hand, came into use, and Pliny notes that in
his time there was a demand for chaplets imported from India, made
of nard leaves on fabrics, "or else of silk of many colors steeped in
unguents. Such is the pitch to which the luxuriousness of our women
has at last arrived!''
It would seem as if this sweet clover might also be intended for
the manufacture of chaplets for re-exportation to Rome. •
49. Realgar.—The text is sandarake. This is the red sulphide
of arsenic. It was principally from Persia and Carmania, and reached
India from various Persian Gulf ports. In modern times both realgar
and orpiment are produced in large quantities in Burma and China,
where it is not impossible that production existed at the time of the
Periplus.
Pliny (XXXIV, 55) says "the redder it is the more pure and
friable, and the more powerful its odor the better it is in quality. It
192
is detergent, astringent, heating, and corrosive, but it is most remark-
able for its antiseptic properties." Dioscorides (V, 122) says it was
burned with resin and the smoke inhaled through a tube, as a remedy
for coughs, asthma, or bronchitis. Theophrastus also describes its
properties.
The Greek word survives in the modern gum sandarac from
Callitris quadrivalvis, order Conifera, produced in Algeria and Mo-
rocco; but this was not its meaning in classical times. The word is
of eastern origin, referring apparently to the color, and was extended
from ore to gum because of appearance, reversing the process in the
case of cinnabar (§ 30).
The wood in this sandarac tree was much valued by the Greeks
and Romans for furniture, being, perhaps, the "thyine wood'' of
Revelation XVIII, 12.
Tavernier also (II, xii) found 'Vermillion'' brought by the Dutch
to trade for pepper.
49. Antimony.—The text is stimmi. This was the sulphide
ore, stibnite. It was made into ointments and eye-tinctures, both in
India and Egypt. The ore came from Eastern Arabia and Carmania,
and is mentioned in an Egyptian inscription in the tomb of Khnum-
hotep II, at Benihasan (under Sesostris II, 1900 B C.), being brought
by- *'Asiatics of the desert."
Pliny (XXXIII, 33-4) describes it as found in silver mines, "a
stone made of concrete froth, white and shining . . . being possessed
of astringent and refrigerative properties; its principal use, in medi-
cine, being for the eyes." Pounded with frankincense and gum, it
was valued as a cure for various eye irritations, and mixed with grease,
as a cure for burns. But its main use was for dilating the pupils and
for painting the eyebrows. Omphale, the Lydian queen who capti-
vated Hercules, is represented by the poet Ion as using stimmi in her
toilet; Jezebel, in II Kings, IX, 30, probably used it when she
"painted her face and tired her head;" while it is the chief ingre-
dient in the kohl used by women in modern Egypt and Persia.
Pliny and Dioscorides (V, 99) agree in their description of its
preparation. It was enclosed in dough or cow-dung, burned in a
furnace, quenched with milk or wine, and beaten with rain-water in
a mortar. This being decanted from time to time, the finest powder
was allowed to settle, dried under linen, and divided into tablets.
49. Gold and silver coin.—The Roman aureus and denarius
were current throughout Western India, and strongly influenced the
Kushan and Kshatrapa coinages. See under § 56; also Rapson,
Indian Coins.
193
The profit on the exchange was due to the superiority of the
Roman coinage to that of India, which latter was still crude, of base
metal (bronze or lead), for which even the bullion, (copper, tin and
lead), was imported.
49. Ivory.—For references see Lassen, I, 311-315. The
original word is ibha, ''elephant." From this came the word used in
I Kings, X, 22, shenhabbin, "elephant's teeth," which the Hebrews
shortened to s/ien, "tooth/' which is the word used in Amos, III, 15;
Cant. V, 14. In ancient Egypt this word ibha became abu, whence
the Roman and Etruscan ebur for ivory. The Greek elephas, or rather
the root form elephantos, applied first to the ivory and later to the
animal, was the Arabic article el and the Sanscrit tbhadanta, 'elephant's
teeth."
49. Agate and carnelian.—See also under § 6. The text is .
onychine lithia kai mourrhine.
According to Watt {op. at, 561), the murrhine vases and other
articles which were so highly prized in Mediterranean countries, were
largely of agate, carnelian and the like, and came from the Gulf of
Cambay, which was the chief market for that Indian industry.
The stone is from the amygdaloidal flows of the Deccan trap,
chiefly from the State of Rajpipla. The most important place at which agates are now cut is Cambay, but the industry exists also at Jabbal-
pur and elsewhere within reach of the Deccan trap. They are
much used for ornamental and decorative purposes, being made into
brooches, rings, seals, cups, etc.
While collecting the pebbles the miners divide them into two
primary classes—those that are not improved by burning, and those
that are. Of the former there are three—onyx, cat's eye, and a
yellow half-clear pebble called rori. All other stones are baked to
bring out their color. During the hot season, generally in March and
April, the stones are spread in the sun in an open field. Then, in
May, a trench, two feet deep by three wide, is dug round the field.
The pebbles are gathered into earthen pots, which, with their mouths
down and a hole broken in their bottoms, are set in a row in the
trench. Round the pots, goat or cow-dung cakes are piled, and the
whole kept burning from sunset to sunrise. The pots are then taken
out, the stones examined, and the good ones stowed in bags. About
the end of May the bags are carried to the Narbada and floated to
Broach (Barygaza).
By this treatment the light browns brighten into white, and the
darker shades into chestnut. Of yellows, maize becomes rosy, orange
deepens into red, and an intermediate shade becomes a pinkish purple.
194
Pebbles in which cloudy browns and yellows were first mixed are now
marked by clear bands of white and red. The hue of the red car-
nelian varies from the palest flesh to the deepest blood-red. The best
are of a deep, clear, and even red color. The larger and thicker the
stone, the more it is esteemed. White carnelians are scarce, and
when of large size and good quality are much esteemed.
This burning of agates is fully described by Barbosa in 1517, and
seems to be of very ancient date. It was then, as now, chiefly
the industry of the Bhils, an ancient Dravidian tribe which may
formerly have possessed the Cambay coast, but had been driven
to the hills by later invaders. It is this product, in all probability,
which is the ''onyx stone'' of Genesis II, 12, which reached the
ancient world through the "land of Havilah" on the Persian Gulf.
Pliny (XXXVII, 7, 8) says that murrhine was first known to
the Romans after the conquests of Pompey the Great in Asia; that it
was fabulously dear, T. Petronius having broken one of Nero's basins
valued at 300,000 sesterces, while Nero himself paid 1,000,000 ses-
terces for a single cup. Pliny attributes the vessels to Parthia and
Carmania. They were of moderate size only, seldom as large as a
drinking-cup, supposed to be of a moist substance, solidified by heat
under ground; shining rather than brilliant; having a great variety of
colors, with wreathed veins, presenting shades of purple and white,
with fiery red between. Others were quite opaque. They occasion-
ally contained crystals, and depressed spots that looked like warts.
They were said to have an agreeable taste and smell.
While Pliny's description is not very definite, it suggests agate
more than any other substance, and the reference to Parthia and Car-
mania rather than to the Gulf of Cambay means that until the Romans
discovered the sea-route to India they were dependent on the Parthian
trade-routes for their Eastern treasures, and had only such information,
often misleading, as the Parthians offered them.
49. Silk cloth.—See under §§ 49 and 64.
49. Mallow cloth.—See also under § 6. This was a coarse
fabric, like the native cloth made by the East African negroes, which
is imitated by the modern blue drill. It was dyed with the flowers
of Hibiscus Rosa-Sinensis, order Mahacea, a shrub which is native
throughout India and China. See Watt, p. 629.
49. Long pepper: Piper longum, Linn., order Piperacece. Watt
(p. 891), says it is a perennial shrub, native of the hotter parts of
India from Nepal eastward to Assam, the Khasia hills and Bengal,
westward to Bombay, , and southward to Travancore and Ceylon.
The Sanscrit name pippali was originally given to this plant, and only
195
within comparatively recent times was transferred to black pepper.
Long pepper is mentioned by Pliny (XII, 7) as well as the Periplus.
The fruit is gathered when green, and is preserved by drying in
the sun. The dried unripe fruit and the root have long been used in
medicine.
50. Dachinabades.—This is the Sanscrit dakshinapathas, "the
way toward the south;" Prakrit dakkhinabadha: the modern Deccan.
50. Many populous nations.—An interesting account is
given by T. C. Evans, Greek and Roman India, in the Anglo-American
Magazine for 1901, pp. 294-306. His conclusion is that "the
Greek invader found there an ancient and highly organized society,
differing little in its usages and modes of living from those which exist
at the present time; and although there are no means of verifying the
conjecture, it is not unlikely that the population of the peninsula was
as great in that period as in our own." If this view is correct, India
was the most populous region of the world at the time of the Periplus,
as it was the most cultivated, the most active industrially and com-
mercially, the richest in natural resources and production, the most
highly organized socially, the most wretched in the poverty of its
teeming millions, and the least powerful politically.
The great powers of India were the Kushan in the far northwest,
the Saka in the Cambay country, the remains of the Maurya in the
Ganges watershed, the Andhra in the Deccan, and the Chera, Pandya
and Chola in the South. The economic status of the country made
it impossible that any one of these should possess political force com-
mensurate with its population, resources and industries. It was made up
of village communities, which recognized the military power only so far
as they were compelled to do so; and they were relatively unconcerned
in dynastic changes, except to note the change in their oppressors.
For a contemporary account of the nations of India, see Pliny,
VI, 21-3.
51. Paethana: Sanscrit, Pratisthana. This is the modern
Paithan, on the Godaveri River (19° 28' N., 75° 24' E.).
According to the Imperial Gazetteer (XIX, 317), Paithan is one
of the oldest cities in the Deccan. Asoka sent missionaries to the
Petenikas, and inscriptions of the 2d century B. C. in the Pitalkhara
caves refer to the king and merchants of Pratisthana. Ptolemy men-
tions it as the capital of Pulumayi II, the Andhra king (138-170 A.D. );
but it was probably the capital of the western provinces, the seat of
the Andhra monarchs having been in the eastern part of the kingdom,
at Dhanyakataka, the modern Dharanikotta, on the Kistna river just
above Amaravati (16° 34' N., 80° 22' E.).
196
According to the Periplus, Paithan was an important center of the
textile industry. To-day it retains a considerable manufacture of cot-
ton and silk. Almost all traces of the ancient city are said to have
disappeared.
51. Tagara.—The Sanscrit name had the same form, appear-
ing in several records between the 6th and 10th centuries A. D. The
place is identified by Fleet with the modern Ter (Thair) (18° 19'
N., 76° 9' E.), being a contraction of Tayara, the g and y being
frequently interchanged. It is about 95 miles southeast of Paithan,
and agrees substantially with the distance and direction given in the
text. From Broach to Paithan the actual distance, by road, is about
240 miles, and from Paithan to Ter 104 miles, being 20 and 9 days'
journey of 12 miles, respectively. There are said to be some very
interesting remains of the ancient city.
As pointed out by Campbell, the ''merchandise from the regions
along the sea-coast'9 was not from the west coast, but from the Bay
of Bengal; and Fleet traces briefly the routes—the first starting at
Masulipatam (16° 11' N., 81° 8' E.), and the second from Vinu-
konda (16° 3' N., 79° 44' E.), joining about 25 miles southeast of
Haidarabad, and proceeding through Ter, Paithan, and Daulatabad,
to Markinda (in the Ajanta Hills). Here the main difficulties began,
through the Western Ghats, over the 100 miles to Broach.
This was the great highway of the Andhra kingdom, and its
natural terminus was at Calliena in Bombay Harbor, as suggested in
§ 52. The obstruction of that port by the Saka power in Gujarat
forced the tedious overland extension of the route, through the moun-
tains, to Barygaza.
(See J. F. Fleet, Tagara: Ter, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic So-
ciety, 1901, pp. 537-552; Sir James Campbell, in Gazetteer of the
Bombay Presidency, xvi, 181; H. Cousens, Archaeological Survey of India,
Annual Report, 1902-3, p. 195; Imperial Gazetteer, II, 82; xxiii, 284.)
51. Country without roads.—Tavernier says of the Dec-
can (I, xi) ''wheel carriages do not travel, the roads being too much
interrupted by high mountains, tanks, and rivers, and there being
many narrow and difficult passes. It is with the greatest difficulty that
one takes a small cart. I was obliged to take mine to pieces fre-
quently in order to pass bad places. There are no wagons, and you
only see oxen and pack-horses for the conveyance of men, and for
the transport of goods and merchandise. But in default of chariots,
you have the convenience of much larger palanquins than in the rest
of India; for one is carried much more easily, more quickly, and at
less cost."
197
52. Suppara.—This is the modern Sopara (19° 25' N., 72°
41' E.), a few miles north of Bombay. It is said to have been the
capital of the Konkan between 500 B. C. and 1300 A. D. It appears
in the Mahabharata as Shurparaka, as a very holy place. Some Bud-
dhist writings assert that Gautama Buddha, in a former birth, was
Bodhisattva of Sopara. See Imp. Gaz., XXIII, 87.
52. Galliena.—This is the modern Kalyana (19° 14' N., 73°
10' E.), on the eastern shore of the harbor of Bombay. It was the
principal port of the Andhra kingdom during the periods when it held
the west coast. According to Lassen, the name was also applied to
the strip of coast on either side of the harbor, roughly between 18°
and 20° N.
Cosmas Indicopleustes, in the 6th century A. D., found it one
of the five chief marts of Western India, the capital of the powerful
Chalukya kings, with a trade in brass, blackwood logs, and articles of
clothing. See Imp. Gaz., XIV, 322.
The word kalyana means "blest," and is at least reminiscent of
similar names on the western shores of the Erythraean Sea.
52. The elder Saraganus; Sandares; to which should be added NambanilS of § 41. (The text has Sandanes and Mambarus. )
Here are three important references, both for fixing the date of the
Periplus and for throwing light on a dark period of Indian history.
The great empire of the Mauryas went to pieces in the 2d cen-
tury B. C, leaving as its strongest successor its Dravidian element,
the Andhra country in the Deccan, which comprised the valleys of
the Godaven and Kistna; the Telugu peoples, roughly the modern
Nizam's dominions. In the south the other Dravidian kingdoms, the
Tamil-speaking Cholas, Pandyas and Cheras, retained their independ-
ence as before. North of the Vindhyas there was anarchy. The
Bengal states had resumed their local governments, while the West
and Northwest had succumbed* to the Asiatic invaders, the Saka and
Kushan tribes. The western coast below the Vindhyas was a bone
of contention between the Saka commanders and the Andhra mon-
archs, who maintained the feud for at least a century, with varying
success.
The provinces of Surashtra, Gujarat and Malwa, after years of
warfare, were incorporated under a stable government by the Western
Kshatrapa, or Saka Satraps, who subsequently defeated the Andhras
and annexed the Konkan coast. This is thought to have been the
origin of the Saka era, dating from 78 A. D., still largely used in India.
A half-century later the Andhras under Vilivayakura II, or Gautaml- putra Satakarni, reconquered the coast-land, only to lose it to the
198
Satraps after another generation. From the Saka era of 78 A. D.
for 46 years, there are coins of a monarch named Nahapana, by
whom the line of the Satraps was established. This is thought to be
the same as the Mambarus of § 41, whose name should be written
Nambanus.
The Andhra kings are enumerated in the Puranas, which, to-
gether with the coinage, afford almost the only information concern-
ing them. A dynastic name, borne by many of these monarchs, was
Satakarni, and this is supposed to be the Saraganus of § 52 (probably
Arishta Satakarni, who reigned about 44-69 A. D.); while Sandancs
is probably the same as Sundara Satakarni, whose short reign of a
year, succeeded by another of six months, is affirmed by at least two
of the Puranas. The reign of this Sundara (the text should be altered
to Sandares) is fixed by Vincent Smith and others at 83-4 A. D.
From these facts it has been supposed that the Periplus itself must
be dated in the same year, 83-4 A. D., but this does not necessarily
follow. Its date is considered in the introduction, pp. 7-15, and
upon ample evidence—Roman, Arabian, and Parthian—is fixed at
60 A. D.
If Nambanus of § 41 is the same as Nahapana, it must yet be
shown that he is the same as the great satrap whose victories over the
Andhras and conquest of the Konkan are cited as one of the numer-
ous events thought to be commemorated by the Saka era of 78 A. D.
At least one predecessor, formerly thought to be identical with that
Nahapana, has now been distinguished under the name of Bhumaka,
and the materials are not yet at hand for affirming, or denying, the
possibility of others, in the so-called Kshaharata line which preceded
the achievements of the Satraps.
And if Sandares of § 52 is the same as Sundara Satakarni, there
is a great difficulty in the way of identifying the Periplus with the single
year of his reign. Calliena, his own port, he must be supposed, to
have closed, in order that its foreign trade might be diverted to Bary-
gaza, the port of his Saka rival and bitter enemy! He, the Andhra
monarch, must have done this, for the port was still "in his posses-
sion j" not, be it observed, in that of the Satraps. The Konkans
were still nominally, though evidently not effectually, an Andhra de-
pendency.
The inference is unmistakable that the Periplus is describing a
state of things prior to the recognition of the Kshatrapa power and its
annexation of the Andhra coast; prior, that is, to the Saka era of 78
A. D. It describes clearly enough an Andhra port, still subject to
the Andhra kingdom, but harried and dominated, "obstructed" as
199
the text has it, by the powerful navy of its northern enemy, while that
enemy was still struggling to obtain possession.
What, then, of Nahapana and Sundara? The doubt as to the
indivisibility of the former has already been suggested; as to the latter,
the shortness of his own reign and those of his successor and his
immediate predecessors, and the length of that of his predecessor
Arishta (25 years) indicate for him a long period of waiting as one of
the royal heirs; which, according to the Andhra custom, was spent,
at least in part, as viceroy at the western capital, Paithan. Here he
exercised all the functions of a monarch, and his would be the name
to appear on all proclamations issued on the western coast. Since it
came into the possession of Sandares" indicates, therefore, a date to-
ward the end of the reign of Arishta Satakarni, who is referred to as
"the elder Saraganus," and who, it maybe inferred, had been, as
viceroy at Paithan, a more powerful ruler than the youthful Sandares,
now struggling against greater odds to maintain the Andhra power on
that coast.
Between Arishta and Sundara the Vayu and Matsya Puranas are
agreed in placing three other monarchs: Hala (with whose name the
adoption of Sanscrit as the literary language of Northern India is so
closely associated), who reigned 5 years; Mandalaka, 5 years;
Purindrasena, 5 years. Then came Sundara, 1 year, and Chakora,
6 months, followed by Siva Satakarni, 28 years. These five short
reigns, coming between two long ones, seem to suggest a quick suc-
cession of weak and impractical sons of a strong monarch, followed
in their turn by another long reign of sterner purpose; a succession of
events like the reigns of the sons of Henry II. and Catherine de
Medici in France. This would account for the condition described to
the author of the Periplus by some acquaintance at Barygaza: ''When
the old king Saraganus (now ruling at Dhanyakataka) was viceroy at
Paethana, he made Calliena an active port; now that he is on the throne
and his sons have tried their hand at the viceroy's post one after the
other, in the intervals of their literary and artistic pursuits, and it has
finally been turned over to young Sandares, it has been an easy matter
for our Saka general to send down his ships and stop its trade." Had
the story been written in 83 A. D., the informant would have said,
4'our satrap has annexed that country to his own dominions, and
closed its ports."
The same explanation is perfecdy feasible for Nahapana, who is
known to have been governor in Surashtra before he was satrap at
U jjeni. But as the great satrap lived until the Saka year 46, or 124 A. D.,
it is more probable that one of that name in 60 A. D. was his predecessor.
200
There are other explanations of these three names. Fabricius
alters both Mambarus and Sandanes to Sanabares, supposing him to
have been an Indo-Parthian successor to Gondophares; McCrindle
thinks Sandanes was a tribe-name, and refers to the Ariake Sadinon of
Ptolemy. But neither supposition is convincing.
The explanation based on the Puranic lists and the coinage has
inherent probability, and is confirmed by the description of political
conditions in § 52 of the Periplus, if that be applied to the reign of
the Andhra king Arishta Satakarni (44-69 A. D.), through the
medium of his heir-presumptive Sundara, ruling as viceroy at Paithan,
and displaying in the Konkans the only show of Andhra authority
which would have come under the observation of a Graeco-Roman
merchant and shipmaster.
(See A.-M. Boyer, Nahapana et Fere Qaka, in Journal A'siatique, July-Aug., 1897, pp. 120-151; an excellent paper, in which the only
matter for criticism is that the inscriptions of the Nabataean Malichas
should be thought less trustworthy than the chronology of the Abys-
sinian Chronicles, compiled much later.—C. R. Wilson, Proposed
identification of the name of an Andhra king in the Periplus, in Journal of
the Asiatic Society of Bengal, June, 1904; with which the foregoing
suggestions are in accord, except as to their sequel.—Vincent Smith,
Andhra History and Coinage, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenland-
ischen Gesellschaft, Sept., 1903.—PanditBhagvanlal Indraji, The Western
Kshatrapas, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1890, pp. 639-662.
—E- J. Rapson, The Coinage of the Mahakshatrapas and Kshatrapas,
J. R. A. S., 1899, 357-404; same author, Ancient India, in Nu-
mismatic Supplement, J. A. S. B., 1904, p. 227. Col. J. Biddulph,
in a note to Mr. Rapson's first article, observes that our knowledge of
the Satraps is derived solely from their coins, of which the former are
undated; that each ruler puts his father's name on his coins as well as
his own; that the dates overlap frequently; and that of the two titles,
Mahakshatrapa indicates the monarch, and Kshatrapa the heir-appar-
ent.—Vincent Smith, Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum,
Calcutta-, also Chronology of Andhra Dynasty, in his Early History,
p. 190.—E. J. Rapson, Coins of the Andhra Dynasty, the Western
Kshatrapas, etc., British Museum. See also Cunningham, Book of
Indian Eras; Duff, The Chronology of India from the Earliest Times to
the Beginning of the 16th Century.)
53. Semylla.—This is the Symulla of Ptolemy, the Chimolo of
Yuan Chwang, the Saimur of the early Mohammedan travellers; the
modern Chaul (18° 34' N., 72° 55' E.), about 25 miles south of
Bombay. The ancient Hindu name was Champavati, and was con-
201
nected with the reign of Krishna in Gujarat. (See McCrindle,
Ancient India, 161; Imp. Gaz., X, 184; Miiller, I, 295.)
53. Mandagora.—This is probably the modern Bankot (17° 59'
N., 73° 3' E.) at the mouth of the Savitri River. The port is closed
during the S. W. monsoon. It is now a fishing village of no im-
portance, but in former times it was a great center for the trade in
teak and blackwood, and for shipbuilding. (See Imp. Gaz., VI, 383;
Miiller, I, 295.) The name suggests the Sanscrit Mandara-giri. (In
Ptolemy the positions of this and the following port are reversed.)
53. Palaepatmae.—This is probably the modern Dabhol (17°
35' N., 73° 10' E.), the name being from the Sanscrit Dabhileshwar,
a name of Siva. It is of considerable historical importance, being the
principal port of the South Konkan. From the 14th to the 16th cen-
turies it had an extensive trade with the Persian Gulf and Red Sea
ports. Here is the underground temple of Chandikabai, dating from
the 6th century. (Imp. Gaz., XI, 100.)
The name Palcepatmte is probably the Sanscrit Pdripatana—the
suffix meaning "town," while Pari was a general term applying to
the Western Vindhya mountains and the coast south of them. (Nundo
Lai Dey, Geographical Dictionary ofAncient and Mediaeval India, p. 68.)
53. Melizigara.—This is placed by Miiller and McCrindle at
the modern Jaigarh (17° 17' N., 72° 13' E.), formerly a port of
some size, but now little more than a fishing-village. It is not im-
possible that it may be the modern Rajapur (16° 34' N., 73° 31' E.),
which lies at the head of a tidal creek, and is the only port on this
Ratnagiri coast to which Arab boats still trade direct, though vessels
of any size cannot approach within three miles of the old stone quay.
(See Imp. Gaz., XIII, 379; XXI, 66.)
This is the Sigerus of Pliny—the Meliz~egyru of Ptolemy.
The name seems to suggest the Sanscrit Malaya-giri, "Malaya
hills," a name which covered the southern part of the Western Ghats.
The same name appears in the Male of Cosmas and our Malabar.
53. Byzantium.—This is evidently a corruption. Lassen
(III, 6) assumes it to have been a colony of Byzantine Greeks, but
there is not the slightest evidence of the existence of such a colony.
It is probably the modern Vizadrog (Sanscrit, Vijayadurga; 16° 33'
N., 73° 20' E.), described as being one of the best harbors on the
western coast. (Imp. Gaz., XXIV, 310; so Vincent, Miiller and
McCrindle.)
53. Togarum.—This is probably the modern Devgarh (16°
23' N.5 73° 22' E.) described as "a safe and beautiful landlocked
202
harbor, at all times perfectly smooth. The average depth of water is
18 feet. The entrance, only 3 cables in width, lies close to the fort
point." (Imp, Gaz., XI, 275; so Vincent, Miiller and McCrindle.)
53. Aurannoboas.—The text has initial T instead of A, no
doubt a corruption. McCrindle places it at the modern Malvan (16°
3 N., 73° 28' E.). It is a place of considerable importance, good
iron ore being found in the neighborhood. To the Marathas an
island in the harbor is Sivajf s cenotaph, and his image is worshipped
in the chief shrine. (See Imp. Gaz., XVII, 96.)
The name Malvan is a contraction of Maha-lavana, ''salt marsh,"
and the Greek Aurannoboas is perhaps intended for the Sanscrit
Aranya-vaha, which would have a similar meaning.
53. Islands of the Sesecrienae.—These are probably the
Vengurla Rocks (15° 53' N., 70° 27' E.), a group of rocky islets
some 3 miles in length and 9 miles out from the modern town of
Vengurla, which was a port of considerable importance during the
Dutch occupation in the 17th century. (Imp. Gaz., XXIV, 307.)
53. Island of the Aegidii.—This is perhaps the island of
Goa (15° 20' N., 74° 0' E.), the present Portuguese possession. It
is of historical importance, having been settled by Aryans at an early
date, and appearing in the Puranas. (Imp. Gaz., XII, 251; so Miiller
and McCrindle.) The Imperial Gazetteer, following Yule, prefers to
identify it with Anjidiv (14° 45' N., 74° 10' E.); but the location is
less satisfactory unless we assume the order in the text to be wrong,
and to refer to the grouping of this and the following island on either
side of the Karwar point.
53. Island of the Caenitae.—This is probably the Oyster
Rocks (14° 49' N., 74° 4' E.), a cluster of islands west of, and
facing, the roadstead of Karwar.
53. Chersonesus.—Greek, ''peninsula/' This answers for
the projecting point at the modern Karwar (14° 49f N., 74° 8' E.),
from early times a trade center for the North Kanara, and an active
port as late as the 16th century, exporting fine muslins from Hubli
and elsewhere in the interior, also pepper, cardamoms, cassia, and
coarse blue dungari cloth. (Imp. Gaz., XV, 65.)
53. Pirates.—Marco Polo (III, xxv), says of this coast,
''there go forth every year more than a hundred corsair vessels on
cruise. These pirates take with them their wives and children, and
stay out the whole summer. Their method is to join in fleets of 20
or 30 of these pirate vessels together, and then they form what they
call a sea cordon, that is, they drop off till there is an interval of 5 or 6
203
miles between ship and ship, so that they cover something like a hun-
dred miles of sea, and no merchant ship can escape them. For when
any one corsair sights a vessel a signal is made by fire or smoke, and
then #the whole of them make for this, and seize the merchants and
plunder them. After they have plundered them they let them go,
saying, 'Go along with you and get more gain, and that mayhap will
fall to us also!' But now the merchants are aware of this, and go so
well manned and armed, and with such great ships, that they don't
fear the corsairs. Still mishaps do befall them at times.'' In this
same vicinity, Yule observes, Ibn Batuta fell into the pirates' hands,
and was stripped to the drawers. The northern part of Malabar,
Kanara, and the Southern Konkan, were a nest of pirates from a very
ancient^ date until well into the 19th century, when their occupation
was destroyed by the British arms.
Marco Polo says (III, xxiv) of the kingdom of Ely (near
Mangalore), "if any ship enters their estuary and anchors there,
having been bound for some other port, they seize her and plunder
the cargo. For they say, 'You were bound for somewhere else, and
'tis God has sent you hither to us, so we have right to all your goods.'
And they think it is no sin to act thus. And this naughty custom
prevails all over the provinces of India, to wit, that if a ship be driven
by stress of weather into some other port than that to which it was
bound, it was sure to be plundered. But if a ship came bound
originally to the place they receive it with all honor and give it due
protection."
In 1673, Yule notes, Sivaji replied to the pleadings of an Eng-
lish embassy, that it was "against the laws of Conchon" (Ptolemy's
Pirate Coast!) "to restore any ship or goods that were driven ashore.''
Abd-er-Razzak notes the same practices at Calicut.
53. White Island.—This is probably the modern Pigeon
Island (14° 1' N., 74° 16' E.), also known as Nitran. It lies about
10 miles off the coast, about 300 feet high, and is visible for 25 miles.
It abounds in white coral and lime. {Imp. Gaz., XX, 136.)
This is probably the same as the Nitrias of Pliny (VI, 26), the
stronghold of the pirates, who threatened the Roman merchants; and
may be the Nitra of Ptolemy.
53. Naura and Tyndis, the first markets of Damirica.
It seems clear that a long stretch of coast on either side of the modern
Goa was given a wide berth by foreign merchant-ships because of the
piratical habits of its people, and because it produced no cargo of
which they were in search.
Like the following ports, Muziris and Nelcynda, these two have
204
been placed too far north by most of the commentators. The infer-
ence from the few words in the Periplus is that the South Konkan
and Kanara districts were those more particularly infested by pirates.
These may be identified with the Satiya kingdom of Asoka's inscrip-
tions. The Tamil ports, strictly speaking, lay within the region where
the Malayalam language is now spoken, that is, within the modern
districts of Malabar, Cochin, and Travancore. The Tulu, Kanarese
and Telugu districts seem to be within our author's Dachinahades
rather than his Damirica. These four ports probably lay respectively
within the four districts into which the Portuguese and Dutch found
the Kerala kingdom divided: Cannanore, Calicut, Cochin and Tra-
vancore; of which the last-named, at the time of the Periplus, was
held by the Pandya kingdom.
The four Tamil states, Chola, Pandya, Kerala, and Satiya, are
all named in the 2d Rock Edict of Asoka. (Vincent Smith, Asoka,
p. 115). Mr. Smith thinks {Early History, pp. 164, 340-1) that
Kerala did not extend north of the Chandragiri river (12° 36' N.).
Naura being then in North Malabar, may be identified with the
modern Cannanore (11° 52' N., 75° 22' E.). The latter place is
known to have been an active port in the days of the Roman trade,
and has yielded one of the most important finds in India of Roman
coins, of the reigns of Tiberius, Claudius and Nero.
It seems clear that the identification of this place with the modern
Honavar (14° 17' N., 74° 27' E.), while a tempting one, owing to
the similarity of names, is not in accord with the facts. Honavar lies
rather within the strip of coast which was in dispute between the
Andhra and Saka dynasties, as well as the petty Maurya and Pallava
princes; while from similarity of name the modern Cannanore would
answer equally well.
The location of Tyndis, of the Chera kingdom, depends on that
of Muziris. It is described as "a village in plain sight on the shore,"
and may be identified with the modern Ponnani (10° 48' N., 75° 56'
E.). This place lying at the mouth of the river of the same name,
which drains a rich section of the western mountains known as the
Anaimalai Hills, would have been a natural terminus for the pepper
produced there, as well as for the beryls of the Coimbatore district.
This Ponnani river, according to the Imperial Gazetteer (XX, 164),
unlike nearly all others on the west coast, is navigable for small vessels
for some distance inland.
Dr. Burnell prefers Kadalundi near Beypore (11° 11' N., 75°
49' E.) on the north bank of the river of the same name, which is
also navigable to the foot of the mountains, and carries down large
205
quantities of timber. (Imp. Gaz., VIII, 17.) But the distance of
500 stadia between Tyndis and Muziris indicates Ponnani.
53. Damirica.—The text has Limyrike, which previous editions
have retained. That name does not appear in India, or in other
Roman accounts of it, and it is clearly a corruption caused by the
scribe's confusing the Greek D and L. The name appears in its
correct form in the Xllth segment of the Peutinger Tables, almost
contemporary with the Periplus, and in Ptolemy as Dimirike; and
there seems no good reason for perpetuating the mistake.
Damirica means the "country of the Tamils," that is, the South-
ern Dravidians as they existed in the first century, including particu-
larly the Chera, Pandya and Chola kingdoms; known in their own
records as Dravida-desam.
53. Muziris.—The location of this port was fixed by Burnell,
Caldwell and Yule at Muyiri-kotta, which as Kodungalur or Cranga-
nore (10° 14' N., 76° 11' E.), was an important port in mediaeval
times. Their argument was based on the 7000 stadia named in the
text as the distance between Barygaza and Damirica.
Vincent Smith (Early History 340-1) is confident that Muziris and
Cranganore are the same. He says "The Kingdom of Satiyaputra
must have adjoined Keralaputra; and since the Chandragiri river has
always been regarded as the northern boundary of that province, the
Satiyaputra Kingdom should probably be identified with that portion of
the Konkans—or lowlands between the Western Ghats and the sea—
where the Tulu language is spoken, and of which Mangalore is the
center. The name of Kerala is still well remembered and there is
no doubt that the Kingdom so called was equivalent to the Southern
Konkans or Malabar coast. The ancient capital was Vanji, also
named Karuvur, the Karoura of Ptolemy, situated close to Crangan-
ore; which represents Muziris, the port for the pepper trade, men-
tioned by Pliny and the author of the Periplus at the end of the first
century A. D.'' Vanji, according to the Imperial Gazetteer (XX, 21),
must be placed at the modern Parur or Paravur (10° 10' N., 76° 15'
E.), where the Periyar River empties into the Cochin back-waters.
Parur is still a busy trading center, as well as the headquarters of the
district. While now in the district of Travancore, it formerly belonged
to Cochin,—that is, to Chera or Kerala. It is said to comprise almost
all the jews in Travancore; and the settlement may date from the end
of the first century, when it is known that there was a considerable
Jewish migration to Southern India.
The earlier identification of Muziris and Nelcynda placed them
at Mangalore and Nlleshwar (12° 52' N., 74° 51' E., and 12° 16'

207
N., 75° 8' E.). This conflicts with nearly all that we know of the
geography and politics of the Tamil kingdoms, and is entirely im-
possible for Nelcynda. This port, according to the Periplus, belonged
to the Pandyan kingdom, which certainly never extended so far north.

- 12 Miles.
The Cochin Backwaters: from Reclus, Asia, Vol. III.
208
The text tells us that Muziris was distant from Tyndis, 4 'by river
and sea, 500 stadia," and Neicynda from Muziris, "by river and
sea, 500 stadia." This can hardly refer to anything but the Cochin
backwaters.
53. Neicynda.—This port is called the city of the Neacyndi,
by Pliny; Melkynda by Ptolemy; Nincylda by the Peutinger Tables,
Cyncilim by Friar Odoric, and Nilcinnaby the Geographer of Ravenna.
It was probably in the backwaters, or thoroughfares, behind Cochin
(9° 58' N., 76° 14' E.), the exact location being uncertain because
of the frequent shifting of river-beds, sand-bars and islands; but cer-
tainly very near the modern Kottayam (9° 36' N., 76° 31' E.), which
is exactly 500 stadia, or 50 miles, from Cranganore. Kottayam,
according to the Imperial Gazetteer (XVI, 7), is a center of the
Syrian Christian community, whose church here is one of the most
ancient on the west coast. It is also the natural terminus for the trade-
routes from the Pirmed hills, and is still a trade-center of considerable
importance.
The name Neicynda^ Fabricius thinks (p. 160), is the Sanscrit
Nilakantha, "blue neck/7 a name of Siva. Caldwell, however, pre-
fers Melkynda, which he translates "Western Kingdom."
A good account of the topography of the coasts of India is
given by J. A. Bains {Mill's International Geography1907 ed., p.
469). "The coast-line is singularly devoid of indentations, except at
the mouths of the larger rivers and toward the northern portion of the
west coast. The only harbors except for light-draft vessels, are found
a little way up the deltas of the chief rivers, or where, as at Bombay,
a group of islands affords adequate shelter from the open sea. The
eastern coast, in particular, is provided with little more than a few
imperfectly protected roadsteads. The southern portion of the west
coast is distinguished by a series of back-waters, or lagoons, parallel
with the coast, and affording a safe and convenient waterway for small
vessels when the season of high winds makes the ocean unnavigable."
54. Cerobothra.—This is a transliteration of Cheraputra or
Kcralaputra, the western Tamil kingdom, which in its greatest exten-
sion reached from Cape Comorin to Karwar Point, nearly 7 degrees of
latitude. At the time of the Periplus the northern part had separated,
while the southern end had passed to its neighbor, the Pandyan king-
dom; leaving Kerala nearly coterminous with modern Malabar and
Cochin districts. The capital was at Karur, or Parur, opposite
Muziris or Cranganore.
Cheraputra is "son of Chera," one of the legendary three
brothers who founded the Dravidian power in South India.
209
Pliny's use of the word as the name of a king was incorrect; it
applies to the country, and is also a dynastic name or royal title.
The Chera backwaters seem to be referred to by Pliny in a
debated passage on the trade of Ceylon with the ''Seres'' (VI, 22):
''their accounts agreed with the reports of our own merchants, who
tell us that the wares which they deposit near those brought for sale
by the Seres, on the further bank of a river in their country, are
removed by them if they are satisfied with the exchange."
Here Seres must be read as meaning Chera, the Ch and S being
interchanged, just as the neighboring Chola kingdom is always Soli in
Sinhalese records.
It is quite possible that Chera is also meant by Pliny's Seres of
XXXIV, 41, who sent the best iron to Rome; this being a product
of Haidarabad, and referred to in § 6 of the Periplus, as shipped from
India to Adulis. See also under Sarapis, p. 146.
The 4'silent trade," noted by Fa-Hien in Ceylon itself, is referred
to under § 65, and again by Pliny (VI, 20), Pausanias (III, xii, 3),
and Cosmas Indicopleustes (book II).
For further references to Chera and the other Tamil states growing
out of the original establishment at Korkai, see Vincent Smith, Early
History, Chap, xvi;—Caldwell, Grammar of the Dravidian Languages,
introduction; also History of Tinnevelly;—Burnell, South Indian Paleog-
raphy;—Shanguni Menon, History of Travancore;—Francis Day, The
Lard of the Per mauls;—J. B. Pandian, Indian Village Folk;—Sir Walter
Elliot, Coins cf Southern India;—Foulkes, The Civilization of the Dakhan
down to the 6th century B. C, in Indian Antiquary, 1879, pp. 1-10; —
K. P. Padmanabha Menon, Notes on Malabar and its place-names, in
Indian Antiquary, Aug., 1902;—Wilson, The Pandyas, in Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society, iii, 199;—Dawson, The Cheras, in J. R. A. S.,
viii, 1;—Sewell, Lists of Inscriptions, and Sketch of the Dynasties of
Southern India, in the Archaeological Survey, Madras, 1884;—F. Kiel-
horn, Dates of Chola and Pandya Kings, in Epigraphia Indica, Vols.
IV-VIII, inclusive;—Imperial Gazetteer, Vol. II, Chaps, i, iii, iv, v,
ix;—Buhler, Indische Palteographie, and generally, his Grundriss der
Indo-A rise hen Philologie und AItertumskunde;—Fleet, The Dynasties of the
Kanarese Districts, and Bhandarkar, Early History of the Dekkan, in
Gazetteer ofthe Bombay Presidency, I, ii;—Loventhal, Coins of Tinnevelly;
—Hultzsch, South Indian Inscriptions.
54. Abounds in ships.—In these protected thoroughfares
flourished a sea-trade, largely in native Dravidian craft, which was of
early creation and of great influence in the interchange of ideas as
well as commodities, not only in South India, but in the Persian Gulf,
210

Merchant-ship of the 2d century, from a relief on a sarcophagus
in the Lateran Museum.
and the coasts of Arabia and Africa, with which the trade was prin-
cipally maintained. Both Buddhist and Brahman writings testify to its
existence in the 5th century B. C.; but their evidence is late, as they
are the product of the Northern Aryans, an inland race, who appeared
in South India after its activities had been widely developed. Better
evidence is given by the Dravidian alphabet, supposed to be from a
Semitic (Himyaritic, or Phoenician) original, and to date from about
1000 B. C, whereas the Aryan, or Kharosthi, alphabet was formu-
lated after the conquest, about 500 B. C. (R. Sewell, Hindu Period
of Southern India, in Imp. Gaz., II, 322.)
i'Sent from Arabia and by the Greeks" were the ships found by
our author in the Chera backwaters. The text has Jriaca, but the
error is obvious, as the articles of trade were from foreign, and not
Hindu, sources. "No Aryan language had penetrated into these
kingdoms, which lived their own life, completely secluded from
Northern India, and in touch with the outer world only through the
medium of maritime commerce, which had been conducted with
safety from very early times. The pearls of the Gulf of Manar, the
beryls of Coimbatore, and the pepper of Malabar were not to be had
elsewhere, and were largely sought by foreign merchants, as early as
the 7th or 8th century B. C." (Vincent Smith, Early History, 334.)
211
Benjamin of Tudela, in the 12th century, gives the following;
account of trade on this coast:
"Thence is seven days' journey to Khulam (Quilon) which is-
the beginning of the country of the Sun-worshippers. These are the
sons of Cush, who read the stars and are all black in color. They
are honest in commerce. When merchants come to them from
distant lands and enter the harbour, three of the King's secretaries go
down to them and record their names and then bring them before the
King, whereupon the King makes himself responsible even for their
property which they leave in the open unprotected. There is an
official who sits in his office, and the owner of any lost property has
only to describe it to him when he hands it back. This custom pre-
vails in all that country. From Passover to New Year, that is all
during the summer, no man can go out of his house because of the
sun, for the heat in that country is intense, and from the third hour
of the day onward, everybody remains in his house until evening.
Then they go forth and kindle lights in all the market places and all
the streets, and then do their work and business at night-time. For
they have to turn night into day in consequence of the great heat of
the sun. Pepper is found there. They plant the trees thereof in the
fields, and each man of the city knows his own plantation. The trees
are small and the pepper is as white as snow. And when they have
collected it they place it in sauce-pans and pour boiling water over it,
so that it may become strong. Then they take it out of the water and
dry it in the sun, and it turns black. Cinnamon and ginger and many
other kinds of spices are found in this land."
54. Pandian kingdom.—This was Pandya, the southernmost,
and traditionally the earliest, of the three Tamil states. Roughly it
coincided with the modern districts of Tinnevelly and Madura; at
the time of the Periplus it extended beyound the Ghats and included
Travancore. The capital, originally at Korkai (the Colchi of § 59,
which see) had been removed to Madura (9° 55' N., 78° 7' E.).
Here too, as in the Chera kingdom, the name is used for the
country and as a dynastic title, not as the name of any king.
55. Bacare.—(Ptolemy gives Barkare, which is perhaps the
preferable reading.) This place, distant 120 stadia from Nelcynda,
at an inlet of the sea, can be no other than Porakad (9° 22' N., 76°
22'E.), for which it is a close transliteration; while the distance
from Kottayam is exactly in accord with the text.
Porakad was once a notable port, but declined with the rise of
Alleppey, built a few miles farther north after a canal had been cut
212
through from sea to backwater and harbor works constructed. (Imp.
Gaz., XX, 188.) The Portuguese, and subsequently the Dutch,
had settlements at Porakad. It is mentioned by Varthema (1503)
as Porcai, and by Tavernier (1648) as Porca. The remains of a
Portuguese fort and factory are now covered by the sea, being visible
at low water. (Ball, in his edition of Tavernier, I, 241.)
Here also is the mouth of the Achenkoil river, which rises in the
Ghats near the Shencottah pass, the main highway between Travan-
core and Tinnevelly.
According to Menon (Notes on Malabar and its place-names), the
settlements were nearly all east of the backwaters at the Christian era,
and the present beaches existed only as tide-shoals. During the
middle ages there was a period of elevation, which led to the forma-
tion of new islands, while floods from the mountains changed the
courses of the rivers, and the location of the inlets. At present the
tendency is toward subsidence, houses built at Cochin a century ago
being now under water. About 800 B. C., according to local tradi-
tion, the sea reached the hills.
Megasthenes, in the 4th century B. C, mentioned as on the
sea-coast" the town of Tropina (Tripontari) now on the mainland
side of the backwaters; Ptolemy's three shore towns between Muziris
and Barkare are likewise on the land side.

56. Large ships.—The increase in the size of shipping follow-
the discovery of Hippalus is referred to also in § 10. Pliny speaks
213
of the same thing in describing the trade between Malabar and Ceylon.
''The navigation,'' he says (VI, 24), "was formerly confined to
vessels made of rushes, rigged in the manner familiar on the Nile.
The vessels of recent times are built with prows at either end so that
there may be no need of turning around while sailing in these chan-
nels, which are extremely narrow. The tonnage of the vessels is
3,000 amphorae." (About 33 tons.)
By "double prows" Pliny probably means some such build and
rig as shown in the accompanying illustration, which is typical of the
Indian Ocean generally. Mast and sail can be reversed at will, so
that the craft can be sailed in either direction.
56. Pepper, black and white.—Piper nigrum, Linn., order
Piperacea. A perennial climber, wild in the forests of Travancore
and Malabar, and extensively cultivated from very early times, in the
hot, damp localities of Southern India.
Lassen (I, 278), notes that the Greek word peperi, Latin piper,
simply repeats the Indian name pippali.
The antiquity of the trade in pepper is not so easily shown as
that in other spices. There is no certain mention of it in the Egyptian
inscriptions. In the Hebrew scriptures it is unknown, nor has it a
place among the "mint and anise and cummin" of the Gospels..
Herodotus has no bit of folklore to attach to it. Theophrastus, indeed,,
in the 4th century B. C., knows it as a medicine, and Dioscorides
distinguishes between black, white and long pepper. The Sanscrit:
writers describe it as a medicine for fever and dyspepsia, used together
with ginger and long pepper; these were their "three pungent sub-
stances." {Mahavagg'a, VI, 19, 1; see also I-tsing, Record of
Buddhist Practices [7th century A. D.], chap, xxviii; Takakusu's
edition, p. 135.) The Romans had it after their conquests in Asia
Minor, Syria and Egypt, and at once provided the greatest market
for it. Egypt knew it, probably, through the sea-trade of the
Ptolemies; Syria through the caravan-trade to Tyre from the Persian
Gulf. There is some reason for supposing that pepper was the
spice more especially in demand in Babylonia and the Persian Gulf
trade generally, just as cinnamon was that more especially reserved!
for Egypt; and that the most active demand for it came with the
extension of the Persian empire under Darius. The trade was;
by sea and not overland; Herodotus knows the Dravidians (III, 100.))
only as having "a complexion closely resembling the Aethiopians/"
and as being "situated very far from the Persians, toward the soutk,,
and never subject to Darius/' It may also be surmised that a steady-
demand for pepper existed in China before it arose in Rome,, and!
214
that this was one reason for the sailing of the junks to the Malabar
coast in the 2d century B. C. and probably earlier. In Marco Polo's
day the tonnage of the junks was calculated according to their capacity
in baskets of pepper; and he found (II, lxxxii) "for one shipload of
pepper that goes to Alexandria or elsewhere, destined for Christen-
dom, there come a hundred such, aye and more too, to this haven of
Zayton" (Chwan-chau, above Amoy).
The trade in pepper in the time of the Roman Empire brought
the merchants unheard-of profits just as it did later the Genoese and
Venetians. It was one of the most important articles of commerce
between India and Rome, supplying perhaps three-quarters of the
total bulk of the average westbound cargo.
The constant use of pepper in the most expensive Roman cookery
is reflected by its price, quoted by Pliny (XII, 14) as 15 denarii, or
about $2.55 per lb.
Among the offerings by the emperor Constantine to the church
under St. Silvester, were costly vessels and fragrant gums and spices,
including frankincense, nard, balsam, storax, myrrh, cinnamon, saffron
and pepper.
That it continued in high esteem is shown by the terms offered
by Alaric for raising the siege of Rome: "the immediate payment of
5,000 lbs. of gold, of 30,000 lbs. of silver, of 4,000 robes of silk," of
3,000 pes. of fine scarlet cloth, and of 3,000 lbs. weight of pepper."
(Gibbon, Decline and Fall, III, 271-2.)
Pliny, indeed, expresses surprise at the taste that brought it into
so great favor (XII, 14): "It is quite surprising that the use of pepper
has come so much into fashion, seeing that in other substances which
Ave use, it is sometimes their sweetness, and sometimes their appear-
ance that has attracted our notice; whereas, pepper has nothing in it
that can plead as a recommendation to either fruit or berry, its only
-desirable quality being a certain pungency; and yet it is for this that
we import it all the way from India! Who was the first to make
trial of it as an article of food? And who, I wonder, was the man
that was not content to prepare himself by hunger only for the satis-
fying of a greedy appetite?''
In mediaeval Europe the trade was highly organized, the spice
being handled especially by merchants called "pepperers;" and the
prices quoted in Rogers' History of Agriculture and Prices in England
show that in the years just prior to the Portuguese discovery of the
Cape route, a pound of pepper brought two shillings, being four days'
pay for a carpenter! Yet the people preferred it above all other
215
spices; it was the first thing asked for by "Glutton'' in Piers Plowman
(V, 310-13):
"I haue gode ale, gossib," quod she' "glotown, wiltow assaye?' * "Hastow aughte in thi purs* any hote spices?"' "I haue peper and piones," quod she' "and a pounde of garlike,
A ferthyngworth of fenel-seed' for fastyngdayes.''
Friar Odoric (Chap, iii) describes the pepper production of
"Minibar" as follows: "the wood in which it grows containeth in
circuit eighteen days' journey. And in the said wood or forest there
are two cities, one called Flandrina, and the other Cyncilim" (prob-
ably Nelcynda). "in the aforesaid wood pepper is had after this,
manner: first it groweth in leaves like unto pot-herbs, which they
plant near unto great trees as we do our vines, and they bring forth
pepper in clusters, as our vines do yield grapes, but being ripe, they
are of a green color, and are gathered as we gather grapes, and then
the grains are laid in the sun to be dried, and being dried are put into
earthen vessels; and thus is pepper made and kept. . . At the south
end of the said forests stands the city of Polumbrum, which aboundeth
with merchandise of all kinds." (The proper form would be Polum-
bum, the Latinized version of Polum or Kolum, the modern Quilon.
P and K are interchanged here as in the case of Karur, the modern
Parur.)
Tavernieri found pepper sold principally at Tuticorin and Calicut.
Some, however, came from Rajapur on the Ratnagiri coast. "The
Dutch," he says (II, xii. Ball's ed.), "who purchase it from the
Malabaris do not pay in cash for it, but exchange for it many kinds of
merchandise, as cotton, opium, vermilion, and quicksilver, and it is
this pepper which is exported to Europe. ... 500 livres of it brings
only 38 reals, but on the merchandise which they give in exchange
they gain 100 per cent. One can get it for the equivalent in moneys
of 28 or 30 reals cash, but to purchase it in that way would be much
more costly than the Dutch method."
He mentions also (I, xvi) a large storehouse kept by the Portu-
guese at Cochin, called the "Pepper House."
See also Watt, 896-901;—Fluckiger and Hanbury, Pharmaco-
grapliia, p. 579;—Encyclopaedia Britannica^ article Pepper;''—Bran-
dis, Indian Trees;—Vignoli, Liber Pontijicalis^ Rome, 1724-55.
Odoric also describes a propitiation of the serpents guarding the
pepper, similar to those of the frankincense and diamond; the story
is better in the version of "Sir John Mandeville" (Chap, xviii): "In
that country be many manner of serpents and of other vermin for the
great heat of the country and of the pepper. And some men sayy
216
that when they will gather the pepper, they make fire, to burn about
to make the serpents and the cockodrills to flee. But save their grace
of all that say so. For if they burnt about the trees that bear, the
pepper should be burnt, and it would dry up all the virtue, as of any
other thing; and then they did themselves much harm, and they
should never quench the fire. But thus they do: they anoint their
hands and their feet with a juice made of snails and of other things
made therefor, of the which the serpents and the venomous beasts
hate and dread the savour; and that maketh them flee before them,
because of the smell, and then they gather it surely enough."
This belief in the guarding of treasure, or of wealth-producing
trees, or the habitation thereof, by spirits in the form of serpents, has
already been noted as attaching to frankincense (§ 29), and will
appear likewise with the diamond (§ 56). The supposed necessity
of appeasing or else expelling the serpents by the use of other sub-
stances was held strongly in Rome itself. Pliny ascribes this power
to galbanum, "a kind of giant fennel" (XII, 56). "If ignited in a
pure state it has the property of driving away serpents by its smoke."
And again (XXIV, 13), the very touch of it, mingled with oil and
spondylium, is sufficient to kill a serpent." So also Virgil (Georgics,
111,415):
"Galbaneoque agitare graves nidore chelydros."The frankincense gatherers depended on burning storax; see
under § 29, pp. 131-2.
56. Malabathrum.—Heeren, Vincent and McCrindle trans-
late this "betel," and thereby accuse the Periplus of a blunder in
63 and 65, where the substance is described as coming from the
Himalaya mountains. The translation rests on an assumption that
the petros of the text in § 65 is the same as the Portuguese betre or
betle meaning betel.
Watt (p. 891) says this latter is rather derived from a Malay
word vettila or vern-ila, meaning "leaf," and it is very doubtful if the
betel of modern times entered into international commerce in the
Roman period.
The word petros is rather from the Sanscrit patra, 'leaf," of
the tamala tree which, as explained under §§ 10, 13 and 14, is a
variety of cinnamon or laurel. The leaf exported from Southern
India was also from Cinnamomum iners, and possibly from the Cinna-
momum zeylanicum which in later times was cultivated in Ceylon and
is one of the sources of our cinnamon. (See Tavernier, Travels,
II, xii). The leaf coming from the Himalaya mountains was prin-
cipally from the Cinnamomum tamala, which was native there. Pliny
217
says that the malabathrum which entered so prominently into Roman
perfumes should have a smell like nard, and other Roman writers
seem to have confused it with the Ganges nard mentioned in § 63.
(See also Lassen, I, 279-285; II, 555-561.)
Horace, (II, vii, 89), refers to it as follows:
"Coronatus nitentes
Malobathro Syrio capillos."
Malabathrum and spikenard were the two most treasured ingre-
dients of the ointments and perfumes of the Roman empire.
A curious trade condition is suggested by the fact that the Ro-
mans knew cinnamon and cassia only as coming from the Somali
coast of Africa, while they knew the malabathrum as coming from
various parts of India; and yet the malabathrum was, in at least one
case, the leaf from the same tree that produced a variety of cinnamon.
The Periplus in no place mentions the export of cinnamon from
India, but in §§ 56 and 63 describes the export of malabathrum. This
seems to indicate a trade monopoly of very ancient date and thorough
enforcement, by which the bark only went for trade purposes to the
African coast, while the leaf was an open article of trade to India.
Lindsay {History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce, I,
156-7), also remarks on this "striking instance of the secrecy with
which the ancients conducted the more valuable portions of their
trade.'' Herodotus, he thinks, could only have obtained his infor-
mation about cinnamon from the merchants who traded along the
shores of Malabar . . . who kept the secret of its provenance as the
Carthaginians kept that of British tin.''
Another letter from Mr. R. E. Drake-Brockman, dated Berbera,
April 27, 1910, gives further confirmation of the absence of the cin-
namon species from the Somali peninsula. (See under § 13, p. 87). "It is unlikely that the original inhabitants of this country knew
anything of cinnamon until they had heard of its commercial value
from the natives of India or Arabs, who have been known to the
coastal people from the earliest times. These same traders, if they
penetrated into the interior at all, which is extremely doubtful, would
have hunted for anything of any commercial value, and if cinnamon
had existed they would have continued to export it up to the present
day as they do frankincense, myrrh and gum arabic. A point which
is worthy of notice is that the Somalis have names for all the last three,
whereas they have had to go to the Arabic language for their names
for cinnamon. They know of two varieties, koronfol and karfa, both
of which are imported.
"It is highly probable that both Strabo and Pliny were led to
218
believe that the myrrh, frankincense, cinnamon and spices pouring
into the kingdom of Aethiopia and upper Egypt all came from the
same place: Possibly traders in Aethiopia obtained a better price for
their myrrh and cinnamon if they stated the difficulties and dangers
they experienced collecting it in the countries of the savage Gallas
or their antecedents in the Horn of Africa.
''There can be no doubt that the natives of these regions have
always been greatly feared by their less warlike neighbors. The
Somalis and their antecedents have always been keen traders, and
there can be little doubt that if cinnamon ever existed in these regions,
the practice of collecting it would not have been dropped unless the
species here collected was of a very inferior quality and gradually lost
its marketable value."
Through the courtesy of the same gentleman in gathering speci-
mens of the various aromatic gums of Somaliland, a more positive
statement may be made than was possible under § 32, pp. 141-2,
concerning the Egyptian frankincense trade, in determining the
character of the trees depicted on the Punt reliefs at Deir el Bahri, a
photograph of which was reproduced on page 120.
Professor Breasted in his Ancient Records of Egypt (II, 263-5),
calls this tree myrrh, and translates it as myrrh wherever the records
refer to it. In the publications of the Egypt Exploration Fund {The
Temple ofDeir-el-Bahri, III, 12), it is called frankincense, but is located
in Somaliland in the neighborhood of Mosyllum, because of the sup-
posed African appearance of the Punt people who appear elsewhere
in the reliefs.
Specimens of true myrrh sent from Somaliland show clearly that
no sculptor could have intended to depict by the rich foliage on the
reliefs, the bare, thorny, trifoliate but almost leafless myrrh tree, nor
yet the almost equally leafless varieties of Somaliland frankincense.
This tree is clearly Boswellia Carteri, the frankincense of the rich plain
of Dhofar in Southern Arabia. This is the only place producing
frankincense where the trees can be cultivated on a fertile plain by the
shore, in the midst of green fields and cattle. There is no place on
the African coast which meets these conditions. Naville's objection
that the natives are "not Arabs," /. e.y not Semitic, is really in favor
of such a belief; they were the pre-Semitic, Cushite race whose domin-
ions centered at Dhofar, and who are represented there by the modern
Gara tribe. There can be no question that the trees in that relief are
the frankincense of Dhofar, the "Sachalitic frankincense" of the
Periplus, the modern Shehri luban.
219
To the possible objection that the Darror and Nogal valleys, in
the southern part of the Somali peninsula, are fertile and might pro-
duce a better foliage than the northern coast, it may be said that the
fertility stops far short of the east coast, which is absolutely desert;
whereas the reliefs show a rich and fertile plain bordering the sea.
56. A great quantity of coin.—The drain of specie from
Rome to the East has already been referred to under § 49, and is
bitterly condemned by Pliny. "The subject/' he says (VI, 26), is
one well worthy of our notice, seeing that in no year does India drain
usof less than 550,000,000 sesterces ($22,000,000) giving back her own
wares, which are sold among us at fully 100 times their first cost."
A generation before the Periplus, in 22 A. D., this was made
the subject of a letter from the emperor Tiberius to the Roman Senate:"If a reform is in truth intended, where must it begin? and how
am I to restore the simplicity of ancient times? . . . How shall we
reform the taste for dress? . . . How are we to deal with the peculiar
articles, of feminine vanity, and in particular with that rage for jewels
and precious trinkets, which drains the empire of its wealth, and sends,
in exchange for baubles, the money of the Commonwealth to foreign
nations, and even to the enemies of Rome?" (Tacitus, Annals^
iii, 53.)
This extravagant importation of luxuries from the East without
adequate production of commodities to offer in exchange, was the
main cause of the successive depreciation and degradation of the
Roman currency, leading finally to its total repudiation. The mone-
tary standard of Rome was established by accumulations of precious
metal resulting from its wars. The sack of the rich city of Tarentum
in 272 B. C, enabled Rome to change her coinage from copper to
silver. After the destruction of Carthage and Corinth in 146 B. C,
gold coinage came into general use, and through the wars of Caesar
gold became so plentiful that in 47 B. C. its ratio to silver was as 1 to
8.9, lower than ever before or since. Under Augustus the ratio was
about 1 to 9.3, the aureus being worth 25 silver denarii. Under
Claudius the sea-route to India was opened, after which came the
reign of Nero, marked by every form of wastefulness and extrava-
gance, during which the silver denarius fell from 1-84 to 1-96 pound
of silver, an alloy of 20 per cent copper being added to it. Under
Trajan the alloy reached 30 per cent, and under Septimius Severus
50 per cent. Finally, under Elagabalus, 218 A. D., fat denarius had
become wholly copper and was repudiated. Even the golden aureus
was tampered with. Exported in large quantities to become the basis
of exchange in India, the supply at home was exhausted. Under
220
Augustus the aureus weighed 1-40 of a pound of gold, and under
Diocletian it weighed but 1-60. Under Constantine it fell to 1-72,
when the coin was taken only by weight (Sabatier, Monnaies Byzan-
tines, i, 51-2; Brooks Adams, Law of Civilization and Decay, 25-8 ).
It was this steady loss of capital, to replace which no new wealth was
produced, that led finally to the abandonment of Rome and to the
transfer of the capital at the end of the 3d century to Nicomedia and
soon afterward to Byzantium.

Coin of Nero commemorating the opening of the harbor-works at Ostia.
In the Madras Government Museum there is nearly a complete
series of the coins of the Roman Emperors during the period of
active trade with India, all of them excavated in southern India. A
notable fact is that there are two distinct breaks in the series; which
may of course be supplied by later discovery, but which seem to indi-
cate a cessation of trade due to political turmoil in Rome. The coins
of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero are numerous. There are
very few of Vespasian and Titus anywhere in India. Those of
Domitian, Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian are frequent; then there
comes another break lasting until the time of Commodus. This indi-
cation, so far as it has any value, points again to the dating of the
Periplus during the reign of Nero rather than during those of Ves-
pasian and Titus.
For a full account of Roman coins discovered in South India,
see E. Thurston, Catalogue No. 2, Madras Government Museum,
pp. 1-47.
56. Crude glass.—The origin of the glass industry in India is
uncertain. According to Mitra, Antiquities of Orissa, I, 101, it was
made in Ceylon in the 3d century B. C, and Pliny (XXXVI, 66)
refers to the glass of India as superior to all others, because ''made of
pounded crystal." Mirrors, with a foil of lead and tin, were largely
used there at the time of the Periplus, and Pliny indicates (XXXVII,
221
20) that "the people of India, by coloring crystal, have found a
method of imitating various precious stones, beryls in particular.'' An
early play, the Mrichchhakatika or Little Clay Cart, gives a scene in a
court of justice to this effect (Mitra, op. cit., 100; see also A. W.
Ryder's translation, Cambridge, 1905):
"Do you know these ornaments?"
''Have I not said? They may be different, though like; I can-
not say more; they may be imitations by some skillful artist."
"It is true; provost, examine them; they may be different,
though like; the dexterity of the artists is no doubt very great, and
they readily fabricate imitations of ornaments they have once seen, in
such a manner that the difference shall scarcely be discernible.''
56. Copper, tin, and lead.—As at Ba^ygaza, intended chiefly
for the coinage. So Pliny (XXXIV, 17): "India has neither brass
nor lead, but exchanges precious stones and pearls for them." The
Indian coins were of lead, slightly alloyed with either copper ortin.
(Sir Walter Elliot, Coins of Southern India, p. 22.)
Lead was used also, mixed with a little tin in thin sheets, as a foil
for the manufacture of mirrors. (Mitra, op. cit., p. 101.)
56. Orpiment.—This is the yellow sulphide of arsenic, appear-
ing in the form of smooth shining scales, which have long been an
article of export from the Persian Gulf to India.
Pliny (VI, 26) says, 4'Next to these is the nation of the Ori and
then the Hyctanis (Rud Shurr) a river of Carmania, with an excellent
harbor at its mouth, and producing gold; at this spot the writers state
that for the first time they caught sight of the Great Bear. The star
Arcturus too, they tell us, was not to be seen here every night, and
never when it was seen, during the whole of it. Up to this spot
extended the empire of the Achaemenidae, and in these districts are to
be found mines of copper, iron, arsenic, and red lead."
The principal use of orpiment was as a yellow pigment—auri pig-
mentum—making a durable mineral paint, as did realgar and lapis lazuli.
56. Wheat for the sailors.—Marco Polo-also notes (III,
xviij, "No wheat grows in this province, but rice only."
56. Cottonara.—Dr. Burnell derives this from Kolatta-nadu,
which he identifies with North Malabar, of which Cannanore and
Tellicherry are the centers. Dr. Buchanan prefers Kadatta-nadu,
South Malabar, on either side of Calicut. In mediaeval times the
domain of the Rajas of Kolatriad included both. Bishop Caldwell, in
his Dravidian Grammar ^ derives the name from Malayalam kadatta,
transport or conveyance, and nadu, district. Menon (Indian Antiquary, Aug. 1902), suggests kadal, sea, -or kodu, mountain; and
222
kodu-nadu^ the hill-country back of the sea-coast, would accord with
the facts while supporting the transliteration of the text. In any case
the term does not seem to have been applied to an exact locality.
56. Great quantities of fine pearls.—These were from the fisheries of the Gulf of Manar, mentioned in § 59, and brought to be
sold in the Chera ports, the meeting-point of Eastern and Western
trade.
56. Silk cloth.—From China, by way of Tibet and the
Ganges. See under §§ 39, 49 and 64.
56. Gangetic spikenard.—See under § 63.
56. Transparent Stones.—These were principally the beryls
of the Coimbatore district, for which there was a constant demand in
Rome, and which always found their principal foreign market in the
Malabar ports. This localization of the gem trade continued until
after the Portuguese period in India; the reason is stated by Tavernier
(II, xxi):
"Goa was formerly the place where there was the largest trade
in all Asia in diamonds, rubies, sapphires, topazes, and other stones.
All the miners and merchants went there to sell the best which they
had obtained at the mines, because they had there full liberty to sell,
whereas, in their own country, if they showed anything to the kings
and princes, they were compelled to sell at whatever price they pleased
to fix. There was also at Goa a large trade in pearls, both of those
which came from the island of Bahrein in the Persian Gulf, and those
fished for in the Straits of Manar on the coast of the island of Ceylon."
India and Ceylon were preeminently the source of production of
precious stones of all kinds, which were exported to every part of the
civilized world. Watt (p. 556) classifies the production as follows:
1. The Beryl group, from the sea-green aquamarine to the
white. (The beryllium of Pliny, XXXVII, 20.)
2. Diamond. (The adamas of Pliny, XXXVII, 15.)
3. Pearl.'
4. Ruby. (The carbunculus of Pliny, XXXVII, 25.)
5. Sapphire, occurring in numerous colors, various blues, violet,
yellow, green and white. Produced mainly on the Southern
Malabar hills, now rarely found in India but more frequently
in Ceylon. (The hyacinthm of Pliny, XXXVII, 41.)
6. Spinel. (Included among the 12 varieties of Pliny's carbunculus. )
7. Topaz. Watt doubts its production in India at any place,
and the Periplus shows on the contrary that it was imported
from the Red Sea. (The chrysoltthos of Pliny, XXXVII,
42.)
8. Turquoise. A product of Persia, not occurring in India but
reaching the northwestern ports of trade. (The callaina of
Pliny, XXXVII, 33.)
9. Garnet. Common in many parts of India; those of Rajpu-
tana being the best. (One of the 12 varieties, perhaps the
alabandic, of Pliny's carbunculus. )
10. Jade and Jadeite; found mainly in Turkestan but also in
upper Burma, while a serpentine from Afghanistan is often
substituted. While not produced in India, these all find
their way to Indian markets. The leading market is China.
11. Lapis Lazuli, or ultramarine; also from Persia. Largely
used for ^decoration of all kinds and in demand in India,
Egypt and the Mediterranean world from the earliest times.
(The sapphires of Pliny, XXXVII, 39.)
12. Quartzose, including
a. Rock crystals, white and colored, which the Romans do
not seem to have distinguished from more precious
stones. (The crystal of Pliny, XXXVII, 9-10.)
b. Agate, carnelian, bloodstone, chrysoprase, jasper, chal-
cedony, cat's eye, onyx, opal, etc. (Achates, murrhine;
sarda; heliotropium; chrysoprasus; iaspis, carchedonia; sar-
donyx; astrobolos; onyx; opal (Pliny, XXXVII.)
13. Tourmalines, varying from black through red, dark blue, olive
green, and white, the red varieties being commonest in
India. (The lychnis of Pliny, XXXVII, 29.)
For further discussion of the deposits and trade, see Lassen, I,
229-43; Tavernier, II.
''Beryls," says Pliny (XXXVII, 20), "are produced in India,
and are rarely to be found elsewhere. The lapidaries cut all beryls
of a hexagonal form, because the color, which is deadened by a dull
uniformity of the surface, is heightened by the reflection from the
angles. If they are cut in any other way, these stones have no bril-
liancy whatever." (The crystals are naturally hexahedral.) "The
most esteemed beryls are those which in color resemble the pure green
of the sea. . . . The people of India are marvelously fond of beryls
of an elongated form, and say that these are the only precious stones
they prefer wearing without the addition of gold."
In the Mrichchhakatika, an early Sanscrit play, there is a scene
which includes a row of jewelers' shops, "where skillful artists are
examining pearls, topazes, sapphires, beryls, rubies, lapis lazuli, coral
224
and other jewels; some set rubies in gold; some work with gold or-
naments on colored thread, some string pearls, some grind the lapis
lazuli, some pierce shells, and some cut coral." (Mitra, op. at,
p. 100.)
56. Diamonds.—The text is adamas. Some commentators,
notably Dana, have doubted whether the Romans ever knew the true
diamond. There can be no doubt that Pliny in his description
(XXXVII, 15) includes under adamas other substances, probably
quartz, iron ore, emery, etc., but he also says that the diamond possessed
the greatest value, not only among the precious stones, but of all human
possessions; and as Watt says (p. 556), India was long the only
source of diamonds known to European nations.
Garcia de Orta (1563), mentions various Eastern diamond
mines, such as those of ' Bisnager" (Vijayanagar) and the "Decam"
(Deccan). Ball, in his translation of Tavernier's Travels, gives full
particulars of all the Indian sources of diamonds (II, 450-461).
Tavernier was a diamond merchant and the first European (1676) to
examine critically the diamonds and court jewels of India.
The principal districts were,
(1) Southern Group:—districts of Kadapa, Bellary, Karnul,
Kistna, Godaveri, (Golconda, etc.);
(2) Middle Group:—Mahanadi valley, districts of Sambalpur,
Chanda;
(3) Northern Group:—Vindhyan conglomerates near Panna
(still worked).
Pliny (XXXVII, 15) describes the Indian adamas as "found,
not in a stratum of gold, but in a substance of a kindred nature to
crystal; which it closely resembles in its transparency and its highly
polished hexangular and hexahedral forms." (The true form of the
diamond is octahedral.) "in shape it is turbinated, running to a
point at either extremity, and closely resembling, marvelous to think of, two cones united at the base. In size, too, it is as large even as
a hazel-nut."
The Romans seem to have had no knowledge of diamond-
cutting. Pliny goes on to say that "its hardness is beyond all expres-
sion, while at the same time it quite sets fire at defiance; owing to which indomitable powers it has received the name which it> derives
from the Greek." (# privative, and damao, to subdue.'')f ,;
After his description of the hardness of the diamond, Pliny ob-
serves, "this indomitable power, which sets at naught the two most
violent agents in nature, fire, namely, and iron, is made to yield before
225
the blood of a he-goat. The blood, however, must be fresh and
warm; the stone, too, must be well steeped in it."
Ball (Tavernier, Travels, II, 460-1), quotes a story from Nicol
Conti (15th century) about Indian diamonds obtainable only by fling-
ing pieces of meat on the mountain/' where the diamonds could not
be collected owing to the number of serpents. The pieces of meat
with diamonds sticking to them were then carried to their nests by
birds of prey, from whence they were recovered by diamond seekers.
. . . This myth is founded on the very common practice in India on
the opening of a mine, to offer up cattle to propitiate the evil spirits
who are supposed to guard treasures—these being represented by the
myth. At such sacrifices birds of prey assemble to pick up what they
can;" which is the foundation for the remainder of the story.
Here we have a striking similarity to the beliefs connected with
the gathering of frankincense, as outlined under § 29, and pepper
(§56).
The Thousand Nights and One Night gives substantially the same
story (dxliv-v; Siribad the Sailor, 2d voyage), while sufficiently iden-
tifying the stone:
''Walking along the valley I found that its soil was of diamond,
the stone wherewith they pierce jewels and precious stones and por-
celain and onyx, for that it is a hard dense stone, whereon neither
iron nor steel hath effect, neither can we cut off aught therefrom nor
break it, save by means of the leadstone."
Marco Polo (III, xix) records more definitely this ancient belief:
"Moreover in those mountains great serpents are rife to a mar-
velous degree, besides other vermin, and this owing to the great heat.
The serpents are also the most venomous in existence, insomuch that
any one going to that region runs fearful peril; for many have been
destroyed by these evil reptiles.
"Now among these mountains there are certain great and deep
valleys, to the bottom of which there is no access. Wherefore the
men who go in search of the diamonds take with them pieces of flesh,
as lean as they can get, and these they cast into the bottom of a valley.
Now there are numbers of white eagles that haunt those mountains
and feed upon the serpents. When the eagles see the meat thrown
down they pounce upon it and carry it up to some rocky hill-top
where they begin to rend it. But there are men on the watch, and
as soon as they see that the eagles have settled they raise a loud shout-
ing to drive them away. And when the eagles are thus frightened
away the men recover the pieces of meat, and find them full of dia-
monds which have stuck to the meat down in the bottom. For the
226
abundance of diamonds down there in the depth of the valley is aston-
ishing, but nobody can get them; and if one could it would be only
to be incontinently devoured by the serpents which are so rife there.''
The part played by the eagles is that of other sacred birds, for the
defence and profit of man. Compare the bird Jatayu, who gave his
life in defence of Sita against the Raksha Ravana, in the Ramayana;
the ibis at Buto who defended Egypt against the frankincense-serpents,
(p. 132), and the eagles who fought the dragons. (Virgil, Aeneid,
XI, 755; Pliny, X, 5.)
Connected with these beliefs was that in the efficacy of the dia-
mond in warding off from the wearer all sorts of evils. "Sir John
Mandeville" (Travels, XVII), recounts it for his day, and it may
still be observed.
"He that beareth the diamond upon him, it giveth him hardiness
and manhood, and it keepeth the limbs of his body whole. It giveth
him victory of his enemies in plea and in war, if his cause be rightful.
. . . And if any cursed witch or enchanter should bewitch him, all
that sorrow and mischance shall turn to himself through virtue of that
stone. And no wild beast dare assail the man that beareth it on him.
And it healeth him that is lunatic, and them that the fiend pursueth
or travaileth. And if venom or poison be brought in presence of the
diamond, anon it beginneth to wax moist and for to sweat. . . Nathles
it befalleth often time that the good diamond loseth his virtue by sin,
and for incontinence of him that beareth it. And then it is needful to
make it to recover his virtue again, or else it is of little value."
56. Sapphires.—The text is hyakinthos, which has been trans-
lated as jacinth, ruby and amethyst. Jacinth is a product of Africa
rather than India. Rubies are from Burma and probably never came
in great quantities from India. Pliny says that the hyacinth resembles
the amethyst, but draws a distinction between them. Pliny probably
had in mind a violet sapphire, and his word really might be translated
as meaning all tints of sapphire from blue to purple.
Dionysius Periegetes refers to the "lovely land of the Indians
where the complexions of the dwellers are dark, their limbs exquisitely
sleek and smooth, and the hair of their heads surpassing smooth and
dark blue like the hyacinth." (McCrindle, Ancient India, p. 188.)
W. Goodchild (Precious Stones,p. 183), also thinks that the sap-
phire was the hyacinthus of Pliny, and says that the principal source
of sapphires in that part of the world was in the watered gravels of
Southern Ceylon, which were derived from watered crystaline rocks;
and at the time of the Periplus the natural market would have been
on the Malabar coast. The ruby, which is practically of the same
227
chemical composition, being of the corundum group, was found in the
same place as the sapphire in Ceylon, and was probably classified by
Pliny under the carbunculus (XXXVII, 25). Both rubies and sapphires
are found in much greater quantities in Burma and Siam, but at the time
of the Periplus these deposits were probably unknown to western
commerce.
56. Tortoise-shell from Chryse.—Fabricius objects to this
reading, and alters it to "that found along the coast;" but it is prob-
able that the text gives a correct reference to the active trade of Eastern
shipping in South Indian ports; which is, indeed, specifically mentioned
in §§ 60 and 63. Marco Polo notes particularly the ships "from the
great province of Manzi," and says (III, xxv) that the ships from
Malabar to Aden and Egypt "are not one to ten of those that go to
the eastward; a very notable fact."
To assume that conditions were the same at the time of the Peri-
plus would be to go beyond the evidence; yet the records of the
Chinese themselves point strongly to the existence of an active sea-
trade at that time, certainly to Malacca, and less frequently, perhaps,
to India and beyond.
With this item ends the list of articles traded in by the author of
the Periplus. It is interesting to compare it with the letter from the
Zamorin of Calicut to the King of Portugal, carried by Vasco da
Gama on his return from India fourteen centuries later: "In my
kingdom there is abundance of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper,
and precious stones. What I seek from thy country is gold, silver,
coral, and scarlet."
57. Hippalus first discovered.—The discovery of Hippalus,
which maybe placed at about 45 A. D. (see p. 8), opened a new
ocean to Roman shipping; but it is probable that Arabian and Dra-
vidian craft had frequented that ocean for many centuries, and incon-
ceivable that they should not have made use of the- periodic changes
of the monsoons, by far the most notable feature of their climate.
The evidence of both countries indicates, on the contrary, that they
steered boldly out of sight of land, before records were written to tell
of it
Mr. Kennedy in an article in the Journal of the Royai Asiatic
Society, 1898, (pp. 248-287) also thinks that the monsoons were un-
derstood before the time of Hippalus, but doubts the beginning of any
regular sea-trade before the beginning of the 7th century B. C,
ascribing all such trade to the activities of Nabonidus, in whose time
ships were known to have come to Babylon from India and even from
China. Following this reign he thinks sea-trade between I:?(".!a and
228
Babylon flourished for a couple of centuries, being mainly Dravidian
but partly Aryan, and leading to the settlement of Indian traders in
Arabia, East Africa, Babylonia and China. He minimizes the impor-
tance of the early Egyptian trading-voyages, considering them purely
local, while the numerous references to articles and routes of early
trade in the Hebrew scriptures he passes by with the assertion that they
are due to the revision following the return of Ezra.
But whatever may have been Ezra's revision of the Hebrew
books, substantially the same articles of trade are described in the
records of Egypt at corresponding dates, and they indicate a trade in
articles of Indian origin to the Somali coast and overland to the Nile,
centuries before Ezra's day. (See also under §§ 6, 10, 11, and 12.)
Such opinions presume a continuous trading-journey without ex-
change of cargoes at common meeting-points. But primitive trade
passes from tribe to tribe and port to port. At the time of the
Periplus cargoes changed hands in Malacca, Malabar, Somaliland,
South Arabia, Adulis and Berenice. The custom is stated in detail
in the Deir el Bahri reliefs describing Queen Hatshepsut's expedition
of 1500 B. C, where Amon-Re tells the queen,
"No one trod the incense-terraces, which the people knew not;
they were heard of from mouth to mouth by hearsay of the ancestors.
The marvels brought thence under thy fathers, the Kings of Lower
Egypt, were brought from one to another, and since the time of the an-
cestors of the Kings of Upper Egypt, who were of old, as a return
for many payments." (Breasted, Ancient Records, II, 287).
It was the particular achievement of the Egyptian Punt expedi-
tions that they traced the treasured articles to their source and freed
the land from the heavy charge of those 'many payments.'' Like-
wise Hippalus must be remembered, not for a discovery new to the
world, but for freeing the Roman Empire from Arabian monopoly of
the Eastern trade by tracing it to its source. Beyond India no lasting
discovery was made. Ptolemy, indeed, knew of Cattigara through
the account given by Marinus of Tyre; but such voyages were ex-
ceptional, and the majority of the Chinese ships stopped at Malacca,
while the Malay colandia carried the trade to Malabar. It remained
for the Arabs to complete the ''through line" by opening direct com-
munication under the Bagdad Caliphate, between the ends of the earth,
Lisbon and Canton. - •;
Prof. T. W. Rhys Davids, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society, 1899, p. 432, quotes an interesting Buddhist passage referring
to early sea-trade as follows:
229
"In the Dialogues of the Buddha is a passage in the Kevaddha
Sutta of Digha—5th cent. B. C. The Buddha says:
"Long ago ocean-going merchants were wont to plunge forth
upon the sea, on board a ship, taking with them a shore-sighting bird.
When the ship was out of sight of land they would set the shore-
sighting bird free. And it would go to the East and to the South and
to the West and to the North, and to the intermediate points, and
rise aloft. If on the horizon it caught sight of land, thither it would
go, but if not it would come back to the ship again. Just so,
brother," etc.
Cosmas Indicopleustes found this same custom in Ceylon in the
6th century A. D., merchants depending on shore-sighting birds
instead of observations of the sun or stars.
There are similar passages in the oldest of the Vedas (see Gib-
son's Rig Veda, Vol. I):
"Varuna, who knows the path of the birds flying through the
air, he, abiding in the ocean, knows also the course of ships.''
"May Ushas dawn today, the excitress of chariots which are
harnessed at her coming, as those who are desirous of wealth send
ships to sea."
"Do thou, Agni, whose countenance is turned to all sides, send
off our adversaries, as if in a ship to the opposite shore. Do thou
convey us in a ship across the sea for our welfare." (A remarkable
prayer for safe conduct at sea.)
Kalidasa, in the Sakuntala, gives the story of the merchant Dha-
navriddhi, whose immense wealth devolved to the king on the
former's perishing at sea and leaving no heirs behind him.
The Hitopadesa describes a ship as a necessary requisite for a man
to traverse the ocean, and a story is given of a certain merchant,
"who, after having been twelve years on his voyage, at last returned
home with a cargo of precious stones."
The Institutes of Manu include rules for the guidance of mari-
time commerce.
The passages quoted above indicate a well-developed and not a
primitive trade. The sea-trade was principally of Dravidian develop-
ment, while both the Vedas and the Buddhist writings are of Aryan
origin, and refer to things new to their race but old in the world.
(See also Buhler, lndische Studien, in Sit%ungsberichte der Kais.
Akad. d. Wissenschaften, Vienna, .1895, No. 3, pp. 81-2\ Indian
Paleography, § 5; Foulke, in Indian Antiquary, XVI, 7; Lassen,
111,3.)
More significant is the Phoenician origin of the Dravidian alpha-
230
bet, long before the Aryan invasion of southern India; while a passage
in the Ramayana suggests the ships of those whom the invaders
contemptuously called "monkeys." When Rama was dispatching
his messengers to the four winds in search of Slta, it was the maligned
Hanuman who "flew" across the Gulf of Manar to Ceylon and dis-
covered her. Who can doubt that the wings he used were sails, or
that the Dravidians ferried across to Ceylon a force of Aryan lands-
men, who later turned and crushed them under the caste-system and
established the dynasties of Drai:da-desam? Stern must have been
the subjection that brought them to worship one of their own race
under the guise of a monkey, and to carry the cult of the monkey-
god Hanuman in their own ships to the vales of Oman, where mon-
keys are unknown and where it has outlived the memory of its found-
ers, to the confusion of the modern observer. (Gen. S. B. Miles,
in Geographical Journal, VII, 336. )
Significant also is the fact that Lieutenant Speke, when planning
his discovery of the source of the Nile, secured his best information
from a map reconstructed out of the Puranas. (Journal, pp. 27, 77,
216; Wilford, in Asiatic Researches, III). It traced the course of
the river, the "Great Krishna," through Cusha-dvipa, from a great
lake in Chandristhan, "Country of the Moon," which it gave the
correct position in relation to the Zanzibar islands. The name was
from the native Unya-muezi, having the same meaning; and the map
correctly mentioned another native name, Amara, applied to the dis-
trict bordering Lake Victoria Nyanza.
"All our previous information," says Speke, "concerning the
hydrography of these regions, originated with the ancient Hindus,
who told it to the priests of the Nile; and all those busy Egyptian
geographers, who disseminated their knowledge with a view to
be famous for their long-sightedness, in solving the mystery which
enshrouded the source of their holy river, were so many hypothetical
humbugs. The Hindu traders had a firm basis to stand upon through
their intercourse with the Abyssinians." (See §14.)
Altogether it must be supposed that the navigation of the Indian
Ocean began from the Persian Gulf and Arabia; that Western India
claimed its share at an early date; and that this community of interest
long excluded their customers of the Mediterranean world, from whose
standpoint Hippalus was quite as great a discoverer as if he had really
been
"the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea."
57. Throw the Ship's head.—The text is trachelizontes,
which is a wrestlers' term meaning literally "throwing by the neck.,r

Stern of a Burmese rice-boat, showing method of steering, identical with the Egyptian and Roman
rudders at the time of the Periplus,
232
The word has led to much unnecessary confusion in the translation
of this passage. Our author is describing a sailing-cburse which is
obvious by referring to the map. The straight course before the
trade-wind, from Hisn Ghorab to the Gulf of Cambay or the mouth of
the Indus, would carry a vessel along the Arabian shore as far as Ras
Fartak, beyond which the coast gradually recedes, so that the vessel
would stand out to sea without changing its course. A vessel bound
for the Malabar ports and sailing before the wind, with the type of
rigging then in use, would have required steering off her course the
whole time, thus describing a wide curve before making the Indian
coast. Boats were not handled as easily then as now on a beam wind.
The quarter-rudder required a constant pull on the tiller by the hands
of the steersman.
57. The same course.—Pliny's account of the voyage to
India (VI, 26), which has been cited by most commentators on the
Periplus, is appended for comparison. It will be seen that while it
agrees with the Periplus in many points, particularly in its description
of Arabia, its description of the Indian coast is not altogether the
same:
"In later times it has been considered a well-ascertained fact that
the voyage from Syagrus, the Promontory of Arabia, to Patala, reck-
oned at thirteen hundred and thirty-five miles, can be performed most
advantageously with the aid of a westerly wind, which is there known
by the name of Hippalus.
"The age that followed pointed out a shorter route, and a safer
one to those who might happen to sail from the same promontory for
Sigerus, a port in India; and for a long time this route was followed,
until at last a still shorter cut was discovered by a merchant, and the
thirst for gain brought India even still nearer to us. At the present
day voyages are made to India every year; and companies of archers
are carried on board the vessels, as those seas are greatly infested with
pirates.
"It-will not be amiss too, on the present occasion, to set forth
the whole of the route from Egypt, which has been stated to us of
late, upon information on which reliance may be placed, and is here
published for the first time. The subject is one well worthy of our
notice, seeing that in no year does India drain our empire of less than
five hundred and fifty millions of sesterces, giving back her own wares
in exchange, which are sold among us at fully one hundred times
their prime cost.
"Two miles distant from Alexandria is the town of Juliopolis.
The distance thence to Coptos, up the Nile, is three hundred and
233
eight miles; the voyage is performed, when the Etesian winds are
blowing, in twelve days. From Coptos the journey is made with the
aid of camels, stations being arranged at intervals for the supply of fresh
water. The first of these stations is called Hydreuma (watering-place),
and is distant twenty-two miles; the second is situate on a mountain, at
a distance of one day's journey from the last; the third is at a second
Hydreuma distant from Coptos ninety-five miles; the fourth is on a
mountain; the next to that is another Hydreuma, that of Apollo, and
is distant from Coptos one hundred and eighty-four miles; after which,
there is another on a mountain. There is then another station at a
place called the New Hydreuma, distant from Coptos two hundred
and thirty miles; and next to it there is another, called the Old Hy-
dreuma, or the Troglodytic, where a detachment is always on guard,
with a caravansary that affords lodging for two thousand persons.
This last is distant from the New Hydreuma seven miles. After
leaving it we come to the city of Berenice, situate upon a harbor of
the Red Sea and distant from Coptos two hundred and fifty-seven
miles. The greater part of this distance is generally travelled by
night, on account of the extreme heat, the days being spent at the
stations; in consequence of which it takes twelve days to perform the
whole journey from Coptos to Berenice.
4'Passengers generally set sail at midsummer, before the rising
of the Dog-star, or else immediately after, and in about thirty days
arrive at Ocelis in Arabia, or else at Cana, in the region which bears
frankincense. There is also a third port of Arabia, Muza by name;
it is not, however, used by persons on their passage to India, as only
those touch at it who deal in incense and the perfumes of Arabia.
More in the interior there is a city; the residence of the king there is
called Sapphar, and there is another city known by the name of Save.
To those who are bound for India, Ocelis is the best place for em-
barcation. If the wind, called Hippalus, happens to be blowing, it is
possible to arrive in forty days at the nearest mart in India, Muziris by
name. This, however, is not a very desirable place for disembarca-
tion, on account of the pirates which frequent its vicinity, where they
occupy a place called Nitrias; nor, in fact, is it very rich in articles of
merchandise. Besides, the roadstead for shipping is a considerable
distance from the shore, and the cargoes have to be conveyed in boats,
either for loading or discharging. At the moment that I am writing
these pages, the name of the king of this place is Caelobothras.
Another port, and a much more convenient one, is that which lies in
the territory of the people called Neacyndi, Barace by name. Here
king Pandion used to reign, dwelling at a considerable distance from
234
the mart in the interior, at a city known as Modiera. The district
from which pepper is carried down to Barace in boats hollowed out
of a single tree (see illustration on p. 212), is known as Cottonara.
None of these names of nations, ports, and cities are to be found in
any of the former writers, from which circumstance it would appear
that the localities have since changed their names. Travellers set sail
from India on their return to Europe, at the beginning of the Egyptian
month of Tybis, which is our December, or at all events before the
sixth day of the Egyptian month Mechir, the same as our Ides of Janu-
ary; if they do this they can go and return in the same year. They
set sail from India with a south-east wind, and upon entering the Red
Sea, catch the south-west or south."
58. Dark Red Mountain.—The text is Pyrrhon. There
can be no doubt that it refers to the "Red Bluffs/' a series of
high sandstone and laterite headlands, which abut on the coast at
Varkkallai (8° 42' N.), and again below Anjengo (8° 40' N., 76°
45' E.). These are the "Warkalli Beds" of the Indian geologists,
and have recently been pierced by a canal to complete the backwater
communication between Tiriir and Trivandrum, nearly 200 miles.
(Imperial Gazetteer, XXIV, 300.)
Beyond this point we must assume that the author of the Periplus
did not go. The remainder of his work, usually referred to as the
''sequel/' represents what he learned by inquiring of acquaintances
at Nelcynda or Bacare, and set down in writing toward lightening the
darkness of Mediterranean ideas concerning all matters oriental.
58. Paralia.—According to Caldwell (Dravidian Grammar,
56), this is a translation of the Tamil Karei, "coast/' according to
Burnell and Yule, it is Purali, an ancient local name for Travancore.
This is supported by Gundert in his Malayalam Dictionary, and by the
Malayalam translation of the Ramayana. The Raja's titles still
include that of Purallsan, "Lord of Purali." The native name for
this country in general was Malayalam, from mala, mountain, and
alam, depth; the land at the foot of the mountains,—Piedmont.
Paralia, to the author of the Periplus, is the coast-line below the
Travancore backwaters, around Cape Comorin, and as far as Adam's
Bridge: comprised within the modern districts of Travancore and
Tinnevelly.
58. Balita.—This is probably the modern Varkkallai (8° 42'
N., 76° 43' E. ). It was formerly the southern end of the long line of
backwaters, and a place of considerable commercial importance. By
cutting through a bluff the lachwaters have recently been connected
with others leading as far as Trivandrum, which is now the chief port
235
of the district. At Varkkallai is the celebrated temple of Janardan,
an avatar of Vishnu, visited by pilgrims from all parts of India; while
numerous mineral springs in the vicinity make it a favorite health
resort. (Imp. Gaz., XXIV, 300.)
58. Comari.—This is Cape Comorin, the southern extremity
of the Indian peninsula (8° 5' N., 77° 33' E.). The name is the
Tamil form of the Sanscrit Kumari, virgin, which was applied to the
goddess Durga, or Parvati, the consort of Siva.
Yule observes (Marco Polo, II, 882-3) that the monthly bathing
in her honor is still continued; and according to the Imperial Gazetteer
(X, 376), it is "one of the most important places of pilgrimage in
Southern India.''
In the first century of the Christian era Rome, Parthia, India,
and China were the four great powers of the world, of which the
first and last were advancing, the others passing through political
transformation. Of the world's religions, the Buddhist, as Edmunds
has well said (Buddhist and Christian Gospels, 3d ed., Tokyo, 1905,
p. 23), was the most powerful on the planet." But it was no longer
the Buddhism of the Emperor Asoka. The disintegration of the
Maurya Empire had been followed by the rise of the Indo-Scythian
power in the northwest, and of the Andhra in the Deccan. Both
these were Buddhist, the Scythian Kanishka in the following century
being the second great exponent of that faith; but the ways of the
barbarian were not those of the Hindu, the two chief Buddhist powers
were at war, and in 126 A. D., when the Andhra king Vilivayakura
II, or Gautamlputra Satakarni conquered, the queen-mother Balasri
set up a memorial at KarlT telling how he "destroyed the Sakas,
Yavanas, and Pahlavas . . . properly expended the taxes which he
levied in accordance with the sacred law . . . and prevented the
mixing of the four castes." (Vincent Smith, Early History, 188.)
To the north the great missionary movement through Turkestan and
China had only just begun, while the race-migrations from the Hima-
layas into Burma and Indo-China, which made of those kingdoms a
bulwark of Buddhism in the middle ages, had not taken place. In
Ceylon the native race, the Sinhalese, were heartily for the Law of
Piety, as in Asoka's day; but opposed to them racially and in matters
religious, were their neighbors and ancient enemies, the Southern
Dravidians, with their Aryan dynasties and caste-systems, who had
never embraced the Buddhist doctrine, and whose primitive nature-
worship was included bodily within the cult of the Hindu gods. Siva
especially, the auspicious,'' Rudra of the Vedas; the god of the
storm, the destroyer and reproducer, was the deity venerated by the
236
Dravidians, together with his consort or "energic principle/' Durga.
(His symbol was the cobra, hers the lion, while their son was Ganesa,
elephant-headed, the god of learning.) And as the southern kingdoms
waxed strong, so their religion was pushed forward, steadily displacing
Buddhism in its home-land as it in turn spread outward over the great
continent of Asia; until the Deccan and Bengal returned to the earlier
faith, while of the structure built up by Kanishka the White Huns
had left but wreckage.
The religion of India as seen by the author of the Periplus was
therefore twofold: at Barygaza under the Saka satraps, a heterodox
Buddhism had supplanted the Law observed at Ujjeni and Pataliputta
under the Mauryas, and preached to the nations of the earth under
Asoka in the third century B. C.; while the purer form still upheld
by the Andhras could not be found at their western port, Calliena,
which the Sakas had "obstructed." In the south the earlier faich
was advancing, and in Nelcynda, where some acquaintance related to
our author the things he set down about the eastern half of India, it
was the great epics which supplied the information; the Puranas, the
Mahabharata and the Ramayana, which continued to uphold the
"southern sisters" in the use of that visible altar-flame which those
of the north had thought to replace by contemplation of the "inner
light," but were learning anew their lesson from the Katha Upanishad:
"that fire is day by day to be praised by men who wake, with the
oblation."
Underlying the formal acceptance of the Brahman faith there
still existed the earlier animism, the worship of spirits in the form of
trees and serpents, with all the train of associated beliefs described in
such works as Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship; Tylor, Primitive
Culture-, Frazer, The Golden Bough; W. Robertson Smith, The Reli-
gion of the Semites; Ernest Crawley, The Tree of Life. The identity
of belief has been indicated by the legends attached to the most treas-
ured articles of early trade. For international trade began largely on
a religious basis, and was continued as a means of elaborating worship.
And to the activity and persuasiveness of the commercial peoples may
be attributed the wide acceptance of their assertions regarding the
peculiar efficacy and sanctity of the spirits of their own sacred trees.
There was no reason per se for the Egyptian faith in myrrh as a purify-
ing and cleansing agent beyond the gum of their own trees, or for the
trust of the Babylonians and Greeks in frankincense, or of the Romans
in cinnamon, beyond their own pine-resin or the "golden bough" of
their earlier faith; it was the result of the eclectic spirit which accepted
that which was told them by strangers. The serpent-cult in Rome
237
was no mere extravagance, but reflected the early faith in the existence
of departed spirits in serpent form. The funeral of Sabina Poppaea,
with its fabulous store of spices burned, was not mere show, but was
intended to provide Nero's consort with a countless array of protect-
ing spirits in the under-world.
This formless faith was the common property of those trading
between east and west. Incorporated by Brahmanism, it persisted
almost unmodified among the caste of those trading by sea, defiled
beyond hope in Brahman eyes; it permeates the Book of the Dead
and the Gilgamesh epic; it is the background of the Old Testament
and the Koran, and it is still addressed to their jinni by those whom
the Bents visited in Dhofar and Socotra, whose ancestors were among
its earliest devotees and carried it to the ends of the earth.
59. Colchi.—This is the modern Kolkai (8° 40' N.? 78° 5'
E.). By tradition this was the earliest seat of Dravidian power in
Southern India, where Chera, Chola and Pandya, the legendary pro-
genitors of the great dynasties, ruled in common before their domin-
ions were separated. At the time of the Periplus it was one of the
chief ports of the Pandyan kingdom, being more accessible to the
capital than Nelcynda. Owing to the deposit of silt by the Tamra-
parni River the sea retired from Kolkai, and in mediaeval times
another nearby place, Kayal (the Coil of Marco Polo), became the
port. At present the trade of this district passes through Tuticorin.
{Imp. Gaz., XV, 387; a good map is given in Yule's Marco Polo,
Cordier's edition, II, 373-4.J
This is the country from which Hanuman, the monkey-god,
made his leap across the sea from the Mahendragiri mountain to Cey-
lon, and so helped Rama to the rescue of his consort Sita from
Ravana, the demon king of Ceylon, as told in the Ramayana; and
here was consequently a center of the worship of Hanuman, which
was carried afar by the Dravidian sea-folk. In the rich Wadi Tyin
in Oman, the trade of which passed through the port of Kalhat—that
Acila of Pliny (VI, 32), from which persons embarked for India,"
General Miles found a town Sibal, which, he observes, means "mon-
key," and was the name of a famous pre-Islamic idol. No monkeys
exist in Oman, but a temple stood here dedicated to that image."
{Geographical Journal, VII, 522-537).
Two shrines of Hanuman are still venerated at Surat on the
Cambay coast, which was also in constant communication with Arabia.
According to local tradition, this was the original capital of Dra-
vida-desam, and the birthplace of the dynasties ruling in Southern
India at the time of the Periplus. This dominion of the Pandyas''
238
was said to have been established by the descendants of Pandu, who
was the father of the Pandava brothers, the heroes of the North
Indian war recounted in the Mahabharata. Whether the dynastic
connection was real, or whether it was attached to the legend like
Pushkalavati and Takshasila through Pushkala and Taksha, sons of
Bharata in the Ramayana, is less important than the obvious Aryan
descent of the dynasty in this Dravidian land, and their rigid institution
of the caste-system which still prevails here in a completeness long
since outgrown in other parts of India. Those who would see in the
northern spread of this dynasty a southern origin for the Dravidian
race do not take into account the late origin of the dynasty, probably
the 5th or 4th century B. C., and its alien character among a people
already settled and developed.
Arrian (Indica, VIII) gives another version of the origin of this
dynasty, from Pandaea, who, he says, was "the only daughter of
Heracles, among many sons; the land where she was born, and over
which she ruled, was named Pandaea after her." No worthy con-
sort appearing, Heracles made her marriageable at the age of seven
years, and married her himself, that the family born from him and
her might supply kings to the Indians.''
The story is not accepted by Arrian in entire faith; he observes
that the power exerted by Heracles in hastening the maturity of
Pandaea might more naturally have been applied to the postponement
of his own senility; but, as he says in another connection (XXXI),
4'I know, however, that it is a very difficult task for one who reads
the ancient tales to prove that they are false.''
In Greek literature concerning India, Heracles is usually iden-
tified with Vishnu, and Bacchus with Siva.
The dominion of the Pandyas was divided among three reputed
brothers, Chera, Chola and Pandya, in which form it appears in
Asoka's inscription of the 3d century B. C, and in the Periplus.
The capital had been removed, as Pliny states, to Madura (9° 55'
N., 78° 1' E.), which the Ramayana describes as a great city, its
gates being of gold inlaid with gems.
The seceding kingdoms were larger and more powerful than the
original, the most important being the Chola, the Coast Country''
of § 59-
The dynastic succession of these kingdoms forms the longest un-
broken chain in Indian history, covering a period of at least two
thousand years.
(See Imperial Gazetteer, XVI, 389;—Vincent Smith, Early History,
341-7; and authorities quoted on p. 209.)
239
The Dravidians of Southern India were active traders and colo-
nists in Ceylon, in opposition to the native Sinhalese, with whom they
were in frequent conflict, and in spite of whom they had extended
their power effectually over the northwestern coast of Ceylon, the
region of the pearl-fisheries.
59. Pearl-fisheries.—These were, as at present, in the shallow
waters of the Gulf of Manar. (See under §§ 35, 36, and 56. J
Pliny (IX, 54-8) says that pearls came into general use in Rome
after the surrender of Alexandria; but that they first began to be used
about the time of Sylla.
"The first rank, and the very highest position among all valu-
ables belongs to the pearl. . . . The most productive of pearls is the
island of Taprobane.
"The origin and production of the shell-fish is not very different
from that of the shell of the oyster. When the genial season of the
year exercises its influence on the animal, it is said that, yawning, as
it were, it opens its shell, and so receives a kind of dew, by means of
which it becomes impregnated; and that at length it gives birth, after
many struggles, to the burden of its shell, in the shape of pearls,
which vary according to the quality of the dew. If this has been in a
perfectly pure state when it flowed into the shell, then the pearl pro-
duced is white and brilliant, but if it was turbid, then the pearl is of a
clouded color also; if the sky should happen to have been lowering
when it was generated, the pearl will be of a pallid color; from all
which it is quite evident that the quality of the pearl depends much
more upon a calm state of the heavens than of the sea, and hence it
is that it contracts a cloudy hue, or a limpid appearance, according to
the degree of serenity of the sky in the morning. ... It is wonder-
ful that they should be influenced thus pleasurably by the state of the
heavens, seeing that by the action of the sun the pearls a/e turned of
a red color, and lose all their whiteness, just like the human body.
Hence it is that those which keep their whiteness best are the deep-
sea pearls, which lie at too great a depth to be reached ly the sun's
rays. I have seen pearls still adhering to the shell; for which reason
the shells were used as boxes for ointments.
"The fish, as soon as it even perceives the hand, shuts its shell
and covers up its treasures, being well aware that it is for them that it
is sought; and if it happens to catch the hand it cuts it off with the
sharp edge of the shell. . . . The greater part of these pearls are
only to be found among rocks and crags, while, on the other hand,
those that lie out in the deep sea are generally accompanied by sea-
240
dogs. And yet, for all this, the women will not banish these gems
from their ears!
"Our ladies glory in having pearls suspended from their fingers,
or two or three of them dangling from their ears, delighted even with
the rattling of the pearls as they knock against each other; and now,
at the present day, the poorer classes are even affecting them, as
people are in the habit of saying, that 'a pearl worn by a woman in
public is as good as a. lictor walking before her.' Nay, even more
than this, they put them on their feet, and that, not only on the laces
of their sandals but all over the shoes; it is not enough to wear pearls,
but they must tread upon them, and walk with them under foot as
well. "I once saw Lollia Paulina, the wife of the Emperor Caius—it
was not at any public festival, or any solemn ceremonial, but only at
an ordinary betrothal entertainment—covered with emeralds and
pearls, which shone in alternate layers upon her head, in her hair,
in her wreaths, in her ears, upon her neck, in her bracelets, and on
her fingers, and the value of which amounted in all to 40,000,000
sesterces; indeed she was prepared at once to prove the fact, by
showing the receipts and acquittances. Nor were these any presents
made by a prodigal potentate, but treasures which had descended to
her from her grandfather, and obtained by the spoliation of the prov-
inces. Such are the fruits of plunder and extortion! It was for this
reason that M. Lollius was held so infamous all over the East for the
presents which he extorted from the kings; the result of which was,
that he was denied the friendship of Caius Caesar, and took poison;
and all this was done, I say, that his granddaughter might be seen, by
by the glare of lamps, covered all over with jewels to the amount of
forty millions of sesterces!"
Pliny then recounts the well-known story of Cleopatra's wager
with Antony to serve him an entertainment costing ten millions of
sesterces, and of her dissolving a great pearl in vinegar and swallow-
ing it. The same thing had been done before, he says, in Rome, by
Clodius, son of the tragic actor Aesopus, who served a meal in which
each guest was given a pearl to swallow.
Of the pearl industry, Marco Polo says (III, xvi): "All round
this gulf the water has a depth of not more than 10 or 12 fathoms,
and in some places not more than 2 fathoms. . The pearl-fishers
take their vessels, great and small, and proceed into this gulf, where
they stop from the beginning of April till the middle of May. . . .
Of the produce they have first to pay the king, as his royalty, the
tenth part. And they must also pay those men who charm the great
241
fishes (sharks) to prevent them from injuring the divers whilst en-
gaged in seeking pearls under water, one-twentieth part of all that
they take. These fish-charmers are termed Abraiaman (Brahmans);
and their charm holds good for that day only, for at night they dissolve
the charm so that the fishes can work mischief at their will."
There can be little doubt that this kind of protection was sought by
the divers at the time of the Periplus, and Yule observed it still in force,
one of the ''Brahmans" exercising this ancestral office being a Christian! m
In the case of frankincense, pepper and diamonds, the guardian
spirits took the form of serpents and were appeased or repelled by
other spirits or by sacred birds. But sharks called for the visible aid
of the priests. We may suppose the shark to have been a soulless
and unimpressionable demon, or else that the industry dates from a
time after the Aryan invasion of Southern India, so that the priestly
caste could properly decline to stand aside for the benefit of the ser-
pent-cults that had preceded them.
59. Coast country.—This country, different from, and be-
yond, the Pandyan kingdom, is the third of the Dravidian states,
the Chola kingdom 3 at the time of the Periplus, as it states, the
largest, richest, and most prosperous of the. three. "Coast Country"
is from the native name, "Chola coast," Chola-mandalajn^ from which
the Portuguese derived our modern word Coromandel. By the Sara-
cens it was given another name, Maabar, not to he confused with
Malabar; the meaning being ferrying-place," and referring to the
shipping-trade for Malacca and the Far East. By the Ceylonese it
was called So/i, which name they applied to both Chola and Pandya,
even though their relations with Madura were more important. The
boundaries were, roughly, from the Penner River on the north (emp-
tying into the Bay of Bengal at 14° 40' N.), and on the south the
Valiyar River (10° 3' N.), or even the Vaigai (9° 20' N.). During
the mediaeval period the Chola kingdom conquered and absorbed its
progenitor, the Pandyan, and they are still classified together in the
modern "Carnatic."
The pearl-fisheries belonging to this kingdom, the product of
which was sold only at the capital, Uraiyur, were those of the Palk
Strait, north of Adam's Bridge, as distinguished from those of the
Gulf of Manar, which belonged to the Pandyan kingdom, and were
administered from Madura.
59. Argaru.—This is nearly a correct transliteration of Urai-
yur ("city of habitation"), the ancient capital of the Chola kingdom,
now part of Trichinopoly (10° 49' N., 78° 42' E. ).
242
Previous identifications of this name have failed to take into ac-
count the fact that it was inland, and in a different country from the
Pandyan kingdom.
The capital grew up around a fortress built on the summit of the
Rock of Trichinopoly, which rises abruptly out of the plain to a height
of 340 feet above the old city, which nestles picturesquely at its foot.
"The view from the frowning heights of the rock is very grand.
Little is now left of the old fortifications but the citadel and a pagoda-
like temple. A covered passage hewn out of the rock leads to them.''
(Furneaux, India, p. 430.)
After the destruction of Uraiyur about the 7th century A. D.,
the capital was removed to Malaikurram, the modern Kumbakonam
(10° 58' N., 79° 22' E.), which still retains traces of its former
grandeur; and after other changes to Tanjore (10° 47' N., 79° 8'E.).
(Sir Walter Elliot, Coins of Southern India, 130; Vincent Smith, Early
History, 164, 342.)
59. Argaritic muslins.—The textile industry of both Trichi-
nopoly (or Uraiyur) and Tanjore has been famous from early times.
There can be little doubt that some of the finest fabrics that reached
the Roman world came from this kingdom of Chola. From this part
of India, in the middle ages, came those gold-threaded embroideries
which were in such demand in the Saracen markets.
60. Ships from the north—that is, . from the Ganges and
Bengal. Kalidasa, in the Raghuvamsa, tells of a tour of conquest of
India, made by Raghu, the great-grandfather of Rama; starting from
Ayodhya (the modern Oudh) he went eastward to the ocean, "having
conquered the Bangalis, who trusted in their ships." (Foulkes, in
Indian Antiquary, 1879, pp. 1-10.)
60. Camara.—Ptolemy mentions a Chaberis emporion, at one of
the mouths of the Kaverl River; probably both this and the Camara
of the Periplus were nearly, if not quite, identical with the modern
Karikal (10° 55'N., 79° 50' E.).
60. Poduca.—This is probably intended for Puducliclieri, new
town," the modern Pondicherry (11° 56' N., 79° 49' E.). So
Bohlen, Ritter, Benfey, Miiller, McCrindle and Fabricius; Yule,
following Lassen, prefers Pulikat (13° 25' N., 80° 19' Ej.
60. Sopatma.—This is probably Su-patana, "fair town," and
may be identified with the modern Madras (13° 4' N., 80° 15' E.).
Lassen (II, 542) doubts the possibility of identifying either
Camara or Sopatma; and there is no evidence that Pondicherry ex-
isted at the time of the Periplus. The location of all three ports can
be no more than conjectural.
243
60. Ships of the country: Sangara.—The first were, no
doubt, the craft made of hollowed logs with plank sides and outriggers,
such as are still used in South India and Ceylon (pictured on
p. 212); the larger type, sangara, were probably made of two such
canoes joined together by a deck-platform admitting of a fair-sized
deck-house. Dr. Taylor {Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Jan.,
1847, pp. 1-78), says that the name jangar is still used on the Malabar
coast for these double canoes. Caldwell gives the forms changadam
in Malayalam; jangala in Tulu; and samghadam in Sanscrit, "a
raft." Benfey (art. on India in Ersch & Gruber's Encyklopadic, 307)
derives it from the Sanscrit sangara, meaning 'trade;" Lassen, how-
ever (II, 543 J, doubts the application of the word to shipping, and
Heeren (Ideen uber die Politik, etc., I, iii, 361) ascribes the word to
a Malay original. This is quite possible, as the type itself is Malay,
and found throughout the archipelago.

Modern double canoe with deck-structure, of the sangara type; in general
use in South India, Ceylon, and the Eastern Archipelago.
The comparatively large size of the shipping on the Coromandel
coast is indicated also by the Andhra coinage, on which a frequent
symbol is a ship with two masts, apparently of considerable tonnage.
244
"The maritime traffic, to which the ship type bears witness, is also
attested by the large numbers of Roman coins which are found on the
Coromandel Coast." (E. J. Rapson, Coins of the Andhra Dynasty y
lxxxii).
Early South Indian Coins
(re-drawn and restored from Elliot, Coins of Southern India)
Plate I, fig. 38 Plate II, fig. 45

The shipping of the Andhra and Pallava coins doubtless survives
in the modern "masula boats" at Madras:
"The harbor (of Madras) can never be a harbor of refuge, and
all that the works will secure is immunity for landing and shipping
operations from the tremendous surf which is so general along the
whole of the Coromandel coast. . . . Passenger traffic from the
shore to the vessels is carried on by jolly-boats from the pier, or masulah
boats from the shore. These latter are relics of a bygone day, when
Madras was an open roadstead and when landing through the surf by
any form of jolly-boat was a matter extremely difficult, if not impos-
sible. These masulah boats are flat-bottomed barges constructed of
planks sewn together with rope of cocoanut fibre, caulked with oakum,
and are able to withstand better than far more solidly built craft the
shock of being landed on the sandy beach from the crest of a seething
breaker." (Furneaux, India, 254.)
245
Similar in a general way to the Andhra coin-symbol is the Guja-
rati ship carved in bas-relief on the frieze of the Buddhist temple at
Boroboedor in Java. While dating from about 600 A. D., this vessel
was probably not different from those of the 1st century, while the
short broad sail with double yards is identical with those of the
Egyptian Punt Expedition of the 15th century B. C.

Gujarati ship of about 600 A. D.; from the Boroboedor frieze. Ships of
this type were doubtless included among the trappaga and cotymba of § 44, which
piloted merchants into Barygaza.
"In the year 525 (Saka era, = 603 A. D.), it being foretold to
a king of Gujarat that his country would decay and go to ruin, he
resolved to send his son to Java. He embarked with about 5000
followers in 6 large and about 100 small vessels, and after a voyage of
four months reached an island they supposed to be Java; but finding
themselves mistaken, re-embarked, and finally settled at Matarem, in
the center of the island they were seeking. . . . The prince now
found that men alone were wanting to make a great and flourishing
state. He accordingly applied to Gujarat for assistance, when his
father, delighted at his success, sent him a reinforcement of 2000
people. . . . From this period Java was known and celebrated as a
kingdom; an extensive commerce was carried on with Gujarat and
other countries, and the bay of Matarem was filled with adventurers
from all parts." (Sir Stamford Raffles, His/o>y of Java, II, 87 ff.)
246
60. Colandia:—This name seems to be of Malay origin, and
perhaps means no more than "ship." Koleh panjail, "sailing ship,"
is the name for the fast fishermen entered in modern Singapore re-
gattas. (Pritchett, Sketches of Shipping and Craft, 166.)
The text is kolandiophonta, generally supposed to be corrupt, the
onta being the present participle of "to be." But Rajendralala
Mitra {Antiquities of Orissa, I, 115) derives the word from the San-
scrit kolantarapota, "ships for going to foreign shores."

Burmese laung-zSt, (without rigging); a carvel-built vessel on the same lines
as the dug-out laung-go for river use. The larger type, in general use on the
Chindwin River, shows Chinese influence, although the lines are those of ancient
Egypt. This type displays the stern-cabins differently arranged from those in
the higher-built Chinese junk. See also Chatterton, Sailing Ships, 7, 31.
The colandia which made the voyage to Chryse and were of great
.size, must have been similar to the Chinese junks or the Burmese
./aung-'zdt, kattu or Chindwin traders. The sea-trade of the Gulf of
Tonkin was of very early date. Chinese annals mention voyages to
Malacca prior to the Christian era, and probably as early as the 12th
century B. C. This region, known to the Chinese as Yiie-chdng,
was independent until the extension of the Chinese boundaries under
the Han dynasty (2d century B. C). The compass, or "south-
pointing chariot," was known in the 11th century B. C, but, as indi-
247
cated by Hirth {Ancient History of China, pp. 126-136), was probably
used mainly for geomancy until applied to navigation by Persians and
Arabs visiting China in the 6th and 7th centuries A. D. The Chinese
themselves steered by the stars and the sun, and by observing the
nature of the sea-bottom.

Model of an early type of Chinese junk, showing the individual cabins in the
stern-structure, each occupied by a merchant with his stock of goods, as told by
Marco Polo; from the serial collection of models of commercial shipping, exhib-
ited in the Commercial Museum, Philadelphia.
The Arabian geographer Mas'udi mentions Chinese junks which
came to Rassora in his time, and in the cave-paintings at Ajanta,
248
commemorative of the visit of a Persian embassy in the early 7th cen-
tury, a ship is shown which, if not a junk, is manifestly influenced by
that type of vessel. (See Torr, Ancient Ships, plate VII, fig. 40.)
Marco Polo (Book III, Chap. I) gives a detailed description of
the junks of that day: (Yule's edition II, 249-51.)
''The ships in which merchants go to and fro amongst the Isles
of India, are of fir timber. They have but one deck, though each of
them contains some 50 or 60 cabins, wherein the merchants abide
greatly at their ease, every man having one to himself. The ship
hath but one rudder, but it hath four masts; and sometimes they have
two additional masts, which they ship and unship at pleasure. . . .
'The larger of their vessels have some thirteen compartments or
severances in the interior, made with planking strongly framed, in
case mayhap the ship should spring aleak. . .
The fastenings are all of good iron nails and the sides are
double, one plank laid over the other, and caulked outside and in . . .
with lime and chopped hemp, kneaded together with wood-oil.
"Each of their great ships requires at least 200 mariners, some
of them 300. They are indeed of great size, for one ship shall carry
5000 or 6000 baskets of pepper; and they used formerly to be larger
than they are now. And when there is no wind they use sweeps, so
big that to pull them requires four mariners to each. . . . Every great
ship has certain large barks or tenders attached to it; these are large
enough to carry 1000 baskets of pepper, and carry 50 or 60 mariners
apiece; some of them 80 or 100." So Fa-Hien left Ceylon in 'a large merchantman, on board of which there were more than 200
men, and to which was attached, by a rope, a smaller vessel, as a
provision against damage or injury to the large one from the perils of
the navigation." (Travels, chap. xi. ) And landing from this vessel
in Java-dvipa, where he spent five months, he "again embarked in
another large merchantman, which also had on board more than 200
men. They carried provisions for 50 days.''
(See Yule's Marco Polo, II, 252-3, for description of junks in
other mediaeval writers; also, for a full account of Burmese ship-
building, primitive and modern, Ferrars, Burma, 132-8.)
60. Imported . . everything.—Yule, in his Marco Polo (II,
333), quotes from the Arab geographer Wassaf: "Maabar extends in
length from Quilon to Nellore, nearly 300 parasangs along the sea-
coast. The curiosities of Chin and Machin, and the beautiful prod-
ucts of Hind and Sind, laden on large ships which they call Junks,
sailing like mountains with the wings of the wind on the surface of
the water, are always arriving there. The wealth of the Isles of the
249
Persian Gulf in particular, and in part the beauty and adornment of
other countries, from Irak and Khurasan as far as Rum and Europe,
are derived from Maabar, which is so situated as to be the key of
Hind."
Marco himself (III, xx) calls Chola ''the kingdom of Maabar
called Soli, which is the best and noblest province in India, and where
the best pearls are found."
Friar Odoric (chap, iv) says of this kingdom: "The king of
the said region is most rich in gold, silver and precious stones, and
and there be the fairest unions (pearls) in all the world."
61. Palaesimundu.—This is the modern Ceylon. According
to Lassen (I, 201) this word is the Sanscrit Palhimanta^ ''abode of
the law of piety/' that is, the Dharma of Gautama Buddha. The
distinction is of interest3 "by the ancients" it was called Taprobane, which is the Sanscrit Tamraparm, the name given to it in the Rama-
yana. The knowledge concerning Ceylon which reached the west
through Onesicritus, Eratosthenes and Strabo, was of the island before
its conversion to Buddhism under the missionary zeal of Asoka. Our
author speaks of it in the time of its greatest devotion to the new
religion, which its neighbors the Dravidian kingdoms of Southern
India never fully accepted.
According to McCrindle {Ancient India, 20, 160), the name
Taprobane, or Tamraparm, was given by Vijaya, who led the first Indian
colony into the island, and applied to the place where he first landed.
The name means "copper-colored;" compare Tamra-lipti, the sea-
port town at the mouth of the Ganges. The Pali form, Tambapanni, appears in the inscription of Asoka at Girnar. Another Brahmanical
name, Dvipa Ravana, "island of Ravana," (the demon-king, kid-
napper of Sita in the Ramayana), is thought by some to be the origin
of Taprobane.
Ptolemy notes that the ancient name was Simundu (mistaking the
first two syllables of our author's word Palaesimundu for the Greek
pa/ai), but in his own time Salike, the country of the Salae. Cosmas
Indicopleustes called it Sielediba; which, as McCrindle notes, is
through the Pali the true Sanscrit name for the island: Sinhala-dvipa,
"island of the lions," or lion-like men-heroes. To this source
may be traced its other names, Serendib, Sylan, and Ceylon."
Pliny knows the name Palasimundus (VI, 24) but applies it to a
city "adjoining the harbor that lies facing the south," and calls it
"the most famous city in the island, the king's place of residence,
containing a population of 200,000." But there is no harbor on the
south coast of Ceylon, and Pliny seems to be confusing his city and
250
harbor with the actual position of the island in relation to the ancient
harbor, now lost, at Cape Comorin.
In the Ramayana the Sinhalese are referred to as rakshas and
nagas, demons and spirits, not human because racially opposed to the
Aryan invaders. So Fa-Hien describes them in an interesting passage
relating to their trade (Travels, chap, xxxviii): "the country originally
had no human inhabitants, but was occupied only by spirits and nagas,
with which merchants of various countries carried on a trade. When
trafficking was taking place, the spirits did not show themselves. They
simply set forth their precious things with labels of the price attached
to them; while the merchants made their purchases according to the
price; and took the things away/' And he found in the capital city
many Vaisya clans and Sabaean merchants, whose houses are stately
and beautiful."
Cosmas Indicopleustes (Christian Topography, book XI), tells of
Ceylon and its trade in the 6th century A. D.; his account amplifies
what is said in the Periplus, and a translation is appended for com-
parison:
"This is the great island of the ocean, situated in the Indian Sea;
which is called by the Indians Sielediba, by the Greeks Taprobane,
where the hyacinthus stone is found; and it lies beyond the pepper
country. It has other small islands scattered around it in great num-
ber; of which some have fresh water, and cocoanut palms. They
are very close to one another. But that great island, so its inhabitants
say, is 300 leagues in length, and in breadth about 90 miles. Two
kings reign in the island, hostile to each other; of whom one has the
region of the hyacinthus, and the other the rest of the island, in which
is the market-town and port. It is frequented by a great press of
merchants from far countries. In that island is established the Church
of Christ, of the sect of the Persians, and there is a presbyter sent
from Persia, and a deacon, and the whole service of the church. But
the natives, and the kings, are of other faiths. Many temples are to
be seen in this island; on the top of one of them, they say, is a hya-
cinthus, in full view, sparkling and very great, like a great spinning-
top; and it shines brightly, sending out fiery rays almost like the sun
itself, a marvellous sight. From all parts of India, Persia and Aethi-
opia come a multitude of ships to this island, which is placed as it
were midway between all lands; and it sends ships likewise hither
and thither in all directions.
"From the inner regions, that is, from Tzinista and from the
other market-towns, are brought silk cloth, aloe-wood, cloves,
and sandalwood, and other products according to the place; and it
251
forwards them to those of the outside, that is, to Male, in which
pepper grows; to Calliana, where brass is found, and sesamin wood,
and various kinds of cloth (for it, too, is a great market-town); and
to Sindu, where the castor musk is found, and spikenard; and to
Persia, to the country of the Homerites, and Adulis; and in return
it receives other things from all these places, which it transmits to the
inner regions, with its own products likewise. Now Sindu is the
beginning of India; for the river Indus, which empties into the Per-
sian Gulf, separates Persia from India. These are the best-known
market-towns of India: Sindu, Orrhotha, Calliana, Sibor, and Male
which has five ports to which pepper is brought; Parti, Mangarouth,
Salopatana, Nalopatana, Pudapatana. And then, at a distance of
about five days and nights from the mainland, out in the ocean, is
Sielediba, that is, Taprobane. Then again, on the mainland, is a
market-town, Marallo, shipping conch-shells; and there is Kaber,
shipping alabandenum, and then the country from which cloves are
shipped; and then Tzinista, which sends silk cloth; within which
there is no other land, for the ocean encircles it on the east.
And so this island Sielediba, placed in the midst of India, which
produces the hyacinthus, receives goods from all markets and ships to
all, being itself a very great market. And there came thither on matters
of trade one from our own parts, named Sopater, who died about 35
years ago. And his business took him to the island of Taprobane,
where it happened that a vessel arrived at the same time from Persia,
and there landed together those from Adulis, among whom was
Sopater, and those from Persia, among whom was an ambassador
of the Persians. And so, as the custom was, the captains and
tax-collectors receiving them, brought them before the king. And
being admitted into the presence of the king, after they had offered
the proper homage, he bade them be seated. And then he asked
them: How goes it with your countries, and how with your trade
and commerce?" "Excellently well," they said. Replying, the
king asked, "Who, of your kings, is the greatest and most power-
ful?" Without delay the Persian answered: "Ours is the most
powerful, the greatest and the richest; he is the king of kings; and
he has power to do whatever he wills." But Sopater was silent.
Then said the king, You, Roman, have you nothing to say?"
And Sopater replied, "What have I to say, when this man says such
things? If you wish to learn the truth, you have both kings here;
examine them, and you will see which one is the most magnificent
and the most powerful'' But the king was amazed at this speech,
and said, "How have I both kings here?'' And he answered, "You
252
have the money of both; you have the gold coin of the one king,
and the drachma of the other, that is, the milliarense; compare the ■
images of both, and you will see the truth." And he, approving
and assenting, bade that both be produced. Now the gold coin was
fine, bright, and well-shaped; for thus are the best exported thither;
and the milliarense was of silver and I need hardly say, not to be com-
pared with the gold coin. The king looked at both obverse and
reverse, and then at the other; and held forth the gold coin with
admiration, saying, "Truly the Romans are magnificent and powerful
and wise." And he commanded that Sopater should be treated with
honor; that he should be seated upon an elephant, and led around
the whole city with drums, and acclaimed. This Sopater told me,
and those also from Adulis, who voyaged with him to that island.
And when these things happened, so they say, the Persian was greatly
ashamed."
61. Almost touches Azania.—Our author's ideas of the
world in general are similar to those of Pomponius Mela, with whom
he was nearly contemporary; whose map (reproduced on p. 100)
retains the old idea of a balancing southern ''continent of the Antich-
thones," with the eastern end of which he identifies Taprobane.
The Periplus does not indicate quite that extent for Ceylon, but ex-
aggerates its size tenfold. The confusion may have been partly due
to the grandiloquent descriptions left by the Ceylonese embassy which
visited the Emperor Augustus. (See Bunbury, History of Ancient
Geography, Vol. II.)
62. Masalia.—This is the Maisolia of Ptolemy, who has a
river Maisolos, probably the Kistna. In Sanscrit, as McCrindle shows,
the name is Mausala, which survives in Machhlipatana, the modern
Masulipatam (16° 11' N., 81° 8' E.), until the construction of the
Bombay railway the chief port of entry for the Deccan. At the date
of the Periplus it was, no doubt, the greatest market of the Andhra
kingdom. Tavernier found it (I, xi) "the best anchorage in the
Bay of Bengal, and the only place from which vessels sail for Pegu,
Siam, Arakan, Bengal, Cochinchina, Mecca, and Hormus, as also
for the islands of Madagascar, Sumatra, and the Manillas."
The text notes the great quantity of cotton cloth made there.
In Tavernier's time it was especially noted for its painted, or pen-
cilled, chintzes (II, xii) "called calmendar, that is to say, made with
a brush." He contrasted these fine hand-painted fabrics with the
coarse printed goods from Bengal. The supply, he observes, was never
equal to the demand.
See also Imperial Gazetteer, XVII, 215.
253
The difficulties of travel through the Andhra kingdom are noted
under § 50. Fa-Hien also found the kingdom of Dakshina "out of
the way and perilous to traverse. There are difficulties in connection
with the roads; but those who know how to manage such difficulties
and wish to proceed should bring with them money and various
articles and give them to the king. He will send mento escort them.
These will, at different stages, pass them over to others, who will
show them the shortest routes." ( Travels, xxxv.)
62. Dosarene.—This is the Sanscrit Dasarna, the modern
Orissa, the "Holy Land of India." The name appears in the Vishnu
Purana and the Ramayana, as a populous and powerful country.
Ptolemy mentions also a river Dosaron, the modern Mahanadi. The
ivory from this region has long been famous. It is mentioned both
in the Mahabharata and the Vishnu Purana, as the most acceptable
offering which the "king of the Odras" could take to the Pandu
sovereign. (See also Mitra, Antiquities of Orissa, 1,6.)
62. Cirrhadae.—This was a Bhota tribe, whose descendants,
still known as Kirata, live in the Morung, west of Sikkim. They
are of Turanian race, with marked Mongolian features as described;
and were formerly independent and powerful, having provided a dy-
nasty of considerable duration in Nepal. Their location is not on the
sea, as indicated by the text, but in the valleys of the Himalayas; we
need only omit the words "the course trending, " easily inserted by a
scribe, to make our author's information correct. The Mahabharata
locates them on the Brahmaputra.
Lassen (I, 441-450) fully describes the Bhota race, whose name
survives in the modern Bhutan. They were allied to the Tibetans,
and inhabited much of Bengal at the time of the Aryan migration.
Lassen names ten different tribes, one being the Kirata. Their native
capital was at Mokwanpur in Eastern Nepal. They were a warlike,
uncultivated, polygamous race, whose native animism yielded imper-
fectly to Brahman or Buddhist teaching, and whose neglect of religious
rites caused the Brahman Hindus to reduce them to the rank of
Sudras. Hence the contemptuous description of their Mongolian
faces as "noseless." Pliny calls them Scyrites (VII, 2), and says
"they have merely holes in their heads instead of nostrils, and flexible
feet, like the body of a serpent." Ptolemy calls their country Kir-
rhadia.
The Kirata were under-sized, and by the Aryan Hindus were
called "pigmies." In the Brahman mythology there was a bird of
Vishnu, called Garuda, who was a special enemy of the Kirata, and
254
Lassen (II, 657) thinks this story the original of the battle between
pigmies and cranes, in Hesiod and other Greek writers.
Megasthenes relates the story in some detail, and is reproved by
Strabo (XV, i, 57): "he then deviates into fables, and says that there
are men of five, and even three spans in height, some of whom are
without nostrils, with only two breathing orifices above the mouth.
Those of three spans in height wage war with the cranes (described
by Homer) and with the partridges, which are as large as geese;
these people collect and destroy the eggs of the cranes which lay their
eggs there \ and nowhere else are the eggs or the young cranes to be
found 3 frequently a crane escapes from this country with a brazen
point of a weapon in its body, wounded by these people."
This tribe is especially referred to in one of the Kavyas, called
Kiratarjunzya, which recounts the combat, first mentioned in the Ala-
hdbharata^ between Siva in the guise of a Kirata, or mountaineer, and
Arjuna.
62. Bargysi.—These are the Bhargas of the Vishnu Purana,
there mentioned as neighbors of the Kirata, and doubtless of like race.
(Taylor, Remarks on the Sequel to the Periplus, in Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal^ Jan. 1847.)
62. Horse-faces and Long-faces.—This is no invention
of our author, but was no doubt told him by some friend at Nelcynda,
who spoke by his book—the Sanscrit writings. The Aryans professed
the greatest contempt for the Tibeto-Burman races at their eastern
frontier, and their references to them are full of exaggeration and
fable. The Vara Sanhita Purana mentions a people ''in the moun-
tains east of India," that is, in the hills on the Assam-Burma frontier,
called Asvavadana, horse-faced."
(Taylor, op. cit.; so Wilford in Asiatic Researches^ VIII and IX.)
62. Said to be Cannibals.—Herodotus notices such a custom
among the "other Indians, living to the east, who are nomads and
eat raw flesh, who are called Padaeans." (Ill, 99.) 'When any
one of the community is sick, whether it be a woman or a man, if it
be a man the men who are his nearest connections put him to death,
alleging that if he wasted by disease his flesh would be spoiled; but
if he denies that he is sick, they, not agreeing with him, kill and feast
upon him. And if a woman be sick, in like manner the women who
are most intimate with her do the same as the men. And whoever
reaches old age, they sacrifice and feast upon3 but few among them
attain this state, for before that they put to death every one that falls
into any distemper."
255
So Tibullus (IV, i, 45), "Ultima vicinus Phoebo tenet Arva Pa-
daeus;" and Strabo (XV, i, 56), quoting Megasthenes' account of
Indian mountaineers "who eat the bodies of their relatives."
The same practices were said by Dr. Taylor to be followed a
couple of generations ago by the Kukis, or Kuki Chin, a Tibeto-
Burman tribe in the Chin Hills between Assam and Burma; the sick
and aged were killed and eaten because of the belief that by such
means their souls remained in the tribe, and were preserved from the
agonies of transmigration into the bodies of animals.
The name of "Padaeans" is probably meant for Purushada^ under
which they appear in the Vara Sanhita Purana.
63. Ganges.—The name is applied in the same paragraph to
district, river and town. By the district is meant Bengal; by the t
river, more especially the Hughli estuary, but east of Ganga-Sagar
island and not west of it, as at present. This, until about the 15th
century, was the largest mouth of the Ganges; the Hughli river and
Sagar island were the sacred places, and still retain their sanctity. This
ancient mouth, the Adi Ganga, silted up, and the river constantly
tending eastward, finally joined its main channel to that of the Brahma-
putra, emptying into the Meghna estuary as at present (Imp. Gaz.,
XII, 133-4). By the town of Ganges is probably meant Tamra-lipti,
the modern Tamluk (22° 18' N., 87° 56' E.), which gave its name
to the Tamra-parni river in the Pandya kingdom, and to the island of
Ceylon. This was the sea-port of Bengal in the Post-Vedic and
Buddhist periods, being frequently mentioned in the great epics. It
was the port of the Bangalis, who trusted in their ships," who were
conquered by the hero of Kalidasa's Raghuvamsa. Here it was that
Fa-Hien sojourned two years, after which he embarked in "a large
merchant vessel, and went floating over the sea to the southwest . . .
to the country of Singhala."
This identification, which is supported by many scholars, seems
preferable to that of Fergusson and Dr. Taylor, who would place
Tamra-lipti at the modern Sonargaon (23° 40' N., 90° 36' E.), the
ancient Suvarnagrama, the chief port of Eastern Bengal under the Gupta
Empire and in the middle ages. Near here was Vikramapura, the
modern Bikrampur, one of the capitals of Chandragupta Vikrama-
ditya. But its importance does not seem to date from so early a
period as that of the Periplus; while it is more likely that the name
of Ganges would have been localized on the sacred, and at that time
the principal, estuary.
Strabo has been accused of ignorance for remarking (XV, i, 13)
that the Ganges "discharges its waters by a single mouth." But his
256
information probably reflects the esteem in which that mouth was held,
as well as its predominant size, in his time
63. Malabathrum.—This was from the Eastern Himalayas,
the greatest source of supply, as noted under § 65. Ptolemy, also,
says "the best malabathrum is produced in the country of the
Cirrhadae."
63. Gangetic spikenard.—This was probably the true spike-
nard, from the Himalayas, noted under § 49, and valued sufficiently
to be shipped in considerable quantity to Nelcynda, where the Romans
found it (§ 56).
Pliny describes another kind from the Ganges (XII, 26) which
is altogether condemned, as being good for nothing; it bears the
name of ozcenitis, and emits a fetid odor." This, as Watt remarks
(pp. 451, 462, 792), was a variety of Cymbopogon or Andropogon, allied to the "nard root" of § 39; probably Cymbopogon jwarancusa.
These species, the lemon-grass, ginger-grass, citronella, etc., all yield
aromatic oils, and until recently have been much confused.
Pliny confuses this grass also with malabathrum, which, he re-
marks (XII, 59), "is said to grow in the marshes like the lentil."
63. Pearls.—These were not of the best quality; as Dr. Taylor
remarks, those of the Ganges streams are inferior, being small, often
irregular, and usually reddish.
63. Muslins of the finest sort, called Gangetic—These
are the muslins of the Dacca district, the most delicate of all the
fabrics of India, an ancient test of which was for the piece to be
drawn through a finger-ring. Ventus textilis, or nebula, were names
under which the Romans knew of them. They are mentioned in
the Institutes of Manu, in a way to show the organization of the
industry: "let a weaver who has received 10 palas of cotton thread
give them back increased to eleven, by the rice-water and the like used
in weaving; he who does otherwise shall pay a fine of 10panas."
Tavernier tells of a Persian ambassador who took his sovereign,
on returning home, "a cocoanut of the size of an ostrich's egg, en-
riched with precious stones; and when it was opened a turban was
drawn from it 60 cubits in length, and of a muslin so fine that you
would scarcely know that you had it in your hand."
The history of cotton spinning in India goes back to remote
antiquity, being associated with the Vedic gods or goddesses who are
described and pictured as wearing woven garments. The patterns of
such garments, showing great skill in both woven and tinted design, are
abundantly reproduced from early temples in Mitra {Antkuities of
257
Orissa, Vol. II), from whence it appears certain that the cotton tex-
tile industry at the time of the Christian era was far in advance of
that of any of the western countries.
While cotton may possibly have been spun first in Turkestan, it
seems more likely that it has always been native in the Indian penin-
sula and that the Aryan invaders found the cultivation and industry
both well established. The early Vedas, for example, referred prin-
cipally to woolen cloth of various kinds, some doubtless of fine
quality, such as are still made in Kashmir. In the Rig Veda the
material used in clothing is not specified.
The Mahabharata—in the Sabha Parva—enumerates presents
brought to Yudhisthira:
Cloths and skins; the former of wool and embroidered with
gold, shawls and brocades; the letter marten and weasel; blankets of
various manufacture by the Abhiras of Gujarat; cloths not of cotton,
but of sheep or goat wool, or of thread spun by worms (silk?), or of
patta fibres and linen, or woven, by Scythians, Turkharas and Kankas;
housings for elephants, by princes of the Eastern tribes, lower Bengal,
Midnapur and Ganjam; fine muslin from people of Carnatic and
Mysore.
The Ramayana mentions silken, woolen and cotton stuffs of
various kinds. The trousseau of Sita consisted of woolen stuffs,
furs, precious stones, fine silk, vestments of divers colors, princely
ornaments, and sumptuous carriages of every kind."
Heeren supposes the woolen stuffs to have been Cashmere shawls.
Ramanuja mentions a stuff from Nepal.
The change of custom as the Aryans penetrated into the hot
climate of the Ganges Valley is shown in the Laws of Manu, which
prohibited Brahmans the use of wool.
Aside from the priestly caste, however, fine fabrics of all kinds were
in use. In an early play, the Mrichchhakatika, the buffoon inquires:
"who is that gentleman dressed in silken raiment, glittering with rich
ornaments, and rolling about as if his limbs were out of joint?"
(Act IV, Sc. II).
There can be little doubt that the fine muslins of Eastern Bengal
known under such names as "Textile Breeze", "Evening Dew
or '' Running Water'' were made there before the Aryan invasion.
Spinning and weaving, of course, were both by hand, and although
this industry was renewed by the cottons from Manchester and the
starting of mills about Bombay, this superlatively fine yarn is still pro-
duced in some quantities. In 1888 the spinners who supplied the
finest quality were said to be reduced to two elderly women in the
258
village of Dhamrai, about 20 miles north of Dacca, but it was thought
that the industry might be revived with any revival of the demand for
this fine fabric.
An incredible amount of patience and skill were required in this
industry. One way of testing the fineness of the fabric, often
described by mediaeval and earlier travelers, was to pass a whole piece
of 20 yards long and 1 yard wide through an ordinary finger-ring.
The best test, however, was by the weight in proportion to size and
number of threads. It is said that 200 years ago a piece of muslin
15 yards long by 1 yard wide could be made so fine as to weigh only
900 grains, or a little over 1-10 of a pound. In 1840 a piece of the
same dimensions and texture could not be made finer than 1,600
grains and was valued at about $50. A piece of this muslin 10 yards
long by 1 yard wide could not be woven in less than five months, and
the work could only be carried oh in the rainy season when the
moisture in the air would prevent the thread from breaking.
At several places in northwestern India fine muslins were pro-
duced, but nowhere of quality equal to those of Bengal. These also
were shipped westward, appearing in the Periplus as exports at the
mouth of the Indus and at the Gulf of Cambay. The change from
hand spinning and weaving to power looms and spindles was not
gradual as in Europe, but was due to the direct importation of
European fabrics, so that a few months sufficed to destroy the earlier
industry and to lay the way for the modern textile mills of India.
(See Henry Lee, The Vegetable Lambof Tartary. J. H. Furneaux,
India: Bombay, 1899; chap. iii. T. N. Mukharji, Art Manufac-
tures of India. Also, The Cotton Plant, published by the U. S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture, 1896.)
63. Gold mines.—This was probably the gold of the Chota
Nagpur plateau, located from 75 to 150 miles west of the Ganges
mouth. The rivers flowing north and east of these highlands have
long produced alluvial gold in considerable quantities. The river
Son, which formerly flowed into the Ganges at the site of the ancient
capital Pataliputra, the modern Patna, was called by the classical
writers Erannoboas, from the Sanscrit hiranya-vaha, carrying gold."
(McCrindle, Ancient India, p. 43; cf the Aurannoboas of § 53.)
There was also a substantial supply from Tibet, which produced
the famous '"ant-gold" mentioned by all the classical writers from
Herodotus to Pliny. As Ball pointed out {Journal of the Royal Irish
AcademyJune, 1884), the ''ant-gold" was a Sanscrit name for the
small fragments of alluvial gold; this name was passed on, being ap-
plied to the dogs of the Tibetan miners, which were also referred to as
259
griffins. The "horn of the gold-digging ant," mentioned by Pliny
as preserved in the temple of Hercules at Erythrae, was a gold-miner's
pick-axe, made of a wild sheep's horn mounted on a handle. (See
Herodotus III, 102-5; Arrian, Anabasis V, 4-7 5 Strabo, XV, i, 44;
Pliny, XI, 36; McCrindle, Ancient India, 51.)
Gold was also brought into India through the Tipperah country
about 60 miles east of the Ganges delta; coming chiefly from the
river-washings of Assam and northern Burma.
Tavernier notes (III, xvi) that it was of poor quality, like the
silk of that country, and that both were sent overland to China in
exchange for silver.
In Assam, Ball notes, it was formerly the custom for the rulers
to require their subjects to wash for gold a certain number of days
every year, while regular gold-washers were taxed.
Tipperah merchants trading in Dacca, according to Tavernier
(III, xv), took back ''coral, yellow -amber, tortoise-shell bracelets,
and others of sea shells, with numerous round and square pieces of
the size of our 15 sol coins, which are also of the same tortoise-shell
and sea-shells.
The Assam washings are, however, of substantial yield, as Tav-
ernier himself states (III, xvii). See also Ball, Economic Geology of
India, p. 231, and the Alamgirriama of Muhammad Kazim (T663), in
the Indian Antiquary, July, 1887.
The coin called caltis is thought by Benfey to be the Sanscrit
kalita, numbered." There was, however, a South Indian coin
called kali (Elliot, op. cit., 137), while Vincent, quoting Stuckius,
mentions one of Bengal called kallais. Wilford {Asiatic Researches,
V, 269), preferred the refined gold called canden.
Pliny mentions gold on the Malabar coast (coming from the
mines of Mysore); but, as Watt observes (p. 565), gold has always
been mainly an article of import in India.
63. Chryse Island (the "golden").—There can be little
doubt that by this was meant the Malacca peninsula, known to Ptolemy
as the Aurea Chersonesus, although the location just opposite the
Ganges" disposes of a long voyage in rather summary fashion. Im-
mense gold mines of ancient date have been discovered in the Adalayan
State of Pahang, north of Malacca, and these are probably the ones
which gave the name of "golden" to the peninsula. It is known
from Chinese records that ships from that country made the journey
to Malacca as early as the 4th century B. C, and perhaps as early as
the 12th; while the legend of Buddha's visit to Cambodia is at least
260
suggestive of the great influence exercised from India over all Indo-
China.
H. C. Clifford {Further India, N. Y.., 1904, pp. 6-7) gives an
excellent account of the hazy, yet vaguely correct, ideas of the Romans
in the 1st and 2d centuries concerning the Far East. "Of Chryse,
the golden, Pliny has nothing to tell us, and the author of the Periplus
tells us only that it was situated opposite to the Ganges. He speaks,
however, of Thina, the land of silk, situated £where the seacoast ends
externally,' whence we may gather that Chryse was conceived by
him as an island lying not only to the east of the Ganges, but also to
the southward of the Chinese Empire. This indicates a distinct ad-
vance in knowledge, for the isle of Chryse, albeit still enveloped in a
golden haze, was to the author of the Periplus a real country, and no
mere mythical fairyland. Rumors must have reached him concerning
it, on which he believed he could rely; and this would tend to prove
that the sea-route to China via the Straits of Malacca, even though it
was not yet in general use, was no longer unknown to the mariners
of the east. We know that less than a century later the sailor Alex-
ander, from whom Marinus of Tyre derived the knowledge subse-
quently utilized by Ptolemy, himself sailed to the Malay peninsula,
and beyond, and it may safely be concluded that the feasibility of
this southeastern passage had become known to the seafarers of China
long before an adventurer from the west was enabled to test the fact
of its existence through the means of an actual voyage." And as
illustrating the state of knowledge in the Roman world in the 1st cen-
tury, Mr. Clifford aptly cites Josephus {Antiquities of the Jews, VIII, 2)
who recounts the Ophir voyages of Solomon, venturing some curious
identifications: c£At Ezion-Geber, a bay of Egypt on the Erythraean
Sea, the king constructed a number of ships. The port is now named
Berenice( !), and is near the city of Elan, formerly deemed to be in
the Hebrew jurisdiction. King Hiram greatly assisted King Solomon
in preparing his navy, sending him mariners and pilots, who conducted
Solomon's officers to the land that of old was called Ophir, but now the
Aurea Chersonesus, which belongs to India, to fetch gold."
It is uncertain what knowledge Pliny had of Further India. His.
account of Eastern Asia (VI, 20) professes to begin with the "Scy-
thian Ocean, "—that is, the Arctic—and after some names of doubtful
origin he mentions ''the Promontory of Chryse . . . and the nation
of the Attacori on the gulf of that name, a people protected by their
sunny hills from all noxious blasts . . . and in the interior the Caseri,
a people of India, who look toward the Scythians, and eat human
flesh. Here are also numerous wandering nomad tribes of India."
261
The numerous migrations from India into Indo-China, both
before and after the Christian era, give ample ground for the belief
that the ports of South India and Ceylon were in truth, as the Peri-
plus states, the center of an active trade with the Far East, employing
larger ships, and'in greater number, than those coming from Egypt.
The great migration from Gujarat to Java in the 6th century
A. D., and the resulting Hindu kingdoms, have already been referred
to, and their greatest monuments remain to us in the tremendous
Buddhist temples of Boroboedor and Brambanan. If Clifford's belief
is correct, the ruins at Angkor-Wat in Cambodia are no less distinc-
tively of ancient Hindu origin. Of these he quotes Francois Gamier:
''Perhaps never, in any place, has a more imposing mass of stone
been raised with more art and science. If we wonder at the Pyra-
mids as a gigantic achievement of human strength and patience, then
to a strength and patience no whit less here we must add genius!' *
64. A Land called This.—This can hardly be other than the
great western state of China, Ts'in, and "the city called Thinae"
(meant, probably, as the genitive of This), was its capital, Hien-
yang, later known as Si-gnan-fu, on the Wei river not far above its
confluence with the Hoang-ho, in the present province of Shen-sL
This state of Ts'in was for centuries the most powerful of the
Chinese states, and a constant menace to the imperial power. The
Chou dynasty, which ruled from 867 to 255 B. C, found itself
harassed in the west by the Tartar tribes, and in the east by rebel-
lious subjects, the states of Wei, Han, Chau, Ts'i and Ch'u. Very
early in the dynasty, perhaps in the 8th century B. C, a portion of
their sovereign rights were resigned to the prince of Ts'in, in con-
sideration of his undertaking the defence of the frontier against the
Tartars. This policy naturally profited Ts'in more than the empire,
and the princes of Ts'in, as the annals put it, "like wolves or tigers
wished to draw all the other princes into their claws, so that they
might devour them.'' The power of Ts'in grew until it overbalanced
the confederation of eastern states, and the imperial power itself. As
Tartar territory was conquered it was incorporated into the Ts'in
dominions, and finally a Ts'in prince became Emperor of China in
255 B. C. The greatest of the Ts'in monarchs, Ts'in Chi Hwangti,
who ruled from 221 to 209 B. C, is one of the brighest names in
Chinese history. It was he who began the Great Wall, and who
pushed the Chinese frontier across the Gobi desert, making Hami,
under the Tian-Shan mountains, his outpost, and thus preparing the
way for direct communication with Bactria. Regular caravan travel
between China and Bactria is said to have begun in 188 B. C.
262
But the success of Ts'in had brought its own reaction. It was
itself so much a Tartar state that it could not control all China, and
it gave way to the Han dynasty. The political importance of the
state was emphasized, however, by the first Han emperor, Kaotsou,
who removed his capital from Loyang in Honan to Hien-Yang or
Singanfu in Shensi, the ancient Ts'in capital, and in order to make that
western location more accessible to the rest of the empire, built a
great high-road from Loyang to Singanfu, which is still in use.

Buddhist pilgrim in northwestern China: from a 6-ft. panel in the Commercial
Museum, Philadelphia, 1128 times enlarged from a portion of a film exposed by-
Bailey Willis, Carnegie Institution, Washington.
263
The Han dynasty soon lost its outposts beyond the wall, and
made no effort to recover them until the reign of Kwang Vouti,
25-58 A. D., who made China a military power and conquered
Anam, and by his policy toward the Yueh-chi reasserted sovereignty
over Turkestan. His son, Mingti, began the aggressive westward
policy which led to the great conquests of the General Pan-chao, who
led his army of Chinese and Tartars as far as the Caspian, and who
defeated near Khotan the Yueh-chi king Kadphises, then estab-
lished in upper India. It was in this region that Buddhism seems first
to have reached China, rather than through Tibet or Burma, and from
this time China was always more or less directly in communication
with Western Asia.
(See Hirth, Ancient History of China;—Richard, Comprehensive
Geography of the Chinese Empire;—Douglas, China;—Boulger, History
of China;—E. H. Parker, China;—H. B. Morse, The Trade and
Administration of the Chinese Empire. )
64. Raw silk and silk yarn and silk cloth.—See also
under §§ 39, 49 and 56. This is the earliest correct statement of the
source of silk and of the routes by which it reached the world's
markets.
Silk is the cocoon-secretion of the mulberry-leaf moth, Bombyx
mori, family Bombycidtz, order Lepidoptera; native, apparently, and
first cultivated, in the warm-temperate climate of northwestern China.
Chinese legends mention the making of musical instruments of
wood, with silk threads, under the emperor Fu-hi, (29th century
B. C), while the rearing of the worms and the invention of reel,
loom, etc., are ascribed to Lei-tsu, known as the Lady of Si-ling,''
wife of the emperor Huang-ti (27th century B. C-). Cloth was
woven of silk, embroidered by the empress, and those of the higher
classes were enabled to discard skins as wearing apparel. Soon other
textile materials were discovered,-and dyeing introduced; so that rank
and position were for the first time indicated by the man's outward
appearance.
In the Chou-/i, dating from the 11th century B. C, it appears
that the Chinese government supervised the production of silk in every
detail, and that specialties of design, ornament, and embroidery, were
already monopolized in different families. The same book describes
the provinces of China: King-chou, the modern Hu-nan, had a trade
in cinnabar, ivory, and skins; Yu-chou, next on the north and reach-
ing the Yellow River, traded in bamboos, varnish, silk and hemp;
while the northernmost, Ping-chou (the modern Shan-si) was noted
especially for cotton and silk textures. It was this province which
264
was most in contact with the nomad tribes of Central Asia, through
whose hands silk first reached the western nations.
(Hirth, Ancient History of China, 9, 22-3, 117, 121-2).
The antiquity of the silk industry in India is uncertain, but the
weight of evidence seems to be in favor of its importation from China,
by way of the Brahmaputra valley, Assam and Eastern Bengal, early
in the Christian era; while the cultivation of native varieties, not
feeding on mulberry leaves—the Saturnidce, including Anthercza paphia
(the modern tasar silk); Antheraa assama (feeding on laurel species
principally), and Attacus ricini (feeding on the castor-oil plant) were
probably all stimulated by the value of the Bombyx silk.
(See Watt, pp. 992-1026 j Cambridge Natural History, VI, 375.)
The trade in silk yarn and silk cloth existed in Northern India
soon after the Aryan invasion. Silk is mentioned several times, as
gifts from foreign countries, in the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and
the Institutes of Manu; and it may be assumed that some trade at least
went farther west. The Egyptian records do not mention it prior
to the Persian conquest, and it was, no doubt, through the empires of
Darius and Xerxes that it first reached the Mediterranean world.
The Hebrew scriptures contain at least two references to silk:
the dmeshek of Amos III, 12 seems to be the Arabic dimaks, English
damask, a silken fabric; while meshi in Ezekiel XVI, 10 seems to
mean a silken gauze. Isaiah also (XLIX, 12) mentions the Sinim in
a manner indicating extreme distance.
It has been supposed that the Greeks learned of silk through
Alexander's expedition, but it probably reached them previously through
Persia. Aristotle (Hist. Anim., V, xix, 11) gives a reasonably correct
account: "It is a great worm which has horns and so differs from
others. At its first metamorphosis it produces a caterpillar, then a
bombylius, and lastly a chrysalis—all these changes taking place within
six months. From this animal women separate and reel off the
cocoons and afterwards spin them. It is said that this was first spun
in the island of Cos by Pamphile, daughter of Plates." This indi-
cates a steady importation of raw silk on bobbins before Aristotle's
time. The fabric he mentions was the famous Coa vestis, or trans-
parent gauze (woven also at Tyre and elsewhere in Syria), which
came into favor in the time of Caesar and Augustus. Pliny mentions
Pamphile of Cos, 'who discovered the art of unwinding the silk"
(from the bobbins, not from the cocoons) "and spinning a tissue
therefrom 3 indeed, she ought not to be deprived of the glory of
having discovered the art of making garments which, while they cover
a woman, at the same time reveal her naked charms.'' (XI, 26).
265
He refers to the same fabric in VI, 20, where he speaks of 4 'the
Seres, so famous for the wool that is found in their forests. After
steeping it in water, they comb off a soft down that adheres to the
leaves; and then to the females of our part of the world they give
the twofold task of unraveling their textures, and of weaving the
threads afresh. So manifold is the labor, and so distant are the re-
gions which are thus ransacked to supply a dress through which our
ladies may in public display their charms.'' Compare Lucan, Phar-
salia, X, 141, who describes Cleopatra, "her white breasts resplen-
dent through the Sidonian fabric, which, wrought in close texture by
the skill of the Seres, the needle of the workman of the Nile has
separated, and has loosened the warp by stretching out the web.''
Silk fabrics of this kind were much affected by men also during
the reign of Augustus, but the fashion was considered effeminate, and
early in the reign of Tiberius the Roman Senate enacted a law "that
men should not defile themselves by wearing garments of silk."
(Tacitus, Annals^ II, 33.) The cost was enormously high; from
an account of the Emperor Aurelian we learn that silk was worth its
weight in gold, and that he neither used it himself nor allowed his
wife to possess a garment of it, thereby setting an example against the
luxurious tastes that were draining the empire of its resources.
Pliny includes it in his list of the "most valuable productions''
(XXXVII, 67); "the most costly things that are gathered from trees
are nard and Seric tissues.''
Pliny (XXI, 8) speaks of other uses for silk: "Luxury arose at
last to such a pitch that a chaplet was held in no esteem at all if it did
not consist entirely of leaves sewn together with the needle. More
recently again they have been imported from India, or from nations
beyond the countries of India. But it is looked upon as the most
refined of all, to present chaplets made of nard leaves, or else of silk
of many colors steeped in unguents. Such is the pitch to which the
luxuriousness of our women has at last arrived!''
Among both Greek and Roman writers there was some confusion
between cotton and silk, both being called ''tree wool;'' and Fabricius,
in his translation of the Periplus, omits silk altogether, considering
raw material, yarn and cloth alike to be Turkestan cotton. But
although these accounts err in some details, Pliny is sufficiently correct
in his description of cotton. He distinguishes the wool-bearing trees
of the Seres from those of the Indians (XIV, 4), and describes the cot-
ton shrub, with its fruit resembling a bearded nut, containing on the
inside a silky down, which is spun into threads; the tissue made from
which is superior to all others in whiteness and softness" (XIX, 2),
266
while his account of the silkworm is at least within sight of the truth,
although not so near it as Aristotle's:
''At first they assume the appearance of small butterflies with
naked bodies, but soon after, being unable to endure the cold, they
throw out bristly hairs, and assume quite a thick coat against the winter
by rubbing off the down that covers the leaves, by the aid of the
roughness of their feet. This they compress into balls by carding it
with their claws, and then draw it out and hang it between the
branches of the trees, making it fine by combing it out as it were; last
of all, they take and roll it round their body, thus forming a nest in
which they are enveloped. It is in this state that they are taken;
after which they are placed in earthen vessels in a warm place, and
fed upon bran. A peculiar sort of down soon shoots forth upon the
body, on being clothed with which they are sent to work upon another
task. The cocoons which they have begun to form are rendered soft
and pliable by the aid of water, and are then drawn out into threads
by means of a spindle made of a reed. Nor, in fact, have the men
even felt ashamed to make use of garments formed of this material
in consequence of their extreme lightness in summer; for so greatly
have manners degenerated in our own day that so far from wearing a
cuirass, a garment even is found to be too heavy.''
(See also Lassen, I, 317-322; III, 25; Yates, Textrinum An-
tiquorum.)
The reeling of silk from the cocoons was confused into a comb-
ing of down from the leaves, which had also a basis of truth, but was
the cause of the confusion with cotton. Compare Virgil, Georgics,
II, 121;— "Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres."
Pliny finally distinguishes between the two fibers in referring to
Arabian cotton (XII, 21): ''trees that bear wool, but of a different
nature from those of the Seres; as in these trees the leaves produce
nothing at all, and indeed might very readily be taken for those of the
vine."
The word ''silk" is from a Mongolian original, sirkek, meaning
silk; Korean sir, Chinese ssi. Hence the Greek ser, Latin sericum.
From this word the name Seres was applied to the peoples through
whose hands the product came; by which must be understood, not
the Chinese themselves, but rather the Turkish or Tibetan intermedi-
aries. That the word was loosely extended to cover most of Eastern
Asia is undeniable; but Ptolemy distinguishes the Sina, Isaiah the
Sinim, while the Periplus gives nearly the correct form, This, for
China proper.
Pliny has a curious mixture of Seres and Cirrhadae in his Scyritce
267
(VII, 2), whose fiat-nosed Mongolian faces he describes as having-
''merely holes in their faces instead of nostrils," and whom he con-
nects with an allied race, the Astomi, ''a people who have no mouths,
who live on the eastern side of India, near the source of the Ganges;
their bodies are rough and hairy, and they cover themselves with a
down plucked from the leaves of trees." Here he shows some
knowledge of the silk trade through Assam.
Ammianus Marcellinus (XXIII, vi) has more knowledge of the
Seres:
64. ''Beyond the districts of the two Scythias, on the eastern
side, is a ring of mountains which surround Serica, a country consid-
erable both for its extent and the fertility of its soil. This tribe on
their western side border on the Scythians, on the north and the east
they look toward snowy deserts; toward the south they extend as far
as India and the Ganges. . . .
67. "The Seres themselves live quietly, always avoiding arms
and battles; and as ease is pleasant to moderate and quiet men, they
give trouble to none of their neighbors. Their climate is agreeable
and healthy; the sky serene, the breezes gentle and delicious. They
have numbers of shining groves, the trees of which through continued
watering produce a crop like the fleece of a sheep, which the natives
make into a delicate wool, and spin into a kind of fine cloth, formerly
confined to the use of the nobles, but now procurable by the lowest
of the people without distinction.
68. "The natives themselves are the most frugal of men, culti-
vating a peaceful life, and shunning the society of other men. And
when strangers cross their river to buy their cloth, or any other of
their merchandise, they interchange no conversation, but settle the
price of the articles wanted by nods and signs; and they are so modest
that, while selling their own produce, they never buy any foreign
wares."
But to the Graeco-Roman world the Seres were a people as
ubiquitous as the subjects of Prester John in the middle ages. The
Cheras of Malabar (Seri in Sinhalese mouths; see p. 209), and even
Ausar and Masira in Southern Arabia (see p. 140) were identified
with them.
Concerning the long struggles of the emperors at Constantinople
with the Sassanid monarchs in Persia, over the ever-increasing silk-
trade, culminating in the romantic success of the Christian monks
who succeeded in bringing the jealously-guarded eggs to Justinian,
hidden in a bamboo cane, thereby laying the foundation of the silk-
culture of Greece and the Levant, see Beazley, Dawn of Modern
268
Geography, Vol. I;—Heyd, Histoire du Commerce du Levant au Moyen
Age\ D'Anville, Recherchesg'eographiques et historiques sur la Serique des
anciens (1768) in Memoires de F Academie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-
Lettres, xxxii, 573-603;—Reinaud, Relations politiques et commerciales
de r Empire Romain avec F Asie Orientale pendant les cinq premiers siccles
.de Fere chretienne.
See also Richthofen, China, I, chap, x;—Stein, Sand-buried
Ruins of Khotan;—G6tz, Verkehrswege im Dienste des Welthandels,
496-511;—Speck, Handelsgeschichte des Altcrtums, I;—Letourneau,
L'Evolution du Commerce;—Noel, Histoire du Commerce du Monde, I;
—Lindsay, History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce, I;—
Mayr, Lehrbuch der Handelsgeschichte, I, § 16;—Tozer, A History of
Ancient Geography, 281;—Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, I,
565; II, 166, 658;—Edmunds, Buddhist and Christian Gospels, 4th
ed., introduction.
64. Through Bactria to Barygaza.—The overland travel
from the Yellow River to Bactra, first instituted, possibly, early in
the 2d century B. C. and then obstructed for nearly two centuries,
followed two routes. The earlier, and to the Chinese the most im-
portant because it led to the Khotan jade-field, was the Nan-lu or
('southern way," the stages of which may be traced on the map as
follows:
Singanfu, Lanchowfu, Kanchow, Yumenhsien, Ansichow, Lop
Nor to Tsiemo (the Asmiraa of the Greeks) where the routes divided.
The Nan-lu followed south of the Tarim River to Khotan and Yar-
kand, thence over the Pamirs and westward to the Oxus and Bactra.
This was the earliest route opened by the Chinese army under Pan
Chao, being cleared in 74 A. D. The second route, the Pei-lu or
''northern way," followed the same course from Singanfu to Tsiemo,
thence north of the Tarim through Kuche and Aksu to Kashgar, and
over the tremendous heights of the Terek to the Jaxartes and Samar-
cand. Thence a route led southward to Bactra, while another led
southwestward more directly to Antiochia Margiana (Merv.) This
second route was opened by Pan Chao in 94 A. D.
A variant of the Pei-lu led from Yumenhsien to Hami, Turfan
and Kharachar, meeting the above route at Kuche; this was preferable
in some respects, being close to the mountains, but was subjected to
constant attacks by the savage Tartar tribes, Hami especially being a
storm-center in the Chinese annals, and an important outpost for the
defence of the main route. Another variant led from Turfan through
the Tian-shan to Urumtsi and Kuldja, thence by the Hi River and
269
north of the mountains to Tashkend, Bokhara and Merv. This did
not become important until later.
The general topography of these Turkestan routes is shown by a
passage from the Han Annals quoted by Richthofen {China, I, 460)
from Stanislaus Julien (Notices sur les pays et les peuples etrangers, tir'ees
des g'eographes et des historiens chinois, in Journal Asiatique, Ser. IV, Vol.
VIII, 1846, pp. 228-252), as follows:
"Hsi-yii is bounded on the east by the barriers of Yumen-kwan
and Yang-kwan, and on the west by the Tsung-ling (Pamirs). But
the Tsung-ling is the trunk from which the great mountain-ranges
branch out, which enclose the district on the north and the south, and
these same ranges bound the districts of Nan-lu and P'ei-lu on the south
and north." And again: ''The land along the Nan-shan (Kuen-lun)
is called Nan-tau, and that along the Fei-shan (Tian-shan) is called
Pei-tau. Both these provinces lie to the south of Pei-shan. . . .
Hsi-yu extends 6000 // from east to west, and 1000 //' from south to
north."
That is, Tibet and Sungaria had no part in the transcontinental
silk-trade in Roman times.
This Central Asian trade-route was first comprehensively de-
scribed by Marinus of Tyre, some two generations later than the
Periplus. His account is preserved by Ptolemy, and is said to be
based on the notes of a Macedonian silk-merchant named Maes,
whose Roman name was Titianus; who did not perform the whole
journey, but repeats what he learned of Turkestan from his "agents"
or trading associates whom he met at the Pamirs. The route, he
says, began at the Bay of Issus in Cilicia, crossed Mesopotamia, As-
syria and Media, to Ecbatana and the Caspian Pass; through Parthia
and Hyrcania, to Antiochia Margiana (Merv); thence through Aria
into Bactria. Thence the route passed through the mountainous
country of the Comedi, and through the territory of the Sacae to the
"Stone Tower/' the station of those merchants who trade with the
Seres (Tashkurghan, in Sarikol, on the upper Yarkand River in the
Chinese Pamirs; a fortified town built on a great rocky crag that
rises from the Taghdumbash valley, at the convergence of routes from
the Oxus, the Indus and the Yarkand. See Stein, op. at., 67-8.)
Thence to the Casii (Kashgar) and through the country of the Tha-
guri, until after a seven-months' journey from the "Stone Tower''
the merchants arrived at "Sera Metropolis," the "City called Thinae"
of the Periplus.
By too literal an application of this "seven-months' journey"
both Marinus and Ptolemy were led into grave error as to the longi-
270
tudinal extension of Asia; but the evidence of direct trade between Rome and China is remarkable.
The first part of the route was minutely described before our
author's time, in the Mansiones Parthicce of Isidorus of Charax Spasini.
This route of Maes the Macedonian followed very nearly the
same direction as the Chinese Nan-lu, after leaving Bactra, crossing
the Pamirs diagonally to Kashgar, onthePei-lu, but then turning south-
ward through Yarkand to Khotan, and in passing "Thagura" took a
more southerly, and also a more direct route than the Nan-lu itself,
which it joined half-way between Lop Nor and the Bulunzir (the
"river of the Hiong-nu"); east of which all three routes were iden-
tical as far as Singanfu.
(See map to face p. 500, Vol. I, of Richthofen's China;—Stieler's
Hand-Atlas, maps 61-2;—Stanford, Atlas of the Chinese Empire, plates
12, 13, 19, 21;—Lansdell, Chinese Central Asia, Vol. II;—Stein,
op. cit., chap. v. and map.)
At Bactra this overland trade-route branched again, following
westward through the Parthian highlands to the Euphrates, or southward
to Bamian, the Cabul valley, the Khyber Pass and the Indus. From
Taxilathe highway of the Maurya dynasty led through the Panjab to the
capital at Palibothra, with a branch from Mathura southward to Ozene
and the Deccan. The route down the Indus to its mouth was less
important owing to the character of the tribes living on the lower
reaches. This is indicated by the text, which says far more of the
products carried by the overland route to Barygaza than of those
coming to Barbaricum.
Yet a part of the Chinese trade was, apparently, localized at the
mouth of the Indus. While the valuable silk cloth went to Barygaza,
the yarn, or thread, went to Barbaricum, where it was exchanged for
a product always more highly valued in China than in India—namely,
frankincense; the white incense, or shehri luban, which Marco Polo
still found in extensive use in China under the name of milk per-
fume." This is not listed in the Periplus among the imports at other
Indian ports, and evidently found its way up the Indus to Peucelaotis
and Bactra, and thence to China. The silk yarn, in return, went to
Arabia, where it was used in making the embroidered and silk-shot
fabrics for which Arabia and Syria were so famous in the Roman
market.
Concerning the frankincense of the Deir-el-Bahri reliefs Mr.
R. E. Drake-Brockman writes again from Bulhar, Sept. 18, 1910, that
the cattle shown in those reliefs are not the humped cattle peculiar to
271
Somaliland (and likewise to much of East Africa, Madagascar and
Western India; but the ordinary type, without humps; which are
bred in Southern Arabia and Socotra.
"The cattle of these regions and in fact the whole of Gallaland
and Southern Abyssinia are all the humped variety. I have travelled
fairly extensively in these regions and have never seen the non-humped
breed, and very much doubt if they ever existed in these dried-up
parts, as the hump is to these cattle what the camel's hump is to the
camel, a sort of storehouse. Besides this, cattle are rare in Somali-
land proper, and it is improbable if they ever existed in greater num-
bers or were exported."

Vase of black pottery ornamented with figures of humped cattle. From the
Madagascar collection in the Commercial Museum, Philadelphia.
This is one more proof that the Punt Expedition did not make
its terminus on the Somali coast, but must have gone to the Plain of
Dhofar, or possibly to the south side of Socotra, which was a depen-
dency of Dhofar. The localization of the island Pa-anch of the
XHIth dynasty tale, and the incense-land Panchaia of Virgil, in
272
Socotra, makes that an interesting possibility; but altogether the scene
on the reliefs is more strongly suggestive of Dhofar, the Sachalites
of the Periplus. (See also pp. 120, 141-2, and 218.)
See Ptolemy, I, 11-12, VI, 13;—De Guignes, Sur les liaisons et
le commerce des Romains avec les Tartares et les Chinois: in Memoires de
f Academie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Vol. xxxii (1798) pp.
355-69;—Remusat, Remarques sur 1' extension de P Empire Chinois du cote
de tOccident (1825)—Lassen, I, 13-14, 11,519-660;—Yule, Cathay
and the Way Thither;—Stein, Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan;—Gen.
M. R. Haig, The Indus Delta Country;—Richthofen, China, Vol. I;
—Vincent, II, 573-618;—Merzbacher, The Central Tian-Shan Moun-
tains)—Bonin, Grandes voies commerciales de !Asie Centrale;—Manifold,
Recent Exploration and Economic Development in Central and Western
China (with map) in Geographical Journal, xxiii, 281-312, Mar. 1904;
—Geil, The Great Wall of China;—Keane, Asia, I, chap. v. Col.
M. S. Bell, in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1890, de-
scribes his journey of 1887 along the entire Central Asian trade-
route between Kashgar and Peking.
64. To Damirica by way of the Ganges.—This was the
route across the Tibetan plateau, starting in the same direction as the
Turkestan routes, from Singanfu to Lanchowfu; branching here, it
led to Siningfu, thence to Koko Nor, and southwestward, by Lhasa
and the Chumbi Vale to Sikkim and the Ganges. The route from
Lhasa by the lower Brahmaputra was little used, owing to the savage
tribes inhabiting it. There were numerous other passages into India;
as, for instance, a frequented route by the Arun River through Nepal
to the Ganges, or by following the upper Brahmaputra to the sacred
peak of Kailas and the source of the Sutlej, or continuing through
Gartok to the upper Indus. But natural conditions, as stated in § 66
of the Periplus itself, made these routes through Western Tibet
almost impracticable for commerce.
This was the route which later became the great highway of
Buddhist pilgrim-travel between Mongolia and Lhasa. It is best
described by one of the few white men who have ever traversed it:
Hue, Recollections of a Journey through Tartary, Thibet and China during
1844-46.
The Chinese Buddhist monk Fa-Hien spent two years in "the
country of Tamalipti, the capital of which is a seaport . . . after this
he embarked in a large merchant-vessel, and went floating over the
sea to the southwest. It was the beginning of winter and the wind
273
was favorable; and after fourteen days, sailing day and night, they
came to the country of Singhala." {Travels, chap, xxxvii.)
"To Damirica" came the eastern shipping, according to the
text; that is, the Chera backwaters were a meeting-point for the trade
from the China Sea to the Gulf of Suez. Our author did not meet
these vessels at Nelcynda, because the same monsoon that brought
them would have taken him away.
Marco Polo tells us something of this trade in his day (III, xxv):
"There is in this kingdom of Melibar a great quantity of pepper, and
ginger, and cinnamon, and turbit, and of nuts of India. They also
manufacture very delicate and beautiful buckrams. The ships that
come from the east bring coffee in ballast. They also bring hither
cloths of silk and gold, and sendels; also gold and silver, cloves and
spikenard, and other fine spices."
See Holdich, Tibet the Mysterious;—Rockhill, The Land of the
Lamas;—Sven Hedin, Central Asia and Tibet;—Waddell, Lhasa and
its Mysteries; Younghusband, The Geographical Results of the Tibet
Mission, in Geographical Journal, xxv, 1905;—Crosby, Tibet and Turk-
estan; Candler, The Unveiling of Lhasa;—Landon, Lhasa, and The
Opening of Tibet;—Sarat Chandra Das, Journey to Lhasa and Central
Tibet;—Littledale, A Journey across Tibet;—Deasy, In Tibet and Chinese
Turkestan;—Carey, Adventures in Tibet;—Sandberg, The Exploration
of Tibet;—Tsybikoff, Lhasa and Central Tibet (Smithsonian Report,
1903);—Prjevalski, Mongolia, the Tangut Country, and the Solitudes
of Northern Tibet;—Sherring, Western Tibet and the British Borderland.
64. Few men come from there, and seldom.—Until the subjugation of Turkestan by China, travel and trade overland were
naturally hazardous. The routes through Tibet and upper Burma
were never so actively used as those leading through the Pamirs. For
this, racial and topographical reasons were alike responsible.
See Lassen, 1,167-9;—Kemp, The Face of China-, also, for a
most useful and detailed account of a recent journey along the little-
travelled Burmese route, R. F. Johnston, From Peking to Mandalay.
Another theory, outlined by Kingsmill (The Mantse and the Golden
Chersonese, and Ancient Tibet and its Frontagers, in Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society, China Branch, xxxv and xxxvii), and Terrien de La-
couperie (in his introduction to Colquhoun's Among the Shans), locates
this entire traffic in upper Burma; identifying Thinae with Theinni,
the Burmese form of Hsen-wi, or the Northern Shans, and with Tien,
the name given by Marco Polo to the Chinese province of Yunnan.
(See also Rocher, La Province Chinoise de Yunnan.) But whatever
may be the relation of Ptolemy's Since and Cosmas' Tunisia to Burma,
\
274
it may be asserted that the Thinae of the Periplus had nothing to do
with that region. Silk was brought thence overland "through Bactria
to Barygaza," that is, by the Turkestan route. Why ignore the
ancient center of the silk industry, Singanfu, to find a fancied similarity
of name in a locality never important in silk production, separated

Early Chinese Buddhist 9-storied pagoda: compare illustrations of Hindu
and Abyssinian types, on pp. 64-5. From a model exhibited in the Commercial
Museum, Philadelphia.
275
from the silk-route by 1000 miles of the most difficult travelling in Asia,
and not certainly settled by Shan tribes until some centuries later than
the Periplus? The theory is manifestly impracticable.
With the rise of the Kushan dynasty in the northwest, and their
relations towards their former home on the Chinese border, it was
natural that communication by the Turkestan routes should increase.
While the military successes of China did not begin until 73 A. D.,
it is known that the Chinese Emperor Ming-ti (who ruled from 58
to 75) introduced Buddhism into China by the invitation of two
Indian Sramanas, Kasyapa Matanga and Bharana, who arrived in 67
A. D. (Takakusu, Introduction to his edition of I-tsing, p. xvii.)
Before such an invitation there must have been considerable activity
on the part of missionaries, then as now the forerunners of commerce.
The text seems to be describing conditions prior to the journey
of the Sramanas in 67 A. D.
As contrasting with the knowledge, or lack of it, which the Ro-
mans displayed concerning China, the following account of Roman
Syria, particularly the district of Antioch, taken from Chinese annals
of almost the same date as the Periplus, is of interest. (Quoted
from Hirth, China and the Roman Orient.)'.
ANNALS OF THE HAN DYNASTY OF CHINA
Chapter 88
(Section Hou-han-shu," partly written during the 5th century A. D.,
and embracing the period A. D. 25 to 220)
The first detailed account of the Roman empire contained in the Chinese annals:
this account describing Roman Syria and its capital Antioch, and being
based on the report of the Ambassador Kan Ying, A. D. 97
(1) The country of Ta-ts in is also called Lichien (Li-kin) and,
as being situated on the western part of the sea, Hai-hsi-kuo, (/. e.
"country of the western part of the sea")- (2) Its territory amounts
to several thousand //; (3) it contains over four hundred cities, (4)
and of dependent states there are several times ten. (5) The de-
fences of cities are made of stone. (6) The postal stations and mile-
stones on the roads are covered with plaster. (7) There are pine
and cypress trees and all kinds of other trees and plants. (8) The
people are much bent on agriculture and practice the planting of trees
and the rearing of silk-worms. (9) They cut the hair of their heads,
(10) wear embroidered clothing, (11) and drive in small carriages
covered with white canopies; (12) when going in or out they beat
drums, and hoist flags, banners, and pennants. (13) The precincts
of the walled cities in which they live measure over a hundred // in
276
circumference. (14) In the city there are five palaces, ten li distant
from each other. (15) In the palace buildings they use crystal to
make pillars; vessels used in taking meals are also made. (16) The
king goes to one palace a day to hear cases. After five days he has
completed his round. (17) As a rule, they let a man with a bag
follow the king's carriage Those who have some matter to submit,
throw a petition into the bag. When the king arrives at the palace
he examines into the rights and wrongs of the matter. (18) The
official documents are under the control of thirty-six chiang (generals?)
who conjointly discuss government affairs. (19) Their kings are not
permanent rulers, but they appoint men of merit. (20) When a
severe calamity visits the country, or untimely rain-storms, the king
is deposed and replaced by another. The one relieved from his duties
submits to his degradation without a murmur. (21) The inhabitants
of that country are tall and well-proportioned, somewhat like the
Chinese, whence they are called Ta-ts'in. (22) The country con-
tains much gold, silver, and rare precious stones, especially the
"jewel that shines at night," the moonshine pearl/' the hsieh-chi-
hsi, corals, amber, glass, lang-kan (a kind of coral), chu-tan (cinna-
bar?), green jadestone (c/iing-pi), gold-embroidered rugs and thin
silk-cloth of various colors. (23) They make gold-colored cloth
and asbestos cloth. (25) They further have "fine cloth," also called
Shui-yang-ts'ui, (/. e. down of the water-sheep); it is made from the
cocoons of wild silk-worms. (25) They collect all kinds of fragrant
substances, the juice of which they boil into su-ho (storax). (26)
All the rare gems of other foreign countries come from there. (27)
They make coins of gold and silver. Ten units of silver are worth
one of gold. (28) They traffic by sea with An-hsi (Parthia) and
T*ien-chu (India), the profit of which trade is ten-fold. (29) They
are honest in their transactions and there are no double prices. (30)
Cereals are always cheap. The budget is based on a well-filled
treasury. (31) When the embassies of neighboring countries come
to their frontier, they are driven by post to the capital, and on arrival,
are presented with golden money. (32) Their kings always desired
to send embassies to China, but the An-hsi (Parthians) wished to
carry on trade with them in Chinese silks, and it is for this reason that
they were cut off from communication. (33) This lasted till the
ninth year of the Yen-hsi period during the emperor Huan-ti's reign
(= A. D. 166) when the king of Ta-ts''in, An-tun (Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus) sent an embassy who, from the frontier of Jih-nan (Anam)
offered ivory, rhinoceros horns, and tortoise shell. From that time
dates the (direct) intercourse with this country. The list of their
277
tribute contained no jewels whatever, which fact throws doubt on the
tradition. (34) It is said by some that in the west of this country
there is the Jo-shai ("weak water") and the Liu-sha ("flying sands,,
desert") near the residence of the Hsi-wang-mu ("mother of the
western king"), where the sun sets. (35) The Ch'ien-han-shu
says "from T'iao-chih west, going over 200 days, one is near the
place where the sun sets;" this does not agree with the present book.
(36) Former embassies from China all returned from Wu-i; there
were none who came as far as T'iao-chih. (37) It is further said
that, coming from the land-road of An-hsi (Parthia), you make a
round at sea and, taking a northern turn, come out from the western
part of the sea, whence you proceed to Ta-ts'in. (38) The country
is densely populated; every ten // (of a road) are marked by a f ing;
thirty // by a chih (resting-place). (39) One is not alarmed by
robbers, but the road becomes unsafe by fierce tigers and lions who-
will attack passengers, and unless these be traveling in caravans of a
hundred men or more, or be protected by military equipment, they
may be devoured by these beasts. (40) They also say there is a
flying bridge (fei-chiao) of several hundred //', by which one may cross
to the countries north of the sea. (41) The articles made of rare
precious stones produced in this country are sham curiosities and
mostly not genuine, whence they are not (here) mentioned.
64. Under the Lesser Bear—meaning far,to the north (of
the Himalayas). No part of China is actually so far north as to have
Ursa Minor in the zenith; this would require it to be. within the
Arctic Circle.
64. Empty into the Ocean.—This was the belief of most
of the Greek and Roman geographers. See p. 100, where the
map according to Pomponius Mela shows the Caspian directly
connected with the Arctic Ocean, and Lake Maeotis connected by
means of the Tanais, or Don, river. So Strabo (XI, vi, 1): "The
Caspian is a bay extending from the ocean to the south. At its com-
mencement it is very narrow; as it advances further inward, and
particularly toward the extremity, it widens. . . . Eratosthenes says'
that the navigation of this sea was known to the Greeks; that the
part of the voyage along the coast of the Albanians and the Gadusii
comprised 5400 stadia; and the part along the country of the Anariaci,
Mardi, and Hyrcani, as far as the mouth of the river Oxus, 4800
stadia, and thence to the Jaxartes, 2400 stadia." This passage, often
ridiculed, is rather an indication of the strong probability that the Cas-
pian and Aral Seas were joined together until after the Christian era,
so that the Amu and Syr were in truth accessible to the Greek adven-
278
turers from Colchis, crossing from the Euxine Sea. As to Lake Maeotis
(the Sea of Azov) Strabo says (XI, i, 5): "Asia has a kind of penin-
sular form, surrounded on the west by the river Tanais and the Palus
Maeotis as far as the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and that part of the coast
of the Euxine which terminates at Colchis; on the north by the
Ocean, as far as the mouth of the Caspian Sea; on the east by the
same sea, as far as the confines of Armenia."
These errors were corrected by Ptolemy, but subsequently revived.
See Tozer, History of Ancient Geography, 345, 367;—Huntington, The
Pulse of Asia;—Mackinder, The Geographical Phot of History, in Geo-
graphical Journal, xxiii, 422-437, April, 1904;—Kropotkin, The Desic-
cation of Eurasia, ibid., June, 1904.

In this group of modern Tibetans may be found all the types mentioned in
the closing paragraphs of the Periplus: "the men with flattened noses," the
"Horse-faces" and the "Long-faces," of § 62, and the "men with short, thick
bodies and broad, flat faces" of § 65.
65. Besatae.—These were another Tibeto-Burman tribe, allied
to the Cirrhada;, and to the modern Kuki-Chin, Naga and Garo
279
tribes. Ptolemy places them east of the Ganges, and corroborates
the Periplus as to their personal appearance. Lassen (III, 38) iden-
tifies the name with the Sanscrit vaishada, ''wretchedly stupid/' and
says they were a tribe of Sikkim. Our author locates them "on the
borders of the Land of This," indicating that Tibet was then subject
to China. The location of their annual fair must have been near the
modern Gangtok (27° 20' N., 88° 38' E.) above which the Cho-La
or the Jelap-La Pass leads to Chumbi on the Tibetan side of the fron-
tier, from which the overland route mentioned in § 64 led across
the table-land to Koko Nor, Siningfu and Singanfu. Other passes
through Nepal are possible, particularly that by the Arun River, but
the route through Sikkim involves the least deviation from the direct
line from Koko Nor to the Ganges; while from Gyangste to the
source of the Arun a pass must be scaled higher by 3000 feet than
Jelap-La. (See Freshfield, The Roads toTibet, in Geographical Journal,
xxiii, Jan. and March, 1904; and The Highest Mountain in the World,
ibid., xxi, March, 1903;—O'Connor, Routes in Sikkim;—Louis, Gates
of Tibet.)
Pseudo-Callisthenes (III, 8) refers to the Bisada "who gather a
leaf; They are a feeble folk, of very diminutive stature, and live in
caves among the rocks. They understand how to climb precipices
through their intimate knowledge of the country and are thus able to
gather the leaf. They are small men of stunted growth, with big
heads of hair which is straight and not cut." (McCrindle, Ancient
India, p. 180.)
Fergusson {History of Indian Architecture, I, 13) says: "The
Tibetans are a fragment of a great primitive population that occu-
pied both the northern and southern slopes of the Himalayas at some
very remote prehistoric time. They were worshippers of trees and
serpents; and they, and their descendants and connections, in Bengal,
Ceylon, Tibet, Burma, Siam and China, have been the bulwark of
Buddhism. In India the Dravidians resisted Buddhism on the south,
and a revival of Aryanism abolished it in the north."
65. Feast for several days.—This description of a tribal
festival and market resembles many accounts of other primitive peo-
ples. Compare the following from Herodotus (IV, 196):
"The Carthaginians further say that beyond the Pillars of Her-
cules there is a region of Libya, and men who inhabit it; when they
arrive among these people and have unloaded their merchandise, they
set it in order on the shore, go on board their ships, and make a great
smoke; that the inhabitants, seeing the smoke, come down to the
sea, and then deposit gold in exchange for the merchandise, and with-
280
tlraw to some distance from the merchandise; that the Carthaginians
then, going ashore, examine the gold, and if the quantity seems suf-
ficient for the merchandise, they take it up and sail away; but if it is
not sufficient, they go onboard their ships again and wait; the natives

On a modern trade-route through the mountains of Sikkim. The shoulder-
baskets and covers of matting are easily distinguishable.
281
then approach and deposit more gold, until they have satisfied them;
neither party ever wrongs the other; for they do not touch the gold
before it is made adequate to the value of the merchandise, nor do the
natives touch the merchandise before the other party has taken the
gold."
Pomponius Mela (III, viii, 60) seems also to speak of the silent
trade of the Himalayas; Ammianus Marcellinus, in the passage
already quoted, tells of such a custom at Tashkurghan, the Stone
Tower'' of the Pamirs, where silk passed from Eastern hands to
Western; while Fa-Hien, describing a similar custom in Ceylon,
ascribes it to the "spirits and nagas," the tutelary guardians of the pre-
cious articles of trade. (Travels, chap, xxxviii. )
65. Great packs and baskets.—The same thing is in con-
stant use today in this region, being the regular burden of the coolies
of Nepal and Sikkim.
65. Petri.—Our author is misled by a fancied resemblance to
the Greek petros, fiber; the word is the Sanscrit patra, leaf. Other-
wise the description of the preparation of the tamala leaves is correct,
being corroborated throughout by Pliny.
65. Malabathriim.—The Cinnamomum tamala is native in this
part of the Himalayas, being one of the principal trees.
So Marco Polo (II, xlvi), in his account of Tebet: "It contains
in several quarters rivers and lakes, in which gold-dust is found in
great abundance. Cinnamon also grows there in great plenty. Coral
is in great demand, in this country and fetches a high price, for they
delight to hang it round the necks of their women and of their idols."
(See pp. 82-4, 87, 89, 216-18, 256.)
66. Influence of the gods.—This is still the geography of
Brahman writings. Like Tavernier in the 17th century, who sum-
marized the Ramayana in his Travels, so this merchant of Berenice in
the 1st century came under the spell of the great epics of India, as he
sojourned among
"the sister nations three,
Cholas, Cheras, and the Pandyas dwelling by the southern sea."
The region beyond Sikkim, "impassable by reason of its great
cold," and including the mightiest peaks of the Himalayas, was within
the sphere of the Kurukshetra of the later Vedas, the Bra/imanas, and
the Mahabharata, the home-land of the Brahman faith; with the
greatest of all mountains, Everest, is associated the name of Gauri-
sankar, a name of Siva and Durga; in the western curve of the great
282
chain is the sacred peak of Kailas. the Olympus of the Hindu gods,
the axis of the universe and the way to heaven; while the ending of
the Periplus is that of the Sita-quest in the Ramayana:
"Halt not till you reach the country where the northern Kurus rest,
Utmost confines of the wide earth, home of Gods and Spirits blest!''
283

284
ARTICLES OF TRADE MENTIONED IN THE PERIPLUS
Enumerated according to the ports
Red Sea Coast.
Ptolemais.
, ( Exports )
Tortoise-shell
Ivory.
Adulis.
(Imports)
Undressed cloth from Egypt
Robes from Arsinoe
Cloaks of poor quality, dyed
Double-fringed linen mantles
Flint glass, in many forms
Murrhine (glass imitation made in Diospolis)
Brass (for ornament and in cut pieces as coin)
Sheets of soft copper (for cook - ing-utensils, and bracelets and anklets)
Iron (for spears)
Axes, adzes and swords
Copper drinking-cups, round and large
Coin, a little
Wine of Laodicea and Italy
Olive oil Presents for the king: gold and
silver plate, military cloaks,
thin coats of skin Indian iron and steel (from
Ariaca) Indian cotton cloth (the broad
monacht)) also the sagma-
togene, perhaps raw cotton Girdles Coats of skin Mallow-colored cloth Muslins Lac.
(Exports) Ivory
Tortoise-shell
Rhinoceros-horn.
Horn of Africa (The "far-side"
coast).
Avalites.
(Imports)
Flint glass, assorted
Juice of sour grapes from Di-
ospolis
Dressed cloth, assorted
Wheat
Wine-
Tin. (Exports partly to Ocelis and
Muza)
Ivory
Tortoise-shell
Myrrh (better than , rest).
Malao.
(Imports)
The things already mentioned. Also
Tunics Cloaks from Arsinoe, dressed and dyed
Drinking cups
Sheets of soft copper
Iron
Gold and silver coin.
(Exports)
Myrrh
Frankincense (the far-side)
Cinnamon (the harder)
Duaca (var. of frankincense)
Indian copal
Macir (medicinal bark from
Malabar)
(These exports going to Arabia)
Slaves, rarely.
Mundus.
(Imports)
The things already mentioned.
(Exports)
The things already mentioned;
also
285
Mocrotu (var. of frankincense).
Mosyllum.
(Imports)
The thing-s already mentioned;
also
Silver plate
Iron, very little
Glass.
{Exports)
Cinnamon, in great quantity
Fragrant gums and spices
Tortoise-shell
Mocrotu incense
Frankincense (the far-side)
Ivory
Myrrh.
Elephant River.
{Exports)
Frankincense (the best far-side)
Market of Spices (Cape Guarda-
fui).
{Imports)
The things already mentioned.
{Exports)
Cinnamon (varieties, gizir,
asypha, arebo, maglay
mo to)
Frankincense.
Opone.
(Imports)
The things already mentioned.
(Exports)
Cinnamon(the better sort, arebo
and moto, in great quantity)
Slaves of the better sort, for
Egypt, in increasing num-
bers Tortoise-shell, good quality,
in great quantity
{Goods brought in Indian ships
to this and the preceding far-
side ports):
Wheat
Rice
Clarified butter
Sesame oil Cotton cloth (the monache, also
sagmatogen?)
Girdles
Honey from the reed called
sacchari.
East Africa. Rhapta, Menuthias, &c.
(Imports, chiefly in Arabian ships)
Lances made at Muza
Hatchets, daggers and awls
Glass, various kinds
Wine, a little Wheat, for free distribution to the savages.
(Exports)
Ivory (in great quantity, but inferior to that of Adulis)
Rhinoceros-horn
Tortoise-shell (the best after
that from India)
Palm-oil, a little.
Arabia.
Muza.
(Imports)
Purple cloths, fine and coarse Clothing in Arabian styles, with
sleeves; (plain, ordinary,
embroidered, or interwo-
ven with gold) Saffron Sweet-rush Muslins Cloaks Blankets, plain and in the local
fashion Sashes of different colors Fragrant ointments Wine and wheat (not much, the
country producing both) Presents to the King and Chief:
horses, sumpter - mules,
vessels of gold and polished
silver, finely woven cloth-
ing, copper vessels.
(Exports, the products of the
country) Myrrh, selected Myrrh, the Gebanite-Minaean
stacte Alabaster
All the things already men-
tioned from Avalites and the
far-side coast.
286
Cana (which has trade with Egypt,
the far-side coast, India and the
Persian Gulf).
(Imports),
Wheat and wine; a little, as at
Muza Clothing in the Arabian style,
poor quality
Copper
Tin
Cora.
Storax
Other things such as go to Muza Presents for the king: wrought
gold and silver plate,
horses, images, thin cloth-
ing of fine quality.
(Exports, the native produce) Frankincense Aloes
The rest of the things men-
tioned from the other ports.
Dioscorida Island.
(Exports)
Tortoise-shell, various kinds
Indian cinnabar (dragon's
blood). (Imports, brought by merchants
from Muza and by chance
calls of ships returning
from India) Rice
Wheat
Indian cloth
Female slaves, a few
Moscha.
(Imports)
Cloth
Wheat
Sesame oil.
(Exports)
Frankincense.
Sarapis Island.
(Exports, to Cana, at regular in-
tervals)
Tortoise-shell.
Persian Gulf.
Ommana and Apologus.
(Imports)
Copper
Sandalwood
Teakwood timbers
Blackwood logs (from India)
'Ebony logs ""
Frankincense ffrom Cana to Ommana).
(Exports) Sewed boats called madarata (from Ommana to South Arabia)
Pearls, inferior to the Indian
Purple Clothing, after the fashion of
the place
Wine
Dates, in great quantity
Gold
Slaves (to both India and S.
Arabia)
Makran Coast.
Or^a.
(Exports)
Wheat
Wine
Rice
Dates
Bdellium.
Indo-Scythia.
Barbaricum (at mouth of Indus
river).
(Imports) Thin clothing, in large quantity,
some spurious
Figured linens
Topaz
Coral
Storax
Frankincense
Vessels of glass
Silver and gold plate
Wine, a little.
(Exports)
Costus
Bdellium
Lycium
Nard
Turquoise
Lapis lazuli
Seric skins
Cotton cloth
Silk yarn
Indigo.
287
India (the kingdom of Nambanus).
Barygaza.
(Imports)
Wine: Italian preferred, also Laodicean and Arabian
Copper
Tin
Lead
Coral
Topaz
Thin clothing and inferior sorts of all kinds
Bright-colored girdles a cubit wide
Storax
Sweet clover
Flint glass
Realgar
Antimony
Gold and silver coin (yielding
a profit on the exchange)
Ointments, not costly, a little
Presents for the King:
Costly vessels of silver,
singing boys, beautiful
maidens for the harem, fine
wines, thin clothing of the
finest weaves, the choicest
ointments.
(Exports)
Spikenard (coming through
Scythia, also through Po-
clais, from Caspapyra, Pa-
ropanisus and Cabolitis)
Costus
Bdellium
Ivory
Agate and carnelian (onyx and murrhine)
Lycium
Cotton cloth of all kinds (mus-
lins and ordinary)
Silk cloth
Mallow-cloth
Yarn
Long pepper
Other things coming from the
various ports.
India (Chera and Pandya kingdoms).
Muziris, Nelcynda and Bacare;
(to which large ships come for
pepper and malabathrum).
(Imports)
Coin, in great quantity
Topaz
Thin clothing, not much
Figured linens
Antimony
Coral
Crude glass
Copper
Tin
Lead
Wine, not much, but as much
as at Barygaza
Realgar
Orpiment Wheat (for the sailors, the
country not producing it).
(Exports)
Pepper, produced in Cottonara
Fine pearls in great quantity
Ivory
Silk cloth
Spikenard from the Ganges
Malabathrum from the interior
Transparent stones of all kinds
Diamonds
Sapphires Tortoise-shell, from Chryse
and from near-by islands
India (Chola kingdom)
Argaru (inland)
(Exports)
Pearls Muslins (namedfrom the place)
India (East Coast).
Camara, Poduca and Sopatma
(where ships come from the
west coast, also from the Gan-
ges and Chryse).
(Imports)
Everything made in Damirica
and the neighboring coun-
tries and most of what
comes from Egypt.
288
Ceylon.
paliesimundu, formerly galled
Taprobane.
(Exports)
Pearls
Transparent stones Muslins Tortoise-shell.
India (East Coast, farther north)
Masalia. {Exports) Muslins, in great quantity.
Dosarene.
{Exports) Ivory.
India (Ganges delta).
Ganges.
{Exports)
Malabathrum
Gangetic spikenard
Pearls
Muslins of the finest sort, called
Gangetic.
(The place has a gold coin
called caltis).
Malacca.
Chryse Island.
{Exports)
Tortoise-shell, the best of alL
China.
Thin^e.
(Difficult of access; few men
come from there, and seldom)
{Exports, overland through Bac-
tria to Barygaza, also by
way of the Ganges to Da-
mirica)
Raw silk
Silk yarn
Silk cloth.
Himalaya mountains. The Besatve.
{Exports)
Malabathrum; in three forms,
the large-ball, the medium-
ball, and the small-ball.
289
ARTICLES SUBJECT TO DUTY AT ALEXANDRIA
FROM THE RESCRIPT CONCERNING EASTERN TRADE IN THE
DIGEST OF THE ROMAN LAW, XXXIX, XV, 5, 7.
Classified as follows:
(1) Precious stones, etc.
Diamond (adamas)
Alabanda
Beryl
Ceraunium
Alabaster (onyx arabicus)
Lapis lazuli
Sardonyx
Emerald
Sapphire
Garnet (alabanda)
Pearls and pearl shell
Tortoise shell
Ivory.
( 2) Vegetable products valuedfor their
fragrance: as incense, per-
fume, or medicine.
Aloe
Amomum
Galbanum
Ginger
Incense gums
Gum dammar
Cardamom
Caryophyllon
Cassia
Cinnamon
Xylo-cassia
Costus
Asafoetida
Frankincense, Arabian and Af-
rican
Malabathrum
Sugar
Myrrh
Spikenard
Nard
Pepper
Sarcogalla
Stacte
Agallochum.
(3) Dyes.
Lac
Fucus (rock lichen or orchil).
(4) Textile.
Byssus (flax cloth?;
Muslins
Cotton cloth
Wool (Tibetan?)
Capilli Indici(?)
Silk, yarn and cloth.
(5) Metal
Indian steel (Haidarabad).
(6) Animal.
Tigers
Leopards
Panthers
Lions and lionesses
Babylonian skins.
(7) Human
Eunuchs.
290
DATE OF THE PERIPLUS, AS DETERMINED BY
VARIOUS COMMENTATORS
The dates assigned fall into three groups. The first, which
dates the Periplus before Pliny, assumes the trade to have been that
which existed under Nero, and includes the possibility that Pliny
quoted from or summarized the Periplus in his description of Arabia
Felix. The latest date possible under these suppositions is the end of
the reign of Malichas, whose inscriptions indicate that he ruled be-
tween 40 and 70 A. D.
The second group depends on the identification of Zoscales with
Za Hakale in the Abyssinian Chronicle, whose dates were given by
Henry Salt as 76 to 89 A. D. The dependence placed on these two
dates, on which Salt himself cast doubt, is surprising in view of the
fact that he antedated two kings in the list (El Abreha and El Atzbeha)
more than 100 years, to bring them within the reigns of the Roman
emperors Constantine and Constantius, who are known to have had
relations with them; and if so great a liberty can be taken with the
monarchs of the fourth century, it seems reasonable to suppose that
one of the first century may be a score of years out of his proper
order. The supposed confirmation of these dates by mention of
contemporary Indian rulers points to an earlier date during the period
of their viceroyalties rather than of their reigns.
The third group of identifications depends on the reference in
tne text to the "emperors," assuming this to be a time when there
were two Roman emperors reigning jointly. This assumption is
entirely unnecessary.
First group:
"In the middle of the first century after Christ, nearly contem-
porary with Pliny.''
Salmasius, Exercitationes Pliniana, 835.
"A little earlier than Pliny."
Mannert, Geographie der Griechen und Rbmer aus ihren Schrif-
ten dargestellt, Niirnberg, 1799, I, 131.
"Soon after Claudius; about the tenth year of Nero" (which
would be 63 A. D.).
Vincent, II, 59.
*'Under Claudius or a little later."
Ukert, Geographie der Griechen und Romer, Weimar, 1816,
I, i, 209.
291
"60 A. D."
Benfey, article Indien in Ersch and Griiber's EncyklopMe,
Sect. II, Vol. 7, p. 90: Leipzig, 1840.
5 Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, II, 538; III, 3.
"Unquestionably before Pliny's Natural History."
Schwanbeck, in Rheinischen Museum, VII, 338.
"A little earlier than Pliny, who seems to quote from it; that is,
prior to 77 A. D.''
Dillmann, in Berichte der K. Preuss. Akad. der Wis sensehaften,
1879, pp. 413-429.
"Nearly contemporary with Pliny, written before the dedication
of the Natural History in 77 A. D.''
Fabricius, p. 27.
"56-67 A. D."
Glaser, in Ausland, Miinchen, 1891, pp. 45-6.
Skizze der Geschichte und Geographie Arabiens, II,
164.
"Next before Pliny.''
Robertson, Disquisition on Ancient India.
"60-63 A. D."
Watt, Commercial Products of India, p. 371, etc.
"56-71 A. D., as shown by Glaser.''
"Before 77 A. D."
Speck, Handelsgeschichte des Altertums, I, 35; III, 2b., 919.
"During the reign of Malik III, King of the Nabataeans, 40-70
A. D."
Vogue, Syrie Centrale: Inscriptions Semitiques, p. 107.
(Paris, 1869.)
"During the reign of Kariba-il Watar Juhan'im, the Homerite
King, about 40-70 A. D."
Glaser, Die Abessinier in Arabien und Africa, pp. 37-8.
*'During the reign of Ili-azzu Jalit, King of the Hadramaut,
about 25-65 A. D."
Glaser, Die Abessinier, etc., p. 34.
"The author made his voyages at various times between 65 and
75 or 80 A. D. The work was written in the last quarter of
the first century A. D."
Haig, The Indus Delta Country, 28.
292
Second group:
"80-89 A. D."
C. Muller, Geographi Graci Minores, I, xcvi; depending
on the doubtful dates given Za Hakale by Henry Salt, in
his rearrangement of the Abyssinian Chronicle in 1812.
"75 A; D."
Bunsen, de Azania commentatio philologica, Bonn, 1852.
"80-85 A. D."
Vivien de Saint Martin, Histoire de la Geographie et des d'ecou-
vertesg'eographiques, 1873; also LeNordde P Afrique dans
F antiquit'e grecque et romaine.
"77-89 A. D., as shown by Muller."
Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography\ II, 445; London,
1883.
''About 10 years after Pliny's death'' (which occurred in 79 A. D.)
Tozer, History of Ancient Geographyp. 274: Cambridge, 1897.
"About 90 A. D." (referring to Nahapana, the Nambanus of
§41),
A.-M. Boyer, in Journal Asiatique, Paris, July-Aug., 1897,
pp. 120-151. "83-84 A. D." (referring to Sundara Satakarni, the Sandares
of §52).
C. R. Wilson, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal^
June, 1904.
"Between 77 and 105 A. D."
Vincent Smith, Early History of India, p. 371, etc. "Between 80 and 89 A. D."
McCrindle, in Indian Antiquary, VIII, 108-151. "About 85 A. D."
J. F. Fleet, article Epigraphy, in Imperial Gazetteer of India,
new edition, II, 76.
Third group.
The following belong to the curiosities of criticism, all being
based on the "emperors" of § 23:
"In the 2d century A. D., later than 161, under Marcus Aure-
lius and Lucius Verus."
Dodwell, in Hudson's Geographic Veteris Scriptores, pp. 85-105.
Heeren, De Inaia Romanis cognita, in Commentationes societatis
regia scientiarum. Gottingen, 1793, XI, 101.
293
'Apparently of the 1st, or at latest of the 2d century A. D."
Heeren, Ideen über die Politik, den Verkehr und den Handel der
vornehmsten Volker der alten Welt. Göttingen, 1824,
I, iii, 316.
"A ship's log of the 2d century A. D."
Bohlen, Das alte Indien, mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Aegypten.
Königsberg, 1830, I, 71.
"A merchant of Alexandria who lived in the first half of the 2d
century A. D."
Külb, Lander- und Völkerkunde in Biographien, Berlin, 1846,
I, 245.
'Of the 2d century A. D."
Ritter, Geschichte der Erdkunde und der Entdeckungen, Berlin,
1861, p. 124; also Erdkunde Asiens, IV, 1.
"Of the 1st or, rather, the following century."
Ritter, Erdkunde Asiens, VIII, 1.
"Of the 3d century."
Letronne, Christianisme de Nubie, 47.
"200-217 A. D."
Letronne, in Nouveau Recueil de V Acad'emie des Inscriptions,
IX, 173. Alex. v. Humboldt, Kritischen Untersuchungen, I, 315.
Kosmos, II, 458.
Forbiger, Handbuche der alten Geographe aus den Quellen
bearbeitet, Leipzig, 1842, I, 442.
"246-247 A. D., under the emperor Philip and his son."
Reinaud, in Journal Asiatique, series V, vol. 18, Paris, 1861.
p. 226. Reinaud, Memoires de I Acad'emie des Inscriptions et belles lettres,
vol. xxiv, pp. 227-278 (1864).
O. Peschel, Geschichte der Erdkunde, München, 1865.
These views are vigorously combated by
O. Blau, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgen ländischen Gesell-
schaft, xxii, 656. A. Weber, Indisch* Streife, II, 266 (1869). Vivien de Saint Martin, Le Nord de F Afrique dans P antiquite
grecque et romaine, 1863, p. 197. Dillmann, loc. cit., pp. 414-428.
294
RULERS MENTIONED IN THE PERIPLUS
§ 5. Zoscales, king of the people called Axumites.
(Dates fixed by Salt in 1804 as 76-89 A. D.; his conclu-
sions, depending on an arbitrary arrangement of the Abys-
sinian Chronicle, as he said himself, are "not to be de-
pended upon;" a more probable period for this reign
would be 59-72 A. D.)
§ 19. Malichas, king of the Nabataeans.
(Mentioned also by Josephus, Bell. Iud., Ill, 4, 2. In-
scriptions cited by Vogue fix his dates as 40-70 A. D.)
§ 23. Charibael, king of the Homerites and Sabaites.
(Inscriptions cited by Glaserfix his reign about40-70 A. D.)
§ 23. The Emperors.
(ProbablyClaudius and Nero, 41-54 and 54-68 respectively.)
§ 27. Eleazus, king of the Frankincense Country.
(Inscriptions cited by Glaser fix his reign about 25-65 A. D.)
.§ 38. Parthian princes at war with each other.
(Probably within the decade following the death of Gon-
dophares, which occurred 51 A. D.)
§ 41. Nambanus, king of Ariaca.
(Perhaps Nahapana, the Saka satrap—or a predecessor of
that name—but before the victories which led to the estab-
lishment of the Saka era of 78 A. D.)
§ 52. The elder Saraganus, who had previously governed Calliena.
(Probably ArishtaSatakarni, then the Andhra king, who ruled
about 44-69 A. D.; whose court was held at his eastern
capital, Dhanyakataka, so that to the author of the Periplus,
landing on the west coast, he was no more than a name,
and the visible authority was vested in the western viceroy.)
§ 52. Sandares, who possessed Calliena.
(Probably Sundara Satakarni—who ruled as Andhra king in
83-4 A. D.—but before his accession to the throne, while
as one of the heirs presumptive he was acting as viceroy at
Paethana, toward the end of the reign of Arishta Satakarni,
the ''elder Saraganus.'0
295
INDEX
References to the text are in bold-faced type; to the notes in light-faced
Abalit, 73
Abasa, 62, 124, 145, 146
Abaseni. See Abyssinians, Habashat, 62, 140, 145
Abd-er-Razzak, 147, 203
Abd-es-Shems, 108
Abiria (Abhira), 39, 175, 257
Abissa Polis, 62, 140
Abraham, 135, 162
absinth, Persian, 157
Abu Thabi, 150
Abu Thanni, 150
Abydos ,158 Abyssinia (see Axumites), 5, 6, 7, 8,
57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 66, 73,
75, 77, 88, 92, 96, 99, 106,
107, 109, 119, 141, 142, 153,
167, 172, 179, 230, 271 Abyssinian Chronicle, 9, 64, 66, 67,
133, 200 Abyssinian Church, 75 acacia, 87, 113, 130, 131 Acannae, 26, 85
Accadian-Dravidian trade, 173, 175
Achaea, 71
Achasmenidas, the, 221
achates. See agate, 223
Achenkoil river, 212
Acila
(in S. W. Arabia), 114
(in S. E. Arabia), 147, 237 Ad, Adites, 141, .142 adamant, 155 adamas, 222, 224 Adam's Bridge, 234, 241 Adams, Brooks, 220 Aden, 74, 75, 80, 85, 101, 109, 115,
11.6, 118, 227 Aden, gulf of, 3, 4, 52, 75, 85, 138 Adi-Ganga, 255 Adler, Nathan, 164 Adonis, 131, 138 Adulis, 22, 23, 29, 52, 60, 61, 63,
65, 67, 96, 114, 141, 209, 228,
251, 252 adzes, 24
Aegean islands, 77 Aegidii, island of the, 44, 202 Aelana, 108 Aelius Gallus, 10, 108 Aesculapius, 131 Aesopus, 240 Aethiopia, 29, 58, 59, 62, 66, 69,
83, 153, 159, 167, 218, 250
Aethiopia (continued)
language, 146. (See Geez)
Aethiopians, 62, 117, 119, 134, 146,
213 Asiatic, 162, 163
dynasty in Egypt, 162
Aetna, 133
Afghanistan, 177, 184, 186, 187, 190,
223
Africa, 3, 5, 10, 29, 52, 56, 74, 75,
76, 77, 87, 88, 89, 92, 94, 96,
97, 99, 106, 109, 118, 119,
129, 130, 134, 135, 136, 138,
141, 142, 156, 160, 161, 163,
164, 175, 176, 177, 178, 210,
217, 218, 226, 228, 271
trade from interior of, 75
Arab slave trade in, 96, 161
circumnavigation of, 101
Southern extension of, 101
negroes of, 163
African rift-valley, 98
agate, 42, 193, 223
Agatharchides, 4, 15, 50, 51, 52, 63,
87, 102, 115, 118, 133, 160
Agisymba, 98
Agni, 229
Agra, 179
Ahmadabad, 179
Aizanas (el Abreha), 60, 61, 67
Ajanta, 196, 244, 247
Akaba, Gulf of, 101, 102
Akko, 129
Aksu, 268
alabandic stone, alabandenum, 223,
251
alabaster, 31, 114
Alalaei islands, 23, 61, 66
Alaric, 214
Alashia (Cyprus), 78
Albanians, 277
Alexander the Great, 4, 39, 41, 42r
51, 58, 69, 70, 123, 131, 149,
161, 162, 164, 166, 170, 180,
184, 187, 189, 264
Alexander, the sailor, (See Marinus-
of Tyre), 260
Alexandria, 5, 16, 32, 65, 76, 77,
101, 103, 125, 132, 167, 214>
232, 239
Alfragan, 55
Algeria, 168, 192
Alilat = Urania, 132
alkanet, 112
296
Allazi, 17
Alleppey, 211
almonds, oil of, 113
aloes, 33, 129, 139, 141, 145, 250
'Am = Amon, 132
Amara, country of, 87, 88, 230
Amaravati, 195
amber, 259, 276
ambergris, 130, 157
Amenemhet I, 121
amethyst, 226
Amhara, 57
Ammianus Marcellinus, 102,267, 281
amomum, 112
Amon, Amon-Re, 78, 121, 122, 124,
132, 158, 228
Amos, Book of, 193, 264
Amoy (see Zayton), 214
Amphila, 66
Amritsar, 180
Amu Daria. (See Oxus), 277
Anaimalai Hills, 204
Anam, 90, 263, 276
Anariaci, 277 anchors, anchorage, 25,26,27,30,31,
38, 40, 44,182 andaniCy 70 Andhra, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200,
204, 235, 236, 243, 252, 253 coinage, 198, 243, 244, 245 ship-symbol, 243, 244, 245
Angkor-Wat, 261
An-hsi (see Parthia), 276, 277
animism, 131-2, 236-7, 253
anise, 213
Anjengo, 234
Anjidiv (see Aegidii), 202
Annesley Bay, 60, 66
Annius, Plocamus, 8
anointing oil, Hebrew, 111, 113, 169
Ansichow, 268
antelope horns, 74
Antichthones, continent of, 252
Antigonus, 102
antimony, 42, 45, 190, 192
Antioch, 65, 76, 77, 149, 275 Antibchia (Charax), 149 Antiochia Margiana (Merv),
268, 269
Antiochus, 111
Antiochus Epiphanes, 147, 160 Antiochus Hierax, 123 Antiochus Theos, 184
Antiphili Portus (see Amphila), 66
Antony, Mark, 103, 240
ants, gold-digging (seeTibetan gold),
259 An-tun (Marcus Aurelius Antonius),
_ 586_
Aparantika, 175 apes, 61, 113, 121, 175 Apirus river (see Ophir), 160, 175 Apollo, 123, 132, 138 Apollodotus, 42, 184, 185
Apollo's Valley, 86
Apologus, 36, 149, 151, 153
apyron gold (see Ophir), 160
aquamarine, 222
Arabia, 4, 14, 16, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 36, 44, 58, 60, 63, 64, 7.1, 75,
80, 82, 83, 89, 96, 97, 98, 99,
103, 104, 105, 106, 109, 115,
117, 118, 119, 121, 124, 128,
130, 132, 133, 134, 135, 140,
141, 142, 147, 150, 151, 154,
157, 158, 160, 163, 164, 168,
176, 177, 192, 198, 210, 228,
230, 232, 233, 270
Sovereignty of the state that is
first in, 96, 97 Arabia Felix, 10, 132
Araby the Blest, 143 Arabia Petraea, 102 Arabian Gulf, 4, 24, 63
Alps, 116
caravan trade, 102, 103, 104
geographers, 115
language, 35, 146
sea, 159 Arabian shipping, 89, 97, 118, 148,
155, 201, 228
down coast of East Africa, 96
Arabic language, 104
Arabis, river, 161, 162
Arabs, 3, 4, 5, 28, 30, 34, 59, 62, 88,
89, 96, 97, 98, 101, 104, 105,
107, 109, 121, 123, 125, 126,
127, 131, 132, 135, 145, 149,
150, 152, 161, 162, 217, 247
infusion with negroes in E. Af-
rica, 98
in Sumatra and Java, 127
historians, 142
of India, 161, 162
Arachosii, 41, 183, 189
Arad-Ea, 135
Arakan, 252
Aral Sea, 277
Aram, 142
Aramaeans, 102
Aramaic language, 104
Arattii (Arashtra), 41, 183
Arctic Circle, 27
Arctic Ocean, 277
Arcturus, 221
areboy 26, 27'
Ares 132
Aretas (Hareth), 11, 103.
Argaru (see Uraiyur), 46, 241
Aria, 189, 269 Ariaca, 24, 27, 39, 70, 87, 174, 175,
210
Arib, 109
Arishta Satakarni, 189, 199, 200
Aristotle, 264, 266
Arjuna, 254
Armenia, 14, 150, 278
Arnold, Matthew, 187
297
Arphaxad, 107
Arrian, 7, 15, 161, 163, 164, 170,
184, 189, 238, 259
Arsacid dynasty, 63, 65, 127, 161
arsenic, 151, 191, 192, 221
Arsinoe, 24, 52, 69
Artemidorus, 66, 114
Arun river, 272, 279
Arwe, the serpent, 67, 133
Aryans, 174, 187, 202, 210, 228, 229, 230, 235, 238, 241, 250, 253, 254, 257, 264
Aryanism (Brahmanism), 279
Asabon, Asabi, 36, 108, 147, 148
Asachas (see Asich), 61, 62
asafoetida, 177
asbestos cloth, 276
Ascitae (see Asich), 62, 126, 145
Ash-shihr (see Es-shehr), 130
Ashur, 123 Asia, 60, 92, 132, 153, 156, 163,171,
172, 176, 185, 186, 194, 222,
236, 260, 263, 266, 270, 275,
278 Asia Minor, 5, 58, 76, 128, 213
Asiatics of the desert, 192
Asich (see Axum),35, 62, 118, 126,
146 Asmiraea (see Tsiemo), 268
Asoka, 175, 180, 188, 195, 204, 235,
236, 238, 249
aspralathus, 112 Assam, 84, 194, 254, 255, 259, 264,
267
asses, 61
Asshur, 107
Assuan, 57, 61
Assurbanipal, 58
Assyria, 118, 123, 160, 171, 269
Assyrian inscriptions, 74, 92, 123,
128, 149, 160
Astabora river, 59
Astacampra, 39, 40
Astaphus river, 59
Astola, 162
Astomi, 267
astrobolus (see cat's eye), 223
Asvavadana (see Horse-faces), 254
asypha, 26
Atbara river (Astabora), 56, 57, 63 Athenaeus, 15 Athenodorus, 102 Atlantic Ocean, 3, 10, 81, 190
Atramitas (see Chatramotitae), 124 Attacori, 260 Attana, 150 Attock, 189 atyob, 62 Augustus, 5, 63, 131, 140, 149, 150,
157, 187, 219, 220, 264, 265
Aulus Hirtius, 103
AUM, 138, 139 Aurannoboas ( Aranya-vaha?), 43,
202, 258
Aurea Chersonesus (see Chryse),
259, 260
Aurelian, 265 Ausal, Ausan, Ausar, 74, 96, 115,
146, 267 Ausanitic coast, 28, 74, 94, 96, 115
Austrian South Arabian Expedition,
109, 119, 136, 139
Auxumites, city of the, 23, 51, 59, 61
Avalites, 24, 25, 31, 65, 73, 74, 114
Avanti, 187
awls (or bodkins), 28
axes, 24 Axum. 5, 9, 10, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64,
65, 67, 89, 119. 126, 133, 141
Ayodhya (see Oudh), 242
Azania, 27, 28, 29, 34, 47, 81, 92,
106, 179, 252
bluffs of, 27, 92
courses of, 27, 92
Azov, Sea of (see Maeotis), 278
Bab-el-Mandeb, Straits of, 8, 52, 73, 114, 117
baboons, 43 Babylon, 62, 96, 122, 123, 163, 167,
227, 228
Babylonia, 3, 107, 142, 145, 159, 164,
165, 213, 228, 236
Babylonian creation^story, 138
Babylonian inscriptions, 149 Bacare, Barkare, Barace, 44,_46, 211,
v 212, 233, 234 Bacchus, 76, 83, 132, 238 Bactra, 268, 270
Bactria, 9, 11, 48, 132, 164, 166, 183,
185, 186, 261, 268, 269, 274
Bactrians, 41, 184, 185
Badakshan, 171
Baeones, 39, 181
Bagamoyo (see Rhapta), 94
Bagdad, 91, 152, 228
Bahardipur (see Barbaricum), 165
Bahlika (see Baraca), 174
Bahmanabad, 166 Bahrein Islands, 51, 80, 91, 151, 156, 163, 164, 222
Bains, J. A., 208
balanus, oil of, 112
BalasrT, 235
Balearic Islands, 168
Ba-l-Haf, 116
Balita (see Varkkallai), 46, 234, 235
Ball, Vincent, 84, 168, 171, 172, 212, 215, 224, 225, 258, 259
balms, 6, 121
balsam, 112, 214
balsamum, seed of, 112
bamboo, 155
bamboos, 263
Barman, 270
Bandar Abbas, 91
Bandar Hais (see Mundus), 81
Bandar Muriyeh, 85
298
Bandar Ululah, 85
Bankot (see Mandagora), 201
Bantu migrations, 98
Baraca, 38, 39, 174, 175
Barawa, 88, 92
Barbaricum, 37, 39, 128, 165, 270
Barbary States, 56
barberry (see lycium), 169
Barbosa, 194
Bargysi, Bhargas, 47, 254
barley, 178
Barr el Ajam, Ajjan, 75, 92
Barygaza, 27, 30, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38,
39, 40, 41, 42, 43,45, 48,128,
151, 153, 178, 180, 182, 184,
185, 188, 190, 193, 196, 198,
199, 205, 221, 236, 245, 268,
270, 274
Basilis, 15
baskets, wicker, for fishing, 28, 94, 95
plaited, for shoulder-burdens, 48,
280, 281
Bassora, 80, 91, 179, 247
Batavia, 127
bathing, 46
Batineh coast, 151
Batrasave, 150
bdellium, 3, 37, 38, 42, 120, 163-5
Beach, small and great, 27
Beazley, C. R., 267
Beckmann, 69, 79, 111, 171
Beduins, 104, 105, 119, 141
beef, 123
Bel, 123
Bell, Col. M. S., 272
Bellary, 224
Bellasis, 166
Beluchistan, 8, 16, 147, 164, 170 Belus, 68 Benadir, 92 Benares, 187 Benfey, 242, 243, 259 Bengal, 178, 194, 197, 236, 242, 252,
253, 255, 257, 258, 259, 264,
279 Bay of, 196, 241, 252 muslins, 258
Benguela, 75
Benmasan, 192
Benjamin of Tudela, 164, 211 Bent, ]. Theodore, 60, 97, 117,119,
127, 129, 130, 138, 139, 140,
141, 142, 145, 156, 168, 237 benzoin, 120, 128 Berber, 56, 60 Berbera, 56, 66, 74, 75, 79, 80, 81,
87, 89, 116, 217
fair of, 80, 91
Berbers (Barbari), 22, 23, 24, 25, 26,
31,56, 59, 63, 74, 114
meaning of, 56
Berenice, 16, 22, 29, 30, 52, 55, 68,
101, 104, 106, 121, 132, 167,
168, 228, 233, 260
beryllium, 222
beryls, 204, 210, 221, 222, 223
Besatae, Bisadae, 48, 278, 279
betel, 216
Bethlehem, 123
Beypore, 204
Bhandarkar, R. G., 209
Bharana, 275
Bharata, 235
Bharukacha, 65, 180
Bhils, the, 190, 194
Bhota, 253
Bhrigu, 180
Bhumaka (see Nahapana) 198
Bhutan, 151, 253
Biddulph, Col. J., 200
Bikrampur (see Vikramapura), 255
Bilbilis, 70
Bion, 62
Bir Ali, 116
Bir Barhut, 119, 133
birds, sacred (see serpents), 226, 241
Birdwood, 120
Bit-Yakin, Land of, 149, 160
Black Sea, 77
blackwood, 36, 152, 153, 197, 201
Blancard, 18, 19
Blandi, 18
blankets, 31, 257
Blest, Island of the, 133, 134, 135,
139, 163, 197
mountain of the, 148
''blood of two brothers," 138
bloodstone, 223
boats, small, 22, 25, 32, 41
sewed, 28, 36, 151, 154, 244
of osiers covered with hides, 190
hollowed from logs, 234, 243
Bodh-Gaya, 64
Bodhisattva, 197
Bohlen, 242
Bokhara, 171, 186, 269
Bombay, 80, 91, 118, 138, 143, 152,
155, 156, 167, 169, 176, 182,
183, 194, 196, 197, 200, 252,
257 Bonin, 272 Book of the Dead, 237 Borheck, 18
Boroboedor, 174, 244, 245, 261 bosmoros, 177, 178 Boulger, D. 263
boutyron (see clarified butter), 89, 177 boutyros (see asafoetida), 177, 178 Boyer, A.-M., 200 bracelets, 75 Brahma, 138 Brahmanism, 138, 139, 188, 236, 237,
241, 253, 257, 281
Brahman writings, 210, 281, 282
Brahmanas, 281
Brahmaputra river, 165, 253, 255,. 264, 272
Braho, 162, 180
299
Brahui, 162, 180
Brambanan, 174, 261
Brandis, 215 brass, 12, 24, 69, 197, 221, 251
Corinthian, 69
Breasted, Prof. J. H., 61, 78, 113,
122, 124, 158, 218, 228
Bredow, 19
Britain, British, 190, 203 Broach (see Barygaza), 179, 180,
193, 196
brocades, 257
bronze, 78, 187, 193
Bruce, 73
Bucephalus Alexandria, 41, 184
Buchanan, Dr., 221
buckram, (see cotton cloth), 273
Buddhism, 64, 65, 70, 138, 185, 187, 188, 235, 236, 249, 253, 263,
275, 279 in Java, 174
Buddha, 189, 197, 229, 259
Buddhist Monastery, Southern
Mount, 188
pagodas, 64, 65, 274
Buddhist pilgrim route, 272
Buddhist writings, 197, 210, 228, 229 buffalo's milk, 177
Biihler, 209, 229
Bulhar, 80, 81, 270
bulls, 58
Bulunzir, 270
Bunbury, 106, 252, 268
Burckhardt, 104
Burma, 81, 82, 84, 90, 152, 176, 182,
183, 191, 223, 226, 227, 231,
235, 254, 255, 259, 263, 273,
279 Burnell, Dr., 204, 205, 209, 221, 234 Burns, 174 Burnt Island, 30, 106
off Somali coast, 81
Burton, Sir Richard Francis, 72, 74,
75, 79, 80, 89, 91, 182
Buto, 131, 132, 226
butter, 177
Byzantine emperors, 7, 59, 172
Byzantium, 43, 65, 201, 220
Cabolitic, 42, 190
Cabul, 166, 167, 170, 183, 184, 185,
189, 190, 270
cactus, 141
Cadmus, 132
Caelobothras (see Cerobothra), 233
Camitae, island of the, 44, 202
Caesar, 115, 219, 264
Cairo, 127
Caius (Caligula), 240
cake-dishes, 34
cake, salted, 123
CaktM Islands, 36, 61, 147
calamus, 111, 112
Calcutta, 152, 169
Caldwell, Bishop, 205, 208, 209, 221,
234, 243 Calf-Eaters (Moschophagi), 22,23,
56 Calicut, 203, 204, 215, 221, 227
Caligula, 11, 103, 220
Caliphate, 228 callaina, callean stone(seeturquoise),
38, 170, 223_
Calliena (see Kalyana, Calliana), 43, 167, 196, 197, 198, 199, 236, 251 Calon mountains, 36, 61, 147
caltis, a coin, 48, 289
calves, 58
Camanes, 182
Camara, 46, 242 Cambay, Gulf of, 68, 70, 85, 88, 89,
135, 172, 175, 176, 177, 181,.
182, 183, 193, 194, 195, 232,
237, 258
Cambodia, 259, 261
Cambridge Natural History, 136, 137,.
148, 264
Cambyses, 59 camels, 30, 32, 52, 91, 104, 108, 121,
122, 126, 130, 137, 233 camel's flesh, 74 Cammoni, 40, 182 Camoes, 143 Campania, 77, 190 Campbell, Sir James, 196 Cana, 32, 33, 35, 36, 45, 115, 116,
117, 126, 128, 129, 139, 146,
151, 233 Canaan, 160 canal between the Nile and Red Sea,
* 51
connecting South Indian back-
waters, 234
Candace, 12, 59
Candler, 273
Cannanore (see Naura), 204, 221
Canneh, 117
cannibals, 47, 254, 255, 260
canoes of single logs, 28, 93, 234,
243 Cantabria, 190 Canton, 84, 228 Cape of Good Hope, 143 Cape of Spices (Guardafui), 82, 85 Cape route to India, 214 Cappadocia, 7 caravan routes between the Nile and Red Sea, 51, 57, 121
from China to Bactria, 261
carbunculus, 222, 227
carchedonia (see jasper), 223
cardamoms, 99, 112, 202
Carey, 273
cargo-ships, 35, 126
Carmania, 150, 151, 160, 161, 191, 192, 194, 221
300
■carmesin, 73
carmine, 73
Carna (see Kama)
Carnaites, 30, 104, 105, 109
Canraites, Cassanites, Cananites,
105 Carnatic, 241, 257 Carnegie Institution, Washington,
262 carnelian, 42, 43, 190, 193, 194, 223 Carreri, Gemelli, 155 Carter, H. J., 142, 143 Carthage, 147, 219 Carthaginians, 78, 101, 217, 279, 280 Caseri, 260 Cashmere, 166, 257 Casii (see Kashgar), 269 caskets, 34
Caspapyrene, Caspapyra, 42, 189
Caspian Sea, 48, 172, 183, 186, 263,
277
Pass, 269 cassia, 82, 83, 84, 112, 169, 202, 217
false, 86 caste system, in the Hadramaut, 118,
145, 146
in India, 180, 230, 235, 238
castor musk, 251
castor oil, 264
Catalonia, 168
Catherine de Medici, 199
cat's eye, 193, 223
Cattigara, 228 cattle, 30, 39, 121, 139, 149, 176,
218, 225, 270, 271
humped, 270, 271
cave-dwellers, 35
cedar, 78
celibacy, 46
Central Arabia, 108
Central Asia, 166, 176, 177, 187, 264
Central Asian trade-route, 186, 269,
272 centurion, 29, 104 Cerobothra, Kingdom of (see Chera),
44, 208 Ceylon, 8, 52, 84, 148, 152, 163,
170, 171, 194, 209, 213, 216,
220, 222, 226, 227, 229, 230,
235, 237, 239, 241, 243, 248,
249, 250, 251, 252, 255, 261,
279, 281
embassy from, to Augustus, 252 Chaberis emporion (see Camara), 242 Chahbar, Bay of, 151 Chakora, 199 Chalcedony, 223 Chalcidice, 190 Chaldsea, Chaldaeans, 107, 123, 142,
159, 160, 162
Chalukya kings, 197
Cham, 163
Champavati (see Senvdla), 200
Chanda, 224
Chandikabai, 201
Chandragiri river, 204, 205
Chandragupta Maurya, 180, 187, 186
Chandragupta Vikramaditya, 255
Chandristhan, 230
chaplets, 190, 191, 265
Charax Spasini, 36, 63, 149, 150
Charibael, Kariba-il, 11, 30, 32, 107, 115
chariots, 13
Charsadda, 184
Chashtana, 188
Chatramotitae, Chatramotitis (see Ha-
dramaut), 62, 116, 119, 127,
139, 140, 145 Chatterton, 246 Chaul, (see Semylla), 200 Chau, 261
Chera, 195, 197, 204, 205, 208, 209,
210, 222, 237, 238, 267, 273,
281 Chersonesus, 44, 202
Ch'ien-han-shu, the, 277
Chin, 248
China, 9, 11, 14, 82, 84, 90, 118,
128, 152, 169, 172, 176, 178,
183, 185, 186, 191, 194, 213,
222, 223, 227, 228, 235, 247,
259, 260, 261, 262,(2(53, 264,
266, 269, 270, 273, 275, 276,
27Q279. (See This.)
sea-trade to Persia, 84, 152
sea-route to, via Malacca, 260
great wall of, 261, 263
Sea, 273
china, Nankin, 97
Chin Hills, 255
Chindwin river, 246 trader, 246
Chinese, 76, 227, 247, 263, 266, 268,
276 account of Roman Syria, 275-7 annals, 128, 185, 246, 247, 259,
261, 268, 275, 276, 277 ships, 227, 228, 259 silks, 276
Chishull, 169
Chitor, 180, 184
Chna, 160 _
Chola, Chola-mandalam (see Coro-
mandel), 195, 197, 204. 205,
209, 237, 238, 241, 242, 249,
281 Cho-La, 279
Cholaebus, Kula'ib, 30, 107, 116 Chota Nagpur,258 Chou dynasty, 261 Chou-li, 263 Christ, 9, 10, 67, 155 Christianity, 64, 65, 67, 135, 162 Christians, Syrian, 206 in Ceylon, 250
Chronicles, Book of, 122, 124, 175
301
Chryse Island, 45, 46, 47, 48, 227,
246, 259-61
chrysolite, 167
chrysolithos, 223
chrysoprase, chrysoprasus, 223
Chu river, 185
Ch'u, 261
Chumbi Vale, 272, 279 Chuse (see Cush), 163 Chwan-chau (see Zayton), 214 Cicero, 132 Cilicia, 71, 123, 269 Cimmerian Bosphorus, 278 Cimolian chalk, 111 cinnabar, 112, 137, 192, 263, 276 cinnabar, Indian (see dragon's blood),
34, 137-9
cinnamon, 4, 6, 13, 25, 26, 27, 77, 80, 82-4, 86, 87, 89,112, 113, 121, 122, 132, 136, 145, 169, 213, 214, 216, 217, 218, 227, 236, 273, 281
Cirrhadae, 47, 253, 254, 256, 266, 278
citronella, 170, 256
Cizimba language in E. Africa, 98
clarified butter, boutyron, 27, 39, 74,
89, 99, 139, 177, 178
Claudius, 8, 12, 109, 204, 219, 220
Clement, 132
Cleopatra, 5, 240, 264
Clifford, H. C, 260, 261
cloaks, 25, 31
dyed in colors, 24
Clodius, 240
cloth, dressed, 25
asbestos, 276
Egyptian, 68
gold-colored, 276
Indian, 34, 35, 39, 42, 43, 172, 202 undressed, 24
cloths, 4, 251, 257 purple, 31 scarlet 214
clothing, 31, 33, 36, 37, 42, 44, 72,
121, 123, 127,197 Arabian style, with sleeves, 31 embroidered, 275 plain, ordinary, embroidered, in-
terwoven with gold, 31 striped, 149
clover, sweet, 42, 190, 191
cloves, 227, 250, 273
Coa <vestis> transparent silk gauze, 264
Coast Country (see Chola), 43, 46,
283, 241
coats of skin, 24, 70
cobalt, 69, 171
cobra, 236 Cochin, 204, 208, 212, 215
backwaters, 205, 207, 209, 212
Cochinchina, 252
cochineal, 73
cocoanut palm, its products, 99, 154,
177, 250 coffee, 105, 273 Coimbatore, 204, 210, 222 coin, 24, 25, 42, 44, 48, 160, 190,
192, 193, 219, 220, 221, 243,
244, 245, 252, 259, 276 colandia, 46, 228, 246 Colchi, 46, 211, 237 Colchis, 278 collector of customs, 29 Coloe, 23, 60, 141 Columbus, 3, 6, 55 comacum, 112
Comari, Cape and Harbor of, 46, 235
Comedi, the, 269 Commercial Museum, Philadelphia,
247, 262, 271, 274
Commodus, 70, 220
Comorin, Cape (see Comari), 208,
234, 235, 250
Comoro Islands, 88
compass (in Chinese records), 246-7
Comum, 70
conch-shells, 251
Congo, 75
Constantine, 67, 214, 220
Constantinople, 6, 7, 63, 76, 172, 267
Constantius, 67, 107, 115
Conti, Nicol, 225
Coorgs, 190
copal, 80
Indian, 25, 80
copper, 31, 33, 36, 42, 45, 69, 75,
77, 78, 111, 122, 127, 151,
169, 193, 219, 221 Cyprian, 69 ochre, 171
soft, in sheets, 24, 25, 70
Coptos, 16, 52, 55, 68, 103, 121, 132,
232 233 coral, 33/37, 42, 45, 74, 82, 127,
128, 168, 223, 224, 227, 259,
276, 281 Cordier, Henri, 144, 155, 157, 170,
237 coriander, 99, 164
Corinth, 219
Cornelius Nepos, 157
Cornwall, 77, 78 Coromandel (see Chola), 155, 243,
244
corsairs, 135
Corsica, 168
corundum, 227
Cos, 264 Cosmas Indicopleustes, author of the
Christian Topography, 60, 92,
96, 99, 135, 152, 197, 201,
209, 229, 249, 250, 273 costus, 38, 42, 112, 168 cotton, 39, 71, 72, 76, 179, 196, 215,
257, 265, 266 Cottonara, 45, 221, 234
302
cotton cloth, 24, 27, 38, 39, 42, 71,
72, 73, 179, 252, 263 painted chintzes, 252 spinning, 256 thread, 256
cotymba, 40, 182, 245
Cousens, H., 196
cow's blood, 70
milk, 177
cramoisi, 73 Cranganore, Kodungalur (see Muzi-
ris), 205, 208
Crawley, Ernest, 236
Crete, 105, 190
crimson, 73
crocodiles, 28, 34
Crosby, 273 Cruttenden, Lieut., 89, 91, 116, 142,
145 crystal, 220, 221, 223, 224, 226, 276, Ctesias, 70 Ctesiphon, 127 cummin, 99, 213 Cunningham, 200 cups, 24
Curzon, Lord, 147, 162
Cush, 5, 58, 61, 159, 160, 162, 175,
211 Cusha-dvlpa, 230
Cushites, 64, 141, 142, 146, 161, 218
language in Africa similar to the
Ural-altaic, 134 Cushite - Elamite migration, theory
concerning, 51, 58, 134 Cutch, 4, 70, 160, 173, 174, 175, 176
Rann of, 135, 166, 173 Cyeneum, 23, 61 Cyncilim (see Nelcynda), 215 Cynocephali, watering-place of, 86 Cynos river (Wadi-ed - Dawasir?),
149, 150 cypirus, 112 cypress, 112 Cyprus, 61 Cyrene, 69
Dabhol (see Palaepatmae), 201
Dacca, 256, 258, 259
Dachinabades (see Deccan), 43, 195,
204 Dagaan, 85
daggers, 28
Dahalak, 66
Daimaniyat Islands, 147
Dakshina (see Deccan), 252
Damascus, 77
blades, 172
damask, 264
Damirica, 34, 35, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 203, 204, 205, 272, 273
dammar gum, 80
Dana, 224
D'Anville, 268
Daphnus, 86
Dar-es-Salaam, 94
Darius the Great, 7, 51, 123, 189*
213, 264
Darror valley, 219
Das, Sarat Chandra, 273
Dasarna (see Dosarene), 253
dates, 36, 37, 154, 157, 158, 159
date-palm, 136, 158
fiber, 156
syagri, 158
wine, 157, 158, 159
Daulatabad, 196
Davids, Prof. T. W. Rhys, 228
Dawson, 209
Day, Francis, 209
Dead Sea, 101
Deasy, 273
De Candolle, 76, 157 Deccan, 177, 188, 193, 195, 196, 197,
224, 235, 236, 252, 27J
December, 234
Dedan, 153, 159, 162
Deirel Bahri, 120, 121, 141, 142,,
218, 228, 270, 271
Delgado, Cape, 94, 97
Delitzsch, 128
Delphi, 138
Demetrius, 184
Dera Ghazi Khan, 174
designated ports, 22, 51-2
Devgarh (see Togarum), 201.
Dhamari, 258
Dhanavriddhi, 229
Dhanyakataka, Dharanikotta, 195, 199
Dhofar, 107, 109, 118, 126, 129, 140,
143, 218, 237, 271, 272
Dholbanta, 87 diamonds, 45, 215, 216, 222, 224,
225, 226, 241
Dillmann, 66
Dio Cassius, 103
Diocletian, 220
Diodorus island, 23, 31, 114
Diodorus Siculus, 160, 162
Dionysos, 76, 132
Dionysiac revels, 131
Dionysius Periegetes, 171, 226
Dioscorida, 33, 13 3-6
Dioscorides, 80, 82, 157, 171, 192,
213 Diospolis, 24, 68 Dirbat, 141, 142 Disan Island, 106 Diu, 181 Djadarot, 63 Djesair, El, 92 Dodwell, 18 dogs, 113, 121 Dog-star, 125, 233 Dome Island (Trullas), 32 Domitian, 66, 220 Dosarene, 47, 253 Dosaron river (see Mahanadi), 253 Doughty, 104
303
Douglas, R. K., 263
drachmas, 41
dragon, the, of Ares, 132, 226
of Siva, 138'
dragon's blood, 137, 138, 139, 145
legend concerning, 138-9
Drake-Brockman, R. E., 87, 217, 270
Dravida-desam (see Damirica), 205,
230 237 238
Dravidians', 138, 162, 173, 175, 176,
180, 190, 194, 197, 205, 208,
213, 228, 230, 235, 236, 237,
238, 239, 241, 249, 279
alphabet, 210, 229
sea-trade, 209-11, 228-30, 237
drill, blue, 73, 194, 202
drinking-cups, 25
dromedaries, 123
duaca, 25, 80
Duff, 200
Durga, or Parvati, 235, 236, 281
Dutch government in Java, 127, 212
Dutch, the, 192, 202, 204, 215
Dwarka, 174
eagles, 225, 226
Eastern Archipelago, 243
Eber, 107
ebony, 6, 36, 57, 58, 61, 113, 121, 125, 153
Ecbatana, 269
Eden, 115
Edmunds, Albert J., 66, 235, 268
Edom, 102
Edrisi, 71
egg, 190
Egypt, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 22, 24, 27,
31, 32, 33, 42, 45, 47, 51, 52,
55, 57, 58, 59, 61, 63, 64, 65,
68, 69, 71, 75, 76, 78„ 80, 82,
83, 89, 96, 101, 102, 103, 104,
111, 118, 120, 122, 127, 131,
•132, 135, 146, 153, 157, 158,
159, 160, 162, 167, 172, 178,
192, 193, 213, 218, 223, 226,
227, 228, 232, 246, 260, 261
Egypt Exploration Fund, 218
Egyptian cloth, 68, 167
geographers, 230
inscription, 153, 192, 213, 228,
264 shipping, 231
trading-voyages, 228
Egyptians, 60, 68, 75, 76, 87, 89, 113, 114, 132, 142, 143, 171, 234 236
Eirinon, 38, 135, 166, 173, 174
Eiselen, 159
Elagabalus, 219
Elam, 3, 51, 107, 134, 149
Elan, 260
Eleazus, 11, 32, 115, 117
■electmm, 78
Elephant, Cape and River, 26, 85, 86
Elephanta, 138
Elephantine, 57
elephants, 23,43, 60, 61, 137, 138,
193, 236, 252
housings for, 257
Elis, 71
Elisar, 115 Elliot, Sir Walter, 209, 221, 242, 244,
259 ellutu-wood, 123
Ely, 203
Elymais (see Elam), 149
embalming, 113
emeralds, 168, 240
emery, 224
Emperors, 30
Emu, 113 England, English, 66, 96, 127, 144,
189, 203
Engler and Prantl, 82
Ephah, 123
Ephesus, 65, 77
Epiphanius, 171
Epiphi, 27 Erannoboas—Hiranya-vaha (see Son),
258 Eratosthenes, 54, 55, 101, 108, 118,
178, 249, 277
Eritrea, 60
Er-rih (Ptolemais), 60
Erythrae, 259 Erythraean Sea, 7, 15, 22, 29, 37, 48,
60, 62, 101, 136, 145, 159,
197, 260
Agatharchides on, 50-2
origin of name, 50-1
Ervthras, King, legend concerning,
50-1, 87
Esarhaddon, 7, 58 Es-shehr = Escier = Ash-Shihr, 129,
130, 142
Etesian winds, 178, 233
Ethiopia, (see Aethiopia), 9
Etruscan, 193
Eucratides, 184, 185
Eudaemon Arabia, 12, 32, 45, 115
euphorbia, 113 Euphrates, 3, 4, 5, 36, 74, 117, MS,
126, 165, 183, 184, 187, 270 Euripides, 131, 132 Europe, 92, 101, 151, 156, 161, 163,
171, 179, 185, 214, 215, 224,
234, 249, 258 Euxine Sea, 278 Evans, T. C, 195 Exodus, Book of, 82, 111, 113, 122,
164, 169
Everest, Mount, 281
eye cosmetic, 113, 169, 190, 192
paint, 121, 192
Ezekiel, Book of, 70, 77, 78, 82,
105, 115, 117, 153, 161, 264
Ezion-Geber, 260
Ezra, Book of, 159, 228
304
Fabricius, 11, 15, 19, 20, 51, 72, 80,
89, 105, 106, 114, 115, 116,
147, 148, 151, 152, 163, 167,
171, 177, 178, 180, 199, 208,
227, 242, 265 Fa-Hien, 209, 248, 250, 253, 255,
272, 281 fair, annual, of the Besatae: cf. Gara,
279 Farsan Islands, 106 "far-side" ports and coast, 24, 25, 27, 30, 31, 32, 75, 80
Fartach, kingdom of (see Ras Far- tak), 139
Fellatah country, 75
fennel, 216
fenugreek, 112
Fergusson, James, 133, 236, 255, 279
Ferrars, 248 festival, tribal, 141, 142, 143, 279, 280, 281
Fezzan, 98
fig, 80
Firgamu, 171
fish, 74, 159, 162
oil, 154, 155
Fish-Eaters (Ichthyophagi), 22, 23,
29, 32, 35, 56, 143, 146, 162
fishing, 28
flattened noses, men with, 47, 278
flax, 68, 72, 178
Fleet, J. F., 196, 209
flour, 13 Fliickiger and Hanbury, 84, 113, 128,
215 Forster, 74, 114, 116, 133, 143 Foucher, 183 Foulahs, 89 Foulke, 229 Foulkes, 209, 242 Fourth Cataract, 58 France, 199
frankincense, 4, 13, 25, 26, 32, 33,
35, 36, 37, 57, 60, 62, 80, 81,
85, 86,102,105,113,115,116,
117, 118, 120, 122, 123, 124,
125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131,
139, 141, 143, 144, 145, 164,
169, 192, 214, 215, 216, 217,
218, 225, 233, 236, 241, 270,
271 customs affecting gathering of,
125 dangers of gathering, 130-3
far-side, 80
spirit of the tree, 131-2
trade in, 125-6
Frankincense Country, 5, 11, 14, 16,
32, 33, 34, 62, 115, 117, 119,
139, 140
Franks, 75 Frazer, J. G., 131, 132, 133, 139, 146, 237
Frere, Sir Bartle, 155, 157
Freshfield, 279
Froben, 17
fruit, 34, 122, 124, 158
Fryer, 177
Fundy, Bay of, 183
Fu-hi, 263
Furneaux, J. H.s 242, 244, 258
furs, 171, 257
Further India (see Chryse), 260
Gadusii, 277
Gaetulia, 156
galangal, 112
galbanum, 112, 122, 216
Galicia, 77, 78, 190
Galilee, 11
Gallas, 218, 271
Gamble, 152
games, sacred, 191
Gandaran (Gandhara), 41, 183, 184,
189
Ganesa, 236
Ganga-Sagar, 255 Ganges, 6, 9, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48,
160, 165, 166, 172, 176, 187,
188, 195, 217, 222, 242, 249,
255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260,
267, 272, 279 Gangetic spikenard, 47, 222, 256
muslins, 256-8
pearls, 256 Gangtok, 279 Ganjam, 257 Gara, 140, 141, 142, 218 Garamantes, 98 Garcia de Orta, 84, 224 Garhwal, 151, 188 garlands, 190 garnet, 223
Gamier, Francois, 261
Garo, 278
garrison, 29
Gartok, 272
Garuda, bird of Vishnu, 253
Gaul, 68, 76, 77, 167, 168
Gaurisankar (see Everest>, 281
Gautama Buddha, 197, 249
Gautamiputra Satakarni (see Viliva-
yakura), 197, 235
Gaza, 123
Gebanites, 107, 126 Gedrosia, 36, 161, 163, 170, 180,
183, 189
Geez, 63, 146
Geil, 272
Gelenius, 17, 18
gems, 6, 222; 238, 240, 276
Genaba, Beni Genab (see Zenobian,)
143, 144, 145, 146, 162
Genabti (see Genaba, Zenobian), 122,
144 Genesis, Book of, 74, 105, 107, 115,
121, 149, 159, 160, 161, 162,
164, 194
305
Genoa, Genoese, 168, 214
George, St., 138
Gerrha, 46
Ghassanids, 6, 108
Ghats, western, 80, 152, 196, 201, 205, 211, 212
Ghazipur, 187
ghi (see clarified butter), 177, 178
Ghora Bari, 165
Gibbon, 214
Gilead, 121 Gilgamesh, epic of, 134, 135, 139, 163, 237
ginger, 211, 213, 227, 273
ginger-grass, 170, 256
girdles, 24, 27, 42, 190
Girnar, 249
gizir, 26
Glaser, Dr. Eduard, 9, 10, 11, 12,
14, 51, 58, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64,
66, 68, 79, 80, 81, 85, 86, 87,
94, 96, 102, 105, 106, 107,
108, 109, 114, 115, 116, 119,
128, 130, 132, 133, 134, 135,
136, 140, 143, 144, 150, 151,
158, 160, 164 glass, 26, 28, 38, 45, 66, 68, 69, 220,
276 glass, flint, 24, 25, 42
Gnbti, 61
Goa 'see Aegidii), 202, 203, 222 Goa-sus, 63, 140, 150 Goaphat point, 181 goats, 121, 130, 156, 224 Gobi desert, 261 Godaveri river, 195, 197, 224 goddess, 46, 235, 236 gods, 35, 49, 133, 191, 281, 282 God's Land, 61, 113, 120, 132 Golconda, 172, 224 gold, 3, 4, 13, 24, 25, 31, 33, 36, 42,
48, 57, 58, 61, 69, 75, 77, 78,
99, 105, 113, 121, 122, 123,
143, 149, 153, 160, 161, 175,
191, 214, 219, 221, 223, 224,
227, 238, 249, 252, 258, 259,
265, 273, 276, 279, 280, 281
ant-gold, 258 embroideries, 242, 257, 273
"golden bough"—mistletoe, 236
Golenischef, W., 133
Gondophares, 167, 185, 190, 200
Goodchild, W., 170, 171, 226
Gospels, the, 213
Gotz, W., 163, 268
grasp, 37, 165
Graeco-Bactrian coins. 184, 185
Graen, 91
grain, 31, 34, 61, 122, 176, 276
grape, 75, 76, 157
muscatel, 157
Great Bear, the, 221
Greece, 131, 132, 172, 190, 267
Greek colonies, 4, 8
Greeks, 3, 34, 44, 51, 60, 75, 76, 78,
82, 101, 108, 131, 132, 135,
160, 172, 180, 183, 190, 192,
193, 195, 210, 236, 250, 253, 264, 265, 277
Byzantine, 201
Egyptian, 106
Syrian, 60
Greek shipping, 89
geographers, 189, 277
literature, 238
writers, 118
Greenwich, 188
Gregentius, St., 107
griffins (see Tibetan gold), 259
guano, 116 Guardafui, 4, 6, 16, 63, 85, 86, 87,
89, 101, 118
Guillain, A., 97
Guignes, de, 272
Guinea coast, 75, 101
gulf of, 99
Gujarat, 70, 135, 167, 174, 175,176, 177, 179, 196, 197, 201, 245, 257, 261
gum arabic, 80, 217
gums, 26, 33, 74, 77, 85, 164, 192, 214, 218, 236
classification of, 164
Gundert, 234
Gupta Empire, 188, 255
Gurdaspur, 180
Gyangtse, 279
Habash, 9, 62, 68, 114, 116, 142
Habashat, 62, 63, 64, 106, 117, 119,
140, 146 Hadramaut, 62, 63, 106, 107, 116,
117, 118, 119, 126, 127, 129,
130, 131, 133, 137, 142, 144,
146, 154 Hadramitic language, 104 Hadrian, 220 Haeckel, Ernst H., 168 Hafa, 140, 141 Haftalu, 162
Haidarabad, 172, 196, 209
Haig, Gen. M. R., 163, 272
Hai-hsi-kuo, 275
Haines, J. B., 142, 143
Hakra canal, 174
Hala, 199
Halevy, 119
Hall and Neal, 97
Ham, 141
Hami (Khamil), 261, 268
Hammamat, 121
hammo-nitrum, 68
Hammurabi, 7
Handy, R. B., 71
Han dynasty, 246, 262, 263
\ annals, 269
state, 261
Hanfilah, Ras, 66
306
Hanuman, the monkev-god, 230, 237
Harkhuf, 61
Harrar, 74, 75
harvests, 58
Hasik, 62
hatchets, 28
Hatshepsut, Oueen, 73, 82, 113,118,
153, 158, 228
Hauakil Bay, 66
Haura, El—Auara, Leuke Kome, 101
Havilah, land of, 3, 160, 161, 162,
164, 194
Hazarmaveth, 107, 119
Hazin, El, 92
Hbsti, 62 Hebrews, 76, 122, 163, 164, 193, 260
scriptures, 213, 228, 264
Hecataeus, 92, 160, 189
Hedin, Sven, 273
hedysmata, 112
Heeren, 216, 243, 257
Heidelberg, 7
Hejaz, 106, 129
Heliocles, 185
heliotropium (see bloodstone), 223 hemp, 248, 263 Henry II, 199 Heracles, 238 Herculaneum, 169 Hercules, 125, 192, 259
Pillars of, 279
Herdman, Prof., 148
Herod, 103
Herod Antipas, 11
Herodias, 11 Herodotus, 60, 62, 71, 83, 84, 101,
118, 123, 131, 134, 145, 153,
162, 189, 213, 217, 254, 258,
259, 279 Herone, 39, 182 Heroopolite Gulf, 68 Hesiod, 253 Heyd, W., 170, 268 hibiscus, 73 hides, 74
Hien-yang (see Singanfu), 261, 262
Hilprecht, Hermann V., 109, 130
Himalayas, 81, 84, 151, 160, 169,
179, 188, 216, 235, 253, 256,
277, 279, 281 _
Himyar, 63, 94, 105, 106, 107, 109,
114, 119, 142
Himyaritic language, 104, 146, 148
210 inscriptions, 116
Hind, Sind and Zinj, 92, 248, 249
Hindu Kush mountains, 164, 183,
185, 189
Hindu traders, 65, 88, 230
Hindus, 253
Hiong-nu, 185, 270
Hippalus, 6, 8, 13, 45, 53, 212, 227,
228, 229, 230, 232, 233
Hippocrates, 82
Hiram, King of Tyre, 26 J
Hirsch, L., 119
Hirth, F., 128, 247, 263, 264, 275
Hisn Ghorab, 116, 232
Hitopadesa, 229
Hoang-ho river, 165, 261
Hogarth, D. G., 109, 119, 139, 143,
148 Holdich, Sir Thomas Hungerford,
151, 160, 161, 163, 171, 183,
189, 273
holm-oak, 73
Homer, 69, 157, 159, 254
Homerites (see Himyar), 63, 65, 96,
116, 139, 140, 251
Homerite Kingdom, 6, 10, 11, 30,
51, 94, 104, 105, 106, 107,
109, 115, 119
Homme!, 51, 107, 108, 109, 119,
120, 130, 134, 143
Homna, 150
Ho-nan, 262
Honavar (see Naura), 204
honey, 70, 74, 76, 81, 112, 169
Horace, 217 Hormus, Straits of, 150, 151, 155,
163, 179, 252
horn, 191
Horn of Africa, 87, 2.18
Horse-faces, 47, 254, 278
horses, 13, 31, 33, 176, 191, 1.96
Horus, 136
Hou-han-shu, Chinese annals contem-
porary with the Periplus, 275
Hsen-wi, 273
Rsi-wang-mii, 277
Hsi-yii, 269
Huang-ti, 263, 276
Hubli, 202
Hue, Abbe, 272
Hud, 142
Hudson, 18
Hughli river, 255
Hultzsch, 209
Hu-nan, 263
Huns, 9
White, 236
Huntington, Ellsworth, 278
hyacinthus, 222, 226, 250
Hyctanis river, 221
Hydreuma, 233
hyenas, 43
Hyksos dynasty, 58
Hyrcania, 269, 277
iaspis (see jasper,), 223
ibis (protector of Egypt against in-
cense-spirits in serpent form),
131, 132
Ibn Batuta, 74, 141, 203
Ibn Khaldun, 116, 129, 142
Ibn Mogawir, 107
Hi river, 268
Ili-azzu Jalit, 117
307
images, 33, 127
Imperial Gazetteer of India, 162, 181,
183, 188, 190, 195, 196, 197,
201, 202, 204, 205, 208, 209,
210, 212, 234, 235, 237, 238,
252, 255
incense (see frankincense), 3, 26, 61,
62, 63, 80, 82, 113, 120, 121,
123, 124, 126, 128, 130, 133,
136, 143, 144, 145, 169, 233
house, 122
ihmut (or anti), 113, 164 sonter, 113
Incense-Land, 63, 117, 118, 119, 121,
122, 132, 133, 140, 142, 145,
150, 271 terraces, 228
India, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14,
29, 32, 36, 39, 40, 41, 45, 49,
52, 63, 66, 70, 71, 75, 76, 77,
78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 87,
88, 89, 90, 99, 101, 103, 104,
105, 106, 109, 115, 118, 125,
127, 128, 133, 134, 135, 136,
137, 140, 142, 147, 148, 150,
151, 152, 153, 155, 156, 157,
160, 163, 164, 165, 167, 168,
170, 171, 173, 175, 176, 177,
178, 179, 180, 183, 184, 185,
186, 187, 188, 189, 191, 192,
194, 195, 196, 203, 204, 205,
208, 209, 214, 217, 219, 221,
222, 223, 224, 225, 227, 232,
233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238,
242, 248, 249, 250, 251, 253,
254, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260,
261, 264, 265, 267, 270, 272,
276, 279, 281
sea-trade from, 63, 99 southern extension of, 101
Indian embassies, 63 coinage, 193, 221 empire, 189 mountaineers, 255
Indian Ocean, 6, 16, 50, 101, 130,
137, 148, 164, 213, 230, 250
Indian shipping, 63, 87, 88, 90, 115,
213, 228 nut, 154, 273 traders, 228 travellers, 115
Indians, 34, 76, 135, 146, 161, 226,
250, 254, 265
indigo, 38, 172, 173
Indo-Aryans, 70
Indo-China, 235, 260, 261
Indo-Parthia, 10, 166, 167, 176, 185,
186, 200
Indo-Scythia, 146, 165, 235
Indore, 166, 180
Indus (see Sinthus), 4, 8, 9, 146,
147, 151, 153, 157, 165, 166,
167, 170, 171, 172, 174, 176,
177, 178, 180, 183, 184, 187,
232, 251, 258, 269, 270, 272
inflated rafts, 62
inflated skins, 143, 145
Intef, 121
Ion, 192
Irak, 249
Irawadi river, 165
Iri, 121 iron, 13, 24, 25, 26, 69, 70, 71, 77,
78, 111, 137, 151, 154, 155,
156, 162, 171, 172, 202, 221,
224, 225, 248
bright, 70
Indian, 70
Isaiah, Book of, 102, 104, 123, 132,
264 Ishmael, Ishmaelites, 102, 105, 106,
121 Ishmaelite dialects, 104
Isidore, 171 Isidorus of Charax Spasini, 63, 140,
149, 150, 270
Isis, 86
Islam, 7, 59, 105, 106, 146, 156
Island of Birds (Orneon), 32, 116
Ismenian Apollo, 132
Israel, kingdom of, 58
Israelites, 164
Issus, Bay of, 269
Isy, 61
Italy, 24, 66, 70, 71, 77, 168, 190
Itiopya-van, 62
I-tsing, 213, 275
Iudadan, 159
ivorv, 4, 13, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28,
29, 42, 45, 47, 57, 58, 61, 74,
88, 113, 121, 125, 153, 175,
193, 253, 263, 276 articles made of, 61 sources of supply, 61
Jabbalpur, 193
jacinth, 226
jade, jadeite, 223, 268, 276
Jaigarh (see Melizigara), 201
Janardan, temple of, 235
January, Ides of, 234
Japan, 178
Japhet, 163
jars, 122
jase, stitched ship, 155
jasper, 23 3 Jatayu, 226 Jauf, 117
Java, ^127,_166, 174, 245, 248, 261
Gujarati immigration into, 245,
261 Jaxartes river, 185, 268, 277 Jebel Akhdar, 148 Jebel Gara, 140 Jebel Haima, 85 Jebel Kamar, 140 Jebel Muriyeh, 85 Jebel Samhan, 146
308
Jebel Sibi, 148 Jebel Tair, 106 Jelap-La, 279 Jenaba, Genaba, 118 Jerah, 107, 108 Jerakon Kome, 107 Jerusalem, 11, 67, 102, 103, 122 jewelry, 66, 219, 223, 224, 225, 277 Jews, 205 Jezebel, 192
Jhelum, Jihlam, 180, 184 Jih-nan (see Anam), 276 jinni, 131, 132, 133, 141, 237. ]oao I, King of Portugal, 75 Job, Book of, 104, 136 Jobab, 159 John, Gospel of, 114 Johnston, R. F., 273 Joktan, Joktanites, 74, 107, 108, 109,
115, 132, 142, 145, 148, 149,
159, 160, 161
Josephus, 11, 59, 71, 102, 103, 159,
260
Jo-shai, 277
Jove, 132 Juba II, King of Mauretania, 10, 86,
149, 150
Judaea, 11, 102, 108
Judaism, 107
Judges, Book of, 102, 131
juice of sour grapes (omphacium),
25, 75 Julien, Stanislaus, 176, 269
Juliopolis, 232
Julius Caesar, 103
Julius Maternus, 98
July, 27
Jumna river, 167, 185
junks, 214, 246, 247, 248
Jupiter Ammon, 111
Justin, 159, 189
Justinian, 172, 267
Kaber ^Chaberis emporion), 251
Kachana, 187
Kachh (see Cutch), 160, 175, 180
Kadalundi (see Tyndis), 204
Kadapa, 224
Kadphises, 9, 166, 186, 187, 263
Kahtan, 107, 142
Kailas, sacred peak of, 272, 282
Kalat, 147
Kalhat, 147, 237
Kalidasa, 229, 242, 255
Kalyana ^see Calliena), 197
Kamar Bay, 139
Kampfer, 157
Kanara, 80, 202, 203, 204
Kanchow, 268
Kandahar, 183
Kane emporion, 116
Kanishka, 235, 236
kankamnn (Indian copal), 80
Kankas, 257
Kan Ying, Chinese ambassador to
Roman Empire, 275
Kaotsou, 262
Karachi, 165, 166
Karague, 88
Kariba-il Watar Juhan'im, 107 Kariba-ils of Zafar, 109 Karikal, 242 Karli, 235 Kama, 105, 107 Karnak, 68 Karnul, 224 Karteia, 147 Karun river, 149 Karuvur, Karoura, 205, 208, 215 Karwar (see Chersonesus), 202, 208 Kashgar, 186, 268, 269, 270, 272 Kashi = Kashu, Kissioi, Khuzistan,
Kachh, 134
Kashmir, 168, 169, 171, 189, 257
Kashta, 162
Kassites, 134, 175
Kasyapamata (see Caspapyra)
Kasyapa Matanga, 275
Kataban, 63, 94, 96, 106, 132
Katan, El, 107, 150, 151
Katar, El, 150, 162, 163
Kathiawar, 10, 70, 167, 175, 176, 180
Kaveri river, 242
Kavya, Kiratarjuniya, 254
Kay, 116, 129, 142
Kayal, Coil, 237
Keane, A. H., 272
Kej, 162
kelek, 126
Kemp, 273
Kennedy, 227
Kenrick, 70 Kerala, Keralaputra (see Chera), 204,
205, 208
Kerman, 70
kermes-berry, 73
Kesmacoran, 162
Keti, 165
Kevaddha Sutta of Digha, 229
Kharachar, 186, 268
Kharosthi alphabet, 210
Khartum, 57, 59
Khasia Hills, 194
Khenzer, 158
khesyt wood, 113
Khnumhotep II, 192
Khorassan, 170, 249
Khor ed Duan, 150
Khor Reiri, 140
Khotan, 9, 186, 263, 268, 270
Khuzistan, 175
Khyber Pass, 190, 270
Kielhorn, F., 209
Kilwa, 94
Kimberley, 118
King-chou (see Hu-nan), 263
Kings, Book of, 102, 123, 131, 160,
161, 175, 192, 193
309
Kingsmill, 273
Kirata (see Cirrhadae), 253, 254
Kissin, 139
Kistna river, 195, 197, 224, 252
Koft, 52
Kohaito (Coloe), 60, 61
K6h-i-mubarak, 148
kohl, 192
Koko-Nor, 272, 279
Konkan, 197, 198, 200, 201, 203,
204, 205
Koran, the, 108, 237
Koreish, 107 Korkai (Kolkai), Colchi, 209, 211,
237
Kosala, 188
kotias, 91
Kottayam (see Nelcynda), 208, 211
Krapf, 75
Krishna, 201
the Great (the Nile), 230
Kropotkin, 278
Kshaharata line, 198
Kshatrapa dynasty, 188, 197, 198,
200 coinage, 192
Kuche, 166, 186, 268
Kuen-lun mountains, 269
Kuki-Chin, 255, 278
Kuldja, 268
Kulhi, 151
Kumbakonam, 242
Kuria Muria, 14, 61, 62, 118, 119,
127, 144, 145, 146, 147, 150
Kurukshetra, Kurus, 281, 282
Kurumbar, 244
Kuryat, 174 Kushan kingdom, 8, 9, 138, 167,
194, 197, 275
coinage, 187, 192
Kwang Vouti, 263
kyphi, 113
lac, 24, 73, 80
Laconia, 156
Lacouperie, Terrien de, 273
ladanum, 112
Lamu, 88, 98
lances, 28
Lanchowfu, 268, 272
Landon, 273
Lansdell, Henry, 170, 270
Laodicea, 24, 77
lapis-lazuli, 38, 122, 170, 221, 223,
224
Lares, 191
La Roque, 139
Las Bela, 163
laser, 178
Lassen, Prof. Chr., 78, 81, 84, 89,
99, 152, 163, 164, 169, 171,
174, 175, 177, 182, 184, 188,
189, 193, 197, 201, 213, 217,
223, 229, 242, 243, 249, 253,
254, 266, 272, 273, 279
Latakia, 77
Latica or Larica, 174, 175
laurel-grove, 26, 85
laurel in chaplets, 191, 216, 264
laurels (in Somaliland), 87
Layard, 127
lead, 42, 45, 70, 77, 78, 114, 190,
193, 220, 221 leadstone, 225 red, 151
Lee, Henry, 258
Leghorn, 168
Lei-tsu, 263
lemons, 179
lemon-grass, 265
Lenormant, and Chevalier, 143
lentil, 256
Leon i das, 123
leopards, 43
Lepsius, 136, 158
Lesser Bear, 48, 277
Letourneau, 268
Leuke Kom'e, 101, 103
Levant, the, 267
Leviticus, Book of, 122
Lhasa, 272
Libya, 29, 61, 69, 279
Lichien (see Ta-ts'in), 275
licorice, 157
Li-kan (see Rekam = Petra), 128
lilies, 112
limes, 141
Limyrica (see Damirica), 205
Lindsay, 217, 268
linen, 23, 37, 45, 68, 122, 124, 192,
257
figured, 167
Linschoten, 84
linseed, 190
lion, 236, 277
Lion, Watchpost of, 86
Lisbon, 228
Littledale, 273
Little Nile River, 26, 84, 86
Liu-sha, 277
lizards, 34, 136
loadstone, 155
Locust-eaters (Acridophagi), 56
Lollia Paulina, 240
Lollius, Marcus, 240
London, 7
Long-faces, 47, 254, 278
Lop Nor, 268, 270
lotus, 112
Louis, 279
Loventhal, 209
Lo-yang, 262
road from, to Singanfu, 262
Lubim, 69
Lucan, 111, 265
Ludolfus, 133
Lusitania, 190 lychnis (see tourmaline), 223
.310
lycium, 38, 42, 169
Lydians, 132, 192
Lyne, R. N., 92
Maabar, 241, 248, 249
Maaden, 170
Macedonia, 123, 131, 161, 180
Machin, 248
macir, 25, 80, 81
Maciver, Dr. David Randall, 97
Mackinder, 278
Madagascar, 88, 94, 101, 137, 252, 271
madarata, 36, 153
Madhvamika, 180, 184
Madras, 220, 242, 244
Museum, Roman coins in, 220
Madura, Modiera, 211, 234, 238, 241
Maeotis, Lake, 48, 277, 278
Maes, a Macedonian silk-merchant,
269, 270
?nagla, 26
Mahabharata, 174, 197, 236, 238,
253, 254, 257, 264, 281
Mahanadl river, 152, 224, 253
Ma/w^vagga, 213
Mahendragiri, 237
Mahi river, (see Mais)
Mahra, 62, 130, 139, 142, 146, 148
maidens for the harem, 42
Mais river, 39, 182
Makalla, 117
Makran, 144, 150, 151, 162, 163
Makrizi, 142, 143 Malabar, 6, 81, 84, 88, 155, 175,
201, 203, 204, 205, 208, 210,
212, 213, 2.14, 217, 221, 222,
226, 227, 228, 232, 241, 243,
259, 267 malabathrum, 6, 44, 45, 47, 84, 89,
112, 216, 217, 256, 279, 281
method of preparation and sale,
48-9 Malacca, 227, 228, 24L, 246, 259, 260 malachite, 122 Malacca, 78, 84 Malao, 25, 79, 80, 81, 83 Malay Peninsula, 260 Malaya-giri (see Melizigara), 201 Malayalam, 204, 234 Malchus (Malik), 11, 103 Male, 201, 251
Male and Female Islands, 144-6
Malichas, 11, 29, 103, 200
Malik, 109
Malindi (Melinde), 88
Malli, 70
mallow-cloth, 24, 42, 43, 73, 194 Maltzan, H. von, 119, 127 Mai van, Maha-lavana (see Auranno-
boas), 202
Malwa, 167, 187, 188, 197
Mambarus (see Nambanus), 197, 198, 200
Manar, Gulf of, 148, 156, 210, 222,
230, 239, 241
Manchester, 257
Manchuria, 118
Mandagora, 43, 201
Mandalaka, .199
Mandara-giri (see Mandagora), 201
Mandavi, 91, 173 "Mandeville, Sir John," 155, 163,
215, 226
Manes, 166, 191
Mangalore, 203, 205
manganese, 68
Mangarouth (see Mangalore), 251.
Manifold, 272
Manillas, the, 252
manna, 164
Mansuriyah, 166
mantles, linen, double-fringed, 24
Manu, Laws of, 71, 229, 256, 257,
264
Manzi, 227 Mapharitis, Ma'afir, 28, 30, 34, 106,
107, 109
Marallo (Camara?), 251
M arasid- a I- lttila \ 144
Maratha, 175, 202
Marbodeus, 171
Marcus Aurelius, 70, 186
Mardi, 277
Marduk, 138
Mariaba, Marib, 4, 10, 97, 105, 107,
108, 109, 119
marigold, 111
Marinus of Tvre, 228, 260, 269
marjoram, 112
Mark, Gospel of, 114, 189
Markinda, 196
marten, 257
Martial, 167
marum, 112
Masala, 106, 114, 115
Masaiia ( Maisolia, Mausala), 47:
252-3
Mashonaland, 90
Mashu, land of, 134
Masira (Moseira, Sarapis), 14, 62, 119,
126, 146, 147, 154, 163, 267
Maspero, G., 146
Massilia, 78
Massowa, 60, 99
mastich, 112
Mas'udi, 66, 164, 247
masula boats (see Andhra coinage),
244 Masulipatam, 196, 252
Matarem, 245
?nateb{^Q zennar), (baptismal cord;,
139 Mathura, 184, 270
Matthew, Gospel of, 123
matting, 280
Mauch, Carl, 96
Maurice, 139
311
Maurya Empire, 188, 195, 197, 204,
235, 236, 270
Mauza, 106
Mayr, 268 McCrindle, 20, 69, 72, 73, 85, 112,
151, 152, 178, 180, 183, 200,
201, 202, 216, 226, 242, 249,
252, 258, 259, 279 Mecca, 107, 252 Mechir, 234
Medes, empire of, 50-1, 132 Media, 164, 170, 269 medicine, 111, 113, 169, 170, 172,
173, 178, 190, 192, 195, 213 Mediterranean, 3, 4, 5, 77, 84, 101,
105, 112, 115, 126, 127, 128,
136, 138, 151, 158, 159, 168,
172, 176, 178, 193, 223, 230,
234, 264 Megasthenes, 212, 254, 255 Meghna, 255 Mekong river, 165 Melibar (see Malabar), 273 melilote, 190 Melinde, 179
Melizigara, Melizegyris, 43, 201 Memphis, 3 Menamah, 156 Menander, 42, 184, 185, 187 Menilek, 67 Meninx, 156 Menon, Shanguni, 209
K. P. Padmanabha, 209, 212, 221
Mentuhotep IV, 121
Menuthias, 28, 94
mercury, 77, 78, 137
Mercury, passage of, 136
Merka,'88
Merneptah, 122
Meniere, 91, 153, 158
Merodach-Baladan, 123, 149, 160
Meroe, 10, 12, 15, 22, 56, 57, 58,
59, 60, 61, 132 Cushite kings in, 60
Merv ( see Antiochia Margiana ),
268, 269
Merzbacher, 272 Mesopotamia, 6, 58, 70, 157, 172,
176, 177, 269
Messalum, 114
metopion (oil of bitter almonds), 112 Meyer, Dr. Eduard, 60 Midian, 123 Midnapur, 257 Mijertain country, 87 Miles, Gen. S. B., 145, 147, 148,
151, 230, 237
Miletus, 123, 167
Milinda, Questions of, 185
military cloaks, 24
milk, 123, 130, 192
Millburn, 84
millets, 178, 179
Milton, John, 143
mimosa, 141
Minaea, 58, 107, 109, 115, 119, 125,
128 Minaeans, 104, 105, 108 their language, 104 Jauf, 117
Mingti, 263, 275
Minibar (see Malabar), 215
Minnagara, 8, 37, 39, 165, 166, 180
Minos of Crete, 105
mint, 213
mirrors, 70, 220, 221 Mitra, Rajendralala, 220, 221, 224,
246, 253, 256
Mocha, 85, 106, 107, 14-
mocrotu, 26, 81 Mogdishu (Makdashu, Magadoxo),
74, 88, 92
Mogul monarchs, 189
Mohammarah, 149
Mohammed, 7, 131
Mohammedan conquests, 63, 96, 98
travellers, 200
Mokwanpur, 253
molochine = mallow cloth, 73, 179
Mombasa, 94
monache, 24, 27, 72, 179
Monfiyeh, 94
Mongolia, 253, 267, 272
monkeys, 113, 121, 230, 237
Monomotapa, Kingdom of, 97, 98
Monophysite Christianity, 57, 64
monsoon, 6, 145, 173, 230, 232, 233,
234
Montu, 121
Monze, Cape, 161
Moon, Mountains of, 87, 88 country of, 88, 230 lake of, 88
men of, 88 (Wanyamuezi)
moringa, 113
Morocco, 168, 192
Morse, H. B., 263
Morung, 253
Moscha, 35, 140, 143, 146
Moselle, 77
Moses, 59, 171 Mosyllum, 10, 26, 63, 81, 82, 83,
85, 86, 101, 104, 218
?noto, 26, 27
Mountain Island [Orine), 23 Mount Zion, 118 Movers, F. C, 71, 79, 158, 160 Mozambique, 143, 179 Mrichchhakatika, the, 221, 223, 257 Mugheir, 152 Muhammad Kazim, 259 Mukabber, El, 150 Mukharji, T. N;, 258 mulberry, 76, 152, 263, 264 Mullah, the, 87 Miiller, C., 19, 67, 70, 81, 84, 86, 106,
107, 114, 115, 116, 143, 147,
312
Miiller, C,—continued.
151, 163, 171, 180, 181, 201, 202, 242
Miiller, D. H., 97, 109
Mundus, 25, 26, 81
murrhine (glass). (See agate, car- nelian), 24, 68, 193, 194, 223
Muscat (Maskat), 80, 88, 91, 96,
139, 142, 143, 147, 151
musical instruments, with silk threads,
263 muslins, 3, 24, 31, 42, 43, 47, 165, 172, 202
Argaritic, 46, 242
Gangetic, 47, 256-8
Mussel Harbor (Myos Hormos), 22,
29, 52, 101, 103
Muyiri-kotta (see Muziris), 205
Muza, 25, 28, 30, 33, 34, 94, 104,
106, 109, 114, 115, 116, 233
Muziris, 44, 128, 203, 204, 205, 208,
212, 233
Myozaeus, 50
myrobalanus, 112 myrrh, 4, 25, 26, 31, 57, 62, 77, 78,
80, 86, 87, 102, 105, 112, 113,
114, 116, 120, 122, 123, 132,
139, 145, 164, 165, 169, 214,
217, 218, 236
aromatic, 113
Ausaritic, 113 114
collatitia, 113
cultivated, 113
Dianitic, 113
Erythraean, 113
Gebanite, 113
Minaean, 113
odoraria, 113
Sabaean, 113
Sambracenian, 113
stacte, 113,
Troglodytic, 113
white, 113
myrrh-country, 57
myrtle, 112
Mysore, 152, 257, 259
mysteries, Dionysiac, 132
Nabataean Troglodytas, 80
Nabataeans, 11, 29, 51, 60, 80, 102,
103, 104, 109, 200
their import duty, 29, 104
Nabatu, 60, 102
Nabonidus, 152, 227
Naga, 278
Nagar Parkar, 166, 173
NagarT, 180, 184 nagas (see serpents), 250, 281 Nahapana (see Nambanus), 175, 198,
199, 200
Nahum, 58, 69
nails, 155, 156
Nalopatana (Nelcynda), 251
Nambanus (see Nahapana), 39, 175,
197, 198
Nammadus river (see Narbada), 30,
182
Nan-lu, or "Northern Way" across
Turkestan, 268, 269, 270
Nan-shan (see Kuen-lun), 269
Nan-tau, 269
Napata, 12, 58, 59, 78
Naples, 77, 168
Narbada river (see Nammadus), 152,
153, 181, 182, 193
nard, 38, 111, 112, 169, 170, 188,
189, 191, 214, 217, 265
nature-worship, 138
Naura, 44, 203, 204
Navarrete, 55
Naville, 120, 218
Nearchus, 162
Nebaioth, 60, 102
Nebuchadrezzar, 7
Necho, Pharaoh, 101
negroes, 97, 98, 194
"negro-land," 153, 158
Nehemiah, Book of, 122
Nejran, 117
Nelcynda, (Neacyndi, Melkynda), 44,
203, 205, 207, 208, 211, 215,
233, 234, 236, 237, 254, 256,
273
Nellore, 248
Nepal, 151, 194, 253, 257, 272, 279,
281
Nergal, 134 Nero, 12, 14, 59, 109, 194, 204, 219,
220, 237 Nerva, 220 Nicomedia, 220 Nicon, 27, 92 Niebuhr, Carsten, 107, 130 Nile, 3, 4, 15, 16, 23, 47, 51, 52, 56,
57, 58, 59, 60, 68, 75, 98, 99,
103, 117, 118, 120, 146, 153,
158, 213, 228, 230, 232, 265
sources, Indian knowledge of, 230 Nileshwar, 205 Nimrod, 134, 163 Nimrud Inscription, 123, 149 Nineveh, 127
Nisasa, 170 Nishapur, 170 Nitocris, Stela of, 158 Nitran, Nitrias, Nitra (see White
Island), 203, 233 nitre, 68
Nizam's dominions, 197 Noah, 76, 163 No-Amon, 69 Noel, 268 Nogal Valley, 219 nomads, 29, 30, 32 North India, 152, 163, 187, 195, 197, 199, 210, 235, 238, 258, 263, 264
313
Nubia, 12, 15, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60,
61, 62, 134
Numbers, Book of, 78, 164
Nundo Lai Dey, 201
Nyanza lakes, 57, 87, 88, 99
Nyassa, Lake, 88, 99
Oannes, 159
Obadiah, 102
Obal, 74, 149
Obollah (Apologus, Ubulu), 4, 74,
149
obsidian, 66
ocean-stream, 92, 251, 277, 278 ocean, unexplored, 29, 101 Ocelis, 25, 31, 32, 65, 83, 89, 107,
114, 115, 147, 233
ochre, red, 137
O'Connor, 279
Odoric, Friar, 155, 208, 215, 249 Odras, 253 oenanthe, 112 . oil, 4, 13, 122, 216 ointments, 13, 31, 42, 82, 110, 111,
112, 113, 114, 130, 169, 170,
189, 191, 192, 217, 239, 265 Old Testament, 237 olive, 75, 77
olive oil, 24, 34, 75, 169, 177
Olok, 86
Olympia, 54
Olympus, 282 Oman, 112, 129, 130, 142, 144, 145,
147, 148, 150, 151, 157, 161,
230, 237 Omana, 34, 129, 139, 140, 150 Omanites, 63, 140, 150 Ommana, 32, 36, 71, 150, 151, 153,
160, 161, 164 Ommano, river, 150 omphacium, 75, 76, 112 Omphale, 192 ondanique, 70
Onesicritus, 115, 161, 178, 249
onychia, 122
onyx stone, 3, 193, 194, 223, 225
opal, 223
Ophiodes, 167
Ophir, 97, 151, 160, 161, 175, 260
supposed location in East Africa,
97 opium, 215
opobalsamum, 112
Opone, 27, 83, 87, 90, 135
Oppert, 78, 177
Oppidwn Saca?, 62, 63
opsian stone, 23, 66
Bay of, 66
Ora, 161, 162
Oraea, 37, 161
oreichalch (aurichalcum), 69, 78
Orenburg-, 171
orgies, Dionysiac, 132-3
Orissa, 253
Oritae, Ori, 161, 162, 164, 221
Ormes (see Hormus), 155
Orotal = Dionysus, 132
orpiment, 45, 191, 221
Orrhotha, 251
Osiris, 76, 132, 133, 146
Osor-hapi (Serapis), 146
Ostia, harbor-works at, 220
ostrich feathers, 4, 57
Oudh, 242
oxen, 58, 158, 196
Oxford, 153
ox-gall, 169
Oxus river, 186, 268, 269, 277
Oxydracae, 70
Oyster Rocks (see Caenitas), 202
Ozene, 42, 187, 270
osccenttis (see spikenard), 256
Pa-anch, Island of, 87, 133, 135, 162,
271 packs, 48, 281
Pacorus, 103
Pactyan land, 189 Padaeans (see Cannibals: Purushada),
254 255
Paethana, 43, 195, 196, 199
pagoda, Buddhist: Abyssinian, 64
Chinese, 274
Hindu, 65
Pahang, 259
Pahlavas, 235
paint, 221
Paithan, 195, 196, 199, 200
Palaepatmas, 43, 201
Palaesimundu, 47, 249
Palestine, 71, 102, 122, 159
Palibothra (see Pataliputra), 270
Palk strait, 241
Pallava dynasties, 167, 204, 244
palm-leaves, 35
palm-oil, 29, 99
fiber, 154
trees, 130
Palmyra, 4, 6, 101, 103
Pamirs, 166, 268, 269, 270, 273, 281
Pamphile, 264
Panama, Bay of, 183
panax, 112
Panchaia, 87, 135, 136, 271
Panchao, 9, 11, 166, 186, 263, 268
Pandasa (see Pandya), 238
Pandian kingdom (see Pandya: Pan-
dion), 44, 46, 211, 233
Pandian, J. B., 209
Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji, 1.75, 200
Pandu, Pandava, 238, 253
Pandva, 195, 197, 204, 205„207, 208, 211, 237, 238, 241, 242, 255, 281
Pangani, 94
Pan]ab, 153, 166, 167, 170, 172, 183,
185, 187, 270
Panna, 224
314
Pano, 27, 87, 13 5
panthers, 61
panther skins, 57, 113, 121
Paphos, 123
Papica, 39, 40, 181
papyrus, 111
Papyrus Harris, 61, 77, 122, 158
Paralia, 46, 47, 234
Paripatana (see Palaspatmae), 201
Park, Mung-o, 89, 90
Parker, E. H., 263
Paropanisene, Paropanisus (see Hindu
Kush), 42, 189
Parsees, 127
Parsidae, 36, 161
Parsis, 163 Parthia, 5, 6, 8, 14, 16, 63, 65, 70,
103, 117, 119, 127, 139, 140,
146, 147, 149, 150, 151, 161,
166, 171, 172, 184, 185, 187,
194, 198, 235, 269, 270, 276,
277 Parthian kings, chronological list of,
110 Parthian princes, 37, 166, 167, 185,
190
kings, 112
Parti, 251 Parur, Paravur (see Karuvur, Muzi-
ris), 205, 208, 215
Pasargadae, 50-1
Patala, 166, 232 Pataliputra (Patna), 184, 185 236,
258 Patrae, 71
Patta, Manda and Lamu, 94
Pausanias, 62, 71, 132, 143, 145, 146,
209
Pausias, 191
Pauthier, 144
peacocks, 61, 175 pearls, 6, 13, 36, 45, 46, 47, 74, 123,
148, 151, 156, 164, 168, 210,
221, 222, 223, 224, 239, 240,
241, 249, 256 pearl-mussel, 148
-fisheries, 239, 240, 241 Pegu, 252
Pei-lu, 268, 269, 270 Pei-shan (see Tian-shan), 269
P'ei-tauy 269 Peking, 272 Pemba, 94 Penner river, 241 Pepi II, 121 pepper, 6, 44, 45, 169, 192, 195, 202,
204, 205, 210, 211, 213, 214,
215, 216, 225, 227, 234, 241,
248, 250, 251, 251, 273
long, 42, 142, 194, 195, 213 peratikos, 75 perfume, 110, 111, 113, 114, 122,
124, 143, 169, 170, 190, 217,
233, 270
Perim, 114, 115
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, 3, 7,
8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 62,
63, 64, 65, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72,
73, 74, 76, 77, 78, 79, 83, 86,
89, 92, 94, 96, 97, 101, 103,
105, 106, 108, 109, 114, 115,
116, 117, 119, 121, 124, 128,
129, 130, 132, 135, 138, 140,
143, 144, 146, 147, 149, 150,
152, 153, 154, 156, 160, 161,
165, 166, 167, 168, 170, 171,
172, 174, 176, 178, 179, 180,'181, 184, 185, 188, 189, 191,
194, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200,
204, 205, 207, 208, 209, 211,
216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 222,
226, 227, 228, 231, 232, 234,
236, 237, 238, 241, 242, 250,
252, 255, 258, 260, 261, 265,
266, 269, 270, 272, 274, 275,
278, 279, 282
Periplus, date and authorship of, 7-36,
197-200, 290-3
articles of trade mentioned in,
284-8 bibliography of, 17-21
distances in, 54-5
meaning of, 50
rulers mentioned in, 294
text of, 22-49
Periyar river, 205
Persia, 14, 16, 32, 35, 37, 59, 70, 84,
96, 118, 123, 127, 147, 150,
153, 160, 161, 170, 172, 176,
183, 189, 191, 192, 223, 250,
251, 256, 264, 267
Persian Empire, 123, 213
embassy to the Deccan, 248
sea-trade from China, 84
Persian Gulf, 3, 4, 14, 16, 35, 36,
50, 58, 71, 74, 77, 87, 101,
107, 136, 140, 148, 149, 150,
151, 152, 153, 155, 159, 160,
162, 163, 164, 175, 191, 194,
201, 209, 213, 221, 222, 230,
249, 251
Persians, 51, 63, 70, 112, 116, 132,
162, 213, 247, 250, 251, 252,
264
Perthes, Justus, 206
Peshawar, 183, 184
Petenikas, 195
Petra, 4, 6, 29, 101, 102, 103, 109,
128 in Chinese annals, 128 Romans at, 102
petri ("fibers," should bepatra, leaf), 48, 281
Petrie, Flinders, 102
Petronius, 12, 15, 59, 77, 194
Peucelaotis (see Poclais), 184, 270
Peutinger Tables, 204, 206, 208
pewter, 78
315
Pharaohs, 3, 4, 120, 121, 162
Philae, 59
Philip, 11
Philostratus of Lemnos, 69
Phoenicia, 68, 103, 160
Phoenicians, 3, 4, 68, 71, 77, 78, 83,
87, 97, 131, 132, 135, 147,
158, 159, 160, 164, 170, 210,
229 expedition around Africa, 101
phoenix, 135-6, 158
phoinix, 158
Phrygians, 132
Piankhi, 162
Piers P/oivman, 215
Pigeon Island (see White Island), 203
pigmies and cranes, 254
pine, 80, 111
Ping-chou (see Shan-si), 263
Piram island (see Baeones;, 181
pirates, 44, 202, 203, 204, 232, 233
Pirmed Hills, 208
Pitalkhara caves, 195
plate, gold and silver, 24, 26, 38
Plates, 264
plates 34
Pliny,' 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 61, 62,
66, 68, 69, 71, 72, 763 78, 80,
81, 82, 83, 84, 86, 90, 101,
105, 106, 108, 111, 112, 113,
114, 115, 118, 120, 123, 124,
126, 133, 135, 137, 138, 144,
145, 147, 149, 150, 151, 153,
156, 158, 160, 161, 164, 167,
168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 178,
179, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192,
194, 195, 201, 203, 205, 208,
209, 212, 213, 214, 216, 217,
220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 226,
227, 232, 237, 238, 239, 240,
249, 253, 256, 258, 259, 260,
264, 265, 281
Plutarch, 123, 133, 146, 189
Poclais, 41, 42, 183
Poduca, 46, 242
Poen, 62, 159, 162
Pokomo language, in E. Africa, 98
Pollux, 71
Polo, Marco, 3, 66, 70, 84, 92, 99,
115, 120, 129, 135, 140, 143,
144, 145, 146, 154, 155, 157,
162, 170, 173, 179, 202, 203,
214, 221, 225, 227, 235, 237,
240, 241, 247, 248, 249, 270,
273, 281
Polumbum (see Quilon), 215
pomegranite, 112
Pompeii, 169
Pompey the Great, 153, 194
Pomponius Mela, his map of the
world, 100, 101, 252, 277, 281
Pondicherry (see Poduca), 242
Ponnani (see Tyndis), 204, 205
Pontus, 48
Poppaea (Sabina), 14, 123, 237
Porakad (see Bacare), 211, 212
porcelain, 225
Porebandar, 91
Port Sudan, 60
Porphyry, 139
Portugal, 66, 227
Portuguese, 75, 81, 101, 202, 204,
212, 214, 215, 222, 241
Porus, 69, 180
Prasum, 94 precious stones, 3, 4, 13, 105, 122,
123, 149, 168, 175, 221, 222,
223, 225, 227, 229, 249, 256,
257, 276
"sham curiosities" for Chinese
trade, 277 Prester John, 267 Priscian, 159 Pritchett, R. T., 53, 246
Prjevalski, 273
Proverbs, Book of, 82
Psalms, Book of, 82
Psammetichus (Psamtik) II, 58, 158
Pseudo-Callisthenes, 279
Psygmus, 86
Ptah, 61 Ptolemais of the Hunts [Ptolemais
Theron), 22, 52, 60 Ptolemies, the, 4, 5, 22, 51, 59, 63,
68, 84, 89, 102, 103, 108, 135,
167, 213 Ptolemy Euergetes, 60, 63, 82 Ptolemy Philadelphus, 51, 52, 60,68 Ptolemy (the geographer), 7, 55, 94,
97, 101, 105, 106, 107, 116,
118, 129, 133, 140, 141, 143,
150, 162, 163, 175, 182, 188,
200, 201, 203, 205, 208, 211,
212, 228, 242, 249, 253, 256,
259, 260, 266, 269, 272, 273,
278, 279 Pudapatana (Poduca?), 251 Pukkalaoti (see Poclais), 184 Pulikat, 242 pulse, 178 Pulumayi II, 195 Puni (Phoenicians), 87, 135 Punt Expedition, 52, 80, 143, 159,
228 245 271 Punt, Land of, 61, 73, 78, 82, 83,
86, 113, 121, 122, 135, 142,
143, 144, 153 Punt-people, 62, 120, 218
reliefs, 120, 164, 218, 272 Purali (see Paralia, Travancore), 234 Purali River, 105, 161 Puranas, 198, 199, 200,J202, 230, 236,
253
Matsya, 199
Vara Sanhita, 254, 255
Vayu, 199
Vishnu, 174, 253,254
Purindrasena, 199
316
purple, 13, 36, 73, 156, 157
Tyrian, 145
Pushkala, 238 Pushkalavatl (see Poclais), 183, 184,
238
Put, 69
Pyralaae Islands and channel, 28, 94
Pyramids, 76, 261
Pyrrhon mountain, 46, 234
Pythangelus, 86
quartz, quartzose, 223, 224
Querimbo Islands, 88
quicksilver, 137, 215
Quilon, 211, 248
Raamah, 105, 159, 161, 162
radix Chinee, 157
Raffles, Sir Stamford, 245
Rafizah sect, 74
rafts, 25, 32, 50, 126, 127
Raghu, 242
Raidan, 109, 119
Rajapur (see Melizigara), 201, 215
Rajpipla, State of, 193
Rajput pilots, 75
Rajputana, 151, 223
Raksha Ravana, 226, 237, 249
Rama, 230, 237, 242
Ramanuja, 257
Rcimayana, 174, 226, 230, 234, 236,
237, 238, 249, 250, 253, 257,
264, 281, 282 Rameses II, 122
Rameses III, 58, 61, 78, 122, 158
Ramusio, 17
Rann of Cutch, 135, 166, 173, 174 Rapson, E. J., 192, 200, 244 Ras Asir, 85 Ras Aswad, 92 Ras Binna, 86 Ras Chenarif, 86 Ras el Fil, or Filuk, 85, 86 Ras el Hadd, 117, 118, 127, 147 Ras el Kelb, 129 Ras el Khyma, 91 Ras el Kyi, 92 Ras el Sair, 115
Ras Fartak, 117, 129, 133, 140, 232 Ras Hadadeh, 85 Ras Hafun, 87 Ras Hantara, 81, 82, 85 Ras Hasik, 129, 140, 146 Ras Khamzir, 81, 85 Ras Mirbat, 140 Ras Musandum, 148, 150 Ras Nuh, 161 Ras Ormara, 161 Ras Risut, 140 Rashtrika, 175 Ratnagiri coast, 201, 215 Raven Castle, 116 Ravenna, Geographer of, 208 Rawlinson, 14
realgar, 42, 45, 191, 192, 221
Rebmann and Ehrhardt, their map of
E. Africa, 88
Reclus, Elisee, 165, 166, 175, 182,
207 Red Bluff.; (see Pyrrhon, Varkkallai),
234 red lead, 221
Red Men, 3, 51 Red Sea, 3, 5, 7, 8, 50, 51, 52, 57,
59,60,66, 75, 88, 89, 99, 104,
105, 108, 116, 117, 146, 151, 167, 168, 169, 179, 183, 201,
223, 233, 234
Regit) Cinnamomifcra, 83
Reichard, 19
Reinaua, 1 55, 268
Rekem, 102, 128 religions of India at the time of the
Periplus, 235
Remusat, 272
Renonsari, 179
resin, 112, 192, 236
Retenu, 61
Revelation, Book of, 13, 192
Rhadamaeans, 105
Rhadamanthus, 105
Rhambacia, 37, 105, 162, 163
Rhamnae, 105, 162, 163
Rhapta, 28, 94, 97
rhinoceros, 23, 73, 98
rhinoceros-horn, 24, 29, 73, 276
Rhinocolura, 103
Rhodes, 111
Rhodesia, 96, 97, 98
Rhone, 78
rhubarb, 157 rice, 27, 34, 37, 39, 76, 104, 176,
178, 221, 256
Richard, 263 Richthofen, F. von, 268, 269, 270,
272 rift-valley, in E. Africa, 98, 99
Ritter, 106, 107, 116, 148, 170, 242
roads (in India), 196, 253
robes, from Arsinoe, 24
Rocher, 273
Rockhill, William Woodville, 273
Rogers, J. E. Thorold, 214
Rohri Hills, 174 Roman Emperors, chronological list
of, 110; coins of, 220
Chinese account of, 275-7
coinage, 192, 193, 204, 276
in India, 219, 220, 234
in Ceylon, compared with
Persian, 252
"embassy" to China, 276
Empire, 12, 76, 77, 108, 151, 168, 169, 185, 187, 191, 214,
217, 228, 275 geographers, 150, 277 republic, 77 senate, 103, 219, 265
317
Roman shipping, 160, 231 Romans, 63, 68, 76, 78, 82, 89, 101,
102, 106, 108, 109, 111. 31,
137, 152, 160, 167, 169, 170,
171, 172, 178, 187, 190, 192,
193, 194, 204, 205, 213, 223,
224, 236, 251, 252, 256, 260,
265, 269, 275
Rome, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 63, 65,
84, 89, 90, 96, 102, 103, 104,
109, 124, 128, 147, 153, 160,
164, 167, 168, 169, 172, 177,
187, 189, 191, 198, 209, 213,
214, 215, 216, 219, 220, 222,
235, 236, 239, 240, 242, 270
roses, oil of, 112, 191
rosewood, 153
rubies, 222, 223, 224, 226, 227
rudders, 231, 248
Rudolf, Lake, 99
Rud Shur, 221
Rudra (see Siva), 235 rugs, gold-embroidered, 276
Rukaym, 142 Rum, 249
rushes, 86
Russia, 76, 171
Ryder, A. W., 221
Saba, 59, 63, 104, 105, 106, 108, 119,
124, 179 Saba the Great, 108, 109 Sabaeans, (Sabaites), 10, 11, 30, 51,
62, 63, 68, 71, 96, 97, 104,
105, 107, 108, 109, 115, 116,
117, 119, 124, 125, 128, 142,
143, 145, 147
in Ceylon, 250 Sabakha, 150 Sabatier, 220
Sabbatha, 4, 32, 116, 119, 126, 133 Sabeans, 104 Sabi River, 96 Sabis, 126, 133 Sabitu, 135 sables, Russian, 171 Sabota (see Sabbatha), 120, 124, 126
133
Sabtah, 162
Sabteca, 162
Saca?, 62, 269
Sacaea, 62, 145, 146
sacchari, 27, 90 Sachalites, bay of, 33, 120, 129, 139,
160 Sachalitic Country, 35, 272
frankincense, 126, 130, 218 safflower, 111 saffron, 31, 110, 111, 214|
oil of, 112 Sagar island, 255 Saghar, 133
sagmatogene, 24, 27, 72, 179
Sahure, 113, 121
sail-boats, 35
Saizanas, 67
Saka, 10, 165, 166, 167, 175, 176,
180, 185, 188, 195, 196, 197,
198, 199, 204, 235, 236 coinage, 190 era, 197, 198
Sakastene, 166, 185
Sakuntala, the, 229
Sakyamuni Gautama Buddha, 187
Salah, 107
Salamis, 171
Salike (see Ceylon), 249
Salmasius, 71
Salome, 11
Salopatana, 251
Salsette island, 155
salt, 77, 156 Salt, Henry, 9, 10, 66, 67, 85, 88,
133 salt mines, 119
Samarcand, 268
Sambalpur 224
Samnium, 66
sampsuchum, 112
Sanaa, 107, 115
Sanabares, 200
sand, 68
sandalwood, 6, 36, 152, 175, 250 Sandanes (see Sandares), 197, 200 sandarake, 191, 192 Sandares, 8, 43, 197, 198, 199, 200 Sandberg, 273 Sand-Dwellers, 122 sangara, 46, 243 Santarensian tin mine, 190 Saphar, Zafar, Sapphar, 30, 107, 109,
116, 119, 140, 141, 233
sapphires, 45, 167, 170, 171, 222,
223, 226, 227
sapphiros (see lapis lazuli), 38, 122,
170, 223 Saracens, 59, 76, 94, 101, 149, 163,
241, 242
Saraganus, 43, 197, 198, 199
Sarapion, 27, 92
Sarapis, 35, 146, 153, 160, 163, 209
Sarasvati river, 174
sarda (see carnelian), 223
Sardinia, 168
sardonyx (see chalcedony), 223
Sarikol (see Serica), 269
Saris, Capt., 85 sasamin wood (blackwood, sesamin),
152, 251
sashes, 31
Sassanids, 7, 172, 267
Satakarni (see Saraganus), 198
Sati, 187
Satiya, Satiyaputra, 204, 205
Satraps,
Northern, 167
Western, 167, 188, 197, 198,
200, 236
318
Saua, Sa*b, Save, 30, 107, 233
Saukira 15ay, 133
Savitri river, 201
Sawahil, 160
Sayce, Prof. A. H., 71, 165
scarlet, 13, 73, 214, 227
schceni, measure, equivalent of, 125
Schwanbeck, 115
Scylax of Caryanda, 189
Scyrites, Scyritae (see Cirrhadae), 253,
266 Scythia, 8, 32, 37, 39, 42, 45, i46,
166, 190, 267
Scythian Ocean (Arctic), 260
Scyths, 165, 166, 257, 260, 267
sea-trade, 228, 229, 245-7, 259, 261
Seba, 162
Sebennytic mouth, 68
Sebni, 121
Seine, 77
Seistan, 166, 185
Sela, 102
Seleucidas, 149
Seleucus, 184, 189
Seleucus Callinicus, 169
Seleucus II, 123
Semele, 132
Semiramis mountain, 36, 148 Semites, 107, 176 Semylla, 43, 200 sendels, 273 Senegal, 89, 157 September, 31 Septimius Severus, 219 Ser, river, 146 Sera, island, 163 Sera Metropolis, 269 Serandip, Serendib, 163, 249 Seres, 70, 76, 146, 171, 172, 179,
209, 265, 266, 267, 269
Seria, 146
Serica (see also Sarikol), 267
serichatum, 112
Seric skins, 38, 171
tissues, 265
serpentine, 223
serpents, 37, 38, 43, 44, 131-3, 138,
145, 165, 236
guardians of cinnamon, 132
of diamonds, 225, 226
of frankincense, 128, 131-2
of medicinal waters, 132
of pepper, 215, 216
of various gums, 132
in the Indian Ocean (see grace), 37, 44, 165
progenitor of Abyssinian dynasty,
133
serpent-worship, 131, 236, 237, 241, 279
souls of the dead, 131
tree-spirits, 131
winged, 131
sesame oil, 27, 35, 39, 176, 177
sesamum, 178
Sesecrienas islands, 44, 202
Sesostris, 51, 192
Sewell, R., 209, 210
Seyffarth, 136
Shabaka, 162
Shabwa (see Sabbatha)
Shafia sect, 74
Shah-bandar, 165
Shamash-Napishtim, 135
Shams, the Sabsean sun-god, 133
Shans, the, 273, 275
Shan-si, 263
sharks, 145, 241
charms against, 241
Shatt-el-Arab river, 149, 265
shawls, 169, 257
Sheba, 105, 123, 162
Sheba, Oueen of, 67, 123
sheep, 13, 30, 71, 149, 156, 176, 259,
267 Shehr, 129, 160
Shehri luban, 218
Sheikh Sa'id, 115
shells, 224, 259
shellac, 73
Shem, 107, 163
Shencottah Pa&. 212
Shen-si, 261, 262
Sherring, 27?
Sheshonk I (<y Snisnak), 58
Shibam, 117, 119 Shinar, Chief of, 122 ships, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41, 44, 45, 46, 75, 209, 210, 212, 213, 230
Andhra, 243-5
Arabian, 28, 44, 106, 128, 227
Carthaginian, 279, 280
Dravidian, 46, 227
Eastern, 46, 227, 273
Egyptian, 51, 52
from the north (Bengal), 46, 242, 255, 272
Greek, 43
Gujarati, 244-5
Hadramaut, 127
Hebrew, 260
Hindu, 27, 107, 115, 128, 201,
229
Malabar, 227, 243-5
Malay, Burmese and Chinese, 246-7
Persian, 244
Persian Gulf, 154-6, 227
Roman, 78, 227
ship's head, 230-1
shipwrecks, 29, 38, 41
type used by author of Periplus,
52-3
Shoa, 75
Siam, 227, 252, 279
Sibal, 237
Sibor, 251
319
Sicily, 76, 168
Sicyon, 191
Sidon, 158, 1S9, 160, 265
Sidonia, 159
Sielediba (see Ceylon, Sinhala-dvipa),
249, 250, 251, 252
Sigerus (see Melizigara), 201, 232
Sikkim, 151, 188, 253, 272, 279, 280,
281 silent trade, 250, 267, 279, 280, 281
Si-ling, 263 silk, 13, 146, 172, 179, 196, 214,
259, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267,
274, 281 tasar, 264 wild, 276 silk cloth, 42, 45, 48, 171, 172, 191,
194, 222, 250, 251, 257, 263,
264, 265, 270, 273, 276 silk, raw, 48, 263, 264 silk-route, 172, 263, 268, 269, 275 silkworm, 76, 263, 266, 275
eggs of, brought to Constan-
tinople, 267 silk yarn, 38, 48, 172, 264, 270 silver, 13, 24, 25, 26, 31, 33, 42, 61,
69, 77, 78, 102, 122, 175, 191,
192, 214, 219, 227, 249, 252,
259, 273, 276 Silvester, St., 214 Simpson, William, 159 Since, 266, 273 Sinbad the Sailor, 156, 225 Sind, Sindu, 172, 248, 251 sindon, 165, 172 Singan-fu, 11, 261, 262, 268, 270,
272, 274, 279
road to, from Lo-yang, 262
Singapore, 246
Singhala (see Ceylon), 255, 273
singing boys, 42
Sinhalese, 235, 239, 241, 250, 267 Sinim, the, 264, 266 Sining-fu, 272, 279 Sinthus river, 37, 38, 165 Sipra river, 187 Siraf, 155 Sirangala, 190
Slta, 226, 230, 237, 249, 257
Sita-quest, 282 Siva, 138, 187, 201, 208, 235, 238,
254, 281
Siva Satakarni, 199
Sivajl, 203
skins, 32, 257, 263
seric, 38 slaves, 13, 25, 27, 29, 33, 34, 36, 58,
74, 88, 91, 96, 161, 191 Smith, Vincent A., 166, 180, 183,
184, 189, 198, 200, 204, 205,
209, 210, 235, 238, 242 Smith, W. Robertson, 119, 130, 132,
236 snails, 216
snakes (see serpents), 34, 44
Socotra (see Dioscorida), 4, 62, 63,
76, 87, 119, 129, 133, 135,
137, 138, 139, 144, 162, 163,
237, 271, 272
Sofala, 88, 97
Sofala-Ophir theory, 98
Sohar, 151
Soli (see Chola), 241, 249
Solomon, 58, 61, 67, 97, 147, 151,
160, 176, 260
Ophir voyages of, 97, 260
Song of, 82, 123; 193
Somali coast of Africa, 52, 58, 60,
61, 62, 63, 74, 75, 77, 79, 80,
81, 83, 88, 89, 106, 112, 118,
120, 124, 137, 145, 172, 178,
182, 217, 218, 219, 228, 271
Son river, 258
Sonargaon, Suvarnagrama, 255
Sonmiani Bay, 161
Sopara (see Suppara), 197
Sopater, Roman merchant in Ceylon,
251-2
Sopatma, 46, 242
Sophir (see Suppara)
South America, 138
South Arabia, 6, 9, 11, 14, 51, 52,
58, 61, 62, 63, 75, 76, 77, 80,
87, 94, 97, 106, 107, 108, 112,
120, 127, 129, 140, 141, 142,
145, 147, 148, 154, 159, 160,
161, 162, 218, 228, 267, 271
South Countries, 61
Southern Horn (Notu Ceras, Cape
Guardafui), 86
South India, 152, 162, 167, 171, 187,
195, 205, 208, 209, 210, 213,
216, 220, 221, 227, 230, 235,
237, 239, 241, 243, 244, 259,
261
coinage of, 221, 243-5
Spain, 68, 70, 77, 78, 190
spartum, 111
Spasmus, 149
Speck, 268
Speke, Lieut. J. H., 87, 96, 230
spices, 3, 4, 6, 25, 26, 105, 115, 121,
122, 123, 124, 149, 157, 169,
211, 214, 218, 237, 273
Spices, Market and Cape of, 26, 33,
45, 82, 85, 86
spikenard, 42, 45, 112, 170, 188, 189,
217, 251, 273
Gangetic, 47, 222, 256
spinel, 222
spondylium, 216
sponge, 74
Sprenger, Aloys, 105, 107, 114, 116,
148, 164 Sramanas, Buddhist missionaries to
China, 275
Sravasti, 188
320
stacte (Gebanite-Minaean), 31, 112,
113, 114, 122
stadia, various units in Roman use,
and equivalents in modern mea-
surement, 54-5
in Persian schoeni, 125
Stanford, 270
statues, 66
steel, 24, 70, 71, 172, 225
steering, method of, 230, 231, 232,
247
Stein, M. A., 268, 269, 270, 272
Stephanus Byzantius, 62, 140, 145
stibnite, stimmi, 192
Stieler, 270
Stifle, Capt. A. W., 155
stones, transparent, 45, 47, 222
Stone Tower, the (see Tashkurghan),
269, 281
storax, 33, 37, 42, 112, 127, 128, 214,
216, 276
Strabo, 7, 16, 52, 55, 68, 69, 77, 78,
83, 86, 101,102, 103, 105, 108,
114, 116, 118, 145, 146, 149,
157, 159, 161, 162, 167, 176,
177, 178, 184, 189, 217, 249,
254, 255, 259, 277, 278
straits (of Bab-el-Mandeb), 52
of Malacca, 127
Streubel, 19
Stuck, 18, 259
stymmata^ 112
styrax, 131
Suakin, 66
Sudan, 56, 60, 61, 74, 99
Sudras, 253
Suetonius, 78
Suez, 52, 68
Gulf of, 273
sugar, 90
su-ho (see storax), 128, 276
Suklatirtha, 180
Sumatra, 127, 138, 252
sumpter-mules, 31 Sundara Satakarni (see Sandares), 198,
199, 200
Sungaria, 269
Sunium, Cape, 190
sun-worship, 162, 163, 211
Suppara (Shurparaka), 43, 175, 197
Sur, 91, 147 Surashtra, 174, 176, 184, 185, 188,
197, 199
Surat,, 176, 179, 182, 183, 237
Sutlei river (Satlaj), 174, 180, 272
>uwat river, 184 Swahili language, in E. Africa, 98,
129 sweet rush (cyperus), 31, 111, 112 sweet wood, 13 Swiss lake-dwellers, 76 swords, 24, 70 > Syagrus (see Ras Fartakl, 33, 34,
129, 133, 139, 232
Syagrus dates, 158
Sylla, 239
Symulla (see Semylla), 200
Syncellus, 159
Syrastrene, 39, 40, 175, 176
Syr Daria (see Jaxartes), 277
Syria, 5, 58, 61, 71, 76, 77, 87, 102,
108, 111, 122, 123, 128, 131,
138, 149, 158, 184, 213, 264,
270, 275
Syrian Christians, 208
Tabae, 26, 27, 86
tabu (on frankincense gatherers), 145
Tacitus, 219, 265
Tagara, 43, 196
Taghdumbash valley, 269
Taharka, 78, 162
Ta'is, 107
Taka, 140
Takakusu, 213, 275
Taksha, 238
Takshasila (see Taxila), 183, 238
tamala (see malabathrum, cinnamon),
216, 279, 281
Tamalipti (To-mo-li-ti) (see Tamra-
lipti), 272
tamarisk, 165 Tamil (see Damirica), 176, 197, 204,
205, 207, 208, 209, 211 Tamra-lipti (Tamluk), 249, 255 Tamraparni river (see Taprobane,
Tambapanni), 237, 249, 255 Tana River, 98 Tanais river (Don), 277, 278 Tanganyika, 88, 99 Tanjore, 242 tannin, 80
Tanutamon, stela of, 78 Taprobane (Tamra-parni, Dnfipa-Ra-
<vana), 47, 239, 249, 250, 251,
252 Tapti river, 182
Tarentum, 219
Tarim river, 268
Tartars, 185, 186, 261, 262, 263,268 Tashkend, 269 Tashkurghan, 269, 281
Ta-ts^in (Chinese name for Roman
Syria), 128, 275, 276, 277
routes to, 276, 277
Tavernier, 168, 170, 171, 172, 179,
192, 196, 212, 215, 216, 222,
223, 224, 225, 252, 256, 259,
281 Taxila, 69, 185, 270 Taylor, Dr., 243, 254, 255, 256 teakwood, 36, 152, 201 Tehama, 107 Tehenu, 61
Tell-el-Amarna tablets, 78 Tellicherry, 221 Telug-u, 197, 204 Ter (Thair) (see Tagara), 196
321
terebinth, 112
Teredon, 149
Terek Pass, 268
textile industry, 196, 256-8
Thaguri, 269, 270
Thames, 6
Thana, 15 S
Tharbis, 59
Tharshish, 61
Thebais, 103
Thebes, 3, 52, 58, 63, 68, 120, 121,
122 Theinni (see Hsen-wi), 273
Theophrastus, 71, 82, 118, 132, 171,
177, 178, 179, 192, 213
Thins, 48, 261, 269, 273, 274
Thina (see This), 260
Thomas, Acts of, 185
This, Land of, 11, 48, 183, 261-3,
266, 279
Thoth, 31
Thothmes III, 158
Thousand Nights and One Night, The^
225 throw-sticks, 61
Thurston, E., 220
thyine wood, 192
Tiamat, 138
Tian-shan mountains, 261, 268, 269
T'iao-chih, 277
Tiastenos (see Chashtana), 188
Tiberius, 11, 103, 204, 219, 220, 265
Tibet, 82, 84, 89, 172, 222, 258, 263,
269, 272, 273, 279, 281
Tibetans, 253, 266, 278, 279
Tibeto-Burman, 254, 255, 278 gold of, 258-9 trade-route across, 272
Tibullus, 191, 255
tides, 40, 41, 183
Tien (see Yunnan), 273
Tien-chu (see India), 276
tigers, 43, 261, 277
Tiglath-pileser III, 102, 118,123,149,
160 Tigre, 57, 62, 63, 121
Tigris, river, 149
timber, 4, 149, 156, 205
Timna, 107 tin, 33, 42, 45, 77-9, 127, 156, 190,
193, 217, 220, 221
Tinnevelly, 211, 212, 234
tinsel, 191
Tipperah, 259
Tirur, 234
Titianus (see Maes), 269
Titus, 11, 102, 103, 220
tobacco, 105
tobe, Somali, 72
toga, Roman, 72
Togarum, 43, 201
Tokar, 60
Tokwina, 84, 85
Tonkin, 246
sea-trade of, 246
topaz, 37, 42, 44, 167-8, 222, 223
Tordesillas, treaty of, 55
Torr, Cecil, 248 Torrend, Rev. J., S. J., his theory
of the history of E. African
dialects, 98 tortoire-shell, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27,
28,29, 31, 35, 45, 47, 43, 73,
126, 136, 137, 227, 259, 276 tourmaline, 223 Tozer, 92, 268, 278 trade - winds, navigation dependent
upon, 53 Trajan, 101, 103,102,109,187,219,220 trappaga, 40, 182, 245 Travancore, 80, 152, 172, 194, 204,
205, 211, 212, 213, 234 tree-blood (frankincense legend), 128,
130-3, 145, 164 tree-spirits, in serpent form, 131
tears, 33, 164
worship, 236, 279 tree-wool, 75, 179, 265, 266 Trichinopoly, 241, 242 Trivandrum, 234 Troglodytes, 58, 83 Tropina, Tripontari, 212 Tsengu, country of (Japanese Ency-
clopaedia), 92 Tsiemo, 268 Ts'in, 11, 261-3 Ts'in Chi Hwangti, 261 Ts'i, 261 Tsor, 147
Tsung-Hng (see Pamirs J, 269
Tsybikoff, 273
Tubba ibn Hassan, 107
Tulu, 204, 205
tunics, 25
Tunis, 168
Turanian-Hamitic system, 163
Turanian trade, 172 race, 253
turbit, 273
Turfan, 268
Turiasso, 70 Turkestan, 8, 11, 172, 176, 183, 223,
235, 257, 263, 265, 269, 272,
273, 274
trade-routes, 269, 272, 274, 275
Turks, 172, 184, 185, 266 Turkharas, 257 turmeric, 112 turpentine, 80 turquoise, 38, 170, 223 Tuticorin, 215, 237 Tybis, 234 Tylor, E., 236 Tylos, 71
Tyndis, 44, 203, 204, 205, 208
Tyre, 129, 147, 153, 156, 158, 159, 213, 264
Tzinista, 250, 273
322
Ubulu (Obollah, Apologus, Obal),
74, 149
Uganda, 57 Ujjain, UjjenT, UjjayinT (see Ozene),
10, 65, 187, 188, 199, 236
Uknu river, 149
ultramarine, 170, 171, 223
U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 258
Unya-mue%ii 230
Upanishad)
Kat/ia, 236
Uraiyur (see Argaru), 241, 242
Urania, 132
Uru, 162
Urumtsi, 268
Ushas, 229
ushu-wood, 123, 128
Usuu, 128
Uthek, 121
Uthlrat = Osiris, 132
Uzal, 115
Vaigai river, 241
Vaisya clan, 250
Valiyar river, 241
Van den Berg, L. W. C, 119, 127,
145 Vanji, 205 Varkkallai (seeBalita, Pyrrhon), 234,
235
varnish, 263
Varthema, 212
Varuna, 229
Vasco da Gama, 227
Vaughn, 130
Vedas, 229, 235, 257, 281
Vengurla Rocks (see Sesecrienat:),'202
Venice, Venetians, 70, 214
Venus, 123.
vermilion, 73, 192, 215 Vespasian, 12, 13, 220 Vespucci, 3, 55 vessels, 13, 31, 104, 214 Victoria Nyanza, 87, 88, 230 Vignoli, 215 Vijaya, 249 Vijayanagar, 224 Vikkar, 165
Vikramaditya of Ujjain, 188 Vikramapura, Bikrampur, 255 Vilivayakura II, 197, 235 Vincent, 8, 18, 19, 84, 94, 104, 108,
144, 148, 169, 171, 179, 181,
201, 202, 216, 259, 272 Vindhya mountains, 188, 197, 201,
224 vine, 34, 75, 76, 77
vinegar, 111, 240
Vinukonda, 196 Virgil, 76, 87, 123, 125, 135, 153,
216, 226, 266, 271
Vishnu, 138, 235, 238, 253
Vitellius, 78 Vivien de Saint-Martin, 81
Vizadrog, Vijayadurga (see Byzan-
tium), 201
Vogue, Melchior de, 103
Volturnus, 68
votive offerings, 66
vulture, 142
Waddell, 273 Wadi Dirbat, 140 Wadi ed Dawasir, 149, 150, 160 Wady el Araba, 101 Wadi er Rumma, 160 Wadi Hadramaut, 116, 117, 119 Wadi Maifa, 116 Wady Musa, 101, 102 Wadi Rakhiya, 119 Wadi Rekot, 118 Wadi Tyin, 148, 237 Wadi Yabrin, 150, 160 Wahind canal, 174 Wassaf, 248 water, 111
Waters of Death, 135 Watt, 73, 76, 80, 81, 83, 84, 99,
148, 151, 152, 153, 164, 169,
172, 176, 177, 178, 188, 193,
194, 215, 222, 224, 256, 259,
264 Wa-wat, 57, 121
weasel, 257
Weber, 108, 109, 119
Wei river, 261
Wei, 261
Wellhausen, 143 Wellsted, 119, 137, 139, 143, 145,
148,162
Western Ghats, 196
Western India, 152, 153, 172, 192,
197, 230, 271
whale-fishery, 155, 162
wheat, 13, 27, 28, 31, 33, 34, 35, 37, 39, 45, 76, 127, 176,. 178, 221
White Island, 44, 203
White Village (Leuke Kome), 29,
101 Whitman, Walt, 183
Wild-Flesh-Eaters (Agriop/wgi), 22,
56 Wilde, Oscar, 69
Wilford, Lieut., 88, 230, 254, 259 Willis, Bailey, 262 Wilmot, A., 97 Wilson, 209 Wilson, C. R., 200 winds,
Indian Etesian, 38, 45
Hippalus, 45
wine, 13, 24, 28, 31, 33, 36, 37, 38,
42, 45, 77, 111, 112, 122, 127,
151, 157, 158, 164, 190, 191,
192 Arabian, 42, 77
Calenian, 77
Falernian, 77
323
wine—continued
Italian, 24, 77
Laodicean, 24, 42, 77
Statanian, 77
of Damascus, 77
of dates, 77
of Greece, 77
of raisins, 76, 191
of Spain and Gaul, 77
of Surrentum, 77
of the Roman republic, 77
of the Seine and Moselle, 77
Witwatersrand, 118
wood-oil, 248
wolves, 261
wool, 71, 72, 76, 157, 257
woolen cloth, 257
Wu-i, 277
Xerxes, 264
xylo-balsamum, 112
Yakin, the Sea-country (see Bit-
Yakin), 123, 149
Yam, 61
Yang-kivan, 269
Yangtse river, 165
Yarab, Yarub, 107, 142
Yarkand, 268, 269, 270
yarn, 42
Yashhab, 107
Yates, 266
Yavanas, 235 Yellow River (see Hoang-ho), 263,
268 Yemama, El, 160 Yemen, 51, 77, 80, 89, 91, 101, 102,
103, 104, 106, 107, 108, 109,
115, 117, 119, 129, 130, 132,
140, 142, 147, 154 Yen-hsi period, 276 Yerim, 107 Younghusband, 273 Yuan Chwang, 200 Yu-chou, 263 Yudhisthira, 257 Yueh-chi, 8, 9, 165, 166, 167, 185,
186, 187, 263
Yule, Col. Henry, 66, 70, 80, 84,
92, 123, 144, 155, 157, 170,
202, 203, 205, 234, 235, 237,
241, 242, 248, 272
Yumenhsien, 268
Yumen-kuoan^ 269
Yunnan, 273
Za Ade-aba, 67
Za Agba, 67
Za Awtet, 67
Zabaesi Bazen, 9, 67
Za Beesi Angaba, 67
Za Demahe, 67
Zafar (see Saphar)
Zagdur, 67
Za Hakale, 9, 10, 66, 67
Zaire, 75
Zakawasya b'Axum, 67
Za Les, 67
Za Makeda, 67
Za Malis, 67
Za Masenh, 67
Zambesi River, 98,.99
Zanzibar (see Menuthias), 10, 16, 75,
88, 92, 94, 96, 99, 101, 115,
139, 173, 230
trade with India, 99
Zaragoza, treaty of, 55
Za Senatu, 67
Za Sutuwa, 67
Zayton, 214
Zazebass Besedo, 67
Zechariah, Book of, 159
Zeila (see Avalites), 66, 73, 74, 75
Kennar (see mateb), 139
Zenobian islands (see Genaba), 35,
144-6
Zeus, 132
Zimbabwe, 97
zinc, 69
Zoscales, 9, 10, 23, 63, 64, 66 Zosimiadon, 18 Zula (Adulis), 60 Zul Karnain, 108 Zwemer, 105, 119, 143, 148, 156
NOV 4-
1915
Map to Illustrate the

[plus Maris Erythraei

100 0 100 ZOO 300 4W> 500 too 700
English Nautical Miles
60 = 1 equatorial degree: 600 Olympic Stadia.