Chapter II: Articles of Commerce Mentioned in the Periplus (2)

At Adouli was a celebrated monument, a throne of white marble with a slab of basanite stone behind it, both covered with Greek characters, which in the sixth century of our era were copied by +Kosmas Indikopleustês+. The passage in Kosmos relating to this begins thus: “+Adulê+ is a city of Ethiopia and the port of communication with +Axiômis+, and the whole nation of which that city is the capital. In this port we carry on our trade from Alexandria and the Elanitik Gulf. The town itself is about a mile from the shore, and as you enter it on the Western side which leads from +Axiômis+, there is still remaining a chair or throne which appertained to one of the Ptolemys who had subjected this country to his authority.” The first portion of the inscription records that Ptolemy Euergetês (247-222 B.C.) received from the Troglodyte Arabs and Ethiopians certain elephants which his father, the second king of the Makedonian dynasty, and himself had taken in hunting in the region of ADULÊ and trained to war in their own kingdom. The second portion of the inscription commemorates the conquests of an anonymous Ethiopian king in Arabia and Ethiopia as far as the frontier of Egypt. +Adouli+, it is known for certain, received its name from a tribe so designated which formed a part of the +Danakil+ shepherds who are still found in the neighbourhood of Annesley Bay, in the island of Diset [lat. 15° 28´, long. 30° 45´, the Diodôros perhaps of the _Periplûs_] opposite which is the town or station of Masawâ (anc. Saba) [lat. 15° 37´ N., long. 39° 28´ E.], and also in the archipelago of +Dhalak+, called in the _Periplûs_, the islands of +Alalaiou+. The merchants of Egypt, we learn from the work, first traded at Masawwâ but afterwards removed to Oreinê for security. This is an islet in the south of the Bay of Masawwâ, lying 20 miles from the coast; it is a rock as its name imports, and is of considerable elevation.

+Aduli+ being the best entrance into Abyssinia, came prominently into notice during the late Abyssinian war. Beke thus speaks of it, “In our recent visit to Abyssinia I saw quite enough to confirm the opinion I have so long entertained, that when the ancient Greeks founded Adule or Adulis at the mouth of the river Hadâs, now only a river bed except during the rains, though a short way above there is rain all the year round, they knew that they possessed one of the keys of Abyssinia.”

5. Below Adouli, about 800 stadia, occurs another very deep bay, at the entrance of which on the right are vast accumulations of sand, wherein is found deeply embedded the Opsian stone, which is not obtainable anywhere else. The king of all this country, from the +Moskhophagoi+ to the other end of +Barbaria+, is +Zôskalês+, a man at once of penurious habits and of a grasping disposition, but otherwise honourable in his dealings and instructed in the Greek language.

(5) At a distance of about 100 miles beyond +Adouli+ the coast is indented by another bay now known as +Hanfelah+ bay [near Râs Hanfelah in lat. 14° 44´, long. 40° 49´ E.] about 100 miles from Annesley Bay and opposite an island called Daramsas or Hanfelah. It has wells of good water and a small lake of fresh water after the rains; the coast is inhabited by the Dummoeta, a tribe of the Danakil. This is the locality where, and where only, the Opsian or Obsidian stone was to be found. Pliny calls it an unknown bay, because traders making for the ports of Arabia passed it by without deviating from their course to enter it. He was aware, as well as our author, that it contained the Opsian stone, of which he gives an account, already produced in the introduction.

6. These articles which these places import are the following:—

Ἱμάτια βαρβαρικα, ἄγναφα τὰ ἐν Ἀιγύπτω γινόμενα—Cloth undressed, of Egyptian manufacture, for the Barbarian market.

Στολὰι Ἀρσινοητικὰι—Robes manufactured at Arsinoê.

Ἀβόλλαι νόθοι χρωμάτιναι—Cloaks, made of a poor cloth imitating a better quality, and dyed.

Λέντια—Linens.

Δικρόσσια—Striped cloths and fringed. Mantles with a double fringe.

Λιθίας ὑαλῆς πλείονα γένη καὶ ἄλλης μορρίνης, τῆς γινομένης έν Διοσπόλει—Many sorts of glass or crystal, and of that other transparent stone called Myrrhina, made at Diospolis.

Ὀρείχαλκος—Yellow copper, for ornaments and cut into pieces to pass for money.

Μελίεφθα χαλκᾶ—Copper fused with honey: for culinary vessels and cutting into bracelets and anklets worn by certain classes of women.

Σίδηρος—Iron. Consumed in making spearheads for hunting the elephant and other animals and in making weapons of war.

Πελύκια—Hatchets.

Σκέπαρνα—Adzes.

Μάχαιραι—Swords.

Ποτήρια χαλκᾶ στρογγύλα μεγάλα—Drinking vessels of brass, large and round.

Δηνάριον ὀλίγον—A small quantity of denarii: for the use of merchants resident in the country.

Οἶνος Λαοδικηνὸς καὶ Ἰταλικὸς οῦ πολῦς—Wine, Laodikean, _i.e._ Syrian, from Laodike, (now Latakia) and Italian, but not much.

Ἔλαιον οὐ πολύ—Oil, but not much.

Ἀργυρώματα καὶ χρυσώματα τοπικῷ ῥυθμῷ κατεσκευασμέναι—Gold and silver plate made according to the fashion of the country for the king.

Ἀβόλλαι—Cloaks for riding or for the camp.

Καυνάκαὶ ἁπλοῖ—Dresses simply made of skins with the hair or fur on. These two articles of dress are not of much value.

These articles are imported from the interior parts of Ariakê:—

Σίδηρος Ἰνδικὸς—Indian iron.

Στόμωμα—Sharp blades.

Ὀθόνιον Ἰνδικὸν τὸ πλατύτερον, ἡ λεγομένη μοναχὴ.—Monakhê,[17] Indian cotton cloth of great width.

Σαγματογῆναι—Cotton for stuffing.

Περιζώματα—Sashes or girdles.

Καυνάκαὶ—Dresses of skin with the hair or fur on.

Μολόχινα—Webs of cloth mallow-tinted.

Σινδόνες ὀλίγαι—Fine muslins in small quantity.

Λάκκος χρωμάτινος—Gum-lac: yielding Lake.

The articles locally produced for export are ivory, tortoise-shell, and rhinoceros. Most of the goods which supply the market arrive any time from January to September—that is, from Tybi to Thôth. The best season, however, for ships from Egypt to put in here is about the month of September.

7. From this bay the Arabian Gulf trends eastward, and at +Aualitês+ is contracted to its narrowest. At a distance of about 4000 stadia (_from Adouli_), if you still sail along the same coast, you reach other marts of +Barbaria+, called the marts beyond (_the Straits_), which occur in successive order, and which, though harbourless, afford at certain seasons of the year good and safe anchorage. The first district you come to is that called +Aualitês+, where the passage across the strait to the opposite point of Arabia is shortest. Here is a small port of trade, called, like the district, +Aualitês+, which can be approached only by little boats and rafts. The imports of this place are—

Ὑαλὴ λίθια σύμμικτος—Flint glass of various sorts.

Χυλός] Διοσπολιτικῆς ὄμφακος—Juice of the sour grape of Diospolis.

Ἰμάτια βαρβαρικὰ σύμμικτα γεγναμμένα—Cloths of different kinds worn in Barbaria dressed by the fuller.

Σῖτος—Corn.

Οἶνος—Wine.

Κασσιτερος ὀλίγος—A little tin.

The exports, which are sometimes conveyed on rafts across the straits by the +Berbers+ themselves to +Okêlis+ and +Mouza+ on the opposite coast, are—

Ἀρώματα—Odoriferous gums.

Ἐλέφας ὀλίγος—Ivory in small quantity.

Χελώνη—Tortoise-shell.

Σμύρνα ἐλαχίστη διαφέρουσα δὲ τῆς ἄλλης—Myrrh in very small quantity, but of the finest sort.

Μάκειρ—Macer.

The barbarians forming the population of the place are _rude and_ lawless men.

(6, 7) From this bay the coast of the gulf, according to our author, has a more easterly direction to the Straits, the distance to which from Adouli is stated at 4,000 stadia, an estimate much too liberal. In all this extent of coast the _Periplûs_ mentions only the bay of the Opsian-stones and conducts us at once from thence to Aualités at the straits. Strabo however, and Juba, and Pliny, and Ptolemy mention several places in this tract, such as +Arsinoë+, +Berenîkê+, +Epideirês+, the Grove of Eumenês, the Chase of Puthangelos, the Territory of the Elephantophagoi, &c. The straits are called by Ptolemy +Deirê+ or +Dêrê+ (_i. e._ the neck), a word which from its resemblance in sound to the Latin _Dirae_ has sometimes been explained to mean “the terrible.” (I. xv. 11; IV. vii. 9; VIII. xvi. 12). “The _Periplûs_,” Vincent remarks, “makes no mention of Deirê, but observes that the point of contraction is close to +Abalitês+ or the Abalitik mart; it is from this mart that the coast of Africa falling down first to the South and curving afterwards towards the East is styled the Bay of +Aualitês+ by Ptolemy, (IV. vii. 10, 20, 27, 30, 39,) but in the _Periplûs_ this name is confined to a bay immediately beyond the straits which D’Anville has likewise inserted in his map, but which I did not fully understand till I obtained Captain Cook’s chart and found it perfectly consistent with the _Periplûs_.” It is the gulf of Tejureh or Zeyla.

The tract of country extending from the Straits to Cape Arômata (now Guardafui) is called at the present day +Adel+. It is described by Strabo (XVI. iv. 14), who copies his account of it from Artemidoros. He mentions no emporium, nor any of the names which occur in the _Periplûs_ except the haven of Daphnous. [Bandar Mariyah, lat. 11° 46´ N., long. 50° 38´ E.] He supplies however many particulars regarding the region which are left unnoticed by our author as having no reference to commerce—particulars, however, which prove that these parts which were resorted to in the times of the Ptolemies for elephant-hunting were much better known to the ancients than they were till quite recently known to ourselves. Ptolemy gives nearly the same series of names (IV. vii. 9, 10) as the _Periplûs_, but with some discrepancies in the matter of their distances which he does not so accurately state. His list is: +Dêre+, a city; +Abalitês+ or Aualitês, a mart; +Malaô+, a mart; +Moundou+ or +Mondou+, a mart; Mondou, an island; Mosulon, a cape and a mart; +Kobê+, a mart; +Elephas+, a mountain; +Akkanai+ or Akannai, a mart; +Arômata+, a cape and a mart.

The mart of +Abalitês+ is represented by the modern +Zeyla+ [lat. 11° 22´ N., long. 43° 29´ E., 79 miles from the straits.] On the N. shore of the gulf are Abalit and Tejureh. Abalit is 43 miles from the straits, and Tejureh 27 miles from Abalit. This is the +Zouileh+ of Ebn Haukal and the +Zalegh+ of Idrisi. According to the _Periplûs_ it was near the straits, but Ptolemy has fixed it more correctly at the distance from them of 50 or 60 miles.

8. Beyond Aualitês there is another mart, superior to it, called +Malaô+, at a distance by sea of 800 stadia. The anchorage is an open road, sheltered, however, by a cape protruding eastward. The people are of a more peaceable disposition than their neighbours. The imports are such as have been already specified, with the addition of—

Πλείονες χιτῶνες—Tunics in great quantity.

Σάγοι Ἀρσινοητικοι γεγναμμένοι καὶ βεβαμμένοι—Coarse cloaks (or blankets) manufactured at Arsinoê, prepared by the fuller and dyed.

Μελίεφθα ὀλίγα—A few utensils made of copper fused with honey.

Σίδερος—Iron.

Δηνάριον οὐ πολὺ χρυσοῦντε καὶ ἀργυροῦν—Specie,—gold and silver, but not much.

The exports from this locality are—

Σμύρνα—Myrrh.

Λίβανος ὁ περατικος ὀλίγὸς—Frankincense _which we call peratic_, _i.e._ from beyond the straits, a little only.

Κασσία σκληροτέρα—Cinnamon of a hard grain.

Δούακα—Douaka (_an inferior kind of cinnamon_).

Κάγκαμον—The gum (_for fumigation_) _kangkamon_. ‘Dekamalli,’ gum.

Μάκειρ—The spice _macer_, which is carried to Arabia.

Σώματα σπανίως—Slaves, a few.

(8) +Malaô+ as a mart was much superior to Abalitês, from which our author estimates its distance to be 800 stadia, though it is in reality greater. From the description he gives of its situation it must be identified with Berbereh [lat. 10° 25´ N., long. 45° 1´ E.] now the most considerable mart on this part of the coast. Vincent erroneously places it between Zeyla and the straits.

9. Distant from +Malaô+ two days’ sail is the trading port of +Moundou+, where ships find a safer anchorage by mooring at an island which lies very close to shore. The exports and imports are similar to those of the preceding marts, with the addition of the fragrant gum called _Mokrotou_, a peculiar product of the place. The native traders here are uncivilized in their manners.

(9) The next mart after Malaô is +Moundou+, which, as we learn from Ptolemy, was also the name of an adjacent island—that which is now called Meyet or Burnt-island [lat. 11° 12´ N., long. 47° 17´ E., 10 miles east of Bandar Jedid].

10. After +Moundou+, if you sail eastward as before for two or three days, there comes next +Mosullon+, where it is difficult to anchor. It imports the same sorts of commodities as have been already mentioned, and also utensils of silver and others of iron but not so many, and glass-ware. It exports a vast amount of cinnamon (whence it is a port requiring ships of heavy burden) and other fragrant and aromatic products, besides tortoise-shell, but in no great quantity, and the incense called _mokrotou_ inferior to that of Moundou, and frankincense brought from parts further distant, and ivory and myrrh though in small quantity.

(10) At a distance beyond it of two or three days’ sail occurs +Mosulon+, which is the name both of a mart and of a promontory. It is mentioned by Pliny (VI. 34), who says: “Further on is the bay of +Abalitês+, the island of +Diodôrus+ and other islands which are desert. On the mainland, which has also deserts, occur a town +Gaza+ [Bandar Gazim, long. 49° 13´ E.], the promontory and port of +Mosylon+, whence cinnamon is exported. Sesostris led his army to this point and no further. Some writers place one town of Ethiopia beyond it, Baricaza, which lies on the coast. According to Juba the Atlantic Sea begins at the promontory of Mossylon.” Juba evidently confounded this promontory with Cape Arômata, and Ptolemy, perhaps in consequence, makes its projection more considerable than it is. D’Anville and Gosselin thought +Mossulon+ was situated near the promontory Mete, where is a river, called the Soal, which they supposed preserved traces of the name of Mossulon. This position however cannot be reconciled with the distances given in the _Periplûs_, which would lead us to look for it where Guesele is placed in the latest description given of this coast. Vincent on very inadequate grounds would identify it with Barbara or Berbera. [Müller places it at Bandar Barthe and Ras Antarah, long. 49° 35´ E.]

11. After leaving +Mosullon+, and sailing past a place called +Neiloptolemaios+, and past +Tapatêgê+ and the Little Laurel-grove, you are conducted in two days to Capo +Elephant+. Here is a stream called +Elephant+ River, and the Great Laurel-grove called +Akannai+, where, and where only, is produced the _peratic_ frankincense. The supply is most abundant, and it is of the very finest quality.

(11) After Mosulon occurs Cape Elephant, at some distance beyond +Neiloptolemaios+, +Tapatêgê+, and the Little Laurel-grove. At the Cape is a river and the Great Laurel-grove called +Akannai+. Strabo in his account of this coast mentions a Neilospotamia which however can hardly be referred to this particular locality which pertains to the region through which the Khori or San Pedro flows, of which Idrisi (I. 45) thus writes: “At two journeys’ distance from Markah in the desert is a river which is subject to risings like the Nile and on the banks of which they sow dhorra.” Regarding Cape Elephant Vincent says, “it is formed by a mountain conspicuous in the Portuguese charts under the name of Mount Felix or Felles from the native term Jibel Fîl, literally, Mount Elephant. The cape [Ras Filik, 800 ft. high, lat. 11° 57´ N., long. 50° 37´ E.] is formed by the land jutting up to the North from the direction of the coast which is nearly East and West, and from its northernmost point the land falls off again South-East to Râs 'Asir—Cape Guardafui, the Arômata of the ancients. We learn from Captain Saris, an English navigator, that there is a river at Jibel Fîl. In the year 1611 he stood into a bay or harbour there which he represents as having a safe entrance for three ships abreast: he adds also that several sorts of gums very sweet in burning were still purchased by the Indian ships from Cambay which touched here for that purpose in their passage to Mocha.” The passage in the _Periplûs_ where these places are mentioned is very corrupt. Vincent, who regards the greater +Daphnôn+ (Laurel-grove) as a river called +Akannai+, says, “Neither place or distance is assigned to any of these names, but we may well allot the rivers Daphnôn and Elephant to the synonymous town and cape; and these may be represented by the modern Mete and Santa Pedro.” [Müller places Elephas at Ras el Fîl, long. 50° 37´ E., and Akannai at Ulûlah Bandar, long. 50° 56´ E., but they may be represented by Ras Ahileh, where a river enters through a lagoon in 11° 46´, and Bonah, a town with wells of good water in lat. 11° 58´ N., long. 50° 51´ E.]

12. After this, the coast now inclining to the south, succeeds the mart of +Arômata+, and a bluff headland running out eastward which forms the termination of the Barbarine coast. The roadstead is an open one, and at certain seasons dangerous, as the place lies exposed to the north wind. A coming storm gives warning of its approach by a peculiar prognostic, for the sea turns turbid at the bottom and changes its colour. When this occurs, all hasten for refuge to the great promontory called +Tabai+, which affords a secure shelter. The imports into this mart are such as have been already mentioned; while its products are cinnamon, gizeir (_a finer sort of cinnamon_), asuphê (_an ordinary sort_), fragrant gums, magla, motô (_an inferior cinnamon_), and frankincense.

(12) We come now to the great projection Cape Arômata, which is a continuation of Mount Elephant. It is called in Arabic +Jerd Hafûn+ or Ras Asir; in Idrisi, +Carfouna+, whence the name by which it is generally known. [The South point 11° 40´ is Râs Shenarif or Jerd Hafûn; the N. point 11° 51´ is Râs 'Asir.] It formed the limit of the knowledge of this coast in the time of Strabo, by whom it is called +Notou Keras+ or South Horn. It is described as a very high bluff point and as perpendicular as if it were scarped. [Jerd Hafûn is 2500 feet high.] The current comes round it out of the gulf with such violence that it is not to be stemmed without a brisk wind, and during the South-West Monsoon, the moment you are past the Cape to the North there is a stark calm with insufferable heat. The current below Jerd Hafûn is noticed by the _Periplûs_ as setting to the South, and is there perhaps equally subject to the change of the monsoon. With this account of the coast from the straits to the great Cape may be compared that which has been given by Strabo, XVI. iv. 14:

“From +Deirê+ the next country is that which bears aromatic plants. The first produces myrrh and belongs to the +Ichthyophagi+ and +Creophagi+. It bears also the persea, peach or Egyptian almond, and the Egyptian fig. Beyond is +Licha+, a hunting ground for elephants. There are also in many places standing pools of rainwater. When these are dried up, the elephants with their trunks and tusks dig holes and find water. On this coast there are two very large lakes extending as far as the promontory Pytholaus. One of them contains salt water and is called a sea; the other fresh water and is the haunt of hippopotami and crocodiles. On the margin grows the papyrus. The ibis is seen in the neighbourhood of this place. 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 watch-post 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 (φλους) in great abundance. Then follows another river and the port of +Daphnus+, and a valley called +Apollo+’s which bears besides frankincense, myrrh and cinnamon. The latter is more abundant in places far in the interior. Next is the mountain +Elephas+, a mountain projecting into the sea and a creek; then follows the large harbour of +Psygmus+, a watering place called that of +Kunocephali+ and the last promontory of this coast +Notu-ceras+ (or the Southern Horn). After doubling this cape towards the south we have no more descriptions of harbours or places because nothing is known of the sea-coast beyond this point.” [Bohn’s _Transl._] According to Gosselin, the Southern Horn corresponds with the Southern Cape of Bandel-caus, where commences the desert coast of Ajan, the ancient +Azania+.

According to the _Periplûs_ Cape +Arômata+ marked the termination of +Barbaria+ and the beginning of +Azania+. Ptolemy however distinguishes them differently, defining the former as the interior and the latter as the sea-board of the region to which these names were applied.

The description of the Eastern Coast of Africa which now follows is carried, as has been already noticed, as far as +Rhapta+, a place about 6 degrees South of the Equator, but which Vincent places much farther South, identifying it with Kilwa.

The places named on this line of coast are: a promontory called +Tabai+, a Khersonesos; +Opônê+, a mart; the Little and the Great +Apokopa+; the Little and the Great Coast; the +Dromoi+ or courses of +Azania+ (first that of +Serapiôn+, then that of +Nikôn+); a number of rivers; a succession of anchorages, seven in number; the +Paralaoi+ islands; a strait or canal; the island of +Menouthias+; and then +Rhapta+, beyond which, as the author conceived, the ocean curved round Africa until it met and amalgamated with the Hesperian or Western Ocean.

13. If, on sailing from +Tabai+, you follow the coast of the peninsula _formed by the promontory_, you are carried by the force of a strong current to another mart 400 stadia distant, called +Opônê+, which imports the commodities already mentioned, but produces most abundantly cinnamon, spice, _motô_, slaves of a very superior sort, chiefly for the Egyptian market, and tortoise-shell of small size but in large quantity and of the finest quality known.

(13) Tabai, to which the inhabitants of the Great Cape fled for refuge on the approach of a storm, cannot, as Vincent and others have supposed, be Cape Orfui, for it lay at too great a distance for the purpose. The projection is meant which the Arabs call Banna. [Or, Tabai may be identified with Râs Shenarif, lat. 11° 40´ N.] Tabai, Müller suggests, may be a corruption for Tabannai.

“From the foreign term Banna,” he says, “certain Greeks in the manner of their countrymen invented +Panos+ or +Panôn+ or Panô or Panôna Kômê. Thus in Ptolemy (I. 17 and IV. 7) after Arômata follows +Panôn Kômê+, which Mannert has identified with Benna. [Khor Banneh is a salt lake, with a village, inside Râs Ali Beshgêl, lat. 11° 9´ N., long. 51° 9´ E.] Stephen of Byzantium may be compared, who speaks of +Panos+ as a village on the Red Sea which is also called +Panôn+.” The conjecture, therefore, of Letronnius that +Panôn Kômê+ derived its name from the large apes found there, called +Pânes+, falls to the ground. +Opônê+ was situated on the Southern shores of what the _Periplûs_ calls a Khersonese, which can only be the projection now called +Ras Hafûn+ or Cape D’Orfui (lat. 10° 25´ N.). Ptolemy (I. 17) gives the distance of +Opônê+ from +Panôn Kômê+ at a 6 days’ journey, from which according to the _Periplûs_ it was only 400 stadia distant. That the text of Ptolemy is here corrupt cannot be doubted, for in his tables the distance between the two places is not far from that which is given in the _Periplûs_. Probably, as Müller conjectures, he wrote ὁδόν ἡμέρας (a day’s journey) which was converted into ὁδόν ἡμερ. ϛ´ (a six-days’ journey).

14. Ships set sail from Egypt for all these ports beyond the straits about the month of July—that is, Epiphi. The same markets are also regularly supplied with the products of places far beyond them—+Ariakê+ and +Barugaza+. These products are—

Σῖτος—Corn.

Ὀρυζα[18]—Rice.

Βούτυρον—Butter, i. e. _ghî_.

Ἔλαιον σησάμινον—Oil of sesamum.

Ὀθόνιον ἥ τε μοναχὴ καὶ ἡ σαγματογήνη—Fine cotton called _Monakhê_, and a coarse kind for stuffing called _Sagmatogene_.

Περιζώματα—Sashes or girdles.

Μέλι τὸ καλάμινον τὸ λεγόμενον σάκχαρι.—The honey of a reed, called _sugar_.

Some traders undertake voyages for this commerce expressly, while others, as they sail along the coast _we are describing_, exchange their cargoes for such others as they can procure. There is no king who reigns paramount over all this region, but each separate seat of trade is ruled by an independent despot of its own.

(14) At this harbour is introduced the mention of the voyage which was annually made between the coast of India and Africa in days previous to the appearance of the Greeks on the Indian Ocean, which has already been referred to.

15. After +Opônê+, the coast now trending more to the south, you come first to what are called the little and the great +Apokopa+ (or Bluffs) of +Azania+, where there are no harbours, but only roads in which ships can conveniently anchor. The navigation of this coast, the direction of which is now to the south-west, occupies six days. Then follow the Little Coast and the Great Coast, occupying other six days, when in due order succeed the +Dromoi+ (or Courses) of +Azania+, the one going by the name of +Sarapiôn+, and the other by that of +Nikôn+. Proceeding thence, you pass the mouths of numerous rivers, and a succession of other roadsteads lying apart one from another a day’s distance either by sea or by land. There are seven of them altogether, and they reach on to the +Puralaoi+ islands and the _narrow strait_ called the Canal, beyond which, where the coast changes its direction from south-west slightly more to south, you are conducted by a voyage of two days and two nights to +Menouthias+, an island stretching towards sunset, and distant from the mainland about 300 stadia. It is low-lying and woody, has rivers, and a vast variety of birds, and yields the mountain tortoise, but it has no wild beasts at all, except only crocodiles, which, however, are quite harmless. The boats are here made of planks sewn together attached to a keel formed of a single log of wood, and these are used for fishing and for catching turtle. This is also caught in another mode, peculiar to the island, by lowering wicker-baskets instead of nets, and fixing them against the mouths of the cavernous rocks which lie out in the sea confronting the beach.

(15) After leaving +Opônê+ the coast first runs due south, then bends to the south-west, and here begins the coast which is called the Little and the Great +Apokopa+ or Bluffs of +Azania+, the voyage along which occupies six days. This rocky coast, as we learn from recent explorations, begins at +Râs Mabber+ [about lat. 9° 25´ N.], which is between 70 and 80 miles distant from Ras Hafûn and extends only to +Râs-ul-Kheil+ [about lat. 7° 45´ N.], which is distant from Râs Mabber about 140 miles or a voyage of three or four days only. The length of this rocky coast (called +Hazine+ by the Arabs) is therefore much exaggerated in the _Periplûs_. From this error we may infer that our author, who was a very careful observer, had not personally visited this coast. Ptolemy, in opposition to Marînos as well as the _Periplûs_, recognizes but one +Apokopa+, which he speaks of as a bay. Müller concludes an elaborate note regarding the +Apokopa+ by the following quotation from the work of Owen, who made the exploration already referred to, “It is strange that the descriptive term +Hazine+ should have produced the names +Ajan+, +Azan+ and +Azania+ in many maps and charts, as the country never had any other appellation than +Barra Somâli+ or the land of the +Somâli+, a people who have never yet been collected under one government, and whose limits of subjection are only within bow-shot of individual chiefs. The coast of Africa from the Red Sea to the river Juba is inhabited by the tribe called +Somâli+. They are a mild people of pastoral habits and confined entirely to the coast; the whole of the interior being occupied by an untameable tribe of savages called +Galla+.”

The coast which follows the +Apokopa+, called the Little and the Great +Aigialos+ or Coast, is so desolate that, as Vincent remarks, not a name occurs on it, neither is there an anchorage noticed, nor the least trace of commerce to be found. Yet it is of great extent—a six days’ voyage according to the _Periplûs_, but, according to Ptolemy, who is here more correct, a voyage of eight days, for, as we have seen, the _Periplûs_ has unduly extended the +Apokopa+ to the South.

Next follow the +Dromoi+ or Courses of +Azania+, the first called that of +Serapiôn+ and the other that of +Nikôn+. Ptolemy interposes a bay between the Great Coast and the port of +Serapiôn+, on which he states there was an emporium called +Essina+—a day’s sail distant from that port. Essina, it would therefore appear, must have been somewhere near where +Makdashû+ [Magadoxo, lat. 2° 3´ N.] was built by the Arabs somewhere in the eighth century A.D. The station called that of +Nikôn+ in the _Periplûs_ appears in Ptolemy as the mart of +Tonikê+. These names are not, as some have supposed, of Greek origin, but distortions of the native appellations of the places into names familiar to Greek ears. That the Greeks had founded any settlements here is altogether improbable. At the time when the _Periplûs_ was written all the trade of these parts was in the hands of the Arabs of +Mouza+. The port of +Serapiôn+ may be placed at a promontory which occurs in 1° 40´ of N. lat. From this, +Tonikê+, according to the tables of Ptolemy, was distant 45´, and its position must therefore have agreed with that of +Torre+ or Torra of our modern maps.

Next occurs a succession of rivers and roadsteads, seven in number, which being passed we are conducted to the +Puralaän+ Islands, and what is called a canal or channel (διώρυξ). These islands are not mentioned elsewhere. They can readily be identified with the two called +Manda+ and +Lamou+, which are situate at the mouths of large rivers, and are separated from the mainland and from each other by a narrow channel. Vincent would assign a Greek origin to the name of these islands. “With a very slight alteration,” he says, “of the reading, the Puralian Islands (Πῦρ ἁλιον, _marine fire_,) are the islands of the Fiery Ocean, and nothing seems more consonant to reason than for a Greek to apply the name of the Fiery Ocean to a spot which was the centre of the Torrid Zone and subject to the perpendicular rays of an equinoctial sun.” [The Juba islands run along the coast from Juba to about Lat. 1° 50´ S., and Manda bay and island is in Lat. 2° 12´ S.]

Beyond these islands occurs, after a voyage of two days and two nights, the island of +Menouthias+ or +Menouthesias+, which it has been found difficult to identify with any certainty. “It is,” says Vincent, “the _Eitenediommenouthesias_ of the _Periplûs_, a term egregiously strange and corrupted, but out of which the commentators unanimously collect Menoothias, whatever may be the fate of the remaining syllables. That this Menoothias,” he continues, “must have been one of the Zangibar islands is indubitable; for the distance from the coast of all three, Pemba, Zangibar, and Momfia, affords a character which is indelible; a character applicable to no other island from Guardafui to Madagascar.” He then identifies it with the island of Zangibar, lat. 6° 5´ S., in preference to Pemba, 5° 6´ S., which lay too far out of the course, and in preference to Momfia, 7° 50´ S. (though more doubtfully), because of its being by no means conspicuous, whereas Zangibar was so prominent and obvious above the other two, that it might well attract the particular attention of navigators, and its distance from the mainland is at the same time so nearly in accordance with that given in the _Periplûs_ as to counterbalance all other objections. A writer in Smith’s _Classical Geography_, who seems to have overlooked the indications of the distances both of Ptolemy and the _Periplûs_, assigns it a position much further to the north than is reconcilable with these distances. He places it about a degree south from the mouth of the River Juba or Govind, just where an opening in the coral-reefs is now found. “The coasting voyage,” he says, “steering S. W., reached the island on the east side—a proof that it was close to the main.... It is true the navigator says it was 300 stadia from the mainland; but as there is no reason to suppose that he surveyed the island, this distance must be taken to signify the estimated width of the northern inlet separating the island from the main, and this estimate is probably much exaggerated. The mode of fishing with baskets is still practised in the Juba islands and along this coast. The formation of the coast of E. Africa in these latitudes—where the hills or downs upon the coast are all formed of a coral conglomerate comprising fragments of madrepore, shell and sand, renders it likely that the island which was close to the main 16 or 17 centuries ago, should now be united to it. Granting this theory of gradual transformation of the coast-line, the +Menouthias+ of the _Periplûs_ may be supposed to have stood in what is now the rich garden-land of +Shamba+, where the rivers carrying down mud to mingle with the marine deposit of coral drift covered the choked-up estuary with a rich soil.”

The island is said in the _Periplûs_ to extend towards the West, but this does not hold good either in the case of Zangibar or any other island in this part of the coast. Indeed there is no one of them in which at the present day all the characteristics of +Menouthias+ are found combined. +Momfia+, for instance, which resembles it somewhat in name, and which, as modern travellers tell us, is almost entirely occupied with birds and covered with their dung, does not possess any streams of water. These are found in Zangibar. The author may perhaps have confusedly blended together the accounts he had received from his Arab informants.

16. At the distance of a two days’ sail from this island lies the last of the marts of +Azania+, called +Rhapta+, a name which it derives from the sewn boats just mentioned. Ivory is procured here in the greatest abundance, and also turtle. The indigenous inhabitants are men of huge stature, who live _apart from each other_, every man ruling like a lord his own domain. The whole territory is governed by the despot of +Mopharitis+, because the sovereignty over it, by some right of old standing, is vested in the kingdom of what is called the First Arabia. The merchants of +Mouza+ farm its revenues from the king, and employ in trading with it a great many ships of heavy burden, on board of which they have Arabian commanders and factors who are intimately acquainted with the natives and have contracted marriage with them, and know their language and the navigation of the coast.

(16) We arrive next and finally at +Rhapta+, the last emporium on the coast known to the author. Ptolemy mentions not only a city of this name, but also a river and a promontory. The name is Greek (from ῥάπτειν, _to sew_), and was applied to the place because the vessels there in use were raised from bottoms consisting of single trunks of trees by the addition of planks which were sewn together with the fibres of the cocoa. “It is a singular fact,” as Vincent remarks, “that this peculiarity should be one of the first objects which attracted the attention of the Portuguese upon their reaching this coast. They saw them first at Mozambique, where they were called _Almeidas_, but the principal notice of them in most of their writers is generally stated at Kilwa, the very spot which we have supposed to receive its name from vessels of the same construction.” Vincent has been led from this coincidence to identify Rhapta with Kilwa [lat. 8° 50´ S.]. Müller however would place it not so far south, but somewhere in the Bay of Zangibar. The promontory of +Rhaptum+, he judges from the indications of the _Periplûs_ to be the projection which closes the bay in which lies the island of Zangibar, and which is now known as +Moinanokalû+ or Point Pouna, lat. 7° S. The parts beyond this were unknown, and the southern coast of Africa, it was accordingly thought by the ancient geographers, began here. Another cape however is mentioned by Ptolemy remoter than Rhaptum and called +Prasum+ (that is the Green Cape) which may perhaps be Cape Delgado, which is noted for its luxuriant vegetation. The same author calls the people of +Rhapta+, the +Rhapsioi Aithiopes+. They are described in the _Periplûs_ as men of lofty stature, and this is still a characteristic of the Africans of this coast. The +Rhapsii+ were, in the days of our author, subject to the people of +Mouza+ in Arabia just as their descendants are at the present day subject to the Sultan of Maskat. Their commerce moreover still maintains its ancient characteristics. It is the African who still builds and mans the ships while the Arab is the navigator and supercargo. The ivory is still of inferior quality, and the turtle is still captured at certain parts of the coast.

17. The articles imported into these marts are principally javelins manufactured at Mouza, hatchets, knives, awls, and crown glass of various sorts, to which must be added corn and wine in no small quantity landed at particular ports, not for sale, but to entertain and thereby conciliate the barbarians. The articles which these places export are ivory, in great abundance but of inferior quality to that obtained at Adouli, rhinoceros, and tortoise-shell of fine quality, second only to the Indian, and a little _nauplius_.

18. These marts, we may say, are about the last on the coast of +Azania+—the coast, that is, which is on your right as you sail _south_ from +Berenîkê+. For beyond these parts an ocean, hitherto unexplored, curves round towards sunset, and, stretching along the southern extremities of Ethiopia, Libya, and Africa, amalgamates with the Western Sea.

19. To the left, again, of +Berenikê+, if you sail eastward from +Myos-Hormos+ across the adjacent gulf for two days, or perhaps three, you arrive at a place having a port and a fortress which is called +Leukê Kômê+, and forming the point of communication with Petra, the residence of +Malikhas+, the king of the Nabatæans. It ranks as an emporium of trade, since small vessels come to it laden with merchandize from Arabia; and hence an officer is deputed to collect the duties which are levied on imports at the rate of twenty-five per cent. of their value, and also a centurion who commands the garrison by which the place is protected.

(18, 19) Our author having thus described the African coast as far southward as it was known on its Eastern side, reverts to +Berenikê+ and enters at once on a narrative of the second voyage—that which was made thence across the Northern head of the gulf and along the coast of Arabia to the emporium of +Mouza+ near the Straits. The course is first northward, and the parts about +Berenikê+ as you bear away lie therefore now on your left hand. Having touched at +Myos Hormos+ the course on leaving it is shaped eastward across the gulf by the promontory +Pharan+, and +Leukê Kômê+[19] is reached after three or four days’ sailing. This was a port in the kingdom of the Nabathæans (the Nebaioth of Scripture), situated perhaps near the mouth of the Elanitic Gulf or eastern arm of the Red Sea, now called the Gulf of Akabah. Much difference of opinion has prevailed as to its exact position, since the encroachment of the land upon the sea has much altered the line of coast here. Mannert identified it with the modern +Yenbo+ [lat. 24° 5´ N., long. 38° 3´ E., the port of Medina], Gosselin with +Mowilah+ [lat. 27° 38´ N., long. 35° 28´ E.,] Vincent with +Eynounah+ [lat. 28° 3´ N., long. 35° 13´ E.—the +Onne+ of Ptolemy], Reichhard with +Istabel Antai+, and Rüppel with +Wejh+ [lat. 26° 13´ N., long. 36° 27´ E]. Müller prefers the opinion held by Bochart, D’Anville, Quatremêre, Noel des Vergers, and Ritter, who agree in placing it at the port called +Hauara+ [lat. 24° 59´ N., long. 37° 16´ E.] mentioned by Idrisi (I. p. 332), who describes it as a village inhabited by merchants carrying on a considerable trade in earthen vases manufactured at a clay-pit in their neighbourhood. Near it lies the island of +Hassani+ [lat. 24° 59´ N., long. 37° 3´ E.], which, as Wellsted reports, is conspicuous from its _white_ appearance. +Leukê Kômê+ is mentioned by various ancient authors, as for instance Strabo, who, in a passage wherein he recounts the misfortunes which befel the expedition which Aelius led into Nabathaea, speaks of the place as a large mart to which and from which the camel traders travel with ease and in safety from +Petra+ and back to +Petra+ with so large a body of men and camels as to differ in no respect from an army.

The merchandize thus conveyed from +Leukê Kômê+ to +Petra+ was passed on to +Rhinokoloura+ in Palestine near Egypt, and thence to other nations, but in his own time the greater part was transported by the Nile to +Alexandria+. It was brought down from India and Arabia to +Myos Hormos+, whence it was first conveyed on camels to +Koptos+ and thence by the Nile to +Alexandria+. The Nabathaean king, at the time when our author visited +Leukê Kômê+, was, as he tells us, +Malikhas+, a name which means ‘king.’ Two Petraean sovereigns so called are mentioned by Josêphos, of whom the latter was contemporary with Herod. The Malikhas of the _Periplûs_ is however not mentioned in any other work. The Nabathaean kingdom was subverted in the time of Trajan, A.D. 105, us we learn from Dio Cassius (cap. lxviii. 14), and from Eutropius (viii. 2, 9), and from Ammianus Marcellinus (xiv. 8).

20. Beyond this mart, and quite contiguous to it, is the realm of Arabia, which stretches to a great distance along the coast of the Red Sea. It is inhabited by various tribes, some speaking the same language with a certain degree of uniformity, and others a language totally different. Here also, _as on the opposite continent_, the sea-board is occupied by +Ikhthyophagoi+, who live in dispersed huts; while the men of the interior live either in villages, or where pasture can be found, and are an evil race of men, speaking two different languages. If a vessel is driven from her course upon this shore she is plundered, and if wrecked the crew on escaping to land are reduced to slavery. For this reason they are treated as enemies and captured by the chiefs and kings of Arabia. They are called +Kanraîtai+. Altogether, therefore, the navigation of this part of the Arabian coast is very dangerous: for, _apart from the barbarity of its people_, it has neither harbours nor good roadsteads, and it is foul with breakers, and girdled with rocks which render it inaccessible. For this reason when sailing south we stand off from a shore in every way so dreadful, and keep our course down the middle of the gulf, straining our utmost to reach _the more civilized part_ of Arabia, which begins at Burnt Island. From this onward the people are under a regular government, and, as their country is pastoral, they keep herds of cattle and camels.

(20) At no great distance from +Leukê Kômê+ the Nabathaean realm terminates and Arabia begins. The coast is here described as most dismal, and as in every way dangerous to navigation. The inhabitants at the same time are barbarians, destitute of all humanity, who scruple not to attack and plunder wrecked ships and to make slaves of their crews if they escaped to land. The mariner therefore, shunned these inhospitable shores, and standing well out to sea, sailed down the middle of the gulf. The tribe here spoken of was that perhaps which is represented by the +Hutemi+ of the present day, and the coast belonged to the part of Arabia now called +Hejid+.

A more civilized region begins at an island called Burnt island, which answers to the modern Zebâyir [about lat. 15° 5´ N., long. 42° 12´ E.], an island which was till recently volcanic.

21. Beyond this tract, and on the shore of a bay which occurs at the termination of the left (or east) side of the gulf, is +Mouza+, an established and notable mart of trade, at a distance south from Berenikê of not more than 12,000 stadia. The whole place is full of Arabian shipmasters and common sailors, and is absorbed in the pursuits of commerce, for with ships of its own fitting out, it trades with the marts beyond the Straits on the opposite coast, and also with +Barugaza+.

(21) Beyond this is the great emporium called +Mouza+, [lat. 13° 43´ N., long. 43° 5´ 14´´ E.] situated in a bay near the termination of the Gulf, and at a distance from +Berenikê+ of 12,000 stadia. Here the population consists almost entirely of merchants and mariners, and the place is in the highest degree commercial. The commodities of the country are rich and numerous (though this is denied by Pliny), and there is a great traffic in Indian articles brought from +Barugaza+ (Bharoch). This port, once the most celebrated and most frequented in Yemen, is now the village Musa about twenty-five miles north from Mokhâ, which has replaced it as a port, the foundation of which dates back no more than 400 years ago. “Twenty miles inland from Mokhâ,” says Vincent, “Niebuhr discovered a Musa still existing, which he with great probability supposes to be the ancient mart now carried inland to this distance by the recession of the coast.” [He must have confounded it with +Jebel Musa+, due east of Mokhâ, at the commencement of the mountain country.] It is a mere village badly built. Its water is good, and is said to be drunk by the wealthier inhabitants of Mokhâ. Bochart identified +Mouza+ with the +Mesha+ mentioned by Moses.

22. Above this a three days’ journey off lies the city of +Sauê+, in the district called +Mopharitis+. It is the residence of +Kholaibos+, the despot of that country.

(22) The _Periplûs_ notices two cities that lay inland from +Mouza+—the 1st +Sauê+, the +Savê+ of Pliny (VI. xxvi., 104), and also of Ptolemy (VI. vii., p. 411), who places it at a distance of 500 stadia S. E. of Mouza. The position and distance direct us to the city of +Taaes+, which lies near a mountain called Saber. +Sauê+ belonged to a district called +Mapharitis+ or +Mophareitês+, a name which appears to survive in the modern +Mharras+, which designates a mountain lying N. E. from +Taaes+. It was ruled by +Kholaibos+ (Arabicé—Khaleb), whom our author calls a tyrant, and who was therefore probably a Sheikh who had revolted from his lawful chief, and established himself as an independent ruler.

23. A journey of nine days more conducts us to +Saphar+, the metropolis of +Kharibaêl+, the rightful sovereign of two contiguous tribes, the +Homerites+ and the +Sabaïtai+, and, by means of frequent embassies and presents, the friend of the Emperors.

(23) The other city was +Saphar+, the metropolis of the +Homerîtai+, _i.e._ the +Himaryi+—the Arabs of Yemen, whose power was widely extended, not only in Yemen but in distant countries both to the East and West. Saphar is called +Sapphar+ by Ptolemy (VI. vii.), who places it in 14° N. lat. Philostorgios calls it +Tapharon+, and Stephen of Byzantium +Tarphara+. It is now +Dhafar+ or Dsoffar or Zaphar. In Edrisi (I. p. 148) it appears as +Dhofar+, and he thus writes of it:—“It is the capital of the district Jahsseb. It was formerly one of the greatest and most famous of cities. The kings of Yemen made it their residence, and there was to be seen the palace of Zeidan. These structures are now in ruins, and the population has been much decreased, nevertheless the inhabitants have preserved some remnants of their ancient riches.” The ruins of the city and palace still exist in the neighbourhood of +Jerim+, which Niebuhr places in 14° 30´ N. lat. The distance from +Sauê+ to +Saphar+ in the _Periplûs_ is a nine days’ journey. Niebuhr accomplished it however in six. Perhaps, as Müller suggests, the nine days’ journey is from +Mouza+ to +Saphar+. The sovereign of Saphar is called by our author +Kharibaêl+, a name which is not found among the Himyaritic kings known from other sources. In Ptolemy the region is called +Elisarôn+, from a king bearing that name.

24. The mart of +Mouza+ has no harbour, but its sea is smooth, and the anchorage good, owing to the sandy nature of the bottom. The commodities which it imports are—

Πορφύρα, διάφορος καὶ χυδαία—Purple cloth, fine and ordinary.

Ἱματισμίς Ἀραβικὸς χειριδωτὸς, ὅτε ἁπλοῦς καὶ ὁ κοινὸς καὶ σκοτουλάτος καὶ διάχρυσος—Garments made up in the Arabian fashion, some plain and common, and others wrought in needlework and inwoven with gold.

Κρόκος—Saffron.

Κύπερος—The aromatic rush Kyperos. (Turmeric?)

Ὀθόνιον—Muslins.

Ἀβόλλαι—Cloaks.

Λώδικες οὐ πολλαὶ, ἁπλοῖ τε καὶ ἐντόπιοι—Quilts, in small quantity, some plain, others adapted to the fashion of the country.

Ζῶναι σκιωταὶ—Sashes of various shades of colour.

Μύρον μέτριον—Perfumes, a moderate quantity.

Χρῆμα ἱκανὸν—Specie as much as is required.

Οἶνος—Wine.

Σῖτος οὐ πολύς—Corn, but not much.

The country produces a little wheat and a great abundance of wine. Both the king and the despot above mentioned receive presents consisting of horses, pack-saddle mules, gold plate, silver plate embossed, robes of great value, and utensils of brass. +Mouza+ exports its own local products—myrrh of the finest quality that has oozed in drops from the trees, both the Gabiræan and Minœan kinds; white marble (or alabaster), in addition to commodities brought from the other side of the Gulf, all such as were enumerated at +Adouli+. The most favourable season for making a voyage to Mouza is the month of September,—that is Thôth,—but there is nothing to prevent it being made earlier.

(24) Adjacent to the Homeritai, and subject to them when the _Periplûs_ was written, were the Sabæans, so famous in antiquity for their wealth, luxury and magnificence. Their country, the +Sheba+ of Scripture, was noted as the land of frankincense. Their power at one time extended far and wide, but in the days of our author they were subject to the Homerites ruled over by Kharibaêl, who was assiduous in courting the friendship of Rome.

25. If on proceeding from +Mouza+ you sail by the coast for about a distance of 300 stadia, there occurs, where the Arabian mainland and the opposite coast of +Barbaria+ at +Aualitês+ now approach each other, a channel of no great length which contracts the sea and encloses it within narrow bounds. This is 60 stadia wide, and in crossing it you come midway upon the island of +Diodôros+, to which it is owing that the passage of the straits is in its neighbourhood exposed to violent winds which blow down from the adjacent mountains. There is situate upon the shore of the straits an Arabian village subject to the same ruler (as Mouza), +Okêlis+ by name, which is not so much a mart of commerce as a place for anchorage and supplying water, and where those who are bound for the interior first land and halt to refresh themselves.

(25) At a distance of 300 stadia beyond +Mouza+ we reach the straits where the shores of Arabia and Africa advance so near to each other that the passage between them has only, according to the _Periplûs_, a width of 60 stadia, or 7½ miles. In the midst of the passage lies the island of +Diodôros+ (now Perim), which is about 4½ miles long by 2 broad, and rises 230 feet above the level of the sea. The straits, according to Moresby, are 14½ geographical miles wide at the entrance between Bab-el-Mandab Cape (near which is Perim) and the opposite point or volcanic peak called +Jibel Sijan+. The larger of the two entrances is 11 miles wide, and the other only 1½. Strabo, Agathêmeros, and Pliny all agree with the _Periplûs_ in giving 60 stadia as the breadth of the straits. The first passage of those dreaded straits was regarded as a great achievement, and was naturally ascribed to Sesostris as the voyage though the straits of Kalpê was ascribed to Heraklês.