Chapter II: Articles of Commerce Mentioned in the Periplus (3)

Situated on the shores of the straits was a place called +Okêlis+. This was not a mart of commerce, but merely a bay with good anchorage and well supplied with water. It is identical with the modern Ghalla or Cella, which has a bay immediately within the straits. Strabo following Artemidoros notes here a promontory called +Akila+. Pliny (VI. xxxii. 157) mentions an emporium of the same name “ex quo in Indiam navigatur.” In xxvi., 104 of the same Book he says: “Indos petentibus utilissimum est ab +Oceli+ egredi.” Ptolemy mentions a +Pseudokêlis+, which he places at the distance of half a degree from the emporium of +Okêlis+.

26. Beyond +Okêlis+, the sea again widening out towards the east, and gradually expanding into the open main, there lies, at about the distance of 1,200 stadia, +Eudaimôn Arabia+, a maritime village subject to that kingdom of which Kharibaêl is sovereign—a place with good anchorage, and supplied with sweeter and better water than that of Okêlis, and standing at the entrance of a bay where the land begins to retire inwards. It was called Eudaimôn (‘rich and prosperous’), because in bygone days, when the merchants from India did not proceed to Egypt, and those from Egypt did not venture to cross over to the marts further east, but both came only as far as this city, it formed the common centre of their commerce, as Alexandria receives the wares which pass to and fro between Egypt and the ports of the Mediterranean. Now, however, it lies in ruins, the Emperor having destroyed it not long before our own times.

(26) At a distance beyond +Okêlis+ of 1,200 stadia is the port of +Eudaimôn Arabia+, which beyond doubt corresponds to +'Âden+, [lat. 12° 45´ N., long. 45° 21´ E.] now so well-known as the great packet station between Suez and India. The opinion held by some that Aden is the Eden mentioned by the Prophet Ezekiel (xxvii. 23) is opposed by Ritter and Winer. It is not mentioned by Pliny, though it has been erroneously held that the +Attanae+, which he mentions in the following passage, was Aden. “Homnae et Attanae (v. 1. Athanae) quæ nunc oppida maxima celebrari a Persico mari negotiatores dicunt.” (vi. 32.) Ptolemy, who calls it simply +Arabia+, speaks of it as an emporium, and places after it at the distance of a degree and a half +Melan Horos+, or Black Hill, 17 miles from the coast, which is in long. 46° 59´ E. The place, as the _Periplûs_ informs us, received the name of +Eudaimôn+ from the great prosperity and wealth which it derived from being the great entrepôt of the trade between India and Egypt. It was in decay when that work was written, but even in the time of Ptolemy had begun to show symptoms of returning prosperity, and in the time of Constantine it was known as the ‘Roman Emporium,’ and had almost regained its former consequence, as is gathered from a passage in the works of the ecclesiastical historian Philostorgios. It is thus spoken of by Edrisi (I. p. 51): “+'Âden+ is a small town, but renowned for its seaport whence ships depart that are destined for Sind, India, and China.” In the middle ages it became again the centre of the trade between India and the Red Sea, and thus regained that wonderful prosperity which in the outset had given it its name. In this flourishing condition it was found by Marco Polo, whose account of its wealth, power and influence is, as Vincent remarks, almost as magnificent as that which Agatharkhidês attributed to the Sabæans in the time of the Ptolemies, when the trade was carried on in the same manner. Agatharkhidês does not however mention the place by name, but it was probably the city which he describes without naming it as lying on the White Sea without the straits, whence, he says, the Sabæans sent out colonies or factories into India, and where the fleets from Persis, Karmania and the Indus arrived. The name of +Aden+ is supposed to be a corruption from +Eudaimôn+.

27. To +Eudaimôn Arabia+ at once succeeds a great length of coast and a bay extending 2,000 stadia or more, inhabited by nomadic tribes and Ikhthyophagoi settled in villages. On doubling a cape which projects from it you come to another trading seaport, +Kanê+, which is subject to +Eleazos+, king of the incense country. Two barren islands lie opposite to it, 120 stadia off—one called +Orneôn+, and the other +Troullas+. At some distance inland from +Kanê+ is +Sabbatha+, the principal city of the district, where the king resides. At +Kanê+ is collected all the incense that is produced in the country, this being conveyed to it partly on camels, and partly _by sea_ on floats supported on inflated skins, a local invention, and also in boats. +Kanê+ carries on trade with ports across the ocean—+Barugaza+, +Skythia+, and +Omana+, and the adjacent coast of +Persis+.

(27) The coast beyond Aden is possessed partly by wandering tribes, and partly by tribes settled in villages which subsist on fish. Here occurs a bay—that now called Ghubhet-al-Kamar, which extends upwards of 2,000 stadia, and ends in a promontory—that now called Râs-al-Asîdah or Bâ-l-hâf [lat. 13° 58´ N., long 48° 9´ S.—a cape with a hill near the fishing village of Gillah]. Beyond this lies another great mart called +Kanê+. It is mentioned by Pliny, and also by Ptolemy, who assigns it a position in agreement with the indications given in the _Periplûs_. It has been identified with the port now called Hisn Ghorâb [lat. 14° 0´ N. long. 48° 19´ E.]. Not far from this is an island called Halanî, which answers to the +Troullas+ of our author. Further south is another island, which is called by the natives of the adjacent coast +Sikkah+, but by sailors Jibûs. This is covered with the dung of birds which in countless multitudes have always frequented it, and may be therefore identified with the +Orneôn+ of the _Periplûs_. +Kanê+ was subject to Eleazos, the king of the Frankincense Country, who resided at +Sabbatha+, or as it is called by Pliny (VI. xxxii. 155) +Sabota+, the capital of the Atramitae or Adramitae, a tribe of Sabæans from whom the division of Arabia now known as Hadhramaut takes its name. The position of this city cannot be determined with certainty. Wellsted, who proceeded into the interior from the coast near Hisn Ghorab through Wadi Meifah, came after a day’s journey and a half to a place called Nakb-el-Hajar, situated in a highly cultivated district, where he found ruins of an ancient city of the Himyarites crowning an eminence that rose gently with a double summit from the fertile plain. The city appeared to have been built in the most solid style of architecture, and to have been protected by a very lofty wall formed of square blocks of black marble, while the inscriptions plainly betokened that it was an old seat of the Himyarites. A close similarity could be traced between its ruins and those of +Kanê+, to which there was an easy communication by the valley of +Meifah+. This place, however, can hardly be regarded as +Sabbatha+ without setting aside the distances given by Ptolemy, and Wellsted moreover learned from the natives that other ruins of a city of not less size were to be met with near a village called Esan, which could be reached by a three days’ journey.—(See Haines, _Mem. of the S. Coast of Arab._)

28. From Egypt it imports, like Mouza, corn and a little wheat, cloths for the Arabian market, both of the common sort and the plain, and large quantities of a sort that is adulterated; also copper, tin, coral, styrax, and all the other articles enumerated at Mouza. Besides these there are brought also, principally for the king, wrought silver plate, and specie as well as horses and carved images, and plain cloth of a superior quality. Its exports are its indigenous products, frankincense and aloes, and such commodities as it shares in common with other marts on the same coast. Ships sail for this port at the same season of the year as those bound for Mouza, but earlier.

(28) With regard to the staple product of this region—frankincense, the _Periplûs_ informs us that it was brought for exportation to +Kanê+. It was however in the first place, if we may credit Pliny, conveyed to the Metropolis. He says (xv. 32) that when gathered it was carried into +Sabota+ on camels which could enter the city only by one particular gate, and that to take it by any other route was a crime punished by death. The priests, he adds, take a tithe for a deity named +Sabis+, and that until this impost is paid, the article cannot be sold.

Some writers would identify +Sabbatha+ with +Mariabo+ (Marab), but on insufficient grounds. It has also been conjectured that the name may be a lengthened form of +Saba+ (Sheba), a common appellation for cities in Arabia Felix. [Müller places Sabbatha at Sawa, lat. 16° 13´ N., long. 48° 9´ E.]

29. As you proceed from +Kanê+ the land retires more and more, and there succeeds another very deep and far-stretching gulf, +Sakhalitês+ by name, and also the frankincense country, which is mountainous and difficult of access, having a dense air loaded with vapours [and] the frankincense exhaled from the trees. These trees, which are not of any great size or height, yield their incense in the form of a concretion on the bark, just as several of our trees in Egypt exude gum. The incense is collected by the hand of the king’s slaves, and malefactors condemned to this service as a punishment. The country is unhealthy in the extreme:—pestilential even to those who sail along the coast, and mortal to the poor wretches who gather the incense, who also suffer from lack of food, which readily cuts them off.

(29) The next place mentioned by our author after +Kanê+ is a Bay called +Sakhalîtes+, which terminates at +Suagros+, a promontory which looks eastward, and is the greatest cape in the whole world. There was much difference of opinion among the ancient geographers regarding the position of this Bay, and consequently regarding that of Cape +Suagros+.

30. Now at this gulf is a promontory, the greatest in the world, looking towards the east, and called +Suagros+, at which is a fortress which protects the country, and a harbour, and a magazine to which the frankincense which is collected is brought. Out in the open sea, facing this promontory, and lying between it and the promontory of +Arômata+, which projects from the opposite coast, though nearer to +Suagros+, is the island going by the name of +Dioskoridês+, which is of great extent, but desert and very moist, having rivers and crocodiles and a great many vipers, and lizards of enormous size, of which the flesh serves for food, while the grease is melted down and used as a substitute for oil. This island does not, however, produce either the grape or corn. The population, which is but scanty, inhabits the north side of the island—that part of it which looks towards the mainland (_of Arabia_). It consists of an intermixture of foreigners, Arabs, Indians, and even Greeks, who resort hither for the purposes of commerce. The island produces the tortoise,—the genuine, the land, and the white sort: the latter very abundant, and distinguished for the largeness of its shell; also the mountain sort which is of extraordinary size and has a very thick shell, whereof the underpart cannot be used, being too hard to cut, while the serviceable part is made into moneyboxes, tablets, escritoires, and ornamental articles of that description. It yields also the vegetable dye (κιννάβαρι) called Indicum (or Dragon’s-blood), which is gathered as it distils from trees.

(30) Some would identify the latter with Ras-el-Had, and others on account of the similarity of the name with Cape +Saugra+ or +Saukirah+ [lat. 18° 8´ N., long. 56° 35´ E.], where Ptolemy places a city +Suagros+ at a distance of 6 degrees from +Kanê+, But +Suagros+ is undoubtedly Ras Fartak [lat. 15° 39´ N., long 52° 15´ E.], which is at a distance of 4 degrees from +Hisn Ghorab+, or +Kanê+, and which, rising to the height of 2,500 feet on a coast which is all low-lying, is a very conspicuous object, said to be discernible from a distance of 60 miles out at sea. Eighteen miles west from this promontory is a village called Saghar, a name which might probably have suggested to the Greeks that of +Suagros+. Consistent with this identification is the passage of Pliny (VI. 32) where he speaks of the island +Dioscoridis+ (Sokotra) as distant from +Suagros+, which he calls the utmost projection of the coast, 2,240 stadia or 280 miles, which is only about 30 miles in excess of the real distance, 2,000 stadia.

With regard to the position of the Bay of Sakhalitês, Ptolemy, followed by Marcianus, places it to the East of Suagros. Marinos on the other hand, like the _Periplûs_, places it to the west of it. Muller agrees with Fresnel in regarding +Sakhlê+, mentioned by Ptolemy (VI. vii. 41) as 1½ degree East of Makalleh [lat. 14° 31´ N., long 49° 7´ W.] as the same with Shehr—which is now the name of all that mountainous region extending from the seaport of Makalleh to the bay in which lie the islands of Kurya Murya. He therefore takes this to be in the Regio Sakhalîtês, and rejects the opinion of Ptolemy as inconsistent with this determination. With regard to Shehr or Shehar [lat. 14° 38´ N., long. 49° 22´ E.] Yule (_M. Polo_, II. vol. p. 440, note) says: “Shihr or Shehr still exists on the Arabian Coast as a town and district about 330 miles east of Aden.” The name Shehr in some of the oriental geographies includes the whole Coast up to Oman. The hills of the Shehr and Dhafâr districts were the great source of produce of the Arabian frankincense.

The island of +Dioskoridês+ (now Sokotra) is placed by the _Periplûs_ nearer to Cape +Suagros+ than to Cape +Arômata+—although its distance from the former is nearly double the distance from the latter. The name, though in appearance a Greek one, is in reality of Sanskrit origin; from _Dvîpa Sukhâdâra_, i.e. _insula fortunata_, ‘Island abode of Bliss.’ The accuracy of the statements made regarding it in the _Periplûs_ is fully confirmed by the accounts given of it by subsequent writers. Kosmas, who wrote in the 6th century, says that the inhabitants spoke Greek, and that he met with people from it who were on their way to Ethiopia, and that they spoke Greek. “The ecclesiastical historian Nikephoros Kallistos,” says Yule, “seems to allude to the people of Sokotra when he says that among the nations visited by the Missionary Theophilus in the time of Constantius, were ‘the Assyrians on the verge of the outer Ocean, towards the East ... whom Alexander the Great, after driving them from Syria, sent thither to settle, and to this day they keep their mother tongue, though all of the blackest, through the power of the sun’s rays.’ The Arab voyagers of the 9th century say that the island was colonized with Greeks by Alexander the Great, in order to promote the culture of the Sokotrine aloes; when the other Greeks adopted Christianity these did likewise, and they had continued to retain their profession of it. The colonizing by Alexander is probably a fable, but invented to account for facts.” (_Marco Polo_ II. 401.) The aloe, it may be noted, is not mentioned in the _Periplûs_ as one of the products of the island. The islanders, though at one time Christians, are now Muhammadans, and subject as of yore to Arabia. The people of the interior are still of distinct race with curly hair, Indian complexion, and regular features. The coast people are mongrels of Arab and mixed descent. Probably in old times civilization and Greek may have been confined to the littoral foreigners. Marco Polo notes that so far back as the 10th century it was one of the stations frequented by the Indian corsairs called +Bawârij+, belonging to Kachh and Gujarat.

31. The island is subject to the king of the frankincense country, in the same way as +Azania+ is subject to Kharibaël and the despot of +Mopharitis+. It used to be visited by some (_merchants_) from Mouza, and others on the homeward voyage from Limurikê and Barugaza would occasionally touch at it, importing rice, corn, Indian cotton and female-slaves, who, being rare, always commanded a ready market. In exchange for these commodities they would receive as fresh cargo great quantities of tortoise-shell. The revenues of the island are at the present day farmed out by its sovereigns, who, however, maintain a garrison in it for the protection of their interests.

32. Immediately after +Suagros+ follows a gulf deeply indenting the mainland of +Omana+, and having a width of 600 stadia. Beyond it are high mountains, rocky and precipitous, and inhabited by men who live in caves. The range extends onward for 500 stadia, and beyond where it terminates lies an important harbour called +Moskha+, the appointed port to which the _Sakhalitik_ frankincense is forwarded. It is regularly frequented by a number of ships from Kanê; and such ships as come from Limurikê and Barugaza too late in the season put into harbour here for the winter, where they dispose of their muslins, corn, and oil to the king’s officers, receiving in exchange frankincense, which lies in piles throughout the whole of +Sakhalitis+ without a guard to protect it, as if the locality were indebted to some divine power for its security. Indeed, it is impossible to procure a cargo, either publicly or by connivance, without the king’s permission. Should one take furtively on board were it but a single grain, his vessel can by no possibility escape from harbour.

(32) Returning to the mainland the narrative conducts us next to +Moskha+, a seaport trading with +Kanê+, and a wintering place for vessels arriving late in the season from Malabar and the Gulf of Khambât. The distance of this place from Suagros is set down at upwards of 1,100 stadia, 600 of which represent the breadth of a bay which begins at the Cape, and is called +Omana Al-Kamar+. The occurrence of the two names Omana and Moskha in such close connexion led D’Anville to suppose that +Moskha+ is identical with +Maskat+, the capital of +Oman+, the country lying at the south-east extremity of Arabia, and hence that Ras-el-Ḥad, beyond which Maskat lies, must be Cape Suagros. This supposition is, however, untenable, since the identification of Moskha with the modern +Ausera+ is complete. For, in the first place, the Bay of Seger, which begins at Cape Fartak, is of exactly the same measurement across to Cape Thurbot Ali as the Bay of +Omana+, and again the distance from Cape Thurbot Ali [lat. 16° 38´ N., long. 53° 3´ E.] to Ras-al-Sair, the +Ausara+ of Ptolemy, corresponds almost as exactly to the distance assigned by our author from the same Cape to +Moskha+. Moreover Pliny (XII. 35) notices that one particular kind of incense bore the name of _Ausaritis_, and, as the _Periplûs_ states that +Moskha+ was the great emporium of the incense trade, the identification is satisfactory.

There was another Moskha on this coast which was also a port. It lay to the west of Suagros, and has been identified with +Koshîn+ [lat. 15° 21´ N. long. 51° 39´ E.]. Our author, though correct in his description of the coast, may perhaps have erred in his nomenclature; and this is the more likely to have happened as it scarcely admits of doubt that he had no personal knowledge of South Arabia beyond +Kanê+ and Cape +Suagros+. Besides no other author speaks of an Omana so far to westward as the position assigned to the Bay of that name. The tract immediately beyond +Moskha+ or Ausera is low and fertile, and is called +Dofar+ or +Zhafâr+, after a famous city now destroyed, but whose ruins are still to be traced between Al-hâfâh and Addahariz. “This Dhafâr,” says Yule (_Marco Polo_ II. p. 442 note) “or the bold fountain above it, is supposed to be the +Sephar+ of _Genesis_ X. 30.” It is certain that the Himyarites had spread their dominion as far eastward as this place. Marco Polo thus describes Dhafâr:—“It stands upon the sea, and has a very good haven, so that there is a great traffic of shipping between this and India; and the merchants take hence great numbers of Arab horses to that market, making great profits thereby.... Much white incense is produced here, and I will tell you how it grows. The trees are like small fir-trees; these are notched with a knife in several places, and from these notches the incense is exuded. Sometimes, also, it flows from the tree without any notch, this is by reason of the great heat of the sun there.” Müller would identify +Moskha+ with Zhafâr, and accounts for the discrepancy of designation by supposing that our author had confounded the name +Maskat+, which was the great seat of the traffic in frankincense with the name of the greatest city in the district which actually produced it. A similar confusion he thinks transferred the name of Oman to the same part of the country. The climate of the incense country is described as being extremely unhealthy, but its unhealthiness seems to have been designedly exaggerated.

33. From the port of +Moskha+ onward to +Asikh+, a distance of about 1,500 stadia, runs a range of hills pretty close to the shore, and at its termination there are seven islands bearing the name of +Zenobios+, beyond which again we come to another barbarous district not subject to any power in Arabia, but to Persia. If when sailing by this coast you stand well out to sea so as to keep a direct course, then at about a distance from the island of +Zenobios+ of 2,000 stadia you arrive at another island, called that of +Sarapis+, lying off shore, say, 120 stadia. It is about 200 stadia broad and 600 long, possessing three villages inhabited by a _savage_ tribe of +Ikhthyophagoi+, who speak the Arabic language, and whose clothing consists of a girdle made from the leaves of the cocoa-palm. The island produces in great plenty tortoise of excellent quality, and the merchants of +Kanê+ accordingly fit out little boats and cargo-ships to trade with it.

(33) Beyond +Moskha+ the coast is mountainous as far as +Asikh+ and the islands of Zenobios—a distance excessively estimated at 1,500 stadia. The mountains referred to are 5,000 feet in height, and are those now called Subaha. +Asikh+ is readily to be identified with the +Hâsek+ of Arabian geographers. Edrisi (I. p. 54) says: “Thence (from Marbat) to the town of Hâsek is a four days’ journey and a two days’ sail. Before +Hâsek+ are the two islands of +Khartan+ and +Martan+. Above +Hâsek+ is a high mountain named +Sous+, which commands the sea. It is an inconsiderable town but populous.” This place is now in ruins, but has left its name to the promontory on which it stood [Râs Hâsek, lat. 17° 23´ N. long. 55° 20´ E. opposite the island of Hasiki]. The islands of +Zenobios+ are mentioned by Ptolemy as seven in number, and are those called by Edrisi +Khartan+ and +Martan+, now known as the +Kuriyân Muriyân+ islands. The inhabitants belonged to an Arab tribe which was spread from Hâsek to Râs-el-Ḥad, and was called +Beit+ or +Beni Jenabi+, whence the Greek name. M. Polo in the 31st chapter of his travels “discourseth of the two islands called Male and Female,” the position of which he vaguely indicates by saying that “when you leave the kingdom of +Kesmacoran+ (Mekran) which is on the mainland, you go by sea some 500 miles towards the south, and then you find the 2 islands Male and Female lying about 30 miles distant from one another.” (See also _Marco Polo_, vol. II. p. 396 note.)

Beyond +Asikh+ is a district inhabited by barbarians, and subject not to Arabia but to Persis. Then succeeds at a distance of 200 stadia beyond the islands of +Zenobios+ the island of +Sarapis+, (the Ogyris of Pliny) now called Masira [lat. 20° 10´ to 20° 42´ N., long. 58° 37´ to 58° 59´ E.] opposite that part of the coast where Oman now begins. The _Periplûs_ exaggerates both its breadth and its distance from the continent. It was still inhabited by a tribe of fish-eaters in the time of Ebn Batuta, by whom it was visited.

On proceeding from +Sarapis+ the adjacent coast bends round, and the direction of the voyage changes to north. The great cape which forms the south-eastern extremity of Arabia called +Ras-el-Had+ [lat. 22° 33´ N. long. 59° 48´ E.] is here indicated, but without being named; Ptolemy calls it +Korodamon+ (VI. vii. 11.)

34. If sailing onward you wind round with the adjacent coast to the north, then as you approach the entrance of the Persian Gulf you fall in with a group of islands which lie in a range along the coast for 2,000 stadia, and are called the islands of +Kalaiou+. The inhabitants of the adjacent coast are cruel and treacherous, and see imperfectly in the daytime.

(34) Beyond it, and near the entrance to the Persian Gulf, occurs, according to the _Periplûs_, a group of many islands, which lie in a range along the coast over a space of 2,000 stadia, and are called the islands of +Kalaiou+. Here our author is obviously in error, for there are but three groups of islands on this coast, which are not by any means near the entrance of the Gulf. They lie beyond Maskat [lat. 23° 38´ N. long. 58° 36´ E.] and extend for a considerable distance along the Batinah coast. The central group is that of the Deymâniyeh islands (probably the Damnia of Pliny) which are seven in number, and lie nearly opposite Birkeh [lat 23° 42´ N. long. 57° 55´ E.]. The error, as Müller suggests, may be accounted for by supposing that the tract of country called El Baṭinah was mistaken for islands. This tract, which is very low and extremely fertile, stretches from Birkeh [lat. 23° 42´ N. long. 57° 55´ E.] onward to Jibba, where high mountains approach the very shore, and run on in an unbroken chain to the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The islands are not mentioned by any other author, for the +Calacou insulae+ of Pliny (VI. xxxii. 150) must, to avoid utter confusion, be referred to the coast of the Arabian Gulf. There is a place called +El Kilat+, the Akilla of Pliny [lat. 22° 40´ N. long. 59° 24´ E.]—but whether this is connected with the +Kalaiou+ islands of the _Periplûs_ is uncertain [Conf. _Ind. Ant._ vol. IV. p. 48. El Kilhat, south of Maskat and close to Ṣûr, was once a great port.]

35. Near the last headland of the islands of +Kalaiou+ is the mountain called +Kalon+ (Pulcher),[20] to which succeeds, at no great distance, the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where there are very many pearl fisheries. On the left of the entrance, towering to a vast height, are the mountains which bear the name of +Asaboi+, and directly opposite on the right you see another mountain high and round, called the hill of +Semiramis+. The strait which separates them has a width of 600 stadia, and through this opening the Persian Gulf pours its vast expanse of waters far up into the interior. At the very head of this gulf there is a regular mart of commerce, called the city of +Apologos+, situate near +Pasinou-Kharax+ and the river Euphrates.

(35) Before the mouth of the Persian Gulf is reached occurs a height called +Kalon+ (Fair Mount) at the last head of the islands of Papias—τῶν Παπίου νήσων. This reading has been altered by Fabricius and Schwanbeck to των Καλαιου νησων. The Fair Mount, according to Vincent, would answer sufficiently to Cape Fillam, if that be high land, and not far from Fillam are the straits. The great cape which Arabia protrudes at these straits towards Karmania is now called Ras Mussendom. It was seen from the opposite coast by the expedition under Nearkhos, to whom it appeared to be a day’s sail distant. The height on that coast is called Semiramis, and also Strongylê from its round shape. Mussendom, the ‘Asabôn akron’ of Ptolemy, Vincent says, “is a sort of Lizard Point to the Gulf; for all the Arabian ships take their departure from it with some ceremonies 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.” [The straits between the island of Mussendom and the mainland are called El Bab, and this is the origin of the name of the Papiæ islands.—Miles’ _Jour. R. A. Soc._ N. S. vol. x. p. 168.]

The actual width of the straits is 40 miles. Pliny gives it at 50, and the _Periplûs_ at 75. Cape Mussendom is represented in the _Periplûs_ as in Ptolemy by the Mountains of the Asabi which are described as tremendous heights, black, grim, and abrupt. They are named from the tribe of +Beni Asab+.

We enter now the Gulf itself, and here the _Periplûs_ mentions only two particulars: the famous Pearl Fisheries which begin at the straits and extend to Bahrein, and the situation of a regular trading mart called +Apologos+, which lies at the very head of the Gulf on the Euphrates, and in the vicinity of +Spasinou Kharax+. This place does not appear to be referred to in any other classical work, but it is frequently mentioned by Arabian writers under the name of Oboleh or Obolegh. As an emporium it took the place of +Terêdôn+ or +Diridôtis+, just as +Basra+ (below which it was situated) under the second Khaliphate took the place of +Oboleh+ itself. According to Vincent, Oboleh, or a village that represents it, still exists between Basra and the Euphrates. The canal also is called the canal of Oboleh. +Kharax Pasinou+ was situated where the +Karûn+ (the +Eulæus+ of the ancients) flows into the +Pasitigris+, and is represented by the modern trading town +Muhammarah+. It was founded by Alexander the Great, and after its destruction, was rebuilt by Antiokhos Epiphanes, who changed its name from Alexandreia to Antiokheia. It was afterwards occupied by an Arab Chief called Pasines, or rather +Spasines+, who gave it the name by which it is best known. Pliny states that the original town was only 10 miles from the sea, but that in his time the existing place was so much as 120 miles from it. It was the birth-place of two eminent geographers—Dionysius Periegetes and Isidôros.

36. If you coast along the mouth of the gulf you are conducted by a six days’ voyage to another seat of trade belonging to Persia, called +Omana+.[21] Barugaza maintains a regular commercial intercourse with both these Persian ports, despatching thither large vessels freighted with copper, sandalwood, beams for rafters, horn, and logs of sasamina and ebony. Omana imports also frankincense from Kanê, while it exports to Arabia a particular species of vessels called _madara_, which have their planks sewn together. But both from +Apologos+ and +Omana+ there are exported to Barugaza and to Arabia great quantities of pearl, of mean quality however compared with the Indian sort, together with purple, cloth for the natives, wine, dates in great quantity, and gold and slaves.

(36) After this cursory glance at the great gulf, our author returns to the straits, and at once conducts us to the Eastern shores of the æErythræan, where occurs another emporium belonging to Persis, at a distance from the straits of 6 courses or 3,000 stadia. This is Omana. It is mentioned by Pliny (VI. xxxii. 149) who makes it belong to Arabia, and accuses preceding writers for placing it in Karmania.

The name of +Omana+ has been corrupted in the MSS. of Ptolemy into Nommana, Nombana, +Kommana+, Kombana, but Marcian has preserved the correct spelling. From Omana as from Apologos great quantities of pearl of an inferior sort were exported to Arabia and Barugaza. No part however of the produce of India is mentioned as among its exports, although it was the centre of commerce between that country and Arabia.

37. After leaving the district of +Omana+ the country of the +Parsidai+ succeeds, which belongs to another government, and the bay which bears the name of +Terabdoi+, from the midst of which a cape projects. Here also is a river large enough to permit the entrance of ships, with a small mart at its mouth called +Oraia+. Behind it in the interior, at the distance of a seven days’ journey from the coast, is the city where the king resides, called Rhambakia. This district, in addition to corn, produces wine, rice, and dates, though in the tract near the sea, only the fragrant gum called bdellium.

(37) The district which succeeds Omana belongs to the +Parsidai+, a tribe in Gedrosia next neighbours to the +Arbitae+ on the East. They are mentioned by Ptolemy (VI. xx., p. 439) and by Arrian (_Indika_ xxvi.) who calls them +Pasirees+, and notes that they had a small town called +Pasira+, distant about 60 stadia from the sea, and a harbour with good anchorage called +Bagisara+. The Promontory of the _Periplûs_ is also noted and described as projecting far into the sea, and being high and precipitous. It is the Cape now called +Arabah+ or +Urmarah+. The Bay into which it projects is called +Terabdôn+, a name which is found only in our author. Vincent erroneously identifies this with the +Paragôn+ of Ptolemy. It is no doubt the Bay which extends from Cape Guadel to Cape Monze. The river which enters this Bay, at the mouth of which stood the small mart called +Oraia+, was probably that which is now called the Akbor. The royal city which lay inland from the sea a seven days’ journey was perhaps, as Mannert has conjectured, +Rambakia+, mentioned by Arrian (_Anab._ vi. 21) as the capital of the +Oreitai+ or +Horitai+.

38. After this region, where the coast is already deeply indented by gulfs caused by the land advancing with a vast curve from the east, succeeds the seaboard of Skythia, a region which extends to northward. It is very low and flat, and contains the mouths of the +Sinthos+ (Indus), the largest of all the rivers which fall into the Erythræan Sea, and which, indeed, pours into it such a vast body of water that while you are yet far off from the land at its mouth you find the sea turned of a white colour by its waters.

The sign by which voyagers before sighting land know that it is near is their meeting with serpents floating on the water; but higher up and on the coasts of Persia the first sign of land is seeing them of a different kind, called _graai_. [Sansk. _graha_—an alligator.] The river has seven mouths, all shallow, marshy and unfit for navigation except only the middle stream, on which is +Barbarikon+, a trading seaport. Before this town lies a small islet, and behind it in the interior is +Minnagar+, the metropolis of Skythia, which is governed, however, by Parthian princes, who are perpetually at strife among themselves, expelling each the other.

(38) We now approach the mouths of the Indus which our author calls the +Sinthos+, transliterating the native name of it—+Sindhu+. In his time the wide tract which was watered by this river in the lower part of its course was called +Indoskythia+. It derived its name from the Skythian tribes (the +Śâka+ of Sansk.) who after the overthrow of the Graeco-Baktrian empire gradually passed southward to the coast, where they established themselves about the year 120 B. C., occupying all the region between the Indus and the Narmadâ. They are called by Dionysios Periegetes +Notioi Skythai+, the Southern Skythians. Our author mentions two cities which belonged to them—+Barbarikon+ and +Minnagar+; the former of which was an emporium situated near the sea on the middle and only navigable branch of the Indus. Ptolemy has a +Barbarei+ in the Delta, but the position he assigns to it, does not correspond with that of +Barbarikon+. +Minnagar+ was the Skythian metropolis. It lay inland, on or near the banks of the Indus.

39. Ships accordingly anchor near +Barbarikê+, but all their cargoes are conveyed by the river up to the king, who resides in the metropolis.

The articles imported into this emporium are—Ἱματισμὸς ἁπλους ἱκανὸς—Clothing, plain and in considerable quantity.

Ἱματισμὸς νόθος οὐ πολὺς—Clothing, mixed, not much.

Πολύμιτα—Flowered cottons.

Χρυσόλιθον—Yellow-stone, topazes.

Κοράλλιον—Coral.

Στύραξ—Storax.

Λίβανος—Frankincense (_Lôbân_).

Ὑαλά σκεύη—Glass vessels.

Αργυρώματα—Silver plate.

Χρῆμα—Specie.

Οἰνος οὐ πολύς—Wine, but not much.

The exports are:—

Κόστος—Costus, a spice.

Βδέλλα—Bdellium, a gum.

Λύκιον—A yellow dye (_Ruzot_).

Νάρδος—Spikenard.

Λίθος καλλαïνος—Emeralds or green-stones.

Σάπφειρος—Sapphires.

Σηρικὰ δέρματα—Furs from China.

Ὀθόνιον—Cottons.

Νῆμα Σηρικὸν—Silk thread.

Ἰνδικὸν μέλαν—Indigo.

Ships destined for this port put out to sea when the Indian monsoon prevails—that is, about the month of July or Epiphi. The voyage at this season is attended with danger, but being shorter is more expeditious.

(39) Ships did not go up to it but remained at +Barbarikon+, their cargoes being conveyed up the river in small boats. In Ptolemy (VII. i. 61) the form of the name is +Binagara+, which is less correct since the word is composed of _Min_, the Indian name for the Skythians, and _nagar_, a city. Ritter considers that +Ṭhaṭha+ is its modern representative, since it is called +Saminagar+ by the Jâḍejâ Rajputs who, though settled in Kachh, derive their origin from that city. To this view it is objected that Ṭhaṭha is not near the position which Ptolemy assigns to his +Binagara+. Mannert places it at +Bakkar+, D’Anville at +Mansura+, and Vincent at +Menhabery+ mentioned by Edrisi (I. p. 164) as distant two stations or 60 miles from +Dabil+, which again was three stations or 90 miles from the mouth of the Indus, that is it lay at the head of the Delta. Our author informs us that in his time +Minagar+ was ruled by Parthian princes. The Parthians (the Parada of Sanskrit writers) must therefore have subverted a Skythian dynasty which must have been that which (as Benfey has shown) was founded by +Yeukaotschin+ between the years 30 and 20 B.C., or about 30 years only after the famous Indian Æra called _Śâkâbda_ (the year of the Śâka) being that in which Vikramâditya expelled the Skythians from Indian soil. The statement of the _Periplûs_ that Parthian rulers succeeded the Skythian is confirmed by Parthian coins found everywhere in this part of the country. These sovereigns must have been of consequence, or the trade of their country very lucrative to the merchant as appears by the presents necessary to ensure his protection—plate, musical instruments, handsome girls for the Harem, the best wine, plain cloth of high price, and the finest perfumes. The profits of the trade must therefore have been great, but if Pliny’s account be true, that every pound laid out in India produced a hundred at Rome, greater exactions than these might easily have been supported.

40. After the river +Sinthos+ is passed we reach another gulf, which cannot be easily seen. It has two divisions,—the Great and the Little by name,—both shoal with violent and continuous eddies extending far out from the shore, so that before ever land is in sight ships are often grounded on the shoals, or being caught within the eddies are lost. Over this gulf hangs a promontory which, curving from +Eirinon+ first to the east, then to the south, and finally to the west, encompasses the gulf called +Barakê+, in the bosom of which lie seven islands. Should a vessel approach the entrance of this gulf, the only chance of escape for those on board is at once to alter their course and stand out to sea, for it is all over with them if they are once fairly within the womb of +Barakê+, which surges with vast and mighty billows, and where the sea, tossing in violent commotion, forms eddies and impetuous whirlpools in every direction. The bottom varies, presenting in places sudden shoals, in others being scabrous with jagged rocks, so that when an anchor grounds its cable is either at once cut through, or soon broken by friction at the bottom. The sign by which voyagers know they are approaching this bay is their seeing serpents floating about on the water, of extraordinary size and of a black colour, for those met with lower down and in the neighbourhood of Barugaza are of less size, and in colour green and golden.

(40) The first place mentioned after the Indus is the Gulf of +Eirinon+, a name of which traces remain in the modern appellation the +Raṇ+ of Kachh. This is no longer covered with water except during the monsoon, when it is flooded by sea water or by rains and inundated rivers. At other seasons it is not even a marsh, for its bed is hard, dry and sandy; a mere saline waste almost entirely devoid of herbage, and frequented but by one quadruped—the wild ass. Burnes conjectured that its desiccation resulted from an upheaval of the earth caused by one of those earthquakes which are so common in that part of India. The +Raṇ+ is connected with the Gulf of Kachh, which our author calls the Gulf of +Barakê+. His account of it is far from clear. Perhaps, as Müller suggests, he comprehended under +Eirinon+ the interior portion of the Gulf of Kachh, limiting the Gulf of +Barakê+ to the exterior portion or entrance to it. This gulf is called that of Kanthi by Ptolemy, who mentions +Barakê+ only as an island, [and the south coast of Kachh is still known by the name of Kantha]. The islands of the _Periplûs_ extend westward from the neighbourhood of +Navanagar+ to the very entrance of the Gulf.

41. To the gulf of +Barakê+ succeeds that of +Barugaza+ and the mainland of +Ariakê+, a district which forms the frontier of the kingdom of +Mombaros+ and of all India. The interior part of it which borders on +Skythia+ is called +Aberia+, and its sea-board +Surastrênê+. It is a region which produces abundantly corn and rice and the oil of sesamum, butter, muslins and the coarser fabrics which are manufactured from Indian cotton. It has also numerous herds of cattle. The natives are men of large stature and coloured black. The metropolis of the district is +Minnagar+, from which cotton cloth is exported in great quantity to +Barugaza+. In this part of the country there are preserved even to this very day memorials of the expedition of Alexander, old temples, foundations of camps, and large wells. The extent of this coast, reckoned from +Barbarikon+ to the promontory called +Papikê+, near +Astakapra+, which is opposite +Barugaza+, is 3,000 stadia.

(41) To +Barakê+ succeeds the Gulf of +Barugaza+ (Gulf of +Khambhât+) and the sea-board of the region called +Ariakê+. The reading of the MS. here ἡ πρἡὸς Ἀραβικῆς χώρας is considered corrupt. Müller substitutes ἡ ἤπειρος τῆς Ἀριακῆς χώρας, though Mannert and others prefer Λαρικῆς χώρας, relying on Ptolemy, who places +Ariakê+ to the south of +Larikê+, and says that +Larikê+ comprehends the peninsula (of Gujarât) Barugaza and the parts adjacent. As +Ariakê+ was however previously mentioned in the _Periplûs_ (sec. 14) in connexion with Barugaza, and is afterwards mentioned (sec. 54) as trading with Muziris, it must no doubt have been mentioned by the author in its proper place, which is here. [Bhagvanlâl Indraji Pandit has shewn reasons however for correcting the readings into Αβαρατικη, the Prakrit form of +Aparântikâ+, an old name of the western sea board of India.—_Ind. Ant._ vol. VII., pp. 259, 263.] Regarding the name +Larikê+, Yule has the following note (_Travels of M. Polo_ vol. II., p. 353):—“+Lâr-Deśa+, the country of Lar,” properly Lât-deśa, was an early name for the territory of Gujrat and the northern Konkan, embracing Saimur (the modern Chaul as I believe) Thaṇa, and Bharoch. It appears in Ptolemy in the form +Larikê+. The sea to the west of that coast was in the early Muhammadan times called the sea of Lâr, and the language spoken on its shores is called by +Mas’udi+, +Lâri+. Abulfeda’s authority, Ibn Said, speaks of Lâr and Gujarât as identical.

+Ariakê+ (Aparântikâ), our author informs us, was the beginning or frontier of India. That part of the interior of Ariakê which bordered on Skythia was called +Aberia+ or Abiria (in the MS. erroneously Ibêria). The corresponding Indian word is +Abhira+, which designated the district near the mouths of the river. Having been even in very early times a great seat of commerce, some (as Lassen) have been led to think from a certain similarity of the names that this was the +Ophir+ of scripture, a view opposed by Ritter. Abiria is mentioned by Ptolemy, who took it to be not a part of India but of Indoskythia. The sea-board of Ariakê was called +Surastrênê+, and is mentioned by Ptolemy, who says (VII. i. 55) it was the region about the mouths of the Indus and the Gulf of Kanthi. It answers to the Sanskrit +Surâshṭra+. Its capital was Minnagar,—a city which, as its name shows, had once belonged to the Min or Skythians. It was different of course from the Minnagar already mentioned as the capital of Indo-Skythia. It was situated to the south of +Ozênê+ (Ujjayinî, or Ujjain), and on the road which led from that city to the River Narmadâ, probably near where Indôr now stands. It must have been the capital only for a short time, as Ptolemy informs us (II. i. 63) that +Ozênê+ was in his time the capital of +Tiashanes+ [probably the Chashṭana of Coins and the Cave Temple inscriptions]. From both places a great variety of merchandise was sent down the Narmadâ to Barugaza.

The next place our author mentions is a promontory called +Papikê+ projecting into the Gulf of Khambât from that part of the peninsula of Gujarât which lies opposite to the Barugaza coast. Its distance from Barbarikon on the middle mouth of the Indus is correctly given at 3,000 stadia. This promontory is said to be near +Astakapra+, a place which is mentioned also by Ptolemy, and which (_Ind. Ant._ vol. V. p. 314) has been identified by Colonel Yule with +Hastakavapra+ (now +Hâthab+ near Bhaunagar), a name which occurs in a copper-plate grant of Dhruvasena I of Valabhi. With regard to the Greek form of this name Dr. Bühler thinks it is not derived immediately from the Sanskrit, but from an intermediate old Prakrit word Hastakampra, which had been formed by the contraction of the syllables _ava_ to _â_, and the insertion of a nasal, according to the habits of the Gujarâtîs. The loss of the initial, he adds, may be explained by the difficulty which Gujarâtîs have now and probably had 1,600 years ago in pronouncing the spirans in its proper place. The modern name Hâthab or Hâthap may be a corruption of the shorter Sanskrit form Hastavapra.

42. After Papikê there is another gulf, exposed to the violence of the waves and running up to the north. Near its mouth is an island called +Baiônês+, and at its very head it receives a vast river called the +Mais+. Those bound for +Barugaza+ sail up this gulf (which has a breadth of about 300 stadia), leaving the island on the left till it is scarcely visible in the horizon, when they shape their course east for the mouth of the river that leads to Barugaza. This is called the +Namnadios+.

(42) Beyond +Papikê+, we are next informed, there is another gulf running northward into the interior of the country. This is not really another Gulf but only the northern portion of the Gulf of Khambât, which the _Periplûs_ calls the Gulf of Barugaza. It receives a great river, the +Mais+, which is easily identified with the +Mahi+, and contains an island called +Baiônês+ [the modern Peram], which you leave on the left hand as you cross over from Astakapra to Barugaza.

We are now conducted to +Barugaza+, the greatest seat of commerce in Western India, situated on a river called in the MS. of the _Periplûs_ the +Lamnaios+, which is no doubt an erroneous reading for +Namados+, or Namnados or Namnadios. This river is the +Narmadâ+. It is called by Ptolemy the Namades.

43. The passage into the gulf of +Barugaza+ is narrow and difficult of access to those approaching it from the sea, for they are carried either to the right or to the left, the left being the better passage of the two. On the right, at the very entrance of the gulf, lies a narrow stripe of shoal, rough and beset with rocks. It is called +Herônê+, and lies opposite the village of +Kammôni+. On the left side right against this is the promontory of +Papikê+, which lies in front of +Astakapra+, where it is difficult to anchor, from the strength of the current and because the cables are cut through by the sharp rocks at the bottom. But even if the passage into the gulf is secured the mouth of the Barugaza river is not easy to hit, since the coast is low and there are no certain marks to be seen until you are close upon them. Neither, if it is discovered, is it easy to enter, from the presence of shoals at the mouth of the river.

(43) +Barugaza+ (Bharoch) which was 30 miles distant from its mouth, was both difficult and dangerous of access; for the entrance to the Gulf itself was, on the right, beset with a perilous stripe (_tainia_) of rocky shoal called +Herônê+, and on the left, (which was the safer course,) the violent currents which swept round the promontory of Papikê rendered it unsafe to approach the shore or to cast anchor. The shoal of Herônê was opposite a village on the mainland called +Kammôni+, the Kamanê of Ptolemy (VII. i.), who however places it to the north of the river’s mouth. Again, it was not only difficult to hit the mouth of the river, but its navigation was endangered by sandbanks and the violence of the tides, especially the high tide called the ‘Bore,’ of which our author gives a description so particular and so vivid as suffices to show that he was describing what he had seen with his own eyes, and seen moreover for the first time. With regard to the name +Barugaza+ the following passage, which I quote from Dr. Wilson’s _Indian Castes_ (vol. II. p. 113) will elucidate its etymology:—“The +Bhârgavas+ derive their designation from +Bhargava+, the adjective form of +Bhṛigu+, the name of one of the ancient Ṛishis. Their chief habitat is the district of Bharoch, which must have got its name from a colony of the school of Bhṛigu having been early established in this Kshêtra, probably granted to them by some conqueror of the district. In the name +Barugaza+ given to it by Ptolemy, we have a Greek corruption of Bhṛigukshêtra (the territory of Bhṛigu) or Bhṛigukachha (the tongueland of Bhṛigu).” Speaking of the Bhârgavas Dr. Drummond, in his _Grammatical Illustrations_, says:—“These Brâhmans are indeed poor and ignorant. Many of them, and other illiterate Gujarâtîs, would, in attempting to articulate Bhṛigushêtra, lose the half in coalesence, and call it Bargacha, whence the Greeks, having no _Ch_, wrote it Barugaza.”

44. For this reason native fishermen appointed by Government are stationed with well-manned long boats called _trappaga_ and _kotumba_ at the entrance of the river, whence they go out as far as +Surastrênê+ to meet ships, and pilot them up to Barugaza. At the head of the gulf the pilot, immediately on taking charge of a ship, with the help of his own boat’s crew, shifts her head to keep her clear of the shoals, and tows her from one fixed station to another, moving with the beginning of the tide, and dropping anchor at certain roadsteads and basins when it ebbs. These basins occur at points where the river is deeper than usual, all the way up to +Barugaza+, which is 300 stadia distant from the mouth of the river if you sail up the stream to reach it.

45. India has everywhere a great abundance of rivers, and her seas ebb and flow with tides of extraordinary strength, which increase with the moon, both when new and when full, and for three days after each, but fall off in the intermediate space. About +Barugaza+ they are more violent than elsewhere; so that all of a sudden you see the depths laid bare, and portions of the land turned into sea, and the sea, where ships were sailing but just before, turned without warning into dry land. The rivers, again, on the access of flood tide rushing into their channels with the whole body of the sea, are driven upwards against their natural course for a great number of miles with a force that is irresistible.