138 plist's natural histoet. [Book XII. 



that cassia grows around certain marshes, but is protected by 

 a frightful kind of bat armed with claws, and by winged ser- 

 pents as well. All these tales, however, have been evidently 

 invented for the purpose of enhancing the prices of these 

 commodities. Another story, too, bears them company, to the 

 effect that under the rays of the noon-day sun, the entire 

 peninsula exhales a certain indescribable perfume composed of 

 its numerous odours ; that the breezes, as they blow from it, 

 are impregnated with these odours, and, indeed, were the first 

 to announce the vicinity of Arabia to the fleets of Alexander 

 the Great, while still far out at sea. All this, however, is 

 false ; for cinnamomum, or cinnamum, which is the same thing, 

 grows in the country of the ^Ethiopians, 39 who are united by 

 intermarriages with the Troglodytse. These last, after buying 

 it of their neighbours, carry it over vast tracts of sea, upon 

 rafts, which are neither steered by rudder, nor drawn or 

 impelled by oars or sails. Nor yet are they aided by any of the 

 resources of art, man alone, and his daring boldness, standing 

 in place of all these ; in addition to which, they choose the 

 winter season, about the time of the equinox, for their voyage, 

 for then a south easterly wind is blowing ; these winds guide 

 them in a straight course from gulf to gulf, and after they 

 have doubled the promonotory of Arabia, the north east wind 

 carries them to a port of the Gebanitae, known by the name of 

 Ocilia. 40 Hence it is that they steer for this port in preference ; 

 and they say that it is almost five years before the mer- 

 chants are able to effect their return, while many perish on 

 the voyage. In return for their wares, they bring back arti- 

 cles of glass and copper, cloths, buckles, bracelets, and neck- 

 laces ; hence it is that this traffic depends more particularly 

 upon the capricious tastes and inclinations of the female sex. 



The cinnamon shrub 41 is only two cubits in height, at the 

 most, the lowest being no more than a palm in height. It is 

 about four fingers in breadth, and hardly has it risen six 

 fingers from the ground, before it begins to put forth shoots and 



39 See B. vi. c. 34. 4 ° See B. vi. c. 26. 



41 As Fee observes, this description does not at all resemble that of the 

 cinnamon-tree of Ceylon, as known to us. M. Bonastre is of opinion that 

 the nutmeg-tree was known to the ancients under this name ; but, as Fee 

 observes, the nutmeg could never have been taken for a bark, and cinnamon 

 is described as such in the ancient writers. He inclines to think that their 

 cinnamon was really the bark of a species of amyris. 



