:hap. 26.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTllIES, ETC. 61 



)f the Nymphs," the earth of which is red, and in which every 

 mimal instantly dies; the cause of which, however, has not been 

 iscertained.^^ JS'ext to these is the nation of the Ori, and then 

 he Hyctanis,^" a river of Carmania, with an excellent harbour 

 it its mouth, and producing gold ; at this spot the Avriters 

 tate that for the first time they caught sight of the Great 

 ^ear.^^ The star Arcturus too, they tell us, was not to be seen 

 lere every night, and never, when it was seen, during the 

 vhole of it. Up to this spot extended the empire of the 

 iLchaemenidae,^^ and in these districts are to be found mines of 

 opper, iron, arsenic, and red lead. 



They next came to the Promontory of Carmania,^* from 

 ivhich the distance across to the opposite coast, where the 

 ■tiacse, a nation of Arabia, dwell, is fifty miles ; and then to 

 hree islands, of which that of Oracla^® is alone inhabited, being 

 he only one supplied with fresh water ; it is distant from* the 

 Qainland twenty-five miles ; quite in the Gulf, and facing 

 .'ersia, there are four other islands. About these islands sea- 

 erpents^'' were seen swimming towards them, twenty cubits 

 n length, which struck the fleet with great alarm. They 

 hen came to the island of Athothradus, and those called the 

 jauratfe, upon which dwells the nation of the Gyani ; the 

 iver Hyperis,^^ which discharges itself midway into the Per- 

 ian Gulf, and is na\'igable for merchant ships ; the river 



51 Mela suggests the reason, but gives to the island a different locality — 

 over against "the mouth of the Indus." He says that the air of the 



sland is of such a nature as to tnke away life instantaneously, and appears 

 imply tliat the heat is the cause. 



52 Possibly tliat now known as the Eud Shur. 



53 Properly the " Seven Trions." 



5* The Persian kinsrs, descendants of Achsemenes. He was said to have 

 leen reared by an eagle. 



55 Called the Promontory of Harraozon by Strabo. Hardouin says that 

 he modern name is Cape Jash, hut recent writers sug-gest that it is repre- 

 ented by the modern Cape Bomharuk, nearly opposite Cape Mussendom. 



56 Perhaps the modern Kishon, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf; or 

 hat may be one of the four islands next mentioned. 



5'' The story of Pontoppidan's Kraken or Korven, the serpent of the Nor- 

 wegian Seas, is as old as Pliny, we find, and he derived his information 

 rom older works. 



58 Forbigcr has suggested that this may be the same as the modem 

 Djayrah. 



