Chap. 26.] ACCOrXT OF COU:?fTETES, ETC. 6-5 



place for embareation. If the wind, called Hippalus,'* hap- 

 pens to be blowing, it is possible to arrive in forty days at the 

 nearest mart of India, Muziris'^ by name. This, however, is 

 not a very desirable place for disembarcation, on account of the 

 pirates which fi'equent its vicinity, where they occupy a 

 place called Nitrias ; nor, in fact, is it very rich in articles 

 of merchandize. Besides, the road-stead for shipping is a 

 considerable distance from the shore, and the cargoes have to 

 be conveyed in boats, either for loading or discharging. At 

 the moment that I am writing these pages, the name of the 

 king of this place is Caelobothras. Another port, and a much 

 more convenient one, is that which lies in the territory of the 

 people called Keacyndi, Barace by name. Here king Pandion 

 u.sed to reign, dwelling at a considerable distance from the 

 mart in the interior, at a city known as Modiera. The dis- 

 trict from which pepper is earned down to Barace in boats 

 hollowed out of a single tree,^^ is known as Cottonara.'' None 

 of these names of nations, ports, and cities are to be found in 

 any of the former writers, from which circumstance it would 

 appear that the localities have since changed their names. 

 Travellers set sail from India on their return to Europe, at the 

 beginning of the Eg}-ptian month Tybis, which is our Decem- 

 ber, or at all events before the sixth day of the Egyptian month 

 Mechir, the same as'^ our ides of January : if they do this, 

 they can go and return in the same year. They set sail from 

 India with a south-east wind, and upon entering the Red Sea, 

 catch the south-west or south. We will now return to our 

 main subject. 



"* Or Favonius, the west -wind, previously mentioned in the present 

 Chapter. 



'•j" The modern Mangalore, according to Du Bocage. 



^^ Or canoes. 



"' The Cottiara of Ptolemy, who makes it the chief city of the ^, a tribe 

 who occupied the lower part of the peninsula of Hindostan. It has been 

 .-mpposed to be represented by the modern Calicut or Travancore. Cochin, 

 liowever, appears to be the most likely. 



78 Marcus observes that we may conclude that either Pliny or the author 

 :rom whom he transcribed, wrote this between the years of the Christian 

 ' ra 48 and 51 ; for that the coincidence of the 6th of the montb Mechir 

 with the Ide^ of January, could not have taken place in any other year 

 than those on which the first day of Thoth or the beginning of the year 

 lell on the 11th of August, which happened in the years 48, 49, 50, and 51 

 of the Christian era. 



VOL. II. y 



