Chap. 32.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 87 



famous for being the burial-place of king Erj'thras f^ it is dis- 

 tant from the mainland one hundred and twenty miles, being 

 one hundred and twelve in circumference. Xo less famous is 

 another island, called Dioscoridu,"" and lying in the Azanian 

 Sea f^ it is distant two hundred and eighty miles from the 

 extreme point of the Promontory of Syagrus.^® 



The remaining places and nations on the mainland, lying 

 still to the south, are the Ausaritse, to whose country it is seven 

 days' journey among the mountains, the nations of the Laren- 

 dani and the Catabani, and the Gebanitoe, who occupy a great 

 number of towns, the largest of which are I^agia, and Thomna 

 with sixty-five temples, a number which fully bespeaks its size. 

 We then come to a promontory, from which to the mainland 

 of the Troglodytes it is fifty miles, and then the Thoani, the 

 Actaei, the Chatramotitfe, the Tonabei, the Antidalei, the Lex- 

 ianae, the Agroei, the Cerbani, and the Sabaei,^'' the best known 

 of all the tribes of Arabia, on account of their frankincense ; 

 these nations extend from sea to sea.''^ The towns which be- 

 long to them on the Ked Sea are Marane, Marma, Corolia, and 

 Sabatha ; and in the interior, jS'ascus, Cardava, Camus, and 

 Thomala, from which they bring down their spices for expor- 

 tation. One portion of this nation is the Atramitae,^^ whose 



3" There seem to have been three mythical personages of this name ; 

 but it appears impossible to distinguish the one from the other. 



3' Or " Dioscoridis Insula," an island of .^he Indian Ocean, of con- 

 siderable importance as an emporium or mart, in ancient times. It lay 

 between the Syagrus Promontorium, in Arabia, and Aromata Promon- 

 torium, now Cape Guardafui, on the opposite coast of Africa, somewhat 

 nearer to the former, according to Arrian, which cannot be the case if it is 

 rightly identified with Socotorra, 200 miles distant from the Arabian 

 coast, and 110 from the north-east promontory of Africa. 



3& So called from Azania, or Barbaria, now Ajan, south of Somauli, on 

 the mainland of Africa. 



39 Now Cape Fartash, in Arabia. 



*o Their country is supposed to have been the Sheba of Scripture, the 

 queen of which visited king Solomon. It was situate in the soutli-western 

 comer of Arabia Felix, the north and centre of the province of Yemen, 

 though the geographers before Ptolemy seem to give it a still wider 

 extent, quite to the south of Yemen. The Sabaei most probably spread 

 originally on both sides of the southern part of the Red Sea, the shores of 

 Arabia and Africa. Their capital was Saba, in which, according to their 

 usage, their king was confined a close prisoner. 



« The Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. 



*3 The modern district of Hadi-amaut derives its name from this people, 



