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



famous for being the burial-place of king Ery thras ; 36 it is dis- 

 tant from the mainland one hundred and twenty miles, being 

 one hundred and twelve in circumference. No less famous is 

 another island, called Dioscoridu, 37 and lying in the Azanian. 

 Sea ; 38 it is distant two hundred and eighty miles from tho 

 extreme point of the Promontory of Syagrus. 39 



The remaining places and nations on the mainland, tying 

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

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

 daui and the Catabani, and the Gebanitae, who occupy a great 

 number of towns, the largest of which are Nagia, 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 Troglodyte it is fifty miles, and then the Thoani, the 

 Actaei, the Chatramotitae, the Tonabei, the Antidalei, the Lex- 

 ianae, the Agraci, the Cerbani, and the Sabsei, 40 the best known 

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

 these nations extend from sea to sea. 41 The towns which be- 

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

 Sabatha ; and in the interior, Nascus, Cardava, Carnus, and 

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

 tation. One portion of this nation is the AtramitaB, 43 whose 



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

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



3 7 Or '* JDioscoridis Insula," an island of -the 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. 



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

 the mainland of Africa. 



39 Now Cape Fartash, in Arabia. 



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

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

 corner 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. 



41 The Persian Gulf to the lied Sea. 



43 The modern district of Hadramaut derives its name from this people, 



