Chap. 33.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTKIES, ETC. 91 



irrigation, and their ample produce of honey and wax. Of 

 their perfumes we shall have to treat more at large in the 

 Book devoted to that subject. 71 The Arabs either wear the 

 mitra, 72 or else go with their hair unshorn, while the beard 

 is shaved, except upon the upper lip : some tiibes, however, 

 leave even the beard unshaved. A singular thing too, one half 

 of these almost innumerable tribes live by the pursuits of com- 

 merce, the other half by rapine : take them all in all, they are 

 the richest nations in the world, seeing that such vast wealth 

 flows in upon them from both the Roman and the Parthian 

 Empires ; for they sell the produce of the sea or of their forests, 

 while they purchase nothing whatever in return. 



CHAP. 33. THE GULFS OF THE EED SEA. 



We will now trace the rest of the coast that lies opposite 

 to that of Arabia. Timosthenes has estimated the length of 

 the whole gulf at four days' sail, and the breadth at two, 

 making the Straits 73 to be seven miles and a half in width. 

 Eratosthenes says that the length of the shore from the mouth 

 of the gulf is thirteen hundred miles on each side, while Ar- 

 temidorus states that the length on the Arabian side is seven- 

 teen hundred and fifty miles, (29.) and that along the Trog- 

 lodytic coast, to Ptolemais, the distance is eleven hundred 

 and thirty-seven and a half. Agrippa, however, maintains 

 that there is no difference whatever in the length of the two 

 sides, and makes it seventeen hundred and twenty-two miles. 

 Most writers mention the length as being four hundred and 

 seventy-five miles, and make the Straits to face the south east, 

 being twelve miles wide according to some, fifteen according to 

 others. 9 



The localities of this region are as follow : On passing the 

 ^Elanitic Gulf there is another gulf, by the Arabians called 



Arabian Gulf, of the Debse, the Alilaei, and the Gasandi, in whose terri- 

 tories native gold was found. These last people, who did not know its 

 value, were in the habit of bringing it to their neighbours, the Sabaei, and 

 exchanging it for articles of iron and copper. 

 " B. xii. 



72 The u raitra," which was a head-dress especially used by the Phry- 

 gians, was probably of varied shape, and may have been the early form of 

 the eastern turban. 



73 The Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. 



