226 A. D. 522. 



o\vn veflels to all thofe countries. They received from Tzinitza lilk, 

 now called by the new name of metaxa, aloes, cloves, the wood of cloves, 

 fandal wood, and other articles ; from Male {Malabar) they imported 

 pepper; from Calliena *, now a place of great trade, copper, wood of 

 fefame like ebony, and a variety of (luffs ; and from Sindu, mu/k, cailo- 

 reum, and Ipikenard. All thele articles, together with fome fpiceries f, 

 and the hyacinths, for which the ifland was famous, were exported to 

 every fhore of the Indian ocean. 



The Perfian traders to Siele-div appear to have been very numerous, 

 fince there was a church erected for them, the clergy of which received 

 ordination in Perfia. A principal part of their cargoes confided of Per- 

 fian hories for the ule of the king. 



The chief ports of the mainland of India at this time were Sindu:}: 

 on the River Sind or Indus, Orotha, Calliena, Sibor, Male famous for 

 pepper, as were alio the five ports of Parti, Mangaruth, Salopatana, Na- 

 lopatana, and Pudapatana §. 



Tzinitza, which is exprefsly noted as the country producing the filk, 

 is, according to Cofmas, as far beyond Siele-div, as Siele-div is from the 

 head of the Perfian gulf; and it is bounded by the Ocean, there being 

 no inhabited country beyond it. The fhort land carriage between 

 Tzinitza and Perfia, (which, however, he elfewhere calls a journey of a 

 hundred and fifty days) is affigned as the reafon of the great abundance 

 of filk in the later. 



Cofmas alfo defcribes a trade conducted by caravans, fent by Elef- 

 baan||, the king of the Axumites on the eafl coafl of Africa, who ex- 

 changed iron, fait, and cattle, for pieces of gold, with an inland nation 

 in the fame filent manner that the Carthaginians carried on a trade on 

 the wefl coafl of Africa, defcribed by Herodotus many centuries before 

 Cofmas, and by Cadamofto and Dodor Shaw, many centuries after 

 him f . 



From the view of the Oriental trade given by Cofmas, we fee that 

 the Roman province of Egypt had now the fmalleft concern in it, and 

 that only by the medium of a foreign port ; and the Perfians and Ethi- 

 opians of this age appear to have been more largely engaged in it than 



• Calliena was one of the ports formerly (hut § The names of places found fomewhat more 



againfl the Egyjitian Greeks, in order to force Indian-like in Cofmas than in the Periphis. I'he 



all the trade to go to Barygaza. See above, p. Greeks were very tardy in adopting tlie genuine 



169. names of the foreign places they liad occafion to 



f Cofmas has not a word of cinnamon as the mention, 

 produce of Siclediv, or indeed of any of the Ori- ]: When Cofmas was at Aduli, Elefbaan, call- 



tntal countries. He fccms to confme the growth cd alfo HclliiUixus and Calcd, was preparing to 



of it to Ethiopia, in a country near the ocean of make an expedition againll the Homerites of Ara- 



Zingion, which "is probably the name now called bia Felix, which is mentioned by fcveral other au- 



Zanguc-bar. » thors. 



J Perhaps Pata!a, or the Barbaric emporium f Sec above, p. 55. 

 •f the Periplus. 4 



