Chap. I.] 



COSIilAS INDICO-rLEUSTES. 



.000 



" As its position is central, the island is the resort of 

 ships from all i)arts of India, Persia, and Etliiopia, and, 

 in hke manner, many are despatched from it. From 

 the inner ^ countries ; I mean China, and other eni- 

 porimns, it receives silk^ aloes, cloves, clove-wood, chan- 

 dana^, and whatever else they produce. These it 

 again transmits to the outer ports \ — I mean to Male ^, 

 whence the pepper comes ; to Calhana^, where there 

 "is brass and sesamine-Avood, and materials for dress 

 (for it is also a place of great trade), and to Sindon^, 

 where they get musk, castor, and androstackum^, to 

 Persia, the Homeritic coasts^, and Adule. Eeceiv- 

 ing in return the exports of those emporiums, Tapro- 

 bane exchanges them in the inner ports (to the east of 

 Cape Comorin) sending her own produce along with them 

 to each. 



" Sielediba, or Taprobane, Ues seaward about five 

 days' sail from the mainland. ^^ Then further on 

 the continent is Marallo, which furnishes cochlea ^^ ; 

 then comes Kaber, ^vliich exports ' alahandanum ;'^- 

 and next is the clove country, then China, which ex- 

 ports silk ; beyond which there is no other land, for 

 the ocean encircles it on the east. Sielediba being 

 thus placed in the middle as it were of India, and pos- 



^ " To)v ivSoTEpu)}'," the countries in- 

 side (tliat is to the east) of Cape 

 Comoriu^ as distinguished from the 

 outer ports (rd t^ojrepa) mentioned 

 below, which lie west oi it. 



'-^ ^' fitTat.tv." Of this foreign word, 

 applied by the media3val Greeks to 

 silk in general, as well as to raw silk, 

 Pkocopitjs says : — " Ajjr// Sk tanv y 

 jxkTaia, IX »)c tiwOaat t))v fa^ijra ipyci- 

 Zkj'^ui, i/v TTciXai /i£j' "EXXjji'f^ iiijSiKiiv, 

 ravvi' Sk arjpiKtjv oVo/tn^oyffi." — PliO- 

 COP. Persic. I. 3Ietaxa, or anciently 

 mata.va, " thread," "■ yarn," seems to 

 be Latin rather than Greek. The wje- 

 taxarius was a " yam-broker ; " and 

 the word having got possession of 

 the market, was extended to the 



woven stuff. The modern Greeks 

 call silk ^itTa'ia. 



3 " rCdi'cnva,^' probably " sandal- 

 wood ; " sometimes called ayallochum. 



^ " rd i'Swrfpa," those lying west of 

 Cape Comorin. 



^ Malabar. 



6 Bombay, 



■^ Seiude. 



* " tivcpoffrci\i)t'. ' 



^ Southern Ai-abia, chiefly Iladra- 

 maut. 



^'^ Cosnias probably means " the 

 more distant ^jo/'^s on " the mainhmd 

 of India. 



'^ " K-ox'Xi'oi'c," probably chank- 

 shells, turbuiclla rapa. See ^Vbou- 

 ZEYD, vol. i. p. G. 



*^ '^ dXa^avSavov" 



VOL. L P P 



