BOOK VI. XXVI. 101-104 



And it ^vill not be amiss to set out the whole of Sea-rouu 

 the voyage from Egypt, now that rehable knowledge to^Tndia^ 

 of it is for the first time accessible. It is an import- 

 ant subject, in view of the fact that in no year 

 does India absorb less than fifty million sesterces <* of 

 our empire's wealth, sending back merchandise to 

 be sold \vith us at a hundred times its prime cost. 

 Two miles from Alexandria is the town of Juliopolis. 

 The voyage up the Nile from there to Keft is 309 

 miles, and takes 12 days when the midsummer 

 trade-winds are blowing. I'"rom Keft the journey 

 is made A\ith camels, stations being placcd at intervals 

 for the purpose of watering ; the first, a stage of 22 

 miles, is called Hydreuma*; the second is in the 

 mountains, a day's journev on ; the third at a second 

 place named Hydreuma, 85 miles from Keft; 

 the next is in the mountains ; next we come to 

 Apollo's Hydreuma, 184 miles from Keft; again 

 a station in the mountains ; then we get to New 

 Hydreuma, 230 miles from Keft. There is also 

 another old Hydreuma known by the name of 

 Trogodyticum, where a guard is stationed on outpost 

 duty at a caravanserai accommodating two thousand 

 travellers ; it is scven miles from New Hydreuma. 

 Then comes the town of Berenice,<^ where there is 

 a harbour on the Red Sea, 257 miles from Keft. 

 But as the greater part of the journey is done by 

 night because of the heat and the days are spent at 

 stations, the whole journcy from Keft to Berenice 

 takes twelve days. Travelling by sea begins at 

 midsummer before the dogstar rises or immediately 

 after its rising, and it takes about thirty days to 

 reach the Arabian port of Cella or Cane'' in the 

 frankincense-producing district. There is also a 



417 



