BOOK VI. XXXIV. 174-176 



days' row distant from Freemen's Town," and a 

 centre to- Avhich Cave-dwellers' myn-h * is brought. 

 There are two islands ofF the harbour called the 

 False Gates, and tAvo inside it called the Gates, on 

 one of which are some stone monuments with 

 inscriptions in an unknown alphabet. Further on is 

 the Bay of Abalitos, and then Diodorus's Island <^ 

 and other uninhabited islands, and also along the 

 mainland a stretch of desert ; the town of Gaza ; 

 Mossylites Cape and Harbour, the latter the port 

 of expKjrt for cinnamon. This was the farthest 

 point to which Sesostris "^ led his army.« Some 

 writers place one Ethiopian town on the coast beyond 

 this point, Baragaza./ 



Juba holds that at Cape Mossyhtes begins the 

 Atlantic Ocean, navigable with a north-west wind 

 along the coast of his kingdora of the Mauretanias 

 as far as Cadiz ; and his wliole opinion must not 

 be omitted at this point in the narrative. He puts 

 forward the view that the distance from the cape in 

 the Indian? territory called in Greek tlie Narrow 

 Head, and by others the Sickle, in a straight course 

 past Burnt Island to Malichas's Islands is 1500 miles, 

 from there to the place called Scaenei 225 miles, 

 and on from there to Sadanus Island 150 miles — 

 making 1875 miles to the open sea. All the rest of 

 the authorities have held the view that the heat of 

 the sun makes the voyage impossible ; moreover 

 actual goods conveyed for trade are exposed to the 

 depredations of an Arabian tribe Uving on the 

 islands : who are called the Ascitae ^* because they 

 make rafts of timber placed on a pair of inflated 

 oxhides and practise piracy, using poisoned arrows. 



* From aoKos, a wine-skin. 

 VOL. TI. Q 469 



