Cii.vr. I.] 



COSMAS INDIOO-PLEUSTES. 



569 



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

 ships from all parts of India, Persia, and Ethiopia, and, 

 in like manner, many are despatched from it. From 

 the inner l countries ; I mean China, and other em- 

 poriums, it receives silk 2 , aloes, cloves, clove-wood, chan- 

 dana 3 , and whatever else they produce. These it 

 again transmits to the outer ports 4 , I mean to Male 5 , 

 whence the pepper comes ; to Calliana 6 , where there 

 is brass and sesamine-wood, and materials for dress 

 (for it is also a place of great trade), and to Sindon 7 , 

 where they get musk, castor, and androstachum*, to 

 Persia, the Homeritic coasts 9 , and Adule. Keceiv- 

 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, lies seaward about five 

 days' sail from the mainland. 10 Then further on 

 the continent is Marallo, which furnishes cochlea n ; 

 then conies Kaber, which exports ' alabandanum ;' 12 

 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- 



r&v tvSorepojr," the countries in- 

 side (that is to the east) of Cape 

 Comorin, as distinguished from the 

 outer ports (rrf. t^Mrepa) mentioned 

 below, which lie west of it. 



2 "/jtraSiv." Of this foreign word, 

 applied by the mediaeval Greeks to 

 silk in general, as well as to raw silk, 

 PROCOPITJS says : " Avrtj e ianv 77 

 p'tra^a, r/c fiwQaoi TIJV faBiJTa ipyd- 

 Ztatiai, T]v TraXat filv "E\\r)vtf /i7j^nc/;f, 

 TCLVVV St aripiKi}v oVo/iaou(r(." PRO- 

 COP. Persic. I. Metaxa, or anciently 

 mata.ra, " thread," "yarn," seems to 

 be Latin rather than Greek. The me- 

 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 {.iiTu^a. 



3 " T^avSava," probably " sandal- 

 wood ; " sometimes called ai/allocJium. 



4 " rd tKutrepa" those lying west of 

 Cape Comorin. 



6 Malabar. 



6 Bombay. 



7 Scinde. 



8 te avpoaTa\nv, n 



9 Southern Arabia, chiefly Hadra- 

 maut. 



10 Cosmas probably means "the 

 more distant ports on " the mainland 

 of India. 



11 " KO\\IOVG," probably chank- 

 shells, turbinella rapa. See ABOTJ- 

 ZEYD, vol. i. p. 6. 



12 " 



VOL. 



F P 



