184/.] Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, §-c. 15 



as the river beyond which, the tribes living in marshes and the cannibals- 

 called Padsei, were situated. Iambulus, the history of whose life and 

 travels is recorded by Diodorus Siculus,* appears to have been the first 

 foreigner who arrived at the mouths of the Ganges. It is not known 

 in what age he lived, but it is probable, that it was subsequent to Alexan- 

 der's expedition to India. He and his companion after leaving the 

 island (supposed to be Ceylon) where they had resided for seven years, 

 came to the territory of a king of India, through sandy and shallow places 

 of the sea (the mouths of the Ganges), and were there shipwrecked. 

 The companion of Iambulus was drowned, but he himself was cast on 

 shore and carried by the villagers to the king at the city of Palibothra, 

 many days journey distant from the sea. The king, who had a great 

 regard for the Greeks, received him well, and supplied him with the 

 means of enabling him to return to Greece. Strabo, as I have already 

 stated, describes the Ganges as having only one mouth. Ptolemy, 

 however, mentions it as terminating by five branches called Cambusiam, 

 Magnum, Camberichum, Pseudostomum and Antibole, which are enu- 

 merated with reference to their relative position as first, second, third* 

 fourth, and fifth — Cambusiam the most westerly branch, being the first, 

 and Antibole the most easterly, the fifth one. Wilford remarks t 

 " Ptolemy's description of the Delta is by no means a bad one, if we 

 reject the longitudes and latitudes as I always do, and adhere solely to 

 his narrative which is plain enough." Accordingly, he identifies the 

 Cambusiam branch with the Balasore river, which, he states, was in 

 former times erroneously supposed to be a branch of the Ganges. The 

 Ostium magnum is regarded as the Hooghly. The Camberichum de- 

 rives its name from the Cambaclacca or Cambaric river — the Jumna or 

 Jubuna river which unites with the Ganges and Saraswati at Treveni 

 near Hooghly. The Pseudostomum, or false mouth, was probably so 

 called, because it lay "concealed behind numerous islands," and was* 

 " often mistaken for the easternmost branch of the Ganges." Anti- 

 bole was the most eastern channel of all, and is the Dacca river, or the 

 old Ganges, as its name of Bu.ri-Ganga imports. It seems from the 

 Periplus Marciani Heracleotcef to have been the limit or boundary of 

 India extra Gangem, and the point from which measurements and dis- 



* Lib. II. Cap. IV. 



f Geograph. Veter. Script. Or. Minores. Hudson, Vol. I. p. 23. 



