134 



RHAPTA. 



graphical miles), low and tree-clad. In it are 

 many kinds of birds and mountain tortoises 

 (land turtle ?) . It lias no other wild beasts 

 but crocodiles (iguanas), and these do not injure 

 man. There are in it sewn boats and monoxyles 

 (canoes), which they use for salt-pans [here the 

 text is defective] and for catching turtle. In 

 this island they trap them after a peculiar 

 fashion with baskets (the modern wigo) instead 

 of nets, letting them down at the mouth of stony 

 inlets ' (chap. i. 15). 



The next chapter informs us : * Prom which 

 (island) after two runs (each 50 miles) 1 lies the 

 last emporium of the continent of Azania, called 

 Ta Hhapta, thus named from the before-men- 

 tioned sewn-together vessels. In it are much 

 ivory and tortoise-shell. The men, who in this 

 country are of the largest size, live scattered (in 



1 The daily run (\ ^) of native craft varies from 40 to 



50 knots per diem, and 50 may be assumed as an average. 

 Captain Guillain estimates it higher, from 48 to 60. Abulfeda 

 gives the Majra or dpojuog vvyQyn*poQ, 100 Hashemi miles = 

 170 of our geographical miles, here too high a rate unless aided 

 by currents. Other Arab authors propose 100,000 paces = 100 

 lioman or Arab miles = 80 geographical miles. The pilot 

 Theophilus (Ptol. i. 9) rated the day and night run in these 

 seas at 1000 stadia = 100 miles, or two Ptolemeian degrees ; 

 the Pelusian geographer having, 1 have said, reduced the 

 degree to 500 instead of GOO stadia. 



