Chap. 26.] 
ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 
61 
of the IN'ymphs," the earth of which is red, and in which every 
animal instantly dies; the cause of which, however, has not been 
ascertained.^^ Next to these is the nation of the Ori, and then 
the Hyctanis,^^ a river of Carmania, with an excellent harbour 
at its mouth, and producing gold ; at this spot the writers 
state that for the first time they caught sight of the Great 
Bear.^^ The star Arcturus too, they tell us, was not to be seen 
here every night, and never, when it was seen, during the 
whole of it. Up to this spot extended the empire of the 
Achsemenidae/^ and in these districts are to be found mines of 
copper, iron, arsenic, and red lead. 
They next came to the Promontory of Carmania, from 
which the distance across to the opposite coast, where the 
Macse, a nation of Arabia, dwell, is fifty miles ; and then to 
three islands, of which that of Oracla^^ is alone inhabited, being 
the only one supplied with fresh water ; it is distant from the 
mainland twenty-five miles ; quite in the Gulf, and facing 
Persia, there are four other islands. About these islands sea- 
serpents^' were seen swimming towards them, twenty cubits 
in length, which struck the fleet with great alarm. They 
then came to the island of Athothradus, and those called the 
Gauratse, upon which dwells the nation of the Gyani ; the 
river Hyperis,^^ which discharges itself midway into the Per- 
sian Gulf, and is navigable for merchant ships ; the river 
Mela suggests the reason, but gives to the island a different locality — 
over against the mouth of the Indus." He says that the air of the 
island is of such a nature as to take away life instantaneously, and appears 
to imply that the heat is the cause. 
52 Possibly that now known as the End Shur. 
53 Properly the Seven Trions." 
5* The Persian kings, descendants of Achsemenes. He was said to have 
been reared by an eagle. 
55 Called the Promontory of Harmozon by Strabo. Hardouin says that 
the modern name is Cape Jash, but recent writers suggest that it is repre- 
sented by the modern Cape Bombaruk, nearly opposite Cape Mussendom. 
56 Perhaps the modern Kishon, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf ; or 
that may be one of the four islands next mentioned. 
57 The story of Pontoppidan's Kraken or Korven, the serpent of the Nor- 
wegian Seas, is as old as Pliny, we find, and Iw derived his information 
from older works. 
58 Forbiger has suggested that this may be the same as the modem _ 
Djayrah. 
I 
