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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1879.
Op ô nê, which imports the commodities already 'Οθόνιον ή τε μοναχή και η σαγματογήνη-Fine mentioned, but produces most abundantly cin- cotton called Monakhs, and a coarse kind for namon spice, moto, slaves of a very superior stuffing called Sagmatogene. sort, chiefly for the Egyptian market, and tor
Tepuccuara--Sashes or girdles. toise-shell of small size but in large quantity
Μέλι το καλάμινον το λεγόμενον σάκχαρι.-The and of the finest quality known.
honey of a reed, called sugar. 14. Ships set sail from Egypt for all these Some traders undertake voyages for this ports beyond the straits about the month of
commerce expressly, while others, as they sail July-that is, Epiphi. The same markets are
along the coast we are describing, exchange also regularly supplied with the products of
their cargoes for such others as they can proplaces far beyond them-Ariak ê and Baru
cure. There is no king who reigns paramount gazaThese products are
over all this region, but each separate seat of Siros-Corn.
trade is ruled by an independent despot of its *Opusa-Rice.
own. Boúrupov-Butter, i. e. ghi.
15. After Op ô nê; the coast now trending "Elulov ona á voy-Oil of sesamum.
more to the south, you come first to what are as Müller conjectures, he wrote ódóv ňuépas (a day's They are & mild people of pastoral habits and journey) which was converted into ódov ruep. ś (a confined entirely to the coast; the whole of the six-days' journey).
interior being occupied by an untameable tribe of (14) At this harbour is introduced the mention savages called Galla." of the voyage which was annually made between The coast which follows the A pokopa, called the coast of India and Africa in days previous to the Little and the Great Aigialos or Coast, the appearance of the Greeks on the Indian Ocean, is so desolate that, as Vincent remarks, not a which has already been referred to.
name occurs on it, neither is there an anchorage (15) After leaving Op ôn the coast first runs noticed, nor the least trace of commerce to be due south, then bends to the south-west, and here found. Yet it is of great extent- six days' begins the coast which is called the Little and the voyage according to the Periplús, but, according Great Apokopa or Bluffs of Azania, the to Ptolemy, who is here more correct, a voyage of voyage along which occupies six days. This rocky leight days,for, as we have seen the P.
eight days, for, as we have seen, the Periplús has coast, as we learn from recent explorations, begins | unduly extended the A pokopa to the South. at Ras Mabber [about lat. 9° 25' N.], which is Next follow the Dromoi or Courses of between 70 and 80 miles distant from Ras Hafan and Azania, the first called that of Serapion extends only to Râs-ul-Kheil [about lat. 7° 45' and the other that of Nikon. Ptolemy interN.), which is distant from Rås Mabber about 140 poses a bay between the Great Coast and the port miles or a voyage of three or four days only. The of Serapion, on which he states there was length of this rocky coast (called Hazine by the an emporium called Essin-a day's sail disArabs) is therefore much exaggerated in the Peri. tant from that port. Essina, it would therefore plús. From this error we may infer that our author, appear, must have been somewhere near where who was a very careful observer, had not personally Makdash (Magadoxo, lat. 23 N.) was built visited this coast. Ptolemy, in opposition to Mari. by the Arabs somewhere in the eighth century A.D. nos as well as the Periplus, recognizes but one The station called that of Nikon in the Periplus A pokopa, which he speaks of as a bay. Müller appears in Ptolemy as the mart of Tonikê. concludes an elaborate note regarding the Apo- These names are not, as some have supposed, of kopa by the following quotation from the work of Greek origin, but distortions of the native appelOwen, who made the exploration already referred to, lations of the places into names familiar to Greek "It is strange that the descriptive term Hazine ears. That the Greeks had founded any settle. should have produced the names Ajan, Azan ments here is altogether improbable. At the and Azania in many maps and charts, as the time when the Periplus was written all the trade country never had any other appellation than
of these parts was in the hands of the Arabs of Barra Somali or the land of the Somali, Mouza. The port of Serapion may be a people who have never yet been collected under
placed at a promontory which occurs in 1' 40 one government, and whose limits of subjection |
of N. lat. From this, Tonik ê, according to are only within bow-shot of individual chiefs. the tables of Ptolemy, was distant 45', and its The coast of Africa from the Red Sea to the river position must therefore have agreed with that of Juba is in nabited by the tribe called Somali. | Torre or Torra of our modern maps.
