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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(MAY, 1879.
into the open main, there lies, at about the dis- mon centre of their commerce, as Alexandria tance of 1,200 stadia, Eudaimôn Arabia, receives the wares which pass to and fro a maritime village subject to that kingdom of between Egypt and the ports of the Mediterwhich Kharibaêl is sovereign-a place with good ranean. Now, however, it lies in ruing, the anchorage, and supplied with sweeter and better Emperor having destroyed it not long before water than that of Okėlis, and standing at our own times. the entrance of a bay where the land begins to 27. To Eudaimôn Arabia at once sucretire inwards. It was called Eudaimon rich ceeds a great length of coast and a bay extendand prosperous'), because in bygone days, when ing 2,000 stadia or more, inhabited by nomadic the merchants from India did not proceed tribes and Ikhthyophagoi settled in villages, to Egypt, and those from Egypt did not venture On doubling a cape which projects from it you to cross over to the marts further east, but both come to another trading seaport, Kane, which came only as far as this city, it formed the com. I is subject to Elea zos, king of the incense
stadia is the port of Eudaimôn Arabia, which mention the place by name, but it was probably boyond doubt corresponds to 'Aden, [lat. 12° the city wbich he describes without naming it as 45 N., long. 45° 21' E.] now 80 well-known as lying on the White Sea without the straits, whence, the great packet station between Suez and India. he says, the Sabæans sent out colonies or factories The opinion held by some that Aden is the Eden into India, and where the fleets from Persis, mentioned by the Prophet Ezekiel (xxvii. 23) is Karmania and the Indus arrived. The name of opposed by Ritter and Winer. It is not mention- Aden is supposed 'to be a corruption from ed by Pliny, though it has been erroneously | Eudai môn. held that the Attanae, which he mentions (27) The coast beyond Aden is possessed partly in the following passage, was Aden. "Homnae by wandering tribes, and partly by tribes settled et Attanae (v. 1. Athanae) que nunc oppida in villages which subsist on fish. Here occurs a maxime celebrari a Persico mari negotiatores bay-that now called Ghubhet-u-Kamar, which dicunt." (vi. 32.) Ptolemy, who calls it simply extends upwards of 2,000 stadia, and ends in a Arabia, speaks of it as an emporium, and places promontory-that now called Râs-al-Asidah or after it at the distance of a degree and a half BA-l-háf (lat. 13° 58' N., long 48° 9 8.-a cape Melan Horos, or Black Hill, 17 miles from with a hill near the fishing village of Gillah). the coast, which is in long. 46° 59' E. The place, Beyond this lies another great mart called Kanê. as the Periplús informs us, received tbe namo It is mentioned by Pliny, and also by Ptolemy, of Eudai môn from the great prosperity and who assigns it a position in agreement with the wealth which it derived from being the great indications given in the Periplus. It has been entrepôt of the trade between India and Egypt. identified with the port now called Hisn Ghorab It was in decay when that work was written, but (lat. 14° 0 N. long. 48° 19' E.]. Not far from this even in the time of Ptolemy had begun to show is an island called Halani, which answers to the symptoms of returning prosperity, and in the time Troullas of our author. Further south is anof Constantine it was known as the Roman Em- other island, which is called by the natives of the poriuin,' and had almost regained its former con- adjacent coast Sikka h, but by sailors Jibas. sequence, as is gathered from a passage in the This is covered with the dung of birds which in works of the ecclesiastical historian Philostorgios. countless multitudes have always frequented it, It is thus spoken of by Edrisi (I. p. 51): "'den and may be therefore identified with the Or neon is a small town, but renowned for its seaport of the Periplús. Kanê was subject to Eleazos, the whence ships depart that are destined for Sind, king of the Frankincense Country, who resided at India, and China." In the middle ages it became Sabbatha, or as it is called by Pliny (VI. xxxii. again the centre of the trade between India and 155) Sabota, the capital of the Atramitae or the Red Sea, and thus regained that wonderful Adramitae, a tribe of Sabæans from whom the prosperity which in the outset bad given it its division of Arabia now known as Hadhramaut name. In this flourishing condition it was found takes its name. The position of this city cannot by Marco Polo, whose account of its wealth, be determined with certainty. Wellsted, who propower and influence is, as Vincent remarks, ceeded into the interior from the coast near Hisn almost as magnificent as that which Agatharkhidês Ghorab through Wadi Meifah, came after a day's attributed to the Sabæans in the time of the journey and a half to a place called Nakb-elPtolemies, when the trade was carried on in the Hajar, situated in a highly cultivated district, same manner. Agatharkhidês does not however where he found ruins of an ancient city of the
