13. Χελώνη—Tortoise (Sans. _kachchhapa_) or tortoise-shell. Exported from Adouli (6) and Aualitês (7); a small quantity of the genuine and land tortoise, and a white sort with a small shell, exported from Ptolemaïs (3); small shells (Χελωνάρια) exported from Mossulon (10); a superior sort in great quantity from Opônê (13); the mountain tortoise from the island of Menouthias (15); a kind next in quality to the Indian from the marts of Azania (16, 17); the genuine, land, white, and mountain sort with shells of extraordinary size from the island of Dioskoridês (30, 31); a good quantity from the island of Serapis (33); the best kind in all the Erythræan—that of the Golden Khersonêsos (63), sent to Mouziris and Nelkunda, whence it is exported along with that of the islands off the coast of Dimurikê (probably the Laccadive islands) (56); tortoise is also procured in Taprobanê (61). III.—Plants and their products:— 1. Αλόη—the aloe (Sans. _agaru_). Exported from Kanê (28). The sort referred to is probably the bitter cathartic, not the aromatic sort supposed by some to be the sandalwood. It grows abundantly in Sokotra, and it was no doubt exported thence to Kanê. “It is remarkable,” says Vincent, “that when the author of the _Periplûs_ arrives at Sokotra he says nothing of the aloe, and mentions only Indian cinnabar as a gum or resin distilling from a tree: but the confounding of cinnabar with dragon’s-blood was a mistake of ancient date and a great absurdity” (II. p. 689). 2. Ἀρώματα—aromatics (ευωδια, θυμιαματα.) Exported from Aualitês (7), Mossulon (10). Among the spices of Tabai (12) are enumerated ἀσύβη καί ἄρωμα καί μάγλα, and similarly among the commodities of Opônê κασσία καὶ ἄρωμα καὶ μότω; and in these passages perhaps a particular kind of aromatic (cinnamon?) may by preëminence be called ἄρωμα. The occurrence, however, in two instances of such a familiar word as ἄρωμα between two outlandish words is suspicious, and this has led Müller to conjecture that the proper reading may be ἀρηβὼ, which Salmasius, citing Galen, notes to be a kind of cassia. 3. Ασύβη—Asuphê, a kind of cassia. Exported from Tabai (12). “This term,” says Vincent, “if not Oriental, is from the Greek ἀσύφηλος, signifying _cheap_ or _ordinary_; but we do not find ἀσύφη used in this manner by other authors: it may be an Alexandrian corruption of the language, or it may be the abbreviation of a merchant in his invoice.” (_Asafœtida_, Sans. _hingu_ or _bâhlika_, Mar. _hing_.)