The sign by which voyagers before sighting land know that it is near is their meeting with serpents floating on the water; but higher up and on the coasts of Persia the first sign of land is seeing them of a different kind, called _graai_. [Sansk. _graha_—an alligator.] The river has seven mouths, all shallow, marshy and unfit for navigation except only the middle stream, on which is +Barbarikon+, a trading seaport. Before this town lies a small islet, and behind it in the interior is +Minnagar+, the metropolis of Skythia, which is governed, however, by Parthian princes, who are perpetually at strife among themselves, expelling each the other. (38) We now approach the mouths of the Indus which our author calls the +Sinthos+, transliterating the native name of it—+Sindhu+. In his time the wide tract which was watered by this river in the lower part of its course was called +Indoskythia+. It derived its name from the Skythian tribes (the +Śâka+ of Sansk.) who after the overthrow of the Graeco-Baktrian empire gradually passed southward to the coast, where they established themselves about the year 120 B. C., occupying all the region between the Indus and the Narmadâ. They are called by Dionysios Periegetes +Notioi Skythai+, the Southern Skythians. Our author mentions two cities which belonged to them—+Barbarikon+ and +Minnagar+; the former of which was an emporium situated near the sea on the middle and only navigable branch of the Indus. Ptolemy has a +Barbarei+ in the Delta, but the position he assigns to it, does not correspond with that of +Barbarikon+. +Minnagar+ was the Skythian metropolis. It lay inland, on or near the banks of the Indus. 39. Ships accordingly anchor near +Barbarikê+, but all their cargoes are conveyed by the river up to the king, who resides in the metropolis. The articles imported into this emporium are—Ἱματισμὸς ἁπλους ἱκανὸς—Clothing, plain and in considerable quantity. Ἱματισμὸς νόθος οὐ πολὺς—Clothing, mixed, not much. Πολύμιτα—Flowered cottons. Χρυσόλιθον—Yellow-stone, topazes. Κοράλλιον—Coral. Στύραξ—Storax. Λίβανος—Frankincense (_Lôbân_). Ὑαλά σκεύη—Glass vessels. Αργυρώματα—Silver plate. Χρῆμα—Specie. Οἰνος οὐ πολύς—Wine, but not much. The exports are:— Κόστος—Costus, a spice. Βδέλλα—Bdellium, a gum. Λύκιον—A yellow dye (_Ruzot_). Νάρδος—Spikenard. Λίθος καλλαïνος—Emeralds or green-stones. Σάπφειρος—Sapphires. Σηρικὰ δέρματα—Furs from China. Ὀθόνιον—Cottons. Νῆμα Σηρικὸν—Silk thread. Ἰνδικὸν μέλαν—Indigo. Ships destined for this port put out to sea when the Indian monsoon prevails—that is, about the month of July or Epiphi. The voyage at this season is attended with danger, but being shorter is more expeditious.