The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythræan Sea: Being a Translation of the Periplus Maris Erythræi, by an Anonymous Writer, and of Arrian's Account of the Voyage of Nearkhos, from the Mouth of the Indus to the Head of the Persian Gulf
History
The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythræan Sea: Being a Translation of the Periplus Maris Erythræi, by an Anonymous Writer, and of Arrian's Account of the Voyage of Nearkhos, from the Mouth of the Indus to the Head of the Persian Gulf
Classical geography; Geography, Ancient; India -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Indian Ocean Region -- Commerce -- History
and woven into cloth, is brought by land to Barugaza through Baktria,
or by the Ganges to Limurikê. To penetrate into +Thîna+ is not
an easy undertaking, and but few _merchants_ come from it, and that
rarely. Its situation is under the Lesser Bear, and it is said to be
conterminous with the remotest end of Pontos, and that part of the
Kaspian Sea which adjoins the Maiôtic Lake, along with which it issues
by _one and_ the same mouth into the ocean.
(64) The last place which the _Periplûs_ mentions is Thînai, an
inland city of the +Thînai+ or +Sinai+, having a large
commerce in silk and woollen stuffs. The ancient writers are not at
all agreed as to its position. Colonel Yule thinks it was probably
the city described by Marco Polo under the name of +Kenjan-fu+
(that is Singan-fu or Chauggan,) the most celebrated city in Chinese
history, and the capital of several of the most potent dynasties. It
was the metropolis of Shi Hwengti of the T’Sin dynasty, properly the
first emperor, and whose conquests almost intersected those of his
contemporary Ptolemy Euergetês—(vide Yule’s _Travels of Marco Polo_,
vol. II. p. 21).
65. On the confines, however, of +Thînai+ an annual fair is held,
attended by a race of men of squat figure, with their face very broad,
but mild in disposition, called the +Sesatai+, who in appearance
resemble wild animals. They come with their wives and children to this
fair, bringing heavy loads of goods wrapped up in mats resembling
in outward appearance the early leaves of the vine. Their place of
assembly is where their own territory borders with that of Thînai; and
here, squatted on the mats on which they exhibit their wares, they
feast for several days, after which they return to their homes in the
interior. On observing their retreat the people of Thînai, repairing to
the spot, collect the mats on which they had been sitting, and taking
out the fibres, which are called _petroi_, from the reeds, they put
the leaves two and two together, and roll them up into slender balls,
through which they pass the fibres extracted from the reeds. Three
kinds of Malabathrum are thus made—that of the large ball, that of the
middle, and that of the small, according to the size of the leaf of
which the balls are formed. Hence there are three kinds of Malabathrum,
which after being made up are forwarded to India by the manufacturers.
66. All the regions beyond this are unexplored, being difficult of
access by reason of the extreme rigour of the climate and the severe
frosts, or perhaps because such is the will of the divine power.
THE
VOYAGE OF NEARKHOS,
FROM THE INDUS TO THE HEAD OF THE
PERSIAN GULF,
AS DESCRIBED IN THE SECOND PART OF
THE INDIKA OF ARRIAN,
(FROM CHAPTER XVIII. TO THE END.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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