Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/127

 The Cana of the Periplus is probably the same as the Canneh of Ezekiel XXVII, 23.

The trade which it formerly enjoyed passes now through the port of Makalla, some distance to the east, and the capital of the country has shifted in like manner eastward to the modern city of Shibam.

27. Eleazus, King of the Frankincense Country.—This is the Arabic Ili-azzu, a name which Glaser shows to have belonged to several kings of the Hadramaut; and this Eleazus he identifies with Ili-azzu Jalit, of whose reign, dating about 25–65 A. D., he gives an inscription (Die Abessinier, 34, etc.).

The name given to the kingdom, is notable, being a translation of the  of the Habashat, or Aethiopians, already mentioned. This ancient object of contention among the nations was now divided between Hadramaut and Parthia, and its name was, apparently, assumed by the king of the Hadramaut; perhaps officially, but certainly by the popular voice, and by the merchants such as the author of the Periplus, interested in the product of the country and not in its politics.

A glance at the topography of this Incense-Land will help towards an understanding of its dealings with its neighbors. The southern coast of Arabia from Bab el Mandeb to Ras el Hadd has a length of about 1200 miles, divided almost equally in climatic conditions. The western half is largely sandstone bluff, sun-scorched and arid; cut, however, by occasional ravines which bring down scanty rains during the monsoon to fertilize a broad strip of coastal plain. On the western edge the mountains of Yemen, rising above 10,000 feet, attract a good rainfall which waters the western slop toward the Red Sea. On the eastern slope the water-courses are soon lost in the sand, but on the upper levels the valleys are protected and fertile. Such were the Nejran, the Minaean Jauf, and the valley of the Sabaeans, which last was made rich by the great dam that stored its waters for irrigation; and these three valleys, the centers of caravan-trade bound north toward the Nile and Euphrates, owed their prosperity mainly to their position above the greatest of all the east-flowing courses, the Valley of Hadramaut. This great cleft in the sandstone rock, (originally, Bent believes an arm of the sea, now silted up), which gather the streams from the highest peaks, runs parallel with the coast for more than 200 miles, fertile and productive for nearly the entire distance; then it turns to the south and its waters are lost, the mouth of the valley being desert like the cliffs that line its course. This was one of the best frankincense districts.

Beyond the mouth of the Wadi Hadramaut is Ras Fartak, nearly