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 hundredweight, he sells it to the merchants at 60 livres, so his profit is immense." And according to the Marásid-al-Ittila’, an Arab geographical dictionary of about the same period, "this incense is carefully watched, and can be taken only to Dhafár, where the Sultan keeps the best part for himself; the rest is made over to the people. But any one who should carry it elsewhere than to Dhafár would be put to death."

33. Seven Islands called Zenobian.—These are now called Kuria Muria, about 17° 20′N., 56°E., and belong to England, which acquired them from the Sultan of Oman. In the time of the Periplus they belonged to their western neighbors, the Hadramaut.

The name Zenobian is Hellenized from the Arabic Zenâb or Genâb; the tribe of the Beni Genâb having possessed the neighboring coast. This same tribal name, in the form of Genabti, appears in numerous Egyptian inscriptions as one of the peoples of the "Land of Punt." (See Glaser, Punt und die Südarabischen Reich, p.10.)

Concerning the relation of these islands to the early frankincense trade, a bit of folk-lore preserved by Marco Polo is particularly important. Pauthier in his French text rightly connects the story with the Kuria Muria group because of its geographical position; Yule and Cordier repudiate it as nonsense. Vincent in his edition of the Periplus (II, 347) refers to the "fable," without explanation, to these islands. Its actual source, so far as is known, has not been observed.

About half-way between Makran and Socotra, Marco Polo says (III, xxxi), are the two islands "called Male and Female, lying about 30 miles distant from one another.... In the island called Male dwell the men alone, without their wives or any other women. Every year when the month of March arrives the men all set out for the other island, and tarry there for three months, to wit, March, April, May, dwelling with their wives for that space. At the end of these three months they return to their own island, and pursue their husbandry and trade for the other nine months.... As for the children which their wives bear to them, if they be girls they abide with their mothers; but if they be boys the mothers bring them up till they are fourteen, and then send them to the fathers. Such is the custom of these two islands. The wives do nothing but nurse their children and gather such fruits as their island produces; for their husbands do furnish them with all necessaries." (Yule's Marco Polo, Cordier's edition, II, 404–6.)

This story is a reflection of the belief, already noted from Pliny, that the ceremonial value of the incense depended on the personal purity of the gatherers, who were considered sacred. No man