Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/175

 165

crystalline particles of the tamarisk-root syrup, which this manna prob- ably was, to the “coriander seed, white,” while the larger and coarser efflorescence was likened to the lumps of bdellium (or myrrh) with which he was familiar in the Levitical ritual.

38. River Sinthus. — The Sanscrit is Sindhu, and this form Sinthus is unusual in Greek, the river being generally known as Indus. Hindu names reaching the West generally drop the s and substitute h in Persian mouths. Sayce, in his Hibbert Lectures (pp. 136-138), argues on that basis for an ancient sea-trade between India and the Euphrates, from the word sindhu, or muslin, mentioned in an ancient Babylonian list of clothing. This is the fadin of the Old Testament, the sindbn of the Greeks.

38. The greatest river. — The Indus is exceeded by the Yangtse, Mekong, Irawadi, Brahmaputra, Ganges, and Shatt-el-Arab (none of which had been seen by the author of the Periplus). Its mean discharge is greater than that of the Hoang-ho. The sediment brought down is very great, forming in a single year an island 65 square miles in area and 1 yard deep. The delta projects little beyond the normal coast-line, owing to the distribution of silt along shore by the ocean currents, and to the deposit of the remainder in a vast sub- marine trough 1200 feet deep and upwards, due south of the river mouths. fReclus, Asia, III, 139.)

38. Graae is the Sanscrit graha. The presence of great water- snakes is still observed along these coasts, in the bays and at the mouths of rivers.

38. Barbaricum.— This name is evidently Hellenized from some Hindu word — one suspects Bandar, port, or possibly some name such as Bahardipur, which survives in the modern Delta. With the steady silting of the Delta, the remains of this port are probably yards deep in the soft alluvium, and very likely quite away from any of the present branches of the river.

Shah-bandar (Royal Port), formerly accessible to men-of-war, now lies far inland to the east of the present main channel of the Indus, while a similar fate has overtaken Ghora Bari or Vikkar, Keti, and other places. Since the opening of the Karachi railway most of these fever-stricken towns have been abandoned.

38. Minnagara was a name given temporarily to several cities of India during the period of the occupation by the Scyths (the Saka and Yueh-chi). After the collapse of the Indo-Scythian power these cities resumed their former names with their autonomy.