Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/91

 growing upon a large root, bearing the name of the tree that produced it. He was ignorant of the tree itself. A decoction of this bark, mixed with honey, was used in medicine as a specific for dysentery.

Lassen (op. cit., III, 31) identifies it with makara, a remedy for dysentery, consisting of the root-bark of a tree native on the Malabar coast; but he does not identify the tree.

This macir was doubtless the root-bark of the Holarrhena antidysenterica, Wall., order Apocynaceae, described by Watt (op. cit., p.640) as "a small deciduous tree, found throughout India and Burma, ascending the lower Himalaya to 3500 feet, and to a similar altitude on the hills of Southern India.... Both bark and seed of this plant are among the most important medicines in the Hindu materia medica. By the Portuguese this was called herba malabarica, owing to its great merit in the treatment of dysentery, they having found it on the Malabar coast. The preparation, generally in the form of a solid or liquid extract, or of a decoction, is astringent, antidysenteric and anthelmintic. The seeds yield a fixed oil, and the wood-ash is used in dyeing. The wood is much used for carving, furniture and turnery."

9. Mundus is probably the modern Bandar Hais, 10° 52′N., 46° 50′E. Glaser (Skizze, 197) would identify it with Berbera. But the text gives "two or three days' sail" between Malao and Mundus, altogether too much for the 30 miles, more or less, between Bulhar and Berbera. And just as the "sheltering spit" identifies Berbera as Malao, so does the "island close to shore" identify Hais as Mundus. Vivien de Saint-Martin (Le Nord de l'Afrique dans l'antiquité grecque et romaine, p.285) describes a small island protecting this little harbor, and says it was much frequented by Arab and Somali tribes.

Müller's identification with Burnt Island (11° 15′N., 47° 15′E.) is less probable because that island is too far from shore to afford protection to small vessels.

9. Mocrotu was probably a high grade of frankincense. Glaser (Skizze, 199–201) notes that the Arabic name for the best variety is mghairot, or in Mahri, mghair; and that the same word appears in Somaliland as mokhr. From this the Greek of the text the change is negligible.

10. Mosyllum is placed by most commentators at Ras Hantara, (11° 28′N., 49° 35′E.) Glaser prefers Ras Khamzir (10° 55′N.,  45° 50′E.) many miles farther west. The text gives no help in the way of local description. It is noteworthy that Pliny says the Atlantic Ocean begins here; ignoring not only the coast of Azania, as