Sailing Around Erythraean Sea: Twenty Nine

In the previous Section we had a general description of goods imported into ports of Yemen and also of the goods exported out of it. Continue to read:

Beyond Cana the land receding greatly, there follows a very deep bay stretching a great way accross, which is called Sachalites; and the Frankincense Country, mountainous and forbidding, wrapped in thick clouds and fog, and yeilding frankincense from trees. These incense bearing trees are not of great height or thickness; they bear the frankincense sticking in drops on the bark, just as trees among us in Egypt weep their gum. The Frankincense is gathered by King's slaves and those who are sent to this service for punishment. For these places are very unhealthy and pestilential even to those sailing along the coast, but almost always fatal to those working there, who also perish often from want of food.

My Search:-

1. Sachalites: ancient name of Khuriya Muriya Islands, a group of five islands in the Arabian sea, forty kilometres off the southern coast of Oman. It is part of the province of Shalim and the Hallaniyat islands in the in the governorate of Dhofar.

2. Cana or Qane was an ancient port city of Yemen that traded spices from India and eastern coast of Africa. It is located near Bir Ali.

End of the Section.


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