[628] From which came the myrrh mentioned by Pliny in B. xii. c. 36.
[629] Or the Tent-Dwellers, the modern Bedouins.
[630] By some geographers identified with the Ocelis or Ocila, mentioned in c. 26, the present Zee Hill or Ghela, a short distance to the south of Mocha, and to the north of the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. Hardouin says, however, that it was a different place, Acila being in the vicinity of the Persian Gulf, in which he appears to be correct.
[631] Nothing relative to Numenius beyond this fact has been recorded.
[632] Hardouin and Ansart think that under this name is meant the island called in modern times Mazira or Maceira.
[633] There seem to have been three mythical personages of this name; but it appears impossible to distinguish the one from the other.
[634] Or “Dioscoridis Insula,” an island of the Indian Ocean, of considerable importance as an emporium or mart, in ancient times. It lay between the Syagrus Promontorium, in Arabia, and Aromata Promontorium, now Cape Guardafui, on the opposite coast of Africa, somewhat nearer to the former, according to Arrian, which cannot be the case if it is rightly identified with Socotorra, 200 miles distant from the Arabian coast, and 110 from the north-east promontory of Africa.
[635] So called from Azania, or Barbaria, now Ajan, south of Somauli, on the mainland of Africa.
[636] Now Cape Fartash, in Arabia.
[637] Their country is supposed to have been the Sheba of Scripture, the queen of which visited king Solomon. It was situate in the south-western corner of Arabia Felix, the north and centre of the province of Yemen, though the geographers before Ptolemy seem to give it a still wider extent, quite to the south of Yemen. The Sabæi most probably spread originally on both sides of the southern part of the Red Sea, the shores of Arabia and Africa. Their capital was Saba, in which, according to their usage, their king was confined a close prisoner.