and woven into cloth, is brought by land to Barugaza through Baktria, or by the Ganges to Limurikê. To penetrate into Thîna is not an easy undertaking, and but few merchants come from it, and that rarely. Its situation is under the Lesser Bear, and it is said to be conterminous with the remotest end of Pontos, and that part of the Kaspian Sea which adjoins the Maiôtic Lake, along with which it issues by one and the same mouth into the ocean.
(64) The last place which the Periplûs mentions is Thînai, an inland city of the Thînai or Sinai, having a large commerce in silk and woollen stuffs. The ancient writers are not at all agreed as to its position. Colonel Yule thinks it was probably the city described by Marco Polo under the name of Kenjan-fu (that is Singan-fu or Chauggan,) the most celebrated city in Chinese history, and the capital of several of the most potent dynasties. It was the metropolis of Shi Hwengti of the T’Sin dynasty, properly the first emperor, and whose conquests almost intersected those of his contemporary Ptolemy Euergetês—(vide Yule’s Travels of Marco Polo, vol. II. p. 21).
65. On the confines, however, of Thînai an annual fair is held, attended by a race of men of squat figure, with their face very broad, but mild in disposition, called the Sesatai, who in appearance resemble wild animals. They come with their wives and children to this fair, bringing heavy loads of goods wrapped up in mats resembling in outward appearance the early leaves of the vine. Their place of assembly is where their own territory borders with that of Thînai; and here, squatted on the mats on which they exhibit their wares, they feast for several days, after which they return to their homes in the interior. On observing their retreat the people of Thînai, repairing to the spot, collect the mats on which they had been sitting, and taking out the fibres, which are called petroi, from the reeds, they put the leaves two and two together, and roll them up into slender balls, through which they pass the fibres extracted from the reeds. Three kinds of Malabathrum are thus made—that of the large ball, that of the middle, and that of the small, according to the size of the leaf of which the balls are formed. Hence there are three kinds of Malabathrum, which after being made up are forwarded to India by the manufacturers.
66. All the regions beyond this are unexplored, being difficult of access by reason of the extreme rigour of the climate and the severe frosts, or perhaps because such is the will of the divine power.
THE
VOYAGE OF NEARKHOS,
FROM THE INDUS TO THE HEAD OF THE
PERSIAN GULF,
AS DESCRIBED IN THE SECOND PART OF
THE INDIKA OF ARRIAN,