[46] The coast from Karâchi to the Purâli has undergone considerable changes, so that the position of the intermediate places cannot be precisely determined. “From Cape Monze to Sonmiyâni,” says Blair, “the coast bears evident marks of having suffered considerable alterations from the encroachments of the sea. We found trees which had been washed down, and which afforded us a supply of fuel. In some parts I saw imperfect creeks in a parallel direction with the coast. These might probably be the vestiges of that narrow channel through which the Greek galleys passed.”
[47] Ptolemy and Marcian enumerate the following places as lying between the Indus and the Arabis: Rhizana, Koiamba, Women’s Haven, Phagiaura, Arbis. Ptolemy does not mention the Oreitai, but extends the Arabii to the utmost limit of the district assigned to them in Arrian. He makes, notwithstanding, the river Arabia to be the boundary of the Arabii. His Arabis must therefore be identified not with the Pârâli, but with the Kurmut, called otherwise the Rumra or Kalami, where the position of Arrian’s Kalama must be fixed. Pliny (vi. 25) places a people whom he calls the Arbii between the Oritae and Karmania, assigning as the boundary between the Arbii and the Oritae the river Arbis.
[48] The Arabis or Purâli discharges its waters into the bay of Sonmiyâni. “Sonmiyâni,” says Kempthorne, “is a small town or fishing village situated at the mouth of a creek which runs up some distance inland. It is governed by a Sheikh, and the inhabitants appear to be very poor, chiefly subsisting on dried fish and rice. A very extensive bar or sandbank runs across the mouth of this inlet, and none but vessels of small burden can get over it even at high water, but inside the water is deep.” The inhabitants of the present day are as badly off for water as their predecessors of old. “Everything,” says one who visited the place, “is scarce, even water, which is procured by digging a hole five or six feet deep, and as many in diameter, in a place which was formerly a swamp; and if the water oozes, which sometimes it does not, it serves them that day, and perhaps the next, when it turns quite brackish, owing to the nitrous quality of the earth.”
[49] Strabo agrees with Arrian in representing the Oreitai as non-Indian. Cunningham, however, relying on statement made by Curtius, Diodorus and the Chinese pilgrim Hwen Thsang, a most competent observer, considers them to be of Indian origin, for their customs, according to the Pilgrim, were like those of the people of Kachh, and their written characters closely resembled those of India, while their language was only slightly different. The Oreitai as early as the 6th century B.C. were tributary to Darius Hystaspes, and they were still subject to Persia nearly 12 centuries later when visited by Hwen Thsang.—Geog. of An. Ind. pp. 304 sqq.
[50] Another form is Pegadæ, met with in Philostratos, who wrote a work on India.
[51] To judge from the distances given, this place should be near the stream now called Agbor, on which is situated Harkânâ. It is probably the Koiamba of Ptolemy.
[52] “In vessels like those of the Greeks, which afforded neither space for motion, nor convenience for rest, the continuing on board at night was always a calamity. When a whole crew was to sleep on board, the suffering was in proportion to the confinement.”—Vincent, I. p. 209 note.
[53] In another passage of Arrian (Anab. VI. 27, 1,) this Apollophanês is said to have been deposed from his satrapy, when Alexander was halting in the capital of Gedrosia. In the Journal Arrian follows Nearkhos, in the History, Ptolemy or Aristobûlus.—Vincent.
[54] From the distances given, the Tomêros must be identified with the Maklow or Hingal river; some would, however, make it the Bhusâl. The form of the name in Pliny is Tomberus, and in Mela—Tubero. These authors mention another river in connection with the Tomêros,—the Arosapes or Arusaces.
[55] Similar statements are made regarding this savage race by Curtius IX. 10, 9; Diodôros XVII. 105; Pliny VI. 28; Strabo p. 720; Philostratos V. Ap. III., 57. Cf. Agatharkhides passim.—Müller.