8. Μαργαρίτης—Pearl. (Sans. mukta, Hindi, motí.) Exported in considerable quantity and of superior quality from Mouziris and Nelkunda ([56]). Cf. πινικον.
9. Νημα Σῆρικόν—Silk thread. From the country of the Thînai: imported into Barugaza and the marts of Dimurikê ([64]). Exported from Barugaza ([49]), and also from Barbarikon on the Indus ([39]).” It is called μέταξα by Procopius and all the later writers, as well as by the Digest, and was known without either name to Pliny”—Vincent.
10. Πινίκιος κόγχος—the Pearl-oyster. (Sans. śukti.) Fished for at the entrance to the Persian Gulf ([35]). Pearl πίνικον inferior to the Indian sort exported in great quantity from the marts of Apologos and Omana ([36]). A pearl fishery (Πινικοῦ κολύμβησις) in the neighbourhood of Kolkhoi, in the kingdom of Pandiôn, near the island of Epiodôros; the produce transported to Argalou, in the interior of the country, where muslin robes with pearl inwoven (μαργαρίτιδες σινδόνες) were fabricated (59). The reading of the MS. is σινδόνες, ἐβαργαρείτιδες λεγόμεναι, for which Salmasius proposed to read μαργαριτιδες. Müller suggests instead αἱ Ἀργαρίτιδες, as if the muslin bore the name of the place Argarou or Argulou, where it was made.
Pearl is also obtained in Taprobanê ([61]); is imported into the emporium on the Ganges called Gangê ([63]).
11. Πορφύρα—Purple. Of a common as well as of a superior quality, imported from Egypt into Mouza ([24]) and Kanê ([28]), and from the marts of Apologos and Omana into Barugaza ([36]).
12. Ῥἱνόκερως—Rhinoceros (Sans. khadgaḍ)—the horn or the teeth, and probably the skin. Exported from Adouli ([16]), and the marts of Azania ([7]). Bruce found the hunting of the rhinoceros still a trade in Abyssinia.
13. Χελώνη—Tortoise (Sans. kachchhapa) or tortoise-shell. Exported from Adouli ([6]) and Aualitês ([7]); a small quantity of the genuine and land tortoise, and a white sort with a small shell, exported from Ptolemaïs ([3]); small shells (Χελωνάρια) exported from Mossulon ([10]); a superior sort in great quantity from Opônê ([13]); the mountain tortoise from the island of Menouthias ([15]); a kind next in quality to the Indian from the marts of Azania (16, 17); the genuine, land, white, and mountain sort with shells of extraordinary size from the island of Dioskoridês (30, 31); a good quantity from the island of Serapis ([33]); the best kind in all the Erythræan—that of the Golden Khersonêsos ([63]), sent to Mouziris and Nelkunda, whence it is exported along with that of the islands off the coast of Dimurikê (probably the Laccadive islands) ([56]); tortoise is also procured in Taprobanê ([61]).
III.—Plants and their products:—
1. Αλόη—the aloe (Sans. agaru). Exported from Kanê ([28]). The sort referred to is probably the bitter cathartic, not the aromatic sort supposed by some to be the sandalwood. It grows abundantly in Sokotra, and it was no doubt exported thence to Kanê. “It is remarkable,” says Vincent, “that when the author of the Periplûs arrives at Sokotra he says nothing of the aloe, and mentions only Indian cinnabar as a gum or resin distilling from a tree: but the confounding of cinnabar with dragon’s-blood was a mistake of ancient date and a great absurdity” (II. p. 689).