Note 264 — Chapter XII · EGYPT. (continued 2)

The sharpest criticism of the campaign is furnished by the detailed account of the Egyptian merchant as to the state of the Arabian coast from Leuce Come (el-Haura to the north of Janbô, the port of Medina) to the Catacecaumene island (Jebel Taik near Lôhaia). "Different peoples inhabit it, who speak languages partly somewhat different, partly wholly so. The inhabitants of the coast live in pens like the ‘fish-eaters’ on the opposite coast" (these pens he describes, c. 2, as isolated and built into the clefts of the rocks), “those of the interior in villages and pastoral companies; they are ill-disposed men speaking two languages, who plunder the seafarers that drift out of their course and drag the shipwrecked into slavery. For that reason they are constantly hunted by the viceroys and chief kings of Arabia; they are called Kanraites (or Kassanites). In general navigation on all this coast is dangerous, the shore is without harbours and inaccessible, with a troublesome surf, rocky and in general very bad. Therefore, when we sail into these waters, we keep to the middle and hasten to get to the Arabian territory at the island Catacecaumene; from thence onward the inhabitants are hospitable, and we meet with numerous flocks of sheep and camels.” The same region between the Roman and the Homeritic frontiers, and the same state of things are in the view of the Axomite king, when he writes: πέραν δὲ τῆς ἐρυθρᾶς θαλάσσης οἰκοῦντας Ἀρραβίτας καὶ Κιναιδοκολπίτας (comp. Ptolemaeus vi. 7, 20), στράτευμα ναυτικὸν καὶ πεζικὸν διαπεμψάμενος καὶ ὑποτάξας αὐτῶν τοὺς βασιλέας, φόρους τῆς γῆς τελεῖν ἐκέλευσα καὶ ὁδεύεσθαι μετ' εἰρήνης καὶ πλέεσθαι, ἀπό τε Λευκῆς κώμης ἔως τῶν Σαβαίων χώρας ἐπολέμησα.