The intercourse between this port
and Kane was regular; and besides this, it was frequented by such ships as
arrived from India too late in the season: here they continued during the
unfavourable monsoon, exchanging muslins, corn, and oil, for frankincense.
A small island, which is supposed to be the modern Mazeira, was visited by
vessels from Kane to collect or purchase tortoise-shell: the priests in the
island are represented in the Periplus as wearing aprons made of the fibres
of the cocoa tree: this is the earliest mention of this tree.
Mocandon, the extreme point south of the Gulf of Persia, was the land from
which the Arabians, (to use a maritime phrase) took their departure, with
various superstitious observances, imploring a blessing on their intended
voyage, and setting adrift a small toy, rigged like a ship, which, if
dashed to pieces, was supposed to be accepted by the god of the ocean,
instead of their ship.
It is impossible to determine from the Periplus, whether the author was
personally acquainted with the navigation, ports, and trade of the Gulf of
Persia: the probability is that he was not, as he mentions only two
particulars connected with it; the pearl fishery, and the town of Apologus,
a celebrated mart at the mouth of the Euphrates; the pearl fishery he
describes as extending from Mocandon to Bahrain.
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