276 GEOGRAPHY FROM AUGUSTUS TO TRAJAN. [CHAP. are noticed. Shortly after passing the Straits we reach a port called Arabia Eudaemon, which, though at Eudaemon this time almost deserted, yet at an earlier (Aden). period, when no direct traffic existed between India and Alexandria, had been of great importance as a station for the trans-shipment of goods1. This is undoubtedly the modern Aden, which at the present day under other in- fluences has regained its early prosperity. Some distance again beyond this we meet with a conspicuous headland Prom. (Cape called Syagrus (Cape Fartak), which is here digni- fied with the title of * the greatest promontory in the world8.' On its shore there was a depository of frankincense, for the neighbouring region of the interior of Arabia (the Hadra- maut) has been in all ages the chief source of the supply of that article; but a more important cause of the celebrity of this cape was its being the starting-point for the direct sea-route to India, which was now beginning to be used by the more adventurous traders. The island of Socotra, which lies to the southward of this point and eastward of Cape Guardafui, and was called in ancient times the Island of Dioscorides, is noticed in this connexion, because it belonged to the sovereign of this part of Arabia. Beyond Syagrus we meet with another important emporium of frankin- cense, called Moscha, the mountains at the back of which were inhabited by cave-dwellers 8; this neighbourhood is the region of Dhofar, and the account here given is corroborated by Mr Theodore Bent, who has recently explored it, and found the natives and their flocks living together in deep caves in the hill-sides4. The survey is then continued as far as the mouths of the Indus along the coasts of Arabia and Gedrosia, passing the entrance of the Persian Gulf. The lofty mountain-chain called 1 PeripluS) § 26; E$5a£/twv 3* ^rejeXiJ^, wpbrepov oB