Far from being a fairy tale, it is quite possible that at the time Marco Polo wrote—the caste-system of the Hadramaut being fully crystalized under the rule of Islam—this story of the Christian dwellers on the "Male and Female Islands" was literally true, as it was in the earlier times in the race-conflict between the Joktanite overlords and Cushite gatherers.
The "Male Island" was, of course, the coast, and the Female included the entire group of islands; the Arabic dialects failing to distinguish between "coast" and "island."
33. Beyond Moscha.—The "mountain range along the shore" is the modern Jebel Samhan, and the name Asich is preserved in the modern Ras Hasik, 17° 23′ N., 55° 20′ E., as well as in the westernmost of the Kuria Muria Islands, which faces it.
33. Sarapis is the modern Masira Island, 20° 20′ N., 58° 40′ E., the first syllable only being from the native name, which our author assimilates to that of the Alexandrian Osiris of the bull-worship, Osor-Hapi, Sarapis, or in the Latin, Serapis. (Concerning this worship, in high favor at the time of the Periplus, see Strabo, book XVII, Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride, Maspero, Histoire Ancienne, pp. 30 ff., Frazer's Pausanias, II, 175–6.)
The syllable Sar-apis or Ma-sir-a is probably the same as the tribe-name Au-sar or Ausan mentioned in § 15.
This island is curiously confused by Pausanias (VI, 26) with the Seres. After describing the Chinese silk culture, he observes: "the island of Seria is known to be situated in a recess of the Red Sea. But I have also heard that the island is formed, not by the Red Sea, but by a river named the Ser (this being Masira Channel), just as the Delta of Egypt is surrounded by the Nile and not by a sea; such also, it is said, is the island of Seria. Both the Seres and the inhabitants of the neighboring islands of Abasa and Sacaea are of the Aethiopian race; some say, however, that they are not Aethiopians, but a mixture of Scythians and Indians."
Here are confirmations of the Periplus, as to the possession of Masira and Kuria Muria by the Habashat, and as to the commercial activity of the Indo-Scythians, then in possession of the Indus valley.
The use of the "Arabian language" (Himyaritic or Hadramitic, represented by the modern Mahri), noted in § 33, confirms the accompanying statement that the island was then subject to Hadramaut, and its trade controlled from Cana. Ordinarily the connection would be rather with the "Fish-Eaters" of the adjoining Genaba coast, subject at that time to the Parthians, so that the language spoken would have been Aethiopic or Geez.
