163
sun-worship — locally known as Serandip; a name which the Saracens gave to Ceylon, but which, apart from its last syllable, the Sanscrit dvipa, island, seems to be related to the island of Sera, Sarapis, or Masira, off the Arabian coast.
The evident connection between both wings of this system is generalized by Gotz ( Verkehrsvoege mi Dienste des TVelthandels, 33-117) as “Turanian-Hamitic. ”
Holdich ( Gates of India, 36) seems to have in mind a race re- sembling African negroes as the original of the “ Asiatic Aethiopi- ans” in Makran. But their descent should have been from the Persian Gulf. “Sir John Mandeville ” (chap, xxiv) gives a legend which in some ways seems nearer the truth :
“Noah had three sons, Shem, Cham and Japhet . . . Cham, for his cruelty, took the greater and the best part, toward the east, that is clept Asia, and Shem took Africa, and Japhet took Europe . . . Cham was the greatest and the most mighty, and of him came more generations than of the other. And of his son Chuse was engen- dered Nimrod the giant, that began the foundation of the tower of Babylon • . . And of the generation of Cham be come the Paynims and divers folk that be in isles of the sea by all Ind.”
See also Lassen, op. cit., II, 187-191; Sir Thomas Holdich, Gates of India, pp. 146-161; and Gen. M. R. Haig, Geographical Journal , VII, 668-674.
37. Rhambacia. — The name of the capital is not given in the text, but Muller fills the lacuna with that mentioned by Arrian. Fabri- cius prefers Parsis, the capital of Gedrosia according to Ptolemy; but this place was probably much farther west.
Rhambacia was at no great distance from the modern Las Bela (26° 26’ N., 66° 20' E. ). According to Holdich ( Gates of India, 320, 372), this whole neighborhood is full of evidences of early Arabian occupation; but the exact site is undetermined (150-1).
The tribe-name, Rhamnae, Lassen connects with the Sanscrit ramana, happy; which, while possibly a mere pun, may explain the Hindu name “blessed” for Socotra, which had been identified with Raamah, or Cushite stock generally. The root of So-rs/r-a is evidently the same as El Katar peninsula, adjoining Bahrein.
Shamarida, “precious,” an Arabic name for the mountain at the Straits of Hormus; the “Island of the Blest” of the Babylonian Gilgamesh epic; may these reflect a Cushite race-appellation, like the “chosen people” of the Hebrews?
37. Bdellium is an aromatic gum exuded from Balsamodendron mukul, order Burseracea, a small tree native in northwestern India,
