190
48. The Cabolitic country is, of course, the modern Cabul valley, above the Khyber Pass; being within the present limits of Afghanistan.
48. Scythia. — See under §41. This was the region which was subject to the Parthian princes, weak successors of Gondophares, whose reign had ended about 51 A. D.
49. Lead. — Pliny (XXXIV, 47-50) distinguishes between black lead and white lead; the former being our lead, the latter tin (see also under § 7). White lead he says came from Lusitania and Galicia, doubting its reported origin in “islands of the Atlantic,” and its transportation in “boats made of osiers, covered with hides.’’
Black lead, he says, came from Cantabria in Spain, and his de- scription suggests galena, or sulphide of lead and silver. It came also from Britain, and from Lusitania — where the Santarensian mine was farmed at an annual rental of 250,000 denarii.
Lead was used in the form of pipes and sheets, and had many medicinal uses, being used in calcined form, made into tablets in the same way as antimony (see under this §), or mixed with grease and wine. It was used as an astringent and repressive, and for cicatriza- tion; in the treatment of ulcers, burns, etc., and in eye preparations; while thin plates of lead worn next the body were supposed to have a cooling and beneficial effect.
As an import at Barygaza lead was required largely for the coinage of the Saka dominions.
49. Bright-colored girdles. — These were probably for the Bhlls, a Dravidian hill-tribe, who worked the carnelian mines then as now. The modern Coorgs, a related tribe, still wear a distinctive “girdle-scarf” which is now made at Sirangala. ( Imp . Gaz . , VIII, 101-4; IX, 36.)
49. Sweet clover. — This is Trifolium melilotus , order Legn- minosce, the “melilote” of the Greeks and Romans, used for making chaplets and perfumes, and medicinally. Pliny (XXI, 29) says the best sorts were from Campania in Italy, Cape Sunium in Greece, also from Chalcidice and Crete; native always in rugged and wild localities. “The name sertula, garland, which it bears sufficiently proves that this plant was formerly much used in the composition of chaplets. The smell, as well as the flower, closely resembles that of saffron, though the stem itself is white; the shorter and more fleshy the leaves, the more highly it is esteemed.” And again (XXI, 87), “the meli- lote applied with the yolk of an egg, or else linseed, effects the cure of diseases of the eyes. It assuages pains, too, in the jaws and head,
