Kitap 16
4.2
Four of the most populous nations inhabit the extremity of the above-mentioned country; namely, the Minaei the part towards the Red Sea, whose largest city is Carna or Carnana.Cam Almanazil. Next to these are the Sabaeans, whose chief city is Mariaba.Mariaba was not the name of a city, but the title of a city acquired by the residence of their sovereigns. Mariana oppidum, says Pliny, vi. 32, significat dominos omnium. The capital was called Saba, now Sabbea; and the country in which it is situated is called Sabieh. The third nation are the Cattabaneis,Yemen. extending to the straits and the passage across the Arabian Gulf. Their royal seat is called Tamna. The ChatramotitaeThe people of Hadramaüt. are the furthest of these nations towards the east. Their city is Sabata.
4.3
All these cities are governed by one monarch, and are flourishing. They are adorned with beautiful temples and palaces. Their houses, in the mode of binding the timbers together, are like those in Egypt. The four countries comprise a greater territory than the Delta of Egypt.The extent was six times as large as the Delta.
4.3
The son does not succeed the father in the throne, but the son who is born in a family of the nobles first after the accession of the king. As soon as any one is invested with the government, the pregnant wives of the nobles are registered, and guardians are appointed to watch which of them is first delivered of a son. The custom is to adopt and educate the child in a princely manner as the future successor to the throne.
4.4
Cattabania produces frankincense, and Chatramotitis myrrh; these and other aromatics are the medium of exchange with the merchants. Merchants arrive in seventy days at Minaea from Aelana.Ailah, or Hoele, or Acaba-Ila. Aelana is a city on the other recess of the Arabian Gulf, which is called Aelanites, opposite to Gaza, as we have before described it.C. ii. § 30. The Gerrhaei arrive in Chatramotitis in forty days.
