See Glaser: Die Abessinier in Arabien und Afrika, Munich, 1895. (A masterly marshaling of inscriptions in support of his thesis, above summarized.) Punt und die südarabischen Reiche, Berlin, 1890; Dillmann: Geschichte des Auxumitischen Reiches, in Kön. Preuss. Akad. d. Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1880. For the interrelation between Buddhism and early Christianity, and the historical causes leading thereto, see Edmunds: Buddhist and Christian Gospels now first compared from the originals, Philadelphia (4th edition), 1908.
4. Alalaei Islands—These preserve the name, being called the Dahalak. They lie at the entrance to Annesley Bay.
5. Bay of the Opsian stone—This is identified with Hauakil Bay, north of Ras Hanfilah, 14° 44′ N., 40° 49′ E. "Hanfilah" is Amphila, the Antiphili Portus of Artemidorus.
Pliny (op. cit. XXXVI, 67) says the obsian stone (as he spells it) of Aethiopia was very dark, sometimes transparent, bull dull to the sight, and reflected the shadow rather than the image. It was used in his day for jewelry and for statues and votive offerings.
It was used by the Emperor Domitian to face a portico, so that from the reflections on the polished surface he might detect any one approaching from behind.
It seems to have been a volcanic glass, feldspar in a more or less pure state, and the same as our obsidian.
It was found also, according to Pliny, in India, at Samnium in Italy, and in Portugal; and it was extensively imitated in glass.
Henry Salt (A Voyage into Abyssinia, pp. 190–4), describes his visit to the Bay of the Opsian stone, which was marked by a hill, near which he "was delighted with the sight of a great many pieces of a black substance, bearing a very high polish, much resembling glass, that lay scattered about on the ground at a short distance from the sea; and I collected nearly a hundred specimens of it, most of which were two, three, or four inches in diameter. One of the natives told me that a few miles farther in the interior, pieces are found of much larger dimensions. This substance has been analyzed since my return to England and found to be true obsidian."
5. Coast subject to Zoscales.—Col. Henry Yule in his Marco Polo, II, 434, says "To the 10th century at least, the whole coast-country of the Red Sea, from near Berbera probably to Suakin, was still subject to Abyssinia. At this time we hear only of 'Musalman families' residing in Zeila and the other ports and tributary to the Christians." (See also Mas' udi, III, 34.)
5. Zoscales.—Salt (op. cit. 460–5) identifies this name with Za Hakale, which appears in the Abyssinian Chronicles. The reign is said to have lasted 13 years, and Salt fixes the dates as 76 to 89 A. D.
