and thence forty days to the sea of Nikpa.  The return journey, not merely to India but to Zebid, which Abulfeda and Alberuni call the principal port of Yemen, seems to take but thirty-four days.  With regard to Aden, the port long in England’s possession, and the so-called first outpost of the Indian Empire, it has already been explained (p. 50) that this part of Arabia as well as Abyssinia on the other side of the Red Sea were considered part of Middle India.  Ibn Batuta says about Aden:  “It is situated on the sea-shore and is a large city, but without either seed, water, or tree.  They have reservoirs in which they collect the rain for drinking.  Some rich merchants reside here, and vessels from India occasionally arrive.”  A Jewish community has been there from time immemorial.  The men until recent times used to go about all day in their Tephillin.  Jacob Saphir devotes vol.  II, chaps, i-x of his Eben Saphir, to a full account of the Jews of Aden.]

[Footnote 177:  We must take Benjamin’s statements here to mean that the independent Jews who lived in the mountainous country in the rear of Aden crossed the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb and made war against the inhabitants of the Plains of Abyssinia.  J. Lelewel, in a series of letters addressed to E. Carmoly, entitled Examen geographique des Voyages de Benjamin de Tudele (Bruxelles, 1852), takes great pains to locate the land of Hommatum [Hebrew:] in lieu of which our text reads [Hebrew:] the land of the Plains; but he quite fails in this and in many other attempts at identification.  The Jews coming from Aden had to encounter the forces of the Christian sovereign of Abyssinia, and sought safety in the mountainous regions of that country.  Here they were heard of later under the name of Falasha Jews.  Cf.  Marco Polo, vol.  III, chap. xxxv.  The reader is referred to Colonel Yule’s valuable notes to this chapter.  He quotes Bruce’s Abstract of Abyssinian Chronicles with regard to a Jewish dynasty which superseded the royal line in the tenth century.  See also Dr. Charles Singer’s interesting communication in J.  Q.R., XVII, p. 142, and J. Halevy’s Travels in Abyssinia (Miscellany of Hebrew Literature:  2nd Series, p. 175).]

[Footnote 178:  Assuan, according to Makrizi, was a most flourishing town prior to 1403, when more than 20,000 of its inhabitants perished.  Seba cannot be identified.  No doubt our author alludes to Seba, a name repeatedly coupled in Scripture with Egypt, Cush and Havilah.]

[Footnote 179:  Heluan is the present Helwan, fourteen miles from Cairo, which was greatly appreciated by the early Caliphs for its thermal sulphur springs.  Stanley Lane Poole, in The Story of Cairo, p. 61, tells us of its edifices, and adds:  “It is curious to consider how nearly this modern health-resort became the capital of Egypt.”  Heluan is situated on the right bank of the Nile.  One