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regard to a Jewish dynasty which superseded the royal line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 _