1

of the rocks, are nourished by the dews of the CHAP. night: a fcanty fupply of rain is collected in cifterns and aqueducts: the wells and fprings are the fecret treasure of the defert; and the pilgrim of Mecca 3, after many a dry and fultry march, is disgusted by the taste of the waters, which have rolled over a bed of fulphur or falt. Such is the general and genuine picture of the climate of Arabia. The experience of evil enhances the value of any local or partial enjoyments. A fhady grove, a green pasture, a ftream of fresh water, are fufficient to attract a colony of sedentary Arabs to the fortunate fpots which can afford food and refreshment to themselves and their cattle, and which encourage their industry in the cultivation of the palm-tree and the vine. The high lands that border on the Indian ocean are diftinguished by their fuperior plenty of wood and water: the air is more temperate, the fruits are more delicious, the animals and the human race more numerous; the fertility of the foil invites and rewards the toil of the husbandman; and the peculiar gifts of frankincenfe and coffee have attracted in different ages the. merchants of the world. If it be compared with

5 In the thirty days, or ftations, between Cairo and Mecca, there are fifteen destitute of good water. See the route of the Hadjees, in Shaw's Travels, p. 477

6 The aromatics, especially the thus or frankincenfe, of Arabia, occupy the xiith book of Pliny. Our great poet (Paradise Loft, 1. iv.) introduces, in a fimile, the spicy odours that are blown by the north-east wind from the Sabran coaft:

Many a league,

Pleas'd with the grateful fcent, old Ocean fmiles.

(Plin. Hift. Natur. xii. 42:).

the

CHAP. the rest of the peninfula, this fequeftered region may

L.

Divifion of the fandy,

the ftony,

and the happy Arabia.

7

truly deferve the appellation of the happy and the fplendid colouring of fancy and fiction has been fuggested by contrast and countenanced by distance. It was for this earthly paradife that nature had referved her choiceft favours and her most curious workmanship: the incompatible bleffings of lux ury and innocence were afcribed to the natives: the foil was impregnated with gold and gems, and both the land and fea were taught to exhale the odours of aromatic fweets. This divifion of the fandy, the ftony, and the happy, fo familiar to the Greeks and Latins, is unknown to the Arabians themselves; and it is fingular enough, that a country, whofe language and inhabitants have ever been the fame, fhould fcarcely retain a vestige of its ancient geography. The maritime districts of Bahrein and Oman are oppofite to the realm of Perfia. The kingdom of Yemen difplays the limits, or at least the fituation, of Arabia Fœlix: the name of Neged is extended over the inland space; and the birth of Mahomet has illuftrated the province of Hejaz along the coaft of the Red Sea 3.

7 Agatharcides affirms, that lumps of pure gold were found, from the fize of an olive to that of a nut; that iron was twice, and filver ten times the value of gold (de Mari Rubro, p. 6o.). These real or imaginary treasures are vanished; and no gold mines are at prefent known in Arabia (Niebuhr, ~ Defcription, p. 124.).

8 Confult, perufe, and ftudy, the Specimen Hiftoria Arabum of Pocock! (Oxon. 1650, in 4to.) The thirty pages of text and verfion are extracted from the Dynasties of Gregory Abulpharagius, which Pocock afterwards tranflated (Oxon. 1663, in 4t°): the three hundred and fifty-eight notes from a claffic and original work on the Arabian antiquities;

L.

Manners of the Be

doweens, or pastoral

The measure of population is regulated by the CHAP. means of fubfiftençe; and the inhabitants of this vaft peninfula might be out-numbered by the fubjects of a fertile and induftrious province. Along the fhores of the Perfian gulf, of the Arabs. ocean, and even of the Red Sea, the Icthyophagi, or fish-eaters, continued to wander in queft of their precarious food. In this primitive and abject ftate, which ill deferves the name of fociety, the human brute, without arts or laws, almoft without fenfe or language, is poorly diftinguished from the rest of the animal creation. Generations and ages might roll away in filent oblivion, and the helpless savage was restrained from multiplying his race, by the wants and pursuits which confined his existence to the narrow margin of the feacoaft. But in an early period of antiquity the great body of the Arabs had emerged from this scene of misery; and as the naked wilderness could not maintain a people of hunters, they rofe at once to the more fecure and plentiful condition of the pastoral life. The fame life is uniformly pursued by the roving tribes of the defert, and in the portrait of the modern Bedoweens, we may trace the features of their ancestors who, in

10

the

9 Arrian remarks the Icthyophagi of the coast of Hejaz (Periplus Maris Erythræi, p. 12.). and beyond Aden (p. 15.). It feems probable that the shores of the Red Sea (in the largest sense) were occupied by these favages in the time, perhaps, of Cyrus; but I can hardly believe that any cannibals were left among the favages in the reign of Juftinian (Procop. de Bell. Perfic. 1. i. c. 19.).

10 See the Specimen Historiæ Arabum of Pocock, p. 2. 5. 86, &c. The journey of M. d'Arvieux, in 1664, to the camp of the emir of Mount Carmel (Voyage de la Paleftine, Amsterdam, 1718), exhibits a pleasing and

original

CHAP. the age of Mofes or Mahomet, dwelt under L. fimilar tents, and conducted, their horses, and

camels, and sheep, to the fame fprings and the fame pastures. Our toil is leffened, and our wealth is increased, by our dominion over the useful animals; and the Arabian fhepherd had acquired the abfolute poffeffion of a faithful friend The horse. and a laborious flave ". Arabia, in the opinion of the naturalift, is the genuine and original country of the horse; the climate most propitious, not indeed to the fize, but to the spirit and swiftnefs, of that generous animal. The merit of the Barb, the Spanish, and the English breed, is derived from a mixture of Arabian blood : the Bedoweens preferve, with fuperftitious care, the honours and the memory of the pureft race: the males are fold at a high price, but the females are feldom alienated; and the birth of a noble foal was esteemed, among the tribes, as a fubject of joy and mutual congratulation. These horses are educated in the tents, among the children of the Arabs, with a tender familiarity, which trains

12

original picture of the life of the Bedoweens, which may be illustrated from Niebuhr (Defcription de l'Arabie, p. 327-344.) and Volney (tom. i. P. 343-385.), the last and most judicious of our Syrian travellers.

11 Read (it is no unpleafing task) the incomparable articles of the Horfe and the Camel, in the Natural History of M. de Buffon.

12 For the Arabian horfes, fee d'Arvieux (p. 159-173.) and Niebuhr (p. 142-144.). At the end of the xiiith century, the herfes of Naged were efteemed fure-footed, thofe of Yemen ftrong and ferviceable, thofe of Hejaz moft noble. The horfes of Europe, the tenth and laft clafs, were generally defpifed, as having too much body and too little spirit (d'Herbelot, Bibliot. Crient. p. 339.): their ftrength was requifite to bear the weight of the knight and his armour.

them

L.

them in the habits of gentlenefs and attachment. CHA P. They are accustomed only to walk and to gallop: their fenfations are not blunted by the inceffant abuse of the spur and the whip: their powers are referved for the moments of flight and pursuit ; but no fooner do they feel the touch of the hand or the stirrup, than they dart away with the swiftnefs of the wind; and if their friend be dif mounted in the rapid career, they instantly stop till he has recovered his feat. In the fands of Africa and Arabia, the camel is a facred and pre- The Camel, cious gift. That ftrong and patient beaft of burthen can perform, without eating or drinking, a journey of several days; and a refervoir of fresh water is preferved in a large bag, a fifth ftomach of the animal, whofe body is imprinted with the marks of fervitude: the larger breed is capable of tranfporting a weight of a thousand pounds; and the dromedary, of a lighter and more active frame, outftrips the fleeteft courfer in the race. Alive or dead, almost every part of the camel is ferviceable to man: her milk is plentiful and nutritious: the young and tender flesh has the tafte of veal 13 : a valuable falt is extracted from the urine: the dung fupplies the deficiency of fuel; and the long hair, which falls each year and is renewed, is coarsely manufactured into the gar

13 Qui carnibus camelorum vefci folent odii tenaces funt, was the opihion of an Arabian physician (Pocock, Specim. p. 88.). Mahomet himself, who was fond of milk, prefers the cow, and does not even mention the camel; but the diet of Mecca and Medina was already more luxurious (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 404.).