s a peninsula, stretching north-west and south-east. It has the form of an irregular lozenge, and is inclosed on three sides by the ocean. It is bounded on the south-west and west by the Red Sea and the Isthmus of Suez; on the north-east by the Persian Gulf and the lower course of the Euphrates; on the north-west by Syria, the Euphrates, and the intervening desert; and on the south-east by the Indian Ocean. Its length from this ocean to the frontiers of Syria is about 1400 miles, and its breadth from the Isthmus of Suez to Bassora about 900. The peninsula enlarges in breadth as it approaches the Indian Ocean, and it is greatest in the parallel of Djiddah, viz., about 2250 miles. The division of this country by the ancients was, according to the natural qualities of the soil, into Arabia Petraea, Arabia Deserta, and Arabia Felix. No very distinct boundary was assigned to these divisions. Under Arabia Petraea was included that barren and rocky tract in the north-west of Arabia which is situated between the northern shores of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, and which may have extended southwards nearly to Mecca. Arabia Deserta was separated from Mesopotamia on the north by the Euphrates; on the west it was bounded by Syria, Judaea, and Arabia Petraea; on the east and south it was separated from Chaldea and Arabia Felix by deserts and mountains. Arabia Felix was bounded on the north by Arabia Petraea and Arabia Deserta, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the east and west by the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The modern division of the country is entirely different.

The eastern geographers do not agree as to the great divisions of the peninsula and the limits of these divisions. Some speak of two divisions only, namely, Hedjaz and Yemen, but it is self-evident that they do not mean thus to divide the whole of Arabia, but only the western portion of it, or the coast along the Red Sea. Abulfeda mentions five provinces, Tehama, Nedjed, Hedjaz, Yemen, and Arudh or Ared, but this division too is incomplete. The opinion of the Baron von Hammer, who collected and compared a vast amount of geographical evidence from oriental sources, warrants the following as the true great divisions of Arabia:

1. In the north-west El Hadjir, literally the "Stony," or Arabia Petraea, with natural boundaries to the east. 2. South of it, El Hedjaz along the Red Sea, as far down as about N. Lat. 19°, with natural boundaries, viz., in the east, the table-land of El Nedjed, and in the south, the Tehama of Assyr, that remarkable gap in the great western mountain chain. 3. El Yemen, the southern portion of the coast along the Red Sea, extending eastward over a portion of the table-land of southern Nedjed and the low tract El Jof. 4. El Nedjed, the upland or high plateau, being the central portion of the peninsula; the tracts bordering on Hedjaz and Yemen are called El Nedjed El Hedjaz, and El Nedjed El Yemen. It is bordered in the south by the great desert El Akka. 5. Hadhramaut, along the Indian Sea, between El Yemen, El Akka, and Es Shehr. 6. Es Shehr, also called Mahra, because it is inhabited by the tribe Mahra, a dreary tract east of Hadhramaut, which is said to have been changed from a fertile country into a wilderness by the curse of Nebhi Hud, the ante-Mahometan prophet of this part of Arabia. It contains, nevertheless, some well-cultivated and well-inhabited districts. The language of the inhabitants differs very much from the modern Arabic. 7. El Oman, the north-eastern projection of South Arabia, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, and bordering in the southwest on El Akka. 8. El Hedjir, or El Bahrein, the coast along the Persian Gulf as far north as the head of the gulf, and bordering in the west on the high plateaux of the interior. It is as frequently, but erroneously, called Lahsa or El Akka, this being the name of a comparatively small district. 9. El Yemenah, seems to be the south-eastern portion of El Nedjed. It borders on Hedjaz, Oman, and the desert El Akka.

Besides these great divisions, there are others which deserve a short explanation, as they frequently occur in works on Arabia. First among them is Tehama. The name designates the narrow belts of sandy lowland between the mountains and the sea; and the whole coast of the Red Sea being of that description, and called accordingly, a belief has sprung up as if the name referred only to that tract. But as there is a Tehama of Hedjaz, so there is one of Yemen, which, however, comprehends some hilly districts; in short, every province bordering on the sea, has its great Tehama; and every district on the coast, or even sea town, has its smaller local Tehama. El Jof is the name of a large district to the east of Arabia Petraea, of another one to the east of Yemen towards Hadhramaut, and of several other inland plains; for it is a name in physical geography, meaning a level inland tract lower than the high plateaux, but still higher than the low lands. El Akka signifies a desert characterized by low winding sand-hills, and besides the great El Akka, there are several, and perhaps many, smaller deserts which are distinguished by that name. The great desert between Syria and the head of the Persian Gulf is called Badleh el Arab.

The desert tracts occupy a vast proportion of the soil of Arabia. They consist either of bare rocks, or of hard, loose sand, and are almost destitute of fresh water. Whole years frequently pass away without rain, and the burning sands, reflecting the solar rays, occasion such intense heat as is not felt even in countries that lie directly under the equator. There are no rivers, the mountain torrents being speedily imbibed by the sandy soil; and the scanty supplies afforded by deep wells and springs, scattered at distant intervals, are the sole dependence of the fainting traveller for refreshment, and frequently for life. The aspect of desolation is sometimes relieved by verdant spots, which appear like islands in the trackless ocean; and some rare and hardy plants, such as the tamarind and the acacia, which strike their roots into the clefts of the rocks, find here a congenial soil, and flourish amid the surrounding waste.

In the Arabian plains the thermometer is generally above 100° during the night, at 108° in the morning, and in the hottest parts of the day it rises to 110°, and sometimes higher. All travellers who have visited the coasts of the Red Sea appear to have been oppressed by the extraordinary heat, and to have considered the temperature of other tropical countries as moderate in comparison. The sultriness of the nights is another peculiar evil of the Arabian climate, and a predisposing cause of disease. For this peculiarity the country is partly indebted to its position, hemmed in between the continents of Asia and Africa, and effectually protected by the latter from the influence of the south-west monsoon, which blows during the summer on the coasts of India, and ushers in the periodical rains: Arabia never experiences the refreshing influence of this wind. It seems to blow exactly along its south-eastern shore, on which prevail baffling winds, or a dead calm. During the whole summer the heat in the lower plains on the coast is so steady and equable that the atmosphere remains in a state of repose. No change of temperature takes place to set the winds in motion; and dead calms occur, and sometimes continue for sixty days without interruption. When the temperature begins to vary with the change of the seasons, and the winds resume their activity, the country is visited by the simoom or the hot blast from the deserts, under whose withering influence all nature seems to languish and expire, and which has the quality of extracting from whatever it touches every trace of moisture, and to produce, when it is inhaled by men or animals, a painful feeling, as of suffocation. But though its effects are pernicious to health, they have been greatly exaggerated by credulous or ill-informed travellers; and among others Niebuhr, to whom we are indebted for much valuable information respecting Arabia, ascribes to it the power of suffocating any living creature that is exposed to its influence. Others imagine that it has poisonous qualities. It appears, however, from the accounts of various travellers, and among others of Mr Buckingham, that its effects are produced solely by heat. When it is suddenly inhaled, it may, in the same manner as a hot blast from an oven, cause faintness or sickness, and even swooning; but this feeling is occasioned wholly by the heat and parching qualities which it contracts in its passage across the burning sands. The desert consists in many parts of loose sand, interspersed with sharp and naked rocks; and the effect of these violent winds is to raise up in clouds this fine sand, and to set it afloat in the atmosphere in such quantities that it is impossible to see to the distance of a few yards. On such occasions, during the violence of these sand storms, it is the instinctive practice of camels and other animals to lie down, and bury their nostrils under the sand, to avoid the influence of the wind. In this situation the traveller generally lies down on the lee side of the camel, and in a short time the sand is blown up to the level of the animal, which has accordingly to rise and to lie down on a new foundation, in order to avoid being entirely covered. But in many cases, from weariness, faintness, or sleepiness, occasioned by the great heat, and often from a feeling of despair, both the man and the animal remain on the ground, and in twenty minutes they are buried under a load of sand, and perish miserably in those inhospitable deserts. The approach of the simoom wind is indicated by an unusual redness in the sky, which during the prevalence of the wind seems to be all on fire.

But though a large proportion of Arabia consists of arid and burning deserts, the country immediately behind the dry and sandy plains, which stretches backwards from the seashore, rises into rocky and precipitous hills, with intervening valleys of remarkable fertility. Those mountainous tracts, which send forth ridges into the interior in various directions, enjoy a temperate climate; ice and snow are known at Tayef and Sana, and the Baron von Wrede relates, that on the high plateaux of Hadhramaut the frost is sometimes so intense that the people use axes for breaking up the ice on their reservoirs. All these interior and highland districts are occasionally refreshed by copious rains, though they do not lie within the range of the monsoons, which in the peninsula of Hindustan usher in the rainy season. Those rains occur at different times of the year, according to the position of the mountains. On the western declivity of the mountains of Yemen, along the shore of the Red Sea, they commence in June and terminate in September, which is the season of the monsoons in India. This tract is also refreshed by a spring rain, while on the eastern declivity of the same mountains the season of the rains is between the middle of November and the middle of February. In Hadhramaut and Oman, along the shores of the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, the rainy season lasts from the middle of February to the middle of April; in the highlands of Hadhramaut, transient but frequent thunderstorms, with torrents of rain, mark the months from April to September. The prevailing wind in summer is from the west. The simoom, by which name the Arabs distinguish every hot wind, comes from the east; the south is reckoned favourable to vegetation; while the influence of the north wind, whether it be hot or cold, is always thought to be pernicious to the health both of man and beast. It is occasionally so sultry that it heats metals in the shade as if they were exposed to the sun. On the Persian Gulf the south-east wind is common, and is accompanied with moisture, which, when the heat is intense, occasions violent sweatings, and is even more injurious to health than the hot and dry blast from the northern desert. No traveller has given any accurate measurement of the height of the Arabian mountains; but the decided change of climate which takes place in these upland regions marks a considerable elevation above the adjacent plains.

Among the Arabian highlands great diversities of soil prevail; and the craggy precipitous form of the hills is unfavourable to fertility. They afford neither sufficient space nor soil for vegetable productions, and the earth is continually washed away by the torrents. In many parts the rocks are basaltic in their form, and so steep that the road ascends by regular steps cut in the rock. These mountainous tracts are in general well cultivated and productive, especially the southern and mountainous provinces of Yemen and Hadhramaut. This was the celebrated region of Arabia Felix, which, contrasted with the adjacent deserts, might deserve that appellation, being a fertile country, yielding the famous productions of balm and frankincense, and many sweet-scented trees and shrubs, of which the delicious fragrance, according to the descriptions of poets, was wafted by the winds over the surrounding seas. The mountains of Hedjaz and Yemen, which run along the eastern shore of the Red Sea, are precipitous and often rocky; but water abounds in wells, springs, and rivulets. This entire tract of country is well peopled as far as the mountains which overlook the Indian Ocean, and contains numerous villages of the Arab tribes. In all parts where water is near, and can be artificially spread over the ground, trees and inclosed fields are found; and among the rugged and basaltic mountains extensive and well-watered valleys, which to the south and the east are covered with the herds and flocks of the Bedouin Arabs, and to the north and west, towards the Red Sea, with industrious cultivators, who have relinquished their

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1. It is mentioned by Fraser, in the account which he gives of a Voyage from Bombay to Muscat, in the Persian Gulf, that the moment they doubled Cape Rasel Gate, a corruption of Ras-el-Hadd (ras means cape), and entered the Persian Gulf under the lee of the Arabian land, they were forsaken by the south-west monsoon, and encountered baffling winds or calms until they arrived at Muscat, which is about 120 miles up the Gulf. vagrant habits, and live in houses. In these valleys, which are frequently separated by intervals of barren rock, and the passes or entrances into which, through the mountains, are so narrow that they scarcely allow two camels to walk abreast, the villages are embellished with gardens, palm-groves, and date-trees, the fruit of which forms in many districts the staple article of the agriculturist; and with extensive plantations of coffee, which, when in flower, exhale an exquisite perfume. In many parts of Yemen whole mountains of basaltic columns are seen, which are rendered subservient to many useful purposes. Being easily separated, and formed into steps, they facilitate the ascent of the heights where it is difficult; and they supply materials for walls to support the plantations of coffee-trees on the steep declivities of the mountains.

The country between the mountains of the Hedjaz and the Red Sea is part of that narrow belt of sand which encircles Arabia. It is called Tehama, the appellation given to all the low plains on the coast, which are generally barren, having fewer fertile spots and more scanty pasture than the mountains, where rain is more common. Of the regions which are washed by the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf we have no full or accurate information. We know, however, that they are skirted by sandy plains similar to those on the western shore. The country which overlooks the Persian Gulf at Mascat has an extremely desolate appearance, consisting merely of sands, and naked rocks blackened by the scorching rays of the sun. It rises into mountains, which may be seen from the sea, and probably attain an elevation of from 1500 to 2000 feet.

Of the provinces of Hadhramaut, Shehr or Mahra, and Oman, more will be said afterwards.

The large province of El Hassa or Bahréin extends along the curve of the Persian Gulf, being in its narrowest part not above 60 miles broad. The coast is a level Tehama, but ridges of hills intersect the interior; and towards Nedjed in the north, and Yemamah in the south, rise the high ranges of Djebel Ared and Djebel Athal, forming the eastern edge of the great table-land of central Arabia. Bahréin is distinguished by its abundance of fresh water, which, although often prevented by the fierce rays of the sun from collecting on the surface, and forming permanent streams, is yet easily to be obtained, even in sandy plains, by digging to the depth of a few feet. Wells are consequently numerous, and enable the natives to cultivate clover, with which they rear a breed of excellent horses. There are many lakes. It appears that here, still more than in any other part of Arabia, the water of the rivers and torrents, flowing down from the higher parts towards the sea, is not entirely absorbed by the sand, but continues its course underneath it, on a substratum of marly clay, the undulations of which it follows according to the pressure it receives from the higher level, giving rise to large bodies of subterranean water. Thence, also, the phenomenon observed along the coast of this tract, of powerful springs of fresh water bursting forth from the bottom of the sea, and easily accessible when the tide is low. At high tides they are sometimes covered with twelve feet of sea water, but so great is their volume and power, that the water remains quite sweet at several feet from the bottom; and, as Captain Skeine relates, divers provided with skin bags will plunge into the salt sea to fetch a supply of fresh water. The fact of powerful salt springs rushing up from the bed of fresh-water rivers, as, for instance, near Kreuznach on the Nahe, in Rhenish Prussia, stands in striking and convincing contradiction with these fresh-water springs in the Sea of Bahréin. Nor is this phenomenon only of local importance, as is the case with the fresh-water springs at the Giant's Causeway, in Ireland; it bears on, and helps to solve, one of the most important questions relating to the physical geography of Arabia. We allude to the positive statement of Edrisi and other Arabian geographers, that a large river, El Afan, originating in the interior, traverses the coast, and flows into the Gulf of Bahréin. Yet, when Captain Sadleir crossed and recrossed the supposed line of the Afan, on his expedition to the camp of Ibrahim Pasha, in 1819, he found no traces of any considerable river; and as the existence of the El Afan had already been previously denied as being too improbable, it was now set down as a fable altogether. But even supposing he did cross that line, which is by no means certain, although he penetrated as far as Es Sabei, a village to the south of El Hofuf, the existence of so much subterranean water, which is of easy access, according to the Captain's own statement—the numerous wells, pools, and even lakes—and last, but not least, the submarine springs of fresh water along the coast, principally about the locality where the Afan might be supposed to reach the sea—all these circumstances make it extremely probable that the lower part of the Afan having been overwhelmed and buried by the sand, the water nevertheless continued to press on upon the clayey substratum, and spreading about in various directions, at last reaches the sea at a level considerably below its surface; when, bursting through the light and sandy bottom, it produces those singular phenomena on the coast of Bahréin. Wellsted entertained such views when he visited the country. There are many other facts bearing upon the existence of a large river in Central Arabia, of which more will be said in the description of Asyr.

The coast of El Bahréin is indicated by a large gulf bearing the same name, extending 80 miles inland, at the mouth of which lies the large island of Bahréin, which is known for the productive pearl fisheries carried on in the gulf. It is a pleasant, well-cultivated island, though once a den of pirates; its capital, Awal or Bahréin, has 5000 inhabitants. On the opposite coast lies the seaport El Katif, with 8000 inhabitants; and in the interior, at a very short distance from each other, are Mubarruz and Hofuf, said to be peopled, the former by 30,000, and the latter by 40,000 souls, which may have been correct at the time when the Wahabys were powerful in those parts. Quite in the north, not far from the embouchures of the Shat-el-Arab, the united Tigris and Euphrates, lies the small seaport El Kueit or Grane.

It has already been observed that, with the exception of Mountains Arabia Petraea, the whole northern part of the peninsula is a comparatively low plain, intersected by ridges of hills of little elevation. It extends south as far as north latitude 28°. There the Djebel Shammar rises abruptly, a lofty range traversing the interior in a direction from west to east, and visible at a great distance. The Arabs say that its central portion, or Djebel Shammar, properly speaking is as high as Mount Lebanon, or about 9000 feet. The great hadj and caravan roads from Damascus and Baghdad to the holy cities and the inland of Nedjed traverse this vast arid district, but our knowledge of it is still very imperfect. Dr Wallin, professor in the university of Helsingfors, in Finn-land, explored the tract a few years ago, starting from the Gulf of Akaba, and thence proceeding to the foot of Djebel Shammar, whence he returned by the road to the Tigris. He was the first known European who ever proceeded so far in that direction, but his account in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, is of more importance to the linguist and antiquarian than the geographer. Along the Derb Berçidla, or hadj road from Baghdad, there are numerous deep and very carefully constructed wells, among which that of Wakiyeh, which was built by order of Melek Shah, Sultan of the Seljuks in Persia, is said to be 800 feet deep by 10 wide. Several wells have been constructed by Sobeidah, the wife of the great Khalif Harun-al-Rashid.

The entire extent of Arabia south of Djebel Shammar is an elevated table-land, resembling a barren rocky crust raised by subterranean power. Ridges of varying elevation rise above it in a direction from west to east, and it is rent asunder in all parts by deep gaps forming narrow wadis or valleys flanked by bare, precipitous rocks. These are the only localities containing a settled population, being watered by temporary or permanent streams which render the soil fit for cultivation. Nearly all the towns are situated in such wadis, as far instance Derraiyeh, the once flourishing capital of the Wahabys. Large tracts, however, are considerably lower than the general level of the table-land, and being covered with moveable sand, which has filled up the gaps by which the rocky substratum is cut up, form the most dangerous among all the deserts of Arabia. The great wilderness, and the smaller ones, called El Akaf, belong to this description. It appears that a broad but high plain or valley, beginning in the west at the foot of the mountains of Assyria and sloping down towards the Persian Gulf, bisects that immense table-land into a northern and a southern portion. This tract was never visited by Europeans, but eastern geographers inform us that it constitutes the best part of the great province of Yemenah; it is well watered and produces an abundance of corn and fruit. The eastern less frequented caravan road from Mecca to Baghdad crosses it in a direction from south-west to east and north, touching or passing near the village El Hanta, which, according to Burckhardt, is the birthplace of the famous Abd-el-Wahhab, the founder of the sect of the Wahhabys. The principal mountain chain which overlooks the table-land is Djebel Imariyeh or El Ared. From the Alpine highlands near Tayef, it stretches north-east as far as Derraiyeh, falling off in the north like a stupendous wall of white rock, whence we may infer that it is of limestone formation. From that town it continues in a more northern direction almost parallel to, but still distant from, the Persian Gulf, and forming the natural boundaries between Nedjod and Hedjaz or El Bahrein. From its central portion near Derraiyeh another chain runs north by west under the name of Djebel Tueik which seems to join the latitudinal chain of Es Shammar in its very centre, which, on account of its serrated appearance is commonly called El Djebel. Between the chains of Ared and Tueik lies the district of So'dair; west of Mount Tueik are the districts of Kasim and Woshem; and to the south-east of Derraiyeh is the smaller one of Khardj. The environs of Derraiyeh are full of once thriving towns, situated in narrow rocky wadis or glens, but since the last successful invasion of the Egyptians they are in ruins. To the south of Western Yemenah, and parallel with Djebel Imariyeh, but at a distance of 200 miles from it, a chain of high mountains has been observed in a north-east direction, which seems to be the Djebel Menakib of the Arab writers. There is reason to believe that there are many more inland chains, but we know nothing positive about them.

In proportion as the arid and elevated interior of Arabia approaches the sea, it begins to lose the peculiar features of a high table-land. Almost everywhere its descent towards the lower level presents several terraces, the serrated edges of which form as many chains of mountains. On approaching the peninsula from the seaside, it first seems as if there were but one such edge, but on surmounting the first, the traveller soon meets another, and in many localities a third and a fourth one; and although the ascent is not always steep, the increasing difference of temperature indicates a higher level. The lower edge of the table-land towards Hedjaz is commonly called Djebel-el-Hedjaz, of which the section between north latitude 25° and 23° bears the name of Djebel Raduah, and is about 6000 feet high. East of it lies the holy city of Medinah, on the third terrace, and consequently at a considerable elevation, and perhaps as high as from 4000 to 5000 feet above the sea. Between Mecca and Tayef, the chain bears the name of Djebel Kora, of which M. Gazian is not only the highest portion, but probably the highest peak in Arabia, if it be true that its summit is covered with snow even in summer, which would give it an altitude of about 14,000 feet. But this is very questionable. It has already been observed that in north latitude 19°, a remarkable gap, the Temanah, or perhaps Tchama of Assyria, affords an easy communication between the coast and the interior, being, at the same time, the natural boundary between Hedjaz and Yemen. The extensive chain from that great defile down to the Straits of Babelmandeb is called Djebel-el-Yemen, and the southern portion simply El Djebel, on account of its many peaks and serrated aspect. It appears to reach an altitude of 9000 feet, and in the latitude of Sanaa, swells out into a broad mountainous tract sloping down abruptly towards the district El Jof, and the sandy plains of March. The town of Sanaa, the capital of the dominions of the imam or sultan of Sanaa, to whom all Yemen is either directly or indirectly subject, lies 5000 feet above the sea, the surrounding peaks rising to from 2000 to 4000 feet above that high plain. Numerous torrents flowing in deep valleys between high precipitous rocks, water this interesting tract, but in the dry season they dwindle into streamlets. In the arid tehamas they dry up entirely, at least near the surface, because at the depth of a few feet below the burning sand, water is always obtainable by digging, except in years of total drought.

In few parts of Arabia is the system of irrigation brought to such perfection as in the highlands of Yemen. Water is superabundant in the rainy season, but the rapid descent of the torrents causes it to vanish as fast as it fills the glens to overflowing; and in the dry season, the hot rarified air absorbs it in such a degree as to lay all water-courses dry. Deep wells and reservoirs, together with tanks and cisterns of every description, thus become a matter of necessity; and it is owing to the surprising care bestowed upon such works, that the coffee plantations are in so luxuriant a condition. As long as the lower reservoirs, which, however, are still higher than the respective terraces for the irrigation of which they are constructed, yield a supply, those on a higher level are not only spared, but still fed if possible; but in proportion as the former become exhausted, the latter are opened; and the water descending through covered conduits again fills those which are nearest to the plantations. On the drying up of these, also, the deep wells in the shady glens are resorted to, and the water is carried up the hills in skin bags on the backs of donkeys. The inhabitants themselves will lend their backs to this drudgery to save their crops. Around the stem of each coffee-tree, pebbles are heaped up, which serve the double end of preventing the roots from being laid bare by torrents, and of keeping the soil moist in the dry season.

Arabia, from its diversified surface, contains within its bounds the climates and the vegetable produce of different countries. The mountainous tracts yield in great abundance wheat, barley, and an inferior species of grain called durra; also the fruits of Europe in equal variety and perfection, such as figs, apricots, peaches, apples, almonds, pomegranates, grapes of the very best quality, and excellent dates, which in many parts are the chief food of the inhabitants, as well as an article of export. Many of the fine fruits of India have been transported thither, and are now naturalized. Such are the banana tree, the mangostanum, the Indian palm, and the Indian fig-tree. Besides the European grains it yields abundantly rice and maize. In the highland provinces forests are sometimes seen, which contain many trees little known, or differing extremely from the same genera in northern countries. The tamarind-tree refreshes and embellishes the country by its agreeable shade and elegant form. The balm-tree is peculiar to Arabia, which is also the native country of the coffee-tree, though, according to the Arabians, it comes originally from Abyssinia. The balm-tree has not a beautiful appearance, and its qualities are not appreciated in the southern province of Yemen, where its wood is burnt for a perfume. In the Hedjaz the inhabitants collect the balsam and bring it to Mecca; it is thence exported to Turkey, where it is in high estimation. The tree from which incense distils is found in part of Hadhramaut, along the shores of the Indian Ocean. Arabia has been in all ages celebrated for sweet-scented shrubs and trees; and Burckhardt mentions, that one morning at sunrise, when he was on his road from Tayef to Mecca, every tree and shrub exhaled a delicious fragrance. There are various species of the sensitive plant, of which the splendid flowers, of a beautiful red, are formed into crowns for festive occasions. The sugar-cane and the indigo-shrub are found in different provinces; and the shrub from which semna is produced is cultivated in all that part of the country which lies opposite to Upper Egypt. The Arabians cultivate garden vegetables, such as lettuce, carrots, radishes, water-cresses, and a great variety of gourds, cucumbers, pumpkins, and melons. The garden is in such variety and abundance that, for a part of the year, it constitutes an article of food. Many plants and herbs which have been brought from India are now naturalized in the country; and there is abundance of indigenous plants, noted for the beauty of their flowers and their fragrant smell. The gardens at Tayef, among the mountains, 72 miles east of Mecca, are renowned for roses of such exquisite beauty and fragrance, that they are sent to all parts of the country. The soil of the desert, though sandy, yields a variety of herbs, which constitute the food of cattle; and every district has a peculiar plant, which will grow in no other part. These herbs grow to the height of three, and some of them of six feet; and when they are withered by the sun they are eagerly devoured by the camel.

The celebrated coffee plantations of Yemen occupy the slopes of these valleys, rising in terraces one above the other, to a height of about 3000 feet above the sea, beyond which point the cultivation of the tree ceases to be profitable, or becomes impossible. A large proportion of the choice product, which is known in Europe under the name of Mokha coffee, because most of it is exported from Mokha, grows on these terraces; but as much is imported from the opposite coast of Africa, and being exported again, is sold in Europe under the same name. The finest coffee is said to grow in El Ghamid, a small district in north latitude 20°. The inhabitants of Yemen, even the wealthiest, seldom use the coffee-bean (boon), but only the Keshir, or the husk, in which it lies; the bean being sold at Makha and Djidda for exportation. The beverage also, which is obtained from the roasted husks by an infusion of boiling water, goes by the name of Keshir, and coffee-houses or Keshir cafes, that is, huts, are everywhere to be found, even along the roadside, for the accommodation of travellers. Many of these establishments are pious institutions, where the wayfarer is gratuitously accommodated, for three days, with lodging, keshir, and durra. Another similar beverage is obtained from the fleshy part of the berry; and this is sometimes called caesar, whence our coffee. According to the universal statement of the natives, the coffee-tree was first brought over from Africa, and cultivated in Yemen, in the fourteenth century of our era, by a holy man named Shadeli, who is still revered by the Arabs as a benefactor of mankind, so much so that they never raise a cup of coffee, or keshir, to their lips without previously praising his name in a short prayer. Modern travellers have confirmed the fact, that the original home of the coffee-tree is in the high, mountainous country to the south of Abyssinia; but while some report that the district of Kafla is not only its cradle, but has also lent its name to the tree, others, among whom that eminent investigator, Dr Beke, contend that no coffee grows in Kafla. However this may be, the inland town of Harrur, which lies to the east of Kafla, is a chief market for African coffee.

Kafla is also extensively cultivated and consumed in Yemen. It is a small tree or shrub, the leaves of which resemble those of the willow, and, when dried, taste somewhat like tea. The Arabs chew it because it exhilarates the mind, keeps people awake, and makes them talkative, whence it is now in high estimation among so social and garrulous a nation as the Yemenites are. The taste of the young leaves is a delicious mixture of sweet and bitter, the former prevailing; so much so, that water drunk after it tastes like scented lemonade. The rich use the young leaves with the morning dew still upon them, and this makes them dear, as they are gathered at some distance from the towns. Wealthy Yemenites will chew from two to three crowns' worth of Kafla in one day. Dr Beke brought some well-preserved sprigs with him from Abyssinia, where it also grows, which the writer of this was kindly allowed to examine and taste.

The wild animals of Arabia, which are principally found in the mountains, are the panther, sometimes mistaken for the tiger, the ounce, the hyena, the wolf, the fox, a species of wild dog of a black colour, common in many countries in the East, the wild cat, the jackal, the wild ox, and monkeys in great numbers. In the sandy tracts is found that curiously constructed animal the jerboa. The wild boars are very numerous, but not in the heart of the desert. The Arabs who live at Tadmor in Northern Arabia are famous for their dexterity in killing them with the lance. The beautiful and timid gazelle is found all over the Arabian desert. On the eastern frontiers of Syria there are several places allotted for the hunting of these animals, which are taken by hundreds. There are several sorts of lizards, and the land-tortoise is common, being brought by the peasants in cart-loads to the markets of many towns in the East. The domestic animals are the horse, the ass, the camel, and the ox.

The Arabian horse has been justly renowned in all ages of the world for all the finest qualities, namely, swiftness, patience of fatigue, spirit, and docility of temper; and it is from the Arabian breed that the European horses derive all their most valuable properties. The best horses are found in the greatest numbers in the luxuriant pastures of Mesopotamia, the banks of the Euphrates, and in the Syrian plains. In Nedjed the horses are also of a very fine quality, though they are not so numerous as in these countries; and they are still more scarce in the southern provinces of Yemen, Oman, and Hadhramaut, on the shores of the Indian Ocean, owing to the great heat of the climate; nor are the mountainous regions of the Hedjaz favourable to the rearing of this fine animal. There are not, according to Burckhardt, more than 6000 horses in the whole western country of Arabia, from the northern point of Akaba on the Red Sea to the southern coasts, comprising the great chain of mountains and the western plains. The provinces of Yemen, Hadhramaut, and Oman, are also supplied with horses from the pastures of Nedjed.

In the wars and inroads of the desert, the Arab soldier, whether he is pursuing, or flying for his life over the naked plain, wholly relies on the quality of his horse. On this account they spare no pains in rearing their horses and in preserving the purity of the breed. The birth of every noble foal is ascertained by the presence of eye-witnesses, and a written certificate is made out of its distinctive marks, with the names of its sire and dam, which is wrapped in a small piece of leather covered with wax-cloth, and is hung round the animal's neck as the standard and evidence of its value. The genealogical table never ascends to the grand-dam, because every Arab knows by tradition the purity of the whole breed; and there are many horses and mares of which the noble descent is of such notoriety throughout the tribes, that no written evidence of the fact is required. The Arabs reckon five noble breeds of horses, whose lineal descent they assert to be from the five favourite mares of the prophet. But as all the collateral branches claim the same illustrious ancestry, there is an infinite variety of noble breeds in the desert; and every mare which is particularly handsome, and belonging to any of the five chief races, may give rise to a new breed, the descendants of which bear her original name. Those pastoral tribes, when a foal is born, receive it in their arms, and so cherish it for several hours, stretching its tender limbs, and caressing it as if it were a child; and when it is placed on the ground, they watch its feeble steps, prognosticating its future excellencies or defects. The colt is mounted after its second year, after which it is fed upon barley, which is the usual provender throughout Arabia, though in Nedjed the horses are regularly fed on dates; and the wealthy inhabitants give them flesh, raw as well as boiled, and all the fragments of their own meals. In other respects they are hardly treated. They remain in the open air during the whole year, with the saddle constantly on their backs, and are not even taken under the shelter of the

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1 Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia, vol. ii. Appendix. tent in the rainy season, or during the heat of the mid-day sun; yet with all this treatment they are seldom ill. The Arabs never clean or rub their horses; but they are careful to walk them about gently on their return from a ride. They prefer mares for riding, on account of their more patient endurance of fatigue, hunger, and thirst, than horses, and because they are gentler and less vicious, and never neigh when they are lying in ambush to surprise passengers.

According to Burckhardt, the finest race of Arabian blood horses may be found in Syria; and of all the Syrian districts the breed in the Hauran is the best. But all the horses of the noble breed are not equally distinguished. Among these there are only a few, perhaps not above five or six in a whole tribe, of the first-rate class in respect to size, bone, beauty, and action. In the whole extent of the Syrian deserts there are not, according to the estimate of this traveller, more than 200, worth, even in the desert itself, about L150 or L200 each; and of these very few, if any, have ever found their way to Europe, although many horses of second and third-rate quality from Syria, Barbary, and Egypt, have been imported into England, and have passed for the pure Arabian breed. The price of horses in Syria is from L10 to L120. An Arab mare cannot be obtained under L60: a celebrated mare will often bring from L200 to L500. A mare is frequently the joint stock of two, three, four, or any greater number of proprietors; and when she has foaled, the colt is sold, and the price is divided among the proprietors. Burckhardt mentions a sheik who had a Nedjed mare, for the half of whose belly, according to the phraseology of the Arab market, he paid L400. D'Arvieux mentions an emir who "had a mare that he would not part with for 5000 crowns, because she had travelled three days and three nights without drawing bit, and by that means got him clear off from those that pursued him." A similar anecdote is told of a troop of Druses, who, having attacked an Arab encampment, were assailed by a superior force, and all killed except one man, who fled, and was pursued by some of the best mounted Bedouins. "But his mare, although fatigued, continued her speed for several hours, and could not be overtaken. Before the pursuers gave up the chase, they cried out to the fugitive, promising him quarter and safe-conduct, and begging him that he would allow them to kiss the forehead of his excellent mare. Upon his refusal they desisted from pursuing, and, blessing the generous creature, they exclaimed, addressing her owner, "Go and wash the feet of your mare, and drink up the water;" a phrase by which the Bedouins express their sense of the invaluable services rendered by those fine animals. The Arabs treat the mares which they keep for riding with invariable tenderness. They never beat them, but make much of them, reason with them, talk with them, and take all imaginable care of them. They never spur them, except in cases of peculiar urgency, when the generous animal flies over the plains with so rapid a motion that the rider is apt to be stunned. Many curious instances are given by travellers of the care and affection with which the Arabs treat their horses. An affecting anecdote is related of an Arab, who having sold the half of a mare renowned for beauty and other fine qualities, for 1200 crowns, made frequent journeys to inquire after her welfare. "I have many a time," says D'Arvieux, "had the pleasure to see him cry with tenderness, whilst he was kissing and caressing her. He would embrace her, would wipe her eyes with his handkerchief, would rub her with his shirt-sleeves, would give her a thousand blessings during whole hours that he would be talking with her. 'My eyes,' would he say to her, 'my soul, my heart, must I be so unfortunate as to have thee sold to so many masters, and not to keep thee myself? I am poor, my Antelope; I have brought thee up like a child; I never beat nor chid thee. God preserve thee, my dearest; thou art pretty, thou art sweet, thou art lovely; God defend thee from the looks of the envious!" He then embraced her, kissed her eyes, and went backwards, bidding her the most tender adieus. Another Arab, who had sold his mare and put the money in the bag, looked wistfully on the animal, and began to weep. "Shall it be possible," said he, "that, after having bred thee up in my house with so much care, and had so much service from thee, I should be delivering thee up in slavery to the Franks for thy reward!" on which he threw down the money on the table, embraced and kissed the mare, and took her back to his tent."

The camel is an invaluable animal in Arabia, being peculiarly qualified, by its power of enduring thirst and fatigue, for traversing its burning plains. The camels of the Arabian and Syrian deserts are of a smaller make than those of Anatolia or Kurdistan and other northern countries, and they have only one hump. They are used either for the purposes of riding, or for carrying heavy burdens. The smaller and more active camels, or dromedaries as they are termed, or in Arabic deloud, which are used for riding, are the same race as the heavier camels, which are employed in carrying burdens, being merely distinguished as a hunter is from a coach-horse. The common load of an Arabian camel is from 400 to 500 pounds on a short journey, and from 300 to 400 pounds when the distance is greater. The Egyptian camel, which is equal in strength to the Anatolian, will carry a load of three bales of coffee, equal to 1500 pounds, from Cairo to the water-side, a distance of three miles. The dromedary, or the riding camel, is used in travelling, though in speed it is far surpassed by the horse. Incredible stories are told of the wonderful expeditions performed by these animals. Burckhardt was assured by a Bedouin that his grandfather made a journey on a camel of 250 miles in one day; and he himself mentions that, on a wager, a camel was engaged to go in one day, between sunrise and sunset, a space of 125 miles; and actually travelled in 11 hours 115 miles, when its strength failed. The rate of speed at which a camel goes, even on a gallop, which is not his natural pace, and cannot be maintained above half an hour, is never more than 16 or 18 miles in the hour. In trotting, 12 miles an hour is the utmost limit of his speed, which may be continued for several hours. But a camel will carry his riders without interruption for several days and nights, in an easy and gentle amble, the favourite pace, at the rate of about 5 or 5½ miles in the hour, and will travel for five or six days 10 or 11 hours each day. A sort of palanquin is fixed on the backs of these camels for women, in which they are concealed from the public eye, and may stretch themselves at full length. The capacity of bearing thirst varies considerably in the different races. The Arabian camel must be watered on the evening of every fourth day. Some animals, though they may go five days without drinking, cannot be safely exposed to such a trial. The caravan routes are never at a greater distance than three or three and a half days' journey from water; but the caravans from Africa to Egypt travel, during the heat of summer, through deserts in which water is wanting, for nine or ten days; and though many camels perish, the greater number come safely to Egypt. The Turcomans

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1 Burckhardt's Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys. 2 D'Arvieux, chap. xi. and Kurds purchase every year from 8000 to 10,000 camels in the Syrian deserts, of which the greater part are brought originally from Nedjed. The price of a camel varies almost in every place. In Hedjaz a common riding camel may be bought for 50 or 60 dollars, and for some of the first quality 200 and even 300 dollars are sometimes paid.

The wild ass is found in great numbers in the country adjoining the district of Djof, to the west of Djebel Shammar, between Tobbeck, Saum, and Hedrushi, and to the south of those places. It is hunted by the Arab tribes, who eat its flesh, and sell its skin and hoofs to the pedlars of Damascus and to the people of Hauran. Out of the hoofs rings are made, which are worn by the peasants as a charm against rheumatism. The domesticated ass in Arabia, as in all the other countries of the East, is a strong, active, and spirited creature, the rival of the horse in utility, if not in beauty. It retains all the strength, swiftness, and fire of the wild animal. Arabia is not famous for horned cattle. The cow is used, however, in many places, for drawing water from the wells, and other purposes. It is small, and of a stout, bony make, with short stumps of horns, and a hump on the back over the shoulder, like the cows on the Nile and in Nubia. The northern tribes of Arabia, namely, the Aenches, and the Ahl el Shemal, possess abundance of goats and sheep. The goats are mostly black, with long ears. The sheep have not the fat tails of those that are found in some countries; their ears are rather longer than those of the common English breed. The Arabs use in their families the milk of their flocks. They also make great quantities of butter, part of which they sell to the peasants and town's people.

Arabia produces a considerable variety of birds. In the fertile provinces tame fowls abound, and all sorts of poultry. The pataalo inhabits the woods in such numbers that children kill them with stones and collect them to be sold in the towns. In the forests of Yemen pheasants abound; also the wood-pigeon, and other varieties of the same species. In the plains is found the gray partridge, the common lark, the wild goose, and a species of white crane having the under part of the belly of a beautiful red. Eagles, falcons, sparrow-hawks, and the Egyptian vulture, are the Arabian birds of prey. The last clears the country of all carrion, and also of field mice, which multiply prodigiously in some provinces. There is another bird of prey, of the thrush species, which is equally useful in pursuing and destroying the swarms of locusts with which the country is infested. There are various birds which are little known, and which are supposed to be birds of passage from India, distinguished by peculiar brilliancy of plumage. There is one which has two large and beautiful feathers, with which the Arabs adorn their caps; and another which, for its rare beauty, is sold for a high price. A beautiful lapwing is common on the shores of the Persian Gulf. The sandy tracts of the desert abound in ostriches; these are hunted by the Arabs for their feathers, which form a valuable article of trade. The ostrich inhabits both the great southern and northern deserts. They abound in the plain extending from Hauran towards the central provinces of Djebel Shammar and Nedjed. Some are seen in Hauran, and a few are taken almost every year within two days' journey of Damascus. They generally breed in the winter, and the Arabs discovering the nest, scare away the birds, when they resort to the following contrivance for destroying them:—A hole is dug in the ground near the eggs, into which the Arab places a loaded gun, with a long burning match fastened to the lock. The ostriches resume their place generally both at once on the eggs: in due time the gun is discharged, and next morning the Arabs find one or both of the ostriches laid dead beside the eggs. The feathers are sold at from L.2. 6s. to L.2. 10s. per pound, and the finest at from one to two shillings each. In places where there is water, plovers and storks abound; and sea-fowls, feeding on fish, are numerous on the coasts of the Red Sea, which is deep, and copiously stored with their food. Here, and on the isles along the shore, the pelican is to be found.

The heat of the climate favours the breed of serpents, some of which only are dangerous, while others are perfectly harmless. The only one that is truly formidable is a small slender creature, with black and white spots, whose bite is followed by instant death, and an extraordinary swelling of the body from the malignity of the poison. Of the insects in Arabia, the most remarkable as well as the most destructive is the locust, which flies in swarms that darken the air, and with a frightful and stunning noise, such as is made by a water-fall. The fields are entirely despoiled of their verdure by these insects. The pulse and the date trees are also greatly injured; but the corn, when it is nearly ripe, resists, by its hardness, their attacks. Locusts are found in all parts of the Arabian deserts. They come invariably from the East,—from the waters of the Persian Gulf, according to the notions of the rude Arabs. In the central province of Nedjed they not only destroy the produce of the fields, but penetrate by thousands into private dwellings, where they devour whatever they can find, even to the leather of the water-vessels. In the peninsula of Sinai the inhabitants are driven to despair by swarms of locusts, which consume the fruits of the earth. All the Arab tribes, as well as the inhabitants of towns, are accustomed to eat this insect; and at Medina and Tayf there are shops in which they are sold by measure. After being salted, whole sacks are filled with them. The destructive insect the white ant, which preys upon victuals, clothes, furniture, and the leaves of trees, is common. There is another ant, whose bite is like that of the scorpion, although it is not dangerous. The scolopendra affects those whom it attacks with burning pains. It fixes its feet so firmly in the flesh that it cannot be got out but by burning the part with a hot iron. Other insects destroy reeds and stalks of corn, and make their way into houses. There are many species of crabs, some of them peculiar to the Red Sea, which are excellent, and, but for the peculiar aversion of the Muslims to shell-fish, would afford a wholesome subsistence. At Suez they form almost the sole food of the Copts.

Arabia has never been noted for its minerals. It was supposed by the ancients, who had the most exaggerated ideas of its wealth and produce, to abound in precious stones, as well as gold and silver. Except it be the onyx, which is found in Yemen, and the carnelian, it produces no other stones of value; iron ore seems to be abundant in parts of Yemen, and indications of many other minerals have been found in Hadhramaut. There are mines of fossil salt among the mountains, which were formerly worked, but are now neglected; and the iron of Yemen is found to be of a coarse quality and brittle. In Oman are very rich lead mines, the produce of which is largely exported from the harbour of Mascat, in the Persian Gulf.

Burckhardt, whose posthumous work contains the most ample and satisfactory details of Arabian manners, gives a tribe. particular classification of the Bedouin tribes. Those who inhabit northern Arabia distinguish into two classes; namely, the Aenezes, who migrate with the spring and summer to the fertile parts of Syria, and return with the winter to the desert; and others, who remain the whole year in the vicinity of the cultivated tracts. The Aenezes, reckoning their brethren in Nedjed, form one of the most powerful associations of shepherds in the Arabian deserts. They levy contributions on the Syrian villages, as well as on the pilgrim caravan in its passage from the desert to Mecca; and their numbers are estimated at from 300,000 to 350,000, and their military force at 10,000 horsemen, and from 90,000 to 100,000 camel-riders.

There are numerous other tribes in northern Arabia, scattered along the frontiers of Syria and the banks of the Euphrates. They are not so migratory in their habits as the Aenezes, with whom several of them carry on the most deadly strife, while others pay a yearly tribute to all the chief Aeneze tribes, and in some cases to the pasha of Damascus. Many of them cultivate the land though they dwell in tents; and those on the borders of Syria carry their produce of milk, butter, and cheese to the market of Aleppo. There are other tribes that range over the country to the south, over the mountains that run in a direction parallel to the Red Sea as far as Medina and Mecca, or in the interior plains and mountains of Djebel Shammar, Kasym, and Nedjed. Some of those tribes, as the Beni Shammar, can muster from 3000 to 4000 men, armed with matchlocks; others, such as Meteyr, who occupy the fruitful pastures of Nedjed, 1200 horse, and from 6000 to 8000 matchlocks. The country from Kasym towards Medina and Mecca, and the coast southward from Yembo to Djidda and Leith, for about 250 miles, is inhabited by the Beni Harb, which, next to the Aenezes, is the most powerful tribe in Arabia. They can muster from 30,000 to 40,000 men, armed with matchlocks. The Harbs are partly settlers and partly Bedouins. They may be styled the masters of the Hedjaz, and were the last tribe in those countries that yielded to the Wahaby arms. They take a yearly tribute from the Egyptian and Syrian caravans; and they extend their predatory inroads against the encampments of the Aenezes to the vicinity of Damascus. On the sea coast, where the territory is poor, they derive a subsistence from fishing; and many of them are sailors, and act as pilots between Yembo and Djidda. But these tribes, from their intercourse with the inhabitants of towns, and their maritime habits, are regarded with disdain by the genuine Arabs. To the east of Mecca and Tayf, in the fruitful pastures of the interior, resides the brave and powerful tribe of Ateybe, the inveterate enemies of the Beni Harb, who can muster a force of 10,000 matchlocks. In the neighbourhood of Mecca are many well-known tribes, now reduced to about 250 or 300 matchlocks. The tribe of Koreish, so famous in the Arabian annals, who encamp near Mount Arafat, now amount only to 300 matchlock-men. The tribe of Adouan, which 40 years ago mustered about 1000 matchlocks, and were celebrated all over Arabia for their valour and hospitality, are now reduced to 100 families. It is to this tribe that the reigning sherifs of Mecca send their children to be educated. In the mountainous region between Mecca and Tayf reside the warlike tribes of the Hodhieyl, mustering 1000 matchlocks, famed as excellent marksman, brave soldiers, and daring high-way robbers; the Toweyrek, who muster 500 matchlocks, and have the character of dexterous thieves; and the Theryf, who possess the garden country around Tayf, and the other equally fertile valleys on the eastern declivity of the Arabia's great Hedjaz chain of mountains. The wealth of these mountain tribes consists in flocks of sheep and goats. They suffered severely, especially the Hodhieyl, in their obstinate but unavailing resistance to the Wahabys. From Tayf southward, along the eastern face of the great chain of mountains to Sana, are several ancient and powerful tribes, renowned in Arabian history. Some are partly cultivators and partly Bedouins. The Beni Khahtan and the Beni Sad are famous from the most remote antiquity. The former is exclusively pastoral, abounding in camels above any other tribe of the desert. Some of these southern tribes can muster from 500 to 1500 matchlocks. They are brave and warlike, and they extend from the mountains over the eastern and western plains. The tribe of Asyr can assemble 15,000 men, armed with matchlocks. Of the various tribes scattered over the mountains of El Shehr or Mahra, and the countries that are washed by the Persian Gulf, we have no detailed or accurate accounts. The tribes in the mountains are, however, in general employed in agriculture; many of them live in tents, and descend in spring into the neighbouring plains for pasture to their flocks. The cultivators dispose of their produce, which is abundant, in the towns on the coast.

Arabia has been celebrated from time immemorial as Massen the seat of independence and of pastoral simplicity, and it is perhaps the only country in the world which, until it was lately overrun by the troops of Mohammed Ali, was never profaned by foreign conquest. Mountains and deserts, as is well observed by Sir John Malcolm, have been in all ages the sanctuaries of the brave and the free; and thither the hardy Arabs, when pressed by powerful armies, have always fled to enjoy freedom and independence. On the sea coasts and in the towns the Arab character has been corrupted by commerce and a free intercourse with foreigners; but in those secure recesses the ancient manners of the country are still to be found. The genuine inhabitants of the desert unite the character of shepherds and soldiers. They live in tents, and they subsist by maintaining flocks of sheep and camels, and also cows and horses. The larger tribes are chiefly employed in rearing camels, which they either sell to their neighbours, or employ in the carriage of goods or in military expeditions. The petty tribes maintain flocks of sheep. They disdain the cultivation of the ground, as an employment degrading to a pure Arab, and which they accordingly leave to the inferior race of peasantry and slaves. These Bedouins live the usual vagrant life of shepherds, emigrating from one place to another with the change of the seasons, in quest of pasturage, and transporting their dwellings along with them; so that a village arises often in a situation where, an hour before, not a hut was to be seen. The genuine Arabs, who live constantly in the open air, acquire a remarkable acuteness in all their senses. Their powers of vision and of hearing improve by constant exercise; and on the vast plains of the desert objects invisible to a less practised eye are at once seen by them. Their sense of smelling is extremely acute; and their dislike to a town life is occasioned by the nauseous exhalations which are produced among such a dense collection of people. The Arabs possess the same faculty of nicely distinguishing on the sand the footsteps of men and beasts which the American Indians distinguish on the grass. To such perfection have they arrived in this art, that an Arab will at once recognise the footstep of any one of his own or of some neighbouring tribe; he will know

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1 History of Persia. whether the person carried a load; whether he passed the same day, or a day or two before; whether, from a certain irregularity in the steps, he was fatigued, had come from a distance, and how far he has any chance of overtaking him. He knows at once the footsteps of his own camel—whether it was heavily loaded, or mounted only by one or more persons. A keen Arab guide has his eye constantly on the footsteps which he sees; and Burckhardt mentions that he has seen a man discover and trace the footsteps of his camel amid thousands of other footsteps crossing the road in every direction, and, by an inspection of the footsteps, tell the name of every person who had passed there in the course of the morning.

Many secret robberies are brought to light by this power of nice observation. Instances have been known of stolen camels found after a journey of six days; and so long as the traces of men or camels can be seen on the sand by the practised Arab's discriminating eye, robberies are almost sure of detection. So thoroughly are the Bedouins inured to fatigue and the want of water, that they will wander about five days without tasting it, and will at last discover a pit of water by examining the soil and plants in the environs. They ride on horses and camels, and are continually armed with a lance, a sabre, and sometimes a matchlock or a pistol. Some of them wear coats of mail. All those wandering shepherds are addicted to violence, and to the fierce habits of a military life. They are either engaged in open war about their wells or pasture grounds, or in plundering excursions or secret robberies, which they do not consider to be in any degree criminal; and no more flattering title can be conferred on an Arabian youth than that of robber. The defenceless traveller, whom they despise from afar on the level plain, is marked out for their prey. He is seized, stript of every thing, and left naked in the desert. If he resists, and more especially if he sheds the blood of a Bedouin, they take his life. But the Arab plunders sometimes strangers and neighbours, enemies and friends, provided they are not actually in his own tent; in general, thieves convicted of robbery against a fellow clansman are expelled from their tribe and outlawed, a punishment which they fear more than death. Associations are frequently formed for the plunder of caravans, or of the cultivators who dwell in villages, whose cattle they carry off; and sometimes, though very rarely, their young women. In those cases they proceed with a considerable force. Their chief object, however, being still plunder, the great point of Arab tactics is to surprise the enemy's encampment, and to carry off the cattle and the camels. They seldom engage in any sanguinary conflicts; for though the Arab, in facing the enemies of his country, behaves like a brave soldier, he is a mere poitroon in his plundering expeditions; and the caravan travellers and peasants frequently put to flight three times their own number of those wandering robbers. In undertaking an expedition for plunder at the distance of ten or twenty days' journey, every horseman who is of the party chooses a companion, who is mounted on a young and strong camel, and who carries a provision of food and water. He mounts behind this companion, that his mare may be fresh and vigorous at the moment of attack. In approaching the enemy's camp, the horsemen advance, leaving their followers and the camels behind, with instructions to await their arrival. The horsemen are sometimes all destroyed in the expedition; and they are at other times separated from their followers who carry the provisions, and either inevitably perish in the barren plain, or submit to be stript and plundered by their enemies. In the most invererate wars of the Arabs the women are invariably respected; and neither men, women, nor slaves, are taken prisoners. Night attacks are generally avoided, lest during the confusion the women's apartments should be entered, which would produce a desperate resistance, and probably in the end a general massacre—an extremity which the Arabs always try to avoid. The attack of a camp seldom occasions any great loss of lives, because no opposition is offered to superior numbers; and a Bedouin, except in avenging blood, never puts to death an unresisting foe. In flying from his enemy, an Arab may save his life by throwing himself from his horse and asking for mercy; but he saves it at the expense of his honour, and loses his horse and all his clothes, while his enemy will ever after triumph over him. The more spirited of the Arabs defy their adversary, while he pursues them, calling out repeatedly, "Howel, howel," get down, get down, and who, when his call is not obeyed, wounds or kills his enemy with a thrust of his lance. Among some of the Arab tribes it is the practice to steal unobserved on the enemy's encampment during the night, and knocking down the principal tent-poles, to drive off the cattle amid the confusion.

But the Arabs often undertake merely thieving expeditions, in which they steal from friend and foe. The mode in which these are conducted affords some curious details of manners. In such enterprises ten or twelve persons usually engage, and clothe themselves in rags, to make their ransom easier if they should be taken. When they approach the camp which they intend to rob, three of the most daring advance about midnight, when its inmates, who seldom plant sentinels, are buried in sleep. One of the thieves now endeavours to excite the attention of the watch-dogs. When they attack him he flies, and draws them off to a great distance, by which the camp is left unprotected. Another, called el haramy, or the robber, advancing towards the camels that are upon their knees before the tent, cuts the strings that confine their legs, when they rise and walk, as all unloaded camels do, without the least noise. One of the she camels being then led out of the camp, all the others follow. The third actor in the robbery watches at the tent door with a long and heavy bludgeon, with which he knocks down any of the inmates who may come forth. It often happens that as many as fifty camels are stolen in this manner, and driven away by forced marches during the night to a safe distance. In many cases, however, the robbers are surrounded and seized; and the mode of treating these prisoners is extremely curious, and is a proof how powerfully these fierce barbarians are influenced by prejudice and immemorial usage. It is an established custom among the Arabs, that if any person who is in actual danger from another can touch a third person, or any inanimate thing which the other has in his hands, or if he can touch him by spitting or throwing a stone at him, and at the same time exclaims "I am thy protector," he is bound to grant him the protection which he requires. This law, however absurd and capricious, seems naturally to arise out of scenes of violence, the evils of which it is calculated to soften. A prisoner detected in the act of plundering anxiously looks about for a protector, while the inmates of the tent are equally desirous to deprive him of this privilege. The person who first seizes him demands on what business he is come, accompanying his question by blows on the head. "I came to rob—God has overthrown me," is the common answer. The captor (the robat), binding the hands and feet of his prisoner, and calling in the people of his tribe, addresses him, saying, "renounce;" and the robber, fearing a continuation of the blows, answers, "I renounce," namely, the benefit of any protector. But this renunciation being only valid for a day, the prisoner is secured in a hole dug in the ground, about two feet deep, and large enough to contain him. Here he is laid, his feet chained to the earth, his hands tied, and his twisted hair fastened to two stakes on both sides of his head. Some tent-poles are then laid across this temporary grave, and corn-sacks and other heavy articles heaped upon them; a small opening being only left, through which he may breathe. Thus buried alive, the prisoner does not despair; and customs that are established among the Arabs sometimes favour his escape. If from his hole he can contrive to spit into the face of a man or a child, or if he receive a morsel of bread from a child, he claims the privilege of being protected. His mother or his sister sometimes contrive to enter the camp in which he is confined, in the disguise of a beggar. Approaching during the night the hole where he lies confined, and throwing a thread of worsted over his face, they guide it to his mouth, or fasten it to his foot; and by this token he knows that help is at hand. The woman winding off the thread, retires to some neighbouring tent, and awakening the owner, and placing the thread on his breast, addresses him in these words: "Look on me by the love thou bearest to God and thy own self—this is under thy protection." The Arab comprehends at once the object of this nocturnal visit, rises, winds up the thread, and being thus guided to the tent of the prisoner, awakens the captor, and showing the thread still held by the prisoner, claims him as his "protected." The right of freedom is at once allowed; the thongs which tied his hair are cut, his fetters are taken off, and he is entertained by the captor as his guest with all the honours of Arab hospitality. A prisoner sometimes remains for six months under this rigorous custody, always concealing his real name, and giving himself out for a poor beggar. He is generally discovered, however, when he must pay as a ransom all his property in horses, camels, sheep, tents, provisions, and baggage. In many cases a sum is agreed upon for his ransom, and he goes to his tribe to collect it, or find a surety for the payment. If he cannot collect the necessary sum among his friends, he is bound to go back to his prison; and he seldom fails either to pay or to return. A father considers his son to have acquired high honour in being detained as a robber, and he willingly redeems him with his whole property, which he hopes to recover in some future expedition.

Nobility of Arabia. The Arabs are remarkable above all the nations of the earth for the spirit of clanship and for pride of family. The sheikhs, or the rulers and nobles who govern Arabia, glory in their ancestry, which they can trace with undoubted accuracy to a long line of princes. Nobility of birth, which cannot be communicated by the smile of kings, is the true distinction of the Arabian aristocracy; and no sheikh would exchange his title for any distinction depending on court favour. Those genuine nobles, who dwell in tents, look with contempt on the dwellers in cities, as a race debased by foreign alliances, which they hold in such contempt, that a sheikh, if he were forced from poverty to marry his daughter to a citizen, would consider himself disgraced by the match. Besides the sheikhs there are the sherifs or sejids, or, in the Mahometan countries to the north of Arabia, the emirs. These are the descendants of Mahomet, who hold the first rank among the great families of Arabia, and who receive the double honour that is due to splendid descent and superior sanctity. The title of sherif distinguishes them from the sheikhs, the common order of Arabian nobility. They are multiplied over all Mahometan countries. Whole villages are peopled with them, and they are frequently found in the lowest state of misery. The sherifs of the Hedjaz, who were once numerous, but are now reduced to a few families in Mecca, have never contaminated their pure blood by strange alliances; and they are esteemed above all the other descendants of the prophet. The presence of a sherif commands universal respect. In a fray no arm would violate his person; his property requires no protection; the sanctity of his character supplies the place of bolts and bars, and scares away the boldest thieves.

From these sherifs are chosen the rulers of Mecca and its adjacent territories, extending for about 250 miles along the coast, from Yembo on the north, to Haly or Gomfode on the south. Before the country was conquered by the Wahabys, and again by the Turkish troops under Mohammed Ali, they possessed the power of sovereigns within their dominions; and though they held their authority ostensibly under the grand signior, being installed in their office by an investiture of a pelisse from Constantinople, thus formally acknowledging themselves his servants, and praying for him in the great mosque, they were in reality elected by the powerful sherif families resident at Mecca, and they ruled according to the constitutional maxims of the desert, merely as Bedouin chiefs. The Arab tribes looked upon them as one of their own sheikhs, the head of the family or clan; and they followed them in war under their own immediate chiefs, without receiving pay. In this manner Ghaleb, the last sherif, was accompanied in his wars against the Wahabys by 6000 or 8000 Bedouin Arabs. A system of well-regulated freedom was not to be expected from the rude policy of wandering shepherds, and the Arab chiefs accordingly own no restraint on their authority. But the rigour of despotic sway is softened by the influence of manners; and the independent princes of Mecca, in the pride of sovereignty, still acknowledge the ties which bind them to the simple Bedouins of the desert. The sherif descendants of Mahomet who reside at Mecca retain a singular practice of sending every male child, eight days after it is born, to the tents of some wandering tribe. Here he remains till his 8th or 10th year, when he is able to mount a steed, and sometimes till his 13th or 15th year. During all this period he only pays one short visit to his father's house, in his sixth month, when his foster-mother returns with him to her tribe. The boy is trained by those shepherds in all warlike exercises; he shares in their hardships and perils, is familiarized with their manners, and acquires their pure language, and a lasting influence over them; while his affections, awakened at an age when the mind is peculiarly susceptible, still attach him to the scenes of the desert and the companions of his youth. The tent of a Bedouin shepherd is in this manner the constitutional school of an Arabian prince, in which he imbibes the maxims by which he afterwards rules the state. Some of the sherif boys become so fond of their foster-parents that they can scarcely be reconciled to their fathers' house; and they have been sometimes known, after being settled at home, to escape to their friends in the desert. "The Bedouins," says Burckhardt, "in whose tent a sherif had been educated, were ever after treated by him with the same respect as his own parents or brethren: he called them respectively father, mother, brother. Whenever they came to Mecca they lodged at his house, and never left it without receiving presents. He considered himself during his life as belonging to the encampment in which he had passed his early years; he termed its inhabitants 'our people,' or 'our family,' took the kindest interest in their various fortunes; and, when at leisure, often paid them a visit during the spring months, and sometimes accompanied them in their wanderings and their wars." Sheriff Ghaleb, whose reign was terminated by Mohammed Ali in 1815, was remarkably attentive to his Bedouin friends. They alighted at his house in Mecca just as they alight at the tent of a sheik in any Arab encampment of the desert; and when they departed, their sacks were filled with provisions for the road. On their arrival he used to rise from his seat and embrace them, though they were in the same mean attire as the other inhabitants of the desert. Many of the sherifs are also married to Bedouin girls.

A sherif was generally succeeded by his relative, whether son, brother, or cousin, who had the strongest party, or the public voice in his favour; but it was seldom that an election took place without a violent contest, which frequently ended in bloodshed and civil broils. These, however, were carried on according to the laws of the desert, and they were seldom of long duration. The happiness of the people under these sherifs always depends on the personal character of the ruler. There are no tribunals to which the oppressed can fly for redress, and a sherif may harass his subjects to any extent by his extortions. He may imprison the refractory, and even put them to death, without endangering his authority. Such is the despotic character of all eastern governments.

In the Ottoman provinces the dignity of sherif is less respected, though even in Turkey they enjoy some substantial privileges. In the towns where they reside, the sherif or emir is subject, not to the pacha, but to a member of his own family, who is denominated nakib or general of the sherifs. Besides the sheiks and sherifs there is another branch of nobility at Mecca, who have an hereditary right to certain employments at the mosque, and who have a strong inducement to preserve an exact record of their genealogy. These are certain families descended from the tribe of Koreish, who hold the office of keeper of the keys of Kaaba, which is the most important office about the mosque, and was often an object of contention among the ancient Arabian tribes; and others who are mutifs, or are employed in other capacities, and who, to preserve their title to these envied privileges, can show a faithful record of their ancestors for ten centuries back. There were formerly 12 other illustrious families of the tribe of Koreish, who are now reduced to three.

Arabia is divided into numerous petty states, governed by independent chiefs or sheiks, who are, strictly speaking, the heads of families; and the paternal government thus supplies the model of the Arabian institutions. The father is in all cases the natural ruler of his own family; and though the tie be necessarily weakened as families multiply, yet the relations of kindred and of blood are still acknowledged, and all the descendants unite in paying respect and reverence to their common head. An assemblage of families constitutes a tribe; and all the sheiks of the same tribe acknowledge a common chief, who is called the scheik es scheich, or the sheik of sheiks, or the grand scheik or prince, who rules over the whole. The dignity of the grand scheik is hereditary in the family; but it is so far elective that he is chosen by the inferior sheiks, from the whole members of the reigning family, without regard to seniority or lineal succession: his only distinction is his qualification for the office. The right of election, as well as other privileges which belong to the inferior sheiks, obliges the grand scheik to treat them rather as associates than as subjects, and in some measure to share with them his sovereign authority. If they are aggrieved by him, they depose him, or emigrate with their cattle to other tribes; and in this manner many powerful tribes have been weakened, while the number and the power of others have been augmented.

The sheik has in fact no acknowledged or formal authority over his tribe. His commands would be treated with contempt, and his advice only is received with the deference due to experience and talent. "The prerogative of the sheik," says Burckhardt, "consists in leading his tribe against an enemy, in conducting negotiations for peace or war, in fixing the spot for encampments, in entertaining strangers of note; and even these privileges are much limited. The sheik cannot declare war or conclude peace without consulting the chief men of his tribe. If he wish to break up the camp, he must previously ask the opinions of his people concerning the security of the roads, and the sufficiency of pasture and water in the districts to which he directs his view. Thus he strikes his tent and loads his camels without desiring any one to do so; but when they know that the sheik is setting out, his Arabs hasten to join him." The Arabs are jealous of authority, and their freedom borders on anarchy. The Bedouin acknowledges no master but the Lord of the universe; and the most powerful chief, by inflicting punishment on the poorest man of his tribe, is exposed to the mortal vengeance of himself or his relations. A sheik, in place of deriving a yearly income from his tribe, is bound to show liberality, especially in his treatment of strangers; to maintain the poor, and to divide among his friends whatever presents he may receive. The only revenue possessed by the northern chiefs is the tribute which they extort from the Syrian villages, and from the pilgrim caravan to Mecca. Among the numerous principalities in the south of Arabia, the sheik or imam imposes a land tax and a poll tax, also port and transit duties on all articles of merchandise, some of which, as on coffee, are very heavy. These duties on goods are not, as they have been sometimes considered, a mere ransom from pillage, but a tax and an acknowledgement of the paramount authority of the prince. Among so many petty sovereignties wars frequently arise, from the ambition or jarring interests of the different chiefs. The more powerful princes frequently oppress their weaker neighbours; and in the fertile districts of the country extensive monarchies have arisen from conquest or religious prejudices, on the ruin of the smaller states. Of these are the dominions of the sherif of Mecca, and of the imams of Sana and Mascat; many sherifs are under the control of the Bedouins. In some cases these smaller states have associated for their common defence; and, from the disunion or hostility of its various tribes, the country has been in all ages a scene of rapine and intestine wars. In later times the rise of the Wahaby power crushed all the inferior chiefs, and on their ruins had arisen a powerful empire, which was overthrown by the Egyptian army of Mohammed Ali.

The Arabs, though they enjoy a rude independence, Adminis. have made little progress in the arts and institutions of civil life. In administering justice, they resort to the justice most barbarous expedients. The sheik has not the power of enforcing obedience to any sentence if it is not agreed to by the parties. The kady, so often mentioned by the Arabian writers, is the only judge; and such of them as still remain are famed for being expert in the laws and customs of the nation, and for their integrity. The office of kady continues in one family, but is not confined to any individual, a choice being made of the fittest person in the family by the other kadys of friendly tribes, as well as by the people of his own tribe. The kady is paid by the litigating parties; but all the judges, especially those in towns, are open to bribery, and justice is sold to the highest bidder. In cases where the witnesses directly

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1 Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia, vol. ii. p. 127. Arabia. contradict each other; some superstitious ordeal is used to discover the truth. A particular judge is appointed for cases which must be decided by supernatural means. He directs that a fire shall be kindled before him: "he then," says Burckhardt, "takes a long iron spoon, used by the Arabs in roasting coffee, and having made it red-hot in the fire, he takes it out, and licks with his tongue the upper end of the spoon on both sides. He then replaces it in the fire, and commands the accused person first to wash his mouth with water, and next to lick it as he had done. If the accused escape without injury to his tongue he is supposed innocent; if he suffer from the hot iron he loses his cause. The Arabs ascribed this wonderful escape, not to the Almighty protector of innocence, but to the devil." In all cases of manslaughter or murder where the fact is denied, this superstitious ordeal is appealed to, and no other mode of trial admitted. Where the parties refuse the decision of the judge, they resume their original right of avenging their own quarrel; and a strife of this nature once begun, and producing blood-shed, leads to a long series of cruel retaliations.

Among the Arabs crimes of every description are punished by fines; corporal punishments are entirely unknown; and there are no prisons to circumscribe the freedom of the desert. For every offence a fine is fixed in the kady's court, which is rigidly exacted: all insulting expressions or acts of violence, from a slight blow to wounding and the effusion of blood, have their respective penalties. They adopt the following singular mode of ascertaining the fine payable for killing a watch-dog: The dead dog is held up by the tail, so that its mouth just touches the ground; its length is then measured by means of a stick, which is fixed in the earth, and the offender is obliged to pour out over the stick as much wheat as will wholly cover it, which is then given to the owner of the dog. The form observed by an Arab in summoning witnesses is by exclaiming, "Bear thou witness, O ——," or he may touch their arms with his hand, which is considered as a summons to give testimony. Where a party is accused of a crime, and there are no witnesses, the matter is referred to his oath. The judicial oaths of the Arabs have different degrees of sanctity; and for certain oaths they have a superstitious veneration, which induces them to tell the truth. One of the most common oaths is for a party to take hold with one hand of the middle tent-pole, and to swear "by the life of this tent and its owners." The following oath is often taken before the kady: A small piece of wood or some straw is presented to him who has to swear, with these words, "Take the wood, and swear by God, and the life of him who caused it to be green, and dried it up." Another oath, even more solemn, is the "oath of the cross lines," where the accuser leads the person accused of theft or any other crime to a distance from the camp, on account of the magical nature of the oath; and with his crooked knife drawing on the sand a large circle, with many cross lines inside of it, and obliging the defendant to place his right foot within the circle, he himself doing the same, he addresses him in the following words, which the accused is obliged to repeat: "By God, and in God, and through God, I swear I did not take it, and it is not in my possession."

A singular institution, that of the wady or guardian, prevails among the Arab tribes. An Arab may in the prime of life request a friend to act as guardian to his children. If he accepts the trust, his friend presents himself before him with a she-camel; and leading it over to him, says, "I constitute you guardian for my children, and your children for my children, and your grandchildren for my grandchildren." In this manner one family is constituted the hereditary protectors of another family; and thus this fierce and warlike community, the prey of continual dissension, is held together by its own peculiar ties, domestic as well as political. To the weak, such as minors, women, and old men, the system of guardianship affords some security, however imperfect, against the oppression of the strong.

The Arabs are naturally a jealous and haughty people. They betray the quickest sensibility to an affront or injury, and carry the principle of revenge to the greatest excess. They consider the redress of their own wrongs as equally a duty and a privilege; and there are certain affronts and trifling violations of punctilio, which can only be expiated by the blood of the offender. To spit beside another is considered an insult which must be avenged; and Niebuhr mentions the case of an Arab who was so highly incensed at one of his neighbours for accidentally spitting on his beard, that he was with great difficulty appeased, although the offender humbly asked pardon, and kissed his beard in token of submission. If one scheik says to another with a serious air, "Thy bonnet is dirty," or "The wrong side of thy turban is out," it is considered a mortal offence. Murder is the deepest injury that can be committed; and the Arab code regulates the revenge for blood by the nicest rules. It is a universal maxim, that he who sheds blood owes on that account blood to the family of the slain person; and this debt may be required not only from the actual murderer, but from all his relations. These claims constitute the right of thar, or of "blood revenge." In the case of a slain parent, the fifth generation of his lineal descendants inherit the sacred duty of avenging his blood on a corresponding series of descendants on the other side; and this right is never lost by prescription, but descends to the latest posterity. If the death of the person killed is retaliated on one only of the murderer's family, the account is considered to be cleared, though mutual hatred soon renews the quarrel. If two of the murderer's family be killed by the relations of the deceased, the former retaliates; "the interest and principal of the bloody debt," says the great Roman historian, "are accumulated; the individuals of either family lead a life of malice and suspicion; and fifty years may sometimes elapse before the account of vengeance be finally settled." But a murder may be compounded for money. The nearest relations of the persons slain may accept the price of blood, which varies among the different tribes from 1000 piasters, or L50, to 500 piasters. Among the Aenezes the blood of one of the tribe is compensated by 50 she-camels, one riding camel, a mare, a black stone, a coat of mail, and a gun; though it is seldom that all these articles are required; that of a stranger by the price paid in the stranger's tribe. The matter being finally settled, a she-camel is brought by the homicide to the tent of his adversary, and there killed, the blood being supposed to expiate that of the person slain. The hostile parties feast upon this camel; and at parting, the homicide flourishes a white handkerchief on his lance, as an emblem of his purity from guilt. Some of the great scheiks, however, account it shameful, and contrary to the true spirit of the Arab law, to compound the price of blood; and they invariably refuse to commute into a fine the sacred duty of revenge. Niebuhr mentions that he was visited by an Arabian of distinction at Loheia, who was bound to avenge the murder of a relation, and who told him that he was often haunted in his sleep by the fear of meeting his enemy. In the course of the continual wars in which the Arabs are involved, debts of blood are frequently incurred. The blood of those who are killed in the heat of battle is required at the hands of their The tent of the Arab is covered with pieces of stuff made of goats' hair stitched together, which afford a complete shelter against the heaviest rain. The tent is divided into two parts, one for the men, and the other for the women, whose respective apartments are separated by a white woollen carpet of Damascus manufacture, drawn across the tent, and fastened to the three middle parts. The men's apartment is covered with a good Persian or Bagdad carpet; the women's apartment is the receptacle for all the rubbish of the tent, the cooking utensils, the butter, and water-skins, &c. The height of the tent is seven feet, its length from 25 to 30 feet, and its breadth about 10 feet. The articles of the tent consist of saddles and camel furnishings; large bags for holding water, made of tanned camel-skin; goat-skins for holding camel's milk, wheat-sacks made of wool or goat-hair; the leather bucket for bringing up water from deep wells; a large copper, the mortar, the hand-mill, wooden dishes, the coffee-pot, the iron chain which fastens the horse's fore-feet while he pastures about the camp. They have no chairs throughout the East, the universal practice being to sit cross-legged. In the Arabian towns the houses are built of stone, and have always terrace roofs. The houses of the tribes on the banks of the Euphrates are formed of the branches of the date-tree, and have a round roof covered with rush mats.

The dress of the Arabs is a coarse cotton shirt, over which the wealthy throw a long gown of silk or cotton stuff. Most of them, however, only wear over their shirt a thin, light, and white woollen mantle, or one of a coarser or heavier kind, striped white and brown. The mantles worn by the sheikhs are interwoven with gold, and sometimes may be worth L.10 sterling. Some of the most considerable tribes, as the Aenezes, do not wear drawers, which are reckoned shameful for a man; and they usually walk and ride barefooted, even the richest of them, although they greatly esteem yellow boots and red shoes. They wear on their head a square kerchief of cotton; a few rich sheikhs wear shawls of Damascus or of Bagdad manufacture. In winter they wear over the shirt a pelisse made of several sheep-skins stitched together. Many wear these skins even in summer, as they are taught by experience that thick clothing is a defence against the sun's rays. The Arab endures with wonderful constancy the extremes both of heat and cold. In winter he sleeps barefooted in an open tent, where the fire is not kept up beyond midnight; and in summer on the burning sand, under the intense rays of the sun. The dress of the women consists of a wide cotton gown of a dark colour—blue, brown, or black—and on their heads a kerchief. Silver rings are much worn by the Aeneze women, both in their ears and noses. They wear glass or silver bracelets, of various colours, round their wrists and their ankles, and silver chains about the neck. They go barefooted at all seasons. The women wear over their faces a dark-coloured veil, which conceals the mouth and chin. Near Mecca and Tayf, and beyond these places southward, both men and women dress most commonly in leather. They both wear a leather apron round their loins, the women a larger one than the men, reaching down to their ankles, and adorned with many tassels. In summer the men wear no other clothing.

The diet of the Arabs consists everywhere of flour and butter, variously made ready. Unleavened paste of flour and water, baked in ashes of camel's dung, and mixed up afterwards with a little butter, and thoroughly kneaded, is served up in a bowl of wood and leather. Flour and sour camel's milk, made into a paste and boiled (the ayesh), is the daily and universal dish of the Aenezes. Bread baked in cakes is used at breakfast. Bread, butter, and dates, are also mixed together into a paste. Burghut, the common dish of the Syrian Arabs, is wheat boiled with some leaves, and then dried in the sun; it is preserved for a year, and served up with butter and oil. The Arabs never indulge in luxuries, except on a festival, or the arrival of some stranger; and the richest sheikh would think it a shame to order his wife to dress any rare dish merely to please his palate. For a guest of distinction a kid or lamb is prepared, and for one of less consideration coffee or bread with melted butter. In Hedjaz, or the hilly district of Arabia near the Red Sea, the usual dish is Indian rice, mixed with lentils, and without any bread; and in the districts where the date grows it forms the chief sustenance of the inhabitants. In Nedjed, Hedjaz, and Yemen, the Arabs use butter to excess. They frequently swallow a whole cupful of butter before breakfast, and all their food swims in butter. The constant exercise and motion to which they are accustomed so strengthens their powers of digestion, that they can endure without injury the extremes of excess and want. They can live for months on the smallest allowance, or devour at a sitting the flesh of half a lamb. Butter is made from the milk of sheep and goats; but never, except in cases of necessity, from that of camels. Among many of the Arab tribes it is considered shameful to sell any butter, or among the Bedouins near Mecca to sell milk; yet the Beni-Korish, one of the most noble of the Arabian tribes, freely supply the inhabitants of Mecca with milk.

Hospitality, the virtue of rude nations, is practised among all the Arab tribes, and no violation of its duties was ever known. When a stranger alights at the tent, the host, or in his absence the wife or daughter, spreads a carpet for him and prepares the hospitable meal. If he remains any time his aid is expected in the domestic business of the tent, in fetching water, milking the camel, or feeding the horse. But he may neglect these duties and still remain, though he will be censured for ingratitude; or he may go to another tent, where he will receive a hearty welcome; and every third or fourth day may change his residence, and be comfortably entertained during his stay, however long it may be. The greatest insult that can be offered to an Arab, is to tell him that he does not treat his guests well. Among some tribes women never eat or drink coffee in the presence of a man; and in this case some male relation, in the absence of the host, does the duties of hospitality. In the plain of Haurn, southward of Damascus, the wives and daughters of the Arabs may drink coffee with the strangers upon their arrival; and in the mountainous districts south of Mecca, towards Yemen, women are allowed, in the absence of their husbands, to entertain a guest, and to sit up with him.

The Arabs are not so dissolute in their morals as most of the nations in the East. They are generally content marriage with one wife; instances of conjugal infidelity are not common, and public prostitution is not seen in their camps. Yet they are far from being duly impressed with the sacred tie of marriage, which may be at any time dissolved at the pleasure of the husband; and this facility of divorce relaxes morality, though, to some extent, the manners correct the laws. A Bedouin, aware that a divorce is always in his power, contracts a temporary marriage of a few weeks; and it is not uncommon for a man, before he has attained the age of 40 or 45, to have had 50 wives. The wife also, if she is ill used, may fly for refuge to her father's tent, whence she cannot be reclaimed by her husband. Yet among the Bedouins many instances are found of conjugal fidelity and love. This rash dissolution of the marriage union is frequently fatal to the peace of one or of both parties. In 1815, Burckhardt mentions that a Bedouin of the Syrian desert, who had divorced his wife, and who was present at her second marriage, shot himself in a fit of distraction, the moment he saw the new husband enter the marriage chamber. The Wahaby ruler Saoud exerted all his authority to prevent the frequent divorces of the Arabs, by disgracing at court, or otherwise punishing, any man who either divorced his wife or used the expression *Aley et talak*, "I shall divorce," which, according to the Arab law or custom, cannot be revoked. Polygamy is permitted, but is not common, among the Arabs, owing chiefly to their poverty. The richer sheikhs, however, indulge in a plurality of wives.

The marriage ceremony among the Aenezes and most of the Arab tribes is extremely simple. The lover generally commences, through a common friend, a negotiation with the father of the girl; and if she is pleased, the friend, holding the father's hand, says, "You declare that you give your daughter as wife to ———;" to which the father assenting, the bridegroom comes on the marriage day with a lamb in his arms to the tent of his betrothed, and by cutting its throat before witnesses he completes the marriage ceremony. After the usual rejoicings the bridegroom retires after sunset to a tent at a distance from the camp, while the bride, in her maiden timidity, runs from tent to tent, struggling, kicking, and even biting those who attempt to conduct her to the bridegroom's chamber.

The rite of circumcision is still practised among the Arabs, and is the occasion of a great festival. All the boys are generally circumcised on the same day. Each man of the encampment kills at least one sheep in honour of his son, and the whole tribe feast on this abundant cheer. The men exhibit equestrian exercises and warlike evolutions; while the young women join in the national airs, and sometimes removing their veils, allow their lovers a hasty glance of their beauty as they pass. There are, besides, the festivals of Ramadhan and of the sacrifice of Arafat, where the same exercises are exhibited.

The Arabs are no great proficients in arts or industry, their only artists being a few blacksmiths to shoe the horses, and saddlers for the leather work. The arts of tanning and weaving are practised, the first by the men, the latter by the women. Of reading and writing all the Bedouins throughout Arabia are equally ignorant. The Wahaby chiefs were at pains to instruct them, and sent teachers among the different tribes, but with little effect. Nor have they made any progress in science or literature. In the first, their knowledge is confined to the names of the constellations and planets. Their literature consists in romantic tales of love and war, in which they delight; and the minstrel's strain frequently beguiles the evenings of an Arab encampment. Verses are recited or sung, and the voice is accompanied by a species of guitar, the only musical instrument which they possess. They have national airs also for female singers, which are chanted in choruses of six, eight, or ten voices, at some distance from the camp, in the solitude and silence of the desert. Many of the Arabian poets can neither read nor write, yet compose verses of exact measure, grammatically correct, and neither destitute of sentiment nor poetical beauty. Eloquence has from time immemorial been considered a necessary qualification of an Arab statesman; no sheikh, however brave, can ever attain to influence among the Arabs without this talent.

The language of Arabia is derived from the same original stock with the Hebrew, the Syriac, and the Chaldean tongues. Each tribe has its own peculiar dialect, but, by universal consent, the palm of elegance and purity has been, and still continues to be, assigned to the idiom of Mecca.

The preceding details exhibit in no very favourable view the moral character of the Arabs; and the boasted virtues of the desert, when they are calmly estimated, seem to resolve into the observance of certain rules or prejudices, without which no community can exist, however rude or lawless. The thieves and outcasts of civilized society are linked together by certain ties of good faith, without which all concert would be impossible even for their own evil ends; and the honour that prevails among the Arabs seems not to be of a much higher quality. They are, according to the accounts of all travellers, immoderately fond of gain, which they do not scruple to procure by the basest means. "Lying, cheating, intriguing, and other vices arising from this source, are as prevalent in the desert as in any of the market-towns of Syria; and on the common occasions of buying and selling, where his dakhil (oath) is not required, the word of an Arab is not entitled to more credit than the oath of a broker in the bazaar of Aleppo." An Arab will defend his guest at the peril of his own life; he will submit with resignation to the most cruel reverses of fortune; and at Mecca, during the pilgrimage, the true Bedouin of the desert, unlike the other pilgrims, disdains to ask alms, and always lives by his own industry, however precarious or humble. On the other hand, in pursuing the trade of rapine, he seems to be degraded, by his thievish, cruel, and treacherous habits, to the lowest rank of barbarism. In their familiar conversation the Arabs are free, sprightly, jocose, and decent. They are not reserved or silent, according to the report of some travelers, except perhaps in their journeys through the desert, where much speaking excites thirst, and parches the mouth. In their tents they are indolent, all that they do being to feed the horse, or milk the camels in the evening. The herds and flocks are committed to the care of a shepherd hired for the purpose; and the husband goes out to hunt with his hawk, or to amuse himself in any other manner that pleases him; while the wife and daughters are engaged in the household cares, in grinding the wheat with the hand-mill or pounding it in the mortar, in kneading and baking the bread, making butter, fetching water, working at the loom, or mending the tent-covering. They are patterns of industry, yet they are not allowed to eat with the men, and only partake in their own apartments (the meharrem) of what they leave. If a lamb is killed, they seldom taste, except some of the worst parts, which the men are not able to eat. This degradation of the women is common to the Arabs with other Asiatic nations, and is a true feature of oriental barbarism.

The small-pox continues to make serious ravages among the Bedouins, and to depopulate whole encampments. Inoculation is resorted to with benefit, and the practice of vaccination has extended over Syria. Obstructions and indurations of the stomach, occasioned by the use of camel's milk, are common; but these complaints are alleviated by the purging qualities of the brackish water of the desert; also fevers, both intermittent and inflammatory; and the burning with a hot iron is here, as in the former case, the approved cure. Ophthalmic disorders are frequent, and leprosy, which is hereditary in families, and cannot be eradicated. It commences with white spots, as large as the hand, which appear on various parts of the body, without rising above the skin. If the white spots appear on the cheek, the beard commonly falls off; the unfortunate sufferer is held in universal abhorrence. The toothache is unknown among the Arabs, who have all the most beautiful teeth.

The chief towns of Arabia are situated either on the coast of the Red Sea, or in the range of mountains which runs parallel to its shores. They are, Medina, with Yembo its sea-port; farther south, between 200 and 300 miles, Mecca, with Djidda its sea-port; Tayf, east of Mecca; still farther south among the mountains, Sada, Sanan, and on the coast of the Red Sea, Gondofe, Loheia, Hodeida, and Mocha; Derayeh is in the interior, and Mascot on the coast of the Persian Gulf. The population of the towns consists chiefly of foreign traders, who follow the customs of the place, but seldom imbibe the national spirit. Hence they form an entirely different class from the Bedouin Arabs. They have their faults without their virtues, are dissolute in their manners, and addicted to the grossest vices. The commerce and religion of Arabia concur to bring together in the towns a mixed population from the most remote parts of the world.

Arabia has few manufactures, for a supply of which it is therefore dependent on its foreign trade. From its central position, however, and its contiguity to the shores of the Red Sea, in former times the only navigable communication between Asia and Europe, it has always been a great entrepot for the commodities of other countries. In the ancient world it was the medium of intercourse between India and Europe, and still continues to enjoy a portion of this commerce.

The sea-port of Djidda, on the Red Sea, seems to be the great emporium of the Arabian trade. Thither resort the annual fleets from Calcutta, Surat, and Bombay, about the beginning of May. They bring piece goods, Cashmere shawls, cocoanuts, rice, sugar, drugs of all sorts; small articles of Indian manufacture, such as china-ware, costly collections of which are often displayed by the rich inhabitants; hardware, pipes, beads, wooden spoons, glass beads, knives, rosaries, mirrors, cards, &c. See DJIDDA.

In Arabia, as in most other eastern countries where property is not protected, capital is slowly accumulated, and is in general far from abundant. The rate of profit is consequently high, amounting to 30, 40, or even to 50 per cent. No money can be lent out at interest as in Europe, it being contrary to the law of the Koran, and no one besides having confidence in another. There is no monied interest in Arabia. There are no stocks of any description, or public funds, in which money can be invested; and every capitalist is therefore engaged in trade, from which he never can withdraw to live on his money as in Europe. Credit is with difficulty obtained, and trade is carried on by means of barter or by sales for cash. Hence no Arabian merchant can contract debts which he is unable to pay; and there are consequently no mercantile failures in Arabia as in Europe.

The utmost profligacy of manners prevails in all the Arabian towns, as indeed in all Mahometan countries; and the holy temple, the very sanctuary of the Mahometan religion, is daily profaned by the grossest depravities, to which no shame is attached. The young of all classes are encouraged in those immoralities by the old; and even parents connive at the disgrace of their children, and profit by their iniquities. From such vices the encampments of the Bedouin Arabs are alone said to be exempt.

Between 1824 and 1827, and again in 1833 and 1834, Mohammed Ali, the late Pasha of Egypt, sent his armies across the great chains of Hedjaz and Yemen with a view to subjugation the fierce highlanders of Assyria. Among his staff-officers were several French gentlemen of scientific attainments, among whom Mr. Chedufau, who was chief of the medical department, occupied the principal place. To the zeal of this gentleman we owe much valuable information concerning the geography and the inhabitants of a large tract which was, until then, only known by hearsay. This tract occupies the eastern slopes of the centre of the Hedjaz-Yemen chain, and extends from Tayef, or about north latitude 21° in the north, to the 18th northern parallel in the south, and east as far as east longitude 45°, no astronomical computations having been made. The country is very mountainous, the slopes being eastward, and watered by many streams which form several large and well populated wadis. The principal are Wadi Sabey and Wadi Zahran, east and south of Tayef; and farther south, Wadi Shamram and Wadi Zebran, which is the upper portion of Wadi Bishah, the most extensive and best cultivated of them all. El Assyr proper occupies the south-west. Far in the east is Wadi Dowsar, and in the south, the fine valley Wadi Nedjaran, the inhabitants of which are said to be the handsomest men in Arabia, and in the past century raised their country to much political importance among the petty Arab states. This tribe possesses large herds, and many excellent horses, which are highly esteemed at Sana. The united streams of the northern portion of this extensive tract form the River Tarabah, and those of the south the River Bishah, both carrying a considerable volume of water, and flowing east, much beyond the limits of the Egyptian expedition in that direction. Between these two river systems there is the Wadi Ramiah, which is watered by a goodly stream flowing into Lake Waradah. Great water-courses having been denied to Arabia, notwithstanding Ptolemy's statement of five (large and permanent) rivers, the question naturally arose, "where do these rivers of Assyr, which receive the whole volume of water which descends from the eastern slopes of a chain extending at least over three degrees of latitude, ultimately flow to?" According to the Arabs questioned by the French officers, they discharge themselves into a large lake, Salomeh, which appears to lie in the latitude of Mecca, and about east longitude 45°. The announcement of a large inland lake in the arid interior of Arabia, was at first startling, but it is supported by the statements of Arabic geographers, whose Feledj-el-Afady in Yemenah seems to occupy the environs of this hitherto unvisited lake. They speak in high terms of the numerous water-courses of Yemenah, many districts of which are called Feledj, literally a canal of irrigation, of which afady is the plural. But here a similar question rises as above,—where does the surplus water of Lake Salomeh flow to? Undoubtedly eastward, whence it is but natural to assume that the great river El Aftan, the lower course of which has been traced underground in Bahrain, is but a continuation of the river flowing into Lake Salomeh, which in its turn presents all the features of the upper course of a large river, as it is the confluence of a great number of mountain streams carrying a considerable and permanent volume of water, and meandering through a large extent of country.

The high table-land on which lies the city of Sana, and Mareb, which is overtopped by many lofty peaks, slopes rapidly down in the east towards the plains of El Djof-el-Yemen. Many sculls or torrents precipitate themselves from its acclivities, forming narrow and steep passes through which the traveller descends into the burning lowland. An old tradition, supported by the evidence of Greek and Arabic geographers, and confirmed by the statements of intelligent natives, identifies Mareb, the capital of that district, with the ancient Saba or Sheba, whose queen once visited Solomon. All Arab writers agree that Mareb, although an inconsiderable place at the various periods in which they wrote, was still surrounded by vast ruins, the remnants of its former grandeur. It was said, that with a view to procuring a constant supply of water for the irrigation of their wadi, the inhabitants, in time immemorial, had constructed an immense stone wall across their valley, but above the town. The water flowing down from the high mountains in the west, was thus collected beyond the dike, where it expanded into a large and deep lake. The dike, however, gave way, and an irresistible flood not only destroyed the town below it, but also the cultivated fields in the valley; and the inhabitants being unable to raise the wall up again, the whole extensive district was changed into a desert. When Niebuhr was at Sana, he gathered much valuable information concerning those water-works, and the destruction of that vene- Arabia.

rable metropolis of the Himyaritic kingdom, but neither he nor any other European succeeded in penetrating to that classic spot, till in 1843 an enterprising young Frenchman, Thomas Joseph Arnaud, accomplished the task at the imminent risk of his life. His description tallies with and confirms the accounts of Niebuhr and others. Marely, the splendid Maribite metropolis of Ptolemy, is now a miserable village surrounded by a brick wall, but the environs are covered with ruins, testifying its past greatness, and marking the area it once covered. The ancient residence of the queen of Sheba, or perhaps that central portion of it which formed the city properly speaking, was of a circular shape, about a mile in diameter, and encompassed by a massive wall of free-stone. Within and without its ruined precincts lie scattered about innumerable fragments of solid buildings, large square stones, portions of brick masonry, friezes, and other house ornaments, and even whole columns hewn out of a single block of the hardest limestone. West of the ancient town are the ruins. They are the extensive remains of the outer wall of a palace which the inhabitants call Haram Bilikis, "the palace of Bilikis," in memory of the Sabean or Himyaritic queen Bilikis, who is not only said to have been the founder of that royal residence, but is also identified with the queen of Sheba of Scriptural renown. A portion, about one fourth, of the wall is still standing, and covered with Himyaritic inscriptions, of which Arnaud copied as many as circumstances would allow him. Other inscriptions are found on many of the large blocks which lie scattered about.

The ruins of the famous dike are to the east of the town. There the bed of the Soll Dana, a torrent, dry in the summer, but swelling into a deep and impetuous river in the rainy season, is hemmed in by two mountains, forming a gate through which the flood rushes into the plain. Each of these mountains is called Balak. They are 600 paces asunder, and between them the ruins of the stone dike occupy an area 300 paces long, between the bases of the two Balaks, and 175 paces wide in the direction of the current. The portions leaning against the projecting feet of the mountains are still in such a state of preservation as to allow the examiner to guess their destination. There are many gates or openings in the wall through which the water was allowed to escape into the plain below; they are in perfect preservation, and constructed at different levels, so as to secure a regular supply. As far as the traveller's eye could reach from the adjoining hill, the bed of the Dana and the plain on either side was strewn over with fragments of masonry, giving the whole the appearance of a vast cemetery covered with tombstones. Previous to the breaking of the dike, the wadi was fertile and cultivated for a distance of seven journeys, but it is now a sandy desert through which, in the rainy season, the torrent of the Dana rushes on towards the interior. It seems to be the upper course of the river which waters the Wadi Maifaah, which opens towards the sea below Nakab-el-Hadjar, and west of Hisan Ghorab, both renowned for the Himyaritic inscriptions which have been discovered there.

The tract bordered in the north by El Djof, and in the west by the southernmost portion of the highlands of Yemen, and the Tehama of Aden, near Ras Seilan, in the east by the Wadi Maifaah, and in the south by the Indian Ocean, is called El Yafa. It is subdivided into several smaller districts. Along the sea stretches a tehama. Above it rises a section of the great southern mountain chain with peaks attaining an elevation of above 5000 feet, such as Jebel Amzuk and Jebel Hammari. North of this chain the country is a high table-land untroubled by Europeans. The central portion of El Yafa is bisected by a considerable river coming from Damar, in Yemen, and which, after having washed the principal town, Yafa, breaks through the high range and loses itself in the sand of the tehama. But the river Meidam, on the frontiers of Yemen, is a permanent stream—a rare thing in Arabia—and in all seasons of the year reaches the sea in the Bay of Tawayi, near Aden. The high plateau of Yafa is barren, but the valleys and slopes of the mountainous portion are fertile, well cultivated, and well inhabited. Coffee is cultivated in Yafa, but only in its western parts.

Hadramaut was a terra incognita until a very recent date. The Europeans had heard of a Wadi Doan, praised by the Arabs for its fertility, its numerous well-built towns, and its flourishing commerce. But its position remained uncertain. Niebuhr, following the vague statements of some natives of Hadramaut, who probably intended to deceive him with a view to deter him from proceeding thither, placed it in the far north-east of that province, at many hundred miles from the place where it was subsequently discovered; and all later geographers blindly copied the mistake, although Seetzen, who had drawn his information from more credible sources, determined its position with approximate accuracy as early as the beginning of this century. The lovers of Arabic geography and antiquities, nevertheless, kept their eyes on that celebrated wadi, as it was expected that monuments and other traces of the ancient Himyaritic power would be found there. At last the late Lieutenant Wellsted discovered Himyaritic inscriptions at Hisan Ghorab, near Ras Kell or Dog Cape, and others at Nakab-el-Hadjar, in the Wadi Maifaah, which he ventured to visit. His account excited unusual interest in England and on the Continent, and several distinguished scholars devoted their energies towards the deciphering of those time-honoured mysterious characters. Moved by such and similar considerations, a man now entered the arena of discovery who already takes rank among the most eminent explorers of Arabia, although his sojourn in the unknown land was shortened by the jealousy of fanatic Bedouins, and the account of his researches has not yet been placed before the public.

In the year 1843, the same in which the Frenchman Arnaud discovered the ruins of Saba, the Baron von Wröde, a German gentleman, who, during a long sojourn in Syria, Egypt, and Arabia, had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the Arabic language and oriental manners, started from Cairo with a firm determination to explore the Wadi Doan and other parts of Hadramaut. He succeeded, though only partially, but still at the risk of his life. Travelling in the disguise of an Egyptian, on a pilgrimage to the tomb of the prophet Hud, he passed as such, in the eyes of the natives, for a considerable time. Suspicion, however, arose, and he was ultimately discovered to be a European and a Christian. He was thrown into prison, and kept there during three days, hourly expecting death; but the Sultan of Grein having succeeded in quieting the fanatical Bedouins, who cried for his blood, granted him life and liberty on condition of his leaving the country without delay. He did so under the safeguard of the sultan, but deprived of his wardrobe, his money, his instruments, and many, but fortunately not all, of his papers and drawings. After his return to Cairo, he wrote an account of his researches and adventures, from which the following outlines of Hadramaut are extracted.

"Hadramaut" is said to mean "the country of death," name either in allusion to its pathless deserts, or to the curse of the prophet Hud, who, according to an old Arabic legend recorded in the Koran (chap. viii., El Ahraf, and chap. xiv., El Akhaf), punished the unbelieving and blasphemous tribe of Ad, who dwelt in that part of Arabia, by sending a fiery wind into the country, which reduced the fertile fields to burning deserts, and destroyed its inhabitants. But this etymology is questionable. In its larger meaning, Hadramaut comprehends the immense tract between Yafa and Oman, which is separated from the heart of the peninsula by the desert El Akhaf. The traveller only visited the south-western portion of it, namely, the Wadi Doan, its environs, and the tract between it and the sea.

This province of Arabia, like all others bordering on the Mousa sea, consists of three distinct physical portions, viz., firstly, a narrow tehama intersected in some places, as at Ras Farlak, by spurs of the inland mountains advancing upon the ocean, and forming lofty projecting capes; secondly, a serrated mountain belt rising in terraces over the low land; and, thirdly, an inland plateau of great elevation, overgrown here and there by lofty peaks; and, in other places, rent asunder by deep fissures which gradually expand into cultivated wadis and wide luxuriant valleys, watered by streams which, according to the season, are sometimes rippling rivulets, at others impetuous torrents. The mountain belt, an almost alpine chain, stretches in one uninterrupted line from Yemen to the borders of Oman, where it diminishes in height; but no general name having ever been applied to it, that of the "Himyaritic chain" may be here suggested as not quite inappropriate. Beyond, that is to the north of, the high plateau, there is a sudden steep de- scent into the early deserts of El Ahkaf. Wrede estimated the average breadth of the Himyaritic chain at 25 German, or 100 geographical miles; and its length being upwards of 1800 geographical miles, it apparently ranks among the great mountain systems in the world. In fact, its length is one-half of that of the Cordilleras of the Andes, twice that of the Ural, thrice that of the Alps and the Caucasus, and it seems to occupy an area of nearly 200,000 square geographical miles. The highest peaks appear to attain an elevation of 10,000 feet.

From Makallah, which was Wrede's starting point, the akabah, which means "ascent," and is the general name in Arabia for the rising portion of mountains, was very steep, till the traveller arrived on the first terrace. There the acclivity was interrupted by a narrow barren plain, followed by another akabah, which, in its turn, led to another terrace, and so on in regular succession, till the high plateau was gained. Here the nights were severely cold. The basis of this tract is granite, with its usual superstrata, heaved up and broken into wild chaotic masses, by volcanic action, of which the traces are so frequent and so visibly evident, as to lead to the surmise, that there are still active volcanoes somewhere in the country, having the same common hearth with those which are still in activity in the islands, near the entrance of the Red Sea, and those which ceased to be so in Yemen. According to an Arabic legend, Yemen was separated from the opposite coast of Abyssinia by a tremendous earthquake, which caused the waters of the Indian Ocean to enter the Red Sea. Many thousands of people were drowned, and such were the lamentations of the survivors, that the new channel was called Babelmansedeb, or the gate of tears. Primitive limestone forms chains of considerable length and elevation, as, for instance, along the wadi Maifah, the summits of which range between 4000 and 6000 feet in height. Jura limestone occupies large tracts, whence caverns with subterranean streams are frequent. Wrede entered one which was very capacious and deep, the vaults hung with beautiful stalactites, and the whole cavern resounding from the noise of a powerful stream rushing unseen through the bowels of the rock. But the natives fearing to irritate the ghuls or evil spirits, with which their superstition peoples these caverns, would not allow him to penetrate to the deeper recesses. Hot springs are frequent, and there is such a number of fissures and caves through which sulphurous vapour escapes, and the sides of which are so thickly covered with the finest sulphur, as to warrant the supposition that a large and profitable trade with that article might be established here, if the natives would allow the access to strangers, and there were roads in the country. The most celebrated among the sulphur caves is the Bir Bahut, through which, according to the natives, the souls of the damned go down to hell, in contradiction to the crater in the island of Diesel Teir, in the Red Sea, through which the devil is said to come up from hell, when he is about to do mischief in the world. Bir Bahut is most probably the Fons Stygius of Ptolemy. In many localities, the steep rocks encompassing the wadis are quite perforated by such caves; and as they offer cheap habitations, and are above the level of the highest floods which fill the glens after heavy showers, half savage tribes of Bedouins have turned them into permanent dwelling-places for their families. As the traveller passed by, scores of swarthy children suddenly issued from the holes like rabbits from their burrows, to have a peep at the strangers. During the frequent absence of the inhabitants, the caves are watched by a race of very fierce dogs. The habits of the people having remained the same during thousands of years, it is but reasonable to believe that in ancient times also there was a troglodytic population in this part of Arabia, and that the statements, to that effect, of Ptolemy and other Greek geographers, are quite correct.

The Baron von Wrede compares the aspect of the country with its countless wadis, as seen from above, to a gigantic leaf divided into innumerable compartments by the network of its veins, the principal of which being the Wadi Doan, which bisects the tract from one end to the other. The wadis have their origin on either side of the crests of the hills, and on the high plateaux of those low ridges which interrupt the level. Their first beginning is an almost imperceptible rill, or a mere fissure in the sloping rock, which gradually widens, owing to the agency of water, and assumes the aspect of a narrow glen encompassed by two walls of perpendicular rock. If there are springs in its upper portion, there will be a permanent stream; if there is no water but that descending in sudden and heavy showers, in the rainy season, the stream will be transient; but in either case, the volume of water rushing down these gaps in the rainy months surpasses belief, and its velocity is so great, its rush so sudden and irresistible, that lofty and solid rocks, undermined at their base, will crumble into huge fragments, which the roaring flood carries downward, till, expanding itself over a wider space, it loses the power of its first impetus. In consequence of this never-ceasing activity of nature, the detritus and rubbish along the base of the rock-walls increases in width and height, in proportion as the wadi becomes wider; and it is on these slopes that the Arab begins the work of cultivation. In many localities, the upper portions of the wadis lie in deep gaps produced by volcanic action, while among the craggy rocks in the mountains between the table-land and the tehama, they do not differ from glenes and valleys in other mountainous countries of a similar geological character.

The head of the Wadi Doan is a deep gap in the centre of Wadi Deen, north-west by north from Makallah. Nothing announces its approach; its palms, its houses, its turreted castles, its crystal stream and verdant plantations, lying, as it were, hidden in the bowels of the earth invisible to man, like the bottom of a precipice, till his eye merges over the upper edge, when the scene below bursts upon him like enchantment. A narrow, steep, and very dangerous path leads from the edge down into the glen, which is about 300 paces asunder, with a narrow belt of cultivated slopes at the base of the rock-walls. But the glen gradually widens, the rocks on either side losing their steepness and craggy aspect, till it expands into a fertile valley, measuring from 20 to 25 geographical miles across in its widest part. The direction of the Wadi Doan, the name being applied to the whole length of the valley, is at first north-west, then north-east, east, south-east, and south, when it issues upon the Tehama and Silh, about a hundred geographical miles east of Makallah. Its whole length may be computed at 120 geographical miles, but only its upper course is known. Its head is the Wadi Minas, with a branch, the Wadi Nebbi; the next section is Wadi Doan, properly speaking; and the other parts are successively called Wadi Hadjarin, Wadi Kasr, and Wadi Missilch. This valley has many branches, most of which slope down from the high table-land to the south and west of it. Wadi Doan is studded with towns and villages from its very beginning, and the slopes, as well as the wider level tracts between the encompassing hills, are surprisingly well peopled and cultivated, the fields, or rather gardens, bearing rich crops of durra and other corn, dates, bananas, melons, cucumbers, indigo, and a variety of other vegetable products, of which considerable quantities are exported. The stream is not permanent, at least not in its upper course, where particular care is bestowed upon irrigation. During the sojourn of the Baron von Wrede at Khoreibeh, one of those awful thunderstorms broke out which have been alluded to above. It was still at a distance, and the clouds lowering over the town did as yet but threaten to discharge themselves, but they had evidently burst further up, when piercing cries of "The flood! the flood!" alarmed the inhabitants. Men, women, and children, were now seen running in haste and trepidation to gain their houses, which stand on the rising slope, when suddenly a tremendous body of water came roaring down the dry bed of the river, sweeping everything moveable before it, and threatening to annihilate the whole town. Cloud now burst upon cloud, and every voice and sound was drowned in the rush of the waters and the never-ceasing peals of thunder, while the narrow glen was shrouded in night, lit up every now and then by the transient blaze of the firmament. An hour thus passed away, when the sun again darted from a cloudless sky, and the flood was gone without causing any destruction; but all the canals of irrigation running parallel with the stream, and the numerous reservoirs and tanks, were overflowing with that precious gift of nature, without a constant supply of which, the inhabitants would be obliged to abandon this picturesque valley.

At the foot of the Akabah, leading from the table-land to the Bahr-desert El Ahkaf, there is a desolate district very much dreaded by the natives on account of a very singular phenomenon. It appears that in the adjacent portion of El Ahkaf, there is a great number of large, unfathomable pits or gulfs filled with quicksand, or rather a white, grayish dust, soft to the touch, and different in colour and substance from the yellowish and reddish sand of the desert. Whatever falls into such a pit disappears instantly. The gulf visited and examined by Wrede, was about a mile in diameter, and clearly distinguishable from above owing to its colour, by which its surface was set off against the darker desert. The Baron having been unable to persuade his Bedouin guides to follow him to "the mysterious abode of gulfs," cautiously approached the edge of the gulf provided with a plummet, weighing a kilogramm, and a line 60 fathoms long. Having thrown the lead as far over the edge as possible, it disappeared the moment it touched the surface, and continuing to sink, rapidly drew the line after it, till in a few minutes both plummet and line had disappeared, the latter having slipped through his fingers, which prevented him from drawing it back and making a second attempt. The Baron does not venture upon an explanation of this phenomenon, but there seems little doubt that these gulfs are extinct craters filled with some attenuated volcanic substance of a whitish colour, and similar to that which produces the far-seen white streaks on the volcano Djebel Tair in the Red Sea. The sand gulfs extend over a large district which is called Bahr-es-Safi, or the Sea of Safi, after a certain king, who, as the legend goes, ventured to cross this tract with his army, while contemplating the conquest of Hadhramaut, but was swallowed up by the sand-gulfs, together with the last of his men. The story reminds us of the fate of a portion of the army of Elies Galias. The only difficulty is the circumstance that this white dust remains on a stationary level, a little lower than that of the desert, and does not mix with the yellow sand of the common desert. As to the rest, large and deep volcanic craters hollowed out in the level plains of table-lands, are by no means rare occurrence. Those in the Auvergne, in France, and in the Eifel, in Germany, being filled with water, are lakes in every sense of the word (Manar), but as there is no superabundance of water in the desert El Ahkaf, sand, of which there is more than sufficient, seems to have taken its place.

The whole Ahkaf appears to have once been the bottom of a great fresh-water lake, perhaps raised to a higher level by one of those tremendous volcanic commotions which have been so active in the formation of the surface of Arabia. Supposing, therefore, that the gulfs are craters communicating with great caverns in the earth, we presume that the water escaped through them while the rocky bottom of the lake was in progress of rising. The craters were subsequently filled up with the lighter particles of the desert sand, which, although of a general yellow colour, does not appear to be of a homogeneous nature, and in proportion as the sand or dust sinks into the earth, the water at the bottom carries it off into the bowels of the earth. Admitting this, the sucking qualities of the sand, and the equal level of its surface, to which local causes may also contribute, are easily accounted for. Admitting further the compound nature of the desert sand, it is evident that, once changed into quicksand by the action of water, the yellow particles, being derived from ferruginous sandstone, and consequently heavier, must necessarily sink through the lighter whitish dust; whence the uniform white aspect of these remarkable sand gulfs. The powerful springs in the wadis El Hajar, &c., which all burst forth on the south side of the plateau, and on a level considerably lower than that of the Ahkaf; the subterraneous stream in the Bir Bo Rahut; and the hot sulphureous spring near Sah Hud on the coast, are all, in the opinion of Wrede, connected with the mysteries of Bahr-es-Safi.

The abundance of sulphur has been mentioned. The brownish or reddish colour of the level portions of the high table-land originates undoubtedly from the presence of an abundance of oxide of iron in the rock which has contributed to its formation. Traces of gold have been found in the south. There are numerous quarries yielding an excellent stone for building purposes, and there is no want of materials for burning good lime and making cement. The vegetable products are the same as in the rest of Arabia, a few species excepted. Indigo is extensively cultivated, but coffee not at all. The slopes of the Himyaritic range are covered with magnificent forests; the valleys are clothed with shady groves, and springs issuing from every fissure, give rise to a countless number of rivulets and rivers swarming with small fish. But the table-land, and in general all the plains, whether high or low, are barren and miserable. There are no cows in Hadhramaut, except a few near Makallah, which, however, are of the Indian species, with a hump on their back, like those in Yemen. Horses are very rare. The common beasts of burden are the ass and the camel, the former vying in beauty and usefulness with those of Bahrain and Oman, and the latter being equal to those in other parts of Arabia. The common belief that the camel is only serviceable in sandy plains, is not at all based on facts. On the contrary, the same camel which patiently wades through the burning sand of the tehama, climbs up the most rugged and dangerous mountain paths with a sure footing and a steady step. Sheep, and still more so goats, are very numerous, the latter yielding excellent milk. There is no want of antelopes, hares, and other game, and there are few beasts of prey.

Here, as elsewhere in Arabia, the natives are divided into two very distinct classes—the settled inhabitants living in towns and villages, and the wandering Bedouin. The former are nearly as civilized as in Yemen, less corrupted, but infinitely more fanatical. The prophet Hud is held in great veneration among them, and swarms of pilgrims annually visit the tomb of that mythical person, which stands in the lower part of the Wadi Doan. They call Hadhramaut a land sanctified by that holy prophet, undefiled by the feet of either Jew or Christian, and the uncomparable asylum of the true doctrine of Mahomet. The number of well-built towns, which are all fortified, is surprising, and the Wadi Doan is quite studded with them, presenting, in several localities, the curious sight of twin towns, each a separate town with its own walls and towers, and its own sheik, or even sultan, and only separated from the other by the narrow stream which waters the valley. The principal towns in the Wadi Doan are:—Grein and Khumairah, twin towns, with a combined population of 9000; Zahner and Matrah, the same; Gelbuhn, 4000; Raslid and Arsamsch, each 5000; Rhmdaish and Rihab, each 6000. In Wadi Hadjdarin, a branch of Wadi Doan, Meshed Ali (once a large place), and Es Seif, twin towns, total population, 6000; Galdoun and Sava, each 6000; Haurnah, 8000. In other localities, Ghoraf, Borr, Tierbi, Agnab, Tsab, and Makallah, each about 6000; Terise, 10,000; Shiban and Terim, each 20,000 inhabitants. Some of these towns are governed by a sultan whose authority extends over a more or less extensive tract; others are governed by sheiks who are the lieutenants of the sultan, at least nominally. But they all, sultans, sheiks and townspeople, bow to the supreme rule of the Bedouins. The houses are mostly solid and lofty buildings, constructed with freestone, and so compactly assembled, that the towns occupy a comparatively small area. There is a brisk trade going on with native products and foreign importations, among which English manufactured goods, German cutlery, and Bohemian glass, as well as various Indian commodities, form no inconsiderable item. In this unknown part of Arabia, Wrede found the house of a sheik furnished with European chairs and tables manufactured at Bombay; and the owner, who had been in India, not only spoke English well, but had a small library in which Sir Walter Scott's "Life of Napoleon" was prominent. At a dinner given to the traveller by the sultan of Khoreibeh, sherbet was served up in an earthen vessel of Staffordshire manufacture, of a description, however, such as is not used for lemonade in Europe. The townspeople are very fond of going abroad, as traders, sailors, &c., some to the seaports in India, others to those along the Red Sea, and others to Egypt, especially Cairo, where they are numerous, and known under the name of Hadhrami or Doani.

The Bedouins in Hadhramaut are very numerous, divided Bedouins into a great number of clans, and exhibiting peculiarities of character and habits which distinguish them from their brethren in other parts. They are a fine, strong, and athletic race of people, equally capable of supporting the stifling heat of the tehamas, and, though half naked, the intense cold on the uplands. The laws of hospitality are so far respected by them, that a stranger once received among them, becomes, as it were, a sacred person whom they will protect and defend at the risk of their own lives. Clan feuds are frequent among them, arising generally from murder and the like causes of violence, which the kinsmen of the murdered are bound to avenge by killing. Arabia, either the murderer himself, or one of his family; and, when none of these are to be found, one of his clan. This goes on by rotation, each party having its turn of taking revenge, till at last whole tribes rise against each other in hereditary feuds. Many tribes are confederated, so that not only their own people, but also strangers standing under their protection, are safe in each other's territory. Even a man against whom there is a cause of blood revenge, is safe from vengeance when under the protection of an ally of his persecutors. The Baron von Wrede having procured a protector, or dakhil, at Makallah, was well received by the man's clan, and on subsequent occasions found that the dakhil he obtained in the interior could, under all circumstances, be relied upon, although a considerable degree of firmness was always necessary on his part to support his protector's sense of duty, against fear or temptation. The Bedouins profess to be Mahometans, but they care very little for a strict observation of the law of the prophet, pleading the still greater sanctity of the law of necessity, whence they will eat all sorts of unclean animals, such as snakes, lizards, and the like vermin, "because they are hungry, there is nothing else to be got, and the law of the prophet does not fill their bellies." Here, as well as in Yemen, there are many remnants of the ancient fire-worship, which was the prevailing creed in South Arabia previous to Mahomet; and the prophet Hud, who lived in an age so remote, and whose person is so completely mythologized that modern scholars have been tempted to identify him with Baalhus, is no less revered by those children of the desert than Mahomet himself. But the reformed creed of the Wahhabys never penetrated into these mountains. The Bedouins of Hadhramaut are altogether the fiercest and rudest among all the wandering tribes of Arabia, and whatever is calculated to uphold and propagate that reckless and savage spirit, is more admired by them, and esteemed more worthy of imitation, than the precepts of a refined morality. A lad having deliberately shot his father, who wanted him to fetch some camels, and kicked him when meeting with disobedience, was not only not punished by the tribe, but applauded, and finally praised by his own dying parent, who, being in the act of taking revenge by shooting his son in his turn, suddenly dropped his gun, exclaiming—"No! let him live, he has acted like a man."

The women of the Bedouins go about unveiled, and in the towns only married women hide part of their face, the young girls being allowed to exhibit their charms to the other sex without any other restraint but that of common decency. The Bedouins look upon the townpeople as a degenerated, cowardly, mercenary race, losing no opportunity of showing them their contempt; while, on the other hand, the settled, civilized Hadhrami speak of their wild brethren in the desert as a set of overbearing savages, and behave to them in a manner as the Byzantine Greeks did towards their conquerors, the Turks, cringing before their eyes, and cheating them behind their backs.

The Arabic of Hadhramaut, especially that of the Bedouins, differs from that of Yemen, not only in pronunciation and accent, but also by the admixture of many non-Arabic words, which are, without doubt, remnants of the ancient Himyaritic. This latter language, or perhaps only a modified dialect of it, is still spoken in the interior of El Shehr or Mahra, and in all probability also in the eastern parts of Hadhramaut in the larger meaning of the word, but not along the sea-coast, where the modern Arabic prevails. The Baron von Wrede obtained a little vocabulary of Himyaritic words of the present vernacular tongue, among which the word "ofir," that is red, strikes the antiquarian at once, as being the key to the whereabouts of the Biblical "Ophir." For the Mahra people also call themselves the tribe of the red (ofir) country, and the same appellation they give to the Red Sea, which is but a translation of Erythrean Sea, which we are fully justified in supposing to be, in its turn, a translation of "Bahr Ofir." Other words, which are not found in the Arabic language, are:—afif, bad; diyah, good; fadhan, hill; gai, kin, much; kar, house; obher, well; huf, milk; istaha, sit down; karhai, small; ket, rope; makader, dura; rigan, tall; sarri, dead; shikah, near; shelit, very near; salet, oil; sheivet, fine; shif, hair; tahrih, antelope; tahriz, kill (him); thama, alive; terab, wood; tobba, great, powerful, &c.

The spirit of destructiveness which the Mahometan Arabs exhibited against whatever was not in accordance with, or left unmentioned in, the Koran, and their hatred of religious symbols, combined with an utter disregard of that historical learning which alone is calculated to keep alive, in the lapse of centuries, that feeling of piety towards the works of our forefathers, which is the real inexhaustible source of all love of antiquity,—these various combined causes have produced a sinister influence upon the monuments left by the kings and the nobles of Himyar. Yet some important remnants have been preserved, as shown by the researches of the travellers mentioned above; and the Baron von Wrede has not only added to the list, but leaves a fair prospect to future travellers of making still more important discoveries. At Khoreibeh he obtained a copy of an old Arabic MS., being a history of Hadhramaut from its earliest times, and containing a complete list of the Himyaritic kings from the founder of the kingdom down to Mahomet, corresponding with, and completing the list given by Albuleda. In the Wadi Obnesh, he copied a beautiful Himyaritic inscription of five lines, the characters of which seem to indicate Sabean models; and he not only examined many substructures of modern buildings, which belong to a very early and primitive period, such as castles and houses of sheiks, but obtained positive information on the Tulbet-el-motek, or the "tombs of the kings," in the lower part of the Wadi Doan, not far from Grein and the tomb of Hesd. They are forty in number, each being a separate structure covered with Himyaritic inscriptions, and they are held in great veneration by the natives, although only a few even among their learned men know what they are. The Baron was prevented from visiting them by his arrest at Grein.

The coast of this extensive province is now completely surveyed, but of the interior we know nothing. Much gum and or Mahra-frankincense, the latter of very ordinary quality, grows in the mountains along the coast, between Capes Ras Fartak in the west, and Ras Nus in the east. The teannah is narrow, and in many places interrupted by spurs of the Himyaritic range projecting into the sea, as at Ras Fartak, the Promontorium Syagrius of the ancients, a bold rock rising 2500 feet above the Indian Ocean; and at Ras Shojer, which is still higher by 500 feet. The Himyaritic range lowers considerably as it advances north-east, some inconsiderable ridges of barren sand-hills being its extreme feelers towards the high mountains of Oman. West of Ras Nus is the fertile plain of Dhasar, where the cultivation of indigo occupies many hands. Dhasar, its former seaport, exists no longer; it was the seat of the bishops of Hadhramaut, when the Christian religion prevailed here in the period preceding that of Mahomet, and after they had left their former residence at Nagra, or Nagrane. East of the same cape Mr Cruttenden and party discovered the large, fertile, and well peopled Wadi Rebok, with a running stream dried up in its lower course, but which must be a powerful river in the rainy season, as testified by enormous blocks of rock carried down by the torrent from the mountains farther inland. The inhabitants are a remarkably handsome and well-disposed tribe, the women being the handsomest in Arabia, according to the statement of the British officers, their visitors. They have large herds of goats and sheep, and seem to lead a happy life as shepherds and agriculturists. In the upper portion of the Wadi Rebok lies a thriving town, Djezzar, which, however, the party had no time to visit. The inhabitants of the towns and villages along the sea, are addicted to piracy, for which they have been frequently punished by the British men-of-war; and they all pursue the capture of sharks, with which the sea swarms, and the fins of which, when salted and dried, are not only eaten by the Arabs, but yield an important article of export to the Indian ports and China, where they are considered great dainties.

Oman, the north-eastern peninsular projection of South Ar-Romania, is physically hardly connected with the Arabian continent, from which its mountainous territory is separated by the eastern El Ahkaf. Its coast and seaports were known to the Europeans at an early date. Its capital, Mascat, was conquered by the Portuguese in 1508, who kept possession of it till 1653, when the Arabs, taking the town, put the whole garrison to death, and established a native government under a prince of the ancient dynasty of the tribe of the Yaharibi-el-Azad. The country was subsequently conquered by the Persians, who were driven out in 1730, in their turn, by Ahmed Ibn Said, an adventurous chief, who claimed collateral descent from that Illustrious dynasty, and whose descendants still occupy the throne. The interior of Oman was first visited by the late Lieutenant Wellsted and his travelling companion, Lieutenant Whitelock, in 1835 and 1836; and although two years after them an enterprising French botanist, the late Ancher Ploi, made a trip into the inland district, the account of the British officers is still our main source of information. The north-eastern coast line against the narrow part of the Indian Ocean, opposite Beloochistan, is a serpentine curve 260 to 400 geographical miles long, extending from Cape Ras-el-Hadd, in the south-east, to Ras Musendom, in the north-west. The coast along the main of the Indian Ocean, in the south-east, is about 90 miles long; that along the Persian Gulf, in the north-west, about 150 miles; and the desert frontier, from sea to sea, in the south-west, about 300 geographical miles. A long range of mountains stretches from Ras-el-Hadd to Ras Musendom, almost parallel with the coast, and of which the central knob, the Djebel Akhdar, or Green Mountain, is the highest portion, rising to nearly 7000 feet. The height of Djebel Fellah and Djebel Hutah, in the south-east, is about 6000 feet; but the hills in the north are of less elevation. West of this range there is a barren plateau dotted with a great number of fertile and well-cultivated oases; the western edge of which forms another chain of mountains, less high than the main chain; and beyond this stretches the silent El Akhaf. Beyond the desert, but where exactly we do not know, rises the Nedjed of El Yemenian, which is nearest to Oman in the north. The tract nearest to Ras-el-Hadd is called Djallan; west of it lies Oman proper, at the southern foot of Djebel Akhdar; west of Oman extends Dhorrar, or the principal portion of the plateau, as far as the Persian Gulf, if the coast district is added to it. The tract extending north-west of Mascat, between the Indian Sea and the main range, is called Batra; it is intersected by numerous streams descending from that range; its soil is fertile, and well-cultivated, and its population may be called dense, as compared with the other provinces. The seashore is studded with towns and villages, but in the interior there is only one, but considerable town, namely Rostak, which was the residence of the reigning princes ere they took up their residence at Mascat. The southern portions of Oman are, on the contrary, very thinly populated, the soil being sandy; and as much may be said of the northern projection between the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. The country produces wheat, maize, durra, and other grain, in great abundance; and besides the common fruit of Arabia, it yields indigo, cotton, sugar, and coffee. The latter article is not so good as the produce of Yemen, because not only less care is bestowed upon the plantations, but chiefly because its latitude is beyond the isotherm of the coffee-tree in Arabia and Africa, so that its growth would cease altogether, were it not for local causes.

Irrigation is well understood: subterranean main conduits (feleld) four feet wide, with a running stream two feet deep, and from six to eight miles long, carry an abundance of water from the mountains into the drier plains. The camels and asses of Oman are justly celebrated. The breed of horses is excellent, but not numerous; the export of native and Nedjed horses from the port of Mascat, for the supply of the H.E.L.C.S. cavalry has of late much abated, the stock in the interior being almost exhausted. The same cause has affected the export of horses from El Katif, on the coast of Bahrain. The imam has several studs, the principal food being, next to barley, lucerne and dates. The cattle are of the Indian species, but although a large proportion of their food is said to consist of dried fish, the beef is tender and delicious to eat. The natives keep vast flocks of excellent sheep and goats; and there is an abundance of common fowl, but neither turkeys, guinea fowl, geese, nor ducks.

The relations between the settled inhabitants and the Bedouins are nearly the same as in Hadramaut; the latter are a strong handsome race, and physically much superior to the tiny Bedouin of Nedjed. Their pursuits are pastoral and agricultural in the interior; but those who are near the sea are traders and mariners. The townspeople are much mixed with Persian and African blood.

Mascat, the capital, counts about 40,000 inhabitants, and lies at the bottom of a small cove, in the gorges of an extensive pass which widens from this point as it advances into the interior. Its situation is picturesque, being surrounded by hills crowned with well-mounted fortifications, but its climate is sultry and unwholesome. It is next to Djidda the most important commercial town in Arabia, and its navigation extends over all the ports of Arabia, Persia, Africa, and India. The houses, except those near the beach, are but mean, the so-called palaces of the imam not excepted. In its environs are the famous hot springs of Imam Ali. Contiguous to Mascat, lies Mattarah, or Matrah, with 20,000 inhabitants, a seaport sharing in the commerce of the capital, with which it almost forms a twin town. The combined trade of these two ports is very important. Wellsted estimated the imports in 1836 at L.900,000, but they now are considerably above a million. They consist of manufactured goods from Great Britain and India; slaves, ivory, and other natural products from Africa; coffee from Yemen; salt, tobacco, and carpets from Persia, &c. The exports are fish, horses, grain, and other native products, and a large proportion of imported goods. Asses are exported to Persia and Mauritius. A new branch of export will open itself to Mascat, whenever it shall be thought fit to substitute the camel, as a hardy beast of burden, for the clumsy, easily-yielding draught-ox, in the colony at the Cape of Good Hope. Other towns are, along the coast, Sohar, with 9000 inhabitants, Sib, Burka, Khasabrah, Shinas, Khadrawein, &c.; and in the interior, Rostak, a large town, Birket-el-Modi, the El Mal of Niebuhr, at the southern foot of Djebel Akhdar, said to be founded in the time of the great Nushirwan, king of Persia (A.D. 331-379), and remarkable for its lofty houses and two square watch-towers, 16 feet wide, and 170 feet high, the walls of which are only 2 feet thick at the base; Neswa, with a massive fortified tower, 140 feet high, surrounded by a like wall 40 feet high; Shirasi, in Djebel Akhdar, 3800 feet above the sea, in a lovely climate; Birema, in the north-west, 6000 inhabitants, with a like climate; and Obri, a large town quite in the west, and separated from Nedjed only by a narrow strip of desert. The northern peninsula has no places of note; but is remarkable for the narrow gloomy strait, leading through dark, perpendicular, and, in some places, overhanging rocks, from the Indian Sea to the Persian Gulf, between Ras-el-Djebel on the continent, and the island on which lies Ras Musendom, the north cape of Oman.

The most powerful prince in Oman is the imam of Mascat, the Imam Sayyid Said, who claims sovereignty over all Oman, but is of Mascat only nominally obeyed by the settled population in the interior, and not at all by the Bedouins. In fact, the sheiks of Obri, Birema, and others, are quite independent. The title imam is only given to him by strangers and courtiers, since, of the two conditions necessary for obtaining that title, he has never fulfilled one, and has broken the other; that is, he has never preached a sermon before his assembled chiefs, and he has not only gone to sea, but is constantly sailing to and fro throughout his dominions. Although the latter condition has been dispensed with on previous occasions, the former is so imperative, that the natives withhold the title of imam from this powerful king, and only call him sayyid, or prince. Besides Oman, the imam possesses the islands of Kishm and others in the Persian Gulf; a large portion of the Persian coast which he farms from the shah of Persia, and where much bay salt is manufactured on his account; and the island and town of Zanzibar, on the East African coast, where he generally resides; as well as the town of Mombas and many others, with their respective territories, along the African coast. The imam, an ally of the British crown, is a sort of merchant prince, the principal part of the commerce and navigation of his scattered dominions being in his hands, and conducted on his account.

He is the mightiest potentate in those parts of the world. For the better keeping his scattered dominions together, he has a considerable number of men-of-war, of all sizes, which also serve as merchant-men for the conveyance of his own goods. In Wellsted's time, there were from 70 to 80 carrying from 4 to 74 guns, most of them small, but all built after European models, chiefly on the wharfs at Bombay. Besides these, there were from 60 to 80 armed bungalows, or one-masted Arabic vessels of from 200 to 300 tons, and halits, or smaller craft, of from 100 to 200 tons, which serve in the double capacity of convoy and transport vessels. To the late King William IV., the imam presented a fine 74-gun vessel, completely fitted out; Arabia, and the value of the presents he made to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, on her accession to the throne, was estimated at £50,000, being all articles grown in his own domains, or manufactured by his own subjects. In 1845, Prince Hialal, the son and heir of the imam, visited London, accompanied by two young Arabic chiefs, and made himself much beloved through the courteous simplicity of his manners, and the amiability of his disposition.

It is expected that the friendship between the British government and the imam will be a great support to travellers intending to explore Central Africa from the side of Zanzibar.

Arabia has been peopled from the earliest times, but its ancient history seems to have been lost or corrupted in a long course of oral tradition. The narratives of the Arabian historians are absurd and fabulous, resting on no evidence; nor have later writers succeeded in withdrawing the veil of oblivion from the history of those early ages. The common notion among the Arabs is, that they are descended from Joktan the son of Eber, as well as from Ishmael the son of Abraham by Hagar; and the posterity of the former are denominated pure Arabs, while those of the latter are called naturalized or engrafted Arabs. Joktan had thirteen, or, according to the Arabian traditions, thirty-one sons, who, after the confusion of languages at Babel, are said to have settled in the south-eastern parts of Arabia, and to have gone afterwards to India, with the exception of two, namely, Yarhab and Jorham, the former of whom gave name to the country. Yarhab settled in Yemen, while Jorham founded the kingdom of the Hedjaz, where his posterity reigned. Ishmael being dismissed by Abraham, retired to the wilderness of Paran, where he married an Egyptian, by whom he had twelve children, who were the heads of as many potent tribes of the Scenite or wild Arabs. He afterwards, according to tradition, married the daughter of Modad, the king of the Hedjaz, lineally descended from Jorham; and is thus considered by the Arabians the father of the greater body of their nation. By these tribes Arabia was ruled in ancient times, and a genealogical list is preserved of a long line of kings in Yemen and other provinces, of whom nothing further is known than the names. The ancient tribes who inhabited Arabia maintained flocks and herds. They were addicted to commerce and rapine, and frequently by their inroads molested the neighbouring states. They were invaded in their turn by the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Medes, and the Persians; but whatever ancient historians may relate concerning the victories of Sesostris, it does not appear that either the Assyrians, the Egyptians, or the Persians, ever obtained any permanent footing in the country.

The Greek and Roman writers describe with accuracy the general features of Arabia, the scarcity of water in the desert, the deep wells known only to the inhabitants, and the pastoral and predatory habits of the people; and, in the fertile districts, the rich produce of corn, wine, oil, honey, frankincense, myrrh, and odoriferous gums; but this information is mixed with fabulous tales and absurd exaggerations. From the rare and precious produce with which Arabia abounds, the most fanciful ideas were formed of its vast wealth. It was said to possess abundant mines of precious stones, and gold, which was found in small pieces of the size of nuts, of the brightest colour and polish. (Diodorus Siculus, Hist. lib. ii. sect. 48.) This favoured land was besides supposed to be enriched by the peculiar nature of its commerce, its valued products being sold to other nations, while their produce was not required in return.

The balance of trade was thus always in its favour; and, according to this hypothesis, a supply of gold and silver was perpetually flowing into it from all other countries. Cassia and cinnamon are also erroneously mentioned as the products of Arabia, probably because they came directly to the Romans from that country, which has been in all ages the great depot of Indian produce. The great lake, mentioned by the ancient writers, and said to contain bitumen, and to yield a large revenue, must be the Dead Sea, thus included by the ancients within the limits of Arabia; or the existence of this sea so near Arabia may have given rise to the report of another lake in the interior, which we know does not exist. Pliny says that the inhabitants shave their beards, with the exception of the upper lip—a custom which, if it ever existed, has not been transmitted to the modern Arabs, who hold the beard in peculiar honour; and the story of their promiscuous cohabitation, related by Strabo and Ptolemy, is entirely contradicted by all the latest and most authentic accounts of Arabian manners.

In describing the zoology of Arabia, the ancient writers give an accurate account of the camel and the dromedary; but some of them assert that the country contains no horses, for which in modern times it has been so famed; and their description of the ostrich is altogether fabulous and absurd. Pliny asserts that it exceeds the height of a man on horseback; Diodorus, that it is of the size of a new-born camel, that it throws stones with its feet at its pursuers, and adds various extravagant and unfounded details of its habits and the manner of its death. Ptolemy was the first writer who divided Arabia into three parts; namely, Arabia Petraea, Arabia Deserta, and Arabia Felix; which division, agreeing with the natural features of the country, is still recognised. Ptolemy and also Pliny give a long list of towns, and of the various tribes which ranged over the country. The site of Petra, that splendid capital of Arabia Petraea, was rediscovered by Burckhardt, a silent necropolis in a deep, inaccessible wadi. The nations who inhabited this tract were the Ishmaelites, the Nabatheans, the Cedrei or Kedareni, and the Hagareni, all which appellations have in later times been lost in that of the Saracens, so celebrated for several centuries all over the East. Numerous towns are mentioned in Arabia Deserta, of which, being originally of little note, all knowledge is now lost; and of the tribes of the Æsitu and the Agræi we know nothing but the names. Arabia Felix was the chief seat of population and of wealth. It included the fine provinces of Yemen, Hedjaz, Tehama, Nedjed, and Yumana. It was inhabited by many different tribes, such as the Sabæi, who from the account of Pliny were a powerful tribe, trading in frankincense, and extending from sea to sea, either from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, or to the Persian Gulf;² by the Minæi, Atramitæ, Marinatae, Catabani, Ascite, Homerite, Sapphorite, Omani, Saracenæ, &c., of whose history nothing is now known. The towns of Yaman or Yemen were, Aden, the emporium Arabiae of Ptolemy, on the Indian Ocean; and Musa, the modern Mocha; both noted marts of trade, at which were exchanged the precious produce of the country (consisting of myrrh, frankincense, perfumes, and pearls, of which there was a noted fishery near some islands in the Red Sea), for goods brought by the annual fleets from India. Those goods appear to have been landed at Aden or Musa; to have been carried northward in caravans to Leucocomæ, or Portus Albus, in latitude 25° N.; then, according to Strabo,

¹ Universal History, vol. viii. chap. ix. ² Plin. Historia Naturalis, lib. vi. cap. 32. "In universum gentes ditissimas, ut apud quas maxime opes Romanorum Partherumque substanat, vendentibus qua e mari aut silvis capiant, nihil invicem redimentibus." Strabo (lib. xvi.) mentions that they sold their gums and precious stones and for gold; and that the invasion of Arabia under Augustus, by Ælius Gallus, was prompted by the desire of attaining the alliance of rich friends, or the conquest of rich enemies. If these ancient writers had been versed in the modern doctrines of political economy, they would have known that the balance of trade could not have been permanently in favour of a country which abounds in gold.

³ "Sabei Arabiae propter thara clarissimi, ad utraque maria perfectis gentibus." Plin. Historia Naturalis, lib. vi. cap. 32. to have been transported across the Red Sea to Myos Hormos, near the modern Cosseir; and being carried on camels to Coptos, in the Thebaid, a port on the Nile, to have been thence floated down in boats to Alexandria. Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, of great antiquity, is supposed to be the Saphor of Ptolemy; and Mareb, the modern Saba, which was a large, opulent, and strong city, is now an inconsiderable village. On the Persian Gulf was situated the port of Moscha, now the city of Muscat; and Gerra or Khatif, which, Pliny and Strabo mention, had turrets and houses formed of square masses of salt, some of which are still to be seen in the country. In the Hedjaz was Macoraba or Mecca, the seat of a very ancient temple; and Yathrib or Thalrippa, the modern Medina. Djidda, the port of Mecca, is seldom noticed by the ancients; and Yembo, the port of Medina, is the Jambia of Ptolemy. The frequent incursions of the Arabs into the neighbouring regions exposed them to retaliation from hostile armies; but the aridity of the country was ever found to be its true defence. It was in vain that the invader vanquished the Arabs in the field; they fled from his pursuit on their horses and camels, and quickly disappeared in the burning desert, whither no army ever dared to follow them. The northern provinces bordering on Syria were invaded by Antigonus, and afterwards by Pompey, though they never succeeded in acquiring possession of Petra, the great stronghold of the country. But the most important expedition of the Romans was that of Ælius Gallus, in the reign of Augustus, who, with a force of 10,000 troops, of whom 500 were Jews, and 1000 Nabatheans, natives of the country, landed at Leucosome, in latitude 25° N., about 70 miles north-west from Medina, and in the following spring, his troops having been till that time disabled by disease, he advanced southward, crossed a desert of 30 days' journey, and in 50 days more arrived in a pleasant and fruitful region, where he took by assault a city called Najran. He continued his march southward for other 60 days; and being finally compelled to retreat by fatigue and disease, he crossed the Red Sea, and, landing his troops at Myos Hormos, on the Egyptian shore, brought back the poor remains of his army to Alexandria, after an absence of two years.

The situation of the towns in his route being entirely unknown, we cannot trace his course, though it must have been in the direction of Medina and Mecca. The great historian of the Decline and Fall of Rome places the march of Ælius Gallus between March or Mecca and the sea. But this is a desert tract, in no respect resembling the character given of the country into which he penetrated, which may therefore probably be the elevated tract on the Hedjaz ridge of mountains, extending north and south parallel with the Red Sea. Northern Arabia was also invaded by the Emperors Trajan and Severus, but they effected no settlement in the country; and though the cities of Bosra and Petra were at one time reduced by a lieutenant of Trajan, yet the Romans never seem to have extended their power over Arabia Petraea. On the decline of the empire Syria was invaded by the Arabian freebooters, who sometimes drew on themselves severe retaliation. The doubtful frontier of the respective territories was thus a constant scene of hostility, until the Arab tribes, inspired by the genius of Mahomet, advanced to permanent conquests.

Jews were numerous in the Arabian seaports, ever since the remote period when they monopolized the trade with Ophir and the spice countries on the Red Sea. After the destruction of Jerusalem, whole tribes of Israelites found an asylum in Arabia, where they became so powerful that Dunaan, a Jewish chief, succeeded in defeating and killing Er Riad, commonly called Aretha, the Christian (Arian) king of Himyar, in which country he assumed the royal power. But this Jewish kingdom did not continue many years, as it was conquered by Elesbam, the Christian king of Abyssinia, who killed Dunaan. In the age of Mahomet, the Jews were very numerous and powerful in Arabia, and in spite of the persecutions which they had to suffer from him and his successors, there are even in our days great numbers of settled Israelites natives of Arabia, to be found in the seaports and wherever the fanaticism of the Arabs suffers them to dwell. In the interior Jewish tribes are met with leading a wandering life like Bedouins.

Such are some of the early traditions and imperfect sketches of Arabian history. We now approach a new era, not only of greater certainty, but containing events of far deeper interest, and of lasting importance. The rise and progress of Mahomet, the prophet of the East, and the rapid propagation of his faith, which has changed the moral and political aspect of the eastern world, forms a most singular chapter in the history of human affairs, an account of which will be found under MAHOMET.

His death exposed the new state to the dangers of a disputed succession. The right to the throne, on which subject Mahomet was silent when he died, was respectively claimed by two powerful tribes, namely, those who fled to Medina with the prophet, or the fugitives, and those who aided him on his arrival, or the auxiliaries. To terminate this dangerous dispute, Omar, renouncing his own pretensions, held out his hand to Abubekr as his future sovereign; and his authority was recognised in all the provinces. The Hashemites, under Ali their chief, though averse to the new monarch, acknowledged him after some time as commander of the faithful. After a reign of two years he was succeeded by Omar, who was assassinated in the twelfth year of his reign, and was succeeded by Othman; and it was not till his death that Ali ascended the throne. This contest for the dignity of caliph has ever since divided the Mahometans into the two hostile parties of the Shiites or sectaries, who reprobate as usurpers Abubekr, Omar, and Othman; and the Sonnites, who revere them along with Ali as the legitimate successors of the prophet. This schism is the source of the hatred which still exists between the Persians and Turks.

Arabia, during the reign of these several princes, was filled with distraction at home, while the most splendid conquests were achieved abroad. To give a detail of these events, which relate besides to other countries as much as to Arabia, would exceed our limits. We may therefore briefly observe, that during the short reign of Abubekr, the Syrian territories of the Greek emperor were overrun by the victorious Moslems under Abu Obidah, and afterwards under Khaled, surnamed from his valour and fanaticism the sword of God; that the Greek armies were overthrown in several decisive battles; and that the rich and populous cities of the country, including Bosra and Damascus, were stormed by the barbarian invaders. A new army, raised by the Greek emperor, the last hope of the falling empire, was scattered before the barbarian host in the decisive battle of Yarmuk. Palestine was now subdued, and Jerusalem, which was reputed a holy city by its ferocious conquerors, and was visited by the Caliph Omar. Here he directed Amrou to invade Egypt, which was rapidly overrun; and his other lieutenants to complete the conquest of Syria. His orders were punctually obeyed, and Aleppo, Antioch, Tyre, Cassarea, and all the other cities and fortresses in the province, were successively taken.

On the east the empire of the Arabs was rapidly extended. "They advanced," says the eloquent historian of the Decline and Fall of Rome, "to the banks and sources of the Euphrates and Tigris; the long-disputed barrier of Rome and Persia was for ever confounded; the walls of Edessa and Amida, of Dara and Nisibis, which had resisted the arms and engines of Sapor or Nashirvan, were levelled in the dust. The fate of Persia was decided in the great battle of Cadesia. The victorious Arabs poured like a flood over the country, and acquired prodigious spoil; nor did they halt in their victorious career till they had reached the banks of the Oxus, and had added to their empire Herat, Merou, Balk, Samarcand, and other rich and trading cities in the East.

The short reign of Ali, from the year 655 to 661, was disturbed by domestic dissension and the rival claims of Moawiyah, the son of Abu Sophian, well known for his tardy and reluctant obedience to the sword, as was alleged, rather than to the doctrines of the prophet. The death of Ali by an assassin was the signal for new contests. Moawiyah reigned at Damascus, which was the new capital of the caliphs of the house of Ommiyah, and was succeeded by his son Yezid A.D. 680, whose title was disputed by the surviving family of Ali, Hozein and Abdallah Ebn Zoheir, his two sons. They fled from Medina to Mecca; and Hozein was proceeding to Cufa on assurances of aid from the inhabitants, when he was surrounded and barbarously murdered, with all his followers, by Obaidallah the governor. Abdallah, the sole representative of the house of Hashem, was now proclaimed caliph at Medina, from which city he expelled all the adherents and dependents of the house of Ommiyah, to the number of 8000. Yezid dispatched a large force to their aid, by which Medina was taken, after a vigorous defence, and abandoned to pillage. Mecca, besieged by the army of Yezid, was on the point of sharing the same fate, when intelligence was received of Yezid's death. His son, Moawiyah II., succeeded him, and, after a reign of six weeks, died without naming a successor. Serious commotions now ensued. Merwan, of the house of Ommiyah, was proclaimed caliph at Damascus, while Abdallah reigned at Mecca. The former was succeeded by his son Abdalmalac, during whose reign the contest for the throne was terminated by the death of Abdallah, who, in a desperate sally from Mecca, where he was besieged by the troops of the rival caliph, was overpowered and slain. By his death the sovereignty was firmly established in the line of the Ommiades, who reigned in Damascus above 70 years.

But the title of this dynasty not being founded on any clear principle of religion or of law, was never recognised by the great body of the Moslems. They regarded with veneration the lineal descendants of the prophet, who on their part still cherished the hope of reigning over the Moslem empire. Numerous partisans of the line of Abbas were dispersed throughout the provinces, and secret plots for their restoration were gradually matured into rebellion. The last caliph of the line of the Ommiades was met on the field by a powerful army commanded by Abdallah, the uncle of his rival; and after an irretrievable defeat he escaped to Mosul, and finally to Egypt, where he was defeated and slain, and the last remains of his party extinguished. Amid the ruin and massacre of his family by the conqueror, a royal youth, Abdalrahman, alone escaped, and making his way into Spain, laid the foundation of a new dynasty of the Ommiades, who reigned in Cordova with great splendour for 250 years, from the Atlantic to the Pyrenees. In Egypt and Africa the Fatimites caliphs, the progeny of Ali, were invested with royal authority; and the new line of the Abassides transferring the seat of government from Damascus to the banks of the Euphrates, laid the foundation of Bagdad, the seat of their empire, and of wealth, literature, and science, for 500 years.

In the course of these various revolutions and splendid conquests, Arabia, the original seat of the Mahometans, had dwindled into an inconsiderable province of their vast empire, and the rude inhabitant of the desert retained his solitary independence, heedless alike of distant victories as of domestic changes. The Hedjaz, the mountainous district of Arabia, and the chief seat of its commerce and its towns, was governed by the lieutenants of the caliphs, or sherifs as they are called, who are chosen from the tribe of the Koreish, and who have always acted as the resident sovereigns of the country. But their power was unknown in the desert, where the sheiks still continued to rule. In the disorders attending the decay of the Mahometan power, Arabia was occasionally invaded by hostile tribes; but it was chiefly the outskirts of the country that were scathed by the flame of war, which never penetrated to the interior. It appears from the incidental and scattered notices which we possess, that about the year 1173 Sultan Saladin subdued a king who reigned in Yemen, and who had revolted against the authority of the caliphs of the line of Abassides. Having reduced the country, he committed the government to two deputies, who afterwards claiming independent power, were in their turn reduced by the troops of Saladin. In 1517, when Selim I. conquered Egypt, and extinguished the last surviving representative of the second dynasty of the Abassides, the sherif of Mecca brought to him the keys of the city; and the Arabian tribes professed their allegiance, and gave hostages as a pledge of their fidelity. The country continued under subjection for 50 years, when Muttarib, sherif of the kingdom, impatient of the Turkish yoke, attacked and routed the army of Murad Pacha, and freed the country for a time from its oppressors. A powerful army, commanded by the governor of Egypt, was dispatched by Selim II. to Yemen; the Arabian force was defeated and dispersed, and the authority of the sultan was re-established in Yemen, and extended backwards to the highlands. The country, thus reduced, was governed as a Turkish province by pachas sent from Constantinople. But in the interior the independent princes and sheiks still retained their authority, and continued to harass the Turks, and to drive them back to the coasts. They were expelled from the province of Yemen about the middle of the 17th century; and since this period until the invasion of the country by Mohammed Ali they have only possessed a precarious and nominal authority in the towns of Djidda and Mecca.

The rise of the sect of the Wahabys, and the rapid extension of their dominion and doctrines, forms a most important epoch in the more recent history of Arabia. These sectaries were the reformers of religion in the East. They were zealous followers of Mahomet, who were scandalized by the departure of modern believers from the simplicity of the faith; by their worship at the tombs of saints; by the luxurious ostentation of their dress; their remiss attendance at public prayers; the immorality of their lives; the scandalous indecencies which they practised in the holy temple of Mecca; and

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1 "Depuis ce temps-là (de Mahomet) les Arabes de l'emen (Yemen), et de toutes autres provinces de l'Arabie, sont toujours demeurés sous l'obéissance des Khalifs, ou de Bagdad ou Egypte, tant que le Khalifat a duré." (Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale, Iama.)

2 De Guignes, Histoire des Hanx, tome i. livre vii. Cantecuir's History of the Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire; Niebahr, Description de l'Arabie. Hammer-Purgstall, History of the Ottoman Empire. finally, in opposition to the strict prohibitions of the Koran, by their free use of tobacco and other intoxicating drugs. Such were the chief articles of the new creed, which, in the same manner as the faith itself, was propagated by fire and sword. Its founder was Mohammed-Ebn-Abd-el-Wahab, the son of a sheik in an obscure village, born in the year 1691, whose history and success for nearly a century seemed to presage the final triumph of his doctrines and his arms. It is remarkable that the only two great revolutions which have ever taken place in Arabia have had their origin in religion. It was in both cases for religion that the sword was ostensibly drawn. The subjection or extinction of infidel tribes was a step in the progress of the pious work; and these objects being accomplished, the original design, however spiritual in its nature, necessarily terminated in conquest and political dominion. The young apostle of the new faith was trained in the strict principles of Mahometanism. He was sent to finish his studies in the university of Bassora; and on his return to his native village, commencing reformer of religion and of manners, he was banished by the governor. He took refuge in Derayeh, the capital of Nedjed, where he was protected by the sheik Mohammed-Ebn-Saouhouhd, a zealous disciple, from political views, as was insinuated, of the reformed faith. Here the new tenets were embraced by crowds of proselytes, eager to draw their swords in the cause of truth; and so well did the Wahaby chief Saoud profit by their new-born zeal, that before his death in 1765 he had extended his faith and his dominion over the whole province of Nedjed. His son Abd-el-Azyz enlarged by new conquests the power of the Wahabys. He subdued and rendered tributary the surrounding tribes, threatened the holy cities, and finally spread the terror of his arms over all the northern parts of Arabia, from Mecca and Medina to Damascus, Bagdad, and Bassora. Mohammed-Ebn-Abd-el-Wahab, the founder of the Wahaby sect, died in 1787, at the advanced age of 95. But this event noway damped the zeal of his followers. Their expeditions were dreaded all along the banks of the Euphrates, and in the neighbourhood of Bassora, which they invaded every year, committing great excesses, and massacring the Arab settlers who were the subjects of the Bagdad government. In 1797 the pacha of Bagdad undertook an expedition against Derayeh, the capital of the Wahabys. He was repulsed by Saoud, the son of the reigning chief, who continued his inroads into the Turkish territories on the Euphrates. In 1801 he stormed the town of Imam Hosseyn, where, according to the intolerant maxims of the new sect, 5000 persons were massacred.

Ghaleb, the sherif of Mecca, was alarmed by the conquests of the Wahabys, and since the year 1792 had been vainly contending against their rising power. In 1801 the sectaries invaded his dominions in great force. In 1802 they stormed the town of Tayf, which they gave up to a general massacre, in which neither men, women, nor children were spared. In 1803 the holy city, notwithstanding the brave resistance of Sherif Ghaleb, surrendered at discretion to the victorious Wahabys. On entering it, the strictest discipline was preserved by Saoud the chief, and not the slightest excess was committed. The inhabitants were, however, compelled to a more punctual attendance at prayers; to conceal their silk dresses; all their finely ornamented Persian pipes were collected before Saoud's house, and there committed to the flames; and the sale of tobacco was forbidden. Mecca was afterwards given up to the government of Sherif Ghaleb, on the usual condition of his conversion to the Wahaby faith. This conquest was followed by the reduction of the neighbouring tribes, and in 1804 Medina surrendered to the Wahaby arms. Here they rigorously enforced the duty of public worship; the absent were punished; and a respectable woman, accused of smoking the Persian pipe, was placed upon a jack-ass, and paraded through the town with the pipe suspended round her neck. Saoud soon after visited Medina, and carried away from the tomb of Mahomet all the valuable articles, namely, jewels and pearls, and Cufic manuscripts of the Koran, which it contained; and ordered his troops, according to the approved maxims of his sect, who reprobate the worship of saints, to destroy the cupola over the tomb; but it was so strong that with all their efforts they could not deface this curious relic of antiquity.

The Hedjaz continued to enjoy tranquillity during the years 1806, 1807, and 1808, under the divided rule of the sherif of Mecca and of the Wahabys, the power of the former gradually declining, while Saoud was acknowledged as pontiff and king over the greater part of Arabia. The Wahaby hordes extended their inroads southward into the mountains of Yemen, whence they descended to the coasts and plundered the towns of Lohelia and Hodeida. On the north they advanced into the Syrian desert, and alarmed the Bedouins in the vicinity of Aleppo, as well as the inhabitants of Damascus, who had begun to send away their valuable property to the mountains of Lebanon. The Mesopotamian tribes near Bagdad were attacked and pillaged; and in 1810 Saoud, at the head of 20,000 troops, stormed the Persian town of Kerbeleh, putting all the male inhabitants to the sword. The regular intercourse of the great pilgrim caravans from Syria, Egypt, Persia, and Yemen, had been interrupted since the year 1803, and the few scattered pilgrims that reached the holy cities from the north and west generally came across the Red Sea from Cosseroi to Djidda.

The surrender of Mecca and Medina to the sectaries, and the interruption of the pilgrimages, excited the shame and indignation of all pious Mahometans. Mohammed Ali, who in 1804 was appointed pacha of Egypt, received instructions from the Porte to undertake the reconquest of the Holy Land. He accordingly determined on the invasion of Arabia, and prepared an expedition which he committed to his son Toussoun Bey, and Ahmed Aga his treasurer. The infantry, amounting to 2000 troops, landed at Yembo from Suez in October 1811, and took the town after a slight resistance. In January 1812 Toussoun advanced against Medina; but he was assailed in the mountain passes, through which his route lay; by a powerful army of Wahabys, and utterly routed, with the loss of all his baggage and artillery. Being in the course of the summer largely reinforced from Egypt, he again advanced to Medina in November; and having sprung a mine and overthrown part of the wall, he carried the town by assault, massacring about 1000 of the garrison in the streets. The remainder, to the number of 1500, retired to the castle, which they afterwards surrendered on condition of receiving a safe conduct for themselves and baggage; in defiance of which they were, on quitting the town, treacherously massacred by the Turkish troops. Sherif Ghaleb, intimidated by the capture of Medina, now intimated his desire of surrendering the holy city to the Turkish commander. Mecca, with Djidda, its port, was accordingly taken possession of in January 1813 without any opposition; and in a fortnight the town of Tayf, which had been held by the Wahabys for sixteen years. surrendered after a feeble resistance. In 1813 Mohammed Ali landed at Djidda; and on his arrival at Mecca, suspecting the hostile intrigues of Sherif Ghaleb with the Arab tribes, he caused him to be arrested and sent under a guard to Egypt. He was succeeded in the government of Mecca by Yahya, also of the sherif family, the humble tool of Mohammed Ali. In the mean time the Turkish army, weakened by its losses, remained at Mecca and Tayf; and, with the exception of an unsuccessful expedition against Toraba, the chief town of the southern Wahabys, and the capture of Gonfode, a port seven days' journey south of Djidda, which was soon after recaptured, no enterprise of any importance had been undertaken since the surrender of Mecca and Tayf. But Mohammed Ali was not idle. He employed the time in reinforcing his wasted army, in collecting magazines and stores, in purchasing camels, and in strengthening his influence among the Arab chiefs, many of whom he succeeded in detaching from the Wahabys by the influence of presents and money.

Saoud, the successful chief of the Wahabys, died at Nedjed in 1814, and his son Abdallah, who succeeded him, though he was brave, was inferior to his father in all the qualities of a political chief. The pasha having completed his preparations, now resolved to strike a decisive blow. In January 1815 he began his march southward in the direction of Toraba. The Wahabys, to the number of 25,000, occupied a strong position on the mountains near Byssel, from which, after some unsuccessful attempts to dislodge them, he contrived, by a feigned retreat, to draw them into the plain. Here their disorderly host was borne down by the steady attack of the pasha's disciplined force, and flying in confusion, they were cut down without mercy by the Turkish cavalry. A reward of six dollars being offered for the head of every Wahaby, 5000 of these bloody trophies were in a few hours piled up before the pasha's tent. Of 300 prisoners who were taken, 50 were, according to the cruel maxims of the East, impaled alive before the gates of Mecca, and the rest at other parts. Mohammed Ali hastened to profit by his victory. He arrived in four days before Toraba, which capitulated; and advancing southward, he encountered the wreck of the Wahaby army in the mountains near the town of Beishe. Here, after a brave resistance under Tamy, their chief, who was seen riding in front, animating the troops by his war songs, they gave way before the Turkish artillery. Tamy, who was betrayed into the hands of his enemies by an Arab chief, and by his gallant bearing gained the esteem of the whole army, was sent to Constantinople, where he was instantly beheaded. Another chief, Bakhroudi, was tortured to death in presence of the pasha. The Turkish army continued the pursuit of the Wahabys, and subdued most of the southern tribes. Mohammed Ali was intent on carrying the war into Yemen, whose rich cities he hoped to plunder; but the wasted state of the army forced him to an immediate retreat. He himself accordingly proceeded to Gonfode on the seashore, and arrived at Mecca on the 21st of March, after an absence of 15 days. Of his army, consisting of 4000 Turks, he brought back only 1500; and of 10,000 camels, only 300 survived the fatigues of the campaign.

The war against the northern Wahabys was prosecuted with vigour by Toussoun Pacha, who had advanced eastward from Medina to Khabara, about 300 miles into the interior of the country. Abdallah had fixed his head-quarters at Shenana, only five hours' march from the Turkish army. Toussoun was here seriously embarrassed by the want of supplies. His treasurer Ibrahim Aga, with a detachment, had been some time before surrounded on the road and cut to pieces, after a gallant resistance, and his remaining troops were averse to a battle. From these difficulties he was extricated by a peace, which Abdallah weakly concluded with him, and by which he agreed to renounce the possession of the holy cities, to be ranked among the faithful subjects of the sultan, to pray for him in the mosques, and to submit to his authority as his sovereign. But this treaty, however disgraceful to the Wahabys, was far from satisfying the views of Mohammed Ali, who, with his usual contempt of all engagements, refused to ratify it; and conscious of his strength, would enter into no overtures from Abdallah, however humble, having determined either to reduce or to exterminate the rebellious sectaries of Arabia of which he was the head. Both parties accordingly prepared for war. In September 1815 Ibrahim Pacha, son of Mohammed Ali, landed at Yembo with 2000 Turkish troops, besides 2000 peasants pressed into his service at Siout on the Nile, amid the outrages of their wives and children. He had also a corps of 500 Moggrebins from Barbary. Having spent some time at Medina in reducing the surrounding tribes, and visiting the holy sepulchre, he directed all the troops which could be spared from the different garrisons to march on Hanakye or Henakyeh, about 100 miles eastward of Medina, where, early in December, his whole force was concentrated. Here he remained till the end of April 1817; and though his troops suffered severely under fever and dysentery, the diseases of the climate, he succeeded, by several bold and well-concerted expeditions, in impressing on the Arab tribes the terror of his arms. He extended his alliances among them, and by his policy, as well as by his arms he silently prepared the ruin of the Wahaby state. In the conduct of the war Ibrahim combined, with the cruelty of a Turkish conqueror, undaunted courage and skill, a rare perseverance under difficulties, and a fertility of resource which seldom failed him. The discipline of his troops secured his superiority in the field; and the Wahaby host, avoiding the risk of a battle, relied on their fortresses, the nakedness of the land, and the noxious climate. The issue of the war was thus reduced to a mere arithmetical question of the number of men that would be required to carry it on. These being provided, the conquest of the country was certain, and Mohammed Ali was too well versed in war not to see the advantages which he possessed, and too deeply interested to grudge the necessary supplies. He was willing to pay the fair price of his success. The army of Ibrahim, notwithstanding its losses, was accordingly maintained at its full complement by recruits from Egypt; and he now hastened to complete the conquest of the country by reducing its strongholds, and especially Deraych, its capital. He had gone to the village of Maouyeh, where he was joined by a powerful chief; and having assembled all his forces, consisting of 4000 infantry and 1200 horse, besides his Arab auxiliaries, he advanced in July to the fortress of Rass. In three several assaults, conducted with desperate valour, but without skill, the assailants were overwhelmed, and finally repulsed with severe loss, by the well-directed fire of the

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1 Barckhardt's Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys, p. 356–7. Mengin, Histoire de l'Egypte. 2 Ibrahim Aga was a native of Edinburgh, named Thomas Keith, a private in the 72nd regiment of highlanders, and taken prisoner in the last expedition of the English to Egypt. He became a muzzaman, and on account of his valour was promoted to the high office of treasurer by Toussoun Pacha. garrison; and Ibrahim, after vainly contending for three months and 17 days against the obstinate valor of the inhabitants, and incurring a loss of 3400 men, was forced to raise the siege of an ill-fortified place, which, with the aid of engineers, he might have reduced in two days. But this was the only disaster which befell the Turkish arms. The sequel of the campaign was one continued course of conquest. Khabra, Aneyzey and its castle, and Banneydeh, successively fell after a slight resistance. At the latter place the Turkish army remained for two months. Having received large reinforcements, it commenced its march, accompanied by a train of 10,000 camels and other beasts of burden, across frightful deserts of sands, and in January 1818 encamped at Chakra, which was taken after a siege of seven days. The town of Dorama was stormed after a brave resistance, and abandoned to pillage and the sword; and on the 22d of March, Ibrahim directed his victorious march to Derayeh, the capital, and last stronghold of the Wahaby state. This place, which consists of five small towns, each surrounded with a wall protected by bastions at small distances, was now closely besieged by the Turkish army, which, including infantry and cavalry, amounted to 5500 troops. The siege was long and obstinate, but the Turkish troops still maintained their superiority. The different divisions of the town were successively stormed; and the unfortunate Abdallah, thus driven to his last retreat, was reduced to ask a suspension of arms and a conference. His interview with Ibrahim presented a touching spectacle of fallen dignity. He demanded peace; the conqueror granted his request, but added that he was not authorized to leave him at Derayeh,—the positive order of his father was that he should repair to Egypt. Abdallah, after 24 hours of deliberation, intimated his assent to the proposed terms, and only conditioned for his life. Ibrahim would not answer for the decision either of his father or the sultan, farther than that he thought them both too generous to take his life. Abdallah, having bidden a last adieu to his afflicted family, repaired to the tent of Ibrahim, from which he set out on his journey across the desert, and arrived at Cairo. He was sent to Constantinople, where, notwithstanding the intercession of Mohammed Ali, he was beheaded, along with his companions in misfortune, in the square of St Sophia, after being exhibited in every part of the city for three days.

With the death of Abdallah terminated the dominion of the Wahabys, which, under a succession of vigorous and politic princes, had in the course of a century been extended over the whole peninsula of Arabia. But their empire, loosely held together by the tenure of recent conquest, was overthrown by the first attack to which it was exposed. The chiefs who yielded to the terror of the Wahaby arms, deserted on the first appearance of a hostile army; others were seduced by the influence of gold, which was liberally distributed; and domestic dissension coming in aid of foreign war, dissolved the union of the tribes, and completed the ruin of the country. According to M. Mengin, whose information is undoubted, Arabia had ample means of defence, in the difficulties of the country, and in the numbers, intrepidity, and discipline of its troops; and, with an able leader, he expresses his strong and apparently just conviction, that the Turkish army, in place of conquering the country, would have perished in its burning deserts.

The ruin of the Wahabys is deeply to be regretted, as it may throw back for several centuries the civilization of Arabia. The Wahaby princes reformed the morals as well as the religion of their country. Under the reign of Saoud the administration of justice was rigid and impartial. The crimes of rapine, thieving, and murder, so common among the Arab tribes, were severely punished; an exact police was established throughout the country; and caravans and travellers were seen journeying on all the roads in perfect security. The Turkish conquests will restore the primitive barbarity of the Arabian manners, and anarchy and crime will resume their wonted sway. But Arabia contains within itself the seeds of independence. The distance of Nedjed from Cairo, and the expense and difficulty of sending supplies through the interior deserts, will render it extremely difficult to maintain a Turkish force in the heart of the country; while the religious principles of the tribes, their warlike character and love of freedom, animating them to new efforts, may yet enable them to triumph over the foreign tyranny which oppresses them, and to re-establish their freedom on a new and a more secure basis.

The expeditions of Mohammed Ali against the Wahabys of Assyria between 1824 and 1827, and again in 1833 and 1834, led to no lasting advantage for the Egyptian power. Since then, there have been frequent gatherings of the Wahabys in various parts of the peninsula; and there can be no doubt, that, should the decline of the Turkish empire continue, those intrepid and persevering reformers of a decrepit religion will ere long recover their former power. Only a few years ago, in 1850, they made a successful attempt upon Mecca and Medina, conquered both cities, and occupied them for a considerable time.

(D. B.—N.) (W. P.—E.)