Mr. G. C. Haughton's Account of an ancient Arabic Grave-stone. 575 



diately assisted most cordially in repacking the sacred spoils, and in fastening 

 them on the back of a camel. It was eleven o'clock before we got away." 

 Vol. 2, page 235-6. 



When the trouble and expense that have attended the procuring this 

 tomb-stone are considered, it will be matter of regret with every one that 

 these had not the good fortune to be bestowed on some object of greater 

 interest. In this instance, as in many others, the risk of life, as well as the 

 perseverance and zeal of the traveller, have been thrown away upon an 

 object that had much better have remained in the sanctuary in which it 

 had been set up. 



This stone and its epitaph might be adduced as one of the many facts 

 which prove, that females in Muhammadan countries enjoy a degree of 

 respect and consideration little short of what exists in Europe. 



The duration which has been, and seems likely to be the lot of this simple 

 grave-stone, might well be coveted for the sepulchral monuments of the 

 most celebrated individuals. It records the burial of a female of the lower 

 orders, who died nearly eight hundred years ago. It has been exe- 

 cuted with care, and, when the station in life of the parties is considered, 

 evidently at considerable expense. This could scarcely have been the case 

 at so remote a period, in an obscure town, or rather village, on the coast of 

 the Red Sea, if females had not held that rank in society for which they 

 were intended by nature, and which may always be considered as the surest 

 standard of the civilization and refinement of every people. 



I should not have thought it worthy the attention of the Society but for 

 the antiquity of the inscription, which affords at once a longer and more 

 undoubted specimen of Cufic characters than is to be found in any other 

 relic of the same age with which I am acquainted. I was besides informed, 

 that though a plate of it is published in Lord Valentia's Travels, it had 

 hitherto remained undecyphered, and that a translation of it would be 

 acceptable to the Society. 



It seemed of use, therefore, to have it exactly copied, as it might afford 

 some facility in making out similar inscriptions at a future period. It like- 

 wise appeared to me that it might not be altogether uninteresting to the 

 European reader to know how nations, thought to be so dissimilar in usages 

 and manners from ourselves, testified the last feelings of sorrow for departed 

 friends and relatives. I beg leave, therefore, to submit a few brief remarks 



4 E 2 



