PHYSICAL CONTEMPLATION OF THE UNIVERSE. 137 



structed at the Red Sea, and Hiram supplied him with expe- 

 rienced Phoenician seamen, and Tyrian vessels, " ships of 

 Tarshish."* The articles of commerce which were hrought 

 from Ophir were gold, silver,*sandal-wood (algummiri), pre- 

 cious stones, ivory, apes (Jcophim), and peacocks (t.hukkiim). 

 These are not Hebrew, but Indian names.t It would appear 

 highly probable, from the careful investigations of Gesenius, 

 Benfey, and Lassen, that the Phoenicians, who had been early 



Supara, in the Gulf of Camboya (Barigazenus Sinus, according to Hesy- 

 chius), as " a district, rich in gold !" Supara sigpifies in Indian a fair 

 shore (Lassen, Diss. de Taprobane, p. 18, and Indische Alterthumskunde, 

 bd. i., s. 107 ; also Professor Keil, of Dorpat, Ueber die Hiram-Salomo- 

 r.ische Schiffahrt nach Ophir und Tarsis, s. 40-45). 



* On the question whether ships of Tarshish mean ocean ships, or 

 whether, as Michaelis contends, they have their name from the Phoeni- 

 cian Tarsus, in Cilicia, see Keil, op. cit., s. 7, 15-22, and 71-84. 



t Gesenius, Thesaurus Linguce Hebr., t. i., p. 141 ; and the same in 

 the Encycl. of Ersch and Gruber, sect, iii., th. iv., s. 401 : Lassen, Ind. 

 Alterthumskunde, bd. i., s. 538 ; Reinaud, Relation des Voyages f aits par 

 les Arabes dans V Inde et en Chine, t. i., 1845, p. xxviii. The learned 

 Quatremere, who, in a very recently-published treatise (M6m. de V Acad. 

 des Inscriptions, t. xvi., Part ii., 1845, p. 349-402), still maintains, with 

 Heeren, that Ophir is the east coast of Africa, has explained the word 

 thukkiim (thukkiyyim) as parrots, or Guinea-fowls, and not peacocks (p. 

 375). Regarding Sokotora, compare Bohlen, Das alte Indien, th. ii., s. 

 139, with Benfey, Indien, s. 30-32. Sofala is described by Edrisi (in 

 Amedee Jaubert's translation, t. i., p. 67), and subsequently by the 

 Portuguese, after Gama's voyage of discovery (Barros, Dec. i., liv. x., 

 cap. i. ; Part ii., p. 375 ; Killb, Oeschichte der Entdeckungsreisen, th. i., 

 1841, s. 236), as a country rich in gold. I have elsewhere drawn atten- 

 tion to the fact that Edrisi, in the middle of the twelfth century, speaks 

 of the application of quicksilver in the gold-washings of the negroes of 

 this district, as a long-known process of amalgamation. When we bear 

 in mind the great frequency of the interchange of r and I, we find that 

 the name of the East African Sofala is perfectly represented by that of 

 Sophara, which is used, with several other forms, in the version of the 

 Septuagint, for the Ophir of Solomon and Hiram. Ptolemy also, as has 

 been already noticed, was acquainted with a Sapphara, in Arabia (Rit- 

 ter, Asien, bd. viii., 1, 1846, s. 252), and a Supara in India. The signif- 

 icant (Sanscrit) names of the mother country had been conferred on 

 neighboring or opposite coasts, as we find, under similar relations in 

 the present day, in the Spanish and English parts of America. The 

 trade to Ophir might thus, according to rny view, be extended in the 

 same manner as a Phoenician expedition to Tartessus might touch at 

 Cyrene and Carthage, Gadeira and Cerne, and as one to the Cassiterides 

 might touch at the Artabrian, British, and East Cimbrian coasts. It is 

 nevertheless remarkable that incense, spices, silk, and cotton cloth are 

 not named among the wares from Ophir, together with ivory, apes, and 

 peacocks. The latter are exclusively Indian, although, on account of 

 their gradual extension to the west, they were frequently termed by 

 the Greeks " Median and Persian birds ;" the Samians even supposed 

 them to have belonged originally to Samoa, on account of their being 



