44 DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. 



tioned by Pliny, Ptolemy, and the ancient geograph 

 ers as settled here were the Minaei, Sabaei, Atramitae, 

 Catabeni, Maronitae, Honieritae, Sapphoritae, Omanitae, 

 and a variety of others whose names and localities 

 it is almost impossible to identify with any modern 

 tribes or provinces in Arabia. Dionysius Periegetes, 

 who wrote a description of the world in Greek 

 verse, has celebrated this thuriferous region of 

 the " lovely Arabia" (Alipagtrn iparavvs), where the 

 fields were decked with undying verdure, and the 

 atmosphere loaded with spicy odours. Of the forty- 

 two cities mentioned by Abulfeda, and the six hun- 

 dred by Ptolemy, the most ancient and populous 

 were situated in Arabia Felix. The imagination 

 of the Greeks, easily set on fire, pictured in golden 

 dreams the ideal wealth of this Arabian Tempe ; 

 but it is evident that foreign nations knew little 

 more of the country than its name, and that it 

 abounded in gold, gems, spices, perfumes, with other 

 natural rarities, the value of which was greatly 

 enhanced by their own ignorance and cupidity. 



The three divisions introduced by Ptolemy, and 

 still adopted in modern geography, are unknown to 

 the Arabs themselves ; who, like the Egyptians, 

 Turks, and Persians, would find it difficult to recog- 

 nise their own names in the tongues of Europe. 

 From time immemorial, this peninsida has been par- 

 celled out into various independent territories ; but 

 as it never, properly speaking, has formed one king- 

 dom, the number or limits of these provinces have 

 not been very exactly defined. Regions are some- 

 times divided from each other by a solitary shrub, 

 and the extent of hereditary property determined 

 by the distance at which a dog can be heard to bark. 



Cliarmsei, a town of the Minsi, was fourteen miles iii compass ; 

 that a city of the Agarturi was twenty miles about ; and that 

 Sabotale, the capital of the Atramitae, had sixty temples within 

 its walls. 



