62 DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. 



ocean. Ptolemy reckoned four rivers in Arabia 

 Felix; Diodorus and Strabo describe several fine 

 streams ; and Herodotus speaks of one traversing 

 the desert, at the distance of twelve days' journey. 

 By the times of D'Anville and Niebuhr these had 

 greatly diminished ; and modern travellers have dis- 

 covered that names which have so long flourished 

 as pompous rivers are either quite imaginary, or 

 only temporary currents, which are absorbed in 

 the sand, and never reach the sea except after co- 

 pious rains. The great Aftan of Ptolemy, on which 

 stood the city of Yemama, and which is still made 

 to roll its tributary waters into the Persian Gulf, is 

 now found to be a very modest brook, nourished by 

 the clouds, and having no existence but during one 

 season of the year.* Those at Aden, Mocha, and 

 other places are of the same description. The 

 Jews and poorer inhabitants erect their huts of 

 wicker-work in the dusty channels. In some of the 

 wadys there are streams of considerable size that 

 run a course of sixty or eighty leagues ; but they 

 are generally drunk up in the sandy belt before reach- 

 ing either gulf. The lakes in the interior, mentioned 

 by the Greek and Turkish geographers, must have 

 been temporary collections of water formed by the 

 rains. 



The winds are extremely variable, and their re- 

 freshing influence is but partially felt. During sum- 

 mer, 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 air in motion ; hence dead calms 

 occur which sometimes continue for sixty days with- 

 out interruption. The nature of the winds diff'ers 

 according to the point of the compass from which 

 they blow, or the tract over which they respectively 



* Notice G(5ographique sur I'Arabie Centrale ; Mengin's His. 

 toire de VEgypte, vol. ii. p. 551 ; D'Anville, G6og. Ancienne, 



