DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. ' *^ 



and crowns of gold. Nearcliur, who sailed in the 

 vear 326 B. C , by order of Alexander, from the 

 Indus up the Persian Gulf, set out with more pomp 

 of preparation, and met with more hardships and 

 adventures, than Columbus did m circumnavigatinir 

 half the globe. At sea were sand-banks, shoals, 

 and whales ; on shore, nothing was beheld but des- 

 olate plains and shaggy monsters of men, hail- 

 nS'ed cannibals with claws, who lived in caves and 

 Soles in the sand, and in huts made of olive-branches 



or the ribs of fishes.* , t,- , r^ir .,,,1 



The descriptions given of the Arabian Gult, ...d 

 of the manners of the inhabitants, are equally appiU- 

 linff The coasts are represented as peopled with a 

 race of savages, who fed on plants =«^d leaves, dwc.t 

 in huts built on trees, and lived on fish, whichj.hey 

 roasted on the rocks by the heat ot the sun. ihey 

 were expert in chmbing, and could leap from branch 

 to branch with great celenty. , Jh^y, ^^'jf^^^^^^f 

 marksmen and hunters, and caught elephants by cut- 

 ting the trees nearly through against which they 

 leaSed to sleep. Their funerals they celebrated 

 with mirth and dancing. When weary of life they 

 strangled themselves, as well as their aged parents 

 and infirm relations, by tying a bullock's tail round 



their necks. . r^ ,oo+>,o-,r 



All wonders naturally increase m proportion as they 

 are distant and unknown ; and it cannot be doubted 

 that ignorance and imagination did much tx) enlmnce 

 the difficulties and magnify the dangers of the Ara- 



* " Omnino ha;c Arabiaj continenlis prEsternavigalio plena est 

 pericuii ; regio impetuosa, infesta cautibus, atque scopu is mac- 

 cessa, horroris ubique plena."-( Arnrm, Penp. Mar Eryth. p 12.) 

 PI nv (lib. vii. cap. 24)- speaks of the natives inhabiting hese 

 coasVs as " hairy all over except the head, and clothed witn the 

 skfns of fishes.'' Diodoras (lib. ii. hi.) describes the elephant- 

 eaters, ostrich-eaters, fish-eaters, dog-eaters, locust-eatere, wood 

 eaters; &c., dwelling near the Red Sea ; as also men with cloven 

 tongues, that spoke two languages at once. 



