76 DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA, 



bian seas. Avai'ice and speculations in commerce 

 tended to aggravate these ideal horrors. The Ro- 

 mans and Egyptians had engrossed the trade of the 

 East: willing to retain the profits of this intercourse 

 themselves, and anxious to exclude foreigners from 

 tlieir ports, thej^ cuimingly spread exaggerated ac- 

 counts of the perils to be encountered in visiting 

 those mysterious regions from vi^hich they drew 

 their wealth ; as if nature herself, by the impenetrable 

 deserts and oceans with which she had surrounded 

 them, had set bounds to the cupidity of other mor- 

 tals. The terrors of antiquity have been perpetuated 

 in the modern nomenclature of the country. Hadra- 

 maut, the Land of Incense, means the Region of 

 Death. The strait so formidable to the early navi- 

 gators, and often indeed so fatal to their inexpe- 

 rience, the Arabs call Bab el Mandeb, or the Gate 

 of Tears ; while the opposite coast, black and rugged, 

 they styled the Cape of Burials, on Avhose rocky 

 steep their fancy heard the shrill spirit of the storm, 

 as he sat in clouded wrath and enjoyed the death of 

 the mariner. The light of science has dispelled 

 these superstitious fancies. The navigation of that 

 gulf is still intricate, its shoals numerous, and fatal 

 mistakes are occasionally made ; but nautical skill 

 has rendered these disasters less frequent. 



From the mouth of the strait to Gebel Tar, the 

 soundings are from twelve to fifty fathoms, and 

 there is a good landmark in the great mosque at 

 Mocha. "The entrance to Bab el Mandeb," says 

 Mrs. Lushington, "affords a sight equally unique 

 and grand. A rush of the sea appears to have 

 divided a bed of hard black rock, and thus to have 

 forced a channel for itself of two or three miles in 

 breadth. This rock rises on each side, dark, barren, 

 and cheerless ; that on the left is Perim ; in some 

 places a few blades of grass endeavour to force them- 

 selves through the crevices ; but even fresh water 

 must be brought from the Abyssinian shore, — the 



