86 PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS OF ARABIA. 



broken to pieces, and their houses thrown to the 

 ground. 



Lokman, who, according to some, was a famous 

 king of the Adites, and who hved to the age of seven 

 eagles, escaped, with about sixty others, the com- 

 mon calamity. Those few that survived gave rise 

 to a tribe called the Latter Ad ; but on account of 

 their crimes they were transformed, as the Koran 

 states, into apes or monkeys. Hud returned to 

 Hadramaut, and was buried near Hasec, where a 

 small town (Kabr Hud) still bears his name. Among 

 the Arabs, Ad expresses the same remote age that 

 Saturn or Ogyges did among the Greeks ; any thing 

 of extreme antiquity is said to be " as old as King 

 Ad." 



The idolatrous tribe of Thamud had the prophet 

 Saleh sent to them, whom D'Herbelot makes the 

 son of Arphaxad, while Bochart and Sale suppose 

 him to be Peleg, the brother of Joktan. His preach- 

 ing had little effect. The fate of the Adites, instead 

 of being a warning, only set them to dig caverns in 

 the rocks, where they hoped to escape the ven- 

 geance of winds and tempest. Others demanded a 

 sign from the prophet in token of his mission. As^ 

 a condition of their belief they challenged him to a 

 trial of power, similar to what took place between 

 Elijah and the priests of Baal, and promised to fol- 

 low the Deity that should gain the triumph. From 

 a certain rock a camel big with young was to come 

 forth in their presence. The idolaters were foiled ; 

 for on Saleh's pointing to the spot, a she-camel was 

 produced with a young one ready weaned. This 

 miracle wrought conviction in a few ; but the rest, 

 far from believing, hamstrung the mother, killed her 

 miraculous progeny, and divided the flesh among 

 them. This act of impietj^ sealed their doom. 

 " Wlrereupon," adds the Koran (chap, vii.), " a ter- 

 rible noise from heaven assailed them, and in the 

 morning they were found prostrate on their faces 



