b 



PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS OF ARABIA. 87 



and dead !" The caves inhabited by those infidel 

 tribes rather militate against the idea of their 

 gigantic stature, as the height does not exceed the 

 ordinary standard. Their name and the places 

 they inhabited are held accursed by all true Mus- 

 sulmans. 



The tribes of Jadis and Tasm owe their extinc- 

 tion to a different cause. A certain despot, Abul- 

 feda relates, a Tasmite, but sovereign of both tribes, 

 had rendered himself detested by a voluptuous law, 

 claiming for himself a priority of right over all the 

 brides of the Jadisites. This insult was not to be 

 tolerated. A conspiracy was formed. The king 

 and his chiefs were invited to an entertainment. 

 The avengers had privately hidden their swords in 

 the sand, and in the moment of mirth and festivity 

 they fell upon the tyrant and his retinue, and finally 

 extirpated the greater part of his subjects. 



Besides those lost tribes others are enumerated, 

 viz. Amalek, Abil, Waber, Jorham, Emim, and 

 Jasim. All we know of them is, that they were 

 either cut off in domestic feuds, or incorporated 

 with other families.* 



Such are the traditions regarding the extinct 

 tribes of the ancient Arabs. History perhaps stoops 

 from her dignity in noticing legends so fabulous and 

 confused. The only importance they can claim is 

 derived from being incorporated with the literature 

 and religion of the country. Not only is much of 

 the ancient poetry of the Arabs, their maxims, allu- 

 sions, and proverbs, founded on them ; but, what to 

 us must appear still more absurd, the moral injunc- 

 tions of the Koran, and the sacred title of the Pro- 

 phet, are enforced by solemn references to the vis- 

 ionary punishments and idolatries of these defunct 

 heretics. In the eye of a Mussulman those legends 

 carry all the reverence of pious and indubitable 



* Pococke, Specim. Hist. Arab. p. 35. Sale's Koran, Prelim. 

 Diss. sect. i. 



