106 ANCIENT KINGS OF ARABIA. 



liable to sickness or disease ; the sick, the blind, the 

 maimed, the paralytic, from other quarters, might 

 all be restored by bathing in its waters : no change 

 of dress was necessary, such was the mildness of 

 the climate : their wives knew not the pangs of 

 childbirth, and never lost the charms of youth and 

 virginity. 



All these imaginary fehcities, however, depended 

 on the strength and preservation of their mound ; 

 tlie effect of time (if built by Saba, it must have 

 stood above 1700 years) and the weight of the water 

 began insensibly to undermine its foundations. The 

 king was apprized of the danger by Amru Mazikia, 

 and a noted female soothsayer, Dharifa, an interpre- 

 ter of dreams and visions, who announced, by many 

 terrible signs and prodigies, the approaching devas- 

 tation of Mareb. The incredulous prince disre- 

 garded every admonition ; but Amru, having dis- 

 posed of his property, resolved, with a number of 

 followers, to seek safety in a timely flight. The 

 bursting of the waters immediately overwhelmed 

 the country, destroying fields, flocks, vineyards, and 

 villages ; and reduced that fertile province to a state 

 of desolation. Such is the history of the famous 

 deluge of El Arem. 



As the Sabaeans were a proud and idolatrous race, 

 the Koran (chap, xxxiv.) describes this disaster as 

 a judicial punishment from Heaven.—" Wherefore 

 we sent against them the inundation of El Arem, 

 and we changed their double gardens into gardens 

 producing bitter fruit,— this we gave because they 

 were ungrateful." The Arabian poets lamented its 

 destruction in verse ; and two elegies on the sub- 

 ject have been preserved among the ancient monu- 

 ments of their literature. The tradition still exists 

 among the inhabitants of Yemen, one of whom 

 described to Niebuhr the ruins of the wall on the 

 sides of the two mountains. The tributary waters 

 had dwindled away to six or seven petty streamlets, 



