OF THE ANCIENT ARABS. 157 



tioned by Jeremiah (chap. xxxv. 1-11), who ad- 

 hered to this law of their country long after they 

 had become resident in Judaea.* The reason as- 

 signed for this interdict was, the belief that the pos- 

 sessors of fields and vineyards would be more easily 

 brought under subjection to a foreign yoke. 



Circumstances so dissimilar between the wan- 

 dering and the stationary tribes could not fail to in- 

 duce habits essentially different. Among the latter 

 the subdivision of the soil was adopted, and conse- 

 quently the right of individual property respected. 

 That they had made very considerable progress in 

 agriculture is certain ; but of the theory and prac- 

 tice of their husbandry we must be content to re- 

 main in ignorance. Their principal occupation — to 

 which they owed their wealth and their fame — was 

 commerce. That the Arabs vv^ere the first naviga- 

 tors of their own seas, and the first carriers of ori- 

 ental produce, is evident from all history ; and that 

 they had been so from the remotest ages we may safely 

 infer from analogy, from necessity, and from local 

 situation. Sabaea, Hadramaut, and Oman were the 

 residence of merchants from the very dawn of civili- 

 zation. They had frequented the ports of the Red 

 Sea, crossed the Persian Gulf, and, with the aid of 

 the monsoons, visited the coasts of India long be- 

 fore these regions were known to the nations of 

 Europe. Moses speaks of cinnamon, cassia, myrrh, 

 and other aromatics appropriated to religious uses 

 (Exodus XXX. 22-25) ; and he mentions them in 

 such quantities, as plainly shows they were neither 

 of rare nor difficult attaiimient ; and that even in 

 his time the communication was opened between 

 India and Arabia. It was to this source that ancient 

 Egypt owed its wealth and its splendour. Thebes and 

 Memphis traded with the Arabs, and were celebrated 

 as mercantile cities more than a thousand years 

 before the foundation of Cairo or Alexandria. In 



* Townson's Hist. Of the Rechabites. Wolff*s Journal, 

 Vol. I.— O 



