158 CHARACTER, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS 



the hands of Solomon the traffic of the Red Sea 

 produced a revenue equivalent to three millions and 

 a half (1 Kings x. 14) ; and at the period when the 

 Romans invaded the East, this lucrative monopoly 

 was exercised by the Sabaeans, whose marts they 

 found richly stored with all the precious commodi- 

 ties of India. , .^-l. i 



All writers, sacred and profane, speak of the valu- 

 able and extensive trade of Saba or Yemen. The 

 portrait which Ezekiel (chap, xxvii.) draws of T>Te 

 IS not only curious as an illustration of ancient com- 

 merce, but may be regarded as conveying a faithful 

 description of the mercantile activity which the uni- 

 versal intercourse of nations must have created in 

 the seas and harbours of Arabia. " Tarshish was 

 thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind 

 of riches ; with silver, iron, tin, and lead tliey traded 

 in thy fairs. The men of Dedan were thy mer- 

 chants in precious cloths for chariots. Syria was 

 thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the 

 wares of thy making : they occupied in thy fairs 

 with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and line 

 linen, and coral, and agate. Dan and Javan, going 

 to and fro, occupied in thy fairs : bright iron, cassia, 

 and calamus were in thy market." Job aUudes to 

 the pearls and rubies, the precious onyx, the sap- 

 phire, the coral, and the topaz ; which shows that 

 even at his early age the northern tribes were not 

 ignorant of the luxuries of their more wealthy 

 neighbours. Diodorus considered the Happy Arabia 

 so immensely opulent, that all the treasures of the 

 world seemed to centre there as in one universal 

 mart. Agatharcides, the first historian worthy of 

 credit who describes the commerce of Yemen, and 

 its different productions, either native or imported, 

 has given a singular picture of oriental trade as it 

 stood in the reign of Ptolemy Philomater, nearly 

 two hundred years before the Christian era. At 

 that time Arabia was the medium of communi- 



