OF THE ANCIENT ARABS. 159 



cation between India and Egypt, and it was in her 

 ports that the Greeks were wont to purchase their 

 cargoes, before they had ventured to make the distant 

 voj^age themselves. Saba, he observes, abounded 

 with every production that could make life happy 

 in the extreme. The land yielded not merely 

 the usual commodities ; balm and cassia, incense, 

 myrrh, and cinnamon were of common growth. 

 The trees wept odorous gimis, and the gales were 

 so perfumed with excessive fragrance that the na- 

 tives were obliged to renew their cloyed sense of 

 pleasure by burning pitch and goats' hair under their 

 noses. They cooked their victuals with scented" 

 woods ; living in the careless and delightful enjoy- 

 ment of those blessings which conferred on their 

 country the appeUation of Happy. In their expen- 

 sive habits they rivalled the magnificence of princes. 

 Their houses were decorated with pillars glistening 

 with gold and silver. Their doors were of ivory, 

 crowned with vases and studded with jewels. The 

 interior of their habitations corresponded with their 

 outward appearance ; in articles of plate and sculp- 

 ture ; in furniture, beds, tripods, and various house- 

 hold embellishments, they far surpassed any thing 

 that Europeans ever beheld. 



Other writers speak in similar terms of the luxury 

 and riches of the Sabaeans. Arrian, in the Periplus, 

 mentions their embroidered mantles, their murrhine 

 vases, their vessels of gold and silver elegantly 

 wrought, their girdles, armlets, and other female or- 

 naments. Strabo describes their bracelets and neck- 

 laces, made of gold and pellucid gems arranged al- 

 ternately ; as well as their cups and other domestic 

 utensils, all composed of the same precious metals ; 

 which we are assured were so abundant that gold 

 was but thrice the value of brass, and only twice 

 that of iron : while silver was reckoned ten times 

 more valuable than gold ; — their mountains produ- 

 cing the latter commodity in vast quantities nearly in 



