162 CHARACTER, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS 



With regard to the exports of the ancient Arabs, 

 these consisted chiefly of the productions of their 

 own soil, whether natural or reared by cultivation. 

 The articles of the transit trade were more various, 

 and have been enumerated by Arrian, Agatharcides, 

 and other authors. In these invoices are found gold, 

 silver, iron, lead, tin, brass, of which were made 

 drinking-vessels, cooking-utensils, and ornaments 

 of all sorts ; ivory, tortoise-shell, flint-glass, carved 

 images, iavelins, hatchets (iriMKia,), adzes (<T«E-agva) 

 knives, awls or bodkins (3™t/«), cloths of various 

 kinds, military cloaks (dfoxxa,), tartans (<r«co^«c.) died 

 mantles for the Berberine markets m the African 

 ports of the Red Sea ; fine muslins, silks, linens, 

 quilts or coverhds {x^ikh), manufactured at Moosa; 

 coarse cottons (^o^^^'va), girdles, long sashes, died 

 rucrs made at Arsinoe ; Chinese furs, and female 

 dresses of every description. Of gums, spices, and 

 o-ems, the varieties are numerous ; bdeUium, cmna-^ 

 mon, ginger, cassia, of which ten sorts are specified 

 in the Periplus; honey, spikenard, sugar, pepper, 

 stibium for tinging the eyelids black, and storax, one 

 of the most agreeable of the odoriferous resins. 

 The apes and peacocks mentioned in Scripture, as 

 well as many of the spices and precious stones, were 

 undoubtedly the produce of India, and brought by 

 the Arabs into Palestine. 



I Among the principal articles of native growth must 

 Ibe ranked the incense so famous in all antiquity. Its 

 use in religious oblations, among the Jews and other 

 oriental nations, ascends to an era infinitely remote. 

 The various ofl'erings of the Israehtes, even m the 

 wilderness, were perfumed with it ; from their altars 

 night and morn, which were never quenched, its 

 odorous exhalations ascended perpetually tor a 

 sweet-smelhng sacrifice. " To what purpose, says 

 Jeremiah, remonstrating with his idolatrous country- 

 men, " cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and 

 the sweet cane from a far country T your burnt- 



