OF THE ANCIENT ARABS. 165 



but demanded constant cultivation ; facts which 

 would serve to indicate that it was not indigenous 

 to the soil, but imported from the West.. Like the 

 incense, it exuded from the bark ; the incisions were 

 made at the same periods of the year, and the sum- 

 mer product was reckoned the best. 



Besides these two substances, which formed the 

 principal commercial articles of Arabian exporta- 

 tion, there were others of a secondary importance ; 

 such as benzoin, an oil which, from the most remote 

 antiquity, has been preferred to all others in the 

 preparation of perfumes ; the aloes of our pharma- 

 copeias, the best kind of which grows in the isle of 

 Socotra; balm, which the Arabs furnished long 

 before the Jews had introduced into Palestine the 

 culture of the tree from which it is obtained. Cof- 

 fee, so famous over all the world, and from which 

 the natives of Yemen now derive a vast revenue, 

 does not appear to have always existed or been 

 cultivated in that country. The ancients at least 

 knew nothing of it ; nor do we find it mentioned in 

 the earlier Mohammedan writers. It does not ap- 

 pear to grow Avild in Arabia ; but it is found in that 

 state in several districts of Africa, where the inhab- 

 itants use it as food in their military expeditions. 

 It is not improbable that the Abyssinians, who made 

 use of coffee when they invaded Yemen, might 

 introduce that tree, and cultivate it so long as they 

 remained masters of the country. The monopoly 

 of this article would at first remain in their hands ; 

 but when Mohammed discommended, if he did not 

 absolutely proscribe, the use of fermented liquors, 

 such a privation might suggest the idea of substitut- 

 ing a decoction of this nutritive berry. 



The soil of the greater part of Arabia was unfa- 

 vourable to the vine. The juice of the grape was 

 freely allowed ; and the scarcity of that beverage 

 may be inferred from a passage in Arrian, who 

 recommends strangers to bring, among other pres' 



