168 CHARACTER, MANNERS, AND CCST0M3 



cians who commanded the trade of Egypt and the 

 Mediterranean. He mentions another caravan that 

 departed from iElana, performmg a journey of 

 seventy days to the Land of Incense. The Koreish, 

 as Ave have observed, were early distuigiushed for 

 their mercantile entei-prise, to which their centrtil 

 position was highly advantageous. Their camels 

 travelled to Sanaa, and returned with the precious 

 cargoes of Moosa and Aden, which they exchanged 

 for grain and provisions in the Syrian markets. 

 Even at that remote period foreign merchants appear 

 to have brought their native productions to Mecca 

 during the annual festivals. Agatharcides and Dio- 

 dorus seem to allude to this religious traffic when 

 they speak of a fair in Arabia, which was frequented 

 by diiferent nations for the purpose of trade. 



Political circumstances necessarily affected these 

 inland conveyances, and gave a greater or less degree 

 of activity to commerce, accordhig to the prosperity 

 or decline of the countries with which it was carried 

 on When the Phenicians ceased to be a mantune 

 power, their place was supplied by Egypt, which, 

 under the first Ptolemys, had risen into new hfe and 

 vigour The caravans that formerly arrived at Tyre- 

 then took the route to Alexandria, long a celebrated 

 entrepdt of oriental trade. When the Romans con- 

 quered that province, the lucrative traffic fell into 

 their hands ; and their mercantile industry in the 

 Eastern seas contrasts singularly with the desola- 

 ting spirit which everywhere else marked the pro- 

 gress of their arms. Their taste for foreign rarities 

 became a passion ; and drew from Phny the com- 

 plaint, that the empire was exhausted by a drain oi 

 400 000?. a year, required for the pvu-chase of articles 

 equally expensive and superfluous. Horace rallies 

 his friend Iccius on being so smitten with the com- 

 mon rage for Arabian luxuries as to abandon the 

 study of philosophy for the profession of arms, in 

 the hope of conquering that envied but mdomitaDie 



