OF THE ANCIENT ARABS. 



179 



ten, lias been always regarded as the classical, or 

 rather the sacred, language of the Moslems. 



The extreme copiousness and harmony of the Ara- 

 bic, enriched by hterary compositions and commer. 

 cial intercourse with dilferent nations, has, from the 

 most remote antiquity, been eulogized by the na- 

 tives. They assure us that no man uninspired can 

 be a perfect master of it in its utmost extent. That 

 it far outstrips European tongues in this respect, we 

 may be satisfied from the fact that the mere names 

 of a single object, with their explanation, will some- 

 times fill a considerable volume. The Arabs have 

 two hundred words denoting a serpent, five hundred 

 signifying a lion, and above a thousand diff"erent ex- 

 pressions for a sword. Whole treatises have been 

 devoted to the interpretation of these words. Firou- 

 zabad, the Johnson of Arabia, the compiler of the 

 great lexicon called the Ocean (Al Ramus), relates, 

 that in his description of the nature and advantages 

 of honey, he has enumerated and explained eighty 

 different names, though there were various others 

 by which it might have been expressed. 



This vast accumulation of epithets was the neces- 

 sary result of their habits and circumstances. The 

 sphere of their observation was limited; and the 

 very paucity of the objects with which they were 

 conversant tended to multiply their expressions. 

 The face of nature, in its rugged and wild monotony, 

 was studied in the desert Avith a minuteness of which 

 we can scarcely form any conception. To the eye 

 of a Bedouin the aspect of the earth and the sky was 

 infinitely diversified. To his vivid imagination no 

 two clouds were ever alike. The tempest of spring 

 differed from that of summer and of autumn. Every 

 pace of his camel, each period of the life and preg- 

 nancy of that useful animal, had its peculiar name. 

 The office of giving it water was differently expressed, 

 according to the number of days it had endured 

 thirst. Every action, motion, and neigh of his horse 



