OF THE ANCIENT AKABS. 193 



Arabian pantheon were almost innumerable. Every 

 head of a family, every householder, had his tutelar 

 god, which received his last adieus when he went 

 abroad, and his first salutations on returning home. 

 They named their children after their favourite 

 idols, and gloried in being reckoned their servants 

 and votaries.* 



Some tribes, from their frequent intercourse with 

 Persia, had imbibed the religion of the Magi or 

 fire-worshippers, while others had become converts 

 to Judaism. That the doctrines of the cross were 

 early received in Arabia will admit of no dispute. 

 We know that Christianity ranked certain Arabs 

 among its first converts, some of them being present 

 on the day of Pentecost. It is the universal belief 

 in the Eastern churches, that the apostle Thomas 

 preached in Arabia Felix and the island of Socotra 

 (A. D. 50), on his way to India, where he suffered 

 martjTdom. St. Paul himself resided in the king- 

 dom of Gassan (Galat. i. 17) ; and it is highly prob- 

 able that the Arabian merchants who visited the 

 fairs of Bosra and Damascus must have heard him, 

 and perhaps were converted by his discourses. The 

 dispersion of the early Christians would doubtless 

 scatter the seeds of truth over various regions ; and 

 we may suppose that many victories over ignorance 

 and error would be achieved by the translations of 

 the Sacred Books, as Avell as by the able works that 



* Sale, Prelim. Diss. sect. i. Pococke, Not. in Specim. Arab. 

 Hist. Univ. Hist. vol. xviii. b. iv. chap. 21. Selden de Diis 



Svriis, torn. iii. 'Oic pr/OinXiBos vaXai TrpnacKWow hilcrnacTieim 

 is the remark of an old author on the litholatry of the Arabs. 

 Forster's Mahom., Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 408. That the altars of 

 the pagan Arabs were stained wath human gore we learn from 

 Porphyry, who says, that in the third century a boy was annu- 

 ally sacrificed by the tribe of Daumath. The horrid practice of 

 UaiciiOvcria and ArSpodvaia is attested by Procopius, Bell. Persic, 

 lib. viii. c. 28 ; Evagrius, lib. vi. c. 21 ; and Pococke, p. 72, 86. 

 Hyde. Hist. Relig. Vet. Pers. p. 129. 

 Vol. I.— R 



