502 COSMOS. 



Dvipa Sukhatara), cultivated by Indian colonists, and to the 

 auriferous coast of Sofala in Eastern Africa. Arabia and the 

 island last referred to, to the south-east of the Straits of Bab- 

 el-Mandeb, may be regarded as affording intermediate links of 

 connection between the Indian Peninsula and Eastern Africa, 

 for the combined commerce of the Hebrews and Phoenicians. 

 The Indians had, from the earliest time, made settlements in 

 the eastern part of Africa, and on the coasts immediately 

 opposite their native country; and the traders to Ophir might 

 have found, in the basin of the Erythreian and Indian Seas, 

 other sources of gold besides India itself. 



Less influential than the Phoenicians in extending the geo- 

 graphical sphere of our views, and early affected by the Greek 

 influence of a band of Pelasgian Tyrrhenians, who invaded 

 their country from the sea, the Etruscans present themselves 

 to our observation as a gloomy and stern race. They carried 

 on no inconsiderable inland trade to distant amber countries, 

 through Northern Italy and across the Alps, where a via 

 sacra* was protected by all the neighbouring tribes. The 

 primitive Tuscan race of the Rasense appears to have followed 

 almost the same road on their way from Rhaetia to the Padus, 

 and evm further southward. In accordance with our object, 

 which is always to seize on the most general and permanent 

 features, we would here consider the influence which the 

 general character of the Etruscans exercised on the most 

 ancient political institutions of Rome, and through these on the 

 whole of Roman life. It may be said that the reflex action of 

 this influence still persists in its secondary and remote political 

 effects, inasmuch as, for ages, Rome stamped her character, 

 with more or less permanence on the civilisation and mental 

 culture of mankind.f 



A peculiar characteristic of the Tuscans which demands our 

 special notice in the present work, was their inclination for cul- 

 tivating an intimate connection with certain natural pheno- 

 mena. Divination, which was the occupation of their eques- 

 trian hierarchical caste, gave occasion for a daily observation, 

 of the meteorological processes of the atmosphere. The Ful- 



* Aristot., Mirab. Auscult., cap. 86 and 111, pp. 175 and 225, 

 Bekk. 



t Die Etruslcer, by Otfried Muller, abth. ii. s. 350; Niebuhr, Romis- 

 die Geschichte, th. ii. s. 380. 



