﻿ON THE ARABS. 15 



and forcible periods. I have never been able to dis- 

 cover what was meant by their books called Rawa- 

 sim ; but suppose that they were collections of their 

 common or customary law. Writing was so little 

 practised among them, that their old poems, which 

 are now accessible to us, may almost be considered as 

 originally unwritten ; and I am inclined to think that 

 Samuel Johnsons reasoning on the extreme imperfec- 

 tion of unwritten languages, was too general ; since a 

 language that is only spoken, may nevertheless be 

 highly polished by a people who, like the ancient 

 Arabs, make the improvement of their idiom a na- 

 tional concern, appoint solemn assemblies for the pur- 

 pose of displaying their poetical talents, and hold it a 

 duty to exercise their children in getting by heart 

 their most approved compositions. 



The people of Yemen had possibly more mechanical 

 arts, and, perhaps, more science; but, although their 

 ports must have been the emporia of considerable 

 commerce between Egypt and India, or part of Persia, 

 yet we have no certain proofs of their proficiency in 

 navigation or even in manufactures. That the Arabs 

 of the Desert had musical instruments, and names for 

 the different notes, and that they were greatly delighted 

 with melody, we know from themselves ; but their 

 lutes and pipes were probably very simple, and their 

 music, I suspect, was little more than a natural and 

 tuneful recitation of their elegiac verses and love- 

 songs. The singular property of their language, in 

 shunning compound words, may be urged, according 

 to Bacons idea, as a proof that they had made no 

 progress in arts, ' which require/ says he, * a variety 



* of combinations to express the complex notions aris- 



* ing from them ;' but the singularity may perhaps be 

 imputed wholly to the genius of the language, and the 

 taste of those who spoke it, since the old Germans 

 who knew no art, appear to have delighted in com- 



