48 ASIA. 



temples stripped, their idols dashed to pieces, their 

 sacred animals murdered, their priests scourged, the 

 embalmed body of their king snatched from its last 

 resting-place and flung upon the flames. 



A vast wilderness extends from the centre of Africa 

 to the jungles of Bengal. It consists of rugged moun- 

 tains and of sandy wastes ; it is traversed by three 

 river basins or valley plains. 



In its centre is the basin of the Tigris and 

 Euphrates. On its east is the basin of the Indus ; on 

 its west is the basin of the Nile. Each of these river 

 systems is enclosed by deserts. The whole region may 

 be pictured to the mind as a broad yellow field with 

 three green streaks running north and south. 



Egypt, Babylonia, and India Proper, or the Punjaub, 

 are the primeval countries of the ancient world. In 

 these three desert-bound, river-watered valleys we find, 

 in the earliest dawn of history, civilisation growing wild. 

 Each in a similar manner had been fostered and tor- 

 tured by Nature into progress ; in each existed a people 

 skilled in the management of land, acquainted with 

 manufactures, and possessing some knowledge of prac- 

 tical science and of art. 



The civilisation of India was the youngest of the 

 three, yet Egypt and Chaldsea were commercially its 

 vassals and dependents. India offered for sale articles 

 not elsewhere to be found : the shining warts of 

 the oyster ; glass-like stones dug up out of the 

 bowels of the earth, or gathered in the beds of 

 dried-up brooks ; linen which was plucked as a 

 blossom from a tree, and manufactured into cloth 

 as white as snow ; transparent fabrics, webs of woven 

 wind which, when laid on the dewy grass, melted 

 from the eyes ; above all, those glistening, glossy 



