iiiinTJY — The Sierra Leone Cannibals. 19 



complexion, which was fair, witli ruddy cheeks — a mountaiu race. Hinra, 

 according to Schrader,' is one of the early root-words, and in all Semitic 

 languages means "lied." Amongst primitive peoples red is the colour of 

 spu'its, and denotes things sacred and holy ; thus the sacred tracts of fertile 

 lands,- which were common grazing-ground and the abode of the gods, where 

 no strife might take place, in the highlands of central and northern Arabia, 

 and possibly also in Africa, were known as Hima,- and the dwellers in them 

 as Himyarites. The Himyaiites had a growing and considerable civilization 

 in the Neolithic age ; they worshipped a deity embodied in stones, and 

 commemorated their ancestors by annual games. As the population increased, 

 the early Semitic hordes were thrown off, and divided into kingdoms which 

 have come down to us under the classical names of the Minaeans, Xabataeans, 

 and Sabaeans. 



In the interior of Arabia, sites of ruined cities and inscriptions have been 

 found, from which we learn that long before the days of Mahommed Arabia 

 was a land of hteratiire and culture, the seat of powerful kingdoms and 

 wealthy commerce. Of these kingdoms, the Sabaean empire marched with 

 Egypt and Nineveh, and was the greatest in extent. It was variously known as 

 Sabaea, Saba, Sheba, and the Spice Coimtry, and its centre wa^ in the populous 

 south on both banks of the Eed Sea, and its inhabitants were, according to 

 Herodotus, great astrologers. It was a great and ancient kingdom in the 

 eighth century, and can be traced to 1000 B.C., but was much older and 

 had arisen to power on the remains of a still older kingdom known as Main, 

 whose people have come down to us under the classical name of Minaeans.^ 



The Miaaean empire extended all over Ai-abia, to the borders of Egypt 

 and Syria, as far as Palestine, and embraced Ethiopia from Axum to Meroe. 

 Its inhabitants were considerably advanced in the arts of civilization ; they 

 were a commercial and sea-going people, literary, and possessed their own 

 alphabet and system of writing. They worshipped large stones, and the Great 

 Mother under the name of Athtar, from which were derived the names Hathor 

 and Ishtar. The inscriptions mention thirty-three Minaean kings ; the 

 kingdom was probably as old as Menes, and there are traditions that would 

 point to its being much older. In the earhest inscriptions the Egyptians 

 treat Punt with considerable respect, and they regard it as the laud of 

 their gods. The Egyptian god Alin was the god of the eastern desert. 

 Punt is represented as a prosperous and fertile land, from which spice and 



'"Prehistoric Antiquities of the Ai-yau Peoples,'' by Schraiier & Jevons. London, 1890, 

 p. 43. 



- " ileligion of Semites," by W. Robertson Smith. Edinburgh, 1880, pp. 135, ei seq. 

 ^ " Human Origins, " by S. Laing. London, 1892, pp. 87 e< sej. 



