284 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



Dr Arbuthnot's argument fairer play*, than to tranfport my- 

 felf thither ; and, in the fame fpot where the neceffity was 

 impofed of male and female being produced in equal num- 

 bers, inquire how that cafe Hands now. The pretence that 

 climates and times may have changed, the proportion can- 

 not be admitted, fince it has been taken for granted, that it 

 exifls in the bills of mortality in London, and governs them to 

 this day ; and, iince it was founded on neceffity, which muft 

 be eternaL 



Now, from a diligent inquiry into the fouth, and fcrip- 

 ture-part of Mefopotamia, Armenia, and Syria, from Mouful 

 (or Nineveh) to Aleppo and Antioch, I find the proportion to 

 be fully two women born to one man. There is indeed a 

 fraction over, but not a confiderable one. From Latikea, 

 Laodicea ad mare, down the coaft of Syria to Sidon, the num- 

 ber is very nearly three, or two and three-fourths to one man. 

 Through the Holy Land, the country called Horan^ in the 

 Ifthmus of Suez, and the parts of the Delta, unfrequented 

 by ftrangers, it is fomething lefs than three. But, from 

 Suez to the flraits of Babelmandeb, which contains the three 

 Arabias, the portion is fully four women to one man, which, 

 I have reafon to believe, holds as far as the Line, and 30° 

 beyond it. 



Th e Imam of Sana * was not an old man when I was in 

 Arabia Felix in 1769; but he had 88 children then alive, o£ 

 whom 14 only were fons. — The prieft of the Nile had 70 and 



odd 



* Sovereign of Arabia Felix, whofe capital is Sand, 



