judges, are represented as coming up and encamping against Israel, with their camels, their cattle, and their tents, like grashoppers for multitude. The plains of Hauran are strewn with the ruins of towns and villages; and many places which are susceptible of culture, and must once have been thickly peopled, are overgrown with wild herbage. It may even be doubted whether these regions have always existed in the same state of hopeless sterility which they at present exhibit. Numbers of petrified trunks have been discovered in desolate tracts, where neither tree nor shrub has grown within the remembrance of history; but of the same species the date and the sycamore-which still abound in the more fertile parts of the same district. These facts seem to demonstrate a more flourishing condition of soil and population in certain places than are now witnessed by modern travellers, but at a period of which antiquity is silent. In casting a retrospective view over the manners and habits of the Arabs, we are struck with the contradictory features which they discover, both in their social and moral character. Independently of the grand distinction between natives and settlers, shepherds and citizens, which naturally creates a difference in their modes of life, other anomalous circumstances are found to exist among the pure aboriginal tribes. The spirit of patriotism among them is strong and universal, yet they have no home but the pathless waste and wretched tent. They are a nation of brothers, yet live continually at war; jealous of their honour, and at the same time addicted to the meanest vices. Though fierce and sanguinary in their temper, they are not strangers to the virtues of pity and gratitude. They are faithful where they pledge their word, and charitable to the needy; but they are covetous, and by no means of good faith in pecuniary transactions. Their religious character is marked by the same irreconcilable extremes. Their fanaticism is coupled with infidelity; their prayers and devotions are mingled with the pursuits of commerce and the ideas of worldly lucre. Islam has but very little hold on the reverence of its disciples, even under the domes of its own temples. In the desert there is a still more lax observance of its precepts and ceremonies. In a pleasant indifference about the matter, the Bedouins remark that the religion of Mohammed never could have been intended for them. "In the desert," say they, 66 we have no water; how then can we make the prescribed ablutions? We have no money, and how can we bestow alms? Why should we fast in the Ramadan, since the whole year with us is one continual abstinence ; and if God be present every where, why should we go to Mecca to adore him?" The whole of their social and moral economy remarkably illustrates the truths of Holy Writ, that "Ishmael shall be a wild man, whose hand is against every man, and every man's hand against him." Enemies alike to industry and the arts, they dwell" without bolts and bars," the wandering denizens of the wilderness. Religiously opposed to the luxuries and refinements of civilized life, these rude barbarians present the phenomenon of a people living in a state of nature, unsubdued and unchanged; yet, in their acknowledgment of the true God, still preserving evidence of their lineage as the children of Abraham. CHAPTER IX. Natural History of Arabia. Want of Information on the Natural History of Arabia-Scientific Discoveries of the Danish Travellers-GEOLOGY-Mount Sinai -Hills of Hejaz and Yemen-Volcanic Rocks-Hot SpringsSOIL-Agriculture-Crops-Harvest-Comparative Fertility of different Districts-MINERALOGY-No Gold or Silver Mines in Arabia-Precious Stones-BOTANY-Vegetables - PlantsColoquintida Tobacco-Hemp-TREES AND SHRUBS-Fruittrees-The Palm-Date-groves-Manna-Gum-Arabic-Honey -SHRUBS The Nebek-Tamarisk-Balsam of Mecca-The Gharkad-Henna-Acacia-Incense-tree-Coffee-ZOOLOGY— Wild Animals-Hyenas-Monkeys-Rock-goats-Hares-Jerboas-Domestic Animals-Cows-Buffaloes-Asses-HorsesCamels. Dromedaries-Sheep-Goats-Dogs-Mice-Birds -Poultry-Birds of Game-Birds of Prey-The Ostrich-The Lapwing The Samarman-Field-sports of the Arabs-Reptiles Tortoises-Scorpions Serpents Fishes-Insects-The Locust-Ants-Tenebriones-Shells-Coral Banks. As few travellers comparatively have visited Arabia, it cannot be supposed that its Natural History has been very minutely investigated. The knowledge of the ancients on this subject was extremely imperfect, consisting chiefly of fabulous or exaggerated reports as to some of the more celebrated of its mineral and vegetable productions. Several useful observations, not indeed referring peculiarly to that country, occur in the works of Kæmpfer, Bochart, Norden, Belon, Pauw, Rauwolf, and Tournefort. Shaw and Hasselquist were both distinguished for their attainments in physical science; but the reader will look in vain in their works for that systematic arrangement or accuracy of description which modern philosophy has introduced into every department of natural knowledge. It is to the Danish travellers, Niebuhr and his companions, who have done so much to illustrate the geography, manners, and civil institutions of Arabia, that we are indebted almost exclusively for whatever is known in Europe of its minerals, animals, and plants. That literary expedition, which owed its formation to the patronage of Frederick V. and his minister Count Bernstorff, sailed from Copenhagen in January 1761, and, after a short stay at Constantinople, reached the coast of Yemen, by way of Egypt, in December 1762. Each of the academicians who composed it had his particular task assigned him. Professor Von Haven was appointed linguist; Mons. Baurenfiend acted as draughtsman ; Dr Cramer had the office of physician; Mons. Forskal was charged with the department of natural history; and Niebuhr with that of geography. The novelty of the undertaking excited a lively interest among the learned associations of Europe. A series of questions, embracing many intricate points both physical and philological, was proposed for solution by Michaelis, professor of theology at Göttingen. A similar list was drawn up and addressed to these accomplished travellers by M. de Brequigny of the Royal Academy of Inscriptions at Paris, with a view to obtain authentic information respecting the antiquities, chronology, government, religion, and language of Yemen. Of the historical treasures brought to light in the answers to these interrogatories we have not failed to avail ourselves in the preceding chapters of our work. It is to be regretted, however, that, from a concurrence of unfavourable circumstances, the hopes of the scientific world were in a great measure frustrated. Von Haven died at Mocha within five months after their arrival. Forskal survived him but a few weeks, having expired at Jerim on the 11th of July; but not before he had visited Sanaa, and made various professional excursions among the Coffee Mountains near Taas. In the course of the following year Niebuhr lost his two remaining companions: Baurenfiend died at sea near the island of Socotra, and Cramer ended his days at Bombay. By this melancholy catastrophe numerous valuable discoveries were doubtless left unaċcomplished; yet it is truly surprising how much was effected in so short a time by the ardent zeal and indefa-` tigable industry of M. Forskal. He collected and gave descriptions of more than 300 species in the animal kingdom, and upwards of 800 in the vegetable; and this number might have been considerably increased had he not scrupulously adhered to the resolution of admitting nothing which he had not examined with the greatest care. These fragments were afterwards reduced to order by Niebuhr, according to the Linnæan arrangement, and * published in Latin in two quarto volumes. Owing to the rigour with which Christians were then excluded from the Holy Land of the Moslem, the observations of the Danish travellers were necessarily restricted to the southern provinces, and those parts of the country through which Niebuhr passed in his journey from Bagdad to Aleppo. Since that time Mohammedan bigotry has relaxed; but this tolerance has not much increased the information of naturalists; and a few geological remarks, gleaned from the pages of Burckhardt and Ali Bey, are all that have been added to the scientific treasures of the northern philosophers. In collecting and arranging the materials which we have drawn from these various sources, we have been less anxious to follow a particular system than to present the general reader with a simple and intelligible treatise on the subject. SECTION I.-GEOLOGY. Mountains. It has been already stated in the description of Arabia, that the mountain-chain which traverses that peninsula from north to south is a continuation of Lebanon in Palestine. Passing eastward of the Dead Sea, it runs towards Akaba, and from thence extends as far as Yemen; in some places approaching the shore of the Arabian Gulf, and in others being separated from it by the intervening plain of Tehama. On the eastern side the descent of this range is less by one-third than on the western, owing perhaps to the constant accumulation of sand; so that the great central desert is considerably elevated above the level of the sea. The lofty summits, that tower to the clouds when viewed from the coast, dwindle into mere hills when seen from the interior. At Wady Arabah the surface of the western plain is perhaps 1000 feet lower than the eastern. The structure of Gebel Shera (Mount Seir) is principally of calcareous rock; there are also detached pieces of basalt, and large tracts of breccia, formed of sand and flint. About Mount Hor and Wady Mousa sandstone of a reddish colour prevails; and from this all the tombs and temples of Petra have been excavated. To the southward it follows the whole extent of the great valley. The summits of these cliffs are so irregular and * Flora Arabica, 4to, Hafniæ, 1775. Descriptiones Animalium, Ibid. 1775. |