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and in the night, dews fall more copious than are usually known in Syria.

Sepphor, &c.] On the road from Nazareth to Acre is the ancient Sepphor, the largest city of ancient Galilee, now a mean and obscure village. This whole tract from Nazareth to the coast was once studded with towns and villages, and in the way lies the delicious plain of Zabulon. The scenery here, says Clarke, is fully as delightful as the rich vales in the S. of the Crimea. It reminded us of the finest parts of Kent and Surrey.

Lake of Samachonitis.] The lake of Samachonitis, or the waters of Merom, now called Bahar-el-Houle, the lake of Julias,' is 7 miles long, according to Josephus, but not above 2 miles broad, except towards its upper extremity. The banks are very level, no hills approaching it in any part. Its level, however, is considerably higher than the sea of Galilee. It abounds in fish. Its waters are muddy and unwholesome, being marshy. In fact, after the snows are melted and the waters fallen, this lake is only a marsh, through which the Jordan runs. Its shores abound in wild boars, which find concealment in the surrounding reeds and rushes; and the plain on the N. is literally covered with aquatic fowls of every kind. Beyond is the delightful vale of Hasbeya, watered by the Moeil Hasbeya, the principal stream of the Jordan. This district is inhabited chiefly by Druses, whose emir resides in the village of Hasbeya, situated on a high hill, and containing, according to Burckhardt, 700 houses, half of which belong to Druse families, the rest to Christians.

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Concluding Remarks.] We have thus given a general view of the Holy Land. Much yet remains to be examined of its topography, and still more of its physical geography and natural history. Future travellers must take more time than hitherto has been spent in its examination; they must diligently compare its aspect, boundaries, extent, physical features, soil, climate, and natural history, with the notices of Scripture and of Josephus, and pay no attention whatever to the legendary trash that has accumulated in the hands of monks and friars since the days of Helena. And, to conclude with the words of an enthusiastic and accomplished writer on the topography of these regions," abhorrent alike from reason and from true piety, as is the superstition that has grafted itself upon this interest, yet, the curiosity which inspires the traveller, in reference more peculiarly to these scenes, is rational and laudable. If Troy and Thebes, if Athens and Rome, are visited with classic enthusiasm, much more worthy of awakening the strongest emotions in the mind of a Christian, must be the country whose history as far transcends in interest that of every other, as its literature (if we may apply that term to the divine volume) excels in sublimity, all the ethics, and philosophy, and poetry, and eloquence of the heathen world. This sentiment of interest or of reverence has, indeed, no necessary connexion with religious principle or enlightened worship; for it may actuate alike the pious and the profligate. And, in the character of the Greek or Romish pilgrim, it is too generally found in connexion with an utter destitution of moral principle. The savage fanaticism of the crusades was an illustration of this fact on a grand scale; and the same spirit that breathed in Peter the Hermit, yet survives; the same fanaticism in a milder form actuates the pilgrims who continue to visit the holy sepulchre, with the view of expiating their sins by the performance of so meritorious a penance. The Mussulman hadgi, or the Hindoo devotee, differs little in the true cha

racter of his religion, from these misguided Christians, and as little perhaps in his morals as in his creed. Only the stocks and stones in which their respective worship alike terminates, are called by less holy names. It becomes the Protestant to avoid the appearance of symbolising with this degrading and brutalizing idolatry. But were all this mummery swept away, and the Holy Land cleared of all the rubbish brought into it by the empress Helena, the holy sepulchre included, more than enough would remain to repay the Christian traveller, in the durable monuments of Nature. We know not the spot where Christ was crucified; nor can determine the cave in which, for part of three days, his body was ensepulchred; nor is the exact point ascertainable from which he ascended to heaven. The Scriptures are silent, and no other authority can supply the information. But there are the scenes which he looked upon, the holy mount which once bore the temple, that Mount Olivet which once overlooked Jerusalem;-there is Mount Gerizim overhanging the valley of Shechem, and the hill where once stood Samaria;—there is Nazareth, within whose secluded vale our Lord so long awaited the time appointed for his public ministry,-the plain of Gennesareth and the sea of Galilee, the mountains to which he retired, the plains in which he wrought his miracles, the waters which he trod,—and there the Jordan still rolls its consecrated waters to the bituminous lake where Sodom stood."

ARABIA.

ARABIA has been, at all times, an object of interest, whether the peculiarities of its soil and climate are considered, the character of its inhabitants, its language and literature, or the associations to which it gives rise, first, as connected with the sacred history of the Old Testament, and, finally, as the country from which Islamism sprung, a religion that has materially influenced the destinies of a large portion of the civilized globe.

Name.] The name Arabia-a name which can be traced up to a remote antiquity is supposed to be derived from the Hebrew orebek, which signifies a wilderness or desert, and which is applicable to much the greater part of the country. The oriental historians, however, reject this derivation, and maintain that both the country and the language received their names from Yareb, the son of Joktan, the supposed founder of the kingdom of Yemen. By the Arabians themselves their country is called Jezeerah al Arab, that is, the Peninsula of the Arabians; and by the Persians and Turks, Arabistan.

Boundaries and Extent.] Arabia forms the south-western extremity of Asia, and is one of the largest peninsulas in the world. It is bounded on the N. by part of Syria, and the Euphrates; on the E. by the Chaldean mountains, the Persian gulf, and the gulf of Ormus; on the S. by the Indian ocean, and the Straits of Babelmandel; and on the W. by the Red sea, the isthmus of Suez, and part of Syria. It lies between 124° and 35° of N. lat., and 33 and 59° of E. long.; measuring about 1,400 geographical miles in its greatest length, and 1,150 in its greatest breadth, from Cape Raus-al-Hud to the port of Djidda; and forming an irregular triangle, the area of which contains according to Templeman 1,182,000, and according to Reichard and Weiland 1,005,727 square miles.

Divisions.] The earlier Greek geographers divided Arabia into two parts, the Happy and the Desert (Felix and Deserta). Ptolemy added a third division, the Rocky (Petræa). Arabia Deserta extended on the N. and E. as far as the Euphrates, which separated it from Mesopotamia and the Arabian Irak. It was the country of the ancient Nabatheans and the people of Kedar, answering to the modern Bedouins. Part of it, towards the E., is supposed to be the 'land of Uz.' Its chief city was Palmyra.— Arabia Felix contained the fertile, habitable regions to the S. and W., and is supposed by some to be the Sheba of Scripture, although Abyssinia has a better supported title to that claim. The northern parts were possessed by the SARACENS, an appellation afterwards bestowed upon most of the tribes of Arabia. Arabia Petræa comprehended the tract of country S. of the Dead sea, between Palestine and Egypt, at the northern extremity of the Red sea. It was peopled by the Amalekites, the Cushites, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and Edomites. Petra was its capital, the same as Joktheel in Scripture, now Krac or Karac.-By oriental writers, Arabia is divided into five provinces, viz. Hedjaz, Tehâma, Nedjed, Yemen, and Yamâma. This division prevailed before the time of Ptolemy. Niebuhr divides Arabia into, 1. The desert of Mount Sinai, or Arabia Petræa.

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2. The province of Hedjaz. 3. The province of Nedjed. 4. The country of Yemen. 5. The kingdom of Hadramaut, the Hazarmaveth of Scripture. 6. The country of Ommân. 7. The country of Lachsa or Hadjar. independent states on the borders of the Persian gulf. In this division, the ancient Tehâma is included in Yemen, from which Ommân and Hadramaut have been disjoined, and are considered as separate provinces. The following table may convey a pretty accurate notion of the political or territorial arrangement of the Arabian peninsula.

I. MARITIME DISTRICTS.

On the Coast of the Red Sea.

1. Hedjaz, the holy land of the Moslems, nominally subject to the Porte, under the jurisdiction of the pasha of Djidda.

2. Tehâma, subject for the most part to the imam of Sana; chief places, \ Mocha and Aden.

On the Coast of the Arabian Sea.

3. Hadramaut, governed by independent sheikhs, including part of Jafa, and the mountainous countries of Seger and Mahrah.

4. Ommân, divided among several petty sovereigns, of whom the chief is the imam of Mascat.

On the Coast of the Persian Gulf.

5. Lachsa, or Hadjar, including Bahhrein: governed by the reigning sheikh of the Beni Khâled, whose capital is Lachsa.

II. INLAND DISTRICTS.

6. El Ared, or Nedjed-el-arud, comprising Aijana. 7. El Kherdje, or Yemaumah (Yemama, Imama).

8. El Nedjed, comprehending the greater part of Arabia Deserta.

9. Yemen Proper, including the dominions of the imam of Sana; the canton of Sahan; the country of Djof; the principality of the sultan of Kaukeban; Bellad el Kobail; the small territories of Nehhm, Khaulan (Havilah), and Ard el Jafa, or Yafa, &c.

CHAP. I.-HISTORY.

THE authentic history of Arabia scarcely ascends to the fifth century of our era. From the earliest period, the Arabians appear to have been divided into various tribes, occasionally friendly or hostile, and under governments comparatively free and patriarchal. According to the oriental historians, upon whom, however, little dependence can be placed, the Arabians are sprung from Kahtan, or Joktan, the fifth in descent from Shem, and Adnan, descended in a direct line from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The posterity of the former are called genuine or pure Arabs, and those of the latter naturalized or instititious Arabs, from having settled in Arabia many centuries after Joktan had possession of the country.

Yemen and Hamyar.] Yarab, one of the sons of Joktan, is stated to have founded the kingdom of Yemen, and Jorham, another son, that of Hedjaz. Saba, the fourth king of Yemen, is said to have built a stupendous reservoir for receiving the water that descended from the mountains, which reservoir broke down during the reign of some of his descendants, and carried away a vast number of the inhabitants. Owing to the destruction caused by this inundation, no less than eight tribes were compelled to abandon their homes, and seek for other settlements. Some removed into Chaldea, and founded the kingdom of Hira; others settled in Syria Damascena, and gave rise to the kingdom of Ghassan. Hamyar, the immediate

IV.

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successor of Saba, gave his name to the kingdom of Hamyar, and his descendants were called Hamyarites, the Homerites of Ptolemy and other Greek writers. Hamyar was succeeded by a long line of hereditary princes, concerning whom it would merely perplex the reader to enter into any details. There were several petty kings in different parts of Yemen, but they were mostly subject to the Hamyarite sovereign. The last of the line, save one, was Yusof, surnamed Dhu Nowauss, who lived about 70 years before Mahomet. He was a Jew, and a fierce persecutor of the Christians, 6,000 of whom he is said to have thrown into a fiery pit, for which horrid deed, he is anathematized in the Koran. The patriarch of Alexandria instigated the king of Abyssinia to undertake the Christian cause. The forces of Dhu Nowauss were completely routed, and he himself, pursued by the Abyssinians, spurred his horse into the sea, and perished. Abrahah, an Abyssinian general, now assumed the government of Hamyar and Yemen, and reigned for twenty-three years. The Christian religion was established in Yemen ; and Abrahah is said to have led an army to the gates of Mekka, accompanied by a famous elephant, with the design of demolishing the Kaaba, but the design was frustrated from his army being cut off by some epidemical disease. The Mahometans say that, upon the approach of Abrahah to Mekka, the elephant, upon which he was mounted, knelt down, and refused to advance, and thus miraculously preserved the holy city. This happened A.D. 569, which is, therefore, called the year of the elephant, and in this year Mahomet was born. Shortly after, Seyff, of the royal family of Hamyar, having procured the assistance of the king of Persia, succeeded in expelling the Abyssinians from Yemen, and in seating himself on the throne of his ancestors. His reign, however, was of short duration, and with him terminated the race of Hamyar. On his death, the government of Yemen devolved on the lieutenants of the Persian monarch, who bore the title of ameers, or emirs.

Hedjaz.] The posterity of Jorham reigned in Hedjaz till the time of Ishmael, who married into this tribe, and his second son, Kedar, succeeded to the throne. Of the successors of Kedar nothing is known with certainty; but it would appear that, about the time of Alexander the Great, Hedjaz was divided among several independent tribes, whose jarring interests occasioned a continual warfare. Of these, the most powerful were the Koreish and the Khozaites. The former were of the posterity of Ishmael, and were considered the noblest of the Arabian tribes. They were called after Fehr, or Koreish, an ancestor of Mahomet. The Khozaites were a colony from Yemen, who had emigrated on the breaking down of the reservoir there, and, establishing themselves at Mekka, assumed the government of that place and its kaaba or temple, till Kosa, of the tribe of Koreish, wrested it from them, and, with his successors, retained it till the time of Mahomet. Among the descendants of Kosa, Abd Menof is celebrated for his piety, and Amru, surnamed Hashem, for his wisdom and generosity. The memory of the latter is held in such veneration, that the posterity of Mahomet call themselves Hashemites, and the princes of Mekka, to this day, take the title of Al Imam Al Hashem, 'the prince of the Hashemites.' Abdul Motalleb, the son of Hashem, was the grandfather of Mahomet, the impostor; and it was not one of the least recommendations of the pretensions of that extraordinary man, that he was thus nobly related. In the language of his countrymen, he sprung from the race of Thenanah, the best of the Arabs; from the tribe of Koreish, the best of Thenanah; and was the direct descendant of Hashem, the best of the Koreish.

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