Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/64

 mixed up with one of the most poetical of ancient legends, that of the daughters of Phaethon, who are said to have been changed into poplars, and to have wept amber by the banks of a river called Eridanus, generally identified with the great river of Italy, the Po. But there was also an Eridanus on the Baltic shores, which has left traces of its name in that of a small river still flowing near the modern town of Dantzig. Tacitus, referring to amber as an article of commerce—the native name of which he states to be glesum (glass?)—refers to the Suionæ, who dwelt along those shores, and had vessels differing from the Roman type in that they were equally high at prow and stern. This is even now characteristic of what are called Norway yawls.

It is not so easy to trace the course of Phœnician commerce with the countries on the mainland to the north, east, and south, as it is in the case of the islands of the west. But here, too, the statements of the Prophet come to our aid, and enable us to fill up an outline which would have been otherwise very incomplete. Thus we find Ezekiel saying, "The men of Dedan were thy merchants they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony," and "precious cloths for chariots." So Syria, Dan and Javan, and "the merchants of Sheba and Raamah," dealt with Tyre in precious stones, fine linen, broidered work, and gold. From "Judah and the land of Israel," from "Minnith and Pannag," she obtained "wheat and honey, and oil and balm;" from Damascus, "the wine of Helbon and white