Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/656

 G20 ARABIA a race of oxen with a hump on the shoulders. The broad, thick-tailed sheep is common, but its wool is coarse, and its flesh not delicate. Among wild animals, the rock goat or ibex, gazelle, antelope, and jerboa are very abundant ; and in the interior the hyena, panther, ounce, jackal, wolf, fox, wild boar, and wild cat ex- ist. There are many species of apes, some of which cause great damage to the coft'ee planta- tions of Yemen. Among rapacious birds are found one or more species of the eagle, falcon, heron, owl, and ostrich. The partridge, guinea fowl, and pheasant are also found in different districts of the country. Fish abound on all the coasts, and on that of Oman the pinna ma- ' rina, or pearl oyster, is found in large quan- tities. Reptiles are very numerous, including tortoises, many species of lizards (some of which, like the g-uaril, are of great size, and are used for food), serpents, and batrachians. The locusts often destroy the crops, and many other insects inflict serious injury upon men or animals. For many centuries the Arabians mo- nopolized, in connection with their neighbors of Phoenicia, the greater part of the carrying trade of the world ; and even when the Venetians, Portuguese, and Dutch had entered into com- petition with them, they still retained the trade between India and Europe. The doubling of the Cape of Good Hope by the Portuguese was the signal for a rapid decline in their commerce; but the opening of the overland passage to India in recent times gave it a new impulse. The principal exports of Arabia are coft'ee (much of which is brought to Muscat, Mocha, and Jiddah from Abyssinia, Nubia, and Egypt, and exported thence as genuine Mocha coffee), dates, gum arable, myrrh, aloes, almonds, balm of Mecca, frankincense, some aromatic and medi- cinal drugs, and pearls. The traffic in pearls is almost entirely in the hands of the banians, or Hindoo merchants. From Muscat,wheat, horses, raisins, salt, dried fish, and drugs are also ex- ported. Arabia receives from Europe silver, iron, copper, lead, firearms, and gunpowder; from Abyssinia, slaves, sheep, elephants' teeth, and musk ; from the E. coast of Africa, gold, slaves, amber, and ivory ; from Egypt, rice, lentils, sugar, and oil ; from Surat, linen ; and from Coromandel, cotton. The population of the Arabian peninsula has been variously estimated at from 10 to 15 millions. The latter is probably the nearest to the truth, as recent explorations demonstrate that the in- ! terior contains more fertile lands and a denser population than was formerly supposed. It is estimated that the various races and tribes known collectively as Arabs comprise nearly seven eighths of thisVpopulation ; the re- mainder consists of Hindoos, Turks, negroes, Abyssinians, Jews, Persia^ and Franks. Of the settled Arabs there ate many distinct tribes, differing so much in manners, habits, and language as to give the impression to the traveller that they originated from different stocks. The discoveries at several points in the interior of Himyaritic inscriptions, and the ex- istence of a language spoken by the natives of the interior villages called Ehkili, bearintr ;i much stronger analogy to the Himyaritic than to the Arabic, would seem to indicate that a portion of the fixed Arabian population are descendants of those Hamites who originally settled in Syria, Phoenicia, and the adjacent countries. The fixed Arabs are as a general rule, and especially in the northern parts, in- dolent, improvident, deceitful, treacherous, and prone to robbery. But at the same time they are courteous, sociable, easy in their manners, and intelligent, and the lower classes are su- perior to those of a corresponding grade in more civilized countries. The Bedouins are, probably with less admixture than the inhabi- tants of the towns and villages, of Semitic race. They speak the Arabic language with great purity and force, and subsist by rearing cattle and by plunder. (See BEDOUINS.) Moham- medanism or Islamism is the prevalent religion of Arabia, though according to recent travel- lers the people are generally lees devout and more inclined to skepticism than those of any other Mohammedan country; and among the inhabitants of WadyDoan, alarge and popu- lous valley in the interior of Hadramaut, Von Wrede found traces of the ancient fire worship ; while M. Arnaud in 1843 found among the mountains of Yemen many Arabs whose rever- ence for Hud, a prophet who preceded Moham- med and who cursed him and his followers, was much stronger than that for the prophet of the Koran. The Arabs claim descent from Kahtan or Joktan, of the posterity of Noah by Shem, and from Ishmael. Ishmael, according to their tradition, was prince and first high priest of Mecca, and his posterity ruled the city for 14 generations. Joktan or Kahtan was the first king of Yemen. His successors reigned 2,000 years in that country. Saba, the fourth after him, built the capital and called it after his name ; hence the Sabwans. He converted one of the valleys in his territory into a large lake, five leagues in length, by constructing a mole or bank across its lower extremity. The water was thence conducted to the fields, gar- dens, and houses of the inhabitants, and the lands thus irrigated became very productive. Bilkis, one of the queens of Yemen, according to the Arabs, was the famous queen of Sheba who visited Solomon. From her designation queen of the south, and the description of her presents to Solomon, gold and spices, there is little doubt that Arabia, and Yemen in par- ticular, was the native country of this prin- cess. The French traveller T. J. Arnaud, who visited this region in 1843, found among the ruins abundant evidence of its former greatness in the massive blocks of stone covered with inscriptions in the Himyaritic character, and in the ruins of buildings and temples which must have once approached in magnificence those of Palmyra or Tadnior. Himyar, the immediate successor of Saba, is