Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/169

 199 the Persian Gulf, still the principal, and probably the earliest source of supply. When the cultivation became important in Egypt is uncertain. The earliest incription, in the VIth dynasty, refers not to the fruit, but to wine (made from the sap), and the time is centuries later than the first Egyptian Punt-voyages. Not until the 17th century does the Egyptian date-fruit appear as food, and not until the 15th as temple-offering. It is by no means impossible the Egypt owed this cultivation to its intercourse with Souther Arabia (the Pun?-land) whence it had come in turn from the Persian Gulf, that original Phœnician, Erythræan, or in a larger sense Arabian, Sea. Among the classical references to this home-land of the Phœniciasn may be cited the Odyssey, IV, 81-5, where Sidonia and Æthiopia are conjoined, both clearly Arabian. (cf. Strabo, I, ii, 34-5; XVI, iii, 4, iv, 27.) The Old Testament gives numerous accounts of later migrations from that quarter to Palestine; e. g., Zéchariah IX, 6; Ezra IV, 9. The historian Justin (XVIII, 3, 2 cimns may be cited the dvs>c. I, 81-5, where $idoma and Ae.iu- opiaa ncd. buth clearly Arabian* ';/: Strab... 1, n. *4.S The Old Testament gives numerous accounts of later migrations frort) that quarter to Palestine, t. /., /ethariah IX. The historian Justin ( XVIII. 3. 2) gives the reason for the earlier migration: "the people of Tyre were sprung from thJ is who left their own land, being greatly distressed by earth - s quakes, and dwelt some time in the marsh-land of Babylonia, but later In the shores of the (Mediterranean) Sea, where they built a town which they called Sidon because of the abundance of thr fin is the I Mum u-ian word for fish." the relation of this .1 to the fish-god of Chaldxa, Oannes, see William Simpson, Thf hnak Le&nd. The connection is noted by the poet Prnctan, set! litora iuxta Phcrnices vivum vctcri rognomine Quos misit quondam marc rubrum laudibus aurto*, ChaMiro nimium dccoratam sanguine grnirm, Arcmnuque Dri rclrhratam Irgibus unain. Ac. ./w, p. 12: (N. Y.. 190" -rd .ms to kttnt rather than to fish; but Simpson shows how readily the whole legend changed according to the surroundmgt thr prople. As* to the race-origin of the Phirnu-uns, Syncellus dene> them from "ludadan," and Josephfls ( Jutig. J*J. % I, 6, 2 > from Drdan. > was a son of Raamah, the son of Cush, according to the grne- A later account (Ckn*. fW4., I, 54) dernret then, from J.luh. uh<>m that jnu a logy makes a son of Joktan 'I"hi% ild indicate for Pi >ely the same experience as that of tum Arahi.i MII leedu'.j .i.rs of migration, the later tending to nr absorbed b the eurher.