Bible narrative requires this opinion to be considerably modified. The earliest inhabitants of Arabia seem to have been the posterity of Cush, who sent colonies across the Red Sea to the opposite coast of Africa, and hence Cush became a general name for both Arabian and African Ethiopia. The probability is, that few of these members of the family of Ham remained permanently or ultimately in this land, and the honour of being "the father of the Arabs" is justly ascribed to Kahtan, or Joktan, the son of Heber, whose other son Peleg was an ancestor of Abraham. From the earliest times, as well as in the present day, we find notices of persons, tribes, and towns in Arabia Felix, whose denomination leaves no doubt that it was peopled by the descendants of Joktan. Kahtan is still the patronymic of the large Arabian tribes, which are scattered over the whole southern portion of Arabia. It is likewise the name of a district in that southern region, whose capital is known by the same name. Moses mentions thirteen sons of Joktan, several of whose names are identified by Niebuhr and other travellers, as the names of towns and provinces in Arabia Felix. The Kahtan tribe is at this day the wealthiest tribe of the eastern desert of Arabia, and is, along with the Beni-Sad tribe, according to the Arabians, the only remains of the primitive inhabitants of the country. A member of these tribes is called, Al Arab al Araba, “ An Arab of the Arabs;" a distinction of purity of descent which will remind the reader of the corresponding distinction among the descendants of Abraham, "An Hebrew of the Hebrews." The question now arises as to the connexion of Ishmael with the people of Arabia. The son of Hagar had twelve sons, who became "twelve princes according to their nations." "And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria." Several of the tribes descended from Ishmael, and dwelling in this land between Egypt and Assyria, are well known, such as those of Kedar and Nebajoth. The mother of Ishmael's family was probably not the Egyptian woman whom Hagar procured to be his wife, but the daughter of an Arabian prince. And thus was engrafted on the original Arabian stock a new branch, which in course of time obtained its place and honours. "There can be no doubt," says Dr. Kitto, "that the descendants of Ishmael form so large and absorbing a part of the Arabian population, as to allow us, in a general sense, to consider him as the progenitor of that great and extraordinary nation, which has preserved its integrity, its independence, and its primitive usages, from the most ancient times; which had its turn, after the Romans, in forming one of those gigantic empires, that have in different ages astonished the world; and which even now not only preserves its own wide domains, but has diffused its tribes from the Oxus and the Erythean Sea to the Atlantic; has given religion and law, and rendered its language classic, far beyond these limits, to a large proportion of the human race; not to speak of the evidence of its past influence, which may be found in the vernacular languages of many nations, and in their literature, science, and actual condition." "* "And The facts, as thus stated, are an ample fulfilment of the Divine word to Abraham: as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation," Gen. xvii. 20. The celebrated prophecy, which describes the habits of life which Ishmael would follow, is to be regarded, not as describing habits which he would first establish, but such as he would adopt: He will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren," Gen. xvi. 12. This means, in short, that he and his descendants should lead the life of the Bedouins of the Arabian deserts; and how graphically this description portrays *It is maintained, with no inconsiderable amount o evidence, that the Arabian people comprises, in addition to the Joktanites and Ishmaelites, the descendants of Job, the descendants of Abraham by Keturah, and many families of the descendants of Esau, which branched off from Edom Proper, and occupied possessions in the eastern deserts. The three mothers, Hagar, Keturah, and Sarah, are supposed to have given names to the Hagarenes, Keturenes, and Saracenes. Of the two former there can be no doubt, and the last is not improbable. For the expansion and defence of these views see Forster's Geography of Arabia. their habits even modern travel bears witness. "We have seen something of Arabs and their life," says Dr. Kitto, " and have always felt the word wild to be precisely that by which we should choose to characterize them." The hands of the Arabs are now, as ever, against every man. Aggression on all the world has become a condition of their existence. "Enjoying, as they do, the freedom and desolate grandeur of their desert patrimony, they are not insensible to some of the advantages which have been withheld from them; and they think it but fair and reasonable that they should obtain, by violence, a share in the wealth and fertility of the world. Hence plunder forms their principal occupation, and takes the chief place in their thoughts." In the words of Gibbon, which unintentionally confirm the prophecy, they are "armed against mankind." Their internal feuds are likewise common, and there are few tribes which are ever in a state of perfect peace with their neighbours. The prophecy, "He shall dwell in the presence of his brethren," has been variously interpreted. Some understand by it that Ishmael and his brethren should dwell on the east of their brethren, the descendants of Isaac; some that they should dwell near their brethren; and some find in it a promise that they should never be subdued. Whether the last of these interpretations may be accepted with confidence is a question, but the facts of Arabian history "Even are in singular harmony with it. Gibbon," says Dr. Keith, "while he attempts, from the exceptions which he specifies, to evade the force of the fact that the Arabs have maintained a perpetual independence, acknowledges that these exceptions are temporary and local; that the body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the most powerful monarchies; and that the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia. The independence of the Arabs was proverbial in ancient as well as in modern times; and the present existence, as a free and independent nation, of a people who derive their descent from so high an antiquity, demonstrates that they have never been wholly subdued, as all the nations around them have unquestionably been, and that they have ever dwelt in the presence of their brethren.' ... We now proceed to survey the countries on either side of the Valley of the Arabah. And, first, we have the peninsula of Sinai on the west. The triangular form of this region strikes every one. A line drawn from the Isthmus of Suez along the shores of the Mediterranean in part, to the Dead Sea, is the base of the triangle. The Gulf and Isthmus of Suez form one side of the triangle, the Gulf of Akabah and the Arabah form the other. In the angle formed by these sides are the mountains of Sinai. The most important portion of the Sinaic |