him that water freezes there in the winter, and that some of the inhabitants have red hair and blue eyes, a thing scarcely to be ever seen, but in the coldest mountains, in the east. The Arabs of Muscat, on the eastern part of the peninsula, are described as resembling Mulattos in colour, of a sickly yellow hue, with a deeper brownish tinge about the eyes, neck, and joints. "The tribes who inhabit the middle of the desert have locks somewhat crisped, extremely fine, and approaching the woolly hair of the negro." "The complexion of the Arabs," says Dr. Prichard, "displays great diversities in the different countries inhabited by them." Volney says that some of the Bedouins are black. Niebuhr and De Pagès assure us that the colour of the lower orders is naturally a dusky or yellow brown. According to Burckhardt, the Arabs in the low countries of the Nile, bordering on Nubia, are black. This traveller carefully distinguishes the Arabs from Negroes and Nubians. Higher up the Nile than Dongola are the Shegya Arabs, whose complexion, according to Mr. Waddington, is a jet black. "They are distinguished in every respect from the Negroes, by the brightness of their colour, by their hair, and the regularity of their features; by the mild and dewy lustre of their eyes, and by the softness of their touch, in which last respect they yield not to Europeans." And as the Arabs on the Nile do not intermarry with the natives, the blackness of their complexion is owing to climate alone.

It is maintained by some, who have had extensive opportunities of research into the anatomical and other corporeal characters of various nations, that the bodily fabric belonging to the Syro-Arabian tribes manifests a more perfect development in the organic structure, subservient to the mental faculties, than that which is found in other branches of the human family. Some have regarded them as furnishing the prototype, the primitive model form, the standard figure of the human species. This was the opinion of the famous baron De Lancy, surgeon-general of Napoleon's army in Egypt, who, in speaking of the Arabs on the east side of the Red Sea, says, (in a Memoir for the Use of the Scientific Commission to Algiers, Paris, 1838,)" They have a physiognomy and character which are quite peculiar, and which distinguish them generally from all those which appear in other regions of the globe." In his dissections, he found their physical structure in all respects more perfect than that of Europeans; their organs of sense exquisitely acute; their size above the average of men in general; their figure robust and elegant, (the colour brown,) their intelligence proportionate to that physical perfection, and without doubt superior, other things being equal, to that of other nations.

"The Shemite," says Mr. Layard, "possesses in the highest degree what we call imagination. The poor and ignorant Arab, whether of the desert or town, moulds with clay the jars for

his daily wants in a form which may be traced in the most elegant vases of Greece or Rome; and, what is no less remarkable, identical with that represented on monuments raised by his ancestors three thousand years before. If he speaks, he shows a ready eloquence; his words are glowing and apposite; his descriptions true, yet brilliant; his similes just, yet most fanciful. These high qualities seem to be innate in him; he takes no pains to cultivate or improve them he knows nothing of reducing them to any rule or measuring them by any standard."

The moral condition of the Arabs, notwithstanding their physical superiority, is no inconclusive evidence of the degeneracy of mankind. The spirits that dwell in the finely-formed bodies of Arabs, and are associated with a "standard" cerebral development, are as godless and unholy as those of other men. May the occupation of one of their seaports, (Aden,) for the convenience and protection of British trade with the east, prove the prelude of the introduction of the gospel of Christ and its blessings to this ancient and singular people!

"Land of Ishmael, free and bold,
Land of waste from days of old,
Land whose wonders are not told,
I come to thee.

"Land of fierce barbaric might,
Land of darkest, blackest night,
Land of everlasting fight,

I come to thee.

"Thou from misery shalt be free,
'Araby the Blest' shalt be,

And God's glory full shalt see,

I come to thee."*

* Dr. Wilson.--Written at Aden, 10th January, 1843.

CHAPTER III.

CIVILIZATION AND HISTORY OF IDUMÆÀ.

Early civilization-Book of Job-Art of writing-The metals -The Horites-Esau in Mount Seir-Biblical noticesNorthern advances of the Idumæans-The NabatheansExpeditions of Antigonus-Later kings of Arabia PetræaDependence on Rome-Christianity-Mohammedanism.

THE attention of the reader will now be directed specially to Idumæa, not the least interesting. portion of the region which has been surveyed in the preceding chapters. The fact that this country was the scene of a very early civilization is known independently of our acquaintance with its history. Historical records, if they have ever existed, may be lost, and yet enough remain in some other form to indicate the existence and character of a people whose very name has been forgotten. The recent discoveries which have been made on the plains of Assyria, furnish us with an illustration of this remark. If we had no knowledge of Nineveh, either from historical documents or from legend or tradition; if its memory had been lost, and neither plodder in ancient libraries, nor wanderer on the plains which lie between

C