Sharon, the verdure of Carmel, and the cedars of Lebanon; so did the Arabs adorn their verses with the pearls of Oman, the musk of Hadramaut, the woods and nightingales of Aden, and the spicy odours of Yemen. Compared to our idiom such emblems may appear fantastic and extravagant, however striking and just in the glowing language of the East. They differ essentially from those we meet with in the schools of Greece and Rome. The acacia and the tamarisk of the rocks bloomed not in their famed Parnassus, nor in the groves of their Academy; and were we to attempt to transplant these exotic flowers to the gardens of Europe, perhaps we should not be surprised to find a portion of their beauty gone, and our gratification diminished." optics; and mathematics and trigonometry Hebrew muse delighted in the roses of derived from the Arabs the form which they still retain. In architecture the Arabs particularly excelled, and in various other arts and sciences we find their progress characterized by a greater or less proficiency. Gunpowder was known to them at least a century before any traces of it appear in European his tory; and they are alleged to have invented the mariner's compass, at least it was known to them in the eleventh, while it was not adopted in Europe before the thirteenth century. In poetry, as might be anticipated from a pastoral people, the Arabians greatly excelled; and although they never attempted either epic or dramatic poems, they successfully cultivated a species of composition which in some degree combined the nature of both, and it is to their brilliant imagination that we owe so many beautiful tales, as varied as they are exhaustless. "But fully to appreciate the beauties of Arabian poetry," observes a writer on this subject, "would require an intimate acquaintance with the productions of the country, and with the manners and peculiarities of the inhabitants. From want of this knowledge the oriental muses have been criticised with extreme severity and injustice. Nor is it perhaps very surprising, that those who have read the most celebrated compositions of the Eastern poets in Latin or French translations only, should feel but an indifferent relish for their charms, or form a cold judgment of their merits. Comparisons and similes founded on local objects have a point and beauty that can only be felt in the land that gave them birth, though we may easily comprehend what force and propriety such metaphors as the odour of reputation and the dews of liberality must have had in the mouths of those who so much needed refreshment on their journeys, and were accustomed to regale their senses with the sweetest fragrance in the world. The same remark is true of the figures and images drawn from those beautiful and agreeable scenes with which the Eastern nations are perpetually conversant. The Having dwelt so long on Arabia, both in the present and in a former article, we conclude our compiled notices of this remarkable country and its people by a curious illustration of character as related by an old author, which, whether true or false, exactly expresses the quick and deep penetration of the Arabs in general. The story which follows has so charmed the Oriental nations, that it has been made the subject of two long poems, and unfolds a disposition otherwise not easily delineated. On one occasion three Arab brothers, of noble family, travelling together in the pursuit of knowledge and for mental improvement, were accidentally met by a camel-driver, who asked them if they had seen a camel which had strayed from him during the night? "Was not the camel blind in one eye?" inquired the eldest of the brothers. The camel-driver answered in the affirmative. "It wanted a front tooth?" said the second. "It is very true," replied the man. "Was it not a little lame?" added the third. "It really was," returned the man, who was now thoroughly persuaded that they had seen the animal, and he accordingly entreated them to tell him which way the camel had strayed. "Follow us, friend," was the reply. The camel-driver, however, had not proceeded far when he happened to say that his camel was loaded with corn. "And it had," added the Arab, "a vessel of oil on one side, and a vessel of honey on the other." "It had so," said the man, "and I therefore conjure you to tell me where you met it." "Met it!" exclaimed the eldest of the Arabs, "we never saw your camel!" The driver, exasperated at their conduct, reproached them for their duplicity and falsehood; and as they were passing through a village, he raised the people against them, and they were taken into custody. The village judge, unable or unwilling to decide the dispute, sent the parties before the sheik, who perceiving the defendants to be persons of distinction, received them hospitably, and lodged them in his own family. A few days afterwards he took an opportunity to get an explanation of the mystery, by entreating them to tell him how they could possibly hit upon so many circumstances without having seen the camel. The young Arabs smiled at the importunity of their host, and after thanking him for the civilities they had received, the eldest thus said:"We are neither deceivers nor necromancers; we never saw the man's camel, nor did we use any other instruments of divination than our senses and our reason. I, for my part, judged the camel was blind of an eye, because I perceived the grass eaten on one side of the road, and not on the other." "And I," said the second brother, "conjectured that it had lost a tooth before, because where the grass was cropt closest there was constantly a little tuft left behind." "And I," added the third, "conceived it to be lame, for the prints of three feet were distinct in the road, but the impression of the fourth was blurred; from which circumstance I concluded that the beast dragged its leg, and did not put it firmly to the ground. "All this I can understand easily," replied the chief, "but how, in the name of the Prophet, could you guess that oil and honey were a part of the camel's loading?" "We inferred this," said the Arabs, "because on one side of the road we saw little troops of ants ferreting the grass, and on the other side we saw the flies assembled here and there in groups, insomuch that few or none were on the wing." Whatever credit may be given to the truth of this Eastern story, it is an excellent illustration of the manner in which the people reason from external natural appearances, and it establishes the fact that the Arabs have been justly held as a subtle and acute people. As a farther proof of this, we find that Mahomet never attempted to palm upon them any of his pretended miracles or gross impostures, but contented himself with general declarations respecting the unity of God, and the high commission which he pretended to have received as the prophet of heaven; and even when he first appeared in that capacity, he was for a few years the object of ridicule and scorn as an impostor, and designated by the most opprobrious names, of which he often complains in the Koran. It seldom happens that Arabs are seen out of their own peninsula, or the countries which they inhabit; at least, they are seldom seen in Great Britain or the kingdoms of Northern Europe. A singular circumstance has, however, recently occurred, of a party of Bedouin Arabs, consisting of three men and a boy, who had been astonishing the Parisians with their feats of muscular strength and activity, exhibiting themselves in the Colosseum in London, which was fitted up with appropriate scenery for the occasion. They are described by the London press as being literally eel-backed, twisting their bodies in every direction with the litheness of serpents, and tossing themselves about like fish disporting in the water, whirling round on one leg with great velocity. They fling summersets backwards and sideways, making their hands and feet revolve like the spokes of a wheel; and taking a run, fling themselves round in the air, picking up a gun from the ground, and firing it off before they reach the ground. They leap over two or three men whose hands are joined above their heads, or who hold a chevaux-de-frise of naked sabres, alighting on their bare feet in the sight of the spectators, after which they form a column, three standing on each other's shoulders, a tall African becoming the base of this human pillar, and the boy, with his body bent backwards into a circle by linking his hands and feet together, forms the capital, wreathing himself round the neck or waist of the topmost man, who holds him upon one hand, and lifts him about like a bundle; and thus they walk about the stage. Yet all this strange and almost incredible performance is described as exhibiting nothing either revolting or unseemly, the ease and apparent enjoyment with which these feats are accomplished removing the idea of danger, even when one of them flings a somerset, holding the points of two bayonets to his body. Their swarthy complexions, spare forms, and flexible limbs, clad in their native costume of loose white cotton, and the gibbering cry with which they stimulate each other, aided by the monotonous sounds of the tambourine, give a characteristic wildness to the scene. Among the Arabian chiefs or princes, the Imaum of Muscat has come more recently before the public, on account of his amiable disposition towards the British, and the costly presents he has sent to our sovereign as a proof of the friendly intercourse which he is desirous to cultivate. Muscat, Mascat, or Meschet, is the name of an Arabian city in the province of Oman in Arabia Felix, situated at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, and the prince or sovereign of the place, whose dominions are calculated to extend about three hundred miles along the Persian Gulf, and nearly as far inland, is styled Imaum of Muscat. The citizens, who not only carry on an important trade with the subjects of their own prince, but with numerous independent tribes of Arabs, are described as the most liberally minded of the Mahometans, remarkably polite to strangers, upright in their mercantile transactions, temperate in their mode of living, and rarely guilty of crimes requiring the cognizance of their laws. The following notice of the Imaum of Muscat, connected with his magnificent present to William IV., is worthy of being more extensively known and preserved than it might otherwise be in the columns of a Scottish provincial newspaper. It is taken from the "Dumfries Courier," a well known and popular journal. "The name of this Arabian Prince has become familiar to the readers of newspapers, less, perhaps, from his power than from his general character and disposition. Unlike the Persians, he delights beyond all things in a seafaring life, cherishes his navy more than the chief jewel of his crown, and has even seen a little service in some of our cruisers in the Persian Gulf. Of all the rulers of the far East, petty or potential, he bears the warmest friendship to the English, and in proof of this, as our readers know, he lately forwarded to his Britannic Majesty the unwonted present of a seventy-four, admirably built and mounted, and equal, we believe, to any vessel of the same class that ever stemmed the saucy wave.' Two splendid Arabian steeds accompanied the Liverpool, now the Imaum, and also other valuables, which must have been highly prized by William the Fourth, as indicating very pleasingly the strength of distant friendships, and the moral might exercised by Britain in some of the remotest quarters of the globe. The money value of the gift we do not know; somebody, however, once told us that the cost of a British man-of-war is as near as may be a thousand pounds per gun; and if there be any truth in this statement, and the startling value attached in books of travels to Arabian coursers of the highest descent, our ally, the Imaum, in testifying his friendship, must have put himself to an expense bordering on one hundred thousand pounds. The exact extent of his dominions we cannot well make out from the geographical works we possess; but that mere extent is little, compared to productiveness and good government, is sufficiently proved by reference to our own country. Owing to the moral upas tree, which poisons every thing, the national revenue of Persia at this moment scarcely exceeds two millions yearly, and keeping in view his establishments by sea and land, the Imaum of Muscat, in all probability, is a richer prince than the Shah of Persia. The principal seat of his government, which is often written Mascat, is a large seaport in Arabia-indeed, by far the largest on the eastern coast, to which many others are tributary, from Rosalgate to the entrance of the Gulf. Its trade, too, is great to India, and the coast of Africa; and the government so good, compared to the usual rule of Persia or Arabia, that a stranger may walk the streets without molestation even during the night, and goods lie exposed and unguarded without any danger of their being pilfered.' But the Imaum's dominions also extend to the African coast, and from a letter written in December last (1835) by a young gentleman belonging to Dumfries, we derive the following particulars: 'On the 12th we arrived at Mombas, and found the place blockaded by a frigate, nineteen gun-brig, and several small craft, part of the fleet of the Most High Mighty Imaum of Muscat. The captain of the frigate, who visited our captain, stated that he had disabled all the guns on shore, and hoped soon to reduce the citadel, and force the sheik to submit to his master. The Imaum himself is expected every day on a visit to his dominions on this coast, the principal of which is Zangebar, where he generally remains for a considerable time. The inhabitants of Mombas are all Arabs; latitude 4° s., longitude 39° 2. At daylight, on the 13th, we sailed, touched at Pemba, a beautiful island, and on the 14th gained Zangebar. Here we found two large frigates, with the Imaum's red flag flying, anchored off the town, and two American and one French brig. The town, which is large, contains a palace and fort, and the Imaum's son is governor a youth of seventeen. The island, which is low, and thickly studded with palms, produces cloves, cinnamon, coffee, rice, &c. Here, to our surprise, we found provisions for the asking. Every thing, in fact, was generously furnished to us-a live buffalo (excellent beef), delicious fruits, pine apples, oranges, lemons, in short, a boat-load of all things, includ ing sugar, coffee, rice, and fowls, every day; and all this because we belong to his Britannic Majesty's service. We expect the young prince to visit us on board, after which we will sail for Mozambique. I have just been asked to go with a party to the Imaum's palace and gardens, in the interior of the country.'" At the same time, notwithstanding the above interesting account of the Imaum of Muscat and his subjects, the character of the Arabians as a nation is in no great repute. Their determination to revenge injuries is well known, and some of the tribes are particularly noted for treachery. It is prudent, in travelling among the Arabs, to wink at their impositions, rather than to quarrel with them. In 1819, a party of English officers got themselves involved in a dispute with their Arab guides on their way to Palmyra, and one of the former was wounded, their camels taken from them, and they were obliged to retrace their steps on foot. When they arrived at Damascus, the Pacha was informed of the circumstance, who sent out his troops that very evening, and they brought in the heads of ten Arabs. The account of this affair, which is worthy of being noticed, is inserted in the " Quarterly Review" (No. 45) for 1820, and is extracted from a letter written by the officer who was wounded, dated Smyrna, August 16, 1819:—“ As we determined," says Captain Butler, "on going to Palmyra, we paid another visit to the Pacha (of Damascus). He ordered his minister to make out the proper passports, and directed the governor of Homs, a town on the verge of the Desert, to entertain us as English princes. We had to wait ten days before the Aga could get the chief that commanded the tribe occupying the Desert between Homs and Palmyra to come to him. This fellow at last made his appearance, and agreed before the governor to escort us safely to Palmyra for two thousand piastres, half us. to be paid in advance, and the other half on our return. In the Arab costume, and mounted on dromedaries with a Bedouin behind us, we set through the Desert in the direction of Palmyra. As we had no arms with us of any kind, these fellows betrayed us. Instead of continuing their proper course, they slunk off in another direction, and carried us to their camp. Nearly the whole of the day was taken up in debating what they should do with We at last told them we would go no farther—that we had neither arms nor money—that if they murdered us, they would get nothing but the shirts on our backs-and that if they did not choose to conduct us back to Homs on the dromedaries, we would set out on foot, and find our way as well as we could. Seeing us determined, they agreed to take us back to Homs. After goading on the dromedaries at the rate of nine miles an hour, they suddenly stopped the camels, and knocked us off their backs. Not knowing their intent, we attempted to seize their arms, and a battle ensued. I succeeded in wrenching a mace from the hand of the Bedouin who rode behind me, and was preparing to make him feel the weight of it on his head, when one of them ran his lance into my arm, and gave me another blow, which immediately brought me to the ground. They then freed themselves from us, mounted the dromedaries, and were soon out of sight. I know not how we escaped with our lives; we had not even a stick amongst us, whilst the Arabs were armed with iron maces, matchlocks, and long lances. We all, however, got roughly handled. We followed a track in the sand, and arrived in the course of the night at a small village, the name of which I have forgot. As I had bled freely during the walk, I was unable to proceed farther that night, although my companions were anxious to get on; the next day we walked quietly into Homs. We found that the news of our adventure had preceded us, and that the whole town was en a bustle. We met a large detachment of Arabs driving their camels as hard as they could go, who, taking us for some of their tribe, called to us to save ourselves or we would be killed. They were pursued by several parties of cavalry, who shortly came up with them, killed a number, and seized their beasts. In the meantime some prisoners had been taken before the governor, and he immediately cut off their heads. If it had been in our power, we would willingly have pre vented so much bloodshed, but the Moslem was savage. His pride was hurt that the Arab chief had so little regard for his authority. The numbers of these poor creatures were variously stated to us; I am inclined to think they were not so numerous as they wished us to believe." We cannot leave the interesting peninsula of Arabia without some very brief notices respecting the horse and the camel, animals for which Arabia is particularly celebrated. We have already referred to the peculiar attention which the Arabs bestow on the pedigrees of their horses. In Syria there are three breeds of horses, the true Arab breed and the Turkman, and the Kourdy, a mixture of the two former. The Bedouin Arabs, however, reckon five noble breeds of horses, descended from the five favourite mares of the Prophet Mahomet, but each of these five breeds diverges into numerous ramifications. It is laid down by Mahomet in the Koran, "that true riches are a noble and fierce breed of horses, of which God said, 'The war-horses, those which rushed on the enemy with full blowing nostrils; those which plunge into the battle early in the morning." The Arab horses are generally small, and seldom exceed fourteen hands in height. In Syria, the price of an Arabian horse varies from ten to one hundred and twenty pounds sterling, and it appears that they have increased considerably in value since the English began to purchase these horses at Bagdad and Basra, which they send to India. An Arab mare costs at least sixty pounds, but some celebrated mares have been known to bring from two to five hundred pounds. The Arabs observe a great many peculiarities in the rearing of their horses and mares, |