This Author Particularly
Describes The Sea As Having A White Appearance Off The Coast Of Arabia; On
This Point He Was Well Informed Though The Circumstance Is Treated As
Fabulous By The Ancients, And Even By Some Of The Moderns; But More
Observant Modern Travellers Confirm This Phenomenon.
It is well observed by
Dr. Vincent, that we are every day lessening the bulk of the marvellous
imputed to the ancients; and as our knowledge of the east increases, it is
possible that the imputation will be altogether removed.
The account which Agatharcides gives of Sabaea is very curious and
important; and, as we shall afterwards have occasion to make use of it, in
endeavouring to prove that, in very early ages, the Arabians supplied the
western world with the productions of the east, we shall extract here what
he says of Sabaea from the translation of Dr. Vincent.
"Sabaea, (says Agatharcides,) abounds with every production to make life
happy in the extreme: its very air is so perfumed with odours, that the
natives are obliged to mitigate the fragrance by scents that have an
opposite tendency, as if nature could not support even pleasure in the
extreme. Myrrh, frankincense, balsam, cinnamon, and casia are here
produced, from trees of extraordinary magnitude. The king, as he is, on the
one hand, entitled to supreme honour, on the other, is obliged to submit to
confinement in his palace; but the people are robust, warlike, and able
mariners: they sail in very large vessels to the country where the
odoriferous commodities are produced; they plant colonies there, and import
from thence the larimna, an odour no where else to be found. In fact, there
is no nation on the earth so wealthy as the Gerrheans and Sabeans, as being
in the centre of all the commerce that passes between Asia and Europe.
These are the nations which have enriched the kingdom of Ptolemy: these are
the nations that furnish the most profitable agencies to the industry of
the Phoenicians, and a variety of advantages which are incalculable. They
possess themselves every profusion of luxury, in articles of plate and
sculpture, in furniture of beds, tripods, and other household
embellishments, far superior in degree to any thing that is seen in Europe:
their expence of living rivals the magnificence of princes: their houses
are decorated with pillars glistening with gold and silver: their doors are
crowned with vases and beset with jewels: the interior of their houses
corresponds with the beauty of their outward appearance, and all the riches
of other countries are here exhibited in a variety of profusion. Such a
nation, and so abounding in superfluity, owes its independence to its
distance from Europe; for their luxurious manners would soon render them a
prey to the European sovereigns, who have always troops on foot prepared
for any conquest; and who, if they could find the means of invasion, would
soon reduce the Sabeans to the condition of their agents and factors;
whereas they are now obliged to deal with them as principals."
The importance and the bearing of these curious facts, first brought to our
notice by Agatharcides, as well as the inferences which may be drawn from
them regarding the mode in which the ancients obtained their commodities of
India, will call our particular attention afterwards: at present we shall
merely notice the characteristic and minute picture which Agatharcides has
drawn of the Sabeans, and the just notions he had formed on the nature of a
commerce, of which all the other writers of antiquity seemed to have been
utterly ignorant.
Beyond Sabaea to the east, Agatharcides possessed no information, though,
like all the ancients, he is desirous of supplying his want of it by
indulging in the marvellous: it is, however, rather curious that, among
other particulars, undoubtedly unfounded, such as placing the Fortunate
islands off the coast beyond Sabaea, and his describing the flocks and herds
as all white, and the females as polled; - he describes that whiteness of
the sea, to which we have already alluded, as confirmed by modern
travellers. From these unfounded particulars, our author soon emerges again
into the truth; for he describes the appearance of the different
constellations, and especially notices that to the south of Sabaea there is
no twilight in the morning; but when he adds, that the sun, at rising,
appears like a column - that it casts no shadow till it has been risen an
hour, and that the evening twilight lasts three hours after it has set; it
is obvious that the information of that age (of which we may justly suppose
the library of Alexandria was the great depository) did not extend beyond
Sabaea.
That Agatharcides had access to and made ample use of the journal of
Nearchus (of which we have given such a complete abstract), is evident from
various parts of his work; but it is also evident, by comparing his
description of those countries and their inhabitants, which had been
visited and described by Nearchus, that he had access to other sources of
intelligence, by means of which he added to the materials supplied by the
latter.
It will be recollected that Nearchus describes in a particular manner, the
Icthyophagi of Gadrosia: Agatharcides also describes Icthyophagi, though it
is not clear whether he means to confine his description to those of
Gadrosia, or to extend it to others on the coast of Arabia and Africa. The
mode practised by the Icthyophagi, according to him, is exactly that which
was practised by them in catching fish, according to Nearchus: he also
coincides with that author in various other particulars respecting the use
of the bones of whales, or other large fish, in the construction of their
houses; their ignorance and barbarism, their dress and mode of life. All
this he probably borrowed from Nearchus; but he adds one circumstance which
indubitably proves, that the knowledge of the eastern part of the world had
considerably advanced since the era of Alexander:
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