Part III.)

The Reverend Mr. C. Forster of Great Britain, has lately published a very curious work on Arabia, being the result of many years’ untiring research in that part of the world; from which we learn the very interesting fact, that the ancient Arabians were skilled in the manufacture of _silken textures_, at as remote a period as within 500 years of the flood!

Mr. Forster has, it appears, succeeded in deciphering many very remarkable inscriptions found on some ancient monuments near Adon on the coast of Hadramant. These records, it is said, restore to the world its earliest written language, and carry us back to the time of Jacob, and within 500 years of the flood.

The inscriptions are in three parts. The longest is of ten lines, engraved on a smooth piece of rock forming one side of the terrace at Hisn Ghorab. Then there are three short lines, found on a small detached rock on the summit of the little hill. There are also two lines found near the inscriptions, lower down the terrace. They all relate to one transaction, an incident in Adite history. The tribe of Ad, according to Mr. Sale, were descended from Ad the son of Aws or Uz, the son of Aram, the son of Shem, the son of Noah. The event recorded is the rout and entire destruction of the sons of Ac, an Arab tribe, by the Aws or tribe of Ad, whom they invaded. In Mr. Forster’s book fac similes are given of the inscription; the Aditie and the Hamyaritie alphabet; and a glossary containing every word in them, its derivation, and its explanation; with notes of copious illustration upon every point which they involve. The first inscription of ten lines is thus translated:

We dwelt, living long luxuriously in the zananas of this spacious mansion; our condition exempt from misfortune and adversity. Rolled in through our channel.

The sea, swelling against our castle with angry surge; our fountains flowed with murmuring fall, above

The lofty palms; whose keepers planted dry dates in our valley date-grounds; they sowed the arid rice.

We hunted the young mountain-goats and the young hares, with gins and snares; beguiling we drew forth the fishes.

We walked with slow, proud gait, IN NEEDLE-WORKED, MANY-COLORED SILK VESTMENTS, IN WHOLE SILKS, IN GRASS-GREEN CHEQUERED ROBES[23]!

Over us presided kings, far removed from baseness, and stern chastisers of reprobate and wicked men. They noted down for us according to the doctrine of Heber,

Good judgments, written in books to be kept; and we proclaimed our belief in miracles, in the _resurrection_, in the _return into the nostrils of the breath of life_.

Made an inroad robbers, and would do us violence; we rode forth, we and our generous youth, with stiff and sharp-pointed spears; rushing onward.

Proud champions of our families and wives; fighting valiantly upon coursers with long necks, dun-colored, iron-gray, and bright bay.

With our swords still wounding and piercing our adversaries, until charging home, we conquered and crushed this refuse of mankind.

[23] Silk is the only material used for human clothing which Mohammed, the impostor, introduces among the luxuries of Paradise. (See the Koran, chap. 35.)

On the subject of these inscriptions, Mr. Forster, in the dedication of his book to the Archbishop of Canterbury, thus remarks: “What Job (who, living in the opposite quarter of Arabia, amid the sands of the great Northern desert, had no lasting material within reach on which to perpetuate his thoughts,) so earnestly desired, stands here realized.” “Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a Book! That (like the kindred creed of the lost tribe of Ad) they were _graven with an iron pen, and lead, in the rock forever_. (For mine is a better and brighter revelation than theirs.) For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though, after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in the flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.”

That the Arabians should have understood the manufacture of silken textures at as remote a period as that supposed by Mr. Forster, viz., 500 years after the flood, is, to say the least of it, exceedingly questionable, yet it cannot be denied that we are indebted to them for many useful inventions, and among which may be mentioned the art of making _cotton paper_[24]. It is no less true that we first received our cotton-wool from countries where the Arabic language was spoken.

To the Arabs also we are indebted for that almost indispensable article of apparel, the _shirt_, the Arabic name for which is _camees_, whence the Italian _camiscia_, and the French _chemise_[25].

In the attempt here made to trace from the dark ages of antiquity the progress of trades and manufactures so widely diffused over the civilised world as those of cotton, linen, silk, wool, &c., _chronological order_ is followed as closely as the nature of the inquiry will permit.

[24] See Appendix B.

[25] For further information on Arabia, see Parts II. and III.