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.
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