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.