he summer, station
of her caravans; and their seasonable arrival relieved the ships of
India from the tedious and troublesome navigation of the Red Sea. In the
markets of Saana and Merab, in the harbors of Oman and Aden, the camels
of the Koreishites were laden with a precious cargo of aromatics; a
supply of corn and manufactures was purchased in the fairs of Bostra
and Damascus; the lucrative exchange diffused plenty and riches in the
streets of Mecca; and the noblest of her sons united the love of arms
with the profession of merchandise. [20]

[Footnote 14: Yet Marcian of Heraclea (in Periplo, p. 16, in tom. i.
Hudson, Minor. Geograph.) reckons one hundred and sixty-four towns in
Arabia Felix. The size of the towns might be small--the faith of the
writer might be large.]

[Footnote 15: It is compared by Abulfeda (in Hudson, tom. ii. p. 54) to
Damascus, and is still the residence of the Iman of Yemen, (Voyages
de Niebuhr, tom. i. p. 331-342.) Saana is twenty-four parasangs from
Dafar, (Abulfeda, p. 51,) and sixty-eight from Aden, (p. 53.)]

[Footnote 16: Pocock, Specimen, p. 57. Geograph. Nubiensis, p. 52.
Meriaba, or Merab, six miles in circumference, was destroyed by the
legions of Augustus, (Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 32,) and had not revived in
the xivth century, (Abulfed. Descript. Arab. p. 58.) * Note: See note
2 to chap. i. The destruction of Meriaba by the Romans is doubtful. The
town never recovered the inundation which took place from the bursting
of a large reservoir of water--an event of great importance in
the Arabian annals, and discussed at considerable length by modern
Orientalists.--M.]

[Footnote 17: The name of city, Medina, was appropriated, to Yatreb.
(the Iatrippa of the Greeks,) the seat of the prophet. The distances
from Medina are reckoned by Abulfeda in stations, or days' journey of a
caravan, (p. 15: ) to Bahrein, xv.; to Bassora, xviii.; to Cufah, xx.;
to Damascus or Palestine, xx.; to Cairo, xxv.; to Mecca. x.; from Mecca
to Saana, (p. 52,) or Aden, xxx.; to Cairo, xxxi. days, or 412 hours,
(Shaw's Travels, p. 477;) which, according to the estimate of D'Anville,
(Mesures Itineraires, p. 99,) allows about twenty-five English miles
for a day's journey. From the land of frankincense (Hadramaut, in Yemen,
between Aden and Cape Fartasch) to Gaza in Syria, Pliny (Hist. Nat. xii.
32) computes lxv. mansions of camels. These measures may assist fancy
and elucidate facts.]

[Footnote 18: Our notions