y, Maximus of Tyre attributes to the
Arabs the worship of a stone, (Dissert. viii. tom. i. p. 142, edit.
Reiske;) and the reproach is furiously reechoed by the Christians,
(Clemens Alex. in Protreptico, p. 40. Arnobius contra Gentes, l. vi.
p. 246.) Yet these stones were no other than of Syria and Greece, so
renowned in sacred and profane antiquity, (Euseb. Praep. Evangel. l. i.
p. 37. Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 54-56.)]

[Footnote 50: The two horrid subjects are accurately discussed by
the learned Sir John Marsham, (Canon. Chron. p. 76-78, 301-304.)
Sanchoniatho derives the Phoenician sacrifices from the example of
Chronus; but we are ignorant whether Chronus lived before, or after,
Abraham, or indeed whether he lived at all.]

[Footnote 51: The reproach of Porphyry; but he likewise imputes to the
Roman the same barbarous custom, which, A. U. C. 657, had been finally
abolished. Dumaetha, Daumat al Gendai, is noticed by Ptolemy (Tabul.
p. 37, Arabia, p. 9-29) and Abulfeda, (p. 57,) and may be found in
D'Anville's maps, in the mid-desert between Chaibar and Tadmor.]

[Footnote 52: Prcoopius, (de Bell. Persico, l. i. c. 28,) Evagrius,
(l. vi. c. 21,) and Pocock, (Specimen, p. 72, 86,) attest the human
sacrifices of the Arabs in the vith century. The danger and escape of
Abdallah is a tradition rather than a fact, (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet,
tom. i. p. 82-84.)]

[Footnote 53: Suillis carnibus abstinent, says Solinus, (Polyhistor. c.
33,) who copies Pliny (l. viii. c. 68) in the strange supposition, that
hogs can not live in Arabia. The Egyptians were actuated by a natural
and superstitious horror for that unclean beast, (Marsham, Canon. p.
205.) The old Arabians likewise practised, post coitum, the rite of
ablution, (Herodot. l. i. c. 80,) which is sanctified by the Mahometan
law, (Reland, p. 75, &c., Chardin, or rather the Mollah of Shah Abbas,
tom. iv. p. 71, &c.)]

[Footnote 54: The Mahometan doctors are not fond of the subject; yet
they hold circumcision necessary to salvation, and even pretend that
Mahomet was miraculously born without a foreskin, (Pocock, Specimen, p.
319, 320. Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 106, 107.)]

Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.--Part III.

Arabia was free: the adjacent kingdoms were shaken by the storms of
conquest and tyranny, and the persecuted sects fled to the happy land
where they might profess what they thought, and practise what they
professed. The re