directing their
course by the Pole-star;* in this manner they often traversed long
distances out of sight of land, and they succeeded in making in a short
time voyages previously deemed long and costly.

* The Greeks for this reason called it Phonike, the
Phoenician star; ancient writers refer to the use which the
Phoenicians made of the Pole-star to guide them in
navigation.

It is hard to say whether they were as much merchants as
pirates--indeed, they hardly knew themselves--and their peaceful or
warlike attitude towards vessels which they encountered on the seas,
or towards the people whose countries they frequented, was probably
determined by the circumstances of the moment.* If on arrival at a
port they felt themselves no match for the natives, the instinct of the
merchant prevailed, and that of the pirate was kept in the background.
They landed peaceably, gained the good will of the native chief and
his nobles by small presents, and spreading out their wares, contented
themselves, if they could do no better, with the usual advantage
obtained in an exchange of goods.

* The manner in which the Phoenicians plied their trade is
strikingly described in the _Odyssey_, in the part where
Eumaios relates how he was carried off by a Sidonian vessel
and sold as a slave: cf. the passage which mentions the
ravages of the Greeks on the coast of the Delta. Herodotus
recalls the rape of Io, daughter of Inachos, by the
Phoenicians, who carried her and her companions into Egypt;
on the other hand, during one of their Egyptian expeditions
they had taken two priestesses from Thebes, and had
transported one of them to Dodona, the other into Libya.

They were never in a hurry, and would remain in one spot until they had
exhausted all the resources of the country, while they knew to a nicety
how to display their goods attractively before the expected customer.
Their wares comprised weapons and ornaments for men, axes, swords,
incised or damascened daggers with hilts of gold or ivory, bracelets,
necklaces, amulets of all kinds, enamelled vases, glass-work, stuffs
dyed purple or embroidered with gay colours. At times the natives, whose
cupidity was excited by the exhibition of such valuables, would attempt
to gain possession of them either by craft or by violence. They would
kill the men who had landed, or attempt to surprise the vessel during
the night. But mor