tant archaic monuments of the country ; and they il- lustrate both its earliest people and its greatest king- doms. Mareb, or Seba (the Mariaba of the Greek ge- ographers), is one of the most interesting of these sites (see Michaelis's Questions, No. 94, etc., in Niebuhr's Arabia). It was founded, according to the general agreement of tradition, by Abd-esh-Shems Seba, grandson of Yaarub the Kahtanite (Mushtarak, in loc. ; Abulfeda, Hist, anteisl. ed. Fleischer, p. 114); and the Dike of El-Arim, which was situate near the city, and the rupture of which (A.D. 150-170, accord- ing to De Sacy ; 120, according to Caussin de Perce- val) formed an era in Arabian history, is generally ascribed to Lukman the Greater, the Adite, who founded the dynasty of the second Ad (Ibn-eMYar- dee, MS. ; Hamza Ispahanensis, ap. Schultens, p. 24, 25; El-Mesudi, cited by De Sacy, Mem. de VAcad. xlviii, 484 sq. ; and Ibn Khaldun in Caussin's Essai, i, 10). Adites (in conjunction with Cushites) were probably the founders of this and similar structures, and were succeeded by a predominantly Joktanite people, the Biblical Sheba, whose name is preserved in the Arabian Seba, and in the Sabcei of the Greeks. It has been argued (Caussin, Essai, i, 42 sq. ; Penan, Lanr/ues Scmitiques, i, SO0) that the Adites were the Cushite Seba; but this hypothesis, which involves the question of the settlements of the eldest son of Cush, and that of the descent of the Adites, rests sole- ly on the existence of Cushite settlements in Southern Arabia, and of the name of Seba in the Yemen (by these writers inferentially identified with X^O; by the Arabs, unanimously, with Seba the Kahtanite, or Xld ; the Hebrew shin being, in by far the greater number of instances, sin in Arabic) ; and it necessi- tates the existence of the two Biblical kingdoms of Seba and Sheba in a circumscribed province of South- ern Arabia, a result which we think is irreconcilable with a careful comparison of the passages in the Bible bearing on this subject. See Cush ; Seba ; Sheba. Neither is there evidence to indicate the identity of Ad and the other extinct tribes with any Semitic or Hamitic people : they must, in the present state of knowledge, be classed with the Eephaim and other peoples whose genealogies are not known to us. See Adites. The only one that can possibly be identi- fied with a scriptural name is Amalek, whose sup- posed descent from the grandson of Esau seems in- consistent with Gen. xiv, 7, and Num. xxiv, 20. See Amalek.
The several nations that have inhabited the coun- try are divided by the Arabs into extinct and exist- ing tribes, and these are again distinguished as, 1. El- Arab el-Aribeh ("Arab Of the Arabs;" comp. Paul's phrase, " Hebrew of the Hebrews," Phil, iii, 5), the pure or genuine Arabs ; 2. El-Arab el-Mutaarribeh ; and, 3. El-Arab el-Mustaaribeh, the insititious or naturalized Arabs. Of many conflicting opinions re- specting these races, two only are worthy of note. According to the first of these, El-Arab el-Aribeh de- notes the extinct tribes, with whom some conjoin Kah- tan ; while the other two, as synonymous appellations, belong to the descendants of Ishmael. According to the second, El-Arab el-Aribeh denotes the extinct tribes ; El-Arab el-Mutaarribeh the unmixed descend- ants of Kahtan ; and El-Arab el-Mustaaribeh the de- Bcendants of Ishmael by the daughter of Mudad the Joktanite. That the descendants of Joktan occupied the principal portions of the south and south-west of the peninsula, with colonies in the interior, is attested by the Arabs, and fully confirmed by historical and philological researches. It is also asserted that they have been gradually absorbed into the Ishmaelite im- migrants, though not without leaving strong traces of their former existence. Fresnel, however (le Lettre, p. 24), Bays that they were quite distinct, at least in Mohammed's time, and it is not unlikely that the Ish-
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maelite element has been exaggerated by Mohamme- dan influence.
Respecting the Joktanite settlers we have some certain evidence. In Genesis (x, 30) it is said, " and their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a mount of the east [Kedem]." The position of Mesha is very uncertain; it is most reasonably supposed, to be the western limit of the first settlers [see Mesha] : Sephar is undoubtedly Dhafari, or Za- fari, of the Arabs (probably pronounced in ancient times without the final vowel, as it is at the present day), a name not uncommon in the peninsula, but es- pecially that of two celebrated towns — one being the seaport on the south coast near Mirbat, the other, now in ruins, near Sana, and said to be the ancient resi- dence of the Himyarite kings (Musktardk, s. v. ; Ma- rdsid, ib. ; El-Idrisi, i, 148). Fresnel (4e Lettre, p. 51G sq.) prefers the seaport, as the Himyarite capital, and is followed by Jomard (Etudes, p. #67). He in- forms us that the inhabitants call this town "Isfor." Considering the position of the Joktanite races, this is probably Sephar; it is situated near a thuriferous mountain (Mardsid, s. v.), and exports the best frank- incense (Niebuhr, p. 148) ; Zafari in the Yemen, how- ever, is also among mountains. See Sephar. In the district indicated above are distinct and undoubt- ed traces of the names of the sons of Joktau mention- ed in Genesis, such as Hadramaut for Hazarmaveth, Azal for Uzal, Seba for Sheba, etc. Their remains are found in the existing inhabitants of (at least) its eastern portion, and their records in the numerous Himyarite ruins and inscriptions.