That the Arabians were the
merchants who imported them, is rendered highly probable from several
circumstances. The Ishmaelites, mentioned in the 37th chapter of Genesis,
are undoubtedly the Nabathians, whose country is represented by all the
geographers, historians, and poets, as the source of all the precious
commodities of the east; the ancients, erroneously supposing that cinnamon,
which we know to be an exclusive production of India, was the produce of
Arabia, because they were supplied with it, along with other aromatics,
from that country. The proof that the Nabathians and the Ishmaelites are
the same, is to be found in the evident derivation of the former name, from
Nebaioth, the son of Ishmael. The traditions of the Arabians coincide with
the genealogy of the Scriptures, in regarding Joktan, the fourth son of
Shem, as the origin of those trihes which occupied Sabaea and Hadraumaut, or
the incense country; Ishmael as the father of the families which settled in
Arabia Deserta; and Edom as the ancestor of the Idumeans, who settled in
Arabia Petraea.
Eight hundred years before the Christian era, the merchandize of the
Sabeans is particularly noticed by the prophet Isaiah; and even long before
his time, we are informed, that there were no such spices as the Queen of
Sheba gave to Solomon. That Sheba is Sabaea, or Arabia Felix, we learn from
Ezekiel:--"The merchants of Sheba and Ramah, they were thy merchants: they
occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious
stones and gold.
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