ing in pearls of great value. Isidorus* of Charax, CHAP. I. who lived a little after, says the same thing. Pliny+, having commended the pearls of the Indian seas, adds, that such as are fished towards Arabia in the Persian Gulf, deserve most to be praised. And in another place he takes notice of the island. of Tylos, as being the place of that fish ng, which many suppose to be the island of Baharen. Arrian, the author of the Periplus of the Red Sea, sets a greater value upon the pearls of Arabia, than upon those of the Indies. Eliaut describes exactly. enough, how they were fished, and how much they were valued. Origen § affirms, that Indian pearls. far exceed all others in value, and that amongst all Indian pearls, those of the Red Sea are of the greatest value: by which words we may see, that he made the Persian Sea a part of that of the Indies; of which more hereafter, when we come to speak of the Red Sea. The Rabbi Benjamin, a Navarrer, who lived five hundred and fifty years. ago, being at Catif, informed himself about the fishing of pearls, that is made there every year, and about the manner observed in making of it, and inserted it in the history of his travels, which he has left us.. Teixeira a Portuguese, another traveller, has yet more exactly described this fishing. He says, the pearls of that sea are finer and weightier than those of other places. Add hereto. the testimony of the other modern travellers, Balby, Linscot, Vincent le Blanc, Tavernier, and Thevenot. Besides the fishing of Babaren, this last writer hath also described that of Carek, another isle in the same gulf, and nearer the land of Havilah. Many other places of this sea afford} pearls; as doth the whole coast of Arabia from Mascate to Catif. Those that maintain, that bedolach is the bdel * Isidor, Charac. apud Athen. lib. iii. + Plin. lib. vi. c. 28. et lib. ix. c. 35. Elian. de Animal. lib. x. c. 13. et lib. xv. c. 8. 13. Bedolach, gum, to be PART I. lium, a gum, may also find some in Arabia. Dioscorides expressly testifies it; and he sets a greater value upon the bdellium of the Saracens, than upon that of the Indies. Isidorust and taken for a Sylvaticus ‡ are of the same opinion. And Galen §, found like comparing the bdellium of Arabia with that of wise in the Scythia, that is to say, with the bdellium of the same land Indies, (for part of India was called Scythia or of Havilah. Indoscythia,) gives some advantages to the first, which he denies to the second. Pliny prefers the bdellium of Bactriana to that of Arabia; but he values that of Arabia above all the rest. He will have that tree to grow in the sands of the Persian Gulf, which the flux of the sea covers with its tides ; and I do not know, says the learned Bishop Huetius, whether it be not the same, which Strabo ¶ describes without naming it, upon Nearchus's information, when he says, that it grows in the islands that are before the Euphrates; that it smells as frankincense; and that out of its broken roots drops the sweet-smelling juice. Now let the place of Arabia, from which it came, be which it will, at least a great deal of that, which was to be transported into the countries along the Tigris and Euphrates, and into the rest of the northerly Asia, was carried into the land of Havilah. And upon this account Arrian** says, there was made a great sale of spices, and all Arabian drugs in the city of Diridotis, which is the same with Teredon, the ruins whereof are yet now to be seen on the confines of the land of Havilah. 14. It remains now to speak of the schoham, which Precious the sacred text tells us was in Havilah, and which stones, and is commonly rendered the onyx-stone. A great particularly variety of opinions might be produced, to shew the on yx Diosc. lib. i. c. 77. + Isidor. Etym. lib. xvii. c. 8. Strab. lib. xvi. p. 767. ex edit. Casaub. the same that nothing certain can be affirmed of the stone CHAP. I. schoham; and so it will be enough to make it evident, that Arabia was formerly very abounding in stone, to be precious stones. The first proof shall be taken und in from the place of Ezekiel already quoted; where country. the prophet, among the chiefest commodities that came from Sheba and Raamah, places in Arabia on the easterly coast, not far from Havilah, and whose inhabitants dealt with the Tyrians, reckons the most precious spices, precious stones and gold. Nearchus, who had sailed the Persian Gulf, affirmed (as Strabo tells us) that there were many islands in that gulf, in which there were extraordinary fine precious stones. The same Strabo * says, that the riches of Arabia, which did consist in precious stones, and excellent perfumes, (the trade whereof brought them a great deal of gold and silver, besides the gold of the country itself,) made Augustus to send Elius Gallus thither, in order to make those nations his friends, and draw to himself their riches, or to subdue them. Diodorus + describes at large the advantages of Arabia, and especially its precious stones. He says, that that region affords some of all kinds, that they are very much to be valued by reason of the variety and brightness of their colours; and he enquires into the natural causes of it. Pliny, who employed all his last book in clearing this subject, and pretty curiously marketh the countries of precious stones, assures us, that those, that are most valued, come out of Arabia. Though now they are more scarce there than they were then, (for mines of precious stones, as well as those of metals, are exhausted by length of time,) yet travellers, naturalists, and lapidaries do still find some here. But after all, if any one will restrain the Hebrew word schoham to signify in this place the onyx-stone, he will have Pliny on his side, who says, that the * Strab. lib. xvi. p. 780. ex edit. Casaub. + Diod. lib. ii. p. 131, et seq. ex edit. Rhodomanni. PART I. ancients are persuaded, that the onyx-stone was ho where else to be found but in the mountains of Arabia. Pison is that river or channel which 15. It appears then, that in the fore-mentioned exThe river tremity of Arabia there was a land or country called Havilah, and that there was in the same, gold, and that good gold; as also the bedolach and schoham, whether they be taken to denote washes the pearls and precious stones in general, or else to eastern part denote particularly the bdellium gum and the onyxof the land stone. If therefore there can be further found, a and so river which encompasses (i. c. with a winding empties stream washes) all one side of the land of Havilah, itself into and also hath communication with three other the Persian rivers by one common channel; we shall then have of Havilahi, Gulf. 16. The same further proved from other considerations, be found, concurring in this place, all the marks whereby Moses describes the river Pison, and therefore need not question, but the river thus washing this land of Havilah, is the very river, to which Moses gives the name of Pison in his description of the Garden of Eden. Now it is evident that the channel or river above mentioned, (§ 9. and 10.) as bounding Havilah eastward, and emptying itself into the Persian Gulf, is such a river, having all the fore-mentioned particulars concurring in it; and therefore it may very reasonably be conceived to be the river Pison of Moses. But, though the concurrence of the several marks given by Moses be abundantly sufficient to satisfy us, that we have certainly found out the true Pison, yet we cannot omit one or two other considerations, which are mentioned by the learned Bishop of Soissons, and tend further to confirm this point. It sides the must then be remembered, that Moses (as has been before observed) wrote his history in Arabia Pegiven by Moses; as, træa, or some place near adjoining; and consefirst, from quently of the four rivers he mentions, this chanits bring nel, as will appear from the sequel of this chapter, was the nearest him; so that natural order re quired that he should name this first. And by the same consideration may the method, observed by marks the nearest river to the place, Moses in mentioning the other three, be naturally CHAP. I. accounted for, as shall be shewn as we go along. where Mo 17. Secondly, word Pison, Again, the etymology or derivation of the word ses wrote. Pison helps also to distinguish the river so called. For most of the Hebrew grammarians agree, that from the it is derived, either from the verb pusch etymology which signifies, to run out, to be full, to increase or derivato multiply; or from pascha, which signifies tion of the to spread itself; because tides are so violent and so high at that end of the Persian Gulf, that trenches were not a sufficient defence against their irruptions into the neighbouring grounds, that are very soft and low. So that all that coast is full of lakes, marshy places, and sands, as Strabo observes. In Moses' time then, when the industry of men might have as yet opposed nothing to those attacks, it is credible the overflowings were much greater than they are now. No name therefore could be given more suitable to that channel, that was apt so often to overflow, than the name of Pison. The author of the apocryphal book called Ecclesiasticus made an allusion to this etymology, where he says of God, that he filleth all with wisdom like the Pison. Ecclus. xxiv. 25. 18. Lastly, Schickard a German professor, and who Lastly, understood extraordinary well the easterly laus from the guages, and affairs of the East, seems to have had concurring opinions of a glimpse of the truth, when he wrote, that he is several sure the Pison is to be looked for in Arabia, and learned that all the rivers of Paradise run into the Persian men. Gulf, and that their mouths are very near one another. Steuchus speaks yet more expressly of it, saying, that the Pison comes from the Euphrates, and runs towards the Arabians of Havilah. Father Kircher, in the geographical map he inserted in his description of the tower of Babel, describes the... running of the four rivers, Pison, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates, and gives the name of Pison to the * Strab. lib. xvi. p. 767, ex edu. Casaub. + In his Commentary on the Tarich of the Kings of Persia, |