Thus the tribe of Hamyar worshipped the sun ; sam al Debaran, or the Bull's eye ; Lakhm and Jodam, al Moshtari, or Jupiter ; Tay, Sohail, or Canopus ; Kais, Sirius, or the Dog-star ; and Asad, Otared, or Mercury. The priesthood, among the Sabians, was a temporary dignity conferred upon every minister employed in the i acts of religious worship, which he immediately laid aside at the conclusion of the service. They observed three fasts in the year ; the first continued thirty days ; the second nine ; and the last seven : they were enjoin ed to pray three times a day, at sun-rise, at noon, and at sun-set ; and the temple of the moon at Harand was the limit of their pilgrimage. They performed their de votions with great fervour, turning their faces in general to the meridian, or to the star which was the object of their adoration. They admitted baptism and circum cision, and professed great veneration for St John the Baptist, pretending to be his disciples. They believed, that wicked men will be punished for 9000 ages, and af terwards received into mercy ; and when a Sabian died, his camel was slain at the sepulchre as his faithful at tendant, that his master might not be obliged to travel on foot at the resurrection. The only true scripture which they read, was the book of Psalms. They had another in the Chaldee tongue, called the book of Seth, which they held equally sacred, " in quo," says Pococke, " multa de morum honestate, de virtutis studio, et vitio rum fuga." Though this religion, among the lower or ders of the people, degenerated at last into a stupid and abominable superstition, yet among the poets and learn ed Arabs, as we find in some Arabian poems of unsus pected antiquity, Theism was maintained in all its purity. (For a more particular account of this sect, see SABI Besides the Sabians, there were in Arabia, a considerable number of Magians, Jews, and Christians. This last sect had several bishops in this country, and were very numerous in the time of Mahomet. There were also some Pagan Arabs, who believed neither a creation past, nor a resurrection to come ; but attri buted the origin of things to nature, and their dissolu tion to age.
That the regal government prevailed among the an cient Arabs, we learn from scripture, where we often read of the kings of Arabia. The principal of these kings was called TOBBA, a name as common to the kings of Hamyar, as Pharaoh was to the ancient sovereigns of Egypt, or Caesar to the Roman emperors. Tobba is sup posed by some, to have been the family name of those princes who, coming from the vicinity of Samarcand, first conquered and civilized Arabia. It is certain, how ever, that the name still exists. In the obscure district of Kheivan, in the city of Beit it Tobba, the chief of this family at present resides, who claims his descent from the ancient monarchs of that name. Besides these, there were several lesser princes or emirs, many of whom were subject to the Tobba, others again altogeth er independent. In the order of succession to the throne, the brother, in general, preceded the son of the deceased monarch. In some cities, particularly those of the in Arabia Felix, each of which had its own sovereign, the order of succession was altogether peculiar. According to Eratosthenes, the first male child that was born of a nobl family, after the king's accession to the throne, was received and educated as the successor to the kingdom. Among the Saracens, females of sense and valour were sometimes raised to the throne ; and the reign of Mavia is famous in eccle siastical history. Among the Sabxans, the king was solemnly invested with the prerogative, by an assembly of the people, and was enjoined by the law not to stir from his palace after he had assumed the reins of go vernment. Upon this condition only his subjects were
bound to pay him an absolute and implicit obedience ; for if he was found without his palace, they were com manded by the same law to stone him to death.
Among the ancient Arabs tyranny was unknown. The• abuse of power exposed the prince to the desertion, or the hatred, of his subjects. Justice was seldom demand ed from the sovereign. Every family was the avenger of its own wrongs, and the smallest affront could only be expiated by the blood of the offender. Their annual festivals, during which, their swords were sheathed from all domestic and foreign hostility, skew how strong ly they were addicted to disputes and warfare.
Among the ancient inhabitants of Arabia Felix a si milar separation of professions prevailed, as is found at present among the Hindoos in India. According to Stra bo, the first order consisted of warriors, who were the general defenders of the country ; husbandmen constitut ed the second ; the third was composed of mechanics and labourers, and the sons of each were arbitrarily bound to follow the occupation of their fathers. But they so far differed from the casts in India, that in these, the members of each order dwell indiscriminately in the same cities ; while in Arabia each order constituted a separate nation, attached to one another only by their mutual wants.
The ancient Arabs were little acquainted with the regu. lar art of war. Partitioned into tribes, independent upon one another, they seldom went in search of foreign con quests. Attached,to their country and to their manner of life, they wished only to enjoy those blessings of liberty, which they supposed, could be found in no other country but their own. All their warfare consisted, therefore, in predatory excursions, which were excited by the love of plunder, rather than of territory ; and in domestic feuds, which were prosecuted with that inveteracy and malice peculiar to a barbarous and independent people. When led into the field, they marched to battle without either order or discipline ; and when engaged, they fought with the savage fury of those animals of the desert with which they were so often accustomed to contend.
Upon the approach of a foreign enemy, the Arabs lay ing aside, for a time, their domestic quarrels, united their forces in defence of their common liberties. When compelled to retreat, they retired to fastnesses in the deserts, where no enemy could pursue them. There, fortified by impenetrable barriers, they defied all the armies of the world, who were prevented by the fear of famine and thirst from prosecuting their conquests. But after Mahomct had established his religion in Arabia, the Arabs began to assume a name among the nations. Emerging from the tranquillity of their solitudes, and united in the bonds of religion, they carried their victo rious arms on the oho hand to the Ganges, and on the other, to the pillars of Hercules. Trained from his in fancy to the use of arms, inured to fatigue, by his active manner of life, and constrained to temperance by the bar renness of his soil, the Arab soldier is able to bravo every danger with fortitude, and patiently to submit to every privation. His keen sense of honour guards him from the fear of pain or of death ; and the promises which his religion holds out to those who die in the pro pagation of the faith, excite him to the performance of actions the most daring and dangerous.