The Emim,
&c.
The Horites
and
Thamudites.
The
Amalekites.
distances from one another, were the Emim,1 the Zuzim,8 the
Rephaim,3 and the gigantic Zamzummim ;4 the Horims of
Mount Seir being immediately southward of the last.6
As these sections of the line of Ham had been the earliest
occupants of that tract of country which was in possession of
the Ammonites, Moabites, and Horites, during the exodus of
the children of Israel, it is pot improbable that some of them,
particularly the first and the last, may have constituted the
lost tribe of Thamud. To this people belonged the extensive
tract of pasture-land lying between Hijâz and the borders
of Syria, which is known by the general name of El Hadjar :6
they lived in caverns excavated in the mountains, such as those
of Wadi Petra and Wâdi El Kari,7 in which they had wells ;8
hut it is added9 “ they were destroyed by a storm from heaven,”
as a punishment for their obstinacy in not listening to a, prophet
sent from God, expressly to warn them and turn them
from their impiety.10
Towards the interior of Arabia are traces of another portion
of the ancient Amalekites, namely, Imlik, Amalek, or Ama-
leka, whose giant size passed into a proverb to express anything
great.11 The remains of this people, according to the Arabs, are
between Bahreïn and Hadramaut, and also again towards San’â
and Taïf ; there are, besides, two sections along the shores of
the Red Sea, where they dwell under the names of Obaïl and
Laff, who are said to have formed part of the Amalekon ;12 and
the situations indicated are in accordance with the gradual extension
of this great tribe to the southward, from the shores of
* Deut., chap. I I ., v. 10, 11. 8 Gen., chap. X IV ., v. 5.
Ibid. 4 Deut., chap. I I ., v. 20.
5 Gen., chap. X IV ., v. 6 ; Deut., chap. I I ., v. 12.
8 Edrisi, ed. Jaubert, tome V. Becueil de Voyages et Mémoires, &c., par
la Société de Géog., Paris, 1836.
7 Arabic MSS., Nos. 7357 and 7505, in the British Museum, translated by
Aloys Sprenger, M.D.
8 Numerous tanks and cisterns still exist.
8 Arabic MSS. as above.
10 The locality, the warning, and the catastrophe, mentioned by the Arabian
geographer, agree with the destruction of the cities of the plain.
11 Arabic M SS., Nos. 7357 and 7505, in the British Museum, translated by
Aloys Sprenger, M.D. 18 Ibid.
Palestine. Some of the people occupied intermediate places
between the present cities of Mekkah and Medina,1 also towards
San’a, and others united with the Himyarites at Thifar ;8 the
remainder passed into Assyria. - •
The ’Adites, another branch of this people, seem either to The ’Adites.
have taken a more southerly course in the outset, or else they
migrated from Yemen towards the country between Bahrein and
Hadramaut,3 instead of passing into Africa with the bulk of the
Arabian Cushites and the followers of Mizraim. Thus it will
be seen that, during the first migrations, the latter branches,
generally speaking, proceeded to the more distant countries,
such as Yemen, Africa, &c., whilst the sons of Canaan remained
in Syria and Phoenicia.4
We learn, however, from Berossus, that the principal branch Progress of the
• , _ _ _ namites
of the Hamites had taken quite another direction, and proceeded
from Armenia towards Babylonia by a circuitous route.6 They
followed a northerly course, probably keeping for a time near
the banks of the Gihon or Araxes, till they approached the
neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea where they turned southward
and entered Susiana; from which fine tract they afterwards
moved westward6 into the plain of Shinar. Having driven a
portion of the sons of Shem from the latter towards Assyria, and
the higher parts of Mesopotamia about O’rfah and Haran, they
erected temples and built cities, so that the country was again intoBabyionia.
inhabited ;7 an expression which seems to imply that it had been
occupied at the time of the Flood.
Such is the Phoenician and Chaldean account of this period:
it is derived from tradition, and possibly from some records
which it is supposed had been preserved, such as the pretended
1 Arabic MSS., Nos. 7357 and 7505, in the British Museum, translated by
Aloys Sprenger, M.D.
8 Jihan Numa, p. 495.
3 According to Arabic MSS. 7357 and 7505, near the desert of Ahkaf.
4 Where we have Sidon, and Heth, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and
the Girgasite, and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, and the Arva-
dite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite, Gen., chap. X., v. 15-18.
s Berossus, from the Ancient Fragments, by I. P . Cory, Esq., p. 29.
8 And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a
plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there, Genesis, chap. X I., v. 2.
7 Syncel., Chro. 31 ; Euseb., Chro. p. 8.