Also at
Mankat and
on the
southern coast
of Arabia ;
likewise San’a.
three such inscriptions: one he purchased, and a second was
copied; but the third was so deeply embedded in a wall, that
he failed in the attempt to copy it. Again at Mankat, one
hour from Dhafar, this lamented traveller met with five other
Himyari inscriptions, on different stones, which were built into
the wall of a mosque. Of these, only two were copied, the
others being too high to admit of being deciphered. Four out
of the five were on white marble, in relief; and it is remarkable
that, in the case of the largest, which in point of art and
execution equals any Greek inscription, the lines are attached
to strokes, like the well-known and most ancient Devanagari
Sanscrit character.1
In 1834 and 1835, the officers of the Honourable Company’s
ship “ Palinurus,” under Captain S. B. Haines, of the
Indian Navy, discovered, near the southern coast of Arabia,
several Himyari inscriptions, the situations of which are
marked on the survey of the coast made by this officer,2
namely, at Wadi Sheikhavi, in 51 E.L., also near Ras Bag-
hashu, in 50° O’ 30" E.L., and at Hisn Ghorab, about seventy
miles to the westward of Makallah; another, again, at some
little distance in the interior near the ruins of Nakb-el Hajar ;3
which are situated in Wadi Meifah, some miles north of Jebel
Hamari. The third and fourth were separately copied by two
of the officers, Lieutenants Wellsted4 and Cruttenden,6 and
published by the former.
Subsequently Lieutenant Cruttenden had the good fortune
to bring before the world two others, which were obtained at
San’a, during his visit to that city in 1836. One of these
was brought from a spot only a short distance from the house
“ May it not be Himyaritic,” adds the illustrious Dane, “ since this was the
site of Idaphar, which, according to ancient historians, was a royal residence
o f the Himyaritic kings?”—Niebuhr, vol. I I I . , p. 83. Amsterdam, 1774.
1 Seetzen’s Letter to To n Hammer, Fundgruben des Orients, tome I I .,
p. 275.
8 See vol. IX ., part i. of the Journal of the Eoyal Geographical Society.
8 14° 4' 30" N. lat., and 47° 4 ' 30" E. long.—Ibid.
4 See Lieut. J . R. Wellsted’s Travels in ’Oman and Arabia, vol. I I .,
pp . 4 2 1 , 4 2 6 .
5 The copies made by Lieut. Cruttenden are deposited in the East India
House.
that had been occupied by the famous Niebuhr himself. It is ?i*,e bnnd near Mareb
therefore very possible that other such inscriptions may still be
found in that country, and it is even said that there were some
amongst the ruins of the bund near Mareb. This celebrated
structure was, we are informed, built of cut stone, secured by
iron cramps, forming a prodigious mass of masonry, 300 cubits
broad, and about two miles long, being the distance across the
mountain valley, where, as is the case with similar works op the
north-west side of India, particularly at Oedipore, an immense
body of water was collected from the different Wadis. Whilst
perfect, an ample supply of water was at command, not only for
irrigation, but for ordinary purposes also; and upon the dyke
itself there were, according to the Arabs, inscriptions in the
Musnad character.1 On some of the stones, which have been
brought from that place in preference to preparing others at
San’a, Himyaritic characters have been found; with which may
be coupled the interesting fact, that the locality in question is
called Ard-es-Saba,2 which goes far to prove that this was the Mareb, the
ancient Saba.3 Three of the inscriptions copied by Lieutenantaoclent Sabi<
Cruttenden, I.N., are in relief, and the fourth deeply cut into
marble: the letters are about two inches and a half long, and
are exactly in the same character as that which was used at
Nakb-el Hajar.
Another was found near the Himyaritic sea-port of ’Aden in
1842. It is on a circular slab of pure white marble, having a
raised rim round i t ; and, being less carefully executed, it probably
belongs to a later period than those already noticed.4
Monumental traces of the Himyarites are not, however, by
any means confined to their original seat in Western Arabia;
they are also found in distant countries, both eastward and Himyari
westward. Beyond the opposite shores of the Red Sea, for a S t d “
Asia.
1 Antiquities of Yemen, from an Arabic MS. in the British Museum
translated by Aloys Sprenger, M.D., No. 1496.
2 The land of Sheba.—Journal of the Royal Geographical Societv vol
V I I I ., p . 268.
8 Miireb was the capital of the country of Saba.—See Golius in Alpheraan
p. 86. ' ■ v 6 ’
4 Captain Haines’ Letter to J . P . Willoughby, Esq., Secretary to the
Government of Bombay.
G 2