History of Phoenicia Part 7

Another vase of a similar character to this, but superior in many respects, was found by General Di Cesnola at Dali (Idalium), and is figured in his "Cyprus."[853] This vase has the shape of an urn, and is ornamented with horizontal bands, except towards the middle, where it has its greatest diameter, and exhibits a series of geometric designs.

In the centre is a lozenge, divided into four smaller lozenges by a St.

Andrew's cross; other compartments are triangular, and are filled with a chequer of black and white, resembling the squares of a chessboard.

Beyond, on either side, are vertical bands, diversified with a lozenge ornament. Two hands succeed, of a shape that is thought to have "a certain elegance."[854] There is a rim, which might receive a cover, at top, and at bottom a short pedestal. The height of the vase is about thirteen inches.

In many of the Cyprian vases having a geometric decoration, the figures are not painted on the surface but impressed or incised. Messrs. Perrot and Chipiez regard this form of ornamentation as the earliest; but the beauty and finish of several vases on which it occurs is against the supposition. There is scarcely to be found, even in the range of Greek art, a more elegant form than that of the jug in black clay brought by General Di Cesnola from Alambra and figured both in his "Cyprus"[855]

and in the "Histoire de l'Art."[856] Yet its ornamentation is incised.

If, then, incised patterning preceded painted in Phoenicia, at any rate it held its ground after painting was introduced, and continued in vogue even to the time when Greek taste had largely influenced Phoenician art of every description.

The finest Phoenician efforts in ceramic art resemble either the best Egyptian or the best Greek. As the art advanced, the advantage of a rich glaze was appreciated, and specimens which seem to be Phoenician have all the delicacy and beauty of the best Egyptian faence. A cup found at Idalium, plain on the outside, is covered internally with a green enamel, on which are patterns and designs in black.[857] In a medallion at the bottom of the cup is the representation of a marshy tract overgrown with the papyrus plant, whereof we see both the leaves and blossoms, while among them, rus.h.i.+ng at full speed, is the form of a wild boar. The rest of the ornamentation consists chiefly of concentric circles; but between two of the circles is left a tolerably broad ring, which has a pattern consisting of a series of broadish leaves pointing towards the cup's centre. Nothing can be more delicate, or in better taste, than the entire design.

The most splendid of all the Cyprian vases was found at Curium, and has been already represented in this volume. It is an amphora of large dimensions, ornamented in part with geometrical designs, in part with compartments, in which are represented horses and birds. The form, the designs, and the general physiognomy of the amphora are considered to be in close accordance with Athenian vases of the most antique school. The resemblance is so great that some have supposed the vase to have been an importation from Attica into Cyprus;[858] but such conjectures are always hazardous; and the princ.i.p.al motives of the design are so frequent on the Cyprian vases, that the native origin of the vessel is at least possible, and the judgment of some of the best critics seems to incline in this direction.

Still, on the whole, the Cyprian ceramic art is somewhat disappointing.

What is original in it is either grotesque, as the vases in the shape of animals,[859] or those crowned by human heads,[860] or those again which have for spout a female figure pouring liquid out of a jug.[861] What is superior has the appearance of having been borrowed. Egyptian, a.s.syrian, and Greek art, each in turn, furnished shapes, designs, and patterns to the Phoenician potters, who readily adopted from any and every quarter the forms and decorations which hit their fancy. Their fancy was, predominantly, for the _bizarre_ and the extravagant. Vases in the shape of helmets, in the shape of barrels, in the shape of human heads,[862]

have little fitness, and in the Cyprian specimens have little beauty; the mixture of a.s.syrian with Egyptian forms is incongruous; the birds and beasts represented are drawn with studied quaintness, a quaintness recalling the art of China and j.a.pan. If there is elegance in some of the forms, it is seldom a very p.r.o.nounced elegance; and, where the taste is best, the suspicion continually arises that a foreign model has been imitated. Moreover, from first to last the art makes little progress.

There seems to have been an arrest of development.[863] The early steps are taken, but at a certain point stagnation sets in; there is no further attempt to improve or advance; the artists are content to repeat themselves, and reproduce the patterns of the past. Perhaps there was no demand for ceramic art of a higher order. At any rate, progress ceases, and while Greece was rising to her grandest efforts, Cyprus, and Phoenicia generally, were content to remain stationary.

Besides their ornamental metallurgy, which has been treated of in a former chapter, the Phoenicians largely employed several metals, especially bronze and copper, in the fabrication of vessels for ordinary use, of implements, arms, toilet articles, furniture, &c. The vessels include paterae, bowls, jugs, amphorae, and cups;[864] the implements, hatchets, adzes, knives, and sickles;[865] the arms, spearheads, arrowheads, daggers, battle-axes, helmets, and s.h.i.+elds;[866] the toilet articles, mirrors, hand-bells, buckles, candlesticks, &c.;[867] the furniture, tall candelabra, tripods, and thrones.[868] The bronze is of an excellent quality, having generally about nine parts of copper to one of tin; and there is reason to believe that by the skilful tempering of the Phoenician metallurgists, it attained a hardness which was not often given it by others. The Cyprian s.h.i.+elds were remarkable. They were of a round shape, slightly convex, and instead of the ordinary boss, had a long projecting cone in the centre. An actual s.h.i.+eld, with the cone perfect, was found by General Di Cesnola at Amathus,[869] and a projection of the same kind is seen in several of the Sardinian bronze and terra-cotta statuettes.[870] s.h.i.+elds were sometimes elaborately embossed, in part with patterning, in part with animal and vegetable forms.[871] Helmets were also embossed with care, and sometimes inscribed with the name of the maker or the owner.[872]

Some remains of swords, probably Phoenician, have been found in Sardinia. They vary from two feet seven inches to four feet two inches in length.[873] The blade is commonly straight, and very thick in the centre, but tapers off on both sides to a sharp edge. The point is blunt, so that the intention cannot have been to use the weapon both for cutting and thrusting, but only for the former. It would scarcely make such a clean cut as a modern broadsword, but would no doubt be equally effectual for killing or disabling. Another weapon, found in Sardinia, and sometimes called a sword, is more properly a knife or dagger. In length it does not exceed seven or eight inches, and of this length more than a third is occupied by the handle.[874] Below the handle the blade broadens for about an inch or an inch and a half; after this it contracts, and tapers gently to a sharp point. Such a weapon appears sometimes in the hand of a statuette.[875]

The bronze articles of the toilet recovered by recent researches in Cyprus and elsewhere are remarkable. The handle of a mirror found in Cyprus, and now in the Museum of New York, possesses considerable merit. It consists mainly of a female figure, naked, and standing upon a frog.[876] In her hands she holds a pair of cymbals, which she is in the act of striking together. A ribbon, pa.s.sed over her left shoulder, is carried through a ring, from which hangs a seal. On her arms and shoulders appear to have stood two lions, which formed side supports to the mirror that was attached to the figure's head. If the face of the cymbal-player cannot boast of much beauty, and her figure is thought to "lack distinction," still it is granted that the _tout ensemble_ of the work was not without originality, and may have possessed a certain amount of elegance.[877] The frog is particularly well modelled.

Some candlesticks found in the Treasury of Curium,[878] and a tripod from the same place, seem to deserve a short notice. The candlesticks stand upon a sort of short pillar as a base, above which is the blossom of a flower inverted, a favourite Phoenician ornament.[879] From this rises the lamp-stand, composed of three leaves, which curl outwards, and support between them a ring into which the bottom of the lamp fitted.

The tripod[880] is more elaborate. The legs, which are fluted, bulge considerably at the top, after which they bend inwards, and form a curve like one half of a Cupid's bow. To retain them in place, they are joined together by a sort of cross-bar, about half-way in their length; while, to keep them steady, they are made to rest on large flat feet. The circular hoop which they support is of some width, and is ornamented along its entire course with a zig-zag. From the hoop depend, half-way in the s.p.a.ces between the legs, three rings, from each of which there hangs a curious pendant.

Besides copper and bronze, the Phoenicians seem to have worked in lead and iron, but only to a small extent. Iron ore might have been obtained in some parts of their own country, but appears to have been princ.i.p.ally derived from abroad, especially from Spain.[881] It was worked up chiefly, so far as we know, into arms offensive and defensive. The sword of Alexander, which he received as a gift from the king of Citium,[882]

was doubtless in this metal, which is the material of a sword found at Amathus, and of numerous arrowheads.[883] We are also told that Cyprus furnished the iron breast-plates worn by Demetrius Poliorcetes;[884] and in pre-Homeric times it was a Phoenician--Cinyras--who gave to Agamemnon his breast-plate of steel, gold, and tin.[885] That more remains of iron arms and implements have not been found on Phoenician sites is probably owing to the rapid oxydisation of the metal, which consequently decays and disappears. The Hiram who was sent to a.s.sist Solomon in building and furnis.h.i.+ng the Temple of Jerusalem was, we must remember, "skilful to work," not only "in gold, and silver, and bronze," but also "in iron."[886]

Lead was largely furnished to the Phoenicians by the Scilly Islands,[887] and by Spain.[888] It has not been found in any great quant.i.ty on Phoenician sites, but still appears occasionally. Sometimes it is a solder uniting stone with bronze;[889] sometimes it exists in thin sheets, which may have been worn as ornaments.[890] In Phoenicia Proper it has been chiefly met with in the shape of coffins,[891] which are apparently of a somewhat late date. They are formed of several sheets placed one over the other and then soldered together. There is generally on the lid and sides of the coffin an external ornamentation in a low relief, wherein the myth of Psyche is said commonly to play a part; but the execution is mediocre, and the designs themselves have little merit.

CHAPTER IX--s.h.i.+PS, NAVIGATION, AND COMMERCE

Earliest navigation by means of rafts and canoes--Model of a very primitive boat--Phoenician vessel of the time of Sargon--Phoenician biremes in the time of Sennacherib-- Phoenician pleasure vessels and merchant s.h.i.+ps--Superiority of the Phoenician war-galleys--Excellence of the arrangements--Pataeci--Early navigation cautious--Increasing boldness--Furthest ventures--Extent of the Phoenician land commerce--Witness of Ezekiel--Wares imported--Caravans-- Description of the land trade--Sea trade of Phoenicia--1.

With her own colonies--2. With foreigners--Mediterranean and Black Sea trade--North Atlantic trade--Trade with the West Coast of Africa and the Canaries--Trade in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.

The first attempts of the Phoenicians to navigate the sea which washed their coast were probably as clumsy and rude as those of other primitive nations. They are said to have voyaged from island to island, in their original abodes within the Persian Gulf, by means of rafts.[91] When they reached the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean, it can scarcely have been long ere they constructed boats for fis.h.i.+ng and coasting purposes, though no doubt such boats were of a very rude construction. Probably, like other races, they began with canoes, roughly hewn out of the trunk of a tree. The torrents which descended from Lebanon would from time to time bring down the stems of fallen trees in their flood-time; and these, floating on the Mediterranean waters, would suggest the idea of navigation. They would, at first, be hollowed out with hatchets and adzes, or else with fire; and, later on, the canoes thus produced would form the models for the earliest efforts in s.h.i.+pbuilding. The great length, however, would soon be found unnecessary, and the canoe would give place to the boat, in the ordinary acceptation of the term. There are models of boats among the Phoenician remains which have a very archaic character,[92] and may give us some idea of the vessels in which the Phoenicians of the remoter times braved the perils of the deep. They have a keel, not ill shaped, a rounded hull, bulwarks, a beak, and a high seat for the steersman. The oars, apparently, must have been pa.s.sed through interstices in the bulwark.

From this rude shape the transition was not very difficult to the bark represented in the sculptures of Sargon,[93] which is probably a Phoenician one. Here four rowers, standing to their oars, impel a vessel having for prow the head of a horse and for stern the tail of a fish, both of them rising high above the water. The oars are curved, like golf or hockey-sticks, and are worked from the gunwale of the bark, though there is no indication of rowlocks. The vessel is without a rudder; but it has a mast, supported by two ropes which are fastened to the head and stern. The mast has neither sail nor yard attached to it, but is crowned by what is called a "crow's nest"--a bell-shaped receptacle, from which a slinger or archer might discharge missiles against an enemy.[94]

A vessel of considerably greater size than this, but of the same cla.s.s--impelled, that is, by one bank of oars only--is indicated by certain coins, which have been regarded by some critics as Phoenician, by others as belonging to Cilicia.[95] These have a low bow, but an elevated stern; the prow exhibits a beak, while the stern shows signs of a steering apparatus; the number of the oars on each side is fifteen or twenty. The Greeks called these vessels triaconters or penteconters.

They are represented without any mast on the coins, and thus seem to have been merely row-boats of a superior character.

About the time of Sennacherib (B.C. 700), or a little earlier, some great advances seem to have been made by the Phoenician s.h.i.+pbuilders. In the first place, they introduced the practice of placing the rowers on two different levels, one above the other; and thus, for a vessel of the same length, doubling the number of the rowers. s.h.i.+ps of this kind, which the Greeks called "biremes," are represented in Sennacherib's sculptures as employed by the inhabitants of a Phoenician city, who fly in them at the moment when their town is captured, and so escape their enemy.[96] The s.h.i.+ps are of two kinds. Both kinds have a double tier of rowers, and both are guided by two steering oars thrust out from the stern; but while the one is still without mast or sail, and is rounded off in exactly the same way both at stem and stern, the other has a mast, placed about mids.h.i.+p, a yard hung across it, and a sail close reefed to the yard, while the bow is armed with a long projecting beak, like a ploughshare, which must have been capable of doing terrible damage to a hostile vessel. The rowers, in both cla.s.ses of s.h.i.+ps, are represented as only eight or ten upon a side; but this may have arisen from artistic necessity, since a greater number of figures could not have been introduced without confusion. It is thought that in the beaked vessel we have a representation of the Phoenician war-galley; in the vessel without a beak, one of the Phoenician transport.[97]

A painting on a vase found in Cyprus exhibits what would seem to have been a pleasure-vessel.[98] It is unbeaked, and without any sign of oars, except two paddles for steering with. About mids.h.i.+p is a short mast, crossed by a long spar or yard, which carries a sail, closely reefed along its entire length. The yard and sail are managed by means of four ropes, which are, however, somewhat conventionally depicted.

Both the head and stern of the vessel rise to a considerable height above the water, and the stern is curved, very much as in the war-galleys. It perhaps terminated in the head of a bird.

According to the Greek writers, Phoenician vessels were mainly of two kinds, merchant s.h.i.+ps and war-vessels.[99] The merchant s.h.i.+ps were of a broad, round make, what our sailors would call "tubs," resembling probably the Dutch fis.h.i.+ng-boats of a century ago. They were impelled both by oars and sails, but depended mainly on the latter. Each of them had a single mast of moderate height, to which a single sail was attached;[910] this was what in modern times is called a "square sail,"

a form which is only well suited for sailing with when the wind is directly astern. It was apparently attached to the yard, and had to be hoisted together with the yard, along which it could be closely reefed, or from which it could be loosely shaken out. It was managed, no doubt, by ropes attached to the two lower corners, which must have been held in the hands of sailors, as it would have been most dangerous to belay them. As long as the wind served, the merchant captain used his sail; when it died away, or became adverse, he dropped yard and sail on to his deck, and made use of his oars.

Merchant s.h.i.+ps had, commonly, small boats attached to them, which afforded a chance of safety if the s.h.i.+p foundered, and were useful when cargoes had to be landed on a shelving sh.o.r.e.[911] We have no means of knowing whether these boats were hoisted up on deck until they were wanted, or attached to the s.h.i.+ps by ropes and towed after them; but the latter arrangement is the more probable.

The war-galleys of the Phoenicians in the early times were probably of the cla.s.s which the Greeks called triaconters or penteconters, and which are represented upon the coins. They were long open rowboats, in which the rowers sat, all of them, upon a level, the number of rowers on either side being generally either fifteen or twenty-five. Each galley was armed at its head with a sharp metal spike, or beak, which was its chief weapon of offence, vessels of this cla.s.s seeking commonly to run down their enemy. After a time these vessels were superseded by biremes, which were decked, had masts and sails, and were impelled by rowers sitting at two different elevations, as already explained. Biremes were ere long superseded by triremes, or vessels with three banks of oars, which are said to have been invented at Corinth,[912] but which came into use among the Phoenicians before the end of the sixth century B.C.[913] In the third century B.C. the Carthaginians employed in war quadriremes, and even quinqueremes; but there is no evidence of the employment of either cla.s.s of vessel by the Phoenicians of Phoenicia Proper.

The superiority of the Phoenician s.h.i.+ps to others is generally allowed, and was clearly shown when Xerxes collected his fleet of twelve hundred and seven triremes against Greece. The fleet included contingents from Phoenicia, Cyprus, Egypt, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Lycia, Caria, Ionia, aeolis, and the Greek settlements about the Propontis.[914] When it reached the h.e.l.lespont, the great king, anxious to test the quality of his s.h.i.+ps and sailors, made proclamation for a grand sailing match, in which all who liked might contend. Each contingent probably--at any rate, all that prided themselves on their nautical skill--selected its best vessel, and entered it for the coming race; the king himself, and his grandees and officers, and all the army, stood or sat along the sh.o.r.e to see: the race took place, and was won by the Phoenicians of Sidon.[915] Having thus tested the nautical skill of the various nations under his sway, the great king, when he ventured his person upon the dangerous element, was careful to embark in a Sidonian galley.[916]

A remarkable testimony to the excellence of the Phoenician s.h.i.+ps with respect to internal arrangements is borne by Xenophon, who puts the following words into the mouth of Ischomachus, a Greek:[917] "I think that the best and most perfect arrangement of things that I ever saw was when I went to look at the great Phoenician sailing-vessel; for I saw the largest amount of naval tackling separately disposed in the smallest stowage possible. For a s.h.i.+p, as you well know, is brought to anchor, and again got under way, by a vast number of wooden implements and of ropes and sails the sea by means of a quant.i.ty of rigging, and is armed with a number of contrivances against hostile vessels, and carries about with it a large supply of weapons for the crew, and, besides, has all the utensils that a man keeps in his dwelling-house, for each of the messes. In addition, it is laden with a quant.i.ty of merchandise which the owner carries with him for his own profit. Now all the things which I have mentioned lay in a s.p.a.ce not much bigger than a room which would conveniently hold ten beds. And I remarked that they severally lay in a way that they did not obstruct one another, and did not require anyone to search for them; and yet they were neither placed at random, nor entangled one with another, so as to consume time when they were suddenly wanted for use. Also, I found the captain's a.s.sistant, who is called 'the look-out man,' so well acquainted with the position of all the articles, and with the number of them, that even when at a distance he could tell where everything lay, and how many there were of each sort, just as anyone who has learnt to read can tell the number of letters in the name of Socrates and the proper place for each of them.

Moreover, I saw this man, in his leisure moments, examining and testing everything that a vessel needs when at sea; so, as I was surprised, I asked him what he was about, whereupon he replied--'Stranger, I am looking to see, in case anything should happen, how everything is arranged in the s.h.i.+p, and whether anything is wanting, or is inconveniently situated; for when a storm arises at sea, it is not possible either to look for what is wanting, or to put to right what is arranged awkwardly.'"

Phoenician s.h.i.+ps seem to have been placed under the protection of the Cabeiri, and to have had images of them at their stem or stern or both.[918] These images were not exactly "figure-heads," as they are sometimes called. They were small, apparently, and inconspicuous, being little dwarf figures, regarded as amulets that would preserve the vessel in safety. We do not see them on any representations of Phoenician s.h.i.+ps, and it is possible that they may have been no larger than the bronze or glazed earthenware images of Phthah that are so common in Egypt. The Phoenicians called them _pittuchim_, "sculptures,"[919]

whence the Greek {pataikoi} and the French _fetiche_.

The navigation of the Phoenicians, in early times, was no doubt cautious and timid. So far from venturing out of sight of land, they usually hugged the coast, ready at any moment, if the sea or sky threatened, to change their course and steer directly for the sh.o.r.e. On a shelving coast they were not at all afraid to run their s.h.i.+ps aground, since, like the Greek vessels, they could be easily pulled up out of reach of the waves, and again pulled down and launched, when the storm was over and the sea calm once more. At first they sailed, we may be sure, only in the daytime, casting anchor at nightfall, or else dragging their s.h.i.+ps up upon the beach, and so awaiting the dawn. But after a time they grew more bold. The sea became familiar to them, the positions of coasts and islands relatively one to another better known, the character of the seasons, the signs of unsettled or settled weather, the conduct to pursue in an emergency, better apprehended. They soon began to shape the course of their vessels from headland to headland, instead of always creeping along the sh.o.r.e, and it was not perhaps very long before they would venture out of sight of land, if their knowledge of the weather satisfied them that the wind might be trusted to continue steady, and if they were well a.s.sured of the direction of the land that they wished to make. They took courage, moreover, to sail in the night, no less than in the daytime, when the weather was clear, guiding themselves by the stars, and particularly by the Polar star,[920] which they discovered to be the star most nearly marking the true north. A pa.s.sage of Strabo[921]

seems to show that--in the later times at any rate--they had a method of calculating the rate of a s.h.i.+p's sailing, though what the method was is wholly unknown to us. It is probable that they early constructed charts and maps, which however they would keep secret through jealousy of their commercial rivals.

The Phoenicians for some centuries confined their navigation within the limits of the Mediterranean, the Propontis, and the Euxine, land-locked seas, which are tideless and far less rough than the open ocean. But before the time of Solomon they had pa.s.sed the Pillars of Hercules, and affronted the dangers of the Atlantic.[922] Their frail and small vessels, scarcely bigger than modern fis.h.i.+ng-smacks, proceeded southwards along the West African coast, as far as the tract watered by the Gambia and Senegal, while northwards they coasted along Spain, braved the heavy seas of the Bay of Biscay, and pa.s.sing Cape Finisterre, ventured across the mouth of the English Channel to the Ca.s.siterides.

Similarly, from the West African sh.o.r.e, they boldly steered for the Fortunate Islands (the Canaries), visible from certain elevated points of the coast, though at 170 miles distance. Whether they proceeded further, in the south to the Azores, Madeira, and the Cape de Verde Islands, in the north to the coast of Holland, and across the German Ocean to the Baltic, we regard as uncertain. It is possible that from time to time some of the more adventurous of their traders may have reached thus far; but their regular, settled, and established navigation did not, we believe, extend beyond the Scilly Islands and coast of Cornwall to the north-west, and to the south-west Cape Non and the Canaries.

The commerce of the Phoenicians was carried on, to a large extent, by land, though princ.i.p.ally by sea. It appears from the famous chapter of Ezekiel[923] which describes the riches and greatness of Tyre in the sixth century B.C., that almost the whole of Western Asia was penetrated by the Phoenician caravans, and laid under contribution to increase the wealth of the Phoenician traders.

"Thou, son of man, (we read) take up a lamentation for Tyre, and say unto her, O thou that dwellest at the entry of the sea, Which art the merchant of the peoples unto many isles, Thus saith the Lord G.o.d, Thou, O Tyre, hast said, I am perfect in beauty.

Thy borders are in the heart of the sea; Thy builders have perfected thy beauty.

They have made all thy planks of fir-trees from Senir; They have taken cedars from Lebanon to make a mast for thee Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; They have made thy benches of ivory, Inlaid in box-wood, from the isles of Kittim.

Of fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was thy sail, That it might be to thee for an ensign; Blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was thy awning.

The inhabitants of Zidon and of Arvad were thy rowers; Thy wise men, O Tyre, were in thee--they were thy pilots.

The ancients of Gebal, and their wise men, were thy calkers; All the s.h.i.+ps of the sea, with their mariners, were in thee, That they might occupy thy merchandise.

Persia, and Lud, and Phut were in thine army, thy men of war; They hanged the s.h.i.+eld and helmet in thee; They set forth thy comeliness.

The men of Arvad, with thine army, were upon thy walls round about; And the Gammadim were in thy towers; They hanged their s.h.i.+elds upon thy walls round about; They have brought to perfection thy beauty.

Tars.h.i.+sh was thy merchant by reason of the mult.i.tude of all kinds of riches; With silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded for thy wares.

Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy traffickers; They traded the persons of men, and vessels of bra.s.s, for thy merchandise.

They of the house of Togarmah traded for thy wares, With horses, and with chargers, and with mules.

The men of Dedan were thy traffickers; many isles were the mart of thy hands; They brought thee in exchange horns of ivory, and ebony.

Syria was thy merchant by reason of the mult.i.tude of thy handiworks; They traded for thy wares with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, And with fine linen, and coral, and rubies.

Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy traffickers; They traded for thy merchandise wheat of Minnith, And Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.

Damascus was thy merchant for the mult.i.tude of thy handiworks; By reason of the mult.i.tude of all kinds of riches; With the wine of Helbon, and white wool.

Dedan and Javan traded with yarn for thy wares; Bright iron, and ca.s.sia, and calamus were among thy merchandise.

Dedan was thy trafficker in precious cloths for riding; Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they were the merchants of thy hand, In lambs, and rams, and goats, in these were they thy merchants.

The traffickers of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy traffickers; They traded for thy wares with chief of all spices, And with all manner of precious stones, and gold.

Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the traffickers of Sheba, a.s.shur and Chilmad, were thy traffickers: They were thy traffickers in choice wares, In wrappings of blue and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, Bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.

The s.h.i.+ps of Tars.h.i.+sh were thy caravans for they merchandise; And thou wast replenished, and made very glorious, in the heart of the sea.

Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters; The east wind hath broken thee in the heart of the sea.

Thy reaches, and thy wares, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, Thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, With all the men of war, that are in thee, Shall fall into the heart of the seas in the day of thy ruin.

At the sound of thy pilot's cry the suburb's shall shake; And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, They shall come down from their s.h.i.+ps, they shall stand upon the land, And shall cause their voice to be heard over thee, and shall cry bitterly, And shall cast up dust upon their heads, and wallow in the ashes; And they shall make themselves bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, And they shall weep for thee in bitterness of soul with bitter mourning.

And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, And lament over thee saying, Who is there like Tyre, Like her that is brought to silence in the midst of the sea?

When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many peoples; Thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with thy merchandise and thy riches.

In the time that thou was broken by the seas in the depths of the waters, Thy merchandise, and all thy company, did fall in the midst of thee, And the inhabitants of the isles are astonished at thee, And their kings are sore afraid, they are troubled in their countenance, The merchants that are among the peoples, hiss at thee; Thou art become a terror; and thou shalt never be any more."