CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA.

a

among distant nations*. The intercourse, how-ever, between different countries was carried onat first entirely by land. As the people of theEast appear soon to have acquired complete domi-nion over the useful animals 5 , .they could earlyundertake the long and toilsome journies which itwas necessary to make, in order to maintain thisintercourse; and by the provident bounty of Hea-ven, they were furnished with a beast of burden,without whose aid it would have been impossibleto accomplish them. The Camel, by its persever-ing strength, by its moderation in the use of food,and the singularity of its internal structure, whichenables it to lay in a stock of water sufficient forseveral days, put it in their power to convey bulkycommodities through those deserts, which must betraversed by all who travel from any of the coun-tries west of the Euphrates towards India. Tradewas carried on in this manner, particularly by thenations near to the Arabian Gulf, from the earliestperiod to which historical information reaches.Distant journies , however, would be undertakenat first only occasionally, and by a few adventurers.But by degrees, from attention to their mutualsafety and comfort , numerous bodies of merchantsassembled at stated times, and forming a tempo-rary association (known afterwards by the nameof a Caravan), governed by officers of their ownchoice, and subject to regulations of which experi-ence had taught them the utility, they performed

* Ibid. xii. 16. xxiv. is, it.

B 3

SECT.

I.

Gen. xxxvii. s;.