If these pages tend to throw some light upon this most interesting corner of Arabia, and help to show what the country and its inhabitants are like, the author will be well satisfied with the result. CHAPTER II. THE YEMEN BEFORE THE HEJIRA. Having in the last chapter briefly sketched the principal geographical features of the Yemen, it remains now to make mention of its history. The same remarks as were made as to the geography are applicable here, that with the exception of certain periods which have been made the study of archæologists and orientalists, there is but very little known of the history of the Yemen, and there are long periods existing between the times of which something has been written or translated that are almost blanks. Nor is it on this account alone that the task of compiling in two chapters so many centuries of historical matter is a difficult one, for many of the times and dynasties of which there exists some trustworthy account are all but unimportant in treating of the country in general, what knowledge we possess in very many cases being simply the genealogies of local princes and rulers. However, it is only by a study of these shreds of history that we are able to gain any facts concerning the condition of the country during the early centuries after the introduction of Islam, for instance; and if they in themselves appeal almost solely to the student of things oriental, they yet tend to throw more light upon the inner life of the people than it would be possible to gather elsewhere. But the history of the Yemen is by no means confined to such a brief period as that which has passed between the birth of Islam and to-day. There exists a far more ancient and more wonderful history, of which, unhappily, we know as yet but little, but which, should it even be possible to make thorough examination of its monuments and records, may prove that many of the existing civilisations sprang from the Yemen and Hadramaut, and that the ancient Egyptians themselves, owed the foundations of their arts and learning to the inhabitants of Southern Arabia. Some light has been thrown lately upon the old civilisation of Southern Arabia by the successful excavations carried on by Mr Theodore Bent in Mashonaland, which have proved most clearly that the Arabs of Southern Arabia were in touch with that distant quarter of Africa, and not only in touch, but even so firmly rooted there as to erect forts and temples, to build and to decorate, and to work the mines of that country.