Although there is no reason to doubt the genuineness of these traditions, and in fact everything points to their being authentic, the next period with which we come in contact is no longer a traditional one, but has been handed down to us in monuments and inscriptions still existing. The knowledge we have upon this period of the history of the Yemen is due to the aforementioned Dr Edouard Glaser, who has successfully translated over a thousand inscriptions, with the result of practically proving the existence of two separate great dynasties that in succession held sway over the country. In so doing, what was commonly believed to have been the fact until his discoveries were made has been disproved, and an entirely new epoch in the history of the world brought to light. I refer to the dominion of the Minæan and Sabæan kings. It is, too, from these records that there has been found to have existed, contemporarily with early Egyptian times, a remarkable state of civilisation and commerce in the Yemen, and what was wrongly believed to have been in early pre-Islamic days a country of savagery, has been proved to have contained a cultured population, skilled in art and excelling in commerce. This fact doubtless to no small degree influenced the history of the civilisation of the ancient world. The earlier of the two great dynasties which at different epochs held sway over the Yemen, if not also over the surrounding coasts of Africa, was that of the Minæans, who are known in tradition as the Maïn. Thirty-two names of kings of this dynasty have already been discovered; and as a proof of the immense power they must have held, tablets commemorative of their wars have been found as far removed from the seat of their government as Teima, on the road from Damascus to Sinai; while an inscription from Southern Arabia renders thanks to Astarte for their escape from the ruler of Egypt and their safe return to their own city of Quarnu. This votive tablet was erected by the governors of Tsar and Ashur, which again speaks for the immense tract of country owing allegiance to the Minæan king; for of these places one has been identified as being situated near where the Suez Canal now passes. This extension of frontier was doubtless owing to the great importance of the trade-routes from East to West, the possession of which in later times brought the otherwise unimportant Jewish kingdom so much to the fore. But more important, perhaps, than the discovery that these peoples were living in a state of considerable civilisation, and carrying on most profitable commerce, is the fact of their knowledge of writing; for many of the recently discovered inscriptions in the Yemen date from a period contemporary with Egyptian hieroglyphics and Chaldæan cuneiform, and earlier than any known inscription in the Phœnician characters.