Another very important trade may be noticed here, though it is not strictly of Phœnician origin, that in _amber_. This semi-mineral substance, as is well known, is procured chiefly from the shores of the Baltic, though it is not unknown elsewhere. There is a curious record of what was supposed to be its discovery, in Pliny’s account[88] of an exploratory voyage by Pytheas, of Marseilles, who named the island whence he obtained it Abulus. Xenophon of Lampsacus, however, calls the island Baltia—whence obviously our Baltic. The amber trade is strangely mixed up with one of the most poetical of ancient legends, that of the daughters of Phaethon, who are said to have been changed into poplars, and to have wept amber by the banks of a river called Eridanus, generally identified with the great river of Italy, the Po. But there was also an Eridanus on the Baltic shores, which has left traces of its name in that of a small river still flowing near the modern town of Dantzig. Tacitus, referring to amber as an article of commerce—the native name of which he states to be _glesum_ (_glass?_)—refers to the Suionæ, who dwelt along those shores, and had vessels differing from the Roman type in that they were equally high at prow and stern. This is even now characteristic of what are called Norway yawls.[89] [Sidenote: Mainland trade of Phœnicia.] It is not so easy to trace the course of Phœnician commerce with the countries on the mainland to the north, east, and south, as it is in the case of the islands of the west. But here, too, the statements of the Prophet come to our aid, and enable us to fill up an outline which would have been otherwise very incomplete. Thus we find Ezekiel saying, “The men of Dedan were thy merchants ... they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony,”[90] and “precious cloths for chariots.”[91] So Syria,[92] Dan and Javan,[93] and “the merchants of Sheba and Raamah,”[94] dealt with Tyre in precious stones, fine linen, broidered work, and gold. From “Judah and the land of Israel,” from “Minnith and Pannag,” she obtained “wheat and honey, and oil and balm;”[95] from Damascus, “the wine of Helbon and white wool;”[96] and from “Arabia and all the princes of Kedar,” lambs and rams and goats.[97] Lastly, to those “of Persia, and of Lud, and of Phut,” she was indebted for her mercenaries, for they “were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness. The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect.”[98]