Requisites for a State enjoying extensive Commerce. — Advantageous Position of Meroe. — Probable Extent of her Commerce. — The Facility afforded to its Extension by Means of the Camel. — Commerce of Arabia and India. — Abundance of Gold. — Iron and Gum. — Ethiopian Tribute to Egypt. — Description of a splendid Ethiopian Procession at Thebes. — Commerce of the Interior. — Causes of the Decline of Meroe. — Diminution of her agricultural Resources. — Exhaustion of Mines. — Rivalry of Egypt. — Wars with Egypt. — Arab Conquest. — Present Commerce 321 CHAPTER XXII. ON THE ARTS OF MEROE. Affluence would introduce a Taste for the Arts. — The Heat of the Climate favourable to Sedentary Pursuits. — Private Emulation would afford farther Encouragement. — Desire of distinguishing themselves by Intellectual Pursuits. — Testimony of Diodorus that Knowledge was very generally diffused in Ethiopia. — The Pyramids of Meroe the oldest Specimens of Ethiopian Art. — Civilisation of the Ethiopians proved by their monumental Edifices. — The Ethiopians Inventors of the Arch. — Egyptian Arches. — Ethiopian Sculpture. — Probable Cause of their peculiar Style. — Reasons for preserving it. — Deference of the Ptolemies and Romans for the Superstitions of the Egyptians. — Pleasing Effect of the Egyptian and Ethiopian Sculpture. — Admirable Manner of drawing Animals, Hieroglyphics, and their Taste in Ornaments. — Colouring on Ethiopian Sculpture. — The Knowledge of the Arts descended from Ethiopia. — Complexion of the ancient and present Inhabitants. — Accuracy of Diodorus’s Account proved by the Monuments. — Taste for the Arts in a Nation inseparable from other Intellectual Pursuits. — Works of the Ethiopian King Tirhaka. — Review of the Antiquities in Ethiopia. — Folly of comparing the present with the ancient Inhabitants of the Valley of the Nile 346 =ILLUSTRATIONS.= * * * * * MAP OF THE NILE from Assuan to the conflux of the Bahr El Abiad and the Azruk. ENGRAVINGS ON STONE. PLATE Page I. Shageea of the Desert and Camel Man of the 164 Ababde Tribe II. Sheahk Beshir, and Son of a Bishareen Sheahk 46 III. Nazr ed Deen and Sheakh Sayd, Chief of the 44 Ababde Tribe IV. Senna and Indigo Plants 240 V. General Plan of the Pyramids of Meroe 66 VI. Principal Group of the Pyramids of Meroe 68 VII. Sections of the Pyramids of Meroe 70 VIII. View of the Pyramids of Meroe 72