CHAPTER I.
Phœnicians.—It is for simplicity's sake that throughout the preceding fiction I have adopted the classical name Phœnicians, which may be interpreted either as "the red men" or "men of the date-lands." Amongst themselves they were designated "Canaanites," or "people of the lowlands," in contradistinction to "Aramites," or "people of the highlands."
It would be out of place here to enter into any critical dissertation upon the words Khna and Aram, from which Canaanites and Aramites derive their appellation.—[Page 1.]
Shekel.—This word (which, in the Hebrew tongue, signifies a weight) is applied both to coined money, the use of which originated with the Phœnicians, and to a certain standard of ordinary weight.—[Page 2.]
Tariff of the Sacrifices.—The ritual or tariff of sacrifices is extracted from the work of the Abbé Bargès on the Phœnician inscription discovered at Marseilles.—[Page 5.]
Gaoul.—Originally this word signified any round hollow object. The Phœnicians designated the island of Gozo "Gaulo Melitta," Malta the Round, and it may easily be understood how the term came to be applied to their circular merchant ships, which were of a type essentially Tyrian. "Onerariam navem Hippus Tyrius invenit." (Pliny, 'Nat. Hist.')
My authorities for the description of the Phœnician vessels are:
1. Two engravings in Layard.
2. Ezekiel's prophecy against Tyre. (Chap. xxvii. 7.)
3. Xenophon's description in the 'Œconomia' of the great Phœnician ship that came every year to the Piræus.
4. The engravings in Wilkinson.
I have likewise ventured to draw some inferences by analogy from the accounts of Genevan, Pisan, and Venetian ships of the thirteenth century, given by Col. Yule, in his edition of 'Marco Polo.'—[Page 8.]
Sheathed with Copper.—Although this may seem an anachronism, it may with some degree of certainty be alleged that the Phœnicians had an idea of using copper for this purpose. It would seem to be implied by Vegetius ('Rei militaris,' iv. 24) and by Athenæus (v. 40). An ancient legend attributes the invention to Melkarth, the Tyrian Hercules: Hercules ... nave æneâ navigavit ... navem æneam habuit (Servius).
The other materials employed in the building of the ships are mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel.
Besides the gaoul, I have introduced the barque, the fast ship, and the long ship, or fifty-oared war-galley.
Without entering into minute details, it may be said that the barque is essentially Phœnician. Barek, in Hebrew, signifies to bend or curve anything, as a plank. Barca est quæ cuncta navis commercia ad littus portat (Isidorus, Origines). In the modern Berber dialect it is called "ibarka."
The fast ship was called ἵππος, a horse, by the Greeks, either on account of its speed, or from the figure ordinarily found at its prow: Strabo distinctly asserts the latter reason. The vessel described in the text being of the type most frequently used in the Phœnician colony of Gades, has, on that account, been designated 'the Gadita.' Several Phœnician coins, apparently current on the coast of Africa, bear the impression of a horse's head; and the legend of a horse's head being discovered in the foundation of Carthage, probably originated in the national symbol affixed to the Phœnician ships.
The true Sidonian war-ship is the fifty-oared galley:
ναῦν πεντηκόντορον Σιδόνιαν.
Eurip. Hel. 1141.
What was the tonnage of such a vessel, or how it could be worked by only fifty oars, or carry 400 men, are matters on which I give no opinion; it is not my province to enter upon any technical arguments.
If an analogy be required, it may be suggested by the huge Chinese junks which were seen by the Arabian, Ibn Batuta, in the fourteenth century, and which carried 600 men, and had fifty or sixty immense oars, each oar being worked by eight men, by means of ropes pulled in opposite directions. Those seen by Marco Polo had four men to each oar. It is not improbable that the Phœnician vessels were worked by some similar method.—[Page 9.]
Purple sail.—My description of the parade-boats is not imaginary; pictures of them are given in Wilkinson (vol. iii.), and all the ancient writers, from Herodotus to Plutarch, enter into details concerning them. Herodotus describes the Sidonian vessel, from which Xerxes reviewed his fleet, as being adorned with golden hangings, meaning Babylonian materials wrought with gold.—[Page 16.]