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._