basalt; while porphyry and greenstone are also obtainable.[293] Carmel
yields crystals of quarts and chalcedony,[294] and the fine sand about
Tyre and Sidon is still such as would make excellent glass. But the main
productions of Phoenicia, in which its natural wealth consisted, must
always have been vegetable, rather than animal or mineral, and have
consisted in its timber, especially its cedars and pines; its fruits,
as olives, figs, grapes, and, in early times, dates; and its garden
vegetables, melons, gourds, pumpkins, cucumbers.



CHAPTER III--THE PEOPLE--ORIGIN AND CHARACTERISTICS

Semitic origin of the Phoenicians--Characteristics of the
Semites--Place of the Phoenicians within the Semitic group--
Connected linguistically with the Israelites and the Assyro-
Babylonians--Original seat of the nation, Lower Babylonia--
Special characteristics of the Phoenician people--Industry
and perseverance--Audacity in enterprise--Pliability and
adaptability--Acuteness of intellect--Business capacity--
Charge made against them of bad faith--Physical
characteristics.

The Phoenician people are generally admitted to have belonged to the
group of nations known as Semitic. This group, somewhat irrelevantly
named, since the descent of several of them from Shem is purely
problematic, comprises the Assyrians, the later Babylonians, the
Aramæans or Syrians, the Arabians, the Moabites, the Phoenicians, and
the Hebrews. A single and very marked type of language belongs to
the entire group, and a character of homogeneity may, with certain