ght become useless
or inconvenient on the banks of the Danube or the Volga.

[Footnote 44: Whatever can now be known of the idolatry of the ancient
Arabians may be found in Pocock, (Specimen, p. 89-136, 163, 164.) His
profound erudition is more clearly and concisely interpreted by Sale,
(Preliminary Discourse, p. 14-24;) and Assemanni (Bibliot. Orient tom.
iv. p. 580-590) has added some valuable remarks.]

[Footnote 45: (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. l. iii. p. 211.) The character and
position are so correctly apposite, that I am surprised how this curious
passage should have been read without notice or application. Yet this
famous temple had been overlooked by Agatharcides, (de Mari Rubro,
p. 58, in Hudson, tom. i.,) whom Diodorus copies in the rest of the
description. Was the Sicilian more knowing than the Egyptian? Or was the
Caaba built between the years of Rome 650 and 746, the dates of their
respective histories? (Dodwell, in Dissert. ad tom. i. Hudson, p.
72. Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. tom. ii. p. 770.) * Note: Mr. Forster
(Geography of Arabia, vol. ii. p. 118, et seq.) has raised an objection,
as I think, fatal to this hypothesis of Gibbon. The temple, situated in
the country of the Banizomeneis, was not between the Thamudites and
the Sabaeans, but higher up than the coast inhabited by the former. Mr.
Forster would place it as far north as Moiiah. I am not quite satisfied
that this will agree with the whole description of Diodorus--M. 1845.]

[Footnote 46: Pocock, Specimen, p. 60, 61. From the death of Mahomet we
ascend to 68, from his birth to 129, years before the Christian aera.
The veil or curtain, which is now of silk and gold, was no more than a
piece of Egyptian linen, (Abulfeda, in Vit. Mohammed. c. 6, p. 14.)]

[Footnote 47: The original plan of the Caaba (which is servilely copied
in Sale, the Universal History, &c.) was a Turkish draught, which Reland
(de Religione Mohammedica, p. 113-123) has corrected and explained
from the best authorities. For the description and legend of the Caaba,
consult Pocock, (Specimen, p. 115-122,) the Bibliotheque Orientale
of D'Herbelot, (Caaba, Hagir, Zemzem, &c.,) and Sale (Preliminary
Discourse, p. 114-122.)]

[Footnote 48: Cosa, the fifth ancestor of Mahomet, must have usurped the
Caaba A.D. 440; but the story is differently told by Jannabi, (Gagnier,
Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 65-69,) and by Abulfeda, (in Vit. Moham. c.
6, p. 13.)]

[Footnote 49: In the second centur