Baniks in India. The ancient Greeks and Germans called them Fonik or Fenek and even Punic. Herodotus wrote in the 5th century B.C. "The Foeniks are known to have been the first people to engage in trade and commerce. Formerly they lived on the shores of the Red Sea." Mr. Pococke in his India in Greece clearly states on page 218 that the Phoenicians originally dwelled in Afghanistan.

    There is much to say in this matter; but I will conclude that it is a matter of no small congratulation to India that this land was the cradle of that primitive race of traders who over 4,000 years back carried the torch of civilization to Assyria, Babylonia, Greece, and other ancient countries. According to western historians the Phoenicians colonised the coast of Syria between 3,000 and 2,500 B.C.