to the north of the modern village Gize, which is under the parallel of 30 degrees; and the Delta begins a considerable number of miles to the north of Memphis. Between Thebes and Memphis, there is, therefore, a distance of 4 degrees and a half, about 270 geometrical miles well watered, inhabitable country along both sides of the Nile. Yet over all this space wandered the unfortunate malecontents of Babel, to found their first city on a barren spot, which bordered on the desert, and dig their tombs in the rocks of the wilderness.

III. In confirmation of the preceding remarks, we may add the positive testimony of ancient history, which declares the Ethiopians and Egyptians to be the same people. We learn from Diodorus, Book III. that the Ethiopians considered the Egyptians as a colony from their country of Meroe, at a time when the Delta was a marsh of the Nile. The Ethiopians were accounted the most religious and ancient of nations, both in Egypt and Greece. They used, in ordinary practice, the sacred hieroglyphical character, known only in Egypt among the priests. Their system of religion was more simple than the Egyptian, but in nature the same. The writings of Diodorus positively assert the fact, which receives great confirmation from the conduct of Sabaco, the Ethiopian conqueror of Egypt. Sabaco, about the time of Hosea, the last king of Israel, obtained the sceptre of the Pharaohs by conquest, and committed many acts of cruelty on the native princes. One of these, Bocchoris, he burnt alive; another, Necho, the father of Psammetichus, was murdered by his orders; while Anysis, a third, escaped into the marshes of the Delta. The Ethiopian was scarcely superior to Cambyses in point of mercy; but no part of his vengeance attacked the religion of Egypt. He beautified the cities, improved the country, encouraged the sacerdotal order, built temples, and administered the laws of the kingdom in a manner, which placed him in the highest rank of patriotic sovereigns. After he had governed Egypt 50 years, he dreamed that the rest of his reign would be unhappy, if he did not massacre the whole order of priests. But so far was he from yielding to that temptation, which was probably nothing but a political idea, that he convoked the principal people amongst his subjects, informed them of their dreadful situation, and the measures which he had concerted. He

then, by a voluntary resignation of the crown, relieved them from every fear, and departed immediately into Ethiopia. The piety of Sabaco was not forgotten with his government. The destined victims of his ambition, who were saved by his mercy, recorded his name as second only to that of Sesostris.

The conduct of Sabaco is an excellent illustration of the facts asserted by Diodorus. Had the gods of Ethiopia been different from those of Egypt, had the tenets of the two religions been opposite to one another, this conqueror would have acted like Cambyses. He would have slaughtered the priests as well as the princes; he would have burnt the temples, butchered the sacred animals, and mutilated the obelisks. Long before the time of his abdication of the throne, the priests would have found in him a tyrant, who would not, on their account, have resigned the smallest gratification.

Only one objection to these arguments remains to be examined. It may be said, that these Ethiopians about Meroe were originally an Egyptian colony. It cannot be doubted, that large bodies of Egyptians deserted into that region during the last ages of the Egyptian monarchy; but it appears from Diodorus, that although the religion and-manners of the two nations were similar, yet their difference was perceptible to an observer, and seemed to be the consequence of separate change and improvement. As we have no remains of the Ethiopic language, we cannot judge how far it resembled the Coptic, or whether it was different. Many of the names of the ancient towns on the Nile, from Souan to Meroe, as given by Pliny, are evidently Egyptian. Tacompsos, Pides, Primmis, Pemmas, Nupsis, Daselis, Pselchis, Pthuris, Tama, Pitara, and several more, are of this original. The antient importance of the kingdom of Meroe seems to be fully established: And the list of antient towns, in the same historian, compared with the solitude of the route from Syene to Meroe, in the time of Nero, sufficiently confirms the reflection made by him on the subject, "that Ethiopia, ruling and obeying in its turn, was wasted by Egyptian wars." It is therefore uncertain, whether the kingdom of Ethiopia was a colony from Egypt, or the Egyptian a colony from Meroe. But the points which have been attempted to be proved from the preceding arguments, are precisely these:

Egypt was not peopled from Arabia, as is commonly believed.

For,

1. The Coptic and Arabic languages are radically different, and were so in the days of Abraham.

2. The religion of Egypt (as has been shown elsewhere) is older than the days of Joseph; and bears internal marks of having been the native product of that country.

3. Egypt was peopled from south to north, from the Thebaid. For the Delta, that part of Egypt contiguous to Arabia, seems to have been originally uninhabitable, except a small space about the extremities of the marsh; and history assures us, that the inhabitants of Upper Egypt descended, and drained the country.

4. It is improbable, that an Arabian colony, under Mesraim (a word which does not signify a man, but two kingdoms), would have crossed Syria from Babylon by the Isthmus of Suez, and wandered so far south as Thebes to found its first settlement.

Egypt was peopled by tribes, whose first place of residence was near the cataracts, whence they descended progressively into the low country. For,

1. The national history attests, that the first Egyptians dwelt in cottages, and fed on herbs, like the Troglodyte in Ethiopia; that they were civilized by degrees; and that Thebes was their first city. The priests were fully competent to decide this from the sculpture in the primitive caves near that city; and too proud to acknowledge their humble origin, had it not been an established fact.

2. It is recorded by antient writers, that the Ethiopians and Egyptians were the same people originally; that the religion of Ethiopia was reckoned very pure in Egypt, whence that opinion was propagated in Greece; and that the Ethiopian kings paid great respect to the Egyptian superstition, which is a proof that it was not materially different from their own.

To this extent, the theory, in these volumes, may be powerfully defended. But that part of it, which ascribes the rise of the Indian trade to the Cushites, the posterity of Cush the son of Ham; and the carrying of it on to the Shepherds, the descendants of Phut, is liable to many objections in point of accuracy and historical evidence. The commerce, which at last

extended to India and Ethiopia, seems to have arisen in the Arabian peninsula. Gold, silver, gems, and spices, were brought from Hawilah, Cush, and other districts near the Persian gulf, into Egypt, which was civilized at an early period, and became a mart for these articles of commerce. Myrrh, balsam, and incense, were carried by the Ishmaelite, not the Cushite Arabs, into the same country. When it was gradually discovered, that India, and the cinnamon-bearing region of Africa, opposite to the mercantile Cushite kingdoms, afforded these productions in larger quantity, the trade was increased; the caravans of Sheba and Saba multiplied their numbers and journies; navigation was improved in the hands of the Phoenicians, and commerce both by sea and land organized into a vast and regular system*.

*For the state of antient Egypt consult Herodoti historia, lib. ii, passim; Diodori Siculi Biblioth. Hist. lib. i. c, 10-37, and section 2d, c. 43-98. For the language, Kircheri Prodromus Copt. et Ling. Ægypt. restituta; also La Croze, lex. Ægyptiaco-Lat.

No. III.

Vocabulary of the Amharic, Falashan, Gafat, Agow, and Tcheretch Agow Languages.

THE specimens of languages given in the text will probably convey little information to those who are unacquainted with Ethiopic literature; and it must be regretted, that, to enter very fully into the subject, would not repay the trouble of investigation. Mr Bruce brought from Habbesh copies of the Song of Solomon, in all the languages he has mentioned. The Geez specimen is taken from the MS. Bible in his collection. The Amharic, Falashan, Gafat, Agow, and Tcheretch Agow, are in a volume by themselves, in which is also a vocabulary made by the scribes in all these different languages. Of the Geez it is unnecessary to say much it is illustrated in the works of Job Leuteholf, or Ludolphus, a man of surprising genius and learning in that department of literature. The Geez is the oldest dialect of the Arabic, properly so called, in existence: it is that of Hamyar, or at least of Arabia Felix, from which the Axumites in Tigré were a colony. The reason why this dialect became obsolete, is sufficiently detailed in these volumes.

The Amharic, the modern language of Habbesh, is next in order. To this also Ludolph applied his indefatigable hand. He had most of his information from Gregory, a monk, and a native of Hagara-christos, in Amhara; and managed it, scanty as it was, with a genius, for which he has not obtained credit. His grammar and vocabulary will be of service to those who afterwards enter Abyssinia. Mr Bruce studied both very carefully: He had a volume among his books, containing the two grammars and dictionaries, Geez and Amharic, by Ludolph: He spoke Arabic, among the Mahometans and Greeks at Gondar,