Abundant.

The public conduct of this caliph was marked by prudence, equity, and moderation. Mild and simple in his manners, frugal in his fare, he discovered great indifference to riches and honours. Such was his liberality to the poor and to his soldiers, that he bestowed on them the whole of his revenue. The treasury being on this account quite exhausted at his death, made Omar say, "that he had left a difficult example for his successors to follow." A short time before his death, he dictated his will in the following words: "This is the will of Abubeker, which he dictated at the moment of his departure from this world: At this moment when the infidel shall believe, when the impious shall no longer doubt, and liars shall speak truth, I name Omar for my successor. Mussulmans, hear his voice, and obey his commands. If he rule justly, he will confirm the good opinion which I have conceived of him; but if he deviate from the paths of equity, he must render an account before the tribunal of the sovereign judge. My thoughts are upright, but I cannot see into futurity. In a word, they who do evil, shall not always escape with impunity." Abubeker first collected and digested the revelations of Mahomet, which had hitherto been preserved in detached fragments, or in the memories of the believers; and to this the Arabians gave the appellation Almoshaf, or the Book. The first copy was deposited in the hands of Hafessa, the daughter of Omar and the widow of Mahomet.

ABUCCO, ABOCCO, or ABOCHI, a weight used in the kingdom of Pegu. One abucco contains 12 teccalis; two abuccos make a giro or agire; two giri, half a hiza; and a hiza weighs an hundred teccalis; that is, two pounds five ounces the heavy weight, or three pounds nine ounces the light weight of Venice.

ABUKESO, in commerce, the same with ASLAN. ABULFARAGIUS, GREGORY, son of Aaron a physician, born in 1226, in the city of Malatia, near the source of the Euphrates in Armenia. He followed the profession of his father; and practised with great success: but he acquired a higher reputation by the study of the Greek, Syriac, and Arabic languages, as well as by his knowledge of philosophy and divinity; and he wrote a history which does great honour to his memory. It is written in Arabic, and divided into dy nasties. It consists of ten parts, being an epitome of universal history from the creation of the world to his own time. The parts of it relating to the Saracens, Tartar Moguls, and the conquests of Jenghis Khan, are esteemed the most valuable. He professed Christianity, and was bishop of Aleppo, and is supposed to have belonged to the sect of the Jacobites. His contemporaries speak of him in a strain of most extravagant panegyric. He is styled the king of the learned, the pattern of his times, the phoenix of the age, and the crown of the vir tuous. Dr Pococke published his history with a Latin translation in 1663.

ABULFAZEL, an eastern writer of eminence. See SUPPLEMENT.

ABUNA, the title given to the archbishop or metropolitan of Abyssinia.

ABUNDANT NUMBER, in Arithmetic, is a number, the sum of whose aliquot parts is greater than the

ABUNDANTIA, a heathen divinity, represented in ancient monuments under the figure of a woman with a pleasing aspect, crowned with garlands of flowers, pouring all sorts of fruits out of a horn which she holds in her right hand, and scattering grain with her left, taken promiscuously from a sheaf of corn. On a medal of Trajan she is represented with two cornucopiæ.

ABUSAID FBN ALJAPTU, sultan of the Moguls, succeeded his father, anno 717 of the Hegira. He was the last monarch of the race of Jenghis Khan, who held the undivided empire of the Moguls; for after his death, which happened the same year that Tamerlane was born, it became a scene of blood and desolation, and was broken into separate sovereignties.

ABUS, in Ancient Geography, a river of Britain, formed by the confluence of the Ure, the Derwent, Trent, &c. falling into the German sea, between Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and forming the mouth of the Humber.

ABUSE, an irregular use of a thing, or the introducing something contrary to the true intention thereof. In grammar, to apply a word abusively, or in an abusive. sense, is to misapply or pervert its meaning.-A permutation of benefices, without the consent of the bishop, is termed abusive, and consequently null.

ABU-TEMAN, an Arabian poet. See SUPPLEMENT. ABUTILON, in Botany, the trivial name of several species of the sida. See SIDA, BOTANY Index.

ABYDOS, in Ancient Geography, anciently a town built by the Milesians, in Asia, on the Hellespont, where it is scarce a mile over, opposite to Sestos on the European side. Now both are called the Dardanelles. Abydos lay midway between Lampsacus and Ilium, famous for Xerxes's bridge, (Herodotus, Virgil;) and for the loves of Leander and Hero, (Musæus, Ovid;) celebrated also for its oysters (Ennius, Virgil). The inhabitants were a soft effeminate people, given much to detraction; hence the proverb, Ne temere Abydum calcare, when we would caution against danger, (Stephanus).

ABYDOS, in Ancient Geography, an inland town of Egypt, between Ptolemais and Diospolis Parva, towards Syene; famous for the palace of Memnon and the temple of Osiris. A colony of Milesians; (Stephanus). It was the only one in the country into which the singers and dancers were forbidden to enter.

The city, reduced to a village under the empire of Augustus, now presents to our view only a heap of ruins without inhabitants; but to the west of these ruins is still found the celebrated tomb of Osymandes. The entrance is under a portico 60 feet high, and supported by two rows of massy columns. The immoveable solidity of the edifice, the huge masses which compose it, the hieroglyphics it is loaded with, stamp it a work of the ancient Egyptians. Beyond it is a temple 300 feet long and 145 wide. Upon entering the nonument we meet with an immense hall, the roof of

Abyss.

found, and, as it were, bottomless. The word is ori- Abys ginally Greek, abvrres; compounded of the privative a, and ßvoros, q. d. without a bottom.

ABYSS, in a more particular sense, denotes a deep mass or fund of waters. In this sense, the word is particularly used in the Septuagint, for the water which God created at the beginning with the earth, which encompassed it round, and which our translators render by deep. Thus it is that darkness is said to bate been on the face of the abyss.

ABYSS is also used for an immense cavern in thre earth, in which God is supposed to have collected all those waters on the third day; which, in cur version, is rendered the seas, and elsewhere the great deep. Dr Woodward, in his Natural History of the Earth, asserts, That there is a mighty collection of waters cn= closed in the bowels of the earth, constituting a huge orb in the interior or central parts of it; and over the surface of this water he supposes the terrestrial strata to be expanded. This, according to him, is what Moses calls the great deep, and what most authors render the great abyss. The water of this vast abyss, he alleges, communicates with that of the ocean, by means of certain hiatuses or chasms passing betwixt it and the bottom of the ocean; and this and the abyss he supposes to have one common centre, around which the water of both is placed; but so, that the ordinary surface of the abyss is not level with that of the ocean, nor at so great a distance from the centre as the other, it being for the most part restrained and depressed by the strata of earth lying upon it: but wherever these strata are broken, or so lax and porous that water can pervade them, there the water of the abyss ascends; fills up all the clefts and fissures into which it can get admittance; and saturates all the interstices and pores of the earth, stone, or other matter, all around the globe, quite up to the level of the ocean.

Abydos which is supported by 28 columns 60 feet high, and 19 in circumference at the base. They are 12 feet distant from each other. The enormous stones that form that ceiling, perfectly joined and incrusted, as it were, one in the other, offer to the eye nothing but one solid platform of marble 126 feet long and 26 wide. The walls are covered with hieroglyphics. One sees there a multitude of animals, birds, and human figures with pointed caps on their heads, and a piece of stuff hanging down behind, dressed in loose robes that come down only to the waist. The sculpture, however, is clumsy; the forms of the body, the attitudes and proportions of the members, ill observed. Amongst these we may distinguish some women suckling their children, and men presenting offerings to them. Here also we meet with the divinities of India. Monsieur Chevalier, formerly governor of Chandernagore, who resided 20 years in that country, carefully visited this monument en his return from Bengal. He remarked here the gods Jaggrenate, Gones, and Vechnou or Wistnou, such as they are represented in the temples of Indostan. A great gate opens at the bottom of the first hall, which leads to an apartment 46 feet long by 22 wide. Six square pillars support the roof of it; and at the angles are the doors of four other chambers, but so choked up with rubbish that they cannot now be entered. The last ball, 64 feet long by 24 wide, has stairs by which one descends into the subterraneous apartments of this grand edifice. The Arabs, in searching after treasure, have piled up heaps of earth and rubbish. In the part we are able to penetrate, sculpture and bieroglyphics are discoverable as in the upper story. The natives say that they correspond exactly with those above ground, and that the columns are as deep in the earth as their height above the surface. It would be dangerous to go far into those vaults; for the air of them is so loaded with a mephitic vapour, that a candle can scarce be kept burning in them. Six lions heads, placed on the two sides of the temple, serve as spouts to carry off the water. You mount to the top by a staircase of a very singular structure. It is built with stones incrusted in the wall, and projecting six feet out; so that being supported only at one end, they appear to be suspended in the air. The walls, the roof, and the columns of this edifice, have suffered nothing from the injuries of time; and did not the hieroglyphics, by being corroded in some places, mark its antiquity, it would appear to have been newly built. The solidity is such, that unless people make a point of destroying it, the building must last a great number of ages. Except the colossal figures, whose heads serve as an ornament to the capitals of the columns, and which are sculptured in relievo, the rest of the hieroglyphics which cover the inside are carved in stone. To the left of this great building we meet with another much smaller, at the bottom of which is a sort of altar. This was probably the sanctuary of the temple of Osiris.

ABYLA (Ptolemy, Mela); one of Hercules's pillars, on the African side, called by the Spaniards Sierra de las Monas, opposite to Calpe in Spain, the other pillar; supposed to have been formerly joined, but separated by Hercules, and thus to have given entrance to the sea now called the Mediterranean; the limits of the Habours of Hercules (Pliny).

ABYSS, in a general sense, denotes something pro

tom. vi.

p. 24.

The existence of an abyss or receptacle of subterraneous waters, is controverted by Camerarius; and * Dissert. defended by Dr Woodward chiefly by two arguments: Taur. Actes the first drawn from the vast quantity of water which Erud. supp. covered the earth, in the time of the deluge; the second, from the consideration of earthquakes, which he endeavours to show are occasioned by the violence of the waters in this abyss. A great part of the terrestrial globe has been frequently shaken at the same mo+ Hist. of ment; which argues, according to him, that the wa- the Earth. ters, which were the occasion thereof, were coextended Journal de with that part of the globe. There are even instances Sçavans, of universal earthquakes; which (says he) show, that tom. Iviii. the whole abyss must have been agitated; for so gene- Memoirs of ral an effect must have been produced by as general a Literature, cause, and that cause can be nothing but the subterra- tom. viii. neous abyss t.

P. 393.

Earth.

p. 101, &c. t HolloTo this abyss also has been attributed the origin of way, Insprings and rivers; the level maintained in the sur-trod. to faces of different seas; and their not overflowing their Woodbanks. To the effluvia emitted from it, some even ward's attribute all the diversities of weather and change in Hist. of the our atmosphere . Ray ||, and other authors, ancient Acta Erud, as well as modern, suppose a communication between 1727, the Caspian sea and the ocean by means of a subterra-P. 313.. nean abyss; and to this they attribute it that the Cas-Physicopian does not overflow, notwithstanding the great num- Disc. ii. c.z. ber of large rivers it receives, of which Kempfer rec-p. 76.

kons

Theol.

'Abyss.

kons above 45 in the compass of 60 miles; though others suppose that the daily evaporation may suffice to keep the level.

The different arguments concerning this subject may be seen collected and amplified in " Cockburn's Inquiry into the Truth and Certainty of the Mosaic Deluge,' p. 271, &c. If we believe any thing like elective attraction to have prevailed in the formation of the earth, it seems absurd to suppose that the heavier and denser bodies gave place to the more light and fluid; that the central part should consist of water only, and the more superficial part of a crust or shell. See DELUGE.

ABYSS is also used to denote hell; in which sense the word is synonymous with what is otherwise called

Barathrum, Erebus, and Tartarus; in the English Abyss. Bible, the bottomless pit. The unclean spirits expelled by Christ, begged, ne imperaret ut in abyssum irent, according to the vulgate; us aßurrer, according to the Greek, Luke viii. 31. Rev. ix. 1.

ABYSS is more particularly used, in antiquity, to denote the temple of Proserpine; so called on account of its riches.

ABYSS is also used in Heraldry to denote the centre of an escutcheon. In which sense a thing is said to be borne in abyss, en abysme, when placed in the middle of the shield, clear from any other bearing: He bears azure, a flower de lis, in abyss.

Abyssinia. ABYSSINIA, ABASSIA, or UPPER ETHIOPIA, in Geography, an empire of Africa within the torrid zone, which is comprehended between the 7th and 16th degrees N. Lat. and the 30th and 40th degrees of E. Long. By some writers of antiquity the title of Ethiopians was given to all nations whose complexion was black; hence we find the Arabians, as well as many other Asiatics, sometimes falling under this denomination; besides a number of Africans whose country lay at a distance from Ethiopia properly so called. Thus the Africans in general were divided into the western or Hesperian Ethiopians, and those above Egypt situated to the east; the latter being much more generally known than the former, by reason of the commerce they carried on with the Egyptians.

Different names.

From this account we may easily understand why there should be such a seeming disagreement among ancient authors concerning the situation of the empire of Ethiopia, and likewise why it should pass under such a variety of names. Sometimes, for example, it was named India, and the inhabitants Indians; an appellation likewise applied to many other distant nations. It was also denominated Atlantia and Ethria, and in the most remote periods of antiquity Cephenia; but more usually Abasene, a word somewhat resembling Abassia or Abyssinia, its modern names. On the other hand, we find Persia, Chaldæa, Assyria, &c. styled Ethiopia by some writers: and all the countries extending along the coasts of the Red sea were promiscuously denominated India and Ethiopia. By the Jews the empire of Ethiopia was styled Cush and Ludim.

Notwithstanding this diversity of appellations, and vast diffusion of territory ascribed to the Ethiopians, there was one country to which the title was thought more properly to belong than to any of the rest; and Situation of which was therefore called Ethiopia Propria. This Ethiopia

Propria.

Different

nations ac

cording to the an

cients.

was bounded on the north by Egypt, extending all the way to the lesser cataract of the Nile, and an island named Elephantine; on the west it had Libya Interior; on the east the Red sea, and on the south unknown parts of Africa; though these boundaries cannot be fixed with any kind of precision.

In this country the ancients distinguished a great variety of different nations, to whom they gave names either from some personal circumstance, or from their VOL. I. Part I.

manner of living. The principal of these were, 1. The Abyssinia. Blemmyes, seated near the borders of Egypt; and who, probably from the shortness of their necks, were said to have no heads, but eyes, mouths, &c. in their breasts. Their form must have been very extraordinary, if we believe Vopiscus, who gives an account of some of the captives of this nation brought to Rome. 2. The Nobata, inhabiting the banks of the Nile near the island Elephantine already mentioned, said to have been removed thither by Oasis to repress the incursions of the Blemmyes. Blemmyes. 3. The Troglodytes, by some writers said to belong to Egypt, and described as little superior to brutes. 4. The Nubians, of whom little more is known than their name. 5. The Pigmies, by some supposed to be a tribe of Troglodytes; but by others placed on the African coast of the Red sea. 6. The Aualitæ or Abalita, of whom we know nothing more than that they were situated near the Abalitic gulf. 7. The Struthiophagi, so called from their feeding upon ostriches, were situated to the south of the Meonones. 8. The Acridophagi; 9. Chelonophagi; 10. Ichthyophagi; 11. Cynamolgi; 12. Elephantophagi; 13. Rhizophagi; 14. Spermatophagi; 15. Hylophogi; and, 16. Ophiophagi: all of whom had their names from the food they made use of, viz. locusts, tortoises, fish, bitches milk, elephants, roots, fruits or seeds, and serpents. 17. The Hylogones, neighbours to the Elephantophagi, and who were so savage that they had no houses, nor any other places to sleep in but the tops of trees. 18. The Pamphagi, who used almost every thing indiscriminately for food. 19. The Agriophagi, who lived on the flesh of wild beasts. 20. The Anthropophagi, or man-eaters, are now supposed to have been the Caffres, and not any inhabitants of Proper Ethiopia. 21. The Hippophagi, or horse-eaters, who lay to the northward of Libya Incognita. 22. The Macrobii, a powerful nation, remarkable for their longevity; some of them attaining the age of 120 years. 23. The Sambri, situated near the city of Tenopsis in Nubia upon the Nile; of whom it is reported that all the quadrupeds they had, not excepting even the elephants, were destitute of ears. 24. The Asachæ, a people inhabiting the mountainous parts, and continually employed in hunting elephants. Besides these, there were a number of other nations or tribes, of G whom

50

Abyssinia. whom we scarce know any thing but the names; as the Gapachi, Ptoemphanes, Catadupi, Pechini, Catadræ, &c.

First settlement.

Peopled originally from Arabia.

tradition

In a country inhabited by such a variety of nations, all in a state of extreme barbarism, it is rather to be wondered that we have any history at all, than that it is not more distinct. It has already been observed, that the Jews, from the authority of the sacred writers no doubt, bestowed the name of Cush upon the empire of Ethiopia; and it is generally agreed that Cush was the great progenitor of the inhabitants. In some passages of Scripture, however, it would seem that Cush was an appellation bestowed upon the whole peninsula of Arabia, or at least the greater part of it. In others, the word seems to denominate the country watered by the Araxes, the seat of the ancient Scythians or Cushites; and sometimes the country adjacent to Egypt on the coast of the Red sea.

A number of authors are of opinion, that Ethiopia received its first inhabitants from the country lying to the east of the Red sea. According to them, the descendants of Cush, having settled in Arabia, gradually migrated to the south-eastern extremity of that country; whence, by an easy passage across the straits of Babelmandel, they transported themselves to the African side, and entered the country properly called Ethiopia a migration which, according to Eusebius, took place during the residence of the Israelites in Egypt; but, in the opinion of Syncellus, after they had taken possession of Canaan, and were governed by judges. Abyssinian Mr Bruce makes mention of a tradition among the Abyssinians, which, they say, has existed among them concerning from time immemorial, that very soon after the flood, Cush the grandson of Noah, with his family, passed through Ätbara, then without inhabitants, till they came to the ridge of mountains which separates that country from the high lands of Abyssinia. Here, still terrified with the thoughts of the deluge, and apprehensive of a return of the same calamity, they chose to dwell in caves made in the sides of those mountains, rather than trust themselves in the plains of Atbara; and our author is of opinion, that the tropical rains, which they could not fail to meet with in their journey southward, and which would appear like the return of the deluge, might induce them to take up their habitations in these high places. Be this as it will, he informs us that it is an undoubted fact, "that Cushites. here the Cushites, with unparalleled industry, and with

it.

Original

habitations of the

instruments utterly unknown to us, formed to themselves commodious, yet wonderful habitations in the heart of mountains of granite and marble, which remain entire in great numbers to this day, and promise to do so till the consummation of all things."

The Cushites having once established themselves among these mountains, continued to form habitations of the like kind in all the neighbouring ones; and thus following the different chains (for they never chose to descend into the low country), spread the arts and sciences, which they cultivated, quite across the African continent from the eastern to the western ocean. According to the tradition above mentioned, they built the city of Axum early in the days of Abraham. Description This, though now an inconsiderable village, was anof the city ciently noted for its superb structures, of which some remains are still visible. Among these are some be

of Axum.

longing to a magnificent temple, originally 110 feet Abyssinia. in length, and having two wings on each side; a double porch; and an ascent of 12 steps. Behind this stand several obelisks of different sizes, with the remains of several others which have been destroyed by the Turks. There is also a great square stone with an inscription, but so much effaced that nothing can be discovered excepting some Greek and Latin letters, and the word Basilius. Mr Bruce mentions some "prodigious fragments of colossal statues of the dogstar" still to be seen at this place; and "Seir (adds he), which, in the language of the Troglodytes, and in that of the low country of Meroe, exactly corresponding to it, signifies a dog, instructs us in the reason why this province was called Sirè, and the large river which bounds it Siris."

Soon after building the city of Axum, the Cushites founded that of Meroe, the capital of a large island or peninsula formed by the Nile, much mentioned by ancient historians, and where, according to Herodotus, they pursued the study of astronomy in very early ages with great success. Mr Bruce gives two reasons for Meroe why their building this city in the low country, after having founded. built Axum in the mountainous part of Abyssinia. 1. They had discovered some inconveniencies in their caves both in Sirè and the country below it, arising from the tropical rains in which they were now involv ed, and which prevented them from making the celestial observations to which they were so much addicted. 2. It is probable that they built this city farther from the mountains than they could have wished, in order to avoid the fly with which the southern parts were infested. This animal, according to Mr Bruce, who has given a figure of it, is the most troublesome to quadrupeds Description that can be imagined. He informs us, that it infests of a pestilential fy. those places within the tropical rains where the soil is black and loamy, and no other place whatever. It is named zimb (by whom we are not informed), and has not been described by any other naturalist. It is of a size somewhat larger than a bee, thicker in proportion, and having broader wings, placed separate like those of a fly, and quite colourless, or without any spots. The head is large, with a sharp upper jaw; at the end of which is a strong pointed hair about a quarter of an inch long; and the lower jaw has two of these hairs: all of which together make a resistance to the finger equal to that of a strong hog's bristle. One or all of these hairs are used as weapons of offence to the cattle; but what purpose they answer to the animal itself, our author does not say. So intolerable, however, are its attacks to the cattle, that they no sooner hear its buz zing, than they forsake their food, and run about till they fall down with fright, fatigue, and hunger. Even the camel, though defended by a thick and strong skin with long hair, cannot resist the punctures of this insect; which seem to be poisonous, as they produce large putrid swellings on the body, head, and legs, which at last terminate in death. To avoid this dreadful enemy, the cattle must all be removed as quick as possible to the sandy parts of Atbara, where they stay as long as the rains last, and where this dreadful enemy never ventures to follow them. The elephant and rhinoceros, who, on account of the quantity of food they require, cannot remove to these barren places, roll themselves in the mud, which when dry, coats them over so hard,

Abyssinia, that they are enabled to resist the punctures of the insect; though even on these some tubercles are generally to be met with, which our author attributes to this cause. Mr Bruce is of opinion, that this is the fly mentioned by Isaiah, chap. vii. 18. 19. "And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt; and they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes." That is (says Mr Bruce), they shall cut off from the cattle their usual retreat to the desert, by taking possession of these places, and meeting them there, where ordinarily they never come, and which therefore are the refuge of the cattle.'

Magnifi

Indians and

Meroe, which lay in N. Lat. 16°, the exact limit of the tropical rains, was without the bounds assigned by nature to these destructive insects; and consequently a place of refuge for the cattle. Mr Bruce, on his return through the desert, saw at Gerri, in this latitude, ruins, supposed to be those of Meroe, and caves in the mountains immediafely above them; for he is of opinion, that they did not abandon their caverns immediately after they began to build cities. As a proof of this, he mentions that Thebes, in Upper Egypt, was built by a colony of Ethiopians; and that near the ruins of that city, a vast number of caves are to be seen even up to the top of a mountain in the neighbourhood: all of which are inhabited at this day. By degrees, however, they began to exchange these subterraneous habitations for the cities they built above ground; and thus became farmers, artificers, &c. though originally their sole employment had been commerce.

On this subject Mr Bruce has given a very curious cence of dissertation; though how far the application of it to the the ancient Ethiopians may be just, we cannot pretend to deterEgyptians. mine. He begins with observing, that the magnificence of the Indians and Egyptians has been celebrated from the most remote antiquity, without any account of the sources from whence all this wealth was derived : and indeed it must be owned, that in all histories of these people, there is a strange deficiency in this respect. The kings, we are to suppose, derived their splendour and magnificence from their subjects; but we are quite at a loss to know whence their subjects had it: and this seems the more strange, that in no period of their history are they ever represented in a poor or mean situation. Nor is this difficulty confined to these nations alone. Palestine, a country producing neither silver nor gold, is represented by the sacred writers as abounding in the early ages with both those metals in a much greater proportion than the most powerful European states can boast of, notwithstanding the vast supplies derived from the lately discovered continent of America. The Assyrian empire, in the time of Semiramis, was so noted for its wealth, that M. Montesquieu supposes it to have been obtained by the conquest of some more ancient and richer nation; the spoils of which enriched the Assyrians, as those of the latter afterwards did the Medes. This, however, Mr Bruce very justly observes, will not remove the difficulty, because we are equally at a loss to know whence the wealth was derived to that former nation; and it is very unusual to find an empire or kingdom of any extent enriched by conquest. The kingdom of Mace

don, for instance, though Alexander the Great over- Abyssinia. ran and plundered in a very short time the richest empire in the world, could never vie with the wealth of Tyre and Sidon. These last were commercial cities; and our author justly considers commerce as the only source from whence the wealth of a large kingdom ever was or could be derived. The niches of Semiramis, therefore, were accumulated by the East India trade centering for some time in her capital. While this was suffered to remain undisturbed, the empire flourished: but by an absurd expedition against India itself, in order to become mistress at once of all the wealth it contained, she lost that which she really possessed; and her empire was soon after entirely ruined. To the same source he attributes the riches of the ancient Egyptians; and is of opinion, that Sesostris opened up to Egypt the commerce with India by sea; though other authors speak of that monarch in very different terms. As the luxuries of India have somehow or other become the objects of desire to every nation in the world, this easily accounts for the wealth for which Egypt has in all ages been so much celebrated, as well as for that with which other countries abounded; while they served as a medium for transmitting those luxuries to other nations, and especially for the riches of those which naturally produced the Indian commodities so much sought after. This was the case particularly with Arabia, some of the productions of which were very much coveted by the western nations; and being, besides, the medium of communication between the East Indies and western nations, it is easy to see why the Arabian merchants soon becaine possessed of immense wealth.

Besides the territories already mentioned, the Cushites had extended themselves along the mountains which run parallel to the Red sea on the African side; which country, according to Mr Bruce, has "in all times been called Sabo, or Azabo, both which signify South; an epithet given from its lying to the southward of the Arabian gulf, and which in ancient times was one of the richest and most important countries in the world. "By that acquisition (says our author), they enjoyed all the perfumes and aromatics in the east; myrrh, and frankincense, and cassia; all which grow spontaneously in that stripe of ground from the bay of Bilur west of Azab to Cape Gardafui, and then southward up in the Indian ocean, to near the coast of Melinda, where there is cinnamon, but of an inferior kind." As the Cushites or Troglodytes advanced still farther south, they met not only with mountains, in which they might excavate proper habitations, but likewise with great quantities of gold and silver furnished by the mines of Sofala, which, our author says, furnished "large quantities of both metals in their pure and unmixed state, lying in globules without any alloy or any necessity of preparation or separation." In other parts of his work, he labours to prove Sofala to have been the Ophir mentioned in Scripture.

first a civi

Thus the Ethiopians, for some time after their set- The Ethiotlement, according to Mr Bruce, must have been a pians at nation of the first importance in the world. The lized and northern colonies from Meroe to Thebes built cities, learned and made improvements in architecture; cultivated people. commerce, agriculture, and the arts; not forgetting G 2

the