102 The Rev. Dr. Wall on the Nature, Age, and Origin of the 



expressly to every class of persons in the body politic of Egypt.* It is not at all 

 likely to have occurred to different nations independently of each other to impose 

 upon human conduct so unnatural a restraint. And from this consideration 

 alone, without entering upon minor points of resemblance which have been 

 observed in architecture and in some other respects, it is, I conceive, fairly 

 deducible that a connexion must have subsisted of very ancient date between 

 India and Egypt; and if so, a fortiori, between India and Abyssinia, — a country 

 that lies in the direct line of communication between the other two, according to 

 the coasting mode of making voyages which was practised in ancient times. 



But to trace this connexion nearer to the epoch under consideration ; — we 

 find Strabo in the first century stating, " that in his time the trade of the East 

 with Europe was conducted chiefly through Alexandria; that the merchandize 

 from Arabia and India was landed at Myos-hormos (literally Mouseport, a har- 

 bour on the western coast of the Red Sea, not a great deal farther from Axum, 

 the capital of Abyssinia, than from Alexandria) ; that thence the lading [of the 

 vessels] was conveyed to Coptus in the Thebaid, by camels, or on a canal of the 

 Nile ; and thence to Alexandria."t Here again, the intercourse between India 

 and Abyssinia is, I admit, made out only by implication ; but Montfaucon's col- 

 lection of Greek writers enables me to prove directly by the express evidence of 

 Cosmas, surnamed Indicopleustes, that it subsisted not long after the time in 

 question. Cosmas was an Egyptian monk of Alexandria, who had previously 

 been a merchant, and had travelled in that capacity through both India and 

 Abyssinia. In the latter part of his life, during the reign of the Emperor 

 Justinian, or about the middle of the sixth century, he wrote his Christian 

 Topography, which has been published in the second volume of the above- 

 mentioned collection. His attempt, indeed, to prove from Scripture that the 

 earth is a flat surface of the shape of an oblong parallelogram, of which the 



* After separately stating of each class, that it was subjected to this regulation, Diodorus sub- 

 joins the following more general account of the matter: — T^i> fi\\t ovv Staipeatv r^c noXirdaQ, 

 Koi Tijv Trig Idiag ra^eojQ iTrifiiXuav Sia vpoyovwv ToiavTt}v t(T)(ov ol to iraXaibv rrjv 

 " AtyvTrrov KaroiKOvvrtg. — Diodm-i, lib. i, p. 68. 



t vvvX c£TO TrAtov El? r)7i/ 'AXE^avSpEfavrfjJNfiXftiKarayETai' ra o' Ik Trig ^ Apafiiag 



Kol Trig 'IvStKJJc £'C Muoc opfiov' tW VTri()Be(ng tig Kotttov Tiig Qtif5aiSog' Kafii'iXoig, J; 

 Siiopvyt Tov NaiXou* iKeiOev S' tic ^AXs^dvSpuav. — Strahonis, lib. xvi, p. 781. 



