346 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



Testament into the now dead Ethiopia language, called Gheez. 

 They profess to be Jews, but the language which they now 

 speak is said to have no affinity to Hebrew. The Gheez was 

 apparently the language of ancient Axum, and the modern 

 dialects of the Tigre table-land, which are apparently descended 

 from it, still retain a Semitic character. Other races exist in 

 Abyssinia which we cannot notice in this brief sketch : we 

 proceed, therefore, at once to the Amharic tribe, that now 

 dominant in Abyssinia. The Amharic language is believed to 

 be not a Semitic, but a properly African tongue. It chiefly 

 prevails on the third or most elevated platform, the one to 

 which our troops ascended to attack Magdala. Abyssinia is 

 the last Caucasian or semi-Caucasian outpost in' Africa; all 

 beyond is negro ; and, indeed, the outpost itself has for some 

 considerable time back been more and more invaded by the 

 Galla tribe, which is purely an African race. 



We come now to the Negroes, or at least to the nations of 

 Central Africa who have been so designated. Negro is properly 

 an Italian and Spanish word, originally taken from the Latin 

 niger, black. It is not the case, however, that all Central 

 African negroes are of the same hue, as may be seen in Fig. 9. 

 In tropical countries the climate of low-lying tracts along river- 

 banks and that of more elevated regions greatly differs, and it 

 is only in the former that the negro attains to that intense 

 blackness (Fig. 8), which is often held to be a constant charac- 

 teristic of his race. His uncouth features also are somewhat 

 modified for the better on the more elevated table-lands ; and 

 finally, in favoured localities he reaches a certain measure of 

 civilisation. 



LESSONS IN FRENCH. XCIV. 



147. ANGLO-FRENCH HOMONYMS AND PARONYMS 

 (continued). 



