128 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



(*) p. 32, " The Mountains of ike Moon, Djcbel-al-Komr" 

 The Mountains of the Moon of Ptolemy (lib. iv. cap. 9), 

 (teXTjvjys 6poj) form on our older maps an immense, uninterrupted 

 mountain zone, traversing Africa from east to west. The existence 

 of these mountains appears certain; but their extent, their distance 

 from the Equator, and their general direction, are all unsolved 

 problems. I have already alluded in another work (Cosmos, vol. 

 ii. p. 191, and note 297, Engl. ed.), to the manner in which a closer 

 acquaintance with Indian languages, and with the ancient Persian 

 idiom, the Zend, teaches us that part of the geographical nomen- 

 clature of Ptolemy forms an historic monument of the commercial, 

 connection of the west with the most distant regions of Southern 

 Asia and Eastern Africa. The same direction of ideas shows itself 

 in a question very recently brought forward. It is asked, whether 

 the great geographer and astronomer of Pelusium meant, in the 

 name of " Mountains of the Moon," as in that of, the " Island of 

 Barley" (Jabadiu, Java), merely to give the Greek translation of a 

 native name; whether (as is most probable) El Istachri, Edrisi, 

 Ibn-al-Vardi, and other early Arabian geographers, only transferred 

 the nomenclature of Ptolemy into their own language; or whether 

 they were misled by similarity in the sound of the words and the 

 manner of writing. In the notes to the translation of Abd-Allatif [ 's 

 celebrated description of Egypt, my great instructor, Silvestre de 

 Sacy, (e<i.de 1810, pp. 7 and 35,) says expressly: "On traduit 

 ordinairement le nom de ces montagnes que Le"on Africain regarde 

 comme les sources du Nil, par montagnes de la lune, et j'ai suivi 

 cet usage. Je ne sais si les Arabes ont pris originairement cette 

 denomination de Ptole*mee. On peut croire qu'ils cntendent effec- 

 tivement aujourd'hui le motr *-A-J dans le sens de la lune en le 

 prononant 'Kamar'; je ne crois pas cependant que c'ait ete* 

 1' opinion des anciens e"crivains arabes qui prononcent, comme le 

 prouve Makrizi, Komr. Aboulfeda rejette positivement Fopinion de 

 ceux qui prononcent karaar, et qui d4rivent ce nom de celui de la 

 lune. Comme le mot komr, conside>e" comme pluriel de *K "SI, 

 signifie un objet d'une couleur verdatre ou d'un blanc sale, suivant 



