THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 3 %i 



^SESG&ss* 



CHAP. II. 



Saba and the South of Africa peopled — Shepherds, their particular Em- 

 ployment and Circumjlances — Abyffmia occupied by fevcn fir anger Na- 

 tions — Specimens of their fever al Languages Cotijeclures concerning 



them. 



WHILE thefe improvements were going on fo profper- 

 oufly in the central and northern territory of the 

 defcendents of Cufh, their brethren to the fouth were not 

 idle, they had extended themfelves along the mountains 

 that run parallel to the Arabian Gulf ; which was in all 

 times called Saba, or Azabo, both which fignify South, not 

 becaufe Saba was fouth of Jerufalem, but becaufc it was 

 on the fouth coaft of the Arabian Gulf, and, from Arabia 

 and Egypt, was the firft land to the fouthward which 

 bounded the African Continent, then richer, more import- 

 ant, and better known, than the reft of the world. By that ac- 

 quifition, they enjoyed all the perfumes and aromatics in 

 the eaft, myrrh, and frankincenfe, and caflia \ all which 

 grow fpontaneouily in that ftripe of ground, from the Bay 

 of Bilur weft of Azab, to Cape Gardefan, and then fouth- 

 ward up in the Indian Ocean, to near the coaft of Melinda, 

 where there is cinnamon, but of an inferior kind. 



3 Arabia. 



