4o 4 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



The Falafha, too, are a people of Abyflinia, having a par- 

 ticular language of their own ; a fpecimen of which I have 

 alfo publifhed, as the hiftory of the people feems to be curi- 

 ous. I do not, however, mean to fay of them, more than 

 of the Galla, that this was any part of thofe nations who 

 fled from Paleftine on the invafwn of Jofhua. For they are 

 now, and ever were, Jews, and have traditions of their own 

 as to their origin, and what reduced them to the prefent 

 ftate of feparation, as we fhall fee hereafter, when I come to 

 fpeak of the tranflation of the holy fcripture. 



In order to gratify fuch as are curious in the fludy and 

 hiftory of language, I, with great pains and difficulty, got 

 the whole book of the Canticles tranflated into each of thefe 

 languages, by priefts efteemed the moft verfant in the Ian* 

 guage of each nation. As this barbarous polyglot is of too 

 large a fize to print, I have contented myfelf with copying 

 fix verfes of the firft chapter in each language; but the 

 whole book is at the fervice of any perfon of learning that 

 will bellow his time in ftudying it, and, for this purpofe, 

 I left it in the Britiih Mufeum, under the direction of Sir 

 Jofeph Banks, and the Bifhop of Carlille. 



These Convena; as we have obferved, were called Habejh, 

 a number of diftincl: nations meeting in one place. Scrip- 

 ture has given them a name, which, though it has been ill 

 tranflated, is precifely Cb»w«^, both in the Ethiopic and He r 

 brew. Our Englifh tranflation calls them the mingled people *, 

 whereas it fhould be \h.c feparate nations, who, though met and 

 fettled together, did not mingle, which is ftrictly Convene 



The. 



Jerera. chap, xiii. ver. 23.— id. xxv. 24.— Ezek. chap. x.\x. ver. 5. 



