THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 407 



Now it rauft be confefTed, as it is not pretended there 

 was any miracle here, that there is not a more un- 

 likely tale in all Herodotus, than this mufl be allowed to 

 be upon the footing of the tranllation. The tranflator calls 

 Zcrah an Ethiopian, which mould cither mean he dwelt in 

 Arabia, as he really did, and this gave him no advantage, 

 or elfe that he was a uranger, who originally camq from 

 the country above Egypt ; and, cither way, it would have 

 been impollible, during his whole life-time, to have collect- 

 ed a million of men, one of the greater! armies that ever 

 flood upon the face of the earth, nor could he have fed 

 them though they had ate the whole trees that grew in his 

 country, nor could he have given every hundredth man 

 one drink of water in a day from all the wells he had in 

 his country. . 



Here, then, is an obvious triumph for infidelity, becaufe, 

 a*. I have faid, no fupernatural means are pretended. But 

 had it been tranflated, that Zerah was a black-moor, a Cujhitc- 

 wgro, and prince of the Cuihites, that were carriers in the 

 Ifthmus, an Ethiopian ihepherd, then the wonder cealed. 

 Twenty camels, employed to carry couriers upon them, . 

 might have procured that number of men to meet in a 

 fhort fpace of time, and, as Zerah was the aggreflbr, he 

 had time to choole when he fhould attack his enemy ; every 

 one of thefe ihepherds carrying with them their provifion 

 of flour and water, as is their invariable cuftom, might have 

 fought with Afa at Gerar, without eating a.loaf of Zerah's 

 bread, or drinking a pint of his water. - 



The next paffagc I 'mall mention is the following: "The 

 "-'labour of Egypt, and merchandife of Ethiopia, and of the 



2- "SabeanSj, 



