352 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



There remain now only a few more remarks to make 

 on the Ethiopic tribes in primaeval Arachosia, Aria, and 

 Syria, similarly originating in commixture between 

 Arab or Melanic Caucasians and Papua races. They 

 are traceable by the denominations of Nimreks, Doin- 

 buks, and Kakasiah the black brethren of ancient 

 legends : and the antiquity of occupation in Western 

 Asia is attested by the same documents ; for these 

 races are stated in Arabian lore to be pre-Adamite, 

 and the localities they held at one time, are perhaps 

 marked by the residence of the black giant, Sukrage, 

 one of the seventy-two Sultauns who reigned in Kaf 

 before Argenk, another giant of tradition. Kaf,* an 



* Neither Kondemir nor Mirkhond are the inventors of 

 these traditions ; for Kaf was, in Arabian lore, a mountain, 

 " enclosed like a ring surrounding a finger," and " the sun 

 rose and set from Kaf to Kaf:" It denotes the high land 

 of Asia. The SaJcrat hinge of the world is Himalaya, and 

 was the region wherein the deeve bird Simurg or Simor- 

 ganka tells Temurah he had served forty Sultauns, his 

 predecessors, and had seen the creation renewed seven 

 times. Kaf, when particularized in the Shah Nameh, is 

 evidently Kohibaba, which, with its two passes, was best 

 known among the elevated peaks on the western front of 

 the great plateau ; and there it appears Zohauk is likewise 

 fabled to have had his fastness, though another of the 

 name is placed in the middle of Lake Zurrah.; 



The number of seventy-two Sultauns, compared with 

 the forty Solimans, indicate the priority of residence in 

 easternmost Persia to have been on the side of the sable 

 races. According to Arabian notions of geography, Kohi- 

 Kaf is situated between the habitations of Iran and Gin- 

 nistan. 



" Taric Tebri." See also " d'Herbelot, in voce Soliman 

 ben Daoud." 



