JAPETIC STOCK. 255 



gum, myrrh, gold, ivory, slaves, and beasts of burden, procured from the 

 countries of the interior : they possess seaports, and apply themselves to 

 navigation, but they do not allow the entry of Arab vessels into their har- 

 bours : Barbara is their principal seaport and here they hold an annual 

 fair : they are pacific, and contrive, with no ordinary political address, to 

 maintain peace with the fierce tribes, the Gallas and. others, in their im- 

 mediate neighbourhood. Prichard suspects them to be of Galla origin. 

 M. de Rienzi describes them as a handsome race of people, with fine 

 features : they stain their hair, which is naturally black, soft, and flowing, 

 of a yellow colour, by means of lime, in imitation of the fleeces of their 

 sheep. Mr. Bird (" Observations on the Coast of Arabia, and Shores of 

 the Red Sea ;" Geogr. Journ. vol. iv.) describes the Somauli traders from 

 Barbara as having fine regular features, and wearing their soft hair, 

 artificially changed to a flaxen colour, in ringlets flowing negligently 

 around their shoulders ; the contrast between them and the Suhailis of 

 Ajan, with their jet black complexions and woolly hair, being very 

 striking. 



The Hazorta and Shiho are pastoral wanderers ; and their language 

 agrees, in many respects, with that of the Danakil ; their physical cha- 

 racters are identical with those of the neighbouring nations. 



With respect to the language most extensively spoken in Abyssinia, 

 viz., the Amharic, it is a language radically distinct from the Gheez, or 

 old Ethiopic : the Gheez, now a dead, or learned language, and into 

 which the Scriptures were translated, was, formerly, the vernacular lan- 

 guage of Tigre ; and^ is, as competent judges assert, a Semitic tongue, 

 allied to the Arabic and Hebrew : this circumstance, consequently, in- 

 volves a Semitic, and not an Ethiopic origin for the ancient Abyssinians ; 

 or, at least, for the ancient inhabitants of Tigre, the capital of which was 

 Axum, the old seat of government : and Dr. Prichard considers them to 

 be a branch of the Arabs of Hamyar, who, at an early period, some 

 centuries antecedent to the Christian era, passed the Straits of Babel- 

 mandeb, and gained possession of Axum, where, through intercourse 

 with Egypt, and the Ethiopian cities of the Nile, they acquired some 

 knowledge of the arts, and of Greek literature ; but who have ultimately 

 become assimilated in their complexion and physical characters with the 

 Amharas and native races of Abyssinia. Salt, and Professor Ritter, 

 however, contend that the Abyssinians were an ancient people of Ethio- 

 pia, not immediately of Arabic origin, but a cognate branch of the same 

 family of which the Hebrews and Arabians were members. How- 

 ever this may be, Uranius, a writer on Arabic geography, cited by Eusta- 

 thius and others, noticed a people, called A/Sao-^i/oi, on the coast of Arabia, 

 nearly in the situation of Hamyar. 



From Morocco to Egypt, along the northern coast of Africa, extends 



