256 BIMANA. 



an elevated chain of mountains, or highlands, which may be termed the 

 Atlantic range, traversing Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and branch- 

 ing through Lybia : on the south, this range of highlands, intersected by 

 valleys and rivers, is bounded by a sea of sand, the Great Desert of 

 Sahara ; the Mediterranean flows to the north ; and the Atlantic Ocean, 

 between Spain and the Canary Isles, washes its western declivities. The 

 pine, the oak, and the oleander compose the noble forests of the hills ; 

 and on its maritime tracts flourish the olive, the orange, and the date. 

 Among its Mammalia are the Lion and the Panther ; and the Magot is 

 abundant in the woods and among the crags of the mountains. 



Throughout this highland chain is spread a race of people, divided 

 into many tribes, distinct from the Moors and Arabs,* claiming to be the 

 ancient possessors of this region, prior to the settlement of the Phoeni- 

 cians, and which have maintained, in the remote mountain tracts, and the 

 bordering regions of the Desert, their lineage and their tongue, through the 

 reiterated revolutions to which their country has been subjected. Their 

 general appellation is that of Berbers, or Berebbers,f including the 



* The Arabian tribes of Atlantica, and the Desert of Sahara, may be divided into two classes, 

 Arabs of pure blood, and Moors. The Arabs are divided into many tribes, or families, of more or less 

 noble descent ; their dialect is the Maughrebin Arabic, and their emigration, from the East, is referred 

 to the first ages after the Hegira. The Moors are partly of Arab, and partly of Berber, or of African 

 blood : they are extensively distributed in tribes through northern Africa, and are distinguished by 

 different appellations : the men are, generally, large, well-made, and vigorous ; the females would be 

 handsome, were it not for their superabundance of flesh, which, however, passes for perfection in 

 the eyes of 'the men. Arabic is the language of most of the Moorish tribes ; and where other lan- 

 guages are spoken, it is read and understood. " The immigration of the Arabians into Africa," says 

 Dr. Prichard, " is generally considered to have commenced after the Hegira, and the conquest of 

 Egypt and Lybia by the Mohammedans ; but there is reason to believe that the same people, or tribes 

 nearly allied to them in origin, had begun to direct their movements towards the same quarter, from 

 much earlier times. . . The migratory movements of the Semitic tribes into Africa appear thus to have 

 preceded the first dawning of history. The oldest account, expressly recording such a migration, is 

 Manetho's narrative of the invasion of Egypt by the Arabian shepherds. It appears to me clear 

 that Manetho connects the exode of the Beni-Israel with the departure of the shepherds : but even 

 before the age of Abraham, Egypt must have been already opened to the inwanderings of a nomadic 

 people from Asia ; otherwise the patriarch, with his horde, could not have passed so easily to the resi- 

 dence of an Egyptian sovereign, who, though styled Pharaoh, may have been one of the shepherd- 

 kings of Egypt, or a native prince reigning under their sway." After the sojourn of the Israelites in 

 Egypt for a considerable period, " there arose up a new king, who knew not Joseph ;" a king of a dif- 

 ferent dynasty not of the Semitic race (as were the Israelites) ; and, therefore, a stranger to the 

 descendants of the house of Abraham, and jealous of their influence and power ; jealous, perhaps, also, 

 of the close connexion which existed between the chiefs of the Israelitish house and the sovereigns, or 

 rulers, of the preceding dynasty. 



t From this word, Berber, the name of the country called Barbary, or Barbaria, seems to be derived ; 

 its application to the northern region of Africa is, however, of comparatively modern date, not antece- 

 dent to the Mahommedan conquest. On the east of Africa, a province, supposed to be Ajan, was, an- 

 ciently, called Barbaria, and the people, Barbari, a name still preserved in the port of Barbara, and to 

 be recognised in the Berberines, or Barabra of Nubia. Leo derives the word Barbar, or Berber, either 

 from the word, barbara, which, in the Berber tongue, means to murmur, or from the Arabic, bar, a 

 desert. Dr. Prichard, however, observes, that /Jep/3ep, in Coptic, signifies hot; and /3op/3ep, or 

 /3ep/3wp, to cast out. The term, barbari, or /3ap/3apm, barbarians, from whatever source it arose, was 

 used, in early times, by the Greeks, as a common appellation forjpersons who did not speak the Greek 

 language, or for rude nations ; according to Professor Wilson, the Sanscrit, varvvarah, means' a low 

 man, an outcast, or barbarian ; and, in another sense, woolly or curly hair, as the hair of an African . 

 Did not the Greeks borrow the word Barbari from the Egyptians, and apply it| to any rude people, re- 



