334 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



nate themselves and their country, notwithstanding all dis- 

 claimers to the contrary, denote, like the Arabian term Habesh, 

 for the same state, a mixed people, with perfect correctness, for 

 they were the first semi-Caucasian invaders of Arabia, Cush- 

 ites, Semitic races from the Suleimanic range of the western 

 border of the Indus. Fair tribes, from more northern high 

 lands of Asia, mixed with Indian Nishadas, or with the local 

 Nimreks of the soil, were already a very compounded race in 

 Elam, before they were driven across the Straits of Babelman- 

 deb. They had, even then, the elements of science and civili- 

 zation imparted to them, by the giant invaders of western 

 Asia, or by Gomerians, high on the Indus ; for, to this day, tra- 

 ditions, customs, and opinions, prevalent in Abyssinia, bear 

 evidence to the fact. Later colonists passed, no doubt, the 

 same straits, for a considerable influx from the west of Asia is 

 evident in the languages still spoken along the east coast, even 

 as far as the cape ; and the higher development of the Galla 

 and Caffre tribes can be traced to a partial Semitic intermix- 

 ture. The basis of civilization must have been communicated 

 from indigenous progress, already developed in the peninsula 

 of India, or by the more recent knowledge carried along with 

 the conquests of pure Caucasians, in the regions of the Ganges, 

 or in Elam (Persia), by other conquerors, but both appearing 

 to derive their acquirements from some common source in the 

 upper valley of the Oxus. 



The original formation of the Ethiopian stem appears to 

 have been in the burning alluvial deposits formed by the Indus, 

 and along the southern foot of the Himalayas, on the Hel- 

 mund, the Kabul, in Cashmeer, and the Punjaub, where Cau- 

 casian tribes, seeking warmer regions, encountered the black 

 races, ?.nd, by conquest and slavery, commenced amalgamation, 

 which every new wave of invaders conduced to increase. Fur- 

 ther immigration to the plains of India naturally followed, 

 through the secondary ranges of the mountain chains, or they 

 crossed over from the hiffh land of Thibet. That the move- 



