346 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



and parts of speerh; and they modified the characteristic dis 

 tinctiona of the Negro people within contact, as is evident in 

 the Caffre and Galla nations. 



There remain now only a few more remarks to make on the 

 Ethiopic tribes in primeval Arachosia, Aria, and Syria, Bimi- 

 larly originating in commixture between Arab or Melanic Cau- 

 casians and Papua races. They are traceable by the denomi- 

 nations of Nimreks, Dombuks, and Kakasiah — the black 

 brethren of ancient legends: and the antiquity of occupation 

 in Western Asia is attested by the same documents ; for 

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

 localities they held at one time are perhaps marked by th 

 dence of the black giant, Sukrage, one of the seventy-two Sul- 

 tauns who reigned in Kaf before Argenk, another giant of 

 tradition. Kaf,* an Arabian name for the great central table 

 land of A>ia. is here referred to a particular locality, perhaps 

 the chain of Deroavend, or one of the several peaks bearing 

 the name of Alburs, or, rather, Kohi-Baba, where Argenk's 

 palace is described to have been adorned with statues of mon- 

 sters, endowed with reason, " such as existed in former crea- 

 tions." There were pictures upon the walls relating to those 



* Neither Kondemirnor Mirkhond are the inventors of these traditions ; 

 for Kaf was, in Arabian lore, a mountain, " enclosed like a ring surround- 

 ing a finger," and " the sun rose and set from Kaf to Kaf." It denotes 

 the high land of Asia. The Sakrat hinge of the world is Himalaya, and 

 was the region wherein the deeve bird Simurg or Simorganka tells Temu- 

 rah he had served forty Sultauns, his predecessors, and had seen the crea- 

 tion renewed seven times. Kaf, when particularized in the Shah Nameh, 

 is evidentlv 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 P?rsia to have been on 

 the side of the sable races. According to Arabian notions of geogranhy, 

 Kohi-Kaf is situated between the habitations of Iran and Ginnistan. 



" Taric TebrL" See also " d'Herbelot, in voce Soliman ben Daoud." 



