104 MISTAKEN OPINIONS 



the Nile below. Abyssinia, in fact, stands promi- 

 nently upon the low land around it, like an island 

 in a dried-up sea, and it is this which has given 

 occasion for the Abyssinians to compare their 

 country with the orange red flower of the Soof, 

 (Carthamus tinctorin$,y k the compound corolla 

 surrounded by sharp thorns, which are supposed 

 aptly enough to represent the barbarous Galla 

 tribes that beset Abyssinia on every side. 



In this delineation of Abyssinia by Ibrahim I 

 first observed the discrepancy between the present 

 received opinions of our geographers, that that 

 country is connected on the south with a supposed 

 extensive table land in the interior of Africa, and 

 that which is entertained by the natives themselves, 

 of the well defined and distinctly marked isolated 

 plateau they inhabit. 



Upon the represented surface of Abyssinia two 

 principal streams were now delineated, one called 

 the Abiah, flowing from the east and the south ; 

 and the other from the' north, the Abi, or Bruce's 

 Nile, which falls into the Abiah immediately after 

 leaving the table land in the vicinity of Fazuglo. 

 From the rivers Abi and Abiah is derived the name 

 Abisha, the original of our word Abyssinia, signi- 

 fying the country of the Abi; " cha" or " sha," 

 country, being a frequent compound of the names 

 of large localities, as Dembeacha, the country of 



* By the old Portuguese writers denominated "the flower 

 Denguelet." 



