THE TABLE OF THE SUN. 437 



the Hydra, the Python, and others unnamed, 

 destroyed by Apollo and Hercules, all allude 

 evidently to the worship of the serpent in Africa 

 being superseded by that of the sun. The relation 

 of these gods to that luminary is generally 

 admitted, and Hiero Calla, fortunately for my 

 derivation of the word Galla, the sun of the blacks, 

 is the interpretative analysis of the name of Her- 

 cules. In the modern Dankalli language no other 

 word is used for sun but Hiero, and it enters into 

 the name of several names of places; Hyhilloo, 

 the scene of the celebrated battle between the 

 forces of Lohitu and the Muditu, is translated by 

 the Dankalli to mean the hill of the sun. 



The head of a sculptured Hercules is invariably 

 portraited with the frizzly hair of the Dankalli, 

 whilst antiquarian ethnologists will be interested to 

 observe the persistance of national character pre- 

 served in the flowing locks and ample beard usually 

 given to Jupiter, his European counterpart. 



That which increased the celebrity of the northern 

 portion of the table-land of Abyssinia, and estab- 

 lished the superiority in dignity of its stream, was 

 the circumstance of its flowing through the lake 

 Tzana or Dembea. No little light breaks upon the 

 subject when it is understood, that the literal inter- 

 pretation of these two words in very different 

 languages, is the same, both signifying the lake of 

 the sun. Dembea, let me observe, is a word in 

 use in Abyssinia that belongs to the same language 



