BRITAIN AND ABYSSINIA. 441 



inhabited by a celebrated descendant of Shem, sin- 

 gularly enough the same, who is considered by 

 biblical ethnologists to have been the common 

 father of no less a respectable people, than the 

 modern Dankalli; AfFer, the son of Abraham, having 

 led a colony of Africans to our shores, where he 

 introduced the worship of the sun, and established 

 the religion of Druidism. I recommend to 

 my reader the perusal of Stukley's work upon 

 " Abury, a Temple of the Ancient Britons," and 

 then to compare the parallel, but more magnificent 

 temple of nature upon the plateau of Abyssinia, 

 where the serpent Arive, or in profane language 

 the river Abi, bears upon its back the lake of the 

 sun, most curiously identifying the peculiar worship 

 of that luminary by the ancient Ethiopians with the 

 same adoration which was professed by the Druids 

 in Britain, but w T ho, from their situation, were 

 obliged to construct the winding avenue of stones 

 at Abibury to represent the same mystical hiero- 

 glyphic of the serpent and the sun. The name 

 given to this work was Abi, the father, or king, as 

 it was also of the river-symbol in Abyssinia ; hence 

 the name Abibury, the latter portion of which 

 word is of Saxon origin ; and added, subsequently 

 to the decline of Druidism.* 



* Abi was also the title of prince among the ancient Himyaritic 

 nation, and, slightly changed, is still given to the kings of the 

 countries to the south of Shoa ; for example, Aboo Bogaboo, king 

 of Enarea ; Abba Wabotoo, king of Kuchah. 



