OF THE DANKALLI AND SOUMAULEE. 13 



time of Ludolph, Dankalli was known as the name 

 of a large kingdom or province, situated on the 

 seacoast, extending from the port of Adulis to the 

 confines of the country of the Assobah Galla, who 

 then dwelt in the country immediately to the north 

 of Tajourah. The Assobah are now, however, con- 

 sidered to be a Dankalli tribe, a change which I 

 conceive has taken place in consequence of this tribe 

 having since become Gibbertee, or " strong in the 

 Islam faith;" for a religious distinction, I find, has 

 for some centuries separated the original Affah 

 nation into Dankalli and Soumaulee. The latter, 

 whose name is derived from the Abyssinian word 

 soumahe, or heathens, being supposed by the strict 

 Mahomedan Dankalli, still in a great proportion 

 to adhere to their ancient Sabian faith, and only 

 partially to profess the Islam belief. Soumaulee cor- 

 responds with the Arabic word, kafir, or unbeliever, 

 the name by which alone Edresi, the Arabian 

 geographer, knew and described the inhabitants of 

 the Affah coast, to the east of the straits of Babel 

 Mandeb. 



It also appears to me that the word Dankalli 

 connects the history of these people with the empire 

 of the true Ethiopia, or Meroe, which was situated 

 between the branches of the Tacazze and the 

 Assareek, or the Red Nile, for it may be that in 

 the Odyssey, where Homer conducts Neptune into 

 Ethiopia, and places him between two nations of 

 blacks, perfectly distinct from each other, the poet 



