12 DERIVATION OF THE WORD ADAL. 



extensive application, and included the numerous 

 Soumaulee tribes, who inhabited the country to the 

 south of the Sea of Babel Mandeb as far as Cape 

 Guardefoi, and from thence southward along the 

 eastern coast of Africa as far as Malinda. 



Another name for these Affah tribes is Adal ; 

 given to them by the Abyssinians inland, and which, 

 according to some recent authorities, has arisen from 

 the circumstance of the principal tribe with whom 

 the Abyssinians have any intercourse being the 

 Adu Alee, living in the immediate vicinity of Mas- 

 soah, which name has gradually become to be used 

 as the designation of the whole people. I confess 

 that I do not see the propriety of this derivation, as 

 it appears more natural to derive the Abyssinian 

 name from that of the chief part of this country at 

 an early period, when a powerful Egyptian monarch 

 made the Affah port, Adulis, the capital of an ex- 

 tensive country. The terminal letter of this proper 

 name, I have been informed, may be the usual 

 Grecian affix to adapt it to the genius of their 

 language ; and I think the probability is, that the 

 $ has been thus added, and that the word Aduli 

 was the origin of the Greek Adulis, and of the 

 modern name Adal. 



Another very common name for these people is 

 Dankalli, a word which appears to be of Persian 

 origin ; but one that is also acknowledged by the 

 Affah themselves, as the proper name of their 

 country, or of their people collectively. In the 



