1850.] Brdhminical Conquerors of India. 35 



appear bringing that peculiar animal, the giraffe, the earliest modern 

 notice of which is, I believe, by Marco Polo ; — certainly by no natura- 

 list before the sixteenth century. The sole habitat of this creature is 

 in the forests of Nubia and Ethiopia, and the central tracts of Africa, 

 says Pennant, not south of the Orange river, and so his range i3 

 as high as Senegal ; he does not occur towards the west. Now, on 

 the scheme of suppositions above suggested, we may see in this visit 

 of nations, the men of Sidon with their ships ; — or the Persepolitans ; 

 — the Armenians or the Parthians ; — or the Assyrians, or, in the war- 

 like Kheta, the "royal Scythians" of Herodotus ; or even, in the Kufa, 

 the sycophancy of some artist, who, from description, has endeavoured 

 to represent the inhabitants of a country still further east bringing 

 their silver, bronze, and porcelain as tribute ; — all these theories might, 

 some of them do, pass muster ; but no one has seen the necessity 

 of theorising as to the identity of the tribute-bearers of the giraffe. 

 They, although their country was, and is, well stocked with, to speak 

 technically, other pachydermata of great size and beauty, — they are 

 represented as leading with them this rare and beautiful creature, type- 

 animal of their land, and thus they stamp themselves Ethiopians. 

 Had the representatives of any of the other nations about which we 

 are in doubt, been provided in like sort, — had we found for instance a 

 camel among them (the figure of which has never been seen on any 

 monument in Egypt) — we should have recognized those with it as 

 Bedouins ; but such is not the case ; there is but one considerable 

 people else, whom, as depicted on the monuments of the 18th dynasty, 

 we are enabled to identify by an index of like certitude, and them Sir 

 G. Wilkinson describes as follows : 



"The Rot-ii-no, supposed by M. Champollion to be Lydians, were 

 a nation with whom the Egyptians waged a long war. Their white 

 complexion, tight dresses, and long gloves decide them to have been 

 natives of a much colder climate than Egypt or Syria ; and the pro- 

 ductions of their country, which they bring as a tribute to the vic- 

 torious Pharaoh, pronounce them to have lived in the east. These 

 consist of horses, and even chariots, with four spoked wheels, very 

 similar to the Egyptian curricle, rare woods, ivory, elephants, and 

 bears, a profusion of elegant gold and silver vases, with rings of the 

 same metal, porcelain, and jars filled with choice gums and resins used 



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