THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 381 



^f£^~ 



CHAP. II. 



Saba and the South of Africa peopled — Shepherds, their particular Em~ 

 ployment and Circumjlances — Abyjfinia occupied by feven fir anger Na- 

 tions — Specimens of their fever al Languages — Conjectures concerning 

 them. 



WHILE thefe improvements were going on.fo profper- 

 oully in the central and northern territory of the. 

 defcendents of Cum, their brethren to the fouth were not 

 idle, they had extended themfelves along the mountains, 

 that run parallel to the Arabian Gulf ; which was in alL 

 times called Saba, or Azabo, both which fignify South, not 

 becaufe Saba was fouth of Jerufalem, but becaufe it was 

 on the fouth coafl of the Arabian Gulf, and, from Arabia 

 and Egypt, was the firft land to the fouthward which 

 bounded the African Continent, then richer, more import- 

 ant, and better known, than the reft of the world. By that ac^. 

 quifition, they enjoyed all the perfumes and aromatics in 

 the eaft, myrrh, and frankincenfe, and caffia; all which 

 grow fpontaneoufly in that ftripe of ground, from the Bay 

 of Bilur weft of Azab, to Cape Gardefan, and then fouth- 

 ward up in the Indian Ocean, to near the coaft of Melinda, 

 where there is cinnamon, but of an inferior kind. 



3 Arabia, 



