THE SOURCE OF THE Nri/E. 385 



lefs of thofe of Ethiopia, whilft they fall immediately upon 

 the fhepherds of the Delta, that they may get the fooner rid 

 of them, and thruft them into AfTyria, Paleftine, and Arabia. 

 * They never fay what their origin was ; how they came to 

 "be fo powerful; what Was their occupation ; or, properly, 

 the land they inhabited ; or what is become of them now, 

 though they feem inclined to think the race extinct 



The whole employment of the lhepherds had been the 

 difperfing of the Arabian and African goods all over the 

 continent ; they had, by that employment, rifen to be a 

 great people: as that trade increafed, their quantity of cat- 

 tle increafed alfo, and confequently their numbers, and the 

 extent of their territory. 



Upon looking at the map, the reader will fee a chain of 

 mountains which I have defcribed, and which run in a 

 high ridge nearly ftraight north, along the Indian Ocean, 

 in a direction parallel to the coaft, where they -end at Cape 

 Gardefan. They then take the direction of the coait, and 

 run weft from Cape Gardefan to the Straits of Babelmandeb, 

 inclofing the frankincenfe and myrrh country, which ex^ 

 tends confiderably to the weft of Azab. From Babelman- 

 <leb they run northward, parallel to the Red Sea, till they 

 end in the fandy plain at the Ifthmus of Suez, a name pro- 

 bably derived from Suah, Shepherds, 



Although this ftripe of land along the Indian Ocean, 

 and afterwards along the Red Sea, was neceffary to the mep- 

 herds, becaufe they carried their merchandife to the ports 

 there, and thence to Thebes and Memphis Upon the Nile, 

 yet the principal feat of their refidence and power was that 



Vol. I. 3 C flat 



