THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 



407 



Now it mui be confeiTed, as it is not pretended there 

 was any miracle here, that there is not a more un- 

 likely tale in all Herodotus, than this mure be allowed to 

 be upon the footing of the tranflation. The tranflator calls 

 Zerah an Ethiopian, which fhould either mean he dwelt in 

 Arabia, as he really did, and this gave him no advantage, , 

 or elfe that he was a ftranger, who originally came from 

 the country above Egypt ; and, either way, it would have 

 been impolrible, during his whole life-time, to have collect- 

 ed a million of men, one of the greateft armies that ever 

 flood, upon the face of the earth, nor could he have fed 

 them though they had ate the whole trees that grew in his 

 country, nor could he have given every hundredth man. 

 one drink of water in a. day from all the wells he had inr 

 his country. 



Here, then, is an obvious triiimph for infidelity, becaufe, 

 as I have faid, no fupernatural means are pretended. But 

 had it been tranflated, that Zerah was a. Mack-moor, a Cujhite- 

 negro, and prince of the Cufhites, that were carriers in the* 

 Ifthmus, an Ethiopian fhepherd, then the wonder ceafed. 

 Twenty camels, employed to carry couriers upon them,, 

 might have procured that number of men to meet in a 

 fhort fpace of time, and, as Zerah was the aggrefTor, he 

 had time to choofe when he mould attack his enemy ; every 

 one of thefe fhepherds carrying with them their provifion 

 of flour and water, as is their invariable cuflom, might have 

 fought with Afa at Gerar, without eating a loaf of Zerah's 

 bread, or drinking a pint of his water. 



The next pafTage I'fhall mention is the following: :" The 

 '•'labour of Egypt, and merchandifc of Ethiopia, and of the 



£- "Sabeans^.. 



