THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 487 



I asked them, being from Judea, whence they got that 

 language which they fpoke, whether it was one of the lan- 

 guages of the nations which they had learned on the coaft 

 of the Red Sea. They apprehended, but it was mere con- 

 jecture, that the language which they fpoke was that of 

 thofe nations they had found on the Red Sea, after their 

 leaving Judea and fettling there ; and the reafon they gave 

 w r as certainly a pertinent one; that they came intoAbyf- 

 finia, fpeaking Hebrew, with the advantage of having books 

 in that language; but they had now forgot their Hebrew*, 

 and it was therefore not probable they mould retain any 

 other language in which they had no books, and which. 



they never had learned to exprefs by letters. 



1 



I asked them, fince they came from Jerufalem, how it 

 happened they had not Hebrew, or Samaritan copies of the 

 law, at leafl the Pentateuch or Octateuch. They faid they were 

 in pojQTemon of both when they came from Jerufalem ; but 

 their fleet being deftroyed, in the reign of Rehoboam, and 

 communicationbecoming very uncertainby the Syrian wars,, 

 they were, from necemty, obliged to have the fcriptures 

 tranflated, or make ufe of the copies in the hands of the 

 Shepherds, who, according to them, before Solomon's time* 

 were all Jews. 



I asked them where the Shepherds got their copy, be- 

 caufe, notwithitanding the invafion of Egypt by Nebuchad- 

 nezzar, who was the foreign obftacle the longeft. in their 



way, 



* We fee this happened to them in a much fhorter time during the captivity, when they, 

 forgot their Hebrew, aad fpoke Chaldaec ever after. 



