5 i 4 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



which he let fall upon Abreha's army, fo that they all were 

 deftroyed. The author of the manufcript * from which I 

 have taken this fable, and which is alfo related by feveral 

 other hiftorians, and mentioned by Mahomet in the Koran, 

 does not feem to fwallow the ftory implicitly. For he fays, 

 that there is no bird that has a face like a lion, that Abou 

 Thaleb was a Pagan, Mahomet being not then come, and 

 that the ■Chriftians were worfliippers of the true God, the God 

 of Mahomet ; and, therefore, if any miracle was wrought 

 here, it was a miracle of the devil, a victory in favour of 

 Paganifm, and deftructive of the belief of the true God. In 

 conclusion, he fays, that it was at this time that the fmall-pox 

 and meailes ftrft broke out in Arabia, and almoft totally def- 

 troyed the army of Abreha. But if the Hone, as big as a 

 pea, thrown by the Ababil, had killed Abreha's army to the 

 laft man, it does not appear how any of them could die af- 

 terwards, either by the fmall-pox or meafles. 



All that is material, however, to us, in this fa<5t, is, that/ 

 the time of the fiege of Mecca will be the sera of the firft 

 appearance of that terrible difeafe, the fmall-pox, which we 

 ihall fet down about the year $$6; and it is highly probable, 

 from other circumftanees, that the Abyflinian army was the 

 firft victim to it, 



As for the church Abreha built near the Indian Ocean, it 

 continued free from any further infult till the Mahometan 

 conqueft of Arabia Felix, when it was finally deftroyed in 

 the Khalifat | of Omar. This is. the Abyffinian account, and 



this, 



*E1 Hameefy's Siege of Mecca. f. Eetaat el Yemen. 



