THE SOURCE OF-THE NILE. 289 
Notwirustanpine the Abyflinians were fo anciently 
and nearly connected with Egypt, they never feem to have 
made ufe of paper, or papyrus, but imitated the practice of 
the Perfians, who wrote upon {kins, and they do fo this day. 
This arifes from their having early been Jews. -In Parthia, 
likewife, Pliny * informs us, the ufe of papyrus was ab- 
folutely unknown ; and though it was difcovered that papy- 
rus grew in the Euphrates, near Babylon, of which they 
could make paper, they obftinately rather chofe to adhere 
to their ancient cuftom of weaving their letters on cloth of 
which they made their garments. The Perfians, moreover, 
made ufe of parchment for their records }, to which all their 
remarkable tranfa¢ctions were trufted ; and to this it is pro- 
bably owing we have fo many of their cuftoms preferved 
to this day. Diodorus Siculus {, {peaking of Ctefias,fays, he 
verified every thing from the royal parchments themfelves, 
which, in obedience to a certain law, are all placed in or- 
der, and afterwards were communicated to the Greeks. 
From this great refemblance in cuftoms between the Per- 
fians and Abyffinians following the fafhionable way of 
judging about the origin of nations, I fhould boldly con- 
clude that the Abyflinians were a colony of Perfians, but . 
this is very well known to be without foundation. The 
cuftoms, mentioned as only peculiar to Perfia, were common 
to all the eaft ; and they were loft when thofe countries were 
Over-run. and conquered by thofe who introduced barbarous 
cuftoms of their own. The reafon why we have fo much 
Vou. Ill, ) 0°o ; left 
* Plin, Hift. Nat. lib. xiii. cap. 11. + Plin, lib. xiii. cap. 1x, = t Diod. Sic. libs ii. 
