DISCOVERIES OF THE ANCIENTS. 29 
emotions of wonder and curiosity, mingled with 
terror. It was the region of mystery, of poetry, 
of superstitions awe. The wild and strange aspect 
of man and nature, the immense tracts abandoned 
to wild beasts, the still more immeasurable deserts 
of sand beyond, and the destruction which had 
overwhelmed most of those who attempted to pe- 
netrate ; all these formed, as it were, a fearful and 
mysterious barrier, drawn round the narrow limits 
occupied by the civilized nations of this continent. 
.Every object which appeared through the veil 
tended to heighten this impression — the human 
race, under an aspect and hue nowhere else seen 
on the globe ; animals of strange form and magni- 
tude ; forms of society altogether uncouth and pe- 
culiar. Imagination, kept always on the stretch, 
created wonders, even when nature ceased to pre- 
sent them. No part of the interior was ever ex- 
plored with such precision, as to deprive that ac- 
tive faculty of full scope for exertion ; and the 
whole region was in a manner given up to fable. 
This fable, however, had generally some basis of 
truth ; and it cannot be without interest to observe 
the glimpses which the ancients obtained, when- 
ever, for a moment, they succeeded in lifting the 
veil, by which those vast regions were covered. 
All the nations who inhabited within or beyond 
the desert were generally known by the name^pf 
Ethiopians. The term becomes thus nearly syno- 
