MOCHA 
459 
by Schultens we find several accounts of the conquest of this 
country by the Abyssinians, and the epithets continually applied 
to them are ''blacks'' (3^-^), which Schultens translates iEthiopes,* 
and " people with crisped hair" (crispa tortilique coma) :t one 
of their princes also, suing to the Emperor of Persia, entreats him 
to drive out '' these crows/* who are hateful to his countrymen ; J 
the application of which terms, makes it apparent that there 
existed, at that time, no traces of their being descended from the 
same progenitors. The Axomites are likewise correctly distin- 
guished from the Homerites, in Philostorgius, one of the earliest 
of the Byzantine writers, by the appellation of '' iEthiopes,"§ 
and in like manner Procopius,|| Cedrenus,^ Cosmas, and John 
Malala,** though all apply the word Indi to both people, con- 
fine the epithet iEthiopes to the Axomites. The term of Ethio- 
pians too, or Itiopjawan,J J is, as I have before noticed, the 
favourite appellation by which the Abyssinians designate them- 
selves. It is true, that in the intercourse carried on with the oppo- 
site coast, vast numbers of Arabians have in process of time become 
mingled with them ; but still it appears to me, that both in fea- 
ture, colour, habit, and manners, they form a perfectly distinct race. 
* Historia Joctanidarum in Arabia Felice, p. 83. " Ipse Dou Nowas equo evectus se 
in mare praecipitem dedit, addens, per Deum mergi praestut quam Ethiopibui^ (^^Oj^ 
• • • >J 
^incm. 
t Historia Joctanidarum in Arabia Felice, p. 137. 
X O rex ! corvi regiones nostras oppressere, &c. p. 1'29. 
§ Philostorgii Historia Eccles. Lib. III. p. 478. Mogunt. 1679, | 
|] DeBello Persico, L. I. p. 257, et passirh. Basil, 1531. 
^ G. Cedreni Hist. Comp. p. 364. Paris, 1647. 
* * Historia Chronica Joannis Antioch. Oxonii. 1691, p. 163, 
1 1 Ludolf's Hist. Ethiop. L. i. c 1. Francf. 1681 
3 N 
