TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
57 
been noticed by Leo Africanus, and said to have inhabited that part 
of the desert of Libya which lies between Angela and the Nile *. 
The same author adds that they are of an African race ; and we may 
further remark, with respect to this tribe, that the appellation 
of Levatm, by which it was distinguished, has been supposed b3^ 
Major Eennell (in his illustrations of Herodotus) to have given birth 
to the Grecian term Libya f. 
It will be observed that the suggestion of the ingenious author 
quoted below, with respect to the retreat of the Levatae into the 
interior, is confirmed by the account of Procopius ; who tells us that 
“ the Moors, called Levatae, dwelt in the neighbourhood of Leptis 
Magna :}: and we have seen that they were found in the time of Leo 
Africanus to have inhabited the parts between Angela and the Nile. 
lYith regard to the derivation of the term Libya, suggested by 
Major Eennell, we may remark that Herodotus has himself derived 
* II resto de’ diserti di Libia, cio e di Angela fino al Nilo, e habitato d’Arabi et da un 
popolo detto Levata, che e pure Africano, . . . . — (5““ parte, p. 72.) 
t “ The desert which separates Egypt from Lybia” (it is Major Rennell who speaks) 
“ is to be regarded as the proper desert of Lybia: and it maybe a question whether 
the tribe of Levata, although now found in the interior of the country, may not have ori- 
ginally inhabited the sea-coast ; and that the Greeks denominated Africa (Libya) from 
them. This was the part of Africa the nearest to Greece, and the first colonised by the 
Greeks 5 and it is a knoyvn fact, that the Adyrmachidse and Nasamones, who in the days 
of Herodotus, inhabited the coast, were at a succeeding period, found in the inland parts 
about Ammon and Angela. Mr. Park saw a wandering tribe named Lubey, whom he 
compares, in respect to their habits and mode of life, to gipsies®.” 
f Tunc Mauri, Levata appellati, Leptim Magnam (neque enim longe absunt) cum 
exercitu venere, &c. — (Hist. Vandal, ut supra.) 
» Illustrations of Herodotus, (p. 409.) 
1 
