146 
ancient Sanscrit, and particularly with the in- 
scriptions in the caves of Canara, the construc- 
tion of which preceded ail the known periods of 
Indian history The arts appear to have 
flourished at Meroe, and at Axoum, one of the 
inosk ancient cities of Ethiopia, before Egypt 
rose from a state of barbarism. A celebrated 
writer, deeply versed in the history of India, 
Sir William Jones f, believed, that he had 
traced the same people in the Ethiopians of 
Meroe, the first Egyptians, and the Hindoos. 
Yet it is almost certain, that the Abyssinians, 
whom we must not confound with the autoch- 
thones ^ of Ethiopia, were an Arabian tribe ; 
and, according to the observation of M. Lan- 
gles, the same hamyaritic characters, which we 
discover in the east of Africa, still decorated, 
in the fourteenth century of the vulgar era, 
the gates of the city of Samarcand. Some 
connexion therefore undoubtedly existed be- 
tween Habesch, or ancient Ethiopia, and the 
elevated plain of central Asia. 
A long struggle between two religious sects, 
the Brahmans and the Bouddhists, terminated 
by the emigration of the Chamans to Thibet, 
Mongolia; China, and Japan. If tribes of the 
* Notes, by M. Langles, to Norden's Travels, vol. 3, 
p. 299, 349. 
f Asiatic Researches, vol. 3, p. 6. 
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