Arabian origin is proved by the identity of their manners, their physiognomy, and their language, and even in some measure by their own traditions. Abyssinia resembled Arabia Felix also in its productions, its aromatic woods of myrrh and frankincense. Pure gold was found in many parts in abundance. In place of the camels of Arabia, it boasted of the finest elephants in the world.
Abyssinia is at present divided into three great divisions: that of Tigre, comprehending the tract between the Red Sea and the Tacazze; that of
the Sheygya and other Bedouin Arabs of Africa are even blacker than the Ethiopians; the cause in both cases might be the same. Seneca urges the burnt colour of the Ethiopians as a proof of the heat of the climate—primo Æthiopiam ferventissimum esse, indicat hominum adustus color. Nat. Quæst. lib. iv. c. 2. p. 629. The Arabians of the peninsula could not particularize the Ethiopians for their colour, for they distinguish themselves by the same term: when they would say that Muhammed was sent to convert not only the Arabs, but also foreign nations, the Greeks and the Persians, they say he was sent to الاسود والاحمر the black (the Arabs) and the white, (Abulfed. Hist. Muham. c. vii.);—and, which is still more remarkable, in the collection of Arabian proverbs edited by Schultens, the Arabs are designated by that very same term of crows—العربان غربان ٭ والسودان سيدان—the Arabs are crows, the blacks, i.e. the negroes, wolves (Elnawabig, No. 27); and the Arabian scholiast (Samachsjar) actually represents their colour as the reason of the term. The oriental geographer, translated by Ouseley, observes, "The inhabitants of Bajeh [a place between Abyssinia, Nubia, and Egypt] are blacker than the Abyssinians, like the Arabs," (p. 13.), that is, like the African Arabs.
