The Senegal Runs Into The Sea
From The East; While The Niger Running To The East, Loses Itself In An
Interior Lake, As The Wolga Does In The Caspian, Having No Connection
Whatever With The Ocean.
According to some accounts, this lake only
exists as such during the rainy season, drying up in the other part of
the year, probably however leaving an extensive marsh, called the
_Wangara_.
If so, the environs of that lake and marsh must be unhealthy
in the utmost extreme. - E.]
To speak somewhat more of Ethiopia, although there are many nations
called Ethiopians, yet is Ethiopia chiefly divided into two parts, one
of which being a great and rich region, is called _Ethiopia sub Egypto_,
or Ethiopia to the south of Egypt. To this belongs the island of Meroe,
which is environed by the streams of the Nile. In this island women
reigned in ancient times, and, according to Josephus, it was some time
called _Sabea_, whence the queen of Saba went to Jerusalem to listen to
the wisdom of Solomon. From thence, towards the east and south, reigneth
the Christian emperor called Prester John, by some named Papa Johannes,
or as others say _Pean Juan_, signifying Great John, whose empire
reaches far beyond the Nile, and extends to the coasts of the Red Sea
and of the Indian ocean. The middle of this region is almost in 66
degrees of E. longitude, and 12 degrees of N. lat.[216] About this
region dwell the people called _Clodi, Risophagi, Axiuntiae, Babylonii,
Molili_, and _Molibae_. After these is the region called _Trogloditica_,
the inhabitants of which dwell in caves and dens, instead of houses, and
feed upon the flesh of serpents, as is reported by Pliny and Diodorus
Siculus, who allege, that instead of language, they have only a kind of
grinning and chattering. There are also people without heads, called
_Blemines_, having their eyes and mouths in their breast. Likewise
_Strucophagi_, and naked _Gamphasantes_; _satyrs_ also, who have nothing
of human nature except the shape. _Oripei_ likewise, who are great
hunters, and _Mennones_. Here also is _Smyrnophora_, or the region of
myrrh; after which is _Azania_, producing many elephants.[217] A great
portion of the eastern part of Africa beyond the equinoctial line is in
the kingdom of _Melinda_, the inhabitants of which have long been in use
to trade with the nations of Arabia, and whose king is now allied to the
king of Portugal, and pays tribute to Prester John.
[Footnote 216: Reckoning the longitude from the island of Ferro, the
middle of Abyssinia is only in about 52 deg. 30' E. and as Ferro is 18 deg. W.
from Greenwich, that coincides with 34 deg. 30' E. as the longitude is now
reckoned by British geographers. - E.]
[Footnote 217: It is impossible, in the compass of a note, to enter into
any commentary on this slight sketch of the ancient geography of eastern
Africa. - E.]
The other, or interior Ethiopia, being a region of vast extent, is now
only somewhat known upon the sea-coast, but may be described as follows.
In the first place, towards the south of the equator, is a great region
of Ethiopians, in which are white elephants, _tigers_, (lions) and
rhinoceroses.
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