The  Travels  of  Camoens  in  the  Nearer  East.     497

our  "Abyssinia"  to  the  Semitic  Habesh,  or  "riff-raff,"  a
term  fitly  applied  to  the  ruffian  population.  Barbosa
(p.  19)  tells  us  that  the  Christians  of  the  Kingdom  of
Prester  John  follow  the  doctrine  of  the  blessed  Saint
Bartholomew.  "  Habesh,"  not  Abyssinia,  is  divided  into
two  halves ;  the  North  is  Gallo-Christian  and  the  South
is  Gallo-Moslem,  including  Afar  (which  named  "Africa"),
Dankali-land,  Harar  and  Somali-land.  The  Poet  subse-
quently refers  to  Meroe,  the  country,  not  the  capital  (near
the  modern  Dankalah  or  Dongola),  saying  that  Africans
call  it  Noba  (x.  95).  It  is  the  "  Doab,"  shaped  "like
an  oblong  shield"  (Strabo,  xvi.)  between  the  Nile  and
the  Tacazze,  or  rather  the  Nile  of  the  Axumites,
Astaboras,^  Atbara  or  Black  River ;  and  the  Astapus  or
Bahr  el-Azrak,  the  Blue  River.  In  the  Cuneiforms  it
is  called  Me-luh-ha  and  Me-luh-hi  according  to  Brugsch
(ii.  255-65),  whom  Lenormant  refutes.  The  Greeks
derived  the  name  of  this  motherland  of  Egypt  from
Cambyses'  sister,  and  visited  it  for  the  Oracle  of  Ammon.
Some  prolonged  the  Meroe  of  Herodotus  and  of  P.  Mela,
who   tried   to    systematise   African   geography,  into  its

Saba  in  Southern  Arabia  had  for  capital  Maryab  that  contained
Zu-Raydiin,  the  royal  palace.  It  was  near  Zofar  (Sephar,  Mount
of  the  East  :  Gen.  x. ;  Tobit  xii.  15).
'  Dr.  Beke  first  suggested  (loc.  cit.,  p.  50)  that  the  prefix  "Ast',"
also  in  Ast'apus  (Abai  or  Blue  River),  and  Ast'asobas  (Sobat,  from
Soba,  the  ancient  name  of  Khartum),  means  simply  "river."  I
commend  this  to  the  author  of  "The  Scientific  Value  of  Tradition  "
(London,  Pickering,  1879).  "  Barat  "  and  "Atbar"  (p.  164)  can-
not be  cognates.
VOL.    II.  2   K


49^  Geographical.
