nominally Jews, rejected the glad tidings offered to them; would swell the numbers of such, as chose rather still to boast their descent from Solomon, or to solace themselves with fables of the ancient greatness of their Israelite forefathers.

However this may have been, this result must have ensued, as it did elsewhere, that the Jewish portion of the nation would become decided in their separation from the rest; would persist in cultivating their own languge, and in handing down from age to age their own sacred or traditionary writings. And with this supposition the account given by Ludolph accords.

"The Jews formerly held several fair and large provinces; almost all Dembea, as also Wegara "and Sanen stoutly and long defending them"selves by means of the rocks, till they were "driven from thence by Susneus; (about 1630) "at which time they also lived according to their 66 own customs. Now they are dispersed : though

66

many still remain in Dembea, getting their liv"ings by weaving, and exercising the trade of

carpenters. Most of them still keep up their

own synagogues, have their own Hebrew bibles,

"and speak in a corrupt talmadic dialect. The "fathers of the Society (of Jesus) never took care

to enquire when, or on what occasion the Jews "came into Ethiopia, or whether they have any "other books, especially histories: but it seems

very probable that there may be found some "ancient books among them, since they have "lived so long and so securely in such inaccessi"ble holds."

Thus it appears that from a period so early that the separation may well be referred to the causes which I have stated; the Jews have formed in Ethiopia a separate community. Whoever may have been the Apostle of the Abyssinians, the establishment of Christianity among them cannot, I think, be dated later than the end of the third century; because their baptism, not only in the use of trine immersion, but in the custom of affording the support of "susceptores" to the baptised person, and in the distribution of milk and honey when the ceremony was concluded,* agrees so nearly with the expressions of Tertullian." Let "us thrice be plunged and from thence support

• See Ludolph.

"ed; Let us taste the partaking of milk and "honey."

Their refusal of special auricular confession, to which the Jesuits could never persuade them, shews that the latest date of their doctrinal polity must be previous to the eighth century; while their use of the name of chest for the table or altar on which the elements of the Eucharist are laid, makes it evident that this custom is of far greater antiquity; for it must have been received either before or soon after the Church from the the cessation of persecutions at the command of Constantine, had lost the usage acquired in those perilous days, in which the Christian worshippers, preserving in a chest the bones of those who had fallen martyrs to their profession of faith,* partook of the Eucharist, upon that chest; conveying it secretly from place to place, as the vigilance of their persecutors might have required. It will also be seen on reference to the Abbyssinian history, that their want of regard to any councils subsequent to the fifth century, and their perpetuation of the disputes concerning the nature of the Sa

* Council of Carthage, Canon 14.

viour, which after that time ceased to agitate the Asiatic churches, afford some ground for supposing that their religious or literary intercourse with the rest of the Christian world subsequent to the æra of the Hegira, must have been so small, that we need hardly enquire whether such a book as that the history of which I am now endeavouring to trace, could have been composed in Abyssinia during the interval which elapsed from that period, to the commencement of the sixteenth century. The state of Europe itself will enable us to decide, that such a supposition is altogether improbable. But the language now in use in Ethiopia, is the Amharic, and it has been used from the beginning of the sixteenth century, when on the change of the royal dynasty into the Amharic line, the ancient language, or Geez, became disused, and was gradually less and less acquired, till at length very few of the natives had any ac quaintance with it, even in the time of Ludolph.

As this book therefore is written in the ancient Ethiopic, the time at which it was composed or translated, must at least have been prior to the period of the Amharic conquest; and therefore, as

regards its origin or preservation, we need trace its history no farther, than to mention the circumstances under which it was found, and brought to this country by Mr. Bruce.

It appears that he was resident in Dembea, at the time during which he was occupied in obtaining copies of all the Ethiopic books which were to be procured, or for which he could obtain a transcriber; and it is unfortunate that he was accidentally prevented from making those enquiries concerning this book, which he was so well qualified to have undertaken, had he been aware of its real contents.

It appears that having in his first examination, read that part of one of the later and spurious books, which relates to the voracity of the ancient giants, he was so struck by its absurdity, that he "had not farther patience," to read what must naturally have appeared to be so entirely apocryphal ; and hence, from his narrative, no information is to be gathered bearing on the subject which I am now about to discuss.

Mr. Bruce appears to have been strongly impressed with an idea, that the Ethiopic was not