pieces of a white and solid substance. In the "mountain it is soft, and slivered off with little "labour, but in the air it hardens.'

There can therefore be little doubt that Herodotus and Ludolph speak of the same district, since the species of rock-salt is so peculiarly marked in both cases and hence, we are at least able to identify the Ethiopia of Herodotus with this portion of modern Abyssinia.

If we may argue from the direction of the journey of the Ethiopian mentioned in the Acts, it seems most probable that he was returning to the African Ethiopia; since Gaza was the direct line for embarkation if he purposed afterwards to ascend the Nile. However this may be, or to whichever country his steps were directed; as we may assume that much the same state of religious knowledge existed in both; the inference may be the same, that the first preaching of Christianity in Ethiopia must have found many who, as Jews, would resist and separate themselves from the diffusion of the Gospel, as it would find also some prepared to modify their former Jewish opinions, according to the rule of the Christian

faith. Nor even at a comparatively recent period were all signs lost of such a transition: the Ethiopians, according to Ludolph's interpreter, Gregory, are said to have called the bread which was set aside for the Eucharist and marked with a cross, "Corban." The derivation we cannot doubt. It must have been from former association of the same word with consecration to God in the gifts of the Jewish Temple.

Nor can we ascribe the ancient legend formerly borne by the Abyssinian kings, "The lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered," nor the universal prevalence of the names of Michael, of Jacob, and of Sion, among the inhabitants of this country, to any other cause than an ancient intermixture with the Jews, whether dispersed from the captivity of Psalmanasar or of Babylon, or from the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem.

Thus, what slight evidence is now attainable on this subject, tends towards the supposition that the first preaching of Christianity in Ethiopia, would be offered to a community imbued in some degree with Jewish prejudices. From hence it might result that those, who preferring to be

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

*