correct ideas of its form had been entertained at Alexandria before his time.

The Copts and Egyptians demand the priority in treating of the inhabitants of Africa, from their early connexion with ancient history. It is observable that the mummies of the Egyptians have the countenances of negros; at present the people of middle Africa in general are more or less like negros, but they are somewhat less dark, and their noses and lips are less peculiar. The Egyptians are supposed by some to have received their civilisation from Ethiopia: in later times they were much mixed with their neighbours and their conquerors. The Saracens called them Copts. The Coptic language contains much Greek: the rest is probably old Egyptian,

which must be considered as a distinct language, no standing

some resemblances to the Hebrew and Arabic, the languages of Tigri, Amhara, and the Berbers: with the Sanscrit it is little or not at all connected; and the majority of its simplest roots are peculiar to itself. In some of the numerals it agrees with the Hebrew: the word Chmom, heat, resembles the Hebrew and Syriac Chmam; Chim or Chem is, to be hot, and this seems to afford a satisfactory etymology of the term Chemia, implying the Hermetic science, brought from Egypt, as a magic art, in the time of Diocletian. The Coptic language has been extinct about two centuries: the northern or Memphitic dialect is the most known: there is also a Sahidic translation of the Bible, supposed by Woide to be more modern, by others to be more ancient than the Memphitic; and a fragment has been found, in a Borgian manuscript, of a translation into a Thebaic dialect, different from either of the former, but most resembling the Sahidic. It may be hoped that some light will be thrown on the old Coptic, by the attempts of future investigators to decypher the inscriptions of Rosetta, more completely than Mr. Ackerblad has done. The bandages of the mummies, copied by Denon, present us with another interesting field of inquiry: but the characters which they exhibit are totally different from those of Rosetta: they appear to exceed thirty in number, besides some occasional variations in their repetition, perhaps intended to denote vowels, as in the Ethiopic.

The north of Africa is occupied by inhabitants not much differing in appearance from the Arabs: its three principal divisions are the coast, the country of wild beasts, and the desert. The later Arabs have expelled the earlier Africans from the first division, and partly from the second: the Berbers occupy the third; inhabiting principally the Oases or islands, scattered through the desert, from mount Atlas to Egypt, and speaking, as Hornemann first ascertained, the same language throughout this vast extent. They were first well described by Leo Africanus: they are probably the

remains

remains of the Mauritanians, Numidians, Gaetulians and Gara mantians: there is no foundation whatever for the opinion of some modern authors of celebrity, that their language is derived from the Punic: we even find from Sallust that the Numidian language differed from the Carthaginian, and from Valerius Maximus that it was written in a peculiar character. The language of the Canaries considerably resembles the Berber: thus milk is Acho in Berber, Aho in the Canaries. These islands were discovered in 1330, and afterwards conquered with some difficulty by the Spaniards: the inhabitants were a fine race of men, and lived in comfort and tranquillity; and they still preserve some traces of their original character and condition.

Professor Vater has entered into a minute account of the language of Amhara, the Camara of Agatharchides; he considers it as totally independent of the Geez or Ethiopic, with the exception of some adopted words, which require peculiar characters: but we cannot help preferring the arrangement of Adelung, who makes the Amharic a dialect of the Ethiopic, for to us the two languages appear to be almost identical. The Amharic has a very few resemblances to the Sanscrit, for instance, Tshegure, hair, in Sanscrit Tshicura. Macrizi tells us that there are in the whole fifty Abyssinian dialects, so that there may still be a variety of original languages among them. Dr. Seetzen has given us much information respecting some of these dialects, in the eastern part of the country; in particular the languages of Hauasa in Tigri, Argubba, and the islands Massua and Suaken: the Hauasan we have classed as a dialect of the Amharic. The Agows and the Gafats are situated in the neighbourhood of the Nile: the Falashas are Jewish, and scattered through the country, especially in Dembea. The Mek, or king of Dungola, is dependent on the king of Sennaar: the Barabras, at the confluence of the Tacazze and the Nile, are also subjects of the Mek of Dungola.

The inhabitants of the country between the desert Zaara and the Niger have a great resemblance to negros, but are somewhat different from them. In the east are those of Sudan, or Afnu, and Begirma: in the west the Fulahs: the Phellatas are a branch of these, extending considerably to the north east, with a mixture of negros.

Of the languages of the negros, strictly so called, many interesting specimens have been collected by the zeal of the Evangelical missionaries in the Caribbee islands, and published by Oldendorp in his account of the mission: but we have not sufficient materials, to enable us to trace any extensive connexions or dependences among their multifarious dialects.

There are some points of coincidence between the language of Madagascar and those of the Malays, the Philippine islanders, the

T2

Beetjuana

Beetjuana Caffres, and the Corana Hottentots: there are also a few words borrowed from the modern Arabic, not, as Court de Gebelin would persuade us, from the Phenician; nor can any other of the affinities be very distinctly established.

The Caffres have little of the negro character, except the black colour, and less of this, as they become more remote from the equator. The researches of Lichtenstein, to whom our author very indulgently gives great credit for his persevering industry, are said to have shown the identity of the people occupying the whole of Africa north of the Hottentots, as far as Benguela and Quiloa, all of whom are considered as belonging to the Caffres.

The Hottentots, with their neighbours the Bosjemans, speak different dialects of the same singular language in different parts of their country. The Dammaras, who are classed by Lichtenstein among the Hottentots, were considered by Barrow, apparently on better evidence, as Caffres: of their particular dialect nothing appears to be known.

The account of the language of the Hottentots concludes the first part of the third volume of this elaborate work. The publishers and the editor have informed their readers that two additional parts were very soon to appear: the one containing an account of the languages of America; the other some additions to the whole work, principally from the papers of Professor Adelung, together with an essay on the Cantabrian language, by the active and ingenious Baron Humboldt. The most valuable of the materials relating to the American languages have also been obtained from Baron Humboldt: and Professor Vater has prepared them for publication, in a much more instructive form, than that in which they were put into his hands. In this, as well as in the execution of other parts of his task, we cannot but approve his diligence, though we do not profess to feel so lively an interest, respecting languages uncultivated by literature, and unimproved by civilisation, as respecting those, of which the analogies are applicable to the verification of history, and the illustration of the progress of the human mind towards perfection.

We have no means of communication with Cincinnatus.

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