The Abyssinians are to be regarded as belonging to the black races of men, but this is to be received with some explanation. Without entering into particulars, it may be observed, after Riippell (Reise ire Abyssinien), that there are two physical types prevalent among the Abyssinians. The greater number are a finely-formed people of the European type, having a countenance and features precisely resembling those of the Bedouins of Arabia. To this class belong most of the inha bitants of the high mountains of Samen, and of the plains around Lake Tzana, as well as the Falasha, or Jews, the heathen Gafats, and the Agows, notwithstanding the variety of their dia lects. The other and very large division of the Abyssinian people is identified, as far as physical traits are concerned, with the race which has been distinguished by the name of Ethiopian. This race is indicated by a somewhat flattened nose, thick lips, long and rather dull eyes, and by very strongly crisped and almost woolly hair, which stands very thickly upon the head. They are therefore one of the connecting links between the Arabian and the Negro races, being separated from the former by a somewhat broader line than from the latter. In their essential characteristics they agree with the Nubians, Berberines, and native Egyptians (Prichard's Nat. Hist. of Man, P. Abyssinia has for ages been united under one governor, who during the earliest periods resided at Axum, the ancient capital of Tigre ; but who for some centuries past has resided at Gondar, a more central part of the kingdom. For ages also the Abyssins have been Christians, but with a strange mixture of the Judaism which appears to have been previously professed, and with the exceptions which have been already indicated. Tigre, in which was the ancient capital of the empire, was the country in which Judaism appears to have been in former times the most prevalent. It was also the country which possessed, in the Gheez or ancient Ethiopic, a Semitic language. It was, moreover, the seat of civilization, which, it is important to observe, appears to have been derived from the opposite coast of Arabia, and to have had nothing Egyptian or Nubian in its character.
These observations have brought us back again to the difficulty stated at the commencement of this article, in the words of Dr. Prichard, which has hitherto been considered insuperable. There is no doubt, however, that this difficulty has chiefly arisen from attempting to explain all the phe nomena on a single principle; whereas two causes at least contributed to produce them, as the fol lowing remarks will clearly skew :— The former profession of Judaism in the country is sufficient to account for the class of observances and notions derivable from the Jewish ritual, which are very numerous, and appear singular, mixed up as they are with a professedly Christian faith. This, however, does not account for Jewish manners and customs, or for the existence of a language so much resembling the Hebrew, and so truly a Semitic dialect as the Gheez, or old Ethio pian. For nations may adopt a foreign religion, and maintain the usages arising from it, without any marked change of their customs or language. But all which this leaves unsolved may, to our apprehension, be very satisfactorily accounted for by the now generally admitted fact, that at least the people of Tigre, who possessed a Semitic language so nearly resembling the Hebrew, are a Semitic colony, who imported into Abyssinia not only a Semitic language, but Semitic manners, usages, and modes of thought. Whether this
may or may not be true of the Amhara also, depends in a great degree upon the conclusion that may be reached respecting the Amharic language, which, through the large admixture of Ethiopic and Arabic words, has a Semitic appearance, but may, notwithstanding, prove to be fundamentally African. At all events, the extent to which the Gheez language has operated upon it would afford a proof of the influence of the Semitic colony upon the native population : which is all that can reasonably be desired to account for the pheno mena which have excited so much inquiry and attention.
If it should be objected that it is not sufficient to identify as Semitic the manners and usages which have been described as Hebrew, we would beg to call attention to that passage, in the commencing extract, which, with an unintended significance, intimates that these customs are those of the early times of Gideon and Joshua, when the Hebrews had not been long subject to the peculiar modi fying influences of the Mosaical institutions. This is very much the same as to say that the customs and usages in view are in accordance with the general type of Semitic manners, rather than with the particular type which the Mosaical institutions produced; or, in other words, that they resemble the manners of the Hebrews most when those manners had least departed from the general standard of usages which prevailed among the Semitic family of nations. They are, therefore, less Hebrew manners than Semitic manners, and as such, are accounted for by the presence of Semitic races in the country. In point of fact, travellers who derive their first notions of the East from the Bible, when they come among a strange people, are too ready to set down as specifically Hebrew some of the more striking usages which attract their notice ; whereas, in fact, they are generically Oriental, or at least Semitic, and are Hebrew also merely because the Hebrews were an Oriental people, and had Oriental features, habits, and usages. Our conclusion, then, is, that the former prevalence of the Jewish religion in Abys sinia accounts for the existence of the Jewish ritual usages; and that the presence of one (per haps more than one) paramount Semitic colony accounts for the existence, in this quarter, of a Semitic language, and Semitic (and therefore Hebrew) manners and usages. We entertain a very strong conviction that this conclusion will be corroborated by all the research into Abyssinian history and antiquities which may hereafter be made.
Having thus considered the question which alone authorized the introduction of this article, we reserve for other articles [CANDACE; ETH 10PIA ; SHEBA, QUEEN OF] some questions connected with other points in the history of Abyssinia, especially the introduction of Judaism into that country. Of the numerous books which have been written respecting Abyssinia, the Histones of Tellez and Ludolph, and the Travels of Kramp, Bruce, Salt, and Riippell, are the most important ; and an admirable digest of existing information may be found in Ritter's Erdkunde, th. i., and (as far as regards ethnography and languages) in Prichard's Researches, vol. ii. ch. vi., and his Natural History of Man, sec. 26.—J. K.