The Nile is the great fertilizer of the northern regions of Ethiopia, which depend wholly upon its yearly inundation. It is only towards the junc tion of the two great streams that the rains take an increasingly important share in the watering of the cultivable land. In about N. lat. 17° 40, the great river receives its first tributary, the Asta boras, now called the Atbarah. In about N. lat. 15° 40', is the confluence of the Blue and White Niles. The Blue Nile, which has its source in Abyssinia, is a narrow rapid stream, with high steep mud-banks, like the Nile in Egypt ; it is strongly charged with alluvial soil, to which it owes the dark colour which has given it its dis tinctive name. From this stream the country be low derives the annual alluvial deposits. The White Nile is a colourless river, very broad and shallow, creeping slowly through meadows and wide marsh-lands. Of the cultivation and natural products of Ethiopia little need be said, as they do not illustrate the few notices of it in Scrip ture. It has always been, excepting the northern part, productive, and rich in animal life. Its wild animals have gradually been reduced, yet still the hippopotamus, the crocodile, and the ostrich abound, though the second is alone found through out its extent. The elephant and lion are only known in its southernmost part.
In the Bible a Cushite appears undoubtedly to be equivalent to a Negro, from this passage, ' Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his stripes' (Jer. xiii. 23) ? and it is to he observed, that whenever the race of KEESII is represented on the Egyptian monuments by a single individual, the type is that of the true Negro. It is therefore probable that the Negro race extended anciently further to the north than at present, the whole country watered by the Nile, as far as it is known, being now peopled by a race intermediate between the Negro race and the Caucasian. There is no certain mention, in the Bible, of this intermediate race in Ethiopia, but the Egyptian and Ethiopian monuments afford us indications of its ancient existence in its modern territory, though probably it did not then extend as far south as now. At the present day, Ethiopia is inhabited by a great variety of tribes of this race : the Kunooz, said to be of Arab origin, nearest to Egypt, are very dark ; the Noobeh, the next nation, much lighter : be yond them are some fair Arabs, the Caucasian Abyssinians, with scarcely any trace of Negro in fluence, save in their dark colour, and tribes as black as the true Negro, or nearly so, though not of the pure Negro type. The languages of Ethio pia are as various as the tribes, and appear to hold the same intermediate place between the Semitic group and the Nigritian, if we except the Ethiopic, which belongs to the former family. [ETHIOPIC LANGUAGE.] In all that relates to the civilization of ancient Ethiopia, we see the same connection with Egypt that is constantly indicated in the Bible. So far as the Egyptian sway extended, which was probably, under the empire, as far as somewhat above the junc tion of the two Niles, the religion of Egypt was pro bably practised. While the tract was under Egyptian
rule, this was certainly the case, as the remains of the temples sufficiently shew. We find it as the religion of Tirhakah, in his Ethiopian as well as his Egyptian sculptures, and this is also the case of the later Icings of Ethiopia who held no sway in Egypt. There were evidently local differences, but apparently nothing more. Respecting the laws and forms of government the same may be sup posed. We have very little evidence as to the military matters of the Ethiopians, yet, from their importance to Egypt, there can be little doubt that they were skilful soldiers. Their armies were pro bably drawn from the Ethiopian, or intermediate race, not from the Negro. Of the domestic life of this people we have but slight hints. Probably they were more civilized than are their modern successors. Their art, as seen in the sculptures of their kings in Ethiopian temples, from Tn. hakah downwards, is merely a copy of that of Egypt, shelving, after the first, an inferiority in style to the contemporary works of the original art. Their character can scarcely be determined from scanty statements, applying, it may be, to ex tremely different tribes. In one particular all ac counts agree : they were warlike, as, for instance, we equally see in the defiance the Ethiopian king sent to Cambyses (Herod. iii. 21), and in the cha racteristic inscription at Kalab'sheh of Silco, `king (OaatXtaeos) of the Nubadre and all the Ethiopians' (Modern Egypt and Thebes, ii. pp. 311, 312), who is to he regarded as a very late Ethiopian king or chief in the time of the decline of the Roman empire. The ancients, from Homer downwards, describe them as a happy and pious race. In the Bible they are spoken of as 'secure' or `careless' (Ezek. xxx. 9), hut this may merely refer to their state when danger was impending.
Probably the modern inhabitants of Ethiopia give us a far better picture of their predecessors than we can gather from the few notices to which we have alluded. If we compare the Nubians with the representations of the ancient Egyptians on the monuments, we are struck by a similarity of type, the same manner of wearing the hair, and a like scantiness of clothing. There can be no question that the Nubians are mainly descended from an Egyptianized Ethiopian people of two thousand years ago, who were very nearly related to the Egyptians. The same may be said of many tribes further to the south, although sometimes we find the Arab type and Arab manners and dress. The Ethiopian monuments shew us a people like the ancient Egyptians and the modern Nubians. The northern Nubians are a simple people, with some of the vices, but most of the virtues, of savages. The chastity of their women is celebrated, and they are noted for their fidelity as servants. But they are inhospitable and cruel, and lack the generous qualities of the Arabs. Further south, manners are corrupt, and the national character is that of Egypt without its humanity, and untouched by any but the rudest civilization.