nothing presents itself to the most scrupulous investigations that could lead us to suspect
that a single one of the monuments [of Meroe] might ascend higher than the first century
after j . c. The greater part belong, ■without doubt, even to much 'later times; and we must
place the most flourishing epoch of MeroS nearly at the second or third of our era. And,
not only upon the Isle of Meroe, but in all Ethiopia, from one end to the other, there is not
the slightest trace, I will not say of a primitive civilization anterior to the Egyptian civilization,
as has been dreamed, but not even whatsoever of an Ethiopian. civilization, properly
so called.” 246
These most scientific views of Chev. Lepsius were communicated
to us long ago; and they have materially aided our endeavors to discriminate
between the true and the false,, the certain and the improbable,
in Ethiopia problems; about which, we grieve to say, considerable
mystification is still kept up between the Northern and the
Southern States of our Federal Union, which a little reading might
remove.
On the northern coast of Africa, between the Mediterranean and
the Great Desert, including Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Bengali,
there is a continuous system of highlands, which have been
included under the general term Atlas, anciently Atalantis, now the
Barbary States. This immense tract, in very recent geological times,
was once an Island, with the ocean flowing over the whole of the
Sahara; thus cutting off all land-communication between Barbary, on
the Mediterranean, and the remote plateaux of Nigritia. Throughout
Barbary we encounter another peculiar group of races, subdivided
into many tribes of various shades, now spread over a vast area, but
which formerly had its principal, and probably aboriginal, abode,
along the mountain-slopes of Atlas. The tribes have different appellatives
in different districts: e. g., the ShillQuhs, now a separate
people,247 have been included under the general name of Berbers or
Berebbers: hut from the primitive Berbers the north of Africa seems
to have derived the designation of Barbary or Berberia, “ Land of the
Berbers.” To speak correctly, the real name of the Berbers proper
is Mazirgh ; with the article prefixed or suffixed, T-amazirgh, or Ama-
zirgh-T: meaning, free, dominant, or “ noble race.” Their'name, in
Latin mouths, was softened into Masyes, Masiges, Mazici, &c. and in
Grecian, into as far hack as Herodotus (lib. iv. 191). These
people have spoken a language unlike any other from time immemorial
; and, although it has been a fruitful theme of discussion, yet no
affinity can be established between its ancient words, stripped of
Phoenician and Arabic, and any Asiatic tongue. We have every
reason to feel persuaded that the Berbers existed in (the remotest
times, with all their essential moral and physical peculiarities. In a
word, the reader of Part H. of this work will see, that there exists
no ground for regarding them in any other light than as the autocthones
of Mount Atlas and its prolongations. The Berber was, probably,
as Mr. W. B. H odgson (of Savannah — one of the highest
authorities in Berber lore,) remarks, the language which “ Tyria Bilingua”
was obliged to learn in addition to a Carthaginian mother-
tongue, the Punic or Phoenician speech. We know that this people,
with their language stamped upon the native names of rivers, mountains,
and localities, have existed apart for the last 2500 years; and
inasmuch as Egypt, hack to the time of Menes, barred their intercourse
by land with races on the eastern side of the Suez isthmus,
there is every reason to believe that the Berbers existed, at that remote
date, in the same.state in which they were discovered by Phoenician
navigators, previously to the foundation of Carthage. At the time
of Leo Africanus, the Berber was the language of all Atlas. It has
remained so since, except where crowded out by Arabic. They are
an indomitable nomadic people, who, since the introduction of camels,
have penetrated, in considerable numbers, into the Desert, and even
as far as Nigritia. These Berbers are the Numidians and Mauritanians
of classical writers, by the Romans termed “ genus insuperabile
bello and French Algeria can testify to the indelible bellicosities
of the living race.
We gather from S h aw , that —
. “ The tribes who speak this language have different names: those of the mountains
belonging to Morocco are termed Shilloukhs; those who inhabit the plains of that empire,
dwelling under tents, after the manner of Arabs, are named Berber.; and those of the
mountains belonging to Algiers and Tunis call themselves Cabaylis, or Gebalis” [a designation
which is merely Qabd.il, Arabic for a “ tribe,” when not Gebdylee, “ mountaineer.”]
A fourth and prominent branch must he added to this division:
viz., the TuaryTc, who are now widely spread over the Sahara and its
oases, and on both hanks of the Niger.
Mr. H odgson, long resident officially in the Barbary States, who
has devoted much time, talent,’ and learning, to this subject, seems
to have settled the question, that all these Berber races (except such
few as have adopted- the Arabic) speak dialects of the same language.
In consequence, it has been assumed, by Prichard and others of the
Unity-school, that they must all be of a common origin.. But, while
of this there is no evidence beyond a community of languages, the
manifest diversity of physical characters would prove the contrary.
Some of these clans are white; others black, with woolly h air; and
there is no fact better established in ethnography, than that physical
characters are far more persistent than unwritten tongues. The great
mass of the Berber tribes have, in all likelihood, substantially preserved
their physical as well as moral characters since their creation;
although they have been to some extent subjected to adulterations