er four
periods, 1. In the time of Homer, when the Greeks and Asiatics might
probably use a common idiom, the imitative sound of Barbar was applied
to the ruder tribes, whose pronunciation was most harsh, whose grammar
was most defective. 2. From the time, at least, of Herodotus, it was
extended to all the nations who were strangers to the language and
manners of the Greeks. 3. In the age, of Plautus, the Romans submitted
to the insult (Pompeius Festus, l. ii. p. 48, edit. Dacier), and freely
gave themselves the name of Barbarians. They insensibly claimed an
exemption for Italy, and her subject provinces; and at length removed
the disgraceful appellation to the savage or hostile nations beyond
the pale of the empire. 4. In every sense, it was due to the Moors; the
familiar word was borrowed from the Latin Provincials by the Arabian
conquerors, and has justly settled as a local denomination (Barbary)
along the northern coast of Africa.]

Such is the tale of the modern Arabians. Yet I strongly suspect that
their ignorance of antiquity, the love of the marvellous, and the
fashion of extolling the philosophy of Barbarians, has induced them to
describe, as one voluntary act, the calamities of three hundred years
since the first fury of the Donatists and Vandals. In the progress
of the revolt, Cahina had most probably contributed her share of
destruction; and the alarm of universal ruin might terrify and alienate
the cities that had reluctantly yielded to her unworthy yoke. They
no longer hoped, perhaps they no longer wished, the return of their
Byzantine sovereigns: their present servitude was not alleviated by the
benefits of order and justice; and the most zealous Catholic must prefer
the imperfect truths of the Koran to the blind and rude idolatry of the
Moors. The general of the Saracens was again received as the saviour of
the province; the friends of civil society conspired against the savages
of the land; and the royal prophetess was slain in the first battle
which overturned the baseless fabric of her superstition and empire.
The same spirit revived under the successor of Hassan; it was finally
quelled by the activity of Musa and his two sons; but the number of the
rebels may be presumed from that of three hundred thousand captives;
sixty thousand of whom, the caliph's fifth, were sold for the profit
of thee public treasury. Thirty thousand of the Barbarian youth were
enlisted in the troops; and the pious labours of