emperor was equally polite, and descending from his dromedary, advanced
to meet me. "I am happy," said he, "to have the honour to receive so
illustrious a traveller, and assure you that everything in my empire
shall be at your disposal."

I thanked his Majesty for his politeness, and expressed how happy I was
to meet so polished and refined a people in the centre of Africa, and
that I hoped to show myself and company grateful for his esteem, by
introducing the arts and sciences of Europe among the people.

I immediately perceived the true descent of this people, which does not
appear of terrestrial origin, but descended from some of the inhabitants
of the moon, because the principal language spoken there, and in the
centre of Africa, is very nearly the same. Their alphabet and method of
writing are pretty much the same, and show the extreme antiquity of this
people, and their exalted origin. I here give you a specimen of their
writing [_Vide Otrckocsus de Orig. Hung._ p. 46]:--Stregnah, dna
skoohtop.

These characters I have submitted to the inspection of a celebrated
antiquarian, and it will be proved to the satisfaction of every one,
in his next volume, what an immediate intercourse there must have been
between the inhabitants of the moon and the ancient Scythians, which
Scythians did not by any means inhabit a part of Russia, but the
central part of Africa, as I can abundantly prove to my very learned
and laborious friend. The above words, written in our characters, are
_Sregnah dna skoohtop_; that is, The Scythians are of heavenly origin.
The word _Sregnah_, which signifies _Scythians_, is compounded of _sreg_
or _sre_, whence our present English word sire, or sir: and _nah_,
or _gnah_, knowledge, because the Scythians united the essentials of
nobility and learning together: _dna_ signifies heaven, or belonging to
the moon, from _duna_, who was anciently worshipped as goddess of that
luminary. And _skooh-top_ signifies the origin or beginning of anything,
from _skoo_, the name used in the moon for a point in geometry, and
_top_ or _htop_, vegetation. These words are inscribed at this day upon
a pyramid in the centre of Africa, nearly at the source of the river
Niger; and if any one refuses his assent, he may go there to be
convinced.

The emperor conducted me to his court amidst the admiration of
his courtiers, and paid us every possible politeness that African
magnificence could bestow. He never presumed to pr