s
astronomical representations, the Zodiacs, which adorn the
ceilings of the temples in _Egypt_, nor of the paintings which
cover the silent and solemn repositories of their dead. Even
the royal sepulchres, surpassing all the efforts of art
hitherto known, in brilliancy of colours and decorative
sculptures, are recorded by no historian! Neither in any
history, _known to Europe_, is there any allusion to the
Egyptian custom of placing books, i.e. rolls of manuscript, in
the mummy coffins with the bodies of the deceased. For much of
the knowledge collected respecting Africa, we are indebted to
the catacombs of Egypt, and we must not hope to know much more,
whilst our ignorance of the Arabic language is so manifest; we
must travel far out of the precincts of Greek and Latin lore,
before we shall procure correct histories of African affairs!
Our knowledge of Hebrew, in Europe I apprehend, is almost as
much confined and as imperfect as that of Arabic! By the
assistance, however, of the latter, what store of learning
might we not expect from complete Arabic translations of many
of the Greek and Latin authors, _viz._ of the _complete_ works
of Livy, Tacitus, and many others. I recollect conversing with
Abdrahaman ben Nassar, bashaw of Abda, (a gentleman deeply
versed in Arabian literature,) about the close of the last
century, who mentioned circumstances, which gave me reason to
suppose that there is extant a complete Arabic translation of
Livy as well as of Tacitus, as the bashaw assured me there was,
and that he had read them, and they were to be found in the
recondite chests of the Imperial library at Fas, in which it is
more than probable that there are many valuable transcripts in
Arabic of ancient authors, quite lost to erudite Europe! A
knowledge of the Arabic language in this country is so
indispensable, and is held in such high estimation, that every
one who does not understand it, is denominated _ajemmy_, _i.e._
barbarian or European.--St. Paul in the same spirit says, I
Corinth. ch. xiv. v. 11., "He that speaketh unintelligibly, is
unto us a barbarian."]

[Footnote 116: See Genesis, xv. 16. Deutero