e effected by the present System
of solitary Travellers; but by a grand Plan, with a numerous
Company; beginning with Commerce, as the natural Prelude to
Discovery, the Fore-runner of Civilization, and a preliminary Step,
indispensable to the Conversion of the native Negroes to
Christianity._

The inhabitants of the snowy or upper regions of the Atlas live,
during the months of November, December, January, February, and
half of March, in caves or excavations in the mountains; the snow
then disappears, and they begin to cultivate the earth.

I have repeatedly heard reports of the (_Helel Killeb_,[146])
dog-faced race; of the (_Hel Shual_,) tailed race; and of the race
199 having one eye,[147] and that in the breast. It is extremely
difficult to ascertain the origin of these reports, which are so
involved in metaphor that the signification is not intelligible to
Europeans; their existence is not doubted, however, in Africa. Of
the _Hel El Killeb_ some ignorant people affirm that the Almighty
transformed one of the tribes of the Jews into these people, and
that these are their descendants; others report them to be a
mongrel breed, between the human and ape species; their strength is
said to be very great. The Africans assert with considerable
confidence, which is corroborated, that the Hel Shual have a tail
half a cubit long; that they inhabit a district in the Desert at an
immense distance south-east of Marocco; that the Hel El Killeb[148]
200 are in a similar direction; that the latter are diminutive, being
about two or three cubits[149] in height; that they exclaim _bak,
bak, bak_, and that they have a few articulate sounds, which they
mutually understand among themselves; that they are extremely swift
of foot, and run as fast as horses. The Arimaspi of Herodotus are
called by the Arabs _Hel Ferdie_, these are represented by the
Arabs of the Desert as living at the foot of the lofty mountains of
the Moon, near Abyssinia: the male and female are equally without
hair on their head, having large chins and nostrils, like the ape
species; they are said to have a language of their own; their
costume is a _jelabea_,[150] and a belt, without shoes or head
dress; their country is said to abound in gold. It is "a
consummation devoutly to be wished," that our k