features to
the Egyptians, Chebron. And their tongue is also not unlike yours; I
can understand their speech."

"Our oldest books," Amuba said, "say that we are kindred people, and
are Asiatic rather than African in our origin. The people of Meroe say
that their far-back ancestors came from Arabia, and first spreading
along the western shore of the Red Sea, ascended to the high lands and
drove out the black people who inhabited them.

"As to our own origin, it is vague; but my father has told me that the
opinion among those most skilled in the ancient learning is that we
too came from Arabia. We were not all one people, that is certain; and
it is comparatively of recent years, though a vast time as far as
human lives go, that the people of the Thebaid--that is, of Upper
Egypt--extended their dominion over Lower Egypt and made the whole
country one nation. Even now, you know, the king wears two crowns--the
one of Upper Egypt, the other of the lower country. Along the shores
of the Great Sea to the west are Libyans and other peoples similar in
race to ourselves. My father considered that the tribes which first
came from Asia pressed on to the west, driving back or exterminating
the black people. Each fresh wave that came from the east pushed the
others further and further, until at last the ancestors of the people
of Lower Egypt arrived and settled there.

"In Meroe the temples and religion are similar to our own. Whether
they brought that religion from Arabia, or whether we planted it there
during our various conquests of the country, I cannot tell you; but
certain it is that there is at present but little more difference
between Upper Egypt and Meroe than there is between Upper Egypt and
the Delta."

"And beyond Meroe the people are all black like those we see here?"

"So I believe, Amuba. Our merchants penetrate vast distances to the
south exchanging our products for gold and ivory, and everywhere they
find the country inhabited by black people living in wretched
villages, without, as it seems, any government, or law, or order,
waging war with each other and making slaves, whom they also sell to
our merchants. They differ so wholly from us that it is certain that
we cannot come from the same stock. But they are strong and active and
make excellent slaves. Lying between Meroe and the sea, the country
called Abyssinia is also inhabited by a race of Arab blood, but
differing more from us than those of Meroe.

"The