The learned Reinaud, in his recent excellent translation of Abulfeda (T. ii., P. i., p. 81-82), considers it probable that the Ptolemaic interpretation of the name, by “Mountains of the Moon” (ὅρη σεληναῖα), was that originally adopted by the Arabian writers. He remarks that in the Moschtarek of Yakut, and in Ibn-Said, the mountains are written al-Komr, and that Yakut writes in the same way the name of the island of Zendj (Zanguebar). The Abyssinian traveller Beke, in his learned critical memoir on the Nile and its tributaries (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, vol. xvii. 1847, p. 74-76), seeks to prove that Ptolemy had merely formed his σελήνης ὅρος from a native name, for which he was indebted to intelligence received through the medium of the extensive commercial intercourse which prevailed. He says, “Ptolemy knew that the Nile rises in the mountainous country of Moezi; and in the languages which extend over a great portion of South Africa (for example, in the languages of Congo, Monjou, and Mozambique), the word Moezi signifies the moon. A great south-western country was called Mono-Muezi, or Mani-Moezi, _i. e._ the land of the king of Moezi (of the king of the Moon country), for in the same family of languages in which Moezi or Muezi signifies the Moon, Mono or Mani signifies a king. Alvarez, in the Viaggio nella Ethiopia (Ramusio, vol. i, p. 249,) speaks of the ‘regne di Manicongo,’ the kingdom of the king of Congo.” Beke’s opponent, Ayrton, seeks the origin of the White Nile (Bahr el Abiad), not as do Arnaud, Werne, and Beke, near the equator, or even south of it (and in 29° E. long. from Paris, or 31° 22′ from Greenwich), but with Antoine d’Abbadie far to the north-east, in the Godjeb and Gibbe of Eneara (Iniara); therefore in the high mountains of Habesch, in 7° 20′ N. latitude, and 33° E. long. from Paris, or 35° 22′ from Greenwich. He conjectures that the Arabs, from a similarity of sound, may have interpreted the native name Gamaro belonging to the Abyssinian mountains, in the south-west of Gaka in which the Godjeb (or White Nile?) has its source, to mean Moon Mountains (Djebel al-Kamar); so that Ptolemy himself, familiar with the intercourse between Abyssinia and the Indian Ocean, may have taken the Semitic version, given by early Arab immigrants. (Compare Ayrton in the Journal of the Royal Geogr. Soc. vol. xviii. 1848, p. 53, 55, and 59-63, with Fred. Werne’s instructive expedition for the discovery of the sources of the Nile, Exped. zur Entd. der Nil-Quellen, 1848, S. 534-536.)