Among the ancients, this country was known as that of the Avalites; in which word may perhaps be recognised, Affah, the present native name of the Dankalli tribes, living on the western coast of the Red Sea, but which formerly had a far more extensive application, and included the numerous Soumaulee tribes, who inhabited the country to the south of the Sea of Babel Mandeb as far as Cape Guardefoi, and from thence southward along the eastern coast of Africa as far as Malinda. Another name for these Affah tribes is Adal; given to them by the Abyssinians inland, and which, according to some recent authorities, has arisen from the circumstance of the principal tribe with whom the Abyssinians have any intercourse being the Adu Alee, living in the immediate vicinity of Massoah, which name has gradually become to be used as the designation of the whole people. I confess that I do not see the propriety of this derivation, as it appears more natural to derive the Abyssinian name from that of the chief part of this country at an early period, when a powerful Egyptian monarch made the Affah port, Adulis, the capital of an extensive country. The terminal letter of this proper name, I have been informed, may be the usual Grecian affix to adapt it to the genius of their language; and I think the probability is, that the ς has been thus added, and that the word Aduli was the origin of the Greek Adulis, and of the modern name Adal. Another very common name for these people is Dankalli, a word which appears to be of Persian origin; but one that is also acknowledged by the Affah themselves, as the proper name of their country, or of their people collectively. In the time of Ludolph, Dankalli was known as the name of a large kingdom or province, situated on the sea-coast, extending from the port of Adulis to the confines of the country of the Assobah Galla, who then dwelt in the country immediately to the north of Tajourah. The Assobah are now, however, considered to be a Dankalli tribe, a change which I conceive has taken place in consequence of this tribe having since become Gibbertee, or “strong in the Islam faith;” for a religious distinction, I find, has for some centuries separated the original Affah nation into Dankalli and Soumaulee. The latter, whose name is derived from the Abyssinian word _soumahe_, or heathens, being supposed by the strict Mahomedan Dankalli, still in a great proportion to adhere to their ancient Sabian faith, and only partially to profess the Islam belief. Soumaulee corresponds with the Arabic word, kafir, or unbeliever, the name by which alone Edresi, the Arabian geographer, knew and described the inhabitants of the Affah coast, to the east of the straits of Babel Mandeb.