circumcision under the countenance of Azarias, the son of Zadok, the high priest, and the representatives of the twelve tribes who came with him at that time from Jerusalem. It seems to me very extraordinary, that, if circumcision was originally a Jewish invention, all those nations to the south should be absolutely ignorant of it, while others to the northward were so early acquainted with it; for none of those nations up the Nile (excepting the Shepherds) either know or practise it to this day; though, ever since the 1400th year before Christ, they have been in the closest connection with the Jews. This would rather make me believe, that the rite of circumcision went northward from the plain of Mamrè, for it certainly made no progress southward from Egypt. We see it obtained in Arabia, by Zipporah[106], Moses’s wife, circumcising her son upon their return to Egypt. Her great anxiety to have that operation immediately performed, shews that her’s was a Judaical circumcision; there was no sin that attended the omission of this operation in Egypt, but God had said to Abraham[107], “The soul that is not circumcised shall be cut off from Israel.” The Tcheratz Agows, who live between Lasta and Begemder, in an exceedingly fertile country, are not circumcised; and, therefore, if this nation left Palestine upon Joshua passing Jordan, circumcision was not known there, for the Agows to this day are uncircumcised. The same may be said of the Agows of Damot, who are settled at the head of the Nile. It will be seen by the two specimens of their different languages that they are different nations, as I have alledged. Next to these are the Gafat, in a plain open country, who do not use circumcision; none of them were ever converted to Judaism, and but few of them to Christianity. The next are the people of Amhara who did not use circumcision, at least few of them, till after the massacre of the princes by Judith in the year 900, when the remaining princes of the line of Solomon fled to Shoa, and the court was established there. The last of these nations that I shall mention are the Galla, who are not circumcised; of this nation we have said enough.