[Footnote 217:  It is impossible, in the compass of a note, to enter into any commentary on this slight sketch of the ancient geography of eastern Africa.—­E.]

The other, or interior Ethiopia, being a region of vast extent, is now only somewhat known upon the sea-coast, but may be described as follows.  In the first place, towards the south of the equator, is a great region of Ethiopians, in which are white elephants, tigers, (lions) and rhinoceroses.  Also a region producing plenty of cinnamon, which lies between the branches of the Nile.  Also the kingdom of Habesch or Habasia,[218] a region inhabited by Christians, on both sides of the Nile.  Likewise those Ethiopians called Ichthyophagi, or who live only on fish, who were subdued in the wars of Alexander the Great[219].  Also the Ethiopians called Rapsii and Anthropophagi, who are in use to eat human flesh, and inhabit the regions near the mountains of the moon. Gazatia is under the tropic of Capricorn; after which comes the front of Africa, and the Cape of Good Hope, past which they sail from Lisbon to Calicut:  But as the capes and gulfs, with their names, are to be found on every globe and chart, it were superfluous to enumerate them here.

[Footnote 218:  It is strange that Habasia or Abyssinia, inhabited by Christians, should thus be divided from the empire of Prester John.—­E.]

[Footnote 219:  The Icthyophagi of Alexander dwelt on the oceanic coast of Persia, now Mekran, between the river Indus and the Persian gulf, not in Ethiopia.—­E.]

Some allege that Africa was so named by the Greeks, as being without cold; the Greek letter alpha signifying privation, void of, or without, and phrice signifying cold; as, although it has a cloudy and tempestuous season instead of winter, it is yet never cold, but rather smothering hot, with hot showers, and such scorching winds, that at certain times the inhabitants seem as if living in furnaces, and in a manner half ready for purgatory or hell.  According to Gemma Phrisius, in certain parts of Africa, as in the greater Atlas, the air in the night is seen shining with many strange fires and flames, rising as it were as high as the moon, and strange noises are heard in the air, as of pipes, trumpets, and drums, which are caused perhaps by the vehement motions of these fiery exhalations, as we see in many experiments wrought by fire, air, and wind.  The hollowness also, and various reflections and breakings of the clouds, may be great causes thereof, besides the great coldness of the middle region of the air, by which these fiery exhalations, when they ascend there, are suddenly driven back with great force.  Daily experience teaches us, by the whizzing of a burning torch, what a noise fire occasions in the air, and much more so when it strives and is inclosed with air, as seen in guns; and even when air alone is inclosed, as in organ pipes and other wind instruments:  For wind, according to philosophers, is nothing but air vehemently moved, as when propelled by a pair of bellows, and the like.