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On the Translation of Myths Between the Old And: Africa

The fleets of King Solomon penetrated at least to India, and detached squadrons* probably coasted from island to island along the Malay archipelago; while to descend by gradation to modern times, we may quote the circumnavigation of Africa by Hanno the Carthaginian,† the discovery * Pierre Bergeron suggests that Solomon's fleets, starting from Ezion-geber (subsequently Berenice and now Alcacu), arrived at Babelmandeb, and then divided, one portion going to Malacca, Sumatra, or Java, the other to Sofala, round Africa, and returning by way of Cadiz and the Mediterranean to Joppa. † There are various accounts of the circumnavigation of Africa in old times. For example, Herodotus (Melpomene, 42): "Libya shows itself to be surrounded by water, except so much of it as borders upon Asia. Neco, King of Egypt, was the first whom we know of that proved this; he, when he had ceased digging the canal leading from the Nile to the Arabian gulf, sent certain Phoenicians in ships with orders to sail back through the pillars of Hercules into the Northern Sea, and so to return to Egypt. The Phoenicians accordingly, setting out from the Red Sea, navigated the Southern Sea; when autumn came they went ashore, and sowed the land, by whatever part of Libya they happened to be sailing, and waited for harvest; then, having reaped the corn, they put to sea again. When two years had thus passed, in the third, having doubled the pillars of Hercules, they arrived in Egypt, and related what to me does not seem credible, but may to others, that as they sailed round Libya, they had the sun on the right hand." Again, Pliny tells us (Book ii. chap. lxvii, Translation by Bostock and Riley), " While the power of Carthage was at its height, Hanno published an account of a voyage which he made from Gades to the extremity of Arabia: besides, we learn from Cornelius Nepos, that one Eudoxus, a contemporary of his, when he was flying from King Lathyrus, set out from the Arabian Gulf, and was carried as far as Gades. And long OLD AND NEW WORLD MYTHS. of America prior to Columbus by the Chinese in the fifth century, from the Asiatic side, and by the Norsemen under Leif Ericsson in the year 1001, from the European; and the anticipation of the so-called discoveries of Van Diemen and Tasman by the voyages of Arab and other navigators, from whose records El Edrisi, * in the twelfth century, was enabled to indicate the existence of New Guinea, and, I think, of the northern coast of Australia. For although the identity with Mexico of the country called Fu-sang, visited prior to A.D. 499 before him, Cœlius Antipater informs us, that he had seen a person who had sailed from Spain to Ethiopia for the purposes of trade. The same Cornelius Nepos, when speaking of the northern circumnavigation, tells us that Q. Metellus Celer, the colleague of L. Afranius in the consulship, but then proconsul in Gaul, had a present made to him by the King of the Suevi, of certain Indians, who, sailing from India for the purposes of commerce, had been driven by tempests into Germany."

Ptolemy Lathyrus commenced his reign 117 в.c. and reigned for thirty-six years. Cornelius Nepos is supposed to have lived in the century previous to the Christian era, and Cœlius Antipater to have been born in the middle of the second century в.c. * Edrisi compiled, under the instruction of Roger, King of Sicily, Italy, Lombardy, and Calabria, an exhaustive geographical treatise comprising information derived from numerous preceding works, principally Arabic, and from the testimony of all the geographers of the day.

Vide the Translation into French by M. Amédée Jaubert, 2 vols. 4to, Paris, 1836, included in the Recueil de Voyages et de Mémoires publié par la Société de Géographie. "Ce pays touch celui de Wac Wac où sont deux villes misérables et mal peuplées à cause de la rareté des subsistances et du peu de ressource en tout genre; l'une se nomme Derou et l'autre Nebhena; dans son voisinage est un grand bourg nommé Da'rgha. Les naturels sont noirs, de figure hideuse, de complexion difformé; leur langage est une espèce de sifflement. Ils sont absolument nus et sont peu visités (par les étrangers). Ils vivent de poissons, de coquillages, et de tortues. Ils sont (comme il vient d'être dit) voisins de l'ile de Wac Wac dont nous reparlerons, s'il plait à Dieu. Chacun de ces pays et de ces iles est situé sur un grand golfe, on n'y trouve ni or, ni commerce, ni navire, ni bêtes de somme."-El Edrisi, vol. i. p. 79. by the Buddhist priest Hoei-shiu, has been disputed, yet the arguments in favour of it seem to preponderate. These were adduced primarily by Deguignes, and subsequently by C. F. Neumann, Leland and others, and are based on the facts stated in the short narrative in regard to distance, description of the Maguey plant, or great aloe,* the absence of iron, and abundance of copper, gold, and silver.