On the Origins or the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language

eunuch, having sought Christ in the letter and having finally found Him, having been bathed in the sacred font, brought back the plants and gems of the Christian faith, so that he himself who had once been among the delights might finally, by divine ordination, insert Christian piety. To this day, from those times, they persist in the Christian dogma, never having been infested by heresies, as some of their priests have asserted to me, for no other reason except that their priests never wanted to join God and mammon. A truly great example of divine goodness, revealed in these times to us who inhabit so diverse a region of the world. That prince commands the eighteen Muhametans. His palace is called in their language "Achsum," in that place where Ptolemy once placed Axuma and the Axumite peoples. If God grants, we will treat of this matter in more detail in our cosmographical works. Raamah carried on in the eastern part of Arabia where he named a city by the same name, and another "Regima." That voice is written by the Hebrews not with "g" or with "gimel," but with "hain," which is brought forth from the throat so that it passes over in many into "g," as in "Gaza," which is called Gaza, and "Gomorra," and here Raamah "Regma." The older son of this one, by the name Seba, gave a name to that part of Arabia on the borders of Persia of which I spoke before, where Ptolemy places the gulf of the Magi. The other, the younger, called Dadan, seems to have left behind the city of Dadan, which is in Ptolemy, in Arabia Deserta. Josephus says that the Sabatacheans were called from Sebathacha; I find no trace of that voice except in the city of Sebatta, not far from the Syrtes, which they call today the "Seccas" of Barbary. So arduous is it to restore to antiquity that which arises from caprice and human works, when we scarcely recognize even the works of nature—animals and plants—perpetually like and consistent with itself, depicted with such diligence by the ancients, as maintained by the same condition of nature. Nimrod had almost escaped me, the sixth of the children of Cush, who is believed to be the father of the ancient Belus by the vanity of the Greeks. He, as if to bring force upon nature, whose art and power he wished to escape by human wit