st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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DOUBTFUL WRITINGS. 187
John of Damascus." In another it is described as
drawn up in the monastery of St. Saba by the same
compiler, from the report of reverend men who had
brought the narrative from Ethiopia. But in others,
again, the author or compiler is more vaguely termed
John the monk," and the like. Nor is the question
of authenticity less difficult to decide. The scene of
the events related is not easy to verify the interior
region of the /Ethiopians, called India." In the
beginning of the work itself the region
is thus de
fined :
is called the country of the Indians,
a great and populous country, lies at a distance from
Egypt, being washed towards that quarter by navig
able seas and the main. On the side of the main
land it
approaches the confines of Persia."
The confusion of Ethiopians with Indians may
perhaps be explained. In the earliest writers we find
the terms used more or less promiscuously. Even
Alexander the Great, we are told, expected to dis
cover the source of the Nile in India. 1 If we take
the expression "approaching the confines of Persia"
to mean no more than that the district lay towards
the east coast of Africa, we may perhaps
way to some conjecture as to the locality. For
the monk Barlaam, who is one of the chief person
ages in the story, is described as coming from a
in the land of Senaar. This is assumed
feel our
desert place
by Boissonade to be the Shinar or Babylonia of
1
See the article "India" in Smith s "Dictionary of Geo
graphy,"
and also Neander s Church "
History
(Bonn s ed.),
vol. i., p. 113. The error perpetuated in our name "West
Indies
will occur to the reader.