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

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1 88 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
Genesis x. 10. But there seems no reason why it
should not be the modern Senaar, between the Blue
River and the true stream of the Nile. As the
Memnones were placed not far off, an additional
reason might thus be given for the blending of India
and ^Ethiopia as the scene of the events. If the
scene were thus correctly laid on the confines of
Abyssinia, a somewhat curious analogy would be pre
sented to a modern story, not wholly unlike the one
now before us Dr. Johnson s Rasselas, or the
Prince of Abyssinia."
It is said that to this day the
Abyssinians call themselves Itiopjawan^ or ./Ethio
pians, and their language is of Semitic origin. 1 This
last circumstance may help to explain the fact that
the names in Barlaam and Joasaph are Hebrew or
Syriac. Besides those of the two principal characters,
we have that of King Abenner, the father of Joasaph,
Barachias, named as his successor, Nachor the astrotrologer,
Theudas the magician, and the like. On
the whole, observing also that the names of SS. Bar
laam and Joasaph, or Josaphat, are found in the
Roman martyrology, as well as in the Greek Menaa,
it
might not be unreasonable for us to conclude that
some such account of the spread of Christianity
in Abyssinia, or its confines, in the days when the
Thebais was peopled with hermits, had reached the
ears of John of Damascus, and that he enlarged
it
by
the addition of the long discourses between the
young prince and the monk. There may be thus the
same basis of historical truth in it that there is in the
;
1
See the article "ythiopia
in Smith s "Dictionary of
Geography."