Note 12 — Chapter IV

Ηδη γαρ Λιβυη μεν επι Λιβυης λεγεται υπο των πολλων Ελληνων εχειν τουνομα γυναικος αυτοχθονος. (Melp. § μεʹ.) It may be at the same time remarked, that some writers have derived the term Libya from the Arabic word لوب (Lūb) which signifies thirst, and might therefore be without impropriety applied to a dry and sultry region. We may add that לביא (Libȳa) is the Phœnician, or Hebrew term for a lioness; and Libya is emphatically the country of lions—the “leonum arida nutrix.” לובימ (Lubīm) is the term used for Libyans in holy writ, and the common burthen of Nubian songs at the present day is—o-sī, o-ēh, to Lūbătŏ—of which we could never gain any other translation from the natives, than that it applied to their own country. Lūbătŏ was occasionally pronounced clearly Nūbătŏ, and it was sometimes impossible to tell which of the two pronunciations was intended.