BOOK V.

ACCOUNT OF MY JOURNEY FROM MASUAH TO GONDAR--TRANSACTIONS THERE--MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ABYSSINIANS.

CHAP. I.

_Transactions at Masuah and Arkeeko._

Masuah, which means the port or harbour of the Shepherds, is a small island immediately on the Abyssinian shore, having an excellent harbour, and water deep enough for ships of any size to the very edge of the island: here they may ride in the utmost security, from whatever point, or with whatever degree of strength, the wind blows. As it takes its modern, so it received its ancient name from its harbour. It was called by the Greeks _Sebasticum Os_, from the capacity of its port, which is distributed into three divisions. The island itself is very small, scarce three quarters of a mile in length, and about half that in breadth, one-third occupied, by houses, one by cisterns to receive the rain-water, and the last is reserved for burying the dead.

Masuah, as we have already observed, was one of those towns on the west of the Red Sea that followed the conquest of Arabia Felix by Sinan Basha, under Selim emperor of Constantinople. At that time it was a place of great commerce, possessing a share of the Indian trade in common with the other ports of the Red Sea near the mouth of the Indian Ocean. It had a considerable quantity of exports brought to it from a great tract of mountainous country behind it, in all ages very unhospitable, and almost inaccessible to strangers. Gold and ivory, elephants and buffaloes hides, and, above all, slaves, of much greater value, as being more sought after for their personal qualities than any other sort, who had the misfortune to be reduced to that condition, made the principal articles of exportation from this port. Pearls, considerable for size, water, or colour, were found all along its coast. The great convenience of commodious riding for vessels, joined to these valuable articles of trade, had overcome the inconvenience of want of water, the principal necessary of life, to which it had been subjected from its creation.

Masuah continued a place of much resort as long as commerce flourished, but it fell into obscurity very suddenly under the oppression of the Turks, who put the finishing-hand to the ruin of the India trade in the Red Sea, begun some years before by the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, and the settlements made by the Portuguese on the continent of India.

The first government of Masuah under the Turks was by a basha sent from Constantinople, and from thence, for a time, the conquest of Abyssinia was attempted, always with great confidence, though never with any degree of success; so that, losing its value as a garrison, and, at the same time, as a place of trade, it was thought no longer worth while to keep up so expensive an establishment as that of a bashalik.

The principal auxiliary, when the Turks conquered the place, was a tribe of Mahometans called Belowee, shepherds inhabiting the coast of the Red Sea under the mountains of the Habab, about lat. 14°. In reward for this assistance, the Turks gave their chief the civil government of Masuah and its territory, under the title of Naybe of Masuah; and, upon the basha’s being withdrawn, this officer remained in fact sovereign of the place, though, to save appearances, he held it of the grand signior for an annual tribute, upon receiving a firman from the Ottoman Porte.

The body of Janizaries, once established there in garrison, were left in the island, and their pay continued to them from Constantinople. These marrying the women of the country, their children succeeded them in their place and pay as Janizaries; but being now, by their intermarriages, Moors, and natives of Masuah, they became of course relations to each other, and always subject to the influence of the Naybe.

The Naybe finding the great distance he was from his protectors, the Turks in Arabia, on the other side of the Red Sea, whose garrisons were every day decaying in strength, and for the most part reduced; sensible, too, how much he was in the power of the Abyssinians, his enemies and nearest neighbours, began to think that it was better to secure himself at home, by making some advances to those in whose power he was. Accordingly it was agreed between them, that one half of the customs should be paid by him to the king of Abyssinia, who was to suffer him to enjoy his government unmolested; for Masuah, as I have before said, is absolutely destitute of water; neither can it be supplied with any sort of provisions but from the mountainous country of Abyssinia.

The same may be said of Arkeeko, a large town on the bottom of the bay of Masuah, which has indeed water, but labours under the same scarcity of provisions; for the tract of flat land behind both, called Samhar, is a perfect desert, and only inhabited from the month of November to April, by a variety of wandering tribes called Tora, Hazorta, Shiho, and Doba, and these carry all their cattle to the Abyssinian side of the mountains when the rains fall there, which is the opposite six months. When the season is thus reversed, they and their cattle are no longer in Samhar, or the dominion of the Naybe, but in the hands of the Abyssinians, especially the governor of Tigré and Baharnagash, who thereby, without being at the expence and trouble of marching against Masuah with an army, can make a line round it, and starve all at Arkeeko and Masuah, by prohibiting any sort of provisions to be carried thither from their side. In the course of this history we have seen this practised with great success more than once, especially against the Naybe Musa in the reign of Yasous I.

The friendship of Abyssinia once secured, and the power of the Turks declining daily in Arabia, the Naybe began by degrees to withdraw himself from paying tribute at all to the basha of Jidda, to whose government his had been annexed by the porte. He therefore received the firman as a mere form, and returned trifling presents, but no tribute; and in troublesome times, or a weak government happening in Tigrè, he withdrew himself equally from paying any consideration, either to the basha in name of tribute, or to the king of Abyssinia, as share of the customs. This was precisely his situation when I arrived in Abyssinia. A great revolution, as we have already seen, had happened in that kingdom, of which Michael had been the principal author. When he was called to Gondar and made minister there, Tigré remained drained of troops, and without a governor.

Nor was the new king, Hatzè Hannes, whom Michael had placed upon the throne after the murder of Joas his predecessor, a man likely to infuse vigour into the new government. Hannes was past seventy at his accession, and Michael his minister lame, so as scarcely to be able to stand, and within a few years of eighty. The Naybe, a man of about forty-eight, judged of the debility of the Abyssinian government by those circumstances, but in this he was mistaken.

Already Michael had intimated to him, that, the next campaign, he would lay waste Arkeeko and Masuah, till they should be as desert as the wilds of Samhar; and as he had been all his life very remarkable for keeping his promises of this kind, the stranger merchants had many of them fled to Arabia, and others to Dobarwa[1], a large town in the territories of the Baharnagash. Notwithstanding this, the Naybe had not shewn any public mark of fear, nor sent one penny either to the king of Abyssinia or the basha of Jidda.

On the other hand, the basha was not indifferent to his own interest; and, to bring about the payment, he had made an agreement with an officer of great credit with the Sherriffe of Mecca. This man was originally an Abyssinian slave, his name Metical Aga, who by his address had raised himself to the post of Selictar, or _sword-bearer_, to the Sherriffe; and, in fact, he was absolute in all his dominions. He was, moreover, a great friend of Michael governor of Tigré, and had supplied him with large stores of arms and ammunition for his last campaign against the king at Gondar.

The basha had employed Metical Aga to inform Michael of the treatment he had received from the Naybe, desiring his assistance to force him to pay the tribute, and at the same time intimated to the Naybe, that he not only had done so, but the very next year would give orders throughout Arabia to arrest the goods and persons of such Mahometan merchants as should come to Arabia, either from motives of religion or trade. With this message he had sent the firman from Constantinople, desiring the return both of tribute and presents.

Mahomet Gibberti, Metical Aga’s servant, had come in the boat with me; but Abdelcader, who carried the message and firman, and who was governor of the island of Dahalac, had sailed at same time with me, and had been spectator of the honour which was paid my ship when she left the harbour of Jidda.

Running straight over to Masuah, Abdelcader had proclaimed what he had seen with great exaggeration, according to the custom of his country; and reported that a prince was coming, a very near relation to the king of England, who was no trader, but came only to visit countries and people.

It was many times, and oft agitated (as we knew afterwards) between the Naybe and his counsellors, what was to be done with this prince. Some were for the most expeditious, and what has long been the most customary method of treating strangers in Masuah, to put them to death, and divide every thing they had among the garrison. Others insisted, that they should stay and see what letters I had from Arabia to Abyssinia, lest this might prove an addition to the storm just ready to break upon them on the part of Metical Aga and Michael Suhul.

But Achmet, the Naybe’s nephew, said, it was folly to doubt but that a man, under the description I was, would have protections of every kind; but whether I had or not, that my very rank should protect me in every place where there was any government whatever; it might do even among banditti and thieves inhabiting woods and mountains; that a sufficient quantity of strangers blood had been already shed at Masuah, for the purpose of rapine, and he believed a curse and poverty had followed it; that it was impossible for those who had heard the firing of those ships to conjecture whether I had letters to Abyssinia or not; that it would be better to consider whether I was held in esteem by the captains of those ships, as half of the guns they fired in compliment to me, was sufficient to destroy them all, and lay Arkeeko and Masuah as desolate as Michael Suhul had threatened to do; nor could that vengeance cost any of the ships, coming next year to Jidda, a day’s sailing out of their way; and there being plenty of water when they reached Arkeeko at the south-west of the bay, all this destruction might be effected in one afternoon, and repeated once a-year without difficulty, danger, or expence, while they were watering.

Achmet, therefore, declared it was his resolution that I should be received with marks of consideration, till upon inspecting my letters, and conversing with me, they might see what sort of man I was, and upon what errand I was come; but even if I was a trader, and no priest or Frank, such as came to disturb the peace of the country, he would not then consent to any personal injury being done me; if I was indeed a priest, or one of those Franks, _Gehennim_, they might send me to hell if they chose; but he, for his part, would not, even then have any thing to do with it.

Before our vessel appeared, they came to these conclusions; and though I have supposed that hoisting the colours and saluting me with guns had brought me into this danger, on the other hand it may be said, perhaps with greater reason, they were the means Providence kindly used to save my life in that slaughter-house of strangers.

Achmet’s father had been Naybe before, and, of course, the sovereignty, upon the present incumbent’s death, was to devolve on him. And what made this less invidious, the sons of the present Naybe had all been swept away by the small-pox; so that Achmet was really, at any rate, to be considered as his son and successor. Add to this, the Naybe had received a stroke of the palsy, which deprived him of the use of one of his sides, and greatly impeded his activity, unless in his schemes of doing ill; but I could not perceive, when intending mischief, that he laboured under any infirmity. All this gave Achmet sovereign influence, and it was therefore agreed the rest should be only spectators, and that my fate should be left to him.

Achmet was about twenty-five years of age, or perhaps younger; his stature near five-feet four; he was feebly made, a little bent forward or stooping, thin, long-faced, long-necked; small, but tolerably well-limbed, agile and active enough in his motions, though of a figure by no means athletic; he had a broad forehead, thick black eye-brows, black eyes, an aquiline nose, thin lips, and fine teeth; and, what is very rare in that country, and much desired, a thick curled beard. This man was known to be very brave in his person, but exceedingly prone to anger. A near relation to the Baharnagash having said something impertinent to him while he was altering the pin of his tent, which his servant had not placed to his mind, in a passion he struck the Abyssinian with a wooden mallet, and killed him on the spot and although this was in the Abyssinian territory, by getting nimbly on horseback, he arrived at Arkeeko without being intercepted, though closely pursued almost to the town.

It was the 19th of September 1769 when we arrived at Masuah, very much tired of the sea, and desirous to land. But, as it was evening, I thought it adviseable to sleep on board all night, that we might have a whole day (as the first is always a busy one) before us, and receive in the night any intelligence from friends, who might not choose to venture to come openly to see us in the day, at least before the determination of the Naybe had been heard concerning us.

Mahomet Gibberti, a man whom we had perfectly secured, and who was fully instructed in our suspicions as to the Naybe, and the manner we had resolved to behave to him, went ashore that evening; and, being himself an Abyssinian, having connections in Masuah, dispatched that same night to Adowa, capital of Tigrè, those letters which I knew were to be of the greatest importance; giving our friend Janni (a Greek, confidential servant of Michael, governor of Tigrè) advice that we were arrived, had letters of Metical Aga to the Naybe and Ras Michael; as also Greek letters to him from the Greek patriarch of Cairo, a duplicate of which I sent by the bearer. We wrote likewise to him in Greek, that we were afraid of the Naybe, and begged him to send to us instantly some man of confidence, who might protect us, or at least be a spectator of what should befal us. We, besides, instructed him to advise the court of Abyssinia, that we were friends of Metical Aga, had letters from him to the king and the Ras, and distrusted the Naybe of Masuah.

Mahomet Gibberti executed this commission in the instant, with all the punctuality of an honest man, who was faithful to the instructions of his master, and was independent of every person else. He applied to Mahomet Adulai, (a person kept by Ras Michael as a spy upon the Naybe, and in the same character by Metical Aga); and Adulai, that very night, dispatched a trusty messenger, with many of whom he was constantly provided. This runner, charged with our dispatches, having a friend and correspondent of his own among the Shiho, passed, by ways best known to himself, and was safely escorted by his own friends till the fifth day, when he arrived at the customhouse of Adowa, and there delivered our dispatches to our friend Janni.

At Cairo, as I have already mentioned, I met with my friend father Christopher, who introduced me to the Greek patriarch, Mark. This patriarch had told me, that there were of his communion, to the number of about twenty, then in Abyssinia; some of them were good men and becoming rich in the way of trade; some of them had fled from the severity of the Turks, after having been detected by them in intimacy with Mahometan women; but all of them were in a great degree of credit at the court of Abyssinia, and possessing places under government greatly beyond his expectation. To these he wrote letters, in the manner of bulls from the pope, enjoining them, with regard to me, to obey his orders strictly, the particulars of which I shall have occasion to speak of afterwards.

Janni, then at Adowa in Tigré, was a man of the first character for good life and morals. He had served two kings of Abyssinia with great reputation, and Michael had appointed him to the customhouse at Adowa, to superintend the affairs of the revenue there, while he himself was occupied at Gondar. To him the patriarch gave his first injunctions as to watching the motives of the Naybe, and preventing any ill-usage from him, before the notice of my arrival at Masuah should reach Abyssinia.

Mahomet Adulai dispatched his messenger, and Mahomet Gibberti repaired that same night to the Naybe at Arkeeko, with such diligence that lulled him asleep as to any prior intelligence, which otherwise he might have thought he was charged to convey to Tigrè; and Mahomet Gibberti, in his conversation that night with Achmet, adroitly confirmed him in all the ideas he himself had first started in council with the Naybe. He told him the manner I had been received at Jidda, my protection at Constantinople, and the firman which I brought from the grand signior, the power of my countrymen in the Red Sea and India, and my personal friendship with Metical Aga. He moreover insinuated, that the coasts of the Red Sea would be in a dangerous situation if any thing happened to me, as both the sherriffe of Mecca and emperor of Constantinople would themselves, perhaps, not interfere, but would most certainly consider the place, where such disobedience should be shewn to their commands, as in a state of anarchy, and therefore to be abandoned to the just correction of the English, if injured.

On the 20th, a person came from Mahomet Gibberti to conduct me on shore. The Naybe himself was still at Arkeeko, and Achmet therefore had come down to receive the duties of the merchandise on board the vessel which brought me. There were two elbow chairs placed in the middle of the market-place. Achmet sat on one of them, while the several officers opened the bales and packages before him; the other chair on his left hand was empty.

He was dressed all in white, in a long Banian habit of muslin, and a close-bodied frock reaching to his ancles, much like the white frock and petticoat the young children wear in England. This species of dress did not, in any way, suit Achmet’s shape or size; but, it seems, he meant to be in gala. As soon as I came in sight of him, I doubled my pace; Mahomet Gibberti’s servant whispered to me, not to kiss his hand; which indeed I intended to have done. Achmet stood up, just as I arrived within arm’s length of him; when we touched each other’s hands, carried our fingers to our lips, then laid our hands cross our breasts; I pronounced the salutation of the inferior _Salam Alicum!_ Peace be between us; to which he answered immediately, _Alicum Salam!_ There is peace between us. He pointed to the chair, which I declined; but he obliged me to sit down.

In these countries, the greater honour that is shewn you at first meeting, the more considerable present is expected. He made a sign to bring coffee directly, as the immediate offering of meat or drink is an assurance your life is not in danger. He began with an air that seemed rather serious: “We have expected you here some time ago, but thought you had changed your mind, and was gone to India.”--“Since sailing from Jidda, I have been in Arabia Felix, the Gulf of Mocha, and crossed last from Loheia.”--“Are you not afraid,” said he, “so thinly attended, to venture upon these long and dangerous voyages.”--“The countries where I have been are either subject to the emperor of Constantinople, whose firman I have now the honour to present you, or to the regency of Cairo, and port of Janizaries--here are their letters--or to the sherriffe of Mecca. To you, Sir, I present the sherriffe’s letters; and, besides these, one from Metical Aga your friend, who, depending on your character, assured me this alone would be sufficient to preserve me from ill-usage so long as I did no wrong: as for the dangers of the road from banditti and lawless persons, my servants are indeed few, but they are veteran soldiers, tried and exercised from their infancy in arms, and I value not the superior number of cowardly and disorderly persons.”

He then returned me the letters, saying, “You will give these to the Naybe to-morrow; I will keep Metical’s letter, as it is to me, and will read it at home.” He put it accordingly in his bosom; and our coffee being done, I rose to take my leave, and was presently wet to the skin by deluges of orange flower-water showered upon me from the right and left, by two of his attendants, from silver bottles.

A very decent house had been provided; and I had no sooner entered, than a large dinner was sent us by Achmet, with a profusion of lemons, and good fresh water, now become one of the greatest delicacies in life; and, instantly after, our baggage was all sent unopened; with which I was very well-pleased, being afraid they might break something in my clock, telescopes, or quadrant, by the violent manner in which they satisfy their curiosity.

Late at night I received a visit from Achmet; he was then in an undress, his body quite naked, a barracan thrown loosely about him; he had a pair of calico drawers; a white coul, or cotton cap, upon his head, and had no sort of arms whatever. I rose up to meet him, and thank him for his civility in sending my baggage; and when I observed, besides, that it was my duty to wait upon him, rather than suffer him to give himself this trouble, he took me by the hand, and we sat down on two cushions together.

“All that you mentioned,” said he, “is perfectly good and well; but there are questions that I am going to ask you which are of consequence to yourself. When you arrived at Jidda, we heard it was a great man, a son or brother of a king, going to India. This was communicated to me, and to the Naybe, by people that saw every day the respect paid to you by the captains of the ships at Jidda. Metical Aga, in his private letter delivered to the Naybe last night by Mahomet Gibberti, among many unusual expressions, said, The day that any accident befals this person will be looked upon by me always as the most unfortunate of my life. Now, you are a Christian, and he is a Mussulman, and these are expressions of a particular regard not used by the one when writing of the other. He says, moreover, that, in your firman, the grand signior stiles you Bey-Adzé, or Most Noble. Tell me, therefore, and tell me truly, Are you a prince, son, brother, or nephew of a king? Are you banished from your own country; and what is it that you seek in our’s, exposing yourself to so many difficulties and dangers?”

“I am neither son, nor brother of a king. I am a private Englishman. If you, Sidi Achmet, saw my prince, the eldest, or any son of the king of England, you would then be able to form a juster idea of them, and that would for ever hinder you from confounding them with common men like me. If they were to choose to appear in this part of the world, this little sea would be too narrow for their ships: Your sun, now so hot, would be darkened by their sails; and when they fired their terrible wide-mouthed cannon, not an Arab would think himself safe on the distant mountains, while the houses on the shore would totter and fall to the ground as if shaken to pieces by an earthquake. I am a servant to that king, and an inferior one in rank; only worthy of his attention from my affection to him and his family, in which I do not acknowledge any superior. Yet so far your correspondents say well: My ancestors were the kings of the country in which I was born, and to be ranked among the greatest and most glorious that ever bore the crown and title of King. This is the truth, and nothing but the truth. I may now, I hope, without offence, ask, To what does all this information tend?”

“To your safety,” said he, “and to your honour, as long as I command in Masuah;--to your certain death and destruction if you go among the Abyssinians; a people without faith, covetous, barbarous, and in continual war, of which nobody yet has been able to discover the reason. But of this another time.”

“Be it so,” said I. “I would now speak one word in secret to you, (upon which every body was ordered out of the room): All that you have told me this evening I already know; ask me not how: but, to convince you that it is truth, I now thank you for the humane part you took against these bloody intentions others had of killing and plundering me on my arrival, upon Abdelcader governor of Dahalac’s information that I was a prince, because of the honour that the English ships paid me, and that I was loaded with gold.”

Ullah Acbar! (in great surprise) “Why, you was in the middle of the sea when that passed.”

“Scarcely advanced so far, I believe; but your advice was wise, for a large English ship will wait for me all this winter in Jidda, till I know what reception I meet here, or in Abyssinia. It is a 64 gun ship; its name, the Lion; its captain, Thomas Price. I mention these particulars, that you may inquire into the truth. Upon the first news of a disaster he would come here, and destroy Arkeeko, and this island, in a day. But this is not my business with you at present.

“It is a very proper custom, established all over the east, that strangers should make an acknowledgement for the protection they receive, and trouble they are to occasion. I have a present for the Naybe, whose temper and disposition I know perfectly,--(Ullah Acbar! repeats Achmet).--I have likewise a present for you, and for the Kaya of the Janizaries; all these I shall deliver the first day I see the Naybe; but I was taught, in a particular manner, to repose upon you as my friend, and a small, but separate acknowledgement, is due to you in that character. I was told, that your agent at Jidda had been inquiring everywhere among the India ships, and at the broker of that nation, for a pair of English pistols, for which he offered a very high price; though, in all probability, those you would get would have been but ordinary, and much used; now I have brought you this separate present, a pair of excellent workmanship; here they are: my doubt, which gave rise to this long private conversation, was, whether you would take them home yourself; or, if you have a confidential servant that you can trust, let him take them, so that it be not known; for if the Naybe”----

“I understand every thing that you say, and every thing that you would say. Though I do not know men’s hearts that I never saw, as you do, I know pretty well the hearts of those with whom I live. Let the pistols remain with you, and shew them to nobody till I send you a man to whom you may say any thing, and he shall go between you and me; for there is in this place a number of devils, not men; but, _Ullah Kerim_, God is great. The person that brings you dry dates in an Indian handkerchief, and an earthen bottle to drink your water out of, give him the pistols. You may send by him to me any thing you choose. In the mean time, sleep sound, and fear no evil; but never be persuaded to trust yourself to the Cafrs of Habesh at Masuah.”

On the 20th of September a female slave came and brought with her the proper credentials, an Indian handkerchief full of dry dates, and a pot or bottle of unvarnished potter’s earth, which keeps the water very cool. I had some doubt upon this change of sex; but the slave, who was an Abyssinian girl, quickly undeceived me, delivered the dates, and took away the pistols destined for Achmet, who had himself gone to his uncle, the Naybe, at Arkeeko.

On the 21st, in the morning, the Naybe came from Arkeeko. The usual way is by sea; it is about two leagues straight across the bay, but somewhat more by land. The passage from the main is on the north side of the island, which is not above a quarter of a mile broad; there is a large cistern for rain-water on the land-side, where you embark across. He was poorly attended by three or four servants, miserably mounted, and about forty naked savages on foot, armed with short lances and crooked knives.

The drum beat before him all the way from Arkeeko to Masuah. Upon entering the boat, the drum on the land-side ceased, and those, in what is called the Castle of Masuah, began. The castle is a small clay hut, and in it one swivel-gun, which is not mounted, but lies upon the ground, and is fired always with great trepidation and some danger. The drums are earthen jars, such as they send butter in to Arabia; the mouths of which are covered with a skin, so that a stranger, on seeing two or three of these together, would run a great risk of believing them to be jars of butter, or pickles, carefully covered with oiled parchment.

All the procession was in the same stile. The Naybe was dressed in an old shabby Turkish habit, much too short for him, and seemed to have been made about the time of Sultan Selim. He wore also upon his head a Turkish cowke, or high-cap, which scarcely admitted any part of his head. In this dress, which on him had a truly ridiculous appearance, he received the caftan, or investiture, of the island of Masuah; and, being thereby representative of the grand signior, consented that day to be called Omar Aga, in honour of the commission.

Two standards of white silk, striped with red, were carried before him to the mosque, from whence he went to his own house to receive the compliments of his friends. In the afternoon of that day I went to pay my respects to him, and found him sitting on a large wooden elbow-chair, at the head of two files of naked savages, who made an avenue from his chair to the door. He had nothing upon him but a coarse cotton shirt, so dirty that, it seemed, all pains to clean it again would be thrown away, and so short that it scarcely reached his knees. He was very tall and lean, his colour black, had a large mouth and nose; in place of a beard, a very scanty tuft of grey hairs upon the point of his chin; large, dull, and heavy eyes; a kind of malicious, contemptuous, smile on his countenance; he was altogether of a most stupid and brutal appearance. His character perfectly corresponded with his figure, for he was a man of mean abilities, cruel to excess, avaricious, and a great drunkard.

I presented my firman.--The greatest basha in the Turkish empire would have risen upon seeing it, kissed it, and carried it to his forehead; and I really expected that Omar Aga, for the day he bore that title, and received the caftan, would have shewn this piece of respect to his master. But he did not even receive it into his hand, and pushed it back to me again, saying, “Do you read it all to me word for word.”--“I told him it was Turkish; that I had never learned to read a word of that language.”--“Nor I either,” says he; “and I believe I never shall.” I then gave him Metical Aga’s letter, the Sherriffe’s, Ali Bey’s, and the Janizaries letters. He took them all together in both his hands, and laid them unopened beside him, saying, “You should have brought a moullah along with you. Do you think I shall read all these letters? Why, it would take me a month.” And he glared upon me, with his mouth open, so like an idiot, that it was with the utmost difficulty I kept my gravity, only answering, “Just as you please; you know best.”

He affected at first not to understand Arabic; spoke by an interpreter in the language of Masuah, which is a dialect of Tigré; but seeing I understood him in this, he spoke Arabic, and spoke it well.

A silence followed this short conversation, and I took the opportunity to give him his present, with which he did not seem displeased, but rather that it was below him to tell me so; for, without saying a word about it, he asked me, where the Abuna of Habesh was? and why he tarried so long? I said, The wars in Upper Egypt had made the roads dangerous; and, it was easy to see, Omar longed much to settle accounts with him.

I took my leave of the Naybe, very little pleased with my reception, and the small account he seemed to make of my letters, or of myself; but heartily satisfied with having sent my dispatches to Janni, now far out of his power.

The inhabitants of Masuah were dying of the small-pox, so that there was fear the living would not be sufficient to bury the dead. The whole island was filled with shrieks and lamentations both night and day. They at last began to throw the bodies into the sea, which deprived us of our great support, fish, of which we had ate some kinds that were excellent. I had suppressed my character of physician, fearing I should be detained by reason of the multitude of sick.

On the 15th of October the Naybe came to Masuah, and dispatched the vessel that brought me over; and, as if he had only waited till this evidence was out of the way, he, that very night, sent me word that I was to prepare him a handsome present. He gave in a long list of particulars to a great amount, which he desired might be divided into three parcels, and presented three several days. One was to be given him as Naybe of Arkeeko; one as Omar Aga, representative of the grand signior; and one for having passed our baggage _gratis_ and unvisited, especially the large quadrant. For my part, I heartily wished he had seen the whole, as he would not have set great value on the brass and iron.

As Achmet’s assurance of protection had given me courage, I answered him, That, having a firman of the grand signior, and letters from Metical Aga, it was mere generosity in me to give him any present at all, either as Naybe or Omar Aga, and I was not a merchant that bought and sold, nor had merchandise on board, therefore had no customs to pay. Upon this he sent for me to his house, where I found him in a violent fury, and many useless words passed on both sides. At last he peremptorily told me, That unless I had 300 ounces of gold ready to pay him on Monday, upon his landing from Arkeeko, he would confine me in a dungeon, without light, air, or meat, till the bones came through my skin for want.

An uncle of his, then present, greatly aggravated this affair. He presented that the Naybe might do what he pleased with his presents; but that he could not in any shape give away the present due to the janizaries, which was 40 ounces of gold, or 400 dollars; and this was all they contented themselves to take, on account of the letter I brought from the port of janizaries at Cairo; and in this they only taxed me the sum paid by the Abuna for his passage through Masuah. I answered firmly,--“Since you have broken your faith with the grand signior, the government of Cairo, the basha at Jidda, and Metical Aga, you will no doubt do as you please with me; but you may expect to see the English man of war, the Lion, before Arkeeko, some morning by day-break.”--“I should be glad,” said the Naybe, “to see that man at Arkeeko or Masuah that would carry as much writing from you to Jidda as would lie upon my thumb nail; I would strip his shirt off first, and then his skin, and hang him before your door to teach you more wisdom.”--“But my wisdom has taught me to prevent all this. My letter is already gone to Jidda; and if, in twenty days from this, another letter from me does not follow it, you will see what will arrive. In the mean time, I here announce it to you, that I have letters from Metical Aga and the Sherriffe of Mecca, to Michael Suhul governor of Tigrè, and the king of Abyssinia. I, therefore, would wish that you would leave off these unmanly altercations, which serve no sort of purpose, and let me continue my journey.” The Naybe said in a low voice to himself, “What, Michael too! then go your journey, and think of the ill that’s before you.” I turned my back without any answer or salutation, and was scarce arrived at home when a message came from the Naybe, desiring I would send him two bottles of aquavitæ. I gave the servant two bottles of cinnamon-water, which he refused till I had first tasted them; but they were not agreeable to the Naybe, so they were returned.

All this time I very much wondered what was become of Achmet, who, with Mahomet Gibberti, remained at Arkeeko: at last I heard from the Naybe’s servant that he was in bed, ill of a fever. Mahomet Gibberti had kept his promise to me; and, saying nothing of my skill in physic, or having medicines with me, I sent, however, to the Naybe to desire leave to go to Arkeeko. He answered me surlily, I might go if I could find a boat; and, indeed, he had taken his measures so well that not a boat would stir for money or persuasion.

On the 29th of October the Naybe came again from Arkeeko to Masuah, and, I was told, in very ill-humour with me. I soon received a message to attend him, and found him in a large waste room like a barn, with about sixty people with him. This was his divan, or grand council, with all his janizaries and officers of state, all naked, assembled in parliament. There was a comet that had appeared a few days after our arrival at Masuah, which had been many days visible in Arabia Felix, being then in its perihelion; and, after passing its conjunction with the sun, it now appeared at Masuah early in the evening, receding to its aphelion. I had been observed watching it with great attention; and the large tubes of the telescopes had given offence to ignorant people.

The first question the Naybe asked me was, What that comet meant, and why it appeared? And before I could answer him, he again said, “The first time it was visible it brought the small-pox, which has killed above 1000 people in Masuah and Arkeeko. It is known you conversed with it every night at Loheia; it has now followed you again to finish the few that remain, and then you are to carry it into Abyssinia. What have you to do with the comet?”

Without giving me leave to speak, his brother Emir Achmet then said, That he was informed I was an engineer going to Michael, governor of Tigré, to teach the Abyssinians to make cannon and gunpowder; that the first attack was to be against Masuah. Five or six others spoke much in the same strain; and the Naybe concluded by saying, That he would send me in chains to Constantinople, unless I went to Hamazen, with his brother Emir Achmet, to the hot-wells there, and that this was the resolution of all the janizaries; for I had concealed my being a physician.

I had not yet opened my mouth. I then asked, If all these were janizaries; and where was their commanding officer? A well-looking, elderly man answered, “I am Sardar of the janizaries.”--“If you are Sardar, then,” said I, “this firman orders you to protect me. The Naybe is a man of this country, no member of the Ottoman empire.” Upon my first producing my firman to him, he threw it aside like waste-paper. The greatest Vizir in the Turkish dominions would have received it standing, bowed his head to the ground, then kissed it, and put it upon his forehead. A general murmur of approbation followed, and I continued,--“Now I must tell you my resolution is, never to go to Hamazen, or elsewhere, with Emir Achmet. Both he and the Naybe have shewed themselves my enemies; and, I believe, that to send me to Hamazen is to rob and murder me out of sight.”--“Dog of a Christian!” says Emir Achmet, putting his hand to his knife, “if the Naybe was to murder you, could he not do it here now this minute?”--“No,” says the man, who had called himself Sardar, “he could not; I would not suffer any such thing. Achmet is the stranger’s friend, and recommended me to-day to see no injury done him; he is ill, or would have been here himself.”

“Achmet,” said I, “is my friend, and fears God; and were I not hindered by the Naybe from seeing him, his sickness before this would have been removed. I will go to Achmet at Arkeeko, but not to Hamazen, nor ever again to the Naybe here in Masuah. Whatever happens to me must befal me in my own house. Consider what a figure a few naked men will make the day that my countrymen ask the reason of this either here or in Arabia.” I then turned my back, and went out without ceremony. “A brave man!” I heard a voice say behind me, “_Wallah Englese!_ True English, by G--d!” I went away exceedingly disturbed, as it was plain my affairs were coming to a crisis for good or for evil. I observed, or thought I observed, all the people shun me. I was, indeed, upon my guard, and did not wish them to come near me; but, turning down into my own gateway, a man passed close by me, saying distinctly in my ear, though in a low voice, first in Tigré and then in Arabic, “_Fear nothing_, or, Be not afraid.” This hint, short as it was, gave me no small courage.

I had scarcely dined, when a servant came with a letter from Achmet at Arkeeko, telling me how ill he had been, and how sorry he was that I refused to come to see him, as Mahomet Gibberti had told him I could help him. He desired me also to keep the bearer with me in my house, and give him charge of the gate till he could come to Masuah himself.

I soon saw the treachery of the Naybe. He had not, indeed, forbid me to go and see his nephew, but he had forbid any boat to carry me; and this I told the servant, appealing to the Sardar for what I said in the divan of my willingness to go to Arkeeko to Achmet, though I positively refused to go to Hamazen. I begged the servant to stop for a moment, and go to the Sardar who was in the castle, as I had been very essentially obliged to him for his interposition at a very critical time, when there was an intention to take away my life. I sent him a small present by Achmet’s servant, who delivered the message faithfully, and had heard all that had passed in the divan. He brought me back a pipe from the Sardar in return for my present, with this message, That he had heard of my countrymen, though he had never seen them; that he loved brave men, and could not see them injured; but Achmet being my friend, I had no need of him. That night he departed for Arkeeko, desiring us to shut the door, and leaving us another man, with orders to admit nobody, and advising us to defend ourselves if any one offered to force entrance, be they who they would, for that nobody had business abroad in the night.

I now began to resume my confidence, seeing that Providence had still kept us under his protection; and it was not long when we had an opportunity to exercise this confidence. About 12 o’clock at night a man came to the door, and desired to be admitted; which request was refused without any ceremony. Then came two or three more, in the name of Achmet, who were told by the servant that they would not be admitted. They then asked to speak with me, and grew very tumultuous, pressing with their backs against the door. When I came to them, a young man among them said he was son to Emir Achmet, and that his father and some friends were coming to drink a glass of aracky (so they call brandy) with me. I told him my resolution was not to admit either Emir Achmet, or any other person at night, and that I never drank aracky.

They attempted again to force open the door, which was strongly barricaded. But as there were cracks in it, I put the point of a sword through one of them, desiring them to be cautious of hurting themselves upon the iron spikes. Still they attempted to force open the door, when the servant told them, that Achmet, when he left him the charge of that door, had ordered us to fire upon them who offered to force an entrance at night. A voice asked him, Who the devil he was? The servant answered, in a very spirited manner, That he had greater reason to ask who they were, as he took them for thieves, about whose names he did not trouble himself. “However,” says he, “mine is Abdelcader, (the son of somebody else whom I do not remember). Now you know who I am, and that I do not fear you; and you, Yagoube, if you do not fire upon them, your blood be upon your own head. The Sardar from the castle will soon be up with the rest.” I ordered then a torch to be brought, that they might have a view of us through the cracks of the door; but Abdelcader’s threat being fully sufficient, they retired, and we heard no more of them.

It was the 4th of November when the servant of Achmet returned in a boat from Arkeeko, and with him four janizaries. He was not yet well, and was very desirous to see me. He suspected either that he was poisoned or bewitched, and had tried many charms without good effect. We arrived at Arkeeko about eleven, passed the door of the Naybe without challenge, and found Achmet in his own house, ill of an intermitting fever, under the very worst of regimens.

He was much apprehensive that he should die, or lose the use of his limbs as Emir Achmet had done: the same woman, a Shiho, and a witch, was, he said, the occasion of both. “If Achmet, your uncle, had lost the use of his tongue, said I, it would have saved him a great deal of improper discourse in the divan.” His head ached violently, and he could only say, “Aye! aye! the old miscreant knew I was ill, or that would not have happened.” I gave Achmet proper remedies to ease his pains and his stomach, and the next morning began with bark.

This medicine operates quickly here; nay, even the bark that remains, after the stronger spiritous tincture is drawn from it, seems to answer the purpose very little worse than did the first. I staid here till the 6th in the morning, at which time he was free from the fever. I left him, however, some doses to prevent its return; and he told me, on the 7th, he would come to Masuah with boats and men to bring us with our baggage to Arkeeko, and free us from the bondage of Masuah.

Upon the 6th, in the morning, while at breakfast, I was told that three servants had arrived from Tigrè; one from Janni, a young man and slave, who spoke and wrote Greek perfectly; the other two servants were Ras Michael’s, or rather the king’s, both wearing the red short cloak lined and turned up with mazarine-blue, which is the badge of the king’s servant, and is called _shalaka_. Ras Michael’s letters to the Naybe were very short. He said the king Hatzè Hannes’s health was bad, and wondered at hearing that the physician, sent to him by Metical Aga from Arabia, was not forwarded to him instantly at Gondar, as he had heard of his being arrived at Masuah some time before. He ordered the Naybe, moreover, to furnish me with necessaries, and dispatch me without loss of time; although all the letters were the contrivances of Janni, his particular letter to the Naybe was in a milder stile. He expressed the great necessity the king had for a physician, and how impatiently he had waited his arrival. He did not say that he had heard any such person was yet arrived at Masuah, only wished he might be forwarded without delay as soon as he came.

To us Janni sent a message by a servant, bidding us a hearty welcome, acknowledging the receipt of the patriarch’s letter, and advising us, by all means, to come speedily to him, for the times were very unsettled, and might grow worse.

In the afternoon I embarked for Masuah. At the shore I received a message from the Naybe to come and speak to him; but I returned for answer, It was impossible, as I was obliged to go to Masuah to get medicines for his nephew, Achmet.

CHAP. II.

_Directions to Travellers for preserving Health--Diseases of the Country--Music--Trade, &c. of Masuah--Conferences with the Naybe._

We arrived in the island at eight o’clock, to the great joy of our servants, who were afraid of some stratagem of the Naybe. We got every thing in order, without interruption, and completed our observations upon this inhospitable island, infamous for the quantity of Christian blood shed there upon treacherous pretences.

Masuah, by a great variety of observations of the sun and stars, we found to be in lat. 15° 35´ 5´´, and, by an observation of the second satellite of Jupiter, on the 22d of September 1769, we found its longitude to be 39° 36´ 30´´ east of the meridian of Greenwich: the variation of the needle was observed at mid-day, the 23d of September, to be 12° 48´ W. From this it follows, that Loheia, being nearly opposite, (for it is in lat. 15° 40´ 52´´) the breadth of the Red Sea between Masuah and Loheia is 4° 10´ 22´´. Supposing, then, a degree to be equal to 66 statute miles, this, in round numbers, will bring the breadth to be 276 miles, equal to 92 leagues, or thereabouts.

Again, as the generality of maps have placed the coast of Arabia where Loheia stands, in the 44°, and it is the part of the peninsula that runs farthest to the westward, all the west coast of Arabia Felix will fall to be brought farther east about 3° 46´ 0´´.

Before packing up our barometer at Loheia, I filled a tube with clean mercury, perfectly purged of outward air; and, on the 30th of August, upon three several trials, the mean of the results of each trial was, at six in the morning, 26° 8´ 8´´; two o’clock in the afternoon, 26° 4´ 1´´; and, half past six in the evening, 26° 6´ 2´´, fair, clear weather, with very little wind at west.

At Masuah, the 4th of October, I repeated the same experiment with the same mercury and tube; the means were as follow: At six in the morning 25° 8´ 2´´; two o’clock in the afternoon, 25° 3´ 2´´; and, at half past six in the evening, 25° 3´ 7´´, clear, with a moderate wind at west, so that the barometer fell one inch and one line at Masuah lower than it was at Loheia, though it often rose upon violent storms of wind and rain; and, even where there was no rain, it again fell instantly upon the storm ceasing, and never arrived to the height it stood last at on the coast of Arabia. The greatest height I ever observed Fahrenheit’s thermometer in the shade, at Masuah, was on the 22d of October, at two in the afternoon, 93°, wind N. E. and by N. cloudy; the lowest was on the 23d, at four in the morning, 82°, wind west. It was, to sense, much hotter than in any part of Arabia Felix; but we found no such tickling or irritation on our legs as we had done at Loheia, probably because the soil was here less impregnated with salt.

We observed here, for the first time, three remarkable circumstances shewing the increase of heat. I had carried with me several steel plates for making screws of different sizes. The heat had so swelled the pin, or _male_ screw, that it was cut nearly one-third through by the edge of the female. The sealing-wax, of which we had procured a fresh parcel from the India ships, was fully more fluid, while lying in our boxes, than tar. The third was the colour of the spirit in the thermometer, which was quite discharged, and sticking in masses at unequal heights, while the liquor was clear like spring-water.

Masuah is very unwholesome, as, indeed, is the whole coast of the Red Sea from Suez to Babelmandeb, but more especially between the tropics. Violent fevers, called there _nedad_, make the principal figure in this fatal list, and generally terminate the third day in death. If the patient survives till the fifth day, he very often recovers by drinking water only, and throwing a quantity of cold water upon him, even in his bed, where he is permitted to lie without attempting to make him dry, or change his bed, till another deluge adds to the first.

There is no remedy so sovereign here as the bark; but it must be given in very different times and manners from those pursued in Europe. Were a physician to take time to prepare his patient for the bark, by first giving him purgatives, he would be dead of the fever before his preparation was completed. Immediately when a nausea or aversion to eat, frequent fits of yawning, straitness about the eyes, and an unusual, but not painful sensation along the spine, comes on, no time is then to be lost; small doses of the bark must be frequently repeated, and perfect abstinence observed, unless from copious draughts of cold water.

I never dared to venture, or seldom, upon the deluge of water, but am convinced it is frequently of great use. The second or third dose of the bark, if any quantity is swallowed, never fails to purge; and, if this evacuation is copious, the patient rarely dies, but, on the contrary, his recovery is generally rapid. Moderate purging, then, is for the most part to be adopted; and rice is a much better food than fruit.

I know that all this is heterodox in Europe, and contrary to the practice, because it is contrary to system. For my own part, I am content to write faithfully what I carefully observed, leaving every body afterwards to follow their own way at their peril.

Bark, I have been told by Spaniards who have been in South America, purges always when taken in their fevers. A different climate, different regimen, and different habit of body or exercise, may surely so far alter the operation of a drug as to make it have a different effect in Africa from what it has in Europe. Be that as it may, still I say bark is a purgative when it is successful in this fever; but bleeding, at no stage of this distemper, is of any service; and, indeed, if attempted the second day, the lancet is seldom followed by blood. Ipecacuanha both fatigues the patient and heightens the fever, and so conducts the patient more speedily to his end. Black spots are frequently found on the breast and belly of the dead person. The belly swells, and the stench becomes insufferable in three hours after death, if the person dies in the day, or if the weather is warm.

The next common disease in the low country of Arabia, the intermediate island of Masuah, and all Abyssinia, (for the diseases are exactly similar in all this tract) is the Tertian fever, which is in nothing different from our Tertian, and is successfully treated here in the same manner as in Europe. As no species of this disease (at least that I have seen) menaces the patient with death, especially in the beginning of the disorder, some time may be allowed for preparation to those who doubt the effect of the bark in the country. But still I apprehend the safest way is to give small doses from the beginning, on the first intermission, or even remission, though this should be somewhat obscure and uncertain. To speak plainly; when the stomach nauseates, the head akes, yawning becomes frequent, and not an excessive pain in the nape of the neck, when a shivering which goes quickly off, a coldness down the spine, a more than ordinary cowardliness and inactivity prevails, (the heat of the climate gives one always enough of these last sensations); I say, when any number of these symptoms unite, have recourse to the powder of bark infused in water; shut your mouth against every sort of food; and, at the crisis, your disease will immediately decide its name among the class of fevers.

All fevers end in intermittents; and if these intermittents continue long, and the first evacuations by the bark have not been copious and constant, these fevers generally end in dysenteries, which are always tedious and very frequently prove mortal. Bark in small quantities, ipecacuanha, too, in very small quantities so as not to vomit, water, and fruit not over ripe, have been found the most successful remedies.

As for the other species of dysentery, which begins with a constant diarrhœa, when the guts at last are excoriated, and the mucus voided by the stools, this disease is rarely cured if it begins with the rainy season. But if, on the contrary, it happen either in the sunny six months, or the end of the rainy ones immediately next to them, small doses of ipecacuanha either carry it off, or it changes into an intermitting fever, which yields afterwards to the bark. And it always has seemed to me that there is a great affinity between the fevers and dysenteries in these countries, the one ending in the other almost perpetually.

The next disease, which we may say is endemial in the countries before mentioned, is called _hanzeer_, the _hogs_ or the _swine_, and is a swelling of the glands of the throat, and under the arms. This the ignorant inhabitants endeavour to bring to a suppuration, but in vain; they then open them in several places; a sore and running follows, and a disease very much resembling what is called in Europe the Evil.

THE next (though not a dangerous complaint) has a very terrible appearance. Small tubercules or swellings appear all over the body, but thickest in the thighs, arms, and legs. These swellings go and come for weeks together without pain; though the legs often swell to a monstrous size as in the dropsy. Sometimes the patients have ulcers in their noses and mouths, not unlike those which are one of the malignant consequences of the venereal disease. The small swellings or eruptions, when squeezed, very often yield blood; in other respects the patient is generally in good health, saving the pain the ulcers give him, and the still greater uneasiness of mind which he suffers from the spoiling of the smoothness of his skin; for all the nations in Africa within the tropics are wonderfully affected at the smallest eruption or roughness of the skin. A black of Sennaar will hide himself in the house where dark, and is not to be seen by his friends, if he should have two or three pimples on any part of his body. Nor is there any remedy, however violent, that they will not fly to for immediate relief. Scars and wounds are no blemishes; and I have seen them, for three or four pimples on their bracelet arm, suffer the application of a red-hot iron with great resolution and constancy.

These two last diseases yielded, the first slowly, and sometimes imperfectly, to mercurials; and sublimate has by no means in these climates the quick and decisive effects it has in Europe. The second is completely and speedily cured by antimonials.

The next complaint I shall mention, as common in these countries, is called Farenteit, a corruption of an Arabic word, which signifies the worm of Pharaoh; all bad things being by the Arabs attributed to these poor kings, who seem to be looked upon by posterity as the evil genii of the country which they once governed.

This extraordinary animal only afflicts those who are in constant habit of drinking stagnant water, whether that water is drawn out from wells, as in the kingdom of Sennaar, or found by digging in the sand where it is making its way to its proper level the sea, after falling down the side of the mountains after the tropical rains. This plague appears indiscriminately in every part of the body, but oftenest in the legs and arms. I never saw it in the face or head; but, far from affecting the fleshy parts of the body, it generally comes out where the bone has least flesh upon it.

Upon looking at this worm, on its first appearance, a small black head is extremely visible, with a hooked beak of a whitish colour. Its body is seemingly of a white silky texture, very like a small tendon bared and perfectly cleaned. After its appearance the natives of these countries, who are used to it, seize it gently by the head, and wrap it round a thin piece of silk or small bird’s feather. Every day, or several times a-day, they try to wind it up upon the quill as far as it comes readily; and, upon the smallest resistance, they give over for fear of breaking it. I have seen five feet, or something more of this extraordinary animal, winded out with invincible patience in the course of three weeks. No inflammation then remained, and scarcely any redness round the edges of the aperture, only a small quantity of lymph appeared in the hole or puncture, which scarcely issued out upon pressing. In three days it was commonly well, and left no scar or dimple implying loss of substance.

I myself experienced this complaint. I was reading upon a sofa at Cairo, a few days after my return from Upper Egypt, when I felt in the fore part of my leg, upon the bone, about seven inches below the center of my knee-pan, an itching resembling what follows the bite of a muscheto. Upon scratching, a small tumour appeared very like a muscheto bite. The itching returned in about an hour afterwards; and, being more intent upon my reading than my leg, I scratched it till the blood came. I soon after observed something like a black spot, which had already risen considerably above the surface of the skin. All medicine proved useless; and the disease not being known at Cairo, there was nothing for it but to have recourse to the only received manner of treating it in this country. About three inches of the worm was winded out upon a piece of raw silk in the first week, without pain or fever: but it was broken afterwards through the carelessness and rashness of the surgeon when changing a poultice on board the ship in which I returned to France: a violent inflammation followed; the leg swelled so as to scarce leave appearance of knee or ancle; the skin, red and distended, seemed glazed like a mirror. The wound was now healed, and discharged nothing; and there was every appearance of mortification coming on. The great care and attention procured me in the lazaretto at Marseilles, by a nation always foremost in the acts of humanity to strangers, and the attention and skill of the surgeon, recovered me from this troublesome complaint.

Fifty-two days had elapsed since it first begun; thirty-five of which were spent in the greatest agony. It suppurated at last; and, by enlarging the orifice, a good quantity of matter was discharged. I had made constant use of bark, both in fomentations and inwardly; but I did not recover the strength of my leg entirely till near a year after, by using the baths of Poretta, the property of my friend Count Ranuzzi, in the mountains above Bologna, which I recommend, for their efficacy, to all those who have wounds, as I do to him to have better accommodation, greater abundance of, and less imposition in, the necessaries of life than when I was there. It is but a few hours journey over the mountains to Pistoia.

The last I shall mention of these endemial diseases, and the most terrible of all others that can fall to the lot of man, is the Elephantiasis, which some have chosen to call the Leprosy, or Lepra Arabum; though in its appearance, and in all its circumstances and stages, it no more resembles the leprosy of Palestine, (which is, I apprehend, the only leprosy that we know) than it does the gout or the dropsy. I never saw the beginning of this disease. During the course of it, the face is often healthy to appearance; the eyes vivid and sparkling: those affected have sometimes a kind of dryness upon the skin of their backs, which, upon scratching, I have seen leave a mealiness, or whiteness; the only circumstance, to the best of my recollection, in which it resembled the leprosy, but it has no scaliness. The hair, too, is of its natural colour; not white, yellowish, or thin, as in the leprosy, but so far from it that, though the Abyssinians have very rarely hair upon their chin, I have seen people, apparently in the last stage of the elephantiasis, with a very good beard of its natural colour.

The appetite is generally good during this disease, nor does any change of regimen affect the complaint. The pulse is only subject to the same variations as in those who have no declared nor predominant illness; they have a constant thirst, as the lymph, which continually oozes from their wounds, probably demands to be replaced. It is averred by the Abyssinians that it is not infectious. I have seen the wives of those who were in a very inveterate stage of this illness, who had born them several children, who were yet perfectly free and found from any contagion. Nay, I do not remember to have seen children visibly infected with this disease at all; though, I must own, none of them had the appearance of health. It is said this disease, though surely born with the infant, does not become visible till the approach to manhood, and sometimes it is said to pass by a whole generation.

The chief seat of this disease is from the bending of the knee downwards to the ancle; the leg is swelled to a great degree, becoming one size from bottom to top, and gathered into circular wrinkles, like small hoops or plaits; between every one of which there is an opening that separates it all round from the one above, and which is all raw flesh, or perfectly excoriated. From between these circular divisions a great quantity of lymph constantly oozes. The swelling of the leg reaches over the foot, so as to leave about an inch or little more of it seen. It should seem that the black colour of the skin, the thickness of the leg, and its shapeless form, and the rough tubercules, or excrescences, very like those seen upon the elephant, give the name to this disease, and form a striking resemblance between the distempered legs of this unfortunate individual of the human species, and those of the noble quadruped the elephant, when in full vigour.

An infirmity, to which the Abyssinians are subject, of much worse consequence to the community than the elephantiasis, I mean lying, makes it impossible to form, from their relations, any accurate account of symptoms that might lead the learned to discover the causes of this extraordinary distemper, and thence suggest some rational method to cure, or diminish it.

It was not from the ignorance of language, nor from want of opportunity, and less from want of pains, that I am not able to give a more distinct account of this dreadful disorder. I kept one of those infected in a house adjoining to mine, in my way to the palace, for near two years; and, during that time, I tried every sort of regimen that I could devise. My friend, Dr Russel, physician at Aleppo, (now in the East Indies), to whose care and skill I was indebted for my life in a dangerous fever which I had in Syria, and whose friendship I must always consider as one of the greatest acquisitions I ever made in travelling, desired me, among other medical inquiries, to try the effect of the cicuta upon this disease; and a considerable quantity, made according to the direction of Dr Storke, physician in Vienna, was sent me from Paris, with instructions how to use it.

Having first explained the whole matter, both to the king, Ras Michael, and Azage Tecla Haimanout, chief justice of the king’s bench in Abyssinia, and told them of the consequences of giving too great a dose, I obtained their joint permissions to go on without fear, and do what I thought requisite. It is my opinion, says the Azage, that no harm that may accidentally befal one miserable individual, now already cut off from society, should hinder the trial (the only one we ever shall have an opportunity of making) of a medicine which may save multitudes hereafter from a disease so much worse than death.

It was soon seen, by the constant administration of many ordinary doses, that nothing was to be expected from violent or dangerous ones; as not the smallest degree of amendment ever appeared, either outwardly or inwardly, to the sensation of the patient. Mercury had no better effect. Tar-water also was tried; and if there was any thing that produced any seeming advantage, it was whey made of cow’s milk, of which he was excessively fond, and which the king ordered him to be furnished with at my desire, in any quantity he pleased, during the experiment.

The troubles of the times prevented further attention. Dr Storke’s cicuta, in several instances, made a perfect cure of the hanzeers improperly opened, though, in several other cases, without any apparent cause, it totally miscarried. I scarce ever observed mercury succeed in any complaint.

It is not for me to attempt to explain what are the causes of these distempers. Those whose studies lead them to such investigations will do well to attach themselves, for first principles, to the difference of climate, and the abuses that obtain under them; after this, to particular circumstances in the necessaries of life, to which nature has subjected the people of these countries. Under the first, we may rank a season of six months rains, succeeded, without interval, by a cloudless sky and vertical sun; and cold nights which as immediately follow these scorching days. The earth, notwithstanding the heat of these days, is yet perpetually cold, so as to feel disagreeably to the soles of the feet; partly owing to the six months rains, when no sun appears, and partly to the perpetual equality of nights and days; the thinnest of the cloathing in the better sort, (a muslin shirt) while the others are naked, and sleep in this manner exposed, without covering in the cold nights, after the violent perspiration during the sultry day. These may be reckoned imprudences, while the constant use of stagnant putrid water for four months of the year, and the quantity of salt with which the soil of those countries is impregnated, may be circumstances less conducive to health; to which, however, they have been for ever subject by nature.

It will be very reasonably expected, that, after this unfavourable account of the climate, and the uncertainty of remedies for these frequent and terrible diseases, I should say something of the regimen proper to be observed there, in order to prevent what it seems so doubtful whether we can ever cure.

My first general advice to a traveller is this, to remember well what was the state of his constitution before he visited these countries, and what his complaints were, if he had any; for fear very frequently seizes us upon the first sight of the many and sudden deaths we see upon our first arrival, and our spirits are so lowered by perpetual perspiration, and our nerves so relaxed, that we are apt to mistake the ordinary symptoms of a disease, familiar to us in our own country, for the approach of one of these terrible distempers that are to hurry us in a few hours into eternity. This has a bad effect in the very slightest disorders; so that it hath become proverbial--If you think you shall die, you shall die.

If a traveller finds, that he is as well after having been some time in this country as he was before entering it, his best way is to make no innovation in his regimen, further than in abating something in the quantity. But if he is of a tender constitution, he cannot act more wisely than to follow implicitly the regimen of sober, healthy people of the country, without arguing upon European notions, or substituting what we consider as succedaneums to what we see used on the spot. All spirits are to be avoided; even bark is better in water than in wine. The stomach, being relaxed by profuse perspiration, needs something to strengthen, but not inflame, and enable it to perform digestion. For this reason (instinct we should call it, if speaking of beasts) the natives of all eastern countries season every species of food, even the simplest, and mildest, rice, so much with spices, especially pepper, as absolutely to blister a European palate.

These powerful antiseptics Providence has planted in these countries for this use; and the natives have, from the earliest times, had recourse to them in proportion to the quantity that they can procure. And hence, in these dangerous climates, the natives are as healthy as we are in our northern ones. Travellers in Arabia are disgusted at this seemingly inflammatory food; and nothing is more common than to hear them say that they are afraid these quantities of spices will give them a fever. But did they ever feel themselves heated by ever so great a quantity of black pepper? Spirits they think, substituted to this, answer the same purpose. But does not the heat of your skin, the violent pain in your head, while the spirits are filtering through the vessels of your brains, shew the difference? and when did any ever feel a like sensation from black pepper, or any pepper ate to excess in every meal?

I lay down, then, as a positive rule of health, that the warmest dishes the natives delight in, are the most wholesome strangers can use in the putrid climates of the Lower Arabia, Abyssinia, Sennaar, and Egypt itself; and that spirits, and all fermented liquors, should be regarded as poisons, and, for fear of temptation, not so much as be carried along with you, unless as a menstruum for outward applications.

Spring, or running water, if you can find it, is to be your only drink. You cannot be too nice in procuring this article. But as, on both coasts of the Red Sea you scarcely find any but stagnant water, the way I practised was always this, when I was at any place that allowed me time and opportunity--I took a quantity of fine sand, washed it from the salt quality with which it was impregnated, and spread it upon a sheet to dry; I then filled an oil-jar with water, and poured into it as much from a boiling kettle as would serve to kill all the animalcula and eggs that were in it. I then sifted my dried sand, as slowly as possible, upon the surface of the water in the jar, till the sand stood half a foot in the bottom of it; after letting it settle a night, we drew it off by a hole in the jar with a spigot in it, about an inch above the sand; then threw the remaining sand out upon the cloth, and dried and washed it again.

This process is sooner performed than described. The water is as limpid as the purest spring, and little inferior to the finest Spa. Drink largely of this without fear, according as your appetite requires. By violent perspiration the aqueous part of your blood is thrown off; and it is not spiritous liquor can restore this, whatever momentary strength it may give you from another cause. When hot, and almost fainting with weakness from continual perspiration, I have gone into a warm bath, and been immediately restored to strength, as upon first rising in the morning. Some perhaps will object, that this heat should have weakened and overpowered you; but the fact is otherwise; and the reason is, the quantity of water, taken up by your absorbing vessels, restored to your blood that finer fluid which was thrown off, and then the uneasiness occasioned by that want ceased, for it was the want of that we called uneasiness.

In Nubia never scruple to throw yourself into the coldest river or spring you can find, in whatever degree of heat you are. The reason of the difference in Europe is, that when by violence you have raised yourself to an extraordinary degree of heat, the cold water in which you plunge yourself checks your perspiration, and shuts your pores suddenly. The medium is itself too cold, and you do not use force sufficient to bring back the perspiration, which nought but action occasioned; whereas, in these warm countries, your perspiration is natural and constant, though no action be used, only from the temperature of the medium; therefore, though your pores are shut, the moment you plunge yourself in the cold water, the simple condition of the outward air again covers you with pearls of sweat the moment you emerge; and you begin the expence of the aqueous part of your blood afresh from the new stock that you have laid in by your immersion.

For this reason, if you are well, deluge yourself from head to foot, even in the house, where water is plenty, by directing a servant to throw buckets upon you at least once a-day when you are hottest; not from any imagination that the water braces you, as it is called, for your bracing will last you only a very few minutes; but these copious inundations will carry watery particles into your blood, though not equal to bathing in running streams, where the total immersion, the motion of the water, and the action of the limbs, all conspire to the benefit you are in quest of. As to cold water bracing in these climates, I am persuaded it is an idea not founded in truth. By observation it has appeared often to me, that, when heated by violent exercise, I have been much more relieved, and my strength more completely restored by the use of a tepid bath, than by an equal time passed in a cold one.

Do not fatigue yourself if possible. Exercise is not either so necessary or salutary here as in Europe. Use fruits sparingly, especially if too ripe. The musa, or banana, in Arabia Felix, are always rotten-ripe when they are brought to you. Avoid all sort of fruit exposed for sale in the markets, as it has probably been gathered in the sun, and carried miles in it, and all its juices are in a state of fermentation. Lay it first upon a table covered with a coarse cloth, and throw frequently a quantity of water upon it; and, if you have an opportunity, gather it in the dew of the morning before dawn of day, for that is far better.

Rice and pillaw are the best food; fowls are very bad, eggs are worse; greens are not wholesome. In Arabia the mutton is good, and, when roasted, may be eaten warm with safety; perhaps better if cold. All soups or broths are to be avoided; all game is bad.

I have known many very scrupulous about eating suppers, but, I am persuaded, without reason. The great perspiration which relaxes the stomach so much through the day has now ceased, and the breathing of cooler air has given to its operations a much stronger tone. I always made it my most liberal meal, if I ate meat at all. While at Jidda, my supper was a piece of cold, roasted mutton, and a large glass of water, with my good friend Captain Thornhill, during the dog-days.

After this, the excessive heat of the day being past, covering our heads from the night-air, always blowing at that time from the east and charged with watery particles from the Indian Ocean, we had a luxurious walk of two or three hours, as free from the heat as from the noise and impertinence of the day, upon a terrassed roof, under a cloudless sky, where the smallest star is visible. These evening walks have been looked upon as one of the principal pleasures of the east, even though not accompanied with the luxuries of astronomy and meditation. They have been adhered to from early times to the present, and we may therefore be allured they were always wholesome; they have often been misapplied and mispent in love.

It is a custom that, from the first ages, has prevailed in the east, to shriek and lament upon the death of a friend or relation, and cut their faces upon the temple with their nails, about the breadth of a sixpence, one of which is left long for that purpose. It was always practised by the Jews, and thence adopted by the Abyssinians, though expressly forbidden both by the law and by the prophets[2]. At Masuah, it seems to be particular to dance upon that occasion. The women, friends, and visitors place themselves in a ring; then dance slowly, figuring in and out as in a country-dance. This dance is all to the voice, no instrument being used upon the occasion; only the drum (the butter-jar before mentioned) is beat adroitly enough, and seems at once necessary to keep the dance and song in order. In Abyssinia, too, this is pursued in a manner more ridiculous. Upon the death of an ozoro, or any nobleman, the twelve judges, (who are generally between 60 and 70 years of age) sing the song, and dance the figure-dance, in a manner so truly ridiculous, that grief must have taken fast hold of every spectator who does not laugh upon the occasion. There needs no other proof the deceased was a friend.

Mahomet Gibberti married at Arkeeko. For fifteen days afterward, the husband there is invisible to everybody but the female friends of his wife, who in that sultry country do every thing they can, by hot and spiced drinks, to throw the man, stewed in a close room, into a fever. I do believe that Mahomet Gibberti, in the course of these fifteen days, was at least two stone lighter. It puts me much in mind of some of our countrymen sweating themselves for a horse-race with a load of flannel on. I conceive that Mahomet Gibberti, had it not been for the spice, would have made a bad figure in the match he was engaged in. One of these nights of his being sequestered, when, had I not providentially engaged Achmet, his uncle the Naybe would have cut our throats. I heard two girls, professors hired for such occasions, sing alternately verse for verse in reply to each other, in the most agreeable and melodious manner I ever heard in my life. This gave me great hopes that, in Abyssinia, I should find music in a state of perfection little expected in Europe. Upon inquiry into particulars I was miserably disappointed, by being told these musicians were all strangers from Azab, the myrrh country, where all the people were natural musicians, and sung in a better stile than that I had heard; but that nothing of this kind was known in Abyssinia, a mountainous, barbarous country, without instrument, and without song; and that it was the same here in Atbara; a miserable truth, which I afterwards completely verified. These singers were Cushites, not Shepherds.

I, however, made myself master of two or three of these alternate songs upon the guitar, the wretched instrument of that country; and was surprised to find the words in a language equally strange to Masuah and Abyssinia. I had frequent interviews with these musicians in the evening; they were perfectly black and woolly-headed. Being slaves, they spoke both Arabic and Tigrè, but could sing in neither; and, from every possible inquiry, I found every thing, allied to counterpoint, was unknown among them. I have sometimes endeavoured to recover fragments of these songs, which I once perfectly knew from memory only, but unfortunately I committed none of them to writing. Sorrow, and various misfortunes, that every day marked my stay in the barbarous country to which I was then going, and the necessary part I, much against my will, was for self-preservation forced to take in the ruder occupations of those times, have, to my very great regret, obliterated long ago the whole from my memory.

It is a general custom in Masuah for people to burn myrrh and incense in their houses before they open the doors in the morning; and when they go out at night, or early in the day, they have always a small piece of rag highly fumigated with these two perfumes, which they stuff into each nostril to keep them from the unwholesome air.

The houses in Masuah are, in general, built of poles and bent grass, as in the towns of Arabia; but, besides these, there are about twenty of stone, six or eight of which are two storeys each; though the second seldom consists of more than one room, and that one generally not a large one. The stones are drawn out of the sea as at Dahalac; and in these we see the beds of that curious mussel, or shell-fish, found to be contained in the solid rock at Mahon, called _Dattoli da mare_, or sea-dates, the fish of which I never saw in the Red Sea; though there is no doubt but they are to be found in the rocky islands about Masuah, if they break the rocks for them.

Although Masuah is situated in the very entrance of Abyssinia, a very plentiful country, yet all the necessaries of life are scarce and dear. Their quality, too, is very indifferent. This is owing to the difficulty, expence, and danger of carrying the several articles through the desert flat country, called Samhar, which lies between Arkeeko and the mountains of Abyssinia; as well as to the extortions exercised by the Naybe, who takes, under the name of customs, whatever part he pleases of the goods and provisions brought to that island; by which means the profit of the seller is so small, as not to be worth the pains and risk of bringing it: 20 rotol of butter cost a pataka and a half, 3½ harf; or, in one term, 45½ harf. A goat is half of a pataka; a sheep, two-thirds of a pataka; the ardep of wheat, 4 patakas; Dora, from Arabia, 2 patakas.

---- _Venit, vilissima rerum_, _Hic aqua._ Horat. lib. I. Sat. 6. v. 88.

Water is sold for three diwanis, or paras, the 7 gallons. The same sort of money is in use at Masuah, and the opposite coast of Arabia; and it is indeed owing to the commercial intercourse with that coast that any coin is current in this or the western side. It is all valued by the Venetian sequin. But glass beads, called Contaria, of all kinds and colours, perfect and broken, pass for small money, and are called, in their language, Borjooke.

_TABLE of the relative VALUE of MONEY._

Venetian Sequin, 2¼ Pataka. Pataka or Imperial Dollar, 28 Harf. 1 Harf, 4 Diwani. 10 Kibeer, 1 Diwani. 1 Kibeer, 3 Borjooke, or Grains.

The Harf is likewise called Dahab, a word very equivocal, as it means, in Arabic, gold, and frequently a sequin. The Harf is 120 grains of beads.

The zermabub, or sequin of Constantinople, is not current here. Those that have them, can only dispose of them to the women, who hang them about their temples, to their necklaces, and round the necks of their children. The fraction of the pataka is the half and quarter, which pass here likewise.

There is a considerable deal of trade carried on at Masuah, notwithstanding these inconveniencies, narrow and confined as the island is, and violent and unjust as is the government. But it is all done in a slovenly manner, and for articles where a small capital is invested. Property here is too precarious to risk a venture in valuable commodities, where the hand of power enters into every transaction.

The goods imported from the Arabian side are blue cotton, Surat cloths, and cochineal ditto, called Kermis, fine cloth from different markets in India; coarse white cotton cloths from Yemen; cotton unspun from ditto in bales; Venetian beads, chrystal, drinking, and looking-glasses; and cohol, or crude antimony. These three last articles come in great quantities from Cairo, first in the coffee ships to Jidda, and then in small barks over to this port. Old copper too is an article on which much is gained, and great quantity is imported.

The Galla, and all the various tribes to the westward of Gondar, wear bracelets of this copper; and they say at times, that, near the country of Gongas and Guba, it has been sold, weight for weight, with gold. There is a shell likewise here, a univalve of the species of volutes, which sells at a cuba for 10 paras. It is brought from near Hodeida, though it is sometimes found at Konfodah and Loheia. There are a few also at Dahalac, but not esteemed: these pass for money among the Djawi and other western Galla.

The cuba is a wooden measure, containing, very exactly, 62 cubic inches of rain water. The drachm is called Casla; there is 10 drachms in their wakea.

Gold, 16 patakas _per_ wakea. Civet, 1¾ pataka the wakea. Elephants teeth, 18 patakas for 35 rotol. Wax, 4 patakas the faranzala. Myrrh, 3 patakas _per_ ditto. Coffee, 1 pataka the 6 rotol. Honey, ¼ of a pataka the cuba.

The Banians were once the principal merchants of Masuah; but the number is now reduced to six. They are silver-smiths, that make ear-rings and other ornaments for the women in the continent, and are assayers of gold; they make, however, but a poor livelihood.

As there is no water in Masuah, the number of animals belonging to it can be but small. The sea fowl have nothing singular in them, and are the grey and the white gull, and the small bird, called the sea-lark, or pickerel. The sky-lark is here, but is mute the whole year, till the first rains fall in November; he then mounts very high, and sings in the very heat of the day. I saw him in the Tehama, but he did not sing there; probably for the reason given above, as there was no rain.

There are no sparrows to be seen here, or on the opposite shore, nor in the islands. Although there were scorpions in abundance at Loheia, we found none of them at Masuah. Water and greens, especially of the melon and cucumber kind, seem to be necessary to this poisonous insect. Indeed it was only after rains we saw them in Loheia, and then the young ones appeared in swarms; this was in the end of August. They are of a dull green colour, bordering upon yellow. As far as I could observe, no person apprehended any thing from their sting beyond a few minutes pain.

We left Masuah the 10th of November, with the soldiers and boats belonging to Achmet. We had likewise three servants from Abyssinia, and no longer apprehended the Naybe, who seemed, on his part, to think no more of us.

In the bay between Masuah and Arkeeko are two islands, Toulahout and Shekh Seide; the first on the west, the other on the south. They are both uninhabited, and without water. Shekh Seide has a marabout, or saint’s tomb, on the west end. It is not half a mile in length, when not overflowed, but has two large points of sand which run far out to the east and to the west. Its west point runs so near to Toulahout, as, at low-water, scarce to leave a channel for the breadth of a boat to pass between.

There is a chart, or map of the island of Masuah, handed about with other bad maps and charts of the Red Sea, (of which I have already spoken) among our English captains from India. It seems to be of as old date as the first landing of the Portuguese under Don Roderigo de Lima, in the time of David III. but it is very inaccurate, or rather erroneous, throughout. The map of the island, harbour, and bay, with the soundings, which I here have given, may be depended upon, as being done on the spot with the greatest attention.

Achmet, though much better, was, however, not well. His fever had left him, but he had some symptoms of its being followed by a dysentery. In the two days I rested at his house, I had endeavoured to remove these complaints, and had succeeded in part; for which he testified the utmost gratitude, as he was wonderfully afraid to die.

The Naybe had visited him several times every day; but as I was desirous to see Achmet well before I left Arkeeko, I kept out of the way on these occasions, being resolved, the first interview, to press for an immediate departure.

On the 13th, at four o’clock in the afternoon, I waited upon the Naybe at his own house. He received me with more civility than usual, or rather, I should have said, with less brutality; for a grain of any thing like civility had never yet appeared in his behaviour. He had just received news, that a servant of his, sent to collect money at Hamazen, had run off with it. As I saw he was busy, I took my leave of him, only asking his commands for Habesh; to which he answered, “We have time enough to think of that, do you come here to morrow.”

On the 14th, in the morning, I waited upon him according to appointment, having first struck my tent and got all my baggage in readiness. He received me as before, then told me with a grave air, “that he was willing to further my journey into Habesh to the utmost of his power, provided I shewed him that consideration which was due to him from all passengers; that as, by my tent, baggage, and arms, he saw I was a man above the common sort, which the grand signior’s firman, and all my letters testified, less than 1000 patakas offered by me would be putting a great affront upon him; however, in consideration of the governor of Tigrè, to whom I was going, he would consent to receive 300, upon my swearing not to divulge this, for fear of the shame that would fall upon him abroad.”

To this I answered in the same grave tone, “That I thought him very wrong to take 300 patakas with shame, when receiving a thousand would be more honourable as well as more profitable; therefore he had nothing to do but put that into his account-book with the governor of Tigrè, and settle his honour and his interest together. As for myself, I was sent for by Metical Aga, on account of the king, and was proceeding accordingly, and if he opposed my going forward to Metical Aga, I should return; but then again I should expect ten thousand patakas from Metical Aga, for the trouble and loss of time I had been at, which he and the Ras would no doubt settle with him.” The Naybe said nothing in reply, but only muttered, closing his teeth, _sheitan afrit_, that devil or tormenting spirit.

“Look you, (says one of the king’s servants, whom I had not heard speak before) I was ordered to bring this man to my master; I heard no talk of patakas; the army is ready to march against Waragna Fasil, I must not lose my time here.” Then taking his short red cloak under his arm, and giving it a shake to make the dust fly from it, he put it upon his shoulders, and, stretching out his hand very familiarly, said, “Naybe, within this hour I am for Habesh, my companion will stay here with the man; give me my dues for coming here, and I shall carry any answer either of you has to send.” The Naybe looked much disconcerted. “Besides, said I, you owe me 300 patakas for saving the life of your nephew Achmet.”--“Is not his life worth 300 patakas?” He looked very silly, and said, “Achmet’s life is worth all Masuah.” There was no more talk of patakas after this. He ordered the king’s servant not to go that day, but come to him to-morrow to receive his letters, and he would expedite us for Habesh.

Those friends that I had made at Arkeeko and Masuah, seeing the Naybe’s obstinacy against our departure, and, knowing the cruelty of his nature, advised me to abandon all thoughts of Abyssinia; for that, in passing through Samhar, among the many barbarous people whom he commanded, difficulties would multiply upon us daily, and, either by accident, or order of the Naybe, we should surely be cut off.

I was too well convinced of the embarrassment that lay behind me if left alone with the Naybe, and too determined upon my journey to hesitate upon going forward. I even flattered myself, that his flock of stratagems to prevent our going, was by this time exhausted, and that the morrow would see us in the open fields, free from further tyranny and controul. In this conjecture I was warranted by the visible impression the declaration of the king’s servant had made upon him.

On the 15th, early in the morning, I struck my tent again, and had my baggage prepared, to shew we were determined to stay no longer. At eight o’clock, I went to the Naybe, and found him almost alone, when he received me in a manner that, for him, might have passed for civil. He began with a considerable degree of eloquence, or fluency of speech, a long enumeration of the difficulties of our journey, the rivers, precipices, mountains, and woods we were to pass; the number of wild beasts every where to be found; as also the wild savage people that inhabited those places; the most of which, he said, were luckily under his command, and he would recommend to them to do us all manner of good offices. He commanded two of his secretaries to write the proper letters, and, in the mean time, ordered us coffee; conversing naturally enough about the king and Ras Michael, their campaign against Fasil, and the great improbability there was, they should be successful.

At this time came in a servant covered with dust and seemingly fatigued, as having arrived in haste from afar. The Naybe, with a considerable deal of uneasiness and confusion, opened the letters, which were said to bring intelligence, that the Hazorta, Shiho, and Tora, the three nations who possessed that part of Samhar through which our road led to Dobarwa, the common passage from Masuah to Tigrè, had revolted, driven away his servants, and declared themselves independent. He then, (as if all was over) ordered his secretaries to stop writing; and, lifting up his eyes, began, with great seeming devotion, to thank God we were not already on our journey; for, innocent as he was, when we should have been cut off, the fault would have been imputed to him.

Angry as I was at so barefaced a farce, I could not help bursting out into a violent fit of loud laughter, when he put on the severest countenance, and desired to know the reason of my laughing at such a time. It is now two months, answered I, since you have been throwing various objections in my way; can you wonder that I do not give into so gross an imposition? This same morning, before I struck my tent, in presence of your nephew Achmet, I spoke with two Shiho just arrived from Samhar, who brought letters to Achmet, which said all was in peace. Have you earlier intelligence than that of this morning?

He was for some time without speaking; then said, “If you are weary of living, you are welcome to go; but I will do my duty in warning those that are along with you of their and your danger, that, when the mischief happens, it may not be imputed to me.” “No number of naked Shiho,” said I, “unless instructed by you, can ever be found on our road, that will venture to attack us. The Shiho have no fire arms; but if you have sent on purpose some of your soldiers that have fire arms, these will discover by what authority they come. For our part, we cannot fly; we neither know the country, the language, nor the watering-places, and we shall not attempt it. We have plenty of different sorts of fire-arms, and your servants have often seen at Masuah we are not ignorant in the use of them. We, it is true, may lose our lives, that is in the hand of the Almighty; but we shall not fail to leave enough on the spot, to give sufficient indication to the king and Ras Michael, who it was that were our assassins, Janni of Adowa will explain the rest.”

I then rose very abruptly to go away. It is impossible to give one, not conversant with these people, any conception what perfect matters the most clownish and beastly among them are of dissimulation. The countenance of the Naybe now changed in a moment. In his turn he burst out into a loud fit of laughter, which surprised me full as much as mine, some time before, had done him. Every feature of his treacherous countenance was altered and softened into complacency; and he, for the first time, bore the appearance of a man.

“What I mentioned about the Shiho, he then said, was but to try you; all is peace. I only wanted to keep you here, if possible, to cure my nephew Achmet, and his uncle Emir Mahomet; but since you are resolved to go, be not afraid; the roads are safe enough. I will give you a person to conduct you, that will carry you in safety, even if there was danger; only go and prepare such remedies as may be proper for the Emir, and leave them with my nephew Achmet, while I finish my letters.” This I willingly consented to do, and at my return I found every thing ready.

Our guide was a handsome young man, to whom, though a Christian, the Naybe had married his sister; his name was Saloomé. The common price paid for such a conductor is three pieces of blue Surat cotton cloth. The Naybe, however, obliged us to promise thirteen to his brother-in-law, with which, to get rid of him with some degree of good grace, we willingly complied.

Before our setting out I told this to Achmet, who said, that the man was not a bad one naturally, but that his uncle the Naybe made all men as wicked as himself. He furnished me with a man to shew me where I should pitch my tent; and told me he should now take my final deliverance upon himself, for we were yet far, according to the Naybe’s intentions, from beginning our journey to Gondar.

Arkeeko consists of about 400 houses, a few of which are built of clay, the rest of coarse grass like reeds. The Naybe’s house is of these last-named materials, and not distinguished from any others in the town; it stands upon the S. W. side of a large bay. There is water enough for large ships close to Arkeeko, but the bay being open to the N. E. makes it uneasy riding in blowing weather. Besides, you are upon a lee-shore; the bottom is composed of soft sand. In standing in upon Arkeeko from the sea through the canal between Shekh Seide and the main land, it is necessary to range the coast about a third nearer the main than the island. The point, or Shekh Seide, stretches far out, and has shallow water upon it.

The Cape that forms the south-west side of the large bay is called _Ras Gedem_, being the rocky base of a high mountain of that name, seen a considerable distance from sea, and distinguished by its form, which is that of a hog’s back.

CHAP. III.

_Journey from Arkeeko, over the mountain Taranta, to Dixan._

According to Achmet’s desire, we left Arkeeko the 15th, taking our road southward, along the plain, which is not here above a mile broad, and covered with short grass nothing different from ours, only that the blade is broader. After an hour’s journey I pitched my tent at Laberhey, near a pit of rain-water. The mountains of Abyssinia have a singular aspect from this, as they appear in three ridges. The first is of no considerable height, but full of gullies and broken ground, thinly covered with shrubs; the second, higher and steeper, still more rugged and bare; the third is a row of sharp, uneven-edged mountains, which would be counted high in any country in Europe. Far above the top of all, towers that stupendous mass, the mountain of Taranta, I suppose one of the highest in the world, the point of which is buried in the clouds, and very rarely seen but in the clearest weather; at other times abandoned to perpetual mist and darkness, the seat of lightning, thunder, and of storm.

Taranta is the highest of a long, steep ridge of mountains, the boundary between _the opposite seasons_. On its east side, or towards the Red Sea, the rainy season is from October to April; and, on the western, or Abyssinian side, cloudy, rainy, and cold weather prevails from May to October.

In the evening, a messenger from the Naybe found us at our tent at Laberhey, and carried away our guide Saloomé. It was not till the next day that he appeared again, and with him Achmet, the Naybe’s nephew. Achmet made us deliver to him the thirteen pieces of Surat cloth, which was promised Saloomè for his hire, and this, apparently, with that person’s good-will. He then changed four of the men whom the Naybe had furnished us for hire to carry our baggage, and put four others in their place; this, not without some murmuring on their part; but he peremptorily, and in seeming anger, dispatched them back to Arkeeko.

Achmet now came into the tent, called for coffee, and, while drinking it, said, “You are sufficiently persuaded that I am your friend; if you are not, it is too late now to convince you. It is necessary, however, to explain the reasons of what you see. You are not to go to Dobarwa, though it is the best road, the safest being preferable to the easiest. Saloomé knows the road by Dixan as well as the other. You will be apt to curse me when you are toiling and sweating ascending Taranta, the highest mountain in Abyssinia, and on this account worthy your notice. You are then to consider if the fatigue of body you then suffer in that passage is not overpaid by the absolute safety you will find yourselves in. Dobarwa belongs to the Naybe, and I cannot answer for the orders he may have given to his own servants; but Dixan is mine, although the people are much worse than those of Dobarwa. I have written to my officers there; they will behave the better to you for this; and, as you are strong and robust, the best I can do for you is to send you by a rugged road, and a safe one.”

Achmet again gave his orders to Saloomé, and we, all rising, said the fedtah, or _prayer of peace_; which being over, his servant gave him a narrow web of muslin, which, with his own hands, he wrapped round my head in the manner the better sort of Mahometans wear it at Dixan. He then parted, saying, “He that is your enemy is mine also; you shall hear of me by Mahomet Gibberti.”

This finished a series of trouble and vexation, not to say danger, superior to any thing I ever before had experienced, and of which the bare recital (though perhaps too minute a one) will give but an imperfect idea. These wretches possess talents for tormenting and alarming, far beyond the power of belief; and, by laying a true sketch of them before a traveller, an author does him the most real service. In this country the more truly we draw the portrait of man, the more we seem to fall into caricature.

On the 16th, in the evening, we left Laberhey; and, after continuing about an hour along the plain, our grass ended, the ground becoming dry, firm, and gravelly, and we then entered into a wood of acacia-trees of considerable size. We now began to ascend gradually, having Gedem, the high mountain which forms the bay of Arkeeko, on our left, and these same mountains, which bound the plain of Arkeeko to the west, on our right. We encamped this night on a rising-ground called Shillokeeb, where there is no water, though the mountains were everywhere cut through with gullies and water courses, made by the violent rains that fall here in winter.

The 17th, we continued along the same plain, still covered thick with acacia-trees. They were then in blossom, had a round yellow flower, but we saw no gum upon the trees. Our direction had hitherto been south. We turned westerly through an opening in the mountains, which here stand so close together as to leave no valley or plain space between them but what is made by the torrents, in the rainy season, forcing their way with great violence to the sea.

The bed of the torrent was our only road; and, as it was all sand, we could not wish for a better. The moisture it had strongly imbibed protected it from the sudden effects of the sun, and produced, all alongst its course, a great degree of vegetation and verdure. Its banks were full of rack-trees, capers, and tamarinds; the two last bearing larger fruit than I had ever before seen, though not arrived to their greatest size or maturity.

We continued this winding, according to the course of the river, among mountains of no great height, but bare, stony, and full of terrible precipices. At half past eight o’clock we halted, to avoid the heat of the sun, under shade of the trees before mentioned, for it was then excessively hot, though in the month of November, from ten in the morning till two in the afternoon. We met this day with large numbers of Shiho, having their wives and families along with them, descending from the tops of the high mountains of Habesh, with their flocks to pasture, on the plains below near the sea, upon grass that grows up in the months of October and November, when they have already consumed what grew in the opposite season on the other side of the mountains.

This change of domicil gives them a propensity to thieving and violence, though otherwise a cowardly tribe. It is a proverb in Abyssinia, “Beware of men that drink _two_ waters,” meaning these, and all the tribes of _Shepherds_, who were in search of pasture, and who have lain under the same imputation from the remotest antiquity.

The Shiho were once very numerous; but, like all these nations having communication with Masuah, have suffered much by the ravages of the small-pox. The Shiho are the blackest of the tribes bordering upon the Red Sea. They were all clothed; their women in coarse cotton shifts reaching down to their ancles, girt about the middle with a leather belt, and having very large sleeves; the men in short cotton breeches reaching to the middle of their thighs, and a goat’s skin cross their shoulders. They have neither tents nor cottages, but either live in caves in the mountains under trees, or in small conical huts built with a thick grass like reeds.

This party consisted of about fifty men, and, I suppose, not more than thirty women; from which it seemed probable the Shiho are Monogam, as afterwards, indeed, I knew them to be. Each of them had a lance in his hand, and a knife at the girdle which kept up the breeches. They had the superiority of the ground, as coming down the mountain which we were ascending; yet I observed them to seem rather uneasy at meeting us; and so far from any appearance of’ hostility, that, I believe, had we attacked briskly, they would have fled without much resistance. They were, indeed, incumbered with a prodigious quantity of goats and other cattle, so were not in a fighting trim. I saluted the man that seemed to be their chief, and asked him if he would sell us a goat. He returned my salute; but either could not speak Arabic, or declined further conversation. However, those of our people behind, that were of a colour nearer to themselves, bought us a goat that was lame, (dearly they said) for some antimony, four large needles, and some beads. Many of them asked us for _kisserah_, or bread. This being an Arabic word, and their having no other word in their language signifying bread, convinces me they were Icthyophagi; as, indeed, history says all those Troglydite nations were who lived upon the Red Sea. It could not indeed be otherwise: the rich, when trade flourished in these parts, would probably get corn from Arabia or Abyssinia; but, in their own country, no corn would grow.

At 2 o’clock in the afternoon we resumed our journey through a very stony, uneven road, till 5 o’clock, when we pitched our tent at a place called Hamhammou, on the side of a small green hill some hundred yards from the bed of the torrent. The weather had been perfectly good since we left Masuah: this afternoon, however, it seemed to threaten rain; the high mountains were quite hid, and great part of the lower ones covered with thick clouds; the lightning was very frequent, broad, and deep tinged with blue; and long peals of thunder were heard, but at a distance. This was the first sample we had of Abyssinian bad weather.

The river scarcely ran at our passing it; when, all of a sudden, we heard a noise on the mountains above, louder than the loudest thunder. Our guides, upon this, flew to the baggage, and removed it to the top of the green hill; which was no sooner done, than we saw the river coming down in a stream about the height of a man, and breadth of the whole bed it used to occupy. The water was thick tinged with red earth, and ran in the form of a deep river, and swelled a little above its banks, but did not reach our station on the hill.

An antelope, surprised by the torrent, and I believe hurt by it, was forced over into the peninsula where we were, seemingly in great distress. As soon as my companions saw there was no further danger from the river, they surrounded this innocent comrade in misfortune, and put him to death with very little trouble to themselves. The acquisition was not great; it was lean, had a musky taste, and was worse meat than the goat we had bought from the Shiho. The torrent, though now very sensibly diminished, still preserved a current till next morning.

Between Hamhammou and Shillokeeb we first saw the dung of elephants, full of pretty thick pieces of indigested branches. We likewise, in many places, saw the tracks thro’ which they had passed; some trees were thrown down from the roots, some broken in the middle, and branches half-eaten strewed on the ground.

Hamhammou is a mountain of black stones, almost calcined by the violent heat of the sun. This is the boundary of the district; Samhar, inhabited by the Shiho from Hamhammou to Taranta, is called Hadassa; it belongs to the Hazorta.

This nation, though not so numerous as the Shiho, are yet their neighbours, live in constant defiance of the Naybe, and are of a colour much resembling new copper; but are inferior to the Shiho in size, though very agile. All their substance is in cattle; yet they kill none of them, but live entirely upon milk. They, too, want also an original word for bread in their language, for the same reason, I suppose, as the Shiho. They have been generally successful against the Naybe, and live either in caves, or in cabannes, like cages, just large enough to hold two persons, and covered with an ox’s hide. Some of the better sort of women have copper bracelets upon their arms, beads in their hair, and a tanned hide wrapt about their shoulders.

The nights are cold here--even in summer, and do not allow the inhabitants to go naked as upon the rest of the coast; however, the children of the Shiho, whom we met first, were all naked.

The 18th, at half past five in the morning, we left our station on the side of the green hill at Hamhammou: for some time our road lay through a plain so thick set with acacia-trees that our hands and faces were all torn and bloody with the strokes of their thorny branches. We then resumed our ancient road in the bed of the torrent, now nearly dry, over stones which the rain of the preceding night had made very slippery.

At half past seven we came to the mouth of a narrow valley, through which a stream of water ran very swiftly over a bed of pebbles. It was the first clear water we had seen since we left Syria, and gave us then unspeakable pleasure. It was in taste excellent. The shade of the tamarind-tree, and the coolness of the air, invited us to rest on this delightful spot, though otherwise, perhaps, it was not exactly conformable to the rules of prudence, as we saw several huts and families of the Hazorta along the side of the stream, with their flocks feeding on the branches of trees and bushes, entirely neglectful of the grass they were treading under foot.

The caper-tree here grows as high as the tallest English elm; its flower is white, and its fruit, though not ripe, was fully as large as an apricot.

I went some distance to a small pool of water in order to bathe, and took my firelock with me; but none of the savages stirred from their huts, nor seemed to regard me more than if I had lived among them all their lives, though surely I was the most extraordinary sight they had ever seen; whence I concluded that they are a people of small talents or genius, having no curiosity.

At two o’clock we continued our journey, among large timber trees, till half past three, along the side of the rivulet, when we lost it. At half past four we pitched our tent at Sadoon, by the side of another stream, as clear, as shallow, and as beautiful as the first; but the night here was exceedingly cold, though the sun had been hot in the day-time. Our desire for water was, by this time, considerably abated. We were everywhere surrounded by mountains, bleak, bare, black, and covered with loose stones, entirely destitute of soil; and, besides this gloomy prospect, we saw nothing but the heavens.

On the 19th, at half past six in the morning, we left Sadoon, our road still winding between mountains in the bed, or torrent of a river, bordered on each side with rack and sycamore trees of a good size. I thought them equal to the largest trees I had ever seen; but upon considering, and roughly measuring some of them, I did not find one 7½ feet diameter; a small tree in comparison of those that some travellers have observed, and much smaller than I expected; for here every cause concurred that should make the growth of these large bodies excessive.

At half past eight o’clock, we encamped at a place called Tubbo, where the mountains are very steep, and broken, very abruptly, into cliffs and precipices. Tubbo was by much the most agreeable station we had seen; the trees were thick, full of leaves, and gave us abundance of very dark shade. There was a number of many different kinds so closely planted that they seemed to be intended for natural arbours. Every tree was full of birds, variegated with an infinity of colours, but destitute of song; others, of a more homely and more European appearance, diverted us with a variety of wild notes, in a stile of music still distinct and peculiar to Africa; as different in the composition from our linnet and goldfinch, as our English language is to that of Abyssinia: Yet, from very attentive and frequent observation, I found that the sky-lark at Masuah sang the same notes as in England. It was observable, that the greatest part of the beautiful painted birds were of the jay, or magpie kind: nature seemed, by the fineness of their dress, to have marked them for children of noise and impertinence, but never to have intended them for pleasure or meditation.

The reason of the Hazorta making, as it were, a fixed station here at Tubbo, seems to be the great exuberancy of the foliage of these large trees. Their principal occupation seemed to be to cut down the branches most within their reach; and this, in a dry season, nearly stripped every tree; and, upon failure of these, they remove their flocks, whatever quantity of grass remained.

The sycamores constitute a large proportion of these trees, and they are everywhere loaded with figs; but the process of caprification being unknown to these savages, these figs come to nothing, which else might be a great resource for food at times, in a country which seems almost destitute of the necessaries of life.

We left Tubbo at three o’clock in the afternoon, and we wished to leave the neighbourhood of the Hazorta. At four, we encamped at Lila, where we passed the night in a narrow valley, full of trees and brushwood, by the side of a rivulet. These small, but delightful streams, which appear on the plain between Taranta and the sea, run only after October. When the summer rains in Abyssinia are ceasing, they begin again on the east side of the mountains; at other times, no running water is to be found here, but it remains stagnant in large pools, whilst its own depth, or the shade of the mountains and trees, prevent it from being exhaled by the heat of the sun till they are again replenished with fresh supplies, which are poured into them upon return of the rainy season. Hitherto we had constantly ascended from our leaving Arkeeko, but it was very gradually, indeed almost imperceptibly.

On the 20th, at six o’clock in the morning, we left our station at Lila, and about seven we began to ascend the hills, or eminences, which serve as the roots or skirts of the great mountain Taranta. The road was on each side bordered with nabca, or jujeb trees of great beauty, and sycamores perfectly deprived of their verdure and branches.

We saw to-day plenty of game. The country here is everywhere deprived of the shade it would enjoy from these fine trees, by the barbarous axes of the Hazorta. We found everywhere immense flocks of antelopes; as also partridges of a small kind that willingly took refuge upon trees; neither of these seemed to consider us as enemies. The antelopes let us pass through their flocks, only removing to the right or to the left, or standing still and gazing upon us till we passed. But, as we were then on the confines of Tigrè, or rather on the territory of the Baharnagash, and as the Hazorta were in motion everywhere removing towards the coast, far from the dominions of the Abyssinians to which we were going, a friend of their own tribe, who had joined us for safety, knowing how little trust was to be put in his countrymen when moving in this contrary direction, advised us by no means to fire, or give any unnecessary indication of the spot where we were, till we gained the mountain of Taranta, at the foot of which we halted at nine in the morning.

At half past two o’clock in the afternoon we began to ascend the mountain, through a most rocky, uneven road, if it can deserve the name, not only from its incredible steepness, but from the large holes and gullies made by the torrents, and the huge monstrous fragments of rocks which, loosened by the water, had been tumbled down into our way. It was with great difficulty we could creep up, each man carrying his knapsack and arms; but it seemed beyond the possibility of human strength to carry our baggage and instruments. Our tent, indeed, suffered nothing by its falls; but our telescopes, time-keeper, and quadrant, were to be treated in a more deliberate and tender manner.

Our quadrant had hitherto been carried by eight men, four to relieve each other; but these were ready to give up the undertaking upon trial of the first few hundred yards. A number of expedients, such as trailing it on the ground, (all equally fatal to the instrument) were proposed. At last, as I was incomparably the strongest of the company, as well as the most interested, I, and a stranger Moor who had followed us, carried the head of it for about 400 yards over the most difficult and steepest part of the mountain, which before had been considered as impracticable by all.

Yasine was the name of that Moor, recommended to me by Metical Aga, of whom I have already spoken a little, and shall be obliged to say much more; a person whom I had discovered to be a man of a most sagacious turn of mind, firm heart, and strenuous nerves; never more distinguished for all these qualities than in the hour of imminent danger; at other times remarkable for quietness and silence, and a constant study of his Koran.

We carried it steadily up the steep, eased the case gently over the big stones on which, from time to time, we rested it; and, to the wonder of them all, placed the head of the three-foot quadrant, with its double case, in safety far above the stony parts of the mountain. At Yasine’s request we again undertook the next most difficult task, which was to carry the iron foot of the quadrant in a single deal-case, not so heavy, indeed, nor so liable to injury, but still what had been pronounced impossible to carry up so steep and rugged a mountain; and refusing then the faint offers of those that stood gazing below, excusing themselves by foretelling an immediate and certain miscarriage, we placed the second case about ten yards above the first in perfect good condition.

Declaring ourselves now without fear of contradiction, and, by the acknowledgment of all, upon fair proof, the two best men in the company, we returned, bearing very visibly the characters of such an exertion; our hands and knees were all cut, mangled, and bleeding, with sliding down and clambering over the sharp points of the rocks; our clothes torn to pieces; yet we professed our ability, without any reproaches on our comrades, to carry the two telescopes and time-keeper also. Shame, and the proof of superior constancy, so much humbled the rest of our companions, that one and all put their hands so briskly to work, that, with infinite toil, and as much pleasure, we advanced so far as to place all our instruments and baggage, about two o’clock in the afternoon, near half way up this terrible mountain of Taranta.

There were five asses, two of which belonged to Yasine, and these were fully as difficult to bring up the mountain as any of our burdens. Most of their loading, the property of Yasine, we carried up the length of my instruments; and it was proposed, as a thing that one man could do, to make the unladen light asses follow, as they had been well taken care of, were vigorous and young, and had not suffered by the short journies we had made on plain ground. They no sooner, however, found themselves at liberty, and that a man was compelling them with a stick to ascend the mountain, than they began to bray, to kick, and to bite each other; and, as it were with one consent, not only ran down the part of the hill we had ascended, but, with the same jovial cries as before, (smelling, I suppose, some of their companions) they continued on at a brisk trot; and, as we supposed, would never stop till they came to Tubbo, and the huts of the Hazorta.

All our little caravan, and especially the masters of these animals, saw from above, in despair, all our eagerness to pass Taranta defeated by the secession of the most obstinate of the brute creation. But there was no mending this by reflection; at the same time, we were so tired as to make it impossible for the principals to give any assistance. Bread was to be baked, and supper to be made ready, after this fatiguing journey.

At length four Moors, one of them a servant of Yasine, with one firelock, were sent down after the asses; and the men were ordered to fire at a distance, so as to be heard in case any thing dishonest was offered on the part of the Hazorta. But luckily the appetite of the asses returning, they had fallen to eat the bushes, about half way to Lila, where they were found a little before sun-set.

The number of hyænas that are everywhere among the bushes, had, as we supposed, been seen by these animals, and had driven them all into a body. It was probable that this, too, made them more docile, so that they suffered themselves to be driven on before their masters. The hyænas, however, followed them step by step, always increasing in number; and, the men, armed only with lances, began to be fully as much afraid for themselves as for the asses. At last the hyænas became so bold, that one of them seized the ass belonging to the poor Moor, whose cargo was yet lying at the foot of Taranta, and pulled him down, though the man ran to him and relieved him with lances. This would have begun a general engagement with the hyænas, had not Yasine’s man that carried the firelock discharged it amongst them, but missed them all. However, it answered the purpose; they disappeared, and left the asses and ass-drivers to pursue their way.

The shot, for a moment, alarmed us all upon the mountain. Every man ran to his arms to prepare for the coming of the Hazorta; but a moment’s reflection upon the short time the men had been away, the distance between us and Tubbo, and the small space that it seemed to be from where the gun was fired, made us all conclude the man had only intended by the shot to let us know they were at hand, tho’ it was not till near midnight before our long-eared companions joined their masters.

We found it impossible to pitch our tents, from the extreme weariness in which our last night’s exertion had left us: But there was another reason also; for there was not earth enough covering the bare sides of Taranta to hold fast a tent-pin; but there were variety of caves near us, and throughout the mountain, which had served for houses to the old inhabitants; and in these found a quiet and not inconvenient place of repose, the night of the 20th of November.

All this side of the mountain of Taranta, which we had passed, was thick-set with a species of tree which we had never before seen, but which was of uncommon beauty and curious composition of parts; its name is _kol-quall_[3]. Though we afterwards met it in several places of Abyssinia, it never was in the perfection we now saw it in Taranta.

On the 21st, at half past six in the morning, having encouraged my company with good words, increase of wages, and hopes of reward, we began to encounter the other half of the mountain, but, before we set out, seeing that the ass of the stranger Moor, which was bit by the hyæna, was incapable of carrying his loading further, I desired the rest every one to bear a proportion of the loading till we should arrive at Dixan, where I promised to procure him another which might enable him to continue his journey.

This proposal gave universal satisfaction to our Mahometan attendants. Yasine swore that my conduct was a reproach to them all, for that, though a Christian, I had set them an example of charity to their poor brother, highly necessary to procure God’s blessing upon their journey, but which should properly have come first from themselves. After a great deal of strife of kindness, it was agreed that I should pay one-third, that the lame ass should go for what it was worth, and the Moors of the caravan make up the difference.

This being ended, I soon perceived the good effect. My baggage moved much more briskly than the preceding day. The upper part of the mountain was, indeed, steeper, more craggy, rugged, and slippery than the lower, and impeded more with trees, but not embarrassed so much with large stones and holes. Our knees and hands, however, were cut to pieces by frequent falls, and our faces torn by the multitude of thorny bushes. I twenty times now thought of what Achmet had told me at parting, that I should curse him for the bad road shewn to me over Taranta; but bless him for the quiet and safety attending me in that passage.

The middle of the mountain was thinner of trees than the two extremes; they were chiefly wild olives which bear no fruit. The upper part was close covered with groves of the oxy cedrus, the Virginia, or berry-bearing cedar, in the language of the country called Arz. At last we gained the top of the mountain, upon which is situated a small village called Halai, the first we had seen since our leaving Masuah. It is chiefly inhabited by poor servants and shepherds keeping the flocks of men of substance living in the town of Dixan.

The people here are not black, but of a dark complexion bordering very much upon yellow. They have their head bare; their feet covered with sandals; a goat’s skin upon their shoulders; a cotton cloth about their middle; their hair short and curled like that of a negroe’s in the west part of Africa; but this is done by art, not by nature, each man having a wooden stick with which he lays hold of the lock and twists it round a screw, till it curls in the form he desires[4]. The men carry in their hands two lances and a large shield of bull’s hide. A crooked knife, the blade in the lower part about three inches broad, but diminishing to a point about sixteen inches long, is stuck at their right side, in a girdle of coarse cotton cloth, with which their middle is swathed, going round them six times.

All sorts of cattle are here in great plenty; cows and bulls of exquisite beauty, especially the former; they are, for the most part, completely white, with large dewlaps hanging down to their knees; their heads, horns, and hoofs perfectly well-turned; the horns wide like our Lincolnshire kine; and their hair like silk. Their sheep are large, and all black. I never saw one of any other colour in the province of Tigré. Their heads are large; their ears remarkably short and small; instead of the wool they have hair, as all the sheep within the tropics have, but this is remarkable for its lustre and softness, without any bristly quality, such as those in Beja, or the country of Sennaar; but they are neither so fat, nor is their flesh so good, as that of the sheep in the warmer country. The goats here, too, are of the largest size; but they are not very rough, nor is their hair long.

The plain on the top of the mountain Taranta was, in many places, sown with wheat, which was then ready to be cut down, though the harvest was not yet begun. The grain was clean, and of a good colour, but inferior in size to that of Egypt. It did not, however, grow thick, nor was the stalk above fourteen inches high. The water is very bad on the top of Taranta, being only what remains of the rain in the hollows of the rocks, and in pits prepared for it.

Being very tired, we pitched our tent on the top of the mountain. The night was remarkably cold, at least appeared so to us, whose pores were opened by the excessive heat of Masuah; for at mid-day the thermometer stood 61°, and at six in the evening 59°; the barometer, at the same time, 18½ inches French. The dew began to fall strongly, and so continued till an hour after sun-set, though the sky was perfectly clear, and the smallest stars discernible.

I killed a large eagle here this evening, about six feet ten inches from wing to wing. It seemed very tame till shot. The ball having wounded it but slightly, when on the ground it could not be prevented from attacking the men or beasts near it with great force and fierceness, so that I was obliged to stab it with a bayonet. It was of a dirty white; only the head and upper part of its wings were of a light brown.

On the 22d, at eight in the morning, we left our station on the top of Taranta, and soon after began to descend on the side of Tigré through a road the most broken and uneven that ever I had seen, always excepting the ascent of Taranta. After this we began to mount a small hill, from which we had a distinct view of Dixan.

The cedar-trees, so tall and beautiful on the top of Taranta, and also on the east side, were greatly degenerated when we came to the west, and mostly turned into small shrubs and scraggy bushes. We pitched our tent near some marshy ground for the sake of water, at three quarters past ten, but it was very bad, having been, for several weeks, stagnant. We saw here the people busy at their wheat harvest; others, who had finished theirs, were treading it out with cows or bullocks. They make no use of their straw; sometimes they burn it, and sometimes leave it on the spot to rot.

We set out from this about ten minutes after three, descending gently through a better road than we had hitherto seen. At half past four in the evening, on the 22d of November, we came to Dixan. Halai was the first village, so is this the first town in Abyssinia, on the side of Taranta. Dixan is built on the top of a hill, perfectly in form of a sugar loaf; a deep valley surrounds it everywhere like a trench, and the road winds spirally up the hill till it ends among the houses.

This town, with a large district, and a considerable number of villages, belonged formerly to the Baharnagash, and was one of the strong places under his command. Afterwards, when his power came to be weakened, and his office in disrepute by his treasonable behaviour in the war of the Turks, and civil war that followed it, during the Portuguese settlement in the reign of Socinios, the Turks possessing the sea ports, and being often in intelligence with him, it was thought proper to wink at the usurpations of the governors of Tigrè, who, little by little, reduced this office to be dependent on their power.

Dixan, presuming upon its strength, declared for independence in the time the two parties were contending; and, as it was inhabited mostly by Mahometans, it was secretly supported by the Naybe. Michael Suhul, however, governor of Tigré, in the reign of king Yasous II. invested it with a large army of horse and foot; and, as it had no water but what was in the valley below, the general defect of these lofty situations, he surrounded the town, encamping upon the edge of the valley, and inclosed all the water within his line of circumvallation, making strong posts at every watering-place, defended by fire-arms.

He then sent to them a buffoon, or dwarf, desiring them to surrender within two hours. The passions of the inhabitants were, however, raised by expectations of succour from the Naybe; and they detested Michael above every thing that could be imagined. They, therefore, whipt the dwarf, and inflicted other marks of contumely upon him. Michael bore this with seeming indifference. He sent no more summonses, but strengthened his posts, and ordered them to be continually visited. Several attacks of no consequence were made by the besieged following large stones, which were rolled down into the trench, but all to no purpose. A general attack, however, from the town, was tried the third day, by which one well was carried, and many relieved their thirst; many died there, and the rest were forced back into the town. A capitulation was now offered; but Michael answered, he waited for the coming of the Naybe. About 700 people are said to have died, during the siege, with thirst; and at last, there being no prospect of relief, twelve of the leaders were delivered and hanged up at the wells. The town surrendered at discretion, and the soldiers finished those whom thirst had spared.

Michael then farmed Dixan to the Naybe, who repeopled it. There was a high and low town, divided from each other by a considerable space. In the lower abode Christians, at least so calling themselves; on the top of the hill were the Naybe’s party, who had dug for themselves a scanty well. Saloomé, our guide, was son of the governor for the Naybe. Achmet was the person the Moors in the low town had confided in; and the Christian chief was a dependent upon Janni, our Greek friend at Adowa, who had direction of all the custom-houses in Tigrè, and of that at Dixan among the rest.

Our baggage had passed the trench, and had reached the low town through which Saloomè had conducted me, under pretence of getting a speedy shelter from the heat: but he overacted his part; and Janni, his servant, who spoke Greek, giving me a hint to go no farther, I turned short towards the house, and sat down with my firelock upon a stone at the door. Our baggage quickly followed, and all was put safe in a kind of a court inclosed with a sufficient stone-wall.

It was not long till Hagi Abdelcader, Achmet’s friend, came to us, inviting me civilly to his house, and declaring to me the friendly orders he had received from Achmet concerning me; bringing along with him also a goat, some butter and honey. I excused myself from leaving Janni’s friend, the Christian, where I had first alighted; but I recommended Yasine to him, for he had begun to shew great attachment to me. In about a quarter of an hour came Saloomé, with about twenty men, and demanded us, in the name of the Naybe, as his strangers: he said we owed him money for conducting us, and likewise for the customhouse dues. In a moment near a hundred men were assembled round Hagi Abdelcader, all with shields and lances, and we expected to see a fray of the most serious kind. But Abdelcader, with a switch in his hand, went gravely up to Saloomè, and, after chiding his party with great authority, he held up his stick twice over Saloomé’s head, as if to strike him; then ordered him, if he had any demands, to come to him in the evening; upon which both parties dispersed, and left us in peace.

The matter was settled in the evening with Saloomé in an amicable manner. It was proved that thirteen pieces of blue cloth were the hire agreed on, and that it had been paid by his order to Achmet; and, though he deserved nothing for his treacherous inclinations towards us, yet, for Achmet’s sake, and our friend Hagi Abdelcader’s, we made him a present of three pieces more.

It is true of Dixan as, I believe, of most frontier towns, that the bad people of both contiguous countries resort thither. The town, as I before have said, consists of Moors and Christians, and is very well peopled; yet the only trade of either of these sects is a very extraordinary one, that of selling of children. The Christians bring such as they have stolen in Abyssinia to Dixan as to a sure deposit; and the Moors receive them there, and carry them to a certain market at Masuah, whence they are sent over to Arabia or India. The priests of the province of Tigré, especially those near the rock Damo, are openly concerned in this infamous practice; and some of these have been licensed by Michael to carry it on as a fair trade, upon paying so many firelocks for each dozen or score of slaves.

Nothing can elucidate the footing upon which this trade stands better than a transaction which happened while I was in Ethiopia, and which reached Gondar by way of complaint from Masuah, and was told me by Michael himself.

Two priests of Tigrè, whose names I have forgot, had been long intimate friends. They dwelt near the rock Damo. The youngest was married, and had two children, both sons; the other was old, and had none. The old one reproved his friend one day for keeping his children at home idle, and not putting them to some profession by which they might gain their bread. The married priest pleaded his poverty and his want of relations that could assist him; on which, the old priest offered to place his eldest son with a rich friend of his own, who had no children, and where he should want for nothing. The proposal was accepted, and the young lad, about ten years of age, was delivered by his father to the old priest, to carry him to this friend, who sent the boy to Dixan and sold him there. Upon the old priest’s return, after giving the father a splendid account of his son’s reception, treatment, and prospects, he gave him a piece of cotton cloth, as a present from his son’s patron.

The younger child, about eight years old, hearing the good fortune of his elder brother, became so importunate to be allowed to go and visit him, that the parents were obliged to humour him, and consent. But the old priest had a scruple, saying he would not take the charge of so young a boy, unless his mother went with him. This being settled, the old priest conveyed them to the market at Dixan, where he sold both the mother and the remaining child.

Returning to the father, the old priest told him, that his wife would stay only so long, and expected he would then fetch her upon a certain day, which was named. The day being come, the two priests went together to see this happy family; and, upon their entering Dixan, it was found that the old priest had sold the young one, but not to the same Moor to whom he had sold his family. Soon after, these two Moors, who had bought the Christians, becoming partners in the venture, the old priest was to receive forty cotton-cloths, that is, L. 10 Sterling, for the husband, wife, and children.

The payment of the money, perhaps the resentment of the family trepanned, and the appearance of equity which the thing itself bore, suggested to the Moorish merchants that there was some more profit, and not more risk, if they carried off the old priest likewise. But as he had come to Dixan, as it were under public faith, in a trade that greatly interested the town, they were afraid to attempt any thing against him whilst there. They began then as it were to repent of their bargain, from a pretended apprehension that they might be stopped and questioned at going out of town, unless he would accompany them to some small distance; in consideration of which, they would give him, at parting, two pieces of cloth to be added to the other forty, which he was to take back to Tigré with him upon his return.

The beginning of such expeditions is in the night. When all were asleep, they set out from Dixan; the buyers, the seller, and the family sold; and, being arrived near the mountain where the way turns off to the desert, the whole party fell upon the old priest, threw him down, and bound him. The woman insisted that she might be allowed to cut, or tear off the little beard he had, in order, as she said, to make him look younger; and this demand was reckoned too just to be denied her. The whole five were then carried to Masuah; the woman and her two children were sold to Arabia; the two priests had not so ready a market, and they were both in the Naybe’s house when I was at Masuah, though I did not then know it.

The Naybe, willing to ingratiate himself with Ras Michael at a small expence, wrote to him an account of the transaction, and offered, as they were priests, to restore them to him. But the Ras returned for answer, that the Naybe should keep them to be his chaplains; as he hoped, some day, he would be converted to the Christian faith himself; if not, he might send them to Arabia with the rest; they would serve to be carriers of wood and drawers of water; and that there still remained at Damo enough of their kind to carry on the trade with Dixan and Masuah.

This story I heard from Ras Michael himself, at his grand-daughter’s marriage, when he was feasting, and in great spirits. He, and all the company, laughed heartily; and although there were in the room at least two dozen of priests, none of them seemed to take this incident more seriously than the rest of the company. From this we may guess at the truth of what the Catholic writers advance, with regard to the respect and reverence shown to the priesthood by the government and great men in Abyssinia.

The priest of Axum, and those of the monastery of Abba Garima, are equally infamous with those of Damo for this practice, which is winked at by Ras Michael, as contributing to his greatness, by furnishing fire-arms to his province of Tigré, which gives him a superiority over all Abyssinia. As a return for this article, about five hundred of these unfortunate people are exported annually from Masuah to Arabia; of which three hundred are Pagans, and come from the market at Gondar; the other two hundred are Christian children, kidnapped by some such manner as this we have spoken of, and in times of scarcity four times that number. The Naybe receives six patakas of duty for each one exported. Dixan is in lat. 14° 57´ 55´´ North, and long. 40° 7´ 30´´ east of the meridian of Greenwich.

From Dixan we discovered great part of the province of Tigrè full of high dreadful mountains. We, as yet, had seen very little grain, unless by the way-side from Taranta, and a small flat called Zarai, about four miles S. S. W. of the town.

CHAP. IV.

_Journey from Dixan to Adowa, Capital of Tigrè._

It was on Nov. 25th, at ten in the morning, we left Dixan, descending the very steep hill on which the town is situated. It produces nothing but the Kol-quall tree all around it. We passed a miserable village called Hadhadid, and, at eleven o’clock, encamped under a daroo tree, one of the finest I have seen in Abyssinia, being 7½ feet diameter, with a head spreading in proportion, standing alone by the side of a river which now ran no more, though there is plenty of fine water still stagnant in its bed. This tree and river is the boundary of the territory, which the Naybe farms from Tigré, and stands within the province of Baharnagash, called Midrè Bahar.

Hagi Abdelcader had attended us thus far before he left us; and the noted Saloomè came likewise, to see if some occasion would offer of doing us further mischief; but the king’s servants, now upon their own ground, began to take upon them a proper consequence. One of them went to meet Saloomé at the bank of the river, and making a mark on the ground with his knife, declared that his patience was quite exhausted by what he had been witness to at Masuah and Dixan; and if now Saloomé, or any other man belonging to the Naybe, offered to pass that mark, he would bind him hand and foot, and carry him to a place where he should be left tied to a tree, a prey to the lion and hyæna. They all returned, and there our persecution from the Naybe ended. But it was very evident, from Achmet’s behaviour and discourse, had we gone by Dobarwa, which was the road proposed by the Naybe, our sufferings would not have been as yet half finished, unless they had ended with our lives.

We remained under this tree the night of the 25th; it will be to me a station ever memorable, as the first where I recovered a portion of that tranquillity of mind to which I had been a stranger ever since my arrival at Masuah. We had been joined by about twenty loaded asses driven by Moors, and two loaded bulls; for there is a small sort of this kind called Ber, which they make use of as beasts of burden. I called all these together to recommend good order to them, desiring every one to leave me that was not resolved to obey implicitly the orders I should give them, as to the hours and places of encamping, keeping watch at night, and setting out in the morning. I appointed Yasine the judge of all disputes between them; and, if the difference should be between Yasine and any one of them, or, if they should not be content with his decision, then my determination was to be final. They all consented with great marks of approbation. We then repeated the fedtah, and swore to stand by each other till the last, without considering who the enemy might be, or what his religion was, if he attacked us.

The 26th, at seven in the morning, we left our most pleasant quarters under the daroo-tree, and set forward with great alacrity. About a quarter of a mile from the river we crossed the end of the plain Zarai, already mentioned. Though this is but three miles long, and one where broadest, it was the largest plain we had seen since our passing Taranta, whose top was now covered wholly with large, black, and very heavy clouds, from which we heard and saw frequent peals of thunder, and violent streams of lightning. This plain was sown partly with wheat, partly with Indian corn; the first was cut down, the other not yet ripe. Two miles farther we passed Addicota, a village planted upon a high rock; the sides towards us were as if cut perpendicular like a wall. Here was one refuge of the Jesuits when banished Tigrè by Facilidas, when they fled to the rebel John Akay. We after this passed a variety of small villages on each side of us, all on the top of hills; Darcotta and Embabuwhat on the right, Azaria on the left.

At half an hour past eleven we encamped under a mountain, on the top of which is a village called Hadawi, consisting of no more than eighty houses, though, for the present, it is the seat of the Baharnagash. The present Baharnagash had bought the little district that he commanded, after the present governor of Tigré, Michael Suhul, had annexed to his own province what he pleased of the old domains, and farmed the other part to the Naybe for a larger revenue than he ever could get from any other tenant. The Naybe had now no longer a naval force to support him, and the fear of Turkish conquest had ceased in Tigrè. The Naybe could be reduced within any bounds that the governor of Tigrè might please to prescribe him; and the Baharnagash was a servant maintained to watch over him, and starve him into obedience, by intercepting his provisions whenever the governor of Tigré commanded him.

This nobleman paid me a visit in my tent, and was the first Abyssinian I had seen on horseback; he had seven attendant horsemen with him, and about a dozen of others on foot, all of a beggarly appearance, and very ill-armed and equipped. He was a little man, of an olive complexion, or rather darker; his head was shaved close, with a cowl, or covering, upon it; he had a pair of short trousers; his feet and legs were bare; the usual coarse girdle was wrapt several times about him, in which he stuck his knife; and the ordinary web of cotton cloth, neither new nor clean, was thrown about him. His parts seemed to be much upon the level with his appearance. He asked me, if I had ever seen horses before? I said, Very seldom. He then described their qualities in such a manner as would never have given me any idea of the animal if I had seen it seldom. He excused himself for not having sent us provisions, because he had been upon an expedition against some rebellious villages, and was then only just returned.

To judge by his present appearance, he was no very respectable personage; but in this I was mistaken, as I afterwards found. I gave him a present in proportion to the first idea, with which he seemed very well content, till he observed a number of fire-arms tied up to the pillar in the middle of the tent, among which were two large ship-blunderbusses. He asked me if there was no danger of their going off? I said, that it happened every now and then, when their time was come. A very little after this, he took the cushion upon which he sat, went out, and placed himself at the door of the tent. There the king’s servant got hold of him, and told him roundly, he must furnish us with a goat, a kid, and forty loaves, and that immediately, and write it off in his deftar, or account-book, if he pleased. He then went away and sent us a goat and fifty cakes of teff bread.

But my views upon him did not end here. His seven horses were all in very bad order, though there was a black one among them that had particularly struck my fancy. In the evening I sent the king’s servants, and Janni’s, for a check, to try if he would sell that black horse. The bargain was immediately made for various pieces of goods, part of which I had with me, and part I procured from my companions in the caravan. Every thing was fashionable and new from Arabia. The value was about L. 12. Sterling, forty shillings more than our friend at Dixan had paid for a whole family of four persons. The goods were delivered, and the horse was to be sent in the evening, when he proved a brown one, old, and wanting an eye. I immediately returned the horse, insisting on the black one; but he protested the black horse was not his own; that he had returned it to its master; and, upon a little further discourse, said, that it was a horse he intended as a present for the king.

My friends treated this with great indifference, and desired their goods back again, which were accordingly delivered. But they were no sooner in the tent, when the black horse was sent, and refused. The whole, however, was made up, by sending us another goat, which I gave, to Yasine, and two jars of bouza, which we drank among us, promising, according to the Baharnagash’s request, we would represent him well at court. We found, from his servants, that he had been upon no expedition, nor one step from home for three months past.

I was exceedingly pleased with this first acquisition. The horse was then lean, as he stood about sixteen and a half hands high, of the breed of Dongola. Yasine, a good horseman, recommended to me one of his servants, or companions, to take care of him. He was an Arab, from the neighbourhood of Medina, a superior horseman himself, and well-versed in every thing that concerned the animal. I took him immediately into my service. We called the horse Mirza, a name of good fortune. Indeed, I might say, I acquired that day a companion that contributed always to my pleasure, and more than once to my safety; and was no slender means of acquiring me the first attention of the king. I had brought my Arab stirrups, saddle, and bridle with me, so that I was now as well equipped as a horseman could be.

On the 27th we left Hadawi, continuing our journey down a very steep and narrow path between two stony hills; then ascended one still higher, upon the top of which stands the large village of Goumbubba, whence we have a prospect over a considerable plain all sown with the different grain this country produces, wheat, barley, teff, and tocusso; simsim, (or sesame) and nook; the last is used for oil.

We passed the village of Dergate, then that of Regticat, on the top of a very high hill on the left, as the other was on our right. We pitched our tent about half a mile off the village called Barranda, where we were overtaken by our friend the Baharnagash, who was so well pleased with our last interview, especially the bargain of the horse, that he sent us three goats, two jars of honey-wine, and some wheat-flour. I invited him to my tent, which he immediately accepted. He was attended by two servants on foot, with lances and shields; he had no arms himself, but, by way of amends, had two drums beating, and two trumpets blowing before him, sounding a charge.

He seemed to be a very simple, good-natured man, indeed, remarkably so; a character rarely found in any degree of men in this country. He asked me how I liked my horse? said, he hoped I did not intend to mount it myself? I answered, God forbid; I kept him as a curiosity. He commended my prudence very much, and gave me a long detail about what horses had done, and would do, on occasions. Some of the people without, however, shewed his servants my saddle, bridle, and stirrups, which they well knew, from being neighbours to the Arabs of Sennaar, and praised me as a better horseman by far than any one in that country; this they told to the Baharnagash, who, nothing offended, laughed heartily at the pretended ignorance I had shewn him, and shook me very kindly by the hand, and told me he was really poor, or he would have taken no money from me for the horse. He shewed so much good nature, and open honest behaviour, that I gave him a present better than the first, and which was more agreeable, as less expected. Razors, knives, steels for striking fire, are the most valuable presents in this country, of the hardware kind.

The Baharnagash now was in such violent good spirits, that he would not go home till he had seen a good part of his jar of hydromel finished; and he little knew, at that time, he was in the tent with a man who was to be his chief customer for horses hereafter. I saw him several times after at court, and did him some services, both with the king and Ras Michael. He had a quality which I then did not know: With all his simplicity and buffoonery, no one was braver in his own person than he; and, together with his youngest son, he died afterwards in the king’s defence, fighting bravely at the battle of Serbraxos.

At five o’clock this afternoon we had a violent shower of hailstones. Nothing is more common than aggravation about the size of hail; but, stooping to take up one I thought as large as a nutmeg, I received a blow from another just under my eye, which I imagined had blinded me, and which occasioned a swelling all the next day.

I had gained the Baharnagash’s heart so entirely that it was not possible to get away the next day. We were upon the very verge of his small dominions, and he had ordered a quantity of wheat-flour to be made for us, which he sent in the evening, with a kid. For my part, the share I had taken yesterday of his hydromel had given me such a pain in my head that I scarce could raise it the whole day.

It was the 29th we left our station at Barranda, and had scarcely advanced a mile when we were overtaken by a party of about twenty armed men on horseback. The Shangalla, the ancient Cushites, are all the way on our right hand, and frequently venture incursions into the flat country that was before us. This was the last piece of attention of the Baharnagash, who sent his party to guard us from danger in the plain. It awakened us from our security; we examined carefully the state of our fire-arms; cleaned and charged them anew, which we had not done since the day we left Dixan.

The first part of our journey to-day was in a deep gully; and, in half an hour, we entered into a very pleasant wood of acacia-trees, then in flower. In it likewise was a tree, in smell like a honeysuckle, whose large white flower nearly resembles that of a caper. We came out of this wood into the plain, and ascended two easy hills; upon the top of these were two huge rocks, in the holes of which, and within a large cave, a number of the blue fork-tailed swallows had begun their nests. These, and probably many, if not all the birds of passage, breed twice in the year, which seems a provision against the losses made by emigration perfectly consonant to divine wisdom. These rocks are, by some, said to be the boundaries of the command of the Baharnagash on this side; though others extend them to the Balezat.

We entered again a straggling wood, so overgrown with wild oats that it covered the men and their horses. The plain here is very wide. It reaches down on the west to Serawé, then distant about twelve miles. It extends from Goumbubba as far south as Balezat. The soil is excellent; but such flat countries are very rare in Abyssinia. This, which is one of the finest and widest, is abandoned without culture, and is in a state of waste. The reason of this is, an inveterate feud between the villages here and those of Serawé, so that the whole inhabitants on each side go armed to plow and to sow in one day; and it is very seldom either of them complete their harvest without having a battle with their enemies and neighbours.

Before we entered this wood, and, indeed, on the preceding day, from the time we left Hadawi, we had seen a very extraordinary bird at a distance, resembling a wild turkey, which ran exceedingly fast, and appeared in great flocks. It is called Erkoom[5], in Amhara; Abba Gumba, in Tigrè; and, towards the frontiers of Sennaar, Tier el Naciba, or, the Bird of Destiny.

Our guides assembled us all in a body, and warned us that the river before us was the place of the rendezvous of the Serawè horse, where many caravans had been entirely cut off. The cavalry is the best on this side of Abyssinia. They keep up the breed of their horses by their vicinity to Sennaar whence they get supply. Nevertheless, they behaved very ill at the battle of Limjour; and I cannot say I remember them to have distinguished themselves any where else. They were on our right at the battle of Serbraxos, and were beat by the horse of Foggora and the Galla.

After passing the wood, we came to the river, which was then standing in pools. I here, for the first time, mounted on horseback, to the great delight of my companions from Barranda, and also of our own, none of whom had ever before seen a gun fired from a horse galloping, excepting Yasine and his servant, now my groom, but neither of these had ever seen a double-barrelled gun. We passed the plain with all the diligence consistent with the speed and capacity of our long-eared convoy; and, having now gained the hills, we bade defiance to the Serawè horse, and sent our guard back perfectly content, and full of wonder at our fire-arms, declaring that their master the Baharnagash, had he seen the black horse behave that day, would have given me another much better.

We entered now into a close country covered with brushwood, wild oats, and high bent-grass; in many places rocky and uneven, so as scarce to leave a narrow part to pass. Just in the very entrance a lion had killed a very fine animal called Agazan. It is of the goat kind; and, excepting a small variety in colour, is precisely the same animal I had seen in Barbary near Capsa. It might be about twelve stone weight, and of the size of a large ass. (Whenever I mention a stone weight, I would wish to be understood horseman’s weight, fourteen pound to the stone, as most familiar to the generality of those who read these Travels.) The animal was scarcely dead; the blood was running; and the noise of my gun had probably frightened its conqueror away: every one with their knives cut off a large portion of flesh; Moors and Christians did the same; yet the Abyssinians aversion to any thing that is dead is such, unless killed regularly by the knife, that none of them would lift any bird that was shot, unless by the point or extreme feather of its wing. Hunger was not the excuse, for they had been plentifully fed all this journey; so that the distinction, in this particular case, is to be found in the manners of the country. They say they may lawfully eat what is killed by the lion, but not by the tiger, hyæna, or any other beast. Where they learned this doctrine, I believe, would not be easy to answer; but it is remarkable, even the Falasha themselves admit this distinction in favour of the lions.

At noon we crossed the river Balezat, which rises at Ade Shiho, a place on the S. W. of the province of Tigrè; and, after no very long course, having been once the boundary between Tigrè and Midré Bahar, (for so the country of the Baharnagash was called) it falls into the Mareb, or ancient Astusaspes. It was the first river, then actually running, that we had seen since we passed Taranta; indeed, all the space is but very indifferently watered. This stream is both clear and rapid, and seems to be full of fish. We continued for some time along its banks, the river on our left, and the mountains on our right, through a narrow plain, till we came to Tomumbusso, a high pyramidal mountain, on the top of which is a convent of monks, who do not, however, reside there, but only come hither upon certain feasts, when they keep open house and entertain all that visit them. The mountain itself is of porphyry.

There we encamped by the river’s side, and were obliged to stay this and the following day, for a duty, or custom, to be paid by all passengers. These duties are called Awides, which signifies _gifts_; though they are levied, for the most part, in a very rigorous and rude manner; but they are established by usage in particular spots; and are, in fact, a regality annexed to the estate. Such places are called Ber, _passes_; which are often met with in the names of places throughout Abyssinia, as Dingleber, Sankraber; and so forth.

There are five of these Awides which, like turnpikes, are to be paid at passing between Masuah and Adowa; one at Samhar, the second at Dixan, the third at Darghat, the fourth here at Balezat, and the fifth at Kella. The small village of Sebow was distant from us two miles to the east; Zarow the same distance to the S. S. E. and Noguet, a village before us, were the places of abode of these tax-gatherers, who farm it for a sum from their superior, and divide the profit _pro rata_ of the sums each has advanced. It is much of the same nature as the caphar in the Levant, but levied in a much more indiscreet, arbitrary manner. The farmer of this duty values as he thinks proper what each caravan is to pay; there is no tariff, or restraint, upon him. Some have on this account been detained months; and others, in time of trouble or bad news, have been robbed of every thing: this is always the case upon the least resistance; for then the villages around you rise in arms; you are not only stript of your property, but sure to be ill-treated in your person.

As I was sent for by the king, and going to Ras Michael, in whose province they were, I affected to laugh when they talked of detaining me; and declared peremptorily to them, that I would leave all my baggage to them with great pleasure, rather than that the king’s life should be in danger by my stay. They were now staggered, and seemed not prepared for an incident of this kind. As I kept up a high tone, we were quit with being detained a day, by paying five pieces of blue Surat cotton cloth, value 3/4 of a pataka each, and one piece of white, value one pataka. Our companions, rather than stay behind, made the best bargain they could; and we all decamped, and set forward together. I was surprised to see, at the small village Zarow, several families as black as perfect negroes, only they were not woolly-headed, and had prominent features. I asked if they descended from slaves, or sons of slaves? They said, No; their particular families of that and the neighbouring village Sebow, were of that colour from time immemorial; and that this did not change, though either the father or mother were of another colour.

On the 1st of December we departed from Balezat, and ascended a steep mountain upon which stands the village Noguet, which we passed about half an hour after. On the top of the hill were a few fields of teff. Harvest was then ended, and they were treading out the teff with oxen. Having passed another very rugged mountain, we descended and encamped by the side of a small river, called Mai Kol-quall, from a number of these trees growing about it. This place is named the Kella, or Castle, because, nearly at equal distances, the mountains on each side run for a considerable extent, straight and even, in shape like a wall; with gapes at certain distances, resembling embrasures and bastions. This rock is otherwise called Damo, anciently the prison of the collateral heirs-male of the royal family.

The river Kol-quall rises in the mountains of Tigrè, and, after a course nearly N. W. falls into the Mareb. It was at Kella we saw, for the first time, the roofs of the houses made in form of cones; a sure proof that the tropical rains grow more violent as they proceed westward.

About half a mile on the hill above is the village Kaibara, wholly inhabited by Mahometan Gibbertis; that is, native Abyssinians of that religion. Kella being one of these bers, or passages, we were detained there three whole days, by the extravagant demands of these farmers of the Awide, who laughed at all the importance we gave ourselves. They had reasons for our reasons, menaces for our menaces, but no civilities to answer ours. What increased the awkwardness of our situation was, they would take no money for provisions, but only merchandise by way of barter. We were, indeed, prepared for this by information; so we began to open shop by spreading a cloth upon the ground, at the sight of which, hundreds of young women poured down upon us on every side from villages behind the mountains which we could not see. The country is surprisingly populous, notwithstanding the great emigration lately made with Michael. Beads and antimony are the standard in this way-faring commerce; but beads are a dangerous speculation. You lose sometimes every thing, or gain more than honestly you should do; for all depends upon fashion; and the fancies of a brown, or black beauty, there, gives the _ton_ as decisively as does the example of the fairest in England.

To our great disappointment, the person employed to buy our beads at Jidda had not received the last list of fashions from this country; so he had bought us a quantity beautifully flowered with red and green, and as big as a large pea; also some large oval, green, and yellow ones; whereas the _ton_ now among the beauties of Tigré were small sky-coloured blue beads, about the size of small lead shot, or seed pearls; blue bugles, and common white bugles, were then in demand, and large yellow glass, flat in the side like the amber-beads formerly used by the better sort of the old women-peasants in England. All our beads were then rejected, by six or seven dozen of the shrillest tongues I ever heard. They decried our merchandize in such a manner, that I thought they meant to condemn them as unsaleable, to be confiscated or destroyed.

Let every man, travelling in such countries as these, remember, that there is no person, however mean, who is in his company, that does not merit attention, kindness, and complacency. Let no man in travelling exalt himself above the lowest, in a greater degree than he is able to do superior service; for many that have thought themselves safe, and been inattentive to this, have perished by the unsuspected machinations of the lowest and meanest wretch among them. Few have either made such long or such frequent journies of this kind as I, and I scarcely recollect any person so insignificant that, before the end of a moderate journey, had not it in his power to return you like for like for your charity or unkindness, be the difference of your quality and condition what it would.

Of all the men in our company, none had any stock of the true small sky-blue beads, and no one had one grain of the large yellow-glass ones, but the poor Moor, whose ass was bit by the hyæna near Lila, and whose cargo, likely to be left behind at the foot of Taranta, I had distributed among the rest of the asses of the caravan; and, leaving the wounded one for the price he would fetch, had next day bought him another at Halai, with which, since that time, he continued his journey. That fellow had felt the obligation in silence; and not one word, but Good-day, and Good-e’en, had passed between us since conferring the favour. Understanding now what was the matter, he called Yasine, and gave him a large package, which he imprudently opened, in which was a treasure of all the beads in fashion, all but the white and blue bugles, and these Yasine himself furnished us with afterwards.

A great shout was set up by the women-purchasers, and a violent scramble followed. Twenty or thirty threw themselves upon the parcel, tearing and breaking all the strings as if they intended to plunder us. This joke did not seem to be relished by the servants. Their hard-heartedness before, in professing they would let us starve rather than give us a handful of flour for all our unfashionable beads, had quite extinguished the regard we else would have unavoidably shewn to the fair sex. A dozen of whips and sticks were laid unmercifully upon their hands and arms, till each dropped her booty. The Abyssinian men that came with them seemed to be perfectly unconcerned at the fray, and stood laughing without the least sign of wishing to interfere in favour of either side. I believe the restitution would not have been complete, had not Yasine, who knew the country well, fired one of the ship-blunderbusses into the air behind their backs. At hearing so unexpectedly this dreadful noise, both men and women fell flat on their faces; the women were immediately dragged off the cloth, and I do not believe there was strength left in any hand to grasp or carry away a single bead. My men immediately wrapped the whole in the cloth, so for a time our market ended.

For my part, at the first appearance of the combat I had withdrawn myself, and sat a quiet spectator under a tree. Some of the women were really so disordered with the fright, that they made but very feeble efforts in the market afterwards. The rest beseeched me to transfer the market to the carpet I sat on under the tree. This I consented to; but, growing wise by misfortune, my servants now produced small quantities of every thing, and not without a very sharp contest and dispute, somewhat superior in noise to that of our fish-women. We were, however, plentifully supplied with honey, butter, flour, and pumpkins of an exceeding good taste, scarcely inferior to melons.

Our caravan being fully victualled the first and second day, our market was not opened but by private adventurers, and seemingly savoured more of gallantry than gain. There were three of them the most distinguished for beauty and for tongue, who, by their discourse, had entertained me greatly. I made each of them a present of a few beads, and asked them how many kisses they would give for each? They answered very readily, with one accord, “Poh! we don’t sell kisses in this country: Who would buy them? We will give you as many as you wish for nothing.” And there was no appearance but, in that bargain, they meant to be very fair and liberal dealers.

The men seemed to have no talent for marketing; nor do they in this country either buy or sell. But we were surprised to see the beaux among them come down to the tent, the second day after our arrival, with each of them a single string of thin, white bugles tied about their dirty, black legs, a little above their ancle; and of this they seemed as proud as if the ornament had been gold or jewels.

I easily saw that so much poverty, joined to so much avarice and pride, made the possessor a proper subject to be employed. My young favourite, who had made so frank an offer of her kindness, had brought me her brother, begging that I would take him with me to Gondar to Ras Michael, and allow him to carry one of my guns, no doubt with an intention to run off with it by the way. I told her that was a thing easily done; but I must first have a trial of his fidelity, which was this, That he would, without speaking to anybody but me and her, go straight to Janni at Adowa, and carry the letter I should give him, and deliver it into his own hand, in which case I would give him a large parcel of each of these beads, more than ever she thought to possess in her lifetime. She frankly agreed, that my word was more to be relied upon than either her own or her brother’s; and, therefore, that the beads, once shewn to them both, were to remain a deposit in my hand. However, not to send him away wholly destitute of the power of charming, I presented him the single string of white bugles for his ancle. Janni’s Greek servant gave him a letter, and he made such diligence that, on the fourth day, by eight o’clock in the morning, he came to my tent without ever having been missed at home.

At the same time came an officer from Janni, with a violent mandate, in the name of Ras Michael, declaring to the person that was the cause of our detention, That, was it not for ancient friendship, the present messenger should have carried him to Ras Michael in irons; discharging me from all awides; ordering him, as Shum of the place, to furnish me with provisions; and, in regard to the time he had caused us to lose, fixing the awides of the whole caravan at eight piasters, not the twentieth part of what he would have exacted. One reason of this severity was, that, while I was in Masuah, Janni had entertained this man at his own house; and, knowing the usual vexations the caravans met with at Kella, and the long time they were detained there at considerable expence, had obtained a promise from the Shum, in consideration of favours done him, that he should let us pass freely, and, not only so, but should shew us some little civility. This promise, now broken, was one of the articles of delinquency for which he was punished.

Cohol, large needles, goats skins, coarse scissars, razors, and steels for striking fire, are the articles of barter at Kella. An ordinary goat’s skin is worth a quart of wheat-flour. As we expected an order of deliverance, all was ready upon its arrival. The Moors with their asses, grateful for the benefit received, began to bless the moment they joined us; hoping, in my consideration, upon our arrival at the customhouse of Adowa, they might meet with further favour.

Yasine, in the four days we had staid at Kella, had told me his whole history. It seems he had been settled in a province of Abyssinia, near to Sennaar, called Ras el Feel; had married Abd el Jilleel, the Shekh’s daughter; but, growing more popular than his father-in-law, he had been persecuted by him, and obliged to leave the country. He began now to form hopes, that, if I was well received, as he saw, in all appearance, I was to be, he might, by my interest, be appointed to his father-in-law’s place; especially if there was war, as every thing seemed to indicate. Abd el Jilleel was a coward, and incapable of making himself of personal valued to any party. On the contrary, Yasine was a tried man, an excellent horseman, strong, active, and of known courage, having been twice with the late king Yasous in his invasions of Sennaar, and both times much wounded there. It was impossible to dispute his title to preferment; but I had not formed that idea of my own success that I should be able to be of any use or assistance to him in it. Kella is in lat. 14° 24´ 34´´ North.

It was in the afternoon of the 4th that we set out from Kella; our road was between two hills covered with thick wood. On our right was a cliff, or high rock of granite, on the top of which were a few houses that seemed to hang over the cliff rather than stand upon it. A few minutes after three o’ clock we passed a rivulet, and a quarter of an hour afterwards another, both which run into the Mareb. We still continued to descend, surrounded on all sides with mountains covered with high grass and brushwood, and abounding with lions. At four, we arrived at the foot of the mountain, and passed a small stream which runs there.

We had seen no villages after leaving Kella. At half past four o’clock we came to a considerable river called Angueah, which we crossed, and pitched our tent on the farther side of it. It was about fifty feet broad and three in depth. It was perfectly clear, and ran rapidly over a bed of white pebbles, and was the largest river we had yet seen in Habesh. In summer there is very little plain ground near it but what is occupied by the stream; it is full of small fish, in great repute for their goodness.

This river has its name from a beautiful tree, which covers both its banks. This tree, by the colour of its bark and richness of its flower, is a great ornament to the banks of the river. A variety of other flowers fill the whole level plain between the mountain and the river, and even some way up the mountains. In particular, great variety of jessamin, white, yellow, and party-coloured. The country seemed now to put on a more favourable aspect; the air was much fresher, and more pleasant, every step we advanced after leaving Dixan; and one cause was very evident; the country where we now passed was well-watered with clear running streams; whereas, nearer Dixan, there were few, and all stagnant.

The 5th, we descended a small mountain for about twenty minutes, and passed the following villages, Zabangella, about a mile N. W.; at a quarter of an hour after, Moloxito, half a mile further S. E.; and Mansuetemen, three quarters of a mile E. S. E. These villages are all the property of the Abuna; who has also a duty upon all merchandise passing there; but Ras Michael had confiscated these last villages on account of a quarrel he had with the last Abuna, _Af-Yagoube_.

We now began first to see the high mountains of Adowa, nothing resembling in shape to those of Europe, nor, indeed, any other country. Their sides were all perpendicular rocks, high like steeples, or obelisks, and broken into a thousand different forms.

At half past eight o’clock we left the deep valley, wherein runs the Mareb W. N. W.; at the distance of about nine miles above it is the mountain, or high hill, on which stands Zarai, now a collection of villages, formerly two convents built by Lalibala; though the monks tell you a story of the queen of Saba residing there, which the reader may be perfectly satisfied she never did in her life.

The Mareb is the boundary between Tigré and the Baharnagash, on this side. It runs over a bed of soil; is large, deep, and smooth; but, upon rain falling, it is more dangerous to pass than any river in Abyssinia, on account of the frequent holes in its bottom. We then entered the narrow plain of Yeeha, wherein runs the small river, which either gives its name to, or takes it from it. The Yeeha rises from many sources in the mountains to the west; it is neither considerable for size nor its course, and is swallowed up in the Mareb.

The harvest was in great forwardness in this place. The wheat was cut, and a considerable share of the teff in another part; they were treading out this last-mentioned grain with oxen. The Dora, and a small grain called telba, (of which they make oil) was not ripe.

At eleven o’clock we rested by the side of the mountain whence the river falls. All the villages that had been built here bore the marks of the justice of the governor of Tigré. They had been long the most incorrigible banditti in the province. He surrounded them in one night, burnt their houses, and extirpated the inhabitants; and would never suffer any one since to settle there. At three o’clock in the afternoon we ascended what remained of the mountain of Yeeha; came to the plain upon its top; and, at a quarter before four, passed the village of that name, leaving it to the S. E. and began the most rugged and dangerous descent we had met with since Taranta.

At half past five in the evening we pitched our tent at the foot of the hill, close by a small, but rapid and clear stream, which is called Ribieraini. This name was given it by the banditti of the villages before mentioned, because from this you see two roads; one leading from Gondar, that is, from the westward; the other from the Red Sea to the eastward. One of the gang that used to be upon the out-look from this station, as soon as any caravan came in sight, cried out, Ribieraini, which in Tigrè signifies _they are coming this way_; upon which notice every one took his lance and shield, and stationed himself properly to fall with advantage upon the unwary merchant; and it was a current report, which his present greatness could not stifle, that, in his younger days, Ras Michael himself frequently was on these expeditions at this place. On our right was the high, steep, and rugged mountain of Samayat, which the same Michael, being in rebellion, chose for his place of strength, and was there besieged and taken prisoner by the late king Yasous.

The rivulet of Ribieraini is the source of the fertility of the country adjoining, as it is made to overflow every part of this plain, and furnishes a perpetual store of grass, which is the reason of the caravans chusing to stop here. Two or three harvests are also obtained by means of this river; for, provided, there is water, they sow in Abyssinia in all seasons. We perceived that we were now approaching some considerable town, by the great care with which every small piece of ground, and even the steep sides of the mountains, were cultivated, though they had ever so little soil.

On Wednesday the 6th of December, at eight o’clock in the morning, we set out from Ribieraini; and in about three hours travelling on a very pleasant road, over easy hills and through hedge-rows of jessamin, honey-suckle, and many kinds of flowering shrubs we arrived at Adowa, where once resided Michael Suhul, governor of Tigrè. It was this day we saw, for the first time, the small, long-tailed green paroquet, from the hill of Shillodee, where, as I have already mentioned, we first came in sight of the mountains of Adowa.

CHAP. V.

_Arrive at Adowa--Reception there--Visit Fremona and Ruins of Axum--Arrive at Siré._

Adowa is situated on the declivity of a hill, on the west side of a small plain surrounded everywhere by mountains. Its situation accounts for its name, which signifies _pass_, or _passage_, being placed on the flat ground immediately below Ribieraini; the pass through which every body must go in their way from Gondar to the Red Sea.

This plain is watered by three rivulets which are never dry in the midst of summer; the Assa, which we cross just below the town when coming from the eastward; the Mai Gogua, which runs below the hill whereon stands the village of the same name formerly, though now it is called Fremona, from the monastery of the Jesuits built there; and the Ribieraini, which, joining with the other two, falls into the river Mareb, about 22 miles below Adowa. There are fish in these three streams, but none of them remarkable for their size, quantity, or goodness. The best are those of Mai Gogua, a clear and pleasant rivulet, running very violently and with great noise. This circumstance, and ignorance of the language, has misled the reverend father Jerome, who says, that the water of Mai Gogua is called so from the noise that it makes, which, in common language, is called _guggling_. This is a mistake, for Mai Gogua signifies _the river of owls_.

There are many agreeable spots to the south-east of the convent, on the banks of this river, which are thick-shaded with wood and bushes. Adowa consists of about 300 houses, and occupies a much larger space than would be thought necessary for these to stand on, by reason that each house has an inclosure round it of hedges and trees; the last chiefly the wanzey. The number of these trees so planted in all the towns, screen them so, that, at a distance, they appear so many woods. Adowa was not formerly the capital of Tigré, but has accidentally become so upon the accession of this governor, whose property, or paternal estate, lay in and about it. His mansion-house is not distinguished from any of the others in the town unless by its size; it is situated upon the top of the hill. The person who is Michael’s deputy, in his absence, lives in it. It resembles a prison rather than a palace; for there are in and about it above three hundred persons in irons, some of whom have been there for twenty years, mostly with a view to extort money from them; and, what is the most unhappy, even when they have paid the sum of money which he asks, do not get their deliverance from his merciless hands; most of them are kept in cages like wild beasts, and treated every way in the same manner.

But what deservedly interested us most was, the appearance of our kind and hospitable landlord, Janni. He had sent servants to conduct us from the passage of the river, and met us himself at the outer-door of his house. I do not remember to have seen a more respectable figure. He had his own short white hair, covered with a thin muslin turban, a thick well-shaped beard, as white as snow, down to his waist. He was clothed in the Abyssinian dress, all of white cotton, only he had a red silk sash, embroidered with gold, about his waist, and sandals on his feet; his upper garment reached down to his ancles. He had a number of servants and slaves about him of both sexes; and, when I approached him, seemed disposed to receive me with marks of humility and inferiority, which mortified me much, considering the obligations I was under to him, the trouble I had given, and was unavoidably still to give him. I embraced him with great acknowledgments of kindness and gratitude, calling him father; a title I always used in speaking either to him or of him afterwards, when I was in higher fortune, which he constantly remembered with great pleasure.

He conducted us through a court yard planted with jessamin, to a very neat, and, at the same, time, large room, furnished with a silk sofa; the floor was covered with Persian carpets and cushions. All round, flowers and green leaves were strewed upon the outer yard; and the windows and sides of the room stuck full of evergreens, in commemoration of the Christmas festival that was at hand. I stopt at the entrance of this room; my feet were both dirty and bloody; and it is not good-breeding to show or speak of your feet in Abyssinia, especially if any thing ails them, and, at all times, they are covered. He immediately perceived the wounds that were upon mine. Both our cloaths and flesh were torn to pieces at Taranta, and several other places; but he thought we had come on mules furnished us by the Naybe. For the young man I had sent to him from Kella, following the genius of his countrymen, tho’ telling truth was just as profitable to him as lying, had chosen the latter, and seeing the horse I had got from the Baharnagash, had figured in his own imagination, a multitude of others, and told Janni that there were with me horses, asses, and mules in great plenty; so that when Janni saw us passing the water, he took me for a servant, and expected, for several minutes, to see the splendid company arrive, well mounted upon horses and mules caparisoned.

He was so shocked at my saying that I performed this terrible journey on foot, that he burst into tears, uttering a thousand reproaches against the Naybe for his hard heartedness and ingratitude, as he had twice, as he said, hindered Michael from going in person and sweeping the Naybe from the face of the earth. Water was immediately procured to wash our feet. And here began another contention, Janni insisted upon doing this himself; which made me run out into the yard, and declare I would not suffer it. After this, the like dispute took place among the servants. It was always a ceremony in Abyssinia, to wash the feet of those that come from Cairo, and who are understood to have been pilgrims at Jerusalem.

This was no sooner finished, than a great dinner was brought, exceedingly well dressed. But no consideration or intreaty could prevail upon my kind landlord to sit down and partake with me. He would stand, all the time, with a clean towel in his hand, though he had plenty of servants; and afterwards dined with some visitors, who had come out of curiosity, to see a man arrived from so far. Among these was a number of priests; apart of the company which I liked least, but who did not shew any hostile appearance. It was long before I cured my kind landlord of these respectful observances, which troubled me very much; nor could he wholly ever get rid of them, his own kindness and good heart, as well as the pointed and particular orders of the Greek patriarch, Mark, constantly suggesting the same attention.

In the afternoon, I had a visit from the governor, a very graceful man, of about sixty years of age, tall and well favoured. He had just then returned from an expedition to the Tacazzè, against some villages of Ayto Tesfos[6], which he had destroyed, slain 120 men, and driven off a number of cattle. He had with him about sixty musquets, to which, I understood, he had owed his advantage. These villages were about Tubalaque, just as you ascend the farther bank of the Tacazzé. He said he doubted much if we should be allowed to pass through Woggora, unless some favourable news came from Michael; for Tesfos of Samen, who kept his government after Joas’s death, and refused to acknowledge Michael, or to submit to the king, in conjunction with the people of Woggora, acted now the part of robbers, plundering all sorts of people, that carried either provisions, or any thing else, to Gondar, in order to distress the king and Michael’s Tigré soldiers, who were then there.

The church of Mariam is on the hill S. S. W. of the town, and east of Adowa; on the other side of the river, is the other church, called Kedus Michael. About nine miles north, a little inclined to the east, is Bet Abba Garima, one of the most celebrated monasteries in Abyssinia. It was once a residence of one of their kings; and it is supposed that, from this circumstance ill understood, former travellers[7], have said the metropolis of Abyssinia was called Germè.

Adowa is the seat of a very valuable manufacture of coarse cotton cloth, which circulates all over Abyssinia instead of silver money; each web is sixteen peek long of 1¾ width, their value a pataka; that is, ten for the ounce of gold. The houses of Adowa are all of rough stone, cemented with mud instead of morter. That of lime is not used but at Gondar, where it is very bad. The roofs are in the form of cones, and thatched with a reedy sort of grass, something thicker than wheat straw. The Falasha, or Jews, enjoy this profession of thatching exclusively; they begin at the bottom, and finish at the top.

Excepting a few spots taken notice of as we came along from Ribieraini to Adowa, this was the only part of Tigrè where there was soil sufficient to yield corn; the whole of the province besides is one entire rock. There are no timber trees in this part of Tigrè unless a daroo or two in the valleys, and wanzeys in towns about the houses.

At Adowa, and all the neighbourhood, they have three harvests annually. Their first seed time is in July and August; it is the principal one for wheat, which they then sow in the middle of the rains. In the same season they sow tocusso, teff, and barley. From the 20th of November they reap first their barley, then their wheat, and last of all their teff. In room of these they sow immediately upon the same ground, without any manure, barley, which they reap in February; and then often sow teff, but more frequently a kind of veitch, or pea, called Shimbra; these are cut down before the first rains, which are in April. With all these advantages of triple harvests, which cost no fallowing, weeding, manure, or other expensive processes, the farmer in Abyssinia is always poor and miserable.

In Tigré it is a good harvest that produces nine after one, it scarcely ever is known to produce ten; or more than three after one, for peas. The land, as in Egypt, is set to the highest bidder yearly; and like Egypt it receives an additional value, depending on the quantity of rain that falls and its situation more or less favourable for leading water to it. The landlord furnishes the seed under condition to receive half the produce; but I am told he is a very indulgent master that does not take another quarter for the risk he has run; so that the quantity that comes to the share of the husbandman is not more than sufficient to afford sustenance for his wretched family.

The soil is white clay, mixed with sand, and has as good appearance as any I have seen. I apprehend a deficiency of the crop is not from the barrenness of the soil, but from the immense quantity of field-rats and mice that over-run the whole country, and live in the fissures of the earth. To kill these, they set fire to their straw, the only use they make of it.

The cattle roam at discretion through the mountains. The herdsmen set fire to the grass, bent, and brushwood, before the rains, and an amazing verdure immediately follows. As the mountains are very steep and broken, goats are chiefly the flocks that graze upon them.

The province of Tigré is all mountainous; and it has been said, without any foundation in truth, that the Pyrenees, Alps, and Apennines, are but mole-hills compared to them. I believe, however, that one of the Pyrenees above St John Pied de Port, is much higher than Lamalmon; and that the mountain of St Bernard, one of the Alps, is full as high as Taranta, or rather higher. It is not the extreme height of the mountains in Abyssinia that occasions surprise, but the number of them, and the extraordinary forms they present to the eye. Some of them are flat, thin, and square, in shape of a hearth-stone, or slab, that scarce would seem to have base sufficient to resist the action of the winds. Some are like pyramids, others like obelisks or prisms, and some, the most extraordinary of all the rest, pyramids pitched upon their points, with their base uppermost, which, if it was possible, as it is not, they could have been so formed in the beginning, would be strong objections to our received ideas of gravity.

They tan hides to great perfection in Tigré, but for one purpose only. They take off the hair with the juice of two plants, a species of solanum, and the juice of the kol-quall; both these are produced in abundance in the province. They are great novices, however, in dyeing; the plant called Suf produces the only colour they have, which is yellow. In order to obtain a blue, to weave as a border to their cotton clothes, they unravel the blue threads of the Marowt, or blue cloth of Surat, and then weave them again with the thread which they have dyed with the suf.

It was on the 10th of January 1770 I visited the remains of the Jesuits convent of Fremona. It is built upon the even ridge of a very high hill, in the middle of a large plain, on the opposite side of which stands Adowa. It rises from the east to the west, and ends in a precipice on the east; it is also very steep to the north, and slopes gently down to the plain on the south. The convent is about a mile in circumference, built substantially with stones, which are cemented with lime-morter. It has towers in the flanks and angles; and, notwithstanding the ill-usage it has suffered, the walls remain still entire to the height of twenty-five feet. It is divided into three, by cross walls of equal height. The first division seems to have been destined for the convent, the middle for the church, and the third division is separated from this by a wall, and stands upon a precipice. It seems to me as if it was designed for a place of arms. All the walls have holes for muskets, and, even now, it is by far the most defensible place in Abyssinia. It resembles an ancient castle much more than a convent.

I can scarce conceive the reason why these reverend fathers misrepresent and misplace this intended capital of Catholic Abyssinia. Jerome Lobo calls this convent a collection of miserable villages. Others place it fifty miles, when it is but two, from Adowa to the north-east. Others say it is only five miles from the Red Sea, while it is an hundred. It is very extraordinary, that these errors should occur in the situation of a place built by their own hands, and where their body long had its residence; and, what makes it more extraordinary still, it was the domicil which they first occupied, and quitted last.

The kindness, hospitality, and fatherly care of Janni never ceased a moment. He had already represented me in the most favourable light to the Iteghè, or queen-mother, (whose servant he had long been) to her daughter Ozoro Esther, and Ozoro Altash; and, above all, to Michael, with whom his influence was very great; and, indeed, to every body he had any weight with; his own countrymen, Greeks, Abyssinians, and Mahometans; and, as we found afterwards, he had raised their curiosity to a great pitch.

A kind of calm had spread itself universally over the country, without apparent reason, as it has been in general observed to do immediately before a storm. The minds of men had been wearied rather than amused, by a constant series of new things, none of which had been foreseen, and which generally ended in a manner little expected. Tired of guessing, all parties seemed to agree to give it over, till the success of the campaign should afford them surer grounds to go upon. Nobody loved Michael, but nobody neglected their own safety so much as to do or say any thing against him, till he either should lose or establish his good fortune, by the gain or loss of a battle with Fasil.

This calm I resolved to take advantage of, and to set out immediately for Gondar. But the 17th of January was now at hand, on which the Abyssinians celebrate the feast of the Epiphany with extraordinary rejoicings, and as extraordinary ceremonies, if we believe what their enemies have said about their yearly repetition of baptism. This I was resolved to verify with my own eyes; and as Alvarez, chaplain to the embassy from Don Emanuel, king of Portugal, to king David III. says he was likewise present at it, the public will judge between two eye-witnesses which is likeliest to be true, when I come to give an account of the religious rites of this people. Adowa is in lat. 14° 7´ 57´´ north.

On the 17th, we set out from Adowa, resuming our journey to Gondar; and, after passing two small villages Adega Net, and Adega Daid, the first about half a mile on our left, the second about three miles distant on our right, we decamped at sun set near a place called Bet Hannes, in a narrow valley, at the foot of two hills, by the side of a small stream.

On the 8th, in the morning, we ascended one of these hills, through a very rough stony road, and again came into the plain, wherein stood Axum, once the capital of Abyssinia, at least as it is supposed. For my part, I believe it to have been the magnificent metropolis of the trading people, or Troglodyte Ethiopians called properly Cushites, for the reason I have already given, as the Abyssinians never built any city, nor do the ruins of any exist at this day in the whole country. But the black, or Troglodyte part of it, called in the language of scripture Cush, in many places have buildings of great strength, magnitude, and expence, especially at Azab, worthy the magnificence and riches of a state, which was from the first ages the emporium of the Indian and African trade, whose sovereign, though a Pagan, was thought an example of reproof to the nations, and chosen as an instrument to contribute materially to the building of the first temple which man erected to the true God.

The ruins of Axum are very extensive; but, like the cities of ancient times, consist altogether of public buildings. In one square, which I apprehend to have been the center of the town, there are forty obelisks, none of which have any hieroglyphics upon them[8]. There is one larger than the rest still standing, but there are two still larger than this fallen. They are all of one piece of granite; and on the top of that which is standing there is a patera exceedingly well carved in the Greek taste. Below, there is the door-bolt and lock, which Poncet speaks of, carved on the obelisk, as if to represent an entrance through it to some building behind. The lock and bolt are precisely the same as those used at this day in Egypt and Palestine, but were never seen, as far as I know, in Ethiopia, or at any time in use there.

I apprehend this obelisk, and the two larger that are fallen, to be the works of Ptolemy Evergetes. There is a great deal of carving upon the face of the obelisk in a Gothic taste, something like metopes, triglyphs, and guttæ, disposed rudely, and without order, but there are no characters or figures. The face of this pyramid looks due south; has been placed with great exactness, and preserves its perpendicular position till this day. As this obelisk has been otherwise described as to its ornaments, I have given a geometrical elevation of it servilely copied, without shading or perspective, that all kind of readers may understand it.

After passing the convent of Abba Pantaleon, called in Abyssinia, Mantilles, and the small obelisk situated on a rock above, we proceed south by a road cut in a mountain of red marble, having on the left a parapet-wall about five feet high, solid, and of the same materials. At equal distances there are hewn in this wall solid pedestals, upon the tops of which we see the marks where stood the Colossal statues of Syrius the Latrator Anubis, or Dog Star. One hundred and thirty-three of these pedestals, with the marks of the statues I just mentioned, are still in their places; but only two figures of the dog remained when I was there, much mutilated, but of a taste easily distinguished to be Egyptian. These are composed of granite, but some of them appear to have been of metal. Axum, being the capital of Siris, or Sirè, from this we easily see what connection this capital of the province had with the dog-star, and consequently the absurdity of supposing that the river derived its name from a Hebrew word[9], signifying _black_.

There are likewise pedestals, whereon the figures pf the Sphinx have been placed. Two magnificent flights of steps, several hundred feet long, all of granite, exceedingly well-fashioned, and still in their places, are the only remains of a magnificent temple. In the angle of this platform where that temple stood, is the present small church of Axum, in the place of a former one destroyed by Mahomet Gragné, in the reign of king David III.; and which was probably remains of a temple built by Ptolemy Evergetes, if not the work of times more remote.

The church is a mean, small building, very ill kept, and full of pigeons dung. In it are supposed to be preserved the ark of the covenant, and copy of the law which Menilek son of Solomon is said, in their fabulous legends, to have stolen from his father Solomon in his return to Ethiopia, and these were reckoned as it were the palladia of this country. Some ancient copy of the Old Testament, I do believe, was deposited here, probably that from which the first version was made. But whatever this might be, it was destroyed, with the church itself, by Mahomet Gragnè, though pretended falsely to subsist there still. This I had from the king himself.

There was another relique of great importance that happened to escape from being burnt, by having, in time, been transferred to a church in one of the islands in the lake Tzana, called Selé Quarat Rasou. It is a picture of Christ’s head crowned with thorns, said to be painted by St Luke, which, upon occasions of the utmost importance, is brought out and carried with the army, especially in a war with Mahometans and Pagans. We have just seen, it was taken, upon Yasous’s defeat at Sennaar, and restored afterwards upon an embassy sent thither on purpose, no doubt, for a valuable consideration.

Within the outer gate of the church, below the steps, are three small square inclosures, all of granite, with small octagon pillars in the angles, apparently Egyptian; on the top of which formerly were small images of the dog-star, probably of metal. Upon a stone, in the middle of one of these, the king sits, and is crowned, and always has been since the days of Paganism; and below it, where he naturally places his feet, is a large oblong slab like a hearth, which is not of granite, but of free stone. The inscription, though much defaced, may safely be restored.

ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ ΕΥΕΡΓΕΤΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ

Poncet has mistaken this last word for Basilius; but he did not pretend to be a scholar, and was ignorant of the history of this country.

Axum is watered by a small stream, which flows all the year from a fountain in the narrow valley, where stand the rows of obelisks. The spring is received into a magnificent bason of 150 feet square, and thence it is carried, at pleasure, to water the neighbouring gardens, where there is little fruit, excepting pomegranates, neither are these very excellent.

The present town of Axum stands at the foot of the hill, and may have about six hundred houses. There are several manufactures of coarse cotton cloth; and here too the best parchment is made of goats skins, which is the ordinary employment of the monks. Every thing seemed later at Axum, and near it, than at Adowa; the teff was standing yet green.

On the 19th of January, by a meridian altitude of the sun, and a mean of several altitudes of stars by night, I found the latitude of Axum to be 14° 6´ 36´´ north.

The reader will have observed, that I have taken great pains in correcting the geography of this country, and illustrating the accounts given us by travellers, as well ancient as modern, and reconciling them to each other. There are, however, in a very late publication, what I must suppose to be errors, at least they are absolutely unintelligible to me, whether they are to be placed to the account of Jerome Lobo, the original, or to Dr Johnson the translator, or to the bookseller, is what I am not able to say. But as the book itself is ushered in by a very warm and particular recommendation of so celebrated an author as Dr Johnson, and as I have in the course of this work spoke very contemptibly of that Jesuit, I must, in my own vindication, make some observations upon the geography of this book, which, introduced into the world by such authority, might else bring the little we know of this part of Africa into confusion, from which its maps are as yet very far from being cleared.

Caxume[10] is said to mean Axum, to be a city in Africa, capital of the kingdom of Tigrè Mahon in Abyssinia. Now, long ago, Mr Ludolf had shewn, from the testimony of Gregory the Abyssinian, that there was no such place in Abyssinia as Tigrè Mahon. That there was, indeed, a large province called Tigrè, of which Axum was the capital; and Le Grande, the first publisher of Jerome Lobo, has repeatedly said the same. And Ludolf has given a very probable conjecture, that the first Portuguese, ignorant of the Abyssinian language, heard the officer commanding that province called Tigrè Mocuonen, which is governor of Tigré, and had mistaken the name of his office for that of his province. Be that as it will, the reader may rest assured there is no such kingdom, province, or town in all Abyssinia.

There still remains, however, a difficulty much greater than this, and an error much more difficult to be corrected. Lobo is said to have sailed from the peninsula of India, and, being bound for Zeyla, to have embarked in a vessel going to Caxume, or Axum, capital of Tigrè, and to have arrived there safely,and been well accommodated. Now Zeyla, he says, is a city in the kingdom of Adel, at the mouth of the Red Sea[11]; and Axum, being two hundred miles inland, in the middle of the kingdom of Tigrè, a ship going to Axum must have passed Zeyla 300 miles, or been 300 miles to the westward of it. Zeyla is not a city, as is said, but an island. It is not in the kingdom of Adel, but in the bay of Tajoura, opposite to a kingdom of that name; but the island itself belongs to the Imam of Sana, sovereign of Arabia Felix; so that it is inexplicable, how a ship going to Zeyla should choose to land 300 miles beyond it; and still more so, how, being once arrived at Axum, they should seek a ship to carry them back again to Zeyla, 300 miles eastward, when they were then going to Gondar, not much above a hundred miles west of Axum. This seems to me absolutely impossible to explain.

Still, however, another difficulty remains; Tigré is said, by the Jesuits, and by M. Le Grande their historian, to be full of mountains, so high that the Alps and Apennines were very inconsiderable in comparison. And suppose it was otherwise, there is no navigable river, indeed no river at all, that runs through Tigré into the Red Sea, and there is the desert of Samhar to pass, where there is no water at all. How is it possible a ship from the coast of Malabar should get up 200 miles from any sea among the mountains of Tigré? I hope the publisher will compare this with any map he pleases, and correct it in his _errata_, otherwise his narrative is unintelligible, unless all this was intended to be placed to the account of miracles--Peter walked upon the water, and Lobo the Jesuit sailed upon dry land.

Dr Johnson, or his publisher, involves his reader in another strange perplexity. “Dancala is a city of Africa in Upper Ethiopia, upon the Nile, in the tract of Nubia, of which it is the capital;” and the emperor wrote, “that the missionaries might easily enter his dominions by the way of Dancala[12].” It is very difficult to understand how people, in a ship from India, could enter Abyssinia by the way of Dancala, if that city is upon the Nile; because no where, that I know, is that river in Abyssinia within 300 miles of any sea; and, still more so, how it could be in Nubia, and yet in Upper Ethiopia. Dongola is, indeed, the capital of Nubia; it is upon the Nile in 20° north latitude; but then it cannot be in Upper Ethiopia, but certainly in the Lower, and is not within a hundred miles of the Red Sea, and certainly not the way for a ship from India to get to Abyssinia, which, sailing down the Red Sea, it must have passed several hundred miles, and gone to the northward: Dongola, besides, is in the heart of the great desert of Beja, and cannot, with any degree of propriety, be said to be easily accessible to any, no, not even upon camels, but impossible to shipping, as it is not within 200 miles of any sea. On the other hand, Dancali, for which it may have been mistaken, is a small kingdom on the coast of the Red Sea, reaching to the frontiers of Abyssinia; and through it the patriarch Mendes entered Abyssinia, as has been said in my history; but then Dancali is in lat. 12°, it is not in Nubia, nor upon the Nile, nor within several hundred miles of it.

Again, Lobo has said, (p. 30. 31.) “that a Portuguese galliot was ordered to set him ashore at Paté, whose inhabitants were man-eaters.” This is a very whimsical choice of a place to land strangers in, among man-eaters. I cannot conceive what advantage could be proposed by landing men going to Abyssinia so far to the southward, among a people such as this, who certainly, by their very manners, must be at war, and unconnected with all their neighbours. And many ages have passed without this reproach having fallen upon the inhabitants of the east coast of the peninsula of Africa from any authentic testimony; and I am confident, after the few specimens just given of the topographical knowledge of this author, his present testimony will not weigh much, from whatever hand this performance may have come.

M. de Montesquieu, among all his other talents a most excellent and accurate geographer, observes, that man-eaters were first mentioned when the southern parts of the east coast of the peninsula of Africa came to be unknown. Travellers of Jerome Lobo’s cast, delighting in the marvellous, did place these unsociable people beyond the promontory of Prassum, because nobody, at that time, did pass the promontory of Prassum.

Above 1200 years, these people were unknown, till Vasques de Gama discovered their coast, and called them the civil or kind nation. By some lucky revolution in that long period, when they were left to themselves, they seem most unaccountably to have changed both their diet and their manners. The Portuguese conquered them, built towns among them, and, if they met with conspiracies and treachery, these all originated in a mixture of Moors from Spain and Portugal, Europeans that had settled among them, and not among the natives themselves. No man-eaters appeared till after the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, when that of the new world, which followed it, made the Portuguese abandon their settlements in the old; and this coast came as unknown to them as it had been to the Romans, when they traded only to Raptum and Prassum, and made Anthropophagi of all the rest. One would be almost tempted to believe that Jerome Lobo was a man-eater himself, and had taught this custom to these savages. They had it not before his coming; they have never had it since; and it must have been with some sinister intention like this, that a stranger would voluntarily seek a nation of man-eaters. It is nonsense to say, that a traveller could propose, as Lobo did, going into a far distant country, such as Abyssinia, under so very questionable a protection as a man-eater.

I will not take up my own, or the reader’s time, in going through the multitude of errors in geography to be found in this book of Lobo’s; I have given the reader my opinion of the author from the original, before I saw the translation. I said it was a heap of fables, and full of ignorance and presumption; and I confess myself disappointed that it has come from so celebrated a hand as the translator, so very little amended, if indeed it can be said to be amended at all.

Dr Johnson, in the preface to the book, expresses himself in these words:--“The Portuguese traveller (Jerome Lobo, his original) has amused his reader with no romantic absurdities, or incredible fictions. He seems to have described things as he saw them; to have copied nature from the life; and to have consulted his senses, not his imagination. He meets with no basilisks that destroy with their eyes; and his cataracts fall from the rock, without deafening the neighbouring inhabitants.”

At first reading this passage, I confess I thought it irony. As to what regards the cataract, one of the articles Dr Johnson has condescended upon as truth, I had already spoken, while composing these memoirs in Abyssinia, long before this new publication saw the light; and, upon a cool revisal of the whole that I have said, I cannot think of receding from any part of it, and therefore recommend it to the reader’s perusal. What we have now only to note, is the fidelity of Jerome Lobo, so strongly vouched in the words I have just cited, in the article of basilisks, or serpents, which Dr Johnson has chosen as one of the instances of his author’s adhering to fact, contrary to the custom of other writers on such subjects.

“In crossing a desert, which was two days journey over, I was in great danger of my life; for, as I lay on the ground, I perceived myself seized with a pain which forced me to rise, and saw, about four yards from me, one of those serpents that _dart their poison from a distance_. Although I rose before he came very near me, I yet felt the effects of his poisonous breath; and, if I had lain a little longer, had certainly died. I had recourse to bezoar, a sovereign remedy against those poisons, which I always carried about me. These serpents are not long, but have a body short and thick, their bellies speckled with brown, black, and yellow. They have a wide mouth, with which they draw in a great quantity of air, and, having retained it some time, eject it with such force, that they kill at four yards distance. I only escaped by being somewhat farther from him.” (Chap. xii. p. 124.)

Now, as this is warranted, by one of such authority as Dr Johnson, to be neither imagination nor falsehood, we must think it a new system of natural philosophy, and consider it as such; and, in the first place, I would wish to know from the author, who seems perfectly informed, what species of serpent it is that he has quoted as darting their poison at a distance. Again, what species it is that, at the distance of 12 feet, kills a man by breathing on his back; also, what they call that species of serpent that, drawing in the same outward air which Jerome Lobo breathed, could so far pervert its quality as with it to kill at the distance of four yards. Surely such a serpent, if he had no other characteristic in the world, would be described by a naturalist as the serpent with the foul stomach.--I never saw a poisonous serpent in Abyssinia whose belly is not white; so this one being speckled, brown, black, and yellow, will be a direction when any such is found, and serve as a warning not to come near him, at least within the distance of four yards.

Jerome Lobo continues, “that this danger was not to be much regarded in comparison of another his negligence brought him into. As he was picking up a skin that lay upon the ground, he was stung by a serpent that left its sting in his finger; he picked out an extraneous substance about the bigness of an hair, which he imagined was the sting. This slight wound he took little notice of, till his arm grew inflamed all over; his blood was infected; he fell into convulsions, which were interpreted as the signs of inevitable death.” (Chap. xii. p. 125.)

Now, with all submission to Jerome Lobo, the first serpent had brought him within a near view of death; the second did no more, for it did not kill him; how comes it that he says the first danger was nothing in comparison to the second? The first would have certainly killed him, by blowing upon his back, if he had been nearer than 12 feet. The other had nearly killed him by a sting. Death was the end of them both. I cannot see the difference between the two dangers.

The first serpent was of a new species, that kills a man at the distance of 12 feet by breathing upon him. The second was also new, for he killed by a sting. We know of no such power that any of the serpent kind have. If Dr Johnson believes this, I will not say that it is the most improbable thing he ever gave credit to, but this I will say, that it is altogether different from what at this day is taught us by natural philosophy. We easily see, by the strain in which these stories are told, that all these fables of Lobo would have passed for miracles, had the conversion of Abyssinia followed. They were preparatory steps for receiving him as confessor, had his merit not been sufficient to have entitled him to a higher place in the kalendar. Rainy, miry, and cold countries, are not the favourite habitation of serpents. Abyssinia is deluged with six months rain every year while the sun is passing over it. It only enjoys clear weather when the sun is farthest distant from it in the southern hemisphere; the days and nights are always nearly equal. Vipers are not found in a climate like this. Accordingly, I can testify, I never saw one of the kind in the high country of Abyssinia all the time I lived there; and Tigré, where Jerome Lobo places the scene of his adventures, by being one of the highest provinces in the country, is surely not one of the most proper.

It was the 20th of January, at seven o’clock in the morning, we left Axum; our road was at first sufficiently even, thro’ small vallies and meadows; we began to ascend gently, but through a road exceedingly difficult in itself, by reason of large stones standing on edge, or heaped one upon another; apparently the remains of an old large causeway, part of the magnificent works about Axum.

The last part of the journey made ample amends for the difficulties and fatigue we had suffered in the beginning. For our road, on every side, was perfumed with variety of flowering shrubs, chiefly different species of jessamin; one in particular of these called Agam (a small four-leaved flower) impregnated the whole air with the most delicious odour, and covered the small hills through which we passed, in such profusion, that we were, at times, almost overcome with its fragrance. The country all round had now the most beautiful appearance, and this was heightened by the finest of weather, and a temperature of air neither too hot nor too cold.

Not long after our losing sight of the ruins of this ancient capital of Abyssinia, we overtook three travellers driving a cow before them; they had black goat skins upon their shoulders, and lances and shields in their hands, in other respects were but thinly cloathed; they appeared to be soldiers. The cow did not seem to be fatted for killing, and it occurred to us all that it had been stolen. This, however, was not our business, nor was such an occurrence at all remarkable in a country so long engaged in war. We saw that our attendants attached themselves in a particular manner to the three soldiers that were driving the cow, and held a short conversation with them. Soon after, we arrived at the hither most bank of the river, where I thought we were to pitch our tent. The drivers suddenly tript up the cow, and gave the poor animal a very rude fall upon the ground, which was but the beginning of her sufferings. One of them sat across her neck, holding down her head by the horns, the other twisted the halter about her forefeet, while the third, who had a knife in his hand, to my very great surprise, in place of taking her by the throat got astride upon her belly before her hind-legs, and gave her a very deep wound in the upper part of her buttock.

From the time I had seen them throw the beast upon the ground, I had rejoiced, thinking, that when three people were killing a cow, they must have agreed to sell part of her to us; and I was much disappointed upon hearing the Abyssinians say, that we were to pass the river to the other side, and not encamp where I intended. Upon my proposing they should bargain for part of the cow, my men answered what they had already learned in conversation, that they were not then to kill her, that she was not wholly theirs, and they could not sell her. This awakened my curiosity; I let my people go forward, and staid myself, till I saw, with the utmost astonishment, two pieces, thicker, and longer than our ordinary beef steaks, cut out of the higher part of the buttock of the beast. How it was done I cannot positively say, because judging the cow was to be killed from the moment I saw the knife drawn, I was not anxious to view that catastrophe, which was by no means an object of curiosity; whatever way it was done, it surely was adroitly, and the two pieces were spread upon the outside of one of their shields.

One of them still continued holding the head, while the other two were busied in curing the wound. This too was done not in an ordinary manner; the skin which had covered the flesh that was taken away was left entire, and flapped over the wound, and was fastened to the corresponding part by two or more small skewers, or pins. Whether they had put any thing under the skin between that and the wounded flesh I know not, but at the river side where they were, they had prepared a cataplasm of clay, with which they covered the wound; they then forced the animal to rise, and drove it on before them, to furnish them with a fuller meal when they should meet their companions in the evening.

I could not but admire a dinner so truly soldier-like, nor did I ever see so commodious a manner of carrying provisions along on the road as this was. I naturally attributed this to necessity, and the love of expedition. It was a liberty, to be sure, taken with Christianity; but what transgression is not warranted to a soldier when distressed by his enemy in the field? I could not as yet conceive that this was the ordinary banquet of citizens, and even of priests, throughout all this country. In the hospitable, humane house of Janni, these living feasts had never appeared. It is true we had seen raw meat, but no part of an animal torn from it with the blood. The first shocked us as uncommon, but the other as impious.

When first I mentioned this in England, as one of the singularities which prevailed in this barbarous country, I was told by my friends it was not believed. I asked the reason of this disbelief, and was answered, that people who had never been out of their own country, and others well acquainted with the manners of the world, for they had travelled as far as France, had agreed the thing was impossible, and therefore it was so. My friends counselled me further, that as these men were infallible, and had each the leading of a circle, I should by all means obliterate this from my journal, and not attempt to inculcate in the minds of my readers the belief of a thing that men who had travelled pronounced to be impossible. They suggested to me, in the most friendly manner, how rudely a very learned and worthy traveller had been treated for daring to maintain that he had eat part of a lion, a story I have already taken notice of in my introduction. They said, that, being convinced by these connoisseurs his having eat any part of a lion was _impossible_, he had abandoned this assertion altogether, and after only mentioned it in an appendix; and this was the farthest I could possibly venture.

Far from being a convert to such prudential reasons, I must for ever profess openly, that I think them unworthy of me. To represent as truth a thing I know to be a falsehood, not to avow a truth which I know I ought to declare; the one is fraud, the other cowardice; I hope I am equally distant from them both; and I pledge myself never to retract the fact here advanced, that the Abyssinians do feed in common upon live flesh, and that I myself have, for several years, been partaker of that disagreeable and beastly diet. On the contrary, I have no doubt, when time shall be given to read this history to an end, there will be very few, if they have candour enough to own it, that will not be ashamed of ever having doubted.

At 11 o’clock of the 20th, we pitched our tent in a small plain, by the banks of a quick clear running stream; the spot is called Mai-Shum. There are no villages, at least that we saw, here. A peasant had made a very neat little garden on both sides of the rivulet, in which he had sown abundance of onions and garlic, and he had a species of pumpkin, which I thought was little inferior to a melon. This man guessed by our arms and horses that we were hunters, and he brought us a present of the fruits of his garden, and begged our assistance against a number of wild boars, which carried havoc and desolation through all his labours, marks of which were, indeed, too visible everywhere. Such instances of industry are very rare in this country, and demanded encouragement. I paid him, therefore, for his greens; and sent two of my servants with him into the wood, and got on horseback myself. Mirza, my horse, indeed, as well as his master, had recruited greatly during our stay at Adowa, under the hospitable roof of our good friend Janni,.

Amongst us we killed five boars, all large ones, in the space of about two hours; one of which measured six feet nine inches; and, though he ran at an amazing speed near two miles, so as to be with difficulty overtaken by the horse, and was struck through and through with two heavy lances loaded at the end with iron, no person dared to come near him on foot, and he defended himself above half an hour, till, having no other arms left, I shot him with a horse-pistol. But the misfortune was, that, after our hunting had been crowned with such success, we did not dare to partake of the excellent venison we had acquired; for the Abyssinians hold pork of all kinds in the utmost detestation; and I was now become cautious, lest I should give offence, being at no great distance from the capital.

On the 21st we left Mai-Shum at seven o’clock in the morning, proceeding through an open country, part sown, with teff, but mostly overgrown with wild oats and high grass. We afterwards travelled among a number of low hills, ascending and descending many of them, which occasioned more pleasure than fatigue. The jessamin continued to increase upon us, and it was the common bush of the country. Several new species appeared, with five, nine, eleven petals, and plenty of the agam with four, these being all white. We found also large bushes of yellow, and orange and yellow jessamin, besides fine trees of kummel, and the boha, both of the largest size, beautifully covered with fruit and flowers, which we never before had seen.

We now descended into a plain called Selech-lecha, the village of that name being two miles east of us. The country here has an air of gaiety and chearfulness superior to any thing we had ever yet seen. Poncet[13] was right when he compared it to the most beauteous part of Provence. We crossed the plain through hedge-rows of flowering shrubs, among which the honeysuckle now made a principal figure, which is of one species only, the same known in England; but the flower is larger and perfectly white, not coloured on the outside as our honeysuckle is. Fine trees of all sizes were everywhere interspersed; and the vine, with small black grapes of very good flavour, hung in many places in festoons, joining tree to tree, as if they had been artificially twined and intended for arbours.

After having passed this plain, we again entered a close country through defiles between mountains, thick covered with wood and bushes. We pitched our tent by the water-side judiciously enough as travellers, being quite surrounded with bushes, which prevented us from being seen in any direction.

As the boha was the principal tree here, and in great beauty, being then in flower, I let the caravan pass, and alighted to make a proper choice for a drawing, when I heard a cry from my servants, “Robbers! Robbers!” I immediately got upon my mule to learn what alarm this might be, and saw, to my great surprise, part of my baggage strewed on the ground, the servants running, some leading, others on foot driving such of their mules as were unloaded before them; in a word, every thing in the greatest confusion possible. Having got to the edge of the wood, they faced about, and began to prepare their fire-arms; but as I saw the king’s two servants, and the man that Janni sent with us, endeavouring all they could to pitch the tent, and my horse standing peaceably by them, I forbade our fugitives to fire, till they should receive orders from me. I now rode immediately up to the tent, and in my way was saluted from among the bushes with many stones, one of which gave me a violent blow upon the foot. At the same instant I received another blow with a small unripe pumpkin, just upon the belly, where I was strongly defended by the coarse cotton cloth wrapped several times about me by way of sash or girdle. As robbers fight with other arms than pumpkins, when I saw this fall at my feet I was no longer under apprehension.

Notwithstanding this disagreeable reception, I advanced towards them, crying out, We were friends, and Ras Michael’s friends; and desired only to speak to them, and would give them what they wanted. A few stones were the only answer, but they did no hurt. I then gave Yasine my gun, thinking that might have given offence. The top of the tent being now up, two men came forward making great complaints, but of what I did not understand, only that they seemed to accuse us of having wronged them. In short, we found the matter was this; one of the Moors had taken a heap of straw which he was carrying to his ass but the proprietor, at seeing this, had alarmed the village. Every body had taken lances and shields, but, not daring to approach for fear of the fire-arms, they had contented themselves with showering stones at us from their hiding-places, at a distance from among the bushes. We immediately told them, however, that though, as the king’s guest, I had a title to be furnished with what was necessary, yet, if they were averse to it, I was very well content to pay for every thing they furnished, both for my men and beasts; but that they must throw no stones, otherwise we would defend ourselves.

Our tent being now pitched, and every thing in order, a treaty soon followed. They consented to sell us what we wanted, but at extravagant prices, which, however, I was content to comply with. But a man of the village, acquainted with one of the king’s servants, had communicated to him, that the pretence of the Moor’s taking the straw was not really the reason of the uproar, for they made no use of it except to burn; but that a report had been spread abroad, that an action had happened between Fasil and Ras Michael, in which the latter had been defeated, and the country no longer in fear of the Ras, had indulged themselves in their usual excesses, and; taking us for a caravan of Mahometans with merchandise, had resolved to rob us.

Welleta Michael, grandson to Ras Michael, commanded this part of the province; and being but thirteen years of age, was not with his grandfather in the army, nor was he then at home, but at Gondar. However, his mother, Ozoro Welleta Michael, was at home, and her house just on the hill above. One of the king’s servants had stolen away privately, and told her what had happened. The same evening, a party was sent down to the village, who took the ringleaders and carried them away, and left us for the night. They brought us a present also of provisions, and excuses for what had happened, warning us to be upon our guard the rest of the way, but they gave us positive assurance, at the same time, that no action had happened between Fasil and Ras Michael; on the contrary, it was confidently reported, that Fasil had left Buré, and retired to Metchakel, where, probably, he would repass the Nile into his own country, and stay there till the rains should oblige Michael to return to Gondar.

On the 22d, we left Selech-lecha at seven o’clock in the morning, and, at eight, passed a village two hundred yards on our left, without seeing any one; but, advancing half a mile further, we saw a number of armed men from sixty to eighty, and we were told they were resolved to oppose our passage, unless their comrades, taken the night before, were released. The people that attended us on the part of Welleta Michael, as our escort, considered this as an insult, and advised me by all means to turn to the left to another village immediately under the hill, on which the house of Welleta Michael, mother to Welleta Gabriel their governor, was situated; as there we should find sufficient assistance to force these opponents to reason. We accordingly turned to the left, and marching through thick bushes, came to the top of the hill above the village, in sight of the governor’s house, just as about twenty men of the enemy’s party reached the bottom of it.

The governor’s servants told us, that now was the time if they advanced to fire upon them, in which case they would instantly disperse, or else they would cut us off from the village. But I could not enter into the force of this reasoning, because, if this village was strong enough to protect us, which was the cause of our turning to the left to seek it, these twenty men, putting themselves between us and the village, took the most dangerous step for themselves possible, as they must unavoidably be destroyed; and, if the village was not strong enough to protect us, to begin with bloodshed was the way to lose our lives before a superior enemy. I therefore called to the twenty men to stop where they were, and send only one of their company to me; and, upon their not paying any attention, I ordered Yasine to fire a large blunderbuss over their heads, so as not to touch them. Upon the report, they all fled, and a number of people flocked to us from other villages; for my part, I believe some who had appeared against us came afterwards and joined us. We soon seemed to have a little army, and, in about half an hour, a party came from the governor’s house with twenty lances and shields, and six firelocks, and, presently after, the whole multitude dispersed. It was about ten o’clock when, under their escort, we arrived at the town of Sirè, and pitched our tent in a strong situation, in a very deep gully on the west extremity of the town.

CHAP. VI.

_Journey from Siré to Addergey, and Transactions there._

The province of Siré, properly so called, reaches from Axum to the Tacazzé. The town of Sirè is situated on the brink of a very steep, narrow valley, and through this the road lies which is almost impassable. In the midst of this valley runs a brook bordered with palm-trees, some of which are grown to a considerable size, but bear no fruit; they were the first we had seen in Abyssinia.

The town of Sirè is larger than that of Axum; it is in form of a half-moon fronting the plain, but its greatest breadth is at the west end; all the houses are of clay, and thatched; the roofs are in form of cones, as, indeed, are all in Abyssinia. Sirè is famous for a manufacture of coarse cotton cloths, which pass for current money through all the province of Tigré, and are valued at a drachm, the tenth-part of a wakea of gold, or near the value of an imperial dollar each; their breadth is a yard and quarter. Besides these, beads, needles, cohol, and incense at times only, are considered as money. The articles depend greatly on chance, which or whether any are current for the time or not; but the latter is often not demanded; and, for the first, there are modes and fashions among these barbarians, and all, except those of a certain colour and form, are useless. We have already spoken of the fashions, such as we have found them, at Kella, and we heard they were the same here at Siré. But these people were not of a humour to buy and sell with us. They were not perfectly satisfied that Michael was alive, and waited only a confirmation of the news of his defeat, to make their own terms with all strangers unfortunate enough to fall into their hands. On the other hand, we were in possession of superior force, and, knowing their inclinations, we treated them pretty much in the manner they would have done us.

On the 22d of January, at night, I observed the passage of many stars over the meridian, and, after that, of the sun on the 23d at noon; taking a medium of all observations, I determined the latitude of Siré to be 14° 4´ 35´´ north. The same evening, I observed an immersion of the first satellite of Jupiter, by which I concluded its longitude to be 38° 0´ 15´´ east of the meridian of Greenwich.

Although Sirè is situated in one of the finest countries in the world, like other places it has its inconveniencies. Putrid fevers, of the very worst kind, are almost constant here; and there did then actually reign a species of these that swept away a number of people daily. I did not think the behaviour of the inhabitants of this province to me was such as required my exposing myself to the infection for the sake of relieving them; I, therefore, left the fever and them to settle accounts together, without anywise interfering.

At Siré we heard the good news that Ras Michael, on the 10th of this month, had come up with Fasil at Fagitta, and entirely dispersed his army, after killing 10,000 men. This account, though not confirmed by any authority, struck all the mutinous of this province with awe; and every man returned to his duty for fear of incurring the displeasure of this severe governor, which they well knew would instantly be followed by more than an adequate portion of vengeance, especially against those that had not accompanied him to the field.

On the 24th, at seven o’clock in the morning, we struck our tent at Siré, and passed through a vast plain. All this day we could discern no mountains, as far as eye could reach, but only some few detached hills, standing separate on the plain, covered with high grass, which they were then burning, to produce new with the first rains. The country to the north is altogether flat, and perfectly open; and though we could not discover one village this day, yet it seemed to be well-inhabited, from the many people we saw on different parts of the plain, some at harvest, and some herding their cattle. The villages were probably concealed from us on the other side of the hills.

At four o’clock, we alighted at Maisbinni at the bottom of a high, steep, bare cliff of red marble, bordering on purple, and very hard. Behind this is the small village of Maisbinni; and, on the south, another still higher hill, whose top runs in an even ridge like a wall. At the bottom of this cliff, where our tent was pitched, the small rivulet Maisbinni rises, which, gentle and quiet as it then was, runs very violently in winter, first north from its source, and then winding to S. W. it falls in several cataracts, near a hundred feet high, into a narrow valley, through which it makes its way into the Tacazzé. Maisbinni, for wild and rude beauties, may compare with any place we had ever seen.

This day was the first cloudy one we had met with, or observed this year. The sun was covered for several hours, which announced our being near the large river Tacazzè.

On the 25th, at seven in the morning, leaving Maisbinni, we continued on our road, shaded with trees of many different kinds. At half an hour after eight we passed the river, which at this place runs west; our road this day was thro’ the same plain as yesterday, but broken and full of holes. At ten o’clock we rested in a large plain called Dagashaha; a hill in form of a cone stood single about two miles north from us; a thin straggling wood was to the S. E.; and the water, rising in spungy, boggy, and dirty ground, was very indifferent; it lay to the west of us.

Dagashaha is a bleak and disagreeable quarter; but the mountain itself, being seen far off, was of great use to us in adjusting our bearings; the rather that, taking our departure from Dagashaha, we came immediately in sight of the high mountain of Samen, where Lamalmon, one of that ridge, is by much the most conspicuous; and over this lies the passage, or high road, to Gondar. We likewise see the rugged, hilly country of Salent, adjoining to the foot of the mountains of Samen. We observed no villages this day from Maisbinni to Dagashaha; nor did we discern, in the face of the country, any signs of culture or marks of great population. We were, indeed, upon the frontiers of two provinces which had for many years been at war.

On the 26th, at six o’clock in the morning, we left Dagashaha. Our road was through a plain and level country, but, to appearance, desolated and uninhabited, being overgrown with high bent grass and bushes, as also destitute of water. We passed the solitary village Adega, three miles on our left, the only one we had seen. At eight o’clock we came to the brink of a prodigious valley, in the bottom of which runs the Tacazzè, next to the Nile the largest river in Upper Abyssinia. It rises in Angot (at least its principal branch) in a plain champain country, about 200 miles S. E. of Gondar, near a spot called Souami Midre. It has three spring heads, or sources, like the Nile; near it is the small village Gourri[14].

Angot is now in possession of the Galla, whose chief, Guangoul, is the head of the western Galla, once the most formidable invader of Abyssinia. The other branch of the Tacazzé rises in the frontiers of Begemder, near Dabuco; whence, running between Gouliou, Lasta, and Belessen, it joins with the Angot branch, and becomes the boundary between Tigré and the other great division of the country called Amhara. This division arises from language only, for the Tacazzé passes nowhere near the province of Amhara; only all to the east of the Tacazzè is, in this general way of dividing the country, called Tigrè, and all to the westward, from the Tacazzé to the Nile, Gojam, and the Agows, is called Amhara, because the language of that province is there spoken, and not that of Tigré or Geez. But I would have my reader on his guard against the belief that no languages but these two are spoken in these divisions; many different dialects are spoken in little districts in both, and, in some of them, neither the language of Tigrè nor that of Amhara is understood.

I have already sufficiently dwelt upon the ancient history, the names, manners, and people that inhabit the banks of this river. It was the Siris (or river of the dog-star) whilst that negro, uncivilized people, the Cushites of the island of Meroë, resided upon its banks. It was then called the Tan-nush Abay, or the lesser of two rivers that swelled with the tropical rains, which was the name the peasants, or unlearned, gave it, from comparison with the Nile. It was the Tacazzè in Derkin or the dwelling of the Taka, before it joined the Nile in Beja, and it was the Astaboras of those of the ancients that took the Nile for the Siris. It is now the Atbara, giving its name to that peninsula, which it incloses on the east as the Nile does on the west, and which was formerly the island of Meroë; but it never was the Tekesel, as authors have called it, deriving the name from the Ethiopic word Taka, which undoubtedly signifies, fear, terror, distress, or sadness; I mean, this was never the derivation of its name. Far from this idea, our Tacazzé is one of the pleasantest rivers in the world, shaded with fine lofty trees, its banks covered with bushes inferior in fragrance to no garden in the universe; its stream is the most limpid, its water excellent, and full of good fish of great variety, as its coverts are of all sorts of game.

It must be confessed, that, during the inundation, these things wear a contrary face. It carries in its bed near one-third of all the water that falls in Abyssinia; and we saw the mark the stream had reached the preceding year, eighteen feet above the bottom of the river, which we do not know was the highest point that it arrived at. But three fathoms it certainly had rolled in its bed; and this prodigious body of water, passing furiously from a high ground in a very deep descent, tearing up rocks and large trees in its course, and forcing down their broken fragments scattered on its stream, with a noise like thunder echoed from a hundred hills, these very naturally suggest an idea, that, from these circumstances, it is very rightly called the _terrible_. But then it must be considered, that all rivers in Abyssinia at the same time equally overflow; that every stream makes these ravages upon its banks; and that there is nothing in this that peculiarly affects the Tacazzè, or should give it this special name: at least, such is my opinion; though it is with great willingness I leave every reader in possession of his own, especially in etymology.

At half an hour past eight we began a gradual descent, at first easily enough, till we crossed the small brook called Maitemquet, or, _the water of baptism_. We then began to descend very rapidly in a narrow path, winding along the side of the mountain, all shaded with lofty timber-trees of great beauty. About three miles further we came to the edge of the stream at the principal ford of the Tacazzé, which is very firm and good; the bottom consists of small pebbles, without either sand or large stones. The river here at this time was fully 200 yards broad, the water perfectly clear, and running very swiftly; it was about three feet deep. This was the dry season of the year, when most rivers in Abyssinia ran now no more.

In the middle of the stream we met a deserter from Ras Michael’s army, with his firelock upon his shoulder, driving before him two miserable girls about ten years old, stark-naked, and almost famished to death, the part of the booty which had fallen to his share in laying waste the country of Maitsha, after the battle. We asked him of the truth of this news, but he would give us no satisfaction; sometimes he said there had been a battle, sometimes none. He apparently had some distrust, that one or other of the facts, being allowed to be true, might determine us as to some design we might have upon him and his booty. He had not, in my eyes, the air of a conqueror, but rather of a coward that had sneaked away, and stolen these two miserable wretches he had with him. I asked where Michael was? If at Buré? where, upon defeat of Fasil, he naturally would be. He said, No; he was at Ibaba, the capital of Maitsha; and this gave us no light, it being the place he would go to before, while detachments of his army might be employed in burning and laying waste the country of the enemy he had determined to ruin, rather than return to it some time after a battle. At last we were obliged to leave him. I gave him some flour and tobacco, both which he took very thankfully; but further intelligence he would not give.

The banks of the Tacazzé are all covered, at the water’s edge, with tamarisks; behind which grow high and straight trees, that seem to have gained additional strength from having often resisted the violence of the river. Few of these ever lose their leaves, but are either covered with fruit, flower, or foliage the whole year; indeed, abundantly with all three during the six months fair weather. The Bohabab, indeed, called, in the Amharic language, Dooma, loses its leaf; it is the largest tree in Abyssinia; the trunk is never high; it diminishes very regularly from the top to the bottom, but not beautifully; it has the appearance of a large cannon, and puts out a multitude of strong branches, which do not fall low, or nearly horizontal, but follow a direction, making all of them smaller angles than that of 45°. The fruit is of the shape of a melon, rather longer for its thickness; within are black seeds in each of the cells, into which it is divided, and round them a white substance, very like fine sugar, which is sweet, with a small degree of very pleasant acid. I never saw it either in leaf or flower; the fruit hang dry upon the branches when they are deprived of both. The wood of this tree is soft and spungy, and of no use. The wild bees perforate the trunk, and lodge their honey in the holes made in it; and this honey is preferred to any other in Abyssinia.

Beautiful and pleasant, however, as this river is, like every thing created, it has its disadvantages. From the falling of the first rains in March till November it is death to sleep in the country adjoining to it, both within and without its banks; the whole inhabitants retire and live in villages on the top of the neighbouring mountains; and _these_ are all robbers and assassins, who descend from their habitations on the heights to lie in wait for, and plunder the travellers that pass. Notwithstanding great pains have been taken by Michael, his son, and grandson, governors of Tigré and Siré, this passage had never been so far cleared but, every month, people are cut off.

The plenty of fish in this river occasions more than an ordinary number of crocodiles to resort hither. These are so daring and fearless, that when the river swells, so as to be passable only by people upon rafts, or skins blown up with wind, they are frequently carried off by these voracious and vigilant animals. There are also many hippopotami, which, in this country, are called Gomari. I never saw any of these in the Tacazzè; but at night we heard them snort, or groan, in many parts of the river near us. There are also vast multitudes of lions and hyænas in all these thickets. We were very much disturbed by them all night. The smell of our mules and horses had drawn them in numbers about our tent, but they did us no further harm, except obliging us to watch. I found the latitude of the ford, by many observations, the night of the 26th, taking a medium of them all, to be 13° 42´ 45´´ north.

The river Tacazzè is, as I have already said, the boundary of the province of Sirè. We now entered that of Samen, which was hostile to us, being commanded by Ayto Tesfos, who, since the murder of Joas, had never laid down his arms, nor acknowledged his neighbour, Michael, as Ras, nor Hannes the king, last made, as sovereign. He had remained on the top of a high rock called _the Jews Rock_, about eight miles from the ford. For these reasons, as well as that it was the most agreeable spot we had ever yet seen, we left our station on the Tacazzè with great regret.

On the 27th of January, a little past six in the morning, we continued some short way along the river’s side, and, at forty minutes past six o’clock, came to Ingerohha, a small rivulet rising in the plain above, which, after a short course through a deep valley, joins the Tacazzè. At half past seven we left the river, and began to ascend the mountains, which forms the south side of the valley, or banks of that river. The path is narrow, winds as much, and is as steep as the other, but not so woody. What makes it, however, still more disagreeable is, that every way you turn you have a perpendicular precipice into a deep valley below you. At half past eight we arrived at the top of the mountain; and, at half past nine, halted, at Tabulaqué, having all the way passed among ruined villages, the monuments of Michael’s cruelty or justice; for it is hard to say whether the cruelty, robberies, and violence of the former inhabitants did not deserve the severest chastisement.

We saw many people feeding cattle on the plain, and we again opened a market for flour and other provisions, which we procured in barter for cohol, incense, and beads. None but the young women appeared. They were of a lighter colour, taller, and in general more beautiful than those at Kella. Their noses seemed flatter than those of the Abyssinians we had yet seen. Perhaps the climate here was beginning that feature so conspicuous in the negroes in general, and particularly of those in this country called Shangalla, from whose country these people are not distant above two days journey. They seemed inclined to be very hard in all bargains but those of one kind, in which they were most reasonable and liberal. They all agreed, that these favours ought to be given and not sold, and that all coyness and courtship was but loss of time, which always might be employed better to the satisfaction of both. These people are less gay than those at Kella, and their conversation more rough and peremptory. They understood both the Tigrè language and Amharic, although we supposed it was in compliance to us that they conversed chiefly in the former.

Our tent was pitched at the head of Ingerohha, on the north of the plain of Tabulaqué. This river rises among the rocks at the bottom of a little eminence, in a small stream, which, from its source, runs very swiftly, and the water is warm. The peasants told us, that, in winter, in time of the rains, it became hot, and smoked. It was in taste, however, good; nor did we perceive any kind of mineral in it. Tabulaqué, Anderassa, and Mentesegla belong to the Shum of Addergey, and the viceroy of Samen, Ayto Tesfos. The large town of Hauza is about eight miles south-and-by-east of this.

On the 28th, at forty minutes past six o’clock in the morning, we continued our journey; and, at half past seven, saw the small village Motecha on the top of the mountain, half a mile south from us. At eight, we crossed the river Aira; and, at half past eight, the river Tabul, the boundary of the district of Tabulaqué thick covered with wood, and especially a sort of cane, or bamboo, solid within, called there Shemale, which is used in making shafts for javelins, or light darts thrown from the hand, either on foot or on horseback, at hunting or in war.

We alighted on the side of Anderassa, rather a small stream, and which had now ceased running, but which gives the name to the district through which we were passing. Its water is muddy and ill-tasted, and falls into the Tacazzè, as do all the rivers we had yet passed. Dagashaha bears N. N. E. from this station. A great dew fell this night; the first we had yet observed.

The 29th, at six o’clock in the morning, we continued our journey from Anderassa, through thick woods of small trees, quite overgrown, and covered with wild oats, reeds, and long grass, so that it was very difficult to find a path through them. We were not without considerable apprehension, from our nearness to the Shangalla, who were but two days journey distant from us to the W. N. W. and had frequently made excursions to the wild country where we now were. Hauza was upon a mountain south from us; after travelling along the edge of a hill, with the river on our left hand, we crossed it: it is called the Bowiha, and is the largest we had lately seen.

At nine o’clock we encamped upon the small river Angari, that gives its name to a district which begins at the Bowiha where Anderassa ends. The river Angari is much smaller than the Bowiha: it rises to the westward in a plain near Mentesegla; after running half a mile, it falls down a steep precipice into a valley, then turns to the N. E. and, after a course of two miles and a half farther, joins the Bowiha a little above the ford.

The small village Angari lies about two miles S. S. W. on the top of a hill. Hauza (which seems a large town formed by a collection of many villages) is six miles south, pleasantly situated among a variety of mountains, all of different and extraordinary shapes; some are straight like columns, and some sharp in the point, and broad in the base, like pyramids and obelisks, and some like cones. All these, for the most part inaccessible, unless with pain and danger to those that know the paths, are places of refuge and safety in time of war, and are agreeably separated from each other by small plains producing grain. Some of these, however, have at the top water and small flats that can be sown, sufficient to maintain a number of men, independent of what is doing below them. Hauza signifies _delight_, or _pleasure_, and, probably, such a situation of the country has given the name to it. It is chiefly inhabited by Mahometan merchants, is the _entre-pot_ between Masuah and Gondar, and there are here people of very considerable substance.

The 30th, at seven in the morning, we left Angari, keeping along the side of the river. We then ascended a high hill covered with grass and trees, through a very difficult and steep road; which ending, we came to a small and agreeable plain, with pleasant hills on each side; this is called Mentesegla. At half past seven we were in the middle of three villages of the same name, two to the right and one on the left, about half a mile distance. At half past nine we passed a small river called Daracoy, which serves as the boundary between Addergey and this small district Mentesegla. At a quarter past ten, we incamped at Addergey, near a small rivulet called Mai-Lumi, the river of limes, or lemons, in a plain scarce a mile square, surrounded on each side with very thick wood in form of an amphitheatre. Above this wood, are bare, rugged, and barren mountains. Midway in the cliff is a miserable village, that seems rather to hang than to stand there, scarce a yard of level ground being before it to hinder its inhabitants from falling down the precipice. The wood is full of lemons and wild citrons, from which it acquires its name. Before the tent, to the westward, was a very deep valley, which terminated this little plain in a tremendous precipice.

The river Mai-Lumi, rising above the village, falls into the wood, and there it divides itself in two; one branch surrounds the north of the plain, the other the south, and falls down a rock on each side of the valley, where they unite, and, after having run about a quarter of a mile further, are precipitated into a cataract of 150 feet high, and run in a direction south-west into the Tacazzé. The river Mai-Lumi was, at this time, but small, although it is violent in winter; beyond this valley are five hills, and on the top of each is a village. The Shum resides in the one that is in the middle. He bade us a seeming hearty welcome, but had malice in his heart against us, and only waited to know for certainty if it was a proper time to gratify his avarice. A report was spread about with great confidence, that Ras Michael had been defeated by Fasil; that Gondar had rebelled, and Woggora was all in arms; so that it was certain loss of life to attempt the passage of Lamalmon.

For our part, we conceived this story to be without foundation, and that, on the contrary, the news were true which we had heard at Siré and Adowa, _viz._ That Michael was victorious, and Fasil beaten; and we were, therefore, resolved to abide by this, as well knowing, that, if the contrary had happened, every place between the Tacazzè and Gondar was as fatal to us as any thing we were to meet with on Lamalmon could be; the change of place made no difference; the dispositions of the people towards Michael and his friends we knew to be the same throughout the kingdom, and that our only safety remained on certain and good news coming from the army, or in the finishing our journey with expedition, before any thing bad happened, or was certainly known.

The hyænas this night devoured one of the best of our mules. They are here in great plenty, and so are lions; the roaring and grumbling of the latter, in the part of the wood nearest our tent, greatly disturbed our beasts, and prevented them from eating their provender. I lengthened the strings of my tent, and placed the beasts between them. The white ropes, and the tremulous motion made by the impression of the wind, frightened the lions from coming near us. I had procured from Janni two small brass bells, such as the mules carry. I had tied these to the storm-strings of the tent, where their noise, no doubt, greatly contributed to our beasts safety from these ravenous, yet cautious animals, so that we never saw them; but the noise they made, and, perhaps, their smell, so terrified the mules, that, in the morning, they were drenched in sweat as if they had been a long journey.

The brutish hyæna was not so to be deterred. I shot one of them dead on the night of the 31st of January, and, on the 2d of February, I fired at another so near, that I was confident of killing him. Whether the balls had fallen out, or that I had really missed him with the first barrel, I know not, but he gave a snarl and a kind of bark upon the first shot, advancing directly upon me as if unhurt. The second shot, however, took place, and laid him without motion on the ground. Yasine and his men killed another with a pike; and such was their determined coolness, that they stalked round about us with the familiarity of a dog, or any other domestic animal brought up with man.

But we were still more incommoded by a lesser animal, a large, black ant, little less than an inch long, which, coming out from under the ground, demolished our carpets, which they cut all into shreds, and part of the lining of our tent likewise, and every bag or sack they could find. We had first seen them in great numbers at Angari, but here they were intolerable. Their bite causes a considerable inflammation, and the pain is greater than that which arises from the bite of a scorpion; they are called _gundan_.

On the 1st of February the Shum sent his people to value, as he said, our merchandise, that we might pay custom. Many of the Moors, in our caravan, had left us to go a near way to Hauza. We had at most five or six asses, including those belonging to Yasine. I humoured them so far as to open the cases where were the telescopes and quadrant, or, indeed, rather shewed them open, as they were not shut from the observation I had been making. They could only wonder at things they had never before seen.

On the 2d of February the Shum came himself, and a violent altercation ensued. He insisted upon Michael’s defeat: I told him the contrary news were true, and begged him to beware lest it should be told to the Ras upon his return that he had propagated such a falsehood. I told him also we had advice that the Ras’s servants were now waiting for us at Lamalmon, and insisted upon his suffering us to depart. On the other hand, he threatened to send us to Ayto Tesfos. I answered, “Ayto Tesfos was a friend to Ayto Aylo, under whose protection I was, and a servant to the Iteghé, and was likelier to punish him for using me ill, than to approve of it, but that I would not suffer him to send me either to Ayto Tesfos, or an inch out of the road in which I was going.” He said, “That I was mad;” and held a consultation with his people for about half an hour, after which he came in again, seemingly quite another man, and said, he would dispatch us on the morrow, which was the 3d, and would send us that evening some provisions. And, indeed, we now began to be in need, having only flour barely sufficient to make bread for one meal next day. The miserable village on the clift had nothing to barter with us; and none from the five villages about the Shum had come near us, probably by his order. As he had softened his tone, so did I mine. I gave him a small present, and he went away repeating his promises. But all that evening passed without provision, and all next day without his coming, so we got every thing ready for our departure. Our supper did not prevent our sleeping, as all our provision was gone, and we had tasted nothing all that day since our breakfast.

The country of the Shangalla lies forty miles N. N. W. of this, or rather more westerly. All this district from the Tacazzé is called, in the language of Tigré, Salent, and Talent in Amharic. This probably arises from the name being originally spelled with (Tz), which has occasioned the difference, the one language omitting the first letter, the other the second.

At Addergey, the 31st day of January, at noon, I observed the meridian altitude of the sun, and, at night, the passage of seven different stars over the meridian, by a medium of all which, I found that the latitude of Addergey is 13° 24´ 56´´ North. And on the morning of the 1st of February, at the same place, I observed an immersion of the second satellite of Jupiter, by which I concluded the longitude of Addergey to be 37° 57´ east of the meridian of Greenwich.

On the 4th of February, at half past nine in the morning, we left Addergey: hunger pressing us, we were prepared to do it earlier, and for this we had been up since five in the morning; but our loss of a mule obliged us, when we packed up our tent, to arrange our baggage differently. While employed at making ready for our departure, which was just in the dawn of day, a hyæna, unseen by any of us, fastened upon one of Yasine’s asses, and had almost pulled his tail away. I was busied at gathering the tent-pins into a sack, and had placed my musket and bayonet ready against a tree, as it is at that hour, and the close of the evening, you are always to be on guard against banditti. A boy, who was servant to Yasine, saw the hyæna first, and flew to my musket. Yasine was disjoining the poles of the tent, and, having one half of the largest in his hand, he ran to the assistance of his ass, and in that moment the musket went off, luckily charged with only one ball, which gave Yasine a flesh wound between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand. The boy instantly threw down the musket, which had terrified the hyæna and made him let go the ass; but he stood ready to fight Yasine, who, not amusing himself with the choice of weapons, gave him so rude a blow with the tent-pole upon his head, that it felled him to the ground; others, with pikes, put an end to his life.

We were then obliged to turn our cares towards the wounded. Yasine’s wound was soon seen to be a trifle; besides, he was a man not easily alarmed on such occasions. But the poor ass was not so easily comforted. The stump remained, the tail hanging by a piece of it, which we were obliged to cut off. The next operation was actual cautery; but, as we had made no bread for breakfast, our fire had been early out. We, therefore, were obliged to tie the stump round with whip-cord, till we could get fire enough to heat an iron.

What sufficiently marked the voracity of these beasts, the hyænas, was, that the bodies of their dead companions, which we hauled a long way from us, and left there, were almost entirely eaten by the survivors the next morning; and I then observed, for the first time, that the hyæna of this country was a different species from those I had seen in Europe, which had been brought from Asia or America.

CHAP. VII.

_Journey over Lamalmon to Gondar._

It was on account of these delays that we did not leave Addergey till near ten o’clock in the forenoon of the 4th of February. We continued our journey along the side of a hill, through thick wood and high grass; then descended into a deep, narrow valley, the sides of which had been shaded with high trees, but in burning the grass the trees were consumed likewise; and the shoots from the roots were some of them above eight feet high since the tree had thus suffered that same year. The river Angueah runs through the middle of this valley; after receiving the small streams, before mentioned, it makes its way into the Tacazzé. It is a very clear, swift-running river, something less than the Bowiha.

When we had just reached the river-side, we saw the Shum coming from the right hand across us. There were nine horsemen in all, and fourteen or fifteen beggarly foot-men. He had a well-dressed young man going before him carrying his gun, and had only a whip in his own hand; the rest had lances in theirs; but none of the horsemen had shields. It was universally agreed, that this seemed to be a party set for us, and that he probably had others before appointed to join him, for we were sure his nine horse would not venture to do any thing. Upon the first appearance, we had stopped on this side of the river; but Welleta Michael’s men, who were to accompany us to Lamalmon, and Janni’s servant, told us to cross the river, and make what speed we could, as the Shum’s government ended on this side.

Our people were now all on foot, and the Moors drove the beasts before them. I got immediately upon horseback, when they were then about five hundred yards below, or scarcely so much. As soon as they observed us drive our beasts into the river, one of their horsemen came galloping up, while the others continued at a smart walk. When the horseman was within twenty yards distance of me, I called upon him to stop, and, as he valued his life, not approach nearer. On this he made no difficulty to obey, but seemed rather inclined to turn back. As I saw the baggage all laid on the ground at the foot of a small round hill, upon the gentle ascent of which my servants all stood armed, I turned about my horse, and with Yasine, who was by my side, began to cross the river. The horseman upon this again advanced; again I cried to him to stop. He then pointed behind him, and said, “The Shum!” I desired him peremptorily to stop, or I would fire; upon which he turned round, and the others joining him, they held a minute’s counsel together, and came all forward to the river, where they paused a moment as if counting our number, and then began to enter the stream. Yasine now cried to them in Amharic, as I had done before in Tigré, desiring them, as they valued their lives, to come no nearer. They stopt, a sign of no great resolution; and, after some altercation, it was agreed the Shum, and his son with the gun, should pass the river.

The Shum complained violently that we had left Addergey without his leave, and now were attacking him in his own government upon the high-road. “A pretty situation,” said I, “was ours at Addergey, where the Shum left the king’s stranger no other alternative but dying with hunger, or being ate by the hyæna.”

“This is not your government,” says Janni’s servant; “you know my master, Ayto Aylo, commands here.”--“And who is attacking you on the road?” says the Sirè servant. “Is it like peaceable people, or banditti, to come mounted on horseback and armed as you are? Would not your mules and your foot-servants have been as proper? and would not you have been better employed, with the king and Ras Michael, fighting the Galla, as you gave your promise, than here molesting passengers on the road?”--“You lie,” says the Shum, “I never promised to go with your Ras;” and on this he lifted up his whip to strike Welleta Michael’s servant; but that fellow, though quiet enough, was not of the kind to be beaten. “By G--d! Shum,” says he, “offer to strike me again, and I will lay you dead among your horse’s feet, and my master will say I did well. Never call for your men; you should have taken the red slip off your gun before you came from home to-day to follow us. Why, if you was to shoot, you would be left alone in our hands, as all your fellows on the other side would run at the noise even of your own gun.

“Friends, said I, you understand one another’s grievances better than I do. My only business here is to get to Lamalmon as soon as possible. Now, pray, Shum, tell me what is your business with me? and why have you followed me beyond your government, which is bounded by that river?”--He said, “That I had stolen away privately, without paying custom.”--“I am no merchant, replied I; I am the king’s guest, and pay no custom; but as far as a piece of red Surat cotton cloth will content you, I will give it you, and we shall part friends.”--He then answered, “That two ounces of gold were what my dues had been rated at, and would either have that, or he would follow me to Debra Toon.”--“Bind him and carry him to Debra Toon, says the Siré servant, or I shall go and bring the Shum of Debra Toon to do it. By the head of Michael, Shum, it shall not be long before I take you out of your bed for this.”

I now gave orders to my people to load the mules. At hearing this, the Shum made a signal for his company to cross; but Yasine, who was opposite to them, again ordered them to stop. “Shum, said I, you intend to follow us, apparently with a design to do us some harm. Now we are going to Debra Toon, and you are going thither. If you chuse to go with us, you may in all honour and safety; but your servants shall not be allowed to join you, nor you join them; and if they but attempt to do us harm, we will for certain revenge ourselves on you. There is a piece of ordnance,” continued I, shewing him a large blunderbuss, “a cannon, that will sweep fifty such fellows as you to eternity in a moment. This shall take the care of them, and we shall take the care of you; but join you shall not till we are at Debra Toon.”

The young man that carried the gun, the case of which had never been off, desired leave to speak with his father, as they now began to look upon themselves as prisoners. The conversation lasted about five minutes; and our baggage was now on the way, when the Shum said, he would make a proposal:--“Since I had no merchandise, and was going to Ras Michael, he would accept of the red cloth, its value being about a crown, provided we swore to make no complaint of him at Gondar, nor speak of what had happened at Debra Toon; while he likewise would swear, after having joined his servants, that he would not again pass that river.” Peace was concluded upon these terms. I gave him a piece of red Surat cotton cloth, and added some cohol, incense, and beads for his wives. I gave to the young man that carried the gun two strings of bugles to adorn his legs, for which he seemed most wonderfully grateful. The Shum returned, not with a very placid countenance; his horsemen joined him in the middle of the stream, and away they went soberly together, and in silence.

Hauza was from this S. E. eight miles distant. Its mountains, of so many uncommon forms, had a very romantic appearance. At one o’clock we alighted at the foot of one of the highest, called Debra Toon, about half way between the mountain and village of that name, which was on the side of the hill about a mile N. W. Still further to the N. W. is a desert, hilly district, called Adebarea, the country of the slaves, as being the neighbourhood of the Shangalla, the whole country between being waste and uninhabited.

The mountains of Waldubba, resembling those of Adebarea, lay north of us about four or five miles. Waldubba, which signifies _the Valley of the Hyæna_, is a territory entirely inhabited by the monks, who, for mortification’s sake, have retired to this unwholesome, hot, and dangerous country, voluntarily to spend their lives in penitence, meditation, and prayer. This, too, is the only retreat of great men in disgrace or in disgust. These first shave their hair, and put on a cowl like the monks, renouncing the world for solitude, and taking vows which they resolve to keep no longer than exigencies require; after which they return to the world again, leaving their cowl and sanctity in Waldubba.

These monks are held in great veneration; are believed by many to have the gift of prophecy, and some of them to work miracles, and are very active instruments to stir up the people in time of trouble. Those that I have seen out of Waldubba in Gondar, and about Koscam, never shewed any great marks of abstinence; they ate and drank every thing without scruple, and in large quantities too. They say they live otherwise in Waldubba, and perhaps it may be so. There are women, also, whom we should call Nuns, who, though not residing in Waldubba, go at times thither, and live in a familiarity with these saints, that has very little favour of spirituality; and many of these, who think the living in community with this holy fraternity has not in it perfection enough to satisfy their devotion, retire, one of each sex, a hermit and a nun, sequestering themselves for months, to eat herbs together in private upon the top of the mountains. These, on their return, are shewn as miracles of holiness,--lean, enervated, and exhausted. Whether this is wholly to be laid to the charge of the herbs, is more than I will take upon me to decide, never having been at these retirements of Waldubba.

Violent fevers perpetually reign there. The inhabitants are all of the colour of a corpse; and their neighbours, the Shangalla, by constant inroads, destroy many of them, though lately they have been stopped, as they say, by the prayers of the monks. I suppose their partners, the nuns, had their share in it, as both of them are said to be equally superior in holiness and purity of living to what their predecessors formerly were. But, not to derogate from the efficaciousness of their prayers, the _natural cause_ why the Shangalla molest them no more, is the small-pox, which has greatly reduced their strength and number, and extinguished, to a man, whole tribes of them.

The water is both scarce and bad at Debra Toon, there being but one spring, or fountain, and it was exceedingly ill-tasted. We did not intend to make this a station; but, having sent a servant to Hauza to buy a mule in room of that which the hyæna had eaten, we were afraid to leave our man, who was not yet come forward, lest he should fall in with the Shum of Addergey, who might stop the mule for our arrears of customs.

The pointed mountain of Dagashaha continued still visible; I set it this day by the compass, and it bore due N. E. We had not seen any cultivated ground since we passed the Tacazzè.

The 5th, at seven o’clock in the morning, we left Debra Toon, and came to the edge of a deep valley bordered with wood, the descent of which is very steep. The Anzo, larger and more rapid than the Angueah, runs through the middle of this valley; its bed is full of large, smooth stones, and the sides composed of hard rock, and difficult to descend; the stream is equally clear and rapid with the other. We ascended the valley on the other side, through the most difficult road we had met with since that of the valley of Sirè. At ten o’clock we found ourselves in the middle of three villages, two to the right, and one on the left; they are called Adamara, from Adama a mountain, on the east side of which is Tchober. At eleven o’clock we encamped at the foot of the mountain Adama, in a small piece of level ground, after passing a pleasant wood of no considerable extent. Adama, in Amharic, signifies _pleasant_; and nothing can be more wildly so than the view from this station.

Tchober is close at the foot of the mountain, surrounded on every side, except the north, by a deep valley covered with wood. On the other side of this valley are the broken hills which constitute the rugged banks of the Anzo. On the point of one of these, most extravagantly shaped, is the village Shahagaanah, projecting as it were over the river; and, behind these, the irregular and broken mountains of Salent appear, especially those around Hauza, in forms which European mountains never wear; and still higher, above these, is the long ridge of Samen, which run along in an even stretch till they are interrupted by the high conical top of Lamalmon, reaching above the clouds, and reckoned to be the highest hill in Abyssinia, over the steepest part of which, by some fatality, the reason I do not know, the road of all caravans to Gondar must lie.

As soon as we passed the Anzo, immediately on our right is that part of Waldubba, full of deep valleys and woods, in which the monks used to hide themselves from the incursions of the Shangalla, before they found out the more convenient defence by the prayers and superior sanctity of the present saints. Above this is Adamara, where the Mahometans have considerable villages, and, by their populousness and strength, have greatly added to the safety of the monks, perhaps not altogether completed yet by the purity of their lives. Still higher than these villages is Tchober, where we now encamped.

On the left hand, after passing the Anzo, all is Shahagaanah, till you come to the river Zarima. It extends in an east and west direction, almost parallel to the mountains of Samen, and in this territory are several considerable villages; the people are much addicted to robbery, and rebellion, in which they were engaged at this time. Above Salent is Abbergalè, and above that Tamben, which is one of the principal provinces in Tigrè, commanded at present by Kefla Yasous, an officer of the greatest merit and reputation in the Abyssinian army.

On the 6th, at six o’clock in the morning, we left Tchober, and passed a wood on the side of the mountain. At a quarter past eight we crossed the river Zarima, a clear stream running over a bottom of stones. It is about as large as the Anzo. On the banks of this river, and all this day, we passed under trees larger and more beautiful than any we had seen since leaving the Tacazzé. After having crossed the Zarima, we entered a narrow defile between two mountains, where ran another rivulet: we continued advancing along the side of it, till the valley became so narrow as to leave no room but in the bed of the rivulet itself. It is called Mai-Agam, or the water or brook of jessamin and falls into the Zarima, at a small distance from the place wherein we passed it. It was dry at the mouth, (the water being there absorbed and hid under the sand) but above, where the ground was firmer, there ran a brisk stream of excellent water, and it has the appearance of being both broad, deep, and rapid in winter. At ten o’clock we encamped upon its banks, which are here bordered with high trees of cummel, at this time both loaded with fruit and flowers. There are also here a variety of other curious trees and plants; in no place, indeed, had we seen more, except on the banks of the Tacazzé. Mai-Agam consists of three villages; one, two miles distant, east-and-by-north, one at same distance, N. N. W.; the third at one mile distance, S. E. by south.

On the 7th, at six o’clock in the morning, we began to ascend the mountain; at a quarter past seven the village Lik lay east of us. Murass, a country full of low but broken mountains, and deep narrow valleys, bears N. W. and Walkayt in the same direction, but farther off. At a quarter past eight, Gingerohha, distant from us about a mile S. W. it is a village situated upon a mountain that joins Lamalmon. Two miles to the N. E. is the village Taguzait on the mountain which we were ascending. It is called Guza by the Jesuits, who strangely say, that the Alps and Pyreneans are inconsiderable eminences to it. Yet, with all deference to this observation, Taguzait, or Guza, though really the base of Lamalmon, is not a quarter of a mile high.

Ten minutes before nine o’clock we pitched our tent on a small plain called Dippebaha, on the top of the mountain, above a hundred yards from a spring, which scarcely was abundant enough to supply us with water, in quality as indifferent as it was scanty. The plain bore strong marks of the excessive heat of the sun, being full of cracks and chasms, and the grass burnt to powder. There are three small villages so near each other that they may be said to compose one. Near them is the church of St George, on the top of a small hill to the eastward, surrounded with large trees.

Since passing the Tacazzé we had been in a very wild country, left so, for what I know, by nature, at least now lately rendered more so by being the theatre of civil war. The whole was one wilderness without inhabitants, unless at Addergey. The plain of Dippebaha had nothing of this appearance; it was full of grass, and interspersed with flowering shrubs, jessamin, and roses, several kinds of which were beautiful, but only one fragrant. The air was very fresh and pleasant; and a great number of people, passing to and fro, animated the scene.

We met this day several monks and nuns of Waldubba, I should say _pairs_, for they were two and two together. They said they had been at the market of Dobarké on the side of Lamalmon, just above Dippebaha. Both men and women, but especially the latter, had large burdens of provisions on their shoulders, bought that day, as they said, at Dobarkè, which shewed me they did not wholly depend upon the herbs of Waldubba for their support. The women were stout and young, and did not seem, by their complexion, to have been long in the mortifications of Waldubba. I rather thought that they had the appearance of healthy mountaineers, and were, in all probability, part of the provisions bought for the convent; and, by the sample, one would think the monks had the first choice of the market, which was but fit, and is a custom observed likewise in Catholic countries. The men seemed very miserable, and ill-clothed, but had a great air of ferocity and pride in their faces. They are distinguished only from the laity by a yellow cowl, or cap, on their head. The cloth they wear round them is likewise yellow, but in winter they wear skins dyed of the same colour.

On the 8th, at three quarters past six o’clock in the morning, we left Dippebaha, and, at seven, had two small villages on our left; one on the S. E. distant two miles, the other on the south, one mile off. They are called Wora, and so is the territory for some space on each side of them; but, beyond the valley, all is Shahagaanah to the root of Lamalmon. At a quarter past seven, the village of Gingerohha was three miles on our right; and we were now ascending Lamalmon, through a very narrow road, or rather path, for it scarcely was two feet wide any where. It was a spiral winding up the side of the mountain, always on the very brink of a precipice. Torrents of water, which in winter carry prodigious stones down the side of this mountain, had divided this path into several places, and opened to us a view of that dreadful abyss below, which few heads can (mine at least could not) bear to look down upon. We were here obliged to unload our baggage, and, by slow degrees, crawl up the hill, carrying them little by little upon our shoulders round these chasms where the road was intersected. The mountains grow steeper, the paths narrower, and the breaches more frequent as we ascend. Scarce were our mules, though unloaded, able to scramble up, but were perpetually falling; and, to increase our difficulties, which, in such cases, seldom come single, a large number of cattle was descending, and seemed to threaten to push us all into the gulf below. After two hours of constant toil, at nine o’clock we alighted in a small plain called Kedus, or St Michael, from a church and village of that name, neither beast nor man being able to go a step further.

The plain of St Michael, where we now were, is at the foot of a steep cliff which terminates the west side of Lamalmon. It is here perpendicular like a wall, and a few trees only upon the top of the cliff. Over this precipice flow two streams of water, which never are dry, but run in all seasons. They fall into a wood at the bottom of this cliff, and preserve it in continual verdure all the year, tho’ the plain itself below, as I have said, is all rent into chasms, and cracked by the heat of the sun. These two streams form a considerable rivulet in the plain of St Michael, and are a great relief both to men and cattle in this tedious and difficult passage over the mountain.

The air on Lamalmon is pleasant and temperate. We found here our appetite return, with a chearfulness, lightness of spirits, and agility of body, which indicated that our nerves had again resumed their wonted tone, which they had lost in the low, poisonous, and sultry air on the coast of the Red Sea. The sun here is indeed hot, but in the morning a cool breeze never fails, which increases as the sun rises high. In the shade it is always cool. The thermometer, in the shade, in the plain of St Michael, this day, was 76°, wind N. W.

Lamalmon, as I have said, is the pass through which the road of all caravans to Gondar lies. It is here they take an account of all baggage and merchandise, which they transmit to the Negadé Ras, or chief officer of the customs at Gondar, by a man whom they send to accompany the caravan. There is also a present, or awide, due to the private proprietor of the ground; and this is levied with great rigour and violence, and, for the most part, with injustice; so that this station, which, by the establishment of the customhouse, and nearness to the capital, should be in a particular manner attended to by government, is always the place where the first robberies and murders are committed in unsettled times. Though we had nothing with us which could be considered as subject to duty, we submitted every thing to the will of the robber of the place, and gave him his present. If he was not satisfied, he seemed to be so, which was all we wanted.

We had obtained leave to depart early in the morning of the 9th, but it was with great regret we were obliged to abandon our Mahometan friends into hands that seemed disposed to shew them no favour. The king was in Maitsha, or Damot, that is to say, far from Gondar, and various reports were spread abroad about the success of the campaign; and these people only waited for an unfavourable event to make a pretence for robbing our fellow-travellers of every thing they had.

The persons whose right it was to levy these contributions were two, a father and son; the old man was dressed very decently, spoke little, but smoothly, and had a very good carriage. He professed a violent hatred to all Mahometans, on account of their religion, a sentiment which seemed to promise nothing favourable to our friend Yasine and his companions: but, in the evening, the son, who seemed to be the active man, came to our tent, and brought us a quantity of bread and bouza, which his father had ordered before. He seemed to be much taken with our fire-arms, and was very inquisitive about them. I gave him every sort of satisfaction, and, little by little, saw I might win his heart entirely; which I very much wished to do, that I might free our companions from bondage.

The young man it seems was a good soldier; and, having been in several actions under Ras Michael, as a fusileer, he brought his gun, and insisted on shooting at marks. I humoured him in this; but as I used a rifle, which he did not understand, he found himself overmatched, especially by the greatness of the range, for he shot straight enough. I then shewed him the manner we shot flying, there being quails in abundance, and wild pigeons, of which I killed several, on wing, which left him in the utmost astonishment. Having got on horseback, I next went through the exercise of the Arabs, with a long spear and a short javelin. This was more within his comprehension, as he had seen something like it; but he was wonderfully taken with the fierce and fiery appearance of my horse, and, at the same time, with his docility, the form of his saddle, bridle, and accoutrements. He threw at last the sandals off his feet, twisted his upper garment into his girdle, and set off at so furious a rate, that I could not help doubting whether he was in his sober understanding.

It was not long till he came back, and with him a man-servant carrying a sheep and a goat, and a woman carrying a jar of honey-wine. I had not yet quitted the horse; and when I saw what his intention was, I put Mirza to a gallop, and, with one of the barrels of the gun, shot a pigeon, and immediately fired the other into the ground. There was nothing after this that could have surprized him, and it was repeated several times at his desire; after which he went into the tent, where he invited himself to my house at Gondar. There I was to teach him every thing he had seen. We now swore perpetual friendship; and a horn or two of hydromel being emptied, I introduced the case of our fellow-travellers, and obtained a promise that we should have leave to set out together. He would, moreover, take no awide, and said he would be favourable in his report to Gondar.

Matters were so far advanced, when a servant of Michael’s arrived, sent by Petros, (Janni’s brother) who had obtained him from Ozoro Esther. This put an end to all our difficulties. Our young soldier also kept his word, and a mere trifle of awide was given, rather by the Moor’s own desire than from demand, and the report of our baggage, and dues thereon, were as low as could be wished. Our friend likewise sent his own servant to Gondar with the billet to accompany the caravan. But the news brought by his servant were still better than all this. Ras Michael had actually beaten Fasil, and forced him to retire to the other side of the Nile, and was then in Maitsha, where it was thought he would remain with the army all the rainy season. This was just what I could have wished, as it brought me at once to the neighbourhood of the sources of the Nile, without the smallest shadow of fear or danger.

On the 9th of February, at seven o’clock, we took leave of the friends whom we had so newly acquired at Lamalmon, all of us equally joyful and happy at the news. We began to ascend what still remained of the mountain, which, though steep and full of bushes, was much less difficult than that which we had passed. At a quarter past seven we arrived at the top of Lamalmon, which has, from below, the appearance of being sharp-pointed. On the contrary, we were much surprised to find there a large plain, part in pasture, but more bearing grain. It is full of springs, and seems to be the great reservoir from whence arise most of the rivers that water this part of Abyssinia. A multitude of streams issue from the very summit in all directions; the springs boil out from the earth in large quantities, capable of turning a mill. They plow, sow, and reap here at all seasons; and the husbandman must blame his own indolence, and not the soil, if he has not three harvests. We saw, in one place, people busy cutting down wheat; immediately next to it, others at the plough; and the adjoining field had green corn in the ear; a little further, it was not an inch above the ground.

Lamalmon is on the N. W. part of the mountains of Samen. That of Gingerohha, with two pointed tops, joins it on the north, and ends these mountains here, and is separated from the plain of St Michael by a very deep gully. Neither Lamalmon nor Gingerohha, though higher than the mountains of Tigré, are equal in height to some of those of Samen. I take those to the S. E. to be much higher, and, above all, that sharp-pointed hill Amba Gideon, the present residence of the governor of Samen, Ayto Tesfos. This is otherwise called the _Jews-Rock_, famous in the history of this country for the many revolts of the Jews against the Abyssinian kings.

The mountain is everywhere so steep and high, that it is not enough to say against the will, but without the assistance of those above, no one from below can venture to ascend. On the top is a large plain, affording plenty of pasture, as well as room for plowing and sowing for the maintenance of the army; and there is water, at all seasons, in great plenty, and even fish in the streams upon it; so that, although the inhabitants of the mountain had been often besieged for a considerable time together, they suffered little inconvenience from it, nor ever were taken unless by treason; except by Christopher de Gama and his Portuguese, who are said, by their own historians, to have stormed this rock, and put the Mahometan garrison to the sword. No mention of this honourable conquest is made in the annals of Abyssinia, though they give the history of this campaign of Don Christopher in the life of Claudius, or Atzenaf Segued.

On the top of the cliff where we now were, on the left hand of the road to Gondar, we filled a tube with quick-silver, and purged it perfectly of outward air; it stood this day at 20⅞ English inches. Dagashaha bears N. E. by E. from our present station upon Lamalmon. The language of Lamalmon is Amharic; but there are many villages where the language of the Falasha is spoken. These are the ancient inhabitants of the mountains, who still preserve the religion, language, and manners of their ancestors, and live in villages by themselves. Their number is now considerably diminished, and this has proportionally lowered their power and spirit. They are now wholly addicted to agriculture, hewers of wood and carriers of water, and the only potters and masons in Abyssinia. In the former profession they excel greatly, and, in general, live better than the other Abyssinians; which these, in revenge, attribute to a skill in magic, not to superior industry. Their villages are generally strongly situated out of the reach of marching armies, otherwise they would be constantly rifled, partly from hatred, and partly from hopes of finding money.

On the 10th, at half past seven in the morning, we continued along the plain on the top of Lamalmon; it is called Lama; and a village of the same name bore about two miles east from us. At eight o’clock we passed two villages called Mocken, one W. by N. at one mile and a half, the other S. E. two miles distant. At half past eight we crossed the river Macara, a considerable stream running with a very great current, which is the boundary between Woggora and Lamalmon. At nine o’clock we encamped at some small villages called Macara, under a church named Yasous. On the 11th of February, by the meridian altitude of the sun at noon, and that of several fixed stars proper for observation, I found the latitude of Macara to be 13° 6´ 8´´. The ground was everywhere burnt up; and, though the nights were very cold, we had not observed the smallest dew since our first ascending the mountain. The province of Woggora begins at Macara; it is all plain, and reckoned the granary of Gondar on this side, although the name would denote no such thing, for Woggora signifies the _stony_, or _rocky province_.

The mountains of Lasta and Belessen bound our view to the south; the hills of Gondar on the S. W.; and all Woggora lies open before us to the south, covered, as I have said before, with grain. But the wheat of Woggora is not good, owing probably to the height of that province. It makes an indifferent bread, and is much less esteemed than that of Foggora and Dembea, low, flat provinces, sheltered with hills, that lie upon the side of the lake Tzana.

On the 12th we left Macara at seven in the morning, still travelling through the plain of Woggora. At half past seven saw two villages called Erba Tensa, one of them a mile distant, the other half a mile on the N. W. At eight o’clock we came to Woken, five villages not two hundred yards distant from one another. At a quarter past eight we saw five other villages to the S. W. called Warrar, from one to four miles distant, all between the points of east and south. The country now grows inconceivably populous; vast flocks of cattle of all kinds feed on every side, having large and beautiful horns, exceedingly wide, and bosses upon their backs like camels; their colour is mostly black.

At a quarter past eight we passed Arena, a village on our left. At nine we passed the river Girama, which runs N. N. W. and terminates the district of Lamalmon, beginning that of Giram. At ten the church of St George remained on our right, one mile from us; we crossed a river called Shimbra Zuggan, and encamped about two hundred yards from it. The valley of that name is more broken and uneven than any part we had met with since we ascended Lamalmon. The valley called also Shimbra Zuggan, is two miles and a half N. by E. on the top of a hill surrounded with trees. Two small brooks, the one from S. S. E. the other from S. E. join here, then fall into the rivulet.

The 13th, at seven in the morning, we proceeded still along the plain; at half past seven came to Arradara; and afterwards saw above twenty other villages on our right and left, ruined and destroyed from the lowest foundation by Ras Michael in his late march to Gondar. At half past eight the church of Mariam was about a hundred yards on our left. At ten we encamped under Tamamo. The country here is full of people; the villages are mostly ruined, which, in some places, they are rebuilding. It is wholly sown with grain of different kinds, but more especially with wheat. For the production of this, they have everywhere extirpated the wood, and now labour under a great scarcity of fuel. Since we passed Lamalmon, the only substitute for this was cows and mules dung, which they gather, make into cakes, and dry in the sun. From Addergey hither, salt is the current money, in large purchases, such as sheep or other cattle; cohol, and pepper, for smaller articles, such as flour, butter, fowls, &c. At Shimbra Zuggan they first began to inquire after red Surat cotton cloth for which they offered us thirteen bricks of salt; four peeks of this red cloth are esteemed the price of a goat. We began to find the price of provisions augment in a great proportion as we approached the capital.

This day we met several caravans going to Tigré, a certain sign of Michael’s victory; also vast flocks of cattle driven from the rebellious provinces, which were to pasture on Lamalmon, and had been purchased from the army. Not only the country was now more cultivated, but the people were cleanlier, better dressed, and apparently better fed, than those in the other parts we had left behind us. Indeed, from Shimbra Zuggan hither, there was not a foot, excepting the path on which we trode, that was not sown with some grain or other.

On the 14th, at seven o’clock in the morning, we continued our journey. At ten minutes past seven, we had five villages of Tamamo three miles on our left; our road was through gentle rising hills, all pasture ground. At half past seven, the village of Woggora was three miles on our right; and at eight, the church of St George a mile on our left, with a village of the same name near it; and, ten minutes after, Angaba Mariam, a church dedicated to the virgin, so called from the small territory Angaba, which we are now entering. At fifty minutes past eight, we came to five villages called Angaba, at small distances from each other. At nine o’clock we came to Kossogué, and entered a small district of that name. The church is on a hill surrounded with trees. On our left are five villages all called Kossoguè, and as it were on a line, the farthest at 3 miles distance; near ten we came to the church of Argiff, in the midst of many ruined villages. Three miles on our left hand are several others, called Appano.

After having suffered, with infinite patience and perseverance, the hardships and danger of this long and painful journey, at forty minutes past ten we were gratified, at last, with the sight of Gondar, according to my computation about ten miles distant. The king’s palace (at least the tower of it) is distinctly seen, but none of the other houses, which are covered by the multitude of wanzey-trees growing in the town, so that it appears one thick, black wood. Behind it is Azazo, likewise covered with trees. On a hill is the large church of Tecla Haimanout, and the river below it makes it distinguishable; still further on is the great lake Tzana, which terminates our horizon.

At forty-five minutes past ten we began to ascend about two miles through a broken road, having on our right, in the valley below, the river Tchagassa; and here begins the territory of that name. At fifty-five minutes past ten, descending still the hill, we passed a large spring of water, called Bambola, together with several plantations of sugar-canes which grow here _from the seed_. At eleven o’clock the village Tchagassa was about half a mile distant from us on our right, on the other side of the river. It is inhabited by Mahometans, as is Waalia, another small one near it. At twelve o’clock we passed the river Tchagassa over a bridge of three arches, the middle of which is Gothic, the two lesser Roman. This bridge, though small, is solid and well cemented, built with stone by order of Facilidas, who probably employed those of his subjects who had retained the arts of the Portuguese, but not their religion.

The Tchagassa has very steep, rocky banks: It is so deep, though narrow, that, without this bridge, it scarce would be passable. We encamped at a small distance from it, but nearer Gondar. Here again we met with trees, (small ones indeed) but the first we had seen since leaving Lamalmon, excepting the usual groves of cedars. It is the Virginia cedar, or oxy-cedros, in this country called _Arz_, with which their churches are constantly surrounded.

On the 15th, at ten minutes past seven, we began to ascend the mountain; and, at twenty minutes after seven, passed a village on our left. At seven and three quarters we passed Tiba and Mariam, two churches, the one on our right, the other on our left, about half a mile distant; and near them several small villages, inhabited by Falasha, masons and thatchers of houses, employed at Gondar. At half past eight we came to the village Tocutcho, and, in a quarter of an hour, passed the river of that name, and in a few minutes rested on the river Angrab, about half a mile from Gondar.

Tchacassa is the last of the many little districts which, together, compose Woggora, generally understood to be dependent on Samen, though often, from the turbulent spirit of its chiefs, struggling for independency, as at the present time, but sure to pay for it immediately after. In fact, though large, it is too near Gondar to be suffered to continue in rebellion; and, being rich and well cultivated, it derives its support from the capital, as being the mart of its produce. It is certainly one of the fruitfulest provinces in Abyssinia, but the inhabitants are miserably poor, notwithstanding their threefold harvests. Whereas, in Egypt, beholden to this country alone for its fertility, one moderate harvest gives plenty everywhere.

Woggora is full of large ants, and prodigious swarms of rats and mice, which consume immense quantities of grain; to these plagues may be added still one, the greatest of them all, bad government, which speedily destroys all the advantages they reap from nature, climate, and situation.

CHAP. VIII.

_Reception at Gondar--Triumphal Entry of the King--The Author’s first Audience._

We were much surprised at arriving on the Angrab, that no person had come to us from Petros, Janni’s brother. We found afterwards, indeed, that he had taken fright upon some menacing words from the priests, at hearing a Frank was on his way to Gondar, and that he had, soon after, set out for Ibaba, where the Ras was, to receive his directions concerning us. This was the most disagreeable accident could have happened to me. I had not a single person to whom I could address myself for any thing. My letters were for the king and Ras Michael, and could be of no use, as both were absent; and though I had others for Petros and the Greeks, they, too, were out of town.

Many Mahometans came to the Angrab to meet the caravan. They all knew of my coming perfectly, and I soon explained my situation. I had Janni’s letters to Negadé Ras Mahomet, the chief of the Moors at Gondar, and principal merchant in Abyssinia, who was absent likewise with the army. But one of his brethren, a sagacious, open-hearted man, desired me not to be discouraged; that, as I had not put off my Moorish dress, I should continue it; that a house was provided for Mahomet Gibberti, and those that were with him, and that he would put me immediately into possession of it, where I might stay, free from any intercourse with the priests, till Petros or the Ras should return to Gondar. This advice I embraced with great readiness, as there was nothing I was so much afraid of as an encounter with fanatical priests before I had obtained some protection from government, or the great people in the country. After having concerted these measures, I resigned myself to the direction of my Moorish friend Hagi Saleh.

We moved along the Angrab, having Gondar on our right situated upon a hill, and the river on our left, proceeding down till its junction with a smaller stream, called the Kahha, that joins it at the Moorish town. This situation, near running water, is always chosen by the Mahometans on account of their frequent ablutions. The Moorish town at Gondar may consist of about 3000 houses, some of them spacious and good. I was put in possession of a very neat one, destined for Mahomet Gibberti. Flour, honey, and such-like food, Mahometans and Christians eat promiscuously, and so far I was well situated. As for flesh, although there was abundance of it, I could not touch a bit of it, being killed by Mahometans, as that communion would have been looked upon as equal to a renunciation of Christianity.

By Janni’s servant, who had accompanied us from Adowa, his kind and friendly master had wrote to Ayto Aylo, of whom I have already spoken. He was the constant patron of the Greeks, and had been so also of all the Catholics who had ventured into this country, and been forced after to leave it. Though no man professed greater veneration for the priesthood, no one privately detested more those of his own country than he did; and he always pretended that, if a proper way of going to Jerusalem could be found, he would leave his large estates, and the rank he had in Abyssinia, and, with the little money he could muster, live the remaining part of his days among the monks, of whom he had now accounted himself one, in the convent of the holy sepulchre. This perhaps was, great part of it, imagination; but, as he had talked himself into a belief that he was to end his days either at Jerusalem, which was a pretence, or at Rome, which was his inclination, he willingly took the charge of white people of all communions who had hitherto been unhappy enough to stray into Abyssinia.

It was about seven o’clock at night, of the 15th, when Hagi Saleh was much alarmed by a number of armed men at his door; and his surprise was still greater upon seeing Ayto Aylo, who, as far as I know, was never in the Moorish town before, descend from his mule, and uncover his head and shoulders, as if he had been approaching a person of the first distinction. I had been reading the prophet Enoch, which Janni had procured me at Adowa; and Wemmer’s and Ludolf’s dictionaries were lying upon it. Yasine was sitting by me, and was telling me what news he had picked up, and he was well acquainted with Ayto Aylo, from several commissions he had received for his merchants in Arabia. A contention of civilities immediately followed. I offered to stand till Aylo was covered, and he would not sit till I was seated. This being got over, the first curiosity was, What my books were? and he was very much astonished at seeing one of them was Abyssinian, and the European helps that I had towards understanding it. He understood Tigrè and Amharic perfectly, and had a little knowledge of Arabic, that is, he understood it when spoken, for he could neither read nor write it, and spoke it very ill, being at a loss for words.

The beginning of our discourse was in Arabic, and embarrassed enough, but we had plenty of interpreters in all languages. The first bashfulness being removed on both sides, our conversation began in Tigré, now, lately since Michael had become Ras, the language most used in Gondar. Aylo was exceedingly astonished at hearing me speak the language as I did, and said after, “The Greeks are poor creatures; Peter does not speak Tigré so well as this man.” Then, very frequently, to Saleh and the by-standers, “Come, come, he’ll do, if he can speak; there is no fear of him, he’ll make his way.”

He told us that Welled Hawaryat had come from the camp ill of a fever, and that they were afraid it was the small pox: that Janni had informed them I had saved many young people’s lives at Adowa, by a new manner of treating them; and that the Iteghé desired I would come the next morning, and that he should carry me to Koscam and introduce me to her. I told him that I was ready to be directed by his good advice; that the absence of the Greeks, and Mahomet Gibberti at the same time, had very much distressed me, and especially the apprehensions of Petros. He said, smiling, That neither Petros nor himself were bad men, but that unfortunately they were great cowards, and things were not always so bad as they apprehended. What had frightened Petros, was a conversation of Abba Salama, whom they met at Koscam, expressing his displeasure with some warmth, that a Frank, meaning me, was permitted to come to Gondar. “But,” says Ayto Aylo, “we shall hear to-morrow, or next day. Ras Michael and Abba Salama are not friends; and if you could do any good to Welled Hawaryat his son, I shall answer for it, one word of his will stop the mouths of a hundred Abba Salamas.” I will not trouble the reader with much indifferent conversation that passed. He drank capillaire and water, and sat till past midnight.

Abba Salama, of whom we shall often speak, at that time filled the post of Acab Saat, or guardian of the fire. It is the third dignity of the church, and he is the first religious officer in the palace. He had a very large revenue, and still a greater influence. He was a man exceedingly rich, and of the very worst life possible; though he had taken the vows of poverty and chastity, it was said he had at that time, above seventy mistresses in Gondar. His way of seducing women was as extraordinary as the number seduced. It was not by gifts, attendance, or flattery, the usual means employed on such occasions; when he had fixed his desires upon a woman, he forced her to comply, under pain of _excommunication_. He was exceedingly eloquent and bold, a great favourite of the Iteghè’s, till taken in to be a counsellor with Lubo and Brulhè. He had been very instrumental in the murder of Kasmati Eshté, of which he vaunted, even in the palace of the queen his sister. He was a man of a pleasing countenance, short, and of a very fair complexion; indifferent, or rather averse to wine, but a monstrous glutton, nice in what he had to eat, to a degree scarcely before known in Abyssinia; a mortal enemy to all white people, whom he classed under the name of Franks, for which the Greeks, uniting their interests at favourable times, had often very nearly overset him.

The next morning, about ten o’clock, taking Hagi Saleh and Yasine with me, and dressed in my Moorish dress, I went to Ayto Aylo, and found him with several great plates of bread, melted butter, and honey, before him, of one of which he and I ate; the rest were given to the Moors, and other people present. There was with him a priest of Koscam, and we all set out for that palace as soon as we had ate breakfast. The rest of the company were on mules. I had mounted my own favourite horse. Aylo, before his fright at Sennaar, was one of the first horsemen in Abyssinia; he was short, of a good figure, and knew the advantage of such make for a horseman; he had therefore a curiosity to see a tall man ride; but he was an absolute stranger to the great advantage of Moorish furniture, bridles, spurs, and stirrups, in the management of a violent, strong, high-mettled horse. It was with the utmost satisfaction, when we arrived in the plain called Aylo Meydan, that I shewed him the different paces of the horse. He cried out with fear when he saw him stand upright upon his legs, and jump forward, or aside, with all four feet off the ground.

We passed the brook of St Raphael, a suburb of Gondar, where is the house of the Abuna; and upon coming in sight of the palace of Koscam, we all uncovered our heads, and rode slowly. As Aylo was all-powerful with the Iteghé, indeed her first counsellor and friend, our admittance was easy and immediate. We alighted, and were shewn into a low room in the palace. Ayto Aylo went immediately to the queen to inquire about Welled Hawaryat, and his audience lasted two long hours. He returned to us with these news, that Welled Hawaryat was much better, by a medicine a saint from Waldubba had given him, which consisted in some characters written with common ink upon a tin plate, which characters were washed off by a medicinal liquor, and then given him to drink. It was agreed, however, that the complaint was the small-pox, and the good it had done him was, he had ate heartily of _brind_, or raw beef after it, tho’ he had not ate before since his arrival, but called perpetually for drink. Aylo said he was to remain at Koscam till towards evening, and desired me to meet him at his own house when it turned dark, and to bring Petros with me, if he was returned.

Petros was returned when I arrived, and waited for me at Hagi Saleh’s house. Although he shewed all the signs of my being welcome, yet it was easy to read in his countenance he had not succeeded according to his wish, in his interview with Michael, or that he had met something that had ruffled and frightened him anew. And, indeed, this last was the case, for going to the Ras’s tent, he had seen the stuffed skin of the unfortunate Woosheka, with whom he was well acquainted, swinging upon a tree, and drying in the wind. He was so terrified, and struck with such horror, at the sight, that he was in a kind of hysteric fit, cried, started, laughed hideously, and seemed as if he had in part lost his senses.

I was satisfied by the state I saw him in, though he had left Ibaba three days, that, as the first sight of Woosheka’s stuffed skin must have been immediately before he went to the Ras, he could not have had any distinct or particular conversation with him on my account; and it turned out after, that he had not spoken one word upon the subject from fear, but had gone to the tent of Negadè Ras Mahomet, who carried him to Kefla Yasous; that they, too, seeing the fright he was in, and knowing the cause, had gone without him to the Ras, and told him of my arrival, and of the behaviour of Abba Salama, and my fear thereupon, and that I was then in the house of Hagi Saleh, in the Moorish town. The Ras’s answer was, “Abba Salama is an ass, and they that fear him are worse. Do I command in Gondar only when I stay there? My dog is of more consequence in Gondar than Abba Salama.” And then, after pausing a little, he said, “Let Yagoube stay where he is in the Moors town; Saleh will let no priests trouble him there.” Negadé Ras Mahomet laughed, and said, “We will answer for that;” and Petros set out immediately upon his return, haunted night and day with the ghost of his friend Woosheka, but without having seen Ras Michael.

I thought, when we went at night to Ayto Aylo, and he had told the story distinctly, that Aylo and he were equally afraid, for he had not, or pretended he had not, till then heard that Woosheka had been flayed alive. Aylo, too, was well acquainted with the unfortunate person, and only said, “This is Esther, this is Esther; nobody knew her but I.” Then they went on to inquire particulars, and after, they would stop one another, and desire each other to speak no more; then they cried again, and fell into the same conversation. It was impossible not to laugh at the ridiculous dialogue. “Sirs,” said I, “you have told me all I want; I shall not stir from the Moors town till Ras Michael arrives; if there was any need of advice, you are neither of you capable of giving it; now I would wish you would shew me you are capable of taking mine. You are both extremely agitated, and Peter is very tired; and will besides see the ghost of Woosheka shaking to and fro all night with the wind; neither of you ate supper, as I intend to do; and I think Peter should stay here all night, but you should not lie both of you in the same room, where Woosheka’s black skin, so strongly impressed on your mind, will not fail to keep you talking all night in place of sleeping. Boil about a quart of gruel, I will put a few drops into it; go then to bed, and this unusual operation of Michael will not have power to keep you awake.”

The gruel was made, and a good large doze of laudanum put into it. I took my leave, and returned with Saleh; but before I went to the door Aylo told me he had forgot Welled Hawaryat was very bad, and the Iteghè, Ozoro Altash, his wife, and Ozoro Esther, desired I would come and see him to-morrow. One of his daughters, by Ozoro Altash, had been ill some time before his arrival, and she too was thought in great danger. “Look,” said I, “Ayto Aylo, the small-pox is a disease that will have its course; and, during the long time the patient is under it, if people feed them and treat them according to their own ignorant prejudices, my seeing him, or advising him, is in vain. This morning you said a man had cured him by writing upon a tin plate; and to try if he was well, they crammed him with raw beef. I do not think the letters that he swallowed will do him any harm, neither will they do him any good; but I shall not be surprised if the raw beef kills him, and his daughter Welleta Selassé, too, before I see him to-morrow.”

On the morrow Petros was really taken ill, and feverish, from a cold and fatigue, and fright. Aylo and I went to Koscam, and, for a fresh amusement to him, I shewed him the manner in which the Arabs use their firelocks on horseback; but with this advantage of a double-barrelled gun, which he had never before seen. I shot also several birds from the horse; all which things he would have pronounced impossible if they had been only told him. He arrived at Koscam full of wonder, and ready to believe I was capable of doing every thing I undertook.

We were just entering into the palace-door, when we saw a large procession of monks, with the priests of Koscam at their head, a large cross and a picture carried with them, the last in a very dirty, gilt frame. Aylo turned aside when he saw these; and, going into the chamberlain’s apartment, called Ayto Heikel, afterwards a great friend and companion of mine. He informed us, that three great saints from Waldubba, one of whom had neither ate nor drank for twenty years of his life, had promised to come and cure Welled Hawaryat, by laying a picture of the Virgin Mary and the cross upon him, and therefore they would not wish me to be seen, or meddle in the affair. “I assure you, Ayto Aylo,” said I, “I shall strictly obey you. There is no sort of reason for my meddling in this affair with such associates. If they can cure him by a miracle, I am sure it is the easiest kind of cure of any, and will not do his constitution the least harm afterwards, which is more than I will promise for medicines in general; but, remember what I say to you, it will, indeed, be a miracle, if both the father and the daughter are not dead before to-morrow night.” We seemed all of us satisfied in one point, that it was better he should die, than I come to trouble by interfering.

After the procession was gone, Aylo went to the Iteghè, and, I suppose, told her all that happened since he had seen her last. I was called in, and, as usual, prostrated myself upon the ground. She received that token of respect without offering to excuse or to decline it. Aylo then said, “This is our gracious mistress, who always gives us her assistance and protection. You may safely say before her whatever is in your heart.”

Our first discourse was about Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulchre, Calvary, the City of David, and the Mountain of Olives, with the situations of which she was perfectly well acquainted. She then asked me to tell her truly if I was not a Frank? “Madam,” said I, “if I was a Catholic, which you mean by Frank, there could be no greater folly than my concealing this from you in the beginning, after the assurance Ayto Aylo has just now given; and, in confirmation of the truth I am now telling, (she had a large bible lying on the table before her, upon which I laid my hand), I declare to you, by all those truths contained in this book, that my religion is more different from the Catholic religion than your’s is: that there has been more blood shed between the Catholics and us, on account of the difference of religion, than ever was between you and the Catholics in this country; even at this day, when men are become wiser and cooler in many parts of the world, it would be full as safe for a Jesuit to preach in the market-place of Gondar, as for any priest of my religion to present himself as a teacher in the most civilized of Frank or Catholic countries.”--“How is it then,” says she, “that you don’t believe in miracles?”

“I see, Madam,” said I, “Ayto Aylo has informed you of a few words that some time ago dropt from me. I do certainly believe the miracles of Christ and his apostles, otherwise I am no Christian; but I do not believe these miracles of latter times, wrought upon trifling occasions, like sports, and jugglers tricks.”--“And yet,” says she, “our books are full of them.”--“I know they are,” said I, “and so are those of the Catholics: but I never can believe that a saint converted the devil, who lived, forty years after, a holy life as a monk; nor the story of another saint, who, being sick and hungry, caused a brace of partridges, ready-roasted, to fly upon his plate that he might eat them.”--“He has been reading the Synaxar,” says Ayto Aylo. “I believe so,” says she, smiling; “but is there any harm in believing too much, and is not there great danger in believing too little?”--“Certainly,” continued I; “but what I meant to say to Ayto Aylo was, that I did not believe laying a picture upon Welled Hawaryat would recover him when delirious in a fever.” She answered, “There was nothing impossible with God.” I made a bow of assent, wishing heartily the conversation might end there.

I returned to the Moors town, leaving Aylo with the queen. In the afternoon I heard Welleta Selassé was dead; and at night died her father, Welled Hawaryat. The contagion from Masuah and Adowa had spread itself all over Gondar. Ozoro Ayabdar, daughter of Ozoro Altash, was now sick, and a violent fever had fallen upon Koscam. The next morning Aylo came to me and told me, the faith in the saint who did not eat or drink for twenty years was perfectly abandoned since Welled Hawaryat’s death: That it was the desire of the queen, and Ozoro Esther, that I should transport myself to Koscam to the Iteghé’s palace, where all their children and grandchildren, by the different men the queen’s daughters had married, were under her care. I told him, “I had some difficulty to obey them, from the positive orders I had received from Petros to stay in the Moors town with Hagi Saleh till the Ras should arrive; that Koscam was full of priests, and Abba Salama there every day; notwithstanding which, if Petros and he so advised me, I would certainly go to do any possible service to the Iteghé, or Ozoro Esther.”

He desired half an hour’s absence before he gave me an answer, but did not return till about three hours afterwards, and, without alighting, cried out at some distance, “Aya, come, you must go immediately.” “I told him, that new and clean clothes in the Gondar fashion had been procured for me by Petros, and that I wished they might be sent to his house, where I would put them on, and then go to Koscam, with a certainty that I carried no infection with me, for I had attended a number of Moorish children, while at Hagi Saleh’s house, most of whom happily went on doing well, but that there was no doubt there would be infection in my clothes.” He praised me up to the skies for this precaution, and the whole was executed in the manner proposed. My hair was cut round, curled, and perfumed, in the Amharic fashion, and I was thenceforward, in all outward appearance, a perfect Abyssinian.

My first advice, when arrived at Koscam, was, that Ozoro Esther, and her son by Mariam Barea, and a son by Ras Michael, should remove from the palace, and take up their lodging in a house formerly belonging to her uncle Basha Eusebius, and give the part of the family that were yet well a chance of escaping the disease. Her young son by Mariam Barea, however, complaining, the Iteghè would not suffer him to remove, and the resolution was taken to abide the issue all in the palace together.

Before I entered upon my charge, I desired Petros (now recovered) Aylo, Abba Christophorus, a Greek priest who acted as physician before I came to Gondar, and Armaxikos priest of Koscam, and favourite of the Iteghè, to be all present. I stated to them the disagreeable task now imposed upon me, a stranger without acquaintance or protection, having the language but imperfectly, and without power or controul among them. I professed my intention of doing my utmost, although the disease was much more serious and fatal in this country than in mine, but I insisted one condition should be granted me, which was, that no directions as to regimen or management, even of the most trifling kind, as they might think, should be suffered, without my permission and superintendence, otherwise I washed my hands of the consequence, which I told before them would be fatal. They all assented to this, and Armaxikos declared those excommunicated that broke this promise; and I saw that, the more scrupulous and particular I was, the more the confidence of the ladies increased. Armaxikos promised me the assistance of his prayers, and those of the whole monks, morning and evening; and Aylo said lowly to me, “You’ll have no objection to this saint, I assure you he eats and drinks heartily, as I shall shew you when once these troubles are over.”

I set the servants all to work. There were apartments enough. I opened all the doors and windows, fumigating them with incense and myrrh, in abundance, washed them with warm water and vinegar, and adhered strictly to the rules which my worthy and skilful friend Doctor Russel had given me at Aleppo.

The common and fatal regimen in this country, and in most parts in the east, has been to keep their patient from feeling the smallest breath of air; hot drink, a fire, and a quantity of covering are added in Abyssinia, and the doors shut so close as even to keep the room in darkness, whilst this heat is further augmented by the constant burning of candles.

Ayabdar, Ozoro Altash’s remaining daughter, and the son of Mariam Barea, were both taken ill at the same time, and happily recovered. A daughter of Kasmati Boro, by a daughter of Kasmati Eshtès, died, and her mother, though she survived, was a long time ill afterwards. Ayabdar was very much marked, so was Mariam Barea’s son.

At this time, Ayto Confu, son of Kasmati Netcho by Ozoro Esther, had arrived from Tcherkin, a lad of very great hopes, though not then fourteen. He came to see his mother without my knowledge or her’s, and was infected likewise. Last of all the infant child of Michael, the child of his old age, took the disease, and though the weakest, of all the children, recovered best. I tell these actions for brevity’s sake altogether, not directly in the order they happened, to satisfy the reader about the reason of the remarkable attention and favour shewed to me afterwards upon so short an acquaintance.

The fear and anxiety of Ozoro Esther, upon smaller occasions, was excessive, and fully in proportion in the greater that now existed; many promises of Michael’s favour, of riches, greatness, and protection, followed every instance of my care and attention towards my patients. She did not eat or sleep herself; and the ends of her fingers were all broke out into pustules, from touching the several sick persons. Confu, the favourite of all the queen’s relations, and the hopes of their family, had symptoms which all feared would be fatal, as he had violent convulsions, which were looked upon as forerunners of immediate death; they ceased, however, immediately on the eruption. The attention I shewed to this young man, which was more than overpaid by the return he himself made on many occasions afterwards, was greatly owing to a prepossession in his favour, which I took upon his first appearance. Policy, as may be imagined, as well as charity, alike influenced me in the care of my other patients; but an attachment, which providence seemed to have inspired me with for my own preservation, had the greatest share in my care for Ayto Confu.

Though it is not the place, I must not forget to tell the reader, that, the third day after I had come to Koscam, a horseman and a letter had arrived from Michael to Hagi Saleh, ordering him to carry me to Koscam, and likewise a short letter written to me by Negadè Ras Mahomet, in Arabic, as from Ras Michael, very civil, but containing positive orders and _command_, as if to a servant, that I should repair to the Iteghè’s palace, and not stir from thence till future orders, upon any pretence whatever.

I cannot say but this positive, peremptory dealing, did very much shock and displease me. I shewed the letter to Petros, who approved of it much; said he was glad to see it in that stile, as it was a sign the Ras was in earnest. I shewed it to Ayto Aylo, who said not much to it either the one way or the other, only he was glad that I had gone to Koscam before it came; but he taxed Ozoro Esther with being the cause of a proceeding which might have been proper to a Greek or slave, but was not so to a free man like me, who came recommended to their protection, and had, as yet, received no favour, or even civility. Ozoro Esther laughed heartily at all this, for the first time she had shewn any inclination to mirth; she confessed she had sent a messenger every day, sometimes two, and sometimes three, ever since Welled Hawaryat had died, and by every one of them she had pressed the Ras to enjoin me not to leave Koscam, the consequence of which was the order above mentioned; and, in the evening, there was a letter to Petros from Anthulé, Janni’s son-in-law, a Greek, and treasurer to the king, pretty much to the same purpose as the first, and in no softer terms, with direction, however, to furnish me with every thing I should want, on the king’s account.

One morning Aylo, in presence of the queen, speaking to Ozoro Esther of the stile of the Ras’s letter to me, she confessed her own anxiety was the cause, but added, “You have often upbraided me with being, what you call, an unchristian enemy, in the advices you suppose I frequently give Michael; but now, if I am not as good a friend to Yagoube, who has saved my children, as I am a steady enemy to the Galla, who murdered my husband, say then Esther is not a Christian, and I forgive you.” Many conversations of this kind passed between her and me, during the illness of Ayto Confu. I removed my bed to the outer door of Confu’s chamber, to be ready whenever he should call, but his mother’s anxiety kept her awake in his room all night, and propriety did not permit me to go to bed. From this frequent communication began a friendship between Ozoro Esther and me, which ever after subsisted without any interruption.

Our patients, being all likely to do well, were removed to a large house of Kasmati Eshté, which stood still within the boundaries of Koscam, while the rooms underwent another lustration and fumigation, after which they all returned; and I got, as my fee, a present of the neat and convenient house formerly belonging to Basha Eusebius, which had a separate entry, without going through the palace. Still I thought it better to obey Ras Michael’s orders to the letter, and not stir out of Koscam, not even to Hagi Saleh’s or Ayto Aylo’s, though both of them frequently endeavoured to persuade me that the order had no such strict meaning. But my solitude was in no way disagreeable to me. I had a great deal to do. I mounted my instruments, my thermometer and barometer, telescopes and quadrant. Again all was wonder. It occasioned me many idle hours before the curiosity of the palace was satisfied. I saw the queen once every day at her levee, sometimes in the evening, where many priests were always present. I was, for the most part, twice a-day, morning and evening, with Ozoro Esther, where I seldom met with any.

One day, when I went early to the queen, that I might get away in time, having some other engagements about noon, just as I was taking my leave, in came Abba Salama. At first he did not know me from the change of dress; but, soon after recollecting me, he said, as it were, passing, “Are you here? I thought you was with Ras Michael.” I made him no answer, but bowed, and took my leave, when he called out, with an air of authority, Come back, and beckoned me with his hand.

Several people entered the room at that instant, and I stood still in the same place where I was, ready to receive the Iteghé’s orders: she said, “Come back, and speak to Abba Salama.” I then advanced a few paces forward, and said, looking to the Iteghé, “What has Abba Salama to say to me?” He began directing his discourse to the queen, “Is he a priest? Is he a priest?” The Iteghè answered very gravely, “Every good man is a priest to himself; in that sense, and no other, Yagoube is a priest.”--“Will you answer a question that I will ask you?” says he to me, with a very pert tone of voice. “I do not know but I may, if it is a discreet one,” said I, in Tigrè. “Why don’t you speak Amharic?” says he to me in great haste, or seeming impatience. “Because I cannot speak it well,” said I. “Why don’t you, on the other hand, speak Tigré to me? it is the language the holy scriptures are written in, and you, a priest, should understand it.”--“That is Geez,” says he; “I understand it, though I don’t speak it.”--“Then,” replied I, “Ayto Heikel,” the queen’s chamberlain, who stood behind me, “shall interpret for us; he understands all languages.”

“Ask him, Heikel,” says he, “how many Natures there are in Christ.” Which being repeated to me, I said, “I thought the question to be put was something relating to my country, travels, or profession, in which I possibly could instruct him; and not belonging to his, in which he should instruct me. I am a physician in the town, a horseman and soldier in the field. Physic is my study in the one, and managing my horse and arms in the other. This I was bred to; as for disputes and matters of religion, they are the province of priests and schoolmen. I profess myself much more ignorant in these than I ought to be. Therefore, when I have doubts I propose them to some holy man like you, Abba Salama, (he bowed for the first time) whose profession these things are. He gives me a rule and I implicitly follow it.” “Truth! truth!” says he; “by St Michael, prince of angels, that is right; it is answered well; by St George! he is a clever fellow. They told me he was a Jesuit. Will you come to see me? Will you come to see me? You need not be afraid when you come to _me_.” “I trust,” said I, bowing, “I shall do no ill, in that case shall have no reason to fear.” Upon this I withdrew from among the crowd, and went away, as an express then arrived from Ras Michael.

It was on the 8th or 9th of March I met him at Azazo. He was dressed in a coarse dirty cloth, wrapt about him like a blanket, and another like a table-cloth folded about his head: He was lean, old, and apparently much fatigued; sat stooping upon an excellent mule, that carried him speedily without shaking him; he had also sore eyes. As we saw the place where he was to light by four cross lances, and a cloth thrown over them like a temporary tent, upon an eminence, we did not speak to him till he alighted. Petros and the Greek priest, besides servants, were the only people with me, Francis[15] had joined us upon our meeting the Ras.

We alighted at the same time he did, and afterwards, with anxiety enough we deputed the Greek priest, who was a friend of Michael, to tell him who I was, and that I was come to meet him. The soldiers made way, and I came up, took him by the hand, and kissed it. He looked me broad in the face for a second, repeated the ordinary salutation in Tigrè. “How do you do? I hope you are well;” and pointed to a place where I was to sit down. A thousand complaints, and a thousand orders came immediately before him, from a thousand mouths, and we were nearly smothered; but he took no notice of me, nor did he ask for one of his family. In some minutes after came the king, who passed at some distance to the left of him; and Michael was then led out of the shelter of his tent to the door, where he was supported on foot till the king passed by, having first pulled off the towel that was upon his head, after which he returned to his seat in the tent again.

The king had been past about a quarter of a mile, when Kefla Yasous came from him with orders to the Ras, or rather, as I believe, to receive orders from him. He brought with him a young nobleman, Ayto Engedan, who, by his dress, having his upper garment twisted in a particular manner about his waist, shewed that he was carrier of a special message from the king. The crowd by this time had shut us quite out, and made a circle round the Ras, in which we were not included. We were upon the point of going away, when Kefla Yasous, who had seen Francis, said to him, “I think Engedan has the king’s command for you, you must not depart without leave.” And, soon after, we understood that the king’s orders were to obtain leave from the Ras, to bring me, with Engedan, near, and in sight of him, without letting me know, or introducing me to him. In answer to this, the Ras had said, “I don’t know him; will people like him think this right? Ask Petros; or why should not the king call upon him and speak to him; he has letters to him as well as to me, and he will be obliged to see him to-morrow.”

Engedan went away on a gallop to join the king, and we proceeded after him, nor did we receive any other message either from the king or the Ras. We returned to Koscam, very little pleased with the reception we had met with. All the town was in a hurry and confusion; 30,000 men were encamped upon the Kahha; and the first horrid scene Michael exhibited there, was causing the eyes of twelve of the chiefs of the Galla, whom he had taken prisoners, to be pulled out, and the unfortunate sufferers turned out to the fields, to be devoured at night by the hyæna. Two of these I took under my care, who both recovered, and from them I learned many particulars of their country and manners.

The next day, which was the 10th, the army marched into the town in triumph, and the Ras at the head of the troops of Tigrè. He was bareheaded; over his shoulders, and down to his back, hung a pallium, or cloak, of black velvet, with a silver fringe. A boy, by his right stirrup, held a silver wand of about five feet and a half long, much like the staves of our great officers at court. Behind him all the soldiers, who had slain an enemy and taken the spoils from them, had their lances and firelocks ornamented with small shreds of scarlet cloth, one piece for every man he had slain.

Remarkable among all this multitude was Hagos, door-keeper of the Ras, whom we have mentioned in the war of Begemder. This man, always well-armed and well-mounted, had followed the wars of the Ras from his infancy, and had been so fortunate in this kind of single combat, that his whole lance and javelin, horse and person, were covered over with the shreds of scarlet cloth. At this last battle of Fagitta, Hagos is said to have slain eleven men with his own hand. Indeed there is nothing more fallacious than judging of a man’s courage by these marks of conquest. A good horseman, armed with a coat of mail, upon a strong, well-fed, well-winded horse, may, after a defeat, kill as many of these wretched, weary, naked fugitives, as he pleases, confining himself to those that are weakly, mounted upon tired horses, and covered only with goat’s-skins, or that are flying on foot.

Behind came Gusho of Amhara, and Powussen, lately made governor of Begemder for his behaviour at the battle of Fagitta, where, as I have said, he pursued Fasil and his army for two days. The Ras had given him also a farther reward, his grand-daughter Ayabdar, lately recovered from the small-pox, and the only one of my patients that, neither by herself, her mother, nor her husband, ever made me the least return. Powussen was one of the twelve officers who, after being delivered to Lubo by the Galla, together with Mariam Barea, had fled to Michael’s tent, and were protected by him.

One thing remarkable in this cavalcade, which I observed, was the head-dress of the governors of provinces. A large broad fillet was bound upon their forehead, and tied behind their head. In the middle of this was a horn, or a conical piece of silver, gilt, about four inches long, much in the shape of our common candle extinguishers. This is called _kirn_, or horn, and is only worn in reviews or parades after victory. This I apprehend, like all other of their usages, is taken from the Hebrews, and the several allusions made in scripture to it arise from this practice:--“I said unto fools, Deal not foolishly; and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn”--“Lift not up your horn on high; speak not with a stiff neck[16]”--“For promotion cometh,” &c.--“But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn”--“And the horn of the righteous shall be exalted with honour.” And so in many other places throughout the Psalms.

Next to these came the king, with a fillet of white muslin about three inches broad, binding his forehead, tied with a large double knot behind, and hanging down about two feet on his back. About him were the great officers of state, such of the young nobility as were without command; and after these, the household troops.

Then followed the Kanitz Kitzera, or executioner of the camp, and his attendants; and, last of all, amidst the King’s and the Ras’s baggage, came a man bearing the stuffed skin of the unfortunate Woosheka upon a pole, which he hung upon a branch of the tree before the king’s palace appropriated for public executions.

Upon their arrival at Gondar, all the great men had waited both upon the Ras and the King. Aylo had been with them, and Ozoro Esther was removed to Gondar; but, by my advice, had left the child at Koscam. Her son Confu, though recovered of the small-pox, had evident signs of a dysentery, and took no care of himself in point of regimen, or avoiding cold.

It was now the 13th of March,and I had heard no word from Ozoro Esther, or the Ras, though removed to a house in Gondar near to Petros. I had gone every day once to see the children of Koscam; at all which times I had been received with the greatest cordiality and marks of kindness by the Iteghé, and orders given for my free admittance upon all occasions like an officer of her household. As to the rest, I never was in appearance more neglected, than in this present moment, by all but the Moors. These were very grateful for the successful attention I had shewed their children, and very desirous to have me again among them. Hagi Saleh, in particular, could not satiate himself with cursing the ingratitude of these cafers, and infidels, the Christians. He knew what had passed at Koscam, he saw what he thought likely to happen now, and his anger was that of an honest man, and which perhaps many former instances which he had been witness of might have justified, but in the present one he was mistaken.

In the evening, Negadè Ras Mahoment came to my house; he said Mahomet Gibberti was arrived, had been twice on private business with the Ras, but had not yet delivered him his presents; and he had not informed me of this, as he thought I was still at Koscam, and that Saleh his brother knew nothing of it, as he had not seen him since he came home. He also informed me that Ayto Aylo was with the Ras twice the day after he entered Gondar, and once with Mahomet Gibberti: all this was about me; and that, at Ayto Aylo’s proposal, it was agreed that I should be appointed Palambaras, which is master of the king’s horse. It is a very great office, both for rank, and revenue, but has no business attending it; the young Armenian had before enjoyed it. I told Mahomet, that, far from being any kindness to me, this would make me the most unhappy of all creatures; that my extreme desire was to see the country, and its different natural productions; to converse with the people as a stranger, but to be nobody’s master nor servant; to see their books; and, above all, to visit the sources of the Nile; to live as privately in my own house, and have as much time to myself as possible; and what I was most anxious about at present, was to know when it would be convenient for them to admit me to see the Ras, and deliver my letters as a stranger.

Mahomet went away, and returned, bringing Mahomet Gibberti, who told me, that, besides the letter I carried to Ras Michael from Metical Aga his master, he had been charged with a particular one, out of the ordinary form, dictated by the English at Jidda, who, all of them, and particularly my friends Captain Thornhill, and Capt. Thomas Price of the Lyon, had agreed to make a point with Metical Aga, devoted to them for his own profit, that his utmost exertion of friendship and interest, should be so employed in my recommendation, as to engage the attention of Ras Michael to provide in earnest for my safety and satisfaction in every point.

This letter I had myself read at Jidda; it informed Michael of the power and riches of our nation, and that they were absolute masters of the trade on the Red Sea, and strictly connected with the Sherriffe, and in a very particular manner with him, Metical Aga; that any accident happening to me would be an infamy and disgrace to him, and worse than death itself, because, that knowing Michael’s power, and relying on his friendship, he had become security for my safety, after I arrived in his hands; that I was a man of consideration in my own country, servant to the king of it, who, though himself a Christian, governed his subjects Mussulmen and Pagans, with the same impartiality and justice as he did Christians. That all my desire was to examine springs and rivers, trees and flowers, and the stars in the heavens, from which I drew knowledge very useful to preserve man’s health and life; that I was no merchant, and had no dealings whatever in any sort of mercantile matters; and that I had no need of any man’s money, as he had told Mahomet Gibberti to provide for any call I might have in that country, and for which he would answer, let the sum be what it would, as he had the word of my countrymen to repay it, which he considered better than the written security of any other people in the world. He then repeated very nearly the same words used in the beginning of the letter; and, upon this particular request, Metical Aga had sent him a distinct present, not to confound it with other political and commercial affairs, in which they were concerned together.

Upon reading this letter, Michael exclaimed, “Metical Aga does not know the situation of this country. Safety! where is that to be found? I am obliged to fight for my own life every day. Will Metical call this safety? Who knows, at this moment, if the king is in safety, or how long I shall be so? All I can do is to keep him with me. If I lose my own life, and the king’s, Metical Aga can never think it was in my power to preserve that of his stranger.”--“No, no,” says Ayto Aylo, who was then present, “you don’t know the man; he is a devil on horseback; he rides better, and shoots better, than any man that ever came into Abyssinia; lose no time, put him about the king, and there is no fear of him. He is very sober and religious; he will do the king good.” “Shoot!” says Michael, “he won’t shoot at me as the Armenian did; will he? will he?” “Oh,” continued Aylo, “you know these days are over. What is the Armenian? a boy, a slave to the Turk. When you see this man, you’ll not think of the Armenian.” It was finally agreed, that the letters the Greeks had received should be read to the king; that the letters I had from Metical Aga to the Ras should be given to Mahomet Gibberti, and that I should be introduced to the King and the Ras immediately after they were ready.

The reader may remember that, when I was at Cairo, I obtained letters from Mark, the Greek patriarch, to the Greeks at Gondar; and particularly one, in form of a bull, or rescript, to all the Greeks in Abyssinia. In this, after a great deal of pastoral admonition, the patriarch said, that, knowing their propensity to lying and vanity, and not being at hand to impose proper penances upon them for these sins, he exacted from them, as a proof of their obedience, that they would, with a good grace, undergo this mortification, than which there could be no gentler imposed, as it was only to speak the truth. He ordered them in a body to go to the king, in the manner and time they knew best, and to inform him that I was not to be confounded with the rest of white men, such as Greeks, who were all subject to the Turks, and slaves; but that I was a free man, of a free nation; and the best of them would be happy in being my servant, as one of their brethren, Michael, then actually was. I will not say but this was a bitter pill; for they were high in office, all except Petros, who had declined all employment after the murder of Joas his master, whose chamberlain he was. The order of the patriarch, however, was fairly and punctually performed; Petros was their spokesman; he was originally a shoemaker at Rhodes, clever, and handsome in his person, but a great coward, though, on such an occasion as the present, forward and capable enough.

I think it was about the 14th that these letters were to be all read. I expected at the ordinary hour, about five in the afternoon, to be sent for, and had rode out to Koscam with Ayto Heikel, the queen’s chamberlain, to see the child, who was pretty well recovered of all its complaints, but very weak. In the interim I was sent for to the Ras, with orders to dispatch a man with the king’s present, to wait for me at the palace, whither I was to go after leaving Michael. It was answered, That I was at Koscam, and the errand I had gone on mentioned; which disappointment, and the cause, did no way prejudice me with the Ras. Five in the evening was fixed as the hour, and notice sent to Koscam. I came a little before the time, and met Ayto Aylo at the door. He squeezed me by the hand, and said, “Refuse nothing, it can be all altered afterwards; but it is very necessary, on account of the priests and the populace, you have a place of some authority, otherwise you will be robbed and murdered the first time you go half a mile from home: fifty people have told me you have chests filled with gold, and that you can make gold, or bring what quantity you please from the Indies; and the reason of all this is, because you refused the queen and Ozoro Esther’s offer of gold at Koscam, and which you must never do again.”

We went in and saw the old man sitting upon a sofa; his white hair was dressed in many short curls. He appeared to be thoughtful, but not displeased; his face was lean, his eyes quick and vivid, but seemed to be a little sore from exposure to the weather. He seemed to be about six feet high, though his lameness made it difficult to guess with accuracy. His air was perfectly free from constraint, what the French call _degageé_. In face and person he was liker my learned and worthy friend, the Count de Buffon, than any two men I ever saw in the world. They must have been bad physiognomists that did not discern his capacity and understanding by his very countenance. Every look conveyed a sentiment with it: he seemed to have no occasion for other language, and indeed he spoke little. I offered, as usual, to kiss the ground before him; and of this he seemed to take little notice, stretching out his hand and shaking mine upon my rising.

I sat down with Aylo, three or four of the judges, Petros, Heikel the queen’s chamberlain, and an Azage from the king’s house, who whispered something in his ear, and went out; which interruption prevented me from speaking as I was prepared to do, or give him my present, which a man held behind me. He began gravely, “Yagoube, I think that is your name, hear what I say to you, and mark what I recommend to you. You are a man, I am told, who make it your business to wander in the fields in search after trees and grass in solitary places, and to sit up all night alone looking at the stars of the heavens: Other countries are not like this, though this was never so bad as it is now. These wretches here are enemies to strangers; if they saw you alone in your own parlour, their first thought would be how to murder you; though they knew they were to get nothing by it, they would murder you for mere mischief.” “The devil is strong in them,” says a voice from a corner of the room, which appeared to be that of a priest. “Therefore,” says the Ras, “after a long conversation with your friend Aylo, whose advice I hear you happily take, as indeed we all do, I have thought that situation best which leaves you at liberty to follow your own designs, at the same time that it puts your person in safety; that you will not be troubled with monks about their religious matters, or in danger from these rascals that may seek to murder you for money.”

“What are the monks?” says the same voice from the corner; “the monks will never meddle with such a man as this.”--“Therefore the king,” continued the Ras, without taking any notice of the interruption, “has appointed you Baalomaal, and to command the Koccob horse, which I thought to have given to Francis, an old soldier of mine; but he is poor, and we will provide for him better, for these appointments have honour, but little profit.” “Sir,” says Francis, who was in presence, but behind, “it is in much more honourable hands than either mine or the Armenian’s, or any other white man’s, since the days of Hatzè Menas, and so I told the king to-day.” “Very well, Francis,” says the Ras; “it becomes a soldier to speak the truth, whether it makes for or against himself. Go then to the king, and kiss the ground upon your appointment. I see you have already learned this ceremony of our’s; Aylo and Heikel are very proper persons to go with you. The king expressed his surprise to me last night he had not seen you; and there too is Tecla Mariam, the king’s secretary, who came with your appointment from the palace to-day.” The man in the corner, that I took for a priest, was this Tecla Mariam, a scribe. Out of the king’s presence men of this order cover their heads, as do the priests, which was the reason of my mistake.

I then gave him a present, which he scarce looked at, as a number of people were pressing in at the door from curiosity or business. Among these I discerned Abba Salama. Every body then went out but myself, and these people were rushing in behind me, and had divided me from my company. The Ras, however, seeing me standing alone, cried, “Shut the door;” and asked me, in a low tone of voice, “Have you any thing private to say?” “I see you are busy, Sir,” said I; “but I will speak to Ozoro Esther.” His anxious countenance brightened up in a moment. “That is true,” says he, “Yagoube, it will require a long day to settle that account with you: Will the boy live?” “The life of man is in the hand of God,” said I, “but I should hope the worst is over;” upon which he called to one of his servants, “Carry Yagoube to Ozoro Esther.”

It is needless for me to take up the reader’s time with any thing but what illustrates my travels; he may therefore guess the conversation that flowed from a grateful heart on that occasion. I ordered her child to be brought to her every forenoon, upon condition she returned him soon after mid-day. I then took a speedy leave of Ozoro Esther, the reason of which I told her when she was following me to the door. She said, “When shall I lay my hands upon that idiot Aylo? The Ras would have done any thing; he had appointed you Palambaras, but, upon conversing with Aylo, he had changed his mind. He says it will create envy, and take up your time. What signifies their envy? Do not they envy Ras Michael? and where can you pass your time better than at court, with a command under the king.” I said, “All is for the best, Aylo did well; all is for the best.” I then left her unconvinced, and saying, “I will not forgive this to Ayto Aylo these seven years.”

Aylo and Heikel had gone on to the palace, wondering, as did the whole company, what could be my private conference with Michael, which, after playing abundantly with their curiosity, I explained to them next day.

I went afterwards to the king’s palace, and met Aylo and Heikel at the door of the presence-chamber. Tecla Mariam walked before us to the foot of the throne; after which I advanced and prostrated myself upon the ground. “I have brought you a servant,” says he to the king, “from so distant a country, that if you ever let him escape, we shall never be able to follow him, or know where to seek him.” This was said facetiously by an old familiar servant; but the king made no reply, as far as we could guess, for his mouth was covered, nor did he shew any alteration of countenance. Five people were standing on each side of the throne, all young men, three on his left, and two on his right. One of these, the son of Tecla Mariam, (afterwards my great friend) who stood uppermost on the left hand, came up, and taking hold of me by the hand, placed me immediately above him; when seeing I had no knife in my girdle, he pulled out his own and gave it to me. Upon being placed, I again kissed the ground.

The king was in an alcove; the rest went out of sight from where the throne was, and sat down. The usual questions now began about Jerusalem and the holy places--where my country was? which it was impossible to describe, as they knew the situation of no country but their own--why I came so far?--whether the moon and the stars, but especially the moon, was the same in my country as in theirs?--and a great many such idle and tiresome questions. I had several times offered to take my present from the man who held it, that I might offer it to his Majesty and go away; but the king always made a sign to put it off, till, being tired to death with standing, I leaned against the wall. Aylo was fast asleep, and Ayto Heikel and the Greeks cursing their master in their heart for spoiling the good supper that Anthulè his treasurer had prepared for us. This, as we afterwards found out, the king very well knew, and resolved to try our patience to the utmost. At last, Ayto Aylo stole away to bed, and every body else after him, except those who had accompanied me, who were ready to die with thirst, and drop down with weariness. It was agreed by those that were out of sight, to send Tecla Mariam to whisper in the king’s ear, that I had not been well, which he did, but no notice was taken of it. It was now past ten o’clock, and he shewed no inclination to go to bed.

Hitherto, while there were strangers in the room, he had spoken to us by an officer called Kal Hatzè, _the voice or word of the king_; but now, when there were nine or ten of us, his menial servants, only present, he uncovered his face and mouth, and spoke himself. Sometimes it was about Jerusalem, sometimes about horses, at other times about shooting; again about the Indies; how far I could look into the heavens with my telescopes: and all these were deliberately and circumstantially repeated, if they were not pointedly answered. I was absolutely in despair, and scarcely able to speak a word, inwardly mourning the hardness of my lot in this my first preferment, and sincerely praying it might be my last promotion in this court. At last all the Greeks began to be impatient, and got out of the corner of the room behind the alcove, and stood immediately before the throne. The king seemed to be astonished at seeing them, and told them he thought they had all been at home long ago. They said, however, they would not go without me; which the king said could not be, for one of the duties of my employment was to be charged with the door of his bed-chamber that night.

I think I could almost have killed him in that instant. At last Ayto Heikel, taking courage, came forward to him, pretending a message from the queen, and whispered him something in the ear, probably that the Ras would take it ill. He then laughed, said he thought we had supped, and dismissed us.

CHAP. IX.

_Transactions at Gondar._

We went all to Anthuse’s house to supper in violent rage, such anger as is usual with hungry men. We brought with us from the palace three of my brother Baalomaals, and one who had stood to make up the number, though he was not in office; his name was Guebra Mascal, he was a sister’s son of the Ras, and commanded one third of the troops of Tigré, which carried fire-arms, that is about 2000 men. He was reputed the best officer of that kind that the Ras had, and was a man about 30 years of age, short, square, and well made, with a very unpromising countenance; flat nose, wide mouth, of a very yellow complexion, and much pitted with the small-pox; he had a most uncommon presumption upon the merit of past services, and had the greatest opinion of his own knowledge in the use of fire-arms, to which he did not scruple to say Ras Michael owed all his victories. Indeed it was to the good opinion that the Ras had of him as a soldier that he owed his being suffered to continue at Gondar; for he was suspected to have been familiar with one of his uncle’s wives in Tigré, by whom it was thought he had a child, at least the Ras put away his wife, and never owned the child to be his.

This man supped with us that night, and thence began one of the most serious affairs I ever had in Abyssinia. Guebra Mascal, as usual, vaunted incessantly his skill in fire-arms, the wonderful gun that he had, and feats he had done with it. Petros said, laughing, to him, “You have a genius for shooting, but you have had no opportunity to learn. Now, Yagoube is come, he will teach you something worth talking off.” They had all drank abundantly, and Guebra Mascal had uttered words that I thought were in contempt of me. I believe, replied I peevishly enough, Guebra Mascal, I should suspect, from your discourse, you neither knew men nor guns; every gun of mine in the hands of my servants shall kill twice as far as yours, for my own, it is not worth my while to put a ball in it: When I compare with you, the end of a tallow-candle in my gun shall do more execution than an iron ball in the best of yours, with all the skill and experience you pretend to.

He said I was a Frank, and a liar, and, upon my immediately rising up, he gave me a kick with his foot. I was quite blind with passion, seized him by the throat, and threw him on the ground stout as he was. The Abyssinians know nothing of either wrestling or boxing. He drew his knife as he was falling, attempted to cut me in the face, but his arm not being at freedom, all he could do was to give me a very trifling stab, or wound, near the crown of the head, so that the blood trickled down over my face. I had tript him up, but till then had never struck him. I now wrested the knife from him with a full intention to kill him; but Providence directed better. Instead of the point, I struck so violently with the handle upon his face as to leave scars, which would be distinguished even among the deep marks of the small-pox. An adventure so new, and so unexpected, presently overcame the effects of wine. It was too late to disturb anybody either in the palace or at the house of the Ras. A hundred opinions were immediately started; some were for sending us up to the king, as we were actually in the precincts of the palace, where lifting a hand is death. Ayto Heikel advised that I should go, late as it was, to Koscam; and Petros, that I should repair immediately to the house of Ayto Aylo, while the two Baalomaals were for taking me to sleep in the palace. Anthulè, in whose house I was, and who was therefore most shocked at the outrage, wished me to stay in his house, where I was, from a supposition that I was seriously wounded, which all of them, seeing the blood fall over my eyes, seemed to think was the case, and he, in the morning, at the king’s rising, was to state the matter as it happened. All these advices appeared good when they were proposed; for my part, I thought they only tended to make bad worse, and bore the appearance of guilt, of which I was not conscious.

I now determined to go home, and to bed in my own house. With that intention, I washed my face and wound with vinegar, and found the blood to be already staunched. I then wrapt myself up in my cloak, and returned home without accident, and went to bed. But this would neither satisfy Ayto Heikel nor Petros, who went to the house of Ayto Aylo, then past midnight, so that early in the morning, when scarce light, I saw him come into my chamber. Guebra Mascal had fled to the house of Kefla Yasous his relation; and the first news we heard in the morning, after Ayto Aylo arrived, were, that Guebra Mascal was in irons at the Ras’s house.

Every person that came afterwards brought up some new account; the whole people present had been examined, and had given, without variation, the true particulars of my forbearance, and his insolent behaviour. Every body trembled for some violent resolution the Ras was to take on my first complaint. The town was full of Tigrè soldiers, and nobody saw clearer than I did, however favourable a turn this had taken for me in the beginning, it might be my destruction in the end.

I asked Ayto Aylo his opinion. He seemed at a loss to give it me; but said, in an uncertain tone of voice, he could wish that I would not complain of Guebra Mascal while I was angry, or while the Ras was so inveterate against him, till some of his friends had spoken, and appeared, at least, his first resentment. I answered, “That I was of a contrary opinion, and that no time was to be lost: remember the letter of Mahomet Gibberti; remember his confidence yesterday of my being safe where he was; remember the influence of Ozoro Esther, and do not let us lose a moment.” “What, says Aylo to me in great surprise, are you mad? Would you have him cut to pieces in the midst of 20,000 of his countrymen? Would you be dimmenia, that is, guilty of the blood of all the province of Tigrè, through which you must go in your way home?” “Just the contrary, said I, nobody has so great a right over the Ras’s anger as I have, being the person injured; and, as you and I can get access to Ozoro Esther when we please, let us go immediately thither, and stop the progress of this affair while it is not yet generally known. People that talk of my being wounded expect to see me, I suppose, without a leg or an arm. When they see me so early riding in the street, all will pass for a story as it should do. Would you wish to pardon him entirely?”--“That goes against my heart, too, says Aylo, he is a bad man.”--“My good friend, said I, be in this guided by me, I know we both think the same thing. If he is a bad man, he was a bad man before I knew him. You know what you told me yourself of the Ras’s jealousy of him. What if he was to revenge his own wrongs, under pretence of giving me satisfaction for mine? Come, lose no time, get upon your mule, go with me to Ozoro Esther, I will answer for the consequences.”

We arrived there; the Ras was not sitting in judgment, he had drank hard the night before, on occasion of Powussen’s marriage, and was not in bed when the story of the fray reached him. We found Ozoro Esther in a violent anger and agitation, which was much alleviated by my laughing. On her asking me about my wound, which had been represented to her as dangerous, “I am afraid, said I, poor Guebra Mascal is worse wounded than I.” “Is he wounded too? says she; I hope it is in his heart.” “Indeed, replied I, Madam, there are no wounds on either side. He was very drunk, and I gave him several blows upon the face as he deserved, and he has already got all the chastisement he ought to have; it was all a piece of folly.” “Prodigious! says she; is this so?” “It is so, says Aylo, and you shall hear it all by-and-by, only let us stop the propagation of this foolish story.”

The Ras in the instant sent for us. He was naked, sitting on a stool, and a slave swathing up his lame leg with a broad belt or bandage. I asked him calmly and pleasantly if I could be of any service to him? He looked at me with a grin, the most ghastly I ever saw, as half displeased. “What! says he, are you all mad? Aylo, what is the matter between him and that miscreant Guebra Mascal?”--“Why, said I, I am come to tell you that myself; why do you ask Ayto Aylo? Guebra Mascal got drunk, was insolent, and struck me. I was sober, and beat him, as you will see by his face; and I have now come to you to say I am sorry that I lifted my hand against your nephew; but he was in the wrong, and drunk; and I thought it was better to chastise him on the spot, than trust him to you, who perhaps might take the affair to heart, for we all know your justice, and that being your relation is no excuse when you judge between man and man.” “I order you, Aylo, says Michael, as you esteem my friendship, to tell me the truth, really as it was, and without disguise or concealment.”

Aylo began accordingly to relate the whole history, when a servant called me out to Ozoro Esther. I found with her another nephew of the Ras, a much better man, called Welleta Selassé, who came from Kefla Yasous, and Guebra Mascal himself, desiring I would forgive and intercede for him, for it was a drunken quarrel without malice. Ozoro Esther had told him part. “Come in with me, said I, and you shall see I never will leave the Ras till he forgive him.” “Let him punish him, says Welleta Selassé, he is a bad man, but don’t let the Ras either kill or maim him.” “Come, said I, let us go to the Ras, and he shall neither kill, maim, nor punish him, if I can help it. It is my first request; if he refuses me I will return to Jidda; come and hear.”

Aylo had urged the thing home to the Ras in the proper light--that of my safety. “You are a wise man, says Michael, now perfectly cool, as soon as he saw me and Welleta Selassé. It is a man like you that goes far in safety, which is the end we all aim at. I feel the affront offered you more than you do, but will not have the punishment attributed to you; this affair shall turn to your honour and security, and in that light only I can pass over his insolence.” “Welleta Selassé, says he, falling into a violent passion in an instant, What sort of behaviour is this my men have adopted with strangers? and _my stranger_, too, and in the king’s palace, and the king’s servant? What! am I dead? or become incapable of governing longer?” Welleta Selassé bowed, but was afraid to speak, and indeed the Ras looked like a fiend.

“Come, says the Ras, let me see your head.” I shewed him where the blood was already hardened, and said it was a very slight cut. “A cut, continued Michael, over that part, with one of our knives, is mortal.” “You see, Sir, said I, I have not even clipt the hair about the wound; it is nothing. Now give me your promise you will set Guebra Mascal at liberty; and not only that, but you are not to reproach him with the affair further than that he was drunk, not a crime in this country.” “No, truly, says he, it is not; but that is, because it is very rare that people fight with knives when they are drunk. I scarce ever heard of it, even in the camp.” “I fancy, said I, endeavouring to give a light turn to the conversation, they have not often wherewithal to get drunk in your camp.” “Not this last year, says he, laughing, there were no houses in the country.” “But let me only merit, said I, Welleta Selassé’s friendship, by making him the messenger of good news to Guebra Mascal, that he is at liberty, and you have forgiven him.” “At liberty! says he, Where is he?” “In your house, said I, somewhere, in irons.” “That is Esther’s intelligence, continued the Ras; these women tell you all their secrets, but when I remember your behaviour to them I do not wonder at it, and that consideration likewise obliges me to grant what you ask. Go, Welleta Selassé, and free that dog from his collar, and direct him to go to Welleta Michael, who will give him his orders to levy the meery in Woggora; let him not see my face till he returns.”

Ozoro Esther gave us breakfast, to which several of the Greeks came. After which I went to Koscam, where I heard a thousand curses upon Guebra Mascal. The whole affair was now made up, and the king was acquainted with the issue of it. I stood in my place, where he shewed me very great marks of favour; he was grave, however, and sorrowful, as if mortified with what had happened. The king ordered me to stay and dine at the palace, and he would send me my dinner. I there saw the sons of Kasmati Eshté, Aylo, and Engedan, and two Welleta Selassés; one the son of Tecla Mariam, the other the son of a great nobleman in Goiam, all young men, with whom I lived ever after in perfect familiarity and friendship. The two last were my brethren Baalomaal, or gentlemen of the king’s bed-chamber.

They all seemed to have taken my cause to heart more than I wished them to do, for fear it should be productive of some new quarrel. For my own part, I never was so dejected in my life. The troublesome prospect before me presented itself day and night. I more than twenty times resolved to return by Tigrè, to which I was more inclined by the loss of a young man who accompanied me through Barbary, and assisted me in the drawings of architecture which I made for the king there, part of which he was still advancing here, when a dysentery, which had attacked him in Arabia Felix, put an end to his life[17] at Gondar. A considerable disturbance was apprehended upon burying him in a church-yard. Abba Salama used his utmost endeavours to raise the populace and take him out of his grave; but some exertions of the Ras quieted both Abba Salama and the tumults.

I began, however, to look upon every thing now as full of difficulty and danger; and, from this constant fretting and despondency, I found my health much impaired, and that I was upon the point of becoming seriously ill. There was one thing that contributed in some measure to dissipate these melancholy thoughts, which was, that all Gondar was in one scene of festivity. Ozoro Ayabdar, daughter of the late Welled Hawaryat, by Ozoro Altash, Ozoro Esther’s sister, and the Iteghè’s youngest daughter, consequently grand-daughter to Michael, was married to Powussen, now governor of Begemder. The king gave her large districts of land in that province, and Ras Michael a large portion of gold, muskets, cattle, and horses. All the town, that wished to be well-looked upon by either party, brought something considerable as a present. The Ras, Ozoro Esther, and Ozoro Altash, entertained all Gondar. A vast number of cattle was slaughtered every day, and the whole town looked like one great market; the common people, in every street, appearing loaded with pieces of raw beef, while drink circulated in the same proportion. The Ras insisted upon my dining with him every day, when he was sure to give me a headache with the quantity of mead, or hydromel, he forced me to swallow, a liquor that never agreed with me from the first day to the last.

After dinner we slipt away to parties of ladies, where anarchy prevailed as complete as at the house of the Ras. All the married women ate, drank, and smoaked like the men; and it is impossible to convey to the reader any idea of this bacchanalian scene in terms of common decency. I found it necessary to quit this riot for a short time, and get leave to breathe the fresh air of the country, at such a distance as that, once a day, or once in two days, I might be at the palace, and avoid the constant succession of those violent scenes of debauchery of which no European can form any idea, and which it was impossible to escape, even at Koscam.

Although the king’s favour, the protection of the Ras, and my obliging, attentive, and lowly behaviour to every body, had made me as popular as I could wish at Gondar, and among the Tigrans fully as much as those of Amhara, yet it was easy to perceive, that the cause of my quarrel with Guebra Mascal was not yet forgot.

One day, when I was standing by the king in the palace, he asked, in discourse, “Whether I, too, was not drunk in the quarrel with Guebra Mascal, before we came to blows?” and, upon my saying that I was perfectly sober, both before and after, because Anthulè’s red wine was finished, and I never willingly drank hydromel, or mead, he asked with a degree of keenness, “Did you then soberly say to Guebra Mascal, that an end of a tallow candle, in a gun in your hand, would do more execution than an iron bullet in his?”--“Certainly, Sir, I did so.”--“And why did you say this?” says the king dryly enough, and in a manner I had not before observed. “Because, replied I, it was truth, and a proper reproof to a vain man, who, whatever eminence he might have obtained in a country like this, has not knowledge enough to entitle him to the trust of cleaning a gun in mine.”--“O! ho! continued the king; as for his knowledge I am not speaking of that, but about his gun. You will not persuade me that, with a tallow candle, you can kill a man or a horse.”--“Pardon me, Sir, said I, bowing very respectfully, I will attempt to persuade you of nothing but what you please to be convinced of: Guebra Mascal is my equal no more, you are my master, and, while I am at your court, under your protection, you are in place of my sovereign, it would be great presumption in me to argue with you, or lead to a conversation against an opinion that you profess you are already fixed in.”--“No, no, says he, with an air of great kindness, by no means, I was only afraid you would expose yourself before bad people; what you say to me is nothing.”--“And what I say to you, Sir, has always been as scrupulously true as if I had been speaking to the king my native sovereign and master. Whether I can kill a man with a candle, or not, is an experiment that should not be made. Tell me, however, what I shall do before you that you may deem an equivalent? Will piercing the table, upon which your dinner is served, (it was of sycamore, about three quarters of an inch thick), at the length of this room, be deemed a sufficient proof of what I advanced?”

“Ah, Yagoube, says the king, take care what you say. That is indeed more than Guebra Mascal will do at that distance; but take great care; you don’t know these people; they will lie themselves all day; nay, their whole life is one lie; but of you they expect better, or would be glad to find worse; take care.” Ayto Engedan, who was then present, said, “I am sure if Yagoube says he can do it, he will do it; but how, I don’t know. Can you shoot through my shield with a tallow candle?”--“To you, Ayto Engedan, said I, I can speak freely; I could shoot thro’ your shield if it was the strongest in the army, and kill the strongest man in the army that held it before him. When will you see this tried?”--“Why now, says the king; there is _nobody here_.”--“The sooner the better, said I; I would not wish to remain for a moment longer under so disagreeable an imputation as that of lying, an infamous one in my country, whatever it may be in this. Let me send for _my_ gun; the king will look out at the window.”--“_Nobody_, says he, knows any thing of it; _nobody will come_.”

The king appeared to be very anxious, and, I saw plainly, incredulous. The gun was brought; Engedan’s shield was produced, which was of strong buffalo’s hide. I said to him, “This is a weak one, give me one stronger.” He shook his head, and said, “Ah, Yagoube, you’ll find it strong enough; Engedan’s shield is known to be no toy.” Tecla Mariam brought such a shield, and the Billetana Gueta Tecla another, both of which were most excellent in their kind. I loaded the gun before them, first with powder, then upon it slid down one half of what we call a farthing candle; and, having beat off the handles of three shields, I put them close in contact with each other, and set them all three against a post.

“Now, Engedan, said I, when you please say--Fire! but mind you have taken leave of your good shield for ever.” The word was given, and the gun fired. It struck the three shields, neither in the most difficult nor the easiest place for perforation, something less than half way between the rim and the boss. The candle went through the three shields with such violence that it dashed itself to a thousand pieces against a stone-wall behind it. I turned to Engedan, saying very lowly, gravely, and without exultation or triumph, on the contrary with absolute indifference, “Did not I tell you your shield was naught?” A great shout of applause followed from about a thousand people that were gathered together. The three shields were carried to the king, who exclaimed in great transport, I did not believe it before I saw it, and I can scarce believe it now I have seen it. Where is Guebra Mascal’s confidence now? But what do either he or we know? “We know nothing.” I thought he looked abashed.

“Ayto Engedan, said I, we must have a touch at that table. It was said, the piercing that was more than Guebra Mascal could do. We have one half of the candle left still; it is the thinnest, weakest half, and I shall put the wick foremost, because the cotton is softest.” The table being now properly placed, to Engedan’s utmost astonishment the candle, with the wick foremost, went through the table, as the other had gone through the three shields. “By St Michael! says Engedan, Yagoube, hereafter say to me you can raise my father Eshté from the grave, and I will believe you.” Some priests who were there, though surprised at first, seemed afterward to treat it rather lightly, because they thought it below their dignity to be surprised at any thing. They said it was done (mucktoub) by writing, by which they meant magic. Every body embraced that opinion as an evident and rational one, and so the wonder with them ceased. But it was not so with the king: It made the most favourable and lasting impression upon his mind; nor did I ever after see, in his countenance, any marks either of doubt or diffidence, but always, on the contrary, the most decisive proofs of friendship, confidence, and attention, and the most implicit belief of every thing I advanced upon any subject from my own knowledge.

The experiment was twice tried afterwards in presence of Ras Michael. But he would not risk his good shields, and always produced the table, saying, “Engedan and those foolish boys were rightly served; they thought Yagoube was a liar like themselves, and they lost their shields; but I believed him, and gave him my table for curiosity only, and so I saved mine.”

As I may now say I was settled in this country, and had an opportunity of being informed of the manners, government, and present state of it, I shall here inform the reader of what I think most worthy his attention, whether ancient or modern, while we are yet in peace, before we are called out to a campaign or war, attended with every disadvantage, danger, and source of confusion.

CHAP. X.

_Geographical Division of Abyssinia into Provinces._

At Masuah, that is, on the coast of the Red Sea, begins an imaginary division of Abyssinia into two, which is rather a division of language than strictly to be understood as territorial. The first division is called _Tigré_, between the Red Sea and the river Tacazzé. Between that river and the Nile, westward, where it bounds the Galla, it is called _Amhara_.

Whatever convenience there maybe from this division, there is neither geographical nor historical precision in it, for there are many little provinces included in the first that do not belong to Tigré; and, in the second division, which is Amhara, that which gives the name is but a very small part of it.

Again, in point of language, there is a variety of tongues spoken in the second division besides that of Amhara. In Tigrè, however, the separation as to languages holds true, as there is no tongue known there but Geez, or that of the Shepherds.

Masuah, in ancient times, was one of the principal places of residence of the Baharnagash, who, when he was not there himself, constantly left his deputy, or lieutenant. In summer he resided for several months in the island of Dahalac, then accounted part of his territory. He was, after the King and Betwudet, the person of the greatest consideration in the kingdom, and was invested with sendick and nagareet, the kettle-drum, and colours, marks of supreme command.

Masuah was taken, and a basha established there soon after, as we have seen in the history, in the reign of Menas, when the Baharnagash, named Isaac, confederated with the Turkish basha, and ceded to him a great territory, part of his own government, and with it Dobarwa, the capital of his province, divided only by the river Mareb from Tigré. From this time this office fell into disrepute in the kingdom. The sendick and nagareet, the marks of supreme power, were taken from him, and he never was allowed a place in council, unless specially called on by the king. He preserves his privilege of being crowned with gold; but, when appointed, has a cloak thrown over him, the one side white, the other a dark blue, and the officer who crowns him admonishes him of what will befal him if he preserves his allegiance, which is signified by the white side of the cloak; and the disgrace and punishment that is to attend his treason, and which has fallen upon his predecessors, which he figures to him by turning up the colour of mourning.

Besides the dignity attending this office, it was also one of the most lucrative. Frankincense, myrrh, and a species of cinnamon, called by the Italians Cannella, with several kinds of gums and dyes, all very precious, from Cape Gardefan to Bilur, were the valuable produce of this country: but this territory, though considerable in length, is not of any great breadth; for, from south of Hadea to Masuah, it consists in a belt seldom above forty miles from the sea, which is bounded by a ridge of very high mountains, running parallel to the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, as far as Masuah.

After Azab begin the mines of fossile salt, which, cut into square, solid bricks of about a foot long, serve in place of the silver currency in Abyssinia; and from this, as from a kind of mint, great benefit accrues also.

From Masuah the same narrow belt continues to Suakem; nay, indeed, though the rains do not reach so far, the mountains continue to the Isthmus of Suez. This northern province of the Baharnagash is called the Habab, or the land of the Agaazi, or Shepherds; they speak one language, which they call Geez, or the language of the Agaazi. From the earliest times, they have had letters and writing among them; and no other has ever been introduced into Abyssinia, to this day, as we have already observed.

Since the expulsion of the Turks from Dobarwa and the continent of Abyssinia, Masuah has been governed by a Naybe, himself one of the Shepherds, but Mahometan. A treaty formerly subsisted, that the king should receive half of the revenue of the customhouse in Masuah; in return for which he was suffered to enjoy that small stripe of barren, dry country called Samhar, inhabited by black shepherds called Shiho, reaching from Hamazen on the north to the foot of the mountain Taranta on the south; but, by the favour of Michael, that is, by bribery and corruption, he has possessed himself of two large frontier towns, Dixan and Dobarwa, by lease, for a trifling sum, which he pays the king yearly; this must necessarily very much weaken this state, if it should ever again have war with the Turks, of which indeed there is no great probability.

The next province in Abyssinia, as well for greatness as riches, power, and dignity, and nearest Masuah, is Tigrè. It is bounded by the territory of the Baharnagash, that is, by the river Mareb on the east, and the Tacazzè upon the west. It is about one hundred and twenty miles broad from E. to W. and two hundred from N. to S. This is its present situation. The hand of usurping power has abolished all distinction on the west-side of the Tacazzè; besides, many large governments, such as Enderta and Antalow, and great part of the Baharnagash, were swallowed up in this province to the east.

What, in a special manner, makes the riches of Tigré, is, that it lies nearest the market, which is Arabia; and all the merchandise destined to cross the Red Sea must pass through this province, so that the governor has the choice of all commodities wherewith to make his market. The strongest male, the most beautiful female slaves, the purest gold, the largest teeth of ivory, all must pass through his hand. Fire-arms, moreover, which for many years have decided who is the most powerful in Abyssinia, all these come from Arabia, and not one can be purchased without his knowing to whom it goes, and after his having had the first refusal of it.

Siré, a province about twenty-five miles broad, and not much more in length, is reckoned as part of Tigré also, but this is not a new usurpation. It lost the rank of a province, and was united to Tigré for the misbehaviour of its governor Kasmati Claudius, in an expedition against the Shangalla in the reign of Yasous the Great. In my time, it began again to get into reputation, and was by Ras Michael’s own consent disjoined from his province, and given first to his son Welled Hawaryat, together with Samen, and, after his death, to Ayto Tesfos, a very amiable man, gallant soldier, and good officer; who, fighting bravely in the king’s service at the battle of Serbraxos, was there wounded and taken prisoner, and died of his wounds afterwards.

After passing the Tacazzè, the boundary between Sirè and Samen, we come to that mountainous province called by the last name. A large chain of rugged mountains, where is the Jews Rock, (which I shall often mention as the highest), reaches from the south of Tigré down near to Waldubba, the low, hot country that bounds Abyssinia on the north. It is about 80 miles in length, in few places 30 broad, and in some much less. It is in great part possessed by Jews, and _there_ Gideon and Judith, king and queen of that nation, and, as they say, of the house of Judah, maintain still their ancient sovereignty and religion from very early times.

On the N. E. of Tigré lies the province of Begemder. It borders upon Angot, whose governor is called Angot Ras; but the whole province now, excepting a few villages, is conquered by the Galla.

It has Amhara, which runs parallel to it, on the south, and is separated from it by the river Bashilo. Both these provinces are bounded by the river Nile on the west. Begemder is about 180 miles in its greatest length, and 60 in breadth, comprehending Lasta, a mountainous province, sometimes depending on Begemder, but often in rebellion. The inhabitants are esteemed the best soldiers in Abyssinia, men of great strength and stature, but cruel and uncivilized; so that they are called, in common conversation and writing, the peasants, or barbarians of Lasta; they pay to the king 1000 ounces of gold.

Several small provinces are now dismembered from Begemder, such as Foggora, a small stripe reaching S. and N. about 35 miles between Emfras and Dara, and about 12 miles broad from E. to W. from the mountains of Begemder to the lake Tzana. On the north end of this are two small governments, Dreeda and Karoota, the only territory in Abyssinia that produces wine, the merchants trade to Caffa and Narea, in the country of the Galla. We speak of these territories as they are in point of right; but when a nobleman of great power is governor of the province of Begemder, he values not lesser rights, but unites them all to his province.

Begemder is the strength of Abyssinia in horsemen. It is said, that, with Lasta, it can bring out 45,000 men; but this, as far as ever I could inform myself, is a great exaggeration. They are exceeding good soldiers when they are pleased with their general, and the cause for which they fight; otherwise, they are easily divided, great many private interests being continually kept alive, as it is thought industriously, by government itself. It is well stocked with cattle of every kind, all very beautiful. The mountains are full of iron-mines; they are not so steep and rocky nor so frequent, as in other provinces, if we except only Lasta, and abound in all sort of wild fowl and game.

The south end of the province near Nefas Musa is cut into prodigious gullies apparently by floods, of which we have no history. It is the great barrier against the encroachments of the Galla; and, by many attempts, they have tried to make a settlement in it, but all in vain. Whole tribes of them have been extinguished in this their endeavour.

In many provinces of Abyssinia, favour is the only necessary to procure the government; others are given to poor noblemen, that, by fleecing the people, they may grow rich, and repair their fortune. But the consequence of Begemder is so well known to the state, as reaching so near the metropolis, and supplying it so constantly with all sorts of provisions, that none but noblemen of rank, family, and character, able to maintain a large number of troops always on foot, and in good order, are trusted with its government.

Immediately next to this is Amhara, between the two rivers Bashilo and Geshen. The length of this country from E. to W. is about 120 miles, and its breadth something more than 40. It is a very mountainous country, full of nobility; the men are reckoned the handsomest in Abyssinia, as well as the bravest. With the ordinary arms, the lance and shield, they are thought to be superior to double the number of any other soldiers in the kingdom. What, besides, added to the dignity of this province, was the high mountain of Geshen, or the grassy mountain, whereon the king’s sons were formerly imprisoned, till surprised and murdered there in the Adelan war.

Between the two rivers Geshen and Samba, is a low, unwholesome, though fertile province, called Walaka; and southward of that is Upper Shoa. This province, or kingdom, was famous for the retreat it gave to the only remaining prince of the house of Solomon, who fled from the massacre of his brethren by Judith, about the year 900, upon the rock of Damo. Here the royal family remained in security, and increased in number, for near 400 years, till they were restored. From thenceforward, as long as the king resided in the south of his dominions, great tenderness and distinction was shewn to the inhabitants of this province; and when the king returned again to Tigrè, he abandoned them tacitly to their own government.

Amha Yasous, prince at this day, and lineal descendant of the governor who first acknowledged the king, is now by connivance sovereign of that province. In order to keep himself as independent and separate from the rest of Abyssinia as possible, he has sacrificed the province of Walaka, which belonged to him, to the Galla, who, by his own desire, have surrounded Shoa on every side. But it is full of the bravest, best horsemen, and best accoutred beyond all comparison of any in Abyssinia, and, when they please, they can dispossess the Galla. Safe and independent as the prince of Shoa now is, he is still the loyalist, and the friend to monarchy he ever was; and, upon any signal distress happening to the king, he never failed to succour him powerfully with gold and troops, far beyond the quota formerly due from his province. This Shoa boasts, likewise, the honour of being the native country of Tecla Haimanout, restorer of the line of Solomon, the founder of the monastery and Order of the monks of Debra Libanos, and of the power and wealth of the Abuna, and the clergy in general, of Abyssinia.

Gojam, from north-east to south-east, is about 80 miles in length, and 40 in breadth. It is a very flat country, and all in pasture; has few mountains, but these are very high ones, and are chiefly on the banks of the Nile, to the south, which river surrounds the province; so that, to a person who should walk round Gojam, the Nile would be always on his left hand, from where it went south, falling out of the lake Tzana, till it turns north through Fazuclo into the country of Sennaar and Egypt.

Gojam is full of great herds of cattle, the largest in the high parts of Abyssinia. The men are in the lowest esteem as soldiers, but the country is very populous. The Jesuits were settled in many convents throughout the province, and are no where half so much detested. The monks of Gojam are those of St Eustathius, which may be called the Low Church of Abyssinia. They are much inclined to turbulence in religious matters, and are, therefore, always made tools by discontented people, who have no religion at all.

On the south-east of the kingdom of Gojam is Damot. It is bounded by the Temci on the east, by the Gult on the west, by the Nile on the south, and by the high mountains of Amid Amid on the north. It is about 40 miles in length from north to south, and something more than 20 in breadth from east to west. But all this peninsula, surrounded with the river, is called Gojam, in general terms, from a line down through the south end of the lake to Miné, the passage of the Nile in the way to Narea.

It is surprising the Jesuits, notwithstanding their long abode in Gojam, have not known where this neighbouring country of Damot was situated, but have placed it south of the Nile. They were often, however, in Damot, when Sela Christos was attempting the conquest and conversion of the Agows.

On the other side of Amid Amid is the province of the Agows, bounded by those mountains on the east; by Burè and Umbarma, and the country of the Gongas, on the west; by Damot and Gafat upon the south, and Dingleber on the north.

All those countries from Abbo, such as Goutto, Aroosi, and Wainadega, were formerly inhabited by Agows; but, partly by the war with the Galla beyond the Nile, partly by their own constant rebellions, this territory, called Maitsha, which is the flat country on both sides of the Nile, is quite uninhabited, and at last hath been given to colonies of peaceable Galla, chiefly Djawi, who fill the whole low country to the foot of the mountains Aformasha, in place of the Agows, the first occupiers.

Maitsha, from the flatness of the country, not draining soon after the rains, is in all places wet, but in many, miry and marshy; it produces little or no corn, but depends entirely upon a plant called Ensete[18], which furnishes the people both with wholesome and delicate food throughout the year. For the rest, this province abounds in large fine cattle, and breeds some indifferent horses.

Upon the mountains, above Maitsha, is the country of the Agows, the richest province still in Abyssinia, notwithstanding the multitude of devastations it has suffered. They lie round the country above described, from Aformasha to Quaquera, where are the heads of two large rivers, the Kelti and Branti. These are called the Agows of Damot, from their nearness to that province, in contradistinction to the Agows of Lasta, who are called Tcheratz-Agow, from Tchera, a principal town, tribe, and district near Lasta and Begemder.

The Gafats, inhabiting a small district adjoining to the Galla, have also distinct languages, so have the Galla themselves, of whom we have often spoken; they are a large nation.

From Dingleber all along the lake, below the mountains bounding Guesgué and Kuara, is called Dembea. This low province on the south of Gondar, and Woggora the small high province on the east, are all sown with wheat, and are the granaries of Abyssinia. Dembea seems once to have been occupied entirely by the lake, and we see all over it marks that cannot be mistaken, so that this large extent of water is visibly upon the decrease; and this agrees with what is observed of stagnant pools in general throughout the world. Dembea is called Atté-Kolla, _the king’s food_, or maintenance, its produce being assigned for the supplying of the king’s household. It is governed by an officer called Cantiba; it is a lucrative post; but he is not reckoned one of the great officers of the empire, and has no place in council.

South from Dembea is Kuara, a very mountainous province confining upon the Pagan blacks, or Shangalla, called Gongas and Guba, the Macrobii of the ancients. It is a very unwholesome province, but abounding in gold, not of its own produce, but that of its neighbourhood, these Pagans--Guba, Nuba, and Shangalla. Kuara signifies the sun, and Beja (that is Atbara, and the low parts of Sennaar, the country of the Shepherds, adjoining) signifies the _moon_, in the language of these Shangalla. These names are some remains of their ancient superstitions. Kuara was the native country of the Iteghè, or queen-regent, of Kasmati Eshté, Welled de l’Oul, Gueta, Eusebius, and Palambaras Mammo.

In the low country of Kuara, near to Sennaar, there is a settlement of Pagan blacks called Ganjar. They are mostly cavalry, and live entirely by hunting and plundering, the Arabs of Atbara and Fazuclo. Their origin is this: Upon the invasion of the Arabs after the coming of Mahomet, the black slaves deserted from their masters, the Shepherds, and took up their habitation, where they have not considerably multiplied, otherwise than by the accession of vagrants and fugitives, whom they get from both kingdoms. They are generally under the command of the governor of Kuara, and were so when I was in Abyssinia, though they refused to follow their governor Coque Abou Barea to fight against Michael, but whether from fear or affection I know not; I believe the former.

The governor of Kuara is one of the great officers of state, and, being the king’s lieutenant-general, has absolute power in his province, and carries _sendick_ and _nagareet_. His kettle-drums are silver, and his privilege is to beat these drums even in marching through the capital, which no governor of a province is permitted to do, none but the king’s nagareets or kettle-drums being suffered to be beat there, or any where in a town where the king is; but the governor of Kuara is intitled to continue beating his drums till he comes to the foot of the outer stair of the king’s palace. This privilege, from some good behaviour of the first officer to whom the command was given, was conferred upon the post by David II. called Degami Daid, who conquered the province from the _Shepherds_, its old inhabitants.

Nara, and Ras el Feel, Tchelga, and on to Tcherkin, is a frontier wholly inhabited by Mahometans. Its government is generally given to a stranger, often to a Mahometan, but one of that faith is always deputy-governor. The use of keeping troops here is to defend the friendly Arabs and Shepherds, who remain in their allegiance to Abyssinia, from the resentment of the Arabs of Sennaar, their neighbours; and, by means of these friendly Arabs and Shepherds, secure a constant supply of horses for the king’s troops. It is a barren stripe of a very hot, unwholesome country, full of thick woods, and fit only for hunting. The inhabitants, fugitives from all nations, are chiefly Mahometans, but very bold and expert horsemen, using no other weapon but the broad sword, with which they attack the elephant and rhinoceros.

There are many other small provinces, which occasionally are annexed, and sometimes are separated, such as Guesgué, to the eastward of Kuara; Waldubba, between the rivers Guangue and Angrab; Tzegadé and Walkayt on the west side of Waldubba; Abergalè and Selawa in the neighbourhood of Begemder; Temben, Dobas, Giannamora, Bur, and Engana, in the neighbourhood of Tigré, and many others: Such at least was the state of the country in my time, very different in all respects from what it has been represented. As to the precedency of these provinces we shall further speak, when we come to mention the officers of state and internal government in this country.

CHAP. XI.

_Various Customs in Abyssinia similar to those in Persia, &c.--A bloody Banquet described, &c._

For the sake of regularity, I shall here notice what might clearly be inferred from what is gone before. The crown of Abyssinia is hereditary, and has always been so, in one particular family, supposed to be that of Solomon by the queen of Saba, Negesta Azab, or queen of the south. It is nevertheless elective in this line; and there is no law of the land, nor custom, which gives the eldest son an exclusive title to succeed to his father.

The practice has indeed been quite the contrary: when, at the death of a king, his sons are old enough to govern, and, by some accident, not yet sent prisoners to the mountain, then the eldest, or he that is next, and not confined, generally takes possession of the throne by the strength of his father’s friends; but if no heir is then in the low country, the choice of the king is always according to the will of the minister, which passes for that of the people; and, his inclination and interest being to govern, he never fails to choose an infant whom thereafter he directs, ruling the kingdom absolutely during the minority, which generally exhausts, or is equal to the term of his life.

From this flow all the misfortunes of this unhappy country. This very defect arises from a desire to institute a more than ordinary perfect form of government; for the Abyssinians first position was, “Woe be to the kingdom whose king is a child;” and this they know must often happen when succession is left to the course of nature. But when there was a choice to be made out of two hundred persons all of the same family, all capable of reigning, it was their own fault, they thought, if they had not always a prince of proper age and qualification to rule the kingdom, according to the necessities of the times, and to preserve the succession of the family in the house of Solomon, agreeable to the laws of the land. And indeed it has been this manner of reasoning, good at first view, though found afterwards but too fallacious, which has ruined their kingdom in part, and often brought the whole into the utmost hazard and jeopardy.

The king is anointed with plain oil of olives, which, being poured upon the crown of his head, he rubs into his long hair indecently enough with both his hands, pretty much as his soldiers do with theirs when they get access to plenty of butter.

The crown is made in the shape of a priest’s mitre, or head-piece; it is a kind of helmet, covering the king’s forehead, cheeks, and neck. It is lined with blue taffety; the outside is half gold and half silver, of the most beautiful filligrane work.

The crown, in Joas’s time, was burnt, with part of the palace, on that day when Ras Michael’s dwarf was shot in his own house before him. The present was since made by the Greeks from Smyrna, who have large appointments here, and work with very great taste and elegance, though they have not near so much encouragement as formerly.

Upon the top of the crown was a ball of red glass, or chrystal, with several bells of different colours within it. It seems to me to have formerly been no better than part of the stopper of a glass-decanter. Be that as it may, it was lost in Yasous’s time at the defeat of Sennaar; It was found, however, by a Mahometan, and brought by Guangoul, chief of the Bertuma Galla, to the frontiers of Tigrè, where Michael, governor of that province, went with an army in great ceremony to receive it, and, returning with it, gave it to king Yasous, making thereby a great advance towards the king’s favour.

Some people[19], among the other unwarranted things they have advanced, have said, That, at the king’s coronation, a gold ear-ring is put into his ears, and a drawn sword into his hand, and that all the people fall down and worship him; but there is no such ceremony in use, and exhibitions of this kind, made by the king in public, at no period seem to have suited the genius of this people. Formerly his face was never seen, nor any part of him, excepting sometimes his foot. He sits in a kind of balcony, with lattice-windows and curtains before him. Even yet he covers his face on audiences or public occasions, and when in judgment. On cases of treason, he sits within his balcony, and speaks through a hole in the side of it, to an officer called Kal-Hatzè, the “voice or word of the king,” by whom he sends his questions, or any thing else that occurs, to the judges who are seated at the council-table.

The king goes to church regularly, his guards taking possession of every avenue and door through which he is to pass, and nobody is allowed to enter with him, because he is then on foot, excepting two officers of his bed-chamber who support him. He kisses the threshold and side-posts of the church-door, the steps before the altar, and then returns home: sometimes there is service in the church, sometimes there is not; but he takes no notice of the difference. He rides up stairs into the presence-chamber on a mule, and lights immediately on the carpet before his throne; and I have sometimes seen great indecencies committed by the said mule in the presence-chamber, upon a Persian carpet.

An officer called Serach Massery, with a long whip, begins cracking and making a noise, worse than twenty French postillions, at the door of the palace before the dawn of day. This chases away the hyæna and other wild beasts; this, too, is the signal for the king’s rising, who sits in judgment every morning fasting, and after that, about eight o’clock, he goes to breakfast.

There are six noblemen of the king’s own choosing, who are called Baalomaal[20], or gentlemen of his bed-chamber; four of these are always with him. There is a seventh, who is the chief of these, called Azeleffa el Camisha, groom of the robe, or stole. He is keeper of the king’s wardrobe, and the first officer of the bed-chamber. These officers, the black slaves, and some others, serve him as menial servants, and are in a degree of familiarity with him unknown to the rest of the subjects.

When the king sits to consult upon civil matters of consequence, he is shut up in a kind of box opposite to the head of the council table. The persons that deliberate sit at the table, and, according to their rank, give their voices, the youngest or lowest officer always speaking first. The first that give their votes are the Shalaka, or colonels of the household-troops. The second are the great butlers, men that have the charge of the king’s drink. The third is the Badjerund, or keeper of that apartment in the palace called the _lion’s house_; and after these the keeper of the banqueting-house. The next is called Lika Magwass, an officer that always goes before the king to hinder the pressure of the crowd. In war, when the king is marching, he rides constantly round him at a certain distance, and carries his shield, and his lance; at least he carries a silver shield, and a lance pointed with the same metal, before such kings as do not choose to expose their person. That, however, was not the case in my time, as the king carried the shield himself, black and unadorned, of good buffalo’s hide, and his spear sharp-pointed with iron. His silver ornaments were only used when the campaign was over, when these were carried by this officer. Great was the respect shewed formerly to this king in war, and even when engaged in battle with rebels, his own subjects.

No prince ever lost his life in battle till the coming of the Europeans into Abyssinia, when both the excommunicating and murdering of their sovereigns seem to have been introduced at the same time. The reader will see, in the course of this history, two instances of this respect being still kept up: the one at the battle of Limjour, where Fasil, pretending that he was immediately to attack Ras Michael, desired that the king might be dressed in his insignia, lest, not being known, he might be slain by the stranger Galla. The next was after the battle of Serbraxos, where the king was thrice in one day engaged with the Begemder troops for a considerable space of time. These insignia, or marks of royalty, are a white horse, with small silver bells at his head, a shield of silver, and a white fillet of fine silk or muslin, but generally the latter, some inches broad, which is tied round the upper part of the head over his hair, with a large double or bow-knot behind, the ends hanging down to the small of his back, or else flying in the air.

After the Lika Magwass comes the Palambaras; after him the Fit-Auraris; then the Gera Kasmati, and the Kanya Kasmati, their names being derived from their rank or order in encamping, the one on the right, the other on the left of the king’s tent; Kanya and Gera signifying _the right_ and _the left_; after them the Dakakin Billetana Gueta, or the under chamberlain; then the secretary[21] for the king’s commands; after him the right and left Azages, or generals; after them Rak Massery, after him the basha, after him Kasmati of Damot, then of Samen, then Amhara, and, last of all, Tigrè, before whom stands a golden cup upon a cushion, and he is called Nebrit, as being governor of Axum, or keeper of the book of the law supposed to be there.

After the governor of Tigrè comes the Acab Saat, or guardian of the fire, and the chief ecclesiastical officer of the king’s household. Some have said that this officer was appointed to attend the king at the time of eating, and that it was his province to order both meat and drink to be withdrawn whenever he saw the king inclined to excess. If this was really his office, he never used it in my time, nor, as far as I could learn, for several reigns before. Besides, no king eats in public, or before any person but slaves; and he never would chuse that time to commit excess, in which he might be controuled by a subject, even if it was that subject’s right to be present when the king eats, as it is not.

After the Acab Saat comes the first master of the household; then the Betwudet, or Ras; last of all the king gives his sentence, which is final, and sends it to the table, from the balcony where he is then sitting, by the officer called, as aforementioned, Kal-Hatzè.

We meet in Abyssinia with various usages, which many have hitherto thought to be peculiar to those ancient nations in which they were first observed; others, not so learned, have thought they originated in Abyssinia. I shall first take notice of those that regard the king and court.

The kings of Persia[22], like these we are speaking of, were eligible in one family only, that of the Arsacidæ, and it was not till that race failed they chose Darius. The title of the king of Abyssinia is, _King of Kings_; and such Daniel[23] tells us was that of Nebuchadnezzar. The right of primogeniture does not so prevail in Abyssinia as to exclude election in the person of the younger brothers, and this was likewise the case in Persia[24].

In Persia[25] a preference was understood to be due to the king’s lawful children; but there were instances of the natural child being preferred to the lawful one. Darius, tho’ a bastard, was preferred to Isogius, Xerxes’s lawful son, and that merely by the election of the people. The same has always obtained in Abyssinia. A very great part of their kings are adulterous bastards; others are the issue of concubines, as we shall see hereafter, but they have been preferred to the crown by the influence of a party, always under name of the Voice of the People.

Although the Persian kings[26] had various palaces to which they removed at different times in the year, Pasagarda, the metropolis of their ancient kings, was observed as the only place for their coronation; and this, too, was the case of Abyssinia with their metropolis of Axum.

The next remarkable ceremony in which these two nations agreed, is that of adoration, inviolably observed in Abyssinia to this day, as often as you enter the sovereign’s presence. This is not only kneeling[27], but an absolute prostration. You first fall upon your knees, then upon the palms of your hands, then incline your head and body till your forehead touch the earth; and, in case you have an answer to expect, you lie in that posture till the king, or somebody from him, desires you to rise. This, too, was the custom of Persia; Arrian[28] says this was first instituted by Cyrus, and this was precisely the posture in which they adored God, mentioned in the book of Exodus.

Though the refusal of this ceremony would, in Abyssinia and Persia, be looked upon as rebellion or insult, yet it seems in both nations to have met with a mitigation with regard to strangers, who have refused it without giving any offence. I remember a Mahometan being twice sent by the prince of Mecca into Abyssinia during my stay there, who, neither time, would go farther than to put his hands across upon his breast, with no very great inclination of his head; and this I saw was not thought so extraordinary as to give offence, as it was all he did to his own sovereign and master.

We read, indeed, of a very remarkable instance of the dispensing with that ceremony being indirectly, yet plainly, refused in Persia to strangers. Conon[29], the Athenian, had occasion for an interview with Artaxerxes, king of Persia, upon matters of great concern to both states; “You shall be introduced to the king by me, says the Persian minister to Conon, without any delay; do you only first consider with yourself, whether it is really of any consequence that you should speak with the king yourself, or whether it would not be as well for you to convey to him, by letter, any thing you have to say; for it is absolutely necessary, if you are introduced into the king’s presence, that you fall down upon your face and worship him. If this is disagreeable or offensive to you, your business shall nevertheless be equally well and quickly done by me.” To which Conon very sensibly replied, “For my part, it never can be offensive _to me_ to shew every degree of respect possible to the person of a king. I only am afraid that this salutation may be misinterpreted by my citizens, who, being themselves a sovereign state, may look upon this submission of their ambassador as a reproach to themselves, and inconsistent with their independency.” Conon, therefore, desired to wave his introduction, and that his business might be done by letters, which was complied with accordingly.

I have already mentioned transiently the circumstance of the king not being seen when sitting in council. The manner of it is this: When he had business formerly, he sat constantly in a room of his palace, which communicated with the audience and council by two folding doors or large windows, the bottom of which were about three steps from the ground. These doors, or windows, were latticed with cross bars of wood like a cage, and a thin curtain, or veil of taffety silk was hung within it; so that, upon darkening the inner chamber, the king saw every person in the chamber without, while he himself was not seen at all. Justin[30] tells us, that the person of the king of Persia was hid to give a greater idea of his majesty; and under Deioces, king of the Medes, a law was made that nobody might look upon the king; but the constant wars in which Abyssinia has been engaged, since the Mahometans took possession of Adel, have occasioned this troublesome custom to be wholly laid aside, unless on particular public occasions, and at council, when they are still observed with the ancient strictness. And we find, in the history of Abyssinia, that the army and kingdom have often owed their safety to the personal behaviour and circumstance of the king distinguishing and exposing himself in battle, which advantage they must have lost had the ancient custom been observed. However, to this day, when he is abroad riding, or sitting in any of his apartments at home where people are admitted, his head and forehead are perfectly covered, and one of his hands covers his mouth, so that nothing but his eyes are seen; his feet, too, are always covered.

We learn from Apuleus, that this was a custom in Persia; and this gave an opportunity to the magi to place Oropastus, the brother of Cambyses, upon the throne, instead of Merdis who should have succeeded; but the covering of the face made the difference pass unperceived.

It is the constant practice in Abyssinia to beset the king’s doors and windows within his hearing, and there, from early morning to night, to cry for justice as loud as possible, in a distressed and complaining tone, and in all the different languages they are masters of, in order to their being admitted to have their supposed grievances heard. In a country so ill governed as Abyssinia is, and so perpetually involved in war, it may be easily supposed there is no want of people, who have real injuries and violence to complain of: But if it were not so, this is so much the constant usage, that when it happens (as in the midst of the rainy season) that few people can approach the capital, or stand without in such bad weather, a set of vagrants are provided, maintained, and paid, whose sole business it is to cry and lament, as if they had been really very much injured and oppressed; and this they tell you is for the king’s honour, that he may not be lonely by the palace being too quiet. This, of all their absurd customs, was the most grievous and troublesome to me; and, from a knowledge that it was so, the king, when he was private, often permitted himself a piece of rather odd diversion to be a royal one.

There would sometimes, while I was busy in my room in the rainy season, be four or five hundred people, who all at once would begin, some roaring and crying, as if they were in pain, others demanding justice, as if they were that moment suffering, or if in the instant to be put to death; and some groaning and sobbing as if just expiring; and this horrid symphony was so artfully performed that no ear could distinguish but that it proceeded from real distress. I was often so surprised as to send the soldiers at the door to bring in one of them, thinking him come from the country, to examine who had injured him; many a time he was a servant of my own, or some other equally known; or, if he was a stranger, upon asking him what misfortune had befallen him, he would answer very composedly, Nothing was the matter with him; that he had been sleeping all day with the horses; that hearing from the soldiers at the door I was retired to my apartment, he and his companions had come to cry and make a noise under my window, to do me _honour_ before the people, for fear I should be melancholy, by being too quiet when alone; and therefore hoped that I would order them drink, that they might continue with a little more spirit. The violent anger which this did often put me into did not fail to be punctually reported to the king, at which he would laugh heartily; and he himself was often hid not far off, for the sake of being a spectator of my heavy displeasure.

These complaints, whether real or feigned, have always for their burden, _Rete O Jan boi_, which, repeated quick, very much resembles Prete Janni, the name that was given to this prince, of which we never yet knew the derivation; its signification is, “Do me justice, O my king!”

Herodotus[31] tells us, that in Persia, the people, in great crowds and of both sexes, come roaring and crying to the doors of the palace; and Intaphernes is also said to come to the door of the king making great lamentations.

I have mentioned a council of state held in Abyssinia in time of danger or difficulty, where the king sitting invisible, though present, gives his opinion by an officer called Kal-Hatzè. Upon his delivering the sentence from the king the whole assembly rise, and stand upon their feet; and this they must have done the whole time the council lasted had the king appeared there in person. According to the circumstances of the time, the king goes with the majority, or not; and if, upon a division, there is a majority against him, he often punishes the majority on the other side, by sending them to prison for voting against his sentiments; for tho’ it is understood, by calling of the meeting, that the majority is to determine as to the eligibility of the measure, the king, by his prerogative, supersedes any majority on the other side, and so far, I suppose, has been an encroachment upon the original constitution. This I understand was the same in Persia.

Xerxes[32], being about to declare war against the Greeks, assembled all the principal chiefs of Asia in council. “That I may not, says he, be _thought_ to _act_ only by my own judgment, I have called you together. At the same time, I think proper to intimate to you, that it is your duty to obey my will, rather than enter into any deliberation or remonstrances of your own.”

We will now compare some particulars, the dress and ornaments of the two kings. The king of Abyssinia wears his hair long; so did the ancient kings of Persia. We learn this circumstance from Suetonius and Aurelius Victor[33]. A comet had appeared in the war with Persia, and was looked upon by the Romans as a bad omen. Vespasian laughed at it, and said, if it portended any ill it was to the king of Persia, because, _like him_, it wore long hair.

The diadem was, with the Persians, a mark of royalty, as with the Abyssinians, being composed of the same materials, and worn in the same manner. The king of Abyssinia wears it, while marching, as a mark of sovereignty, that does not impede or incommode him, as any other heavier ornament would do, especially in hot weather. This fillet surrounds his head above the hair, leaving the crown perfectly uncovered. It is an offence of the first magnitude for any person, at this time, to wear any thing upon his head, especially white, unless for Mahometans, who wear caps, and over them a large white turban; or for priests, who wear large turbans of muslin also.

This was the diadem of the Persians, as appears from Lucian[34], who calls it a white fillet about the forehead. In the dialogue between Diogenes and Alexander, the head is said to be tied round with a white fillet[35]; and Favorinus, speaking of Pompey, whose leg was wound round with a white bandage, says, It is no matter on what part of the body he wears a diadem. We read in Justin[36], that Alexander, leaping from his horse, by accident wounded Lysimachus in the forehead with the point of his spear, and the blood gushed out so violently that it could not be stanched, till the king took the diadem from his head, and with it bound up the wound; which at that time was looked upon as an omen that Lysimachus was to be king, and so it soon after happened.

The kings of Abyssinia anciently sat upon a gold throne, which is a large, convenient, oblong, square seat, like a small bed-stead, covered with Persian carpets, damask, and cloth of gold, with steps leading up to it. It is still richly gilded; but the many revolutions and wars have much abridged their ancient magnificence. The portable throne was a gold stool, like that curule stool or chair used by the Romans, which we see on medals. It was, in the Begemder war, changed to a very beautiful one of the same form inlaid with gold. Xerxes is said to have been spectator of a naval fight sitting upon a gold stool[37].

It is, in Abyssinia, high-treason to sit upon any seat of the king’s; and he that presumed to do this would be instantly hewn to pieces, if there was not some other collateral proof of his being a madman. The reader will find, in the course of my history, a very ridiculous accident on this subject, in the king’s tent, with Guangoul, king of the Bertuma Galla.

It is probable that Alexander had heard of this law in Persia, and disapproved of it; for one day, it being extremely cold, the king, sitting in his chair before the fire, warming and chaffing his legs, saw a soldier, probably a Persian, who had lost his feeling by extreme numbness. The king immediately leaped from his chair, and ordered the soldier to be set down upon it. The fire soon brought him to his senses, but he had almost lost them again with fear, by finding himself in the king’s seat. To whom Alexander said, “Remember, and distinguish, how much more advantageous to man my government is than that of the kings of Persia[38]. By sitting down on my seat, you have saved your life; by sitting on theirs, you would infallibly have lost it.”

In Abyssinia it is considered as a fundamental law of the land, that none of the royal family, who has any deformity or bodily defect, shall be allowed to succeed to the crown; and, for this purpose, any of the princes, who may have escaped from the mountain of Wechnè, and who are afterwards taken, are mutilated in some of their members, that thus they may be disqualified from ever succeeding. In Persia the same was observed. Procopius[39] tells us, that Zames, the son of Cabades, was excluded from the throne because he was blind of one eye, the law of Persia prohibiting any person that had a bodily defect to be elected king.

The kings of Abyssinia were seldom seen by their subjects. Justin[40] says, the Persians hid the person of their king to increase their reverence for his majesty. And it was a law of Deioces[41], king of the Medes, that nobody should be permitted to see the king; which regulation was as ancient as the time of Semiramis, whose son, Ninyas, is said to have grown old in the palace, without ever having been known by being seen out of it.

This absurd usage gave rise to many abuses. In Persia[42] it produced two officers, who were called the king’s eyes, and the king’s ear, and who had the dangerous employment, I mean dangerous for the subject, of seeing and hearing for their sovereign. In Abyssinia, as I have just said, it created an officer called the king’s mouth, or voice, for, being seen by nobody, he spoke of course in the third person, “_Hear what the king says to you_”, which is the usual form of all regal mandates in Abyssinia; and what follows has the force of law. In the same stile, Josephus thus begins an edict of Cyrus king of Persia, “Cyrus the king says[43],”--And speaking of Cambyses’s rescript, “Cambyses the _king says thus_,”--And Esdras also, “Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia[44],”--And Nebuchadnezzar says to Holofernes, “Thus saith the Great King, Lord of the whole earth[45];”--and this was probably the origin of _edicts_, when writing was little used by sovereigns, and little understood by the subject.

Solemn hunting-matches were always in use both with the kings of Abyssinia and those of Persia[46]. In both kingdoms it was a crime for a subject to strike the game till such time as the king had thrown his lance at it. This absurd custom was repealed by Artaxerxes Longimanus in one kingdom[47], and by Yasous the Great in the other, so late as the beginning of the last century.

The kings of Abyssinia are above all laws. They are supreme in all causes ecclesiastical and civil; the land and persons of their subjects are equally their property, and every inhabitant of their kingdom is born their slave; if he bears a higher rank it is by the king’s gift; for his nearest relations are accounted nothing better. The same obtained in Persia. Aristotle calls the Persian generals and nobles, slaves of the great king[48]. Xerxes, reproving Pytheus the Lydian when seeking to excuse one of his sons from going to war, says, “You that are my slave, and bound to follow me with your wife and all your family[49].”--And Gobryas[50] says to Cyrus, “I deliver myself to you, at once your companion and your slave.”

There are several kinds of bread in Abyssinia, some of different sorts of teff, and some of tocusso, which also vary in quality. The king of Abyssinia eats of wheat bread, though not of every wheat, but of that only that grows in the province of Dembea, therefore called the king’s food. It was so with the kings of Persia, who ate wheat bread, Herodotus says, but only of a particular kind, as we learn from Strabo[51].

I have shewn, in the course of the foregoing history, that it always has been, and still is the custom of the kings of Abyssinia, to marry what number of wives they choose; that these were not, therefore, all queens; but that among them there was one who was considered particularly as queen, and upon her head was placed the crown, and she was called Iteghè.

Thus, in Persia, we read that Ahasuerus loved Esther[52], who had found grace in his sight more than the other virgins, and he had placed a golden crown upon her head. And Josephus[53] informs us, that, when Esther[54] was brought before the king, he was exceedingly delighted with her, and made her his lawful wife, and when she came into the palace he put a crown upon her head: whether placing the crown upon the queen’s head had any civil effect as to regency in Persia as it had in Abyssinia, is what history does not inform us.

I have already observed, that there is an officer called Serach Massery, who watches before the king’s gate all night, and at the dawn of day cracks a whip to chace the wild beasts out of the town. This, too, is the signal for the king to rise, and sit down in his judgment-seat. The same custom was observed in Persia. Early in the morning an officer entered the king’s chamber, and said to him “Arise, O king! and take charge of those matters which Oromasdes has appointed you to the care of.”

The king of Abyssinia never is seen to walk, nor to set his foot upon the ground, out of his palace; and when he would dismount from the horse or mule on which he rides, he has a servant with a stool, who places it properly for him for that purpose. He rides into the anti-chamber to the foot of his throne, or to the stool placed in the alcove of his tent. We are told by Athenaeus[55], such was the practice in Persia, whose king never set his foot upon the ground out of his palace.

The king of Abyssinia very often judges capital crimes himself. It is reckoned a favourable judicature, such as, Claudian says, that of a king in person should be, “_Piger ad pœnas, ad præmia velox_.” No man is condemned by the king in person to die for the first fault, unless the crime be of a horrid nature, such as parricide or sacrilege. And, in general, the life and merits of the prisoner are weighed against his immediate guilt; so that if his first behaviour has had more merit towards the state than his present delinquency is thought to have injured it, the one is placed fairly against the other, and the accused is generally absolved when the sovereign judges alone.

Herodotus[56] praises this as a maxim of the kings of Persia in capital judgments, almost in the very words that I have just now used; and he gives an instance of it:--Darius had condemned Sandoces, one of the king’s judges, to be crucified for corruption, that is, for having given false judgment for a bribe. The man was already hung up on the cross, when the king, considering with himself how many good services he had done, previous to this, the only offence which he had committed, ordered him to be pardoned.

The Persian king, in all expeditions, was attended by judges. We find in Herodotus[57], that, in the expedition of Cambyses, ten of the principal Egyptians were condemned to die by these judges for every Persian that had been slain by the people of Memphis. Six judges always attend the king of Abyssinia to the camp, and, before them, rebels taken on the field are tried and punished on the spot.

People that the king distinguished by favour, or for any public action, were in both kingdoms presented with gold chains, swords, and bracelets[58]. These in Abyssinia are understood to be chiefly rewards of military service; yet Poncet received a gold chain from Yasous the Great. The day before the battle of Serbraxos, Ayto Engedan received a silver bridle and saddle, covered with silver plates, from Ras Michael; and the night after that battle I was myself honoured with a gold chain from the king upon my reconciliation with Guebra Mascal, who, for his behaviour that day, had a large revenue most deservedly assigned to him, and a considerable territory, consisting of a number of rich villages, a present known to be more agreeable to him than a mere mark of honour.

A stranger of fashion, particularly recommended as I was, not needy in point of money, nor depending from day to day upon government for subsistence, is generally provided with one or more villages to furnish him with what articles he may need, without being obliged to have recourse to the king or his ministers for every necessary. Amha Yasous, prince of Shoa, had a large and a royal village, Emfras, given him to supply him with food for his table; he had another village in Karoota for wine; a village in Dembea, the king’s own province, for his wheat; and another in Begemder for cotton cloths for his servants; and so of the rest. After I was in the king’s service I had the villages that belonged to the posts I occupied; and one called Geesh, in which arises the sources of the Nile, a village of about 18 houses, given me by the king at my own request; for I might have had a better to furnish me with honey, and confirmed to me by the rebel Waragna Fasil, who never suffered me to grow rich by my rents, having never allowed me to receive but two large jars, so bitter with lupines that they were of no sort of use to me. I was a gentle master, nor ever likely to be opulent from the revenues of that country; and more especially so, as I had under me, as my lieutenant[59], an officer commanding the horse, whose thoughts were much more upon Jerusalem and the holy sepulchre than any gains he could get in Abyssinia by his employments.

Thucydides[60] informs us, that Themistocles had received great gifts from Artaxerxes king of Persia, when settled at Magnesia; the king had given him that city for bread, Lampsacus for wine, and Myuns to furnish him with victuals. To these Athenaeus adds two more, Palæscepsis and Percope, to yield him clothing and furniture. This precisely, to this day, is the Abyssinian idea, when they conceive they are entertaining men of rank; for strangers, that come naked and vagabond among them, without name and character, or means of subsistence, such as the Greeks in Abyssinia, are always received as beggars, and neglected as such, till hunger sets their wits to work to provide for the present exigency, and low intrigues and practices are employed afterwards to maintain them in the little advancements which they have acquired, but no honour or confidence follows, or very rarely.

In Abyssinia, when the prisoner is condemned in capital cases, he is not again remitted to prison, which is thought cruel, but he is immediately carried away, and the sentence executed upon him. I have given several instances of this in the annals of the country. Abba Salama, the Acab Saat, was condemned by the king the morning he entered Gondar, on his return from Tigré, and immediately hanged, in the garment of a priest, on a tree at the door of the king’s palace. Chremation, brother to the usurper Socinios, was executed that same morning; Guebra Denghel, Ras Michael’s son-in-law, was likewise executed that same day, immediately after judgment; and so were several others. The same was the practice in Persia, as we learn from Xenophon[61], and more plainly from Diodorus[62].

The capital punishments in Abyssinia are the cross. Socinios[63] first ordered Arzo, his competitor, who had fled for assistance and refuge to Phineas king of the Falasha, to be crucified without the camp. We find the same punishment inflicted by Artaxerxes upon Haman[64], who was ordered to be affixed to the cross till he died. And Polycrates of Samos, Cicero tells us[65], was crucified by order of Orætis, prætor of Darius.

The next capital punishment is flaying alive. That this barbarous execution still prevails in Abyssinia is already proved by the fate of the unfortunate Woosheka, taken prisoner in the campaign of 1769 while I was in Abyssinia; a sacrifice made to the vengeance of the beautiful Ozoro Esther, who, kind and humane as she was in other respects, could receive no atonement for the death of her husband. Socrates[66] says, that Manes the heretic was flayed alive by order of the king of Persia, and his skin made into a bottle. And Procopius[67] informs us, that Pacurius ordered Basicius to be flayed alive, and his skin made into a bottle and hung upon a high tree. And Agathias[68] mentions, that the same punishment was inflicted upon Nachorages _more majorum_, according to ancient custom.

Lapidation, or stoning to death, is the next capital punishment in Abyssinia. This is chiefly inflicted upon strangers called _Franks_, for religious causes. The Catholic priests in Abyssinia that have been detected there, in these latter days, have been stoned to death, and their bodies lie still in the streets of Gondar, in the squares or waste-places, covered with the heaps of stones which occasioned their death by being thrown at them. There are three of these heaps at the church of Abbo, all covering Franciscan friars; and, besides them, a small pyramid over a boy who was stoned to death with them, about the first year of the reign of David the IV.[69] This boy was one of four sons that one of the Franciscan friars had had by an Abyssinian woman in the reign of Oustas. In Persia we find, that Pagorasus (according to Ctesias[70]) was stoned to death by the order of the king; and the same author says, that Pharnacyas, one of the murderers of Xerxes, was stoned to death likewise.

Among capital punishments may be reckoned likewise the plucking out of the eyes, a cruelty which I have but too often seen committed in the short stay that I made in Abyssinia. This is generally inflicted upon rebels. I have already mentioned, that, after the slaughter of the battle of Fagitta, twelve chiefs of the Pagan Galla, taken prisoners by Ras Michael, had their eyes torn out, and were afterwards abandoned to starve in the valleys below the town. Several prisoners of another rank, noblemen of Tigré, underwent the same misfortune; and, what is wonderful, not one of them died in the operation, nor its consequences, though performed in the coarsest manner with an iron forceps, or pincers. Xenophon[71] tells us, that this was one of the punishments used by Cyrus. And Ammianus Marcellinus[72] mentions, that Sapor king of Persia banished Arsaces, whom he had taken prisoner to a certain castle, after having pulled out his eyes.

The dead bodies of criminals slain for treason, murder, and violence, on the high-way at certain times, are seldom buried in Abyssinia. The streets of Gondar are strewed with pieces of their carcases, which bring the wild beasts in multitudes into the city as soon as it becomes dark, so that it is scarcely possible for any to walk in the night. Too many instances of this kind will be found throughout my narrative. The dogs used to bring pieces of human bodies into the house, and court-yard, to eat them in greater security. This was most disgustful to me, but so often repeated, that I was obliged to leave them in possession of such fragments. We learn from Quintus Curtius[73], that Darius having ordered Charidamus to be put to death, and finding afterwards that he was innocent, endeavoured to stop the executioner, though it was too late, as they had already cut his throat; but, in token of repentance, the king allowed him the liberty of burial.

I have taken notice, up and down throughout my history, that the Abyssinians never fight in the night. This too was a rule among the Persians[74].

Notwithstanding the Abyssinians were so anciently and nearly connected with Egypt, they never seem to have made use of paper, or papyrus, but imitated the practice of the Persians, who wrote upon skins, and they do so this day. This arises from their having early been Jews. In Parthia, likewise, Pliny[75] informs us, the use of papyrus was absolutely unknown; and though it was discovered that papyrus grew in the Euphrates, near Babylon, of which they could make paper, they obstinately rather chose to adhere to their ancient custom of weaving their letters on cloth of which they made their garments. The Persians, moreover, made use of parchment for their records[76], to which all their remarkable transactions were trusted; and to this it is probably owing we have so many of their customs preserved to this day. Diodorus Siculus[77], speaking of Ctesias, says, he verified every thing from the royal parchments themselves, which, in obedience to a certain law, are all placed in order, and afterwards were communicated to the Greeks.

From this great resemblance in customs between the Persians and Abyssinians following the fashionable way of judging about the origin of nations, I should boldly conclude that the Abyssinians were a colony of Persians, but this is very well known to be without foundation. The customs, mentioned as only peculiar to Persia, were common to all the east; and they were lost when those countries were over-run and conquered by those who introduced barbarous customs of their own. The reason why we have so much left of the Persian customs is, that they were written, and so not liable to alteration; and, being on parchment, did also contribute to their preservation. The history which treats of those ancient and polished nations has preserved few fragments of their manners entire from the ruins of time; while Abyssinia, at war with nobody, or at war with itself only, has preserved the ancient customs which it enjoyed in common with all the east, and which were only lost in other kingdoms by the invasion of strangers, a misfortune Abyssinia has never suffered since the introduction of letters.

Before I finish what I have to say upon the manners of this nation, having shewn that they are the same people with the ancient Egyptians, I would inquire, whether there is the same conformity of rules in the dietetique regimen, between them and Egypt, that we should expect to find from such relation? This is a much surer way of judging than by resemblance of external customs.

The old Egyptians, as we are told by sacred scripture, did not eat with strangers; but I believe the observation is extended farther than ever scripture meant. The instance given of Joseph’s brethren not being allowed to eat with the Egyptians was, because Joseph had told Pharaoh that his brethren[78], and Jacob his father, were shepherds, that he might get from the Egyptians the land of Goshen, a land, as the name imports, of pasturage and grass, which the Nile never overflowed, and it was therefore in possession of the shepherds. Now the shepherds, we are told, were the direct natural enemies of the Egyptians who lived in towns. The shepherds also sacrificed the god whom the Egyptians worshipped. We cannot (says Moses[79]) sacrifice in this land the abomination of the Egyptians, lest they stone us. If the Egyptians did not eat with them, so neither would they with the Egyptians; but it is a mistake that the Egyptians did not eat flesh as well as the shepherds, it was only the flesh of certain animals they differed on, and did not eat.

The Egyptians worshipped the cow[80], and the shepherds lived upon her flesh, which made them a separate people, that could not eat nor communicate together; and the very knowledge of this was, as we are informed by scripture, the reason why Joseph told Pharaoh, when he asked him what profession his brethren were of, “Your servants, says Joseph, are shepherds, and their employment the feeding of cattle;” and this was given out, that the land of Goshen might be allotted to them, and so they and their descendents be kept separate from the Egyptians, and not exposed to mingle in their abominations. Or, though they had abstained from these abominations, they could not kill cattle for sacrifice or for food. They would have raised ill-will against themselves, and, as Moses says, would have been stoned, and so the end of bringing them to Goshen would have been frustrated, which was to nurse them in a plentiful land, in peace and security, till they should attain to be a mighty people, capable of subduing and filling the land to which, at the end of their captivity, God was to lead them.

The Abyssinians neither eat nor drink with strangers, though they have no reason for this; and it is now a mere prejudice, because the old occasion for this regulation is lost. They break, or purify, however, every vessel a stranger of any kind shall have ate or drank in. The custom then is copied from the Egyptians, and they have preserved it, tho’ the Egyptian reason does no longer hold.

Some historians say, the Egyptian women anciently enjoyed a full liberty of intercourse with the males, which was not the case in the generality of eastern nations; and we must, therefore, think it was derived from Abyssinia; for there the women live, as it were, in common, and their enjoyments and gratification have no other bounds but their own will. They, however, pretend to have a principle, that, if they marry, they should be wives of one husband; and yet this principle does not bind, but, like most of the other duties, serves to reason upon, and to laugh at, in conversation. Herodotus tells it was the same with the Egyptians[81].

The Egyptians made no account of the mother what her state was; if the father was free, the child followed the condition of the father. This is strictly so in Abyssinia. The king’s child by a negro-slave, bought with money, or taken in war, is as near in succeeding to the crown, as any one of twenty children that he has older than that one, and born of the noblest women of the country.

The men in Egypt[82] did neither buy nor sell; the same is the case in Abyssinia at this day. It is infamy for a man to go to market to buy any thing. He cannot carry water or bake bread; but he must wash the cloaths belonging to both sexes, and, in this function, the women cannot help him. In Abyssinia the men carried their burdens on their heads, the women on their shoulders, and this difference, we are told, obtained in Egypt[83]. It is plain, that this buying, in the public market, by women, must have ended whenever jealousy or sequestration of that sex began; for this reason it ended early in Egypt, but, for the opposite reason, it subsists in Abyssinia to this day.

It was a sort of impiety in Egypt to eat a calf; and the reason was plain, they worshipped the cow. In Abyssinia, to this day, no man eats veal, although every one very willingly eats a cow. The Egyptian[84] reason no longer subsists as in the former case, but the prejudice remains, though they have forgot the reason.

The Abyssinians eat no wild or water-fowl, not even the goose, which was a great delicacy in Egypt. The reason of this is, that, upon their conversion to Judaism, they were forced to relinquish their ancient municipal customs, as far as they were contrary to the Mosaical law; and the animals, in their country, not corresponding in form, kind, nor name, with those mentioned in the Septuagint, or original Hebrew, it has followed, that there are many of each class that know not whether they are clean or not; and a wonderful confusion and uncertainty has followed through ignorance or mistake, being unwilling to violate the law in any one instance through not understanding it.

The abhorrence of the old Egyptians for the bean is well known, and many silly reasons have been assigned for it; but that which has most met the approbation of the most learned men is, in my humble opinion, the weakest of them all. They say, the aversion to the bean arose from its resembling the phallus; but the crux ansata, or the cross with the handle to it, which is put in the hand of every Egyptian hieroglyphic of Isis, Osiris, or whatever the priests have called them, is likewise agreed by the learned to represent the phallus; and the figure of these nudities, without vail or concealment, is plain in all their statues. Now, I would ask, What is the reason why they abhor a bean because it represents these parts which, at the same time, by their own option or choice, are exposed in the hand or person of every figure which they exhibit to public view? The bean, however, is not cultivated in Abyssinia, neither is it in Egypt; lupines grow up in both, and lupines in both are eradicated like a weed, and lupines were what is called _faba Ægyptiaca_.

Though I cannot pretend to know the true reason of this, yet I will venture to give a guess:--The origin of great part of religious observances of Egypt began with the worship of the Nile, and probably at the head of it. The country of the Agows, as well where the Nile rises as in parts more distant, is all a honey country; not only their whole sustenance, but their trade, their tribute to the king, and the maintenance of a great part of the capital, depends upon honey and butter, the common food of the better sort of people when they do not eat flesh; it composes their drink also in mead or hydromel. Now, this country, when uncultivated, naturally produces lupines, and the blossoms of these becoming food for the bees, gives the honey such a bitterness that no person will eat it, or use it any way in food or for drink.--After the king had bestowed the village of Geesh upon me, though with the consent of Fasil its governor, that egregious shuffler, to make the present of no use to me, sent me, indeed, the tribute of the honey in very large jars, but it all tasted so much of the lupines that it was of no earthly use whatever. Their constant attention is to weed out this bitter plant; and, when any of those countries are desolated by war, we may expect a large crop of lupines immediately to follow, and, for a time, plenty of bad honey in consequence. It is, then, this destructive bean that Pythagoras, who, it is said, ate no flesh, regarded as an object of detestation; it was equally so among the Abyssinians and Egyptians for the same reason. Both nations, moreover, have an aversion to hogs flesh, and both avoid the touch of dogs.

It is here I propose to take notice of an unnatural custom which prevails universally in Abyssinia, and which in early ages seems to have been common to the whole world. I did not think that any person of moderate knowledge in profane learning could have been ignorant of this remarkable custom among the nations of the east. But what still more surprised me, and is the least pardonable part of the whole, was the ignorance of part of the law of God, the earliest that was given to man, the most frequently noted, insisted upon, and prohibited. I have said, in the course of the narrative of my journey from Masuah, that, a small distance from Axum, I overtook on the way three travellers, who seemed to be soldiers, driving a cow before them. They halted at a brook, threw down the beast, and one of them cut a pretty large collop of flesh from its buttocks, after which they drove the cow gently on as before. A violent outcry was raised in England at hearing this circumstance, which they did not hesitate to pronounce _impossible_, when the manners and customs of Abyssinia were to them utterly unknown. The Jesuits, established in Abyssinia for above a hundred years, had told them of that people eating, what they call raw meat, in every page, and yet they were ignorant of this. Poncet, too, had done the same, but Poncet they had not read; and if any writer upon Ethiopia had omitted to mention it, it was because it was one of those facts too notorious to be repeated to swell a volume.

It must be from prejudice alone we condemn the eating of raw flesh; no precept, divine or human, that I know, forbids it; and if it is true, as later travellers have discovered, that there are nations ignorant of the use of fire, any law against eating raw flesh could never have been intended by God as obligatory upon mankind in general. At any rate, it is certainly not clearly known, whether the eating raw flesh was not an earlier and more general practice than by preparing it with fire; I think it was.

Many wise and learned men have doubted whether it was at first permitted to man to eat animal food at all. I do not pretend to give any opinion upon the subject, but many topics have been maintained successfully upon much more slender grounds. God, the author of life, and the best judge of what was proper to maintain it, gave this regimen to our first parents--“Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed: to you it shall be for meat[85].” And though, immediately after, he mentions both beasts and fowls, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth, he does not say that he has designed any of these as meat for man. On the contrary, he seems to have intended the vegetable creation as food for both man and beast--“And to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein _there is life_, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so[86].” After the flood, when mankind began to repossess the earth, God gave Noah a much more extensive permission--“Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things[87].”

As the criterion of judging of their aptitude for food was declared to be their _moving_ and having _life_, a danger appeared of misinterpretation, and that these creatures should be used living; a thing which God by no means intended, and therefore, immediately after, it is said, “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eat[88];” or, as it is rendered by the best interpreters, ‘Flesh, or members, torn from living animals having the blood in them, thou shalt not eat.’ We see then, by this prohibition, that this abuse of eating living meat, or part of animals while yet alive, was known in the days of Noah, and forbidden after being so known, and it is precisely what is practised in Abyssinia to this day. This law, then, was prior to that of Moses, but it came from the same legislator. It was given to Noah, and consequently obligatory upon the whole world. Moses, however, insists upon it throughout his whole law; which not only shews that this abuse was common, but that it was deeply rooted in, and interwoven with, the manners of the Hebrews. He positively prohibits it four times in one chapter in Deuteronomy[89], and thrice in one of the chapters of Leviticus[90]--“Thou shalt not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; thou shalt pour it upon the earth like water.”

Although the many instances of God’s tenderness to the brute creation, that constantly occur in the Mosaical precepts, and are a very beautiful part of them, and tho’ the barbarity of the custom itself might reasonably lead us to think that humanity alone was a sufficient motive for the prohibition of eating animals alive, yet nothing can be more certain, than that greater consequences were annexed to the indulging in this crime than what was apprehended from a mere depravity of manners. One[91] of the most learned and sensible men that ever wrote upon the sacred scriptures observes, that God, in forbidding this practice, uses more severe certification, and more threatening language, than against any other sin, excepting idolatry, with which it is constantly joined. God declares, “I will set my face against him that eateth blood, in the same manner as I will against him that sacrificeth his son to Moloch; I will set my face against him that eateth flesh with blood, till I cut him off from the people.”

We have an instance in the life of Saul[92] that shews the propensity of the Israelites to this crime. Saul’s army, after a battle, _flew_, that is, fell voraciously upon the cattle they had taken, and threw them upon the ground to cut off their flesh, and eat them raw, so that the army was defiled by eating blood, or living animals. To prevent this, Saul caused roll to him a great stone, and ordered those that killed their oxen to cut their throats upon that stone. This was the only lawful way of killing animals for food; the tying of the ox and throwing it upon the ground was not permitted as equivalent. The Israelites did probably in that case as the Abyssinians do at this day; they cut a part of its throat, so that blood might be seen upon the ground, but nothing mortal to the animal followed from that wound. But, after laying his head upon a large stone, and cutting his throat, the blood fell from on high, or was poured on the ground like water, and sufficient evidence appeared the creature was dead before it was attempted to eat it. We have seen that the Abyssinians came from Palestine a very few years after this; and we are not to doubt that they then carried with them this, with many other Jewish customs, which they have continued to this day.

The author I last quoted says, that it is plain, from all the books of the eastern nations, that their motive for eating flesh with the life, or limbs of living animals cut off with the blood, was from motives of religion, and for the purposes of idolatry, and so it probably had been among the Jews; for one of the reasons given in Leviticus for the prohibition of eating blood, or living flesh, is, that the people may no longer offer sacrifices to devils, after whom they have gone a-whoring[93]. If the reader chooses to be further informed how very common this practice was, he need only read the Halacoth Gedaloth, or its translation, where the whole chapter is taken up with instances of this kind.

That this practice likewise prevailed in Europe, as well as in Asia and Africa, may be collected from various authors. The Greeks had their bloody feasts and sacrifices where they ate living flesh; these were called Omophagia. Arnobius[94] says, “Let us pass over the horrid scenes presented at the Bacchanalian feast, wherein, with a counterfeited fury, though with a truly depraved heart, you twine a number of serpents around you, and, pretending to be possessed with some god, or spirit, you tear to pieces, with bloody mouths, the bowels of living goats, which cry all the time from the torture they suffer.” From all this it appears, that the practice of the Abyssinians eating live animals at this day, was very far from being new, or, what was nonsensically said, _impossible_. And I shall only further observe, that those of my readers that wish to indulge a spirit of criticism upon the great variety of customs, men and manners, related in this history, or have those criticisms attended to, should furnish themselves with a more decent stock of reading than, in this instance, they seem to have possessed; or, when another example occurs of that kind, which they call _impossible_, that they would take the truth of it upon my word, and believe what they are not sufficiently qualified to investigate.

Consistent with the plan of this work, which is to describe the manners of the several nations through which I passed, good and bad, as I observed them, I cannot avoid giving some account of this Polyphemus banquet, as far as decency will permit me; it is part of the history of a barbarous people; whatever I might wish, I cannot decline it.

In the capital, where one is safe from surprise at all times, or in the country or villages, when the rains have become so constant that the valleys will not bear a horse to pass them, or that men cannot venture far from home through fear of being surrounded and swept away by temporary torrents, occasioned by sudden showers on the mountains; in a word, when a man can say he is safe at home, and the spear and shield is hung up in the hall, a number of people of the best fashion in the villages, of both sexes, courtiers in the palace, or citizens in the town, meet together to dine between twelve and one o’clock.

A long table is set in the middle of a large room, and benches beside it for a number of guests who are invited. Tables and benches the Portugueze introduced amongst them; but bull hides, spread upon the ground, served them before, as they do in the camp and country now. A cow or bull, one or more, as the company is numerous, is brought close to the door, and his feet strongly tied. The skin that hangs down under his chin and throat, which I think we call the dew-lap in England, is cut only so deep as to arrive at the fat, of which it totally consists, and, by the separation of a few small blood-vessels, six or seven drops of blood only fall upon the ground. They have no stone, bench, nor altar upon which these cruel assassins lay the animal’s head in this operation. I should beg his pardon indeed for calling him an assassin, as he is not so merciful as to aim at the life, but, on the contrary, to keep the beast alive till he be totally eat up. Having satisfied the Mosaical law, according to his conception, by pouring these six or seven drops upon the ground, two or more of them fall to work; on the back of the beast, and on each side of the spine they cut skin-deep; then putting their fingers between the flesh and the skin, they begin to strip the hide of the animal half way down his ribs, and so on to the buttock, cutting the skin wherever it hinders them commodiously to strip the poor animal bare. All the flesh on the buttocks is cut off then, and in solid, square pieces, without bones, or much effusion of blood; and the prodigious noise the animal makes is a signal for the company to sit down to table.

There are then laid before every guest, instead of plates, round cakes, if I may so call them, about twice as big as a pan-cake, and something thicker and tougher. It is unleavened bread of a sourish taste, far from being disagreeable, and very easily digested, made of a grain called teff. It is of different colours, from black to the colour of the whitest wheat-bread. Three or four of these cakes are generally put uppermost, for the food of the person opposite to whose seat they are placed. Beneath these are four or five of ordinary bread, and of a blackish kind. These serve the master to wipe his fingers upon; and afterwards the servant, for bread to his dinner.

Two or three servants then come, each with a square piece of beef in their bare hands, laying it upon the cakes of teff, placed like dishes down the table, without cloth or any thing else beneath them. By this time all the guests have knives in their hands, and their men have the large crooked ones, which they put to all sorts of uses during the time of war. The women have small clasped knives, such as the worst of the kind made at Birmingham, sold for a penny each.

The company are so ranged that one man sits between two women; the man with his long knife cuts a thin piece, which would be thought a good beef-steak in England, while you see the motion of the fibres yet perfectly distinct, and alive in the flesh. No man in Abyssinia, of any fashion whatever, feeds himself, or touches his own meat. The women take the steak and cut it length-ways like strings, about the thickness of your little finger, then crossways into square pieces, something smaller than dice. This they lay upon a piece of the teff bread, strongly powdered with black pepper, or Cayenne pepper, and fossile-salt, they then wrap it up in the teff bread like a cartridge.

In the mean time, the man having put up his knife, with each hand resting upon his neighbour’s knee, his body stooping, his head low and forward, and mouth open very like an idiot, turns to the one whose cartridge is first ready, who stuffs the whole of it into his mouth, which is so full that he is in constant danger of being choked. This is a mark of grandeur. The greater the man would seem to be, the larger piece he takes in his mouth; and the more noise he makes in chewing it, the more polite he is thought to be. They have, indeed, a proverb that says, “Beggars and thieves only eat small pieces, or without making a noise.” Having dispatched this morsel, which he does very expeditiously, his next female neighbour holds forth another cartridge, which goes the same way, and so on till he is satisfied. He never drinks till he has finished eating; and, before he begins, in gratitude to the fair ones that fed him, he makes up two small rolls of the same kind and form; each of his neighbours open their mouths at the same time, while with each hand he puts their portion into their mouths. He then falls to drinking out of a large handsome horn; the ladies eat till they are satisfied, and then all drink together, “Vive la Joye et la Jeunesse!” A great deal of mirth and joke goes round, very seldom with any mixture of acrimony or ill-humour.

All this time, the unfortunate victim at the door is bleeding indeed, but bleeding little. As long as they can cut off the flesh from his bones, they do not meddle with the thighs, or the parts where the great arteries are. At last they fall upon the thighs likewise; and soon after the animal, bleeding to death, becomes so tough that the canibals, who have the rest of it to eat, find very hard work to separate the flesh from the bones with their teeth like dogs.

In the mean time, those within are very much elevated; love lights all its fires, and every thing is permitted with absolute freedom. There is no coyness, no delays, no need of appointments or retirement to gratify their wishes; there are no rooms but one, in which they sacrifice both to Bacchus and to Venus[95]. The two men nearest the vacuum a pair have made on the bench by leaving their seats, hold their upper garment like a skreen before the two that have left the bench; and, if we may judge by sound, they seem to think it as great a shame to make love in silence as to eat.--Replaced in their seats again, the company drink the happy couple’s health; and their example is followed at different ends of the table, as each couple is disposed. All this passes without remark or scandal, not a licentious word is uttered, nor the most distant joke upon the transaction.

These ladies are, for the most part, women of family and character, and they and their gallants are reciprocally distinguished by the name _Woodage_, which answers to what in Italy they call Cicisbey; and, indeed, I believe that the name itself, as well as the practice, is Hebrew; _schus chis beiim_, signifies _attendants_ or _companions of the bride_, or _bride’s man_, as we call it in England. The only difference is, that in Europe the intimacy and attendance continues during the marriage, while, among the Jews, it was permitted only the few days of the marriage ceremony. The aversion to Judaism, in the ladies of Europe, has probably led them to the _prolongation_ of the term.

It was a custom of the ancient Egyptians to purge themselves monthly for three days; and the same is still in practice in Abyssinia. We shall speak more of the reason of this practice in the botanical part of our work, where a drawing of a most beautiful tree[96], used for this purpose, is given.

Although we read from the Jesuits a great deal about marriage and polygamy, yet there is nothing which may be averred more truly than that there is no such thing as marriage in Abyssinia, unless that which is contracted by mutual consent, without other form, subsisting only till dissolved by dissent of one or other, and to be renewed or repeated as often as it is agreeable to both parties, who, when they please, cohabit together again as man and wife, after having been divorced, had children by others, or whether they have been married, or had children with others or not. I remember to have once been at Koscam in presence of the Iteghè, when, in the circle, there was a woman of great quality, and seven men who had all been her husbands, none of whom was the happy spouse at that time.

Upon separation they divide the children. The eldest son falls to the mother’s first choice, and the eldest daughter to the father. If there is but one daughter, and all the rest sons, she is assigned to the father. If there is but one son, and all the rest daughters, he is the right of the mother. If the numbers are unequal after the first election, the rest are divided by lot. There is no such distinction as legitimate and illegitimate children from the king to the beggar; for supposing any one of their marriages valid, all the issue of the rest must be adulterous bastards.

One day Ras Michael asked me, before Abba Salama, (the Acab Saat) Whether such things as these promiscuous marriages and divorces were permitted and practised in my country? I excused myself till I was no longer able; and, upon his insisting, I was obliged to answer, That even if scripture had not forbid to us as Christians, as Englishmen the law restrained us from such practices, by declaring polygamy felony, or punishable by death.

The king in his marriage uses no other ceremony than this:--He sends an Azage to the house where the lady lives, where the officer announces to her, It is the king’s pleasure that she should remove instantly to the palace. She then dresses herself in the best manner, and immediately obeys. Thenceforward he assigns her an apartment in the palace, and gives her a house elsewhere in any part she chuses. Then when he makes her Iteghé, it seems to be the nearest resemblance to marriage; for, whether in the court or the camp, he orders one of the judges to pronounce in his presence, That he, the king, has chosen his hand-maid, naming her for his queen; upon which the crown is put upon her head, but she is not anointed.

The crown being hereditary in one family, but elective in the person, and polygamy being permitted, must have multiplied these heirs very much, and produced constant disputes, so that it was found necessary to provide a remedy for the anarchy and effusion of royal blood, which was otherwise inevitably to follow. The remedy was a humane and gentle one, they were confined in a good climate upon a high mountain, and maintained there at the public expence. They are there taught to read and write, but nothing else; 750 cloths for wrapping round them, 3000 ounces of gold, which is 30,000 dollars, or crowns, are allowed by the state for their maintenance. These princes are hardly used, and, in troublesome times, often put to death upon the smallest misinformation. While I was in Abyssinia their revenue was so grossly misapplied, that some of them were said to have died with hunger and of cold by the avarice and hard-heartedness of Michael neglecting to furnish them necessaries. Nor had the king, as far as ever I could discern, that fellow-feeling one would have expected from a prince rescued from that very situation himself; perhaps this was owing to his fear of Ras Michael.

However that be, and however distressing the situation of those princes, we cannot but be satisfied with it when we look to the neighbouring kingdom of Sennaar, or Nubia. There no mountain is trusted with the confinement of their princes, but, as soon as the father dies, the throats of all the collaterals, and all their descendents that can be laid hold of, are cut; and this is the case with all the black states in the desert west of Sennaar, Dar Fowr, Selé, and Bagirma.

Great exaggerations have been used in speaking of the military force of this kingdom. The largest army that ever was in the field (as far as I could be informed from the oldest officers) was that in the rebellion before the battle of Serbraxos. I believe, when they first encamped upon the lake Tzana, the rebel army altogether might amount to about 50,000 men. In about a fortnight afterwards, many had deserted; and I do not think (I only speak by hearsay) that, when the king marched out of Gondar, they were then above 30,000. I believe when Gojam joined, and it was known that Michael and his army were to be made prisoners, that the rebel army increased to above 60,000 men; cowards and brave, old and young, veteran soldiers and blackguards, all came to be spectators of that desirable event, which many of the wisest had despaired of living to see. I believe the king’s army never amounted to 26,000 men; and, by desertion and other causes, when we retreated to Gondar, I do not suppose the army was 16,000, mostly from the province of Tigré. Fasil, indeed, had not joined; and putting his army of 12,000 men, (I make no account of the wild Galla beyond the Nile) I do not imagine that any king of Abyssinia ever commanded 40,000 effective men at any time, or upon any cause whatever, exclusive of his household troops.

Their standards are large staves, surmounted at the top with a hollow ball; below this is a tube in which the staff is fixed; and immediately below the ball, a narrow stripe of silk made forked, or swallow-tailed, like a vane, and seldom much broader. In the war of Begemder we first saw colours like a flag hoisted for king Theodorus. They were red, about eight feet long and near three feet broad; but they never appeared but two days; and the success that attended their first appearance was such that did not bid fair to bring them into fashion.

The standards of the infantry have their flags painted two colours crossways--yellow, white, red, or green. The horse have all a lion upon their flag[97], some a red, some a green, and some a white lion. The black horse have a yellow lion, and over it a white star upon a red flag, alluding to two prophecies, the one, “Judah is a young lion,” and the other, “There shall come a star out of Judah.” This had been discontinued for want of cloth till the war of Begemder, when a large piece was found in Joas’s wardrobe, and was thought a certain omen of his victory, and of a long and vigorous reign. This piece of cloth was said to have been brought from Cairo by Yasous II. for the campaign of Sennaar, and, with the other standards and colours, was surrendered to the rebels when the king was made prisoner.

The king’s household troops should consist of about 8000 infantry, 2000 of which carry firelocks, and supply the place of archers; bows have been laid aside for near a hundred years, and are only now used by the Waito Shangalla, and some other barbarous inconsiderable nations.

These troops are divided into four companies, each under an officer called Shalaka, which answers to our colonel. Every twenty men have an officer, every fifty a second, and every hundred a third; that is, every twenty have one officer who commands them, but is commanded likewise by an officer who commands the fifty; so that there are three officers who command fifty men, six command a hundred, and thirty command five hundred, over whom is the Shalaka; and this body they call Bet, which signifies a _house_, or _apartment_, because each of them goes by the name of one of the king’s apartments. For example, there is an apartment called Anbasa Bet, or the _lion’s house_, and a regiment carrying that name has the charge of it, and their duty is at that apartment, or that part of the palace where it is; there is another called Jan Bet, or the _elephant’s house_, that gives the name to another regiment; another called Werk Sacala, or the _gold house_, which gives its name to another corps; and so on with the rest; as for the horse, I have spoken of them already.

There are four regiments, that seldom, if ever, amounted to 1600 men, which depend alone upon the king, and are all foreigners, at least the officers; these have the charge of his person while in the field. In times when the king is out of leading-strings, they amount to four or five thousand, and then oppress the country, for they have great privileges. At times when the king’s hands are weak, they are kept incomplete out of fear and jealousy, which was the case in my time;--these have been already sufficiently described.

Three proclamations are made before the king marches. The first is, “Buy your mules, get ready your provision, and pay your servants, for, after such a day, they that seek me here shall not find me.” The second is about a week after, or according as the exigency is pressing; this is, “Cut down the kantuffa in the four quarters of the world, for I do not know where I am going.” This kantuffa is a terrible thorn which very much molests the king and nobility in their march, by taking hold of their long hair, and the cotton cloth they are wrapped in. The third and last proclamation is, “I am encamped upon the Angrab, or Kahha; he that does not join me there, I will chastise him for seven years.” I was long in doubt what this term of seven years meant, till I recollected the jubilee-year of the Jews, with whom seven years was a prescription of offences, debts, and all trespasses.

The rains generally cease the eighth of September; a sickly season follows till they begin again about the 20th of October; they then continue pretty constant, but moderate in quantity, till Hedar St Michael, the eighth of November. All epidemic diseases cease with the end of these rains, and it is then the armies begin to march.

CHAP. XII.

_State of Religion--Circumcision, Excision, &c._

There is no country in the world where there are so many churches as in Abyssinia. Though the country is very mountainous, and consequently the view much obstructed, it is very seldom you see less than five or six churches, and, if you are on a commanding ground, five times that number. Every great man that dies thinks he has atoned for all his wickedness if he leaves a fund to build a church, or has built one in his lifetime. The king builds many. Wherever a victory is gained, there a church is erected in the very field stinking with the putrid bodies of the slain. Formerly this was only the case when the enemy was Pagan or Infidel; now the same is observed when the victories are over Christians.

The situation of a church is always chosen near running water, for the convenience of their purifications and ablutions, in which they observe strictly the Levitical law. They are always placed upon the top of some beautiful, round hill, which is surrounded entirely with rows of the oxy-cedrus, or Virginia cedar, which grows here in great beauty and perfection, and is called Arz[98]. There is nothing adds so much to the beauty of the country as these churches and the plantations about them.

In the middle of this plantation of cedars is interspersed, at proper distances, a number of those beautiful trees called Cusso, which grow very high, and are all extremely picturesque.

All the churches are round, with thatched roofs; their summits are perfect cones; the outside is surrounded by a number of wooden pillars, which are nothing else than the trunks of the cedar-tree, and are placed to support the edifice, about eight feet of the roof projecting beyond the wall of the church, which forms an agreeable walk, or colonade, around it in hot weather, or in rain. The inside of the church is in several divisions, according as is prescribed by the law of Moses. The first is a circle somewhat wider than the inner one; here the congregation sit and pray. Within this is a square, and that square is divided by a veil or curtain, in which is another very small division answering to the holy of holies. This is so narrow that none but the priests can go into it. You are bare-footed whenever you enter the church, and, if bare-footed, you may go through every part of it, if you have any such curiosity, provided you are pure, _i. e._ have not been concerned with women for twenty-four hours before, or touched carrion or dead bodies, (a curious assemblage of ideas) for in that case you are not to go within the precincts, or outer circumference of the church, but stand and say your prayers at an awful distance among the cedars.

All persons of both sexes, under Jewish disqualifications, are obliged to observe this distance; and this is always a place belonging to the church, where, unless in Lent, you see the greatest part of the congregation; but this is left to your own conscience, and, if there was either great inconvenience in the one situation, or great satisfaction in the other, the case would be otherwise.

When you go to the church you put off your shoes before your first entering the outer precinct; but you must leave a servant there with them, or else they will be stolen, if good for any thing, by the priests and monks before you come out of the church. At entry you kiss the threshold, and two door-posts, go in and say what prayer you please, that finished, you come out again, and your duty is over. The churches are full of pictures, painted on parchment, and nailed upon the walls, in a manner little less slovenly than you see paltry prints in beggarly country ale-houses. There has been always a sort of painting known among the scribes, a daubing much inferior to the worst of our sign-painters. Sometimes, for a particular church, they get a number of pictures of saints, on skins of parchment, ready finished from Cairo, in a stile very little superior to these performances of their own. They are placed like a frize, and hung in the upper part of the wall. St George is generally there with his dragon, and St Demetrius fighting a lion. There is no choice in their saints, they are both of the Old and New Testament, and those that might be dispensed with from both. There is St Pontius Pilate and his wife; there is St Balaam and his ass; Samson and his jaw-bone; and so of the rest. But the thing that surprised me most was a kind of square-miniature upon the front of the head-piece, or mitre, of the priest, administering the sacrament at Adowa, representing Pharaoh on a white horse plunging in the Red Sea, with many guns and pistols swimming upon the surface of it around him.

Nothing embossed, nor in relief, ever appears in any of their churches; all this would be reckoned idolatry, so much so that they do not wear a cross, as has been represented, on the top of the ball of the sendick, or standard, because it casts a shade; but there is no doubt that pictures have been used in their churches from the very earliest age of Christianity.

The Abuna is looked upon as the patriarch of the Abyssinian church, for they have little knowledge of the coptic patriarch of Alexandria. We are perfectly ignorant of the history of these prelates for many years after their appointment. The first of these mentioned is Abuna Tecla Haimanout, who distinguished himself by the restoration of the royal family, and the regulations he made both in church and state, as we have seen in the history of those times: a very remarkable, but wise regulation was then made, that the Abyssinians should not have it in their power to choose one of their own countrymen as Abuna.

Wise men saw the fallen state of literature among them; and unless opportunity was given, from time to time, for their priests to go abroad to Jerusalem for their instruction, and for the purpose of bringing the Abuna, Tecla Haimanout knew that very soon no set of people would be more shamefully ignorant than those priests, even in the most common dogmas of their profession. He hoped therefore, by a considerable stipend, to tempt some men of learning to accept of this place, to give his countenance to learning and religion among them.

The Arabic canon[99], which is preserved by the Abyssinian church, and said to be of the council of Nice, should certainly be attributed to this Abuna, and is a forgery in, or very soon after, his time; for it is plain this canon took place about the year 1300, that it was lawful to elect an Abuna, who was a native of Abyssinia before this prohibition, otherwise it would not have applied. Abuna Tecla Haimanout was an Abyssinian by birth, and he was Abuna; the prohibition therefore had not then taken place: but, as no Abyssinian was afterwards chosen, it must certainly be a work of his time, for it is impossible a canon should be made by the council of Nice, settling the rank of a bishop in a nation which, for above 200 years after that general council, were not Christians.

As the Abuna very seldom understands the language, he has no share of the government, but goes to the palace on days of ceremony, or when he has any favour to ask or complaint to make. He is much fallen in esteem from what he was formerly, chiefly from his own little intrigues, his ignorance, avarice, and want of firmness. His greatest employment is in ordinations. A number of men and children present themselves at a distance, and there stand, from humility, not daring to approach him. He then asks who these are? and they tell him that they want to be deacons. On this, with a small iron cross in his hand, after making two or three signs, he blows with his mouth twice or thrice upon them, saying, “Let them be deacons.” I saw once all the army of Begemder made deacons, just returned from shedding the blood of 10,000 men, thus drawn up in Aylo Meidan, and the Abuna standing at the church of St Raphael, about a quarter of a mile distant from them. With these were mingled about 1000 women, who consequently, having part of the same blast and brandishment of the cross, were as good deacons as the rest.

The same with regard to monks. A crowd of people, when he is riding, will assemble within 500 yards of him, and there begin a melancholy song. He asks who these men with beards are? they tell him they want to be ordained monks. After the same signs of the cross, and three blasts with his mouth, he orders them to be monks. But in ordaining priests, they must be able to read a chapter of St Mark, which they do in a language he does not understand a word of. They then give the Abuna a brick of salt, to the value of perhaps sixpence, for their ordination; which, from this present given, the Jesuits maintained to be Simoniacal.

The Itchegué is the chief of the monks in general, especially those of Debra Libanos. The head of the other monks, called those of St Eustathius, is the superior of the convent of Mahebar Selassé, on the N. W. corner of Abyssinia, near Kuara, and the Shangalla, towards Sennaar and the river Dender. All this tribe is grossly ignorant, and through time, I believe, will lose the use of letters entirely.

The Itcheguè is ordained by two chief priests holding a white cloth, or veil, over him, while another says a prayer; and they then lay all their hands on his head, and join in psalms together. He is a man, in troublesome times, of much greater consequence than the Abuna. There are, after these, chief priests and scribes, as in the Jewish church: the last of these, the ignorant, careless copiers of the holy scriptures.

The monks here do not live in convents, as in Europe, but in separate houses round their church, and each cultivates a part of the property they have in land. The priests have their maintenance assigned to them in kind, and do not labour. A steward, being a layman, is placed among them by the king, who receives all the rents belonging to the churches, and gives to the priests the portion that is their due; but neither the Abuna, nor any other churchman, has any business with the revenues of churches, nor can touch them.

The articles of the faith of the Abyssinians have been inquired into and discussed with so much keenness in the beginning of this century, that I fear I should disoblige some of my readers were I to pass this subject without notice.

Their first bishop, Frumentius, being ordained about the year 333, and instructed in the religion of the Greeks of the church of Alexandria by St Athanasius, then sitting in the chair of St Mark, it follows that the true religion of the Abyssinians, which they received on their conversion to Christianity, is that of the Greek church; and every rite or ceremony in the Abyssinian church may be found and traced up to its origin in the Greek church while both of them were orthodox.

Frumentius preserved Abyssinia untainted with heresy till the day of his death. We find, from a letter preserved in the works of St Athanasius, that Constantius, the heretical Greek emperor, wished St Athanasius to deliver him up, which that patriarch refused to do: indeed at that time it was not in his power.

Soon after this, Arianism, and a number of other heresies, each in their turn, were brought by the monks from Egypt, and infected the church of Abyssinia. A great part of these heresies, in the beginning, were certainly owing to the difference of the languages in those times, and especially the two words Nature and Person, than which no two words were ever more equivocal in every language in which they have been translated. Either of these words, in our own language, is a sufficient example of what I have said; and in fact we have adopted them from the Latin. If we had adopted the signification of these words in religion from the Greek, and applied the Latin words of Person and Nature to common and material cases, perhaps we had done better. Neither of them hath ever yet been translated into the Abyssinian, so as to be understood to mean the same thing in different places. This for a time was, in a certain degree, remedied, or understood, by the free access they had, for several ages, both to Cairo and Jerusalem, where their books were revised and corrected, and many of the principal orthodox opinions inculcated. But, since the conquest of Arabia and Egypt by Sultan Selim, in 1516, the communication between Abyssinia and these two countries hath been very precarious and dangerous, if not entirely cut off; and now as to doctrine, I am perfectly convinced they are in every respect to the full as great heretics as ever the Jesuits represented them. And I am confident, if any Catholic missionaries attempt to instruct them again, they will soon lose the use of letters, and the little knowledge they yet have of religion, from prejudice only, and fear of incurring a danger they are not sufficiently acquainted with to follow the means of avoiding it.

The two natures in Christ, the two persons, their unity, their equality, the inferiority of the manhood, doctrines, and definitions of the time of St Athanasius, are all wrapt up in tenfold darkness, and inextricable from amidst the thick clouds of heresy and ignorance of language. Nature is often mistaken for person, and person for nature; the same of the human substance. It is monstrous to hear their reasoning upon it. One would think, that every different monk, every time he talks, purposely broached some new heresy. Scarce one of them that ever I conversed with, and those of the very best of them, would suffer it to be said, that Christ’s body was perfectly like our’s. Nay, it was easily seen that, in their hearts, they went still further, and were very loth to believe, if they did believe it at all, that the body of the Virgin Mary and St Anne were perfectly human.

Not to trouble the reader further with these uninteresting particulars and distinctions, I shall only add, that the Jesuits, in the account they give of the heresies, ignorance, and obstinacy of the Abyssinian clergy, have not misrepresented them, in the imputations made against them, either in point of faith or of morals. Whether, this being the case, the mission they undertook of themselves into that country, gave them authority to destroy the many with a view to convert the few, is a question to be resolved hereafter; I believe it did not; and that the tares and the wheat should have been suffered to grow together till a hand of more authority, guided by unerring judgment, pulled them, with that portion of safety he had pre-ordained for both.

The Protestant writers again unfairly triumph over their adversaries, the Catholics, by asking, Why all that noise about the two natures in Christ? It is plain, say they, from passages in the Haimanout Abou, and their other tracts upon orthodox belief, that they acknowledge that Christ was perfect God and perfect man, of a rational soul and human flesh subsisting, and that all the confessions of unity, co-equality, and inferiority, are there expressed in the clearest manner as received in the Greek church. What necessity was there for more; and what need of disputing upon these points already so fully settled?

This, I beg leave to say, is unfair; for though it is true that, at the time of collecting the Haimanout Abou, and at the time St Athanasius, St Cyril, and St Chrysostom wrote, the explanation of these points was uniform in favour of orthodoxy, and that while access could easily be had to Jerusalem or Alexandria, then Greek and Christian cities, difficulties, if any arose, were easily resolved; yet, at the time the Jesuits came, those books were very rare in the country, and the contents of them so far from being understood, that they were applied to the support of the grossest heresies, from the misinterpretation of the ignorant monks of these latter times. That the Abyssinians _had been_ orthodox availed nothing: they _were then_ become as ignorant of the doctrines of St Athanasius and St Cyril, as if those fathers had never wrote; and it is their religion at this period which the Jesuits condemn, not that of the church of Alexandria, when in its purity under the first patriarchs; and, to complete all their misfortunes, no access to Jerusalem is any longer open to them, and very rarely communication with Cairo.

On the other hand, the Jesuits, who found that the Abyssinians were often wrong in some things, were resolved to deny that they could be right in any thing; and, from attacking their tenets, they fell upon their ceremonies received in the Greek church at the same time with Christianity; and in this dispute they shewed great ignorance and malevolence, which they supported by the help of falsehood and invention. I shall take notice of only one instance in many, because it has been insisted upon by both parties with unusual vehemence, and very little candour.

It was settled by the first general council, that one baptism only was necessary for the regeneration of man, for freeing him from the sin of our first parents, and lifting him under the banner of Christ,--“I confess one baptism for the remission of sins,” says the Symbol. Now it was maintained by the Jesuits, that in Abyssinia, once every year, they baptised all grown people, or adults. I shall, as briefly as possible, set down what I myself saw while on the spot.

The small river, running between the town of Adowa and the church, had been dammed up for several days; the stream was scanty, so that it scarcely overflowed. It was in places three feet deep, in some, perhaps, four, or little more. Three large tents were pitched the morning before the feast of the Epiphany; one on the north for the priests to repose in during intervals of the service, and beside this one to communicate in; on the south there was a third tent for the monks and priests of another church to rest themselves in their turn. About twelve o’clock at night the monks and priests met together, and began their prayers and psalms at the water-side, one party relieving each other. At dawn of day the governor, Welleta Michael, came thither with some soldiers to raise men for Ras Michael, then on his march against Waragna Fasil, and far down on a small hill by the water-side, the troops all skirmishing on foot and on horseback around them.

As soon as the sun began to appear, three large crosses of wood were carried by three priests dressed in their sacerdotal vestments, and who, coming to the side of the river, dipt the cross into the water, and all this time the firing, skirmishing, and praying went on together. The priests with the crosses returned, one of their number before them carrying something less than an English quart of water in a silver cup or chalice; when they were about fifty yards from Welleta Michael, that general stood up, and the priest took as much water as he could hold in his hands and sprinkled it upon his head, holding the cup at the same time to Welleta Michael’s mouth to taste; after which the priest received it back again, saying, at the same time, “Gzier y’barak,” which is simply, “May God bless you.” Each of the three crosses were then brought forward to Welleta Michael, and he kissed them. The ceremony of sprinkling the water was then repeated to all the great men in the tent, all cleanly dressed as in gala. Some of them, not contented with aspersion, received the water in the palms of their hands joined, and drank it there; more water was brought for those that had not partaken of the first; and, after the whole of the governor’s company was sprinkled, the crosses returned to the river, their bearers singing _hallelujahs_, and the skirmishing and firing continuing.

Janni, my Greek friend, had recommended me to the priest of Adowa; and, as the governor had placed me by him, I had an opportunity, for both these reasons, of being served among the first. My friend the priest sprinkled water upon my head, and gave me his blessing in the same words he had used to the others; but, as I saw it was not necessary to drink, I declined putting the cup to my lips, for two reasons; one, because I knew the Abyssinians have a scruple to eat or drink after strangers; the other, because I apprehended the water was not perfectly clean; for no sooner had the crosses first touched the pool, and the cup filled from the clean part for the governor, than two or three hundred boys, calling themselves _deacons_, plunged in with only a white cloth, or rag, tied round their middle; in all other respects they were perfectly naked. All their friends and relations (indeed everybody) went close down to the edge of the pool, where water was thrown upon them, and first decently enough by boys of the town, and those brought on purpose as deacons; but, after the better sort of people had received the aspersion, the whole was turned into a riot, the boys, muddying the water, threw it round them upon every one they saw well-dressed or clean. The governor retreated first, then the monks, and then the crosses, and left the brook in possession of the boys and blackguards, who rioted there till two o’clock in the afternoon.

I must, however, observe, that, a very little time after the governor had been sprinkled, two horses and two mules, belonging to Ras Michael and Ozoro Esther, came and were washed. Afterwards the soldiers went in and bathed their horses and guns; those who had wounds bathed them also. I saw no women in the bath uncovered, even to the knee; nor did I see any person of the rank of decent servants go into the water at all except with the horses. Heaps of platters and pots, that had been used by Mahometans or Jews, were brought thither likewise to be purified; and thus the whole ended.

I saw this ceremony performed afterwards at Kahha, near Gondar, in presence of the king, who drank some of the water, and was sprinkled by the priests; then took the cup in his hand, and threw the rest that was left upon Amha Yasous[100], saying, “I will be your deacon;” and this was thought a high compliment, the priest giving him his blessing at the same time, but offering him no more water.

I shall now state, in his own words, the account given of this by Alvarez, chaplain to the Portuguese embassy, under Don Roderigo de Lima.

The king had invited Don Roderigo de Lima, the Portuguese ambassador, to be present at the celebration of the festival of the Epiphany. They went about a mile and a half from their former station, and encamped upon the side of a pond which had been prepared for the occasion. Alvarez says, that, in their way, they were often asked by those they met or overtook, “Whether or not they were going to be baptized?” to which the chaplain and his company answered in the negative, as having been already once baptized in their childhood.

“In the night, says he, a great number of priests assembled about the pond, roaring and singing with a view of blessing the water. After midnight the baptism began. The Abuna Mark, the king and queen, were the first that went into the lake; they had each a piece of cotton cloth about their middle, which was just so much more than the rest of the people had. At the sun-rising the baptism was most thronged; after which, when Alvarez[101] _came_, the lake was full of holy water, into which they had poured oil.”

It should seem, from this outset of his narrative, that he was not at the lake till the ceremony was half over, and did not see the benediction of the water at all, nor the curious exhibition of the King, Queen, and Abuna, and their cotton cloths. As for the circumstance of the oil being poured into the water, I will not positively contradict it, for, though I was early there, it might have escaped me if it was done in the dark. However, I never heard it mentioned as part of the ceremony; and it is probable I should, if any such thing was really practised; neither was I in time to have seen it at Kahha.

“Before the pond a scaffold was built, covered round with planks, within which sat the king looking towards the pond, his face covered with blue taffeta, while an old man, who was the king’s tutor, was standing in the water up to the shoulders, naked as he was born, and half dead with cold, for it had _frozen_ violently in the night. All those that came near him he took by the head and plunged them in the water, whether men or women, saying, in his own language, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”

Now Shoa, where the king was then, is in lat. 8° N. and the sun was in 22° south declination, advancing northward, so the sun was, on the day of the Epiphany, within 30° of the zenith of the bathing-place. The thermometer of Fahrenheit rises at Gondar about that time to 68°, so in Shoa it cannot rise to less than 70°, for Gondar is in lat. 12° N. that is 4° farther northward, so it is not possible water should freeze, nor did I ever see ice in Abyssinia, not even on the highest or coldest mountains. January is one of the hottest months in the year, day and night the sky is perfectly serene, nor is there there a long disproportioned winter night. At Shoa the days are equal to the nights, at least as to sense, even in the month of January.

The baptism, Alvarez says, began at midnight, and the old tutor dipt every person under water, taking him by the head, saying, ‘I baptise thee in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ It was most thronged at sun-rise, and ended about nine o’clock; a long time for an old man to stand in frozen water.

The number (as women were promiscuously admitted) could not be less than 40,000; so that even the nine hours this baptist-general officiated, he must have had exercise enough to keep him warm, if 40,000, (many of them naked beauties) passed through _his hands_.

The women were stark naked before the men, not even a rag about them. Without some such proper medium as frozen water, I fear it would not have contributed much to the interests of religion to have trusted a priest (even an old one) among so many bold and naked beauties, especially as he had the first six hours of them in the dark.

The Abuna, the king, and queen, were the three first baptised, all three being absolutely naked, having only a cotton cloth round their middle. I am sure there never could be a greater deviation from the manners of any kingdom, than this is from those of Abyssinia. The king is always covered; you seldom see any part of him but his eyes. The queen and every woman in Abyssinia, in public and private, (I mean where nothing is intended but conversation) are covered to the chin. It is a disgrace to them to have even their feet seen by strangers; and their arms and hands are concealed even to their nails. A curious circumstance therefore it would have been for the king to be so liberal of his queen’s charms, while he covers his own face with blue taffeta; but to imagine that the Abuna, a coptish monk bred in the desert of St Macarius, would expose himself naked among naked women, contrary to the usual custom of the celebration he observes in his own church, is monstrous, and must exceed all belief whatever. As the Abuna Mark too was of the reasonable age of 110 years, he might, I think, have dispensed at that time of life with a bathing gown, especially as it was _frost_.

The old man in the pond repeated the formula, “I baptise you in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” in his own language; and Alvarez, it is plain, understood not one word of Abyssinian. Yet, on the other hand, he speaks Latin to the king, who wonderfully understands him, and answers as decisively on the merits of the dispute as if he had been educated in the Sorbonne. “Confiteor unum baptizma” says Alvarez[102], was a constitution of the Nicene council under Pope Leo. Right, says the king, whose church, however, anathematized Leo and the council he presided at, which both the king and Alvarez should have known was not the Nicene council, though the words of the symbol quoted are thought to be part of a confession framed by that assembly.

“Qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit salvus erit,” says Alvarez. “You say right, answers the king, as to baptism; these are the words of our Saviour; but this present ceremony was lately invented by a grandfather of mine, in favour of such as have turned Moors, and are desirous again of becoming Christians.”

I should think, in the first place, this answer of the king, should have let Alvarez see no baptism was intended there; or, if it was a re-baptism, it only took place in favour of those who had turned Moors, and must therefore have been but partial. If this was really the case, what had the king, queen, and Abuna to do in it? Sure they had neither apostatized nor was the company of apostates a very creditable society for them.

Alvarez, to persuade us this is real baptism, says that oil was thrown into the pond before he came. He will not charge himself with having seen this, and it is probably a falsehood. But he knew it was an essential in baptism in all the churches in the east; so indeed is salt, which he should have said was here used likewise: then he would have had all the materials of Greek baptism, and this salt might have contributed to cooling the water, that had frozen under the rays of a burning sun.

Alvarez must have seen, that not only men and women go to be washed in the pool, but horses, cows, mules, and a prodigious number of asses. Are these baptised? I would wish to know the formula the reverend baptist-general used on their occasion.

There is but one church where I ever saw sacred rites, or something like baptism, conferred upon asses; it is, I think, at Rome on St Andrew’s or St Patrick’s day. It should be St Balaam’s, if he was in the Roman kalendar as high as he is in the Abyssinian. In that church (it is I think on Monte Cavallo) all sorts of asses, about and within Rome, are gathered together, and showers of holy water and blessings rained by a priest upon them. What is the formula I do not know; although it is a joke put upon strangers, especially of one nation, to assemble them there; or whether the two churches of Rome and Abyssinia differ so much in this as in other points of discipline, I am not informed; but the rationality and decency of such a ceremony being the same in all churches, the service performed at the time should be the same likewise.

I will not then have any scruple to say, that this whole account of Alvarez is a gross fiction; that no baptism, or any thing like baptism, is meant by the ceremony; that a man is no more baptised by keeping the anniversary of our Saviour’s baptism, than he is crucified by keeping his crucifixion. The commemoration of our Saviour’s baptism on the epiphany, and the blessing the waters that day, is an old observance of the eastern church, formerly performed in public in Egypt as now in Ethiopia. Since that of Alexandria fell into the hands of Mahometans, the fear of insult and profanation has obliged them to confine this ceremony, and all other processions, within the walls of their churches, in each of which there is constantly a place devoted to this use. Those that cannot attend the ceremony of aspersion in the church, especially sick or infirm people, have the water sent to them, and a large contribution is made for the patriarch, or bishop; yet nobody ever took it into their heads to tax either Greek or Armenian with a repetition of baptism.

Monsieur de Tournefort[103], in his travels through the Levant, gives you a figure of the Greek priest, who blesses the water in a peculiar habit, with a pastoral staff in his hand.

But, besides this, various falsehoods have likewise been propagated about the manner of baptism practiced in Abyssinia, all in order to impugn the validity of it, and to excuse the rash conduct of the Jesuits for re-baptising all the Abyssinians, as if they had been a Jewish and Pagan people that never had been baptised at all. The violation of this article of the creed, or confession of Nice, was a cause of great offence to the Abyssinians, and of the misfortunes that happened afterwards. The whole of the Abyssinian service of baptism is in their liturgy. The Jesuits had plenty of copies in their hands, and could have pointed out the part of the service that was heretical, if they had pleased; they did not pretend, however, to do this, and their silence condemns them.

As for the idle stories that are told of the words pronounced, such as,--“I baptize you in the name of the Holy Trinity,”--“In the name of Peter and Paul,”--“I baptize you in the water of Jordan,”--“May God baptise you,”--“May God wash you,” and many others, they are all invented by the Jesuits, to excuse the repetition of baptism in Abyssinia, which there was no sort of occasion for, as they might have examined the words and form in the liturgies, which are in every church; and I must here only observe, that if, as the chaplain of Alvarez says, the priest in the pool, on the festival of the Epiphany, was so fond of the proper words as even, at that time, to say, “I baptise you in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” the words he quotes to shew this immersion in water on the Epiphany, is a real baptism, I cannot comprehend why they should vary them to other words, when nothing but baptism is meant. But this I can bear evidence of, that, in no time when I was present, as I have above a hundred times been at the baptism both of adults and infants, aye, and of apostates too, I never heard other words pronounced than the orthodox baptismal ones, “I baptize thee in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” immerging the child in pure water, into which they first pour a small quantity of oil of olives, in the form of a cross.

The Abyssinians receive the holy sacrament in both kinds in unleavened bread, and in the grape bruised with the husk together as it grows, so that it is a kind of marmalade, and is given in a flat spoon: whatever they may pretend, some mixture seems necessary to keep it from fermentation in the state that it is in, unless the dried cluster is fresh bruised just before it is used, for it is little more fluid than the common marmalade of confectioners; but it is perfectly the grape as it grew, bruised stones and skin together. Some means, however, have been used, as I suppose, to prevent fermentation, and make it keep; and, though this is constantly denied, I have often thought I tasted a flavour that was not natural to the grape itself.

It is a mistake that there is no wine in Abyssinia, for a quantity of excellent strong wine is made at Dreeda, south-west from Gondar about thirty miles, which would more than supply the quantity necessary for the celebration of the eucharist in all Abyssinia twenty times over. The people themselves are not fond of wine, and plant the vine in one place only; and in this they have been imitated by the Egyptians, their colony; but a small black grape, of an excellent flavour, grows plentifully wild in every wood in Tigré.

Large pieces of bread are given to the communicants in proportion to their quality; and I have seen great men, who, though they open their mouths as wide as conveniently a man can do, yet from the respect the priest bore him, such a portion of the loaf was put into his mouth that water ran from his eyes, from the incapacity of chewing it, which, however, he does as indecently, and with full as much noise, as he eats at table.

After receiving the sacrament of the eucharist in both kinds, a pitcher of water is brought, of which the communicant drinks a large draught; and well he needs it to wash down the quantity of bread he has just swallowed. He then retires from the steps of the inner division upon which the administering priest stands, and, turning his face to the wall of the church, in private says some prayer with seeming decency and attention.

The Romanists doubt of the validity of the Abyssinian consecration of the elements, because in their liturgy it is plainly said, “Lord, put thy hand upon this cup, and bless it, and sanctify it, and purify it, that in it may be made thy holy blood;” and of the bread they say, “Bless this saucer, or plate, that in it may be made thy holy body.” And in their prayer they say, “Change this bread that it may be made thy pure body which is joined with this cup of thy precious blood.” The Jesuits doubt of the validity of this consecration, because it is said, “this _bread_ is my body,” and over the wine, “this _cup_ is my blood;” whereas, to operate a true transubstantiation, they should say over the bread, “this is my body.”

For my own part, I leave it to the reverend fathers, who are the best judges, what is necessary to operate this miracle of transubstantiation. The reality of the thing itself is denied by all Protestant churches, has been often doubted by others, has been ridiculed by lay-writers, and can never be a matter, I believe, of thorough conviction, much less of proof to any. The dignity of the subject, on which it touches nearly, as well as tenderness for our brethren on the continent, an article of whose faith it is, should always screen it from being treated with pleasantry, whatever we believe, or whether we believe it or not.

M. Ludolf thinks, that the words I have set down are a proof the Abyssinians do not believe in transubstantiation. For my part, from those very words, I cannot think any thing is clearer than that they do; the bread is upon the plate; they pray that that plate may be blessed, “That in it the bread may be made God’s holy body[104];” and of the wine they say, “That it may be made thy holy blood:” and in their prayer they say, “Change this bread that it may be made thy body;” and again, “May the Holy Ghost shine upon this bread, that it may be made the body of Christ our God, and that this cup may be changed and become the blood, not the _symbol_, of the blood of Christ our God.” With all respect to Mr Ludolf’s opinion, I must think that, though the benediction prayed upon the patine, spoon, and chalice, is but an aukward expression, yet, if I understand the language, “converte” and “immutetur” are literal translations of the Ethiopic, and seem to pray for a transubstantiation as directly as words will admit, whether they believe in it or not; nor, as far as I know, can any stronger or more expressive be found to substitute in their place.

I shall finish this subject (which is not of my province, and which I have mentioned, because I know it is a matter which some of my readers desire information upon) by an anecdote that happened a few months before my coming into Abyssinia, as it was accidentally told me by the priest of Adowa the very day of the Epiphany, and which Janni vouched to be true, and to have seen.

The Sunday before Ras Michael’s departure for Gondar from Adowa, he went to church in great pomp, and there received the sacrament. There happened to be such a crowd to see him, that the wine, part of the consecrated elements, was thrown down and spilt upon the steps whereon the communicants stood at receiving. Some straw or hay was instantly gathered and sprinkled upon it to cover it, and the communicants continued the service till the end, treading that grass under foot.

This giving great offence to Janni, and some few priests that lived with him, it was told Michael, who, without explaining himself, said only, “As to the fact of throwing the hay, they are a parcel of hogs, and know no better.” These few words had stuck in the stomach of the priest of Adowa, who, with great secrecy, and as a mark of friendship, begged I would give him my opinion what he should have done, or rather, what would have been done in my country? I told him, “That the answer to his question depended upon two things, which, being known, his difficulties would very easily be solved. If you do believe that the wine spilt by the mob upon the steps, and trod under foot afterwards, was really the blood of Jesus Christ, then you was guilty of a most horrid crime, and you should cry upon the mountains to cover you; and ages of atonement are not sufficient to expiate it. You should, in the mean time, have railed the place round with iron, or built it round with stone, that no foot, or any thing else but the dew of heaven, could have fallen upon it, or you should have brought in the river upon the place that would have washed it all to the sea, and covered it ever after from sacrilegious profanation. But if, on the contrary, you believe, (as many Christian churches do) that the wine (notwithstanding consecration) remained in the cup nothing more than wine, but was only the symbol, or type, of Christ’s blood of the New Testament, then the spilling it upon the steps, and the treading upon it afterwards, having been merely accidental, and out of your power to prevent, being so far from your wish that you are heartily sorry that it happened, I do not reckon that you are further liable in the crime of sacrilege, than if the wine had not been consecrated at all. You are to humble yourself, and sincerely regret that so irreverent an accident happened in your hands, and in your time, but as you did not intend it, and could not prevent it; the consequence of an accident, where inattention is exceedingly culpable, will be imputed to you, and nothing further.”

The priest declared to me, with great earnestness, that he never did believe that the elements in the eucharist were converted by consecration into the real body and blood of Christ. He said, however, that he believed this to be the Roman Catholic faith, but it never was his; and that he conceived the bread was bread, and the wine was wine, even after consecration. From this example, which occurred merely accidentally, and was not the fruit of interrogation or curiosity, it appears to me, whatever the Jesuits say, some at least among the Abyssinians do not believe the real presence in the eucharist; but further I am not enough informed to give a positive opinion. To follow this investigation more curiously would have been attended with a considerable degree of danger; and therefore I have stated my only means of knowledge, and leave my readers entirely to the freedom of their own opinion, and to after inquiry and information.

The Abyssinians are not all agreed about the state of souls before the resurrection of the body. The opinion which generally prevails is, that there is no third state; but that, after the example of the thief, the souls of good men enjoy the beatific vision immediately upon the separation from the body. But I must here observe, that their practice and books do both contradict this; for, as often as any person dies, alms are given, and prayers are offered for the souls of those departed, which would be vain did they believe they were already in the presence of God, and in possession of the greatest bless possible, wanting nothing to complete it. “Remember, (says their liturgy) O Lord! the souls of thy servants, our father Abba Matthias, and the rest of our saints, Abba Salama, and Abba Jacob.” In another place, “Remember, O Lord! the kings of Ethiopia, Abreha, and Atzbeha, Caleb, and Guebra Mascal.” And again, “Release, O Lord! our father Antonius, and Abba Macarius.” If this is not directly acknowledging a separate state, it can have no meaning at all.

I have already said, that the Agaazi, the predecessors of those people that settled in Tigrè from the mountains of the Habab, were shepherds adjoining to the Red Sea; that they speak the language _Geez_, and are the only people in Abyssinia in possession of letters; that these are all circumcised, both men and women. The former term, as applied to men, is commonly known to every one the least acquainted with the Jewish history. The latter is, as far as I know, a rite merely Gentile, although in Africa, at least that part adjoining to Egypt and the Red Sea, it is much more known and more universally practised than the other. This I shall call _excision_, that I may express this uncommon operation by as decent a word as possible. The Falasha likewise submit to both.

These nations, however they agree in their rite, differ in their accounts of the time they received this ceremony, as well as the manner of performing it. The Abyssinians of Tigré say, that they received it from Ishmael’s family and his descendants, with whom they were early connected in their trading voyages. They say also, that the queen of Saba, and all the women of that coast, had suffered excision at the usual time of life, before puberty, and before her journey to Jerusalem. The Falasha again declare, that their circumcision was that commonly practised at Jerusalem in the time of Solomon, and in use among them when they left Palestine, and came into Abyssinia.

The circumcision of the Abyssinians is performed with a sharp knife, or razor. There is no laceration with the nails, no formula or repetition of words, nor any religious ceremony at the time of the operation, nor is it done at any particular age, and generally it is a woman that is the surgeon. The Falasha say, they perform it sometimes with the edge of a sharp stone; sometimes with a knife or razor, and at other times with the nails of their fingers; and for this purpose they have the nails of their little fingers of an immoderate length: at the time of the operation the priest chants a hymn, or verse, importing, “Blessed art thou, O Lord, who hast ordained circumcision!” This is performed on the eighth day, and is a religious rite, according to the first institution by God to Abraham.

The Abyssinians pretend theirs is not so; and, being pressed for the reason, they tell you it is because Christ and the apostles were circumcised, though they do not hold it necessary to salvation. But it is the objection they constantly make against eating out of the same plate, or drinking out of the same cup with strangers, that they are uncircumcised, while, with the Egyptians or the Cophts, though equally strangers, they make no such difficulty. In the time of the Jesuits, when the Roman Catholic religion was abolished, and liberty given them to return to their old worship, their priests proclaimed a general circumcision; and the populace, in the first days of their fury, or triumph, murdered many Catholics, by stabbing them with a lance in that part, as they met them, repeating in derision the Jewish hymn, or ejaculation, “Blessed is the Lord that hath ordained circumcision!” so that, I believe, their indifference in this article is rather owing to not being contradicted; just as they are careless about every other parts of religion, unless such as have been revived in their minds by disputes with the Jesuits, and kept up since in part among their clergy. But none of them pretend that circumcision arises from necessity of any kind, or from any obstruction or impediment to procreation, or that it becomes necessary for cleanliness, or from the heat of climate.

None of these reasons, constantly alledged in Europe, are ever to be heard of here, nor do I believe they have the smallest foundation any where; and this, I think, should weigh strongly in favour of the account scripture gives of it. Examining the origin of this ceremony, independent of this revelation, I will never believe that man, or nations of men, rashly submitted to a disgraceful, sometimes dangerous, and always painful operation, unless there had been proposed, as a consequence, some reward for submitting to, or some punishment for refusing it, which balanced in their minds the pain and danger, as well as disgrace, of that operation.

All the inhabitants of the globe agree in considering it shameful to expose that part of their body, even to men; and in the east, where, from climate, you are allowed, and from respect to your superiors, the generality of men are forced to go naked, all agree in covering their waist, which is called their _nakedness_, though it is really the only part of their body that is covered. We see even that there was a curse[105] attended the mere seeing that part of the body of a parent, and not instantly throwing a covering over it.

I do not propose discussing at large the arguments for or against the time of the beginning to circumcise. The scripture has given such an account of it, that, when weighed with the promise so exactly kept to the end, seems to me to be a very rational one. But, considering all revelation out of the question, I think there is no room to institute any free or fair inquiry. I give no pre-eminence to Moses nor his writings. I suppose him a profane author; but, till those that argue against his account, and maintain circumcision was earlier than Abraham, shall shew me another profane writer as old as Moses, as near the time they say it began as Moses was to the time of Abraham, I will not argue with them in support of Moses against Herodotus, nor discuss who Herodotus’s Phenicians, and who his Egyptians were that circumcised. Herodotus knew not Abraham nor Moses, and, compared to their days, he is but as yesterday. Those Phenicians and Egyptians might, for any thing he knew at his time, have received circumcision from Abraham or Ishmael, or some of their posterity, as the Abyssinians or Ethiopians, whom he refers to, actually say they did, which Herodotus did not know, it is plain, though he mentions they were circumcised. This tradition of the Abyssinians merits some consideration from what they say of it themselves, that they were, in the earliest time, circumcised before they left their native country, and settled in Tigrè. From this they derive no honour, nor do they pretend to any. It would have been otherwise, if the æra fixed upon had been the reign of Menilek, son of Solomon, when they first embraced Judaism under a monarch. This would have made a much more brilliant epoch in their history, whilst it was probable that they adopted circumcision under the countenance of Azarias, the son of Zadok, the high priest, and the representatives of the twelve tribes who came with him at that time from Jerusalem.

It seems to me very extraordinary, that, if circumcision was originally a Jewish invention, all those nations to the south should be absolutely ignorant of it, while others to the northward were so early acquainted with it; for none of those nations up the Nile (excepting the Shepherds) either know or practise it to this day; though, ever since the 1400th year before Christ, they have been in the closest connection with the Jews. This would rather make me believe, that the rite of circumcision went northward from the plain of Mamrè, for it certainly made no progress southward from Egypt. We see it obtained in Arabia, by Zipporah[106], Moses’s wife, circumcising her son upon their return to Egypt. Her great anxiety to have that operation immediately performed, shews that her’s was a Judaical circumcision; there was no sin that attended the omission of this operation in Egypt, but God had said to Abraham[107], “The soul that is not circumcised shall be cut off from Israel.”

The Tcheratz Agows, who live between Lasta and Begemder, in an exceedingly fertile country, are not circumcised; and, therefore, if this nation left Palestine upon Joshua passing Jordan, circumcision was not known there, for the Agows to this day are uncircumcised. The same may be said of the Agows of Damot, who are settled at the head of the Nile. It will be seen by the two specimens of their different languages that they are different nations, as I have alledged. Next to these are the Gafat, in a plain open country, who do not use circumcision; none of them were ever converted to Judaism, and but few of them to Christianity. The next are the people of Amhara who did not use circumcision, at least few of them, till after the massacre of the princes by Judith in the year 900, when the remaining princes of the line of Solomon fled to Shoa, and the court was established there. The last of these nations that I shall mention are the Galla, who are not circumcised; of this nation we have said enough.

On the north, a black, woolly-headed nation, called the Shangalla, already often mentioned, bounds Abyssinia, and serves like a string to the bow made by these nations of Galla. Who they are we know perfectly, being the Cushite Troglodytes of Sofala, Saba, Axum and Meroë; shut up, as I have already mentioned, in those caves, the first habitations of their more polished ancestors. Neither do these circumcise, though they immediately bordered upon Egypt, while the Cushite, adjoining to the peninsula of Africa certainly did. As then so many nations contiguous to Egypt never received circumcision from it, it seems an invincible argument, that this was no endemial rite or custom among the Egyptians, and I have before observed, that it was of no use to this nation, as the reasons mentioned by Philo, and the rest, of cleanliness and climate, are absolute dreams, and now, exploded; and that they are so is plain, because, otherwise, the nations more to the southward would have adopted it, as they have universally done another custom, which I shall presently speak of.

Circumcision, then, having no natural cause or advantage, being in itself repugnant to man’s nature, and extremely painful, if not dangerous, it could never originate in man’s mind wantonly and out of free-will. It might have done so indeed from imitation, but with Abraham it had a cause, as God was to make his private family in a few years numerous, like the sands of the sea. This mark, which separated them from all the world, was an easy way to shew whether the promise was fulfilled or not. They were going to take possession of a land where circumcision was not known, and this shewed them their enemy distinct from their own people. And it would be the grossest absurdity to send Samson to bring, as tokens of the slain, so many foreskins or prepuces of the Philistines, if, as Herodotus says, the Philistines had cut off their prepuces a thousand years before.

I must here take notice that this custom, filthy and barbarous as it is, has been adopted by the Abyssinians of Tigrè, who have always been circumcised, from a knowledge that the nations about them were not circumcised at all. It is true they do not content themselves with the foreskin, and I doubt very much if this was not the case with the Jews likewise. On the contrary, in place of the foreskin they cut the whole away, scrotum and all, and bring this to their superiors, as a token they have killed an enemy.

Although it then appears that the nations which had Egypt between Abraham and them, that is, were to the southward, did not follow the Egyptians in the rite of circumcision, yet in another, of excision, they all concurred. Strabo[108] says, the Egyptians circumcised both men and women, _like the Jews_. I will not pretend to say that any such operation ever did obtain among the Jewish women, as scripture is silent upon it; and indeed it is nowhere ever pretended to have been a religious rite, but to be introduced from necessity, to avoid a deformity which nature has subjected particular people to, in particular climates and countries.

We perceive among the brutes, that nature, creating the animal with the same limbs or members all the world over, does yet indulge itself in a variety, in the proportion of such limbs or members. Some are remarkable for the size of their heads, some for the breadth and bigness of the tail, some for the length of their legs, and some for the size of their horns. There is a district in Abyssinia, within the perpetual rains, where cows, of no greater size than ours, have horns, each of which would contain as much water as the ordinary water-pail used in England does; and I remember on the frontiers of Sennaar, near the river Dender, to have seen a herd of many hundred cows, everyone of which had the apparent construction of their parts almost similar with that of the bull; so that, for a considerable time, I was persuaded that these were oxen, their udders being very small, until I had seen them milked.

This particular appearance, or unnecessary appendage, at first made me believe that I had found the real cause of circumcision from analogy, but, upon information, this did not hold. It is however otherwise in the excision of women. From climate, or some other cause, a certain disproportion is found generally to prevail among them. And, as the population of a country has in every age been considered as an object worthy of attention, men have endeavoured to remedy this deformity by the amputation of that redundancy. All the Egyptians, therefore, the Arabians, and nations to the South of Africa, the Abyssinians, Gallas, Agows, Gafats, and Gongas, make their children undergo this operation, at no fixed time indeed, but always before they are marriageable.

When the Roman Catholic priests first settled in Egypt, they did not neglect supporting their mission by temporal advantages, and small presents given to needy people their proselytes; but mistaking this excision of the Coptish women for a ceremony performed upon Judaical principles, they forbade, upon pain of excommunication, that excision should be performed upon the children of parents who had become Catholics. The converts obeyed, the children grew up, and arrived at puberty; but the consequences of having obeyed the interdict were, that the man found, by chusing a wife among Catholic Cophts, he subjected himself to a very disagreeable inconveniency, to which he had conceived an unconquerable aversion, and therefore he married a heretical wife, free from this objection, and with her he relapsed into heresy.

The missionaries therefore finding it impossible that ever their congregation could increase, and that this accident did frustrate all their labours, laid their case before the College of Cardinals _de propaganda fide_, at Rome. These took it up as a matter of moment, which it really was, and sent over visitors skilled in surgery, fairly to report upon the case as it stood; and they, on their return, declared, that the heat of the climate, or some other natural cause, did, in that particular nation, invariably alter the formation so as to make a difference from what was ordinary in the sex in other countries, and that this difference did occasion a disgust, which must impede the consequences for which matrimony was instituted. The college, upon this report, ordered that a declaration, being first made by the patient and her parents that it was not done from Judaical intention, but because it disappointed the ends of marriage, “Si modo matrimonii fructus impediret id omnino tollendum esset:” that the imperfection was, by all manner of means, to be removed; so that the Catholics, as well as the Cophts, in Egypt, undergo excision ever since. This is done with a knife, or razor, by women generally when the child is about eight years old[109].

There is another ceremony with which I shall close, and this regards the women also, and I shall call it _incision_. This is an usage frequent, and still retained among the Jews, though positively prohibited by the law: “Thou shalt not cut thy face for the sake of, or on account of the dead[110].” As soon as a near relation dies in Abyssinia, a brother or parent, cousin-german or lover, every woman in that relation, with the nail of her little finger, which she leaves long on purpose, cuts the skin of both her temples, about the size of a sixpence; and therefore you see either a wound or a scar in every fair face in Abyssinia; and in the dry season, when the camp is out, from the loss of friends they seldom have liberty to heal till peace and the army return with the rains.

The Abyssinians, like the ancient Egyptians, their first colony, in computing their time, have continued the use of the solar year. Diodorus Siculus says, “They do not reckon their time by the moon, but according to the sun; that thirty days constitute their month, to which they add five days and the fourth part of a day, and this completes their year.”

These five days were, by the Egyptians, called Nici, and, by the Greeks, Epagomeni, which signifies, days added, or superinduced, to complete a sum. The Abyssinians add five days, which they call Quagomi, a corruption from the Greek Epagomeni, to the month of August, which is their Nahaassé. Every fourth year they add a sixth day. They begin the year, like all the eastern nations, with the 29th or 30th day of August, that is the kalends of September, the 29th of August being the first of their month Mascaram.

It is uncertain whence they derived the names of their months; they have no signification in any of the languages of Abyssinia. The name of the first month among the old Egyptians has continued to this day. It is Tot, probably so called from the first division of time among the Egyptians, from observation of the helaical rising of the dog-star. The names of the months retained in Abyssinia are possibly in antiquity prior to this; they are probably those given them by the Cushite, before the Kalendars at Thebes and Meroë, their colony, were formed.

The common epoch which the Abyssinians make use of is from the creation of the world; but in the quantity of this period they do not agree with the Greeks, nor with other eastern nations, who reckon 5508 years from the creation to the birth of Christ. The Abyssinians adopt the even number of 5500 years, casting away the odd eight years; but whether this was first done for ease of calculation, or some better reason, there is neither book nor tradition that now can teach us. They have, besides this, many other epochs, such as from the council of Nice and Ephesus. There is likewise to be met with in their books a portion of time, which is certainly a cycle; the Ethiopic word is kamar, which, literally interpreted, is an arch, or circle. It is not now in use in civil life among the Abyssinians, and therefore was mentioned as containing various quantities from 100 years to 19; and there are places in their history where neither of these will apply, nor any even number whatever.

They make use of the golden number and epact constantly in all their ecclesiastic computations: the first they call Matqué, the other Abacté. Scaliger, who has taken great pains upon this confused subject, the computation of time in the church of Abyssinia, without having succeeded in making it much clearer, tells us, that the first use or invention of epacts was not earlier than the time of Dioclesian; but this is contrary to the positive evidence of Abyssinian history, which says expressly, that the epact was invented by Demetrius[111], patriarch of Alexandria. “Unless, says the poet in their liturgy, Demetrius had made this revelation by the immediate influence of the Holy Ghost, how, I pray you, was it possible that the computation of time, called Epacts, could ever have been known?” And, again, “When you meet, says he, you shall learn the computation by epacts, which was taught by the Holy Ghost to father Demetrius, and by him revealed to you.” Now Demetrius was the twelfth patriarch of Alexandria, who was elected about the 190th year of Christ, or in the reign of the emperor Severus, consequently long before the time of Dioclesian.

It seems the reputation the Egyptians had from very old time for their skill in computation and the division of time, remained with them late in the days of Christianity. Pope Leo the Great, writing to the emperor Marcian, confesses that the fixing the time of the moveable feasts was always an exclusive privilege of the church of Alexandria; and therefore, says he, in his letter about reforming the kalendar, the holy fathers endeavoured to take away the occasion of this error, by delegating the whole care of this to the bishop of Alexandria, because the Egyptians, from old times, seem to have had this gift of computation given them; and when these had signified to the apostolic See the days upon which the moveable feasts were to happen, the church of Rome then notified this by writing to churches at a greater distance.

We are not to doubt that this privilege, which the church of Alexandria had been so long in possession of, contributed much to inflame the minds of the Abyssinians against the Roman Catholic priests, for altering the time of keeping Easter, by appointing days of their own; for we see violent commotions to have arisen every year upon the celebration of this festival.

The Abyssinians have another way of describing time peculiar to themselves; they read the whole of the four evangelists every year in their churches. They begin with Matthew, then proceed to Mark, Luke, and John, in order; and, when they speak of an event, they write and say it happened in the days of Matthew, that is, in the first quarter of the year, while the gospel of St Matthew was yet reading in the churches.

They compute the time of the day in a very arbitrary, irregular manner. The twilight, as I have before observed, is very short, almost imperceptible, and was still more so when the court was removed farther to the southward in Shoa. As soon as the sun falls below the horizon, night comes on, and all the stars appear. This term, then, the twilight, they choose for the beginning of their day, and call it Naggé, which is the very time the twilight of the morning lasts. The same is observed at night, and Meset is meant to signify the instant of beginning the twilight, between the sun’s falling below the horizon and the stars appearing. Mid-day is by them called _Kater_, a very old word, which signifies _culmination_, or a thing’s being arrived or placed at the middle or highest part of an arch. All the rest of times, in conversation, they describe by pointing at the place in the heavens where the sun then was, when what they are describing happened.

I shall conclude what further I have to say on this subject, by observing, that nothing can be more inaccurate than all Abyssinian calculations. Besides their absolute ignorance in arithmetic, their excessive idleness and aversion to study, and a number of fanciful, whimsical combinations, by which every particular scribe or monk distinguishes himself, there are obvious reasons why there should be a variation between their chronology and ours. I have already observed, that the beginning of our years are different; ours begin on the 1st of January, and theirs on the 1st day of September, so that there are 8 months difference between us. The last day of August may be the year 1780 with us, and 1779 only with the Abyssinians. And in the reign of their kings they very seldom mention either month or day beyond an even number of years. Supposing, then, it is known that the reign of ten kings extended from such to such a period, where all the months and days are comprehended, when we come to assign to each of these an equal number of years, without the correspondent months and days, it is plain that, when all these separate reigns come to be added together, the one sum-total will not agree with the other, but will be more or less than the just time which that prince reigned. This, indeed, as errors compensate full as frequently as they accumulate, will seldom amount to a difference above three years; a space of time too trivial to be of any consequence in the history of barbarous nations.

However, it will occur that even this agreement is no positive evidence of the exactness of the time, for it may so happen that the sum-totals may agree, and yet every particular sum constituting the whole may be false, that is, if the quantity of errors which are too much exactly correspond with the quantity of errors that are too little; to obviate this as much as possible, I have considered three eclipses of the sun as recorded in the Abyssinian annals. The first was in the reign of David III. the year before the king marched out to his first campaign against Maffudi the Moor, in the unfortunate war with Adel. The year that the king marched into Dawaro was the 1526, after having dispatched the Portuguese ambassador Don Roderigo de Lima, who embarked at Masuah on the 26th of April on board the fleet commanded by Don Hector de Silveyra, who had come from India on purpose to fetch him; and the Abyssinian annals say, that, the year before the king marched, a remarkable eclipse of the sun had happened in the Ethiopic month Ter. Now, in consulting our European accounts, we find that, on the second of January, answering to the 18th day of Ter, there did happen an eclipse of the sun, which, as it was in the time of the year when the sky is cloudless both night and day, must have been visible all the time of its duration. So here our accounts do agree precisely.

The second happened on the 13th year of the reign of Claudius, as the Abyssinian account states it. Claudius succeeded to the crown in the 1540, and the 13th year of his reign will fall to be on the 1553. Now we find this eclipse did happen in the same clear season of the year, that is, on the 24th of January 1553, so in this second instance our chronology is perfectly correct.

The third eclipse of the sun happened in the 7th year of the reign of Yasous II. in Magabit, the seventh month of the Abyssinians. Now Yasous came to the crown in 1729, so that the 7th year of his reign will be in 1736, and on the 4th day of October, answering to the 8th day of the month Tekemt, N. S. in that year, we see this eclipse observed in Europe.

As a further confirmation of this, we have dated the particulars of a comet which, the Abyssinian annals say, appeared at Gondar in the month of November, in the 9th year of the reign of Yasous I. and as this comet was observed in Europe to have come to its perihelion in December 1689, and as that year, according to our account, was really the 9th of that king’s reign, no further proof of the exactness of our chronology can possibly be required. By means of these observations, counting backward to the rime of Icon Amlac, and again forward to the death of Joas, which happened in 1768, and assigning to each prince the number of years that his own historians say he reigned, I have, in the most unexceptionable manner that I can devise, settled the chronology of this country; and the exact agreement it hath with all the remarkable events, regularly and sufficiently vouched, plainly shews the accuracy of this method. If, therefore, in a few cases, I differ two or three years from the Jesuits in their first account of this country, I do not in any shape believe the fault to be mine, because there are, at all these periods, errors in point of fact, both in Alvarez and Tellez, much more material and unaccountable than the mistake of a few years; and these errors have been adopted with great confidence in the Hispania Illustrata, and some of the best books of Portuguese history which have made mention of this country.

TRAVELS

TO DISCOVER

THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.