Abyssinians; while the Amharic, being the dialect used at court, has obtained the distinction of the royal language, and is spoken through at least one-half of the kingdom. It appears to be compounded of the Ethiopic and a variety of terms derived from the tongues of Africa, influenced deeply by those modifications which are sooner or later extended to all unwritten forms of speech.

In recent times the most important section of the empire is that which embraces the province of Tigré, bounded, as Mr. Salt informs us, on the north by the Bekla, Boja, Takué, and several wild tribes of Shangalla; on the west by the mountains of Samen; and by the Denakil, Doba, and Galla territories, on the east and south; including not less than four degrees of latitude, and nearly an equal extent in a longitudinal direction. The high range of the Samen hills, stretching from Waldubba to the south of Lasta, together with the line of the Tacazze, which flows in a northeasterly course along its base, sufficiently point out the natural boundary between Tigré and Amhara.

This large and very populous district contains a number of cities which make a considerable figure in the history of Ethiopia, more especially Axum, Dixan, Chelicut, and Antalo. The first of these was the ancient residence of the Abyssinian monarchs, who still go thither for the purpose of being crowned. It is true that the learned are not agreed respecting the antiquity of this place, which appears not to have been known either to Herodotus or Strabo, and is first mentioned by Arrian in the Periplus of the Erythræan sea. We shall have occasion in a future chapter to describe some of its architectural remains; meantime it will be sufficient to observe, that the modern town reckons about six hundred houses, but displays no remarkable buildings. On the eastern frontier stands Antalo, which during the visit of Mr. Salt was the seat of government, being the residence of the viceroy Ras Welled Selassé. It consists of about a thousand hovels constructed of mud and straw, in the midst of which rises the palace, distinguished for magnitude rather than by the elegance of its plan or workmanship. In this province is the monastery of Fremona, which has always been the chief establishment of the Jesuits. It is about a mile in circumference, surrounded by walls flanked with towers and pierced for small arms. In Mr. Bruce's eyes it

had more the air of a castle than of a convent, and appeared to him to be the most defensible place that he had seen in Abyssinia. Generally speaking, Tigré is fertile and well peopled; but the inhabitants are described as a very ferocious, bloodthirsty, corrupt, and perfidious race.

On the western side of the provinces now described are Siré, Samen, Wogara, which is sometimes called Wojjerat, Walkayt, and Waldubba. This last is occasionally extolled as one of the granaries of Abyssinia. The humid vales of Siré produce numerous palms and a variety of fruittrees; enjoying, besides, all the beauty which arises from the vicinity of Tacazze, whose banks are covered with the most luxuriant verdure. Nor is Samen, which when viewed from a distance appears only as a series of mountain-chains, in any degree destitute of agricultural wealth. On the contrary, the table-land of Amba Gedion, which has so steep an ascent as to render it almost inaccessible, is said to be sufficient both in extent and fertility to support many thousands. It was the fortress of the Abyssinian Jews, who were once masters of the province.

The more remote districts in the south are chiefly under the yoke of the ferocious Galla and other savage tribes hostile to the government of Gondar. To the eastward are the countries of Angote and Bali; and we are told of those of Gooderoo, Fatgar, of Efat, of Cambat, and particularly of the kingdom of Enarea, which, from Bruce's account, seems to be an elevated plain, watered by several rivers which have no visible outlet, and deriving from its lofty position the comfort of a temperate climate. The natives are said to trade with the people of Melinda on the Indian Ocean, and with the inhabitants of Angola on the Ethiopic. The hilly district of Kaffa, it is presumed, must be conterminous with Enarea on the south. But we have already alluded to the obscurity which still prevails respecting the interior of the empire, and more especially those regions on its distant boundaries towards the south and south-east.

The high grounds which divide Abyssinia from the coast of the Red Sea are known among geographers as constituting the country of the Troglodytes or cave-dwellers. The nature of the soil and climate has in all ages kept the inhabitants in a uniform state of savage wretchedness.

Separated into tribes, and subject to hereditary chiefs, they lived formerly, and in many parts still continue to live, on the produce of their flocks, consisting principally of goats, aided by a little skill in the art of fishing. The hollows of the rocks are their ordinary dwellings; a kind of lodging which was anciently adopted in many other countries of the world. We find traces of such a usage at the foot of Caucasus and of Mount Atlas, in Mosia, in Italy, also in France and Spain, and even in some parts of our native land. In Sicily there is an example of a whole town formed by excavation in the body of a hill. But of all the races who have dwelt in caverns, the Troglodytes of the Arabian Gulf have longest preserved the habits and the

name.*

Mr. Belzoni, who in his excursion to the Red Sea came near the countries now under consideration, met with a fisherman who was probably a fair specimen of that class of the inhabitants. He lived in a tent only five feet broad, with his wife, daughter, and son-in-law. He had no boat, but went forth on his vocation seated on the trunk of a doomt-tree, and accompanied by the youth who made part of his family. This very simple raft was ten or twelve feet long, at each end of which was a piece of wood attached in a horizontal direction, so as to prevent the log from turning round. At one of the points a small pole was stuck upright to serve as a mast, on the top of which there was a slight spar secured horizontally like that below. A woollen shawl thrown over it, and fastened at each end as well as to the slip of wood, formed a kind of sail; while the two fishermen, mounted on the trunk as if on horseback, by means of a cord attached to their substitute for canvass, took more or less wind as was required. But, as the traveller remarks, “it is only when the wind blows either from north or south that such a contrivance can serve; for if it blows from the east they cannot set off their boat from the shore; or if it blows from the west it will carry them too far out to sea. When the fishermen are thus at some distance from the shore, I know not by what means the rest of the operation is executed; but from what I could see, they darted their long thin spear

* Malte Brun, vol. iv. p. 145; Narrative of Discovery and Adventure in Africa.

1

at the fish when they happened to see any, and by these means they procured their subsistence."*

Beginning at the confines of Egypt, and proceeding southward, the reader will observe that the coast makes a great concave sweep, forming what is called both by ancient and modern geographers Foul Bay. At the bottom of this gulf is the port of the Abyssinians, and behind is the country known by the name of Baza or Bedja. According to the Arabian authors, it is a kingdom separated from Nubia by a chain of mountains, rich in gold, silver, and emeralds. The accounts supplied from antiquity, respecting the name and boundaries of this province, are very discordant. The term Baza, it is thought, may be found in that of the promontory called Bazium by the ancients, and now Ras el Comol. The inhabitants, who are denominated Bugeha by Leo Africanus, Boguites in the inscription at Axum, and Bedjah by the greater number of Arabian historians, lead a nomadic and savage life. They derive an abundant subsistence from the milk and flesh of their camels, cattle, and sheep. As every father exercises a patriarchal rule in his own family, they have no other government. Full of loyalty to one another, and hospitable to strangers, they at the same time continually rob the neighbouring agriculturists and the trading caravans. Bruce asserts that they speak a dialect of the Abyssinian language; but Abdallah maintains that they belong to the race of Berbers or Barabras. M. Quatremère has endeavoured to demonstrate the identity of the Bedjahs with the Blemmyes of the ancients; though the descriptions of these writers apply perhaps with greater precision to the Ababdehs, the inhabitants of the desert which expands between the Nile and the Arabian Gulf.†

Suakin is chiefly entitled to notice as being one of the principal ports which now connect Abyssinia with the opposite coast; having in this respect superseded the more ancient harbour of Aedad, the Gidid of Portuguese authors. It is in fact a Turkish town, and is garrisoned by troops under the command of the governor of Mecca. Passing the promontory of Ras-Ahehas the traveller comes to a desert shore lined with islets and rocks. It was in this

Narrative of Operations, &c. vol. ii. p. 69.

† Quatremère, Hist. Géog. sur l'Egypte, vol. ii. p. 135-139; Strab. Geograph. lib. xvii. c. 1.

wild region that the Ptolemys procured the elephants which they required for the use of their armies; and here Lord Valentia found a large harbour, to which he gave the name of Port Mornington. About the sixteenth degree of latitude is the island of Dhalac, the largest in the Red Sea, being more than sixty miles in circumference. It produces goats with long silky hair, and furnishes a sort of gum-lac, which exudes from a particular shrub. The celebrity it once enjoyed for pearls has long since passed away; the specimens which are now procured being of a yellow colour and little esteemed.

In a gulf formed on the coast stands Masuah, which, though situated on an arid rock, possesses a safe harbour, and may now be regarded as the main approach to Abyssinia from the east. Near it is Arkeeko, which has also the advantage of a good anchorage, rendered however of small value by its exposure to the prevailing winds. This low, sandy, and burning coast is occupied by some nomadic tribes, the Shiho, who are very black, and the Hazorto, who have a copper-coloured complexion. These people, like the ancient Troglodytes, inhabit holes in the rocks, or hovels made of rushes and seaweed. Leading a pastoral life, they change their dwelling as soon as the rains have produced a little verdure on their parched soil; for, as is well known, when the wet season ends on the coast it begins among the mountains. They are said to have abjured their allegiance to the sultan, and acknowledged the supremacy of the native monarch.

The portion of the shore now delineated used to be called the Midre Baharnagash, or the Land of the Sea-king, whose government formerly extended from Suakin to the Straits of Babel Mandeb. Baroa, its ancient capital, situated on the Mareb, was in Bruce's time in the hands of the naib of Masuah; and it is still considered as the key of Abyssinia towards the gulf. Farther to the south the coast takes the name of Dancali, or, according to Niebuhr, Denakil, consisting of a desert plain, and supplying no valuable production except salt. Beyond the straits, terminating the Arabian Gulf, succeeds the kingdom or province of Adel, a country concerning which our information is so imperfect, that we presume not to tantalize the reader with an appearance of facts having no better foundation than ingenious