MEMOIR OF Biiucit. 53 



-of constant alarm to him; then they were joined 

 by several Moors, from one of whom he purchased 

 a black horse, which not only contributed to his 

 ease and comfort, but more than once was the 

 means of saving his life. Mounting his steed, h 

 paraded the animal in every direction, firing from 

 his back at full gallop in the Arab fashion ; all of 

 which had its own weight, by giving him in the 

 minds of his rude attendants a superiority which 

 induced them to obey and place Confidence in his 

 orders. 



The soil of the country was very unequal, some- 

 times rich and overgrown with wild oats, so high as 

 to cover men and horses; at other places, rocky, 

 uneven, and covered with thick brushwood. They 

 crossed two rivers, the Bazelat and Angueah, being 

 the first running water they had seen since passing 

 Tarenta. The whole district of Tigre, which they 

 had now entered, is full of mountains, which are 

 not so remarkable for their height as their curious 

 and grotesque forms; some being flat and square, 

 some resembling prisms or obelisks, and others like 

 pyramids pitched on their vertex with the base 

 uppermost One of these pinnacles, called Damo, 

 served as a prison to the royal family of Abyssinia, 

 in ancient times, during the massacres under a queen 

 named Judith, scarcely less celebrated in Ethiopian 

 history than the famous princess who visited Solo- 

 mon at Jerusalem. 



The town of Adowa, at that time considered as 

 the capital of Tigre, stood at the foot of the hill of 



