MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 55 



plain, where stood the celebrated ruins of Axum, 

 supposed to have heen the ancient capital of Abys- 

 sinia. The remains of art and architecture are very 

 extensive, consisting entirely of pillars, fragments 

 of temples, and other public buildings. Among 

 the statues is one of Ptolemy Euergetes, sitting 

 with his crown on, and his feet resting on a large 

 oblong slab of free-stone like a hearth. 



It was in the neighbourhood of Axum that Bruce 

 saw the natives eat raw beef-steaks, warm from the 

 cow's buttock, and he has minutely described the 

 way in which the exploit was performed. He and 

 his attendants had fallen in with a party of travellers 

 who were driving a cow, which they supposed had 

 been stolen ; on a sudden, they tripped up the heels 

 of the poor animal, so that it fell to the groundo 

 One of them then sat across her neck, holding down 

 her head by the horns ; another twisted the halter 

 about her fore-feet ; while a third, who had a knife 

 in his hand, got astride upon her belly before her 

 hind legs, and in a twinkling cut out two pieces, 

 thicker and longer than our ordinary beef-steaks, 

 from the higher part of the rump. " How it was 

 done," says Bruce, " I cannot positively say, be- 

 cause, 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 pieces were spread 

 upon the outside of one of their shields." 



When the operation was ended, the skin, which 



