54<> T.RAVEL;S TO DISCOVER 



and his fon David, as a. defence for the rich countries .of 

 the Agows,.Damot, Gojam, and Dembca, againft the defa- 

 lations and inroads of the wild Galla their countrymen, from 

 whom they had revolted ; they confirt of ninety-nine fami- 

 lies ; and it is a common faying among them, .that the de- 

 vil holds the hundreth part for his own family, as there is 

 nowhere elfe to be found a family of men equal to any of 

 the ninety-nine. It has been fometimes connected with 

 Gojam, oftener with Damot and the Agows, who were at 

 this time under the government of Fafil.. . 



The houfes in Maitfha are of a very Angular conftruc- 

 tion : the firft proprietor has a field, which he divides into 

 three or four, as he pleafes, (fuppofe four) by two hedges 

 made of the., thorny branches of the acacia-tree. In the 

 corner, or interfection of, the, two hedges, he begins his low 

 hut, and occupies as much of the angle as he pleafes. Three 

 other brothers, perhaps, occupy each of the three other angles ; 

 behind thefe their children place their houfe, and inclofe the 

 end of their father's by another, which they make generally . 

 Ihorter than the firft, becaufe broader. After they have raifed 

 as many houfes as they pleafe, they furround the whole with 

 a thick and almoft impenetrable abbatis, or thorny hedge, 

 and all the family are under one roof,, ready to aifift each 

 other on the firfl alarm ; for they have nothing to do but 

 every man to look out at his own door, and they are clofe in 

 a .body together, facing every point that danger can poffi- 

 bly come from. They are, however, fpeedily deftroyed by 

 a itronger enemy, as we eafrly found, for we had only to fet 

 the dry hedge, and the canes that grew round it, on fire, 

 which communicated at once to the houfes, chiefly confifV 

 ing of dry ftraw. Such is their terror of the fmall-pox, 



which 



