384 A CONVERSATION WITH 



alfo wheat and barley, but no rice ; that fheep and 

 goats are in plenty among them, and that the inhabitants 

 are extremely fond of milk, cheefe, and whey; but that 

 the country people and foldiery make no fcruple of drink- 

 ing the blood, and eating the raw flefh, of an ox, 

 which they cut without caring whether he is dead or 

 alive; that this favage diet is, however, by no means 

 general. Almonds, he fays, and dates, are not found 

 in his country; but grapes and peaches ripen there; 

 and in fome of the diftant provinces, efpecially at 

 Carudar, wine is made in abundance; but a kind of 

 mead is the common inebriating liquor of the AbyJJi- 

 ■nians. The late King was Tilca Maluit, (the nrft of 

 which wocds means root or origin ;) and the prefent 

 his brother, Tilca Jerjis. He reprefents the royal 

 forces at Gwender as confiderable ; and afTerts, per-' 

 haps at random, that near forty thoufand horfe are on 

 that ftation. The troops are armed, he fays, with 

 mufkets, lances, bows and arrows, cimeters, and hangers. 

 The council of ftate confifts, by his account, of about 

 forty Minifters, to whom almoit all the executive 

 part of government is committed. He was once in the 

 fervice of a Vazir, in whofe train he went to fee the 

 fountains of the Nile or Abey, ufually called Alawy, 

 about eight days journey from Gzoender. He faw 

 three fprings, one of which rifes from the ground with 

 a crreat noife, that may be heard at the diftance of five 

 or fix miles. I fhowed him the defcription of the Nile 

 by Gregory of Amhara, which Ludolf has printed-in 

 Ethiopick. He both read and explained it with great 

 facility; whillt I compared his explanation with the 

 Latin verfion, and found it perfectly exact. He affert- 

 ed of his own accoid,that the defcription was conform- 

 able to all that he had feen and heaid in Ethiopia; and 

 for that reafon I annex it. When I interrogated him 

 on the languages and learning of his country, he an- 

 fwcred, that fix or feven tongues at leaft were fpoken 

 there; that the mod elegant idiom, which the King 

 ufed, was the Ambarick ; that the Ethiopick contained, 

 as it is well known, many Arabick words; that, bcfides 



their 



