OF EGYPTIAN ORIGIN. 157 



are still retained. I shall content myself, however, 

 with pointing out their strict accordance with 

 similar usages at the court of Pharaoh, as recorded 

 in Genesis, and which is well illustrated in the 

 reception of the patriarch Jacob, at the court of 

 that monarch. In the forty-seventh chapter of that 

 book, Joseph from his connexion with the monarch, 

 introduces his five brethren, but he first reports 

 their arrival and obtains leave ; and in nearly the 

 same manner he acts as balderabah of Jacob, and 

 the remainder of the family whom we find on their 

 arrival were constituted balla-durgoitsh " receivers 

 of rations," for we read in the same chapter that 

 Joseph " nourished his father, and his brethren, 

 and all his father's household with bread according 

 to their families." We are also told when Jacob 

 retired from the presence of the monarch, " that 

 Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before 

 Pharaoh." 



At the hazard of being considered tedious, I 

 shall here allude to two other instances of customs 

 existing at the present day in Abyssinia, and which 

 are intimately connected with the subject we are 

 upon. The only public oath used by the inhabit- 

 ants of Shoa, is of a remarkable character. u Sa- 

 hale Selassee e moot." ' May Sahale Selassee die,' if 

 such a thing be not true ! is the constant ejacula- 

 tion of a protesting witness, or a positive informant ; 

 and if upon a serious business, the immediate 

 confiscation of property, and incarceration in 



