A VERY OLD CUSTOM. 161 



known to have been the case by the inhabitants of 

 Shoa, who have no other idea but that it was the 

 effect of religious feeling, and of the great sense of 

 justice, for which their sovereign, Sahale Selassee, 

 is celebrated all over the eastern horn of Africa, 

 and far into the interior towards the west. 



I was never given to understand that the pro- 

 clamation that announced the freedom of the 

 children at all affected the condition of their 

 parents, who, I believe, still are and will continue 

 until death the bond servants of the Negoos. 



When these circumstances were first related to 

 me, I could not help being struck by the exact 

 correspondence they exhibit, with the proceedings 

 of Joseph acting as the steward of Pharaoh towards 

 the starving Egyptians, during the infliction of the 

 seven years' famine upon that country ; and which 

 is another instance of the similarity of custom and 

 of situation between that ancient people and the 

 modern Abyssinians. The appeal, indeed, of the 

 former to Joseph, expresses exactly the request 

 made to the Negoos of Shoa by his subjects ; 

 "Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both 

 w T e and our land ! Buy us and the land for bread, 

 and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh, 

 and give us seed that we may live and not die, and 

 that the land be not desolate." 



VOL. II. 



