328 EVIL SPIRITS. 



or demons, that afflicted me, I dismissed them 

 very summarily. 



The popular belief in the existence of an inferior 

 order of bad spirits, is universal in Abyssinia, and 

 to their malign influence it is usual to ascribe 

 every disease incidental to the human frame. 

 Different opinions exist as to the number of these 

 " saroitsh" (sa>\ in the singular). Some affirm 

 there are only eight, others sixteen, and not a few 

 say as many as eighty. Christians, Mahomedans, 

 and Pagan Gallas, alike pay a kind of reverence to 

 these evil spirits, by observing customs to avert 

 the consequences of their anger, when supposed 

 likely to be excited. In England we do exactly 

 the same, when certain means are adopted to avert 

 what we term " bad luck." I certainly believe 

 myself that the same idea of minor devils afflicting 

 man in some cases of ill health, was popular among 

 our immediate ancestors, and the fantastical names 

 that appear to have been bestowed upon them, 

 assimilates still more closely this popular supersti- 

 tion of the Abyssinians of the present day, with 

 that of the inhabitants of England about the time 

 of Shakespear. Mad Tom, in " King Lear," 

 affords some illustration of this, for we observe he 

 says of himself, " The foul fiend haunts poor Tom. 

 Hop-dance cries in Tom's belly for two white 

 herrings." From forge tfulness I neglected to note 

 down the names of the Abyssinian " saroitsh," 

 for having one day inquired what they were, 



