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CHAPTER XXVI. 



Invitation to visit the Negoos. — 'Karissa and his firelock. — Some 

 account of the countries to the south of Shoa. — Distances. — A 

 reputed cannibal people. — Other absurd rumours. 1 — Probable 

 truth. — Of the Doko : not dwarfs but monkeys. 



August 24:th. — Early this morning, Tinta appeared 

 at my house. He had returned from Ankobar the 

 night before, and had brought an invitation or com- 

 mand, that if I were able I should visit the Negoos 

 at Debra Berhan, on the 24th of September, 

 upon which day a great national festival is held in 

 honour of the anniversary of the discovery of the 

 Cross by the Empress Helena. This is called the 

 muscal from a similar word signifying cross, and is 

 a kind of military review, before the Negoos, of all 

 his forces, every tenant and slave capable of bearing 

 arms being expected to be present. It is, in fact, an 

 Abyssinian wapentake, and its real origin, although 

 at the present time concealed by the substitution 

 of a religious name and purpose, may be still traced 

 to the same social institutions that first established 

 similar feudal parades among the older European 

 nations. I shall dismiss the subject at present, 

 however, with the single remark, that no Mahome- 



