442 OF THE NORTHERN ADJOWS. 



Returning to the Gongas and their connexion 

 with the Sasu of Cosmas, it is singular to observe 

 in what manner the seclusive integrity of that 

 country was first sapped, and then in a great 

 measure overthrown. Within the last two cen- 

 turies, the Adjows of Northern Abyssinia, the 

 representatives of the Gongas in that situation, 

 were said to continue the original practice of their 

 fathers with respect to commercial transactions. 

 But these must have been a tribe now extinct, 

 as, from what I can learn, it is only in the extreme 

 south where the custom is still persisted in, and it 

 is among these that the most ancient authentic 

 record (uninspired) of the antediluvian world will 

 be found. It is here, too, that the original name 

 of this people, Sasu, is preserved in the modern 

 word Susa, of whom, as a nation, we scarcely 

 possess any information more than sufficient, to 

 warrant the mere assertion that such a people 

 now exist highly civilized, and using a peculiar 

 written character dissimilar to any with which the 

 literati of Europe are acquainted. 



Of the Sasu traders in the time of Cosmas, 

 we are told they carried with them oxen which, 

 on their arrival in the country, they killed, and 

 hung up the raw flesh on the thorns, as a kind 

 of merchandise. It will be remembered that I have 

 previously stated the intoxicating effects of this kind 

 of food upon the Amhara, and I have therefore no 

 difficulty in supposing that the Gongas were tempted 



