322 OF THE AVALITES. 



leathern bands. In the belt of untanned hide, which 

 secured the fotah, or cloth, around the waist, they 

 had each an old rusty knife in a worn-out scabbard, 

 and scarcely eight inches long. The rude hilts of 

 these weapons were merely round bits of wood, 

 hollowed between the ends for the grasp of the 

 hand. 



In the long frizzly character of their hair, and 

 in the colour of their skin, they resembled the 

 Dankalli, with whom their stature, and the general 

 character of their features, also accorded. At the 

 present day, the Dankalli and Soumaulee are 

 distinct, as nations ; but, the great similarity of their 

 language, of their customs, and their indistinct 

 separation, in the various tribes that border on this 

 road to Abyssinia, and which made it therefore a 

 most interesting one, prove them to have descended 

 from one common origin, the Avalites of ancient 

 geographers. 



Some modification in the character of these 

 ancient people, has been occasioned by intermix- 

 ture with other nations, which has produced a 

 difference in personal appearance. In the north, 

 acted upon by the Grecian and Egyptian colonists, 

 who made that part of the country of the Avalites, 

 a rich and populous kingdom. Their representatives 

 at the present day, the Dankalli, have assumed, or 

 retained, the Circassian type ; whilst in the south 

 and west, their long intercourse with Shankalli 



