ABYSSINIA. 169 



white as snow and hard as stone. According to some accounts this 

 country produces emeralds estimated at a high value. 



Climate, seasons, soil, produce. ...The rainy season continues for 

 six months of the year., from April to September, which is succeeded, 

 without interval, by a cloudless sky and vertical sun : and cold nights, 

 which as immediately follow these scorching days. The earth, not- 

 withstanding the heat of these days, is yet perpetually cold, so as to feel 

 disagreeable to the soles of the feet ; partly owing to the six months' 

 rain, when no sun appears, and partly to the perpetual equality of 

 nights and days. 



The soil, though in many places thinly spread, is rendered fertile 

 and productive by the rains and rivers. Wherever it can be tilled and 

 well watered, it yields very large crops of wheat, barley, millet, and 

 other grain. The inhabitants have two, and often three harvests in the 

 year : and, where they have a supply of water, they may sow in all 

 seasons ; many of their trees and plants retain their verdure, and 

 yield fruit and flowers throughout the year : the west side of a tree 

 blossoms first, and bears fruit ; then the south side ; next the north 

 side ; and last of all the east side goes through the same process, to- 

 wards the beginning of the rainy season. 



VEGETABLKs....The papyrus, which is a plant well known in Egypt, 

 appears to have been early brought thither from Ethiopia. It is also 

 found in Abyssinia. Balessar, balm, or balsam, is also a native of 

 Abyssinia. The great value set upon this drug in the East remounts 

 to very early ages. We know from Scripture, the oldest history ex- 

 tant, as well as the most infallible, that the Ishmaelites, or Arabian 

 carriers and merchants trafficking with the India commodities into 

 Egypt, brought with them balm as a part of their cargo. The ensete 

 is an herbaceous plant, which grows and comes to great perfection at 

 Gondar ; but it mostly abounds in that part of Maitsha and Goutto 

 west of the Nile, where there are large plantations of it, and is there, 

 almost exclusive of every thing else, the food of the Galla inhabiting 

 that province. When soft, like the turnip well boiled, if eaten with 

 milk or butter, it is the best of food, wholesome, nourishing, and easily 

 digested. The tefF is a grain commonly sown all over Abyssinia, 

 where it seems to thrive equally on all sorts of ground ; from it is 

 made the bread which is commonly used throughout this country. 

 The Abyssinians indeed have plenty of wheat, and some of it of an 

 excellent quality. They likewise make as fine wheaten bread as any 

 in the world, both for colour and taste ; but the use of wheat bread is 

 chiefly confined to people of the first rank. The acacia-tree is very 

 common in Abyssinia, as are several other curious productions of the 

 vegetable world. 



Animals. ...There is no country in the world which produces a 

 greater number or variety of quadrupeds, whether tame or wild, than 

 Abyssinia. Of the tame or cow kind, great abundance present them- 

 selves everywhere, differing in size, some having horns of various di- 

 mensions, some without horns at all ; differing also in the colour and 

 length of their hair. 



Among the wild animals are prodigious numbers of the gazel or an- 

 telope kind ; the bohur, sassa, feeho, and madequa, and many others. 

 The hysena is still more numerous. There are few varieties of the 

 dog or fox kind. Of these the most numerous is the deep, or, as he 

 is called, the jackal ; this is precisely the same in all respects as the 



Vol. II. Z 



