ABYSSINIA. 175 



rock Damo, are openly concerned in this infamous practice. Dixan 

 is in lat. 14 deg. 57 min. 55 sec. north, and long. 40 deg. 7 min. 30 sec. 

 east of the meridian of Greenwich. 



Axum is supposed to have been once the capital of Abyssinia, and 

 its ruins are now very extensive : but, like the cities of ancient times, 

 consists altogether of public buildings. In one square, which seems 

 to have been the centre of the town, there are forty obelisks, none of 

 which have any hieroglyphics upon them. They are all of one piece 

 of granite, and, on the top of that which is standing, there is a patera 

 exceedingly well carved, in the Greek taste. Axum is watered by a 

 small stream, which flows all the year from a fountain in the narrow 

 valley where stands the rows of obelisks. The spring is received 

 into a magnificent bason 150 feet square, and thence it is carried at 

 pleasure, to water the neighbouring gardens, where there is little 

 fruit excepting pomegranates, neither are these very excellent. The 

 latitude of this town is 14 deg. 6 min. 36 sec. north. 



Masuah. The houses of this town, which is situated upon an island 

 bearing the same name on the Abyssinian shore of the Red Sea, are 

 in general built of poles and bent grass, as in the towns of Arabia ; 

 but besides these there are about twenty of stone, six or eight of 

 which are two stories each, N. lat. 15 deg. 35 min. 5 sec. E. long. 39 

 deg. 36 min. 30 sec. 



Trade. ...There is a considerable deal of trade carried on at Masuah, 

 narrow and confined as the island is, and violent and unjust as is the 

 government. But it is all done in a slovenly manner, and for articles 

 in which a small capital is invested. Property here is too precarious 

 to risk a venture in valuable commodities where the hand of power 

 enters into every transaction. 



Gondar, and all the neighbouring country depend for the necessaries 

 of life, cattle, honey, butter, wheat, hides, wax, and a number of such 

 articles, upon the Agows, who inhabit a province in which the 

 sources of the Nile are found, and which province is no where sixty 

 miles in length, nor half that in breadth. These Agows come con- 

 stantly in succession, a thousand or fifteen hundred at a time, loaded 

 with these commodities, to the capital. 



It may naturally occur, that, in a long carriage, such as that of a 

 hundred miles in such a climate, butter must melt, and be in a state of 

 iusion, consequently very near putrefaction : this is prevented by the 

 root of an herb, called Moc-moco, yellow in colour, and in shape 

 nearly resembling a carrot : this they bruise and mix with their but- 

 ter, and a very small quantity preserves it fresh for a considerable time. 



GovKuxiihN r....The government of Abydsinia has always been 

 monarchical and despotic ; the sovereign exercising absolute domi- 

 nion over the lives, liberties, and fortunes of his subjects, and posses- 

 sing uncontroulable authority in all matters ecclesiastical as well as 

 civil. His will is the universal law, there neither being, nor ever hav- 

 ing been, any written laws to restrain the royal power, or to secure 

 the property or privileges of the suDJect. The monarchs of Abyssinia 

 claim descent from Menilek, the son of Solomon, as they pretend, by 

 the queen of Sheba. The crown is hereditary in this family, but 

 elective as to the person. A peculiar custom formerly prevailed of 

 confining all the princes of the blood royal in a palace on a high moun- 

 tain, during their lives, or till they were called to the throne ; but 

 this practice, it appears, has now fallen into disuse. 



