576 ABYSSINIA. 



Revenue. ...This arises from different imposts on the trade of the 

 country ; the sale of the great places of the kingdom ; and a tenth 

 levied every third year, on all the cattle in the empire. The whole 

 amount of these is not easily estimated, but it appears that it falls very 

 short of what might be expected from a country of which the sovereign, 

 is the sole proprietor and disposer. 



Army. ...The military force of this country, according to Mr. Bruce, 

 has been greatly exaggerated : that traveller does not suppose that any 

 king of Abyssinia ever commanded 40,000 effective men at any time 

 or on any occasion, exclusive of his own household troops, which are 

 about 8000 infantry. 



Royal title, arms. ...The Abyssinian monarchs assume the title 

 of Nagush or Neguz, and are always addressed either by that or 

 Nagusha Nagasht king of kings ; or by that of Natzehe, which is 

 equivalent to the French Sire. Those who approach them prostrate 

 themselves before them j and when they are seated in council, they 

 are concealed from view. 



The device of these sovereigns is a lion passant proper in a field 

 gules, with this motto, Mo Anbasa am Nizilet Solomon am Negade 

 Jude...." The lion of the race of Solomon and tribe of Judah hath 

 overcome." 



Religion. ...The inhabitants of Abyssinia consist of Christians, 

 Jews, Mahommedans, and Pagans : about one third part are Mahom- 

 medans, who are every where intermixed with the Christians. The 

 Pagans are chiefly the Gallas, beside some others who are dispersed 

 through several of the provinces of the Abyssinian empire. 



Mr. Bruce informs us, from the annals of Abyssinia, that in the time 

 of Solomon all this country was converted to Judaism, and the go- 

 vernment of the church and state modelled according to what was 

 then in use at Jerusalem. 



Some ecclesiastical writers, rather from the attachment to particu- 

 lar systems, than from any conviction that the opinion they espouse 

 is truth, would persuade us, that the conversion of Abyssinia to 

 Christianity happened in the days of the apostles ; but it appears that 

 this was effected by the labours of Frumentius (the apostle of the 

 Abyssinians) in the year of Christ 333, according to our account. 



Their first bishop, Frumentius, being ordained about the year 333, 

 and instructed in the religion of the Greeks of the church of Alexan- 

 dria, by St. Athanasius, then sitting in the chair of St. Mark; it fol- 

 lows that the true religion of the Abyssinians, which they received on 

 their conversion to Christianity, is that of the Greek church. They 

 receive the holy sacrament in both kinds, in unleavened bread, and 

 in the grape bruised with the husk together as it grows, so that it is 

 a kind of marmalade, and is given in a flat spoon. They observe also 

 circumcision. 



The Abyssinian church is governed by a bishop or metropolitans 

 styled Abuna (our father) and sometimes, though improperly, patri- 

 arch, sent them by the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria, residing at 

 Cairo, who is the only person that ordains priests. 



Literature. ...With respect to arts and sciences, the Abyssinians 

 are very uninformed, and will probably long continue so, both from 

 the form of their government, and their natural indolence, and from 

 the little intercourse they have with any nations in which knowledge 

 is cultivated. 



