5j£ TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



deed, a little in the particular fituation he gives to the Af- 

 ferent nations. His Rhizophagi, Elephantophagi, Aci 3- 

 phagi, Struthiophagi, and Agriophagi, are all the clans I 

 have juit defcribed, exilting under the fame habits to this 

 day. 



This foil, called by the Abyflinians Mazaga, when wet by 

 the tropical rains, and difTolving into mire, forces thefe fa- 

 vages to feek for winter-quarters. Their tents under the 

 trees being no longer tenable, they retire with their refpec- 

 tive foods, all dried in the fun, into caves dug into the heart 

 of the mountains, which are not in this country bafaltes, 

 marble, or alabafter, as is all that ridge which runs down 

 into Egypt along the fide of the Red Sea, but are of a foft, 

 gritty, fandy flone, eafdy excavated and formed into differ- 

 ent apartments. Into thefe, made generally in the fteepefl 

 part of the mountain, do thefe favages retire to fhun the 

 rains, living upon the nefh they have already prepared in 

 the fair weather. 



I cannot give over the account of the Shangalla with- 

 out delivering them again out of their caves, becaufe this 

 return includes the hiftory of an operation never heard of 

 perhaps in Europe, and by which confiderable light is 

 thrown upon ancient hiftory. No fooner does the fun pafs 

 the zenith, going fouthward, than the rains inftantly ceafe ; 

 and the thick canopy of clouds, which had obfeured the 

 fky during their continuance, being removed, the fun ap- 

 pears in a beautiful fky of pale blue, dappled with fmall 

 thin clouds, which foon after difappear, and leave the 

 heavens of a mofl beautiful azure. A very few days of the 

 intenfe heat then dries the ground fo perfectly, that it gapes 

 4 in 



