TH E S OU RCEOFTHENIL E. 



S9T 



iher effect, that nobody would fupply this deficiency after 

 his death, a general belief prevailing in Abyflinia that he 

 is alive to this day, and will appear again in all his terrors. 

 It is owing to this circumftance that we have nothing com- 

 plete of this king's reign; only a few anecdotes are prefer- 

 ved, fome of them very odd ones. ; I mall only, for the pre- 

 sent, choofe luch of thofe as lead me to the fubject I have. in s 

 hand. 



Bacitffa was exceedingly fond of divinations, dreams, 

 and prophecies, fo are all the Abyffinians ; but he imbibed 

 an additional propenfity to thefe, among the Pagans to whom 

 he had fled. One day, when walking alone, he perceived a 

 prieft exceedingly attentive in obferving the forms that little 

 pieces of ftraw, cut to certain lengths, made upon a pool of 

 water into which ran a fmall ftream. From the combina- 

 tion of thefe in letters, or figures, as they chanced to fall, 

 an anfwer is procured to the doubt propofed, which, if you 

 believe thefe idlers, is perfectly infallible.. 



Bacuffa^ in difguife, drefled like a poor man, is faid to 

 have afked the priell after what he was inquiring. The 

 prieft anfwered, He was trying whether the king would have 

 a fon, and who fhould govern the kingdom after him. The 

 king abode the investigation patiently ; and the anfwer was, 

 That he mould have a fon; but that a/vVelleta Georgis mould 

 govern the kingdom after him for thirty years, though that 

 Welleta Georgis fhould be neither his fon nor any defcen- 

 dant of his. Full of thought at this untoward prediction, 

 he harboured it in his breaft without communicating it to 

 any one, and refolved to blaft the hopes of every Welleta 

 Georgis that fhould be fo unfortunate as to Hand within the 



ppffibility- 



