484 * R A V E L S T O D I S C O V E R> 



ved in friendfhip with fcveral efteemed the moft'knowmg'- 

 and learned among them, and I am perfuade.d r as far as they 

 knew, they told me the truth. 



The account they give of themferveSi which is ^ Supported! 

 only by tradition among them, is, that they came with Mc- 

 nilek from Jerufalem, fo that they agree perfectly with the 

 Abymnians in the flory of the queen-of'Saba, who,» they fay, 

 was a Jewefs, andher nation Jews before the time of Solo- 

 mon ; that fhe lived a* Saba^ or Azaba, the myrrh and frank-* 

 incenfe, country upon the Arabian.GuIf. They fay further*, 

 that fhe went to Jerufalem,. under protection of Hiram king 

 of Tyre, whole daughter is faid in the xlyth Pfalm to 

 have attended her thither ; that fhe went not in ffiips, no/ 

 through Arabia, for. fear- of the Ifhmaelites, but from Azab 

 round by Mafuah and.Suakem, and was e£corted>by the 

 Shepherds, her own Subjects, to Jerufalem, and back agaii>, 

 making ufe of her own country vehicle, the camel, and that 

 her's was a -white one, of prodigious iize. and exquilke beau-s- 

 ty,. ; • 



They agree alfo, ill every particular, with the Abyfliniansj , 

 about the remainingpart of the ftory, the birth and inaugura- 

 tion of Menilek, who was their firfl king ; alfo the comingv 

 of Azarias, and 'twelve elders from the twelve tribes* and o- 

 ther doctors of the law, whofe pofterity they deny to have ever 

 apoflatifed to Ghriftianity, as the Abyflinians pretend they 

 did at tfc|e conversion. They fay, that, when the trade of. 

 the Red Sea. fell into the hands of ftrangers, and all com- 

 munication i was Shut up between them and Jerufalem, the 

 cities were abandoned, and the inhabitants relinquished the 

 coaft,;. that they, were the inhabitants, of thefe cities, by 



trade 



