528 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



know is, that with them the court returned to the Chrifciau 

 religion, and that they were ftill as different from their pre- 

 deceffors in manners as in religion. Though ufurpers, as 

 were the others, their names are preferved with every mark, 

 of refpecT: and veneration. They are, 



Tecla Haimanout, 



Kedus Harbe, 



Itibarek, 



Lalibala, 



Imeranha Chriftos* 5 



Naacueto Laab. 



Not being kings of the line of Solomon, no part of their 

 hiftory is recorded in the annals, unlefs that of Lalibala, who 

 lived in the end of the twelfth, or beginning of the thir- 

 teenth century, and was a faint. The whole period of the 

 ufurpation, comprehending the long reign of Judith, will by 

 this account be a little more than 300 years, in which time 

 eleven princes are faid to have fat upon the throne of So- 

 lomon, fo that, fuppofmg her death to have been in the 

 year 1000, each of thefe princes, at an average, will have 

 been a little more than twenty-four years, and this is too 

 much. But all this period is involved in darknefs. We 

 might guefs, but fince we are not able to do more, it anfwers 

 no good purpofe to do fo much. I have followed the hif- 

 tories and traditions which are thought the moll authen- 

 tic in the country, the fubjecl: of which they treat, and where 

 I found them ; and though they may differ from other ac- 

 counts given by European authors, this does not influence me, 

 as I know that none of thefe authors could have any other 

 authorities than thofe I have feen, and the difference only 



mult 



