270 TRAVELS TO. DISCOVER 
the only place for their coronation ; and this, too, was the 
cafe of Abyfflinia with their rae of Axum. 
THE next remarkable ceremony in which thefe two na- 
tions agreed, 1s that of adoration, inviolably obferved in A- 
byflinia to this day, as often as you enter the fovereign’s 
prefence. This is not only kneeling*, but an abfolute pro- 
ftration. You firft fall upon your knees, then upon the 
palms of your hands, then incline your head and body till 
your forehead touch the earth; and, in cafe you have an 
anfwer to expect, you lie in that pofture till the king, or 
fomebody from him, defires you to rife. This, too, was the 
cuftom of Perlia; Arrian+ fays this was firft inftituted by 
Cyrus, and this was precifely the pofture in which they a- 
dored God, mentioned in the book of Exodus. 
Tuoveu the refufal of this ceremony would, in Abyflinia 
and Perfia, be looked upon as rebellion or infult, yet it feems 
in both nations to have met with a mitigation with regard 
to flrangers, who have refufed it without giving any of- _ 
fence. I remember a Mahometan being twice fent by the 
prince of Mecca into Abyifinia during my ftay there, who, 
neither time, would go farther than to put his hands acrofs 
upon his breaft, with no very great inclination of his head; 
and this I faw was not thought fo extraordinary as to give 
offence, as it was all he did to his own fovereign and matter. 
We read, indeed, of a very remarkable inftance of- the 
difpenfing with that ceremony being indirectly, yet plain- 
4 ly, 
* Lucretius, lib. vy. Ovid. Metam. lib. i. Lucian, in Navig. 
+ Arrian, lib. iv.cap. x1. Exod. chap. 4. Matth. chap. 2. 
