328 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER? 
exhibition of the King, Queen, and Abuna, and their. cotton 
cloths. As for the circumftance of the oil being poured in- 
to the water, I will not pofitively contradict it, for, though I 
was early there, 1t might have efcaped me if it was done in 
the dark. However, I never heard it mentioned as_ part of 
-the ceremony; and it is probable Ll fhould, if any fuch thing 
was really praétifed; neither was I in time to have feen it 
-at Kahha. 3 
“ Berore the pond a fcaffold was built, covered round 
“with planks, within which fat the king looking towards 
“ the pond, his face covered with blue taffeta, while an old 
“* man, who was the king’s tutor, was ftanding in the water 
“ upto the fhoulders, naked as he was born, and half dead 
“ with cold, for it had frozen violently in the night. All 
* thofe that came near him he took by the head and plun- 
* ged them inthe water, whether men or women, faying, m 
* lis own language, I baptize thee im the name of the Father, 
‘ Son, and Holy Ghoft.” 
Lal 
Now Shoa, where the king was then, is in lat. 8° N. and 
the fun was in 22° fouth declination, advancing northward, 
fo the fun was, on the day of the Epiphany, within 30° of the 
zenith of the bathing-place. The thermometer of Fahren- 
heit rifes at Gondar about that time to 68°, fo in Shoa it can- 
not rife to lefs than 70°, for Gondar is in Jat. 12° N. that is 4° 
farther northward, fo it is not poflible water fhould freeze, 
nor did I ever fee ice in Abyflinia, not even on the higheft 
or coldeft mountains. January is one of the hotteft months 
in the year, day and night the fky is perfectly ferene, nor is 
«here there a long difproportioned winter night. At Shoa the 
2 days 
