Part I 
Travels mw the h ey ant. 
257 
a Hundred and fifteen thoufand an hundred and one Piaftres, feventeen Maldim, 
When this Bey was at Girge, they killed an hundred and fifty Sheep a day for 
his Family. 
CHAP. LXVIIL 
The arrival of an Amhajjadour of ^Ethiopia at 
Caire, With the Trefents he brought for the 
Grand Signior. 
IN the month of OUober an Ambaffadour of ^y£thiopa came to Caire^ with x^e arrivai ' 
feveral Prefents for the Grand Signior, and among others an Afs that had of an Ambaf- 
a moft delicate Skin, if it was Natural, for I will not vouch for that, fince I fadour of 
did not examine it. This Afs had a black Lift down the Back, and the ^Q^^^^iopdzt 
of its Body was all begirt with White and Tawny ftreaks, a finger broad a ^'fs of ex= 
piece i the Head of it was extraordinarily long, ftriped and partly coloured as traordinaiy 
the reft of the Body: its Ears like a BufBes, were very wide at the end, and Beauty, 
black, yellow and white j its Legs flreaked juft like the Body, not long ways, 
but round the Leg infafhion of a Garter down to the Foot, and all in fo 
good proportion and Symmetry, that no Lynx could be more exadly fpotted, 
nor any Skin of a Tygre fo pretty. The Ambaffadour had two more fuch Alfes, 
which died by the way, but he brought their Skins with him, to be prefented 
to the Grand Signior, with the live one. He had alfo feveral little black Slaves 
of Nubia^ and other Countreys, confining on fy£thiopia,Civet^ and other coftly 
things for his Prefent.Thefe little Blacks, fas I faid before) ferve to look after 
the Women in the SerragUo, after that they are Gelded. The Ambaffadour 
was an Old Man, and had the end of his Nofe, part of the upper and under 
Lip cut off, but was otherwife a fhapely Man, and of a very good Prefence: 
He was Cloathed after the Cophtifh fafhion, wearing a Turban like them, and 
fpoke very good Italian, which gave me the opportunity of converfîng with 
him : He told me his name was Michael^ that he was a Native of Tripoly, in 
Syrta^ and that he had made three or four Voyages into Chrifiendom j he even 
confeffed to me, that he was a Roman Catholtckj, but that he durll not make 
profeffion of it in z^thiopa, but only of the -^byjfm, that is to fay, the Reli- 
gion of the Cofhtes. That eighteen months before, he had parted from Gomar^ 
the Capital City of <i/Ethiopia-, and was fo long retarded by the way, becaufe 
of the contrary Winds he met with on the Red Sea, by which he came. 
That of an hundred Perfons whom he had brought with him, of his own 
Servants and the Slaves he was to prefent to the Grand Signior, thirty or forty 
were Dead. If he had come by Land, he had not been fo long by the way j 
for from Gontar to Schouaqiien, it is about fix weeks Journey,and from Schouaquen Qonur. 
to Caire^ forty or fifty days by Camels ; but he could not take that way 
becaufe of his Train. He told me many things relating to the Kingdom of 
<i/£thiopta^ which I fhall here give the Reader an account of. 
CHAP, 
