AXUM. 
409 
as spouts to a fountain, each having an open space cut through 
it, for the purpose of affording a passage to the water. During 
our excursion to examine these remains, we found the people 
extremely insolent and unruly, instigated, as I conceive, in a 
great measure by the priests,* who, throughout, seemed to have 
entertained great jealousy respecting our visit to the country, and 
at last they became so troublesome, that it became necessary for 
Mr. Pearce to lay hold of one of them, and to tie him to an 
attendant whom we had brought with us, to answer for his con- 
duct before the Ras. 
Having before noticed the practice of tying the garments of 
offenders, I may here take occasion to mention, that this singular 
custom appears to me to elucidate very clearly a passage in the 
Old Testament, which always struck me before as attended with 
considerable obscurity. The circumstance I allude to, relates to 
the story of Potiphar's wife and Joseph, in which it is mentioned, 
that when she could not prevail upon him to comply with her 
desires, she caught him by the garment, and said, ' Lie with 
me !' and he left his garment in her hand and fled, and got him 
out;" and when she accused Joseph to her husband, she pro- 
duced the garment as an evidence of his guilt, saying, " The 
Hebrew servant which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto 
me to mock me : and it came to pass as I lifted up my voice and 
cried, that he left his garment with me and fled out,"' and imme- 
* From the civility I had before met with at Axum, I had reason to be surprised at 
this change in their behaviour; but I imagine that it proceeced from their extreme jea- 
lousy of the priests at Chelicut, whom they consider as their rivals in the favour of the 
Eas. 
