452 
MOGH A. 
but his accounts were mingled with so many fables of gold and 
treasures having been concealed there, that they could not be much 
relied upon for their accuracy. On my return to Massowa, in 
May, I met again with Shum Hummar, from whom I unex- 
pectedly gained a more satisfactory account. He told me, ^' that 
great remains of an old town could still be traced near Zulla, 
which had been called " Azoole that the houses appeared to 
have been larger and more numerous than those at Massowa ; 
immense masses of square stones, four or five feet in breadth, 
lying heaped confusedly together in the bed of a ' gorf ' or ' tor- 
rent by the sudden overflowing of which, it was traditionally 
reported, the town had been destroyed/' He represented these 
ruins as being at no great distance from ZuUa ; and he added, 
that the inhabitants of this town were by no means so bad as the 
natives of Arkeeko ; on which account he thought, that any person 
sent over by me, would not experience much difliculty in getting 
a sight of the place he had described. This description was, two 
days afterwards, strongly confirmed to me by Shum Aile, another 
old man of the Hazorta tribe, who, on being asked the name of 
the ancient town, distinctly called it Azoole, and repeatedly 
afterwards mentioned that name in describing what he had seen ; 
adding the same traditional story of its having been destroyed 
by a torrent. 
In consequence of these reports, I felt very anxious to have 
gone down to Zulla myself, but was unfortunately prevented by 
illness ; I was therefore induced to send Mr. Stuart, who accord- 
ingly proceeded under my directions in Wursum's dow, which 
had joined us the day before we left Massowa. His researches. 
