AXUM. 
93 
Selasse's wars. I then returned with Pearce to the inscription. My 
first care was to trace every letter with white chalk, and then to 
copy it on paper, correcting the whole by going over it a second 
time. We had been several hours thus engaged, and had not pro- 
ceeded half through before the rain came on, and obliged us to 
desist. In the evening I wrote down the best account I could get 
from the books of Axum, of Ras Michael, and his rebellion in Tigre 
against the Emperor Yasous ; his standing a siege on the mountain 
of Samayut ; and his subsequent concession and pardon; to which 
the Emperor with difficulty acceded ; all which confirm the his- 
torical account of the same transactions as related by Bruce. 
" This day a circumstance occurred of trivial moment, but which 
I shall narrate, as it throws some light on the state of mental culti- 
vation among those people. I was sitting alone where a fire of 
wood had been lighted, when a man of very wild demeanor, taking 
the opportunity of the absence of my servants, rushed in and began 
to remove the lighted branches. I in vain ordered him to desist, 
till at length, provoked by his insolence, and desirous of dismissing 
him at once, I threw at his head the drinking bottle which was 
standing before me on the table. The man was not touched, but 
immediately ran out in a great fright, making a most vociferous 
outcry, which immediately brought Guebra Selasse and others into 
the room. On being informed of what had passed, they searched 
for the bottle, and to their great surprise found that it had received 
no injury (doubtless on account of its lightness and globular figure). 
They turned it round and round with increasing astonishment; 
and from that time it was one of the anecdotes concerning me that 
they had most pleasure in repeating, declaring that such a man 
