250 
DISSERTATION ON THE 
mon people almost venerated as divine agents. No nation, indeed, 
ever received the Christian religion with more willingness than 
the Abyssinians, so that a great part of them were in a short time 
baptized to the faith ; lands were set apart for the priesthood ; 
churches were erected, and others afterwards excavated out of the 
solid rocks, by workmen sent for out of Egypt, by the orders of the 
Abyssinian emperors, and which they to this day retain. One of 
these I saw at Abhahasuba, which is undoubtedly of great antiquity, 
and resembles much the architecture of Egypt. With the rites of 
Christianity, however^ they either incorporated many ceremonies 
which they had borrowed from the Jews, or, which is perhaps as 
likely, they received Christianity mixed with many Jewish rites, 
which had not, in the early periods of the church in Egypt, been so 
decidedly separated from it. Over this church, from its first foun- 
dation, the supremacy of the Patriarch of Alexandria seems to have 
been acknowledged, for the Emperor Justin writes to Asterius, 
Bishop of Alexandria, to incite the King of the Axomites against 
Dupaan;* and it was wisely determined that the chief priest, or 
Aboona, should be a stranger appointed by him ; thus securing to 
so remote a country, on the death of each Aboona, a renewed sup- 
ply of learning and Christian knowledge, superior at least to what 
was likely to be found there. In subsequent periods, from time to 
time, many holy men went over from Egypt, who were invariably 
received with reverence by the inhabitants, particularly nine or 
ten of great sanctity, between the year 470 and 480, whose memory 
is still highly respected in the province of Tigre, where as many 
churches were built and called after their names. 
* Vide Baronius lib. vii. A.D. 522, 
