BARATTl's JOURNEY, 
6S 
In 1655 an Italian gentleman, Sig. Giacomo 
Baratti, undertook a journey to the east, and ar- 
rived at Cairo. He met here with the Abunay 
who was about to depart, in order to exercise his 
ecclesiastical functions in Abyssinia. The ad- 
vantage of travelling with a person of such dis-' 
tinction, appeared to Baratti a sufficient motive 
to give this direction to his wandering inclina- 
tions. They set out for Suez, intending to sail 
down the Red Sea, but the dread of the Turkish 
pirates induced them to take the very tedious and 
difficult route by land. It was rendered easier, 
however, by their joining the retinue of an am- 
bassador from the Grand Signior to the king of 
Abyssinia. The route lay chiefly over craggy 
mountains, where they saw only wild beasts, en- 
tirely different from those of Europe. They met 
a few straggling tents of Arabians, distinguished 
for nothing but " poverty and misery.'* Their 
food was roots, or such wild beasts as they could 
kill ; their clothing merely the large leaves of a 
particular species of tree which grows in the 
forests. These, being fastened to a string tied 
about their waists, hang down " like pendants,'* 
so as barely to answer the call of decency. He 
remarks, however, that they thus resemble Euro- 
pean nobility, in having every day a change of 
apparel. On coming to the frontier of the Bar- 
nagasso, they found a race of people, who, though 
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