90 
TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA. 
flowed. The soil of the district immediately ad-^ 
joining is fat and rich to an extraordinary degree, 
and produces vegetabl 3 food in the greatest abun- 
dance ; but no domestic animals can live upon it. 
These can only be reared upon the sands, which 
begin at two miles distance from the river. It is 
there, accordingly, that Shekh Adelan keeps his 
cavalry, while the king, confined to the city, can- 
not maintain a single horse. The kingdom is 
hereditary, and descends to the eldest son ; and 
all the rest of the royal family are put to death. 
What is more singular, the grandees claim a right 
of putting an end to the life of the sovereign, 
whenever it seems to them expedient. There is 
an officer regularly appointed, whose duty it is 
to put this sentence into execution ; and who, 
in the meantime, fills the place of master of the 
household, and is closely attached to the person 
of the king ; nor is there said to exist any grudge 
between the two individuals on account of this 
extraordinary relation in which they stand. 
After leaving Sennaar, Mr Bruce came in a 
few days to Halifoon, near which the Bahr el 
Abiad falls into the Bahr el Azergue. The last 
of these rivers our traveller uniformly considers as 
the Nile, though he observes, that the Abiad rolls 
three times the quantity of water, and is con- 
stantly full, while the other is a very great stream 
only in the rainy season. He proceeded thence 
