MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 
55 
plain, where stood the celebrated ruins of Axuni, 
supposed to have been the ancient capital of Abys- 
sinia. The remains of art and architecture are very 
extensive, consisting entirely of pillars, fragments 
of temples, and other public buildings. Among 
the statues is one of Ptolemy Euergetes, sitting 
with his crown on, and his feet resting on a large 
oblong slab of free-stone like a hearth. 
It was in the neighbourhood of Axum that Bruce 
saw the natives eat raw beef-steaks, warm from the 
cow's buttock, and he has minutely described the 
way in which the exploit was performed. He and 
his attendants had fallen in with a party of travellers 
who were driving a cow, which they supposed had 
been stolen ; on a sudden, they tripped up the heels 
of the poor animal, so that it fell to the ground. 
One of them then sat across her neck, holding down 
her head by the horns ; another twisted the halter 
about her fore-feet ; while a third, who had a knife 
in his hand, got astride upon her belly before her 
hind legs, and in a twinkling cut out two pieces, 
thicker and longer than our ordinary beef-steaks, 
from the higher part of the rump. “ How it was 
done,” says Bruce, “ I cannot positively say, be- 
cause, judging the cow was to be killed from the 
moment I saw the knife drawn, I was not anxious 
to view that catastrophe, which was by no means 
an object of curiosity. Whatever way it was done, 
it surely was adroitly, and the pieces were spread 
upon the outside of one of their shields.” 
When the operation was ended, the skin, which 
