144 
HINDOOS. 
into the country. An army there leaves nothing living behind it, not 
even the vestige of a habitation ; but the fire and the sword reduce 
every thing to a wilderness and solitude. The beasts and birds, 
unmolested, have the country to themselves, and increase beyond all 
possible conception. The slovenly manner of this savage people, who 
after a battle bury neither friends nor enemies; the beasts of burden 
that die perpetually under loads of baggage, aiid a variety of mis- 
management ; the quantity of offal, and half-eat'en carcases of cows, 
goats, and sheep, which they consume in their march for sustenance ; 
all furnish a stock of carrion sufficient to occasion contagious dis- 
tempers, were there not such a number of voracious attendants to 
consume them before putrefaction. There is no giving the reader 
any idea of their number, unless by comparing them to the sands of 
the sea. While the army is in motion, they are a black canopy, which 
extends over it for leagues ; when encamped, the ground is disco- 
loured with them beyond the sight of the eye, and also the trees are 
loaded with them. 
The prodigious number of criminals executed for high treason, w hose 
bodies are cut in pieces and thrown about the streets, invite the hyenas 
into the capital. The method of keeping oft' these voracious animals 
is thus described by Mr. Bruce : “ An officer called Serach Maffery, 
with a long whip, begins cracking and making a noise worse than 
twenty French postilions, at the door of the palace, before the davvn 
of day. This chases away the hyenas and othe^* wild beasts ; this 
too is the signal for the king’s rising, who sits in judgment every 
morning fasting; and after that, about eight o’clock, he goes to break-, 
fast.” From these and other circumstances, we should be apt to ima- 
gine that the Abyssinians, instead of becoming more civilized, were 
daily improving in barbarity. The king is anointed at his election 
with plain oil of olives, “which, (says Mr. Bruce,) being poured upon 
crown of the head, he rubs into his long hair indecently enough with 
both his hands, pretty much as his soldiers do with theirs wffien they 
get plenty of butter.” In former times, how'ever, matters seem to be 
conducted with more decency. Socinios, the greatest monarch that 
ever sat on the Abyssinian throne, was crowned, after having gained 
a great victory over the Gallas, in a very different manner with the 
ceremonies which were used among the ancient kings of Tigr6 ; and 
which Mr. Bruce describes at large. These, however, are now 
given over, on account of their enormous expense. Our author was 
informed by Tecla Kaimanout, that when he was obliged to retire 
into Tigr6, Ras Michael proposed to have him crowned, in contempt 
of his enemies ; but, by the most moderate calculation, it would have 
cost twenty thousand ounces of gold, about eighty thousand pounds 
sterling ; on which account all thoughts of it were laid aside. 
Origin, Religion, &c. of the Ansarians. 
These were a people of Syria, so called in that country, but styled 
in Delisle’s maps, Ensarians, and in those of Danville, Nassaris. 
The territory occupied by these Ansarians is that chain of moun- 
tains which extends from Antakia to the rivulet called Nahr-el-Kahir, 
