The Life and Adventures of Bruce, the African Traveller Part 10

"At half past eight o'clock," says Bruce, "we encamped at a place called Tubbo, where the mountains are very steep, and broken very abruptly into cliffs and precipices. Tubbo was by much the most agreeable station we had seen; the trees were thick, full of leaves, and gave us abundance of very dark shade. There was a number of many different kinds, so closely planted that they seemed to be intended for natural arbours. Every tree was full of birds, variegated with an infinity of colours, but dest.i.tute of song; others, of a more homely and more European appearance, diverted us with a variety of wild notes, in a style of music still distinct and peculiar to Africa; as different in the composition from our linnet and goldfinch as our English language is to that of Abyssinia. Yet, from very attentive and frequent observation, I found that the skylark at Masuah sang the same notes as in England. It was observable, that the greatest part of the beautiful painted birds were of the jay or magpie kind. Nature seemed, by the fineness of their dress, to have marked them for children of noise and impertinence, but never to have intended them for pleasure or meditation."

Leaving Tubbo, they proceeded on their journey and at night encamped by the side of a rivulet, in a narrow valley full of trees and brushwood: a number of antelopes were running about in all directions; but as the Hazorta tribes were supposed to be in the neighbourhood, Bruce was advised not to fire until he reached the mountain of Tarenta, at the foot of which he arrived on the following morning. In the cool of the evening they began to ascend the mountain by a path of great steepness, and full of holes and gullies made by the torrents. With extreme difficulty Bruce and his party crawled along, each man carrying his knapsack and arms; but it seemed quite impossible to carry the baggage and the instruments.

The quadrant had hitherto been carried by eight men, four of whom relieved the others; but they now gave up the undertaking after proceeding a few hundred yards. Various expedients, such as dragging it along the ground, etc., were then proposed. "At last," says Bruce, "as I was incomparably the strongest of the company, as well as the most interested, I and the Moor Yasine (the man who had behaved so gallantly when Bruce's vessel was aground in the Red Sea) carried the head of it for about four hundred yards, over the more difficult and steepest part of the mountain, which before had been considered as impracticable by all. We carried it steadily up the steep, eased the case gently over the big stones on which, from time to time, we rested it, and, to the wonder of them all, placed the head of the three-foot quadrant, with its double case, in safety, far above the stony parts of the mountain. At Yasine's request, we then undertook the next difficult task, which was to carry the iron foot of the quadrant." Bruce and Yasine suffered much in this exertion; "their hands and feet were cut and mangled with sliding down and clambering over the sharp points of the rocks, and their clothes were torn to pieces." However, at last, after infinite toil, and with as much pleasure, they succeeded in placing all their instruments and baggage about half way up this terrible mountain of Tarenta.

There were five a.s.ses, which were quite as difficult to get up the mountain as the baggage. The greater part of their burdens had been carried by the party up to the instruments; and it was then proposed, as a thing very easy to be done, to make the unladen beasts follow the baggage; but they no sooner found themselves at liberty, and that it was required of them to ascend a steep mountain, than they began to kick and bite each other violently; and finally, with one consent, away they ran, braying down the hill, until at length they stopped to eat some bushes.

The hyaenas, which were lurking about, had probably been seen or smelt by these animals, as they all collected in a body; and in this defensive position they were found by their masters, who proceeded again to drive them up the mountain. The hyaenas, however, followed them step by step, until the men began to be quite as much afraid for themselves as for the a.s.ses. At last the wild beasts became so bold that one of them seized a donkey and pulled him down. A general engagement would probably have ensued, had not Yasine's man fired his gun, the report of which made the enemy retire, leaving the a.s.ses and the a.s.s-drivers to pursue their way; but it was nearly midnight before these jaded long and short eared stragglers joined their masters.

Bruce having encouraged his people by good words, increase of wages, and promises of reward, early the next morning they started to encounter the other half of the mountain. The baggage now moved on briskly. The upper part of the mountain was steeper, more craggy, rugged, and slippery than the lower, but not as much embarra.s.sed by large stones and holes. "Our knees and hands," says Bruce, "were cut to pieces by frequent falls, and our faces torn by the mult.i.tude of th.o.r.n.y bushes. I twenty times now thought of what Achmet had told me at parting, that I should curse him for the bad road shown to me over Tarenta." However, with great difficulty they at last reached the summit, upon which they found a small village, chiefly inhabited by very poor people, who tend the flocks belonging to the town of Dixan.

Salt sneers, as usual, at Bruce's description of the difficulties he encountered in ascending Tarenta. He says, "We did not meet with a single hyaena or troglodytical cave, and, luckily, 'had not _our hands and knees cut by frequent falls, or our faces torn by th.o.r.n.y bushes_,'

which last, indeed, appears scarcely possible in so open and frequented a path." Now Bruce never said that the hyaenas of Tarenta would find Mr.

Salt, or that Mr. Salt would find the caves which Bruce says he went out of his path to see: yet, if Mr. Salt had ever read the following extract from the account of a journey made into Ethiopia (by Father Remedio of Bohemia, Martino of Bohemia, and Antonio of Aleppo, of the order of Reformed Minorites of St. Francis, missionaries for the propagation of the Christian faith), he would, perhaps, have hesitated before he ventured to accuse Bruce of exaggeration, more especially in regard to "the thorns and briers of Tarenta."

"Our way" (from Masuah), says one of those fathers, "lay over high mountains, deep valleys, and through impenetrable woods, in pa.s.sing which we encountered many dangers and grievous hardships. More than once we were obliged to climb the tops of the mountains on our hands and feet, which were sorely rent and torn with _brambles and th.o.r.n.y bushes_.

No house nor inn being found here, everybody is obliged to lay in the open air, exposed to the depredations of robbers, and liable every moment to become the prey of wolves, lions, tigers, and beasts of a similar description, which are almost continually met with, of all which I shall cease to speak, from the horror and dread with which the very thought of them still afflicts me."

It has already been stated that Lord Valentia published "Voyages and Travels to Abyssinia," etc., although he had merely landed at the port of Masuah, which does not belong to Abyssinia; his evidence, therefore, cannot carry with it much weight, and still with his own secretary he may be allowed to dispute. "The night," says his lordship, "was cooler, and I was not so restless; in the morning I had no fever, and at dinner some appet.i.te. I viewed from my window the island of Valentia, distant about five leagues; Ras Gidden, and the chain of mountains that lines the coast of the Red Sea from this place to the plains of Egypt. Behind these the summit of Tarenta peeps out, and gives credit, by its height, to Mr. Bruce's account of the difficulty he had in ascending it."

But Mr. Salt absolutely forgets himself; for in vol. iii., p. 12, speaking of "a semicircular ridge of mountains, over which there is but one pa.s.s by which it is possible to ascend," he says, "in steepness and ruggedness this hill may be compared to Tarenta, though its height is considerably inferior." And in his "Travels to Abyssinia," page 201, he again says, "on the 10th the party ascended Senafe, which is said to be full as high, _though not so difficult to pa.s.s, as Tarenta_."

The trifling, cavilling remarks made against Bruce's character by Lord Valentia and Mr. Salt, admitting his history of Abyssinia, as they do, and his general descriptions, to be correct, remind one of Shakspeare's description of the sun:

"When envious clouds seem bent to dim his glory, And check his bright course to the occident."

The plain on the summit of the mountain of Tarenta was in many places sown with wheat, which was just ready to be cut. The grain appeared to be clean and of a good colour, but inferior in size to that of Egypt. It did not, however, grow thick, nor was its stalk above fourteen inches high. The water here was very bad, being only what remained of the rain that had been collected in hollows of the rocks, or in pits artificially prepared for it. Being greatly fatigued, Bruce and his party pitched their tents on the top of the mountain. The night felt dreadfully cold to them, accustomed as they had been to the heat of the low country of Masuah: the dew fell heavily, yet the sky was so clear that the smallest stars were discernible.

The people who live on the mountain of Tarenta are of a dark, sallow complexion. Their heads are wholly uncovered, a goat's skin is thrown over their shoulders, they wear a piece of cotton cloth about their waist, and sandals on their feet. Their hair is cut short, and curled artificially, to look like the wool of a negro. The men usually carry two lances, a shield made of bull's hide, and a very long, broad knife stuck in their girdles. All sorts of cattle are here in great plenty.

The cows are generally white, with large dewlaps hanging down to their knees, hair like silk, and wide horns. The sheep are of good size and black: they have large heads, which they carry very erect, and small ears, and are covered with hair instead of wool.

Early on the morning of the 22d, Bruce and his party eagerly descended the mountain. The cedar-trees, which had been so tall and beautiful on the top and on the east side of Tarenta, degenerated on the west into small shrubs and scraggy bushes. Lower down the people were busy with their harvest, and cows and bullocks were seen treading out the corn, the straw being burned or left to rot upon the ground. In the evening they reached the town of Dixan. Salt says, "We pa.s.sed over the highest part of the irregular hill on which Dixan is built, and which Bruce has very accurately described when he compared it to a sugar-loaf."

Dixan, like most frontier towns, is a rendezvous for the bad people of the two contiguous countries. "The town," says Bruce, "consists of Moors and Christians, and is very well peopled; yet the only trade of either is a very extraordinary one, that of selling children. The Christians bring such as they have stolen in Abyssinia to Dixan, and the Moors, receiving them there, carry them to a sure market to Masuah, whence they are sent to Arabia or India."

Rather a curious instance of this barbarous traffic occurred between two priests, who were slaves in the naybe's house, while Bruce was at Masuah.

These two men had formerly dwelt at Tigre as most intimate friends--the youngest living with a woman by whom he had two sons. One day the old priest came to the young one to say that, as he had no children of his own, he would provide for one of the boys, who was accordingly most gratefully committed to his care. The old wretch, however, took him to Dixan, and, after selling him there as a slave, returned to his friend with a fine account of his son's reception, treatment, and brilliant future prospects. The other child, who was about eight years old, hearing of the wonderful good fortune of his elder brother, entreated to be permitted to pay him a visit. The old man said that he did not altogether disapprove of his design, but at the same time observed that he felt a sort of scruple--a kind of repugnance--in short, that he was unwilling to be responsible for the safety of so very young a boy, unless his mother would accompany him; and as mothers yearn for their children in Abyssinia as elsewhere, the woman most readily consented to attend her son, under the protection of the old priest, who kindly took them to Dixan and--sold them both!

Returning to his friend the young priest, he told him that his wife expected he would come and fetch her on a particular day. Accordingly, when the time arrived, the two priests set out together, and, on reaching Dixan, the young one found out that his aged friend had not only sold the woman and the two boys, but that he, the father, was sold also! The whole family were thus, by treachery, doomed to finish their days in bondage. However, the slave-merchants persuaded the old priest to accompany the party to a place near Dixan, where he was a.s.sured that he should receive all that was due to him. On reaching this spot they fell upon him and bound him too as their slave, the woman and the young priest begging for permission, meanwhile, to pluck out his beard; and as that ceremony, besides its well-merited pain, would add to the old gentleman's value by making him look younger, leave was readily granted.

On reaching Masuah, the woman and the boys were instantly sold and carried into Arabia; but the two priests were still slaves at Masuah when Bruce left there.

"The priests of Axum," says Bruce, "and those of the monastery of Abba Garima, are equally infamous with those of Damo for this practice, which is winked at by Ras Michael as contributing to his greatness, by furnishing firearms to his provinces of Tigre, which gives him superiority over all Abyssinia. As a return for these firearms, about five hundred of these unfortunate people are annually exported from Masuah to Arabia, of which three hundred are pagans from the market at Gondar, the other two hundred are Christian children kidnapped. The naybe receives six patakas of duty for each one exported."

On the 25th of November Bruce and his party left Dixan, and, descending the very steep hill on which the town is situated, they reached an immense daroo-tree, seven and a half feet in diameter, with a head spreading in proportion. This tree, and the rivulet on which it stands, mark the boundary of that part of Tigre which the Naybe of Masuah farms or rents of the governors of Abyssinia. One of Bruce's servants delighted (as they all were) to get out of the dominions of Masuah, no sooner reached this tree, than he made a mark on the ground with his knife, and swore thereupon that if any one belonging to the naybe dared to cross it, he would bind him hand and foot, and leave him to the lions and the hyaenas. The naybe's people, on this hint, at once retired. Their presence had been a source of constant alarm to Bruce, who always felt that he owed his life to the advice and a.s.sistance he had received from Achmet. "We remained," says Bruce, "under this tree the night of the 25th. It will be to me a station ever memorable, as the first where I recovered a portion of that tranquillity of mind to which I had been a stranger ever since my arrival at Masuah."

The next day the party, having been joined by several Moors, proceeded; and Bruce, while on his journey, was visited by a person of some distinction in the country, from whom he purchased a black horse. "I was exceedingly pleased," he says, "with this first acquisition. The horse was then lean, and he stood about sixteen and a half hands high, of the breed of Dongola. Yasine, a good horseman, recommended to me one of his servants or companions to take care of him. He was an Arab, from the neighbourhood of Medina, a superior horseman himself, and well versed in everything that concerned the animal. I took him immediately into my service. We called the horse Mirza, a name of good fortune. Indeed, I might say, I acquired that day a companion that contributed always to my pleasure, and more than once to my safety; and was no slender means of acquiring me the first attention of the king. I had brought my Arab stirrups, saddle, and bridle with me, so that I was now as well equipped as a horseman could be." Bruce being now entirely the guide and guardian of his own party, carefully examined the state of their firearms, which he ordered to be cleaned and charged anew.

After pa.s.sing a very pleasant wood of acacia-trees, which were then in flower, they came to a plain "so overgrown with wild oats that it covered the men and their horses." The soil was excellent; yet this fine country was found almost in a state of nature, on account of some disputes, which raged so fiercely among the neighbouring villages that the people were in the habit of going with weapons in their hands to sow the small portion of land which they cultivated, and to reap the harvest.

Bruce now reached a river, where he learned that caravans were very frequently robbed. He therefore, for the first time, mounted his black charger Mirza, and, to the great delight and astonishment of his party, and of those who had joined them, galloped and paraded the animal in every direction, firing from his back in the Arab fashion, all of which tended to impress the minds of his rude attendants with a notion of his superiority that induced them to obey, and to place confidence in, the orders of one who appeared so well fitted to command.

Having now entered a rocky, uneven country, covered with brushwood, wild oats, and high gra.s.s, they found lying on the ground a very fine animal of the goat species, which had been just attacked by a lion. It was scarcely dead; and as the blood was still running, every one, Moor and Christian, cut out a portion of the flesh. The general aversion of the Abyssinians to anything that has not been regularly killed with a knife is so great, that they will not even lift a bird that has been shot, except by the point or extreme feather of its wing; but to this rule, as it now appeared, they make a very singular exception in favour of any animal which has been killed by a lion. They now crossed the clear and rapid river Bazelat, which falls into the Mareb or ancient Astusaspe.

This was the first running water which they had seen since they pa.s.sed Tarenta, this part of Abyssinia being very badly watered. They were here requested to pay a duty or custom, which, in many parts of Abyssinia, is levied on all pa.s.sengers. These places are called ber, or pa.s.ses, and there are five of them between Masuah and Adowa. But Bruce, having been sent for by the king, and being on his road to Ras Michael, told the people at the pa.s.s that they might keep his baggage, and that he would proceed without it; in consequence of which threat only a very slight duty was exacted from him.

Proceeding onward, they pa.s.sed a high rock, resembling the Acropolis of Athens, or the rock upon which stands Edinburgh Castle. This pinnacle was called Damo, and it was here that the heirs male of the royal family of Abyssinia were imprisoned until the ma.s.sacre of the princes by Judith.

The houses now began to appear with conical roofs, a sure sign that the rains of the country were very violent. The village of Kaibara they found to be entirely inhabited by Mohammedan Gibbertis, or native Abyssinians of that religion. They were here stopped again by a ber, where they were detained three whole days, from the extravagant demands which were made upon them, and which nothing that Bruce or his party could say would induce the people to diminish. "They had reasons," says Bruce, "for our reasons, menaces for our menaces, but no civilities to answer ours."

Bruce found it so impossible to satisfy them, that, with great artifice and difficulty, he managed to send a letter by one of the natives to Janni, the head of the custom-house at Adowa, to inform him of his detention. On the morning of the fourth day an officer from Janni arrived with a violent mandate in the name of Ras Michael, which produced an immediate effect, and on the 4th of December Bruce was again enabled to proceed.

He now pa.s.sed a river called Angueah, the largest he had seen in Abyssinia. This river receives its name from a beautiful tree which covers its banks. A variety of flowers, particularly yellow, white, and party-coloured jasmine, fill the plain which lies between the mountains and this stream. The air was fresh, fragrant, and agreeable. "We now first began to see," says Bruce, "the high mountains of Adowa, nothing resembling in shape those of Europe, nor, indeed, any other country.

Their sides were all perpendicular rocks, high, like steeples or obelisks, and broken into a thousand different forms." However, after travelling on a very pleasant road, over easy hills, and through hedgerows of jasmine, honeysuckle, and many other kinds of flowering shrubs, they arrived on the 6th of December at Adowa, the town in which Ras Michael had used to reside.

Adowa is situated at the foot of a hill, on the west side of a small plain, watered by three streams, and surrounded on all sides by mountains. It is the pa.s.s through which every one must go in travelling from Gondar to the Red Sea, and, indeed, its name signifies "pa.s.s or pa.s.sage." The town consisted of about three hundred houses, each dwelling being enclosed by hedges and trees. Adowa was not formerly the capital of Tigre, but at the time of Bruce's arrival it was considered as such, because the property of Ras Michael surrounded it. His house was on the top of a small hill, and was not remarkable for its size. It was inhabited during the ras's absence by his deputy, and resembled a prison rather than a palace; for in and about it more than three hundred persons were confined in irons, the object of their imprisonment being to extort money from them. Many of these unhappy individuals had been there twenty years; they were kept in cages, and in every way treated like wild beasts.

Bruce had scarcely arrived at Adowa before Janni, the Greek officer of the customs to whom he had written on his arrival at Masuah, waited upon him. "He had," says Bruce, "sent servants to conduct us from the pa.s.sage of the river, and met us himself at the outer door of his house. I do not remember to have seen a more respectable figure. He had his own short white hair, covered with a thin muslin turban, and a thick, well-shaped beard, as white as snow, down to his waist. He was clothed in the Abyssinian dress, all of white cotton, only he had a red silk sash, embroidered with gold, about his waist, and sandals on his feet: his upper garment reached down to his ankles. He had a number of servants and slaves about him of both s.e.xes; and, when I approached him, seemed disposed to receive me with marks of humility and inferiority, which mortified me much, considering the obligations I was under to him, the trouble I had given, and was unavoidably still to give him. I embraced him with great acknowledgments of kindness and grat.i.tude, calling him father: a t.i.tle I always used in speaking either to him or of him afterward, when I was in higher fortune, which he constantly remembered with great pleasure.

"He conducted us through a courtyard planted with jasmine, to a very neat, and, at the same time, large room, furnished with a silk sofa: the floor was covered with Persian carpets and cushions. All round, flowers and green leaves were strewed upon the outer yard: and the windows and sides of the room stuck full of evergreens, in commemoration of the Christmas festival that was at hand. I stopped at the entrance of this room: my feet were both dirty and b.l.o.o.d.y; and it is not good breeding to show or speak of your feet in Abyssinia, especially if anything ails them, and at all times they are covered. He immediately perceived the wounds that were upon mine. Both our clothes and flesh had been torn to pieces at Tarenta and several other places; but he thought we had come on mules furnished us by the naybe; for the young man I had sent to him from Kella, following the genius of his countrymen, though telling truth was just as profitable to him as lying, had chosen the latter, and, seeing the horse I had got from the Baharnagash, had figured in his own imagination a mult.i.tude of others, he told Janni that there were with me horses, a.s.ses, and mules in great plenty; so that, when Janni saw us pa.s.sing the water, he took me for a servant, and expected for several minutes to see the splendid company arrive, well-mounted upon horses and mules caparisoned.

"He was so shocked at my saying that I had performed this terrible journey on foot, that he burst into tears, uttering a thousand reproaches against the naybe for his hard-heartedness and ingrat.i.tude, as he had twice, as he said, hindered Michael from going in person, and sweeping the naybe from the face of the earth. Water was immediately procured to wash our feet; and here began another contention. Janni insisted upon doing this himself, which made me run out into the yard, and declare I would not suffer it. After this, the like dispute took place among the servants. It was always a ceremony in Abyssinia to wash the feet of those that came from Cairo, and who are understood to have been pilgrims to Jerusalem.

"This was no sooner finished than a great dinner was brought, exceedingly well dressed. But no consideration or entreaty could prevail upon my kind landlord to sit down and partake with me: he would stand all the time with a clean towel in his hand, though he had plenty of servants, and afterward dined with some visiters, who had come, out of curiosity, to see a man arrived from so far. Among these were a number of priests, a part of the company which I liked least, but who did not show any hostile appearance. It was long before I cured my kind landlord of these respectful observances, which troubled me very much; nor could he ever wholly get rid of them: his own kindness and good heart, as well as the pointed and particular orders of the Greek patriarch, Mark, constantly suggesting the same attention."

In the afternoon Bruce had a visit from the Governor of Adowa, a tall, fine-looking man of about sixty years of age. He had just returned from an expedition against the inhabitants of some villages, having slain about a hundred and twenty men, and driven off a quant.i.ty of cattle. He told Bruce he much doubted whether he would be able to proceed, unless some favourable news came from Ras Michael, as the inhabitants of Woggora were plundering all descriptions of people going to Gondar, in order to distress the king and the troops of Ras Michael.

The houses of Adowa are of rough stone, cemented with mud instead of mortar. The roofs, which are in the form of cones, are thatched with a sort of reedy gra.s.s, rather thicker than wheat straw. In the surrounding country there are three harvests annually. The first seedtime is in July and August, in the middle of the rains, at which time they sow wheat, tocusso, teff, and barley. About the 20th of November they begin to reap, first the barley, then the wheat, and lastly the teff. Without any manure, they then sow barley alone, which they reap in February; and, lastly, they sow teff or vetches, which are cut down before the first rains in April.

The country is sometimes completely overrun with rats and field-mice; and, to destroy these creatures, they set fire to the straw, the only use to which they apply it. This is generally done just before the rains, and astonishing verdure immediately follows.

"The province of Tigre," says Bruce, "is all mountainous; and it has been said, without any foundation in truth, that the Pyrenees, Alps, and Apennines are but molehills compared to them. I believe, however, that one of the Pyrenees, above St. John Pied de Port, is much higher than Lamalmon; and that the Mountain of St. Bernard, one of the Alps, is full as high as Taranta, or rather higher. It is not the extreme height of the mountains in Abyssinia that occasions surprise, but the number of them, and the extraordinary forms they present to the eye. Some of them are flat, thin, and square, in shape of a hearthstone or slab, that scarce would seem to have been sufficient to resist the winds. Some are like pyramids, others like obelisks or prisms; and some, the most extraordinary of all the rest, pyramids pitched upon their points, with their base uppermost, which, if it were possible, as it is not, that they could have been so formed in the beginning, would be strong objections to our received ideas of gravity."

Salt quotes the above description, which he takes great trouble to show is "extravagant;" yet at page 240 he himself describes the mountains of this province as follows: "A THOUSAND different-shaped hills were presented to the view, which bore the appearance of having been dropped on an irregular plain;" and the strange formation which Bruce and Salt dwell on with so much wonder, is now fully understood to proceed from the violent action of rain, through a long series of ages, upon a surface like that described by these travellers.

After having remained above a month at Adowa, Bruce, on the 10th of January, visited the remains of the famous convent of the Jesuits at Fremoga, which is on the opposite side of the plain to Adowa. This convent, which is about a mile in circ.u.mference, is substantially built of stone with mortar. The walls, about twenty-five feet in height, are flanked by towers loopholed for musketry. In short, it resembles a castle rather than a convent.

Bruce was now anxious, if possible, to proceed to Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, and the political events of the day seemed to offer him an opportunity; for a sort of calm, like that which precedes a storm, had for the moment spread over the whole country. Ras Michael, having found that the old King Hatre Hamnes did not suit him as he had expected, his imbecility being of too sluggish a description, ordered his breakfast to be poisoned; and, having thus got rid of him, he had just placed young Tecla Haimanout on the throne of his father. The Abyssinians had been wearied by a series of events, none of which had been foreseen, and which had ended in a manner which no one could have expected. n.o.body liked Ras Michael, yet no man deemed it prudent either to speak or act against him. People therefore waited till he should either conquer or be conquered by his opponent and enemy, the rebel Fasil.

Of this calm Bruce determined to avail himself; and he accordingly prepared to take leave of his friend Janni, "whose kindness, hospitality, and fatherly care had," says Bruce, "never ceased for a moment." This friend had most favourably recommended Bruce to the iteghe, or queen-mother, whose daughter, the beautiful Ozoro Esther, was married to old Ras Michael. He also wrote in Bruce's favour to the ras, with whom his influence was very great; and, indeed, to all his acquaintances, Greeks, Abyssinians, and Mohammedans.

On the 17th of January, 1770, Bruce and his party quitted Adowa to proceed to Gondar, and the following day they reached a plain in which stood Axum, which is supposed to have been the ancient capital of Abyssinia. "The ruins of Axum," says Bruce, "are very extensive, but, like the cities of ancient times, consist altogether of public buildings. In one square, which I apprehend to have been the centre of the town, there are forty obelisks, none of which have any hieroglyphics upon them. There is one larger than the rest still standing, but there are two still larger than this fallen. They are all of one piece of granite, and on the top of that which is standing there is a patera exceedingly well carved in the Greek taste."

"After pa.s.sing the convent of Abba Pantaleon, called in Abyssinia 'Mantilles,' and the small obelisk situated on a rock above, we proceeded south by a road cut in a mountain of red marble, having on the left a parapet wall above five feet high, solid, and of the same materials. At equal distances there are hewn in this wall solid pedestals, upon the tops of which we saw the marks where stood the colossal statues of Sirius, the Latrator Anubis or Dog Star. One hundred and thirty-three of these pedestals, with the marks of statues just mentioned, are still in their places; but only two figures of the dog remained, much mutilated, but of a taste easily distinguished to be Egyptian. They were composed of granite, but some of them appear to have been of metal.

"There are likewise pedestals whereon the figures of the Sphinx have been placed. Two magnificent flights of steps, several hundred feet long, all of granite, exceedingly well fashioned, and still in their places, are the only remains of a magnificent temple. In the angle of this platform, where that temple stood, is the present small church of Axum, in the place of a former one destroyed by Mohammed Gragne, in the reign of King David III.; and which was probably the remains of a temple built by Ptolemy Euergetes, if not the work of times more remote.

"The church is a mean, small building, very ill kept, and full of pigeons' dung. In it are supposed to be preserved the ark of the covenant and copy of the law, which Menilek, son of Solomon, is said, in their fabulous legends, to have stolen from his father Solomon on his return to Ethiopia; and these were reckoned, as it were, the palladia of this country.