take out their pieces of falt, which they mutually lick: to refuse this compliment, on either fide, would be confidered as a grofs affront, and an open declaration of some inward refentment or private grudge; or at best, as a piece of ill-manners and unpolitenefs.

They have alfo fome fpacious plains, the furface of

which is incrufted with another fort of falt; and in fetch- A vaft ing it many hundreds of camels, mules, and affes, are plain of daily employed; particularly on the confines between fall. Dancali and Tigre. This falt, like the former, is carried

in pieces about a span long, and four inches in breadth A red falt and thickness, is very white, hard, and in the greatest used for plenty, though the caravans are continually going and physic. coming with it; the plain that yields it being faid to be four days journey in length. To this laft we may add a third fort, of a reddish colour, which is hewn from an entire rock this is commonly used in phyfic; and the mountain must be paffed by night, the heat being fo violent in the day, that it often ftifles both man and beast; and the very shoes are parched, as if they were laid upon burning coals ".

The next fort of natural rarities, is their stupendous, high, craggy, and almoft inacceffible mountains; in com- High and parison of which, the Apennines, Alps, and Pyrenees, fupendous are but mere hillocks, and little eminences; they are here rocks and in fuch vaft numbers, that there is not one province, or mountains. kingdom, except that of Dembea, but what is covered thick with mountains; fome of which are fo lofty, steep, and craggy, that they are at once dreadful to behold, and no less difficult and dangerous to pafs; and yet of fuch fingular service are they to the country, that they seem defigned by Providence as impregnable fortreffes, without which, the fmall part which is left of that once vaft em- An impreg pire, would long ago have been fwallowed up by the nable barTurks, Gallas, and other hoftile nations, if those impenetrable barriers had not ftood there to guard it on every fide. Whilft their inacceffible fummits feem to out-top the highest clouds, the valleys beneath look as if they Dreadful were going to hide themselves in the loweft abyffes of the vallies. earth; the former partaking of the keenness of the second and third regions of the air; and the latter, by their exceffive heat, reminds you of the central fire of the earth. These ftupendous ridges, which the natives call Various dambas, prefent you, at a distance, with a delightful va- shapes. riety of fhapes; one fort bearing fuch a refemblance to

a Alphonfo Mendez. See Jefuits Travels, lib, iii, cap. 8. Lobo, & al fupra citat.

fome

rier to the

empire.

Guça, or Guza.

Is only the bafis of La

me!.

fome vaft extenfive city, that you can hardly forbear thinking that you fee the high walls, towers, bastions, and a great diverfity of other structures, as you approach them. Another fort appears, fome like pyramids, others like towers of various ihapes; fome of an exact square, others of as perfect a round from top to bottom, as if they had been turned, or wrought with the chiffel; some appear of a vaft height, and difficult afcent; and when you come up to what you fuppofed to be the top, you find it to be only the foot of another, full as high, craggy, and difficult.

Of this nature is that called Guça, or Guza, in the kingdom of Tigre, which travellers, who come from the Red-Sea, muft crofs in going to Dembea, and which, when you have gained the top of it, presents to you a spacious plain, in the midft of which ftands another mountain, of equal height, which you must likewife furmount, after you have fufficiently refreshed yourself on the fertile and delightful top of the Guza. The afcent takes up about half a day's journey, and goes winding all the way up; the paths are very narrow, and cut into the fide of the folid rock; and all the way you go prefents you with a moft deep, and dreadful precipice, the bottom of which cannot be reached by the naked eye, but only offers a gulph, which at once makes one's head giddy, and fills the heart with a continual horror. Should any of the caravans that frequent thefe fteep and narrow roads, chance to meet another in its way, they are in the greatest danger, both man and beaft, of being thrown down the precipice, and being dashed in pieces before they reach the bottom, unless they take the utmost care in paffing one another. Difficult ac- The mules are by far the beft for thofe that ride, becaule cefs. they are the fureft footed; but they always go close to the edge of the precipice, and cannot without risk be turned Frightful to the other fide of the road. What adds still more to the access. horror of the journey, whether it be up or down the steep declivity, is, that at the bottom of the valley below, there commonly runs a swift torrent, of, water, with a most hideous roar, which being echoed by the adjacent rocks, and oftened heightened by loud winds, as well as by the continual trampling of the men and beafts upon the rock, increases the horrid din to fuch a degree, that one cannot poffibly hear one's felf, much lefs one another, speak, though ever fo loud, or ever fo near P.

• Tellez, Pays, Kercher, Poncet, Almeyda, Ludolph, Lobo, Le Grand, & al. mult. › Id. ibid. See the Travels of the Jesuits,

lib. i. cap. 7. Alvarez, Almeyda, &c.

But

malmon.

But the wifhed-for fummit once attained, which is The fine reckoned above three hundred fathoms perpendicular above profpect the plain top of Guza, one is regaled with the beautiful from the profpect it at once prefents to the view, which is not that top of Laof rugged and interfected peaks above, and deep gaping valleys beneath, but of a fmall, though delightful, plain, about two miles in compass, and a musket-fhot in breadth, terminated at one end by a new, flat, and upright rock, like the back of a chair, of which this little plain is the Beautiful feat; so that take the whole mountain together, that of shape. Guza feems to be a kind of pedeftal to this; and this, which the natives call Lamalmon, reprefents, in fome measure, à chair without arms, the back of which is the upright rock at the end of the plain, which is as perpendicular as if it had been hewn out with a chiffel. Along Difficult what we may call the feat of this wonderful and fuperafcent. eminent chair, is pleafantly fituate a town of the fame name, whofe inhabitants make a handfome livelihood by A town helping the caravans to load and unload the beafts of bur- upon it. then, in the craggy afcent above mentioned.

But what yields a ftill more furprisingly delightful profpect from this little lofty fpot, is the unbounded view of the whole kingdom of Tigre, though the largest of the whole empire, and of the ridges of the mountains of Semen, which run acrofs, and interfect it in various parts, and which, at that height and distance, appear no higher than fmall hillocks. The misfortune is, that this little town, though ftrong and populous enough to defend itself againft all affaults of any enemy, is but poorly furaifhed with all The people neceffaries for human life, except water, which they have poor. in plenty, and very good; every other kind of accommodation they are obliged either to fetch from the lower lands, or to purchafe at a dearer rate from the caravans, a circumstance which does not. a little leffen the gain of their labour, and keeps them ftill poor and indigent.

Much of the fame nature is the famed mountain, or Guexen, rock, of Guexen, fituate between the kingdoms of Am-famous hara and Xava, on the fummit of which was fuch another, rock. but larger plain, well watered and wooded, with fome ground for tillage and pafture, guarded on all fides with ftrong and difficult paffes made by the natural rock, and in which the princes of the blood were formerly kept prifoners, and whence they were fetched to be raised to the imperial throne. This ftupendous and impregnable mountain is a perpendicular rock, in the nature of a fortrefs, the breadth of which, on the top, along the flope, may

be

Defcribed.

be about half a league, but at the bottom is about half a day's journey in circuit; the height is fuch, that the ftrongest man cannot cast a stone with a fling high enough to reach the top. The afcent, though not very fteep at firft, grows by degrees fo difficult and painful, that even their cows, which in this country climb and skip like wild goats, cannot be hoifted up without flings and pullies. On the top is nothing to be seen but a parcel of poor huts,

of stone and dirt, covered above, and lined within, with The princes ftraw, with fcarce any tolerable furniture befides. Thefe of the blood ferved for manfion-houses both for the unfortunate princes, confined ut- who were fent thither, and for their guards. About the on the top middle of the plain were two fprings which fupplied them of it.

with water, the one to drink, and the other to wash themfelves in. A few corn-fields they had for tillage; fome pafture for their cattle, and fome few trees in form of a thicket, ferved them for a fhady refreshment: in this difmal folitude they spent their lives, till either raised to the empire, or fet at liberty by death. This rigorous custom was, however, fet afide about two centuries ago; but the moft confiderable of all the mountains, according to father Alphonfo Mendez, is that which they call Thabat Mariam, or more properly Tadbaba Mar-jam, whofe summit Tadbaba vaftly out-tops all the reft, and even the clouds, by far, Mar jam and is likewife very fpacious. This famed mountain, defcribed. whofe bottom is watered by two large rivers defcending from it, hath seven handsome churches built upon it, one of which, dedicated to St. John, is very rich and beautiThe burial- ful, having been formerly the burying-place of the Abysplace of the finian monarchs, of whom there are five monuments, coemperors. vered with tapestry, displaying the arms of Portugal;

Mount

from which, one may conjecture them to have been prefented for that purpose by king Emanuel, to the then emperor David 9.

THE laft we fhall mention under this head, is that celebrated hollow high rock, in the kingdom of Gojam; juft oppofite to which ftands another, much of the fame height and magnitude, fo exactly placed by nature, that Whisper- it echoes back a word barely whispered in the other, with ing place. fuch force, that it is heard at a diftance; and the joint voices of three or four persons speaking together, found as loud as a great fhout from a numerous army'. Some of those craggy afcents would be wholly inacceffible in

9 Vide Lobo, & Le Grand, Differt. lib. ii. p. 206. * Kercher & Pays, apud Ludolph, lib. i. cap. 6. fect, 15.

many

many places, had not neceflity forced those otherwife in- Beafis, catdolent people, to have recourfe to cranes, and other fuch le, and fhifts, by which they draw up, and let down, both the goods cranbeafts and their burthens, by ropes and pullies. Their ed up and way of travelling through this rocky and mountain- down. ous country, is upon mules, or affes, which are the beft, Way of and, as we have lately hinted, the most sure-footed beafts, travelling. to clamber up and down those craggy afcents: but in the plains the camels are most commonly used, as the best fitted by nature for thofe hot, dry, and fandy climates, their horfes being only mounted in time of war, to charge

the enemy.

Dembea.

Its extent.

The next natural rarities of this country, confift of Lakes. lakes and rivers. Of the former, we meet with few of any note, except those of Zoai, or Zowaia, in the kingdom of Xaoa, out of which fprings the river Matchi, which falls into the great Hawafh, or Xaoax, and with it is buried or abforbed in the fandy deferts of the kingdom of Adel, and that of Dembea in the kingdom of The large that name, styled by the inhabitants Bar-Dembea, or the one of fea of Dembea. This laft is by far indeed the most confiderable of the two, on feveral accounts, but more particularly for its largenefs and its vast length and breadth, extending from the 12th to the 14th deg. of north latitude, almost thirty in moft places, and thirty-five leagues where longeft; and in breadth from ten leagues, where narroweft, to almost fourteen or fifteen where broadeft, and about ninety miles in circumference, exclufive of its deep bays, creeks, and other windings: the waters of it are Waters. fweet and clear; and breed great plenty and variety of Fib. fish. The country round about is plain, fertile, and delightful; and the infide of the lake abounds with a mul- lands and titude of islands of different fizes, the largest inhabited monafleby Abyffinian monks, and very pleafant and fertile: about ries." feven or eight of them have monafteries, which, though going to decay, appear to have been formerly ftately edifices; and among the various products which they yield, they have fuch fine citron and orange trees, as exceed any in the empire. One of these islands, and the most barren of all, which the inhabitants called Dek, is made the prison, or place of confinement, for great prisoners of ftate.

This great lake is navigable, and the Abyffinians fail on Naviga it in flat-bottomed boats, which they call tancoas, made tion with of a kind of rushes they call tambuas, with which its Small waters abound, each of the thickness of a man's arm,. and

about

boats.