Hamilton’s account of the east indies.

273

clime can afford to make it pleafant; there the youths of the royal family ftudy whatar ts and fciences are proper to their quality, or according to the knowledge of theirteachers.

Their empire is hereditary, but not in a direct line, the fucceffion being kept in thea ncient family, which they reckon up as high as Solomon, but on the demife of oneemperor, they make choice of a royal youth out of the paradife of Amara, fo he thatbehaves belt in that ftate of probation, or has the b.eit friends to recommend him, fuc-ceeds without contention, which political cuftom makes their youths very tradable andftudious. There are none reckoned princes of the blood after fecond coufin-germans,; fttd it feems they have fomething like the Salic law iri force againft them, for their hifto-ftes mention no female reign fince Candace’s time, if Ethiopia , as it now is, was hercountry .

They are very nafly in their apparel and diet, for though their country is well floredWith fire-wood, yet they do not take pains to drefs their meat by fire, but having killedtheir animal food, before it be well cold, they mince it, and mix fait and a fharp hotbark of a tree well powdered, and make the morfel up in fmall balls about the bignefs°f a walnut, and greedily eat it: but the princes eat in ftate, for they being feated ona mat fpread on the ground, his favourite female Have or concubine makes up thofeballs of flelh or fifh feafoned with the aforefaid fauce of fait and bark, and fqueezesthem into falhionable morfels, his highnefs gapes like a young crow, and fhe throws't cleverly in, which he prefently devours. The commons eat of the fame fort ofViands with the grandees, but many of both fexes die by excoriations of the guts andthe right inteftine; but whether their diet be the caufe of their diftemper, I leave tophyficians to determine, who are generally the belt judges. They have a good plea-la nt liquor made of honey and potatoes, which they caroufe in plentifully, and often§ et drunk by it, and then they are rather mad than inebriated, which renders themy e fy quarrelfome and furious; their honey, as it is very plentiful in their country, folt is the whiteft, hardeft, and belt tailed that ever I met with.

I had the above relation of Abafina from four Romilh priefts, who had their mif-ion there for eight years together, but made but few profelytes : they had been med-Qimg in ftate affairs, and, for fear of lofing their heads, they fled, and left two of theirvethren being old, and not fit for travel; what became of them they knew not; buthofe four tranfgreffed their fuperior’s orders, and left their ftations, and travelledfiree or four hundred miles to the fea-coaft, and got a paffage over the Red Sea tomcha, where I entertained them about four months: they alfo told me, that feven^ibutary kings had loft their heads in fix months time, for mal-adminiftration or trea-and if my guefts had not removed their quarters when they did, they had been°Houred with the name of Roman martyrs, in anno 1714. The country aboundsP e Htifully in wheat, rice, barley, legumens or pulfe of feveral forts, notwithftandingtli 1 eat t ^ e * r raw meat without bread. Their woods abound in elephants (reckoned^ e bargeft in the world), alfo fome lions and tigers, and innumerable troops of wolves,^‘Onkeys, and oftriches, all much larger than in other countries. The aforefaid priefts0 told, me, that the head of Nilus, which the ancients fo much fought for, is in this€ j ntr y) about the latitude of 6 degrees north, and about 400 miles from the lowerU °b the Red Sea. How far the Ethiopian coaft ftretches to the northward I know*he h Ut ^ bas no fea-ports to the northward of Moffava, and the next country to it is

barbarous Zuakin, whofe inhabitants are very different both in complexion andas u? 01 ® from the Abafines, whofe colour is only as black as foot, but the Zuakins are

ac k as jet, and their Ikins as foft as velvet.

V0L ‘ VIII. N N

Their