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a considerable way to the west, so that, besides Hat , it has tothe south of it also the kingdoms of Hade and Cumbut; the latterextending beyond the south ridge ot mountains. To the west areHas de heel, Dcmlx-a, Gojam, and Damot; and beyond theseare the kingdoms of Dcmbea, Bizam'o , Gooderoo, and Guraque ;those of Nare, orEnarea, and Calfia, occupying the south-west cor-ner of the empire. Ancient authors agree, that Ethiopia was verymountainous; but they mentioned no mountains of any magnitude,except Garb;.to and Eiepha% w hose situation is not now easily ascer-tained, though it is thought they answer to the mountains ot Tigre.The Jesuits were the hist w ho gaveany information to the Europeansconcerning '.his country. 'I lie provinces of lkgemdcr, Gojam,\V alalia, Xoa, Ike. are one continued chain of mountains. Manyof them are said to be of such enormi us height, that the Alps andPyrenees are but mole lulls in comparison. Those called Aomiwen; said .to he of this kind ; but Mr. liruee informs ns, that theseaccounts are exaggerated. Amongst those mountain--, and oftenin the plains, there are many steep and craggy rocks of variousand whimsical shapes; some of them so smooth, that men andoxen are craned up to the top by engines: but what is most sur-prising, the tops ol these rocks are covered w ith woods and mea-dows, full ot springs and streams of water; of the truth of whichwe have an attestation by Mr. Bruce, in his description of Lamal-titon. The names oMfie twelve provinces of Abyssinia are, Ma-suali, Tigre, Samcn, Begemdcr, Amhara, Walake, Gojam, Da-mot, Maisha, Dembea, Kuara, and Narea. See these articles intheir order. Abyssinia abounds with a vast variety of quadrupedsbotli wild and taene. Immense numbers of cattle every whereappear, some of them the mo.-t beautiful in the world. Somehave monstrous horns, said to be capable of holding ten quartseach ; but tills, says Mr. Bruce, is a disease which proves fatal tothem. Budalos are numerous, tierce, and uutractable; but thereare no carnivorous bulls, which have been said to exist in this andother parts of Africa . Antelopes are met with in great numbers inthe uncultivated parts; feeding chiefly on the leaves of trees.Hyrenas, lions, foxes, jackals, &c. aie also found, as well as ele-phants, camelopards, and other more uncommon kinds. Greathavoc is made in the cultivated fields by baboons, apes, vats, andmice. There is plenty of hares; but these being reckoned tin-cleup, as well as wiid boars, are not used as food. The riversabound with crocodiles and hippopotami, at least the Nile , andthose large streams which flow into it: but many others have wa-ter in them only during the rainy season, and thus have neitherfish, nor any animal that feeds upon them. The number of birdsin this country is immense. Great numbers of eagles, vultures,hawks, and other carnivorous birds, come punctually every yearafter the tropical rains. They feed at first upon the sbeil-'fish,which are found in great quantities on the edges of the deserts,where they had lived in the salt springs; but, being forced fromtheir natural habitations when these springs swell by the rains, areafterwards left to perish cn dry land. When these fail, they feedoil the carcases ot the large animals, such as the elephant and rhi-noceros, which are killed in the flat countries by the hunters.Their next supply is the multitudes of rats and field mice whichinfest the country after harvest. The vast slaughter of cattle madeby the Abyssinian armies, the multitude of persons killed, whosebodies arc allowed to rot on the field of battle, &c. furnish themalso with other resources. There are ether birds which feed uponinsects, and multitudes which live on grain and seeds of variousk.nds, which are amply supplied by the immense quantity offruits and berries which grow in Abyssinia, and are ripe at all sea-sons cf the year. Among the reptiles in Abyssinia, Mr. Brucedescribes a kind of lizard, and the cerastes, or homed serpent; butdenies that serpents are numerous in Abyssinia, as almost all au-thors have supposed. He describes very few fishes; though liesays that an account of these, and other marine productions of theBed Sea, which he has painted and collected, would occupy manylarge volumes, and the engraving would co.-t a sum which hecould not by any means alford. lie mentions one nature! binnv,which is good food, and grows to a pretty largo size; that fromvdfi'eh he took the drawing being about 32 pounds weight. Itswhole body is covered with beautiful scales resembling silverspangies. Gf the insect tribe the most extraordinary is the- tsalt-salya, or z.hub, a kind of venomous fly, extremely destructive tocattle. Mr. Bruce also mentions a small species of ants, whose'bite is more painful than the sting of a scorpion, and which issue
out of the ground in such numbers, as to cut in 1 pieces carpets andevery thing made of soft materials that they have access to. 'J fiethree largest rivers in Ethiopia are the Nile , the Taru/ze, and limZeliee; hut there are many others of interior size, such as the Ba-chilo, Geslien, Gult, Mai-’Lumi, Samba, 'lYmci, Ac. The greatvariety of climates in Ethiopia , is very perceptible m its soil andproductions. The mountains in many places are mil only barren,but altogether inaccessible, except by those who make it tlu-irconstant practice to climb amongst them ; and even by them lin-ycannot be ascended with,out great difficulty and danger. Jn the! vallies, however, and flat parts of the country, the soil is ex, i»-I siveiy fruitful, though in the warmest places grain cannot beI brought to perfection. Wine is also made in some places; but1 the greatest profusion of fruits of all kinds is to be met w ith every: where, a, well as many plants not to be found in other countries,i I here is a vast variety of flowers which adorn the banks of tin:
| rivers, in such a manner as to resemble fine gardens. Amongthese there is a specie.-, of roses, which grow upon trees, and art:
I much superior in fragrance to those which grow on bushes. Sena,j! cardamon, ginger, anti cotton, are likewise produced in great quau-! dries. All the trt«s of Al>\ ssinia are ever-greens ; and their leavesI arc of a thick leathery consistence, and highly varnished,'to t*n-| able them to resist the violent periodical rains. A very remark-! able particular concerning the fruit-trees is, that those which brnfruit all the year round do not can y it always in the same plaee. TheW.side is that w hich blossoms first, and where, of consequence, thefruit first comes to jierk-etion ; the south side succeeds, and go< sthrough_the same pi cce-s; after which, the north blossoms in likemanner; and last of all the cast, side, which produces flowers andfruit towards the beginning of the rainy season. A variety ofrare plants are met with in Abyssinia, the chief ofwhieh Mr. Bruceparticularly describes. The ancient Ethiopians , who inhabitedthe country above Meroe made remarkable distinctions amongtheir gods. Some, they said, w ere of an eternal and incorruptiblenature, as the sun, the moon, and the universe; others, havingbeen born among men, had acquired divine honours by their vir-tue, and by the good which they had done to mankind. Theyworshipped Isis, l’an, and particularly Jupiter and Hercules, fromwhom they supposed they had received most benefits. But someEthiopians believed that there wero no gods; and when the sunrose, they fled into their marshes, execrating him as their most cruelenemy. Circumcision was a rite observed among the ancientEthiopians , as well as the Egyptians, from very early antiquity ;and some suppose that the former received it ftom the latter, andboth from the Israelites; though others insist, that the Ethiopians fir.-tadopted it from the children of Abraham by Keturah. The reli-gion of the modern Ethiopians is a mixture of Paganism, Juda-ism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism. Christianity , however,being the established religion, is the one most generally professed.The frontier countries of Nara, Basel-Feel, Tchelga, Ac. arewholly inhabited by Mohammedans.
ETHMOID ES'OS. See Anatomy. The name of this boneis derived from a sieve, and ula form, because it is porous
like a sieve.
ETHNARCII, or ETI1NARCIIA, a nation, and
apyjt> a rider,] a governor of a nation. There are some medals ofHerod the Great , on one side whereof is ‘Hpwiou, and on the otherESiwjxcy, i. c. Herod the Ethnarch. This title has been used sy-nonymously with Tetrarch, though originally different.
ETIINOPI1 RONES, [from i5»of, a heathen, and fjavnu, tothink,] in antiquity, a sect of heretics in Ihe seventh century, whomade a profession of Christianity , but joined thereto many of theceremonies and follies of paganism ; as judicial astrology, sortile-ges, and other divinations.
ETHOLOGY, [A !6&, manner, and S Xoy©q discourse,] a ie~pre6entalicn of the manners and customs of a people.
ET1IOPOIA, [from iSo; : manner, and imuv, to do,] a figurein rhetoric, in which the maimers of a people are represented.
ETHUEIA, in botany, a genus of the polygamia a-qualis or-der, and syngenesia class'of plants ; natural order Composila:. Re-ceptacle naked ; down none. It has six species.
ETIENNE, St. cr ST. ESTIENNE, a town of Erancj;, inthe department of Rhone and Loire, 22 miles S. E. of Euers, and200 S. by 1C of Paris .
ETIQUETTE, [Fr. i. e. a ticket, or title, affixed to a bundleof papers, expressing its contents,] is used when applied to the