APPENDIX.

Ixvi

No. V.

This Appendix contains a translation of the accounts given by Ibn ’1Wardi and Marco Polo , respecting Abyssinia and the adjoining districts,(referred to in p. 476,) a few miscellaneous observations on Massowa, andsome particulars regarding the trade of Zeyla and Mocha; to which issubjoined the sea-journal of the 6th and 7th of July, by which I haveendeavoured to fix the position of Abdelcuria, and the north-west end ofthe Island of Socotra.

Extract from a geographical Work written in Arabic by Ibn 'l Wardi.

“ Habesh.—This country is opposite to the Hejauz, and between them“ is the sea. Most of the natives are Christians ; and it is a long and ex-“ tensive country, stretching from the east to the south of Nubia . These“ (the Habshi,) are the people who conquered Yemen in the time of the“ Chosroes, before the introduction of Islamism. Their women are beau-“ tiful, and delicately made. One of their chief cities is Kaber,’’(An-kober,the present capital of Efat,) “ which is the metropolis of the King, and“ in it are many banana trees. The Habesh do not eat the male of com-“ mon fowls/’ (This last remark is so far correct, that they will not eatthem after they have once crowed, owing to some singular superstition, forwhich they could not account.)

“ Zeyla is the emporium of Habesh to the south; the natives of which“ are a powerful people. Islamism prevails among them, and integrity in“ doing what is right.

“ Boja, or Bujja.*—These people are the merchants of Habesh to the“ north, their country lying between Habesh and Nuba; and they are“ black, naked, and worshippers of idols. Their land is divided into“ many petty districts : they are sociable, good, and kind to merchants :“ and in their conntry is a mine of gold. They have no towns, nor crops“ °f corn : but their land is an extensive desert. The merchants” (pro-

* These are undoubtedly the tribes mentioned in the Axum inscription.