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Bravado, threw the fcabbard into the middle of the room; and, tucking the fleeve of his fhirt above his elbow like a butcher, faid, I wait your anfwer.' "I now ftept one pace backwards, and dropt the burnoofe behind me, hold ing the little blunderbufs in my hand, without taking it off the belt. 1 faid, in a firm tone of voice, This is my anfwer: I am not a man, as I have told you before, to die like a beast by the hand of a drunkard; on your life, I charge you, ftir not from your fofa.' I had no need to give this injunction; he heard the noife which the cloning the joint in the ftock of the blunderbufs made, and thought I had cocked it, and was inftantly to fire. He let his ford drop, and threw himself on his back on the fofa, crying, For God's fake, Hakim, I was but jetting. At the fame time, with all his might, he cried, • Brahim Mahomet! El coom! El coom*!'' If one of your fervants ap. proach me,' faid I, that inftant I blow you to pieces; not one of them fhall enter this room till they bring in my fervants with them; I have a number of them armed at your gate, who will break in the inftant they hear me fire.'

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"The women had come to the door. My fervants were admitted, each having a blunderbufs in his hand and pifto's at his girdle. We were now greatly an overmatch for the fhekh, who fat far back on the fofa, and pretended that all he had done was in joke, in which his fervants joined, and a very confufed, defultory difcourfe followed, till the Turk, therriffe Ifmael, happened to ob ferve the fhekh's fcabbard of his fword thrown upon the floor, on which he fell into a violent fit of laughter. He fpoke very bad Arabic, mixed with Turkish, as I have often obferved. He endeavoured to make the fhekh under ftand, that drunkards and cowards had more need of the fcabbard than the fword; that he, Fidele, and the other drunkard that came to our houfe two or three nights before, who faid he was thekh of the Jehaina, were just poffeffed of the fame portion of courage and infolence.

"As no good could be expected from this expoftulation, I ftopt it, and took my leave, defiring the fhekh to go → El coom, that is, all his fervants.

to bed and compofe himself, and not try any more of thefe experiments, which would certainly end in his fhame, if not in his punishment."

It was not till Mr. Bruce had furmounted innumerable other difficulties, that he got liberty to depart from Teawa: he next arrived at Bezla, another frontier town of Sennaar, fituated about eleven miles from the former place; here he met with the most humane treatment, and was ferved with provifion of the best fort; the shekh of Bezla poffeffing fuch rigid hofpitality, that he would not even accept of the moft trifling prefent.

After fuftaining the effects of a dreadful whirlwind, which occafioned the death of a camel, and greatly bruised our traveller and his company, they arrived at Sennaar "The king was fitting upon a mattress, laid on the ground, which was likewife covered with a Perfian carpet, and round him was a number of cushions of Venetian cloth of gold. His drets did not correfpond with his magnificence, for it was nothing but a large, loose shirt of Surat blue cotton cloth, which feemedTM nct to differ from the fame worn by his fervants, except that, all round the edges of it, the feams were double-ftitched with white filk, and likewife round the neck. His head was uncovered; he wore his own fhort black hair, and was as white in colour as an Arab. He feemed to be a man about thirty-four, his feet were bare, but covered by his fhirt. He had a very plebeian countenance, on which was ftamped no decided character; I fhould rather guefs him to be a foft, timid, irrefolute man. At my coming forward and kiffing his hand, he looked at me for a minute as if undetermined what to fay. He then afked for an Abyffinian interpreter, as there are many of these about the palace. I faid to him in Arabic, That I apprehended I understood as much of that language as would enable me to anfwer any question he had to put to me.' Upon which he turned to the people that were with him, 'Downright Arabic, indeed! You did not learn that language in Habeth?' faid he to me. I anfwered, No; I have been in Egypt, Turkey, and Arabia, where I learned it; but I have likewise often spoken it

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in Abyffinia, where Greek, Turkish, and several other languages, were used.' He faid, Impoffible! he did not think they knew any thing of languages, excepting their own, in Abyffinia."

This, it feems, was not the proper time for Mr. Bruce to deliver his prefents to the monarch: he therefore retired, and was fent for in the evening. “The king was then fitting in a large apartment, as far as I could guefs, at fome diftance from the former. He was naked, but had feveral clothes lying upon his knee, and about him, and a fervant was rubbing him over with very ftinking butter or greafe, with which his hair was dropping as if wet with water. Large as the room was, it could be fmelled through the whole of it. The king afked me, If ever I greafed myfelf as he did? I faid, Very feldom, but fancied it would be very expenfive. He then told me, That it was elephants greafe, which made people ftrong, and preferved the fkin very fmooth. I faid, I thought it very proper, but could not bear the fmell of it, though my skin fhould turn as rough as an elephant's for the want of it. He faid, If I had ufed it, my hair would not have turned fo red as it was, and that it would all become white presently when that rednefs came off. You may see the Arabs driven in here by the Daveina, and all their cattle taken from them, because they have no longer any greafe for their hair. The fun firft turns it red and then perfectly white; and you'll know them in the street by their hair being the colour of your's. As for the fmell, you will fee that cured presently.'

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"After having rubbed him abundantly with greafe, they brought a pretty large horn, and in it fomething fcented, about as liquid as honey. It was plain that civet was a great part of the compofition. The king went out at the door, I fuppofe into another room, and there two men deluged him over with pitchers of cold water, whilft, as I imagine, he was stark naked. He then returned, and a flave anointed him with this fweet ointment; after which he fat down, as completely dressed, being just going to his women's apartment where he was to fup. I told him I wondered why he did not ufe rofe-water as in Abyffinia, Arabia, and Cairo. He said, VOL. II.

he had it often from Cairo, when the merchants arrived; but as it was now long fince any came, his people could not make more, for the rose would not grow in his country, though the women made fomething like it of lemonflower.

"His toilet being finished, I then produced my prefent which I told him the king of Abyffinia had sent to him, hoping that, according to the faith and cuftom of nations, he would not only protect me while here, but fend me fafely and speedily out of his dominions into Egypt. He anfwered, There was a time when he could have done all this, and more, but those times were changed. Sennaar was in ruin, and was not like what it once was. He then ordered fome perfumed forbet to be brought for me to drink in his prefence, which is a pledge that your perfon is in fafety. I thereupon withdrew, and he went to his ladies."

The adventure of Mr. Bruce with

the queens of Sennaar is curious and entertaining. "The king told me that feveral of his wives were ill, and defied that I would give them my advice, which I promised to do without difficulty, as all acquaintance with the fair fex had hitherto been much to my advantage. I must confefs, however, that calling these the fair fex is not preferving a precifion in terms. I was admitted into a large fquare apartment very ill-lighted, in which were about fifty women, all perfectly black, without any covering but a very narrow piece of cotton rag about their waists. While I was mufing whether or not thefe all might be queens, or whether there was any queen among them, one of them took me by the hand and led me rudely enough into another apartment. This was much better lighted than the firft. Upon a large bench, or fofa, covered with blue Surat cloth, fat three perfons cloathed from the neck to the feet with blue cotton shirts.

"One of thefe, who I found was the favourite, was about fix feet high, and · corpulent beyond all proportion. She feemed to me, next to the elephant and rhinoceros, to be the largest living creature I had met with. Her features were perfectly like those of a Negro; a ring of gold paffed through her under lip, and weighed it down, till, like a 3 C

flap,

flap, it covered her chin, and left her teeth bare, which were very fmall and fine. The infide of her lip fhe had made black with antimony. Her ears reached down to her shoulders, and had the appearance of wings; the had in each of them a large ring of gold, fomewhat fmaller than a man's little finger, and about five inches diameter. The weight of thefe had drawn down the hole where her ear was pierced fo much that three fingers might eafily pafs above the ring. She had a gold necklace, like what we used to call Efclavage, of feveral rows, one below another, to which were hung rows of fequins pierced. She had on her ancles two manacles of gold, larger that any I had ever feen upon the feet of felons, with which I could not conceive it was poffible for her to walk, but afterwards I found they were hollow. The others were dreffed pretty much in the fame manner; only there was one that had chains which came from her ears to the outfide of each noftril, where they were faftened. There was alfo a ring put through the griftle of her nofe, and which hung down to the opening of her mouth. I think the must have breathed with great difficulty. It had altogether fomething of the appearance of a horfe's bridle. Upon my coming near them, the eldest put her hand to her mouth and kiffed it, faying, at the fame time, in very vulgar Arabic, • Kifhalek howaja?' (how do you do, merchant). I never in my life was more pleafed with distant falutations than at this time. I answered, 'Peace be among you! I am a physician, and not a mer

chant.'

"I fhall not entertain the reader with the multitude of their complaints; being a lady's phyfician, difcretion and filence are my firit duties. It is fufficient to fay, that there was not one part of their whole bodies, infide and outfide, in which fome of them had not ailments. The three queens infifted upon being blooded, which defire I complied with, as it was an operation that required fort attendance; but, upon producing the lancets, their hearts failed them. They then all cried out for the tabange, which, in Arabic, means a piftol; but what they meant by this word was, the cupping inftru

ment, which goes off with a fpring like the fnap of a piftol. I had two of thefe with me, but not at that time in my pocket. I fent my fervant home, how. ever, to bring one, and, that fame evening, performed the operation upon the three queens with great fuccefs. The room was overflowed with an eff fion of royal blood, and the whole ended with their infifting upon my giving them the inftrument itself, which I was obliged to do, after cupping two of their flaves before them, who had no complaints, merely to thew them how the operation was to be performed.

"Another night I was obliged to attend them, and gave the queens, and two or three of the great ladies, vomits. I will fpare my reader the recital of fo naufeous a fcene. The ipecacuanha had great effect, and warm water was drank very copioufly. The patients were numerous, and the floor of the room received all the evacuations. It was molt prodigiously hot, and the horrid, black figures, moaning and groaning with fickness all around me, gave me, I think, fome flight idea of the punishment in the world below. My mortifications, however, did not ftop here. I obferved that, in coming into their prefence, the queens were all covered with cotton fhirts; but no fooner did their complaints make part of our converfation, than, to my utmost surprise, each of them, in her turn, ftript herfelf entirely naked, laying her cotton fhirt loosely on her lap as the fat cross-legged like a taylor. The custom of going naked in these warm countries abolishes all delicacy concerning it. I could not but obferve that the breafts of each of them reached the length of their knees!

"This exceeding confidence on their part, they thought merited fome confderation on mine; and it was not without great aftonishment that I heard the queen defire to fee me in the like dif habille in which he had fpontaneously put herself. The whole court of fe male attendants flocked to the spectacle. Refufal, or resistance, were in vain. I was furrounded with fifty or fixty women, all equal in ftature and ftrength to myfelf. The whole of my cloathing was, like their's, a long loofe fhirt of blue Surat cotton cloth, reaching from

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the neck down to the feet. The only terms I could poffibly, and that with great difficulty, make for myfelf were, that they fhould be contented to trip me no farther than the fhoulders and breaft. Upon feeing the whitenefs of any fkin, they gave all a loud cry in token of dislike, and fhuddered, feeming to confider it rather the effects of disease than natural. I think in my life I never felt fo difagreeably. I have been in more than one battle, but furely I would joyfully have taken my chance again in any of them to have been freed from that examination. I could not help likewife reflecting, that, if the king had come in during this exhibition, the confequence would either have been impaling, or ftripping off that kin whofe colour they were fo curious about, though I can folemnly declare there was not an idea in my breaft, fince ever I had the honour of feeing thefe royal beauties, that could have given his majefty of Sennaar the fmalleft reafon for jealoufy, and I believe the fame may be faid of the fentiments of the ladies in what regarded me. Our's was a mutual paffion, but dangerous to no one concerned. I returned home with very different fenfations from those I had felt after an interview with the beautiful Ailcach of Teawa.

"It is one of the fingularities which obtains among this brutish people, that the king afcends his throne under an admiffion that he may be lawfully put to death by his own fubjects or flaves, upon a council being held by the great officers, if they decree that it is not for the advantage of the state that he be fuffered to reign any longer. There is one officer of his own family, who, alone, can be the inftrument of hedding his fovereign and kinfman's blood. This officer is called, Sid el Coom, after of the king's houthold, or fervants, but has no vote in depofing him; nor is any guilt imputed to him, how ever many of his fovereigns he thus regularly murders. Achmet Sid el Coom, the prefent licensed parricide, and refident in Ifmain's palace, had murdered the late king Naffer, and two of his fons that were well grown, befides a child at his mother's breaft; and he was expecting every day to confer the fame favour upon Ifmain; though at prefent there was no malice on the

one part nor jealoufy on the other, and I believe both of them had a guess of what was likely to happen."

The firft king of Sennaar began his reign in 15c4, and continued on the throne 30 years; the fecond, 17; the third, 8; the fourth, 1; the fifth, 17;` the fixth, 3; the seventh, 3; the eighth, 13; the ninth, 4; the tenth, 5; the eleventh, 6; the twelfth, 30; the thirteenth, 38; the fourteenth, 12; the fifteenth, 25; the fixteenth, 3; the feventeenth, 4; the eighteenth, 33% the nineteenth, 3; and twentieth, 3.

"Upon the death of a king of Sennaar, his eldelt fon fucceeds by right; and immediately afterwards as many of the brothers of the reigning prince as can be apprehended are put to death by the Sid el Coom.

"There is a conftant mortality among the children in and about this métropo lis, infomuch that, in all appearance, the people would be extinct were they not fupplied by a number of flaves brought from all the different countries to the fouthward. The men, however, are itrong and remarkable for fize, but fhort-lived, owing, probably, to their indulging themselves in every fort of excefs from their very infancy. This being the cafe, this climate must have undergone a ftrange revolution, as Sennaar is but a fmall distance from where the ancients place the Macrobii, a nation fo called from the remarkable length of their lives. But perhaps thefe were mountaineers from the frontiers of Kuara, being defcribed as having gold in their territory, and are the race now called Guba. It is very remarkable, that, though they are Mahometans, they are fo brutal, not to say inde licate, with regard to their women, that they fell their flaves after having lived with, and even had children by them, The king himself, it is faid, is often guilty of this unnatural practice, utterly unknown in any other Mahometan country.

"Once in his reign the king is obliged, with his own hand, to plow and fow a piece of land. From this operation he is called Baady, the coun tryman or peasant.

"Sennaar is in lat. 13 deg. 34 min. 36 fec. north, and in long. 33 deg. 30 min. 30 fec. eaft from the meridian of Greenwich, It is on the weft fide

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of the Nile, and clofe upon the banks of it. The ground whereon it ftands rifes just enough to prevent the river from entering the town, even in the height of the inundation, when it comes to be even with the street.

"The forces at Sennaar, immediately around the capital, confift of about four teen thousand Nuba, who fight naked, having no other armour but a fhort javelin and a round fhield, very bad troops, as I fuppofe; about one thoufand eight hundred horfe, all black, mounted by black flaves, armed with coats of mail, and without any other weapon but a broad Sclavonian fword. Thefe I fuppofe, by the weight and power of man and horfe, would bear down, or break through double the number of any other troops in the world: nobody, that has not feen this cavalry, can have any idea to what perfection the horse rifes here.

"The trade of Sennaar is not great; they have no manufactures, but the principal article of confumption is blue cotton cloth from Surat. Formerly, when the ways were open, and merchants went in caravans with fafety, Indian goods were brought in quantities to Sennaar from Jidda, and then difperfed over the black country. The return was made in gold, in powder called Tibbar, civet, rhinoceros's horns, ivory, oftrich feathers, and, above all, in flaves or glafs, more of which was exported from Sennaar than all the eaft of Africa together. But this trade is almost deftroyed, fo is that of the gold and ivory. However, the gold ftill keeps up its reputation of being the pureft and best in Africa."

Overcoming pecuniary and other embarraffments, Mr. Bruce left Sennaar; and arriving at Chendi, he was gracioufly received by Sittina, the queen. After ftaying there fome little time, the procured him a guide on whom the could rely. Full of gratitude for her kind offices, Mr. Bruce kiffed the hand of this queen, which he found to be a favour never heard of before.

"I prepared now to leave Chendi, but firit returned my benefactress Sittina thanks for all her favours. She had called for Idris, and given him very pofitive inftructions, mixt with threats, if he misbehaved; and hearing what I had done for him, he too gave

him an ounce of gold, and faid, at parting, that, for knowledge of the road through the defert, fhe believed Idris to be as perfect as any body; but in cafe we met with the Bilhareen, they would neither fhew to him nor to me any mercy. She gave me, however, a letter to Mahomet Abou Bertran, shekh of one of the tribes of Bifhareen, on the Tacazzé, near the Magiran, which fhe had made her fon write from the Howat, it not being ufual, the faid, for her to write herself. I begged I might be again allowed to teftify my gratitude by kiffing her hand, which the condescended to in the moft gracious manner, laughing all the time, and faying, Well, you are an odd man! if Idris my fon faw me just now, he would think me mad.'

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"On the 20th of October, in the evening, we left Chendi, and refted two miles from the town, and about a mile from the river; and next day, the 21st, at three quarters past four in the morning we continued our journey, and paffed through five or fix villages of the Jaheleen on our left; at nine we alighted to feed our camels under fome trees, having gone about ten miles. At this place begins a large island in the Nile feveral miles long, full of villages, trees, and corn; it is called Kurgos. Oppofite to this is the mountain Gibbainy, where is the firft fcene of ruins I have met with fince that of Axum in Abyffinia. We faw here heaps of broken pedeftals, like those of Axum, all plainly defigned for the ftatues of the dog; fome pieces of obelifk, likewise, with hieroglyphics, almoft totally obliterated. The Arabs told us thefe ruins were very extenfive; and that many pieces of statues, both of men and animals, had been dug up there; the ftatues of the men were mostly of black tone. It is impoffible to avoid rifquing a guess that this is the ancient city of Meroë, whofe lat. fhould be 16 deg. 26 min.; and I apprehend further, that in this ifland was the obfervatory of that famous cradle of aftro. nomy. The Ethiopians cannot pronounce P; there is, indeed, no fuch letter in their alphabet. Curgos, then, the name of the ifland, fhould probably be Purgos, the tower or obfervatory of that city." [To be continued.]

REMARK

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