wy with a distinct and fummary impreffion of it on his mind. If there be any defideratum in the book, I think it is this; and in a fubfequent edition I fhould be very glad to have fuch a chapter added. It is, for instance, a very fingular circumftance in Abyffinia, that there is no fort of dancing practifed, in which they differ fo totally from the nations on the western coaft of Africa. You do mention this, but flightly; it would deferve, I think, to be more fully brought out, and would naturally lead into fome difcuffion concerning the character and temper of the natives, their general manner of living and paffing their time, &c. In converfation I remember your telling me, that Abyffinia was a kingdom not fo large as France. I do not remember any general view of its extent or population in your book.

"With regard to your ftyle, I was fo much carried along with the matter that I gave no critical attention to it. In general it appears to me eafy, natural, and unaffected, which is all that in a work of fuch length is required.

"Your defcription of what paffes at an Abyffinian feast was neceffary to be given, as a hiftorian, though it exhibits, I muft confefs, a very indecent fcene, and gives a view of manners carried to a degree of public diffolution which prevails not in Otatheite, nor in any regular fociety I ever read of. This, I think, might give room for fuch difcuffion on the manners of the people as I wished to be added to your book. They are certainly, as you often hint, a very fad race. In what manner do the ordinary and common people live?

"I am fresh come, as you may fee, from reading your book, which I have juft now returned to the bookfeller who lent it me. Being full of your fubject, I have thrown out all that at prefent occurred to me on it, with that entire freedom which I know you will take in good part, though there are none of my obfervations of much confequence. It would have been a thou fand pities if you had gone to your grave without giving fo great an acquifition of difcovery to the learned world.

"I have a great inclination, in place of defigning you, on the back of this long letter," of Kinnaird," to defign you " of Geeth, Efq." Your lordship of the fountains of the Nile, I really think, ought to be perpetuated by this title. I would change the name of Kinnaird into Geeth; and I think you should obtain leave from the Herald's office to have fome emblem of the fountains of that celebrated river brought into your coat of arms. Withing you all health and profperity, after your long labours, I have the honour to be, with great esteem and refpect, my dear Sir, your most obedient and affectionate humble fervant,

"Reftalrig, June 17th, 1790.

HUGH BLAIR."

These letters are followed by the epitaph on Mr. Bruce and his wife, and a lift of fuch books as the author used

and

and confulted. The work itself then commences, as be. fore, with a dedication to the King, and a very elaborate and well-written introduction. Upon this, as well as upon the main body of the work, it does not appear necellary for us to comment. They have long been before the public, and their claims to refpect and attention permanently

fixed.

At the end of the first book are fubjoined remarks on the boats of the Nile by Luigi Balugani, Mr. Bruce's companion and affiftant; obfervations on the early hiftory of Arabia, Egypt, and Ethiopia; and a letter from Mr. Bruce to Dr. Burney on Egyptian and Abyffinian mufic. This is copied from Dr. Burney's General Hiftory of Mufic, but feems properly reprinted here. We have next some animadverfions on the above letter by the Editor.

As an appendix to the second book, the reader is prefented with a funimary view of the Egyptian theology, from the Hebrew and Greek writers, intended to illuftrate the remains of Egyptian antiquity, mentioned in books I. and II. We are alfo furnifhed with additional proofs that Egypt was peopled from the fouth and the confines of Ethiopia; but what in our judgment is not lefs valuable, we have a vocabulary of the Amharic, Falafhan, Gafat Agow, and Tcheretch Agow languages. Mr. Bruce brought from Habbefh the Song of Solomon in all thefe languages. We fhall infert part of this curious paper.

"This vocabulary, which, notwithstanding its length, I have ventured to fubmit to the curiofity and indulgence of the reader, gives a very tolerable view of the five languages spoken at present in Abyffinia. In tranfcribing it into English characters there are, however, feveral difficulties, which must be known and underftood in perufing it, of fuch a nature as to lay every attempt of the kind under confiderable difadvantage.

"The Ethiopic alphabet confifts of 26 letters, which are all reckoned confonants. Every letter has fix changes made on it, to denote the vowels, which are taken in this order, u, i, â, ê ě, ō. Even the fimple letter, without any change in figure, is understood to imply the short vowel ǎ, and is fo ufed in writing. Thus, no word can be fpelled in this alphabet in which two con fonants come together without a vowel between them; though the natives elide in pronunciation certain vowels, which the writer is obliged to exprefs by the nature of the letters, where. ever cuftom and the rules of the fpoken language permit it to be done. A ftranger cannot make thefe elifrons accurately unless he have heard the word pronounced, and the accent laid on the proper fyllable. Long vowels are never omitted in pronunciation; fhort ones frequently are, efpecially that which is at the

end

end of the word. The elifions in the preceding table are very few, and never made but on fome kind of authority. The confonants are expreffed by the letter moft nearly correfponding to each in English, and the vowel or diphthong following, by the value given it in Ludolf's Grammar, p. 2. (Edit. 2. Á. D. 1702.) and explained from p. 3-2 2.

"The vowel following the fimple figure of each letter is founded like a in hat or e in bet. The other fix are founded, u, like u in full; i like ee in feel; â like a in hall; ê like e in mail, or in the French words fête and bête: è is pronounced as ŭ in the French words butin and feu. It is a thick, obtufe found, extremely common in Abyffinia and among the African Moors. The thick lips of the Negroes, added to a violent manner of articulation peculiar to the Arabs, Moors, Abyffinians, native blacks, and perhaps to all nations within the torrid zone, make the obfcure found of a vowel, which more or lefs attends the pronunciation of every hard confonant, much more perceptible than in Britain. This fmart manner of articulating may be obferved in a good fpeaker of English, contrafted with the drawl of a Scotch peafant. It is quite obvious in the mouth of a Frenchman or Italian. In the mouth of a black African Arab, whom I once heard fpeak his native language, it was ftriking beyond defcription; and illuftrates, in the cleareft manner, the reafon why Mr. Bruce writes Yagoube for Yakoub, awide for awid, Yafině for Yasin, Muffowa for Mafuah, Goutto *for Gouta, In thefe words the natives articulate a short obtufe e, like the French e mute, and change a and o into the fame kind of vowel.

"The Ethiopic confonants kaf and kef I have expreffed by k; hoi, harm, and haut, by h; though thefe, in English, are only approximations to their true founds, which differ from one another in degree, and from every English articulation. Wherever quh, ts, fh, dj, tch, or th occur, they ftand for the Ethiopic and Amharic letters, cwa, dipthong; tfadai, and tfappa; fhat (Amb.) djent; tchawi, or tchait; which are pronounced as wh in when, fh in fhall, j or dge in judge, and ch in church, but with much more force and harfhnefs.

"The Gafat dialect differs from Amharic very little, except in the addition of the harsh confonants djent, tchawi, and shat. "The Agow and Tcheretch Agow are kindred dialects, though the refemblance is not very great, on account of the influx of Amharic, Falahan, and Geez into both thefe languages.

"The Falahan, though evidently corrupted with Geez and Amharic, is an original tongue, once the language of Gojam, Dembea, Begember, and Samen, and perhaps of all Ethiopia.

A vocabulary of the Galla language, which is fpoken by a very powerful and extenfive nation of African favages, who rule from the lake of Dembea to the line, and have conquered the beft provinces of Abyffinia, will be found in the Appendix to

book

book III. following Mr. Bruce's account of them, under the reign of Melic Segued." P. 497

The third volume and a large part of the fourth is appropriated to the hiftory of Aby fuia, a portion of the work important beyond all doubt in itfelf, but which has not interested the general curiofity. At p. 202, vol. IV. the narrative of the Travels is refumed. To books 4, 5, and 6 is an appendix, containing a register of the quantity of rain which fell at Gondar in the year 1770, an additional account of tranfactions at Gondar, and of the journey to the fources of the Nile, transcribed for the first time from Mr. Bruce's commonplace book. Of the journey to the fources is alfo a complete journal, written in Italian by Balugani, his attendant. That the reader may the better judge of the controversy about the difcovery of the fources, which has been attributed both to Peter Paez, the jefuit, and to Jerome Lobo, the prefent Editor has fubjoined the accounts of them both, with obfervations upon them, which we are of opinion do no more than firict juftice to the claims of Mr. Bruce. In the fixth volume we have no new matter, but in the seventh we have fome curious information refpecting Abyffinia, taken from various journals and common-place books, and more particularly illuftrative of the route from Kofcam in Abyffinia, to Affouan in Egypt, by the way of Sennaar. The following new matter is a tranflation from the Italian of Balugani.

"Servants wages at Gondar. At Gondar a maid-servant receives 15 falts per annum, and is fed in the house. A manfervant is paid four pataka yearly, which correfpond to four wakea, or ounces of gold, Abyffinian weight, and receives befides, two loaves, or cakes of teff, for his fupport daily. If his mafter is good, he fometimes gives him a little flefh, lentils, or vetches. He is not obliged to clothe him, but he fometimes gives him a pair of trowfers, which confift of about one-fourth of a yard of white cloth.

"With refpect to carriage, &c. three bundles of wood, which are brought from Tchagaffa, three hours walking, cofts a falt. The carriage of a jar, or manteca, full of wine or honey, from Emfras, eight hours journey, pays a falt, of the weight of of three faranzala or fo.

"Thirty-three teff of bread coft a falt; the loaves are about 3 lines thick and 18 inches diameter. A pair of thoes pantuffle) coft a falt: 8 peeks of cloth is the leaft gift that can be offered in the country.

"Bouza. Manner in which the Abyffinians make a kind of beer, that in their language is called bouza.

To make this they ufe tocuffo fimply, but fometimes they

mix

mix it with grain (wheat), or dora, or all three together; but in ordinary tocuffo is beft. A jar of tocuffo, or of the three forts of grain, contains as much as is fufficient to make two loaves, that are a tenth part of the whole jar; befides which they ufe about half a rotol of ghefh leaves. The first part of the process is to grind the tocuffo, after which they take a fourth part of it, and knead it with water and leaven, as if to make bread. This they put in a jar to ferment for two days, at the end of which they make a good many thin large cakes, and dry them on the fire till they become as hard as a ftone, then break them down into crumbs, and put them into a large veffel full of water, capable of holding fix times the volume of the grain; or for one jar of grain the veffel holds five of water, and one for the quantity of grain. At the fame time that they put in the bruifed bread, as above-mentioned, into that quantity of water, the other things thould be got ready to go in alfo. The grain ought to be fermented for two days, then dried in the fun, and afterwards ground into meal. The ghefh-leaves are ground likewife. The remainder of the meal, or thofe three-fourths which were not used to make the bread, must be put into a hollow oven, over a fire, with a fmall quantity of water, and conftantly ftirred with a tick until it become a pafte; and when the water is dried up, more is put in, contantly ftirring the mafs until it become black like a coal. The whole fo prepared, the crumbs, the mafs, and the loaves, are put together into the large jar, and let alone for a day, after which it is poured off, and preferved in jars well ftopped. At the end of feven or eight days this liquor begins to be too ftrong, and is beft when fresh, two or three days old.

"Marriage. Marriage is not confidered in Abyffinia as a facrament, yet the church ordains fome rules to be observed, in order that the man and the woman may be faithful towards one another. The ordinary method of marriage among people of condition, and among those who molt fear God, is the follow. ing the man, when he refolves to marry a girl, fends fome perfon to her father to ask his, daughter in marriage. It feldom happens that he is refufed; and when he is granted, the future hufband is called into the girl's house, and an oath is taken reciprocally by the parties that they will maintain due fidelity to one another. Then the father of the bride prefents to the bridegroom the fortune that he will give it confifts of a particular fum of gold, fome oxen, fheep, or horfes, &c. according to the circumftances of the people. Then the bridegroom is obliged to find furety for the faid goods, which is fome one of his friends that prefents himself, and becomes anfwerable for him in cafe he fhould wish to difmifs his wife, and be not able, through diffipa tion or otherwife, to reftore all that he has gotten...

"Further, at the time when they difplay the fortune of the bride, the hufband is obliged to promife a certain fum of money,