contact of each other. But, if the solitude and stillness of the streets impressed the mind with awe, there was something yet more appalling in the sounds which occasionally burst on the ear.

At one moment were heard the ravings of delirium, or the wail of woe, from the infected dwelling; at another, the merry song, or the loud and careless laugh, issuing from the wassailers at the tavern, or the inmates of the brothel. Men became so familiarized with the form, that they steeled their feelings against the terrors, of death. They waited each for his turn with the resignation of the Christian, or the indifference of the stoic. Some devoted themselves to exercises of piety; others sought relief in the riot of dissipation, and the recklessness of despair.

SCENERY, &c., IN ABYSSINIA.

No. II.

IN our former notice of Abyssinia we have given some rapid sketches of the scenery,-its mountains and plains, its rivers, its cultivated fields, its deserts and forests; we propose now to present a few traits of its different inhabitants, and, in a succeeding number, to detail some particulars of the Christianity of the country.

It was not possible in the distracted state of the empire, owing to the civil dissensions which had reigned there for some years, for Mr. Salt to reach the city of Gondar; he contented himself, therefore, with depositing, into the hands of the Ras Welled Selassé, the presents intended for the reigning sovereign, and, after reaching Antalo, to return again to the coast, with a view of departing from the country.

"Lord over his house"-was a person of sin-
gular energy of character. In the time of
Mr. Bruce (1770) he was a young man of some
consequence about the court; but the situa-
tion which led to his greatness, as, virtually,
the governing prince of Abyssinia, was that of
Balgudda, or protector of the salt caravans,
which come up from the plains of Assa Durwa,
-an office conferring considerable consequence
on the possessor, from the assessment of duties,
and the power he possesses of withholding
this article of consumption, as well as barter,
from the interior provinces. After a series of
vicissitudes, and a life of predatory warfare,
in the fastnesses of those plains, maintained
with Ras Michael, "the old Lion," as he
was emphatically called in the country,
he raised himself to the high situation of
governor of all the provinces eastward of the
Here he espoused the cause of
Tacassé.
Ayto Solomon, and of Tecla Georgis, his
brother, who successively filled the throne of
Gondar, by both which emperors he was no-
minated Ras, and Betwudet of Abyssinia.

September came; the heat of the atmosphere began to abate; but, contrary to expectation, the mortality increased. Formerly, a Welled Selassé, who held the high posts of hope of recovery might be indulged; now, infection was the certain harbinger of death, Ras, and Betwudet of the empire-the last which followed, generally, in the course of office somewhat analogous to that which Phathree days, often within the space of twenty-raoh conferred on Joseph, when he set him as four hours. The privy council ordered an experiment to be tried, which was grounded on the practice of former times. To dissipate the pestilential miasm, fires of sea-coal, in the proportion of one fire to every twelve houses, were kindled in every street, court, and alley of London and Westminster. They were kept burning three days and nights, and were at last extinguished by a heavy and continuous fall of rain. The next bill exhibited a considerable reduction in the amount of deaths; and the survivors congratulated each other on the cheering prospect. But the cup was soon dashed from their lips; and in the following week more than ten thousand victims, a number hitherto unknown, sunk under the augmented violence of the disease. Yet even now, when hope had yielded to despair, their deliverance was at hand. The high winds which usually accompany the autumnal equinox, cooled and purified the air; the fever, though equally contagious, assumed a less malignant form, and its ravages were necessarily more confined, from the diminution of the population on which it had hitherto fed. The weekly The duties of the Ras's situation, who may burials successively decreased from thousands be regarded as an independent ruler, are exto hundreds; and, in the beginning of Decem-tremely arduous. Throughout the extensive ber, seventy-three parishes were pronounced clear of the disease. The intelligence was hailed with joy by the emigrants, who returned in crowds to take possession of their homes, and resume their usual occupations: in February, the court was once more fixed at Whitehall, and the nobility and gentry followed the footsteps of the sovereign. Though more than one hundred thousand individuals are said to have perished, yet, in a short time, the chasm in the population was no longer discernible. The plague continued indeed to linger in particular spots, but its terrors were forgotten or despised; and the streets, so recently abandoned by the inhabitants, were again thronged with multitudes in the cager pursuit of profit, or pleasure, or crime.-Lingard's History of England.

THE IDOL.

WHATEVER passes as a cloud between
The mental eye of faith, and things unseen,
Causing that brighter world to disappear,
Or seem less lovely, and its hopes less dear,
This is our world, our idol, though it bear
Affection's impress, or devotion's air.

district under "his personal jurisdiction," all
crimes, differences, and disputes, of however
important or trifling a nature, are ultimately
referred to his determination; all rights of
inheritage are decided according to his will;
and most wars are carried on by himself in
person. To rule a savage people, of so many
different dispositions, manners, and usages, as
the Abyssinians, requires a firmness of mind
and a vigour of constitution rarely united in
the same individual, at his advanced age;
yet, "whenever," says Mr. Salt, "I have seen
him in the exercise of his power, he has shown
a vivacity of expression, a quickness of com-
prehension, and a sort of commanding energy,
that overawed all who approached him.
During his continuance in power he has made
it his uniform practice to treat the different
attempts at rebellion with perfect indifference,
-after a second attempt against his life, by the
same persons, he has been known to pardon,
and even to permit the parties convicted to
attend about his court, priding himself parti-
cularly on having never been guilty of the
cruelties of Ras Michael,-
-no provocation in-
ducing him to cut off a limb, put out an eye,'
or commit any other of the atrocious acts
which stained the character of that extraor-
dinary leader.

"During the three weeks we staid at Chelicut," Mr. Salt adds, "I spent a great part of each day with the Ras, being allowed free access to his presence, through a private door communicating between the gardens of our respective habitations: on these occasions I generally found him engaged in the administration of justice, or in receiving chieftains, and ladies of consequence, who came from distant parts of the country, to pay their duty; and, when otherwise unemployed, invariably occupied in playing at chess, a game to which he appeared greatly devoted."

The Ras's wife, Ozoro Mantwab, was sister of the emperor; her person was what might in any country have been esteemed handsome; her form, though small, was very elegant; her features were regular; her teeth were fine; and her hair was raven black. Such is a description of the highest personages of the court of Ethiopia. Such the last faint traces of that celebrated queen of Sheba who travelled to Jerusalem "to prove Solomon with hard questions." Such the shadow of the mysterious Prester John, the monarch of all the wonderful tales of the middle age, and the object of doubt and curiosity to all its wonderloving travellers. The Abyssinians, however, retain with much pride the traditions of their early relation with the "chosen city of God," its temple, and its adoration,-from the time of Solomon to the period of the ministry of the apostles, when the "Eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, came to Jerusalem to worship." Though they call themselves Itiopiawan, and their country Itiopia, they prefer the names of Agazian for the people, and Agzi for the kingdom, from the term Axgagee, said by the early writers to signify "the Lord of Riches." Even to the time of the Portuguese travellers the stories told by them of the immense wealth of the Abyssinian monarch's tributary kings far surpass belief. Down to a recent period, a body of Jews called Falasjas (or the exiled), remained for ages in the province of Samee, supposed by some to have been a portion of the lost ten tribes of Israel. Their kings always bore the name of Gideon, and their queens that of Judith. Their dynasty becoming extinct, they are now scattered through the Abyssinian dominions. They speak Hebrew, or, at the least, Gheez, a dialect of the Arabian language, and are the mechanics of the towns.

The journey which we gave in a preceding number, related to Mr. Salt's progress through the interior, in the month of March. In the month of April he pursued his travels through the vale of Chelicut, traversing, at Cali, an uncultivated country, abounding in wild animals. The scenery was similar to that so frequently described about the Cape of Good Hope,-broad expanses of brushwood, beyond which the tops of distant mountains rose, the space between them being like immeasurable At Werketavé he came among the chasms. Agows, one of the many subdivisions of people speaking a distinct language, so peculiar to Ethiopia that from thence the Arabs were led to call the country Abeshin, which signifies mixed people," the source of the geographical term of Abyssinia,-a name not at all admitted by the natives.

66

a

(To be Continued.).

288

THE GENET.

THE genet is one of the most beautiful | sides of the neck, and the limbs, are animals of the genus to which it belongs. spotted in a proportionably smaller patIt is about the size of a small cat, but is tern than the body, and the tail is annuof a longer form, with short legs, a sharp- lated with black. The genet is an animal pointed snout, upright ears, slightly point- of a mild disposition, and easily tamed. ed, and a very long tail. The colour of It is a native of the western parts of the genet is commonly a pale, reddish Asia, but is also said to be found in grey, with a black or dusky line running Spain. A warm climate, however, seems along the back, where the hair is rather necessary to its health. In Constantilonger than on the other parts, and forms nople these animals are domesticated the appearance of a very slight mane. like the cat, and are said to be more Along the sides of the body run several effectual in clearing houses of rats and rows of roundish black spots; the cheeks, mice.

ANECDOTE OF MERCIER ST. LEGER. THE Abbé Mercier St. Leger was the head librarian and great living ornament of the Library of St. Genevieve, Paris, some fifty years ago; he was one of the most learned bibliographers of France, and as meek and amiable as he was learned. His heart was yet more admirable than his head.

66

the number of devoted victims! That sight
cost him his life. A sudden horror, followed
by alternate shiverings and flushings of heat,
immediately seized him. A cold perspiration
hung upon his brow. He was carried into the
house of a stranger. His utterance became
feeble and indistinct, and it seemed as if the
hand of death were already upon him.

Yet he rallied awhile; his friends came to
soothe him; hopes were entertained of a rapid
and perfect recovery. But his fine full figure
gradually shrunk; the colour as gradually de-
serted his cheek; and his eye sensibly lacked
that lustre which it used to shed upon all
around. His limbs became feeble, and his
step was both tremulous and slow. He lin-
gered five years, and died at ten at night on
the 13th of May, 1799. What he left behind
as annotations, both in separate papers and
on the margins of books, is prodigious.-Dr.
Dibdin's Tour in France and Germany.

BRITISH COLLEGE OF HEALTH, KING'S

CROSS, NEW ROAD, LONDON.
MORISON'S UNIVERSAL VEGETABLE
MEDICINE.

But the Revolution was now fast approaching, and the meek spirit of Mercier could ill sustain the shock of such a frightful calamity. Besides, he loved his country yet dearer than his books. His property became involved, his income regularly diminished, and even his privacy was invaded. In 1792, a decree passed the convention for issuing a commission for the examination of monuments. Mercier was appointed one of the thirty-three members of which the commission was composed, and the famous Barrère was also of the number. Barrère, fertile in projects, however visionary and destructive, proposed to Mercier, as a bright thought, to make a short extract from every book in the National Library; to have these extracts superbly printed by Didot; and to burn all the books from which they were taken." It never occurred to this revolutionising idiot that there might be a thousand copies of the same work, and that some hundreds of these Sir,-About the latter end of July, or beginning of copies might be out of the national library! Angust, we went to see our daughter at Huntingdon, not Of course Mercier laughed at the project, and knowing she was ill; but when we arrived we found her very ill, and her life was despaired of; she had been ill made the projector ashamed of it. Robesthree weeks, and could get nothing through her, though all pierre, rather fiend than man, now ruled the medical assistance had been tried. She had taken great destinies of France. On the 7th of July, 1794, quantities of castor-oil and other medicine they thought fit Mercier happened to be passing along the efficacy of Morison's pills, I persuaded her to take them, to prescribe, but all in vain. Knowing by experience the streets, when he saw sixty-seren human beings telling her the effect they had had on her sister; she conabout to undergo the butchery of the guillo-sented, and got a box of No. 2, and took six; and in about three hours they found a passage through, and the pain tine. Every avenue was crowded by specta- abated. Next morning she took ten, and they had the tors, who were hurrying towards the horrid desired effect, by thoroughly cleansing her, that she went to sleep for some time. The neighbours and her husband spectacle. Mercier was carried along by the said her father had persuaded her to take Morison's Pills, torrent; but, having just strength enough to and she was dying, for they had killed her; but, blessed raise his head, he looked up, and beheld his be God! she awoke, and had lost all pain, and asked for a piece of meat to be broiled, which she ate; and by old and intimate friend the ex-abbé ROGER in taking a few boxes of the pills is perfectly well. My wife

Inveterate Constipation Overcome.
To Mr. Earl,

was taken with the cramp all over, and violent pain, and shaking, that the room, as well as the bed, shook, attended with vomiting and purging.. I gave her six pills, No. 2, which had some effect. Next day you, worthy Sir, ordered ten, which had their desired effect, and, by taking a few boxes is perfectly well; so I ascribe to Morison's Pills as an instrument under God the means of saving the life of my wife and daughter.

WILLIAM MAYES, Basket-maker.

East Road, Cambridge, Oct. 6, 1832.
P.S.-If requested, oath will be made to the above
Cure of Dropsy.

statement.

To Mr. Borlase,

Sir,-For the great benefit I have received from the use of "Morison's Universal Medicines;" I am bound in gratitude to return my thanks for the blessing of a restoration to health, at a time when I was in despair of a recovery. For the encouragement and good of my fellow-sufferers, I beg you will publish these simple facts:-Distracted with violent pains in my stomach and right side for the last twelve months, I had been under three different doctors during six of these months-was treated for a liver affection-took a great quantity of their medicine, to no earthly purpose of good, but, on the contrary, getting daily worse and worse, until a fresh attack took place of a Dropsy in the lower limbs, and my legs and feet were swollen to an

enormous size.

Fortunately, in June last, I went to a shoeinaker, in Ann-street, to get something large made for my feet; when he told me to apply to you immediately for some of the "Universal Medicines," knowing they would care me, which I did, and am grateful in stating that, by per

severing daily according to your instructions for four
months, I am perfectly cured of my dropsical, liver, and
stomach affections.
I am, Sir, most respectfully yours, &e.,
ELLEN STEWARE.
No. 79, North Queen Street, Belfast.
October 22, 1832.

CAUTION TO THE PUBLIC. MORISON'S UNIVERSAL MEDICINES having superseded the use of almost all the Patent Medicines which the wholesale venders have foisted upon the credulity of the searchers after health, for so many years, the town druggists and chemists, not able to establish. a fair fame on the invention of any plausible means of competition, have plunged into the mean expedient of puffing up a "Dr. Morrison" (observe the subterfuge of the "Vegetable Universal Pill, No. 1 and 2," for the express purpose (by means of this forged imposition upon the public), of deteriorating the estimation of the "UNIVERSAL. MEDICINES" of the "BRITISH COLLEGE OF HEALTH."

double ), a being who never existed, as prescribing

KNOW ALL MEN, then, that this attempted defasions must fall under the fact, that (however specions the prewhich have "Morison's Universal Medicines" impressed upon the Government Stamp attached to each box amk land.

tence), none can be held genuine by the College but those

Packet, to counterfeit which is felony by the laws of the

The "Vegetable Universal Medicines" are to be had at

the College, New Road, King's Cross, London; at the
Surrey Branch, 96, Great Surrey-street; Mr. Field's, 16, Air-
Walker's, Lamb's-conduit-passage, Red-lion-square; Mr.
J. Loft's, Mile-end-road: Mr. Bennett's, Covent-garden-

street, Quadrant; Mr. Chappell's, Royal Exchange; Mr.

market; Mr. Haydon's, Fleur-de-lis-court, Norton-falgate; Mr. Haslet's, 147, Ratcliffe-highway; Messrs. Norbury's, Brentford; Mrs. Stepping, Clare-market; Messrs. Salmon, Little Bell-alley; Miss Varai's, 24, Lucas-street, Commercial-road; Mrs. Beech's, 7, Sloane-square, Chelsea; Mrs. Chapple's, Royal Library, Pall-mall; Mrs. Pippen's, is, Wingrove-place, Clerkenwell; Miss C. Atkinson, 19, New Trinity-grounds, Deptford; Mr. Taylor, Hanwell; Mr. Kirtlam, 4, Bolingbroke-row, Walworth; Mr. Payne, 64, Jermyn-street; Mr. Howard, at Mr. Wood's, hair-dresser, Richmond; Mr. Meyar, 3, May's-buildings, Blackheath; Mr. Griffiths, Wood-wharf, Greenwich; Mr. Pitt, 1, Cora wall-road, Lambeth; Mr. J. Dobson, 35, Craven-street, Strand; Mr. Oliver, Bridge-street, Vauxhall; Mr. J. Monck, Bexley Heath; Mr. T. Stokes, 12, St. Ronan's, Deptford; Mr. Cowell, 22, Terrace, Pimlico; Mr. Partitt, 96, Edgware-road; Mr. Hart, Portsmouth-place, Kennington-lane; Mr. Charlesworth, grocer, 124, Shoreditch; Mr. R. G. Bower, grocer, 22, Brick-lane, St. Luke's; Mr. S. J. Avila, pawnbroker, opposite the church, Hackney; Mr J. S. Briggs, 1, Brunswick-place, Stoke Newington; Mr. T. Gardner, 95, Wood-street, Cheapside, and 9. Nortonfalgate; Mr. J. Williamson, 15, Scabright place, Hackneyroad; Mr. J. Osborn, Wells-street, Hackney road, and Homerton; Mr. H. Cox, grocer, 16, Union-street, Bishops gate-street; Mr. T. Walter, cheesemonger, 67, Hoxton Old Town; and at one agent's in every principal town in Great Britain, the Islands of Guernsey and Malta; and throughout the whole of the United States of America.

N. B. The College will not be answerable for the consequences of any medicines sold by any chymist or dreggist, as none such are allowed to sell the "Universal Medicines."

Printed by J. HADDON and Co.; and Published by J. CRISP, at No. 27, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, where all Advertisements and Communi cations for the Editor are to be addressed.

bition of public spectacles, generally the combats of gladiators or of wild beasts, or of both. "The first day's games,' says the historian, "given in this sumptuous butchery, cost the nation eleven millions of gold. The blood of five thousand animals bathed its arena. Man and his natural enemy the beast of the desert, the conqueror and the conquered, writhed in agony together on its ensanguined floor, and eighty-seven thousand spectators raised their horrid plaudits."

It was the contemplation of this spot, and the recollections of this kind with which it stands associated, that suggested to Lord Byron the very spirited sketch of the death of a gladiator which he introduces into his Childe Harold, and with which we will close this article.

"I see before me the gladiator lie :
He leans upon his hand-his manly brow
Consents to death, but conquers agony,
And his drooped head sinks gradually low-
And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow
From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one,
Like the first of a thunder-shower; and now
The arena swims around him-he is gone,
Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the

"He heard it, but he heeded not-his eyes
Were with his heart, and that was far away;
He reck'd not of the life he lost nor prize,
But where his rude hut by the Danube lay,
There were his young Barbarians all at play,
There was their Dacian mother-he, their sire,
Butchered to make a Roman holiday--

All this rushed with his blood-Shall he expire
And unavenged?-Arise, ye Goths, and glut your

(Continued from page 287.) After these notices of the stateliness only a slight difference between this people "THERE appears" says Mr. Salt, "to exist which still characterises these ruins, need and the Abyssinians, except that the Agows we wonder at the superstitious enthusiasm are, perhaps, on the whole, a stouter race of apparent in the old Roman prophecy?-men; their language is, nevertheless, perfectly Quamdiu stabit Colyseus, stabit et Roma; quando cadet Colyseus, cadet Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus.'

Dizzela, inhabiting a district named Dabanja, | Dabanja: the language of the two tribes being three days' journey beyond the Nile, in a coun- entirely distinct. Two little boys belonging try bearing the general appellation of Damit- to the Tacazze Shangalla, who a short time chequa. They entertain a very imperfect before had been taken prisoners, much amused notion of God, whom they call Mussaguzza. our traveller at Antalo with their playful The only species of adoration they offer up to antics,-dancing and singing in a manner the Deity is during a great holiday, called peculiar to their nation. One of their songs Kemoos, when the whole people assemble to had something extremely affecting in the tune sacrifice a cow, which is not killed in the as well as the words. The translation which usual way, by having its throat cut, but by was made of this chant may be versified as being stabbed in a thousand places. follows: