nit i Ny a) } "3 nt in i Wil ead VF VARA TRCoE hy 4 r ne ks, 4 ti tyres ies al ipetidl iy he di SELECT SPECIMENS MATURAL HISTORY, Travels to difcover the Source of the NILE, IN EGYPT, ARABIA, ABYSSINIA, ann NUBIA. See ail! Wen 4 ; c JUL fe ee NE 3 oO k Ss \ ‘ = é g S ia NNN ia é) <A, “ AND HE SPAKE OF TREES, FROM THE CEDAR-TREE THAT IS IN LEBANON, EVEN UNTO “ THE HYSSOP THAT SPRINGETH OUT OF THE WALL: HE SPAKE ALSO OF BEASTS, AND OF “ FOWL, AND OF CREEPING THINGS, AND OF FISHES.” 1 Kiwes, chap. iv. ver. 33. ELDAt NB. UR. GH: PRINTED BY J. RUTHVEN, FOR G. G. J. AND J. ROBINSON, PATERNOSTER-ROW, LO Ny DON, M.DCC,XC, (tied fae ¥ 27 “ , yi 3 ~ , | ea ieee | WS cl ‘ ; 2 Stent RB ; TE LOL ORY ETI A EE oD LE ALE IE LIE OE SHE NELLA GEL: A SLOP pri a So . Cm Wr kN Ts OF THE eH Gs Me Ong. LM. E. INTRODUCTION, Pi Or PLANTS, SHRUBS, AND TREES. Papyrus, eee big Pa Baleffan, Balm, or Balfan, | 16 Safa, Myrrh, and Opecalpafum, | 24 ‘ol Vou, V. ; 2 Ergeits Ay AG > i 1 By ahh ety mf ae pr i : 4 i ip. “~ ¥ : e % ¥ 4” — Exgett Y'dimm Oa Ergett el Krone, + i 4 ¥ og it ee Kol-qual, a te hy Gin iar eet tnt, ME ; oe Kontuf, ; i oe i ee gt es ny " ae a ee Mi Wanzey, Se MODRARAL T5ghete (is iat Sia Se eae , F ‘ . : i Ps “4 a a ‘ 4 xf > - Farek, or Bauhinia Acuminata, fees 5 ane rE pias: ie tee Kuara, a es , rave a | 3 1 . ; i 4 ‘ Ce : oe i " ie wh ny ® , Ros : *. AS “itn? t i 4) ig ss ee \ or Bh te, : he is 2 Se « Wooginoos, or Brucea Antidyfenterica, as 5 ARTS heen, Ca a 2 § ; EE ORE : ope ; ; Baby ‘iemaiy |)” ha fee r be 4 ih ee tits |) PNM he ¢ Be a) vk Gaffe, or Bankeha Abafinitay 0. ia ale ae 3 ’ Og . . * ~ * ad ‘ * ‘ * ~ 3 . ‘ 2 ‘ * . \* é ’ \ ies \ i : . or ‘ - \ = o fe 1 4 r . ——- ' > . ‘ - . r “ ’ P| . ‘cae ” \ ' ‘ $ é N 5 * * “ , . 4 ’ - 7 \ . : — ; s - s - ; ’ ‘ , e. f Ld . A « 7 B-t ‘ a . s ‘ 1 ‘ « 7 ‘ . F : : , = ~ *. ~ i 4 leas F ’ ' ‘wo js s a: = fone cap aa Ca fone eel ii 4 : i Or | QU A ri hagee ac rg “Ms > ey Bey as A RP Rs 4 rr af 2 . _ Sheregrig, ees Waalia, Way | bert : : . eee Bay, ee : * G: 5 A : | ‘ ‘ j i Core a tht eS Valtfalya, or Fly, . | 3 Be ae J 2 : 4 Se - :} a BP Made, |e bo Dy le eS Tg Oe > ie - Prk a aie Geraftes, or Horned Viper, areas 3 by 198 meters: ; He i | ‘ah ete 9 oP Z a oh) Mes ha) : i. ee ar ee eee RTBBY ee : ey bile 23: Caretta, or Sea Torteife, a sy MM Ai in 2h : | web. Ci. soeaone “is Fae LE ! ee - Pearls” IN SEE ig: etal 7 J * Sig ‘ : . : i, Ash | ee ; f M A P : S. 7 et M f wt d Fe Cenc? Beh ie: ey aes Aa aay ‘ Pepe setae ) ee ae Dinerary from Gondar to the Sovrce of the Nile, Ga Roy 4 Chart v Solomon’ s Fesoge to Tarfhidh, i, g ae mn} fh SAR, Vitlbe:h : ; ha, ok F 3 ay . ‘ \ é x ' ie ‘ s ra P 3 ‘ t 4 4 " INte ODWCTION. S it has been my endeavour, throughout this hiftory, te leave nothing unexplained that may affift the reader dan underftanding the different fubjects that have been treat- -ed in the courfe of it, I think myfelf obliged to fay a few ‘words concerning the manner of arranging this Appendix. ‘With regard to the Natural Hiftory, it muft occur to every one, that, however numerous and refpectable they may be ‘who have dedicated themfelves entirely to this ftudy, they ‘bear but a very {mall proportion to thofe who, for amufe- ‘ment or inftruction, feek the mifcellaneous and general occurrences of life that ordinarily compofe a feries of tra- wels. By prefenting the two fubjects promifcuoufly, I was ap- ‘prehenfive of incommoding and difgufting both fpecies of ‘readers. Every body that has read Tournefort, and fome other authors of merit of that kind, muft be fenfible how unpleafant it is to have a very rapid, well-told, interefting Narrative, concerning the arts, government, or ruins of Co rinth, Athens, or Ephefus, interrupted by the appearance of anettle or daffodil, from fome particularity which they may poffefs, curious and important in the eye of a botanitft, but invifible and indifferent to an ordinary beholder. A 2 To Mw sae | INTRODUCTION. , To prevent this, I have placed what belongs to Natural Hiitory in cne-volume or appendix, and in fo doing I hope. to. meet the approbation of my fcientific botanical readers, ath by laying the different fubjects all together before them, without fubje@ting them to the trouble of turning over different books to get at any one of them. ‘The figures, landfcapes,and a few other plates of this kind, are illuftra- tions of what immediately paffes in the page; thefe de- {criptions feldom occupy more than a few lines, and there- fore fach plates cannot be more ornamentally or ufefully placed than oppofite to the page which treats of them. Some further confideration was neceflary in placing the L maps, and the Appendix appeared to me to be by far the moft proper part for them. The maps, whether fuch as are general of the country, or thofe adapted to ferve particular itineraries, fhould always be laid open before the reader, till he has made himfelf perfectly mafter of the bearings and diftances of the principal rivers, mountains, or pro- vinces where the fcene of action is then laid. Maps that fold lie generally but one way, and are moftly of ftrong pa- per, fo that when they are doubled by an inattentive hand, contrary to the original fold they got at binding, they break, and come afunder in quarters and {quare pieces, the map is deftroyed, and the book ever after incomplete whereas, even if this misfortune happens to a map placed in the Appendix, it may either be taken out and joined anew, or Al replaced at very little expence by a-frefh map from the bookfeller. f | oy I suai detain the reader but a few minutes with what thave further to fay concerning the particular fubjects of a Natural INTRODUCTION. v Natural Hiftory of which I have treated. The choice I know, though it may meet with the warmeft concurrence from one fet of readers, will not perhaps be equally agree- able to the tafte of others. ‘his I am heartily forry for. My endeavour and with is to pleafe them all, if it were pof- fible, as it is not. _ Tue firft fubject I treat of is trees, fhrubs, or plants ; and in the felecting of them I have preferred thofe which, ha- ving once been confidered as fubjects of confequence by the ancients, and treated largely of by them, are now come, from want of the advantage of drawing, lapfe of time, change of climate, alteration of manners, or accident befallen the inhabitants of a country, to be of doubtful exiftence and uncertain defcription ; the afcertaining of many of thefe is neceflary to the underftanding the claffics. Iris well known toevery one the leaft verfant in this part of Natural Hiftory, what a prodigious revolution has happen- ed in the ufe of drugs, dyes, and gums, fince the time of Galen, by the introduction of thofe Herculean medicines drawn from minerals. The difcovery of the new world, befides, has given us vegetable medicines nearly as active and decifive as thofe of minerals themfelves. Many found in the new world grow equally in the old, from which much confufion has arifen in the hiftory of each, that will become inextricable in a few generations, unlefs attended to by regular botanifts, afliited by attentive and patient draughts-men ignorant of fyftem, or at leaft not flaves to it, who fet down upon paper what with their eyes they fee does exifl, without amuling them{elves with imagining, ac- cording to rules they have themfelves made, what it soaeree 3 ly vi: INTRODUCTION. ly fhould be. One drawing of this kind, painfully and attentives. ly made, has more merit, and promotes true knowledge more: certainly, than a hundred horti fieci which conftanily pro» duce imaginary monfters, and throw a doubt upon the whole... The modern and more accurate fyftem:of botany has fixed’ its diftinétions of genus and {pecies upon a variety of fuch» fine parts naturally fo fragil, that drying, fpreading, and* prefling with the moft careful hands, muft break away and* defiroy fome of thofe parts. Thefe deficient in one plant, . exifling in another in all other refpets exactly fimilar, are: often, I fear, conftrued into varieties, or different fpecies, and - well if the misfortune goes no farther. They are:precifely~ of the fame bad confequence as an inaccurate drawing,. where thefe parts are left. out through inattention, or des- fign. | Arter having beftowed my firft confideration upon thefe: that make a principal figure in ancient hiftory, which are: either not at all-or imperfectly known now, my next at-. tention has been to thofe which have their. ufes in manu-. factures, medicine, or are ufed as food in the countries I am. defcribing. Tue next I have treated are the plants, or the varieties of - plants, unknown, whether in genus or fpecies. In thefe I have dealt {paringly. in proportion to the knowledge I yet have acquired in this fubject, which is every day increafing,, and appears perfectly attainable. . Tue hiftory of the birds and beafts is the fubjeét which» eccupies the next place in this Appendix;, and. the: a. | rule: INTRODUCTION. the rule I follow here, is to give the preference to. fuch of each kind as are mentioned in fcripture, and con- cerning which doubts have arifen. A pofitive precept that fays, Thou fhalt not eat fuch beaft, or fuch bird, is abfo- lutely ufelefs, as long as itisunknown what that bird and. what that animal is... Many learned men have employed themfelves with fuc-- cefs upon thefe topics, yet much remains ftill to-do; for it has generally happened, that thofe perfectly acquainted with the language in which the fcriptures were written, Have never travelled nor feen the animals of Judea, Palef--. tine, or Arabia; and again, fuch as have travelled.in thefe- countries, and feen the animals in queftion, have been ei- - ther not at all, or but fuperficially acquainted with the ori-. ginal language of fcripture. It has been my earneft defire to employ theadvantage I poflefs in both thefe requifites, to throw as much light as poffible upon the doubts that have~- arifen. I hope I have done this freely, fairly, and candidly ;:; if:I have at all fucceeded, I have obtained my reward. . As for the fifhes and other marine productions of the Red™ Sea, my induftry has been too great for my circumftances. - _ have by me above 300 articles from the Arabian gulf alone, all of equal merit with.thofe fpecimens which I have here: laid before'the public. Though I have felected a very few articles only, and thefe perhaps not the moft curious, yet - as they are connected with the trade of the Red Sea as it was carried on in ancient times, and may again ‘be re(umed, . and as of this I have treated profefiedly, I have preferred thefe, as having a claflical foundation, to many others more VioL.Vs.. BS CULLOLS.. x INTRODUCTION. curious and lefs known. Engraving in England has advan- ced rapidly towards perfection, and the prices, as we may fuppofe, have kept proportion with the improvement. My {mall fortune, already impaired with the expence of the journey, will not, without doing injuftice to my family, bear the additional one, of publifhing thefe numerous articles, which, however defireable it might be, would amount to a fum which in me it would not be thought prudent to venture. Ir Egypt had been a new, late, and extraordinary crea- tion, the gift of the Nile in thefe latter times, as fome mo- dern philofophers have pretended, the leaft thing we could have expected would have been to find fome new and ex- traordinary plants accompany it, very different in figure and parts from thofe of ancient times, made by the old uz- philofophical way, the fat of the Creator of the univerfe. But juft the contrary has happened. Egypt hath no trees, fhrubs, or plants peculiar to it. All are brought thither from Sy- ria, Arabia, Africa, and india; and thefe are fo far from being the gift of the Nile, as fcarcely to accuftom themfelves to fuffer the quantity of water that for five months covers the land of Egypt by the inundation of that river, Even many of thofe that the neceflities of particular times have brought thither to fupply wants with which ‘they could not difpenfe, and thofe which curious hands have brought from foreign countries are not planted at random ; for they would not grow in Fgypt, but in chofen places formerly artificially raifed above level, for gardens, and pleafure ground, where they are at this day watered by machinery ; or upon banks above the califhes, which though INTRODUCTION. x1 though near the water, are yet above the level of its an- nual inundation. Such is the garden of Mattareah, fome- times filled with exotic plants from all the countries around, from the veneration or fuperftition, pilgrims and dervifhes, the only travellers of the eaft, have for that fpot, the fup- pofed abode of the Virgin Mary when fhe fled into Egypt, fometimes, as at prefenr, fo neglected as to have fcarce one foreign or curious plant in it. Tue firft kind of thefe adventitious productions, and the oldeft inhabitant of Egypt brought there for ufe, is the fyca- more, called Giumez* by the Arabs, which from its fize, the facility, with which it is fawn into the thinneft planks, and the largenefs of thefe planks correfponding to the im- menfe fize of the tree, was moft ufefully adapted to the great demand they then had for mummy-chefts, or coffins, which are made of this tree only: in order to add to its value, we may mention another fuppofed quality, its zzcor- ruptibility, very capable of giving it a preference, as coinci- ding with the ideas which led the Egyptians to thofe fan- taftic attempts of making the body eternal. Tuts laft property, I fuppofe, is purely imaginary, for though it be true, tradition fays, that all the mummy-chefts, which have been found from former ages, were made of fycamore, though the fame is the perfuafion of latter times, and the fact is fo far proven by all the mummy-chefts now found being of that wood, yet | will not take upon me to - vouch, that incorruptibility is a quality of this particular B 2 tree, * Signifying a fig-tree, from the fnultitude of figs which grow round the trunk, , “XH INTRODUCTION. tree. I believe that feafoned elm, oak, or afh, perhaps even fir, laid in the dry fands of Egypt perfectly fcreened from moifture, and defended from the outward air, as all mum- my-chefts are, would likewife appear incorruptible; and my ‘reafon is, that having got made, while at Cairo, a cafe for a telefcope of fycamore plank, I buried it in my garden after I.came home from my travels, fo as.to leave it covered by half a foot of earth ; in lefs than four years it was entirely putrid and rotten. And another telefcope cafe of the ce- dar of Lebanon appeared much lefs decayed, though even in this laft there were evident figns of corruption, But even fuppofe it true, that thefe planks have been found incorrup- tible, a doubt may ftill arife, whether they.do not owe this quality to a kind of varnifh of refinous materials with which I have feen almoft all the mummy-chefts covered, and to which materials the prefervation of the mummy it- felf is in part certainly owing. Thefycamore is a native of that low warm ftripe of country between the Red Sea and mountains of Abyflinia; we faw a number of very fine ones before we came to Taranta; they are alfo in Syria about Sidon, but inferior in fize to the former; they do not feem to thrive in Arabia, for want of moifture. Aut the other vegetable productions of Egypt have been in a fluctuating flate from one year to another. We find them in Profper Alpinus, and by his authority we feek for them in that country. In Egypt we find them no more; through ne g lect, they are rotten and gone, but we meet them flourifhing in Nubia, Abyflinia, and Arabia Felix, and thefe are the countries whence the curious firft brought them, and from which, by fome accident fimilar to. the firft, they may again appear 1n Eeypt. 4. : PROSPER INTRODUCTION. ‘Ili Prosper Atprnus’s work then, fo far from being a col- lection of plants and trees of Egypt, may be faid- to be a trea- tife of plants that are notin Egypt, but by accident ; they are gleanings of natural hiftory from Syria, Arabia, Nubia, Abyflinia, Perfia, Malabar, and Indoftan, of which, as far as I could difcern or difcover, feven fpecies only remained when I was in Egypt, moftly trees of fuch a growth as to be out of the power of every thing but the ax. Tue plant that I fhall now fpeak of, the Papyrus, is 2 ftrong proof of this, and is a remarkable inftance of the violent changes thefe fubjects have undergone in a few ages. Jt was atthe firft the repofitory of learning and of record; it was the vehicle of knowledge from one nation to another; its ufes were fo extended, that it came to be even the food of man, and yet we are now difputing what this plant was, and what was its figure, and whether or Not it is to be found in Egypt. A.GENTLEMAN * at the head of the literary world, who from his early years has-dedicated himfelf to the fludy of the theory of this fctence, and at a riper age has travelled ‘through the world in the more agreeable purfuit of the practical part of it, hath affured me, that, unlefs from bad drawings, he never had an idea of what this plant was till I fir gave him avery fine fpecimen. The Count de Cay- lus fays, that having heard there was a fpecimen of this plant in Paris, he ufed his utmoft endeavours to find it, but when brought to him, it appeared to bea cyperus of a very * Sir Jofeph Banks. xiv a very common, well-known kind. ‘With my 0 not without fome labour and rifk, I aie ! from Syria, from the river Jordan, from. two differen ces in Upper and Lower Fgypt, from the lakes Tzana and Gooderoo in Abyflinia; and it was with the urmoft jtedie. fure I found they were in every particular intrinfically the fame, without any variation or difference, from what this plant has been defcribed by the ancients; only I thought that thofe of Egypt, the middle of the two extremes, were ftronger, fairer, and fully a foot taller than he in Syria be and Aby‘linia. 1 V Lie) ~ ae Cd ys London Publiched Dern 2% a790. bv 6 Re bison & Co. 2) Tae eh Or PLANTS, SHRUBS, ann TREES. PAPYRUS. Hy papyrus is a cyperus, called by the Greeks Biblus. There is no doubt but it was early known in Egypt, fince we learn from Horus Apollo, the Egyptians, withing to defcribe the antiquity of their origin, figured a faggot, or bundle of papyrus, as an emblem of the food they firft fubfifted on, when the ufe of wheat was not yet known in that country. But I fhould rather apprehend that another plant, hereafter defcribed, and not the papyrus, was what was fubitituted for wheat, for though the kgyptians fucked |. the honey or fweetnefs from the roor of the papyrus, it dues not appear that any part of this cyperus could be ufed for food, nor is it fo at this day, though the Enfete, the plant to which Lallude, might, without difficulty, have been ufed for bread in early ages before the difcovery cf wheat ; in feveral provinces it holds its place at this day. THE papyrus feems to me to have early come down from Ethiopia, and to have been ufed in Upper Egypt immediate- ly after the difufe of hieroglyphic , and the firit paper made I | from Ti. 2 AP Po Delo: from this plant was in Seide. By Seide was anciently meant Upper Egypt, and it is fo called to this day ; and the Saitic, probably the oldeft language known in Egypt after the Ethiopic, ftill fubfifts, being written inthe firft character: that fucceeded the hieroglyphics in.the valley or.cultivated : part of Egypt. Earzy, however, as the papyrus was known, it does not~ appear to me to have ever been a plant that could have exift. ed in, or, as authors have faid, been proper to the river Nile 3: its head is too heavy, and.in a plain country the wind mutt have had too violent a: hold.of it.. The ftalk is {mall and” feeble, and withal too tall; the root too fhort and flender to - flay it againft the violent preflure of the wind and current, therefore Ido conftantly believe it never could be a plant growing in the river Nile itfelf, or in any very deep or rapid : river. Priny*, who feems to have confidered and known it per=- fectly in all its parts, does not pretend that it ever grew in: the body of the Nile itfelf, but in the califhes or places.: where the Nile had overflowed and was ftagnant, and where the water was not above two cubits high. This obfervation, I believe, holds good univerfally, at leaft it did. fo wherever I have feen this plant, either.in the overflow-. ed ground in the Seide, or Upper Egypt, or in Abyfiinia,.. where it never grew in the bed of a river, but generally in fome fmall ftream that iffued out of, or into fome large. flagnant lake or abandoned water-courfe, . It did not even.. truft: rr errr nT IT IT TIE EL IO * Pin. Nat. Hidt, lib. xii!..cap. be. oo ad . i | APPENDIX. 3 truft itfelf to the wéight of the wave of the deepeft part of that lake when agitated by the wind, but it grew generally about the borders of it, as far as the depth of the water was within a yard. | Puiny fays it grew likewife in Syria, and there I faw it firft, before I went into Egypt; it was in the river Jordan, between the fituation of the ancient city Paneas, which ftill bears its name, and the lake of Tiberias, which is pro- bably the lake Pliny alludes to, where he fays it grew, and with it the calamus cdoratus, one of the adventitious plants brought thither formerly by curious men (as I conjecture) which now exifts no more, either in Syria or Egypt. It was on the left hand of the bridge called the Bridge of the Sons of Jacob. The river where it grew was two feet nifie inches deep, and it was then increafed with rain. It grew likewife, as Guilandinus * tells us, at the confluence of the Tigris and the Euphrates. I apprehend that it was not thus propagated into. Afia and Greece till the ufé of it, as manufactured into paper, was firft known. Wuen that was ftilladmits of fome difficulty. Pliny fays that Varro writes it came not into general ufe till afterthe conqueft of Egypt by Alexander; yet it is plain from Ana- creon +, Alceus, Afchylus, and the comic poets, that it was known in their time. Plato and Ariftotle fpeak of it alfo, fo do Herodotus and Theophraftus +. _We alfo know it wa of old in ufe among the Vonmelis, who Bees ie brought it VoL, V. (¢ in alia * Melch. Guilandin. Philofoph. and Medic. Laufanne, Ann. 1576 Svo. + Anac. Ode. iv. — { Theoph. Hift. plant. lib. iv. cap. 9 ra APPENDIX, in very early days directly from Egypt. Numa, too, who lived’ 300 years before Alexander, is faidito have left a number of books wrote on the papyrus,. which a long time after his death were found at Kome. Act this migkt very well be; the writers of thofe early ages were but few, and thofe that. then were, had all of them, more or lefs, connection by their learning. with Egypt; it was tothem only Egypt was known, and if they learned to write there, it was not improbable, that from thence too they adopted. the materials moft commodious for writing upons. Wirn Ariftotle began the: firft arrangement of a library. Alexander’s conqueit,.and: the building of Alexandria, laid epen Egypt, its trade and learning, to the world. Papyrus then, or the paper made from it, was the only materials. made ufe of. for writing upon. A: violent defire of amafling books, and a library, immediately followed, which. we ph fafely attribute to. the example. fet by Ariftotle.. Tue Ptolemies, and the kings of Pergamus, contended: who fhould make the-largeft coliection.. The’ Ptolemies,. matters of Egypt and of the papyrus, availed themfelves of this monopoly to hinder the multiplication of books in Greece... The other princes probably fmugegled this plant, and propagated it wherever it would grow out of Egypt. And: Eumenes king of Pergamus fet about bringing to perfection the manufacture of parchment, which, long before, the Io- mians had ufed from the {carcity of paper; for whatever re femblance there might be in names, or whatever may be: inferred from them, writing upon fkins or parchment was: a | . aL in APPENDIX, § much more ancient than any city or ftate in Greece, and in ufe probably before Greece was inhabited. The Jews we know made ufe of it in the earlieft ages. At this very -time which we are now {peaking of, we learn from Jofe- phus *, that the elders, by order of the high prieft, carried a copy of the law to Ptolemy Philadelphus in letters of gold upon {kins, the pieces of which were fo artfully ‘put together that the joinings did not appear. Tue ancients divided this plant into three parts, the head and the {mall part of the ftalk were cut off, then the woody part, or bottom, and the root connected with it, and there re- mained the middle. All thefe had feparate ufes. Pliny * fays the upper part, which fupported the large top itfelf, with the flowers upon it, was of no fort of ufe but to adorn the temples, and crown the ftatues of the gods; but it would feem that it was in ufe likewife for crowning men of merit. Plutarch § fays, that Agefilaus preferred being crowned with that to any other, on account of its fimplicity, and that parting from the king he had fought to be crowned with this as a favour, which was granted him. Athenzus |, on the contrary, laughed at thofe that mixt rofes in the crown of papyrus, and he fays it is as ridiculous as mixing ~ ‘rofes with a crown of garlic. The reafon, however, he gives does not hold, for papyrus itfelf {mells no more of,mud, as he fuppofes, than a rofe-bufh; nay, the flower of the papy~ rus has fomething agreeable in its fmell, though not fo much foas rofes. If he had faid that the head of the papyrus : G2 refembled x ; x Jofeph. lib. Xil. p. 405. ere Tt { Plin, Nat. Hift. lib, 13. cap. 11. § Plutarch in Agefilao. f Athen, lib. 25. 6. APPENDIX. refembled withered grafs or hay, and made a bad contraft with the richnefs and beauty of the rofe, he had faid well. But notwithftanding what Pliny has written, the head of the papyrus was employed, not only to make crowns for ftatues of the gods, but alfo to make cables for fhips. We are told that Antigonus made ufe of nothing elfe for ropes and cables: to his fleets, before the ufe of fpartum, or bent-grafs, was known, which, though very little better, ftill ferves that pur pofe in {mall fhips on the coaft of Provence to this day. The top of the papyrus was liewife ufed for fewing and caulking the veflels, by forcing it into the feams, and after- wards covering it with pitch. To! Puiny * tells us, that the whole plant together was ufed for making boats, a piece of the acacia-tree being put in the bottom to ferve as the keel, to which plants were joined, being firtt fewed together, then gathered up at ftem and ftern, and the ends of the plant tied faft there, “ Conferitur bibula. Memphitis cymba papyro ;” and this is the only boat they fill have in Abyflinia, which they call Tancoa, and from: the ufe of thefe it is that Ifaiah defcribes the nations, pro- bably the Egyptians, upon whom the vengeanceof God was) fpeedily to fall. {1 immagine alfo that the junks of the Red Sea, faid to be of leather, were firft built with papyrus and: covered with fkins. In thefe the Homerites traficked with their friends the Sabeans acrofs the mouth of the Red Sea, but they can never perfuade me, however generally and confidently it has been afferted, that veflels of this: kind could have lived an hour upon the Indian o¢ean. ! ae * Plin, Nat. Hilt, lib. xiii, cap. 1, APPENDIX. a ‘Tur bottom, root, or woody part of this plant, was like- wife of feveral ufes before it turned abfolutely hard; it was chewed in the manner of liquorice, having a confiderable quantity of fweet juice init. This we learn from Diofco- rides; it was, I fuppofe, chewed, and the fweetnefs fucked out inthe fame manner as'is done with fugar-cane. This is ftill :practifed in Abyilinia, where they like wife chew the root of the Indian corn, and of every kind of cyperus; and Herodotus tells us, that about a cubit of the lower part of the ftalk was cut off and roafted over the fire, and eaten. From the fcarcity of wood, which was very great in Egypt for the reafons {| have already mentioned, this lower part was likewife ufed in making cups, moulds, and other ne- ceflary utenfils; we need not doubt too, one ufe of the woody part of this plant was to. ferve for what we call boards or covers for binding the leaves, which were made of the bark ; we know that this was anciently one ufe of it, both from Alczus and Anacreon. In a large and very perfect manufcript in my poffeffion, which was dug up at Thebes, the boards are of papyrus root, covered firft with the coarfer pieces of the paper, and then with leather, in the fame manner as it would be done now.’. Ivis a book one would call a {mall folio, rather than by any other name, and J apprehend that the fhape of the book where papyrus is employed was always of the fame form with thofe of the moderns. The letters are ftrong, deep, black,and apparently written with a reed, as is practifed by the Egyptians and Abyflinians ftill.. It is written on both fides, fo never could be rolled up as parchment was, nor would the brittlenef{s of the materials when dry, fup- I port g APPENDIX. port any fuch frequent unrolling. This probably arifes from their having firft written upon papyrus, after the ufe of ftone was laid afide, and only adopced {kins upon their. embracing the Jewifh religion. The bthiopians, indeed, write upon parchment, yet ufe the fame form of books as we do. The outer boards are made of wood and covered with leather. It was the law only they fay they were in ufe to preferve in one long roll ef parchment, upon the fore- fide of which it was written; it being indecent and impro- per to write any part of it on the back, ora lefs honour-. able place of the {kin : And fuch was the roll we have juft mentioned as prefented to Prolemy, where fuch pains were. taken in joining the feveral fkins together, for this very reafon. ‘THE manner paper was made has been controverted; but whoever will read Pliny * attentively, cannot, as I imagine, be long indoubt. The thick part of the ftalk being cut in halt, the pellicle between the pith and the bark, or perhaps the two pellicles, were ftript off, and divided by an iron in- ftrument, which probably was fharp-pointed, but did not cut at the edges. This was fquared at the fides fo as to be like a ribband, then laid upon a fmooth table or drefler, af- ter being cut into the length that it was required the leaf fhould be. Thefe ftripes, or ribbands of papyrus, were lapped over each other by a very thin border, and then pieces of the fame kind were laid tranfverfely, the length of thefe anfwering to the breadth of the firft. The book — which * Plin. Nat. Hift lib, Bil. cap. 12. APPENDIX. 5 which I have is eleven inches and a half long, and feven inches broad, and there is not one leafin it that has a rib ~ band of papyrus of two inches and a half broad, from which I imagine the fize of this plant, formerly being fifteen feet long, was pretty near the truth. No fuch planr, however, appears now; I do not remember to have ever feen one more than ten feet high, This is probably owing to- their being: allowed to grow wild, and'too thick together,. without being weeded; we know from Herodotus *, that the Egyptians cut theirs. down yearly as they did their haz-. vert, oc : Turse ribbands, or ftripes of papyrus,. have: twelve dif- ferent names in Pliny +, which is to be copious with a ven- geance. They are, philura, ramentum,.fcheda, cutis, plagu- la, corium, tenia, fubtegmen, ftatumen, pagina,.tabula, and papyrus. After thefe, by whatever name you call them,. were arranged at right: angles to each other,.a weight was placed upon them while moift; which comprefled them,, and fo they were fuffered to dry. inthe. fun.. Ir was fuppofed that the water ofthe Nile || had 2 gum.. my quality neceflary to glue thefe ftripes together. This. we may be affured is.without. foundation, no fuch quality being found:%n the water of the Nile.. On the contrary, [ found it of all others the moft improper, till-it had fettled,. and was abfolutely divefted of all the earth gathered ‘in its. turbid ftate.. I'made feveral: pieces of this paper, both in: Abyfiinia: * Herodot. lib.xi.. } Plin, Nat. Hift, lib. xiii, cap.12.. |. Plin, Lib, xiii, cap, 1 32 ro APPENDIX, Abyflinia and Egypt, and it appears to me, ‘that the fugar or fweetnefs with ,which the whole juice of this plant is impregnated, is the matter that caufes the adhefion of thefe ftripes together, and that the ufe of the water is no more than to diflolve this, and put it. ‘partectly and equally in fution. TuEre feemed to be an advantage in putting.the infide of the pellicle in the fituation that it was before divided, that is, the interior parts face to face, one, long-ways, and one crofs-ways, after which a thin board of the cover of a book was laid firft over it, and a heap of ftones piled upon it. Ido not think it fucceeded with boiled water, and it ‘was always coarfe and gritty with the water of the Nile. Some pieces were excellent, made with water that had fet- tled, that is, in the ftate in which we drink it ;; but even the beft of it was always thick and heavy, drying very foon, then turning firm and rigid, and never white; nor did I ever find one piece that would bear the ftrokes of ja mal- let *, but in its greeneft ftate the blow fhivered and divided the fibres length-ways; nor did I fee the marks of any ftroke of a hammer or mallet in the book in my cuftody, which is certainly on Saitic or Hieratic paper. | apprehend by a paflage in Pliny f that the mallet was ufed only when _ artificial sole Jofeph Banks fhewed me a flip of paper which he got from an Italian gentleman, i "made, if I yemember, of a cyperus found in the river or lake of Thralymene. 1 do not recol- le& the procefs, but the paper itfelf was infinitely fuperior to any I had feen attempted, and {cerned to poffefs a great portion of flexibility, and was more likely to anfwer the purpofes © of paper than even the old Egyptian, if it had been dreffed up and finifhed, — + Plin, Nat. Hiit. lib, xili. cap. 13. APPEN DT &X. tr artificial glue or gum was made ufe of, which mu have been as often as they let thefe ftripes of the ribband or pellicle dry before arranging them. Puiny * fays, the books of Numa were 830 years old when they were found, and he wonders, from the brittle- nefs of the infide of the paper, it could have lafted fo long. The manufcript in my poffeflion, which was dug up at Thebes, I conjecture is near three times the age that Pliny mentions ; and, though it 1s certainly fragil, has fubftance and prefervation of letter enough, with good care, to laft as much longer, and be legible. Tr the Saitic paper was, as we imagine, the firft invent- ed, it fhould follow, contrary to what Ifidore advances, that it was not firft invented in Memphis, but in Upper Egypt in Seide, whofe language and writing obtained in the earlieft{ age, though Lucan feems to think with Ifi- . -dore, Noudum flumineas Memphis coniexere biblos Nover. ak, Lucan, lib. iii. Arter the hieroglyphics were loft, perhaps fome time be- fore, we know nothing the Egyptians adopted fo generally .as paper, and there were probably { religious reafons that mpeded i thofe early days the people from falling upon Vou. V. D the eee * Plin, lib, xii. cap. 13. £ Scruples about cleannefs. $2 APPENDIX. the moft natural, the fkins of beafts. However this Be,. _it is certain under the Egyptians, naturally averfe to novelty and improvement, paper arrived to no great perfection till taken in hands by the Romans. The Charta Claudia was. thirteen inches wide, the Hieratica, or Saitica, eleven, and fuch is the length of the leaf of my book in the Saitic diale@,, ° that is, the old Coptic, or Egyptian of. Upper Egypt. I have no idea what the Emporetic paper was, which obtained that: degree of coarfenefs and toughnefs,,as to ferve for fhopkeep~ ers ufes to tie up goods, unlefs it was like our brown paper: employed to the fame purpofes.. Ir the date of the invention of this ufeful art: of making: paper is doubtful, the time when it was loft, or fuperfeded> by one more convenient, is as uncertain. Euftathius fays: it was difufed in his time in the 1170. Mabillon endeavours: to prove it exifted in the gth,and* even that: there exifted: _ fome Popifh bulls wrote upon it as late as the rith century.. He gives, as inftances, a part of St Mark’s Gofpel preferved. at Venice as being upon papyrus, and the fragment of Jo- fephus at Milan to be cotton paper, while Maffei proves this. to be juft the reverfe, that of St Mark. being cotton, and the other indifputably he thinks to be Egyptian papyrus, fothat: - Mabillon’s authority as tothe bulls of the pope may be fair-- ly queftioned. Tue feveral times I have been at thefe places mentioned,, Phave never fucceeded in feeing any of thefe pieces; that of St Mark at Venice I was aflured had been recognized to be gotton paper ; it was rendered not legible by the warm fali- ‘a of zealots kiffing it from devotion, which I can eafily: ica titi muft contain a.very corrofive quality, and the Venetians. ee ot. Se APPENDIX. 15 Venetians now refufe to fhew it more. 1 have feen two detached leaves of papyrus, but do not believe there is an- other book exifting at the prefent time but that in my pof- feffion, which is very perfect. I gave Dr Woide leave to tranflate it at Lord North’s defire ; it is a gnoftic book, full of their dreams. Tue general figure of this plant Pliny has rightly faid to refemble a Thyrfus ; the head is compofed of a number of {mall graffy filaments, each about a foot long. About the middle, each of thefe filaments parts into four, and in the point, or partition, are four branches of flowers; the head of this is not unlike an ear of wheat in form, but which in fact is but a chaffy, filky, foft hufk. Thefe heads, or flowers, grow upon the ftalk alternately, and are not oppofite to, or ‘on the fame line with each other at the bottom. Priny* fays it has no feed ; but this we may be affured is an abfurdity. The form of the flower fufficiently indicates that it was made to refolve itfelf into the covering of one; which is certainly very fmall, and by its exalted fituation, and thicknefs of the head of the flower, feems to have need- ed the extraordinary covering it has had to protect it from the violent hold the wind muft have had upon it. For the fame reafon, the bottom of the filaments compofing the head are fheathed in four concave leaves, which keep them clofe together, and prevent injury from the wind ‘getting in between them. D 2 THE ® Plin, lib. 13. ut, fup. 4 APPENDIX. Tue ftalk is of a vivid green, thickeft at the bottom, and tapering up tothe top*; it is of a triangular form... In the Jordan, the fingle fide, or apex of the triangle, ftood oppofed to the ftreamas the cut-water ofa boat or thip, or the fharp angle of a buttrefs of a bridge, by which the preffure of the ftream upon the ftalk would be greatly diminifhed. I do not precifely remember how it ftood in the lakes in Ethi- opia and Egypt, and only have this remark in the notes I made at the Jordan. Turs conftruction of the ftalk of the papyrus feems to re- proach Ariftotle with want of obfervation. He fays that no plant had either triangular or quadrangular flalks. Here we fee an inftance of the contrary in the papyrus, whofe ftalk is certainly and univerfally triangular; and we learn from Diofcorides that many more have quadrangular ftalks, or fiems of four angles. Ir has but one root, which is large and ftrong f, Pliny fays, as thick as a man’s arm: So it was, probably, when the plant was fifteen feet high, but it is now diminifhed in proportion, the whole length of the ftalk, comprehending the head, being a little above ten, but the root is ftill hard and folid near the heart, and works with the turning loom tolerably well, as it did formerly when they made cups of it. In the middle of this long root arifes the ftalk ar right angles, fo when inverted it has the figure of a T, and on each fide | of the large root there are fmaller elaftic ones, which are of a direCtion perpendicular to it, and which, like the ftrings of a tent, * Plin, lib. xiii. cap. 11. + [bid, id,. APPENDIX. 5 a tent, fteady it and fixit to the earth at the bottom. About two feet, or little more, of the lower part of the ftalk is cloathed with long, hollow, {word-fhaped leaves, which co- ver each other like fcales, and fortify the foot of the plant. They are of a duiky brown, or yellow colour. | fuppofe the ftalk was cut off below, at about where thefe leaves end. Tue drawing reprefents the papyrus as growing. The head is not upright, but is inclined, as from its fize it always mutt be in hot countries, in which alone it grows. In all fuch climates, there is fome particular wind that reigns longer than others, and this being always the mof violent, as well as the moit conftant, gives to heavy-headed trees, or plants, an inclination nary to that from which it blows. Tus plant is called e] Berdiin Egypt, which fignifies no-= thing in Arabic, and I fuppofe is old Egyptian. I have been told by a learned gentleman*, that in Syria it is known by the'name of Babeer, which approaches more to the found of papyrus, and paper; this I never heard myfelf, but leave it entirely upon his authority. BALESSAN, * Mr Adamfon, interpreter to the French faétory of Seide, a man of great merit and! ‘knowledge in natural hiftory, brother to the naturalift of that name, who has wrote the voyage ta Senegal, and particularly an account of the shells of thofe feas, full, of barbarous words, and liberal ideas. ee a Ro od . 16 APPENDIX. (QS ee BALESSAN, BALM, or BALSAM. HE great value fet :upon this drug in the eaft re- | mounts to very early ages; it is coeval with the India: trade for pepper, and-the beginning of it confequently — oft in the darknefs -of the firft ages. ‘We know from fcripture, the oldeft. hiftory extant, as well as moft infallible, -that the Ifhmaelites; or Arabian.carriers and merchants, traf- ficking with the India commodities into Egypt, brought with «hem balm.as-part of the cargo with pepper; but the price that they paid for Jofeph was filver, and nota barter with any of their articles of merchandife. ‘Srraso alone, of all the ancients, hath given us the true account of the place of its origin, “Near tothis, that hiftorian “ fays, is the moft happy land of the Sabeans, and they are “avery great people. Among thefe, frankincenfe, myrrh, “ and cinnamon grow, and in the coaft that is about Saba “ the balfam alfo.” Among the myrrh-trees behind Azab ue a : all a i Cp ; i Laz SUN Cc Lendon Lubli{hd Peels V76y Rs hy Chobiiaon K la i, W my 4 Piilif Ff , tle SOS APPENDIX, 17 all along the coaft to the Straits of Babelmandeb is its na~ tive country. It grows to-a tree above fourteen feet high, fpontaneouflyand without culture, like the myrrh, the coffee, and frankincenfe tree; they are all equally the wood of the. country, and are occafionally cut down and ufed for fuel. . We need. not doubt but that it was early tranfplanted into Arabia, that is, into the fouth part of Arabia Felix, immed1- ately fronting: Azab, the place of its nativity. The high: country’ of Arabia was too cold to receive it, being all: mountainous ; water freezes there. THERE is an anecdote relating to ‘Sir Williamy Middleton, who was furprifed and taken prifoner by the Turks in the > firft attempt to open. the trade of the Red Sea, that when’ about to fet * out for Sanaa,.corruptly called Zenan, the re-- fidence of the Imam, or prince of Arabia Felix, he was by» the people defired + to take his fur cloak along with him to » keep him from the cold; he thought they were ridiculing : him upon what he had to fuffer from the approaching ~ heat, which he was convinced in the. middle. of Arabia : muift be exceffive. . ; . Tue firft plantation. that fucceeded feems to have been : at Petra, the ancient metropolis of Arabia, now called Beder, . or Beder Hunein, whence I got one of the {fpecimens from. which the prefent drawing is made. . | Joszpuus *, in the hiftory of the antiquities of his country,.. », fays, that a tree of this balfam was brought to Jerufalem by. the: *Dec,. 22d, 1610. + Purchas, chap. xi, §. 3. . + Jofeph, Antiquit. lib. y, 18 APPENDIX. the queen of Saba, and given, among other prefents, to So- lomon, who, as we know from fcripture, was very ftudious of all fort of plants, and fkilful in the defcription and dif- tinction of them. Here it feems to have been cultivated and to have thriven, fo that the place of its origin came to be forgotten. NotwiTHsTANpDine this pofitive authority of Jofephus, and the great probability that attends it, we are not to put it in competition with what we have been told from fcripture, as we have juft now feen, that the place where it grew, and | was fold to merchants, was Gilead in Judea, more than 1730 years before Chrift, or 1000 before the queen of Saba; fo that reading the verfe, nothing can be more plain than that it had been tranfplanted into Judea, flourifhed, and had be- come an article of commerce in Gilead long before the period jofephus mentions: “ And they fat down to eat bread, and “ they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold, a com- “ pany of Ifhmaelites came from Gilead with their camels, “bearing fpicery, and balm, and myrrh, going to carry it “ down to Egypt *.” Now, the fpicery, or pepper, was certain- ly purchafed by the Ifmmaelites at the mouth of the Red Sea, -~where was the market for Indian goods, and at the fame place they muft have bought the myrrh, for that neither grew nor grows any where elfe than in Saba or Azabo eaft to Cape Gardetan, where were the ports for India, and whence it was difperfed all over the world. q THs # Gen, chap. xxxvii. ver. 25. a z Di APPENDIX. 19 Tur Ifhmaelites, or Arabian carriers, loaded their camels at the mouth of the Red Sea with pepper and myrrh. For -reafons not now known to us, they went and completed their cargo with balfam at Gilead, fo that, contrary to the authori- ty of Jofephus, nothing is more certain, than 1730 years be- fore Chrift; and 1000 years before the queen of Saba came to Jerufalem, the balfam-tree had been tranfplanted from Abyflinia into Judea, and become an article of commerce there, and the place from which it originally was brought, through length of time, combined with other reafons, came to be forgotten. - TuEopurastus, Diofcorides, Pliny, Solinus, and Serapion, all fay that this balfam cameonly from Judea. The words of Pliny are, “ But to all other odours whatever, the balfam “ is preferred, produced in no other part but the land of “¢ Judea, and even there in two gardens only; both of “‘ them belonging to the king, one no more than twen- * ty acres, the other ftill {maller *.” Ar this time I fuppofe it got its name of Balfamum Ju- daicum, or, Balm of Gilead, and thence became an article in merchandife and fifcal revenue, which probably occa- fioned the difcouragement of bringing it any more from Arabia, whence it very probably was prohibited as contra- band, We fhall fuppofe thirty acres planted with this tree would have produced more than all the trees in Arabia do at this day. Nor does the plantation of Beder Hunein Vou. V. E ~ amount a ® Plin, Nat. Hift, lib. xii. cap. 25. 20 APPENDIX. amount to much more than that quantity, for we are ftill to obferve, that even when it had been as it were naturalited in Judea, and acquired a name in the country, ftill it bore evident marks of its being a ftranger there; and its being confined to two royal gardens alone, fhews it was maintain- ed there by force and culture, and was by no means a na- tive of the country. And this is confirmed by Strabo, who {peaks of it being in the king’s palace or garden at Jericho. This place being one of the warmeft in Judea, fhews like- wife their apprehenfions about it, fo that in Judea, we may imagine it was pretty much in the ftate of our myrtles in England, which, though cultivated in green-houfes in all the reft of the ifland, yet grow beautifully and luxuriant- ly in Devonfhire and Cornwall, the weftern parts of it. | Dioporus Sicutus fays, it grew in a valley in Arabia Fe- lix ; he fhould have faid on a number of gentle, floping hills © in Arabia Deferta, which have a very {mall degree of ele- vation above the plain, but by no means refemble a valley. This place was the fcene of three bloody battles between Mahomet and his kinfmen the Beni Koreifh, who refufed to be converts to his religion, or acknowledge his divine legation. Thefe are at large defcribed by feveral of the hif- torians of that nation, with circumftances and anecdotes, as well interefting and entertaining, as elegantly told, They. fhew plainly that Mahomet’s tribe, the Beni Koreifh, did not receive their fanatical manners and difpofition from Maho- met and his religion, but were juft as obftinate, ignorant, and fanguinary when they were Pagans, as they were afterwards when converted and became Mahometans. The laft of thefe battles, which was decifive in Mahomet’s favour, gave him the fovercignty of Mecca, and was attended with the extir- pation of tome of the principal families in this tribe. At APPENDIX. 21 Ar this time the balfam is fuppofed, by being fold in Ju- dea, and not acceflible by reafon of the commotions in A- rabia, to have become almoft forgotten in that laft part, where the trade from Abyflinia, its native country, was like- | wife interrupted by this innovation of religion, and by Ma- ho net’s profanation of the Caaba, or temple of the fun, the ancient refort of the Sabean merchants carrying on the trade of India. This interval the impoftor thought proper for a pretended miracle ; he faid, that, from the blood of the Beni - Koreifh flain, there had fprung up this grove of trees, from the juice of which all the true believers on his fide received a cure for their wounds, however fatal they appeared, nay, fome of them were revived from even death itfelf. Since that time it has maintained its reputation equal to that which it had i In antiquity. Prosper Arpinus fays, that one Meffoner a eunuch, go- -vernor of Cairo in the year 1519, caufed bring from Arabia forty plants, which he placed in the garden of Mattareah, where he fuperintended them. Every day he went to that garden to pay his devotions tothe Virgin Mary. It was many times renewed, and has as often perifhed fince. Bel- lonius fays, that in his time there were ten plants at Mat- tareah, and he is of opinion, that in all ages they grew well .in Arabia, which is not true, fer thofe at Beder are conftantly fupplied with new plants fo foon as the old ones decay. .There was none exifting at Mattareah the two feveral times I vifited Cairo, but there were fome of the Chriftians {till living there that remembered one plant in that garden. Beg THERE me ; APPENDIX. Turre were three productions from this tree very muck efteemed among the ancients. The firft was called Opobal- famum, or, Juice of the Balfam, which was the fineft kind, compofed of that greenifh liquor found in the kernel of the fruit: The next was Carpo-balfamum, made by the ex- - preflion of the fruit when in maturity. The third was Xylo-balfamum, the wortt of all, it was an expreffion or de- eoction of the {mall new twigs of a reddifh colour. Thefe twigs are flill gathered in litde faggots and fent to Venice, “where I am told they are an ingredient in the Theriac, or of fome fort of compound drug made in the laboratories- there: But the principal quantity of balfam in all times was produced by incifion, as it is at this day. Concerning - this, too, many fables have been invented and propagated. Tacitus fays, that this tree was fo averfe to iron that qt trembled upon a knife being laid near it, and fome pre- tend the incifion fhould be made by ivory, glafs, or flone. There is no doubt but the more attention there is given to it, and the cleaner the wound is. made, the better this. balfam will be. It is now, as it probably ever has been, eut by an ax, when the juice is in its ftrongeft circulation. in July, Auguft, and beginning of September. It is then received into a {mail earthen bottle, and every day’s produce gathered and poured into a larger, which iskept clofely cork- ed. The Arabs Harb, a noble family of Beni Koreifh, are the proprietors of it, and of Beder, where it grows. It is a ftation of the Emir Hadje, or pilgrims going to SaaS half way between that city and Medina, — Some books fpeak of a white fort brought by the cara- vans from Mecca, and called Balfam of Mecca, and others a. balfam. APPENDIX, 23 a balfam called that of Judea, but all thefe are counterfeits or adulterations. The balfam of Judea, which I have al- ready mentioned, was long ago loft, when the troubles of that country withdrew the royal attention from it; but, as Tate as Galen’s time, it not only exifted, but was growing in many places of Paleftine befides Jericho, and there is no. doubt but it is now totally loft there.. - Wuewn Sultan Selim made the conqueft of Egypt and A- rabia in the 1516, three pound was then the tribute order- ed to be fent to Gonftantinople yearly, and this proportion is kept up to this day. One pound is due to-the governor of Cairo, one pound to the Emir Hadje who conducts the pilgrims to Mecca, half a pound to the bafha of Damafeus, and feveral fmaller quantities to other officers, after which, . the remainder is fold or farmed out to fome merchants, who, to increafe the quantity,. adulterate it with oil of olives and wax, and feveral other mixtures, confulting only the agreement of colour, without confidering the aptitude in mixing ; formerly we were told it was done with art, but nothing is eafier detected than this fraud now. Ir does not appear to me, that the ancients had ever feern this plant, they defcribe it fo varioufly ; fome will have it a tree, fome a fhrub, and fome a plant only ; and Profper Alpinus, a modern, corroborates the errors of the ancients, by faying it is a kind of vine, (viticofus). The figure he has given of it is a very bad one, and leaves us entirely in doubt in what clafs to place it. The defect of the plant in Judea and in Egypt, and the contradiction in the defcription ef the ancients as to its figure and refemblance, occafioned sriggi. weak a. doubt 24 APPENDIX. a doubt that the whole plants in thefe two countries, and Arabia alfo, had been loft in the defolation occafioned by- the Mahometan conquett; and a warm difpute arofe between the Venetians aid Komans, whether the drug ufed by the former in the Theriac was really and truly the old genuine opobalfamum? The matter was referred to the pope, who directed proper inquiry to be made in Egypt, which cturn- en out entirely in favour of the Venetians, and the Opor balfamum continuing as formerly. A very learned and tedious treatife was publifhed by Veflingius, in the year 1043, at Padua, where th:s affair was difcuffed at full length. As both parcies of the difpu- tants feem to argue concerning what it is from the mifun- derftood reports of what it was, | fhall content my'te’f brief- ly with ftating what the qualities of the opobalfamum are, without taking pains to refute the opinions of thofe that have reported what the opobalfamum is not. Tue opobalfamum, or juice flowing from the balfam- tree; nat funit when it is received into the bole or vafe from the wound from whence it iffues, is of a light, yel- low colour, apparently turbid, in which there is a wh’ fh caft, which I apprehend are the globules of air that pervade the whole of it in its firtt ftate of fermentation ; it then ap- pears very light upon fhaking. As it fettles and cools, it turns clear, and lofes that milkinefs which it firft had when flowing from the tree into the bottle. It then has the co- lour of honey, and appears more fixed and heavy than at firft.. After being kept for years, it grows a much deeper yellow, and.of the colour of gold. I have fome of it, which, as I have already mentioned in my travels, 1 got from the 3 - Cadi APPENDIX. 25 Cadi of Medina in the 1768 ; it is now ftill deeper in colour, full as much fo as the yelloweft honey. It is perfectly fluid, and has loft very little either of its tafte, {mell, or weight. -The fmell at firft is violent.and ftrongly pungent, giving a fenfation to the brain like to that of volatile falcs when rafhly drawn up by an incautious perfon. this lafts in proportion to its frefhnefs, for being neglected, and the bottle uncorked, it quickly lofes this quality, as it proba- bly will at laft by age, whatever care is taken of it. In its pure and frefh ftate it diffolves eafily in water. If dropt on a woollen cloth, it will wath out ealily, and leaves no ftain. It is of an acrid, rough, pungent tafte, is ufed by the Arabs in all complaints of the ftomach and bowels, is reckoned a powerful antifeptic, and of ufe in preventing any infection of the plague. Thefe qualities it now enjoys; in all probability,in common with the various balfams we have received from the new world, fuchas the balfam of Tolu, of Peru, and the reft; but itis always ufed, and in particular efteemed by the ladies, as a cofmetic: As fuch it has kept up its reputation in the eaft to this very day.’ The manner of applying it is this ; you firft go into the te- pid bath till the pores are fufficiently opened, you then’ a- noint yourfelf with a fmall quantity, and, as much as the veffels will abforb; never-fading youth and beauty are faid to be the confequences of this. The purchafe is eafy enowgh. I do not hear that it ever has been thought reftorative atter the lofs of either. Tre figure I have here given of the balfam may be de- pended upon, as being carefully drawn, after an exact ex- : > amMinacon eit APPENDIX. amination, from two very fine trees brought from Beder Hunein; the firft by the Cadi of Medina at Yambo; the fe- cond at Jidda, by order of Youfef Kabil, vizir or minifter to the fherriffe of Mecca. The firft was fo deliberately exe- cuted; that the fecond feemed of no fervice but to confirm me in the exactitude of the firft. The tree was 5 feet 2 inches high from where the red root begins, or which was » buried in the earth, to where it divides itfelf firft into branches. The trunk at thickeft was about 5 inches diame- ter, the wood light and open, and incapable of polifhing, co- vered with a {mooth bark of bluifh-white, like to a ftandard cherry-tree in good health, which has not above half that diameter; indeed a part of the bark is a reddifh brown; it flattens at top like trees that are expofed to {now-blaits or fea-air, which gives it a ftunted appearance. It is remark- able for a penury of leaves. The flowers are like that of the acacia-tree, white and round, only that three hang upon three filaments, or ftalks, where the acacia has but one. Two of thefe flowers fall off and leave a fingle fruit; the branches that bear this are the fhoots of the prefent year; they are of areddifh colour, and tougher than the old wood : it is thefe that are cut off and put into little faggots, and fent to Venice for the Theriac, when bruifed or drawn by fire, and formerly thefe made the Xylo-balfamum. ConceErnine the vipers which, Pliny fays, were frequent among the balfam trees I made very particular inquiry ; feveral were brought me alive, both to Yambo and Jidda. Of thefe I fhall fpeak in another place, when I give the figure, and an account of that animal fo found. ‘ @ SASSA - APPENDIX. a7 “SASSA, MYRRH, ann OPOCALPASUM. A T the time when I was on the borders of the Tal-Tal, or Troglodyte country, I fought to procure myfelf branches and bark of the myrrh-tree, enough preferved to be able to defcribe it and make a defign ; but the length and auggednefs of the way, the heat of the weather, and the carelefinefs and want of refources of naked favages always difappointed me. In thofe goat-fkin bags into which I had often ordered them to put {mall branches, I always found the leaves moftly in powder; fome few that were entire feem- ed to refemble much the acacia vera, but were wider to- wards the extremity, and more pointed immediately at the end. In what order the leaves grew I never could deter- mine. The bark was abfolutely like that of the acacia ve- ra ; and among the leaves I often met with a fmall, ftraight, weak thorn, about two inches long. TuEse were all the circumftances I could combine rela- ‘tive to the myrrh-tree, too vague and uncertain to rifka drawing upon, when there ftill remained fo many defiderata ‘concerning it; and as the king was obftinate not to let me VoL. V. F : So % * 28 APPENDIX. go thither after what had happened to the furgeon’s mate and boat’s crew of the Elgin Indiaman *, I was obliged to abandon the drawing of the myrrh-tree to fome more for- tunate traveller, after having in vain attempted to procure it at Azab, as I have already mentioned. At the fame time that I was taking thefe pains about the myrrh, I had defired the favages to bring me all the gums they could find, with the branches and bark of the trees that produced them. They brought me at different times fome very fine pieces of incenfe, and at another time _a very {mall quantity ofa bright colourlefs gum, fweeter on burning than incenfe, but no branches of either tree, though I found this latter afterwards in another part of Abyffinia. But at alltimes they procured me quantities of gum of an even and clofe grain, and of a dark brown co- lour, which was produced by a tree called Saffa, and twice { reeeived branches of this tree in tolerable order, and of thefe Imade a drawing. Some weeks after, while walking at Emfras, a Mahome- tan village, whofe inhabitants are myrrh merchants, I fawa Jarge tree with the whole upper part of the trunk, and the large branches, fo covered with bofles and knobs of gum, as toappear monftroufly deformed, and inquiring farther about this tree, 1 found that it had been brought, many years be- fore, from the myrrh country, by merchants, and planted there for the fake of its gum, with which thefe Mahometans ftiffened the blue Surat cloths they got damaged from Mo- cha, to trade in with the Galla and Abyflinians. Neither the oe 4 * They were murdered at Azab, fee vol. I. pf 19s ¥ . A 4 Py - Ad lye Me > ey " 2 7? \ CO) Mifue 2 c Lonton Liblifpi Decl i*4 7g. by 6 Robinson & 0. otiliu ) C London Tublijthil Dee. r, Jt, Ti We 99 - by ¢ Robinson & 0. on So’ oe et . \ a % APPENDIX. 2g the origin of the tree which they called Saffa, nor the gum, could allow me to doubt a moment that it was the fame as what had been brought to me from the myrrh country, but Thad the additionallfatisfaction tofindthe tree all covered over with beautiful crimfon flowers of a very extraordinary and flrange conftruction. I began then a drawing anew, with all that fatisfaction known only to thofe who have been con- verfant in fuch difcoveries. _ I rook pieces of the gum with me; it is very light. Ga- len complains that, in his time, the myrrh was often mixed witha drug which he-calls Opocalpafum, by a Greek name, but what the drug was is totally unknown to us at this day, as nothing fimilar to the Greek name is found in the language of the country. But as the only view of the fa- vage, in mixing another gum with his myrrh, muft have been to increafe the quantity, and as the great plenty in which this gum is produced, and its colour, make it very proper for this ufe, and above all, as there is no reafon to think there is another gum-bearing tree of equal qualities in the country where the myrrh grows, it feems to me next to a proof, that this muft have been the opocalpafum of Galen. | I must however confefs, that Galen fays the opocal- pafum was fo far from being an innocent drug, that it was a mortal poifon, and had produced very fatal ef- fects. But as thofe Troglodytes, though now more igno- rant than formerly, are {till well acquainted with the pro- perties of their herbs and trees, it js not poflible that the favage, defiring to increafe his fales, would mix them Bigs. with 30 APPENDIX. with a poifon that muft needs diminifhthem. And we may: therefore without fcruple fuppofe that Galen was miftaken: in the quality afcribed to this drug, and that he might have imagined, from tendernefs to the profeffion, that people. died of the opocalpafum who perhaps really died of the: phyfician : Firft, Becaufe we know of no gum or refin that. is a mortal poifon: Secondly, Becaufe, from.the conftruction - of its parts, gum could not have the activity which violent: poifon has; and confidering the {mall.quantities in which. myrrh is taken, and the opocalpafum. could: have been but in an inconfiderable proportion to the myrrh, to have kill-. ed, it mu{t have been a very active poifon indeed : Thirdly, , | thefe accidents from a known caufe muft have brought myrrh into difufe, as certainly as the Spaniards mixing arfe- - nic with bark would banifh that drug-when. we faw people - die of it. Now this never was the cafe, it maintained its . character among the Greeks and the Arabs,.and fo down to our days; and a modern: phyfician, Van Helmont, thinks it might make man immortal if it could. be rendered per- . fe&tly foluble in the human body... Galen then was mifta- ken as to the poifonous quality of the opocalpafum. The. Greek phyfician knew little of the Natural Hiftory of Ara- bia, lefs ftill of that of Abyffinia, and we who have followed | them know nothing of either... THis gum being put into water, {wells and turns white, and lofes all its glue; it very much refembles gum adra- gant in quality, and may be eaten fafely. This fpecimen came from the Troglodyte country in the year 1771. The Saffa, the tree which produces the opocalpafum, does not grow.in Arabia... Arabian myrrh is eafily known from Abyf- finian APPENDIX Kia finian by the following method; Take a handful of the fmalleft pieces found at the bottom of the baiket where the myrrh was packed, and throw them into a plate, and juft cover them with water a little warm, the myrrh will re- main for fome time without vifible alteration, for it dif- folves flowly, but the gum will {well to five times its origi- nal fize,. and appear fo many white fpots amidft the myrrh. - Emrras, as I have faid, isa large village fomething more than twenty miles fouth from Gondar, fituated upon the face of a hill of confiderable height above the lake Tzana, of which, and all its iflands, it has a very diftinct and plea- fant view ; it is divided from the lake bya large plain, near” which is the ifland of Mitraha, one of the burying-places of ° the kings. The inhabitants of the lower town, clofe on the banks of the {mall river Arno, are all Mahometans, many of them men of fubftanee, part of them the king’s tent-- makers, who follow the camp, and pitch his tents in the’ field; the others are merchants to the myrrh and frankin- cenfe country, that is, from the eaft parallel of the kingdom: of Dancali to the point Cape Gardefan, or Promontorium Aromatum; they alfo bring falt from the plains, on the ° weft of the kingdom of Dancali, where foffile falt is dug; it is on the S. E. border of the kingdom of Tigré. Thefe - Mahometans trade alfo to the Galla, to the weftward of the - Nile; their principal commodity is myrrh and damaged car-- goes of blue 5urat cloth, which they unfold and clean, then | ftiffen them with gum, and fold them in form of a book as | when they were new. Tuis gum, which is called Saffla, they at firft broughs from the myrrh country behind Azab, till ingenious and: | a. fagacious - wat 2 APPENDIX. fagacious people had carried plants of the tree to their dif. ferent villages, where they have it growing in great per- fection, and more than fupply the ufes of the merchants. TuIs tree grows to a great height, not inferior to that of an Englifh elm; that from which this draught was made was about two feet diameter; the gum grows on all fides of the trunk, in quantity enough almoft to cover it, in form of large globes, and fo it does on all the principal branches. Thefe lumps are fometimes fo large as to weigh two pound, though naturally very light. Tue bark of the treeis thin and of a bluifh colour, not. unlike that of a cherry-tree when young, or rather whiter. The wood is white and hard, only the young branches which carry the flower are red. The leaves are joined to the fides of the {mall branches by a fmall pedicle of confi- derable flrength, the leaves are two and two, or oppofite to each other, and have no fingle leaf at the point; they are {trongly varnifhed both on one fide and the other, the back rather lighter than the forefide of the leaf. The branches that carry the leaves have about an inch of the ftalk bare, where it is fixed to the larger branch. ‘There are generally fourteen leaves, each of about three quarters of an inch long. Atthe top of the branch are knots out of which come three {mall ftalks, bare for about an inch and a half, then having a number of fmall tubes, which, when they open at the top, put forth a long piftil from the bottom of the tube. The top of the tube, divided into five fegments, or petals, arrives about one third up the piftil, and makes the figure of a calix or perianthium to it. From this tube procecds a great number of very {mall capillaments of a & ping. Ha tig ee ok , Slee ee APPENDIX, 33 pink colour, at the end of each of which hangs a purple ftigma. . At the top of this piftil is a large bunch of full finer fibres, or capillaments, with ftigmata likewife, and at the end the piftil’is rounded as if forming a fruit; without a very diftin& drawing, it would be difficult to make a de- {cription that fhould be intelligible, Noruine can be more beautiful, or more compounded, than the formation of this flower, though it has no odour; the head is compofed of about thirty of thefe {mall branch- es now defcribed, which make a very beautiful mafs, and is of a pink colour of different fhades. At fun-fet, the leaves on each fide of the branch fhut face to face like the fenfitive tribe. I never faw any feed or fruit that it bore, nor any thing like the rudiments of feed, unlefs it be that very {mall rotundity that appears at the end of the pittil, which feem to bear no proportion to fo large a tree. ERG ETT 34 APPENDIX, ERGETT YDIMMO, iN Sees two beautiful fhrubs which I have here given to the reader are called by the name of Ergett, which we aay fuppofe, in Abyffinian botany, to be the generic name of the mimofa, as both of thefe have the fame name, and - both of the fame family, of which there are many varieties ain Abyflinia. Tus firft is called the Bloody Ergett, as we.may fuppofe from the pink filaments of which this beautiful and un- common flower is in part compofed, and which we may therefore call Mimofa Sanguinea. The upper part of the flower is compofed of curled, yellow filaments, and the bot- ‘tom a pink of the fame ftructure. I never faw it in any-o- ther ftate. Before the bloffoms fpread it appears in the form here exhibited. The pink, or lower part, in its unripe ftate, is compofed of green tubercules, larger and more de- tached than where the yellow flower is produced, whofe tu- bercules are {maller and cloferfet together, I need not fay the leaves : Orgel Lianne C Lonion Liublithid Deer 759. by © hobarson & (0. ) ) cy PREY, Ogel?el SEX ONCO? (é oe London Lublfhed Dewem.” 1° 709 by Ckobursor & APPENDIX. | 35 leaves are of the double pinnated kind, asthat and every thing elfe material can be learned from the figure, full as perfectly as if the flower was before them; none of the parts, how- ever trifling and {mall, being neglected in the reprefenta- tion, and none of them fuppofed or placed there out of order, for ornament, or any other caufe whatever: a rule which I would have the reader be perfuaded is invariably obferved in every article reprefented in this collection, whether tree or plant, beaft, bird, or fith. ~ ERGETT EL KRONE. © Ne next of this fpecies of Ergett or Mimofa, is called in Abyffinia Ergett el Krone, or the Horned Ergett; I ap- prehend the figure of the pods have given it that appella- tion. Its flower in fize and form very much refembles the acacia vera, only that it is attached to the branch by a long and ftrong woody ftalk, which grows out at the bottom of the branch bearing the leaves, and is fheltered as in a cafe by the lower part of it. The branches of it are all covered with very fhort, ftrong, fharp-pointed thorns, Vou. V. G whofe 38 APPENDIX. whofe point is inclined backward towards the roots Its pods: are covered with a prickly kind of hair,which,when touched, . ftick in your fingers and give very uneafy fenfations. The pods are divided into thirteen divifions, in each of which.- are three round feeds, hard and fhining, of-a dufky brown- ifh colour. The flower has fcarcely any fmell,. nor do I know: that it is of'any utility whatever. Both -thefe beau- tiful fhrubs were found upon the banks of the ‘river Arno, . Ye between Emfras and the lake Tzana.. The foil is black . mould, with a great mixture.or. compofition of rotten pu- ‘ trified leaves, thinly covering the rock -in. the temperate - part of Abyfflinia.s What-I have to obferve of both thefe: fhrubs. is, that they fhut. their leaves upon the violent rains - of winter, and are never fully expanded till, the fun'and:: fair feafon, again return,. | \. = fre 9 ery ee ee ee BNe SE .T # EE Enfete is an herbacious plant. It is faid to be a na- tive of Narea, and to grow in the great {wamps and martfhes in that country, formed by many rivers rifing there, 2. which Div ANd Zy ae ORICA 5 London Publi Dec 7°47 89 Ce CHAR IR > CDSIA ) London Publi hed Deel 7769 by eholasen ©. APPENDIX, 39 which have little levelto run to either ocean. It is faid that the Gailla, when‘tranf{planted into Abyflinia, brought for their particular ufe: the coffee-tree, and the Enfete, the ufe of neither of which were before known. However, the ge- neral opinion is, that both are-naturally produced in every part of Abyflinia, provided there is heat and moifture. It “grows and comes to great perfection at Gondar, but it moft abounds in that part of Maitfha and Goutto weft of the Nile, where there are large plantations of it, and is there almoft, exclufive of any thing elfe, the food of the Galla inhabiting ‘that province; Maitfha is nearly upon a dead level, and the rains -have.not flope.to get off eatily, but ftagnate and pre- vent the fowing of grain. Vegetable.food would therefore “be very {carce'in Maitiha, were it not for this plant. Some who have feen my drawing of this plant, and at the ‘fame time found the banana'in many parts of the eaft, ‘have thought the Enfete to be a fpecies of the Mufa. This ‘however, I imagine, is without any fort of reafon. It is true, the leaf of the banana refembles that of the Enfete, it bears figs, and has an excrefcence from its trunk, which is “terminated by a conical figure, chieily differing from the ‘Enfete in fize and quantity of parts, but the figs of the banana are in fhape of a cucumber, and this is the part which is eaten. ‘This fig is fweet though mealy, and ofa tafte highly agreeable. Jt 18 fuppofed to have no feeds, though in fact there are four fmal! black feeds in every fig belonging to it. But the figs of the Enfete are not Ghables they are of atender, foft fubfance; watery, taftelefs, and in colour and confiftence fimilar to a rotten apricot; they are of a conical form, crooked a little at the lowerend, about aninch anda half in-length, and aninchin breadth where ‘G2 thickef®, ayy ae APPENDIX, thickeft. In the infide of thefe is a large ftone half an inch long, of the fhape of a bean or cufhoo-nut, of a dark brown colour, and this contains a {mall feed, which is fel- dom hardened into fruit, but confilts only of fkin, Tue long ftalk that bears the figs of the Enfete fprings from the center of the plant, or rather is the body or folid part of the plant itfelf. Upon this, where it begins to bend, are a parcel of loofe leaves, then grows the fig upon the bo- dy of the plant without any ftalk, after which the top of the ftalk is thick-fet with fmall leaves, in the midft of which it terminates the flower in form of the artichoke; whereas in the banana, the flower, in form of the artichoke, grows at the end of that fhoot, or ftalk, which proceeds from the middle of the plant, the upper part of which bears the row of figs. Tue leaves of the Enfete are a web of longitudinal f- bres clofely fet together ; the leaves grow from the bottom, and are without ftalks ; whereas the banana isin fhape like a tree, and has been miftaken for fuch. One half of it is divided into a ftem, the other is a head formed of leaves, and, in place of the ftem that grows out of the Enfete, a number of leaves rolled together round like a truncheon, fhoots out of the heart of the banana, and renews the upper as the under leaves fall off; but all the leaves of the bana- na have a long italk; this fixes them to the trunk, which they do not embrace by a broad bafe, or involucrum, as the Enfete does. Bur the greateft differences are {till remaining. The banana, has, by fome, been miftaken for a tree of the 3 pal-. APPENDIX. 39 palmaceous tribe, for no other reafon but a kind of f- milarity in producing the fruit on’an excrefcence or ftalk growing from the heart of the ftem; but ftill the mufa is neither woody nor perennial; it bears fruit but once, and in all thefe refpects it differs from trees of the palmaceous kind, and indeed from all fort of trees whatever. The En- fete, on the contrary, has no naked ftem, no part of it is woody; the body of it, for feveral feet high, is efculent; but no part of the banana can be eaten. As foon as the ftalk of the Enfete appears perfect and- full of leaves, the body of the plant turns hard and fibrous, and is no longer eatable ; before, it is the beft of all vegetables ; when boii- ed, it has the tafte of the beft new wheat-bread not perfect- ly baked.. Tue drawing which I have given the reader was of au Enfete ten years old. It was then very beautiful, and had no marks of decay. As for the piftil, ftamina, and ovarium, they are drawn with fuch attention, and fo clearly expref- fed by the pencil, that it would be loft time to fay more a- bout them. I have given one figure of the plant cloathed with leaves, and another of the flem ftript of them, that the curious may have an opportunity of further invefliga- ting the difference between this and the mufa. Wuen. you make ufe of the Enfete for eating, you cut it immediately above the {mall detached roots, and perhaps a foot or two higher, as the plant is of age. You {trip the green from the upper part till it becomes white; when foft, like a turnip well boiled, if eat with milk or butter it is the beit of all food, wholefome, nourithing, and eafily: digefted, *. ‘40 APPENDIX, We fee in’ fome of the Egyptian antique ftatues the figure of Ifis fitting between fome branches of the banana ‘tree, as it is fuppofed, and:fome handfuls of ears of wheat; you.fee likewife the hippopotamus ravaging a quantity of banana tree. .-Yet the banana is merely adven- .titious in Egypt, itis anative of Syria; it does not even exift in the low hot country of Arabia Felix, but .choofes tome €levation in the mountains where the air is temperate, and is not found in Syria farther to the fouthward than lat 34°. Arter all, ido not doubt that.it might have grown in ‘Mattareah, or in the gardens of Egypt or Rofetto; but it is not a plant of the country, and could never have enter- ed into the lift of their hieroglyphics ; for this reafon, it could net figure any thing permanent or regular in the hiftery.of Egypt or its elimate. I-therefore imagine that this hteroglyphic was wholly Ethiopian, and that the fuppofed banana, which, as an adventitious plant, fignified notching in Egypt, was only a reprefentation of the En- fete, and that the record in the hieroglyphic of Ifis and the »nfete-tree was fomething that happened between har- -velt, which was about Auguft, and the time the Enfete- tree became to be in ufe, which is in October. Tue hippopotamus is generally thought to reprefent a Wile that has been fo abundant as to be deftructive. When therefore we fee upon the obelifks the hippopotamus def- troying the banana, we may fuppofe it meant that the ex traordinary inundation had gone fo far as not only to def- troy the wheat, but alfo to retard or hurt the growth of the Enfete, which was to fupply its place. 1 do likewife conjec- ture, APPENDIX. At ture, that the bundle of branches of a plant which Horus Apollo fays the ancient Egyptians produced as the food on which they lived before the difcovery of wheat, was not ihe papyrus, as he imagines, but this plant, the Enfete, which retired to its native Ethiopia upon a fubftitute being found - better adapted to the climate of Egypt. . KOL-QUALL . T ‘that memorable day when leaving the Samhar, or low ~ flat parched country which forms. the fea-coatft of Abyffi- nia, andturning weftward,we came to the foot of that ftupen- dous mountain ‘laranta, which we were-to pafs in order to enter into the high land of Abyfiinia,: we faw the whole fide of that prodigious mountain-covered from top to bot- tom with this beautiful.tree. We-were entering a country where we daily expected wonders,-and therefore, perhaps, were not fo much furprifed as might have been fuppofed at fo extraordinary a fight. The fruit was’ ripe, and being _Carried on the top of the branches, the trees that ftood thick ; together 42 APPENDIX. together appeared to be covered with a cloth or veil’ of the moft vivid cr se colour. . Tue firft ‘pha that prefented itfelf was the fir thoot of this extraordinary tree. It was a fingle ftalk, about fix inches meafured acrofs, in eight divifions, regular- ly and beautifully fcolloped and rounded at the top, joining in the centre at three feet and ahalf high. Upon the outfide of thefe fcollops were a fort of eyes or {mall knots, out of every one of which came five thorns, four on the fides and one in the centre, fcarce half an inch long, fragil, and of no refiftance, but exceedingly fharp and pointed. Its next pro- cefs is to put out a branch from the firft or fecond fcollop near the top, others fucceed from all directions; and this ftalk, which is foft and fucculent, of the confiftence of the aloe, turns by degrees hard and ligneous, and, after a few years, by multiplying its branches, aflumes the form as in the fecond plate. It is then a tree, the lower part of which is wood, the upper part, which is fucculent, has no leaves; thefe are fupplied by the fluted, fcolloped, ferrated, thorny fides of its branches. Upon the upper extremity of thefe branches grow its flowers, which are of a golden colour, rofaceous, and formed of five round or almoft oval petala; this is fuc- ceeded by a triangular fruit, firft of a light green with a flight caft of red, then turning to a deep crimfon, with ftreaks of white both at top and bottom, In the infide it is divided into three cells, with a feed in each of them; the cells are of a greenith white, the feed round, and with no degree of hu- midity or moifture about it, yet the green leaves contain a quantity of bluifh watery milk, almoft incredible. ° Upon bee! 59 wt 4 SAA SOIT . ery QO NYY — VVDWEKMG GG SS DD, S AK BSS 2 — Wr WTC 2 Qu er et Yj \\ MBI <> » TO, VLE LOTT yyy aay HAN i } as SA H H sta will : ‘Y wa xX So 00) Thi wl NNN Muy \) 39. by kkobiron &W. 7 Te London Liblihed Deo! : a . - . . a re, - 7 Ee ee 7 " a » . “ . * . ba . A - ¥ . ‘ ‘ F ) ' - “ t ‘ . q = . Py . . . - * : - . , ys Maye 5 ’ ae - a a ek Mire data dS 4 \\ \\ A Sh, ©. Z, , \= \= zz Le qual! Di a Q lide yn XW. > “ London Sublifiid Aino. bv Ch ah APPENDIX. 43 re] Upon cutting two of the fineft branches of a tree in its full vigour, a quantity of this iffued out, which I cannot compute to be lefs than four Englifh gallons, and this was fo exceedingly cauttic, that, though I wafhed the fabre that cut it.immediately, the ftain has not yet left it. Wuen the tree grows old, the branches wither, and, in place of milk, the infide appears to be full of powder, which is fo pungent, that the fmall duft which I drew upon ftri- king a withered branch feemed to threaten to make me {neeze to death, and the touching of the milk with my fingers excoriated them as if fcalded with boiling water; yet I everywhere obferved the wood-pecker piercing the rotten branches with its beak, and eating the infects, with- out any impreflion upon its olfactory nerves. Tue only ufe the Abyffinians make of this is for tanning hides, at leaft for taking off the firft hair. As we went weft, the tree turned poor, the branches were few, feldom above | two or three ribs, or divifions, and thefe not deeply indented, whereas thofe of Taranta had frequently eight. We after- wards faw fome of them at the fource of the Nile, in the cliff-where the village of Geefh is fituated, but, though up- on very good ground, they did not feem to thrive;. on the contrary, where they grew on Taranta it was fandy, ftony, poor earth, fcarce deep enough to cover the rock, but I fufpe&t they received fome benefit from their vicinity to the fea. Some botanifts who have feen the drawing have fuppofed this to be the euphorbia officinarum of Linnzus ; but, with- out pretending to great fkillin this matter, I fhould fear there 00, Be aaa oe H would 44 APPENDIX. would be fome objection to this fuppofition: Firft, on ac- count of the flower, which is certainly rofaceous, compo- fed of feveral petals, and is not campaniform: Secondly, That it produces no fort of gum, either fpontaneoufly or upon incifion, at no period of its growth; therefore I ima- gine thatthe gum which comes from Africa in fmall pie- ces, firft white on its arrival, then turning yellow by age, is not the produce of this tree, which, it may be depended upon, produces no gum whatever. Jusa the younger is faid, by Pliny, to have given this name to the plant, calling it after his own phyfician, brother to Mufa phyfician to Auguftus. We need not trouble our- felves with what Juba fays of it, he is a worfe naturalift and worfe hiftorian than the Nubian geographer. _ a ee ‘ F Ro ARO Kee pHs) is a large tree, and feems peculiar to warm climates. It abounds in Arabia Felix, in Abyflinia, that is, in the low part of it, andi in Nubia. ‘The firft place I faw it in was I 3 | in a, eS SS ZZ ( te. Lonion Sublijnid Deel (709-0 © LobMIOR & (. ME Habe APPENDIX. & in Raback, a port in the Red Sea, where I difcovered this fingularity, that it grew in the fea within low-water mark, When we arrived at Mafuah, in making a plan of the har- bour, I faw a number of thefe in two iflands both uninha- bited, and without water, the one called Shekh Seide, the other Toulahout. Thefe two iflands are conftantly over- flowed by falt water, and though they are ftrangers to frefh, they yet produce large Rack-trees, which appear in a flou- rifhing ftate, as if planted in a fituation defigned for them by nature, | | Tue Arabians, it is faid) make boats of this tree. Its wood is fo hardened by the fea, and alfo fo bitter in tafte, that no worm whatever willtouch it. Of this tree the Ara- bians alfo make tooth-picks, thefe they fell in {mall bundles at Mecca, and are reputed to be favourable to the teeth, gums, and breath. Tue reader will have obferved frequent mention of fome trees found in the defert which our camels would not eat. Thefe are the Rack-tree, and the doom, or palma thebaica cuciofera*. Thefe grow where they find falt fprings in the fand ; the defert being fo impregnated with foflile falt in every part of it, that great blocks and {trata of it are feen everywhere appearing above ground, efpecially about Jat..18°% : H 2 THE Soar oe rr eer at * Theophraft. hilt. plants, lib. iii, cap. 8. lib. iy. cap. 2. Plin, Nat. Hitt. lib. xiii. cap. 9: J. Bawh, lib. iii, cap. 86. : : 46 APPENDIX. Tue Rack fomething refembles the afh on its firft ap- pearance, though in the formation of its parts it is widely different. Its bark is white and polifhed, {mooth, and with- out furrows. Its trunk is generally 7 or 8 feet before it cleaves into branches. Ihave feen it above 24 feet in height, and 2 feet diameter. Irs leaves are, two and two, fet on different fides, that is,. each two perpendicular to each other alternately. The fmalk branches that bear flowers part from the infide-of the leaf, and have the fame pofition with the leaves ; that is, fuppofe the loweft pair of leaves and branches are on the eaft or weft fide of the tree, the pair above them will be on the north and fouth, and the next to thefe will be on the weft as be- fore. The leaves are long and very fharp-pointed; in the infide a deep green, and in the out a dirty white of a green caft; they have no vifible ribs either in the infide or out. The cup is a perianthium of four petals, which clofely con- fine the flower, and is only a little flat at the top. The flower is compofed of four petals deeply cut, in the interfti- ces of which is a fmall green fruit divided by a fiffure in the middle; its colour is deep orange, with lights of gold-co- lour, cr yellow, throughout it. It has no fmell, taftes very bitterly, and is never feen to be frequented by the bees. . It is probable that a tree of this kind, tho’ perhaps of another name, and in greater perfection, and therefore more fit for ufe, may be found in fome of cur Weft-India iflands be- tween lat. 15° and 18 °, efpecially where there are falt {fprings and marthes. GIR i<> "2 j eSié Sia) * he \ : pC Sen: Gx a 8 cea i Lorin Lublifhed Deb 1/780. 0Y CLeobinsvn & la et ee es APPENDIX. 47 a Eo 5 GIR GIR, or,GESHE EL -AUBE. HIS fpecies of grafs is one of the acquifitions which my travels have procured to botany. It was not before known ; and the feed has not, as far as I know, produced any plant but in the garden of the king of France. It grows plentifully near Ras el Feel, not far from the banks of the large river Guangue, of which Fhave fpoken in my return from Abyflinia into Egypt. It begins to {hoot in the end of April, when it firft feels the humidity of the air. It advances then fpeedily to its full height, which is about 3 feet 4 inches. It is ripe in the beginning of May, and de- cays, if not deftroyed by fire, very foon afterwards, Tue leaf is long, pointed, narrow, and of a feeble texture. The ftock from which it fhoots produces leaves in great a- bundance, which foon turn yellow and fall to the ground. The goats, the only cattle thefe miferable people have, are - very fond of it, and for it abandon all other food while it # within their reach. On the leaves of fome plants I have feen a very {mall glutinous juice, like to what we fee | upon OP Tel treeare eee 4 ably rere! " Stee A : oy | - = 48 APPENDIX. upon the leaves of the lime or the plane, but in much lefs quantity ; this is of the tafte of fugar. : From the root of the branch arifes a number of flalks, fometimes two, but never, as far as 1 have feen, more than three. The flower and feed are defended by a wonderful perfection and quantity of fmall parts. The head when in its maturity is of a purplifh brown. The plate reprefents. it in its natural fize, with its conftituent parts diflected and feparated with very great attention. As they are many, each have a number aflixed to them. MALE-FLOWER DESCRIBED. Tue 1ft is the flower in its perfect ftate feparated from its ftlalk. The 2d is the upper café. The 3d is the cafe, or fheath, oppofite to the foregoing. The 4th are inner cafes which inclofe the three ftamina, with the beard and the arifta. The sth is its ftile. The 6th its ftamina, with the two cafes that inclofe them. The 7th is the fheath, with its ear and its beard, FEMALE-FLOWER DESCRIBED. Tue 8th is the rudiment of the fruit, with two ftigmata. The gth, the perfect flower. ‘ KANTUFFA) Par ew : hapa ig ae Fol ms ‘a < q s i , - a - S Ye ' "A, > - a “3 ‘ . > a . . A A = ~ — - x 7 = | hee be 2 Be ee Ne S599 N t 3 ny ) / Wd a (ante y 5 London Lubliyjha Dee 109 (789. bY 6 ki binson & lO. ; APPENDIX. 49 aE KANTUFFA. HIS thorn, like many men we meet daily in fociety, has got itfelf into a degree of reputation and ref{pect from the noxious qualities and power of doing ill which it poileffes, and the conftant exertion of thefe powers. The _Abyflinians, who wear coarfe cotton cloths, the coarfeft of ‘which are as thick as our blankets, the fineft equal to our mudlin, are in the fame degree annoyed with it. The foldier fereens himfelf by a goat’s, leopard, or lion’s fkin, thrown -over his fhoulder, of which it has no hold: As his head as bare, he always cuts his hair fhort before he goes to bat-. tle, left his enemy fhould take advantage of it; but the women, wearing their hair long, and the-great men, whe- ther in the army or travelling in peace, being always cloath- ed, it never fails to incommode them, whatever {pecies of raiment they wear. If their cloak is fine muflin, the leatt motion againft it puts it allin rags; but if it is a thick, foft cloth, as thofe are with which men of rank generally tra- vel, it buries its thorns, great and fmall, fo deep in it that ; the 50 : APPENDIX. the wearer muft either difmount and appear naked, which to principal people is a great difgrace, or elfe much time will be fpent before he can difengage himfelf from its thorns. In the time when one is thus employed, it rarely fails to lay hold of you by the hair, and that again brings on another operation, full-as laborious, but much more painful than the other. In the courfe of my hiftory, when {peaking of the king, Tecla Haimanout II. firft entering Gondar after his exile into Tigré, I gave an inftance that fhewed how dangerous it was for the natives to leave thisthorn ftanding; and of fuch confequence is the clearing of the ground thought to be, that every year when the king marches, among the necef- fary proclamations this 1s thought to bea very principal one, “Cut down the Kantuffa in the four quarters of the world, for 1 do not know where Iam going.” This proclamation, from the abrupt ftile of it, feems at firft abfurd to ftranger ears, but when underftood is full of good fenfe and informa- tion. It means, Do not fit gofliping with your hands before you, talking, The king is going to Damot, he certainly will go to Gojam, he will be obliged to goto Tigré, That is not your bufinefs, remove nuifances out of his way, that he may go as expeditioufly as poffible, or fend to every place where he may have occafion. | Tue branches of the Kantuffa ftand two and two upon the ftalk ; the leaves are difpofed two and two likewife, without any fingle one at the point, whereas the branches bearing ~ the leaves part from the ftalk : at the immediate joining of them are two thick thorns placed perpendicularand parallel 4 alternately, APPENDIX. 51 alternately ; but there are alfo fingle ones diftributed in all . the interftices throughout the branch. Tue male plant, which I fuppofe this to be, has-a one- leaved perianthium, divided into five fegments, and this falls. off with the flower.. The flower is compofed of five petals, in the middle of which -rife:ten ftamina:or. filaments, the outer row fhorter than thofe of the middle, with long ftigma-- ta, having yellow. farina upon them, The flowers grow in a branch, generally between three and four inches long, in a conical difpofition, that is, broader at the bafe than the point. The infide of the leaves are a vivid green, in the outs fide much lighter. [t grows in form.of’a bufh, with a multi- tude of-{mall branches rifing immediately from the ground, and is- generally feven-or eight feet high... I faw it when in flower:only; never when bearing fruit. . It has a very firong {mell, refembling that of the {mall fcented flower cal- léd mignionet, fown in vafes and boxes in windows, or rooms, where flowers are kept. . Tue wild animals, both birds and beatfts, efpecially the Guinea-fowl, know how well it is qualified to protect them. In this fhelter, the hunter in vain could endeavour to moleft ' them, were it not ‘for a hard-haired dog, or terrier of the - fmalleft fize, who being defended from the thorns by the - roughnefs of his coat, goes into the cover and brings them . and the partridges alive one by one-to his matter." Vou. Vo GAGCUEDIL. that 52 APPENDIX. GAGUEDT rq HE Gaguedi is a native of Lamalmon; whether it was not in a thriving flate, or whether it was the nature of The tree, I know not, but it was thick and ftunted, and had but few branches; it was not above nine feet high, though it was three feet in diameter. The leaves and flower, however, feemed to be in great vigor. and I have here defigned them all of their natural fize as they ftood. ‘‘ Tus leaves are long, and broader as the approach the end, The point is obtufe ; they are of a dead green not unlike the willow, and placed alternately one above the o her on the ftalk. The calix is compofed of many broad {fcales lying one above the other, which operates by the pref- fure upon one another, and keeps the calix fhut before the flower arrives at perfection. The flower is mono- petalous, or made of one leaf; it is divided at the top into. four fegments, where thefe end it is covered with a tuft of down, refembling hair, and this is the cafe at the top alfo. When the flower is young and unripe, they are laid regularly fo as to inclofe one another ina circle. As‘) y grow tina Gegud 4 GHG London Lubldhd Dec!s 29780. by (Robinson RO. oY Res a \ =. ee Ba cm) . \\ Saw ; S = «9 by Robinson & 6o Lorton £ ‘ublifte aADeT “778 APPENDIX. 53 grow old and expand, they feem to lofe their regular form, and become more confufed, till at laft, when arrived at its full perfection, they range themfelves parallel to the lips of the calix, and perpendicular to the ftamina, in the fame order as arofe. The common receptacle of the flower is oblong, and very capacious, of a yellow colour, and covered with fmall leaves like hair. The ftile is plain, fimple, and upright, and covered at the bottom with a tuft of down,. and is below the common receptacle of the flower. As this flower is of a complicated nature, I have given two figures of it, the one where the flower is feen in face, the other in the outfide. The ftamina are three {hort fila- ments inferted in the fegment of the flower near the fum- mit. I HAvE obferved, in the middle of a very hot day, that the flowers unbend themfelves more, the calix feems to expand, and the whole flower to turn itfelf towards the fun in the fame manneras does the fun-flower. When the branch is cut, the flower dries as it were inftantaneoutly, fo that it feems to contain very little humidity. I2 WAN ZEY.,. 54 APPENDIX WAN op EY, Te tree is very common throughout all Abyfiinia. 1 do not Know the reafon, but all the towns are full of them; every houfe in Gondar has two or three planted round it, fo that, when viewed firft from the heights, it appears like a wood, efpecially ail the feafon of the rains ; but very exactly on the firft of September, for three years together, in a night’s time, it was covered with a multitude of white flowers. -Gondar, and all the towns about, then appeared as covered with white linen, or with new-fallen fnow. This tree bloffoms the firft day the rains ceafe. It grows to a confiderable magnitude, is from 1§ to 20 feet high. The trunk is generally about 3 feet anda half from the ground; it then divides into four or five thick branches, which have at leaft 60° inclination to the horizon, and not more. Thefe large branches are generally bare, for half way up the bark is rough and furrowed. They then put .out a number of fmaller branches, are circular and fattifh wat ——=> yx | q i Lad I Mesyosi RE CORO ey te London Lublind Dec %Ge8y by Chobinson & li a Se oe ee ee = APPENDIX 35 ‘at the top, of a figure like fome of our early pear-trees. The cup is a fingle-leaved perianthium, red, marked very regu- larly before it flowers, but when the flower is out, the edges of the cup are marked with irregular notches, or fegments, in the edge, which by no means correfpond in numbers or diftances to thofe that appeared before the perfection of the flower. Tue flower itfelf confifts of one leaf of the funnel-fa- fhioned kind, fpreads, and, when in its full perfection, folds back at-the lips, though it has in fome flowers marks or de- preffions which might appear like fegments, yet they are not fuch, but merely accidental, and the edge of moft of the flowers perfectly even, without any mark of fepara- tion. “Tue piftil confifts of a very feeble*thread ; in the top it as bifected, or divided, into two; its apex is covered with a {mall portion of yellow duft. There are two, and fome- times three, of thefe divifions. The fruit is fully formed in ‘the cup while the flower remains clofed, and like a kind of ‘tuft, which falls off, and the piftil ftill remains on the point of the fruit ; is at firft foft, then hardens like a nut, and is covered with a thin, green hufk. It then dries, hardens in- toa fhell, and withers. The leaf is of a dark green, with- out varnifh, with an obtufe point; the ribs few but ftrong, marked both within and without. The ouifide is a green- afh yellow, without varnith alfo. I-po not know that any part of this tree is of the fmall- eft ufe in-civil life, though its figure and parts feem to be too 56 APPENDIX. too confiderable not to contain ufeful qualities if fairly in- — veftigated by men endued with fcience. | have feveral times mentioned in the hiftory of the Galla, that this and the coffee-tree have divine honours paid them by each and all of the feven nations. Under this tree their king is chofen ; under this tree he holds his firft council, in which he marks his enemies, and the time and manner in which his own foldiers are to make their irruption into their country. His fceptre is a bludgeon made of this tree, which, hike a mace, is carried before him wherever he goes; it is pro- duced in the general meetings of the nation, and is called Buco. Tue wood is clofe and heavy, the bark thick; there is then afmall quantity of white wood, the reft is dark brown and reddifh, not unlike the laburnam, and the buco is ftript to this laft appearance, and always kept plentifully anoint- ed with butter. FAREKR, Omg? London Lublypd Dee Tey. by ehobingon & Ww. P, Ore APPENDIX, 57 FAREK, or BAUHINIA ACUMINATA. HIS beautiful fhrub was found on the banks of a brook, which, falling from the weft fide of the mountain of Geefh down the fouth face of the precipice where the village is fituated, is the firft water that runs fouthward into the lake Gooderoo, in the plain of Affoa. It is the water we employed for common ufes, not daring to touch that of the Nile, unlefs for drinking and drefling our food; it grew about 20 yards from this water, on the fide of the cliff, not 400 yards from the fountain of the Nile itfelf. The name it bears here is Farek, which is, I fuppofe, given it from the divifion of the leaf, Turs fhrub is compofed of feveral feeble branches: to what height it grows I do not know, having never feen it before, nor were there many others where I foundit. The longeft branch of this was not four feet high. It grew on good black mold, but of no great depth, having at the bot- 3 | _ tom 58 | APPENDIX. wt tom a gritty. or fandy ftone, and feemed in full perfections. The branch is of its natural fize; on one of the fmaller or- collateral branches is the flower full blown,.,with.two o- thers that are buds.. The parts are feparated.and defigned : with, care... ° Tue firft figure is the flower: in its entire ftate; feen in front, the ftamina-ofcourfe fore-fhortened... The fecond is ; an angular three-quarter: view of the calix.. The third is a: back view of the calix.. The fourth is the calix inclofing rhe ftamina and piftil,round which laft they form afruitorgrain. . Thefifth isthe flower fiript of its calix,; where isfeen thegerm, . the flamina, and the piftil.. The fixth is the ftamina magni-. fied to twice their fize.. The feventhis the:lower leaf. The - eighth, the upper leaf of the flower. The ninth, the germ, or rudiment of-tlie fruit, with the. piftil joined:to it, at the bottom of which there is a {mall cavity. The tenth is the - feed or fruit entire: The eleventh reprefents the infide of - the feed cut in half;- Tue leaves of this fhrub are of a vivid ‘green; and ‘are - joined to the branch by a long pedicle, in the infide of : which are the rudiments: of ‘another, which -I fuppofe - begin to fprout when the large one is injured or falls off. Tuoucu very little acquainted with the fcientific part of © botany myfelf, its clafles, genera, and {pecies, and {till lefs jealous of my reputation in it, I cannot conceive why my fingle attention, in charging myfelf with a number of feeds in diftant countries, and giving part to the garden at Paris, fhould lead to a: conclufion that 1 was fo abfolutely unin- a firucted APPENDIX, 59 ftruéted in the fcience for which at leaft I had fhewn this attachment, that I cowld not diftinguifh the plant before us from thé acacia vera., Is the knowledge of botany fo no- torioufly imperfect in England, or is the pre-eminence fo eftablifhed in France, as to authorife fuch a prefumption of ignorance againf{t a perfon, who, from his exertions and en- terprife, fhould hold fome rank in the republic of letters among travellersand difcoverers ? ‘A;coMPLIMENT was paid me by the Count de Buffon, or by fuperior orders, in return for the articles I had prefented to'the king’s cabinet and garden at Paris, that the plants , ‘growing from the feeds which I had brought from Aby{finia fhould regularly, as they grew to perfection, be painted, and fent over to mé at London. The compliment was a hand- fome one, and, I was very fenfible of it, it would have contributed more to the furnifhing the king’s garden with plants than many lectures on botany, ex cathedra, will ever a oO. ‘Burt it was not neceffary to fhew his knowledge for the fake:of contrafting it with my ignorance, that Mr Juflieu fays this bauhinia is by Mr Bruce taken for an acacia vera. Now the acacia vera is a large, wide-{preading, thorny, hard, red-wooded, rough-barked, gum-bearing tree. Its flower, though fometimes white, is generally yellow ; it is round or globular,compofed of many filaments or ftamina; it is the Spina Egyptiaca, its leaves, in fhape and difpofition, refem- bling a mimofa; in Arabic it is called Saicl, Sunt, Gerar ; and ifM. de Juffieuhadbeen at all acquainted with the hiftory of the eaft, he muft have known it was the tree of every de- fert, and confequently that I muft be better acquainted VoL. V. Pei with €o APPENDIX. with it than almoft any traveller or botanift now alive. Upon what reafonable ground then could he fuppofe, upon my bringing to him a rare and elegant f{pecies of bauhinia, which probably he had not before feen, that I could not diftinguith it from an acacia, of which | certainly brought him none? A tarce fpecies of Mullein likewife, or, as he pleafes to term it, Bouillon Blanc, he has named Verbafcum Abyffini- cum ; and this the unfortunate Mr Bruce, it feems, has called an aromatic herb growing upon the high mountains. Ido really believe, that M. de Juffieu is more converfant with the Bouillon Blancs than I am; my Bouillons are of ane- ther colour ; it muft be the love of French cookery, not Eng- lith tafte, that would fend a man to range the high. moun- tains for aromatic herbs to put in his Bouillon, if the Ver- bafcum had been really one of thefe. Attuoucu I have fometimes made botany my amufe- ment, I do confefs it never was my ftudy, and I believe from this the fcience has reaped fo much the more benefit. I have reprefented to the eye, with the utmoft attention, by the bef drawings in natural hiftory ever yet publifhed, and to the underftanding in plain Englifh, what I have feen as it ap- peared tome on the fpot, without tacking to it imaginary parts of my own, from preconceived fyftems of what it | fhould have been, and thereby creating varieties that never exifted.. | Wuen I arrived at the Lazaretto at Marfeilles, the Faren- teit, as it is called in Nubia, or the Guinea-worm, the name ut bears in Europe, having been broken by mifmanagement in my tr APPENDIX. Gt my voyage from Alexandria, had retired into my leg and feftered there. The foot, leg, and thigh, {welled to a mon- ftrous fize, appearance of mortification followed, and the fur- geon, with a tendernefs and humanity that did honour to his {kill, declared, though reluctantly, that if I had beena man of weak nerves, or foft difpofition, he would have prepared me for what was to happen by the interpofition of a friend or a prieft; but as from my paft fufferings he prefumed my fpirit was of a more refolute and firmer kind, he thought faving time was of the utmoft confequence, and therefore advifed me to refolve upon fubmitting to an immediate am- putation above the knee. To limpthrough the remains of life, after having efcaped fo many dangers with bones un- broken, was hard, fo much fo, that the lofs of life itfelf feemed the moft eligible of the two, for the bad habit of body in which I found myfelf in an inveterate difeafe, for which I knew no remedy, and joined to this the prejudice that an Englifhman generally has again{t foreign operators in furgery, all perfuaded me, that, after undergoing ampu- tation, I had but very little chance of recovery, befides long and great fuffering, want of fleep, want of food, and the weaknets that attends lying long in fick-bed, had gradually fubdued the natural defire and anxiety after life; every day death feemed to be a leffer evil than pain. Patience, how- ever, ftrong fomentations, and inward applications of the bark, at length cured me. Ir was immediately after receiving my melancholy fen- tence, that, thinking of my remaining duties, | remember- ed {had carried abroad with me an order from the king to procure feeds for his garden. Before I had loft the power of direction, I ordered Michael, my Greek fervant, to take : K 2 the 62 APPENDIX, the half of all the-different parcels and packages that were lying by me, made up for feparate ufes, and pack them fo as they might be fent to Sir William Duncan the king’s phy- fician, then in Italy, to be conveyed by him to Lord Roch- - fort, fecretary of flate. I by the fame conveyance accom- panied thefe with a fhort letter, wrote with great difficulty, --that it appearing, beyond leaving room for hope, that my return was to be prevented by an unexpected difeafe, I beg- ged his Majefty to receive thefe as the laft tender of my dus ty to him. " MicHAgt, who never cared much for botany, at no peri« od was lefs difpofed to give himfelf trouble about it than a now; his mafter, friend, and patron was gone, .as he thought; he was left in a ftrange country; he knew not a word of the language, nor was he acquainted with one per- fon in Marfeilles, for we had not yet ftirred out of the laza- retto. What became of the feeds for a time I believe nei- ther henor lL knew; but, when he faw my recovery advan- cing, fear of reproof led him to conceal his former neglis gence. He could neither read nor write, fo that the only thing he could do was to put the firft feed that came to jhand in the firft envelope, either in parchment or paper, that had writing upon the back of it, and, thus felected, the feeds came into the hands of M. de Juffieu at Paris. By this operation of Michael, the verbafcum became an aro- matic herb growing on the higheft mountains, and the bauhinia acumimata became an acacia vera, Tur prefent of the drawings of the Abyflinian plants was really, as it was firft defigned, a compliment; but itturned out juft the contrary, for, in place of expecting the publication 4 that APPENDIX. © 63 that I was'to make, in which they would naturally be a part, | the gates of the garden were thrown open, and every dabbler in botany that could afford pen, ink, and paper, was put in poffeffion of thofe plants and flowers, at a time when | had not faid one word upon the fubject of my travels. Wueruer this was owing to M. de Juffieu, M. de Thouin, or M. Daubenton, to all, or to any one of them, I do not know, but I beg they will for a moment confider the great impropriety of the meafure. I fuppofe it would be thought natural, that a perfon delineating plants in a foreign coun- try with fuch care, rifk, and expence as I have done, fhould with to bring home the very feeds of thofe plants he had delineated in preference to all others: fuppofing thefe had been the only feeds he could have brought home, and ge- nerofity and liberality of mind had led him to communi- cate part of them to M. de Juffieu, we fhall further fay, this laft-mentioned gentleman had planted them, and when the time came, engraved, and publifhed them, what would he think of this manner of repaying the traveller’s attention to him? The bookfeller, that naturally expected to be the firft that publifhed thefe plants, would fay to the traveller whofe book he was to buy, This collection of natural hifto- ry is not new, it has been printed in Sweden, Denmark, and France, and’ part of it is to be-feen’ in every monthly magazine! Does M. de Juflieu think, that, after having been once fo treated, any traveller would ever give one feed to the king’s gatden? he certainly would rather put them m the fire; he mwf do foif he was a reafonablé’ man, for otherwife, by giving them away he is certainly ruining his,own work, and defeating the purpofes for which he had travelled. WHEN 64. APPENDIX. WueEnN I firft came home, it was with great pleafure I gratified the curiofity of the whole world, by fhewing them each what they fancied the moft curious. I thought this was an office of humanity to young people, and to thofe of flender fortunes, or thofe who, from other caufes, had no opportunity of travelling. I made it a particular duty to attend and explain to men of knowledge and learning that were foreigners, everything that was worth the time they beftowed upon confidering the different articles that were new to them, and this I did at great length to the Count de Buffon, and Monf. Gueneau de Montbeliard, and to the very amiable and accomplifhed Madame d’Aubenton. I cannot fay by whofe induftry, but it was in confequence of this friendly communication, a lift or inventory (for they could give no more) of all my birds and beafts were pub- lifhed before I was well got to England. From what I have feen of the performances of the artifts employed by the cabinet, I do not think that they have an- ticipated in any fhape the merit of my drawings, efpecially in birds and in plants ; to fay nothing milder of them, they are in both articles infamous; the birds are fo diflimilar from the truth, that the names of them are.very neceflarily wrote - under, or over them, for fear of the old miftake of taking them for fomething elfe. Icondefcend upon the Erkoom as a proof of this. I gave a very fine fpecimen of this bird in great prefervation to the King’s collection; and though I -fhewed them the original, they had not genius enough to make a reprefentation that could with any degree of cer- tainty be promifed upon for a guefs. When I was at Paris, they had a woman, who, in place of any merit, at leaft that i could judge of, was protected, as they faid, by : 2 | the , ‘ F : ' is | ‘ ; : | ‘ie 7 . - . . ; . ; . a > 4 <3 “s te i e 7 - * as | | 7 : Ph a r ‘ " I . . ronda ; , » - . | a a " ~ > 3 « « il : | : a Tr r : > id os, a Vk v | hichadats } : * > , : / ny ve. y " . , 7 : Cee ne ee ee ee Oe ne On a S SS SS SS YY Y == Wy S SS SS ~ \\ S SS SSS SSS SSS SS Me SSS Ys fl Uhigiy tow G Uy KS —-= Ul = Wi oe Hy SS y, CMAP ODD m~_ e 1789 by ohobirson & 0. Gy Loriton Pitblf~hed Dec APPENDIX. 65 the queen, and who made, what fhe called, Drawings ; thofe of plants were fo little characteriftic,that it was, ftrictly {peak- ing, impoffible, without a very great confideration, to know one plant from another; while there was, at fame time, a man of the greateft merit, M. de Seve, abfolutely without employment; tho’, in my opinion, he was the beft painter of every part of natural hiftory either in France or England. -KUARA ‘ rps be peace tree, now _prefented. to the reader, is the production of the fouth and S. W. parts of Abyflinia. Itis very frequent, and, with the ebony, almoft the only wood » of the province of Kuara, of which it bears the name; indeed. in all Fazuclo, Nuba, and Guba, and the countries where there is gold. It is here defigned in its natural fize both leaves, flowers, and fruit, the whole fo plainly, that it is needlefs to defcant upon its particular parts, well known to naturalifts, It is what they call a Corallodendron, prob» bly from: LAS 5 4 ' Pibeiataa diet) 66 APPENDIX. from the colour of its flowers or of its fruit, both foe ‘in colour to coral. Irs fruit is a red bean, with a black fpot in the middle of it, which is inclofed in a round capfula, or covering, of a woody nature, very tough and hard. This bean feems to have been in the earleft ages ufed for a weight of gold among the Shangalla, where that metal is found all over Africa; and by repeated experiments, I have found that, from the time of its being gathered, it varies very little in weight, and may perhaps have been the very beft choice that therefore could have been made between the collectors and the buyers of gold. Tuave faid'this tree is called Kuara, which fignifies the Sun. The bean is called Carat, from which is derived the manner of efteeming gold as fo many carats fine. From the gold country in Africa it paffed to India, and there came to be the weight of precious ftones, efpecially diamonds ; fo that to this day in India we hear it commonly fpoken of gold — or diamonds, that they are of fo many carats fine, or weight. [have feen thefe beans likewife from the Weft-Indian iflands. They are juft the fame fize, but, as far as I know, are not yet | applied to any ufe there. é ‘WALKUFFA,. > ig > oD. PSOE Lab, Se Wa i G. by “y : : BZ es = ea ‘ aS De hi | | ( ) ! | ) ) i \ | ZL o7uaLOn Publi Wisi SHINS SSN ae APPENDIX, y é 44 Be) b> Pts gi: WALKUITFA “eps « tree grows in ae Kolla, or. Showed part of Aby‘fii- nia. It does not flower immediately after the rains, as Pehot trees in Abyflinia do, that is, between the beginning of September and the Epiphany, when the latter rains in ‘November do ftill fall in: violent periodical fhowers, but it is after the Epiphany, towards the middle of January, that it fir appears. covered with blofioms. However beautiful, it has no fmell, and ‘is accounted deftructive to the bees, for which: reafon it is rooted. out and deftroyed in thofe coun- tries that pay their. revenue in honey. It refembles the Kentith. eherry-tree. in appearance, efpecially if that tree has but a moderate, not over{preading top. The wocd im- mediately below i its bark is white, but under that a brown- ifh yellow, fomething like cedar ; the old trees-that I have feen turn darker, and are not Wilke to the wood of the la- burnum, or peafe- cod tree. The natives fay it does not fwim in-water. This however I can contradict upon experiment. The wood, indeed, is heavy, but ftill it fwims. Vor. V. Lath ALTHOUGH 63 APPEND LS. AtTuouen the painting’of this tree, which I here exhibit, is neither more nor lefs accurate in the delineation of its. parts than every other defign of natural hiftory given in this work to the public, yet the inimitable beauty of the fubject itfelf has induced me to beftow much more pains. upon it than any other I have publifhed, and, according to. my judgment, it is the beft executed in this collection. All its parts are fo diftinctly figured, the flower expofed in fuch. variety of directions, that it fuperfedes the neceflity of de- fcribing it to the fkilful botanift, who will find here every thing he poffibly could in the flower itfelf. This is a great: advantage, for if the parts had been ever fo ftudioufly and: carefully referved in a hortus ficcus as they are {pread upon. the paper, it would have been impoffible not to have loft: fome of its finer members, they are fo fragil, as I have often. experienced in different attempts to dry and preferve it. Tue flower confifts of five petals, part of each overlapping” — or fupporting the other, fo that it maintains its regular fi- gure of a cup till the leaves fall off, and does not fpread. and disjoin firft, as do the generality of thefe rofaceous flowers before they falltothe ground. Its colouris a pure white, in the midft of which is a kind of fheath, or involu-. crum, of a beautiful pink colour, which furrounds the piftil,, covering and concealing about one-third of it. Upon the top-of this is a kind of impalement, confifting of five white: upright threads, and between each of thefe are difpofed. three very feeble ftamina of unequal lengths, which make: them ftand in a triangular oblong form, covered with yei: low farina, : : ‘ THE 4 . 5 ie GZ WZ WUT YU Y hi, Uy Y Yj WY Abt YY Yes SSS YJ Y y Y] DS pS Ht AN AN WY i 4 \ \ & Co. & \ WS OTL PMN OLL p bu ony H) 4 YE Z Sil yp IC WME by CL / OW OOT BS HY x RX es = S vu Ss SNS <M“ aS) Se \ SS \ NS NS 88 cs SQN AN aN \ N N LY Y i x ZZ ff (A ae. WG LEA NY WN ‘ NAM APPENDIX - 69 Jon ME niitit is a yellow tube, divided at the pi: into five -fegments, and fixed atthe bottom in what appears to be the rudiment of a fruit; but Imever faw this in any ftate of perfection, and the Abyflinians fay it never produces any- thing but a fmall, round, black feed, concerning which I can fay nofurther. The perianthium confifts of five fharp- pointed fegments, which inclofe the flower when not arri- } ved to maturity, in a‘conical pod of a light-green colour, _ which colour it likewife keeps in its more advanced ftate — when fpread. T-do not. know any other name it has but that of Walkuffa, nor do I know the Agmiicas of that name . in any, lapauege,| Le vase erst eet t 4) y . | -WOOGINOOS, on BRUCEA ANTIDYSENTERICA. HIS fhrub, the branch of which is before us, is a pro- duction of the greateft part of Abyflinia, efpecially the fides of the valleys in the low country, or Kolla. It is indeed on the north fide of Debra Tzai, where you firft de- fcend into the Kolla. This drawing was made at Hor-Ca- L 2 camoot, enue: APPENDIX camoot, in Ras el. Feel, where the Wooginoos grows abun-~ dantly, and where dyfenteries reign continually, Heaven having put the antidote in the fame place wae Brows the poifon. : Some weeks before I left Gondar I had been very much tormented with this difeafe, and I had tried both ways of treating it, the one by hot medicines and aftringents, the ether by the contrary method of diluting, Small dozes of zpecacuanha under the bark had for feveral times procured me temporary relief, but relapfes always followed. My firength began to fail, and, after a fevere return of this dif- eafe, I had, at my ominous manfion, Hor-Cacamoot, the val- ley of the fhadow of death, a very unpromifing profpedct, for I was now going to pafs through the kingdom of Sen- naar in the time of year when that difeafe moft rages. Suzsa, chief of the Shangalla, called Ganjar, on the frontiers of Kuara, had at this time a kind of embafly or meflage to Ras el Feel. He wanted to burn fome villages - m Atbara belonging to the Arabs Jeheina, and wifhed Ya~ _ fine might not protect them: they often came and fat with me, andone of them hearing of my complaint, andtheappre- henfions I annexed to it 7 ance to make very light of both, and the reafon was, he found at the very door this fhrub,.- the ftrong and ligneous root of which, nearly as thick as a parfnip, was covered with a clean, clear, wrinkled bark, of a light-brown colour, and which pecled eafily off the root. The. bark was -without fibres to the very end, where. it ~fplit hke a fork into two thin divifions. After having eleared the infide of it of a whitifh membrane, he laid it to dry in the fun, and then would have bruifed it between two flones, od s = APPENDIX. a _ ftones, had we not fhewn him the eafier and more expedi- tious way of powdering it in a mortar. Tue firft doze I took was about a heaped tea-fpoonful ina cup of camel’s milk; I took two of thefe in a day, and then in the morning a tea-cup of the infufion in camel’s milk warm. It was attended the firft day with a violent drought, but Iwas prohibited from drinking cither water or bouza. I made privately a drink of my own; I took a little boiled water which had ftood to cool, and in it a fmalk quantity of fpirits. I after ufed fome ripe tamarinds. in water, which I thought did me harm. I cannot fay I found any alteration for the firft day, unlefs a kind of hope that I was growing hetter, but the fecond day I found myfelf fenfibly recovered. I left off laudanum and ipeca- -cuanha, and refolved to truft only to my medicine. In looking at my journal, I think it was the 6th or 7th day that I pronounced myfelf well, and, though I had returns afterwards, I never was reduced to the neceiflity of taking one drop of laudanum, although before I had been very . free with it. I did not perceive it occafioned any extraor- dinary evacuation, nor any remarkable fymptom but that | continued thirft, which abated after it had been taken fome time, In the courfe of my journey through Sennaar, I faw that all the inhabitants were well acquainted with the virtues of this plant. I had prepared a quantity pounded into powder, and ufed it fuccefsfully everywhere. I thought that the mixing of a third of bark with it produced the effect more {peedily, and, as we had now little opportunity of getting milk, we made an infufion in water. I tried a fpiritous tincture, 72 “APPENDIX. tincture, which I.do believe would fucceed well. I madé fome for myfelf and fervants, a fpoonful of which we ufed to take when we found fymptoms of our difeafe returning, er when it was raging in the place in which we chanced to refide. It isa plain, fimple bitter, without any aromatic . or refinous tafte. It leaves in your throat and pallet fome- thing of roughnefs refembling ipecacuanha, Tuts fhrub was not before known to botanifts. I brought the feeds to Europe, and it has grown in every garden, but has produced only flowers, and never came to fruit. Sir Jofeph Banks, prefident to the Royal Society, employed Mr Miller te make a large drawing from this fhrub as it had grown at Kew. The drawing was as elegant as could be wifhed, and did the original great juftice. To this piece of politenefs Sir Jofeph added another, of calling it after its difcoverer’s name, Brucea Antidyfenterica : the prefent fi- eure is from a drawing of my own.on the fpot at Ras el Feel, | Tue leafis oblong and pointed, fmooth, and without col- lateral ribs that are vifible. The right fide of the leaf is a deep:green, the reverfe very little lighter. The leaves are placed two and two upon the branch, with a fingle one at the end. The flowers come chiefly from the point of the ftalk from each fide of along branch. The cup is a perian- thium divided into four fegments. The flower has four petals, with a ftrong rib down the center of each. In place - of a piftil there is a fmall cup, round which, between the fegments of the perianthium and the petala of the flower, four feeble ftamina arife, with a large ftigma of a crim- 2 ? a a . fon: APPENDIX. 73 fon colour, of the fhape of a coffee-bean, and divided. in the middle.. €USSO, BANKESIA. ABYSSINICA. HE Cuffo is one of the moft beautiful trees, as alfo one’ of the moft ufeful. It is an. inhabitant of the high country of Abyflinia, and.indigenous there ;-I never faw it in the Kolla, nor in Arabia, nor in any other part of Afia or Africa.. It is an inftance of the wifdom of providence, that this tree does not extend beyond the limits. of the difeafe of which it. was intended.to be the medicine or cure. Tue Abyflinians of both fexes, and at all ages, are troubled with a terrible difeafe, which cuftom however has enabled them to bear with a. kind of indifference. Every individual, once a month, evacuates a large quantity of worms; thefe are not the tape worm, or thofe that trouble children, but they are the fort of worm called Afcarides, and the method of promoting thefe evacuations, is by infufing a handful of dry oe Cuflo Cuffo flowers in about two Englith quarts of bouza, or the tae +t OR SeeaESE ‘% rae “4 APPENDIX. beer they make from teff ; after it has been fteeped all night, the next morning it is fitfor ufe. During the time the pa- tient is taking the Cuffo, he makes a point of being invifi- ble to all his friends, and continues at home from morning till night. Such too was the cuftom of the Egyptians upon | taking a particular medicine. It is alledged that the wani of © this drug is the reafon why the Abyflinians do not travel, - or if they do, moft of them are fhort-lived. _ 2% inches long, divided into two by a ftrong rib. The two” Sty Tue feed of this is very-{mall, more fo than the femen fantonicum, which feems to come from a fpecies of worm- wood. Like it the Cuflo fheds its feed very eafily ; from this circumftance, and its fmallnefs, no great quantity of the feed is gathered, and therefore the flower is often fubfticu- ted. Iris bitter, but not pearly fo much as the femen, fan- tonicum. pO Tue Cuflo grows feldom shu twenty eee high, very "sores ftraight, generally crooked or inclined. It is planted always near churches, among the cedars which. furround them, for the ufe of che town or village. Its leaf i is about divifions, -however, are not equal, the upper being longer and broader than the lower; ‘it isa deep unvarnifhed § ‘green, 7 exceedin gly pleafant to the eye, the fore part covered with | _ foft hairor down. It is very much indented, more fo than | a nettle-leaf, which in fome meafure it refembles, only 1s marrower! and longer. i ge RS VS hoes ag each two are the rudiments of two ee of young ones, pre- & | . sii THESE eaves grow twoand two upon a branch ; belierded 2S SS SS WR SY ‘ NY NY AS: SN SS & = ~ : ‘ NY : NN / XY ~s > = s a <= \ Se « NN xs ») 3 ‘ Q : > So \ S \ > ) ~ A lle S ~ S S N : NN BS S N 4 QA WX SS SSS Ss WS 14 Oy Hy (ee A Ae err +e tf » Gy, ae Nee re OStonvi Vide bank sti? & Ufunca A . APPENDIX. 7S. pared to fupply the others when they fall off, but they are terminated at laft with a fingle leaf atthe point. The end of this ftalk is broad and ftrong, like thar of a palm+branch. Kt is not folid like the gerid of the date-tree, but opens in the part that is without leaves about an inch and a half from the bottom, and out of this aperture proceeds the flower. There is a round ftalk bare for about an inch. and a quarter, from which proceed crooked branches, to the. end of which are attached fingle flowers,; the ftalk that car- ries thefe proceeds out of every crook or geniculation ; the whole clufter of flowers has very much the fhape of a clutter: of grapes, and the ftalks upon which ic is fupported: very much the ftalk of the grape ; a very few {mall leaves, are f{cattered through the clufler of flowers. La2 * - Pil Tue flower itfelf is of a greenith colour, tinged with pur- ple; when fully blown, itis altogether of a deep red or pur- ple; the flower is white, and confifts of five petals, in the midft is a fhort pittil with a round head, furrounded by eight . flamina of rhe fame form, loaded with yellow farina. The cup confills. of. five petals, which much refemble another ower ; they are rounded at the top, and nearly of an equal. “orca way.. sits The bark of the tree is fmooth, of a yellowith wie in= terfperfed with brown ftreaks which pafs throu gh the whole body of the tree. It is not firma or hard, but rather ftringy and reedy. On the upper part, before the firft branch of Teaves fei our, are rings round the trunk, of fmall filaments, of the confiftence of horfe hair; ; thefe are generally fourteen or fixteen in number, and area very remarkable character- iftic belonging to this tree, VoL. Ve M As: hit beyond ali” ar ay be found i in tttdberr: 1 I ror 129 nol i a having. been found a a ge ' Abyflinia, it is not t doubt ou phyficians would turn it to the advant general, when ufed here in Europe. : the eftablithed | prerogatives of difcc this. beautiful and ufeful tree after ea sey of pig eren Segre : Co oe ARS & i hee ages to thrive Sane : ey fe fe ‘e ppaail The soy iie ine and fome of it of at cellent quality . a » LondonLubliiit Feb yg 4 790 by 6. Robinson C0. APPENDIX. a as fine wheat-bread as any in the world, both for colour and for tafte; but the ufe of wheat-bread is chiefly confi- ned) to people of the firft rank. On the other hand, Teff is ufed by all forts of people from the king downwards, and there are kinds of it which are efteemed fully as much as wheat. The beft of thefe is as white as flour, exceedingly light, and) eafily.| digefted. There are others of a browner colour, and fome nearly black; this laft is the food of fol- _diers and fervants. The caufe of this variation of colour is manifold ; ‘the Teff that grows on light ground having a moderate degree of moifture, but never dry; the lighter the ‘earth ism which it grows, the better and whiter the Teff will be; the hufk too is thinner. That Teff, too, that ripens before the heavy rains, is ufually whiter and finer, and a great deal depends upon fifting the hufk from it after: it is reduced to flour, by bruifing or breaking it in a ftone- mill: This is repeated feveral times with great care, in. the fineft kind of bread, which is found in the houfes of all people of rank or fubftance. The manner of making it is by taking a broad earthen jar, and having made a lump. of it with water, they put it into an earthen jar at fome dif. - ’ tance from the fire, where it remains till it begins to fer- ment, or turn four; they then bake it into cakes of a cir- cular form, and about two feet in diameter :. It is ofa fpun- gy, foft quality, and not a difagreeable fourith tafte. Two of thefe.cakes a-day, and a coarfe cotton cloth once a-year,. are the wages of a common fervant. ° Ar their banquets of raw meat, the flefh being cut in {mall bits, is wrapt up in pieces of this bread, with a pro- portion of foffilefalt and Cayenne pepper. ‘Before the com- pany fits down to eat, a number of thefe cakes of different | M.2: ta qualities. 78 APPENDIX. qualities’ are placed one upon the other, in the fame mane . ner as our plates, and the principal people, fitting firft down, eat the white Teff ; the fecond, or coarfer fort, ferves the fe- cond-rate people that fucceed them, and the third is for the fervants. Every man, when he is done, dries or wipes his fingers upon the bread which he is to leave for his fucceffor, for they -have noitowels, and this is one of the mott beaftly cuftoms of the whole. Tue Teff bread, when well toafted, is put into a large jar, after being broken into fmall pieces, and warm water poured upon it.: It is then fet by the fire, and frequently ftirred for feveral days, the mouth of the jar being clofe co- vered. After being allowed to fettle three or four days, it acquires .a fourifh tafte, and is what they call Bouza, or the-common beer of the country. The bouza in Atbara is made in the fame manner, only, inftead of Teff, cakes of barley-meal are employed ; both are very bad liquors, but - the worft is that made of barley, - Tue plant is herbaceous: from a number of weak leaves | proceeds a ftalk of about twenty-eight inches in length, not perfectly flraight, fmooth, but jointed or knotted at par- ticular diftances.° This ftalk is not much thicker than that of a-carnation or jellyflower. About eight inches from the top, a head is formed of a number of {mall branches, upon which it carries the fruit and flowers; the latter of which is fmall, of a crimfon colour, and fcarcely perceptible by the naked eye, but from the oppofition of that colour. The — piltil is divided into two, feemingly attached to the germ of the fruit,and has at each end fmall capillaments form- ing a brufh. The flamina are three in number, two on the Harry : 2 lower : APPENDIX. 75 lower fide of the piftil, and one on the upper. Thefe are, each of them, crowned with two oval ftigmata, at firk green, but after, crimfon. The fruit is formed in a capfula, confift- ing of two conical, hollow leaves, which, when clofed, feems to compofe a {mall conical pod,. pointed at the top. The fruit, or feed, is oblong, and is not fo large as the head of the fmalleft pin,--yet it is very prolific, and produces thefe feeds in fuch quantity as to yield a very abundant erop in the Huaneity © of meal, neti this grain was ever known to the Greeks and Romans, is what we are-no where told. Indeed, the vari- ous grains made ufe of in antiquity, are fo lamely and poorly defcribed, that, unlefs it is afew of the moft com~ mon, we cannot ‘even guefs at the reft. Pliny mentions feveral of them, but takes no notice of any of their quali- - ties, but eee ones; fome he fpecifies as growing in Gaul, others in the Campania of Rome, but takes no notice of thofe of Ethiopia or Egypt. Among thefe there is one which he calls Tiphe, but fays not whence it came; the name would induce us to believe that this was Teff, but we can only venture this as a conjecture not fupport- ed. But it is very improbable, connected as Egypt and Ethiopia were from the firft ages, both by trade and reli- gion, that a grain of fuch confequence to one nation fhould - be utterly unknown to the other. It is not produced in the low or hot country, the Kolla, that is, in the borders of it; for no grain can grow, as I have already faid, in the Kolla or Mazaga itfelf; but in place of Teff, in thefe bor- ders, there grows a black grain called Tocuflo. The ftalk of this is fcarce a foot long; it has four divifions where the grain is aoe ‘and fecms*to be a {pecies of the meiem mfalib, ae * APPENDIX, m{alib, or gramen crucis, the grafs of the crofs, Of this avery black bread is made, ate only by the pooreft fort; but though it’ makes worfe bread, I think it makes better bouza. | | Some have thought, from the frequent ufe of Teff, hath come that difeafe‘of worms which I have mentioned in the article Cuffo. But I am inclined to think this is not the cafe, becaufe the Gibbertis, or Mahometans, born in Abyffinia,. all ufe Teff in the fame proportion as the Chriftians, yet none of thefe are troubled with worms. And from this I fhould be led to think that this difeafe arifes rather from eating raw meat, which the Mahometans do not, and therefore are not affected with this diforder as the Chri- flians are, ) 1 O.F \ OF QUADRUPEDS. BELIEVE there is in the world no country which pro- duces a greater number, or variety of quadrupeds, whether tame or wild, than Abyflinia. As the high coun- try is now. perfectly cleared of wood, by the wafte made in that article from the continual march of armies, the moun- tains are covered to the very top, with perpetual verdure, and moft luxuriant herbage. Tue long rains in fummer are not fuddenly abforbed by the rays of the fun: a thick veil defends the ground when - it is in the zenith, or near it, affording heat to promote ve- getation without withering it by deitroying the moifture, and by this means a never-failing flore of provender is” conftantly provided for all.forts of cattle. Of the tame or cow-kind, great abundance prefent themfelves everywhere, differing in fize, fome having horns of various dimenfions; 3 fome 82 APPENDIX, fome without horns at all, differing alfo in the colour and length of their hair, by having bofles upon their backs, ac- cofding as their pafture or climate varies. There are kinds. alfo deftined to various ufes ;.fome for carriage, like mules. or affes, fome to be rode upon like horfes ; and thefe are not the largeft of that kind, but generally below the: middle ~fize. As for that fpecies. bearing the monftraus horns, of which: I have often. {poke in my narrative, their fize is not to be eftimated by that of their horns; the animal itfelf is. not near fo big as a common Englifh cow; the growth of the horn is a difeafe which proves fatal to them, becaufe : encouraged for a. peculiar purpofe.. Whether it would be otherwife curable, has not yet, I believe, been ever afcer- tained by experiment. But the reader may with confidence © affure himfelf, that there are no fuch animals‘as carnivo- rous bulls in Africa, and that this ftory has been invented. for no other purpofe but a defire to exhibit an animal worthy of wearing thefe prodigious horns. I have always wifhed that this article, and fome others of early date, were blotted out of our philofophical tranfaGtions; they are abfurdities to be forgiven,to infant phyfic and to early travels, but they are unworthy of ftanding among the cautious, well-fup- ported narratives of our prefent philofophers. Though we may fay of the buffaloe that it is of this kind, yet we can- not call it a tame animal here; fo far from that, it is the moft ferocious in the country where he refides ; this, how- ever, isnot in the high temperate part of Abyffinia, but in the fultry Kolla, or valleys below, where, without hiding himfelf, as wild beafts generally do, as if confcious of fupe- — riority of ftrength, he lyes at his eafe among large fpread- ing fhady trees near the cleareft and deepeft rivers, or the largeft ftagnant pools of the pureft water. Notwithftand- ing’ APPENDIX. 83 ing this, he is in ‘his perfon as dirty and flovenly as he-is fierce, brutal, and indocile ; he feems to maintaih among his own kind the ‘fame shaciaten for manners that.the wolf does among the carnivorous tribe. But what is very particular is, this is: the only animal kept for giving milk in Egypt. And, though apparently thefe are of the fame {pecies, and came originally’ from Ethi« opia, their manners are fo entirely changed by their mig- ration, difference of climate or of food, that, without the ex- ertion of any art.to tame them, they are milked, conducted _. to and fro, and governed by children of ten years old, with- out apprehenfion, or any unlucky accident having ever hap- _ pened. Amone the wild animals are prodigious numbers of the gazel, or antelope kind; the bohur, fafla, fecho,-and mado- qua, and various others; thefe are feldom found in the cul- tivated country, or where cattle pafture, as they chiefly feed on trees; for the moft part, they are found in broken ground near the banks of rivers, where, during the heat of the day, they conceal themfelves, and fleep under cover of the bufhes; they are fill more numerous in thofe provinces -whofe inhabitants have been extirpated, and:the houfes ruin- ed or burnt in time of war, and where wild oats, grown up foas to cover the whole country, afford them a quiet ‘refidence, without being difturbed by man, Of this I have mentioned a very remarkable initance in the firft attempt I made to difcover the fource of the Nile, (vol. Ill. p. 439.) The hyena is ftill more numerous : enough has been faid about him ; I apprehend that there are two fpecies. There are few varieties of the dog or fox kind. Of thefe MOE. NV. N the 84 APPENDLX,: $ . . : the moft numerous is-tlie Deep, or, as he is called, the Jackals this is precifely the fame in all refpects as the Deep of Bar- bary and Syria, who.are heard hunting in great numbers, and howling in the evening and morning. The true Deep, as far as appears to me, is not yet known, at leaft I never yet faw in any author a figure that refembled him. The wild boar, fmaller and {moother in the hair than that of Barbary: or Europe, but differing in nothing elfe, ismet frequently in fwamps or banks of rivers covered with wood. As he is accounted unclean in Abyfiinia, both by Chriftians and Ma- hometans, confequently not perfecuted by. the hunter, both he and the fox fhould have multiplied; but it is. probable they, and many other beafts, when ga g,.are deftroyed by the voracious hyzna.. Tue elephant, rhinoceros, giraffa, or camelopardalis, are inhabitants of the low hot country; nor is the lion, or leopard, faadh, which is the panther, feen in the high and cultivated country. There are no tigers in Abyffinia, nor, as far as I know, in Africa; it is an Afiatic animal; for what reafon fome travellers, or naturalifts, have calla him the tiger-wolf, or miftaken him altogether for the tiger, is what I cannot difcover. Innumerable flocks of apes, and baboons of different kinds, deftroy the fields of millet every where ; thefe, and an immenfe number of common rats, make great deftruction in the country and harveitt. I never faw a rabbit in Abyflinia, but there is plenty of hares ; this, too, isan animal which they reckon unclean ; and not ibis g hunted for food, it fhould feem they use to have in- creafed to greater numbers. Itis probable, however, that the great quantity of eagles, vultures, and beafts of prey, has 2 | | | kept . === SE_ZZA/ ZB | SE oH Wy SSE 7 SS Z: — i A Zs flit wocevod f- Yoica 2) = / hs ad bondinlidblijh d Dee {11789 by Chobinson & le | Hath Jama i i Ra me * Be we x . jg Peele) IS s-¢ if SI ; sre co now in oar to be agreed thay ATPLP. BN DUX. | VW kept them within reafonable bounds. The hippopotamus and crocodile abound in all the rivers, not only of Aby(flinia, but as low down as Nubia and Egypt: there is no good figure nor defcription extant, as far as I know, of either of thefe animals; fome unforefeen accident always thwarted and prevented my fupplying this deficiency. There are many of the afs kindinthe low country towards the frontiers of Atbara, but no Zebras; thefe are the inhabitants of Faz- uclo and Narea. RHINOCEROS. there are two fpecies of this quadruped, the firft ha- ving two horns upon his nofe, the fecond one. It is alfo a generally received opinion, that thefe different fpecies are confined to diftant places of the old continent ; that with one horn is thought to be exclufively an inhabitant of Afia, that with two horns to be only found in Africa, N 2 WHETHER 36. . APPENDIX. Wirruer this divifion is right in all its’ partsy'I {hall’ not advance. That there is a rhinoceros in Afia’ with: one horn is what we pofitively know, but. that: there is. none of the other f{pecies in that part of the continent does.. not appear to me as yet focertain:. Again; there is no fort- of doubt, that though the rhinoceros with: two horns isan. inhabitant of Africa, yet is it as certain. that the: fpecies . with one horn is often found in that country likewife,. efpecially in the eaftern part, where is the myrrh and cin-. namon country, towards Cape Gardefan, which runs into the - Indian ocean beyond the Straits of Babelmandeb. And if I. was to credit the accounts-which the natives of the refpective - countries have given me, I fhould be induced to believe that: the rhinoceros of the kingdom of Adel had but one horn... They fay this is the cafe where little rain falls, as in Adel, , which, though within the tropics, is not liable to that fe-. veral months deluge, as is the inland part of the country, more to the weitward. They fay further, that all that woody. part inhabited by Shangalla, correfponding to Tigré andSiré, , is the haunt of the rhinoceros with two horns. Whether. this is really the cafe I do not pretend to aver, I give the- reader the ftory with the authority; I think it is probable; but as in all cafes where very few obfervations can be re- peated, as in this, I leave him entirely to the light of we own. underitanding. | -TueE animal reprefented in this drawing is a native of _ Tcherkin, near Ras el Feel, of the hunting of which I have already fpoken in my return through the defert to Egypt, and this is the firftdrawing of the rhinoceros with a double horn that has ever yet been prefented to the public. The fir Ggure of the Atiatic rhinoceros, the fpecies having but one j 7 et ie —— APPENDIX. | 87° one horn, was painted by Albert Durer, from the liféffrom one of thofe fent frou: india: by. the Portuguefe in the be- ginning of the fixteenth century... It was wonderfully ill- executed in all its parts, and was the origin of all the mon-- ftrous forms under which that animal has been painted, ever fince, in all parts of the world. Several modern philo-- fophers have made amends for this in our days ; Mr-Par- fons, Mr Edwards,.and the Count de Buffon, have given good figures of it from life ; they have indeed fome faults, . owing chiefly to preconceived prejudices and inattention, Thefe, however, were rhinocerofes with one horn, all Afia- tics. ‘This,.asI have before faid, is the firft that has been publifhed with two horns, it is defigned from the life, and - is an African; but as the principal difference is. in the horn, and as the manners of this beait are, I believe, very faith- fully defcribed and common to both fpecies, I fhall only note what I think is deficient in his hiftor y, or what I can. fupply from having -had an opportunity of feeing him alive and at freedom in his native woods... Ir is very remarkable, thattwo fuch animals as the ele-. phant and.rhinoceros fhould have wholly efcaped the de- ~ {eription of the facred writers. Mofes, and the children of: Ifrael, were long in the neighbourhood of the countries: that produced them, both while in Egypt and in Arabia. The clafling of the animals: into clean and unclean, feems to have led the legtflator into a kind of neceflity of defcri- bing, in one of the clafles, an animal, which made the food of the principal Pagan nations in the neighbourhood. Con-- fidering the long and intimate conneétion Solomon had - with the fouth-coaft of the Red Sea, it is next to impoffible: thac he was not acquainted with fineath as both. David his: Ass father g 38 APPENDIX, . , father, and he, made plentiful ufe of ivory, as they fre- quently mention in their writings, which, along with gold, came from the fame part. ‘Solomon, befides, wrote exprefsly upon Zoology, and, we can fcarce fuppofe, was ig- norant of two of the principal articles of that part of the ' creation, inhabitants of the great Continent of Afia eaft from him, and that of Africa on the fouth, with both which ter- ritories he was in conftant.correfpondence. ‘THERE are two animals, named frequently in fcripture, without naturalifts being agreed what they are. The one is the behemoth, the other the reem, both mentioned as the types of ftrength, courage, and independence on man, and as fuch exempted from the-ordinary lot of beafts, to be fubdued by him, or reduced under his dominion. Tho’ this is not to be taken in a literal fenfe, for there is no animal without the fear or beyond the reach of the power of man, we are to underftand this as applicable to animals ‘pofleffed of ftrength and fize fo fuperlative as that in thefe quali- ties other beafts bear no proportion to them. Tue behemoth, then, 1 take tobe the elephant; his hi- -ftory is well known, and my only bufinefs is with the reem, which I fuppofe to be the rhincceros. The derivation of this word, both in the Hebrew and the Ethiopic, feems to be from erectnefs, or ftanding flraight. This is.certainly no particular quality in the animal itfelf, who is not more, or even fo much erect:as many other quadrupeds, for, in its knees it is rather crooked; ‘but it is from the circum- {tance and manner in which his horn is placed. The horns of all other animals are inclined to fome degree of paral- Aclizm, with his nofe, or os frontis. ‘The horn of the rhino- | ceros APPENDIX. &o ceros alone is erect and perpendicular to this bone, on which it ftands at right angles, thereby poffefling a greater pur- chafe,; or power, as a lever, than any herr could poflibly- have in. any other pofition. Tuis fituation of the horn_is very happily alluded to in the facred writings :.“ My horn fhalt thou. exalt like the.’ “ horn of an unicorn* ;” and the horn here alluded to is not wholly figurative, as I have already taken-notice of in the courfe of my hiftory +, but was really an ornament, worn by great men in the days of. victory, preferment, or rejoi- cing, when they were anointed with new, {weet, or frefh oil, a circumftance which David joins with that of erecting the horn. Some authors, for what reafon I know not, have made the reem, or unicorn, to bé of the deer or antelope kind, that is, of a genus whofe very character is fear and weak- nefs, very oppofite to the qualities by which the reem is defcribed in {cripture ; befides, itis.plain the reem is not of the clafs of clean quadrupeds; and a late modern travel- ler, very whimfically, takes him for the leviathan, which certainly was afifh. It is impoflible to determine which is the fillieft. opinion of the two. Balaam, a prieft of Mi-— dian, and foin the neighbourhood of the haunts of the rhinoceros, and intimately connected with Ethiopia, for they themfelves were fhepherds of that country, in a tran- fport, from contemplating the ftrength of Ifrael whom he was brought to curfe, fays, they had as it were the ftrength of « * Palm xcii. ver. ro. + Vol. iii. p. 220, go. APPENDIX. of the reem. Job* makes frequent allufion to his great ftrength, and ferocity, and indocility. He afks, Will the reem be willing to ferve thee, or abide by thy crib? that is, Will he willingly come into thy ftable, and eat at thy man- ger? And again, Canft thou bind the reem with a band in the furrow, and will he harrow the vallies after thee}? In other words; Canft. thou make him go in the plow or arrows? IsarAH{, who of all the prophets feem to have known Egypt and Ethiopia the beft, when prophecying about the -deftruction of Idumea, fays, that the reem fhall come down with the fat cattle; a proof that he knew his habitation was an the neighbourhood. In the fame manner as when fore- telling the defolation of Egypt, he mentions as one man- ner of effecting it, the bringing down. the fly§ from Ethio- pia to meet the cattle in the defert, and among the buthes, and deftroy them there, where that infec did not ordinari- ly come but on command|,, and where the cattle fled every year to fave them{felves from that infect. Tue Rhinoceros, in Geez, is called Arwé Harifh, and in the Amharic, Auraris, both which names fignify the large wild beaft with the horn. This would feem as if applied to the {pecies that had but one horn. Onthe other hand, in the country of the Shangalla, and in Nubia adjoining, he is called Girnamgirn, or horn upon horn, and this would feem to dencte that he had two. The Ethiopic text renders the q Numb. chap. xxiii. ver. 22. “** Tob, chap. xxxix. ver..9. + Job, chap. xxxix. ver. 10. . tI faiah, chap. xxxiv. © ver, 4. § Lfiah, chap. vii. ver. 18. and 19. || Exod. chap. viii. ver. 22. APPENDIX. | gr the word Reem, Arwé Harith, and this the Septuagint tran- flates Monoceros, or Unicorn. Ir the Abyffinian rhinoceros had invariably two horns, it feems to me improbable the Septuagint would call him Monoceros, efpecially as they muft have feen an animal of this kind expofed at Alexandria in their time, then firft men- tioned in hiftory, at an exhibition given by Ptolemy Phila- delphus at his acceffion to the crown, before the death of his father, of which we have already made mention. Tue principal reafon of tranflating the word Reem, Uni- corn, and not Rhinoceros, is from a prejudice that he muft have had but one horn. But this is by no means fo well-founded, as to. be admitted as the only argument for eftablifhing the exiftence_of an animal which never has appeared, after the fearch of fo many ages. Scripture {peaks of the horns of the unicorn *, fo that, even from this circumftance, the reem may be the rhinoceros, as the Afia- tic, and part of the African rhinoceros, may be the unicorn. It is fomething remarkable, that, notwithftanding Alexan- der’s expedition into India, this quadruped was not known to Ariftotle}. Strabo and Athenzus both fpeak of him from report, as having been feen in Egypt. Paufanius calls him an Ethiopic bull; the fame manner the Romans called the elephants Lucas bovis, Lucanian oxen, as being firft feen in that part of Magna Grecia. Pompey exhibited him fir SIAL. | Wea dti O . in. * Deut. chap. xxxili. 17. Pfalm xxii. 21. 4+ This fhews that the Mofaic pavement of Prenefte.is not a record of Alexander’s ex. - pedition into India, as Doétor Shaw has pretended, fect. vii. p. 423. 92 APPENDIX. in Italy, and he was often produced in games as low a Heliogabalus. ACN Bod ‘As all thefe were from Afia, it feem's moft probable they had but one horn, and they are reprefented as fuch in the’ medals of Domitian. Yet Martial * fpeaks of one with two horns ; and the reality of the rhinoceros fo armed'being till now uncertain, commentators have taken pains to’ per- fuade us that this was an error of the poet; but there can be now'no doubt that the poet was right, and the commen+ tators wrong, a cafe that often happens. T po not know from what authority the author of the'En- eyclopedia + refers tothe medals of Domitian, where the rh noceros, he fays, has a double horn; in all thofe chat havebeen publifhed, one horn only is figured. The ufe made of thefe liorns is in the turning-loom; they are made into cups, and fold toignorant peopleas containing antidotes againftpoifons; for this quality they generally make’ part of the prefents of _ the Mogul ard kings of Perfia at Conftantinople. Some mo- dern naturalifts have fcarce yet given over this prejudice; . a, which might have had a poflibility of truth while the Galenical fchool flourithed, and vegetable poifons were chiefly ufed; but it is abfurd to fuppofe, that what might difcover folanum, or deadly night-fhade, upon contact, would have the like effect upon the application of arféenies and from experience I can pronounce, that a cup of this is alike ufelefs in the difcovery of either.» The handles of + eer a * Martial de Spectac. t See Supplement to Chambers’s Dict. ' : J APPENDIX. 93 of daggers are always, in Abyflinia, made of this horn, and thefe being the only works to which they are applied, is one of the reafons why I. have faid we fhould not rafhly pro- nounce that the Afiatic rhinoceros has but one horn, mere- ly becaufe the foremoft, or round horn, is the only one of the many that have been fent from India. In Abyfiinia we feldom fee the hunters at the pains to cut off or bring to market the fecond horn of the rhinoceros they have flain, becaufe, being flat,in place of round, it has not diameter or fubftance enough to ferve for the uwfes juft fpoken of; fo that the round horn is the only one that.appears either at Gon- dar or Cairo ; and if we were to judge from this circumftance, the African rhinoceros is unicorn for the fame reafon as wedo the Afiatic. The horns of this animal are hard and folid, of a reddifh brown on the outfide, a yellow inclining to gold within, and the heart a fpot of black, which occu- pies the {pace of near two inches where the diameter of the horn «is five. The furface takes a perfect polifh, but when dried is very liable to fplinter and crack. It likewife warps with heat, and fcratches eafily. And this was the reafon that, though exceeding beautiful when new, it never would endure any time when made into the form of a fnuff-box, but warped and fplit with the heat_of the pocket, though this ‘believe was chiefly owing to the lamina, or flat pieces into which it was cut, being always left too thin, The foremoft of thefe horns crook inward at the point, but by no means with fo fudden a curveas is reprefented by the Count de Buffon. How fenfible the animal is in this part, may be known from the accident I was eye-wit- nefs to in hunting him at Tcherkin, where a mufquet- Dall breaking off a point of that horn, gave him fuch a fhock, as to deprive him for an inftant of all appear- Giaks ance 94 APPENDIX. ance of life. Behind the foremoft, or crooked horn, is the flat ftraight one, and again immediately behind that I have feen diftinctly the rudiments of a third, and the horn full an inch long. If we may judge by its bafe, it would feem this third horn was intended to be as long as the o- ther two. Tue hunters of thefe large beafts are called Agageer, from Agaro, to kill, by cutting the hams or tendon of Achil- les with a fword. I have already defcribed the manner of this hunting. Thefe Agageers, the only people that have an opportunity of obferving, if they would only tell what they © do obferve truly, fay, they frequently fee rhinocerofes with three horns grown; that this laft is round, but does not crook at the point, and is not quite fo long as are the other two, nor tapered fo muchas the foremoft oer crooked one; but this I leave entirely upon their ve- racity. I never did fee the animal myfelf, nor three grown-horns adhering to each other, as I have feen two; So if this is truth, here is a third {pecies of this quadrupedi . They fay the third horn is only upon the male, and does not grow till he is advanced in years ; the double horm which I have is fixed to a flrong mufcle or cartilage ; when dry, exceedingly tough. It comes down the os /rontis, and along the bone of the nofe; but not having obferved accu- rately enough at the time the carcafe was lying before me, — Ido not remember how this mufcle terminated or was. made faft, either at the oeciput or onthe nofe. Ithas been imagined by feveral that the horn of the rhinoceros and the teeth of the elephant were arms which nature gave them againft each other: that want of food, and vexation from be- ing deprived of their natural habits, may make any two beaits. "APPENDIX. 05 beafts of nearly equal ftrength fight or deftroy each other, cannot be doubted ; and accordingly we fee that the Romans made thefe two animals fight at fhows and public games: but this is not nature, but the artifice of man; there muft be fome better reafon for this extraordinary conftruction of thefe two animals, as well as the different one of that of fo ~ many others. They have been placed in extenfive woods and deferts, and there they hide themfelves in the moft inaccef- fible places ; food in great plenty is round about them ; they are not carnivorous, they are not rivals in love; what motive can they have for this conftant premeditated defire of fight- ing? I nave faid the rhinoceros does not eat hay or grafs, but lives entirely upon trees ; he does not {pare the moft thorny ones, but rather feems to be fond of them; and itis nota fmall branch that can efcape his.hunger, for he has the ftrongeft jaws of any creature I know, and beft adapted to ‘grinding or bruifing any thing that makes refiftance. He has twenty-eight teeth in all, fix of which are grinders, and I have feen fhort indigefted pieces of wood full three inches diameter voided in his excrements, and the fame of the ele- ~phant. Bur befides thefe trees, capable of moft refiftance, there are in thefe vaft forefts within the rains, trees of a fofter con- fiftence, and of a very fucculent quality, which feem to be deftined for his principal food. -For the purpofe of gaining the higheft branches of thefe, his upper lip is capable of being lengthened out fo as to increafe his power of laying hold with this in the fame manner as the elephant dees with his trunk. With this lip, and the afliftance of his 3 tonguc,, 96. APPENDIX. tongue, he pulls down the upper branches which have moft leaves, and thefe he devours firft; having ftript the tree of its branches, he does not therefore abandon. it, but placing his fnout as lowin the trunk as he finds his horn will:en- ter, he rips up the body of the tree, and reduces it to thin pieces, like fo many laths; and when he has thus prepared it, he embraces as much of it as he can in his monftrous jaws, and twifts it round with as much eafe as'an ox would do a root of celery, or any fuch pot-herb or garden-ftuff, Sucu, too, is the practice of the elephant; we faw, at eve- ry flep in thefe-immenfe foretts, trees in different progref- {es of this operation, fome divefted of their leaves and bran- ches, and cut over as far down the trunk as was foft, and pliable, and was capable of being fnapped off by one bite, without {plitting or laceration; others, where the trunk was cut into laths or ribbands, fome of which were ate in part, others prepared, but which had been left from fatiety or ap- prehenfion of danger, a feaft without labour for the next that fhould find it. In fome places we faw the trees all con- fumed, but a ftump that remained about a foot from the ground, and thefe were of the moft fucculent kind, and there we diftinctly. perceived the beginning of the firft la- ceration from the bottom ; and what, befide the teftimony - of the hunters, confirmed this fact beyond doubt was, that in feveral places large pieces of the teeth of elephants, and horns of the rhinoceros were brought to us, partly found lying on the ground at the foot of thefe trees, and part flick- ing in them.. Neiruerthe elephant norrhinoceros eat srafs; if their food depended upon that, many times in the ycar they muft be © aye ! f reduced - } z ; . - ! as ' . OO ee APPENDIX. a7 reduced to a fate of flarving, for the grafs is naturally parch- ed up in fome feafons, and at others burnt purpofely by the Shangalla. It is true, that in Europe their chief food is hay ; trees cannot be every day fpoiled for them 4n the quantity they would need. But this is not their natural food, more than the fugar and the aquavitz that are given them here. _ | ) Tue roughnefs of the tongue of the rhinoceros is another matter in difpute: it is faid to be fo rough, that the animal with that can lick off the flefh of 2 man’s bones. Others fay, the tongue is fo foft that it refembles that of a calf. Both of thefe are in fome meafure true, but aggravated by the reporters. The tongue of the young Rhinoceros is foft, for the {kin is much tougher and thicker too, than that of a calf, and has apparently fome furrows or wrinkles in it, but it has no puftules nor rudiments of any that are dif cernible, nor indeed has any ufe for them. On the other hand, the tongue and infide of the upper lip of the old Rhi- noceéros are very rough, and this appears to me to arife from the conftant ufe he makes of thefe parts in feizing the branches of trees which have rough barks, particular- ly the acacia. Itis, when purfued, and in fear, that we fee he poflefles an aftonifhing degree of fwiftnefs, confidering his fize, the apparent unwieldynefs of his body, his great weight before, and the fhortnefs of his legs. He is long, and has a kind of trot, which, after a few minutes, increafes in a great proportion, and takes in a great diftance; but this is to be underitood with a degree of moderation. It is not true, that in a plain he beats the horfe in fwittnefs. I have paffed him with eafe, and feen many worfe mountcd do the fame, and though it is certainly true, that a horfe I can 98 APPENDIX, can very -feldom come up with him, this is owing to his cunning, but not his fwiftnefs. He makes cont tantly from | wood to wood, and forces himfelf into the thickeft | part of them. The trees that are fruth, or dry, are broke down, like as with a cannon fhot, and fall behind him and on his fide in all directions. Others that are more pliable, greener, . or fuller of fap, are bent back by his weight and velocity of His motion. And after he has paffed, reftoring them- felves like a green branch to their natural pofition, they {weep® the uncautious purfuer and his horfe from the ground, and dafh them in pieces againit fan ea a trees. Tue eyes of the Rhinoceros are very fmall, and he fel- dom turns his head, and therefore fees nothing but what is before him. To this he owes his death, and never ef- capes, if there is fo much plain as to enable the horfe to get before him. His pride and fury, then, makes him lay afide all thoughts of efcaping but by victory over his ene- my.. He ftands for a moment at bay, then, at a ftart, runs — ftraight forward at the horfe, like the wild boar, whom in his manner of aétion he very much refembles. The horfe eafily avoids him, by turning fhort to afide, and this is the fatal inflant: The naked man, with the fword, drops from behind the principal horfeman, and unfeen by the Rhinoce- ros, who is fecking his enemy the horfe, he gives him a ftroke acrofs the tendon of the heel, which renders him i in- capable of further flight or refiftance. In fpeaking of the great quantity of food neceflary to fupport this enormous mafs, we muft likewife confider the vait quantity of water which he needs. No country but fh i ! that APPENDIX. | 99 that of the Shangalla, which he poffefles, deluged with fix months rains, and full of large and deep bafons, made in the living rock, and fhaded by dark woods from evapora. tion ; or watered by large and deep rivers, which never fall low or to a ftate of drynefs, can fupply the vaft draughts of this monftrous creature; but it is not for drinking alone that he frequents wet and marfhy places; large, fierce, and ftrong as he is, he muft fubmit to prepare to defend himfelf a- _ gainft the weakeft of all adverfaries. The great confump- tion he conftantly makes of food and water neceflarily con- fine him to certain limited {paces ; for it is not every place that can maintain him, he cannot emigrate, or feek his de- fence among the fands' of Atbara. Tue fly, that unremitting perfecutor of every animal that lives in the black earth, does not {pare the rhinoceros, nor is afraid of his fiercenefs. He attacks him in the fame man- ner as he does the camel, and would as eafily fubdue him, but for a ftratagem which he ‘practifes for his prefervation. The time of the fly being the rainy feafon, the whole black. earth, as I have already obferved, turns into mire. In the night when the fly is at reft, he choofes a convenient place, and there rolling himfelf in the mud, he clothes himfelf with a kind of cafe, which defends him againft his adver- fary the following day. The wrinkles and plaits of his {kin ferve to keep this muddy plafter firm upon him, all but about his hips, fhoulders, and legs, where it cracks and falls off by motion, and leaves him expofed in thofe places to the attacks of the fly. The itching and pain which fol- low occafion him to rub himfelf in thofe parts againft the rougheft trees, and this is at leaft one caufe of the puftules Vou. V, FP or EOC APPENDIX or tubercules which’ we fee upon thefe places, both on the: elephant and rhinoceros. The Count de Buffon, who be- lieves thefe puftules. to be natural parts of the creature, fays,. in proof of this, that they have been found in the feetus of a rhinoceros. 1 do not pretend to. difbelieve this ; it may be,. that thefe punctures happening to the old female at the- time fhe was with young, the impreflion of her fufferings. might have appeared. upon the young one.. However this. is, 1 cannot conceal that I have heard,not from hunters only,. but men worthy of credit, that this is: the origin. of thefe: protuberances; and many rhinocerofes, flain in Abyflinia, " are known to. have been found at the feafon of the fly, with. their fhoulders and buttocks bloody and excoriated.. It is- likewife by no means true, that the {kin of the rhinoceros. is hard or impenetrable like a board. I fhould rather fufpect: this to be difeafe, or from a different habityacquired by. Keeping ;. for in his wild ftate he is flain by javelins thrown: from indifferent hands, which I have feen buried three feet: mm his body. A mufket fhot will go through him if it meets. not with the intervention of a bone ;-and the Shangalla kill: him by the worft and moft inartificial arrows that ever were. ufed by any people practifing that weapon, and cut him to: pieces afterwards with the very worft of knives.. I nave faid that, in the evening, he goes to welter in the: mire. He enjoysthe rubbing himfelf there fo much, and: groans and grunts fo loud, that he is heard at a confidera-. ble diftance. The pleafure. that he receives from this en- joyment, and the darknefs: of the night, deprive him of his: — ufual vigilance and attention.. The hunters, guided by his. aoife, fteal fecretly upon him, and,, while lying on the: — ground;, APPENDIX. ae ground, wound him with their javelins moftly in the belly where the wound is mortal, A surceon of the Shaftefbury Indiaman was the firft who obferved and mentioned a fact which has been rafhly enough declared a fable *. He obferved on a rhinoceros newly taken, after having weltered and coated itfelf in mud, as above mentioned, feveral infects, fuch as millepides, or f{colopendra, concealed under the ply of the fkin. With all fubmiffion to my friend’s cenfure, I do not think he is in this fo right or candid as he ufually is; not having been out of his own country, at leaft in any country where he could have feen a rhinoceros newly taken from weltering, in the mud, he could not poflibly be a judge of this fact as the officer of the Shaftefbury was, who faw the animal in that ftate. Every one, I believe, have feen horfes and cows “drinking in foul water feized by leeches, which have bled them exceflively, and {welled under the animal’s tongue to a monftrous fize. And I-cannot fay, with all fubmiffion to better judgment, that it is more contrary to the nature of things, that a deech fhould feize an animal, whofe cuftom is to welter in water, than a fly bite and depofit his eggs in a camel in the fun-fhine on land. But further I muft bear this teftimony, that, while at Ras el Feel, two of thefe ani- mals were flain by the Ganjar hunters in the neighbour- hood. I was not at the hunting, but, though ill of the flux, I went there on horfeback before they had fcraped off their muddy covering. Under the pliesof one I fawtwo or three wery large worms, not carnivorous ones, but the common : | P,2 ree large * Vid. Buffon Hilt, rhinoceros, p.225. Edwards, p. 25. and 26. 35 102 APPENDIX. large worm of the garden. I faw likewife feveral animals like earwigs, which I took for young fcolopendre, and‘two fmall, white, land-fnail fhells. I fought no further, but was told a number of different infects were found, and fome ~ of them that fucked the blood; which I take to ‘be a kind of leech. There is then no fort of reafon to accufe this gentleman of telling a falfehood, only becaufe he was a better obferver, and had better opportunities than others have had, and it is indeed neither juft nor decent; on the contrary, it is a coarfe manner of criticifing, to tax aman, " with falfehood when he fpeaks as an eye-witnefs, and - has; faid nothing phyfically impoffible.. Tue rhinoceros fhewn at the fair of St Germain, that: which the Count de Buffon and Mr Edwards faw, kept clean: in aftable for feveral years, I fhall believe had neither worms | ri 4 noi feolopendre upon it, neither does this officer of the. . f Shaftefbury report it had; but he fays, that one covered with: mud, in which it had been weltering, had’ upon it animals aa that are commonly found in that mud; and this neither | Mr Parfons nor Mr Edwards, nor the Count de Buffon, ever. * had an opportunity of verifying... ‘ Cuarbin * fays, that the Abyfiinians tame and train the: ‘rhinoceros to labour. This is an abfolute fable ; befides, that we have reafon to believe the animal is not capable of inftruction, neither hiftory not tradition ever gave the {fmalleft reafon to make us believe this, nor is there any motive for attempting the experiment, more than for belie- ’ | ving } - ‘ s ’ eg ee *: Chardin, tom. ili. p. 45, OuS ey APPEND#X. 103 ving it ever was accomplifhed. Tractable as the elephant, is, the Abyflinians never either tamed or inftructed him ; they never made ufe of beafts in-war, nor would their-coun- try permit this training; fo much the contrary, as we have already feen, that Ptolemy Philadelphus, and‘his fucceflor Ptolemy Evergetes, did every thing in their power to per- fuade them to take the elephant alive, that they might tame them; but, as he was a principal part of their food, they never could fucceed; and the latter prince, for this very purpofe, made an expedition into Abyflinia,and was obliged to extir- pate thefe hunters,and fettle in,their place a colonyof his own at Arkeeko near Mafuah, which he called Ptolemais Theron for that very reafon ; after which, he himfelf tells us in the longGreek infcription he left in thekingdom of Adel, that he © had fucceeded fo far, by means of his colony of Greeks, as to » train the Ethiopic elephant foas to make him fuperior tothofe ° in India; but this he couldneverdo by employing Abyflinians. . Ir is a general obfervation made in every part where © this animal refides, that he is indocile, and wants talents; . his fiercenefs may be conquered, and we fee, with a moderate degree of attention, he is brought to be quiet. enough; but - it is one thing to tame or conquer his fiercenefs, and ano- ther to make him capable of inftruction; and it feems ap- parently allowed to be his cafe, that he has not capacity. A. fteady, uniform fiercenefs in the brute creation, is to be fub- dued by care and by hunger, this is not the cafe with. him, his-violent tranfports of fury upon being hungry, or not being ferved in the inftant with food, feems to bar this manner of taming him.. His behaviour is not that of any — other animal; his revenge and fury are direCted as much: againft himfelf as again{t an enemy; he knocks his head againit . 104, APPENDIX. againft the wall, or the manger, with a feeming intention te deftroy himfelf, nay, he does deftroy himfelf often. That fent from India to Emanuel king of Portugal, in the year 41513, and by him prefented to the pope, was the caufe the {hip * that carried him was funk and loft, and the one that was {hewn in France purpofely drowned itfelf going to Italy, Tue rhinoceros and the elephant are the principal food of the Shangalla. The manner of preparing the flefh I have already defcribed, and fhall not repeat. He is ate too with great greedinefs by all the inhabitants of the low country, and Atbara. The moft delicate part about him is fuppofed to be the foles of his feet, which are foft like thofe of a camel, and of a geriftly fubftance; the reft of the flefh feems to refemble that of the hog, but is much coarfer. It fmells of mufk, and is otherwife very taftelefs’; I fhould think it would be more fo to the negroes and hunters, who eat it without falt. The only hair about it is at the tip of its tail; they are there few and {cattered, but thick as the loweft wire of a harpfichord; ten of thefe, faftened fide by fide, at the diftance of half an inch from each other, in the figure of a man’s hand, make a whip which will bring the blood every ftroke. Tus rhinoceros was thirteen feet from the nofe to its anus; and very little lefs than feven feet when he ftood, meafuring from the fole of his fore-foot to the top of the Shoulder. The firft horn was fourteen inches. The fecond 2 . fome- * Tran. Phlifoph. No. 470, APPENDIX. 10s: fomething lefs than thirteen inches. The flat part of the horn, where it was bare at its bafe, and divefted of hair,, was four inches, and the top two inches and a-half broad. In the middle it was an inch and quarter thick; it was fha- ped like a knife; the back two inches, and, when turned, meafured one fourth-of an inch at the edge. . Ir feems nowto be a point agreed upon by travellers and. naturalifts, that the famous animal, having. one horn only ‘upon his forehead, is the fanciful creation cf poets and painters ; to them I fhould willingly leave it; but a Swedith naturalift, Dr Sparman, who has lately publifhed two vo- lumes in quarto, in which he-has diftinguifhed himfelf by his low illiberal abufe of learned foreigners, as much as by the fulfome flattery-he has beftowed on his own. countrymen, has fhewed an. inclination to revive this an- tiquated fable. I do not,.for-my own part, believe the au- thority will be thought fudicient, or have many followers.. _ The publither, by way. of apology, as I fuppofe, for his ruf- ticity and ill-manners, fays, that he was employed in labour. to earn a fufficient fum upon which to travel.. What la-- _ bour he applied to-is not faid; it was not a lucrative occu- pation furely, or the Doctor was not an-able labourer, as the fum produced was but 38 dollars, andTI really think his knowledge acquired. feem to be pretty much in pro-. portion to his funds. Korsz mentions what would feem:a variety-of the rhino-. ceros atthe Cape. He fays it has one horn upon its nofe, and another upon his forehead. This the Count de Buffon. thinks is untrue, and, from other circumitances of the nar- rative, fuppofes that Kolbe never faw.this rhinoceros, and‘ has 106 © APPENDIX. has defcribed it only from hearfay. Though this, tod, is Doctor Sparman’s opinion, yet, unwilling to let flip an op- portunity of contradicting the Count de Buffon, he taxes it as an improper criticifm upon this rhinoceros of Kolbe: he fays the defcription is a juft one, and that a man of the Count’s learning fhould have known that the forehead and nofe of all animals were wear each other. Although he has gi- ven a ftrange drawing of the fkeleton of the head-of-a-rhi- noceros, where the nofe and the forehead are very diftin¢t- ly different, yet, in another drawing, he has figured his rhi- noceros bicornis, with a head feemingly all nofe, and much liker an afs than any thing we have feen pretended to be a rhinoceros ever fince the time of Albert Durer. ‘He pre- tends that, in his travels at the Cape, he faw an animal of this form, which had:two horns upon his forehead, or his nofe, whichever he pleafes to call them. If fuch an animal does really exift, it is undoubtedly a new fpecies; it has not the armour or plaited {kin, feen in every rhinoceros till this time. He tells.us a heap of wonderful {tories about it, and claims the honour of being the firft difcover- er of it; and really, I believe, he is fo far in the right, that if he can prove what he fays to be true, there is no man that will pretend to difpute this point with him. Befides its having a flkin without plaits, it has two horns on the fore- head, fo loofe that they clafh againft one another, and make a noife when the animal is running: then he has one of -thefe only that are moveable, which he turns to one fide or the other when he choofes to dig roots; an imagination fcarcely poflible, I think, to any one who has ever feen a rhinoceros. With thefe loofe and clafhing horns he diverts himfelf by throwing 2 man and horfe into the air; and, though but five feet high, at other times he throws a load- : 4 BE mE ed Leese. idl , 4 vreyte vy tre "ver i er eee $ va ‘ y x x rt . m ‘ “a i ' t ‘tas ( ‘ 7 = ‘ , “ ’ . : 7 “ . a3 C , £3 . ~ © oe emi + 4 " A a, ’ - > 7 f a . <= - we ee s - Cd . : tr ; te x - 2 wa ; , < ” ~ . . ¥ <P ¢ ys . a - hs , © . * ) =a ae Ite A Pencil 1 , . tow = ¥ < i = a : =% . ——_ r - . o ee = Se . a ils NN CPOAL’ AL Cy c London Lublifhit. Jar vg a, 790 by (Lrobrson &0 * APPENDIX, 107 ed, covered waggon, drawn by two oxen, over hedges into the fields. Tuts rhinoceros very luckily is not carnivorous, for he is among the fwifteft of animals, and {mells and {cents peo- ple ata great diftance; and yet, with all thef advantages, though his conftant occupation, according to Dr Sparman, feems to be hunting waggons and men alfo, he never was fo fuccefsful as to kill but one man, as far as was ever known, : HY ENA. g HERE are few animals, whofe hiftory has paffed under the confideration of naturalifts, that have given oc- cafion to fo much confufion and equivocation as the Hyena has done. It began very early among the ancients, and the moderns have fully contributed their fhare. It isnot my intention to take up the reader’s time with difcuffing the errors of others, whether ancient or modern. ‘With- ‘ VoL, V. oO : out 709 APPENDIX. out difplaying a great deal of learning to tell him what it is not, Ifhall content myfelf with informing him what it is, by a good figure and diftiné relation of what in his hiftory hath been unknown, or omitted, and put it in the reader’s, power to reject any of the pretended Hy- enas that authors or travellers fhould endeavour to im- pofe upon him. At the fame time,I fhall fubmit to his decifion, whether the animalI mention is a new one, or only a variety of the old, as it muft on all hands be allow- ed that he is as yet undefcribed. | | Most of the animals confounded with him are about fix times fmaller than he is, and fome there are that do not even ufe their four legs, but only two. The want of a critical knowledge in the Arabic language, and of natural hiftory at the fame time, has in fome meafure been the oc- cafion of this among the moderns. Bochart* difcuffes the feveral errors of the ancients with great judgment, and ~ the Count de Buffon f, ina very elegant and pleafant man- ner, hath nearly exhaufted the whole. | I po not think there is any one that hath hitherto writ- ten of this animal who ever faw the thoufandth part of them that I have. They were a plaguein Abyflinia in eve- ry fituation, both in the city and in the field, and I think furpaffed the theep in number. Gondar was full of them from the time it turned dark till the dawn of day, feeking the different pieces of flaughtered carcafes which this cruel i and nn e * Boch. vol. I, cap. xxxlii. + Buffon vol. IX. ato. APPENDIX. | 10g . and unclean people expofe in the ftreets without burial, and who firmly believe that thefe animals are Falafha from the neighbouring mountains, transformed by magic, and come down to eat human flefh in the dark in fafety. Many a time in the night, when the king had kept me late in the \palace, and it.was not my duty to lie there, in going a- crofs the fquare from the king’s houfe, not many hundred yards diftant, 1 have been apprehenfive they would bite me inthe leg. They grunted in great numbers about me, tough I was furrounded with feveral armed men, who _ feldom pafled a night without wounding or flaughtering fome of them. | One night in Maitfha, being very intent on obfervation, i heard fomething pafs behind me towards the bed, but up- on looking round could perceive nothing. Having finifhed what I was then about, I went out of my tent, refolving di- rectly to return, which I immediately did, when I percei- ved large blue eyes glaring at me in the dark. I called upon my fervant with a light, and there was the hyzna ftanding nigh the head of the bed, with two or three large. bunches of candles in his mouth. To have fired at him I was in danger of breaking my quadrant or other furniture, and he ‘feemed, by keeping the candles fteadily in his mouth, to with for no other prey at that time. As his mouth was full, and he had no claws to tear with, I was not afraid of him, but with a pike {truck him as near the heart'as I could judge. It was not till then he fhewed any fign of fiercenefs ; but, upon feeling his wound, he let drop the candles, and endea- voured to run up the fhaft of the {pear to arrive at me, fo that, in felf-defence, I was obliged to draw out a piftol from my girdleand fhoot him, and nearly at the fame time my Sea ek fervant =- ETO | APPENDIX. fervant cleft his {kull with a battle-ax. In a word, the hyzna: was the plague of our lives, the terror of our night-walks,. the deftruction of our mules and affes, which above all o- thers are his favourite food. Many inftances of this the reader will meet with throughout my Travels. Tur hyana is known by two names in the eaft, Deeb: and Dubbah. His proper name is Dubbah, and this is the name he goes by among the beft Arabian naturalifts. In Abyflinia, Nubia, and part of Arabia, he is, both in writing and converfation, called Deeb, or Deep, either ending with aborp; and here the confufion begins, for though Dub- bah is properly a hyena, Dabbu is a fpecies of monkey;: and though Deeb is lhikewife a hyena, the fame word fig- nifies a jackal; and a jackal being by naturalifts called a wolf,. Deeb is underftood to be a wolf alfo. In Algiers this difference is preferved ftrictly ; Dubbah is the hyena; Deeb is the jackal, which run in flocks in the night, crying like hounds. Dubb isa bear, fo here is another confufion, and the bear is taken for the hyzna,; beeaufe Dubb, or Dubbah, feems to be the fame word.. So Poncet, on the frentiers of Sennaar, complains, that one of his mules was bit in the thigh by a bear, though it is well known there never was any animal of the bear-kind in that, or, I believe, in any other part of Africa. And I ftrongly apprehend, that the leopards and tigers, which Alvarez. and Don Roderigo de Lima mention molefted them fo much in their journey to Shoa, were nothing elfe.but hyenas.. For. tigers there are certainly none in Abyilinia; itis an Afiatic animal. Though there are leopards, yet they are but fewin number, and are not gregarious, neither, indecd,.are the hyznas,only as they gather APPENDIX.» Ti gather in flocks, lured by the fmell of their food; and of thefe it would feem there are many in Shoa, for the capital of that province, called Tegulat, means the City of the Flyena,. ! Ir the defcription given by M. de Buffon is an elegant and good one, the draught of the animal is no lefs fo. It is exactly the fame creature I have feen on Mount Libanus and at Aleppo, which makes me have the lefs doubt that there are two fpecies of this animal, the one partaking more of the dog, which is the animal lam now defcribing, the other more of the nature of the hog, which is the hyzna of M. de Buffon. Of this the reader will be eafily fatisfied, by comparing the two figures and the meafures of them. The fame diftinction there is in the badger. THE animal from which this was drawn was flain.at Te- awa, and was the largeft I had ever feen, being five feet nine inches inlength, meafuring from his nofe to his a- nus; whereas the hyena exhibited by M. de Buffon was ret half that, it being only three feet two inches-nine lines in length. Notwithftanding. the great fuperiority in fize by which the hyena of Atbara exceeded that of M. de Buffon, TE didnot think him:remarkable forhis fatnefs, or that heowed any of his fize to his being at that time in more than ordi- nary keeping; on the contrary, thought the moft of thofe I had before feen were in a better habit of body. As near as I could guefs, he might weigh about 8 ftone, horfeman’s weight, that is, 14 pound to the ftone, or 112 pound. Tue length of his tail, from the longeft hair in it to its infertion above the anus, was one foot nine inches. It was: compofed. 112 APPENDIX, compofed of fttong hair of a reddifh, brown colour, with- ‘out any rings of bands of blacknefs upon the points. In the fame manner, the mane confifted of hairs exactly fimi- lar both in colour and fubftance, being longer as they ap- proached the neck, where they were about feven inches Jong; and though it was obvious that, upon being irritated, he could raife them upon his back, yet they were not rigid enough, and were too long to have the refiftance of briftles of the hog or boar. This mane reached above two inches beyond the occiput between his ears, but then turned fhort, and ended there, From the occiput to his nofe he was one foot three inch- es anda half. The length of the nofe, from the bottom of the forehead, was five inches anda half, in fhape much like that of a dog, the whole head, indeed, more fo than that of the wolf or any other creature. The aperture of the eye was two inches nearly; that of the mouth, when not gaping or fnarling, about four inches and a half. The eur, from its bafe to its extreme point, was nine inches and a quarter; it was moftly bare, or covered with very thin, fhort hair. From the infide of one ear to that of the other, meafured acrofs the forehead, was feven inches and a half. From the edge of the opening of one eye to that of the o- ther, meafured in the fame manner, it was three inches near- ly. From the fole of the fore-foot, as it flood on the ground, to the top of the back above the fhoulder, it was three feet feven inches; but his back was fmooth and plain, not rifing or curved as the hyena of M. de Buffon appears to have been. The fore-leg was two feet.in length, the foot flat, and four inches broad. From the fole of the foot to the middle of the fore joint was fix inches and a half, and this 3 joint 7 7 ’ ; APPENDIX, be) joint feemed.to be ill-made, and as it were crooked and half bent. He has four toes, and a ftraight nail between each of them, greatly refembling that of a dog, ftrong and black, but by no means calculated for tearing animals, and as little for digging, by which occupation he is faid chief- ly to get his food. He ftands ill upon his hind-legs, norcan his meafure there be marked with precifion. It is obfervable in all hyznas, that when they are firft diflodged from cover, or obliged to run, they limp fo remarkably that it would appear the hind-~ leg was broken, and this has often deceived me; but, ‘after they have continued to run fome time, this affection goes entirely away, and they move very fwiftly. To what this is owing it is impoflible for me to fay. I expected to have found fomething likely to be the origin of it in the diffec- tion of this animal given by M. de Buffon, but no fuch thing appears, and, I fear it isin vain to look a it elfe- where. I apprenenp from the fole of his hind-foot to the join- ing of the thigh at his belly, was nearer two feet feven in- ches than any other meafure: The belly is covered with hair very little fofter and fhorter than that of his back. It grows fhorter as it approaches his hind-legs. His colour. is of a yellowifh brown, the head and ears the lightett pare of him. The legs are marked thick with black bands which begin at the lower hinder joint, then continue very dark in colour till the top of the thigh, where they turn broad and. circular, reaching acrofs the whole fide. Over the fhoul- der are two femicircular bands likewife, then come very fre- quent bands down the outfide of the fore-leg in the fame manner w14 APPENDIX. manner as the hind. The infide of all his legs are without marks, fo are the neck, head, and ears, but a little above the thorax is a large black ftreak which goes up along the throat, and down to the point of the lower jaw. His nofe is black, and above the pains for fome inches, is of a dark colour alfo. Tue Hyena is one of thofe animals which commenta- tors have taken for the Saphan, without any probability whatever, further than he lives in caves, whither he retires in the fummer to avoid being tormented with flies. Cle- ment* of Alexandria introduces Mofes faying, You fhall not eat the hare, nor the hyzxna, as he interprets the word faphan; but the Hyena does not chew the cud; they are not, as I fay, gregarious, though they troop together upon the f{mell of food. We have no reafon to attribute extra- ordinary wifdom to him ; he is on the contrary brutifh, in- dolent, flovenly, and impudent, and feems to poffefs much the manners of the wolf. His courage appears to proceed from an infatiable appetite, and has nothing of the brave er gencrous in it, and he dies oftener flying than fighting ; but leaft of all can it be faid of him that he is a feeble fell, being one of the ftrongeft beafts of the field. Upon the moft attentive confideration, the animal here re- prefented feems to be of a different fpecies from the hyena of M. de Buffon. This of Atbara feems to be a dog, whereas the firft fight of the hyzna of M. de Buffon gives the idea of a hog, and this is the impreffion it feems to have made upon I the * Clem. Alexan. lib, ii. Pedagog. cap. ro. APPENDIX. tI the firft travellers that defcribe him. Kempfer * calls him ‘Taxus Porcinus, and fays he has briftles like a hog. We have an example of variety of this fort in the badger. There is a fow of that kind, and a dog. ‘The dog is carni- vorous, and thé fow lives upon vegetables, though both of them have been faipe cued 4 at times to eat and devour animal food. q THE hyznaaboutMountLibanus,Syria, thenorthof Afia,and alfoaboutAlgiers,isknown to live for themoft part uponlarge fucculent, bulbous roots,efpecially thofe of the fritillaria, and fuch large, flefhy, vegetable fubftances. I have known large {paces of fields turned up to get at onions or roots of thofe plants, and thefewerechofen with fuch care, that, afterhaving been peeled, they have been refufed and left on the ground for afmall rotten {pot being difcovered in them. It will be _obferved the hyena has no claws either for feizing or fe- parating animal food, that he might feed upon it,and I there- fore imagine his primitive manner of living was rather up- on vegetables than upon flefh, as it is certain he ftill con-. tinues his liking to the former; and I apprehend it is from an opportunity offering in a hungry time that he has ven- tured either upon man or beaft, for few carnivorous animals, fuch as lions, tigers, and wolves, ever feed upon both. — ; | : As to the charge again him of his difturbing fepul- chres, I fancy it is rather fuppofed from his being unable Vou. V. R é to * Kemp. p. 411. and .412,' 1 1a APPENDIX. to feize his living prey that he is thought to attach himfelf to the dead. Upon much inguiry I never found one ex- ample fairly proved. ‘The graves in the eaft are built over~ with mafon-work ; and though it is againft the law of the: Turks to. repair thefe when. they fall down, yet the body- is probably confumed long before that happens; nor is the hyena provided with arms or weapons to attempt it in: its entire nate; and the large plants and flowers, with. flefhy bulbous roots, are found generally 1 in sag among. the graves.. > Bur the hyena of Atbara feems long to have abandoned: his primitive food of roots,if that was ever his, and to have: gone largely and undeniably into the flaughter of living creatures, efpecially that of men. Indeed, happily for him- felf, he has adopted this fuccedaneum ; for as to roots or fruit of any kind, they are not to be shar in the defere country where he has chofen his domicil; and he has no- difficulty from the fepulchres, becaufe whee nations perifh: without one of them being buried: Add to this, that the- depravity of human nature, the anarchy and bad ‘govern- ment of the country, have given him greater opportunities- than anywhere elfe in the world to obtain frequent and. eafy victories over man.. ‘ Ir is a conftant obfervation. in Numidia, that the lion a= voids and flies from the face of man, till by fome accident: they have been brought to engage, and the beaft has prevails. ed againtti him; then thatfeeling of fuperiority imprinted by’ the Creator in the heart of all animals for man’s preferva. tion, feems to forfake him. The lion, having once tafted! human blood, relinquifhes the purfuit after the flock. He: : repairs: ‘i APPENDIX. a29 gtpairs tofome high way or frequented path, and has been known, in the kingdom of Tunis, to interrupt the road to a market for feveral weeks; and in this he perfifts till hunters or foldiers are fent out to deftroy him. - Tur fame, but in a much greater extent, happens in At- bara. The Arabs, the inhabitants of that country, live in encampments in different parts of the country, their ancient patrimony or conqueft. Here they plow and fow, dig wells, and have plenty of water; the ground produces large crops, and all is profperity fo long as there is peace. Infolence © and prefumption follow eafe and riches. A quarrel hap- pens with a neighbouring clan, and the firft act of hoftili- ty, or decifive advantage, is the one burning the others crop at the time when it is near being reaped. Inevitable famine follows ; they are provided with no flores, no ftock in hand, their houfes are burnt, their wells filled up, the men flain by their enemies, and many thoufands of the helplefs remainder left perfectly deftitute of neceffaries ; and that very fpot, once a fcene of plenty, ina few days is reduced to an abfolute defert. Moft of the miferable fur- vivors die before they can reach the next water; they have no fubfiftence by the way; they wander among the acacia- trees, and gather gum. There, every day lofing their firength, and deftitute of all hope, they fall fpontaneoufly, as it were, into the jaws of the mercilefs hyena, who finding fo very little difference or difficulty between flaying the li- ving and devouring the dead, follows the miferable re- mains of this unfortunate multitude, till he has extirpated the laft individual of them, Thence it comes that we find it remarked in my return through the defert, that the whole country is flrewed with bones of the dead; horrid R2. monuments: 118 APPENDIX. aN ie - monuments of the victories of this favage animal, and of man more favage and cruel than he. From the eafe with which he overcomes thefe half-ftarved and unarmed peo- ple, arifes the calm, fteady confidence im: which he a tis all the reft of his kind. In Barbary I have feen the Moors in the day-time take this animal by the ears and pull him towards them, without his attempting any other refiftance than that of his drawing back : and the hunters, when his cave is large enough to give them admittance, take a torch in their hand, and go. ftraight to him; when, pretending to fafcinate him by a fenfelefs jargon of words which they repeat, they throw a. blanket over him, and haul him out. He feems to be ftupid. or fenfelefs in the day, or at the appearance of ftrong light,, unlefs when purfued by the hunters. I nave locked up a goat, a kid, and a lamb with him all. day when he was fafting, and found them in the evening. alive and unhurt. Repeating the experiment one night, he ate up a young afs, a goat, and a fox, all before morning, fo: asto leave nothing but fome fmall fragments of the ‘als’ s ‘bones. In Barbavy,then, he has no courage by day; he flics from man, and hides himfelf from him: But in Abyffinia or Atbara, accuftomed to man’s flefh, he walks boldly in the day-time like a horfe ormule, attacks man wherever he: finds him, whether armed or unarmed, always attaching himfelf to the mule or afs in preference to the rider. Imay fafely fay, I {peak within bounds, that I have fought him a- bove ae, times hand to hand; with a lance or fpear, when , ; . Thad APPENDIX, rT9 I had fallen unexpectedly upon him among the tents, or in defence of my fervants or beafts. Abroad and at a diftance the gun prevented , his nearer approach; but in the night, evening, or morning, we were conftantly in clofe engage- ment with him. - Tuis frequent victory over man, and his daily feeding upon him without refiftance, is that from which he furely draws his courage. Whether to this food it is that he owes his fuperior fize, I will not pronounce, For my own part, I confider him as a variety of the fame rather than another {pecies. At the fame time I mutt fay, his form gave me di- ftin@ly the idea of adog, without one feature or likenefs of the hog, as was the cafe with the Syrian hyena living on Mount Libanus, which is that of M. de Buffon, as plain- ly appears by his drawing... T nave oftentimes hinted in the courfe of my Travels at the liking he has for mules and afles; but there is another paffion for which he is ftill more remarkable, that is, his liking to dog’s flefh, or, as itis commonly exprefled, his a- verfion to dogs. Nodog, however fierce, will touch him in the field. My greyhounds, accuftomed to faften upon the wild boar, would not venture to engage with him. Onthe contrary, there was not a journey I made that he did not kill feveral of my greyhounds, and once or twice robbed me of my whole ftock : he would feek and feize them in the fervants tents where they were tied, and endeavour to car- ry them away before the very people that were guarding them. 120 APPENDIX, Tis animofity between him-and dogs, though it has efcaped modern naturalifts, appears to have been known to the ancients in the eaft.. In Ecclefiafticus (chap. xiii. ver. 18. ) it is faid, “ What agreement is there between the hyena and the dog?” heen proof that the antipathy was fo swell known as to be proverbial. Anp I mutt here obferve, that if there is any precifion in the definition of Linneus, this animal dees not anfwer to it, either in the cauda recta or annulata, for he never carries his — tail erect, butalways clofe behindhim like a dog when afraid, r unlefs when he is in full {peed; nor is the figure given by M. de Buffon marked like the hygzna of Atbara, though, as have I faid, perfectly refembling that of Syria, and the figure I have here given has, I believe, fcarcely a hair mif- placed init. Upon the whole, I fubmit this entirely to my reader, being fatisfied with having, I hope, fully proved what was the intent of this differtation, that the faphan is not the hyena, as Greek commentators upon the {cripture have ppagined. JERBOA. , ; . OFerb0@. ‘ London Lubliptd De D789 diy CLAUS XA. APPENDIX, 121 JERBOA. r HAVE already obferved that the Arabs have confounded the Sapban with feveral other animals that have no fort of refemblace toit; there are two of thefe very remark- able, the Fennec and Jerboa, of which Iam now to treat. As I have given excellent figures of both, by drawings ta- ken from the creatures alive, [have no doubt I fhall pre-. vent any confufion for the future, and throw fome light upon facred lcripuares the ai profit and: ufe 7 can. — from. this fort of. writing. Tr the sabi ens been frequently. confounded with the faphan, and ftood for it in the interpretation of the Hebrew" text, the fame has hikewife happened'to another animal, the’ Jerboa, {till more diffimilar in form and in manners from the: faphan, than even the rabbit itfelf, and much lefs known. The Jerboa is a imal! harmlefs animal of the defert, nearly the fize ofa common rat : the fikin very{mooth and fhining, . of a brown tinged with yellow or gold colour, and the ends ef the hairs tipt with black. It lives in the fmoothett plains er. places of the defert, efpecially where the foil is fixed gra- Pane vel), 122 APPENDIX. vel, for in that chicfly it burrows, dividing its hole below inte many manfions. It feems to be apprehenfive of the falling in of the ground ; it therefore generally digs its hole under the root of fome fpurge, thyme, or abfinthium, upon whofe root it feems to depend for its roof not falling 1 in and burying it in the ruins of its fubterraneous. habitation. It feems to delight moft in thofe places that are haunted by the ceraftes, or horned viper. Nature has certainly impofed this dangerous neighbourhood upon the one for the good and advantage of the other, and that ef mankind in general. Of the many, trials I made, I never found a Jerboa in the body of a viper, excepting once in that of a female big with young, and the Jerboa itfelf was then nearly confumed. Tue Jerboa, for the moft part, ftands upon his hind-legs ; he refts himfelf by fitting backwards fometimes, andI have feen him, though rarely, as it were lie upon all four; whe- — iher that is from fatigue or ficknefs, or whether it isa na- tural pofture, I know not. The Jerboa of the Cyrenaicum. is fix inches and a quarter in length, as he ftands in the drawing. He would be full half an inch more if he was : laid ftraight at his length immediately after death. The head, from his nofe to the occiput, is one inch two-lines. From the nofe to the foremott angle of the eye, fix lines. The opening of the eye itfelf is two lines and a quarter; ie his ears three quarters of an_inch in length, and a quarter of an inch in breadth; they are fmooth, and have no hair ih within, and but very little without; of an equal breadth : from bottom to top, do not diminifh to a point, but are rounded there. The buttocks are marked with a femicir- ~ cle of black, which parts from the root of the tail, and ends at the top of the thigh. This gives it the air of a compound =e : animal], AP PH NyD Ax. 123 animal, a rat with bird’s legs, to which the flying pofture Rill adds refemblance. From this ftroke to the center of the eye is three inches, and to the point of his toe the fame meafure; his tail is fix inches.and a quarter long, fecins -aukwardly fet on, as ftuck between his buttocks, without any connection with his {pine ; half of it is poorly covered with hair of a light or whiter colour than his body; the o- ther half is a beautiful feather of long hair, the middle white, the edges jet black: this tail, which by its length would feem an incumbrance to him, is of a furprifing ad- vantage in guiding and directing him in his jumping. From the fhoulder to the elbow of the fore-foot is half an inch: from the elbow to the joining of the paw, $ths of an inch. The claw itfelf is curved, and is fome- thing lefs than a quarter of an inch. It has very long mu- ftachoes, fome of them ftanding backward, and fome of them forward from his nofe; they are all of unequal lengths, the longeft an inch and a half; his belly is white: he feems to be of avery cleanly nature, his hair al- ways in great order. From his fnout to the back part of the opening of the mouth is half an inch; his nofe pro- jects beyond his under jaw three quarters of an inch. He has four toes.in his hind-foot, and a {mall one behind his heel, where is a tuft of haircoloured black, The fore-foot hath three toes only. 7 "THE ancients Pe ea ae defcribed this animal ; we fee him in fome of the firft medals of the ke a Gun fitting under an umbellated plant, fuppofed to be the filphium, whofe figure is preferved to us on the filver medals of Cy- rene. The high price fet upon it is mentioned by feveral hifto- Vor. V. 5 rians, 124 APPENDIX rians, but the reafon of that value, or the ufe of the plant, I have never yet been able to comprehend. I fuppofe it was: an adventitious plant, which the curiofity and correfpon- a dence of the princes of that ftate had probably brought | f from fome part of Negroland, where the goats are broufin g “TH upon it at this day with indifference e enough, uncon{cious: of the price it bore in the time a: the Prolemies. Huroporus *, Theophraftus +, and Ariftotle t,. all men- tion this sinha under the name of dire, yaaa nian diet OF,. two-footed rats. This animal is found in moft of the parts of Arabia and Syria, in every part of the fouthern deferts of Africa, but no where fo frequently, and in fuch num- bers, as in the Cyrenaicum, or Pentapolis.. In my unfors= tunate journey there, | employed the Arabs, together with my fervants, to kill a number with fticks, fo as that the fins might not be injured by fhot.. I got them dreffed in — Syria and in Greece, and fewed together, making ufe of the tail as in ermine for the lining of a_cloak, and they had a very good effect; the longer they wore, the gloffier and finer appearance the {kins made. The Jerboa is very — yh. fat and well-coloured; the buttocks, thighs, and part of ! the back, are roafted and ate by the Arabs. I have eaten: them; they are not diftinguifhable from a young rabbit either in colour or tafte; they have not even the ftrong. tafte the rabbit has. Some writers have confounded thefe “wo animals together; at leaft they have miftaken this for: nee: ®* Herod. Melp. fect. 192. t Theoph. apud Elian. Hilt, Anim. lib. xy, cap. 262. i Arift,.de Mareb. Egypt, lib, yis. , APPENDIX. 12° the faphan, and the faphan for the rabbit. This, however, is plainly without foundation. Thefe long legs, and the neceflity of leaping, demand the plain ground, where na- ture has always placed this creature. Tue Arabs Ibn Bitar, Algiahid, Alcamus, and Damir, and many others, have known the animal perfectly, though fome of them feem to confound it with another called the Afhkoko. Ibnalgiauzi fays, that the Jerboa is the only kind that builds inrocks, which from ten thoufand exam- ‘ples Iam fure he does not, nor is he any way made for it, ‘and Iam very certain he is not gregarious. They havea number of holes indeed in the fame place, but I do not re- member ever to have feen more than two together at a time. The Arab Canonifts are divided whether or not he can be lawfully eaten. Ibnalgiauzi is of opinion he can- not, nor any other animal living under the ground, except- ing the land crocodile, which he calls kl Dabb, a large lizard, faid to be ufeful in venereal purfuits. Ata and Achmet, Ben- ‘hantal, and feveral others, exprefsly fay, that the eating of the Jerboa is lawful. But this feems to be an fade ena. ‘as we read in Damir, that the ufe of this animal is granted b} becaufe the Arabs delight in it. And Ibn Bitar fays, that the Jerboa is called Ifraelitifh, that the fleth of it is dried in the outward air, is very nourifhing, and prevents coflivenefs, from which we fhould apprehend, that medicinal confidera- tions entered into this permiflion likewife. However this may be, it feems to me plain, fuch wag not the opinion of the oid tranflators of the Arab verfion from the Hebrew ; ithe once only name this animal exprefsly, ind there they fa is forbidden. The paflage is in Maiah, “ 'Phey.that ber ~ * tity, themfelves-and purify themfeives in the gardens “ behind one tree in the ‘midi, cating fwinc’s fleth, S 2 and = ~ 126 APPENDIX. “ and the abomination, and the moufe, fhall be confumed “ together, faith the Lord *.” The Hebrew word fignifies moufe, and fo our Englith tranflation renders it.. But the Arabic verfion calls it exprefsly the Jerboa, and claffes.it with the abomination and fwine’s flefh, that is, in the clafs of things in the higheft degree forbidden. Tuere is little variety in this animal either in fize or coe lour, in the wide range that they inhabit. Towards Aleppo they have broader nofes than the African ones, their bodies alfo thicker, and their colour lighter ; a thing we always fee in the Syrian animals, compared to the African. The firft ef thefe I faw was in London, in the hands of Dr Ruffel, who has wrote the hiftory of Aleppo, of whom I have before made mention. Haym publifhed an account of the Jerboa, fo does Dr Shaw, but there exifts not, that 1 know, one good. figure of him, or ipa as defcription.. Tue figure given us. by Edwards is thick and fhort, out of all proportion. His legs are too fhort, his feet too large, he wants the black mark. upon his heel, the nails of his fore- feet are greatly too long, and there is certainly a latitude taken in the defcription, when his head is faid very much to refemble that of a rabbit. Dr Haffelquift has given us a kind of defcription of him without a figure. He fays the Arabs call him Garbuka, but this is not fo, he goes by no other name in all the eaft, but that of Jerboa, only the let- ter J, fometimes by being pronounced -Y, for Jerboa he i 1s called Yerboa, and this is the only variation in name. THE *, Lfaiah, chap. ‘xvi. ver. 17. APPENDIX. 127 Tue Arabs of the kingdom of Tripoli make very good diverfion with the Jerboa, in training their grey-hounds, which they employ to hunt the gazel or antelope after in- ftructing him to turn nimbly by hunting this animal. The prince of Tunis, fon of Sidi Younis, and grandfon of Ali Bey, who had been ftrangled by the Algerines when that capital was taken, being then in exile at Algiers, made me a prefent of.afmall grey-hound, which often gave us excel- lent fport. It may be perhaps iniagined a chace between thefe two creatures could not be long, yet I have octen _feen, in a large inclofure, or court-yard, the greyhound - employ a quarter of an hour before he could matter his nimble adverfary ; the fmall fize of the creature aflifted him much, and had not the greyhound been a practifed one, and made ufe of his feet as wellas his teeth, he might have killed two antelopes in the time he could have killed one Jerboa.. , Ir is the character of the faphan given in fcripture, that he is gregarious, that he lives in houfes made in the rock, that he is diftinguifhed for his feeblenefs, which he fup- plies by his wifdom: none of thefe chara¢teriftics agree with the Jerboa, and therefore though he chews the cud in: common with fome others, and was in great plenty in Judea, fo as to be known by Solomon, yet he cannot be the faphan of the fcripture.. FENNEC, ig qe “728 APPENDIX. - facials general to his Majefty i in | that ace Lie) ‘ i: 7 . 14. ¢P 92. W¥ MAnometRais ae ghtit for two fequins from an ) acquaint- ance, a Turkifh Serie or foot-foldier, juit then returned from Bifcara, a fouthern -diftrié: of Mauritania Cefarienfis, now called the Province of Conflantina. The foldier faid they were not uncommon in Bifeara, but more frequently met with in the neighbouring date territories of Beni Mez- zab and Werglah, the ancient habitations of the Melano- Getuli; in the laft mentioned of which places they hunted them for their kins, which they fent by the caravan to 2 . | ‘fell % SS SS =SSSSSS WX SSSSSSS SSS SSS WX SS > SQ = —— SS > \ Wasaga Zondon Lublyhit Dee! G78. by BOPMION XO. “ APPENDIX 12y fell at Mecca, and from whence they were after exported to India. He faid thathe had endeavoured to bring three of them, two of which had efcaped by gnawing holes in the cage. I kept this for feveral months at my country-houfe near Algiers, that I mught learn its manners. I. made feve- ral drawings of it, particularly one in water-colours of its natural fize, which has been the original of all thofe bad copies that have fince appeared. Having fatisfied myfelf of all particulars concerning it, and being about to leave Al- giers, I made a prefent of him to Captain Cleveland, of his majeity’s {hip Phoenix, then in that port, and he gave him to Mr Brander, Swedith conful in Algiers. A young man,. Balugani, of whom I have already fpoken, then in my fer- vice, in which, indeed, he died, allowed. himfelf fo far to be furprifed, as, unknown to me, to trace upon oiled paper a eopy of this drawing in water-colours, jufl now mentioned. This he did fo fervilely, that it could not be miftaken, and was therefore, as often as it appeared, known to be a copy by people* the leaft qualified to judge in thefe matters. The affectation of the pofture in which it was fitting, the extraordinary breadth of its feet, the unnatural curve of the tail, to fhew the black part of it, the affe¢ted manner of difpofing its ears, were all purpofely done, to thew particular details that I was to defcribe, after the animal itfelf fhould be loft, or its figure, through length of time, fhould be lefs- frefh in my memory.. Docror Spearman, with his natural dullnefs, and a dif- ingenioufnefs which feems partly natural, partly acquired, fi and. * Sparman, vol, II. p, 1865 130 APPENDIX. and improved by conftant plagiarifms, from the works of others, pretends in favour of his country and*countrymen, to fteal this into a Swedith difcovery. He fays that Mr Bran- der has publifhed an account of it in fome Swedifh tranf | actions, a book I never faw, but that being long importu- ned by his friend Mr Nicander, to give the figure of the ani- mal itfelf to be publifhed, he conftantly refufed it. Wuerner this fact is fo or not, I do not pretend to give my opinion: if it is, | cannot but think Mr Brander’s con- duct in both cafes was extremely proper. The creature itfelf pafled, by very fair means, from my poffeffion into Mr Bran- der’s, who cannot doubt that | would have given it to him in preference to Mr Cleveland, if I had known he thought it of the leaft confequence; he was then as having had the ani- mal by juft means in his poffeflion, as much entitled to de- icribe him as 1 was; or as the Turk, the prior poffeffor, who gave him to me, had he been capable, and fo inclined. On the other hand, Mr Brander likewife judged very pro- perly in refufing to publifh the drawing at the requeft of Mr Nicander. The drawing was not juftly acquired, as it was obtained by a breach of faith, and feduéction of a fervant, which might have coft him his bread. It was con- ducted witha privacy feldom thought neceflary to fair deal- ing, nor was it ever known to me, till the young: man be- gan to be dangeroufly fick at Tunis, when he declared it va- luntarily to me, with a contrition, that might have atoned fora much greater breach of duty, Dr SPARMAN attempts to conceal thefe circumflanées. He fays Mr Brander told him, that I faw this animal at Algiers, ang that 1 employed the fame painter that he did to make i mes the APPENDIX, 34, ‘the drawing of him,and fpeaks of a painter found at Al- giers.as readily as if he had been at the gates of Rome or ‘Naples. Thefe are the wretched fubterfuges of low minds, as diftant from fcience as they are from honour and vir- tue. Why, if the animal was equally-known to Mr Bran- der“and me, did he not, when writing upon it, give his name, his manners, the ufes to which he was deftined, and the places where he refided? why fend to Algiers for an account of him, after having him fo long in his poffeffion, fince at Algiers he was probably as great a ftranger as he was at Stockholm? why call him a fox, or pronounce his genus, yet write to Algiers for particulars to decide what that genus was? ‘Tue Count of Buffon *, content with the merit of his own works, without feeking praife from {craps of information picked up at random from the reports of others, declares . candidly, that he believes this animal to be as yetanonyme, that is, not to have a name, and in this, as in other refpects, to be perfectly unknown. If thofe that have written con- eerning it had ftopt here likewife, perhaps the lofs the pub- lic would have fuffered by wanting their obfervations would not have been accounted a great detriment to natural hif- tory. _Mr Pennant +, from Mr Brander’s calling it a fox, jhas taken occafion to declare that.his genus isa dog. Mr Sparman, that he may contribute his mite, attacks the de- fcription which I gave of this animal; in a converfation with VoL. V. T | the *® Supplement to Tom. iii. p. 148. + Vol. I. p. 248. 132 APPENDIX. the Count de Buffon at Paris. He declares I am miftaken by faying that it lives on trees * ; for in confequence, I fup- pofe, of its being a fox, he fays it burrows in the ground, which, I doubt very much, he never faw an African fox do. His reafon for this is, that there is a fmall animal which lives in the fands at Camdebo, near the Cape of Good Hope, which is rofe-coloured, and he believes it to be the animal in queftion, for he once hunted it till it efcaped by burrowing under ground, but he did not remark or diftin- guifh his ears 7. I po really believe there may be many fmall animals found at Camdebo, as well as in all the other fands of Africa ; but having feen the reft of this creature during the whole time of a chace, without remarking his ears, which are his great characteriftic, is a proof that Dr Sparman is either miftaken in the beaft itfelf, or elfe that he is an unfor- ‘tunate and inaccurate obferver. There is but one other animal that has ears more confpicuous or difproportioned than this we are now {peaking of. I need not name him toa man of the profeflor’s learning. The Doctor goes on ina further defcription of this animal that he had never feen. He fays his name is Zerda, which | fuppofe is the fweeteft - tranflation of the Arabic word Jerd, or Jerda. But here Dr Sparman has been again unlucky in his choice, for, befides many other differences, the Jerd, which is an animal well known both in Africa and Arabia, has no,tail, but this per- haps is but another inftance of the Doctor’s ill fortune ; in the | ® Sparman’s yoyage to the Cape, vol. ii. p. 195. + P. 185. APPENDIX. 134 the firft cafe, he overlooked this animal’s ears ; in the fecond, he did not perceive that he had a tail, Tue Arabs who conquered Egypt, and very foon after the reft of Africa, the tyranny and fanatical ignorance of the Khalifat of Omar being overpaft, became all at once excellent obfervers. They addicted themfelves with won- derful application to all forts of fcience ; they became very fkilful phyficians, aftronomers, and mathematicians ; they applied in a particular manner, and with great fuccefs, to natural hiftory, and being much better acquainted with their country than we are, they were, in an efpecial man- “ner, curious in the accounts of its productions. They paid great attention in particular to the animals whofe figures and parts are defcribed in the many books they have left us, as alfo their properties, manners, their ufes in medicine and commerce, are fet down as diftinctly and plainly as words alone could do. Their religion forbade them the ufe of drawing; this is the fource of the confufion that has hap- pened, and this is the only advantage we have over them. T BELIEVE there are very few remarkable animals, either in Africa or Arabia, that are not ftill to be found defcribed in fome Arabian author, and it is doing the public little fer- vice, when, from vanity, we fubftitute crude imaginations of our own in place of the obfervations of men, who were na- tives of the country, in perpetual ufe of feeing, as living with the animals which they defcribed. There cannot, I think, be a ftrongerinftance of this, than in the fubject now be- fore us ; notwithftanding what has been as confidently as ignorantly afferted, f will venture to affirm, that this ani- mal, fo far from being andnown, is particularly defcribed in all eee! the 134 APPENDUM the Arabian books; neither is he without a name; he liag: | one by which he invariably paffes in-every part of Africa; : where he exifts, which in all probability he has enjoyed as. long as the lion or the tiger have theirs. He is white, and’ not rofe-coloured*; he does not burrow in the earth, but : lives upon trees ; he is not the jerda, but has’a tail, and his genus is net.a dog; for he is no.fox. Here is a troop ofer>s rors.on one fubjecét, that would give any man a furfeit of modern defcription, all arifing from conceit, the cacoethes firs bendi, 00 great love of writing, without having been at the pains to gain a fufficient knowledge of the fubject by fair. inquiry and a.very little reading. . Tue name of this quadruped all over-Africa is El Fennec 3° fuch was the name of that | firft faw at Algiers; fuch it is called in the many Arabian books that have defcribed it. - But.this name, having no obvious fignification in Arabic, its derivation has given rife to many ill-founded gueffes, and laid it open to. the conjectures of grammarians who were not naturalifts. Gollius fays, it is a weafel, and fo fay all the Arabians. He calls it muflela fenaria, the hay weatfel,. from foenum, hay, that being the materials of which’ he builds his net. But this derivation cannot be admitted, for there is no fuch thing known as hay in the country where , the Fennec refides. But fappofing that the dry grafs in all } countries may be called hay, ftill foenum,a Latin word, — would not*be that which would exprefs it in Africa. But when we confider that long before, and ever after Alex ander’s conqueft, down as low as the tenth century, the lan~ f guage * Sparman, vol. II. p. 185. APPENDIX. 135° guage of thefe countries behind Egypt was chiefly Greek, an etymology much more natural and characteriftic wilk prefent icfelf in the word gow, a palm tree, whence comes pheenicus, adjective, of or. belonging tothe palm or date- tree, | Gaprisr'Sronita ™ fays, the Fennec is a white weafel that lives in Sylvis Nigrorum, that 1s, in the woods of the. Melano-Gatuli, where indeed no other tree grows but the palm-tree, and this: juft lands us in the place from which the Fennec was brought to me at Algiers, in Bifcara, Beni- Mezzab, and Werglah. It will be obferved, that he does -not fay it is an.animal: of Nigritia; for that country being within the tropical. rains, many-other trees grow befides the palm, and there the date does not ripen; and by its very thin-hair, and fine fkin, this creature is known at firft fight'ro belong to a dry, warm-climate. But to leave no fort of doubt, he calls him Getulicus, which. fhews precifely. what country he means. There, in the high palm-trees, of which this country is full, he writes, the Fennec builds its neft, and brings up its young. Gig- geius tells us, that their {kins are made ufe of for fine peli fes; Ibn -Beitar, that quantities of this fur is brought from the interior parts of Africa, and Damir and Razi fay, that their fkins are ufed for fummer peliffes +. Arter leaving Algiers I met with another Fennec at Tu- oe Nis 3. Clem, 3, part 1. * Vid. Epift. J. Caii, Angli ad Gefnerom, 536 APPENDIX. nis; it had come laft from the ifland of Gerba*, and had | been brought there by the caravan of Gadems, or Fezzan. I bought one at Sennaar, from whence it came I know not; I kept it a confiderable time in a cage, till finding it was no longer fafe for me to flay at Sennaar, | trufted it by way of depofit in the hands of a man whom it was neceflary to deceive, with the expectation that I was to return, and only going for a few days to the camp of Shekh Adelan. It was known by Mahomet Towath, and feveral people at Sennaar, to be frequently carried to Cairo, and to Mecca, with paro- quets, and fuch curiofities which are brought by the great caravan from the Niger which traverfes the dreary de- fert of Selima, and takes the date villages in its way eaft- ward. Axi thefe animals found at feparate times did exadtly refemble the firft one feen at Algiers. They were all known by the name of Fennec, and no other, and faid to inhabit the date villages, where they built their nefts upon trees perfectly conformable to what the Arabian authors, whe- ther naturalifts or hiftorians, had faid of them. Tuovcu his favourite food feemed to be dates or any {weet fruit, yet lobferved he was very fond of eggs: pigeons eggs, and {mall birds eggs, were firft brought him, which he devoured with great avidity; but he did not feem to know how to manage the egg of a hen, but when broke for. him, he ate it with the fame voracity as the others. When he was hungry, he would eat bread, efpecially with honey _ or pms ee a REE SR EE * Meninx Ins. APPENDIX. 137 or fugar. It was very obfervable that a bird, whether con- fined in a cage near him, or flying acrofs the room, engroffed his whole attention. He followed it with his eyes where- ever it went, nor was he at this time to be diverted by placing bifcuit before him, and it was obvious, by the great intereft he feemed to take in its motions, that he was ac- cuftomed to watch for victories over it, either for his plea- fure or his food. He feemed very much alarmed at the approach of a cat, and endeavoured to hide himfelf, but fhewed no fymptom of preparing for any defence. I never heard he had any voice; he fuffered himfelf, not without fome difficulty, to be handled in the day when he feemed ra- ther inclined to fleep, but was exceedingly unquiet and reftlefs fo foon as night came, and always endeavouring his efcape, and though he did not attempt the wire, yet with his fharp teeth he very foon maftered the wood of any common bird-cage. From the fnout to the anus he was about ten inches long, his tail five inches and a quarter, near an inch on the tip of it was black. From the point of his fore-f{houlder to the point of his fore-toe, was two inches and Zths. He was two inches and a half from his occiput to the point of his nofe, the length of his ears three inches and iths. Thefe were doubled, or had a plait on the bottom on the outfide ; the border of his ears in the infide were thick-covered with foft white hair, but the middle part was bare, and of a pink or rofe colour. They were about an inch anda half broad, and the cavities within very large. It was very difficult to méafure thefe, for he was very impatient at ha- ving his ears touched, and always kept them erect, unlefs when terrified by a cat. The pupil of his eye was large 3 and wy F >» , Ps « _ pe? A” ° £38 APPENDIX. and black, furrounded by a deep blue iris. He had firong, thick muftachoes ; the tip of his nofe very fharp, black, and polithed. His upper jaw reached beyond the lower, and had four grinders on each fide of the mouth. It has fix fore- teeth in each jaw. Thofe inthe under jaw are fmaller than the upper. The canine, or cutting teeth, are long, large, and exceedingly pointed. His legs are {mall, and his feet very broad; he has four toes armed with crooked, black, fharp claws ; thofe on his fore-feet:more crooked and fharp than behind. All his body is nearly of a dirty white, bordering on cream colour; the hair of his belly rather whiter, fofter, and longer. than the:reft, and on it a number of paps, but he was {o impatient it was impoffible to count them. He very feldom extended or ftiffened his tail, the hair of which was harder. He hada very fly and wily appearance. But as he is.a folitary animal, and not gregarious, as he has no particular mark of feeblenefs about him, no fhift or parti- cular cunning which “might occafion Solomon to qualify him as wife; as he builds his neft upon trees, and not on the rock, he cannot be the faphan of the fcripture, as fome, both Jews and Arabians, not fufficiently attentive to the qualities attributed to that animal, have neverthelefs erro- neoufly imagined. Bite ASHKOKQ. . we « ‘ : = * ‘ ‘a i y \, Wy \ Segall yd hy y 3 ‘sail/}), Coe Aye /b ! e d t A ‘ - London Lublifhid Deel? 789. by © hobinson RO. " ’ | “ z ** 7 ” *, | APPENDIX. 439 ASHKOKO, T HIS curious animal is found in Ethiopia, in the 3 caverns of: the rocks, or under the great ftones ia the Mountain of the Sun, behind the queen’s palace at Kofcam. It is alfo frequent in the deep caverns in the rock in many other places in Abyflinia. It does not bur- row, or make holes, as the rat and rabbit, nature havin g in- terdicted him this practice by furnifhing him with feet, the toes of which are perfectly round, and of a foft, pulpy, ten- der fubftance ; the flefhy parts of the toes project beyond the nails, which are rather broad than fharp, much fimilar to a man’s nails ill grown, and thefe appear rather given him for the defence of his foft toes, than for any active ufe in digging, to which they are by no means adapted. _ His hind foot is long and narrow, divided with two deep wrinkles, or clefts, in the middle, drawn acrofs the centre, on each fide of which the flefh rifes with confiderable pro- tuberancy, and it is terminated by three claws, the middle one is the longeft. The forefoot has four toes, three difpo- Vou. V. si A fed 140 APPENDIX. fed in the fame proportion as the hind foot ; the fourth, the largeft of the whole, is placed lower down on the fide of the foot, fo that the top of it arrives no farther than the bottom of the toe next to it. The fole of the foot is di- vided in the centre by deep clefts, like the other, and this cleft reaches down to the heel, which it nearly divides. The whole of the forefoot is very thick, flefhy, and foft, and of a deep black colour, altogether void of hair, though the back, or upper part of if, 1s ae covered like the reft of its body, down to where the toes divide, there the hair ends, fo that thefe long round toes very much refemble the fin- gers of a man. In place of holes, it feems to delight in lefs clofe, or more airy places, in the mouths of caves, or clefts in the rock, or where one projecting, and being open before, affords, a long retreat under it, without fear that this can ever be re: moved by the ftrength or operations of man. The Ags are gregarious, and frequently feveral dozens of them fit upon the great ftones at the mouth of caves, and warm themfelves in the fun, or even come out and enjoy:the freth- nefs of the f{ummer evening: They do not fland wpright upon their feet, but feem to fteal along as in fear, their belly being nearly clofe to the ground, advancing'a few fleps. at a time, and then paufing. They have fomething very mild, feeble like, and timid in their deportment; are gentle and eafily tamed, though, when iad ahi handled at the frft, they bite very feverely. perio it eh WG (eee ee is fee ah cnendeall on Mount Libanus. I have feen him alfo among the rocks at the Pharan Promon- % toxium, APPENDIX.” i4t torium, or Cape Mahomet, which divides the Elanitic from the Heroopolitic Gulf, or Gulf of Suez. In all places they feem to be the fame, if there is any difference it is in fa- vour of .the-fize and fatnefs, which thofe in the Mountain of the Sun feem. to enjoy above the others. What is his food I cannot determine with any degree of certainty. When in my poffeffion, he ate bread and milk, and feemed rather to be a moderate than voracious feeder. I fuppofe he lives upon grain, fruit, and roots. He feemed too timid and backward in his own nature to feed upon living food, © or catch it by hunting. Tue total length of this animal as he fits, from the point of his nofe to his anus, is 17 inches and a quarter. The length of his fnout, from the extremity of the nofe to the occiput, is 3 inches and jths.. His upper jaw is longer than his under; his nofe ftretches half an inch beyond his chin. The aperture of the mouth, when he keeps it clofe in profile,is a little morethananinch. The circumference of his fnout around both his jaws is 3 inches and iths; and round his head, juft-above his ears, 8 inches and {ths ; the circumference of his neck is 8 inches and a half, and its length one-inch and a half. He feems more willing to - turn his body altogether, than his neck alone. The circum- ference of his body, meafured behind his’ forelegs, is 9 inches and three quarters, and that of his body where great- eft, eleven inches and jths. The length of his foreleg and toe is 3 inches anda half. The length of his hind thigh is 3 inches and 4th; and the length of his hind leg to the toe taken together, is 2 feet 2 inches.. The length of the forefoot is 1 inch and 3ths; the length of the middle toe 6 lines, and its breadth 6 lines alfo. The diltance between U 2 the 143 | APPENDIX ~ the point of the nofe and the firft corner of the eve is one inch and jths; and the length of his eye, from one angle to the other, 4 lines. The difference from the fore angle of his eye to the root of his ear is one inch 3 lines, and the opening of his eye 2 hnes and a half. His upper lip is covered with a pencil of ftrong hairs for muftachoes, the length of which are 3 inches and jths, and thofe of his eye- brows 2 inches and 3ths. He has no tail, and gives at firft fight the idea of a rat, rather than of any other creature.. His colour is a grey mixt with a reddifh brown, perfectly like the wild or war- ren rabbit. His belly is white, from the point of the lower jaw, to where his tail would begin, if that he hadone. All over his body he has fcattered hairs, ftrong and polifhed like his muftachoes, thefe are for the moft part two inches and a quarter in length. His ears are round, not point- ed. He makes no noife that ever I heard, but certainly chews the cud. To difcover this, was the principal reafon of my keeping him alive ; thofe with whom he is acquaint- ed he follows with great affiduity. The arrival of any li- ving creature, even of a bird, makes him feek for a hiding- place, and | {hut him up ina cage with a fimall chicken, after omitting feeding him a whole day ; the next morning the chicken was unhurt, tho’ the Afhkoko came to me with great figns of having fuffered with hunger. I likewife made a fecond experiment, by inclofing two fmaller birds with him, for the fpace of feveral weeks ;, neither were thefe hurt, though both of them fed, without impediment, of the meat that was thrown into his cage, and the fmalleft of thefe a kind of tit-moufe, feemed to be advancing in a fort ef familiarity with him, though I never faw it venture to ; perch APPENDIX, 143 perch upon him, yet it would eat frequently, and at the fame time, of the food upon which the Afhkoko was feeding ; and in this confifted chiefly the familiarity I fpeak of, for the Afhkoko himfelf never fhewed any alteration of be- haviour upon the prefence of the bird, but treated it with a kind of abfolute indifference. The cage, indeed, was Jarge, and the birds having a perch to fit upon in the upper part of it, they did not annoy one another. In Amhara this animal is called Afhkoko, which I appre- hend is derived from the fingularity of thofe long herina- cious hairs, which, like {mall thorns, grow about his back, and which in Amharaare called Afhok. In Arabia and Sy- ria he is called Ifrael’s Sheep, or Gannim Ifrael, for what reafon I know not, unlefs it is chiefly from his frequenting the rocks of Horeb and Sinat, where the children of Irae} made their forty years peregrination ; perhaps this name ob- - tains only among the Arabians. I apprehend he is known _ by thar of Saphan in the Hebrew, and is the animal erro- neoufly called by our tranflators Cwniculus, the rabbit or coney. Many are the reafons againft admitting this animal, mentioned by fcripture, to be the rabbit. We know that this laft was an animal peculiar to Spain, and therefore could not be fuppofed to be either in Judea or Arabia. They are gregarious indeed, and fo far refemble each other, as alfo in point of fize, but in place of feeking houtes in the rocks, we know the’ cuniculus’ defire is eonftantly fand. They have claws, indeed, or nails, with which they dig holes or burrows, but there is nothing remarkable in them, or their frequenting rocks, fo as to be defcribed by that cir- cumftance ; 144 APPENDIX, cumftance; neither is there any thing in the character of the rabbit that denotes excellent wifdom, or that they fup- ply the want of ftrength by any remarkable fagacity. The faphan then is not the rabbit, which laft, unlefs it was brought to him by his fhips from Europe, Solomon never faw. It was not the rabbit’s particular character to haunt a the rocks. He was by no means diftinguifhed for feeble- nefs, or being any way unprovided with means of digging for himfelf holes. On the contrary, he was armed with claws, and it was his character to dig fuch, not i the rocks, but in the fands. Nor was he any way diftinguifhed for wifdom, more than the hare, the hedge-hog, or any of his neighbours. , re i Let us now apply thefe characters to the Afhkoko. He is above all other animals fo much attached to the rock, __ a that I never once faw him on the ground, or from among large ftones in the mouth of caves, where is his conftant re- + fidence ; he is gregarious, and lives in families. He is in | Judea, Paleftine, and Arabia, and confequently muft have — been familiar to Solomon. For David defcribes him very pertinently, and joins him with other animals perfectly known to all men: “The hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the faphan, or afhkoko*.” And Solomon fays, “‘ There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wife t :’—“ The faphan- nim are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houfes in the rocks {.”. Now this, { think, very obviouily fixes the Afhkoko to be the faphan, for this weaknefs feems to al- ; lude * Pfalm civ. ver, 18. + Prov. chap. xxx. ver. 24. t Prov. chap. XXX. ver. 26. ° = APPENDIX.: 145 ‘Jude to his’ feet; and how inadequate thefe are to dig holes in the rock, where yet, however, he lodges. Thefe are, as Ihave already obferved, perfectly round; very pulpy, or flethy, fo liable to be excoriated or hurt, and of a foft flefhy fubftance. Notwithftanding which, they build houfes in the very hardeft rocks, more inacceflible than thofe of the rabbit, and in which they abide in greater fafety ; not by ex- ertion of ftrength, forthey have it not, but are truly as Solo- mon fays, a feeble folk, but by their own fagacity and judg- ment, and are therefore juftly defcribed as wife. Laftly, what - leaves the thing without doubt is, that fome of the Arabs, _ particularly Damir, fay, that the faphan has no tail; that it is tefs than a cat, and lives in houfes, that is, not houfes with men, as there are few of thefe in the country where the faphan is; but that he builds houfes, or netts of ftraw, _as Solomon has faid of him, in contradiftin@tion to the rabbit, gad “rat, and,thofe other animals, that burrow in the ground, who cannot be He to build shoutes, z as 1S as ly faid pe tk : Tu Chriftians in Abyffinit do not eat the fleth of this animal, as holding it unclean, neither do the “Mahometans, who in many refpects of this kind in abatinence from wild meat, have the fame {cruple as chriftians. The Arabs in Arabia Petrea do eat it, and I am informed thofe on Mount ‘Libanus alio. Thofe of this kind that I {aw were very fat, and their fleth as white as that of a chicken. Though F killed them frequently’ with the gun, yet I never happened to. be alone fo as to. be able to eat them. They are quite devoid of all fmell and ranxnefs, which cannot be faid of the rabbit: Ta avr 146 APPENDIX. I nave no doubt that the El Akbar and the El Webro of the Arabs, are both the fame animal. The El Akbar only means the largeft of the Mus-montanus, under which they have clafled the Jerboa. The Jerd, and El Webro, as alfo the Afhkoko or Akbar, anfwer to the character of having no tail, BOOTED LYNX ‘ *. t ES r- BEL ites Hie oe. ee aa : m ‘ eee Pe . ne is See ; -. a ait T HI 5 isa very peaneeal ae oe igen Bbc: as far as as 1 know, the fmalleft of the kind. His body from the tip of the nofe to the anus being only 22 inches. His back, neck, and forepart of his feet are of a dirty grey. His belly is of a dirty white, fpotted with undefined marks, or ftains of red. Below his eyes, and on each fide of his nofe, is a red- dith brown, the back of his ears being of the fame colour, but rather darker ; the infide of his ears is very thickly clothed with fine white hair, and at the end is the pencil of hairs diftinctive of this genus. On the back of his forefeet, he has a black ftreak or mark, which reachés from his heel I two — London Lublijhid Decl124 739. by 6 hobinson & . APPENDIX. 147 ‘two inches up his leg. On his hinder foot he has the fame, ‘which reaches four inches from the heel, and ends juft be- low the firft joint, and from this circu ftane@ | have given him his name. His.tailis 1 3 inches long, the lower part of it, for 6 inches, is occupied with black rings. Between thefe rings his tail is nearly white, the reft much the fame colour as his back. From his nofe to his occiput is 4 inches and three quarters. From one eye to the other, meafuring acrofs his nofe, is one anch and three quarters. From the bafe of one ear to that of the other, is 2 inches and jths. The aperture of the eye three quarters of an inch, and of ayellowiris. The length -of his ear from its bafe to the point of the pencil of hairs at the top of it, 4. inches and three quarters. From the fole of his forefoot ‘to his fhoulder, as he ftands, 13 inches and «hree quarters. From the fole of this hind foot, to the top of his rump, 15 inches and a quarter. He has very much the appearance of a common cat, both from the length of his tail, and the fhape of his head, which however is broader, and his. neck thicker than that of a domeftic animal. He is an inhabitant of ‘Ras el Feel, and, ‘{mall as he is, lives among thofe tyrants of the foreft, the elephant and rhinoceros. I do not mean that he has any hunting connections with them, as the jackal with the lion, I rather think he avails himfelf of what is left by the hun- ters of the carcafes of thofe huge beafts. But the chief of all his food is the Guinea-hen, of which the thickets and bufhes of this country are full- For thefe he lurks chiefly at the pools of water when they drink, and in this act of violence I furprifed him. He is faid to be exceedingly Vou. V. Xx fierce, 148 ~ APPENDIX. fierce, aid to attack a man if any way preffed. At this time he mounts eafily upon the highett trees ; at other times he is content with hiding himfelf in bufhes, bud in the feafon of the fly he takes to holes and caverns in the ground. I never faw its young ones, nor did I ever hear any noife it - makes, for the fhot killed him outright, but did not in the leaft disfigure him; fo that the reader may depend upon this reprefentation of him as I have given it, with all pofli~ : ble truth and precifion. Or BIRDS. HE number of birds in Abyflinia exceeds that of other animals beyond proportion. The high and low coun- tries are equally ftored with them, the firft kind are the carnivorous birds. Many fpecies of the eagle and hawk, many more full of the vulture kind, as it were overftock all parts of this country. That fpecies of glede called Haddaya, fo frequent in Egypt, comes very punc¢tually into Ethiopia, at the return of the fun, after the tropical rains. The quantity of fhell-fith which then covers the edges of the defert, and leaves the falt {prings where they have been nourifhed, furprifed by the heat, and deferted by the moif- ture, are the firft food thefe birds find in their way. They then are fupplied in the neighbouring Kolla, by the carca- fes of thofe large beafts, the elephant, rhinoceros, and gi- _raffa, the whole tribe of the deer kind, and the wild affes 2 that ro APPENDIX, that are flain by the hunters, part of which only are ufed: at in food. / ere Tue vaft quantity of field-rats and mice that appear af- ter harveft, and {warm in the-cracks,. or: fiffures in the- ground, are their next fupply.. But above all, the great flaughter made of cattle ‘upon the march of the army,. the beafts of burden which die under carriage and ill treat- _ ment, the number of men that perifh by difeafe and by the- . {word, whofe carcafes are never buried by this barbarous and unclean people, compofe fuch:a quantity, and variety~ of carrion, that it brings together at one time a multitude: 4 of birds of prey, it. would. feem there was not fuch a: number in the whole earth. Thefe follow the camp, and’ abide by it ;.indeed, they feem.another camp round it, for,. ' befides thofe that ventured among the tents, | have feen the- fields covered’on every fide as far as the eyes could reach, . and the branches of theirees.ready.to break under the pref: - fure of their weight... RK: oe ee Tris unclean multitude remain together in perfect peace’ | till the rains become conflant and heavy; which deprive: them, of their food by forcing the hunters and armies to re- a tire home. Nor are other circumttances wanting equally: | obvious, which account for the great number of birds that. live on infects. The fly, of which we have already {poken: fo often, reigns,in great {warms from May to September- en the plains, and in all the low country down tothe fands. of Atbara, .Thefe are attended by a multitude of enemies, . fome of whom feek them for food; others. feem to perfe- gute them from hatred, or for {port, from. the multitude: they fcatter upon the ground, without further care concern-. ine" =a APPENDIX ' 15F ingthem. Honey is the principal food of all ranks of peo- ple in Abyffinia,iand confequently. a multitude of ‘bees. are produced-everywhere.. Part of thefe are kept in large ca- ges, or bafkets, hung upon the trees; others attach them- felves to the branches, others build nefts in the foft wood of the trees, -efpecially the Bohabab, whofe large and frag- rant flower furnifhes them with a honey which it ftrongly perfumes. The honey generally borrows its colour from the flowers and herbs from whence it is gathered. At Dix- an we were furprifed to fee the honey red like blood, and nothing can’ have'an appearance more difgufting than this, when mixed with melted’ butter: There. are bees which build in the earth, whofe honey is nearly black, as has been obferved by, the jefuit. Jerome Lobo, I willingly place this truth to his credit, thesonly‘one, I think, I can find in his natural hiftory, a fmall.aronement for the noultitude of falfehoods this:vain. and idle romancer”has told on every occafion. Norare the granivorous birds fewer in’ number er:worfe provided for ;\\all the trees and {hrubs in Abyflinia bear flowers; and.confequently feeds,. berries, or fruit, of fome kind ‘or other; food forall or fome particular f{pecies of birds.. Every tree and buth carries thefe likewife in all flages of: ripenels, in all et of the year. . Turs ‘is; aneeied, Not ito. ee underftood as meaning thar. any trée produces in the f fame part, fruit or flowers more than. once a-year; but the time of each part’s bearing is very particularly |diftributed.. The weit fide of every tree ig: the! /firit that blotfomas, there its: fruit proceeds in all ftages of ‘ipenefs till it falls to the ground. It is fucceed- ed by the fouta, which undergoes ‘the fame proceis.- Fron. . this it crofles the'tree, and the north is-nexe in fruit; lat 2- of: 152 “AY REPENS ee: of all comes the eaft, which produces flowers and fruit till the beginning of the rainy feafon. In the end of April new leaves puth off the old ones without leaving the tree at any time bare, fo that every tree in Abyflinia appears to be an evergreen. The laft I faw in flower was the coffee- tree at Emfras the 2oth of April 1770: from this time till the rains begin, and all the feafon of them, the trees get fully into leaf, and the harveft, which is generally in thefe months throughout Abyflinia, fupplies the deficiency of - the feed upon buthes and trees. All the leaves of the trees. in Abyflinia are very highly varnifhed, and of a tough lea- ther like texture, which enables them to fupport the con- ftant and violent rains under which they are produced. Tus provifion made for granivorous birds, in itfelf fo ample, is doubled by another extraordinary regulation. The country being divided by a ridge of mountains, a line drawn along the top of thefe divides the feafons likewife ; fo that thofe birds to whom any one food is neceflary be- come birds of paflage, and, by a {hort migration, find the fame feafons, and the fame food, on the one fide, which the rains and change of weather had deprived them of on the other. THERE is no great plenty of water-fowl in Aby/flinia, efpecially of the web- footed kind. I never remember to have feen one of thefe-that are not common in moft parts of Europe. WVaft variety of ftorks cover the plains in May, when the rains become conitant. The large in- digenous birds that refide conftantly on the high mountains of Samen and Taranta, have moft of them an extraordinary provifion made againft the wet and the weather; each fea- ther is a ube, from the pores of which iffue a very fine duit 8 uk | or APPENDIX. 153 7 er powder; in fuch abundance as to ftain the %and upon grafping them. ‘This I fhall prefently mention in the det- cription of one of thefe birds, the golden casie of Lamal- mon. In looking at this duft through a very ftrong mag- nifying power, I thought I difcerned it to be in form ot a number of fine feathers. ‘THoven all the deep and grafly bogs have fnipes in thens, I never once faw a woodcock : fwallows there are of many kinds, unknown in Europe; thofe that are common in Europe appear in paflage at the very feafon when they take their flight from thence. We faw the greateft part of them in theifland of Mafuah where they lighted and tarried two days, andthen proceeded with moon. light nightsto the fourh- weft. But I once faw in the country of the Baharnagath, in the province of Tigré, the blue forked-tailed fwallow, which builds in the windows in England, making his neft out of feafon, when he fhould ene been upon his migra- tion; this I have already taken notice of in my ney from Mafuah to Gondar. THERE are few owls in Abyflinia;. but thofe are of an immenfe fize and beauty. The crow is marked white and black nearly in equal portions. ‘There is one kind of ra- wen; he, too, of a large fize, his feathers black intermixed with brown ; his beak tipt with white, and a figure like a cup or chalice of white feathers on his occiput, or hinder part of his head. I never faw either f{parrow, magpie, or bat in Abyffinia. Pigeons are there in great numbers, and of many varieties ; fome of them very excellent for eating. I fhall hereafter defcribe one of them whofe name is Waalia.. All the pigeons but one fort are birds of paflage, that one lives. | : in. 554 APPEND EX in the eaves of houfes.or holes in the walls, and this is not eaten, but accounted unclean for a very whimfical reafons they fay it has claws like a falcon, and is a mixture from that bird. The fame fort of imagination is that of the Turks, who fay, that the:Turkey, from the tuft of black hair that is upon his breaft, partakes of the nature of the hog. This pigeon’s feet are indeed large, but very dif- ferent in formation from that of the falcon. Tuere are no geefe in Abyflinia, wild or tame, excepting svhat is called the Golden Goofe, Goofe of the Nile, or Goofe of the Cape, common in all the South of Africa: thefe build their nefts upon trees, and when not in water, gene- Sally fit upon them. Il uave already fpoken of fifhes, and have entered very fparingly into their hiftory. Thefe, and other marine pro- ductions of the Arabian Galf, or even the {mall fhare that I have painted and collected, would occupy many large vo- lumes to exhibit and defcribe, and would coft, in the engra- ving, amuch larger fum than I have any profpect of ever being able to affand, 2S ARBs wre — —. : | focr Merk A 7 London Tubljhit Deo1*78y. by ¢ hobiwon & , APPENDIX, . 155 4 ia Dut Mijetel olstthepvr chy isis ai dt % # ees * Mai ivy: horo¥es ‘Brg Maelastet, ‘lotiioiy ae . \ # ‘ ‘deen ae En solid na Abou Duch’n, n, or Rasucei oe ull feemed vemark- TE nae shape in igen ede eas only foul inches from the joining of the foot to where the leg joins the thigh, and _ from the joint of the thigh to the joining of his body 6 Par Vou. V s mes . inches, e a- $ / 156 APPENDIX inches. The : of his thigh was little lefs than 4. inches; it was extremely mufcular, and covered with flefh. His middle claw was about 2 inches and a half long, . not very fharp at the point, but extremely ftrong, From the root of the bill, to the point, was 3 inches and a quarter, and one inch and three quarters in breadth at the root. A forked brufh of ftrong hair, divided at the point into two, — proceeded from the cavity of his lower jaw at the beginning of his throat. He had the fmalleft eye I ever remember to: have feen in a large bird, the aperture being fcarcely half an inch. The crown of his head was bare or bald, fo was: the front where the bill and fcull joined. Tus noble bird was not an object of any chace or pur= — fuit, nor ftood in need of any ftratagem to bring him with- in our reach. Upon the higheft top of the mountain La- malmon, while my fervants were refrefhing themfelves from that toilfome rugged afcent, and enjoying the pleafure: of a moft delightful climate, eating their dinner an the outer air with feveral large difhes of boiled goats ° fiefh before them, this enemy,.as he turned out ‘to ‘be to’ them, appeared fuddenly ; he did not ftoop rapidly from a. height, but came flying flowly along the ground, and fat down clofe to the meat within the ring the men had made’ round it. A great fhout, or rather ery of diftrefs, called me: to the place. 1 faw the eagle ftand for a minute as if to re> collet himfelf, while the fervants ran for their lances and: fhields. I walked up as nearly to him as I had time to do.. His attention was fully fixed upon the flefh. I faw him: put his foot into the pan where was a large piece in water’ prepared for boiling, but finding the {mart which he had: Q, Youd Hz | not - APPENDIX. ¥57 not expected, he withdrew i it, and forfook the pie ce which he held. Turre were two large pieces, a leg anda fhoulder, lying upon a wooden platter, into thefe he truffed both his claws, and carried them off, but I thought he looked wiftfully at the large piece which remained in the warm water. Away he went flowly along the ground as he had come. The face of the cliff over which criminals are thrown took him from our fight. The Mahometans that drove the afles, who had, as we have already obferved in the courfe of the jour- ney, fuffered from the hyzna, were much alarmed, and af- fured) me of his return. My fervants, on the other hand, very unwillingly expected him, and thought he had already more than his fhare. As I had myfelf a defire of more intimate acquaintance with him,!I loaded a rifle-gun with ball, and fat down clofe _to the platter by the meat. It was not many minutes before he came, and a prodigious fhout was raifed by my attend- ants, Heis coming, he is coming, enough to have difcouraged a lefs courageous animal. Whether he was not quite fo hungry as at the firft vifit, or fufpected fomething from my appearance, I know not, but he made a {mall turn, and fat down about ten yards from me, the pan with the meat being between meand him. As the field was clear before me, and Idid not know but his next move might bring him oppofite to fome of my people, and fo that he might actually get the reft of the meat and make off, Pilon, him with the ball through the middi¢ of his body about two inches below the wing, fo that he fy down upon the grafs without a fingle flutter. Upon laying hold of his monftrous carcafe, I was Y2 not Oye f58 APPENDIX! not a little furprifed at feeing my hands covered and-tinged with yellow powder or duft. Upon turning him upon his belly, and examining the feathers of his back, they produced - a brown duft, the colour of the feathers there. This duft was notin {mall quantities, for, upon ftriking his breaft, the yellow powder flew in fully greater quantity than from a hair-drefler’s powderpuff. The feathers of the bellyand breatt, which wereof.a gold colour, did not appear to have any thing extraordinary in their formation, but the largeféathersin the thoulder and wings feemed apparently to be fine tubes,which “pon preflure feattered this duft upon the finer partof the fea- ther, butthis was brown, the colour of the feathersof the back. Upon the fide of the wing, the ribs, or hard part of the fea- ther, feemed’to be bare as if worn, or, I-rather think, were renewing themfelves, having before failed in their func- tion. Wuar is the reafon of this extraordinary provifion of na- ture is not in my power to determine. As itis an unufual one, itis probably meant for a defence againft the climate in favour of thofe birds which live in thofe almoft inaccef- fible heights of a country, doomed, even in its lower parts, to (eral months of exceflive rain. The pigeons we faw upon Lamalmon, had not this duft in their feathers, nor had the quails ; from which I guefs thefe to be ftrangers, or birds of paflage, that had no need of this provifion, created for the wants of the indigenous, fuch as this eagle is, for he is unknown in the low country. That fame day I fhot a heron, in nothing different from ours, only that he was ‘{maller, who had upon his breaft and back a blue pow- der, in fullas great quantity as that of the eagle. BLACK cn ry (i London Lublyhd Deels?% 739. by o hobinson & 0. i) spoantbort sbyaurt jad Z me M cy? ‘ TLIO: mets certyre Lata Qsice: ee a : , on “ b ae toe > nay a J me ~ ore Bey rps beautiful “pi -ewiesll BEE co btiel lofs of. liberty; ca pel nh vector clas fiiffered king and whole army ed the Niles in circumftances D oP his kkirid was ap= : psiiely enough thought to Bei a type of the king, fell by ‘a fate, i in which he ftill more refembled him, overpowered by the ftrength and number ofa fpecies of birds in cha-_ _racter infinitely below him. It has been repeatedly ob- U ferved i in the pes of my narrative, that an inconceivable ; MAREN TRAN number. 16a : APPENDIX. number of birds and beafts of prcy, efpecially the former, follow an Aby/ffinian army pace by pace, from the firft day of its march till its return, increafing always in pro- digious proportion the more it advances into the coun- ‘try. An army there leaves nothing living behind, not the veftige of habitation, but the fire and the fword reduces everything toa ar ig al and folitude., Tue beafts and birds unmolefted have the country to themfelves, and increafe beyond all poflible conception. The flovenly manner of this favage people, who after a battle neither bury friends nor enemies, the quantity of beafts of burden that die perpetually under the load of baggage, and variety of mifmanagement, the quantity of offal and half-eaten carcafes of cows, goats, and fheep, : which they confume in their march for their fuftenance, all . furnith a ftock, of carrion fufficient to occafion contagious diftempers, were there not fuch a prodigious. number of voracious attendants, who confume them almoft before pu- trefaction. In their voracious ftomachs lies the grave of the braveft foldier, unlefs very high birth or office, or very. extraordinary affection in their attendants, procure. them a more decent, though more uncommon fate, a fepulchre in a neighbouring church-yard, There is no giving the _ reader any idea of their number, unlefs by comparing them to the fandof the fea, While the army is in motion they are a black canopy, which extend over it for leagues. When encamped, the ground is difcoloured. with them beyond the fight of the eye, all the trees are loaded with them. I need not fay. that thefe are all carrion birds, fuch as the vulture, kite, and raven, that is a fpecies to which nature has refu- I Pe fed ? : i 4 ; APPENDIX. 161 fed both the inclination and the power of feeding upon li- ving fubjects. By what accident this {mall eagle, who was not a car-- rion bird, came among tiefe Cowardly and unclean feeders, is more than [ can fay; but it met the fate very common to thofe who affort with bad company, and thofe of fenti- ments and manners inferior to their own. One of thefe, a kite, vulture, or raven, | know not which, ftruck the poor eagle down to the ground juft before the door of the king’s tent, and hurt him fo violently, that he had fcarcely firemgth to flutter under the canopy where the king was fitting ; pages and officers of the bed-chamber foon feized him. It was not long before they made the application that the king was to be dethroned by a fubject, and Fafil was in everybody’s mouth. The omen was of the kind too ‘un- pleafant to be dwelt upon; the fenfible people of the at- tendants hurried it away, and it of courfe came to me with all the circumftances of the accident, the moral of that tale, and twenty prophecies that were current to: confirm it. I confefs my own weaknefs; at firft it made a {trong impref- fion upon me. In the moment the paflage of Shakefpeare came into my mind,. “On Tuefday latt, “ A falcon tow’ring in his pride of place, “ Was by a moufing owl hawk’d at and kill’d.” And this recollection occupied my mind fo forcibly, that I ftood for a moment fpeechlefs, and as it were rivetted to the ground, This behaviour, unufual in me, who ufed always to Meh tee ee see 2) ¥52 APPENDIX.’ to-laugh at their prefages, and prophecies, was obferved by the page that brought me the bird, and was: reported to the king; and though he did not fpeak of it that time, yet fome days after, when I was taking my leave of him,:on his retreat from Gondar to Tigré, he mentioned it-to me: faid we were miftaken, for the omen referred to’ ‘Powuflen’ of Begemder, and not to Waragna Fafil. | vr Slodaes ‘Aprer fketching his genteel and noble manner while alive, our unfortunate.prifoner found his déath by :the needle, was put out of fight, and carried to Gondar, where the drawing. was -finifhed. He was altogether of a dark brown, or chefnut, leading to black. The: whole length, from the extremity of the tail to the -nofe, was two feet four inches. :The breadth, from wing to wing, four feet fix inches.. He was uae lean, and weighed fainting lefs. than five pounds. The fourth feather of-his wing after: the three largeft, was white. The feathers: of the lower fide of his tail were of a bluifh brown, checkered with white, and thofe of the upper fide of the tail were black and white alternately. His thighs were thick-covered with feathers, and fo were his legs, down.to the.joining of the foot.. His. feet were yellow, with ftrong black claws. The infide of a wings was white, with a mixture of brown. His leg, from he joining of the foot, was three inches., His beak, from *-e point to where the feathers reached, was two inches and © a quarter. The length of his creft from the head ‘to the longeft feather, five inches. The eye was black, with a caft of fire colour in it, the iris yellow, and the whole eye ex« ceedingly beautiful. He feemed wonderfully tame, or xather flu ggith, but whether that was crn his nature ar. 2 misfor- bide Au Gull z Tae 4 Sy 7 | LondonPublijted Lob 401790 by CRobisore & @. — APPENDIX. 163 ‘misfortune I cannot be a judge, never having feen an- - other. a Rs AARC Biiideeney age tis oi TH bird is met with in fome places in the fouth of F . Syria and in Barbary, but isno where fo frequent as in Egyptand about Cairo. It is called, by the Europeans, Poule de Faraone, the hen or bird of Pharaoh. It is a vulture of the leffer kind, not being much larger than our rook or crow, though, by the length of its wings, andthe ercé& man- ner in which it carries its head, it appears confiderably larger. In Egypt and all over Barbary it is called Rachamah, and yet it has been very much doubted what bird this was, as well as what was the origin ofthat name. Some of the Arabs will have it derived from Archam, which fignifies variegated, or of different colours. It has been anfwered, - that this is not the derivation, as archam in Arabic edi. fies variegated, or of more colours than twoor three blended Vou. V. eae hes « together, 164 APPENDIX. - together, whereas thisis in its feathers only black and white; feparate from one another, and cannot be. called variegated, ButI mutt here obferve, that this is by no means a proper interpretation of the Arabic word. Among many examples I could give, I fhall adduce but one. There is a particular kind of fheep in Arabia Felix, whofe head and part of the neck are black, and the reft of the beaft white; it is chiefly found between Mocha and the Straits of Babelmandeb. This in Arabic is called Rachama, for no other reafon but becaufe it is marked black and white, which are precifely the two colours which diftinguifh the bird before us. Bur I ftill am induced to believe the origin of this bird’s name has an older and more claffical derivation than that which we have juft fpoken of. We know from Horus Apollo, in his book upon Hieroglyphics, that the Rachma, or fhe- vulture, was facred to Ifis, and that its feathers adorned the ftarue of that goddefs. He fays it was the emblem of pa- rental affection, and that the Egyptians, about to write an affectionate mother, painted a fhe-vulture. He fays fur- ther, that this female vulture, having hatched its young ones, continues with them one hundred and twenty days; providing them with all neceflaries; and, when the ftock of food fails them, fhe tears off the flefhy part of her thigh, and feeds them with that andthe blood which flows from. the wound. Rachama, then, is good Hebrew,. it. is from Rechem, female love, or attachment, from an. origin which it cannot have in men. In this fenfe we fee it ufed with great propriety in the firft book of Kings *, 1H: * Chap. iil. ver..26.. APPENDIX. 165 in Ifaiah *, andin Lamentations +, and it feems particularly tomean what the Egyptians made it a hieroglyphic ot in very ancient ages, and before the time of Mofes, maternal affection towards their progeny. No mentionis here made of the male Rachama, nor was he celebrated for any parti- cular quality. From this filence, or negative perfonage in him, arofe a fable that there was no malein this {pecies. Horus“Apollo f, after naming this bird always in the feminine gender, tells us roundly, that there is no male of the kind, but that the female conceives from the fouth wind. Plutarch §, Am- mianus ||, and all the Greeks,*fay the fame thing; and Tzetzes 9, after having repeated the fame ftory at large, tells us that he took it all from the Egyptians, fo there feems to be little doubt either of the origin or meaning of the name. Tue fathers in the fir ages, after the death of Chrift, feem to have been wonderfully preffed in point of argument be- fore they could have recourfe to a fable like this to vindi- cate the poflibility of the Virgin Mary’s conception with- out human means. Tertullian,, Orgines|, Bazil—, and Am- brofius ++,are all wild enough to found upon this ridicu- lous argument, and little was wanting for fome of thefe pia learned * Chap. xlix. ver. 15. + Chap. iv. ver. 10. + Hieroglyph. lib. i. cap. tz. § Plut. In queft. Rom. queft. 93. ) Lib. xvii. .g Chil. 12. hift. 439. y In Valentin. cap. ro. 4+ Lib. i. Contra Celfum. ~= In hexaem homil. 8. ; ++ In hexaem, page 27. 166 APPENDIX, learned ones to land this fable upon Mofes, who probably- knew it as a vulgar error before. his time, but was very far from paying any regard ‘to it; on the contrary, it is with the utmoft propriety and precifion, that, fpeaking to the: people, he calls it. Rachama in the feminine, becaufe he- was then giving them a lift of. birds forbidden to be ate * among which he felected the female vulture, as that was. bet known, and the great object of idolatry and fuperfti- tion ; and the male, and allthe lefler abominations of that f{pecies, he included together’in the word that followed his kind ; though the Englifh tranflator, by calling the female vulture him, has introduced an impropriety that there was not the leaft foundation for: That Mofes was not the au- thor of or believer in this Egyptian fable, is plain from a. verfe in Exodus, where, at another time, he {peaks of this. bird.as'a male, and. calls him Racham, and not Racha. mia. ’ Ir will not be improper that I here take notice, that the- Enelifh tranflator, by his ignorance of language, has loft ail the beauty and even the fenfe of the Hebrew original. He makes God fay, Ye have feen what-I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings, and*brought you unto myfelf +”. Now, if the expreffion had been really Eagle, the word would have been Nifr, and would have fignified no- thing; but,in placeof eagle, God fays Vulture, the emblem of _ maternal affection and maternal tendernefs towards his chil- dren, which has a particular connection with, “ brought you unto myfelf;” fo thatthe paflage will run thus, Say to the children * Dent. chap. xiv, ver. 13. + Exod, chap. xix. ver. 4e APPENDIX. 167 children-of Ifrael, See how I have punifhed: the Ezyp- tians, while I bore you up on the wings of the Kachama, that is, of parental tendernefs and affection, and brought you home to myfelf. It is our part to be thankful that the truths of Holy Scripture are preferved to us entire, but fill it 1s a rational regret that great part. of the beauty of the original is. loft. . NotTwiTHSTANDING.all thathas been faid;this bird has been miftaken nearly by all the interpreters Hebrews, Syrians, and ' Samaritans; the Greeks, from imaginations of their own, have thought it to be the pelican, the ftork, the {wan, and. the merops. Bochart, after.a variety of guefles, acknowled- ges his own ignorance, and excufes it by laying equal blame upon others.. Hitherto, fays he, we have not been able to condefcend upon what bird this was, becaufe thofe that haye wrote concerning it were as ignorant in the na- tural hiftory of things as they were fkilful in thei interpreta- tion of werds. . Tue point of the beak of this bird is black, very fharp and ftrong for about three quarters of'an inch, it is then covered by.a yellow, flefhy membrane, which clothes it as it were both above and below, as likewife the forepart of the head and throat,.and ends in afharp point before, nearly oppofite to where the neck joins the breaf ; this membrane is wrinkled, and has a. few hairs growing thinly fcattered- upon.the lower part of it. It has large, open noftrils, and. prodigious large ears; whichy are not covered by any feathers whatever. The body is perfect white from the middle of the head, where it joins the yellow mem- brane,.down to the tail. The large feathers of its wing are 168 | APPENDIX. are black; they are fix in number. The leffer fea- thers are three, of an iron-grey, lighter towards the middle, and thefe are covered with three others leffer full, but of the fame form, of an iron rufty colour; thofe feathers that co- ' ver the large wing-feathers are at the top for aboutan inch and a quarter of an iron-grey, but the bottom is pure white. The tail is broad and thick above, and draws toa point at the bottom. It is not compofed of large feathers, and is not half an inch longer than the point of its wings. Its thighs are cloathed with a foft down-like feather, as far as the joint. Its legs are of a dirty white, inclining to flefh colour, rough, with fmall-tubercules which are foft and flefhy. It has three toes before and one behind; the middle of thefe is confiderably the longeft ; they are armed with black claws, rather ftrong than pointed, or much crooked. It has no voice that ever I heard, generally goes fingle, and oftener fits and walks upon the ground than upon trees. It delights in the moft putrid and ftinking kind of carrion, has itfelf a very ftrong {mell, and putrifies very fpeedily. “ae Ir is a very great breach of order, or police, to kill any one of thefe birds near Cairo. But as there are few of its fpecies in Egypt, and its name is the fame all over Africa and Arabia, it feems to me ftrange that the Arabian or He- brew writers fhould have found fo much difficulty in dif- covering what was the bird. It lays but two eggs, and builds its neft in the moft defert parts of the country. More of its hiftory or manners Ido not know. The books are full of fanciful ftories concerning it, which the inftructed | reader at firft fight will know to be but fable. 3 ERKOOM ¢ Raieess 7 C B Hye ue MOO, iE London Lublijpd Dec. 7% 739. by ¢ hobinson & lo, APPENDIX. 169 Bh OR Ege eee Or T would appear rae this bird i 1s part of a large tribe, the greateft variety in which lies in his beak and horn.. The horn he wears fometimes upon the beak, and fometimes upon the forehead above the root of the beak. Thefe are the only parts that appear in collections. J. gave to the ca- binet of the king of France the firft bird of this kind feen. entire, and I have here exhibited the firft figure and defcrip- tion of it that ever was feen in natural hiftory, drawn from the life. In the eaft part of Abyffinia it is called Abba Gumba, in the language of Tigre; on the weftern fide of the Tacazzé it is called Erkoom; the firft of its names is apparently from the groaning noife it makes, the fecond -has no fignification in. any language that I know. Art Ras el Feel, in my return through Sennaar, I made this drawing from avery entire bird, but flightly wound- | ae Aon 9° 70 APPENDIX. ed 5it was in that country called Teir.él Naciba, the bird of deftiny. This bird, or the kind of -it, is by naturalitts. called the Indian crow, or raven ; for what reafon it is thus claffed is more than I can tell. The reader will fee, when I deicribe his particular parts, whether they agree with thofe of the raven or not. There is one characteriftic of the ra- ven which he certainly has, he walks, and does not hop or jump in the manner that many others of that kind do; but then he, at times, runs with very great velocity, and, in running, very much refembles the turkey, or buftard, when his head is turned from you. | Tue colour of the eye of this bird is of a dark brown, or rather reddifh caft; but darker ftill as it approaches the pupil; he has very large eye-lafhes, both upper and lower, but efpecially his upper. “From the point of the beak to the extremity of the tail is 3 feet ro inches; the breadth from one point of the wing to the other extended,is 6 feet, | and the length 22 inches. The length of the neck 10 inches, and its thicknefs 3 inches.and a half; the length of the beak meafuring the opening near the head ftrai ght to the point, 1o inches; and from-the point of the beak to the root of the horn 7 inches and ?ths. The whole length of the horn .is 3 inches and a half. The length ef the horn from the.foot to the extremity where it joins the -beak, .is 4 inches. The thicknefs of the beak in front of the opening is one inch and ‘Zths. ‘The thick- nefs of the horn in front is one inch and #ths. The horn in height, taken from the upper part of the point to the beak, 2‘inches. The length of the thighs 7 inches, and that of the legs 6 inches and éths. The thicknefs in profile 7 lines, and in front 4 lines and a half. It has three toes before and one behind, but they are not very ftrong, nor feem- | 2 * ingly APPENDIX. 171 ingly made to,tear up carcafes. The length of the foot to the hinder toe is one inch 6 lines, the innermoft is one inch 7 lines, the middle 2 inches 2 lines, and the laft out- er one 2 inches one line. Tus bird is all of a black, or rather black mixed with foot-colour; thelarge feathers of the wing are ten in number, milk-white both without and within. The tip of his wings reaches very nearly to his tail; his beak and head meafu- red together are 11 inches and a half, and his head 3 inches and a quarter. At his neck he has thofe protuberances like the Turkey-cock, which are light-blue, but turn red ‘upon his being chafed, or in the time the hen is laying. I nave feen the Erkoom with eighteen young ones; it runs upon the ground much more willingly than it flies, but when it is -raifed, flies both ftrong and far. It has a rank {mell, and is faid to live in Abyflinia upon dead car- cafes. I never faw it approach any of thefe ; and what con- vinces me this is untrue, is, that I never faw one of them follow the army, where there was always a general aflembly of all the birds of prey in AbyTlinia. Ir was very eafy to fee what was its food, by its place of rendezvous, which was in the fields of teff, upon the tops of whichare alwaysa number of green beetles, thefe he trips off by drawing the ftalk through his beak, and which Operation wears his beak fo that it appears to be ferrated, and, often as I had eccafion to open this bird, I never found in him any thing but the green fcarabeus, or beetle. He has a putrid or flinking fmell, which I fuppofe is the rea- fon he has been imagined to feed trpon carrion, Vou. V, Aa ; Tur 172 | APPENDIX, — ¢ Tuz Erkoom builds in large, thick trees, always, if he can, near churches; has a covered neft like that of a mag: pie, but four times as largeas the eagle’s.. It places its neft firm upon the trunk, without endeavouring to make it high from the ground; the entry is always on the eaft fide. It would feem. that the Indian crow; of Bontius is of this kind: it is difficult, however, of belief, that his natural food is nuimegs ; for there feems nothing in his ftructure or inclination, which is. walking on the ground, that is. ne- eeflary or convenient for taking fuch food. ABOU HANNES HE ancient and true name of this bird feems to be loft. The prefent one is fancifully given from obfervation of. a circumftance of its economy ; tranflated, it fignifies, Fa- ther John, and the reafon is, that it appears on St John’s day, the precife time when firft the frefh water of the tropical rains is known in Egypt to have mixed with the Nile, and to | . me ve _ have - { “ CH T/ Vid. Vie London Lublfid Di V'7789. by € Robinson & WO. f v4 tray ba yar al \ et ! Bae 5 APPENDIX. 174 have made it lighter, fwecter, and more exhaleable in dew, that is inthe beginning of the feafon of the tropical rains, when all water-fowl, that are birds of paflage, refort to Ethi- opia in great sivssrtiinins As I have jal ieee this bird has loft its name, fo in the hiftory of Egypt and Ethiopia we have loft a bird, once very remarkable, of which now nothing remains but the name, this is the Ibis, to which divine honours were paid, whofe bodies were embalmed and preferved with the fame care as thofe of men. There ftill remain many repofitories full of them in Egypt, and appear everywhere in collections in the hands of the curious. Though the manner that thefe birds are prepared, and cauftic ingredients, with which the body is injected, have greatly altered the confiftency of their parts, and the colour of their plumage, yet it is from thefe, viewed and compared deliberately, and at leifure, that I am convinced the Abou Hannes is neither more nor lefs than the Ibis. — y ‘SEVERAL authors, treating of this bird, have involved it in more than Egyptian darknefs. They have firft faid it was ~a ftork, then the hematopus, or red-legged heron; they then fay its colour is of’a fine fhining black, its beak ae legs of adeep red. Some-have faid it was from it that men learn- - ed the way to adminitter clyfters, others, that it conceived at the beak, and-even laid eggs that way, and that its flefh is {weet and red like that of a falmon. All thefe and many more are fables. We know from Plutarch, that in the plumage, it is black and white like the pelargus. And the mummy pits, by furnifhing part of the bird itfelf, confirm | us in the opinion. Aa 2° THE 174 APPENDIX. Tue Abou Hannes has a beak fhaped like that of a cur-= lew, two-thirds of which is ftraight, and the remaining third crooked; the upper part of a green, horny fubftance,,. and the lower black. From the occiput to: where it joins the beak is four inches and a half. Its leg, from the lower joint of the thigh to the foot, is fix inches, the bone round and ftrong, according to the remark of Cicero, and from the lower joint of the thigh, to where it joins the body, is' five inches and a half. The height of the body as it ftands, - from the fole of its foot to the middle of the back, is. nine- teen inches. The aperture of the eye is one inch. Its feet and legs are black ; has three toes before, armed with fharp, ftraight claws: it has a toe alfo behind. Its head is brown, and the fame colour reaches down to the back, or where the back joins with the neck. Its throat is white, fo are its breaft, back, and thighs. The largeft feathers of its’ wings are a deep black for thirteen inches from theetail,. and from the extremity of the tail, fix inches up the back is black likewife. ' Now the meafures of the beak, the tibia, the thigh-bone, and the fcull, compared with the moft perfect of the em- balmed birds taken from the mummy pits, do agree in every thing as exactly as can be expected. The length of the beak in my drawing feems to exceed that of the embalmed bird, but I will not be pofitive 3, this fmallerror is not in the de- fign, though the white feathers are fcorched in the em- balmed birds, yet there is no difficulry in perceiving the colour diftin@ly ; there is lefs in diftinguifhing the black upon the wings and above its rump. The meafure of both fo exactly agree that they can fcarcely be miftaken. THE 4 APPENDIX. 175 -. Tue reafon, we are told, why this bird was held in fuch veneration in Egypt, was the great enmity it had to fer- _ pents, and the ufe of freeing the country from them ; but for my own part, I muft confefs, that as I know, for certain, there are no quantity of ferpents in Egypt, as the reafon of things is that they fhould be few, fo I can never make myfelf believe they ever were in fuch abundance, as to need any particular agent to.diftinguifh itfelf by deftroying them. Egypt Proper, that is the cultivated and inhabited part of it, is overflowed for five months every fyear by the Nile, and it is impoflible vipers can abound where there is fuch long and regular refrigerations. The viper cafts his fkin in May, and is immediately after in his renewed youth and fulnefs of vigour. All this time he would be doomed in Egypt to live under water, or hid in fome hole, and this ts the time when the Ibis is in Egypt, fo that the end of his coming would be fruftrated by the abfence of his enemy. The vipers have their abode in the fandy defert of Libya, where even dew doés not fall, where the fand is continually in motion, parch- ed with hot winds, and glowing with the fcorching rays of the fun. There the Ibis could not live; the country is not inhabited by man, and confequently vipers there would be no nuifance. Nay, we know thefe vipers of Libya are an article of commerce in Egypt. The Theriac is com- pofed of them at Venice and at Rome, and they are difper- fed for the ufes.of medicine throughout the different parts of the world. Now, in this light, the Ibis could not live among them, nor would he be of benefit even’ if he could; but as we have it from a number of credible hiftorians that the Ibis was plentiful in Egypt, that vipers, at leaft, in fome part of 2 if, 176 APPENDIX / it, were fo frequent as to be a nuifance, and that we know as furely two other things, that neither the vipers are a nuifance, nor is the Ibis in Egypt at this day, we muftlook for fome change in the ceconomy of the country which can account for this. We know ina manner not to doubt, that in ancient times Egypt was inhabited, and extended to the edges.of the Li- byan Defert; nay, in fome places, confiderably into it; large Jakes were dug in this-country by their firft kings, and thefe, filled.in the time of the Nile’s inundation, continued im- menfe refervoirs, which were let out by degrees to water the plantations and pleafure-ground that had been created by man, in what was formerly a defert. Nothing in fa& was wanting but water, and thefe large lakes fupplied this want abundantly, by furnifhing water of the pureft and moft perfect kind: in the neighbourhood of thefe artifi- cial plantations, there .can be no doubr the viper muft be a nuifance. Being indigenous in this his domicil, it is not probable he would quit it eafily, and any deficiency of them _ in number would not have failed to be fupplied from the deferts in the neighbourhood. The prodigious pools of ftagnant water would bring the Ibis thither, and place him near his enemy, and after man had once difcerned his ufe, gratitude would foon lead toe to reward him. Bur after, when thefe immenfe lakes, and the conduits leading to them, were neglected, and the works ruined which conducted thefe artificial inundations, and covered the deferts of Libya with verdure; when war and tyranny; and every fort of bad government, made people fly from the country, or live precarioufly and infecure in it, all this : temporary APPENDIX 177 ‘temporary paradife vanifhed: the land was overflowed no more; the fands of the defert'refumed their ancient ftation ; there were no inhabitants in the country, no pools of water for the Ibis, nor was the viper a nuifance. The Ibis retired to his native country Ethiopia, in the lower-part of which, that is, in a hot country full of pools of ftagnant water, he remains, and. there I found him. Ir is probable in Egypt he had increafed greatly by the quantity of food and good entertainment he had. Upon thefe: failing, he probably died and wore out of Egypt; and in the proportion in which he was at firft created, which feems to have been a flender one, he remained in his native Ethio- pia, for his emigration and increafe in Egypt was merely accidental. This, apprehend, is. the true caufe why the Ibis is now no longer known in Egypt; but I am {atisfied to reftore him to natural hiftory, with at leaft a probable conjecture, why he is now, unknown in thofe very regions where once he was worfhipped as a god. His gure appears frequently upon the obelifks among the hieroglyphics, and further confirms my conjecture.that this is.the bird. Tue Count de Buffon. has publifhed. the. bird, which he calls the white * Ibis of Egypt, the half of his head crim- fon; with a ftrong beak of a gold colour, liker to that of a. toucan, and long, purple, weak legs, and a thick neck; in fhort, having none of the. characters of the bird it is in- tended. to reprefent.. a THE poe ie 2 RUE EES UR Se a a * Buffon, Plan, Entum, 389, 178 APPENDIX. Tue reader may be affured there is no fuch Ibis in Egypt; “none ever appeared from the catacombs but what were black and white, as hiftorians have defcribed *, fo that this is fo difguifed by the drawing and colouring as not to be known, or elfe it came : from fome other country hae Egypt. MOOR O G ” | HAVE already faid in the introduction which immedi- ately precedes the hiftory of birds, that among thofe that live upon infects there are fome that attach them- felves to flies in general, and others that feem to live upon bees alone: Of this laft fort is the bird new before us. I never faw him in the low country where the fly i is, nor in- deed anywhere but in the countries where honey i is chiefly produced as revenue, fuch as the country of the AaUy Goutto, and in Beleffen. ; ~ He *® Vide Plutarch de Ifide. K( Hi WAN WANS H(i ANU nt MH ((\\\\ MO an) | c a { Z Ziv ri reannsis it: th “yg @) MGCL UCL OO Lona Ublifhil Sin “1g Ge, (790 by C Leobinson &O, rea ha. : - - APPENDIX. 179 _ Hr feems to purfue the bees for vengeance or diverfion as well as for food, as he leaves a quantity of them fcat- tered dead upon the ground without fecking further after them, and this paftime he unweariedly purfues without in- terruption all the day long; for the Abyffinians do not look fo near, or confider things fo much in detail, as to imagine all the wafte which he commits’ can make any difference in their-revenue. _ His name is Maroc, er Morec, I fuppofe from Mar, ho- ney, though I never heard he ‘was further concerned in the honey than deftroying the bees. In fhape and fize he feems to be a cuckoo, but differs from him in other refpects. He is drawn hereof -his natural fize, and in all refpects fo minutely attended to, that I fcarcely believe there is a fea- ther amiffing. Tue opening of his mouth is very wide when forced ‘open, reaching nearly to under Iis-eyes.. The infide of his mouth and throat are yellow, his tongue fharp-pointed. It can be-drawn to almoft half its length out of its mouth beyond the point of its beak, and is very flexible. Its head and neck are-brown, without mixture. It has.a number of exceeding {mall hairs, fearcely vifible at the root of his beak. His eye-brows are black likewife. Hus beak is pointed, and very little crooked; the pupil of his eye is black, furround- ed with an iris of a dufky dull red. The fore parf of his neck is light- yellow, darker on each fide than in the middle, where it is partly white; the yellow on each,fide ; reaches near the fhoulder, or round partof the wing; from: this his whole breaft.and belly is of a:dirty white tourdzer the tail; from this, too, his teathers begin to be tipt.gently with VoL. V. Bb white, 180 APPENDIS. awhite, as are all thefe that cover the outfide of his wing ; but the white here is clear, and the fize increafes withthe breadth and length of the feathers. The large feathers of — his wing are-eight in number, the fecond in fize are fix, The tail confifts of twelve feathers; the longeft three are’in the middle, they are clofely placed together, and the tail 1s of an equal breadth from top to bottom, and the end of the feathers tipt with white. Its thighs are covered with fea- thers of the fame colour as the belly, which reach more than half way down his leg; his legs and feet are black, marked diftinGly with fcales. He has.two ‘toes ‘before and » one behind, each of which have a fharp and crooked claw. I never faw his neft; butin flying, and while fitting, he per- fectly refembles the cuckoo. I never heard, nor could I learn from any others, that he had any voice or fong. He makes a fharp, {napping noife, as often as he catches the bees, which is plainly from clofing his beak. Jerome Loso, whom I have often mentioned, deferibes this-bird, and attributes to him a peculiar infin, or fa-. culty of difcovering honey; he fays, when this bird has difcovered any honey he repairs to the high-way, and when he fees a traveller, he claps with his wings, fings, and by a variety of actions invites him to follow him, and flying from tree to’ tree before him, ftops where the honey is difcovered to be, and there he begins to fing moft mato oufly. ee Tue ingenious DrSparman could not omit an opportuni- ty of building a ftory upon fo fair a foundation. He too gives am account of a cuckoo in fize and fhape refembling a toa and then gives a long defeription of it in Hatio, Pe ' AG or 3 APPENDIX. 18t from which it fhould not refemble a fparrow. This he calls Cuculus Indicator™. It feems it has a partition treaty at once both with men and foxes, not a very pestsonies affocia- tion. / To thefe two partners he makes his meaning equally known by the alluring found, as he calls it, of Tcherr Tcherr, which we may imagine, in the Hottentot lan- guage of birds, may fignify Honey; but it does not fing, it feems, fo melodioufly as Jerome Lobo’s bird. I cannot for my own part conceive,in a country where fo many thoufand hives of bees are, that there was any uwfe for giving toa bird a peculiar inftinct or faculty of difcovering - honey, when, at the fame time, nature had denied him the power of availing himfelf of any advantage from the dif covery, for man feems in this cafe to be made for the fer- vice of the Moroc, which is very different from the common ordinary courfe of things; man certainly needs him not, for on every tree and on every hillock he may fee plenty of combs at his own deliberate difpofal. I cannot then but think, with all fubmiffion to thefe natural philofophers, that the whole of this is an improbable fiction, nor did I ever hear a fingle perfon in Abyflinia fuggeft, that either this, or any other bird, had fuch a property. Sparman fays it was not known to.any inhabitant of rhe Cape, no more! than that of the Moroc was in Abyflinia; it was.a fecretof nature, hid from all but thefe two great men, and [ moft willingly leave if among the ane of their particular difcover- les. -. a la Bbhe I HAVS on 4 n = ait a : FE dione ded * Sparman’s voyage, vol. ii. pe 192. 182 . APPENDIX, Iwave only to:add, that though Dr Sparman and his learned affociates; that feed upon the crumbs from other people’s tables, may call this bird.a cuckoo, ftill I hope he will not infift upon correcting my miftake, as, in the article of the fennec, by ignorantly tacking to it fome idle fable of. his. own, that he may name it Cxteeciaas vsenier ch afi Sir REG RT Coe HIS bird’ is one: of thofe called Rollier in French; and Rollier in Englith, without either nation being able te fay what is its fignification in either language. In the French it is the name of a tribe, always as. ill, delineated as it is defcribed, becaufe fcarce ever feen by.t that either defcribe, or delineate it; in Latimit is called Merops. Its true name, in its native country, is Sheregrig, and by this name 2. ) Mhereyrg : (L C Loniton Lublhit Decl 78). by 6 Robinson & . M foe fare - é , wea ‘ ~- , bY on = ape { . " 5 ~ = * & : —— “ih <li yet yet) ye ot eee cB i! NMG 9b Cae 7 eS : 6) P ALO aioe &* oe £3 veh ar APPENDIX. 133 ft is known in Syria, and Arabia, and in the low country of Abyflinia, on the borders of Sennaar, wherever there are meadows, or long grafs, interfperfed. with lofty or fhady. trees, THERE are two different kinds-of this bird in Syria cons fiderably varying in colours, the brown.of the back. being eonfiderably darker in that of the Syriac, and: the blue much deeper, chiefly on its wings; the back.of the head hikewife brown, with very little pale-blue throughout any part of it, and wanting the two. long feathers in. the tail. Itis a fly-catcher, or bee-eater, of which:thefe long feathers are the mark, Itis faid by Dr Shaw, and writers that have defcribed it, to-be of the fize of a jay, to which indeed the Syrian. bird approaches, but this. before us feems the leaft of his kind, and weighs half an ounce more than a blackbird: It'is confequently: true, as Dr Shaw: fays, that it has a fmaller- bill:than a jay, becaufe the bird itfelf is fmaller, neither is there any difproportion in the length of its legs. Shaw fays; itis called. Shagarag, which he ima- gines, by a-tranfmutation of letters, to be the fame with ‘Sharakrak of the Talmudifts, or Shakarak of the Arabian authors, and-is derived from fharak, to fhriek or fquall. Bur all this learning is-very much mifplaced ;: for from the brightnets of the colour, it is derived from a word which fignifies to /bine. Its belly and infide of its wings are of a mott beautiful pale blue. The fhoulder; or-top of its wings, a dark blue; The middle of. the wing is. traverfed by a band of light blue; the extremity of the wing, and the ~ largeft feathers, are of a dark._blue. The two feathers of its. tail,, 184 APPENDIX tail, where broad, are of a light blue, but the long, fharp fingle ones are of a dark blue, like the tips of the wings. Its bill is ftrong and well made, and has a pencil of hairs as whifkers. Round where the beak joins the head, the fea- thers are white; the eye black, and well proportioned, fur- rounded by a light flame-coloured iris. The back is of a very light brown inclining to cream colour, and of a caft of red. The feet- are flefh-coloured and fcaly, has three toes before and one behind, each with a fharp claw. Norwirustanpinc what has been faid as to the deriva- tion of its name, I never heard it {cream or, make any fort of noife. It has nothing of the actions of either the mag- pie or the jay. Buxtorf interprets the fheregrig by merops the bee-eater, and in fo doing he is right, when he applies it to this bird, but then he errs in miftaking another bird for it, called Sirens, a fly-catcher, very-common in the Levant, which appear in great numbers, making a fhfill, fqualing noife in the heat of the day ; and of thefe Lhave feen, and de- figned manydifferent forts, fome very beautiful, but they fly in flocks, which the fheregrig does not; he attaches himfelf equally to {warms of bees and flies, which he finds in the woods upon the trees, or in holes in the ground among the high grafs. Of thefe there are great {warms of different kinds in the low part of Abyflinia. Tur Count de Buffon has publithed two figures of this bird, one from a fpecimen I gave him from Aby(linia *, the other from one ftuffed, which he received from Senteal t, {o * Buffon, plan. enlum. 626," ¢ Buffon, plan. enlum. 326s APPENDIX. 185 fo that we know the bird poffeffes the whole breadth of Africa nearly on a parallel. I may be allowed to fay, that, when I gave him mine, I did not expect he would fo far have anticipated my publication as to have exhibited it as a part of the king’s cabinet till he had heard my idea of it, and what further I could relate of its hiftory more than he had learned from feeing the feathers of it only. When I faw the draught, it put me in mind of the witty poem of Mar- tial: A man had ftole fome of his verfes, but read them fo ill, that the poet could not underftand them well enough to know they were his own--- Sed male dum recitas incipit effe tuum. The bird is fo ill-defigned that it may pafs for a different _ fpecies. It is too fhort in the body; too thick; its neck too fhort and thick ;’ its legs, the pupil and iris of the eye, of a wrong colour; its tail affetedly {pread. Thefe are the confequences of drawing from fluffed fubjects. The brown upon the back is too dark, the light-blue too pale, too much white upon the fide of its head. Thefe are the confequen- ces of having a bad painter; and the reader, by comparing my figure with thofe drawn by Martinet in Buffon, may eafily perceive how very little chance he has to form a true idea of any of thefe birds, if the difference is as great be- tween his other drawings and the original, as between my drawing and his. De Seve would have given it a jufter pic- ture. wihaieds iat WAALI A. * “SES rrar 186 APPENDIX, ! W ACA oA PC pigeoa aes Waalia, frequents the low parts of Abyfiinia, where it perches‘upon the higheft trees, and _ fits quietly in the fhade during the.heat of the day, fo that it is difficult to difcover it, unlefs it has been feen -to alight. They likewife fly extremely high, in great flocks, and for the moft part affect a.fpecies of the beech-tree, upon the maft or fruit of which they feem chiefly to live for food, They arerarely feen in the mountainous part of the coun- try unlefs in their paflage, for in the beginning of the rainy feafon, in the Kolla, they emigrate to the fouth and 5S. W. In this direction they are feen flying for days to- gether. Jt.is fuppofed the high country, even in the fair feafon, is too cold for them; and their feeking another habi- tation towards the Atlantic Ocean, where it is warm, and where the rains do not fall fo copioufly in that feafon as they do in the Kollain Abyffinia, makes this conjecture full amore probable. THEY Ma London Lublijid Dew? 124 (iy. by C. ki binson & @. aaa. * APPENDIX. 187 Tury perch for moft part upon the tops of trees, beyond the fphere of the action of Abyflinian powder ; but they fit fo clofe together that I have fometimes fhot fix or more at the difcharge of a fingle barrel. The reft immediately plunge down almoft to touch you, apparently ignorant whence fo unaccuftomed a found comes; there, if you are a good markfman, and alert, you have abot eaetance, though but a fhort one, for they immediately tower to an immoderate height, and never alight in fight unlefs they are wounded. They are exceedingly fat, and by far the beft of all pigeons ; ~ when they fall from a height, without life, upon their back, I have known the flefh on each fide of their breaft-bone fe- parated by the concuffion, and the fat upon their rump bruifed like ine pulp of an orange. aes this is undoubtedly a pigeon, the Abyflinians do not eat it; nay, after it is dead they will not touch it, for fear of Eline themfelves, any more than they would doa dead horfe. The waalia is lefs than the common blue pi- geon, but larger than the turtle-dove. Its whole back, and -fome of the fhort feathers of its wings, are of a beautiful unvarnithed green, lighter and livelicr chan an olive. Its head and neck are of a deader green, with ftill lefs luftre. Its beak is of a bluifh white, with large noftrils ; the eye black, with an iris of dark orange. ‘The pinion, or top: of its wing, is a beautiful pompadour. The large feathers of the wing are black; the outer edge of the wing narrowly raarked with white; the tail a pale, ditty blue ; below the tail it is fpotted ih brown and white. ree thighs are white, with fmall fpots of brown; its belly a lively yel- _ low. Its legs and feet area yeNowith: brown. Its feet ftronger and larger than is generally found in this kind of bird. I Vou Vv. | Ce never , PO ate VY 138 APPENDIX. never licard-it coo; or make any noife. 5 killed this,. and many: others, in our roadito Tcherkin. In M, de Buffon’ ollection (fee a bird refembling this,.coming from. the, “weit of Africa, as [remember ;. but his birds in general. are fo very ill-drawn, and his coloured ones fo fhamefully, a ¥ daubed, that nothing, certain « can. be. founded. Apen refem-- i blance,. | nil oa ciel ef ciate a confide its {mall fet its weakn ty, nothing in the creation is more contempti le and infig nificant. Yet pafling from.thefe to his hiftory, . and to the. account of his powers, we muft confefs the very great injuftice we do him. from. want. of confideration.. We = ; ny sisdte: ochaugyet) e aah 1%. 7 a lhe wv . mic J é P . | z. ipa ba ’ f on Vcd Ty \ Meco st Oke Pes eS we Mie ee fs) Sr i Hl i d a nt cS} say i msore & Co. is v CReob, 760 b 0% Londen. Published Dec? 1 APPENDIX. 189 are obliged, with the greateft furprife, to acknowledge, that thofe huge animals, the elephant, the rhinoceros, the lion and the tiger, inhabiring the fame woods, are fill vaftly his in- foiioel and that the appearance of this {mall infect, nay, his very found, though he is not feen, occafions more trepi- dation, movement, and diforder, both in the human and brute creation, than would whole herds of thefe monfltrous animals collected together, though their-number was in a tenfold proportion greater than it really is. Tue neceflity of keeping my narrative clear and intelli- gible as I proceeded, has made me anticipate the principal particularities relating to this infect. His operations are too materially interwoven with.the hiftory of this country, to be left apart as an epifode. The reader will find the * defcription of its manners:in that part of my hiftory which treats of the Shepherds, and in feveral places throughout the narrative he will meet with accounts of the confequences of its wonderful influence. Providence, from the beginning it would feem, had fixed its habitation to one {pecies -of ‘foil, being a black fat earth, extraordinary fruitful; and fmall and inconfiderable as it was, it feems ‘from the firt to have given a law to the fettlement of ‘the country. «It prohibited abfolutely thofe inhabitants of the fat earth, called Mazaga, domiciled:in caves and mountains, from en- joying the help or labour of any beafts of carriage. It de- prived them of their flefh and milk for food, and gave rife. to another nation, whofe-manners were juft the reverfe of the firft. Thefe were the Shepherds, leading a wandering Cc2 life, ‘* Vol. i, book 2, p. 388. 199 APPENDIX. life, and preferving thefe immenfe herds of cattle by com ducting them into the fands beyond the limits of the black. earth, and bringing them back again when the wisi) ee this infect was over.. We cannot read the hiftory of the plagues which God brought upon Pharaoh by the hands of Mofes, without ftopping a moment to confider a fingularity, a very principal one, which attended this plague of the fly. It was not till. this time, and by means of this infect, that God faid, he would feparate his people from the Egyptians. And it would feem, that then a law was given to them, that fixed the limits of their habitation. It is well known, as I have- repeatedly faid, that the land of Gofhen, or Gefhen, the pof- . feffion ofthe Mraelites, was a land of pafture, which was: not tilled or fown, becaufe it was not overflowed by the- Nile. But the land overflowed by the Nile was. the: black earth of the valley of Egypt, and it. was here> that God confined the flies; for he fays, it fhall be a fign: of this feparation of the people, which he had then made,, that not one fly fhould be feen in the fand or pafture ground, the land of Gofhen, and this kind of foil has ever fince been the refuge of all cattle emigrating from the black earth to the lower part of Atbara. Ifaiah, indeed, fays;. that the fly fhall’be in all the defert places, and confequently- the fands; yet this was a particular difpenfation of provi-- dence, to anfwer a fpecial end, the defolation of Egypt, and: was not a repeal of the general law, but a confirmation of ‘it 5 it was an exception, for a particular purpofe, and a. limai-- ted ume... L HAVE } APPENDIX.’ 1gt [ wave already faid fo much of this infect, that it would be tiring my reader’s patience to repeat any thing concern- ing him. I fhall therefore content myfelf, by giving a very accurate defign of him, only obferving, that, for diftinctnefs fake, [ have magnified him fomething above twice the natu- ral fize. He has no fting, though he feems to me to be rather of the bee kind; but his motionis more rapid and fudden than that of the bee, and refembles that of the gad-fly,in England. There is fomething particular in the found, or buzzing of this infect. It is a jarring noife, together with a humming ; which induces me’ to believe it proceeds, at leaft in part, from a vibration made with the three hairs at his {nout. Tue Chaldee verfion is content with calling this animal fimply Zebub, which fignifies the fly in general, as we ex- prefs it in Englifh. The Arabs call it Zimb in their tranf- - lation, which has the fame general fignification. The Ethi- opic tranflation calls it Tfaltfalya, which is the true name of this particular fly in Geez, and was the fame in Hebrew. Tut Greeks have called this fpecies of fly Cynomya, | which fignifies the dog-fly, in imitation of which, thofe, I fuppofe, of the church of Alexandria, that, after the coming of Frumentius, were correcting the Greek copy, and making " it conformable to the Septuagint, have called this fly Tfalt- - falya Kelb, to anfwer the word Cynomya, which is dog-fly. But this at firft fight is a corruption, apparently the language of ftrangers, and is not Ethiopic. Itis the fame as if we were to couple the two nominative fubftantives Canis and - Mufca, to tranflate Cynomya.. Canis is indeed a dog, and Mufca is a fly, but thefe two words together, as I have now wrote them, could never be brought to fignify dog-fly. It is it I the “892 APPENDIX. the fame in the Ethiopic, where Tfaltfalya alone -fignifies dog-fly, without the addition of any other word whatever. What is the derivation of this is doubtful, becaufe there are feveral words, both in the Ethiopic and Hebrew, that are exceedingly appofice and probable. Salal, in the Hebrew, fignifies to buzz, or to hum, and, as it were, alludes to the noife with which this animal terrifies the cattle; and Tfalt- falya feems to come from this, by only doubling the radi- cals. Tfalalou, in Amharic, fignifies to pierce with vio- lence; from this.is derived Tfalatie, the name of a javelin with a round point, made.to enter the rings of a coat of mail, which, by its ftruéture, is impervious to the round - cutting points of the ordinary lance or javelin. Inthe book of Job* this feems to mean a trident, or fifhing-fpear, and is vaguely enough tranflated Habergeon in the Englith copy. I do not know thar this infect, however remarkable for its aétivity and numbers, has ever before been defcribed er delineated. , | _ ‘® Chap. xli. ver. 26. 5 . APPEN D1 X.. 14 EL ADD A. HERE} ig No genus of quadrupeds that I have known im’ T the eaft fo very numerous as. that of the lizard, or of. which there are fo many.varieties. The eaftern, or defert parts of Syria, bordering: upon Arabia Deferta, which ftill have moifture fufficient, abound-with them beyond a pof fibility’of counting them, J.am_.pofitive that I: can: fay, without exaggeration, that the number I faw:one day in the great court of the Temple of the Sun at Baalbec amount- ed to many thoufands; the ground, the walls and ‘ftones of the ruined buildings, were covered with them, and the va= rious colours of which they confifted.- made a very extraor- dinary appearance, glittering under the fun, in which they lay fleeping, or bafking. It was in vain, ina place fo full of. wonders as Baalbec, to think of {pending time in defigning lizards. I contented, myfelf with collecting and-prefer-. ving thofe.I could catch entire, many of-which have pe-- 2- | rithed: 194) APPENDIX. rifhed by the accidents of the journey, though fome of very great beauty have efcaped, and are in my collection in great prefervation. ; As I went eaflward towards the defert, the number of this animal decreafed, I fuppofe, from a fcarcity of water; for example, at Palmyra, tho’ there were ruins of ancient build- ings, and a great folitude, as at Baalbec, the lizards were few, all of the colour of the ground, without beauty or va- riety, and feemingly degenerated in point of fize. Tue Arabian naturalifts and phyficians were better ac- quainted with the different fpecies of this animal than any philofphers have been fince, and in all probability than any ftrangers will ever be; they lived among them, and had an opportunity of difcovering their manners and every detail of their private economy. Happy if fucceeding the Greeks in thefe ftudies, they had not too frequently left obfervation to deviate into fable; the field, too, which thefe various fpecies inhabit is a very extenfive one, and comprehends all Afia and Africa, that is, great portion of the old world, every part of which is, from various caufes, more inacceflible at this day, than after the Arabian conqueft. It is from the Arabian books then that we are to ftudy with attention the defcriptions given of the animals of the country. But very great difficulties occur in the courfe of thefe difquifitions, The books that contain them are flill extant, and alithe ani- mals likewife exift as before; but, unfortunately, the He- brew, the Syriac, and the Arabic, are languages very ambi- guous and equivocal, and are in terms too loofe and vague for modern accuracy and precife defcription, and efpecially fo in that of colours; befides, that unbounded liberty of tranf- -—pofition APPENDIX. 19$ pofition of letters, and fyllables of words, in which the wri- ters of thofe languages have iridulged themfelves, from no- tions of elegance, feem to réquire, not only a very fkilful and attentive, but alfo a judicious and fober-minded reader, that does not fun away with whimfical, or firft conceptions, but weighs the charatter of his. author, the common idi- oms of language which he tifes, and opportunities of in- formation that he had concerning the fubjects upon which he wrote, in preference to others that may have treated the fame, but who differ from them in facts. — Tue fmall lizard here defcribed is a native of Atbara beyond the rains, in that fituation where we have faid the ifland and city of Meroé formerly were. 1t feemed alfo to be well known by the different black inhabitants that came _ from the weftward by the great caravan which croffed the defert north of the Niger, and is called the Caravan of Sudan, of which I have often fpoken, as being the only barbarians who feem to pay the leaft attention to any articles of natu- ral hiftory. Thefe bring to Cairo, and to Mecca, multitudes of green paroquets, monkeys, weafels, mice, lizards, and fer- -pents, for the diverfion and curiofity of the men of note in Arabia, or of the Beys and the women of the great at Cairo. This lizard’ is called El Adda, it burrows in the fand, and performs this operation fo quickly, thar it is out of fight in aninftant, and appears rather to have found a hole, than to have made one, yet it comes out often in the heat of the day, and.bafks itfelf in the fun; and if not very much frightened, will take refuge behind ftones, or in the wither- ed, ragged roots of the abfinthium, dried in the fun to near- ly its own colour. Vor. V. - Dd ALMOST 196 APPENDIX. Autmost the whole of this large tribe of lizards is, by the Arabians, defcribed as poifonous. Experiment has de- tected the falfehood of this, in very many fpecies ; the fame idea has led them to attribute to them medicinal virtues in the fame proportion, and, I am apt to believe, with nearly as little reafon ; at leaft, though the books prefcribing them are in everybody’s hands, the remedy is not now made ufe of in the places where thofe books were wrote; and this affords a ftrong proof that the medicine was never very efficacious. Tue Fl Adda is one of the few which the Arabs in all - times have believed to be free of poifonous qualities, and - yet to have all the medicinal virtues that they have fo a- bundantly lavifhed upon the more noxious fpecies. It has been reputed to be a cure for that moft terrible of all dif-. eafes, the Elephantiafis; yet this diftemper is not, that I know, in the hotter parts of Africa, and certainly this lizard is not an inhabitant of the higher or colder parts of Abyflinia, which we may call exclufively the domicil of the elephan- tiafis. It is likewife thought to be efficacious in cleanfing the {kin of the body, or face, from cutaneous eruptions, of which the inhabitants of this part of Africa. are much more afraid than they are of the plague ;-it is alfo ufed againft films, and fuffufions on the eyes. I never did try the effe& of any of thefe, but give their hiftory folely upon the au- thority of the Arabian authors. I nave drawn it here of its natural fize; which is 6£ inch+ es. Though its legs are very long, it does not make ufe of them to ftand upright, but creeps with. its belly almoft clofe tothe ground. It runs, however, with very great. ve- 2, locity. APPENDIX. 197 locity. It is very long from its fhoulder to its nofe, being nearly two inches. Its body is round, having fcarce any flatnefs in its belly. Its tail too is perfectly round, ha- ving no flatnefs in its lower part. It is exceedingly fharp- pointed, and very eafily broke, yet | have feen feverals where the part broke off has been renewed fo as fcarcely to be difcernible.’ It is the fame length, 2} inches, between the point of the tail and the joint of the hinder leg, as was between the nofe and the fhoulder of the foreleg. Its fore- head from the occiput is flat, its fhape conical, not point- ed, but rounded at the end in the fhape of fome fhovels or {fpades. The head is darker than the body, the occiput darker ftill ; its face is covered with fine black lines, which crofs one another at right angles like a net. Its eyes are fmall, defended with a number of ftrong black hairs for eye-lafhes. Its upper jaw is longer, and projects confider- ably over the under; both its jaws have a number of fhort, fine, but very feeble teeth, and when holding it in my hand, though it ftruggled violently to get loofe, it never attempt- ed to make ufe of its teeth; indeed it feems to turn its neck with great difficulty. Its ears are large, open, and nearly round. Its body is a light-yellow, bordering on a ftraw-co- lour, croffed with eight bands of black, almoft equally diftant, except the two next the tail. All thefe decreafe both in breadth and length from the middle towards each ex- tremity of the animal. The fcales are largeft along the back, they are very clofe, though the divifions are fufficient- ly apparent. Their furface is very polifhed, and feems as if varnifhed over. Its legs from the fhoulder to the middle toe are nearly an inch and three quarters long; its feet are compofed of five toes, the extremity of each is armed with | Dd2 a brown | 199 . * APPEND ES a brown claw of no great ftrength, whofe end is tipt with black. I nave heard fome of the common people call this lizard Dhab: This we are to look upon as an inftance of igno- rance inthe vulgar, rather than the opinion of a naturalift well informed; for the Dhab is a fpecies perfectly well known to be different from this, and is frequently met with, in the deferts which ‘ fasround. Cairo. $ CERASTES, og HORNED VIPER, 2 gen no article of natural hiftory the ancients have | dwelt on more than that of the viper, whether poets, phyficians, or hiftorians. All have enlarged upon the particu- ee lar fizes, colours, and qualities, yet the knowledge of their ~ mannets is but little extended. Almoft every author that has treated of them, if he hath advanced fome truths which he has left flenderly eftablifhed by proofor experiment, by way of hie compenfation. py SI London Lublijhid Dec"4 709. by 6 robinson XL. SSS % a SS — = ==4 ve = LSSSsa5z555 Ses eae ns oD o—— : fe? APPENDIX. 199 compenfation, hath added as many falfehoods fo ftrongly afferted, that they have occafioned more doubt than the - others have brought of light, certainty, and conviction. Lucan, in Cato’s march through the defert of the Cyren- aicum in fearch of Juba, gives fuch a catalogue of thefe ve- nomous animals, that we cannot wonder, as he infinuates, that great part of the Roman army was deftroyed by them; yet I will not fcruple to aver this is mere fable. I have tra- velled acrofs the Cyrenaicum in all its directions, and never _faw but one fpecies of viper, which was the Ceraftes, or Horned Viper, now before us. Neither did I ever fee any of the fnake kind that could be miftaken for the viper. 1 ap- prehend the fnake cannot fubfift without water, as the Ce- raftes, from the places in which he is found, feems affured- ly to do. Indeed thofe that Lucan fpeaks of muft have been all vipers, becaufe the mention of every one of their names is followed by the death of a man. Tuere are no ferpents of any kind in Upper Abytlinia that ever I faw, and no remarkable varieties even in Low, excepting the large fnake called the Boa, which is often above twenty feet in length, and as thick as an ordinary man’s thigh, He is a beaft of prey, feeds upon antelopes, and the deer kind, which having no canine teeth, confe- quently no poifon, he fwallows whole, after having broken allits bones in pieces, and drawn it intoa length to be more eafily maftered. His chief refidence is by the grafiy pools of rivers that are ftagnant. Notwithftanding which, we hear of the Monk Gregory telling M. Ludolf, that ferpents were fo frequent in Abyffinia, that every man carried with him a ftick bent ina particular manner, for the more com- om modioutly 200 APPENDIX, modioufly killing thefe creatures, and this M. Ludolf re- commends as a difcovery. And Jerome Lobo, among the reft of his fables, has fome on this fubjec&t likewife. Acold and rainy country can never be a habitation for vipers. We fee, on the contrary, that their favourite choice are de- ferts and burning fand, without verdure, and without any- moifture whatever. | | Tue very learned, though too credulous, Profper Alpinus, fays, that many have affured him, that near the lakes conti-- guousto thefources of theNilethere is a number of bafilifcs, about a palm in length, and the thicknefs of a middle fin-. | ger; that they have two large fcales,which they ufe as wings, and crefts and combs upon their head, from which they are called Bafilifci or Reguli, that is, crowned, crefted, or kingly | fetpents ; and he fays that no perfonn ca approach thefe . lakes without being deftroyed by thefe crefted fakes. | . $ Wiru all fubmiffion to this naturalift’s relation, I fhould ‘imagine he could not have heard the defcription of thefe lakes from many travellers, if allthofe that approached them. were killed by the bafilifcs. I fhall only anfwer for this, that having examined the Lake Gooderoo, thofe of Court Ohha, and Tzana, the only lakes near the fources of the Nile, I never yet faw one ferpent there, whether crowned or uncrowned, nor did I ever hear of any, and therefore believe j this account as fabulous as that of the Acontia and other | animals he fpeaks of in this whole chapter*. The bafi- life is a fpecies of ferpent, frequently made mention of in icripture, ea i yt ae A al aie * Profp. Alpin. lib. iv. cap: 4. APPENDIX, | 201 fcripture, though never defcribed, farther than that he can- not be charmed fo as to do no hurt, nor trained foas to de- light in mufic; which all travellers who have been in Egypt know is exceedingly poflible, and frequently feen. “ For, behold, I will fend bafilifcs among you, faith the fcripture, which will not be charmed, and they fhall bite you, faith the Lord+”. And{ “Thou fhalt treaduponthelionand bafilifc || &c. I sHALL Mention one name more, under which» the Ce- raftes goes, becaufe it is equivocal, and has been mifunder- -ftood in fcripture, that is Tfeboa, which name is given it in the Hebrew, from its different colours and fpots. And hence the Greeks § have called it by the name of Hyena, -becaufe it is of the fame reddifh colour, marked with - black {pots as that quadruped is. And the fame fable is ap- plied to tbe ferpent and quadruped, that they change their fex yearly. ) Some philofophers, from particular fyftem, have judged from a certain difpofition of this animal’s fcales, that itis _ what they term, Coluber, while others, from fome arrange- ment of the {cales of its tail, will have it to be what they call Boa. Ienter not into the difpute, it is here as faithfully reprefented as the fize will permit, only I fhall obferve that, unlefs + Jerem. chap. viii. ver: 17: t Pfalm-ix: ver. 13. It is tobe obferved here, it. is the Greek.text that calls it Bafilifc. The Hebrew for the moft part calls it Tfepha, which are a fpecies of ferpents real and known. Our Eng- lifh tranflation, very improperly, renders it Cockatrice ; a fabulous animal, that never did exift. I fhall only further obferve, that the bafilifc, in fcripture, would feem to be a fnake, not a viper, as there are frequent mention made of their eggs, as in Ifaiah, chap. lix.. ver. 5. whereas, it is known to be the characteriftic of the viper to bring forth living " young. § Elian, Hitt. lib, i, cap. 25. Horia. hieroglyph. lib, ii..chap..65.- 202 APPENDIX. unlefs Boa means fomething more than I know it does, the name is ill chofen when applied to any f{pecies of poi- fonous ferpents, becaufe it is already the proper name of the large fnake, juft mentioned, that is not viviparous, and has no porfon. Pliny and Galen fay, that the young vipers are fo fierce as to become parricides, and deftroy their mother up- on their birth. But this is furely one of the ill-grounded fan- cies thefe authors have adopted. The Ceraftes is mentioned -by name in Lucan, and without watfranting the feparate exiflence of any of the reft, I can fee feveral that are but the Ceraftes under another term. The thebanus ophites, the ammodytes, the torrida dipfas, and the prefter*, all of them are but this viper defcribed from the form of its parts, or its colours. Cato muft have been marching in thenight when he met this army of ferpents. The Ceraftes hides: it- felf all day in holes in the fand, where it livesin contiguous - and fimilar houfes to thofe of the jerboa, and I have already faid, that I never but once found any animal in this viper’s belly, but one jerboa in a gravid female ceraftes. I kept two of thefe laft-mentioned creatures in a glafs jar, fuch as is ufed for keeping fweetmeats, for two years, without having given them any food; they did not fleep, that I obferved, in winter, but caft their {kins the laft days of April. Tue Ceraftes moves with great rapidity, and in all direc- tions, forward, backward, and fideways. When he inclines to furprife any one who is too far from him, he creeps with | his a * Lucan. lib, ixs ee we —— My ‘ i tl i ee APPENDIX. 203 his fide towards the perfon, and his head averted, till jud- ging his diftance, he turns round, fprings upon him, and faftens upon the part next to him; for it is not true what is faid, that the Ceraftes does not leap or fpring. I faw one of them at Cairo, in the houfe of Julian and Rofa, crawl up the fide of a box, in which there were many, and there lye full as if hiding himfelf, till one of the people who _. brought them to us came near him, and though in a very difadvantageous pofture, flicking as it were perpendicular to the fide of the box, he leaped near the diftance of three feet, and faftened between the man’s forefinger and thumb, fo as to bring: the blood.: The fellow fhewed no figns of either pain or fear, and we kept him with us full four hours, with- out his applying any fort of ors or his ietioge inclin- ed todo fo. ; To make myfelf affured that the animal was in its perfe& ftate, I made the man hold him by the neck foas to force him to open his mouth, and lacerate the thigh of a pelican, a bird I had tamed, as big as a fwan. The bird died in about 13 minutes, though it was apparently affected in 50 feconds ; and we cannot think this was a fair trial, becaufe a very few minutes before, it had bit the man, and fo difcharged _ part’ of its virus, and it was made to fcratch the pelican by force, without any irritation or action of its own. Tue Ceraftes inhabits the greateft part of the eaftern con- tinent, efpecially the defert fandy parts of it.. It abounds in Syria, in the three Arabias, and in Africa. I never faw fo many of them as in the Cyrenaicum, where the Jerboa is frequent in proportion, He is a great lover of heat ; for tho’ Vou. V. : DoE F the 204. APPENDIX. the fun was burning hot all day, when we made:a fire at night, by digging a hole, and burning wood to charcoal in it, for drefiing our victuals, it was feldom we had fewer than half a dozen of thefe vipers, who burnt themfelves to death approaching the embers.. -Eapprenenp: this to be the afpic which Cleopatra: em- ployed to procure her death. Alexandria, plentifully fup- plied by water, muft then have had fruit of all kinds in its gardens. The bafkets of figs muft have come from thence, and the afpic, or Ceraftes, that was hid in them, from the ad- joining defert, where there are plenty to this day; for to the weftward in Egypt, where the Nile overflows, there is ne fort of ferpent whatever that I. ever faw; nor, as I have be- fore faid, is there any other of the mortal kind that I know in thofe parts of Africa adjoining to Egypt, excepting the Ceraftes. ; Ir thould feem very natural for any one, who, from — motives of diftrefs, has refolved to put a period to. his exiftence, efpecially women and weak perfons unaccuftom- » ed to: handle arms, to feek the gentleft method to. free themfelves from that load of life now become infup- portable. This, however, has not always been the cafe with the ancients. Aria, Petus’s wife, ftabbed herfelf with a dagger, to fet her hufband an example to die, with this me- morable affurance, after giving herfelf the blow, “ Petus, it “is not painful.” Porcia, the wife of Brutus, died by the barbarous, and nat obvious way of perifhing, by {wallowing fire; the violent agitation of fpirits prevailing over the mo- mentary difference in the fuffering. - Itis not to be doubted but that a woman, high-fpirited like Cleopatra,was alfo above Sa the APPENDIX. 205 the momentary differences in feeling; and had the way in which fhe died not been ordinary and ufual, fhe certainly would not have applied herfelf to the invention of a new one. Weare therefore to look upon her dying by the bite of the Ceraftes, as only following the manner of death which fhe had feen commonly adopted by thofe who were intend- ed to die without torment. ‘Gauen fpeaking of the Afpic mn the great city of Alex- andria, fays, I have feen how {peedily they (the afpics) occa- fioned death. Whenever any perfon is condemned ‘to die whom they wifh to end quickly and without torment, they put the viper to his breaft, and fuffering him there to creep a little, the man is prefently killed. Paufanias {peaks of particular ferpents that were to be found in Arabia among the balfam trees, feveral of which I procured both alive and dead, when I brought the tree from Beder Hunein; but they were ftill the fame fpecies of ferpent, only fome from fex, and fome from want of age, had not the horns, though in every other refpect they could not be miftaken, Tbn Sina, called by Europeans Avicenna, has defcribed this animal very exactly ; he fays it is frequent in Shem (that is the country about and fouth of Damafcus) and alfo in Egypt; and he makes a very. good obfervation on their manners; that they do not go or walk ftraight, but move by contracting themfelves. But in the latter part of his defcription he feems not to have known the ferpent he is {peaking of, becaufe he fays its bite is cured in the fame manner as that of the viper and Ceraftes, by which it is amplied, that the animal he was defcribing was not a Ceraf- tes, and the Ceraftes is nota viper, both which affertions _ are falfe. } Ee2 Tur 206 APPENDIX, Tue general fize of the Ceraftes, from the extremity of its. fnout to the end of its tail, is from 13 to 14 inches, its head is triangular, very flat, but higher near where it joins the neck than towards the nofe. The length of its head, from the point of the nofe to the joining of the neck, is +$ths of an inch, and the breadth ths. Between its horns is ;;ths: The opening of its mouth, or rictus oris “ths. Its horns in length ths. Its large canine teeth fomething more than ;ths and 4. Its gee at the joining of the head _sfsths.. The body vee thickeft +$ths. Its.tail at the joining of the body 7zths and+. The ti of the tailijsth. The length of the tail one inch and 3,ths. The aperture of the eye ,ths, but this varies apparently nee ee to s the im- sabia of light. Tue Cer ae has fixteen {mall immoveable teeth, and in the upper jaw two canine teeth, hollow, crooked inward, and of a remarkable fine polifh, white in colour, inclining to blueifh. Near one fourth of the bottom is ftrongly fixed in the upper jaw, and folds back like a clafp knife, the point inclining inwards, and the greateft part of the tooth is covered with a green foft membrane, not drawn tight, but as it were wrinkled over it. Immediately above this is a flit along the back of the tooth, which ends nearly in the mid- dle of it, where the tooth curves inwardly. From this aper- ture apprehend that it fheds its poifon, not from the point, where-with the beft glaffes I never could perceive an aper-_ ture, fo that the tooth is not a tube, but hollow only half way; the point being for making the incifion, and by its preflure occafioning the venom in the bag at the bottom of ° the fang to rife in the tooth, and fpill — through the flit mato the wound, By APPENDIX. 207 By this flat pofition of the tooth along the jaw, and its being defended by the membrane, it eats in perfect fafety ; for the tooth cannot prefs the bag of poifon at the root while it lies in this pofition, nor can it rife in the tube to fpill itfelf, nor can the tooth make any wound fo as to re- ceive it, but the animal is fuppofed to eat but feldom, or only when it is with young. Tue viper has but one row of teeth, none but the ca- nine are noxious. The poifon is very copious for fo fmall a creature, it is fully as large as a drop of laudanum dropt from a vial by a careful hand. Viewed through a glafs, it appears not perfectly tranfparént or pellucid I fhould imagine it hath other refervoirs than the bag under the tooth, for I compelled it to fcratch eighteen pigeons upon the thigh as quick as poflible, and they all died near- ly in the fame interval of time ; but I confefs the danger at- tending the diffection of the bead of this creature made me fo cautious, that any obfervation I fhould make upon thefe parts would be lefs to be depended upon. Propre have doubted whether or not this yellow liquor is the poifon, and.the reafon has been, that animals who had tafted it did not die as when bitten, but this reafon does not hold in modern phyfics. We know why the fa- liva of a mad dog has been given to animals and has not affected them ; and a German phyfician was bold enough to diftil the pus, or putrid matter, flowing from the ulcer of a perfon infected by the plague, and tafte it afterwards without bad confequences; fo that it is clear the poifon has no activity, till through fome fore or wound it is ad- “mitted into circulation. Again, the tooth itfelf, divefled of | , 2 thas 208 APPENDIX. that poifon, has-as little effet. The viper deprived of his canine teeth, an operation very eafily performed, bites with- out any fatal confequence with the others; and many in- ftances there have been of mad dogs having bit people cloath- ed in coarfe woollen ftuff, which had fo far cleaned the teeth of the faliva in pafling through it, as not to have left the fmalleft inflammation after the wound. Irorsear to fatigue the reader by longer infifting upon this fubject. A long differtation. would remain upon the incantation of ferpents. There is no doubt of its reality. The fcriptures are full of it. AH that have been in Egypt have feen as many different inflances as they chofe. Some have doubred that it was a trick, and that the animals fo handled had been firft trained, and then difarmed of their power of hurting; and fond of the difcovery, they have refted themfelves upon it, without experiment, in the face of all an- tiquity. But I will not hefitate to aver, that I have feen at Cairo (and this may he feen daily without trouble or expence) a man who came from above the catacombs, where the pits of the mummy birds are kept, who has taken a Ceraftes with his naked hand from a number of others lying at the bottom ef the tub, has put it upon his bare head, covered it with the common red cap he wears, then taken it out, put it in his breait, and tied it about his neck like a necklace; after which it has.been applied toa hen, and bit it, which has died in a few minutes; and, to complete the experiment, the man has taken it by the neck, and beginning at his tail, has ate it as one would doa carrot or a ftock of celery, without any feeming repug- nance. / We APPENDITI4&, . 209 We know from hiftory, that where any country has been remarkably infefted with ferpents, there the people have been fcreened by this fecret. The Pfylli and Marmarides of old undoubtedly. were defended in this manner, : Ad Quorum cantus mites Facuére Cerafla. ; Siu. Iau. lib, iis To leave ancient hiftory, can myfelf vouch, that all the black people in-the kingdom of Sennaar, whether Funge or Nuba, are perfectly armed againft the bite of either fcorpion orviper. They take the Ceraftes in their hands at all times, put them in their bofoms,.and throw them to one another as children do apples or balls, without having irritated them, by this ufage fo much as to bite. The Arabs have not this fecret naturally, but from their infancy they acquire an ex- emption from the mortal confequences attending the bite of thefe animals, by chawing’a certain root, and wafhing them- felves (it-is. not anointing) with an.infufion. of certain plants in water. 7 One day when I was with the brother of Shekh Adelan, prime minifter of Sennaar, a flave of his brought a Ce- raftes which he had juft then taken out of a hole, and was ufing it with every fortof familiarity. I told him my fufpicion that the teeth: had been drawn, but he ailured me _ they were not, as.did his mafter Kittou, who took it from him, wound it round his arm, and at my defire ordered.the fervant to carry it home with me. I took.a chicken by the neck, and made it flutter before him;. his feeming inditfer. ence left him, and he bit it with great figns of anger, the _chicken died almof immediately ; I fay his feeming indift ference amar. APPENDIX ference, for I conftantly obferved, that however lively the viper was before, upon being feized by any of thefe barba- rians he feemed as if taken with ficknefs and feeblenefs, fre- quently fhut his eyes, and never turned his mouth towards .the arm of the perfon that held him. I afked Kittou how they came to be exempted from this mifchief? he faid, they were born fo, and fo faid the grave and refpectable men among them. Many of the lighter and lower fort talked of enchantments by words and by writing, but they all knew how to prepare any perfon by medicine, which were | decoctions of herbs and roots. i I nave feen many thus armed for a feafon do pretty . : much the fame feats as thofe that poflefled the exemption naturally, the drugs were given me, and I feveral times armed myfelf, as I thought, refolved to try the experiment, ) but my heart always failed me when Icameto the triak; | | . becaufe among thefe wretched people it was a pretencethey _ might very probably have fheltered themfelves under, that I was a Chriftian, that therefore it had no effect upon me. I have ftill remaining by me a {mall quantity of this root, but never had an opportunity of trying the experiment. Tue reader will attend to the horn which is placed over the eye in the manner I have given the figure of it, it is fluted, and has four divifions. He will likewife obferve the tooth as viewed through a glafs. He may fuppofe the black reprefents a painter’s pallet, for the eafier difcerning the white tooth, which could not otherwife appear diftincétly upon the white paper. BINNY. Sa, “7g0 by C.Robuson belo 7) Londonubliteit Jan Lad > * a e +% : + fr ~~ « —— . 7+ > : APPENDIX, are a Lowa: Ye LTHOUGH the fifh we find in the eaft are generally A more diftinguifhed for their beauty and variety of colours, or for their uncouth forms, rather than fer the goodnefs of the fith itfelf, this before us appears to be an ex- — ception; though it is not without fingularities, yet its form and colour are very fimple, and, for the elegance of its tafte, may vie with any fifh caught in any river which runs either into the Mediterranean or Ocean. Whether it is the Latus, or the Oxyrinchus of antiquity, both fifhes of the Nile, fo famous that divine honours were paid them, by large cities, nomes, or diftricts fituated upon that river, is what I am not naturalift enough to difcover. Such as it is, in all its parts, | have placed it before the reader faith- fully. Vou. V. EE By ‘ata .. PAPER Ne, By the difproportion in the length cf its jaws, I fhould | imagine this to bea fifh’ of prey, though a circumftance concerning the bait with which it is taken feems to contra- dié& this. The fifh from which this drawing was made weighed 32 pounds Englifh, but is often caught of 7o pounds and upwards, as I have been told by the fifhermen, for | never faw one larger than’ the one Iam now defcrib- ing. The largeft of this kind are caught about Rofetto and the mouth of the river, but they are very numerous, higher up.as far as Syene and the firft cataraét. This was caught at Achmim, the ancient Panopolis, and the manner in which this is performed is very uncommon and ingenious, and by the few trials that I faw is-alfo very fuccefsful. Tuy take a quantity of oil, clay, flour, and honey, with ftraw, and fome other thing that makes it ftick together, they knead or tread it with their feet till icis perfetly mix- ed. They then take two handfuls of dates, and break them into fmall pieces about the bignefs of the point of the finger, and ftick them in different parts of this mixture, which begins now to have fuch confiftency as to adhere perfectly together, and appears in form like a Chefhire cheefe. In the heart of this cake they put feven or eight hooks, with dates upon them, and a ftring*of ftrong whip- cord toeach, The fifherman then takes this large mafs_ of pafte, and putting it upon a goat’s fkin blown with wind, rides behind it out into the middle of the ftream ; therehe drops it in the deepeft part of the river, then cautioufly holding the ends of each of the ftrings flack, fo as not to pull the dates and the hooks out of the heart of the com- pofition, he gets again afhore upon his {kin a tittle below where he had funk the folid mafs. as I Naiect ane WHEN APPENDIX. 213 Wuen arrived on the fhore, he carefully feparates the ends of the ftrings, and ties them, without ftraining, each to a palm branch made faft on fhore, to the end of every one of which hangs a fmall bell. He then goes and feeds his cattle, digs ditches, or lies down and fleeps as his bufi- nefs calls him. The oil refifts the water for fome time, at laft the cake begins to diflolve, pieces fall off, the broken dates dipped in the honey flow down the ftream, and the large fifh below catch ravenoufly at them as they pafs. The fith follow thefe pieces up the ftream, gathering them as they go along till they get to the cake at laft, when alto- gether, as many as are affembled, fall voracioufly to feek the dates buried in the compofition; each fifth that finds a date {wallows it, together with an iron hook, and feeling hhimfelf faft, makes off as fpeedily as poflible ; the confe- quence is, endeavouring to efcape from the line by which he is faftened, he pulls the palm branch, and rings the bell faftened to it. ‘Tus fifherman runs immediately to the bell, and finding thereby the particular line, hauls his prifoner in, but does not kill him; the hook being large, it generally catches him by the upper jaw, which is confiderably longer than the un- ‘der. He then pulis him out of the water, and puts a flrong iron ring through his jaw, ties a few yards of cord to it, and faftens him to the fhore, fo he does with the reft,. Very rarely one hook is found empty. Thofe that