The king, though perfectly informed of the part that the whole province of Damot had taken in the rebellion of Isaac, as also great part of the Agows, but most of all that tribe called Zeegam, yet had so well dissembled, that most of them believed he was ignorant of their fault, and all of them, that he had no thoughts of punishing them, for he had returned through Damot, after the defeat of Isaac, without shewing any mark of anger, or suffering his troops to commit the smallest hostility. He now passed in the same peaceable manner through the country of Zeegam, intending to attack the Shangalla of Geesa and Wumbarea.
These two tribes are little known. Like the other Shangalla they are Pagans, but worship the Nile and a certain tree, and have a language peculiar to themselves. They are woolly-headed, and of the deepest black; very tall and strong, straighter and better-made about the legs and joints than the other blacks; their foreheads narrow, their cheek-bones high, their noses flat, with wide mouths, and very small eyes. With all this they have an air of chearfulness and gaiety which renders them more agreeable than other blacks. Their women are very amorous, and fell at a much greater price than other blacks of the sex.
This country is bounded on the south by Metchakel; on the west by the Nile; the east by Serako, part of Guesgue and Kuara; and, on the north, by Belay, Cuha, and the Hamidge[1] of Sennaar. They make very frequent inroads,
- ↑ A name of the black Pagans bordering on Sennaar to the south-west.
