743 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
then perform their facred ceremonies, to which none but the heads of families in the. Agows country are ever ad-* mitted.
When I fhewed'our landlord, Kefla Abay, the dog-ftan (Syrms) he knew it perfectly, faying it was Seir, it was the liar of the river, the mefTenger or flar of the convocation of the tribes, or of the feaft ;. but I could not obferve he ever prayed to it, or looked at it otherwife than one does to a dial, nor mentioned it with the refpect he did the Abay ; nor did he mew any fort of attention to the planets, or to any other ilar whatever.
On the 9th of November, having finifhed my memoran- dum relating, to thefe remarkable places, I traced again on foot the whole courfe of this river from its fource to the plain of Goutto. I was unattended by any one, having with me only two hunting dogs, and my gun in my hand. . The quantity of game of all forts, efpecially the deer kind, was, indeed, furprifing ; , but though I was, as ufual, a very fuc-- cefsful fportfman, I was obliged, for want of help, to leave each deer where he fell. They fleep in the wild oats, and do not rife till you are about to tread upon them, and then flare at you for half a minute before they attempt to run off-
The only mention I fhall make of the natural produc- tions of this place comes the more properly in here, as it relates to my account of the religion of this people. In the "writings of the Jefuits, the Agows are faid to worfhip canes*;
but
•-See a very remarkable letter of Ras Sela Chriftos to the emperor Socinios, in Balthazar Tellez, torn. 2. p. 496,
