only his manner, and that he should have acted in a very different way when his people had been withdrawn;" telling me at the same time, that "he had put his servant into confinement who had behaved with so much insolence on our first arrival at Adowa; and that he therefore hoped I would overlook the past, and be friends." Having accomplished my purpose, by shewing what I conceived might prove a salutary lesson to the Baharnegash, and the other Abyssinians present, who were to attend us to the coast, I consented to overlook what had occurred, and thenceforth every thing went on satisfactorily on both sides. A fresh repast was prepared in the evening, at which the lady made her appearance: and our host himself exhibited a liveliness of humour, and an alteration in his manner, that satisfied me at once that his rude behaviour in the morning had, from some unknown cause, been intentional.
On the following day, during our stay at Adowa, I was requested to pay a visit to a sick man, supposed to be at the point of death: but before I could reach him he was no more. The disease with which he had been afflicted, is called Tigre-tér, a species of fever, for which the remedy in use among the Abyssinians is somewhat extraordinary. On a person being seized with this complaint, the relatives expose to his sight all the ornaments of gold, silver, and fine clothes which their respective friends can collect, making at the same time as much noise as possible with drums, trumpets and vociferous outcries, which is practised with a view, as far as I could ascertain, "of driving the devil out of the patient;" the Abyssinians, in general, entertaining a rooted belief that most diseases are occasioned by the afflicted party's "being possessed with an evil spirit." So soon, however, as the person approaches the moment of death, the drums and trumpets cease, and a mournful howl is set up by all the friends present, who, on the death being announced, tear their hair, scratch the skin from their temples, and cast themselves sobbing and screaming to the ground, in all the agony of despair, as if the existence of the whole universe was connected with his fate. Not only the relations of the deceased express their grief in this violent manner, but the neighbours and acquaintance of the par-
