34° TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
alreadv in the prefcnce of God, and in poffeffion of the greateft Mefs poffible, wanting nothing to complete it. " Re- member,(favs their liturgy) O Lord! the fouls of thy fervants, our father Abba Matthias, and the reft of our faints, Abba Salama, and Abba Jacob." In another place, " Remember, O Lord ! the kings of Ethiopia, Abreha, and Atzbeha, Caleb, and Guebra Mafcal." And again, " Releafe, O Lord ! our fa- ther Antonius, and Abba Macarius.' If this is not directly ac- knowledging a feparate ftate, it can have no meaning at all.
I have already faid, that the Agaazi, the predeceffors of thofe people that fettled in Tigre from the mountains of the Habab, were fhepherds adjoining to the Red Sea ; that they fpeak the language Geez, and are the only people in Abyffi- nia in poffeflion of letters ; that thefe are all circumcifed, both men and women. The former term, as applied to men, is commonly known to every one the lead: acquaint- ed with the Jewifh hiftory. The latter is, as far as I know, a rite merely Gentile, although in Africa, at leaft that part ad- joining to Egypt and the Red Sea, it is much more known and more univerfally praclifed. than the other. This I fliall call cxci/io/i, that I may exprefs this uncommon operation by as decent a word as poflible. The Falafha likewife fubmit to both.
These nations, however they agree in their rite, differ in their accounts of the time they received this ceremony, as well as the manner of performing it. The Abyllinians of Tigre fay, that the}- received it from Ifhmael's family and his defcendants, with whom they were early connected in their trading voyages. They fay alio, that the queen of Sa- ba, and all the women of that coaft, had fuffered exciiion at the ufual time of life, before puberty, and before her jour- ney
