the most menial condition. Each of these contingent proportioned to his province, to governors is, in his own sphere, an imita- the national muster. At least once every tor of the king, exacting from his own dependents the same adulation and the same services with which he is obliged to propitate the sovereign. And as they are compelled to replenish the royal treasury, they have an ample pretext for oppressing those under them by arbitrary levies.

ty.

year the king makes a levy; and as it is to slay heathens whom they piously hate, and to carry off slaves and plunder, the Amhara peasant gladly equips himself with sword, spear, and buckler, and mounts his horse for the foray. The Negoos alone knows the destination of the army; and this he The population, however, are far from carefully conceals, sometimes announcing being so depressed and miserable, as a gov- an opposite route, sometimes following one ernment so despotic and arbitrary might be for days, and then by forced marches gainexpected to make them. Though industrying the true road, in order that his victims is fettered, a heavy tax levied from agricul- may be caught unprepared, and a rich hartural produce, justice venal, monastic and vest of plunder reaped with ease and safeclerical establishments in excess, though there is no enterprise and little skill, yet Major Harris accompanied Sáhela Selásthey have not only risen above hunting and sie in one of these expeditions. The omens nomade barbarism, but attained to a degree which the Negoos carefully consults having of comfort and abundance. Under certain all been propitious, he issued at sunrise despotic restrictions, private property in from his palace, resplendent in cloth of the land is everywhere sanctioned. There gold, and with all the emblems of barbaric are few forests and wastes; farm-steadings royalty, the imperial crimson velvet umbreland dwelling-houses repose in security; the las, the sound of trumpets and of the nugplough and irrigation are in use; and al-areet, or keetle-drums. Before him went though their skill is small, and their imple- the Holy Scriptures and the ark of St. ments few and rude, yet, from their fertile Michael's cathedral, borne on a mule unsoil, a numerous, though not over-crowdedder a canopy of scarlet cloth; around him population, is able to procure an abun- was a guard of matchlock men, and behind dance of the necessaries of life.

a train of governors, judges, monks, priests, We have been speaking of the Christian singers, a band of women-cooks and eupopulation in the hereditary provinces. But nuchs, while a crowd poured in from all the present Negoos is a statesman and a sides, of warriors, henchmen, camp followconqueror; and by his combined skill and ers with horses, mules, and asses, throngs valor has considerably enlarged his do- of women and lads carrying the varied furminions. His acquisitions have been chief-niture of a camp, and all in picturesque ly from the Galla to the south, in Guraguê, disorder. Increasing as it proceeded, the Enárea, or Zingero; for he candidly con- array grew soon to fifteen, and at last to fesses that he could not prevail over the twenty thousand warriors. Each man folpeople of Gesh to the north, or of Adel to lowed his own lord, and carried provisions the east, because the former have "large for a twenty days' campaign. Their course shields, and fight hand to hand," and the lat-lay across the country to the south-west. ter "stand firm in battle, and will not run As they advanced, deputations from tributaaway." But of his southern acquisitions, ry tribes approached with bared shoulders, the author complains that no means have and in humble attitudes, to propitiate the been taken to secure the permanency. He despot. Passing these without molesting compels submission by an invasion; im-them, and rolling along in utter irregularposes a tribute and retires; his power is ity and confusion, the immense crowd was, forthwith forgotten and rule disowned by after some days, encamped in the devoted the inconstant and thoughtless barbarians; and a fresh campaign must be undertaken to restore it. Military expeditions for this purpose are, accordingly, part of his stated policy; and it would almost seem that in inroads and plundering consists the only government he maintains over some of these southern dependencies. The Shoan peasant is bound to do military service to his governor, and every governor furnishes a

country. Here, after making several forced marches, plundering as it went, the Amhara army was one morning suddenly reduced from tumultuary confusion to the national military array, and forthwith bolted "like a cloudless thunderbolt" on the unsuspecting heads, first of the Sertie Galla, a rebellious tribe who inhabit the rich slopes of the mountains of Garra Gorphoo, and next of the Ekka and Finfinni Galla, who people

skewer, into which they insert a white feather or sprig of asparagus, whenever they have slain a pagan or performed any other valorous deed. Their weapons are a sword, crooked like a sickle, a spear, and a buckler; these suffice for their human foes, but they are unfit for coping with the elephant or the wild buffalo of their country. Anciently the emperors rode the elephant, but the present race regards it with inordinate dread; and the English visitors, whose reputation for courage had suffered from their inoffensiveness during the foray, attained the highest pitch of honor by the fearlessness with which they encountered, and the ease with which they slew these terrible adversaries.

the wide and richly cultured plains of Ger máma and the beautiful valley of Finfinni. The attack was skilfully made; the surprise complete; and before night fell, the district which, from the heights in the morning, had presented fields of ripening grain, herds of grazing cattle, groups of unarmed husbandmen, and clusters of pleasant dwellings a very picture of peace and plenty was laid in utter desolation, the corn trampled under the hoofs of the invading cavalry, the houses smoking in ruins, the men butchered, the women carried off as the slaves, and the cattle as the plunder of the savage and exulting conquerors. The chapters in which Major Harris describes the march, the foray, and the triumph celebrated by processions, war-danc- We have said that they practise concues, orations and feasts, are among the most binage, and it is somewhat strange to hear striking of his work, and give a very lively, that a Christian monarch maintains a harem but by no means favorable idea of the char- to the number of 500, with a suitable esacter of this Christian people. It is pleas- tablishment of eunuchs. Marriage is a ant to learn that Major Harris and Dr. civil contract, though sometimes it takes Krapf prevailed on the Negoos to set free place before the Church, and divorce is frethe captives, much to the surprise and dis- quent. Of the state of morality Major Harappointment of his ruthless soldiery. Next ris reports very unfavorably. The entire year the Metta Galla, and a neighboring literature of Abyssinia consists of 110 mantribe was subjected to the same calamity; 43,000 cattle were captured, and 4,500 heathens of all ages were butchered by the soldiers of Sáhela Selássie, and of these, the greatest number were shot on the trees that they had ascended in the vain hope of eluding observation.

uscript volumes of theological controversy and monkish legend; of these, four only are in the living or Amharic tongue; so that worthless as they are, few but the priests and defteras can decipher them, for those only destined to the Church, receive the rudiments of education. They have a numWe should now proceed to extract some ber of curious habits or usages, of which particulars regarding the social life and we must not omit to mention the string of manners of this people. But although we good wishes which composes their salutahave aimed at compression, to the mutila- tion in the streets."How are you? How tion, we fear, of the picture drawn by Ma- do you do? How have you passed your jor Harris, the account has already grown tine? Are you well? Are you very well? to an undue size. We shall, therefore, Are you quite well? Are you perfectly merely mention, with the utmost brevity, well? Are you not well?"—are questions some few of their more striking characteristics. Their features are Caucasian, their complexion varies from olive to jet black, their hair is long and silky, the men are tall, robust, and well formed, the women scarcely less masculine. The principal piece of dress of the males is a large loose cotton cloth, worn gracefully but incommo- to refuse, and which, when accepted, must dious. On occasions of ceremony, the principal men wear skins of lions and leopards; they put on armlets of brass or silver as tokens of gallantry, and a silver shield from the Negoos is their star of the garter. From the king to the beggar all go barefoot, and all, save the clergy, who wear a turban, are bareheaded; but they soak their hair with rancid butter, and fix in it a wooden

which form merely the preface to a long list of similar interrogations. Another singularity is what Major Harris calls "the mode of extortion by mamalacha,”—an ingenious system of begging. This consists in the petitioner presenting some gift, which, however worthless, it is scarcely allowable

be acknowledged by the return of whatever the giver has the assurance to demand. It is constantly and importunately practised by all ranks; and of its operation, a notion may be formed from the statement, that "servants present sticks and handfuls of grass;" and that "for hours together, men stood before the door" of the residency "with cocks, and hens, and loaves of bread,

to establish their right to the possession of feast into the Indian Ocean, and probably 'pleasing things."" As remarkable is the that which Arabian geographers call the practice of scarifying their cheeks on occa-"River of Pigmies." Rising in the great sions of mourning. This they do by tear-central ridge of mountains which divide ing from below each temple a circular piece the waters that flow east from those that of skin, about the size of a sixpence; to flow west into the Bahr el Abiad, and more accomplish which the nail of the little fin-southerly, into the Atlantic, it first spreads ger is "purposely suffered to grow like an eagle's talon." All wear the mateb, a small cord of deep blue silk encircling the neck, and the badge of Christianity. Last of all, the whole nation delights in the luxury of raw flesh. It is the grand aliment of life.

into a lake, and then rolling onward, is joined, fifteen days' journey south of Enárea, by the Omo. Hence, their united waters, after falling down the stupendous cataract of Dumbáro, pursue their course to the south-east, forming the southern limit of Zingero, and at last disemboguing "The bull is thrown down at the very door into the sea. The exact spot of confluof the eating house; the head having been ence is unknown. Major Harris thinks turned to the eastward, is, with the crooked sword, nearly severed from the body, under it is identical with the Kibbee, said to come an invocation to the Father, the Son, and the from the north-west, and enter the sea near Holy Ghost; and no sooner is the breath out the town of Juba, immediately under the of the carcass, than the raw and quivering equator. If not the Kibbee, it must be the flesh is handed to the banquet. It is not fair Quilimancy, which disembogues, by severto brand a nation with a foul stigma, resting al estuaries, between Patta and Malinda, on a solitary fact; but he who, like the writer, four degrees farther south. Its volume of has witnessed, during the return of the foray, the wanton mutilation of a sheep whose limbs water is very large, and it is supposed to were in succession severed from the carcass, be navigable for a long way; and from the whilst the animal was still living, can readily reports, it appears, that its mouth is known believe all that is related by the great travel- and is already navigated to a considerable ler Bruce, of the cruelties practised in North-distance inland by white people, who freern Abyssinia."-Pp. 172-2, vol. iii.

But we must close, leaving untold much that is curious. Nor can we do more than merely allude to the information regarding the countries lying south of Shoa. It was gathered from natives of the several districts, and abounds with interest. We here read of numerous tribes and nations, characterized by the strangest aud most revolting manners and usages-of Galla tribes, who, while heathen in religion, and having superstitions that resemble those of Etruria and Rome, regard the Jews as their ancestors, and expect to conquer Jerusalem-of the kingdom of Enárea, half pagan and half Mahomedan-of the country of Zingero, where human sacrifices are common, and the slave merchant, as he passes the Lake Umo, throws the handsomest female captive into the waves, as a tribute to the god of the water-of the Doko, a pigmy race, (supposed by Major Harris to be the Troglodytes of Herodotus,) who are perfectly wild, pray to some uncouth deity standing on their heads, go stark naked, are ignorant of fire, live on roots and reptiles, and are annually hunted like beasts by the savage slave-dealers from Dumbáro, Caffa, and Kooloo. Finally, we read of the great River Gochob, running south and

quent it in pursuit of the horrible traffic in human flesh-a traffic of which the enormity is there rendered the more glaring, because many of its victims are Christians.

We have said nothing concerning the commercial and political bearings of the public mission which these volumes record. Nor do we propose to take up this important topic at the close of this notice. One word only regarding the principle and character of such undertakings. Expeditions, having for their object to take possession for a nation of an unoccupied territory, or to gain for it a footing and influence in one already peopled and partitioned, have been long known. But the unparalleled height of civilization to which our own and some other nations have now ascended, has laid them under stronger inducements, and at the same time furnished them with more efficient means than have ever hitherto been in operation, to prosecute such enterprises. We may, accordingly, expect to see them daily multiplied, and attaining to greater importance in the affairs of nations. It is evident that very different motives are conspiring to cause them. Some have sprung from political ambition alone. They have been the effects of rivalry between the great powers, prompting them to seize and fortify themselves in new posts of attack or

assigned the date thirteenth century. M. Tabary, afterwards discovered, on one of the latter pages Sancti Hieronymi volumen primum finit. In noof the first volume, this note :-"Epistolarum mine Sanctæ et individuæ Trinitatis et gloriosæ

defence. Others aim at introducing, as it were, one people to another-at throwing down the walls of partition between conmunities at bringing the influence of all to bear on the resources within the posses-viginis Mariæ scriptum-1468 ;" and, according sion of each, in order that every where men ly, sued the publisher for the return of his purmay work, under the most urgent motives, faith, and that he had purchased the manuscript chase-money. M. Bohaire pleaded his good and by aid of the best appliances, at the at the sale, in 1835, of the library of M. de Courgreat task set to their progenitor in Eden, celles, as a manuscript of the thirteenth century, of subduing the earth to human dominion, and appealed to the conditions of sale in his cataand extracting from it the fullest amount of logue, which prescribed that the books purchased should be collated within twenty-four hours of human uses. Of these the former are in the purchase, whereas M. Tabary had kept the principle unjustifiable and wicked, and in MS six months without complaint. The Court, their effects must be pernicious. The lat- however, decided that the question of collation ter are not only praiseworthy, but seem in-applied only to the copy, and not to a substantive deed to rank among national duties. To misdescription, in which case the publisher must this class, the mission which Major Harris the sale void —Ath. be considered as guaranteeing; and pronounced conducted professedly belongs. Having this opinion of its object, we regard it with approbation and interest, trusting that its issue may never belie the fairness of its opening promise, and that the new people, whom our colossal Empire has drawn within the circle of its influence, may never have to tell of the injustice, oppression, and degradation which, in too many quarters of the globe, have been the sole fruits of British interference.

PIRATED ENGLISH WORKS.-In consequence of the many applications which have been made to the Lords of the Treasury by parties arriving in nent, relative to the seizure, under the new CopyEngland, after lengthened tours on the conti right Act, of the single copies of pirated English works purchased by them abroad, and imported for their own libraries, an order has been made, with which our readers should be acquaint

There are various appendices to the vol-ed. It is thereby directed, that pirated works umes, containing specific information re- found in the baggage of passengers shall not be garding the natural history of the Adel coun- immediately destroyed, but shall be retained try, and regarding the geology, botany, and three months,-an account containing a list of zoology of Abyssinia. For these, the au-der to obtain the order for their destruction, the same being sent quarterly to the board, in orthor was indepted to Dr. Roth, the natura- which is not to take place till the expiration of a list of the Embassy, and they are highly month from the date of the order. It is not genvaluable. There is also added an accurate erally known that there is a provision in the act, copy of the Abyssinian Calendar, from to the effect that the owners of the copyrights are which it appears that their year commen- Therefore, persons who may be possessed of pientitled to import pirated editions of their works. ces on our 29th August, which is their 1st rated editions, and are anxious to retain them, September-that every day of the year has should apply for the sanction of the owner of the at least one saint, while many have a great tained, they will experience no difficulty in obcopyright to their admission; which being obnumber-and that the lives of the saints, or taining their delivery For ourselves, we question the detail of the miracles assigned to each the policy of any exception which lets in the piday, are publicly read in the churches at rated work at all. The general efficiency of the the service, beginning at the cock's first Act is endangered by this relaxation of its proviscrowing. ions. With these licensed copies abroad, how are the copies of the smuggler to be distinguished for seizure? The only remedy will be for authors to put a stamp on such copies as pass under their license-as Bibles and tracts are stamped by the societies which distribute them in charity.— Athenæum.

GUARANTEE OF A SALE-CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. -The French papers give the particulars of a trial, in which the tribunals have had to decide on the question of guarantee as applicable to the description given in a sale-catalogue of books. From a collection of books and manuscripts sold M. Bohaire, the publisher, M. Tabary bought, for 300 francs, one described in the catalogue as a manuscript on fine vellum, in two folio volumes, of the Epistles of St. Jerome,' and to which was

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TASSO'S MONUMENT.-His Majesty the King of the French has, through his Excellency Count Latour Maubourg, French Ambassador at the Court of the Holy See, caused a liberal donation to be presented to the commissioners constituted at Rome, for the purpose of erecting a monument in memory of Tasso.-Court Journal.

THE ROBERTSES ON THEIR TRAVELS. | could give stronger evidence of the high

[Continued.]

BY MRS. trollope.

From the New Monthly Magazine. MRS. ROBERTS certainly began to feel that if she hoped to sustain her reputation for being the very best and cleverest manager that the world ever saw, of all pecuniary as well as other matters, it would be necessary to lose as little time as possible in bringing to perfection her scheme for obtaining the agreeable society of Miss Bertha Harrington for her two daughters. She suffered, therefore, but one day to intervene between her last visit to Lady Moreton, and the very important one which was to decide the success of her scheme.

She left her two daughters in the carriage, having previously explained to them her plan, and also in part the urgent necessity for it, and then mounted the stairs with a beating heart.

value which Mrs. Roberts put upon the esteem and consideration of her own family, than the fact that her first sensation on recovering this rebuff was one of gladness that no Roberts had heard it but herself.

"Do not for a moment mistake me, my dearest lady!" she exclaimed, looking at her dowager countess with eyes that seemed almost in an act of adoration from profound respect; "do not suppose it possible that I do not feel that this request would be perfectly unwarrantable, did it not concern your ladyship more than it does myself."

"Oh! well, I don't want to slip out of business; though it always is a bore to such a temper as mine," replied her ladyship, "and it is not an easy matter you see just at first, Mrs. Robson-Mrs. Roberts, I mean-it is not quite easy just at first to guess what you can have to do with any private business of mine. As to my getting up and trotting about the rooms in order to find a place for you to talk secrets in, I can't do it-indeed I cannot, Mrs. Roberts; but I'll send the child out of the room, if that is what you want. My cousin Sophy's secrets and mine are all one and the same, so she need not stop you. Shall I send the child away?"

She had, however, a comfortable and sustaining confidence in her own powers, and felt, as she entered the drawing-room, that her courage rather increased than diminished as the moment for profiting by it approached. Unfortunately, however, she did not find Lady Moreton alone, her dearly beloved cousin, Sophy, being seated beside her, reading scraps of news from Galignani's paper of the day, while her young niece was stationed at a table, one side of which was placed against the wall at the bottom of the room, with an open book in her hand, which, however, she did not appear to be reading, as her eyes were ear-gions of the moon, or to the darkest cave nestly fixed upon the wall before her.

This she of course felt would not do at all; and having gone through all her most graceful evolutions in the way of easy Parisian morning gossiping, she lowered her voice to a whisper, addressed exclusively to Lady Moreton, and said, "May I ask to have two minutes' private conversation with your ladyship?"

Mrs. Roberts bowed, and smiled a most cordially well-pleased acquiescence, though she really would have been inexpressibly delighted could she have found at the moment any feasible method of despatching the Lady Forton either to the bright re

at the bottom of the ocean. She would have cared not a farthing which. But as both were alike impossible, she was obliged to reconcile herself to the exceedingly disagreeable necessity of enduring the unremitting stare of her ladyship's great black eyes, which always seemed to come on duty with as impressive a steadiness as the equestrian sentinels at Whitehall, whenever any thing in the least degree important was addressed to her cousin.

Lady Moreton opened her eyes with a stare expressive of much more astonishment than satisfaction, and repeating the Upon receiving this signal of acquiword "private?" interrogatively, seemed escence from her mysterious visitor, Lady to await a little further explanation before Moreton raised her voice to a tone that she ventured to accede to the request. was very satisfactorily audible at the botNobody could have understood better tom of the room, where the young person than Mrs. Roberts did that both the word she addressed was sitting, and said, and the accent implied a double doubt; to your own room, Bertha Harrington." first, as to her own right of making the re- The command was instantly obeyed, and quest, and, secondly, as to her ladyship's then, very greatly to the satisfaction of Mrs. inclination to granting it; and nothing Roberts, who was beginning to feel a little DECEMBER, 1844.

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