But in supposing that A is B, the admitted proposition | fell in the war with Mosailamah; and Abu Bekr, in order to obliges you to say that c is D. But you have supposed that c is not D, you therefore say at the same time that c is D, and that c is not D, which is absurd. Consequently, if it be true that, whenever A is B, then c is D, it follows that, when c is not D, A is not B. The reductio ad absurdum has been objected to as not equally conclusive with direct demonstration. For this there is no foundation; though it must be admitted that direct demonstrations are more pleasing and more elegant. But it is obvious that, if everything which contradicts a proposition be false, the proposition itself must be true. The student of logic must distinguish between that which is only contradictory, and that which is contrary to a proposition. Thus, to the proposition that 'all squares are equal, it is contradictory that some squares are not equal," and contrary, that no squares are equal. The contrary is the most complete contradictory, and affirms that the proposition is true in no one instance. It is not correct to say that, if a proposition be false, its contrary is true; for example, it is false that all squares are equal, and equally false that no squares are equal. But of a proposition and its contradictory one must be true; thus, either all squares are equal or some squares are not equal. Hence, whatever disproves a proposition proves something contradictory, and whatever disproves everything contradictory proves the proposition. The reductio ad absurdum is, therefore, as conclusive as direct demonstration. obviate any future uncertainty about the genuine text of the ordinances, caused all the fragments to be collected, the passages remembered by heart to be written out, and the whole to be embodied in the volume known under the title of the Koran-a work which, from the importance of its contents, as well as the force and purity of its language, is the sacred and classical book of the Mohammedans. When the authority of the caliphat was fully established in Arabia, Abu Bekr was anxious to increase the Mohammedan dominions by foreign conquest. Khaled was dispatched into Irak, and subdued several of the frontier provinces along the Euphrates, which belonged to the then declining empire of Persia; while two other commanders, Yezid ben Abi Sofyan and Abu Obeidah, with an army gathered from all parts of Arabia, entered Syria and defeated the troops of the Grecian emperor Heraclius. They also got possession of the town of Bostra, favoured, it is said, by the treason of its governor Romanus. But the siege and capture of Damascus by the united forces of Abu Obeidah and Khaled, which event was preceded by a decisive victory over a Greek army of 70,000 men near Ajnadain, forms the principal feature of this expedition, as it established the dominion of the Arabs over Syria, and in fact over the whole country between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. On the day of the capture of Damascus (23rd August, A.D. 634) Abu Bekr died, at the age of sixty-three years. ABU BEKR, properly called ABDALLAH ATIK BEN ABI Not one of his three sons, Abdallah, Abd-al-rahman, and KOHAFAH, but better known under the name of ABU BEKR Mohammed, survived him; and in his will he appointed (i.e. Father of the Maiden,' in allusion to his daughter Omar as his successor. Eastern writers praise the almost Ayeshah, whom the Arabian prophet married very young), austere simplicity of his habits and manners, and his entire was the first caliph or successor of Mohammed in the go- disregard of wealth, and the luxuries or even comforts of vernment of the new empire founded by him. Mohammed life. So determined was he not to be enriched by his eledied in A.D. 632, without leaving male issue. The succes-vation to the supreme command, that every Friday he dission to the sovereignty was at first contested between his tributed all the surplus of his income among such persons father-in-law, Abu Bekr, and Ali ben Abi Taleb, his cousin- as he thought deserving of it. His short reign, of little german, who was also, through marriage with the prophet's more than two years, forms an eventful epoch in the history daughter Fatima, his son-in-law. Between the two rivals of Mohammedism; and Oriental authors have vied with themselves the dispute was settled without an appeal to arms. one another in recording details about the early conquests Abu Bekr prevailed, and Ali, though disappointed, submitted of the armies of the Faithful. The volume of the great to the authority of his successful opponent. But among the Arabic chronicle of Tabari, lately edited and translated by Mohammedans the respective claims of the two competitors Kosegarten (Greifswald, 1831. 4to.), is entirely occupied with became a point of perpetual controversy, and gave rise to only the earlier part of Abu Bekr's reign; the latter part, or the great division of the whole Mohammedan community the history of the conquests of Irak and Syria, still remains into Sunnites and Shiites; the former asserting the right of unpublished. A highly interesting account of the siege and Abu Bekr and his two successors, Omar and Othman, while capture of Damascus, derived chiefly from the Arabic chro the Shiites condemn these three caliphs as unlawful in- nicle of Wakedi, may be found in Ockley's History of the truders, and maintain the exclusive right of Ali ben Abi Saracens. Taleb and his lineal descendants to the commandership over the Faithful.-[See article ALI BEN ABI TALEB.] After the death of Mohammed, several of the Arabian tribes, who had become converts to the religion promulgated by him, shook off their allegiance to his successor. Only the three important towns of Mecca, Medinah, and Tayef declared themselves for Abu Bekr. It was the first and principal object of the newly-appointed sovereign to establish his authority in the other parts of Arabia, especially in the countries of Yemen, Tehama, Oman, and Bahrain. In reducing to obedience these refractory provinces, Abu Bekr was powerfully supported by Omar, afterwards his successor, and especially by Khaled ben Walid, a military commander of extraordinary courage and presence of mind. Besides this rebellion of some of its members, the Mohammedan state had to encounter other difficulties from several new pretenders to prophetship, who came forward in different parts of Arabia, and some of whom soon gathered numerous adherents around them. Among these the names of Osud al Abbasi, Tolaihah ben Khowaised, and Mosailamah deserve to be mentioned. Whatever disturbance these new pretenders might cause among the faithful Moslems, the firmness of their belief in the mission of Mohammed could not be shaken, since he himself had prepared them for the appearance of such impostors. Mosailamah seems to have been the most formidable of these enemies of the Islam. He was however defeated by Khaled, and killed in a battle near Akrabah. This conflict is memorable also on another account. The precepts promulgated at different times by Mohammed had, till then, never been collected in a volume; they were handed about in fragments written on palm-leaves or pieces of parchment, and in a great measure preserved by oral tradition. Many of the personal associates of Mohammed, who were from memory familiar with his doctrine, an ABULFARA'GIUS, properly MAR GREGORIUS ABULFARAJ, also called GREGORIUS BARHEBRÆUS, was Oriental writer of much celebrity, who lived in the thirteenth century of our era. He was born in A.D. 1226, at Malatia or Melite, a town situated near the western bank of the Euphrates in Lesser Asia, where his father, Aaron, followed the profession of a physician. Though the offspring of a Jewish family, he embraced the Christian belief, to which he continued faithful till his death. It is, indeed, surmised that shortly before his death he renounced Christianity; but this unauthenticated report is sufficiently counterbalanced by the unqualified praise with which his name is mentioned by Christian writers, who would not have allowed such a fact to remain unnoticed. Abulfaraj studied theology, philosophy, and medicine. He spent the greater part of his life in Syria. At the early age of twenty years he was appointed Bishop of Guba, and subsequently of Aleppo. In 1266 he was elected Primate of all the Jacobite Christians in the East. He died at Meragha in Azerbijan, A.D. 1286. Abulfaraj was the author of a great number of Arabic and Syriac works, but the composition through which bis name has become best known among us is a universal history, originally written in Syriac, but subsequently translated by the author himself into Arabic, to which he has given the title of History of the Dynasties. It is divided into ten sections; the first of which gives some account of the patriarchs; the second of the Jewish commonwealth under the judges; and the third of the Jews under the kings; the fourth contains the history of the Chaldæans; the fifth of the Persians; the sixth of the Greeks; the seventh of the Romans; the eighth of the Christian Grecian empire; the ninth of the Mohammedan Arabs; and the tenth of the Mogols. In the early part of the work many errors are observable into which the author has fallen through his ignorance of the classical languages and literature. The section treating of the Mohammedan history is written with greater accuracy; and in nis account of the Mogol dynasty, towards the conclusion of the work, Abulfaraj speaks from his own knowledge and experience as an eye-witness. Though written by a Christian, this work is held in high esteem even among Jews and Mohammedans in the East. To us its chief interest consists in the curious details which it contains concerning the history of science among the Arabs, particularly under the three Abbaside caliphs, Mansur, Harun al Rashid, and Mamun. An edition of the Arabic text of the Dynasties, accompanied with a Latin translation, was published by Edward Pococke, at Oxford, in 1663, 4to.; the Syriac text, likewise with a Latin version, was edited by Bruns and Kirsch, at Leipzig, in 1789, 4to. ABUL FAZL, son of Sheikh Mobarik, was the vizir of the celebrated Mogol emperor Akbar, who reigned from A.D. 1555 to 1605. Of the history of his life few details are known to us. In 1602, when returning from an expedition to the Deckan, he was murdered in the district of Nurwar by banditti, and, it was suspected, by the contrivance of Akbar's son Selim, who afterwards succeeded his father on the throne, under the name of Jehangir. The extensive and valuable works, which, notwithstanding the duties of his high office, Abul Fazl found leisure to write, have ensured him a conspicuous place among the best authors, as well as among the most enlightened statesmen, of the East. His principal work is the Akbar-Numeh, which exists as yet only in MS., and contains a history of the reign of the sovereign whom he served, and to whom he was most devotedly attached; this history Abul Fazl carried down till very near the time of his own death, and it was afterwards continued by Sheikh Enaiet-ullah in a supplement, entitled Tukmileh-i-Akbar-Nameh. But the work which has most contributed to make his name familiar to us, is the Ayin-i-Akbari, or Institutes of Akbar, a statistical and political description of the Mogol empire, and of the several branches of its administration, some account of which will be given hereafter. [See AYIN-I-AKBARI.] Abul Fazl was a friend to the oppressed Hindus. It appears that the exertions which he made for their protection, and the zeal with which, assisted by his brother Feizi, he endeavoured to derive a precise notion of the nature of their political and religious institutions from their own ancient codes, prejudiced many narrow-minded Mohammedans against him. In his Persian prose translation of the great Sanskrit heroic poem, the Mahabharata, Abul Fazl has left us a curious and valuable monument of the persevering diligence which a Mohammedan statesman deemed it worth his while to bestow on the literature of the conquered nation, in the government of which he was called to assist by his counsels. Another of his works, less interesting to us, though much admired in the East on account of its refined and florid style, is the Ayar-i-Danish, or Touchstone of Intellect, a Persian translation from the Arabic of the well-known fables of Bidpaï, or Pilpay. ABU'LFEDA, or, with his full name, EMAD-EDDIN ABULFEDA ISMAIL BEN ALI, was the descendant of a collateral branch of the Ayubite dynasty, which Saladin, in A.D. 1182, appointed to the sovereignty of the three towns Hamah, Maarrah, and Barin, in Syria, and which continued to hold that dignity even after the Bahrite Mamluks, under Azz-eddin Ibek, had, in A.D. 1254, put an end to the Ayubite dominion over Syria and Egypt. Abulfeda was born in A.D. 1273, at Damascus, whither his family had fled before the Mogols, who then threatened Syria with an invasion, but were successfully repelled by the Bahrite Sultan Bibars. Mohammed ben Basel, once sent as ambassador to the German Emperor, Frederic II., is mentioned as having been one of his teachers. He began at an early age to display a warlike disposition, and to join in the expeditions against the remains of the Christian kingdom founded in Syria by the Crusaders. In 1285 he was present at the siege of Markab,-in 1289 at that of Tripoli,-and in 1291 at the taking of Akka (St. Jean d'Acre); at a later period (A. D. 1298), he accompanied his cousin Modhaffar, then the reigning prince of Hainah, on an expedition against the Mogols. After the death of Modhaffar, in 1299, the Bahrite Sultan Nasir declared the fef which the Ayubites held under him to have become extinct, and assigned a small pension for their maintenance. When, however, ten years afterwards, Sultan Nasir became personally acquainted with Abulfeda, he not only restored to him (1310) the former dignity of his family, but soon after, as an acknowledgment for his services, raised him to the rank of malik, or king. In 1316, Abulfeda was obliged to give up the town of Maarrah and its territory to the Arab Emir Mohammed ben Isa, who demanded this boon as a reward for his defection from the Mogols; but he retained Barin and Hamah, and, with his troops, often rendered military services to Sultan Nasir. Already in 1315 he had assisted him in an expedition against the town of Malatia or Melite, which had shown itself favourable to the cause of the European Christians, and to the Mogols. He continued on the most friendly terms with Nasir, till he died in 1331. The numerous works which he has left behind attest the extent and variety of his information. Among them we find mentioned works on medicine, Mohammedan jurisprudence, mathematics, and philosophy; those most commonly known are a treatise on geography, entitled Takwim al-boldan, or Disposition of the Countries, and an historical work called Mukhtasar fi akhbar albashar, i. e., A Compendium of the History of Mankind.' The geographical treatise consists of an introduction and twenty-eight sections on particular countries, each containing, first, a table, showing the latitudes and longitudes of the most remarkable places, and afterwards detailed statistical and topographical notices respecting them. Besides his native country, Abulfeda had seen Arabia, whither he went twice on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and also Egypt, which he visited frequently when he took the customary annual presents of homage to the court of the Sultan. In the description of such places as he had not seen himself, he takes care to name the authorities from whom he draws his information A uniform edition and translation of the entire geographical work of Abulfeda is still a desideratum in oriental literature; the descriptions of single countries have been edited by Gravius, Reiske, Rommel, Kohler, Michaelis, and others. The historical work is a chronicle after the usual comprehensive plan of Oriental works of this kind. It commences with a brief and very imperfect sketch of the ancient history of the Jews, Persians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, &c.; then gives some information about the history of the Arabs before the time of Mohammed, and thus passes over to its main object, the history of the Prophet, and of the Arabian empire, which it carries down as far as the year 1328. The earlier centuries of the Mohammedan power are but briefly treated, and many important events-for example, the conquest of Spain by the Arabs-are entirely passed over. Farther on the narrative becomes fuller and richer in interesting details. For the history of the Crusades it is one of the most important Oriental sources which we possess. The latter part of the work, or the history of Mohammedanism, was translated by Reiske, and edited with the Arabic text by Adler, at Copenhagen, in five vols. 4to. 1789-94; an edition and translation of the ante-Islamitic part has been published by Fleischer, Leipzig, 1831, 4to. ABURY, see AVEBURY. ABUTMENT, in building, or the practice of civil architecture, that which receives the end of, and gives support to, anything having a tendency to spread or thrust outwards, or in a horizontal direction. The piers or mounds on, or against, which an arch that is less than a semi-circle, or a series of such arches, rests, are abutments; while the supports of a semi circular or semi-elliptical arch, or of an arch of any other figure, which springs at right angles to the horizon, are imposts. The arches of the Southwark and Vauxhall bridges, over the Thames at London, are small segments of circles, even less than quadrants, and all their piers are abutments or abutment-piers; the arches of the London, Blackfriars, Waterloo, and Westminster bridges are all semi-ellipses, and their piers are imposts, or impost piers, and not abutments. Nevertheless, the piers at the extremities of a bridge, of whatever form its arch or arches may be, are always termed its abutments; that is, abutments of the bridge itself; for the road-way of most bridges forms the arc of a circle, and may be considered an outer arch, whose abutments are the land-piers. Level bridges, such as Waterloo-bridge, cannot, indeed, be said to have abutments, in the technical and more restricted sense of the term; but in its more general acceptation, as mounds or props which receive the ends of the series of arches of which the bridge is composed, and tend to prevent the possibility of their spreading, the land-piers of a level bridge also are abutments.-[See BUTTRESS and IMPOST.] ABUTTALS (from the French ABUTTER, to limit or bound) are the buttings and boundings of lands to the east, H 2 Archipelage west, north, and south, showing by what other lands, highways, hedges, rivers, &c., such lands are in those several directions bounded. The boundaries and abuttals of corporation and church lands, and of parishes, are usually preserved by an annual procession. ABY'DOS, an ancient Greek town on the Asiatic shore of the Hellespont, now the Dardanelles, and nearly opposite Sestos on the European shore. It is said by Strabo to have been founded by the Milesians; but the date of its foundation, like that of many other Greek towns, is not accurately known. Abydos was burnt by Darius the Persian, after his Scythian expedition; and somewhat later (B.C. 480) the people of Abydos witnessed the immense army of Xerxes cross the stream on a bridge of boats.(See Outline of General History, chap. viii.)—This bridge did not extend from Abydos to Sestos, which was a distance of more than three English miles, but it was formed at a narrower part, where the distance is somewhat less than one mile. It commenced on the Asiatic side, a little higher up the stream than Abydos; its termination, on the opposite coast, was at the projecting point opposite to Abydos, and between Madytus and Sestos. The practice of crossing large streams by means of boats lashed together, and covered with planks, was common among the Persians; nor were they used only for temporary occasions, but existed in the time of Herodotus and Xenophon over the great rivers of Western Asia, as they do now over the Tigris at Bagdad, the Euphrates, at Hillah near the ruins of Babylon, and elsewhere. When Darius, the father of Xerxes, crossed the channel of Constantinople, on his Scythian expedition, the bridge of boats was constructed by a Greek of Samos, who endeavoured to perpetuate his glory by causing a painting of the passage of the army to be put up in the great temple of Juno at Samos. A description of the bridge of Xerxes is given by Herodotus (vii. 36), who was on the spot probably much less than half a century after the event. The passage of Abydos has obtained a poetical celebrity from the story of Leander, who used to swim across the stormy waters of the Hellespont to visit his mistress Hero, whose name was commemorated even as late as the beginning of the Christian æra by a building called the Tower of Hero. There is extant a Greek poem by Musæus, who perhaps lived about the fourth century, descriptive of the Love and tragical fate of Leander. In our own days Lord Byron has given a new interest to these localities by his pem of the Bride of Abydos. ABY DOS, an ancient city of Upper Egypt, the remains of which are found near two villages, El Kherbeh and Harabat, about six miles from the west bank of the Nile (N. lat. 26° 12'). The chief building, which still remains, is nearly covered with sand, but the interior is in good preservation. Contrary to what we observe generally in Egyp tian buildings, this edifice is constructed of both limestone and sandstone. In the interior it is said that constructed arches are found, similar to those of brick which Belzoni describes at Thebes. The numerous apartments in this building, and the style of decoration, show that Abydos was once a place of importance, and possibly a royal residence. When Strabo was in Egypt (about the commencement of the Christian æra) Abydos was a mere village, but he learned that the great building was called a Memnoneion, or palace of Memnon, and that tradition assigned to Abydos a rank in ancient time next to Thebes. There is,' says the geographer, 'a canal leading to the place from the river:' but, besides this communication with the main stream, Abydos had the advantage of standing on the great canal which runs northwards, and is best known by the name of the Bahr Youssuf, though the name commences much farther north, at a place called Tarut es Sheriff. In the year 1818, Mr. W. Bankes discovered on an interior wall of a building at Abydos, not belonging to the great edifice, a kind of tablet or genealogy of the early kings of Egypt, which is now generally called the Table of Abydos. Mr. Bankes made a copy of this, and others have been since made by Caillaud, Mr. Wilkinson, Burton, and others. The copy which we have before us is one by Mr. Burton, which is more complete and correct than that in Salt's Essay, which was made by Mr. W. Bankes. This tablet consists of three compartments lying horizontally one above another, and each compartment has been divided into twenty-six rectangles, so that the whole has once contained seventy-eight rectangles. No one compartment is perfectly entire, but enough remains of the lowest to enable us to determine the original dimensions of the whole table, and the number of compartments. Each of these rectangles contains an elliptical ring, or cartouche as it is sometimes called, such as may be seen on the Egyptain monuments in the British Museum; and each cartouche contains those various figures which are now generally admitted to indicate the names or titles of sovereigns. The lowest of the three compartments contains in the nineteen rectangles, which are complete, the title and name of Ramses the Great, perhaps the Greek Sesostris; the same prænomen or title, and name, having each probably been repeated thirteen times in the whole twenty-six rectangles, of which seven, as we have just stated, are erased. Deducting these twenty-six, we have remaining in the other two compartments fifty-two rectangles : the fifty-first and fifty-second contain the title and name of a Ramses, who may be a predecessor of Ramses the Great. The cartouches preceding these are probably the titles of kings; for example, the forty-seventh is the same as that on the great colossal statue at Thebes, and on the entire colossal statue in the British Museum, which is Amenophis II. (in Manethon's Catalogue), or the Greek Memnon. Whether the forty-six cartouches that precede this of Memnon belong to kings, his lineal predecessors, we cannot undertake to assert or deny.-[See article in the Westminster Review, No. xxviii. p. 405; vol. ii.] ABYSSINIA. It is difficult to give, in a limited space, any very complete account of the country called Abyssinia, and this difficulty arises no less from the extent of the subject than from the want of sufficiently comprehensive and trustworthy documents. We shall endeavour, in this article, to give a brief description of the country, and to state the chief authorities for our present knowledge of Abyssinia, pointing out generally how far they are satisfactory. The name of Abyssinia became known in Europe from the Portuguese missionaries who penetrated there. Tellez tells us that the name of the people is Abexins; but the Portuguese often write the names of the country and the people respectively in the Latinized forms of Abassia and Abassinos, from which our common term Abyssinia is derived. But as it frequently happens that we call a country by a name not used by the inhabitants themselves, so in this case we are informed by Ludolf that the word Habesh is Arabic, and signifies a mixed people, though the proof of the Abyssinians being a mixed people, as well as of their having originally emigrated from Arabia, has never yet been given. The name of Ityopayawan, or Ethiopians, is that which is adopted by the people when speaking of themselves, though we cannot say how far it is still in general use. They more commonly name themselves with reference to the great divisions to which they belong, such as people of Tigré, Amhara, &c. The political boundaries of the country to which we give the name of Abyssinia have varied since the Portuguese first made us acquainted with it, as we may see from Tellez History of Ethiopia; but to trace all these revolutions would not be a very easy or a profitable labour. The present political limits of Abyssinia will be given below. Though the term Abyssinia strictly belongs to a particular political division of Africa, it is often used in a vague sense as referring to an extensive country remarkable for the physical conformation of its surface. We shall endeavour to define what part of Africa may be conveniently comprehended under this term. Abyssinia is an alpine country, of high table-land, north of the equator, and containing the sources of two of the largest branches of the Nile, the Tacazzé, and the Bahr el Azrek or Abawi, besides the Mareb. Its nearest approach to the sea is in the Baharnegash territory, which forms the N.E. mountain-terrace of Abyssinia, and overlooks the flat coast near Arkeeko (N. lat. 15° 35', E. lon. 39°37'), on the Red Sea. The rulers of Abyssinia have at present no coinmand of the sea-coast, Masowa and Arkeeko, &c. being in the hands of the Mohammedans. A series of terraces conducts from the west coast of the Red Sea to a high mountain range, which runs nearly parallel to the sea-coast for probably 300 miles, 14 12 14 12 10 [This little map of ABYSSINIA is made according to Bruce and Salt, whose accounts have been compared with those of the Portuguese Jesuits in Tellez. The map is merely intended to illustrate our description; and, therefore, nothing except what was essential has been inserted. The reader must infer the directions of many hills and mountains from the courses of the rivers, which, however, are very imperfectly known. Such places, as have not had their position determined with some degree of certainty, have a note of interrogation placed after them.] table-land. This high table of land of Abyssinia is probably continued southward also. All we at present know about it is from the journey of Antonio Fernandez, which is briefly given in Tellez, but in such a way as to convey very little information. This zealous missionary left Dembea in March 1613, and crossed the Nile at the point where it turns to the north: he then went due south, and in the course of his journey crossed a large stream called the Maleg, and arrived at the kingdom of Narea, the north part of which lies in about 8° of north latitude. This country appears to be a kind of continuation of the high ground of Abyssinia, but as to its absolute elevation we know nothing at all. and forms a boundary between two different climates. [Nile, most probably has its rise in some lakes in a high Beyond this limit southwards we are not able to state its direction. Towards the north and north-west the mountain region of Abyssinia sinks down into the level countries of Sennaar and Kordofan: its greatest width from north to south it is at present impossible to state. By combining the maps of the Jesuits with Bruce's observations, it may be true that, following the meridian which runs through the great lake Dembea, this range may extend nearly 250 miles from the north limit bordering on the kollas, or low grounds of Tcherkin and Waldubha, to the almost unknown southern slope. On the south-east the terrace declines along the provinces of Shoa and Efat, which is indicated by the streams which water part of these provinces taking an east or a south-east course. We do not yet know whether or not the high land which divides the waters that feed the Bahr al Azrek from those that flow towards the Red Sea or the India Ocean, is continued westward or south-west towards the interior of Africa, though such a continuous range or high terrace seems exceedingly probable. The Bahr el Abiad itself, the main stream of the The accounts of the Portuguese may still be considered as authority for many facts relating to Abyssinia, and the reader may see in the learned work of Job Ludolf how much information that industrious scholar was able to extract from them. Ludolf had also the advantage of personal acquaintance with Gregory, an Abyssinian then in Germany. Lewis Poncet, a French physician, who visited Gondar in 1699 to cure the king of some complaint, published an account of his journey. Finally, Mr. Bruce, in 1770, entered the country, and published an elaborate account of it sixteen years after his return. For reasons which we shall state more fully under the article BRUCE, we cannot here make so much use of that traveller as of Mr. Salt; and our notice of all those parts of Abyssinia which we know either entirely or principally from the travels of Bruce, must necessarily be very brief and imperfect. Though Bruce is often confirmed by the more recent traveller, we do not feel entire confidence in his accounts of those parts, which are known only from nis own personal observation or the information which he collected. We therefore trust nearly altogether to Mr. Salt, whose plain and unadorned statements form a striking contrast with the rhodomontade and egotism of Bruce. Mr. Salt could not proceed to Gondar, because there was a kind of civil war between the Ras or governor of Tigré and the powerful governor of Gojam; the emperor was left entirely out of the question, and his political condition depended on the will of his viceroys. The following sketch is principally founded on Mr. Salt's work, which we may at present consider as almost the only trustworthy authority for the kingdom of Tigré. Abyssinia is now divided into three distinct and independent states, which division is partly founded on 'natural boundaries, and has been partly caused by the incursions of the barbarous Galla tribes. These three great divisions are Tigré, Amhara, and the province of Shoa with Efat. Tigre is bounded on the north by the Bekla, Boja, Takué, and some wild Shangalla tribes; by the Danakil, Doba, and Galla on the east and south. It is separated on the west from Amhara by a great branch of the Nile called the Tacazzé, running first north and then north-west. Along the west bank of the Tacazzé is the bold mountain range of Samen (mentioned under the same name in the Adule inscription), extending from the south part of Lasta northwards to the district of Waldubha. Mr. Salt saw snow on the highest peaks of the Samen on the 8th of April. The Tacazzé and the Samen thus form a natural barrier between Tigré and Amhara; and though one province has been frequently conquered by the other, this natural boundary, joined to the difference of language between Amhara and Tigré, and other causes, has always made a real, effective, and permanent union impracticable. Tigré comprehends an extent of four degrees of latitude and as many in longitude, having the form of an irregular trapezium. Its most northern point is about 15° 35' N. lat.; the most southern about 11° 20'. Tigré is the most powerful state of the three, which arises from the natural strength of the country, the courage of the inhabitants, and its proximity to the sea-coast, which has secured it a monopoly of the imported muskets, and also of the salt required for the interior. Though nominally held by a Ras or viceroy, under the Negus or emperor, it has not unfrequently assumed the appointment of the sovereign. soldiers settled in the country. The small and low district Still northward, the province of Avergale is a narrow belt The great river of Tigré is the Tacazzé, probably the Astasabas or Astagabas of Strabo, and one of the larger branches of the Nile. It rises in the high mountains of Lasta, from three sources which Mr. Pearce visited, and runs as we have described. The mountain range of Samen, on the west, prevents its receiving any considerable stream from that side, till it arrives in the region of Waldubha, where it is joined on its left bank by the Angrab, which is marked in Salt's map as the boundary of Waldubha and Walkayt. On the east it is joined by the Arequa, in the district of Temben, but the exact point of junction is not known. The Arequa rises near Antálo, and probably receives the waters of all the smaller streams that run through the fertile province of Enderta, as it has a wide bed which, in the rainy season, is often well filled. The Tacazzé, when Mr. Salt saw it, was, on the east side, low and sandy; but the west bank was rocky, and in some places Tigré is properly the name of one province, which has precipitous. The river, he says, has numerous overfalls, given its name to the whole country. A high range of which render it fordable at most seasons of the year; while mountains passing near Adowa, about twelve miles east of between the fords deep holes occur, the favourite retreat of Axum, runs through this province, which is bounded on the the hippopotamus. This amphibious animal, called gomari north by the Mareb (which is a tributary to the Tacazzé, or in the language of the country, is common in the Tacazzé ; is lost in the desert), on the east by Agamé, on the west and Mr. Salt, with his companions, found, by experiment, by Sire, and on the south by the Warré, which runs west- that leaden balls from a musket seemed to make no impresward and joins the Tacazzé. This province contains tension on the hard heads of the monster. Crocodiles, called chief subdivisions, and many others of little importance: 'its general character is that of a range of hill-forts, or "ambas," intersected by deep gullies and highly-cultivated plains." The chief places are Adowa and Axum (see AXUM and ADOWA). East of Tigré is Agamé, which is rich and fertile, and on a level at a considerable elevation above the sea. A lofty mountain range forms its eastern frontier, which range, on the south-east, separates it from the great salt plain. The chief town is Genata. South of Agamé, Enderta comprises a great number of petty subdivisions, some of which form the eastern mountain boundaries of the great province of Tigré. The capital of Enderta is Antálo, N. lat. 13° 22′, E. long. nearly 40°, a position well adapted to protect the southern frontier against the Galla; on this account the Ras or viceroy, has chosen it for his residence. Chelicut, near Antálo, is the country residence of the Ras. South of Enderta, Wojjerat runs east and west: it contains extensive forests, which abound in elephants, lions, rhinoceroses, and all kinds of game. It is also famed for its white honey. The inhabitants, who are a fine race of men, are said to be descendants of Portuguese by the natives agoos, are of an enormous size in the Tacazzé, and more dreaded than the hippopotamus: those which Salt saw seemed to be of a greenish colour. The other great river of Tigré is the Mareb, which, rising in the mountains of Taranta, that form the north-eastern boundary of Tigré, flows north-west, and probably joins the Tacazzé in the kingdom of Sennaar: report says it is lost in the desert. Between Antálo and the sources of the Tacazzé, Mr. Pearce only met with one small stream. We shall now proceed to give a description of the mountain system of Abyssinia, which will be more intelligible after the kind of outline we have attempted. Abyssinia may be correctly called an Alpine land, and as it has never yet been well explored, our description of it must necessarily be very incomplete, and must depend altogether on the routes of the few travellers who have visited the country. The authorities are the accounts of the early Por tuguese missionaries, Ludolf's History of Ethiopia, Poncet, Bruce, and the most important of ali, Salt's and Valentia's travels. That part of the Alpine land of Abyssinia which lies between the Tacazzé and the Red Sea, and forms the |