oor fellows! they meant
well, and knew no better; and what more can be said for the endeavours
of the best of men?

Accompanied by a still increasing number of these wild priests we
traversed the shady garden, and came to a building with a flat roof,
which stood in the south-east corner of the enclosure and close to the
outer wall. This was the college or consistory of the Abyssinian monks,
and the accompanying sketch made upon the spot will perhaps explain the
appearance of this room better than any written description. The round
thing upon the floor is a table upon which the dishes of their frugal
meal were set; by the side of this low table we sat upon the ground on
the skin of some great wild beast, which did duty as a carpet. This room
was also their library, and on my remarking the number of books which I
saw around me they seemed proud of their collection, and told me that
there were not many such libraries as this in their country. There were
perhaps nearly fifty volumes, and as the entire literature of Abyssinia
does not include more than double that number of works, I could easily
imagine that what I saw around me formed a very considerable
accumulation of manuscripts, considering the barbarous state of the
country from which they came.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY, IN THE MONASTERY OF
SOURIANI ON THE NATRON LAKES.

Abyssinian monk clothed in leather.

The dining table.

The blind abbot leaning over the Author.

Abyssinian monk.

Coptic monk.

The books hanging from wooden pegs let into the wall.

The Author's Egyptian servants.]

The disposition of the manuscripts in this library was very original. I
have had no means of ascertaining whether all the libraries of Abyssinia
are arranged in the same style. The room was about twenty-six feet long,
twenty wide, and twelve high; the roof was formed of the trunks of palm
trees, across which reeds were laid, which supported the mass of earth
and plaster, of which the terrace roof was composed; the interior of the
walls was plastered white with lime; the windows, at a good height from
the ground, were unglazed, but were defended with bars of iron-wood or
some other hard wood; the door opened into the garden, and its lock,
which was of wood also, was of that peculiar construction which has been
used in Egypt from time immemorial. A wooden shelf was carried in the
Egyptian style round the walls, at the height of the top of the door,
a