nd on this shelf stood sundry platters, bottles, and dishes for the use
of the community. Underneath the shelf various long wooden pegs
projected from the wall; they were each about a foot and a half long,
and on them hung the Abyssinian manuscripts, of which this curious
library was entirely composed.

The books of Abyssinia are bound in the usual way, sometimes in red
leather and sometimes in wooden boards, which are occasionally
elaborately carved in rude and coarse devices: they are then enclosed
in a case, tied up with leather thongs; to this case is attached a strap
for the convenience of carrying the volume over the shoulders, and by
these straps the books were hung to the wooden pegs, three or four on a
peg, or more if the books were small: their usual size was that of a
small, very thick quarto. The appearance of the room, fitted up in this
style, together with the presence of various long staves, such as the
monks of all the Oriental churches lean upon at the time of prayer,
resembled less a library than a barrack or guard-room, where the
soldiers had hung their knapsacks and cartridge-boxes against the wall.

All the members of this church militant could read fluently out of their
own books, which is more than the Copts could do in whose monastery they
were sojourning. Two or three, with whom I spoke, were intelligent men,
although not much enlightened as to the affairs of this world: the
perfume of their leather garments and oily bodies was, however, rather
too powerful for my olfactory nerves, and after making a slight sketch
of their library I was glad to escape into the open air of the beautiful
garden, where I luxuriated in the shade of the palms and the
pomegranates. The strange costumes and wild appearance of these black
monks, and the curious arrangement of their library, the uncouth sounds
of their singing and howling, and the clash of their cymbals in the
ancient convent of the Natron lakes, formed a scene such as I believe
few Europeans have witnessed.

The labour required to write an Abyssinian book is immense, and
sometimes many years are consumed in the preparation of a single volume.
They are almost all written upon skins; the only one not written upon
vellum that I have met with is in my own possession; it is on charta
bombycina. The ink which they use is composed of gum, lampblack, and
water. It is jet black, and keeps its colour for ever: indeed in this
respect all Oriental inks are infini