at Temple.

Within the site of the Temple is a small, mean modern church, very ill
kept. In it are what are supposed to be the Ark of the Covenant and the
copy of the law which Menilek, the son of Solomon and the Queen of
Sheba, is said in their fabulous history to have been stolen from his
father on his return from Jerusalem to Ethiopia. These are reckoned the
palladia of the country. Another relic of great importance is a picture
of the head of Christ crowned with thorns, said to have been painted by
Saint Luke. This relic on occasions of war with pagans and Mohammedans
is brought out and carried with the army. Within the outer gate of the
church are three small enclosures with octagon pillars in the angles, on
the top of which were formerly images of the Dog Star. Upon a stone in
the middle of one of these enclosures the kings of the country have been
crowned since the days of paganism; and below it is a large oblong slab
of freestone, on which there is a Greek inscription, the translation of
which is "Of King Ptolemy Euergetes, or the Beneficent."

We left Axum on January 20, and on the same day we saw three travellers
cutting three pieces of flesh, thicker and longer than our ordinary
beefsteaks, from the higher part of the buttock of a cow. The beast was
thrown on the ground, and one man held the head, while two others were
busy in cutting out the flesh.

I have been told that my friends have disbelieved this statement. I
pledge myself never to retract the fact here advanced, that the
Abyssinians do feed in common upon live flesh, and that I myself for
several years have been a partaker of that disagreeable and beastly
diet.

Travelling pleasantly enough, though finding it difficult to get food
from the natives, we came on February 4 to the foot of Debra Toon, one
of the highest mountains of the romantic range of Hanza. The toilsome
ascent of Lamalmon, an extensive table-land of great fertility, was
begun on February 8, and on the 14th we arrived at Gondar, the
metropolis of Abyssinia.

_II.--Savage Native Practices_

Gondar is situated on the flat summit of a hill of considerable height,
and consists of 10,000 families in time of peace. The houses are chiefly
of clay, with roofs thatched in the form of cones. The king's palace is
a square building on the west side of the town, flanked with towers, and
originally four stories high, but now only two. The audience chamber is
120 feet long, and the upper win