THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN 1754, he married Adriana Allan, the daughter of a merchant of Scottish extraction, who had settled in London, but she unfortunately died of consumption before the close of the year. In 1761 he withdrew from the wine business, in which he had obtained a share on his marriage with Miss Allan, and offered his services to the Government of the day; they were, however, refused. He then began a course of travel which took him through all the countries of Europe, Syria, and a considerable portion of Northern Africa, and he arrived in Alexandria at the end of June, 1768.

He left Cairo in December of that year, and sailed up the Nile to the First Cataract. In February, 1769, he left Kena on the Nile for Kuser (Cosseir), and from that place he visited the emerald mines of Gebel Zumrud, which are. described by Pliny and other ancient writers. He next crossed the Red Sea to Tor and proceeded to Jidda (Jeddah), where he obtained such assistance as would enable him to travel in Abyssinia. He left Jidda in May, 1769, and arrived at Masawa on September 19th. Here he suffered greatly from the obstruction of the governor, who accused him of holding converse with a comet, which was then visible, for the purpose of bringing disease upon the country, and he was all but murdered on the spot. On November 15th he left Arkiks, and on December 6th he arrived at Axum, the capital of the Graeco- Abyssinian kingdom, which took the plat;e of the kingdom on the Island of Meroii. Here he examined the obelisks and other antiquities which proclaim the importance of the old capital of Tigre.

Soon after he left Axum he saw the incident which has given rise to so much discussion, viz a party of soldiers eating pieces of flesh which they were cutting from a living cow. This custom of the Abyssinians was well known to many ancient writers, some of whom state that it was introduced into Abyssinia from the interior of Africa. One writer (Lobo, Rel. cf Abyssinie, p. 22) says that a piece of raw beef quite warm is the greatest treat which ' See Niebuhr, Kleine Schri/ten, i., p. 400 ; V. de St. Martin, Journal Asiatique, vi. 2, p. 328 ff. ; Dillmann, Abhandlungetty 1877, p. 195 ; Glaser, Skizze ii., p. 474 ff. ; I). H. Miiller, Denksc/iri/ten, Vienna, torn, xliii., 1893, iii., p. 3 ff.

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