merchants. The viceroy, or kas. mati of Tigre, drinks out of a golden cup, as keeper of the law at Axum. There are twelve nagareets, in Tigre, and forty-four persons are invested with the Ras-werk."

"Church Affairs.-The Abuna is appointed by proclamation of the king, and is deposed at his pleasure. He holds of no other person. He ordains priests and deacons within the kingdom, consecrates churches, altars (tabot), &c. His revenue

was once very considerable, esteem ed one third of the revenues of the kingdom; but as those princes who made the grants resided in Shoa, or in the south of Tigre, the principal lands are in those provinces adjoining to the royal residence. Now, the southern provinces are all in the hands of the Galla, as well as part of Tigre, and the go. vernor or Ras has assumed the rest; so that of 400 ounces of gold once paid by Tigre, the Abuna, in my time, got only twenty-five, one. third of which went to the king's wakeel in his house. The Abuna appoints no officer, civil, or ecclesiastical: the king or governor does all. The king appoints officers called Alaka, who administer in all cases the revenue of churches and convents; and this person is the judge of differences and suits among the priests and monks of his church or fraternity, from whom lies no appeal but to the king or to the Ras, who is understood to represent him. This Alaka is or is not a monk or priest, at the king's pleasure. Of those who are called Monks, are the communities of Debra Libanos, or Azazo, as it is now called, Wal. dubba, Werkleva, Damo, Mahabar, Selasse, &c. These live in villages

they please. The rest of that name are those who are ordained on any illness, disappointment, or advanced in life. The monks are ordained by the Itchogue, the others by an ordinary priest. Neither take any vow. The women of Waldubba are of the first king, and all women past pleasure compose the second. There are many instances of both orders renouncing and marrying.

"All persons, as well ecclesias. tical as civil, are subject to the same laws, judgment, and tribunal, with out exception, be the cause of what. ever nature it may be. The Abuna, or Itchegue, have none of them a tribunal, nor can they take cognizance of any cause; especially the Abuna, who has, as I have said, an officer in his house appointed by the king, who punishes all persons by that authority, even those of the Abuna's family, without any sort of deference paid to him; and this, as appears by the judges, or king's records, is of very ancient standing. The king calls an assembly of the clergy when he pleases, generally with the advice of the Abuna, and there is none considered legal if he is not present, if in the kingdom.

"Welled Hayrat (Ras Michael's son) was excommunicated for kil. ling a refugee at the Abuna's feet, in consequence of which he confiscated the Abuna's villages in Tigre, nor was the curse ever taken off. The Itchegue, or prior of the monks, if he be chosen a layman, must be ordained by the Abuna. He is named by the king, who nominates all superiors of monasteries. The Lika-cahanat, or chief of the priests, is ordained by the Abuna and Itchegue, who both hold a corner of a scarf put upon him. He is an F4 inquisitor

inquisitor of morals among the priests, and has so much salts and cloth from each district. A priest at his ordination pays three salts to the Abuna. He comes to the house of the latter, enters, and kisses the threshold. The Abuna, sitting on a sofa at one end of the room, reads the scriptures to himself. Then having paid his salt, the person retires and kisses the threshold, returning without imposition of hands, or any ceremony. Old men are made priests, and young men deacons, by a simple jussit. More probable accounts say, that there is only one salt paid, that the person stands at the door, while the Abuna, having made the sign of the cross, holding it in his hand, says, I have ordained you a priest.' The person then enters the room, kisses the cushion of the sofa, and retires. Many are ordained that can neither read nor write.

"The Abyssinians have an office for the dead; and worship pictures of saints, even such as are not consecrated. This we had an opportu. nity of seeing every time we were obliged to draw some Madonna. All those that saw it, kissed the ground before it, with their fore heads on the earth. The principal revenue of the clergy is the presents made by those who are sick, or dying..

The dress of the Acab saat is a purple burnoose, with a white turban, not unlike the Turkish Imams, or a white handkerchief hanging

"Women, after having borne a son, are excluded from the church forty days, and if a daughter, eighty, The really married are those who receive the sacrament on that occa sion. Persons who have been collnected with any woman are excladed from church during three days if that connection has been promis. cuous, they are excluded seven; and then even admitted to receive the sacrament. If a man, really mar ried, is guilty with another's wife, he is not debarred a longer period. Women in the menses are not al lowed to enter the church till seven days afterwards. Circumcision is performed on the eighth, and baptism is celebrated on the forty-first day of the child's age. On all the forementioned occasions they only come within the inner precinct, and kiss the walls and door-posts of the church. The clergy are rigid in these matters, and that is perhaps one of the reasons why the churches are ill attended. It is their only duty; the monks making no scruple of confessing that they cannot enter the church, for that day they had to do with a woman, which is not attended with any impeachment,"

NATURAL

Anecdotes of the late Lieutenant.

TH

General Villettes.

HIS respectable officer was descended from one of the most antient families in France. His Ancestors were lords of Montdidier n Languedoc, in the thirteenth cen. ury, and many of them held con iderable offices under different mo. narchs. During the civil wars, they were much distinguished for their exertions in favour of the Hugo. nots; and after the revocation of the edict of Nantes they withdrew from France, and settled in this kingdom. The father of the late lieutenant-general was educated in the diplomatic line, and was many years minister plenipotentiary to the late and the present king; first at the court of Turin, and after. wards with the Helvetic Cantons, He withdrew from public life in the year 1762, and resided at Bath till 1776; when he died, in the 75th year of his age. His second son, William Anne Villettes, was born at Bern, on the 14th of June, 1754. He received the early part of his education at Claverton school near Bath, and the latter part of it at the university of St. Andrews. A mildness of disposition, and a regular performance of whatever it was his duty to do, qualities which through life were distinguished features of his character, were remarkable even at this early period. It was observed at school, that he never received a blow, either from his master, or any of his school. fellows; nor was he ever known at the university to have experienced a reprimand from any of the professors, or to have been engaged in a quarrel with any of his fellow students.

VOL. L.

With Mr. Groves, who was his school-master, and professor Watson, in whose house he died, he was the favourite scholar, and the favourite pupil. Friendship was in each of these instances continued through life.

His father originally intended him for the bar, and he was accordingly entered at Lincoln's Inn, and kept two or three terms; but his ardour for a military life was so great, that Mr. Villettes at last gave way to his son's inclinations, and obtained for him, in the year 1775, a cornetcy in the 10th regiment of dragoons. In this respectable corps, Villettes continued till he rose to the rank of major. In this, as in every other part of his life, a punctual dis charge of the duties of his station was constantly observed. By this he obtained the approbation, of his superiors, and by his amiable manners he secured the esteem and good-will of his equals and his in. feriors.

During a great part of this period, captain Villettes attended sir Wil. liam Pitt (then commander of the forces in Ireland) as his aid-decamp and secretary. The character of that venerable officer requires no panegyric; and it certainly was an honour to Villettes, that he lived several years in his family, not only as his secretary, but his confidential friend. His attachment to sir William Pitt was, indeed, that of a son to a parent; and, like all other attachments that he formed, continued invariable to the end of his life.

In the year 1792, major Villettes quitted the dragoons, and was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 69th regiment of foot; which regi ment, in consequence of the break. F* ing

tional temper, which disposed him to be suspicious, and hasty in taking offence. His enmities therefore were sometimes capricious, though, in general, well founded. His love of ancestry, and practice of telling his own exploits, though magnified into vices by the weakest of his enemies, scarcely deserve notice as imperfections, though they certainly were prominent features in his character. A brave and virtuous man must always feel a pleasure in remembering that he is like such of his forefathers as most deserved to be imitated and remembered; and no satisfactory reason can be assigned why a traveller should not relate his adventures. The pride of ancestry is ridiculous only when it is substituted for personal merit; and the practice of telling one's own actions, is reprehensible only when these are well known, trifling, or exaggerated.

"Distinguished by his regard for the memory of ancestors who had been eminently loyal and patri. otic, it is not surprizing that Mr. Bruce loved his king and country with the warmest affection. He would have been the first to support either of these on any dangerous emergency. He considered the French revolution, and all such violent attempts at reformation, merely as a subversion of society, for the purpose of filling the places of the great with new adventurers. Ile knew the French nation well, predicted the consequences of its republican frenzy, and shed tears on receiving an account of the fate of the king.

"His religions principles were founded on the best basis, the Scriptures, and a firm belief of an over-ruling Providence. He was

not attached to any sect; he detested fanaticism; and frequently took occasion to expose it. He used to recommend a diligent perusa! of the Scriptures, as preferable to that of all other theological writings. His mind, accustomed to dangerous situations, from which Providence alone could deliver him, had contracted a slight and amiable tinge of superstition; sometimes an attendant on warm unaffected piety, though never arising, in under. standings like his, from its ordinary

causes.

"On estimating, therefore, the various merits of Mr. Bruce's cha racter, the superior and numerous endowments and accomplishments which he employed in executing undertakings useful to society, and the uniform regularity with which he combined the practice of mora. lity and religion with the ease and active life of a gentleman, it will not be considered as presumptuous to affirm, that his name is justly en. titled to a place in the list of those, who have been eminently conspi cuous for genius, valour, and vir tue."

Of the Country and Customs of the

Abyssinians. [From the Same.] ABYSSINIAN Harvests.

"They first sow barley from the end of April to the beginning of May, or later; that is, towards the first rains. This ripens in the rains in June; and is carried off the fields into the house, that it may not rot. Then they sow fitches, which like. wise ripen in the rains after. In September they sow wheat, or teff, which is cut down in December; and, if they have water, they sow barley, or fitches, again in Janu

ary.