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 year striving to outvie the others in the splendour of the entertainment which he gives in honour of the deceased, and in the frequency of the lamenting visits which he makes to the tomb. An attendance at these meetings is considered as the highest compliment which can be paid to a family; but some of the more sensible of the priesthood, as well as of the nobility, have been known to express their disapprobation of the whole ceremony; the Ras himself, since his accession to power, having attended only three, two of which were those of his brothers, and the other being that of Fit-Aurari Zogo. The superior classes of inhabitants, I may also observe, never mutilate their temples by tearing off the skin, nor do they otherwise go into any extraordinary excess of grief on these occasions.

As Adowa may be considered a town of great importance in the country, I shall here give a short description of it, to which may be properly added a few remarks respecting its trade.

The town of Adowa is situated partly on the side, and partly at the bottom of a hill, a circumstance very unusual in Abyssinia; and the houses, which are all of a conical form, are pretty regularly disposed into streets or allies, interspersed with wanzy trees and small gardens, some of which are cultivated with considerable care; the town itself being plentifully supplied with water from three streams, which take their course through the valley below. The number of residents in this place, may, on a general calculation, be estimated at full eight thousand, as I reckoned in it more than eight hundred habitations; each of which, on a moderate computation, being supposed to contain ten inmates, would altogether amount to a sum probably falling short of the actual population. Adowa may be regarded as the chief mart for commerce on the eastern side of the Tacazze, all the intercourse between the interior provinces and the coast being carried on through the merchants residing at that place, in consequence of which the Mahomedans there have retained a greater degree of importance, than in any other part of the empire, the trade, as I have before remarked, resting almost entirely in their hands.

The chief production of Adowa consists in a manufactory of coarse and fine cloths; the former being