Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/617

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Books in Use in Abyssinia — Enoch — Abyssinia not converted by the Apostles — Conversion from Judaism to Christianity by Frumentius.

Abyssinians have the whole scriptures entire as we have, and count the same number of books; but they divide them in another manner, at least in private hands, few of them, from extreme poverty, being able to purchase the whole, either of the historical or prophetical books of the Old Testament. The same may be said of the New, for copies containing the whole of it are very scarce. Indeed no where, unless in churches, do you see more than the Gospels, or the Acts of the Apostles, in one person's possession, and it must not be an ordinary man that possesses even these.

books of the Old Testament are forgot, so that it is the same trouble to procure them, even in churches, for the purpose of copying, as to consult old records long covered with dust and rubbish. The Revelation of St John is a piece of favourite reading among them. Its title is, the Vision of John Abou Kalamsis, which seems to me to be a corruption of Apoca- lypsis.