Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/293

Rh tions in which they were first observed; others, not so learned, have thought they originated in Abyssinia. I shall first take notice of those that regard the king and court.

kings of Persia, like these we are speaking of, were eligible in one family only, that of the Arsacidæ, and it was not till that race failed they chose Darius. The title of the king of Abyssinia is, King of Kings; and such Daniel tells us was that of Nebuchadnezzar. The right of primogeniture does not so prevail in Abyssinia as to exclude election in the person of the younger brothers, and this was likewise the case in Persia.

Persia a preference was understood to be due to the king's lawful children; but there were instances of the natural child being preferred to the lawful one. Darius, tho' a bastard, was preferred to Isogius, Xerxes's lawful son, and that merely by the election of the people. The same has always obtained in Abyssinia. A very great part of their kings are adulterous bastards; others are the issue of concubines, as we shall see hereafter, but they have been preferred to the crown by the influence of a party, always under name of the Voice of the People.

the Persian kings had various palaces to which they removed at different times in the year, Pasagarda, the metropolis of their ancient kings, was observed as