S o m e t i m e before I left Gondar I had been threatened
with an attack o f the dyfentery. At my arrival at Hor-
Cacamoot it grew worfe, and had many unpromifing fymp-
toms, when I was cured by the advice and application o f a
common Shangalla, by means o f a ihrub calledWooginoos*,
■ growing very common in thofe parts, the manner o f ufing
which he taught me.
T h e country, fromTcherkin to Ras el Feel, orHor-Caca-
moot, is all a black earth, calledMazaga, w hich fome authors
have taken for the name o f the province. However, the
word Mazaga, in the language o f the country, fignifies fat,
loofe, black earth, or mold, fuch as all that ftripe o f land
from 130 to 16° o f latitude is compofed of, at leaft till you
reach to the deferts o f Atbara, where the rains end. Raa
el Feel is, I fuppofe, one o f the hotteft countries in the
known world. On the iff day o f March, at three o’clock in
the afternoon, Fahrenheit’s thermometer, in the ihade, was
114°, which was at 61° at fun-rife, and 82° at fun-fet. And
yet this exceffive heat did not make a proportional impref-
fion upon our feelings. The evenings, on the contrary, rather
feemed cold, and; we could hunt at mid-day. And this
I conftantly obferved in this fultry country, that, what was
hot by the glafs, never appeared to carry with it any thing
proportionate in our fenfations.
R a s e l F e e l formerly paid 400 ounces o f gold, which is
4000 crowhs ; Sancaho paid 100. But trade having decrea-
fed, fince the expedition o f Yafous II. to Sennaar, without
the
* See the aiticle Wooginoos in the Appendix.
the king’s demand being lefiened, many people have left it,,
and are gone to Tcherkin.
I h a v e feveral times, in the courfe o f this work, taken
"notice o f a black nation called Shangalla, who furrround
all the N. N. W. and N. E. o f AbviUnia, by a belt fcarcely
fixty miles broad. This is called by the Abyflinians, Kolia,
or the Hot Country, which is likewife one o f their names
for hell. Two gaps, or fpaces, made fo r the fake o f commerce,
in this belt, the one at Tchelga, the other at Ras el
Feel, have been fettled and polfeiled by ftrangers, to keep
thefe Shangalla.in awe; and here the cuftom-houfes were
placed, for the mutual intereft o f both kingdoms, before all
intercourfe was interrupted by the impolitic expedition o f
Yafous againft Sennaar. Ras el Feel divides this nation o f
woolly-headed blacks into two, the one weft below Kuara,.
and bordering on Fazuclo (part o f the kingdom o f Sennaar)
as alfo on the country o f Agows. Thefe are the
Shangalla that traffic in gold, which they find in the earth, ,
where torrents have fallen from the mountains ;• fo r there
is no fuch thing as mines in any part o f their country nor
any way o f collecting gold but th is ; nor is there any gold
found in Abyffinia, however confidently this has been advanced
; neither is there gold brought into that kingdom
from any other quarter but this which we are now fpeak-
in g o f ; notwithftanding all the mifreprefentations o f the
miffionaries to make the attempts to fubdue th is -k in g dom
appear more lucrative and lefs ridiculous to European
princes. The- other nation, on the frontiers o f
Kuara, has Ras el Feel on the eaft, about three days
journey from the Cacamoot. The natives are called Gan—
ft ja r ;,