The highlands of Ethiopia described

Front matter

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Introduction

Written in the heart of Abyssinia, amid manifold interruptions and disadvantages, the following pages will be found redolent of no midnight oil. Their chief recommendation must be sought in the fact of their embodying a detail of efforts zealously directed under the auspices of a liberal government, toward the establishment of a more intimate connection with a Christian people, who know even less of the world than the world knows of them — toward the extension of the bounds of geographical and scientific knowledge, the advancement of the best interests of commerce, and the melioration of the lot of some of the less favored portions of the human race.

An obvious necessity for the introduction of the foregoing extract from his instructions, will exonerate the Author from an intention to appropriate as his due the very gratifying encomium passed upon his previous exertions in Southern Africa. As a public servant, the freedom of his pen has now in some measure been curtailed ; but his official position and resources, added to the able assistance placed at his command, have, on the other hand, extended more than commensurate advantages.

To Captain Douglas Graham, his accomplished and early friend, and principal assistant, he acknowledges himself most especially indebted, for the aid of a head and of a pen, such as are not often to be found united.

The exertions of Assistant-Surgeon Kirk alleviated incalculable human suffering ; and his perseverance, although long opposed by an unfavorable climate, carried through a series of magnetic and astronomical observations of the highest importance to Abyssinian geography.

An indefatigable devotion to the cause of science, added to the experience gained during previous wanderings in Palestine, eminently adapted the learned Dr. Roth to discharge the arduous functions of natural historian to the Mission ; and the splendid collection realized, together with the researches embodied in the various appendices to these volumes, will afford the fullest evidence of his industry and success.

2* vra INTRODUCTION.

To all who were associated with himself in view to the better attainment of the objects contemplated, the Author here offers his warm acknowledgments for the cheerfulness displayed under trials and privations. Of the able assistance of some he was unavoidably deprived during an early period of the service. The disappointment thus involved in his own person has been fully equal to that experienced by themselves ; but they must be sensible that their hardships have not been undergone in vain, and that they too have accomplished their share in the undertaking so far as fortune permitted.

To the Reverend Dr. Krapf the thanks of Government have already been conveyed, for the valuable cooperation derived from his extended acquaintance with the languages of Abyssinia. But the Author gladly avails himself of this opportunity publicly to record his personal sense of obligation to the active and pious Missionary of the Church of England.

By np tribute of his own could the writer of these volumes extend the well-deserved reputation of M'Queen's Geographical Survey. It will nevertheless be satisfactory to one who takes rank among the foremost benefactors of the oppressed " children of the sun," to receive the additional testimony which is due to the undeviating accuracy of theories and conclusions founded upon years of patient and honest investigation ; and thi3 \he Author unhesitatingly records, in so far as the north-eastern portions of Africa have come within the observation of the Embassy which he has the honor to conduct.

Ankober, 1st January, 1843.

POSTSCRIPTUM.

The length of time that has unavoidably elapsed between the preparation and the appearance of these volumes, needs no apology. They must not now be suffered to go forth without the expression of the Author's gratitude for the assistance derived during their progress through the press, from the talents and literary taste of his friend Major Franklin Lushington, C. B.

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HIGHLANDS OF ETHIOPIA,-^

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Chapter I. Departure Of The British Embassy From The Shores Of India

It was late on the afternoon of a sultry day in April, which had been passed amid active preparations, when a dark column of smoke, streaming over the tall shipping in the crowded harbor of Bombay, proclaimed t necessity of a hurried adieu to a con- .0 se of friends who still thronged the ; and scarcely was the last wish for bu' .ess expressed to the parties that had arked, before the paddles performed their firsi revolution, and the Honorable East India Company's steam-frigate "Auckland," bound upon her maiden voyage, shot through the still blue water.

A turbaned multitude of manifold religions had lined the pier and the ramparts of the saluting-battery, to pay a parting tribute of respect to their late governor, Sir James Rivett Carnac, who, with his lady and family, was now returning to his native land. On board also were the officers and gentlemen composing an embassy organized under instructions by the government of India. More than a fortnight had been diligently passed in the equipment of this mission ; but its objects, no less than the destination of its innumerable bales and boxes, still served as puzzles to public curiosity; and many a sapient conjecture on the subject was doubtless launched after the bounding frigate as she disappeared amid the haze of the closing day.

Immortal Watt ! sordid is the man who places his foot behind the Titanic engines which owe their birth to thee, and who would withhold, as an offering to the altar of thy memory, a mite, according to his worldly means, wherewith to erect a fabric colossal as the power enthralled by thy transcendent genius! Strange are the revolutions undergone in affairs nautical since the introduction of the marine steamengine upon the Indian seas. The creaking of yards has given place to the coughing and sobbing of machinery, as it heaves in convulsive throes. Tacking and wearing have become terms obsolete, and through the clang of the fire-doors, and the ceaseless stroke of paddle-wheels, the voice of the pilot is rarely heard, save in conjunction with " Stop her," or " Turn a-head."

Marked by a broad ploughed wake, the undeviating course pursued through the trackless main was demonstrated midway of the voyage by a tall pillar of smoke from the funnel of the " Cleopatra," rising against the clear hot horizon, like a genie liberated from his sealed bottle, to proclaim the advent of the English mails. The deep blue sea was glassy smooth,

THE HIGHLANDS OF ETHIOPIA.

Each passing zephyr set from Araby's shores ; but, heedless alike of wind and opposing current, the good ship steadily pursued her arrow-like flight — passed the bold outline of Socotra. redolent of spicy odors — and before sunset of the ninth day was within sight of her destined haven, one thousand six hundred and eighty miles from the port she had left.

Cape Aden was the bold promontory in view, and it had borrowed an aspect even more sombre and dismal from a canopy of heavy clouds which stole across the naked and shattered peaks, to invest the castlecapped mountain with a funereal shroud. Crossed by horizontal ledges, and seamed with gaps and fissures, Jebel Shemshan rears its turreted crags nearly eighteen hundred feet above the ocean, into which dip numerous bare and rugged buttresses, of width only sufficient to afford footing to a cony, and each terminating in a bluff inaccessible scarp. Sand and shingle strew the cheerless valleys by which these spurs are divided, and, save where a stunted balsam, or a sallow clump of senna, has struggled through the gaping fissure, hollow as well as hill is destitute of even the semblance of vegetation.

" How hideously Its shapes are heaped around, rude, bare, and high, Ghastly, and scarred and riven ! Is this the scene Where the old earthquake's demon taught her young Ruin 1 Were these their toys ? — or did a sea Of fire envelope once this dismal cape?"

Rounding the stern peninsula, within stone's-cast of the frowning headlands, the magnificent western bay developed its broad expanse as the evening closed. Here, with colliers and merchantmen, were riding the vessels of war composing the Red Sea squadron. Among the isolated denizens of British Arabia, the unexpected arrival of a steam-frigate created no small sensation. Exiles on a barren and dreary soil, which is precluded from all intercourse with the fruitful, but barbarous interior, there is nothing to alleviate a positive imprisonment, save the periodical flying visits of the packets that pass and repass betwixt Suez and Bombay. In the dead of night, the sudden glare of a blue light in the offing is answered by the illumination of the blockship, heretofore veiled behind a curtain of darkness. The double thunder of artillery next peals from her decks ; and as the laboring of paddle-wheels, at first faint and distant, and heard only at broken intervals, comes booming more heavily over the waters, the spectral lantern at the mast-head is followed by a red glow under the stern, as the witch, buffeting a cascade of snowy spray, vibrates to every stroke of the engine, and leaving a phosphoric train to mark her even course, glides, hissing and boiling, toward her anchorage. Warped alongside the blockship, the dingy hull's lean over like affectionate sisters that have been long parted ; and, flinging their arms together, remain fast locked in each other's embrace.

And who are these swart children of the sun, that, like a May-day band of chimneysweeps, are springing with wild whoops and yells over the bulwarks of the new arrival } T is a gang of brawny Seedies, enfranchised negroes from the coast of Zanzibar, whose pleasure consists in the transhipment of yonder mountain of coal, lying heaped in tons upon the groaning deck. To the dissonant tones of a rude tambourine, thumped with the thigh-bone of a calf, their labor has already commenced. Increasing the vehemence of their savage dance, they heave the ponderous sacks like giants busied at pitch and toss, and begrimed from head to foot, roll at intervals upon the blackened planks, to stanch the streaming perspiration. Thus stamping and howling with increased fury, while the harsh notes of the drum peal louder and louder to the deafening vehemence of the frantic musician, they pursue their task, night as well as day, amid clamor and fiendish vociferations, such as might suggest the idea of furies engaged in unearthly orgies. In the first burst of their revelry, the spectator is happy to escape from the suffocating atmosphere of impalpable coal-dust: and rarely does it happen, that for every hundred tons of fuel received, fewer than one life is forfeited by the actors in the wild scene described — some doomed victim, swollen with copious draughts, and exhausted by the frenzy of excitement, invariably casting himself down, when his Herculean task is done, to rally and rise up no more.

Chapter II. Disembarkation At Cape Aden

Quitting the boisterous deck of the steamer, and pulling toward the shores of Arabia, a cluster of barren rocks, which might fitly be likened to heaps of fused coal out of a glass furnace, present an appearance very far from inviting or prepossessing. They are little relieved by a few straggling cadjan buildings, temporarily

VOLCANIC PENINSULA—ADEN.

occupied by those whose avocations enable Jiem, during the summer months, to fly the intolerable heat of .the oven-like town. But under the roof of Captain Stafford Haines, who fills the honorable and responsible post of political agent, there awaited the embassy, on its landing, a hospitality of no ordinary stamp. It literally knew no bounds, and could not fail to obliterate, at once, any unfavorable first impression arising out of the desolate aspect bestowed by Dame Nature upon " Steamer Point."

A volunteer escort of European artillerymen was 'yet to be obtained from the garrison of Aden ; horses, too, were to be purchased, and sundry other indispensable preparations made for the coming journey into the interior of Africa. During a fullweek there seemed no termination to the influx of bags containing dates, rice, and juwarree, and scarcely a shorter period was occupied in the selection from the government treasury of many thousand star-dollars of the reign of Maria Theresa, displaying, each in its turn, all the multifarious marks and tokens most esteemed by the capricious savage. Neither was the bustle one whit diminished by the remote position of the town, which, unless through the kindness of friends, is only to be attained on the back of one of the many diminutive donkeys stationed along the beach for the convenience of the stranger. Encumbered with a straw-stuffed pack-saddle far exceeding its own dimensions, the wretched quadruped is zealously bastinadoed into a painful amble by the heavy club of some juvenile Israelite with flowing auburn ringlets, whose chubby freckled cheeks, influenced by the sultry sun no less than by the incessant manual labor employed, are wont to assume a strongly excited appearance ere the journey be at an end.

Along the entire coast of Southern Arabia, there is not a more remarkable feature than the lofty promontory of Aden, which has been flung up from the bed of the ocean, and in its formation is altogether volcanic. The Arab historian* of the tenth century, after speaking of the volcanoes of Sicily and in the kingdom of the Maha Raj, alludes to it as existing in the desert of Barhut, adjacent to the province of Nasafan and Hadramaut, in the country of Shaher. " Its sound, like the rumbling of thunder, might then be heard many miles, and from its entrails vomited forth red-hot stones with a flood of liquid fire." The skeleton of the long-exhausted crater,

* Mosudi.

once, in all probability, a nearly perfect circle, now exhibits a horse-shoe-shaped crescent, hemmed in by splintered crags, which, viewed from the turreted summit of Jebel Shemshan especially, whence the eye ranges over the entire peninsula, presents the wildest chaos of rock, ruin, and desolation.

From the landing-place at Ras Marbut, a tortuous track of five miles conducts past the coal-depot and Seedie location, along various curvatures of the arid coast, to the cantonment and toWn of Aden. " Sublimein barrenness," the rugged and lofty cliffs pile themselves upward in masses of the most fantastic shape, now bare and bald, shooting into perpendicular spires, and" now leaning over the caravan of heavilyladen camels, that toil along the path. The sunshine of perpetual summer reigns throughout the scene. Glittering sandhills slumber in breezy dimness around the land-locked harbor ; and over the faint peaks of Yemen's distant mountains, the unclouded sky floats bright and blue. The sparkling waters leap against the dark base Of the naked islets ; but the wide, glassy surface beyond, reposing like abroad lake, is only ruffled by the circling eddy which follows the sportive plash of the bottlenosed porpoise, or the pluming of a fleet of silver-winged terns, riding quietly at anchor on its tranquil bosom. As the road retires from the beach, the honey-combed cliffs assume the similitude of massive walls and battlements, everywhere pierced with loopholes and embrasures. A gradual ascent leads through a craggy portal, bristling with cannon, and guarded by the pacing sentinel. One narrow rift in the solid rock, to the foot of which the sun rarely penetrates, forms an abrupt division in the chain ; and beyond it the eye suddenly embraces the basin-like valley, wherein stands the decayed capital of Arabia Felix.

"Aden," saith old Ibn Batuta of Tangiers, "is situate upon the sea-shore — a large city, without either seed, water, or tree." Five hundred years have elapsed since this graphic account was penned, and the vegetation has in nowise improved. An amphitheatre of dimensions sufficient for the devil's punch-bowl, is formed by two volcanic rangfis, once in connection, but obviously rent asunder, heaved outward, and canted in opposite directions by some violent eruption, that has forced an opening to the ocean. A sterility which is not to be surpassed, invests the scene with an aspect most repulsive and forbidding. No tree varies the dreary prospect, no shrub relieves the eye ; not even

THE HIGHLANDS OF ETHIOPIA.

a flower lends its aid to enliven the wild and gloomy hollow, the fittest refuge that the imagination could picture for the lawless and the desperate. Fortifications are to be traced on every point either liable to assault or eligible for defence : ruined castles and watch-towers, perched on the highest elevations of the precipitous hills, stand the now inaccessible guardians of other days ; and even the limited view to seaward, where the passing white sail of a small coasting craft, or the catamaran of the amphibious fisherman may occasionally be seen, is partially screened by a .triangular rock, which frowns like a great spectre over the inner harbor. Seerah, " the fortified black islet," is said to have been the residence of Cain, "the first-born of a woman," after the murder of his brother Abel ; and, verily, it would be difficult to devise a more appropriate exile for the banished fratricide. Hurled into the sea by a convulsive shock, it is surrounded by pumice and by currents of obsidian, the products of volcanic emission, strewed among vast undulating waves of cavernous lava ; or mingled with black masses of porous rock, which bear evidence of fusion, and yield to the touch a metallic sound.

Sterility has indeed claimed this dreary region as her own ; and even in the more productive portions of the peninsula, little verdure is derived from the almost leafless besham, the balsa??wdendron opobalsamum, a dwarf shrub, which, according to the Arab tradition, formed a part of the present carried to King Solomon by the Queen of Sheba, from the aromatic regions of myrrh and frankincense. Where incisions are made in its stem, the far-famed balm of Mecca flows copiously; but the volatile oil quickly evaporating, leaves a tasteless, insipid gum. Nursed by no periodical shower, and by no hidden spring, the precious plant, scorched by a withering blast, derives its only moisture from the mists which envelope the mountain-top, when all is sunshine below.

Among the most singular features of the cape, is the supply of water, which is found only in the valley of Aden, close under the cliffs, and at the openings of the fissures from the steppes above. Here, piercing to a great depth through the solid rock, are upward of one hundred wells ; many dilapidated and choked up, but others, yielding an abundant and unfailing supply. Whence or in what manner they are fed, it is extremely difficult to conjecture. All near the beach are bad, and more or less brackish ; some are sensibly affected by the tides, and very saline; while of those which afford sweet water, one only is visibly acted upon by some lower spring. It is excavated at the entrance of a dark gorge, rent by some violent convulsion in the rugged bosom of Shemshan ; and the surface, which is in a state of constant commotion, remains at the same level, although daily drawn upon from morning till night, for the supply of thousands.

The almost total absence of the vegetable kingdom considered, it is not surprising that there should exist also a palpable deficiency in the animal creation. In perhaps no other quarter of the universe are the sparrow and the crow such perfect strangers. The pigeon, the fox, and the rat, divide the sovereignty of the rocky cleft ; and the serrated heights are held without a rival by a garrison of monkeys. With these long-tailed occupants of the tower-capped pinnacles, are connected wondrous superstitions; and an Aden tradition, extant throughout Southern Arabia,* would exalt them into the remnant of the once powerful tribe of Ad, " a people great, and strong, and tall," who are believed to have been metamorphosed into apes, in token of the displeasure of Heaven, when Sheddad, " the king of the world," illustrious in the annals of the East, impiously sought, in defiance of the prophet Hud, to create unto himself a garden which should rival the celestial paradise. The Bostan el Irera, with its gorgeous palaces and shining domes, the similitude whereof had never been constructed on the regions of this earth, is said to be yet standing in the solitary deserts of Aden, although miraculously concealed from mortal ken. Within the silent walls of its lofty tow r ers, did Abdallah ibn Aboo Kelaba pass his night of wonder during the reign of Moawiyeh, prince of the faithful ; and it is believed by every good Moslem that this marvellous fabric of human skill and impiety, which finds a record in the sacred Koran, will endure until the last day, an imperishable, but rarely revealed, monument of Divine retribution.

* Lieutenant J. C Cruttenden, assistant to the political agent at Aden, heard the same version repeated at Saana, the capital of Yemen ; which far-famed city he has been the rirst European to visit, since the days of Niebuhr.

ADEN BAZAAR— ISHMAELITES.

Chapter III. A Stkoll Through The Infant Metrop- Olis Of British Arabia

A uniform system of architecture pervades the houses of Aden, nearly all of which would appear to have arisen out of the ruins of former more extensive edifices, now buried far below the surface of the accumulated soil. Tiers of loose undressed stone are interlaid, instead of mortar, with horizontal bands of timber ; the walls thus traversed being perforated with pigeon-holes to serve as windows, and surmounted by a low parapet concealing the terraced roof. Many, occupied by the more wealthy, have attained to a third story ; but nearly all are destitute of ornament. This is now restricted to the decayed palace of the sultans of Yemen, where

" in proud state Each robber chief upheld his armed halls, Doing his evil will."

In the thick coating of cement with which the shattered edifice is still partially incrusted, are the remains of various raised devices ; and a profusion of open fretwork in wood is still observable, interspersed with latticed cornices, comprising choice sentences from the Koran.

The shops of Parsee and Mohammadan merchants already extend an assortment of European commodities to the notice of the visitor ; and in a bazaar, infested like other fish-markets by a legion of cats, are exposed sharks and a variety of the finny tribe. Water from the sweetest well is hawked about in dirty skins, instead of the lemonade and sherbert of large oriental towns ; and piles of fruit, drugs, dates, molasses, and, other abominations, present the same amount of flies, and no abatement of the compound of villainous smells, by which the booth of the shrewd and avaricious Gentoo is so invariably distinguished.

In the suburbs, the frail cadjan wigwam of the Arab and Somauli population, impart the undeviating aspect of the portable encampment of the nomade hordes. The tattered goat-hair awning of the barefooted pilgrim to the shrine at El Medina is here ; and low crazy cabins of matting or yellow reeds are so slenderly covered in with the leaves of the palm, as to form but a scanty shelter against the intolerable heat and dust occasioned by periodical olasts of the fiery shimal.

Daring his dismal reign, the sun has shone fiercely over the extinct crater of Aden, and the relentless shower of dust and pebbles has kept the inhabitants within their rude dwellings. But as the declining rays cast a lengthened shadow across the narrow alleys, and the hot puffs, abating in violence, are succeeded by a suffocating calm, the hitherto torpid population is to be seen abroad. That bronzed and sun-burnt visage, surrounded by long matted locks of raven hair, — that slender, but wiry and active frame, — and that energetic gait and manner, proclaim the untamable descendant of Ishmael. He nimbly mounts the crupper of his now unladen dromedary, and at a trot moves down the bazaar on his way back to the town of Lahedge. A checked kerchief around his brows, and a kilt of dark blue calico about his loins, comprise his slender costume. His arms have been deposited outside the Turkish wall, which stretches its barrier across the isthmus from sea to sea, where flying parties of the Foudthli still infest the plain ; and as he looks back, his meagre ferocious aspect, flanked by that tangled web oi hair, stamps him the roving tenant of the desert.

The Arab has changed neither his character nor his habits since the days of the patriarchs, and he affords a standing evidence of the truth of the scriptural prophecy. He regards with disdain and with indifference every other portion of mankind, for who can produce so ancient monuments of liberty as he who, with little intermission, has preserved it from the very Deluge ? Is the land of his ancestors invaded ? A branch torn by the priest from the venerated nebek,* having been thrust into the fire, is quenched in hot blood welling from the divided throat of a ram, which has only the moment before been slaughtered in the name of God the one omnipotent. Dripping with the crimson tide, the emblem is solemnly delivered to the nearest warrior, who hies him forth with this his summons for the gathering of the wild clans. Down from their rocky fastnesses pour the old and the young, the untried stripling, and the stern veteran with a thousand scars. On, on speeds the messenger with the alarum of coming strife. Transferred from hand to hand, it rests not in the grasp of any ; and in a few brief hours, thousands of wild spirits, calling upon Allah for victory, and thirsting for the blood of the foe, have mustered around the unfurled standard of their prophet.

* A tree bearing a fruit like the Siberian crab.

Thus it was that the numerous hill-forts and strongholds studding- the rich province of Assyr, which borders on the Holy Land of the Moslem, last poured forth their hordes to meet the invader of her fair plains, and the despoiler of her countless flocks. Sixteen thousand warriors, composing one of the most ancient as well as bravest of the Arab tribes, cast aside spear and falchion, and, armed only with the deadly creese, stole during the night upon the camp of the insatiate Egyptian, and slaughtering the greater number, drove Ibrahim Pacha, with the wreck of his army, to seek safety in precipitate flight to Hode'ida.

In yonder fat and sensual money-changer from the city of Surat, is presented the very antipodes to the posterity of Hagar. In drowsy indolence, see him emerge from his treasures of ghee and groceries, among which, scales in hand, he has been patiently squatted since earliest dawn at the terrace of his booth, registering his gains in the daily ledger. Not one spark of animation is there. A dark slouching turban, and ample folds of snowy drapery, envelope the sleek person of the crafty Hindoo, and his lethargic motions render it difficult to comprehend how he should have contrived to exile himself from his native soil, and in such a forbidding spot, even in pursuit of his idol, Mammon.

Ajan and Berbera, famous for their early connection with the Greek kings of Egypt, have both contributed largely to the population that now throngs the street. The regular and finely-turned features of those Somauli emigrants from the opposite coast are at once selected from the group, although some have disguised their hair under a thick plaster of quicklime, and others are rendered hideous by a wig of fiery red curls ; while the dyed ringlets of a third have faded to the complexion of a housemaid's mop, and a fourth, forsooth, is shaven because his locks have been pulled in anger.* All present a curious contrast to the jet black skin and woolly pate of the Suhaili, who, in his turn, is destitute of the thick, pouting lip, which adorns that stalwart Nubian, swaggering like a great bully by his side. At the door of those cadjan cabins, which resemble higglers' crates, not less in size than in form and appearance, groups of withered Somauli crones are diligently weaving mats, baskets, and fans, of the pliant date-leaf; and their laughing daughters, yon tall, slim,

* It is the practice of the Somauli to shave the head when thus insulted, and to make a vow that the hair shall not grow again until they have had their revenge.

and erect damsels with the earthen pitch* ers above their plaited tresses, present, on their way up from the well, some of the comeliest specimens of the ebon race.

11 Honesty," saith the Arab proverb, " is found only among poor fools." The Bedouin has for ages been celebrated for his ingenuity and daring, and the African offset is nothing behind the parent stock. A Somauli thief is perhaps " the cunningest knave in the universe." He has been known to cut away a pile of tobacco so as to leave to the merchant who reposed thereon, nought but the effigy of his own figure : and after entering through the roof of a house, the burglar has taken his exit through the door with chests of treasure, from the top of which the sleeping proprietor has been first hoisted, with his bed, by a tackle lowered through the aperture, and so left hanging until the morning !

Muffled in a Spanish mantilla, see the - spouse of the bigoted Islam taking the air upon the crupper of a donkey, her fat face so scrupulously concealed, that nothing of it is visible save two sloe-black eyes, which glitter through perforations in the white" veil, and impart a similitude to the horned owl. On the rude steps of the clustering habitations that she has passed, surrounded by rosy-cheeksd urchins, are seated numerous dark-eyed and well-dressed Jewesses. Rachel, although discreet, and' preserving the strictest decorum, is unveiled. Were it possible to prevail upon her* to have recourse to daily ablution, in lieu of the hebdomadal immersion which celebrates her Sabbath eve, her complexion would not be less fair than that of the native of Southern Europe ; and in the wellchiselled features and aquiline profile of the brunette, are preserved all those marked peculiarities which in every part of the world distinguish the scattered daughters of Israel.