comnenced the ascent of the Abyssinian Alps; the flutes again played,
the wild warriors of the escort again chanted their songs. It was a
cool and lovely morning, and an invigorating breeze played over the
mountains' side, on which, now less than ten degrees from the equator,
flourished the vegetation of northern climes. The rough and stony
road wound on, by a steep ascent, over hill and dale, now skirting
some precipitous ascent, now dipping into the basin of some verdant
hollow, where it suddenly emerged into a succession of shady lanes,
bounded by flowering hedgerows."

All this is so like England, and so unlike Africa, that we should suspect
the major's memory to have been as active at least as his observation. But
the work contains so much internal evidence of accuracy, independently of
the confidence attached to the character of the intelligent writer himself,
that we must believe the heart of Ethiopa to possess secnes that would be
worthy of the heart of our own fresh and flower-bearing island. The scene
which follows is quite Arcadian.

"The wild rose, the fern, the lantana, and the honeysuckle, smiled
round a succession of highly cultivated terraces, and on every
eminence, stood a cluster of conically thatched houses, environed by
green hedges, and partially embowered amid dark trees As the troop
passed on, the peasant abandoned his occupation to gaze at the novel
procession; while merry groups of hooded women, decked in scarlet and
crimson left their avocations in the hut to welcome the king's guests
with a shrill _ziroleet_, which ran from every hand. Birds warbled
among the groves. At various turns of the road the prospect was
rugged, wild, and beautiful. The first Christian village was soon
revealed on the summit of a height. Three principal ranges of hills
were next crossed in succession. Lastly, the view opened upon the