James Bruce

“ The king, desirous only to avenge his death, threw himself like lightning into the opposite squadron, and received a stroke with a lance in his breast, which threw him from his horse on the ground. Grievous as the wound was, he instantly recovered himself; and, drawing his sword, continued to fight with as much vigour as ever. He was now hemmed in by a ring of soldiers, part of whom, afraid of encountering him, remained at a distance, throwing missile weapons without good direction or strength, as if they had been hunting some fierce wild beast. ”

“ I saw the fate of all was to be decided by the very next wave that was rolling in; and apprehensive that some woman, child, or helpless man would lay hold of me, and entangle my arms or legs and weigh me down, I cried to my servants, both in Arabic and English, We are all lost; if you can swim, follow me; I then let myself down in the face of the wave. Whether that, or the next, filled the boat, I know not, as I went to leeward to make my distance as great as possible. ”

“ These conducting off the water that spills over the fountain by trenches, the neighbouring lands have quickly produced a plentiful vegetation: gardens and verdure are spread on every side, large groves of palm tree have been planted, and the overflowings of every fountain have produced a little paradise, like so many beautiful and fruitful islands amidst an immense ocean. ”

“ My ancestors were the kings of the country in which I was born, and to be ranked among the greatest and most glorious that ever bore the crown and title of King. This is the truth, and nothing but the truth. I may now, I hope, without offence, ask, To what does all this information tend?"
"To your safety," said he, "and to your honour, as long as I command in Masuah;—to your certain death and destruction if you go among the Abyssinians; a people without faith, covetous, barbarous, and in continual war, of which nobody yet has been able to discover the reason. ”

“ But you, better than any one, can be the judge of this; and I can appeal to you, how often they have been upon the point of deserting you, in return for all the victories and riches they have shared with you; while there is not a Moor in Adel but would have willingly died in the presence of such a prince as you. It is then you, not your army, that we fear; we know perfectly the value of both. You have already enjoyed all the merit and profit of conquest; but utterly destroying defenceless people is unworthy of any king, and still more of a prince of your character. ”

“ These are the wretched subterfuges of low minds, as distant from science as they are from honour and virtue. Why, if the animal was equally known to Mr Brander and me, did he not, when writing upon it, give his name, his manners, the uses to which he was destined, and the places where he resided? why send to Algiers for an account of him, after having him so long in his possession, since at Algiers he was probably as great a stranger as he was at Stockholm? why call him a fox, or pronounce his genus, yet write to Algiers for particulars to decide what that genus was? ”

“ Vast quantities of these ruins, however, are in every street of Cairo: every wall, every Bey’s stable, every cistern for horses to drink at, preserve part of the magnificent remains that have been brought from Memphis or Metrahenny.—The rest are covered with the moving sands of the Saccara; as the sphinxes and buildings that had been deserted were in Strabo’s time for want of grass and roots, which always spread and keep the soil firm in populous inhabited places, the sands of the deserts are let loose upon them, and have covered them probably for ever. ”

“ At this instant an old man, of a noble appearance, who sat in a corner of the room next him, got up, and, in a firm tone of voice, said, "I can bear this no longer; we shall become a proverb, and the hatred of all mankind. What have you to do with Yagoube, or why did you send for him? he was favoured by the late king, but not more than I have seen Greeks or Armenians in all the late reigns; and yet these very people confess, in their own country, they are not worthy of being his servants. ”

“ The marsh, and the fountains, upon comparison with the rise of many of our rivers, became now a trifling object in my sight. I remembered that magnificent scene in my own native country, where the Tweed, Clyde, and Annan rise in one hill; three rivers, as I now thought, not inferior to the Nile in beauty, preferable to it in the cultivation of those countries through which they flow; superior, vastly superior to it in the virtues and qualities of the inhabitants, and in the beauty of its flocks; crowding its pastures in peace, without fear of violence from man or beast. ”

“ If Ali Bey, Shekh Hamam, or any body want a boat for public service, I must yield mine. Let us hear.”
“Shekh Hamam and Ali Bey! says he; why it is a fool, an idiot, and an ass; a fellow that goes begging about, and says he is a saint; but he is a natural fool, full as much knave as fool however; he is a thief, I know him to be a thief.”
“If he is a saint, said I, Hagi Hassan, as you are another, known to be so all the world over, I don’t see why I should interfere; saint against saint is a fair battle.”—“It is the Cadi, replies he, and no one else.” ”

“ I found myself so much moved, and my tears came so fast, that it was in vain to endeavour to carry on a farce under such tragical appearances, "Woman, said I, I am not a Turk, nor do I make slaves, or kill children. It is your Arabs that force me to this; it was you that attacked me last night, it was you that murdered Mahomet Towash, one of your own religion, and busied in his duty. I am a stranger, seeking my own safety, but you are all murderers and thieves."—"It is true, says she, they are all murderers and liars, and my husband, not knowing, may have lied too. ”

“ For why should heat of climate addict a people to magic more than cold? or, why should ignorance enlarge a man’s powers, so that, overleaping the bounds of common intelligence, it should extend his faculty of conversing with a new set of beings in another world? The Ethiopians, who nearly surround Abyssinia, are blacker than those of Gingiro, their country hotter, and are, like them, an indigenous people that have been, from the beginning, in the same part where they now inhabit. ”