The work of Makrizi already quoted speaks of seven kingdoms in Zaila’ (here used for the Mahomedan low country) originally tributary to the Hati (or Negush) of Amhara, viz., Aufat,[7] Dawaro, Arababni, Hadiah, Shirha, Bali, Darah.  Of these Ifat, Dawaro, and Hadiah repeatedly occur in Bruce’s story of the war.  Bruce also tells us that Amda Zion, when he removed Hakeddin, the Governor of Ifat, who had murdered his agent, replaced him by his brother Sabreddin.  Now we find in Makrizi that about A.H. 700, the reigning governor of Aufat under the Hati was Sabreddin Mahomed Valahui; and that it was ’Ali, the son of this Sabreddin, who first threw off allegiance to the Abyssinian King, then Saif Arad (son of Amda Zion).  The latter displaces ’Ali and gives the government to his son Ahmed.  After various vicissitudes Hakeddin, the son of Ahmed, obtains the mastery in Aufat, defeats Saif Arad completely, and founds a city in Shoa called Vahal, which superseded Aufat or Ifat.  Here the Sabreddin of Makrizi appears to be identical with Amda Zion’s governor in Bruce’s story, whilst the Hakeddins belong to two different generations of the same family.  But Makrizi does not notice the wars of Amda Zion any more than the Abyssinian Chronicles notice the campaign recorded by Marco Polo.

(Bruce, vol.  III. and vol.  IV., pp. 23-90, and Salt’s Second Journey to Abyssinia, II. 270, etc.; both these are quoted from French versions which are alone available to me, the former by Castera, Londres, 1790, the latter by P.  Henry, Paris, 1816; Fr. Th.  Rink, Al Macrisi, Hist.  Rerum Islamiticarum in Abyssinia, etc., Lugd.  Bat. 1798; Rueppell, Dissert. on Abyss.  Hist. and Chronology in his work on that country; Quat.  Makr. II. 122-123; Quat.  Mem. sur l’Egypte, II. 268, 276.)

NOTE 6.—­The last words run in the G.T.:  “Il ont singles de plosors maineres.  Il ont gat paulz (see note 2, ch. xxiii. supra), et autre gat maimon si devisez qe pou s’en faut de tiel hi a qe ne senblent a vix d’omes.” The beautiful cocks and hens are, I suppose, Guinea fowl.

[We read in the Si Shi ki:  “There is (in Western Asia) a large bird, above 10 feet high, with feet like a camel, and of bluish-grey colour.  When it runs it flaps the wings.  It eats fire, and its eggs are of the size of a sheng” (a certain measure for grain). (Bretschneider, Med.  Res., I. pp. 143-144.) Dr. Bretschneider gives a long note on the ostrich, called in Persian shutur-murg (camel-bird), from which we gather the following information:  “The ostrich, although found only in the desert of Africa and Western Asia, was known to the Chinese in early times, since their first intercourse with the countries of the far west.  In the History of the Han (T’sien Han shu, ch. xcvi.) it is stated that the Emperor Wu-ti, B.C. 140-186,