But the most curious and important portion of the work of Agatharcides on the Red Sea, relates to Abyssinia; for in this work we meet with the first genuine characteristics of this nation.  He specifies particularly the gold mines wrought by the kings of Egypt on the coast of the Red Sea;—­the process which they followed to procure and separate this metal;—­the sufferings which the miners underwent in their operations are painted in very strong language:  “The multitude of bones still found in these excavations, he says, is incredible, of wretches crushed by the falling-in of the earth, as must naturally happen in a loose and crumbling soil.”  He adds a circumstance, to which there are many parallel in our own country, in those mines which are supposed to have been wrought by the Romans; viz. the tools of copper found in these gold mines, supposed to have been used by the native Egyptians, prior to the conquest of Egypt by the Persians.  The next particular mentioned by Agatharcides, respecting the Abyssinian coast of the Red Sea, is very conclusive, with respect to his accuracy and credibility.  In Meroe, or Abyssinia, he says, they hunt elephants and hamstring them, and afterwards cut the flesh out of the animal alive:  he adds, that the inhabitants are so extremely fond of the flesh of the elephant, thus procured, that when Ptolemy would have paid any price to purchase these animals alive, as he wanted them for his army, the Abyssinian hunters refused his offer, declaring that not all the wealth of Egypt would tempt them to forego their favourite and delicious repast.  It is a remarkable fact, that the credit of Bruce on this topic should thus be confirmed by a writer who lived nearly 2000 years before him, of whose writings we possess only a very short treatise, and of whose life we know scarcely a single particular.  It may be added, that Strabo, in a passage, in which he is apparently copying Agatharcides, mentions [Greek:  Kreophagoi] and as he would scarcely particularize the fact of a native eating the flesh of animals cooked, it is to be presumed, he means raw flesh.  In the same place he mentions the excisio feminarum.

Every reader of Brace’s Travels in Abyssinia must remember the fly, called Tsalpsalza, an insect more formidable than the strongest or most savage wild beasts:  “As soon as the buzzing of this insect is heard, the utmost alarm and trepidation prevails; the cattle forsake their food and run wildly about the plain, till at length they fall down, worn out with terror, hunger and fatigue; even the camel, elephant and rhinoceros, are not safe from the attacks of this formidable insect.”  This fly is described by Agatharcides in the same manner as by Bruce.  The ensete tree of Bruce, the leaves of which resemble the banana, with fruit like figs, but not eatable, with a trunk esculent till it reaches its perfect growth and is full of leaves, resembles in some of its particulars a tree described by Agatharcides.