Comparison is the mother of observation, and may here elucidate one phenomena by another—the past by that which still exists. Oppression, insecurity, and the influence of a very rude priestcraft, are the powerful causes which operated on the Germans and Italians of the middle ages, as they now continue to operate on the Abyssinians of the present day. However these people may differ from us in their descent, their manners and their customs, the effects of the above-mentioned causes are the same in Africa as they were in Europe, for they operate on man himself independently of the particular locality in which he may be planted; and the condition of the Abyssinians of modern times is, in regard to superstition, a mirror of the condition of the European nations in the middle ages. Should this appear a bold assertion, it will be strengthened by the fact, that in Abyssinia, two examples of superstitions occur, which are completely in accordance with occurrences of the middle ages that took place contemporarily with the dancing mania. _The Abyssinians have their Christian flagellants, and there exists among them a belief in a Zoomorphism, which presents a lively image of the lycanthropy of the middle ages._ Their flagellants are called Zackarys. They are united into a separate Christian fraternity, and make their processions through the towns and villages with great noise and tumult, scourging themselves till they draw blood, and wounding themselves with knives[321]. They boast that they are descendants of St. George. It is precisely in Tigrè, the country of the Abyssinian dancing mania, where they are found in the greatest numbers, and where they have, in the neighbourhood of Axum, a church of their own, dedicated to their patron saint _Oun Arvel_. Here there is an ever-burning lamp, and they contrive to impress a belief that this is kept alight by supernatural means. They also here keep a holy water, which is said to be a cure for those who are affected by the dancing mania.