"All the Abyssinians," writes Pearce, the English sailor, after he had given up Mohammedanism, "have a father or confessor, and I myself am obliged to have, or pretend to have, one of these holy fathers, else it would not be allowed that I was a Christian, and perhaps create many enemies that would disturb my dwelling. It is a very unprofitable thing to fall out with these priests, as everything is in their hands; the whole country of Abyssinia is overrun with them. The very smallest church, that is not larger than a small sheep-pen that would not hold more than fifty sheep, built with mud and stone, and thatched over with canes and dry grass, has from fifteen to twenty of these impostors, who devour all the fruits of the poor labouring country people. The larger churches have from fifty to one hundred: Axum, Larlabeller (Lallabella), have some thousands. Waldubba is the most famous for them: where the wretches pretend that, being holy men, they ride upon lions which God has provided for them." In mentioning the superstitions of Abyssinia, it may here be observed, that there are various kinds of complaints in that country which are supposed to be caused by the Evil One. One of Pearce's wives was afflicted with a disorder of this kind, in describing which, Pearce, in his letter to the Bombay Literary Society, honestly acknowledges that he himself "thinks the devil _must_ have some hand in it;" and most certainly no earthly physician ever met with such a patient as Mrs. Pearce. "After the first five or six days," says the husband, "she began to be continually hungry, and would eat five or six times in the night--never sleep; and she, like all others troubled with this complaint, called a man 'she' and a woman 'he.'" Indeed, the poor creature was so severely afflicted with her unaccountable disorder, that, in the presence of her friends, she even addressed in the wrong gender Mr. Pearce, calling him "she," or, more probably, "it;" "for," says Pearce, "it vexed me so much that I declared she should not stop in the house." The remedy for this disorder is about as mysterious as its symptoms. The woman has an unaccountable inclination to run. "The fastest running young man," says Pearce, "that can be found is employed by her friends to run after her, with a matchlock well loaded, so as to make a good report: the moment she starts, he starts with her; but, before she has run the distance, where she drops as if she were dead, he is left half way behind. As soon as he comes up to her, he fires right over her body, and asks her name, which she then pronounces, although during the time of her complaint she denies her Christian name, and detests all priests and churches. Her friends afterward take her to the church, where she is washed with holy water, and is then cured."