This is, however, the only instance I know of a church of the Abyssinian Christians being so situated, for it is a particular feature of the worship in this country that all religious buildings should surmount “some earth o’ertopping mountain;” and to such an extent is this feeling carried, that sacred hills which have become lowered in consequence of the greater denudation of their summits, is a reason sometimes for changing the site of the church to some neighbouring hill that, from more favourable causes, has preserved its height undiminished. A striking instance of this change, and its assigned cause, is found in the circumstances connected with the erection of the new church of St. Michael, which stands upon a hill to the east of the Negoos’s residence, in the valley of the “Michael wans.” Here two groves are observed standing on hills near to each other, the more modern one being of much greater elevation than the other. Both are dedicated to the same saint, and on asking Walderheros why there should be two, he pointed out the difference in the height of the hills upon which they stood as a reason why the lower should be deserted, and preference given to the higher hill for the site of the “bate y Christian,” and the residence of the monks. Looking upon these groves surrounding temples of religion, and serving as retreats for officiating priests, each of whom has his little cottage among the trees, it is impossible to help reflecting upon the changes in man’s history, recalled by observing such existing monuments of former feelings and religious prejudices. The question naturally suggested itself, what could have been the popular belief when the more ancient of the St. Michael’s groves was first planted; for a long period must have elapsed to have occasioned, by the disintegrating action of its vegetation, so much denudation of the hill it crowns, as to make it more than one hundred feet lower than the present frequented one; and originally it must have been the highest in the neighbourhood. I have observed other customs existing in Abyssinia that strongly reminded me of Druidism and of similar characteristic observances among the ancient Persians; and I certainly looked with some degree of interest upon a grove, that might once have been the scene of the celebration of religious ceremonies, of a very different character to those which distinguish the modern faith.