AGOWS, a people in Abyssinia, who arc divided into two nations ; the one caned the Agows of Damot, from their vicinity to that province ; the other the 'i'cheratz Agows, from Tchera, a town and district near Lasta and Begcmder. (See ABYSSINIA.) Though possessed of a country abounding with all the necessaries of life, the Agows are reduced, by taxes and oppression, to extreme penury- and wretchedness. Mr Bruce saw a number of their women so wrinkled and sun-burnt, as hardly to ap pear human creatures, wandering with children on their backs, under the noon-clay heat, and gathering the seeds of bent-grass to make bread. Their territory is only 60 miles long and about 30 miles broad, yet it supplies Gon dar, and all the neighbouring country, with provisions and luxuries. They preserve their butter, which they carry to a great distance, by means of a yellow root call ed mocmoco, resembling a carrot. The dress of the Agows consists of hides, tanned and softened by an art peculiar to themselves. These hides hang clown to their feet, in the form of a shirt, and are girded with a belt about the middle ; the lower part resembles a large dou ble petticoat, one ply of which is turned back over the shoulders, and fastened with a broach or skewer, across their breast, before in this fold, the married women carry their children at their backs. The Agows arc below the middle size : their women are marriageable at nine, and continue to bear children till thirty. Bar renness is unknown among the Agows; and their coun try is so populous, that it can send to the field 4000 horse, besides a numerous inkintry. But as the Ab) ssi Man princes depend chiefly hw pro duce or their country, they generally compound with them fur an additional tribute, instead of their services in the field.
In religion, the Agows are idolatrous and su perstitious. The Genius of the Aba), or Abyssinian Nile, is the object of their adoration, whom they address by the titles of " The Light of the World, The Father or the Universe, their Saviour, The God of Peace, and The Everlasting God." Among the supplications, pre ferred to this deity, is one for the preservation of a par ticular kind of serpents, which are supposed to prognos ticate the approach of good or evil. Before undertaking a journey, or any affair of consequence, they feed these serpents with butter and milk ; and their refusal to eat is regarded as a certain omen of calamity. Before an invasion of the Gallas, they pretend, that tliese sagacious serpents disappear. They deprecate thunder, because it is hurtful to the bees ; and honey and wax constitute the principal part of their revenue. On the First ap pearance of the Dog:.tar, they have an annual festival of peculiar solemnity. A black heifer is sacrificed, and distributed among the several clans, x,Alo eat the car case raw, and then drink of the water of the Nile. The bones of the heifer are burnt to ashes; and its head is carried to a cavern, said to reach below the fountains of the river, where they perliAra a mysterious worship, which it is 1111L.Wfill to divulge.
The Agows cf Lasta have a language different front that of the other Agows, and are said to live in caverns. Indeed, all the mountains, in the territories of the Agows, are perforated by caves, which have been once used, either as habitations, or as places of retreat front their enemies. Sonic of them, as that of Geesh, are now the scenes of their religious mysteries. (A')