Raw
Beef, Thus Relished, Is Their Nicest Dish, And Is Eaten By Them With
The Same Appetite And Pleasure As We Eat The Best Partridges.
They
have often done me the favour of helping me to some of this sauce,
and I had no way to decline eating it besides telling them it was
too good for a missionary.
The common drink of the Abyssins is beer and mead, which they drink
to excess when they visit one another; nor can there be a greater
offence against good manners than to let the guests go away sober:
their liquor is always presented by a servant, who drinks first
himself, and then gives the cup to the company, in the order of
their quality.
The meaner sort of people here dress themselves very plain; they
only wear drawers, and a thick garment of cotton, that covers the
rest of their bodies: the people of quality, especially those that
frequent the court, run into the contrary extreme, and ruin
themselves with costly habits. They wear all sorts of silks, and
particularly the fine velvets of Turkey.
They love bright and glaring colours, and dress themselves much in
the Turkish manner, except that their clothes are wider, and their
drawers cover their legs. Their robes are always full of gold and
silver embroidery. They are most exact about their hair, which is
long and twisted, and their care of it is such that they go bare-
headed whilst they are young for fear of spoiling it, but afterwards
wear red caps, and sometimes turbans after the Turkish fashion.
The ladies' dress is yet more magnificent and expensive; their robes
are as large as those of the religious, of the order of St. Bernard.
They have various ways of dressing their heads, and spare no expense
in ear-rings, necklaces, or anything that may contribute to set them
off to advantage. They are not much reserved or confined, and have
so much liberty in visiting one another that their husbands often
suffer by it; but for this evil there is no remedy, especially when
a man marries a princess, or one of the royal family. Besides their
clothes, the Abyssins have no movables or furniture of much value,
or doth their manner of living admit of them.
One custom of this country deserves to be remarked: when a stranger
comes to a village, or to the camp, the people are obliged to
entertain him and his company according to his rank. As soon as he
enters a house (for they have no inns in this nation), the master
informs his neighbours that he hath a guest; immediately they bring
in bread and all kinds of provisions; and there is great care taken
to provide enough, because, if the guest complains, the town is
obliged to pay double the value of what they ought to have
furnished. This practice is so well established that a stranger
goes into a house of one he never saw with the same familiarity and
assurance of welcome as into that of an intimate friend or near
relation; a custom very convenient, but which gives encouragement to
great numbers of vagabonds throughout the kingdom.
There is no money in Abyssinia, except in the eastern provinces,
where they have iron coin: but in the chief provinces all commerce
is managed by exchange. Their chief trade consists in provisions,
cows, sheep, goats, fowls, pepper, and gold, which is weighed out to
the purchaser, and principally in salt, which is properly the money
of this country.
When the Abyssins are engaged in a law-suit, the two parties make
choice of a judge, and plead their own cause before him; and if they
cannot agree in their choice, the governor of the place appoints
them one, from whom there lies an appeal to the viceroy and to the
Emperor himself. All causes are determined on the spot; no writings
are produced. The judge sits down on the ground in the midst of the
high road, where all that please may be present: the two persons
concerned stand before him, with their friends about them, who serve
as their attorneys. The plaintiff speaks first, the defendant
answers him; each is permitted to rejoin three or four times, then
silence is commanded, and the judge takes the opinions of those that
are about him. If the evidence be deemed sufficient, he pronounces
sentence, which in some cases is decisive and without appeal. He
then takes the criminal into custody till he hath made satisfaction;
but if it be a crime punishable with death he is delivered over to
the prosecutor, who may put him to death at his own discretion.
They have here a particular way of punishing adultery; a woman
convicted of that crime is condemned to forfeit all her fortune, is
turned out of her husband's house, in a mean dress, and is forbid
ever to enter it again; she has only a needle given her to get her
living with. Sometimes her head is shaved, except one lock of hair,
which is left her, and even that depends on the will of her husband,
who has it likewise in his choice whether he will receive her again
or not; if he resolves never to admit her they are both at liberty
to marry whom they will. There is another custom amongst them yet
more extraordinary, which is, that the wife is punished whenever the
husband proves false to the marriage contract; this punishment
indeed extends no farther than a pecuniary mulct, and what seems
more equitable, the husband is obliged to pay a sum of money to his
wife. When the husband prosecutes his wife's gallant, if he can
produce any proofs of a criminal conversation, he recovers for
damages forty cows, forty horses, and forty suits of clothes, and
the same number of other things. If the gallant be unable to pay
him, he is committed to prison, and continues there during the
husband's pleasure, who, if he sets him at liberty before the whole
fine be paid, obliges him to take an oath that he is going to
procure the rest, that he may be able to make full satisfaction.
Then the criminal orders meat and drink to be brought out, they eat
and drink together, he asks a formal pardon, which is not granted at
first; however, the husband forgives first one part of the debt, and
then another, till at length the whole is remitted.
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