The Abyssin Takes The Honey,
Without Failing To Leave Part Of It For The Bird, To Reward Him For
His Information.
This kind of honey I have often tasted, and do not
find that it differs from the other sorts in anything but colour; it
is somewhat blacker.
The great quantity of honey that is gathered,
and a prodigious number of cows that is kept here, have often made
me call Abyssinia a land of honey and butter.
Chapter III
The manner of eating in Abyssinia, their dress, their hospitality,
and traffic.
The great lords, and even the Emperor himself, maintain their tables
with no great expense. The vessels they make use of are black
earthenware, which, the older it is, they set a greater value on.
Their way of dressing their meat, an European, till he hath been
long accustomed to it, can hardly be persuaded to like; everything
they eat smells strong and swims with butter. They make no use of
either linen or plates. The persons of rank never touch what they
eat, but have their meat cut by their pages, and put into their
mouths. When they feast a friend they kill an ox, and set
immediately a quarter of him raw upon the table (for their most
elegant treat is raw beef newly killed) with pepper and salt; the
gall of the ox serves them for oil and vinegar; some, to heighten
the delicacy of the entertainment, add a kind of sauce, which they
call manta, made of what they take out of the guts of the ox; this
they set on the fire, with butter, salt, pepper, and onion.
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