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was the main side on which his great philosophy ran into poetry, and vented itself in a very graceful as well as grand enthusiam, befitting one of the high-priests of wisdom. He was fond of meditating in his groves, after the custom of his predecessors of antiquity; and, when he sat down to his cogitations in-doors, would often have music in the next room. He had the flowers and sweet herbs in season regularly set upon his table, to refresh his spirits; and took such delight in being abroad among the elements, that, riding in an open carriage during the rain, he would take off his hat to let the shower come upon his head, and say that he seemed to feel the spirit of the universe upon him.

Moderation: Neutrality-Moderation is not neutrality; for neutrality is a state of inertness and moderation a continued system of action. It is not a game of up and go down, for this game consists in raising and depressing both sides by turns, that is to say, in now favouring one enemy, and the next mcment serving another. The constant aim of a genuine spirit of moderation is to disarm both parties and prevent them from tearing eath other to pieces.

Curious Advertisements. In a newspaper for the year 1654, we find the two following advertisements.-1, All that have a desire to travel from Cheping Norton, in the county of Oxon, to London, by coach every week, may be fitted at the White Hart in Cheping Norton, on Tuesdaies, and at the Saracen's Head, without Newgate, London, on Thursdaeis, lying one night only by the way, for twelve shillings each passenger. 1654,

Gas. By Mr. Clegg's new method of producing coal-gas, he can produce 25,000 cubic feet of coal-gas from one chaldron of Newcastle Wallsend coal, without generating 2, SIMON DRING desireth to give full satisfaction to all and tar or ammoniacal liquor, being 15,000 cubic feet more than every one of England, or elsewhere, that can justly accuse him was formerly produced. The coal is introduced, by a me-that he hath defrauded him in bargains, or any other way chanical process, in strata not exceeding half an inch in thick- wronged him, that so he may owe nothing but love. Pubness. In this way, the retorts are kept at an uniform heat, and lished by my order from the next house to the Harrow, in the coal is completely and rapidly decomposed, so that the Watling Street, in London, so called.-SIMON DRING. whole of the hydrogen combines with the charcoal, constituting olefiant gas; and the matter which usually escaped in the form of tar and ammoniacal liquor, is perfectly decomposed. The expense of producing 50,000 cubic feet of gas in twenty-four hours, on the old plan, is 38171.; upon the new plan, 11231.; and the expense of producing an equal quantity of light from oil, 19,0101.

The following method of preserving currants fresh till January or February, is taken from the Journal de Pharmacie. When the fruit is ripe, choose those bushes enjoying a southern aspect, and which are most convenient in their shape, and most loaded with fruit, and surround them with thick straw mats, so that they shall be completely sheltered from atinospheric cold and other changes. By this simple method it will be found, that the fruit may be preserved quite fresh till after Christmas..

African Expedition.-Dr. Dattell, with twenty men, part of the expedition into the interior of Africa, have arrived at Timbuctoo, where they were seized and confined, and stripped of all their clothing, and all communication cut off with Major Gray at the entrance of the Niger. Major Gray has been robbed of all his amber and coral, but camels have lately been dispatched with a supply to enable him to proceed.

Love of Nature.-There was something which struck his contemporaries as peculiarly magnificent in Lord Bacon's style of living. The secret was, that he did every thing in a high and natural taste. In compartments of his rooms, he had pictures painted on the wall from the stories of Grecian mythology. His garden most probably was laid out after the ideal pattern in his essays, evergreens and other shrubs to sui every month in the year. His feeling, indeed, for nature

Caleb Quotem. In the Morning Advertiser one day last week, a respectable young man offers a premium to any lady or gentleman who can procure him employment; and he thus modestly states his qualifications: His abilities and pur suits (he says) have been so various, that there are few situ ations but he might fill with satisfaction; he perfectly understands accounts, trade, travelling, the printing business practically, editing a paper, collecting, auctioneering, apprais ing, undertaking; can serve as English secretary to a gentleman; is a good reader, and can make himself useful in various ways that might not be exactly menial,' &c.

Sold by Boosey and Sons, Old Broad Street; and J. Porter, 81, Pall Mall. The LEONORA of BURGER and the FETE of ELEUSIS, by SCHILLER; translated into Italian Verse, with other Translations and Original Compositions. By Major FRYE, of the 4th Regiment.

Also, by the same author, GUILT, a Tragedy; translated from the German of Adolphus Müllner.

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The critique on Mr. Hobday's picture of the Rothschild family, and several other articles intended for insertion, are unavoidably deferred to our next.

S. B. is nearly right in the solution of Maria's transposition,' but he has omitted an item.

Erratum, p. 460, col. 2, l. 10, from bottom, for Devon' read 'Dorset.'

LONDON:-Published by J. LIMBIRD, 355, Strand, two doors EAST of Exeter Change; where advertisements are received, and communications for the Editor' (post paid) are to be addressed. Sold also by SOUTER, 73, St. Paul's Church Yard; CHAPPLE, Pall Mall; GRAPEL, Liverpool; and by all Booksellers and Newsvenders in the United Kingdom. Printed by DAVIDSON, Old Boswell Court, Carey Street.

And Weekly Review;

Forming an Analysis and General Repository of Literature, Philosophy, Science, Arts, History, the Drama, Morals, Manners, and Amusements.

This Paper is published at Six o'Clock every Saturday Morning; and forwarded in Weekly, Mouthly, or Quarterly Parts, to all Parts of the Kingdom..

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 1820.

No. 65.

Review of New Books.

...

With

Price 6d.

give an offering of a thousand bullocks and as many cloths, as a fellart or forgiveness for his father Coulassey, and appointed the day they were all to assemble. This news being spread, the poor sort of priests of Gogan, Daunt, Walder, Bagamdre, &c. all assemble together on the day appointed. As soon as Libban heard that they were all assembled as he had given orders, he picked out twelve of the greater sort that came from Igue and Shoar as a reserve. He then ordered his horse, which were about ten thousand, to gallop in upon the priests and beggars, and destroy every soul; which order being imhundred were killed in the course of four or five hours. The twelve he had picked out he ordered to be rolled up in cloths waxed all over; and as they lay on the ground, set fire to them at both ends. Libban died ten days after, and his son has got his country.'

Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay. Engravings. 4to. pp. 379. London, 1820. THE second volume of these transactions, consists of sixteen distinct papers read before the society at different periods, between the years 1815, and the 25th of May 1819, the date of the last paper. Viewing them gene-mediately obeyed, every soul soon fell. Not less than eleven rally, they are not nearly so interesting as those which appeared in the first volume. Among those most entitled to notice, is 'a small but true account of the Abyssinians, by Mr. Nathaniel Pearce,' of which we purpose giving a

condensed account.

Pearce, notwithstanding his long exile and his exclusion from European intercourse, still retains a warm attachment to old England, and nothing gives him so much pleasure as to be furnished with an English newspaper. His situation is very uncomfortable; the Ras took from

Nathaniel Pearce, an English sailor, was left in Abyssinia at his own request, by Lord Valentia, during his visit to Massowa, in 1805. He is a man of an active and vigorous mind. Mr. Salt, in his voyage to Abyssinia, has brought down his history to the year 1810, when he found him possessing a perfect insight into the manner and feel-hin a house which he had built himself, without giving ings of the Abyssinians, adding to a complete knowledge of the language Figre, a tolerable share of the Amharic. By the latest accounts, in May 1818, Pearce was still in Abyssinia, the Ras not allowing him to leave the country. His own narrative, which is in a letter addressed to Sir Evan Nepean, does not bring his history down later than October 1814. In a subsequent letter, dated 20th March 1816, he complains of the covetousness and oppressive conduct of the Ras, who would neither allow him sufficient to maintain his family nor permit him to depart to Mocha, fearing that he should introduce an European army and subdue the country. In a previous letter to Mr. Forbes, of June 1815, printed in the preface, he

says,

The Ras is now ten times more miserly than ever he was, and every thing he sees he craves for; he is greatly afraid of dying, and frets himself very much. He is upwards of eighty years of age, but as nimble as a boy. A curious circumstance has happened since I wrote to you last, of which I give you some small account. You will, perhaps, think of the Abyssinian priests. Goga, governor or king of Igue Garler, turned Christian, and the King of Shoar gave him his daughter; but the Gasmartie Libban being at variance with Goga, would not allow the King of Shoar's daughter to pass through his country. There being no other road, they planned a scheme to get her through unknown to Libban, which was;-they sent her disguised with the priests and poor that travel about the country from Woldubber to Sarlibeller, &c. After Libban heard that Goga had received his wife from Shear, he was greatly enraged with the different chiefs of his country; but being informed of the manner the King of Shoar had sent his daughter, he held his peace, being determined to be revenged on the Christian priests. Although he was very ill, he beat the drum in the different markets in his country, giving notice to all priests and poor travelling people that he was going to VOL. II,

any equivalent. The Literary Society of Bombay, on becoming acquainted with his distresses, sent him money and necessaries to a considerable amount, but these have not always reached him. At present, there is little hopes of his being suffered to escape, but his protracted or perhaps perpetual banishment will make large additions to our present imperfect stock of information, concerning the history, manners, and religion of Abyssinia.

The Abyssinians are of many tribes and religions, and of all colours except white. Although they are Christians, they are like Jews, in that they keep holy the Saturday as well as the Sunday; and like savages, because they eat the flesh of an animal before it is dead, although they do not drink the blood nor make any kind of food of it, which they conceive to be a deadly sin. They keep very strict their fasts, which are numerous, and some of which last fifty-six days:

The priests of their separate parishes have a great feast at the end of every fast: they all meet in the forenoon, after taking and administering the body and blood of Christ to those who come to the church for that purpose: they afterwards go to the house of the head priest, where they sit down according to their rank in the church: they then kill one or two cows, according to their number, close to the door, and before the animal has done kicking, and the blood still running from its throat, the skin is nearly off on one side, and the prime flesh cut off, and with all haste held before the elders or heads of the church, who cut about two or three pounds each; and eat it, with such greediness, that those who did not know them would think they were starved; but they at all times prefer the raw meat to any cooked victuals. After they have finished their brindo, as they call it, they take a little of the fattest parts of the cow just warmed on the fire, to settle their stomachs, and then one or two large horns full of swoity 24-2 L

or beer, which is very strong, and made of several sorts of corn. They then have the table brought in and covered with bread and cooked victuals, where those that are not satisfied with the raw meat, eat until they are of the cooked. Afterwards, the lower class of priests and deacons are called in, and the raw meat or brindo is laid upon the bread, of which they cut and eat with as much eagerness (although it is as cold as clay), as their betters did when it was quite hot. After they are satisfied, the third class are called in, and so on in turns, until they devour all the bread and victuals; more like a pack of hounds than people of any description. When all is cleared away, the greater and middling rank begin to drink maize until they begin to sing psalms or hymns, and at last get so intoxicated that they at times quarrel and entirely lose

their senses.'

When an Abyssinian dies, there is great crying and yowling' for many days, and a particular day is appointed for a general cry :—

On this day, all relations and acquaintances far and near assemble together upon a plain spot of ground, as near the house of the deceased as possible, where a cradle is placed covered with silk, and two large pillows on each side of the cradle something in the representation of a corpse covered with a cloth is placed in the middle of the cradle. If a very great person, or relation to the King, they in general make his effgy, which they place upon a mule, with a saddle, bridle, and saddle-cloth ornamented with gold and silver; all his household servants run round the cradle, some before and some behind the mule, according to their stations when he was alive, crying, youling, and firing their matchlocks, and tearing the skin off their temples and forehead, until the blood runs down their neck. In the front of the cradle, the carpets of the deceased are spread, and covered with the riches of his house, gold and silver, ornamented dresses, silver-mounted swords, bottles, glasses, &c. to show the public what a wealthy person he or she was. All who come to cry sit down in front in two parties, the men on the right and the women on the left: their heads are all shaved, and their temples and foreheads torn in such a manner as would frighten any one who was not acquainted with them. The relations then stand up one by one, in their turns, with a servant on each side of them to keep them from falling-as they pretend to be so weak with sorrow-and begin, while the others are silent and listening to him or her, to praise the beauty and riches of the deceased, and what acts he had done when alive; that when on horseback he was like St. George, and on foot like the angel Michael, and a great deal of other nonsense: after ending their speech in a very sorrowful tone, they all at once. make a loud bellow and tear their temples. After the cry is over, they all go into a large house like a barn, where they eat and drink until they turn their sorrow into merriment and quarrelling.'

The Abyssinians have so many children and relations, that it is sometimes hard to tell which has most right to the property left, and in order to make the king or chief favourable on their side they tear their faces all over, and bribe his servants. Pearce says he has known many great men in Abyssinia to have from forty to fifty children, and all by different mothers, and in general from different provinces.

Priesthood flourishes in Abyssinia; every one is obliged to have a father confessor, or else it would not be allowed that he was a Christian; in consequence, Pearce is compelled to keep one. He says,

It is a very unprofitable thing to fall out with those priests, as every thing is in their hands; the whole country of Abyssinia is over-run with them; the very simplest 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 those

impostors, who devour all the fruits of the poor labouring country people. The larger sort of churches have from fifty to one hundred: Axum, Larlabeller, &c. have some thousands. Waldubber is the most famous for them, where the wretches pretend, that being holy men, they ride upon lions which God has provided for them, as horses! The whole of the Abyssinians are foolish enough to believe these Waldubber priests; who often come from the desart to the towns, where they tell millions of lies, not only for the sake of gain, but to make the poor ignorant inhabitants believe that they serve God in the holy desart of Waldubber, where he visits them, and gives them the power of living many days without food, and the power to forgive the sins of the wicked. The inhabi tants of both the towns and country look upon those impostors as saints, and kiss their hands and feet when they meet them.

Those priests or deacons, when they hear of any person being taken sick, with all haste pay him a visit; and he who first visits him claims him as a patient; when he persuades the poor fellow that he is infected with a devil, and that he will cast him out; so he writes upon parchment as much nonsense as he pleases, and makes some ugly frightful pictures; this is rolled up and sewed in a piece of leather, and tied about the patient's neck, or where he may feel the most pain; for which he receives five or six pieces of cloth; if the poor fellow has not that much, his friends and neighbours subscribe what may be wanting, and if by the will of God the patient gets so weak that there is little hope of recovering, the priest or deacon brings the sacrament to his house, which he also receives payment for, whether the patient lives or dies. Any person who wishes to receive the sacrament has only to go to the church and wait until the proper time for adininistering it. When they begin they stand in ranks by turns, the greater sort of people first; he who is first to be served comes near to the two priests, who stand before the altar in the middle of the church, and who are dressed in their holy clothes; the one holds a large cross in his right hand and a book in his left; the other holds a large bowl or dish with a spoon: he who comes near first, bows to the ground, and then arises and kisses the cross and puts it three times to his forehead and mouth, while the priest who holds it reads the book; he then opens his mouth, and the other priest puts a spoonful in twice; he then bows and runs out of the church holding his hand to his mouth, and will neither spit nor speak until sun-set. They so go on in turns until they are all served; and there is no respect to persons, as any one may come and no one asks him who he is or where he comes from. The sacrament is a mixture of dried grapes and wheat flour, pounded and mixed with water to the consistence of paste.'

Pearce says, the Abyssinians are the greatest and most notorious liars in the world, and the kings and priests are greater liars than the lower class; though there is no truth whatever in any Abyssinian;' and he gives the following instance of the truth of his assertion in the case of the King Itsa Takely Gorges, son of the King Yoannis :

obeyed his orders, so that he is afraid to remain in his counWhen any one of his subjects may have rebelled or distry, he will run either to the Garler, or some other tribe not subject to the King, where he will remain until his friends or acquaintances petition for pardon; for which they take a present of gold, cattle, &c. which they deliver to the King; and after he has received it, they in general fall with their faces to the ground, begging pardon for their friend, whom the King and in a few days after they go to the King with another prepromises to forgive. After returning thanks they go home, sent, begging for him to swear that he will not break the promise he has made, as the offender is afraid otherwise to come before him. It being a common thing to swear upon such occasions, the King readily agrees to it, and a priest is sent for on purpose, who brings a cross, on which he swears the King to forgive the offender, and to allow him to come before him as at other times. The petitioners after hearing the oath,

return many thanks, and return home; appointing a day when they will bring the offender. After they are gone, the King, Takely Gorges, will say to the heads of his household,-"Servants, you see the oath I have taken; I scrape it clean away from my tongue that made it:" he then puts his tongue out of his mouth and scrapes the oath off with his teeth, and spitting, says, "When the rebel comes, you will do your duty as I shall order you."

This made Pearce fearful she would die, and he determined to say nothing more until the day appointed for her cure, or the devil to be drove out of her, which was done in the following manner :—

On the day appointed, the offender is brought before him by the friends who had obtained the pardon; he carries a large stone on his neck as is customary, and bows with his face to the ground: but at the first sight of the offender, Takely Gorges orders the captain of the household servants to put him in chains, pull his eyes out, cut his tongue out, or kill him as he thinks proper; which is immediately obeyed. At the same time, the poor sorrowful petitioners will say, "Your Majesty has perhaps forgot the oath you made before us!'-to which he will reply, "No, I have not; but after you were gone, it came strongly into my mind that the crimes he had committed were unpardonable; and, before ever I had eaten or drank, II therefore went to the place appointed before 'daylight, and scraped the oath off my tongue that made it, before all the people of my household!" Those oaths of Itsa Takely Gorges at last made all his subjects rebel against him, and obliged him to fly to Waldubber, and quit his throne.'

All the chiefs and rulers in Abyssinia are subject to making false oaths as well as the lower class, and false witnesses may be purchased for a trifle, who will perjure themselves in the most solemn manner: when accused of it by Pearce, they said the father confessor would forgive them for half the value they got for the oath. It is a common thing in Abyssinia to change from Musselmen to Christians, and vice versa, as there is no punishment for it on either side. They live intermixed in small towns or villages, but will not taste of each others food. There are various kinds of complaints in Abyssinia, which they say are caused by the devil. One of these, called the tegretier, is thus described by Pearce, with all the characteristic bluntness and superstition of an English sailor :

'Her friends had hired as many trumpeters and drummers who go about the country for the purpose, as they thought sufficient; and early in the morning of the day appointed, they loaded her neck, arms, and legs, with silver ornaments, and dressed her with a dress which the great men wear at reviews after battle, which the owners readily lend on such an occasion. After she was sufficiently dressed, she was taken to a plain appointed by herself, about a mile from the town, where hundreds of boys, girls, and men and women of low class follow. Her friends and relations take a great many large jars of maize and swoir for them to drink; I had often seen people go out of the town for the same purpose, but would not for shame follow to see them. However, for the sake of curiosity, I was determined to see the last of this, and waited until they came; a cradle was placed in the middle of the spot covered with a carpet, and a great many large jars of maize were placed round it. As soon as she came near, she began to dance, and the trumpeters all began to play in two parties; when one party were tired, the other relieved them, so that the noise constantly might be heard; the drink being continually served out by her friends to all, kept them singing and shouting; she still dancing and jumping sometimes four or five feet from the ground, and every now and then she would take off an ornament and throw it down. Some one being appointed to take care they might not be lost, picked them up, and put them into a basket. She kept on jumping and dancing in this manner without the least appearance of ornament, and as soon as the sun disappeared, she started; being tired, until nearly) sun-set, when she dropped the last and, I am perfectly sure, that for as good as four hundred yards, when she dropped as if dead, the fastest running man in the world could not have come up with her. The fastest running young man that can be found is employed by her friends to run after her with a matchlock well loaded, so as to 'A complaint, called the tegretier, both in Tegri and Am-her, but before she has run the distance where she drops as if make a good report; at the moment she starts, he starts with merrer, which is not so freqnent among men as women, is for dead, he is left half way behind; as soon as he comes up to a certainty very surprising; and I think the devil must have her, he fires right over her body, and asks her name, which she some hand in it. It is very common among them, and when then pronounces, although during the time of her complaint, I have been told in what manner they acted I would never she denies her Christian name, and detests all priests or believe it until it came to my own wife's chance, who had churches. Her friends afterwards take her to church, where lived with me five years. At the first appearance of this com- she is washed with holy water, and is thus cured.' plaint, she was five or six days very ill, and her speech so much altered that I could scarcely understand her. Her friends and relations who came to visit her, told me that her complaint was the tegretier, which, from what I had heard, frightened me, and I would at the instant have turned her away, only for fear they might think me a brute for turning away my wife when afflicted with sickness. Her parents, however, persuaded me to bear it with patience, and say nothing, for if I were to be angry it would cause her death, and that they would cure her as all others were cured in this country. After the first five or six days' sickness, she began to be continually hungry, and would eat five or six times in the night, never slept, and in the day time she would go about, followed by some of her parents, to all her neighbours, borrowing rings and other ornaments for her neck, arms, and legs. I did not like the thing at all; but for the sake of seeing the curiosity, I endeavoured to hold my tongue and be patient. Her speech I could scarcely understand at all; and she, like all others troubled with this complaint, called a man she and a woman he. One day, she called unto me in the presence of her friends after the manner of calling a woman, which vexed me so much that I swore she should not stop in the house. But the moment she saw me in a passion she fell as if in a fit, and I can assure you that I saw the blood run from her eyes as if they had been pricked with a lance.'

The country is generally wholsesome, but the small-pox sometimes makes great havoc. Inoculation is practised by inaking a cross with a razor in the lower joint of the right arm, a little above the wrist, into which the matter is introduced, and the arm bound up with a rag; the person who performs the operation receiving a piece of salt from each child as payment.

Every one has as many wives as he likes, and turns away and takes as he likes. If any man wishes to marry a girl he may take a liking to, he gives two pièces of cloth of the value of about five dollars, the one to make her a shirt and the other a dress over it. These are delivered to the father or mother, who in return barter their child like a slave, without the slightest regard to disparity of age. Sometimes men of seventy marry girls not more than eight or nine years old. Some girls have children at thirteen or fourteen. The only marriage done before witnesses, is when the son of a chief, or any great person takes the daughter of a person of the same rank.

day to settle the marriage, so as to give plenty of time to all They, in general, three or four months before, appoint a friends who choose to make presents, which is common on

both sides to give them. On the day appointed, they all meet at the house of the girl's parents, where they in general build a large das, as it is called, for the purpose. This das is as large as a very large barn, staked and hedged on all sides, in a long square form, about eight feet high: the top is covered with bushes. Within this the girl and her friends are all seated, the girl upon a cradle at the head of the tables, covered with heaps of bread, and cooked victuals, and each side of the das is lined with large jars of maize and swoir. The girl has a great many servants standing round her, holding their clothes, so that no one may see her. When all is ready, the young man who is to take her away, comes with all his companions, on horseback, galloping into the das, where he gets off and begins to cut his capers, jumping over his spear, and showing his activity with his shield, and boasting of what feats he had done or would do. They afterwards all sit down to eat and drink, and after the bread, &c. is cleared away by the poor, and those who come to see the wedding, the property of both sides is brought in, and the girl's father begins first to count, and throw down before all the company, who are appointed witnesses, the property agreed upon, cloths, matchlocks, &c. which is afterwards followed in an so many dollars, equal quantity by the young man's father. When all is settled and sworn to before all the witnesses, the young man mounts his horse, and, at the same time, his companions take the girl, as if by force, and place her upon the saddle of one of their mules, the owner of which jumps up behind her, holding her in his arms, with the rein of the bridle in his hand, when they all ride off together. If the bridgroom is far from his own home, he will take up lodgings on the road; if he is satisfied with his wife, he sends back to the girl's father or friends, by one of his companions a piece of white cloth, dipped in the blood of a fowl, which they kill for that purpose, a fat she-goat, and a hornful of honey, for which he who takes the present receives something in return of more value from the girl's parents. But if he is not satisfied, he sends back a poor lean goat, of which he cuts one ear close off, and a horn not half full of honey. This is the custom throughout the country.'

escape to another province, are brought before the chief, who All murderers, who are caught before they have time to sentences them death for death. The friends of the person murdered take the offender chained to the market place, where all the relations of the deceased stab him in their turns, with their knives or spears, and leave his corpse for his own relations to bury. If he has no one to bury him, the hyænas do not leave his corpse undevoured half an hour after sun-set. There are several murders forgiven by the parents or the relations of the deceased, in consequence of receiving money or cattle from the friends of the murderer; and two hundred cows will in general save the life of a murderer; excepting the friends of the deceased are very rich, and seek revenge sooner than property.'

September. Vocates of gold, (of the value of eight dol-
All taxes or tithes are brought to the king, or Ras, in
lars each,) are the proper or standing income of the king,
but he takes dollars, cloths, matchlocks, carpets, &c.
which are valued at so many vocates, and taken as such.
honey, &c. which he has levied on his subjects. In all
Every chief also brings a certain number of cows, sheep,
their battles the Abyssinians, have no order nor regula-
tion; they take no prisoners except great men, whom they
afterwards ransom.
they mutilate in a most barbarous manner, and wear inde-
licate trophies of their cruelty.
All others who fall into their hands,

very much neglected. The Garlers are a brave, and in ge-
They study nothing about trade; and agriculture is
neral true people, who will never break their oaths nor
even their word; this remark only applies to the Pagan
Garler, of Aszovo, and Carrar; but the Garlers that
are converted to Musselmen, Pearce says, are as false
true. The Garlers only make their king for seven years,
who is never chosen except out of the original family of
as the Christians. What a charge! and yet we fear it is
kings:-

their country; and they bring their cattle to the Christian
markets, to exchange for corn, clothes, &c. The lower class
'They eat very little bread, as they have no cultivation in
are always itinerant, feeding their cattle in the deserts, scarce
flesh. If by the will of God their cattle die, they eat the
ever tasting a bit of bread, and living entirely upon milk and
flesh, but not with Sut boiling it. The great people, when
feasting together, in general sit down under a large tree, when
they kill a fat bullock.
The Garler will never kill a cow,

Pearce denies that such a thing as chastity exists among the Abyssinian women, married or single, of whatever rank they may be. It is a great reproach to a woman to have two children at a birth, and many destroy their infants rather than incur the disgrace. The dress of the ladies of the highest rank, is a shirt made of fine white India cloth, with light sleeves, and ornamented with silk of different colours. Their dress over this, is a large cloth, called a murrer guf drube, with a wide silk border to it; this excepting she will not breed, as they mostly live upon milk dress is in general purchased for ten or twelve dollars. all the land with them. Before they cut the animal's throat, The middling class dress in the same manner, though the they have their drinking horns placed close at hand; and inand the Christians never kill a bullock, because they plough articles are inferior. The lower class, when they can af-mediately the blood begins to run, the first hornful is given to ford it, wear a shirt with a small cloth over it; and when the King or head man in company, which he drinks as heartily they cannot, they wear a small piece of cloth round their as if it were milk. They are then all served according to their waist, or a tanned goat's hide, just enough to cover their rank, as fast as possible, until the hot blood has done running, nakedness, and also a sheep skin upon the shoulders. The Abyssinians are polite in their manners, but de-raw, though they drink the blood. The greater sort of Garwhen they broil and eat the flesh; they do not eat the meat ceitful. No one ever passes his equal or superior without ler people drink maize, like Christians.' uncovering his breast and bowing with his head, which they return in the same manner. They have monthly clubs or meetings, seldom consisting of more than twelve persons, who are sworn to be as brothers, and, in case of necessity, to assist one another, and when one of them may die, the rest to give the priests of his parish a feast for forgiveness.' They always maintain one priest in these clubs. women also have clubs, separate from the men.

The

cles of most common use.

sures used in Abyssinia, and the prices of the several artiPearce gives a minute account of the weights and meahoney, a dollar per peck; fat cows, from two and-a-half to four dollars each; sheep, five and six; mules, from fifteen Corn is one dollar per bushel; to sixty; and horses, from thirty to one hundred and thirty dollars each; the slaves, in general boys and girls, from twenty to forty dollars, according to their make and look :

Justice is very ill administered in Abyssinia; there is no public prosecutor; the person injured must always take the offender himself, and thus many escape with impuis nity for the worst of crimes :

made like a pan-cake, and is exactly one durgo [half = 'A common servant's pay is one firgy or dollar for four months, one cake of bread morning and evening; which cake pint] of corn, before it is ground. A woman servant's wages

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