THE ABYSSINIANS. 77 
ments were, and how pretty and intricate were the designs. 
They also had a few bracelets and pins of European 
manufacture, and a handsome Geneva watch which they 
had procured from a Frenchman in Shoa. Their eyebrows 
had been removed, and in their place crescents tattooed in 
blue ink were substituted. It was their custom also to 
stain their gums a deep indigo blue. Like the men, they 
did their hair up in a series of puffs, running back- 
ward from the forehead, and smeared it hberally with 
butter. 
The ladies were great flirts,and appeared highly amused 
at some toys [showed them. When it came to little naked 
porcelain dolls, they behaved indeed most scandalously. 
The old general would insist upon our drinking much 
darde, which is a wine made from durrha and honey, — 
not very intoxicating unless you drink enormous quantities 
of it, and which, in its white, milky color and rather sour 
taste, resembles the Mexican pulque. Dishes of chuko, 
or ground durrha meal, baked in butter and thoroughly 
browned, and seasoned with pepper and salt, were also 
placed before us to be eaten with our fingers. It is the 
custom of the Abyssinians to hide their faces under their 
cloaks when they are eating or drinking, so that, when the 
old general wished to take a drink from his glass bottle 
containing darde, one of his slave boys held a cloak 
before his face. Meat is eaten raw, and usually imme- 
diately after the animal is killed. It is very amusing to 
see crowds of Abyssinians about the carcass of a freshly 
killed animal, cutting off huge pieces of the quivering 
flesh, and then passing away to gorge themselves, far from 
the view of their comrades. 
The Abyssinians are a fine-looking race of men, of the 
average size of Europeans, not burly like the negro, but 
very strong and wiry. Their color varies all the way from 
