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ACLKOUNT. OF BOOKS. 
fafe at home, and the fpear and 
fhield is hung up in the hall, a 
number of people of the beft fathi- 
on in the villages of both fexes, 
courtiers in the palace, or citizens 
in the town, meet together to dine 
between twelve and one o’clock. 
<< Along table is fet inthe middle 
of a large room, and benches be- 
fide it ror a number of guefts who 
are invited. Tables and benches 
the Portuguefe introduced amongtt 
them: but bull-hides fpread upon 
the ground ferved them before, as 
they do in the camp and country 
now. A cow or bull, one or more 
as the company is numerous, is 
~ brought clofe to the door, and his 
feet ftrongly tied. The dewlap is 
cut only fo deep as to arrive at the 
fat, of which it totally confilts; and, 
by the feparation of a few {mall 
blood veffels, fix or feven drops of 
blood only fall upon the ground. 
« Having fatisfied the Mofaical 
Law, according to his conception, 
by pouring theie fix or feven drops 
upon the ground, two or more of 
them fall to work on the back of the 
beaft, and each fide of the {pine they 
cut fkin deep; t’s2n putting their 
fingers between the flefh and the 
fkin, they begin to {trip the hide of 
the animal half way down his ribs, 
and fo on to the buttock, cutting 
the fkin where-ever it hinders them 
commodionfly to firip the poor ani- 
ma] bare. All the fleih on the but- 
tocks is cut off thus; and in folid 
fquare pieces, without bones or 
much effufion of blood; and the 
rodigious noife the animal makes 
is a fignal for the company to fit 
down to table. 
«There are then laid beforeevery 
gueit, inftead of plates, round cakes, 
if 1 may fo calf them, about twice 
as big as a pancake, and fomething 
17% 
thicker and tougher. It is unlea- 
vened bread of a fourifh tafte, far 
from being difagreeable, and very 
eafily digefted, made of a grain 
called tef. It is of different co- 
lours, from black to the colour of 
the whiteft wheat bread. Three or 
four of thefe cakes are generally 
put uppermoft for the food of the 
perfon oppofite to whofe feat they 
are placed. Beneath thefe are four 
or five of ordinary bread, and of a 
blackifh kind. Thefe ferve the 
matter to wipe his fingers’ upon, 
and afterwards the fervant for bread 
to his dinner. 
«Twoorthree fervantsthen come; 
each with a fquare piece of beef on 
their bare hands,/aying it upon the 
cakes of teff, placed like dithes 
down the table, without cloth or 
any thing clfe beneath them. By 
this time all the guefts have knives 
in their hands, and the men have 
the large crooked ones, which they 
put to all forts of ufes during the 
times of war. The women have 
{mall clafp knives, fuch as the worft 
of the kind made at Birmingham, 
fold for a pemmy each. 
«« The company are fo ranged, that 
one man fits between two women; 
the man with his long knife cuts a 
thin piece, which would be thoughe 
a good beef-ftake in England, while 
you fee the motion of the fibres yet 
perfectly diftinét and alive in the 
iicfh. No man in Abyfiinia, of any 
fafhion whatever, feeds himfelf, or 
touches his own meat. The wo- 
men take the fteak, and cut it 
lengthways like ftrings, about the 
thicknefs of your little finger, then 
crofsways into fquare pieces fome- 
thing fmaller than dice. This they 
lay upon a piece of teff bread, 
fiongly powdered with black pep- 
per, or Cayenne pepper, and foflile 
falt ; 
