48 MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 



the language of the turf would be called excellent 

 sport, although the chase always ends in slaughter ; 

 all the grown up persons, men and women, being 

 killed, and the children carried off and sold for 

 slaves to the Turks, who profess to admire the 

 Ethiopians because in summer they have a cold 

 skin ! 



The Galla are a shepherd race, and exceedingly 

 numerous ; their complexion is brown or black, 

 with long hair of the same colour. They are of a 

 warlike disposition, and manage their horses with 

 remarkable dexterity. Their habits and appetites 

 are filthy to a degree rare even in barbarians. Even 

 what may be termed the elegancies of their dress, 

 is of a description that must appear somewhat offen- 

 sive to our refined notions of personal decoration. 

 Round their bodies, by way of ornament, they wind 

 the entrails of oxen, which also serve as necklaces, 

 and hang in clustering festoons down tneir breast 

 or back. Their whole person is besmeared with 

 grease, which is poured so copiously on their heads, 

 that it melts, and is continually dropping on the 

 goat-skin that covers their shoulders. They devour 

 their meat raw ; and when thirsty, they open a vein 

 in the neck of a cow, and regale themselves with a 

 draught of warm blood. They practise polygamy, 

 and in their religion are partly Heathens and partly 

 Mahometans. Bruce describes them as intelligent 

 wnd active, but extremely dirty and ignorant. 



The king of Abyssinia, at the time when Bruce 

 /esided at Massuah, was named Tecla Haimanout, 



