160 NORTH-EAST AFRICA. 



Administration of Justice. 



As the Abyssinian sovereigns are theoretically autocrats, so the governors of 

 provinces, landholders, and the shum or " chiefs " of each village, have also the 

 right to do as they please, being responsible only to their superiors. Nevertheless 

 there is a code of laws, the " King's Guide," attributed to Constantine, and which 

 certainly dates from the period when Byzantine influence preponderated in the 

 Eastern world. According to this code, which contains many ordinances of the 

 Pentateuch and extracts from the laws of Justinian, the father has the right of life 

 or death over his children, as the king has over his subjects. The rebellion of the 

 son against the father, or of the vassal against his lord, is punished by blinding or 

 death ; the blasphemer or liar, taking the name of God or of the king in vain, is 

 punished with the loss of his tongue ; the thief loses his right hand ; the assassin 

 is delivered up to the family of the murdered man and killed in the same way as 

 he disposed of his victim, but if the crime was involuntary, blood-money must be 

 accepted. The amputated limbs of prisoners are always baked under their eyes 

 and returned to them steeped in butter, so that they can preserve them to be buried 

 with the rest of the body, and thus rise unmutilated on the last day. Smoking is 

 forbidden, " because tobacco originated in the tomb of Arius," and fanatic chiefs 

 have caused the lips of transgressors to be cut off. Chiefs rarely condemn anyone 

 to prison, which consists of a chain with a strong ring at each end, one being fixed 

 to the prisoner's right wrist, the other to the left hand of his gaoler, who thus 

 becomes a captive himself ; accordingly he strives promptly to get rid of his 

 unwelcome companion either by a compromise or by an absolute judgment. When 

 one Abyssinian wishes to complain of another, he attaches his toga to that of his 

 adversary, who cannot get released without pleading guilty. He must follow his 

 accuser before the judge, and, both imcovering the back and shoulders so as to 

 await the blows which will fall upon one or the other, beg for the magistrate's 

 decision. Each conducts his own defence, as it is thought disgraceful to employ a 

 third person to plead, the title of lawyer being considered an insult. The 

 Abyssinians often appeal to a child to judge between them : being himself innocent, 

 the child is held as the best judge of good and evil. After having gravely listened 

 to the suitors and the witnesses, he pronounces sentence, which all receive with 

 the greatest deference, and which is occasionally accepted as a definite judgment 

 between the parties. 



Slavery. 



Slavery still exists in Abyssinia, but it affects the blacks alone, who constitute 

 but a small portion of the population. The master has not the right of life and 

 death over his slave, and would even be liable to capital punishment by selling him. 

 After some years' service the slave usually receives his liberty, together with 

 sufficient implements and money necessary for his support. On becoming a freed- 

 man he increases the importance of his former master. Before their enforced 

 conversion all the traffic in human flesh was carried on by the Mussulmans. Like 



