156 Of the Checks to Population in Bk. i. 



no such thing as barrenness known among them.* 

 In Dixan, one of the frontier towns of Abyssinia, 

 the only trade is that of selling children. Five 

 hundred are exported annually to Arabia; and in 

 times of scarcity, Bruce observes, four times that 

 number/}" 



In Abyssinia polygamy does not regularly pre- 

 vail. Bruce, indeed, makes rather a strange as- 

 sertion on this subject; and says that, though we 

 read from the Jesuits a great deal about marriage 

 and polygamy, yet that there is nothing which 

 may be averred more truly than that there is no 

 such thing as marriage in Abyssinia.^ But, how- 

 ever this may be, it appears clear that few or no 

 women lead a life of celibacy in that country; and 

 that the prolific powers of nature are nearly all 

 called into action, except so far as they are 

 checked by promiscuous intercourse. This, how- 

 ever, from the state of manners described by 

 Bruce, must operate very powerfully.^ 



The check to population from war appears to 

 be excessive. For the last four hundred years, 

 according to Bruce, it has never ceased to lay 

 desolate this unhappy country; [| and the savage 

 manner in which it is carried on surrounds it with 

 tenfold destruction. When Bruce first entered 

 Abyssinia, he saw on every side ruined villages 



* Bruce, vol. iii. c. xix. p. 739. 



t Id. c. iii. p. 88. 



X Id. c. xi. p. 306. 



§ Id. p. 292. 



II Id. vol. iv. p. 119. 



