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CHAPTER XIII. 



Custom of giving Memolagee. — Sugar boiling. — Success — Gratify 

 the Negoos. — Receive house. — Claims of kindred. — Remarks 

 upon intestate property.' — The two brothers of late owner. — 

 Removal to new residence. 



A custom exists in every Abyssinian court, which 

 requires that no one shall go empty handed into 

 the presence of royalty. Every visitor to the 

 Negoos of Shoa in this manner brings with him 

 some present, which, after having been registered 

 by an officer appointed for that purpose, is de- 

 posited at the feet of the monarch. In return, 

 it is expected that some request on the part of the 

 inferior is to be graciously acceded to, and if 

 what is asserted be true, the Negoos is obliged by 

 the law of custom to consent to whatever is asked, 

 should he accept, in the first instance, the proffered 

 gift. A monstrous exaggeration of this system of 

 presenting gifts, to be returned by some greater 

 amount of property, is, at all events, practised very 

 considerably, by the Abyssinians, upon ignorant 

 strangers, for the custom is not confined to an 

 interchange of favours with royalty, but is general 

 also among all classes. I have myself frequently 



