ABYSSINIA. 173 



the sun having now passed all Abyssinia, the rivers there are all full ; 

 and then is the time of the greatest rains in Abyssinia, while it is for 

 some daysj as it were, stationary in the tropic of Cancer. 



Immediately after the sun has passed the line, he begins the rainy 

 season to the southward, still as he approaches the zenith of each 

 place : but the situation and necessities of this country being varied, 

 the manner of promoting the inundation is changed. A high chain of 

 mountains runs from above 6 deg. south all along the middle of the con- 

 tinent towards the Cape of Good Hope, and intersects the southern 

 parts of the peninsula, nearly, in the same manner that the river Nile 

 does the northern. A strong wind from the south, stopping the pro- 

 gress of the condensed vapours, dashes them against the cold sum- 

 mits of this ridge of mountains, and forms many rivers, which escape 

 in the direction either east or west as the level presents itself. If 

 this is towards the west, they fall down the sides of the mountains 

 into the Atlantic, and if on the east, into the Indian ocean. 



Inhabitants, manners, customs. ...The Abyssinians are in general 

 tall and well made. They are of a dark olive complexion ; their fea- 

 tures are proportionate ; their eyes large, black, and sparkling ; their 

 noses rather high than flat ; their lips small ; and their teeth extremely 

 white and handsome. With respect to their disposition, they are mild 

 and docile, and in their general conduct sober and temperate. 



The dress of persons of quality is a long fine vest, either of silk or 

 cotton, tied about the middle with a rich scarf. The common people 

 have only a pair of cotton drawers, and a kind of scarf, or piece of the 

 same linen with which they cover the rest of the body. The habit of 

 women of the superior class consists of the richest silks, ornamented, 

 according to their rank, with trinkets and jewels, images, and relics 

 of various kinds. Women in general are allowed to appear in public, 

 and to converse freely with the men, without any of those restrictions 

 to which the Turkish women are commonly subject. The women of 

 superior condition are not very guarded in iheir conduct, but those of 

 inferior rank are more faithful to their husbands ; and they also wil- 

 lingly submit to the meaner and more laborious offices of domestic 

 life. It is their business to grind corn for the family, which they per- 

 form daily, by means of hand-mills. 



Although we read in the accounts of the Jesuits, says Mr. Bruce, a 

 great deal about marriage and polygamy, yet there is nothing which 

 may be averred more truly than that there is no such thing as marriage 

 in Abyssinia, unless it be that which is contracted by mutual consent, 

 without other form, subsisting only till it is dissolved, by dissent of 

 one or the other, and to be renewed or repeated as often as it is agree- 

 able to both parties. There is no such distinction as legitimate and 

 illegitimate children, from the king to the beggar. Their funerals are 

 attended with many superstitious ceremonies : the relations, friends, 

 and a number of hired mourners bewail the dead for many days to- 

 gether, with loud shrieks and lamentations ; and the women make 

 wounds in their faces with their nails. 



The Abyssinians neither eat nor drink with strangers ; and they 

 break or purify every vessel which has been used by them. They eat 

 raw flesh, and even cut it from the living animal, according to Mr. 

 Bruce, who tells us that, in the neighbourhood of Axum, he met with 

 some travellers who were driving a cow before them. He afterwards 

 found that they cut steaks from the higher part of the buttock : they 

 then closed the wound by drawing the skin over it, and applied to it a 



