634 Report on Shoa [No. 140. 



women on the eightieth, when it is christened after the Abyssinian 

 ritual. TKe right of bestowing the name upon the boy belongs to 

 the father, whilst the mother exclusively chooses one for her daughter. 

 A grand entertainment to the priests finishes the ceremony, and the 

 bearers of the infant to the church are considered its Godfathers 

 and Godmothers, and are expected to treat the child with all affection 

 during the scenes of after-life. 



28. Invariably it is carried tied up in a bag at the mother's back 

 until it can walk; the cramped confinement seemingly produces no 

 evil result upon the symmetry of the child, and the extra burden inter- 

 feres but lightly with the severe labour which in this country is the lot 

 of the hard- worked female. 



29. Education is at a very low ebb indeed, and those children 

 are alone instructed in the rudiments of learning, who are intended 

 for the service of the Church, or for the priestly office. The five 

 churches of Ankobar have each their small quota of scholars, but 

 the amount altogether does not reach 80 out of a population in the 

 capital of 8,000; the remainder run loose and disorderly like wild 

 colts, until the season arrives when they are caught to be employed 

 in drudgery. 



30. After the age of 5 or 6, they are employed as servants, and 

 set to work in the fields, and to fetch wood and water for the family, 

 and the greater part at the age of 12 or 14 forsake the paternal 

 residence to seek a livelihood in the service of the king or the great 

 men, and as their pittance is but scanty, they can save nought from 

 their wages, and are thus forced to remain in servitude during the 

 residue of their existence. The favorite son remains with his father ; 

 begins to have some authority in the management of affairs about the 

 age of 15 ; then chooses for himself a wife, and engages in the usual 

 avocations of tilling the ground, repairing the house, and attending 

 the king's military expeditions. 



3 1 . A girl is reckoned, according to the value of her property ; and 

 the heiress of a house, a field, and a bedstead is certain to add a 

 husband to her list before many suns have shone over her head. In 

 Shoa, marriage is generally concluded by the parties declaring before 

 witnesses, that by the life of the king, they intend to live happily together, 

 and the property of each being produced is carefully valued. A mule 



