1843.] and the Abyssinian Church. 647 



and other facts have been also witnessed which exceed in horror even 

 what has been related of the soldiers of Northern Abyssinia. On the 

 first military expedition to which the British Embassy was invited, on 

 the evening of the successful foray, the limb of a sheep was most wan- 

 tonly severed from the live animal with a sword when the wretched 

 beast refused to proceed further, and the mutilated trunk left bleeding 

 upon the ground, to be hacked piece- meal alive by any in the rear of the 

 column of savages who had no store of provender. That the flesh 

 might have been served up quivering with the life-blood is also ex- 

 tremely probable, though it might not necessarily have been taken from 

 the living beast, for the animal is invariably killed at the very door of 

 the eating house, and it takes but a short time after the breath is out 

 of the carcase to hand up the raw meat to the feast. Whatever might 

 have been the custom 80 years ago, now- a- days, the animal is invariably 

 in the first instance killed after a fashion. 



73. A rush of 10 or 12 men is made on the victim, his legs and horns 

 are seized as a purchase, he is thrown upon the ground, when the throat 

 is hacked through with a blunt knife in the name of the Holy Trinity, 

 and the poor beast is left to struggle and stagger about until the lifeblood 

 be expended ; then commences an indiscriminate onslaught of knives, 

 swords and hatchets, without the preliminary operations of skinning and 

 cleansing. Bigotted to a degree, the animal if killed by the hand of a 

 Moslem is considered in the highest degree impure, and reckoned on the 

 list of even lower esteem than the unhallowed flesh of pigs and bears, 

 geese, and wild fowl. 



74. The Abyssinian in general is too well acquainted with the value 

 of his own live-stock to urge him beyond his powers unmercifully, and 

 often performs a great portion of the journey on foot rather than 

 distress the animal to his own loss ; but his treatment of Galla prisoners, 

 and the almost certain dreadful fate which awaits any old or useless 

 male who falls into his hands, is a sufficient blot upon the Christian 

 name, without the addition of any other crime whatever. 



75. Here, as elsewhere, eating is one of the most important concerns 

 of life, and on the days of the great festivals, the palace displays all 

 the pomp remaining in the land, and the unusual sight of the population 

 somewhat aroused from their customary state of lethargic bestiality ; the 

 stair cases are lined with groups of priests and monks in their holiday 



