652 Report on Shoa [No. 140. 



that the time may be hastened when nations shall be knit together in 

 the bonds of love, and when true Christianity shall reign triumphant in 

 every heart. 



92. On the close of the foray, each follower who has slain a male 

 creature ; — murdered would be the proper expression, for the grey hairs 

 of venerable age and the tottering step of smiling infancy prove no safe- 

 guard to the ruffian monster ; — proceeds to mutilate the body, and carries 

 off the token of his crime carefully preserved in the bloody folds of his 

 waist cloth. The disgusting trophy after being prepared over the fire 

 is hung dangling to the right wrist, and on the following day, each in 

 his turn presents himself before the approving monarch, who halts at 

 intervals at the time of march for the purpose of witnessing the foul 

 exhibition. Group after group, dash in from the flocks, resounding their 

 war song in chorus, and whilst brandishing their spears and their vile 

 trophies, the lying murderers shout their prowess aloud : — " I have des- 

 troyed my enemy in the open plain, I have rushed upon the foe, and 

 slain him in the wood. I am the king's great soldier, may Sabela Se- 

 lassie live for ever." After the savage Christian has fully displayed his 

 wanton cruelty he sinks prostrate to the ground, and by his mean 

 grovelling subserviency, fills up the full measure of Abyssinian iniquity.* 



93. All proclamations are made after beat of drum by the king's 

 heralds on the outside of the palace gateway, the removals and appoint- 

 ments of governors, the promulgation of religious doctrines, and His 

 Majesty's commands on all general subjects ; but the order of assemblage 

 for the military expeditions issues forth in pithy language from below 

 a small stunted tree at the foot of the palace hill of Angollala. 



94. " The king hath foes and is about to subdue them on a certain day, 

 who fails to present himself at Zallo, armed and carrying provisions for 

 the specified time shall be treated as an enemy, and shall forfeit his pro- 

 perty during a period of seven years." The penalty, however seldom 

 requires enforcement, all the Amhara respond to the call with the ut- 



* This horrible custom if not borrowed from the Jews, is probably of Galla origin, 

 and is early mentioned as being practised on the coast of Africa, vide De Bry, 1599, 

 De Caffrorium militio. " Victores, victis caesis et captis pudenda excidunt quae exsic- 

 ata, regi in reliquorum procerum presentis offerunt." This is a very ancient Afri- 

 can custom. It is represented on the walls of the temples and tombs in Egypt. See 

 the French Institute's " Description de L'Egypt."— Eds. 



