660 Report on Shoa [No. 140. 



nuisance is a crying one to the stranger. No privacy is ever enjoyed. 

 No retirement is ever suffered. A dozen naked savages are continually by 

 your side, restrained by no very correct ideas of order or discipline ; the 

 confused hum and suppressed chattering are by no means of assis- 

 tance in study or writing, and on the occurrence of meals or of the 

 visits of illustrious people, the whole establishment tumble in naked 

 to the waist to satisfy their own inordinate curiosity, and to do honor 

 to their lord and master. 



116. Visits are generally made early in the morning or before noon, 

 and it is reckoned discreditable to enter a strange house after meals, as 

 the object of the untimely advent can only be attributed to a desire of 

 obtaining the food and refreshment of which the etiquette of the country 

 enforces presentation. Sneezing is accompanied by an invocation to the 

 Trinity, and the bye-standers are expected to exclaim " moroo," God bless 

 you, and eating is invariably attended by a loud smacking of the lips, which 

 can be heard at some considerable distance from the entertainment ; 

 none but beggars eat their food in a quiet and rational manner. 



117. There is no sense of decorum evinced in the satisfying of any 

 desire, however gross, and no shame whatever is felt in exposure to 

 the gaze of the public. The toilet is unscrupulously performed in front of 

 the assembled multitude, and his Majesty himself, the most polished 

 gentleman in the kingdom, blows his nose with his fingers, and wipes 

 the soiled hand upon the robe of the nearest courtiers, who eagerly 

 proffer the cloth for his acceptance. More offensive than the Ama- 

 ponda, who carries his own little cleansing spade tied round his neck, 

 the first object is seized by an Abyssinian upon entering a strange house, 

 and ears and nostrils are scraped out with the most savage indifference 

 to appearance. All sleep stark naked, stretched upon bullock's hides, 

 huddled close together for mutual warmth, each loving batch being 

 covered with the accumulated pile of individual garment. Should the 

 master of the house require food during the night, a piece of raw meat 

 and a horn of beer are brought to him by a male or female attendant, 

 who, destitute alike of clothes and decorum, stands unconscious of all 

 shame until the craving of his hunger be satisfied ; and owing to their 

 foul feeding and their more uncleanly habit of never washing, cutane- 

 ous eruptions spread like a plague over their unsavoury persons, and few 

 indeed are free from the disgusting diseases of the beggar. 



