676 Report on Shoa [No. 140. 



was renewed without any better effect, and the smiths stood aghast at 

 the enchanted bar which would not become heated. 



162. The large forge bellows of the Embassy was produced, and a 

 sufficient blast being obtained, the assembly were ordered to don all 

 their paper preservatives and stand round the anvil, the sparks now flew 

 under the brawny arm of the European, and the job was forthwith complet- 

 ed, to the utter dismay of the Abyssinian magicians, who came privately 

 to request, that no further public performance of the sort might hence- 

 forth take place, as their name and glory would entirely depart from 

 the land. 



163. Sickness and misfortune are attributed to the effects of the evil 

 eye of the Bondak. Long consultations are held to discover the person 

 whose sinister look has imparted the calamity, and when the suspicions 

 have gradually settled into conviction, the most implacable hatred is ever 

 afterwards entertained towards the dreaded personage, and although 

 concealed under the guise of indifference, which the savage can so suc- 

 cessfully assume, yet the opportunity of revenge is never lost sight of, 

 and the sweet morsel is obtained in some underhand dealing of after-life. 

 Dedjmateh Harloo, the father of the Dedjmateh-ou-lie, added much to his 

 notoriety by the extermination of all the Bondaks he could lay hands upon. 

 Superstition exulted in a reeking hecatomb of human victims, and the love 

 and veneration of his subjects knew no bounds on his last summary act 

 of collecting together, and roasting to death 1300 of these miserable 

 wretches, who were supposed to possess the influence of the evil eye. 



164. The Abyssinian contrives to fill up his craving stomach, and in 

 general possesses a sufficiency of covering to preserve him, after his 

 fashion, from the inclemency of the weather. The climate is indifferently 

 good, and the earth yields her treasures without much fatigue or bodily 

 exertion, but the food is not of the best description, the style of life and 

 habitation most uncomfortable, and all combine to engender the seeds 

 of disease and death, and to reduce the limit of existence to less 

 than three score years and ten. 



165. Elephantiasis is known in its most loathsome forms. Ophthalmia 

 seems to be common, and syphilis is met with in some shape or other 

 on every second individual. Leprosy is rife among the community, and 

 the mountainous nature of the country renders the atmosphere suffi- 

 ciently damp and cold for the location of rheumatism and catarrh; 



