1868.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Societg. 285 



it is not plaited as amongst the Abyssinians of Tigre and Amhara, 

 though it is just as liberally plastered with butter or fat. Their 

 weapons are straight swords, spears and shields. 



Their houses are the same hemispherical mat huts as those men- 

 tioned before. Far more conspicuous, however, are their tombs, which 

 are quite different from any others in A byssinia, and consist of round 

 heaps of stones, 20 feet or more in diameter, placed generally on the 

 top of a rise, and covered at the top by fragments of quartz. These 

 white tumuli are the most conspicuous objects in the Anseba valley. 

 A few are not covered over with white stones ; these we learned were 

 the tombs of men who had been killed, but whose deaths had not been 

 avenged, the law of blood for blood being strictly carried out. The 

 lex talionis is of this nature. If a man has been killed by another, no 

 matter how, whether the man killed was amusing himself by carry- 

 ing off the other's cattle, whether he was killed accidentally or 

 intentionally, is all the same ; the murderer may offer to atone for the 

 offence by paying the relatives of the dead man a certain fixed 

 number of cows ; the exact number depending upon whether the man 

 killed was a chief or a commoner. I forget the exact number, but it 

 is rigorously fixed. If this be accepted, it is well, but if not, or if, 

 as is far more frequently the case, no atonement is offered, the rela- 

 tives of the murdered man up to the 7th degree, are bound to kill in 

 turn the murderer or one of his relatives also to the 7th degree, women 

 and children, however, being excepted. These blood-feuds are gener- 

 ally between families indifferent tribes, occasionally, however, between 

 families in the same tribe, but they frequently lead to petty wars, and 

 some of the tribes have suffered greatly in consequence, for the feud 

 frequently continues until one family or tribe has lost so many of its 

 members, that there is no hope of avenging the deaths of all, then 

 an arrangement is made and sealed by intermarriage. Many other 

 of the customs of these people are very curious, such as that of sub- 

 mitting disputes to arbitration. There can be no question of their be- 

 ing of a totally different stock from the Abyssinians of the highlands, 

 their features are quite of another cast, and their houses are as distinct 

 as their manners and customs. They have been described by Mr. 

 Munzinger in two works " Sitten und Rechte derBogos" and " Nord- 

 ostafrikanische Skizzen ;" but the works seem to be but little known, 



