THESOURCE OF THE NILE. 477 
_them from cutaneous eruptions, of which they are fo fear- 
ful, that the fmalleft pimple in any vifible part of their bo- 
dy keeps them in the houfe till it difappears: For the 
fame reafon, though they have a clean fhirt every day, they 
ufe one dipt in greafe to lie in all night, as they have no 
‘covering but this, and lie upon a bull’s hide, tanned, and 
very much foftened by this conftant greafing, and at the 
fame time very cool, though it occafions a {mel that no 
soa can free them from. 
Tue principal diet of the poorer fort is millet, made in- 
to bread or flour. The rich make a pudding of this, toaft- 
ing the flour before the fire, and pouring milk and butter 
into it; befides which, they eat beef, partly roafted and 
partly raw. ‘Their horned cattle are the largeft and fatteft 
in the. world, and are exceedingly fine; but the common 
meat fold in the market is camels flefh. The liver of the 
animal, and the fpare rib, are always eaten raw through 
the whole country. I never faw one inftance where it was 
drefied with fire: it is not then true that eating raw fleth 
is peculiar to Abyflinia ; it is practifed in this inftance of ca- 
mels flefh in all the black countries tothe weftward. 
Hoes flefh is not fold in the market; but all the people 
of Sennaar eat it publicly: men in office, who pretend to be 
Mahometans, eat theirs in fecret. The Mahometan religion 
made a very remarkable progrefs. among the Jews and 
Chriftians on the Arabian, or eaftern fide of the Red Sea, 
and foon after alfo in Egypt; but it was either received 
coolly, or not at all, by the Pagans on the weft fide, unlefs 
when, after a fignal victory, it was ftrongly enforced by the 
fword of the conqueror. 
Tue 
