292 TRAVELS TO: DISCOVER: 
Tue: Abyfiinians neither. eat nor drink: with -ftrangers, , 
though,they have no reafon for this ; and.it is now a mere 
prejudice, becaufe the old occafion for:this regulation‘istott. 
They, break, or purify, however, every: veffel a ftranger of. 
any kind-fhall have-ate-or drank in., The cuttom then is. 
copied.from the Egyptians, and they have preferved it, tho’ 
the Egyptian -reafon does no longer hold... 
Some hiftorians fay, the Egyptian. women: anciently. en-- 
joyed a full liberty of intercourfe with the males; which: 
was not the cafe in the generality of. eaftern’ nations ; and! 
we muft, therefore, think it was-derived from Abyflinia; for 
there the women live, as it were, in common, and their en-. 
joyments and gratification have. no other bounds but their — 
own will. They, however, pretend to have a principle, that, | 
‘if they marry, they fhould.be.wives of one hufband; and yet: 
this principle does-not bind, but, like moft of the other du-. 
ties, ferves to reafon upon, and to laugh at, in converfation. . 
Herodotus tells it was the fame. with the Papen ths 5; 
Tue Egyptians made no account of the mother what her- 
ftate was; if the father was free, the child-followed the con, 
dition of the father... This-is ftri@tly fo-im Abytflinia. The- 
king’s. child by a-negro-flave, bought with-money, or taken: 
in war, is as near im fucceeding ‘to the crown, as any one- 
of twenty children that he has older than that one, and: 
born of the nobleft: women of the country.. 
THE: 
® Herodot. p. 121, fect. g2« 
