302 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
call the dew-lap in England, is cut only fo deep as to.ar- 
rive at the fat, of which it totally confifts, and, by the fepa- 
ration, of afew {mall blood-veffels, fix or feven drops: of 
blood only fall upon the ground. They have no ftone, 
bench, nor altar upon which thefe cruel affaflins lay the a- 
nimal’s head in this operation. I fhould beg his pardon. in- 
deed for calling him an aflaffin, as he is not fo merciful as 
to aim at the life, but, on the contrary, to keep the beaft alive 
till he be totally eat up. Having fatisfied the Mofaical law, 
according to his conception, by pouring thefe fix or feven 
drops upon the ground, two or more of them fall to work; 
on the back of the beaft, and on each fide of the fpine 
they cut fkin-deep; then putting their fingers between the 
flefh and the fkin, they begin to ftrip the hide of the animal 
half way down his ribs, and fo on to the buttock, cutting 
the {kin wherever it hinders them commeodioutfly ‘to: {trip 
the poor animal bare. All the flefh on the buttocks is cut 
off then, and in folid, fquare pieces, without bones, or much 
effufion of blood; andthe prodigious noife the animal 
makes is a fignal for the company to fit down to table. 
Tuere are then laid before every gueft, inflead of plates» 
round cakes, if I may fo call them, about twice as big asa 
a pan-cake, and fomething thicker and tougher. It 1s un- 
leavened bread of a fourifh tafte, far from being difagreea- 
ble, and very eafily digefted, made of a grain called teff. It 
is of different colours, from black to the colour of the whi- 
teft wheat-bread. Three or four of thefe cakes are generally 
put uppermoft, for the food of the perfon oppofite to whofe 
featthey are placed. Beneath thefe are four or five of ordi- 
nary bread, and of a blackifh kind. Thefe ferve the mafter to 
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