THE SOURGE;OF(THE NILE, 303 
wipe his fingers upon ; and afterwards the fervant, for bread 
to his dinner. 
Two or three fervants then come, each with a fquare 
piece of beef in their bare hands, laying it upon the cakes 
of tefl, placed like difhes down the table, without cloth or 
any thing elfe beneath them. By this time all the guefts 
have knives in their hands, and their men have the large 
crooked ones, which they put to all forts of ufes during the 
time of war.. The women have fmall clafped knives, fuch 
_ as the worft of the kind made at Birmingham, fold for a. 
penny each. _ 
THE company are fo ranged that one man fits between 
two women; the man with his long knife cuts a thin piece,. 
which would be thought a good beef-fteak in England,_ 
while you fee the motion of the fibres yet perfectly difting, 
and alive in the flefh. Noman in Abyflinia, of any fafhion. 
whatever, feeds himfelf, or touches his own meat. The 
women take the fteak and cut it length-ways like ftrings, 
about the thicknefs of yourJittle finger, then crofsways into 
f{quare pieces, fomething fmaller than dice. This they lay 
upon a piece of the teff bread, ftrongly powdered with black. 
pepper, or Cayenne pepper, and foflile-falt, they then wrap 
it up in the teff bread like a cartridge.. 
In the mean time, the man having put up his knife, with 
each hand refting upon his neighbour’s knee, his body 
ftooping, his head low and forward, and mouth open very 
like an idiot, turns to the one whofe cartridge is firft ready, 
who ftuffs the whole of it into his mouth, which is fo full 
that he is in conftant danger of being choked. This is a 
ene mark. 
