230 HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



crafty holds the power until he is dispossessed by another. Riippel says: 

 " The history of the last sixty years shows a complete political dissolution 

 of the country, and relates merely to the various chieftains who have 

 succeeded in attaining unlimited power in the several provinces, that 

 existed as separate states independent of each other, supplanting their 

 rivals by stratagem or boldness ; and falling in their turn by the treachery 

 of their confederates. The natural consequence of such rivalry was 

 continual civil wars, and subsequent general impoverishment. Landed 

 property has hardly any value, agriculture is almost entirely neglected, 

 and the rearing of cattle is very sensibly decreasing. On account of the 

 great insecurity, traffic is often entirely suspended. Most of the habitations 

 are small, filthy, thatched cots, surrounded by a high thorn hedge for the 

 protection of the domestic animals at night. A few of the houses only 

 have a circular stone wall, usually four feet in height, as a foundation, and 

 a solid, conical, thatched roof, resting in the middle upon a main pillar, and 

 supported besides by a circular row of wooden props. Daylight is 

 admitted only through the door. In Baharnegash, in the Kingdom of 

 Tigre, the houses have flat roofs. Some Abyssinians still live in caverns, 

 as was customary in ancient times ; or they erect walls at right angles on 

 the steep declivities of the hills, and place thereon a turf roof in such a 

 manner as to make it agree with the slope of the hill, and to give the 

 whole the appearance of a cavern. There are very few towns, and these 

 consist mostly of groups of conical thatched huts. 



The dress of the Abyssinians is simple, and consists partly of skins, in 

 part of cotton stuflTs. Short trowsers, usually wide, and a cloth thrown 

 around the shoulders, generally constitute the entire dress. Men of rank, 

 however, wear a shirt of white Indian stuff, with tight sleeves, and very 

 fine colored silk embroidery, and over it several cotton robes. Their 

 ornaments for the arms, neck, and feet, are of silver. Red slippers are 

 imported from Egypt ; black ones, however, are manufactured in the 

 country. Women are enveloped to the chin ; and the sleeves fall down to 

 the tips of the fingers. The weapons of the men are chiefly the shield and 

 lance. A curved knife sixteen inches in length, and something under two 

 in breadth, is placed in a cotton girdle, and upon the right side. In Abys- 

 sinia, moreover, as in all other countries, small variations in the dress and 

 habitations are observed. {PI. 28, Jig. 1, Abyssinian men and women ; 

 fig. 2, travellers.) 



The Fezzanians and Bisherin. 



The Fezzanians inhabit the oasis of Fezzan or Fessan, and differ as well 

 in complexion as in physiognomy, and are, therefore, probably a mixture 

 of several nations. The inhabitants of the north are white, like the Arabs; 

 at Morzouk, however, a change of color begins, and a transition is per- 

 ceived from this light hue to the darkness of mulattoes, and from the latter 

 to the black of the Fezzanians living to the south, who remind observers of 

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