TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA. 
89 
notice of those very warm discussions that have 
arisen relative to the authenticity of his narrative. 
There exists in all common readers an unwillingness 
to believe whatever passes the limits of their ordi- 
nary observations. The strange and uncouth man- 
ners described by our traveller, the bloody feasts of 
the Abyssinians, the savage wildness of the Galla, 
appeared to such persons altogether incredible. So 
short is the memory of the reading public, as to 
make it be wholly forgotten, that all former travellers 
in Abyssinia, who were numerous, had uniformly 
described the very same things. That the judgment 
pronounced by such readers was rash, seems now 
pretty generally admitted. Good materials of judg- 
ing upon the question have been furnished by Mr 
Salt, whose cool good sense, and strict veracity, 
make him form an excellent check to the rapid ima- 
gination and etourderie of his precursor. The fol- 
lowing are the chief points of discrepancy : 
Mr Salt, in his first narrative, denies the cutting of 
flesh from the living animal ; but in the second, he 
very candidly admits, that the observations of a fel- 
low traveller proved this savage practice to exist, 
and to be distinguished by a peculiar name, that of 
cutting the shulada. But Mr Salt still disputes 
the statement of Bruce, that the animal is alive 
when the brinde, or raw flesh, is cut out. As he 
admits, however, that it is brought as close as pos- 
sible to the place ; that the moment the mortal 
