90 
TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA. 
blow is struck, the slices began to be cut, and are 
brought to table still warm, with the fibres quiver- 
ing ; the difference between the two travellers is 
reduced to a very narrow compass. A very slight 
want of precise observation might lead Mr Bruce 
to overlook the distinction ; not to mention the 
possibility that, in this case, as in the other, Mr 
Salt's scepticism might arise from his shorter op- 
portunities of observation. Mr Salt confirms the 
irregular conduct of the Abyssinian ladies, but not 
those open indecencies which are described by 
Bruce. It is observable, however, that the present 
Ras, according to Mr Salt's, statements, entertains 
views upon this subject quite uncommon in Abys«* 
sinia, and exacts a degree of outward decorum, to 
which the court had never before been accustomed. 
Mr Bruce, on the contrary, saw it in a state of pecu- 
liar licence, so that an actual variation in the state 
of manners at these different periods is exceedingly 
probable. The other contradictions are trifling, 
and, except the jeu d'esprit about the eclipse at 
Teawa, rest or. rather defective evidence. 
The charges connected with Mr Bruce hav- 
ing referred the head of the Egyptian Nile 
to the river of Abyssinia, instead of the larger 
stream of the Bahr el Abiad, appear to have still 
less foundation. When that traveller left Europe, all 
modern geographers and travellers, without a single 
exception, had considered the Abyssinian river t^ 
