296 CHELICUT. 
induced to adopt, notwithstanding its being general throughout 
the country. The animal, after this barbarous operation, walked 
somewhat lame, but nevertheless managed to reach the camp 
without any apparent injury, and, immediately after their arrival, 
it was killed by the Worari and consumed for their supper. 
This practice of cutting out the shulada in cases of extreme 
necessity, is said very rarely to occur; but the fact of its being 
occasionally adopted, was certainly placed beyond all doubt, 
by the testimony of many persons, who declared that they had, 
likewise, witnessed it, particularly among the Lasta troops. I 
certainly should not have dwelt so long, or so minutely, on this 
disgusting transaction, which even the distresses of a soldier 
cannot warrant,"" had I not deemed it especially due to the 
character of Mr. Bruce, to give a faithful account of this particular 
occurrence, since I have found myself under the necessity of 
noticing, on several other occasions, his unfortunate deviations 
from the truth.* I may here mention, that the Abyssinians are, 
in general, very expert in the dissection of a cow, a circumstance 
owing to the necessity of a very exact division of the several 
parts among the numerous claimants, who are entitled to 
a certain portion of every animal that is killed ; and I have also 
to add, that whenever I subsequently mentioned the word 
shulada to an Abyssinian, I was uniformly understood. 
* The greatest objection against Mr. Bruce's story appears to be the barbarity of the 
action, but I am, at this moment, intimately acquainted with two gentlemen who per- 
sonally witnessed the fact, in England, of a butcher's boy dragging along the grass a 
Newfoundland dog, which he had previously skinned, down to a river side, (while the 
animal was yet alive,) for the purpose of drowning it, with a degree of indifference that 
$0XL\i have scarcely been expected from the rudest barbarian, 
