90 GRAND CAIRO. 
CHAP. Our next inquiry related to the long-disputed 
« ,— — ' fact, of a practice among the Ahyssinians of 
BrucX ° cutting from a live animal slices of its flesh, as 
t?o'!iTcon"- ^'^ article of food, without putting it to death. 
filmed. rpj^-g jQ^uce affirms that he witnessed, in his 
journey from Massuah to Axum \ The j4byssinian, 
answering, informed us, that the soldiers of the 
country, during their marauding excursions, some- 
times maim coius after this manner ; taking slices 
from their bodies, as a favourite article of food, 
without putting them to death at the time : and that 
during the banquets of the jibyssinians, raiv meat, 
esteemed delicious throughout the country, is fre- 
quently taken from an ox or a coiv, in such a state 
that the fibres are in motion ; and that the attendants 
continue to cut slices until the animal dies. This 
answer exactly corresponds with Bruce s Narra- 
tive : he expressly states that the persons whom 
he saw were soldiers'^, and the animal a cow". 
Such a coincidence could hardly have happened, 
(1) Bruce' s Travels, vol. HI. p. 142. Edlnh. 1790. " When I first 
mentioned this in England, I was told by my friends it was not be- 
lieved. I asked the reason of this disbelief, and was answered, that 
people who had never been out of their own country, and others well 
acquainted with the manners of the world, for they had travelled as 
far as France, had agreed the thing was impossible; and therefore it 
was so." Ibid. p. 14-1. 
(2) truce's Travels, ibid. p. 142. » 
(3) Ibid. 
