4 o A B Y 
The prodigious number of criminals executed for high 
treafon, vvhofe bodies are cut in pieces and thrown about 
the ftreets, invite the hyaenas to the capital, in the fame 
manner that the carrion of the camp invites tire birds of 
prey.to follow it. The method of keeping oft' thefe vo¬ 
racious animals is certainly very curious. “ An officer 
(fays Mr. Bruce) called Serac/i Majfery, with along whip, 
begins cracking and making a noife worfe than twenty 
French poftilions, at the door of the palace before the 
dawn of day. This chafes away the hyaenas and other 
wild beafts; this too is the fignal for the king’s riling, 
who fits in judgment every morning faffing; and after 
that, about eight o’clock, he goes to breakfaft.” 
With regard to the ferocious manners of the Abyffinians, 
they are accounted for by Mr. Bruce very naturally Their 
continual, warfare inures them to blood from their infancy; 
fo that even children would not have the leaf; fcruple at 
killing one another, or grown up perfons, if they were 
able. Many (hocking inftances of hardnefs of heart are 
related of them. Their cruelty difplays itfelf abundantly 
in the punifhments inflicted upon criminals, one of which 
is fleaing alive. Cutting in pieces with a fab re is another; 
and this is performed, not by executioners, whofe employ¬ 
ment is reckoned difgraceful as in this country, but by 
officers and people of quality. So little is this thought 
of in Gondar, the capital of Abyffinia, that Mr. Bruce 
happening to pafs by an officer employed in this work, who 
had three men to difpatch, the officer called to him to flop 
till he had killed them all, as he wanted to fpeak to Irina 
upon a matter of confequence. Stoning to death is a ca¬ 
pital punifhment likewile common in this country; and 
ufually inflitfed'on Roman Catholics if they happen to be 
found, or upon other heretics in religion as they term them. 
It is not to be fuppofed that people who regard the lives 
of one .another fo little, will fliow much companion to the 
brute creation. In this refpeft however, the Abyffinians 
are cruel and favage beyond all people on the face of the 
earth. There are many inftances of fitvages eating raw 
fleffi, and we call them barbarous that do fo; but what 
name ffiall we give to thofe who cut off pieces of fleffi 
from animals while ftill living, and eat it not only raw but 
fra® quivering with life! Mr. Bruce alfo fays, that this 
way of eating not raw, but living, flefli, was cuflomary 
among the nations of antiquity ; and, in Picard, we find a 
people called Antis, that inhabited the mountains of Peru, 
who after they had taken an enemy, tied him alive to a 
tree, and cut off and ate the flefli from his bones, in which 
ffate he was left to languiffi and expire. Mr. Bruce in¬ 
forms us, that when he was at no great diftance from 
Axurn, the capital of Tigre, he fell in with three of the 
natives driving a cow. They halted at a brook, threw 
down the beaft, and one of them cut a pretty large col- 
lop of flefli from its buttock; after eating which, they 
drove the cow gently on as before. In his defeription of 
their feafts he fays the animal is tied, fo that it cannot 
move : after dripping off the (kin, the flefli of the but¬ 
tocks is cut off in folid fquare pieces, without bones or 
much eftufion of blood; and the prodigious noife the ani¬ 
mal makes is a fignal for the company to fit down to table. 
Every man fits between two women, having a long knife 
in his hand. With this he cuts the flefli, while the mo¬ 
tion of its fibres is yet vifible, into pieces like dice. Thefe 
are laid upon pieces of bread made of the grain called 
tej}\ being ftrongly powdered with Cayenne pepper, and 
foffile fait. They are then rolled up like fo many car¬ 
tridges ; the men open their mouths, ftooping anti gaping 
like idiots, while the women cram them fo full of thefe 
cartridges, that they feem every moment in danger of be¬ 
ing choaked; and in proportion to the quantity their 
mouths can hold, and the noife they make in chewing, 
they are held in eftimation by the company. All this time 
the animal bleeds but little: but when the large arteries 
are cut and it expires, the flefli becomes tough; and the 
wretches who have the reft to eat, gnaw it from the bones 
like dogs! 
A C A 
This circumfiance, mentioned by Mr. Bruce, of the 
Abyffinians eating raw flefli from the ox, appears at ftrft 
view fo unnatural and difgufting, that it has induced ma¬ 
ny perfons to doubt his veracity, and even to queftion 
whether he had ever really vilited the fource of the Nile. 
Yet, we find every nation has its peculiarities with refpedt 
to food, many of which would appear inhuman, did not 
our familiarity with the cuftom take off the impreflion. 
Do not we eat raw oyfters within a fecond of their being 
feparated from the fliell ? And do we not both roaft them 
and loblters whilft alive; the barbarity of which practice 
feems almoft to equal that of the Abyffinians ? Do not 
cooks fkin eels whilft alive? And do not epicures crimp 
fiffi for the gratification of their appetites? 
That the Abyffinians eat beef in a raw ftate, is agreed 
both by Lobo and Poncet; and the former fays, reeking 
from the beaft. Mr. Antes, moreover, was told by a 
Francifcan monk, who went with the caravan from Abyf¬ 
finia to Cairo, that he was witnefs to an ox being killed, 
and immediately devoured by a band of travellers. For 
the civil, religious, and political, hiftory of this people, 
fee Ethiopia. 
ACA, Ace, or Acon, a town of Phoenicia, on the 
Mediterranean; afterwards called Ptolemaia; now Acre. 
See Acre. 
ACACALOTL,/! the Brafilian name of a bird called 
by fome corvus aquaticus, or water raven: properly, the 
pelicus carbo, or corvorant. See Pelicanus. 
ACACIA, f. inbotany. See Guilandina, Guaia- 
cum, Mimosa, Poinciana, Spartium. 
The flowers of a fpecies of the acacia are ufed by the 
Chinefe in making that yellow which we fee bears wafliing 
in their filks and fluffs, and appears with fo much elegance 
in their painting on paper. The method is this:—They 
gather the flowers before they are fully open; thefe they 
put into a clean earthen veifel over a gentle heat, and ftir 
them continually about, as they do the tea leaves, till they 
become dryifli and of a yellow colour; then to half a 
pound of the flowers they add three fpoonfuls of fair wa¬ 
ter, and after that a little more, till there is juft enough 
to hold the flowers incorporated together: they boil this 
for fome time, and the juice of-the flowers mixing with 
the water, it becomes thick and yellow; they then take it 
from the fire, and ftrain it through a piece of coarfe iilk. 
To the liquor they add half an ounce of common alum, 
and an ounce of calcined oyfter-fliells reduced to‘a fine 
powder. All is then well mixed together; and this is the 
fine lading yellow they have fo long ufed. 
Mr; GeoftVoy attributes the origin of bezoar to the feeds 
of this plant; which being broufed by certain animals, 
and vellicating the ftoniach by their great fournefs and af- 
tringency, caufe a condenfation of the juices till at length 
they become coated over with a ftony matter, which we 
call bezoar. 
Acacia False, in botany. SeePoBiNiA. 
Acacia Three-thorned, in botany. See Gledit- 
sia. 
Acacia,/! in the materia medica, the infpiffated juice 
of the unripe fruit of the Mimosa Nilotica. This 
juice is brought to 11s from Egypt, in roundilh mafhes, 
wrapt up in thin bladders. It is outwardly of a deep- 
brown colour, inclining to black; inwardly of a reddifn 
or yellowiffi brown; of a firm confidence, but not very dry. 
It foon foftens in the mouth, and difeovers a rough, but 
not difagreeable, tafte, which is followed by a fweetifh re- 
lifli. This infpiffated juice entirely diffolves in watery li¬ 
quors; but is fcarce fenfibly added on by redfifted fpirit. 
Acacia is a mild aftringent medicine. The Egyptiansgive 
it in fpitting of blood, in the quantity of a drachm, diifolved 
in any convenient liquor; they likewife employ it in col- 
lyria for (lengthening the eyes, and in gargarifins for 
quinfeys. Among us, it is little otherwife ufed than as 
an ingredient in mithridate and theriaca, and is rarely met 
with in the (hops. What is ufually fold for the Egyptian 
acacia, is the infpiffated juice of unripe floes: this is hard- 
