530 On the Credit due 
tor, who appeal to every account of Abys- 
sinia, by the Jesuits and others, for a con~ 
firmation of the fact. That the Abyssi- 
Nians were accustomed to eat raw meat 
as a relish, was always a well-known fact; 
but there is a wide difference between 
this custom and the practice of cutting 
up and devouring live animals at their 
public entertainments. The manners 
and customs of the Abyssinians are accu- 
rately described by a variety of travellers, 
and have been known in Europe for more 
than two hundred years; but not a single 
instance or intimation of their feasting 
upon live animals, is to be found either in 
the writings of the jesuits, or in the histo- 
ries of the country. Alvarez, who gives 
the earliest account of the Abyssinians, 
describes their entertainments thus :— 
“ Then (after the grace) came in the im- 
bandigioni, whereof I dare hardly speak, 
and yet they are ordinary dishes in that 
country; and these were their sauces 
and broths, wherein were certain pieces 
of raw flesh, with warm blood, which, in 
this country, is esteemed for a most deli- 
cate dish, and none but great person- 
ages eat thereof. Aiter all other dishes, 
a breast of raw beef was brought to the 
board, which we did not once touch.” 
Purchass’ Pilgrims, vol. II. p. 1063; Ra- 
mu sio, vol. I. p. 257.—In another pas- 
sage he describes the cookery at the 
royal feast, consisting chiefly of ragoos, 
as excellent. Purchass, p. 1090.—Lu- 
dolphus and Father Lobo both describe 
an Abyssinian dinner; they mention raw 
beef, highly seasoned, as a prime deli- 
cacy; and inform usthat the nobility are 
fed by their pages, not by women, as as- 
serted by Bruce. Ludolph. Hist. Ethiop. 
1, ti.c. 12, § 145 liv, c. 4, $8. Com- 
ment. p. 258. Lobo, in particular, is 
transcribed by Bruce:—‘ Les person- 
nes de qualité ne touchent jameus a 
ce quivils mangent; ils ont des pages 
qui coupeat leur viandes, & qui la 
leur presentent a la bouche. II est 
de la civilité & de la grandeur, de 
manger de gros morceaux, & de faire 
beaucoup de bruit en machant, n’y 
ayant que des gueux, disentils, qui ne 
mangent que d’un coté, et que des vo- 
leurs qui mangent sens faire de bruit.” 
Le Grand’s Voyage du P. 1. Lobo, p.72. 
“This is a mark of grandeur. The 
greater a man would seem to be, the 
larger piece he takes into his mouth ; and 
the more noise he makes in chewing it, 
the more polite he is thought to be. 
They have, indeed, a proverb that says, 
that ‘ Beggars and thieves only eat small 
to Bruce's Travels. [Jan. T, 
pieces, or without making a noise.’” 
Bruce. i 
Lobo proceeds to inform us, “ Leur 
plus grand regal est une piece de boeuf 
crue & toute chaude. Lorsqu’ils don- 
nent a manger ils tuent un bauf, et en 
servent aussi tOt un quartier sur la table 
avec beacoup de poivre & de sel; et le 
fiel de ce boeuf leur sert d’huile & de yie- 
naigre. Quelques uns y ajoaitent ane 
moutarde qu’ils appellent mauta; eile 
est faite de ce quils tirent des tripes du 
beeuf, qu’ils mettent sur le feu avec du 
beure, dusel, du poivre & de l’oignon. 
Ils trouvent leur boeuf cru, & ainsi as- 
saisonné aussi délicat,” &c.id. Poncet’s 
Travels into Abyssinia, in the beginning 
of the last century, contain the same ac- 
count of a royal entertainment. ‘“ The 
viands are beef, mutton, and fowls, 
They are generally tossed up ragoo fa- 
shion. J was surprised to observe raw 
beef set upon the emperor's table, It is 
seasoned after a peculiar manner: a 
piece of beef being cut into pieces, these 
are sprinkled with the gall of an ox, which 
is an excellent dissolvent, and they then 
are powdered with pepper and spices, 
There is also another way of seasoning 
raw meat. These people take from the 
paunches of oxen herbs which beasts have 
not yet digested; these they mix with 
the meat, and adding mustard, make a 
ragoo of the whole, which they call 
mauta. ‘This ragoo is still more unpala- 
table than the former.”—Lockman’s Tra- 
vels, p. 217. The same dish is described 
by Ludolf (Flist. vol. TV. p. 4-8); but 
the ox-gall with which the raw beef is 
seasoned, and the vegetables with which 
it is eaten, are concealed by Bruce, be- 
cause his self-importance would be de- 
graded Ly the confession of his having 
partaken of such loathsome viands. 
Such, however, is the only real founda- 
tion for the licentious descripiion of an 
Abyssinian teast, which is contradicted, 
rather than confirmed, by the informa- 
tion communicated to Sir William Jones 
by an Abyssinian at Calcutta :—“ That 
sheep and goats are in plenty among 
them, and that the inhabitants are ex- 
tremely fond of milk, cheese, and whey, 
but that the country people and soldiery 
make no scruple of drinking the. blood, 
and eating the raw flesh of an ox, which 
they cut without caring whether he is — 
alive or dead; that this savage diet 1s, 
however, by no means general.” Asiat. 
Research. vol. I. p. 8384.—The custom of 
eating raw flesh, which is now confined 
to the peasants and soldiers, appears, 
therefore, 
