The Horses Of Abyssinia Are Excellent; Their Mules, Oxen, And Cows
Are Without Number, And In These Principally Consists The Wealth Of
This Country.
They have a very particular custom, which obliges
every man that hath a thousand cows to save every year one day's
milk of all his herd, and make a bath with it for his relations,
entertaining them afterwards with a splendid feast.
This they do so
many days each year, as they have thousands of cattle, so that to
express how rich any man is, they tell you he bathes so many times.
The tribute paid out of their herds to the King, which is not the
most inconsiderable of his revenues, is one cow in ten every three
years. The beeves are of several kinds; one sort they have without
horns, which are of no other use than to carry burthens, and serve
instead of mules. Another twice as big as ours which they breed to
kill, fattening them with the milk of three or four cows. Their
horns are so large, the inhabitants use them for pitchers, and each
will hold about five gallons. One of these oxen, fat and ready to
be killed, may be bought at most for two crowns. I have purchased
five sheep, or five goats with nine kids, for a piece of calico
worth about a crown.
The Abyssins have many sort of fowls both wild and tame; some of the
former we are yet unacquainted with: there is one of wonderful
beauty, which I have seen in no other place except Peru: it has
instead of a comb, a short horn upon its head, which is thick and
round, and open at the top. The feitan favez, or devil's horse,
looks at a distance like a man dressed in feathers; it walks with
abundance of majesty, till it finds itself pursued, and then takes
wing, and flies away. But amongst all their birds there is none
more remarkable than the moroc, or honey-bird, which is furnished by
nature with a peculiar instinct or faculty of discovering honey.
They have here multitudes of bees of various kinds; some are tame,
like ours, and form their combs in hives. Of the wild ones, some
place their honey in hollow trees, others hide it in holes in the
ground, which they cover so carefully, that though they are commonly
in the highway, they are seldom found, unless by the moroc's help,
which, when he has discovered any honey, repairs immediately to the
road side, and when he sees a traveller, sings, and claps his wings,
making many motions to invite him to follow him, and when he
perceives him coming, flies before him from tree to tree, till he
comes to the place where the bees have stored their treasure, and
then begins to sing melodiously. The Abyssin takes the honey,
without failing to leave part of it for the bird, to reward him for
his information. This kind of honey I have often tasted, and do not
find that it differs from the other sorts in anything but colour; it
is somewhat blacker.
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