They Are Not Much Reserved Or Confined, And Have
So Much Liberty In Visiting One Another That Their Husbands Often
Suffer By It; But For This Evil There Is No Remedy, Especially When
A Man Marries A Princess, Or One Of The Royal Family.
Besides their
clothes, the Abyssins have no movables or furniture of much value,
or doth their manner of living admit of them.
One custom of this country deserves to be remarked: when a stranger
comes to a village, or to the camp, the people are obliged to
entertain him and his company according to his rank. As soon as he
enters a house (for they have no inns in this nation), the master
informs his neighbours that he hath a guest; immediately they bring
in bread and all kinds of provisions; and there is great care taken
to provide enough, because, if the guest complains, the town is
obliged to pay double the value of what they ought to have
furnished. This practice is so well established that a stranger
goes into a house of one he never saw with the same familiarity and
assurance of welcome as into that of an intimate friend or near
relation; a custom very convenient, but which gives encouragement to
great numbers of vagabonds throughout the kingdom.
There is no money in Abyssinia, except in the eastern provinces,
where they have iron coin: but in the chief provinces all commerce
is managed by exchange. Their chief trade consists in provisions,
cows, sheep, goats, fowls, pepper, and gold, which is weighed out to
the purchaser, and principally in salt, which is properly the money
of this country.
When the Abyssins are engaged in a law-suit, the two parties make
choice of a judge, and plead their own cause before him; and if they
cannot agree in their choice, the governor of the place appoints
them one, from whom there lies an appeal to the viceroy and to the
Emperor himself. All causes are determined on the spot; no writings
are produced. The judge sits down on the ground in the midst of the
high road, where all that please may be present: the two persons
concerned stand before him, with their friends about them, who serve
as their attorneys. The plaintiff speaks first, the defendant
answers him; each is permitted to rejoin three or four times, then
silence is commanded, and the judge takes the opinions of those that
are about him. If the evidence be deemed sufficient, he pronounces
sentence, which in some cases is decisive and without appeal. He
then takes the criminal into custody till he hath made satisfaction;
but if it be a crime punishable with death he is delivered over to
the prosecutor, who may put him to death at his own discretion.
They have here a particular way of punishing adultery; a woman
convicted of that crime is condemned to forfeit all her fortune, is
turned out of her husband's house, in a mean dress, and is forbid
ever to enter it again; she has only a needle given her to get her
living with.
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