Ethiopia -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Lobo, Jerónimo, 1596?-1678 -- Travel -- Ethiopia
The ladies' dress is yet more magnificent and expensive; their robes are
as large as those of the religious, of the order of St. Bernard. They
have various ways of dressing their heads, and spare no expense in ear-
rings, necklaces, or anything that may contribute to set them off to
advantage. 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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