The Highlands of EthiopiaHarris, William Cornwallis, Sir
History
The Highlands of Ethiopia
Harris, William Cornwallis, Sir
Ethiopia -- Description and travel
In conversation a portion of every sentence is invariably taken up by
the person addressed--the last word being generally considered
sufficient, or even an abbreviation to the final syllable. The
salutation of the tribes, between whom little bond exists, beyond
identity of language, is a cold forbidding touch of the fingers, fully
indicative of the unfriendly sentiments of the heart. All prey upon
each other, and every individual in whatever rank is by nature, as well
as by habit and inclination, an assassin. None will hesitate to
mutilate or barbarously put to death any member of another clan whom he
may find at advantage, either sleeping or at a distance from succour--
the appetite for plunder, and the thirst for blood, inherent in the
breast, being quite sufficient to dictate every act of atrocity, and to
impel every dastardly outrage, that a savage can devise or commit.
Dwelling in a scene of aridity, hostility, and bloodshed, traversed by
barren chains bearing the impress of volcanic desolation, and cursed
with a soil rarely susceptible of cultivation, but still more rarely
cultivated, the hand of the roving Bedouin is against every man, and
every man's hand is against him. The truth of the Scriptural prophecy
respecting the untameable descendants of Ishmael, here as elsewhere is
well maintained; nor were the words of the poet ever more truly
exemplified than in the hot weary wastes of the Adaiel--
"Nothing save rapine, indolence, and guile,
And woes on woes, a still revolving train.
Whose horrid circle has made human life
Than non-existence worse."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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