At the moment when the British expedition was directed against him, the army of the Abyssinian potentate, the Negus Theodorus, numbered about 40,000 men. The infantry carry a spear, shield, and long curved sabre, and they attack their enemy impetuously at close quarters. The light cavalry is excellent. The horsemen, when charging, let go their bridles, fight with both hands, and guiding and urging their horses with leg and knee only, make them perform the most prodigious feats. Each man has a sword and two lances; the latter always hit the mark, and their wound is deadly. They are used like javelins, and are about two yards long. Every horseman is followed by an attendant retainer, whose duty it is to dash among the enemy, sword in hand, in order to recover his master’s weapon, and bring it back to him. These horsemen charge headlong against an infantry square, making their horses bound into its midst over the heads of the soldiers, and then backing them in order to break its formation.
The skirmishers are Tigré mountaineers, of cool, resolute courage, and their aim is remarkably good.
The Emperor Theodorus seldom occupied his palace. His real capital was his camp, which he kept incessantly moving from one end of his dominions to the other. He maintained strict discipline in his household and on his staff, among the members of which the bastinado was often liberally used.
Two fifths of the Abyssinian population are in the service of the wealthier classes, and probably there is no country in the world where servitude is more widely spread. A person possessed of an income equal to £160 a year, keeps at least eight dependants. M. Lejean had no fewer than seventeen attendants during his journey, and his travelling companion, an Englishman, as many as seventy.
The religion of this country forms a rare exception in Africa, as the inhabitants are Christians. The head of the Abyssinian church is styled the “Abouna,” and his theocratic powers are almost boundless. King and pontiff entertain a mutual hatred of one another, each dreading his rival and keeping close watch upon his movements. Whichever of the two possesses greater courage and energy gains the upper hand.
Monks and priests are common in Abyssinia.
The natives take a decoction of kousso once a month as a cure for the tapeworm. The fact is, that in consequence of some local circumstances, the meat used in the country is full of cysts, which, getting into the stomach along with the food, generate in the intestines this troublesome guest that must be got rid of from time to time. This remedy for tapeworm has been recently introduced into Europe.
Barabras.—The Barabras are the natives of Nubia. They occupy that part of the valley comprised between the southern frontier of Egypt and Sennaar, that is to say, Nubia.