GEORGE. "I know no other way out than through the Straits of Babelmandeb, by Abyssinia, of which country I should like to have a description."
MRS. WILTON. "The country consists of a succession of hills and valleys, the former for the most part well-wooded, and the latter fertile; with the climate mild upon the whole for so tropical a latitude. For the people and customs I must refer you to some other more intelligent member."
MR. STANLEY. "The present Bishop of Jerusalem[[18]] went to Abyssinia some years ago; and he has sketched a few interesting particulars concerning the people. 'As soon as a child is born, it is immediately taught to drink lukewarm butter, with a little honey. After the age of six or seven years, the children are considered servants. The boys are shepherds, till the age of fourteen or fifteen, and reside with their parents; but if their parents are poor, they leave them, by their own choice at the age of eight or nine years, in order to get their livelihood by keeping cattle elsewhere. The girls are occupied in managing the little affairs of the house; and begin to fetch water, which is always at a distance, as soon as they can walk steadily. At the age of eight or nine years they begin to fetch wood from the mountains. There are some fathers who send their children into convents to have them instructed; but there are many who will not do this, lest their children should become monks: on this account many boys desert their parents, in order to seek instruction for themselves. Some enter the house of a priest as servants during the day, and they receive instruction at night. Others go, after the lessons are over, to get food by begging. There are also many persons in easy circumstances who support those children who seek for instruction without the help of their parents. Nearly all the great men send their children into convents to learn reading, and to repeat the psalms from memory; this is all the instruction they receive. The daughters of the higher class learn nothing but spinning and managing the affairs of the house; there are, however, a few ladies who can read.'"
MR. BARRAUD. "They seem early accustomed to habits of industry; but in other respects, the training of the children is not very rigid: almost the only crime they punish them for, is stealing. Mr. Stanley's author, Bishop Gobat, says, he saw a mother, usually of a very meek temper, and who would not see a man cause suffering to the smallest reptile, burn the skin off both the hands and lips of her daughter, only nine years of age, for having dipped her finger into a jar of honey!"
EMMA. "Oh! how extremely cruel! they surely are not Christians."
GRANDY. "They are—and differ very little from the Roman Catholics of more civilized countries. Some of the points of variation in their doctrine are as follow:—They believe in no separate purgatory; but that almost all men go to hell at their death, and that from time to time, the Archangel Michael descends into that place of torment, in order to deliver men's souls, and to introduce them to paradise, sometimes for the sake of the prayers and meritorious works of their relatives and their priests. They have a great number of tales in support of this doctrine; the one they most frequently make use of, is the story of a man who had done nothing but evil when on earth, except that he had always observed the fast on Wednesday and Friday. When he died, he descended into hell, to a dark place; but had always two lights surrounding him, by the assistance of which he could go to the gate which separated hell from paradise. The Archangel Michael then went to receive him; saying, that the two lamps which had saved him, were the fasts which he had observed on Wednesdays and Fridays."
MR. STANLEY. "That is one of the fallacies of the Romish Church. But I am not surprised that popery acquires such power over the ignorant; for it assails the mind through every sense; through the sight by its pageantry, the hearing by its splendid music, the smell by the delicious odor of the incense, and thus gratifies and soothes its votaries by the application of forms destitute of power. But enough of this; if we venture on such a subject, we are continually reminded, that to speak evil of other sects is malicious, and that we cannot disapprove of a man's doctrine without having an uncharitable feeling towards the individual. I most strenuously deny the truth of that assertion; for I reckon many amongst my dearest connections, whose friendship I value extremely, but whose religious tenets I utterly repudiate. But I fear this is incomprehensible to the youngsters; we will return to business.
"The coast of Africa, from the Red Sea to the River Juba, which is as far as the equator, is inhabited by a tribe called Somauli, who are reckoned to be descendants from the aborigines of the country, and were early subjected to the laws of the Koran, by the Arab merchants trading with them. They are a mild people, of pastoral habits, and confined entirely to the coast; the whole of the interior of this portion being occupied by an untamable tribe of savages, called Galla, perhaps the most uncultivated and ferocious people in existence."
EMMA. "We shall cross the equator before we enter another bay; then, in the parallel of 3° south, lies the Bay of Formosa, on the coast of Zanguebar; and 4° nearer south, is the little island of Zanzibar. I am a stranger here."
MRS. WILTON. "Zanzibar is a most valuable possession of the Imaun of Muscat, on account of its abundant produce of grain and sugar. The climate is particularly fatal to Europeans, so that the crews of vessels trading there are never allowed to sleep on shore. But there is perhaps no place, where refreshments are so cheap as in this island: fowls may be had for two shillings the dozen, sugar twopence, and rice one penny a pound; and a large bullock is sold for one sovereign."