Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/70

50 and thence adopted by the Abyssinians, though expressly forbidden both by the law and by the prophets. At Masuah, it seems to be particular to dance upon that occasion. The women, friends, and visitors place themselves in a ring; then dance slowly, figuring in and out as in a country-dance. This dance is all to the voice, no instrument being used upon the occasion; only the drum (the butter-jar before mentioned) is beat adroitly enough, and seems at once necessary to keep the dance and song in order. In Abyssinia, too, this is pursued in a manner more ridiculous. Upon the death of an ozoro, or any nobleman, the twelve judges, (who are generally between 60 and 70 years of age) sing the song, and dance the figure-dance, in a manner so truly ridiculous, that grief must have taken fast hold of every spectator who does not laugh upon the occasion. There needs no other proof the deceased was a friend.

married at Arkeeko. For fifteen days afterward, the husband there is invisible to everybody but the female friends of his wife, who in that sultry country do every thing they can, by hot and spiced drinks, to throw the man, stewed in a close room, into a fever. I do believe that Mahomet Gibberti, in the course of these fifteen days, was at least two stone lighter. It puts me much in mind of some of our countrymen sweating themselves for a horserace with a load of flannel on. I conceive that Mahomet Gibberti, had it not been for the spice, would have made a bad figure in the match he was engaged in. One of these nights of his being sequestered, when, had I not providen-