To say that these savages arc perfidious and false in the extreme, is only to delineate a natural feature of their hideous character ; for, where the laws of huma nity are habitually outraged, the restraints of morality, or of honour, will be unknown or disregarded. So completely is the moral sense of the Abyssinians per verted, that they prefer deceit to honesty, and falsehood to truth, when their interest seems in noways concerned in the preference. Even those regulations, which seem essential to the very existence of society, are but little respected by those rude barbarians. Marriage is here a very slender tie, formed and dissolved at pleasure ; and chastity is a virtue which they hold in very low esteem. Their marriages are celebrated in the church, to be sure, with great solemnity, and the parties bind them selves, by an oath, to continue faithful to each other for life. They make no scruple, however, of breaking these engagements, whenever they find it inconvenient or unpleasant to live longer together ; and their divorces and marriages are accordingly very frequent. 1\lr Bruce tells us, that he was once at Koscam, in presence of the Iteghe (or queen-dowager), when in the circle there was a woman of great quality, and seven men, who had all been her husbands, though none of them was then the happy spouse. If the husband first wishes to be released from his engagement, he, or his surety, must restore the portion which the lady brought him, A.nd pay her likewise the sum stipulated in case of se paration. if it be the lady who desires to recover her liberty, the husband is liable to no restitut.on, provided he has been faithttil, according to a contract, in the dis charge of his conjugal O'.aies. Sometime 5, W th011t any quarrel or a separ:.tion is agreed on by mutual consent. In this case, th, portion of the wife is united with 013 :AIM stipulated by the husband, of which tney receive each an equal share. If they have any progeny, the boys always go with the mother, even though there be ugly •ne child; if there be no sons, she claims none of the girls. Among the lower ranks, marriages are contracted with less ceremony, and are still more easily dissoived ; but the king's judges, or governors of pro vinces, take care, that the children shall be maintained either by their parents, or by sonic other person. Where the nuptial union is held so little sacred, jealousy cannot be supposed to prevail ; and the distinction of legitimate and illegitimate offspring is unknown.
Such is a faint outline of the Abyssinian character ; and, hideous and disgusting as it is, it is the character of a people professing Christianity, who have the scrip tures translated into their own language, and whose country is filled with churches innumerable ! But let not the infidel triumph in the concession. The Chris tianity of the Abyssinians is a mere system of parade, extending little further than the acknowledgment of saints, and the observance of festivals; nor can it he wondered, if the pure and humanizing morality of the gospel has produced little improvement on the charac ter of a people, who place the essentials of religion in external pageantry, and think the most flagrant crimes suffie iently expiated by the erection of a sanctuary, or the utterance of a prayer. Vet the brut d manners of the Abyssinians might certainly be laid to the charge of Christianity with as much justice, as those enormities, which, during the dark ages, were perpetrated in its name, and which the candour of modern philosophers has endeavoured to construe into objections against the benign tendency of the Christian religion.
A more probable cause of their barbarity might be found in the degrading influence of their government. It is an anomalous kind of monarchy : the will of the sovereign is the only law; his power over the lives and property of his subjects is uncontrolled ; but, at the same time, is unsupported by such a military force as is necessary to give effect and consistency to its opera tions. The militia of the several districts is entirely at
the disposal of their respective governors, whose gene ral safety depends on the weakness and necessities of the prince. Any of these governors is more than match for his sovereign : indeed, the government of Tigre alone is equal to all the rest of the empire. Though the sovereignty be so far hereditary, that it is confined to one family, in that family it is elective : and as the ruling minister, in the name of the people, deter mines the election, it generally falls on an infant, during whose minority the minister continues to exercise all the prerogatives of the crown. Hence rebellions and civil wars perpetually agitate this disjointed government ; and the citizens, engaged in unceasing hostilities with each other, contract, of course, that savage ferocity, by which they arc so infamously distinguished.* While the right of succession to the throne was thus undefined, the elected monarch would necessarily incur the hatred and resentment of the other branches or the royal family, To prevent the feuds which would result from their mutual animosity, the Abyssinians had recourse to the expedient of confining the princes of the blood to a kind of state prison, situated on some lofty and solitary moun tain, where they were educated in a total ignorance of political transactions ; and, when the throne happened to be vacant, the nobles, or rather the prime minister, se lected from these captives the person, who appeared best. qualified, by his simplicity or pliability, for being their future king. The weakness of the royal family, and the preponderating powe• of the governors, have rendered these precautions unnecessary, but the practice has not yet been abandoned.
In the better clays of this kingdom, the royal office was intrenched with all that splendour and ceremony by which despotical governments are distinguished ; and which, by keeping the subject at an awful distance, ex cite for the person of his sovereign a degree of venera tion approaching to worship. The monarch was invested in a manner at once solemn and romantic. Dressed in crimson damask, with a chain of gold about his neck, and his head uncovered, he mounted a horse, richly capari soned, and advanced, at the head or his nobility, to the paved area before the church. A numbs r of young girls, daughters of the Ambares, or supreme judges, with many other noble virgins, ranged themselves on each side of the court. Two of the noblest held in their hands a cord of crimson silk, stretched across from mw to row, and drawn tight about breast high. The king then en tered at a moderate pace, displaying his skill in horse manship as he went along. When he advanced to the cord, the damsels cried out, "Who are you ?" He an swered, " am your king, the king of Ethiopia." " You shall not pass," they replied, " You are not our king." Retiring a few paces, he again presented himself, and the question was repeated as before. "1 am your king," was his second reply, " the king of Israel." But this answer likewise was rejected. Returning a third time, and being asked again, "Who are you ?" "1 am your king," lie exclaimed, "the king of Sion," and, unsheath ing his sabre, cut asunder the cord. The virgins ehaunted halleluiahs, and the air rung with the accla mations of the army and the royal attendants. Amidst these expressions of joy, he rode up to the stair of the church, and there dismounting, sat down upon a stone, resembling an altar of Anubis, or the Dog-star. A num ber of priests followed in procession. The king was first anointed, and then crowned. Singing priests at tended him half-way up the steps; lie then stopped at an aperture, made on purpose in the stair, where he was fumigated with myrrh, aloes, and cassia. Divine ser vice was celebrated, and, on his return to the cam!), fourteen days were spent in feasting and rejoicing. See Psalm xxiii, 7-10.