Life in Abyssinia: Being Notes Collected During Three Years' Residence and Travels in that Country, Volume 1J. Murray, 1853 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abyssinian Addy Adoua agreeable Ailat Aito Amhara amusement animals appearance Arab arrived attack Axum bales Barea Bedouins Beni Hassan bread Cairo called camp capsicum caravans Cargo carried chief climate corn Dejatch distance dollars Egypt Enderta enemy European feet fire friends Gondar Hailo half hamleh hand heard hills Hodeida honey hyænas interior Jedda Jiddah journey killed lance Loheia madigas maize manner Mareb Massàwa Massowah matter meat medaneh butter Merratch monkeys mules musk native boat nearly neighbourhood neighbours never night Nubia obliged occasion Oubi Oubi's party passed persons poor procure province quantity Red Sea remain road Rohabaita rottoli round scarcely seen sent Sept servants Shétou Shoho skin slaves smoke soldiers soon sort stone taste teff Tigré town traveller trees tribe village Welda whole Yemen
Popular passages
Page 60 - Some flow'rets of Eden ye still inherit, But the trail of the serpent is over them all!
Page 297 - When getting sleepy, you return your rifle between your legs, roll over, and go to sleep. Some people may think this is a queer place for a rifle ; but, on the contrary, it is the position of all others where utility and comfort are most combined. The butt rests on the arm, and serves as a pillow for the head ; the muzzle points between the knees, and the arms encircle the lock and breech, so that you have a smooth pillow, and are always prepared to start up armed at a moment's notice.
Page 80 - Pondicherry to be the hottest place in India, but still, that it was nothing to Aden, while again Aden was a trifle to Massawa. He compared the climate of the first to a hot bath ; that of the second to a furnace ; while the third, he said, could bo equalled in temperature by nothing but— — , a place which he had never visited, and which it is to be hoped neither he nor any of us will.
Page 371 - Almost before the death-struggle is over, persons are ready to flay the carcase, and pieees of the raw meat are cut off, and served up before this operation is completed. In fact, as each part presents itself, it is cut off and eaten while yet warm and quivering. In this state it is considered, and justly so, to be very superior in taste to what it is when cold. Raw meat, if kept a little time, gets tough ; whereas, if eaten fresh and warm, it is far tenderer than the most tender joint that has been...
Page 371 - I should beg his pardon indeed for calling him an assassin, as he is not so merciful as to aim at the life, but, on the contrary, to keep the beast alive till he be totally eaten up.
Page 229 - You may see them quarreling, making love, mothers taking care of their children, combing their hair, nursing and suckling them ; and the passions — jealousy, anger, love — as fully and distinctly marked as in men. They have a language as distinct to them as ours is ; and their women are as noisy and fond of disputation as any fishfag in Billingsgate. "The monkeys, especially the Cynocephali, who are astonishingly clever fellows, have their chiefs, whom they obey implicitly, and a regular system...
Page 163 - Judge, then, of my astonishment when, on arriving at this great city, the capital of one of the most powerful kingdoms of Ethiopia, I found nothing but a large straggling village of huts, some flatroofed, but mostly thatched with straw, and the walls of all of them built of rough stones, laid together with mud, in the rudest possible manner. Being wet, moreover, with the rain, the place presented the most miserably dirty appearance.
Page 16 - Local bleedings, such as the natives practise, are often highly advantageous ; and firing with a hot iron at their recommendation may also be adopted For severe inflammation of the bowels, when you cannot bear to be touched on the part, some boiling water poured on it will be a ready and effective blister, — a wet rag being wrapped round in a ring to confine the water within the intended limits.
Page 229 - These monkey forays are managed with the utmost regularity and precaution. A tribe, coming down to feed from their village on the mountain (usually a cleft in the face of some cliff), brings with it all its members, male and female, old and young. Some, the elders of the tribe, distinguishable by the quantity of mane which covers their shoulders like a lion's, take the lead...
Page 181 - We found him a rather good-looking, slight-made man, of about forty-five years of age, with bushy hair, which was fast turning grey. His physiognomy did not at all prepossess me in his favour. It struck me as indicative of much cunning, pride, and falsity ; and I judged him to be a man of some talent, but with more of the fox than the lion in his nature. Our presents were brought in covered with cloths, and carried by our servants. They consisted of a Turkey rug, two European...