place their honey in hollow trees, others hide it in holes in
the ground, which they cover so carefully, that though they are commonly
in the highway, they are seldom found, unless by the moroc's help, which,
when he has discovered any honey, repairs immediately to the road side,
and when he sees a traveller, sings, and claps his wings, making many
motions to invite him to follow him, and when he perceives him coming,
flies before him from tree to tree, till he comes to the place where the
bees have stored their treasure, and then begins to sing melodiously. The
Abyssin takes the honey, without failing to leave part of it for the
bird, to reward him for his information. This kind of honey I have often
tasted, and do not find that it differs from the other sorts in anything
but colour; it is somewhat blacker. The great quantity of honey that is
gathered, and a prodigious number of cows that is kept here, have often
made me call Abyssinia a land of honey and butter.

CHAPTER III

The manner of eating in Abyssinia, their dress, their hospitality, and
traffic.

The great lords, and even the Emperor himself, maintain their tables with
no great expense. The vessels they make use of are black earthenware,
which, the older it is, they set a greater value on. Their way of
dressing their meat, an European, till he hath been long accustomed to
it, can hardly be persuaded to like; everything they eat smells strong
and swims with butter. They make no use of either linen or plates. The
persons of rank never touch what they eat, but have their meat cut by
their pages, and put into their mouths. When they feast a friend they
kill an ox, and set immediately a quarter of him raw upon the table (for
their most elegant treat is raw beef newly killed) with pepper and salt;
the gall of the ox serves them for oil and vinegar; some, to heighten the
delicacy of the entertainment, add a kind of sauce, which they call
manta, made of what they take out of the guts of the ox; this they set on
the fire, with butter, salt, pepper, and onion. Raw beef, thus relished,
is their nicest dish, and is eaten by them with the same appetite and
pleasure as we eat the best partridges. They have often done me the
favour of helping me to some of this sauce, and I had no way to decline
eating it besides telling them it was too good for a missionary.

The common drink of the Abyssins is beer and mead, which they drink to
excess when they visit o