r near relation; a custom very convenient, but which gives encouragement
to great numbers of vagabonds throughout the kingdom.

There is no money in Abyssinia, except in the eastern provinces, where
they have iron coin: but in the chief provinces all commerce is managed
by exchange. Their chief trade consists in provisions, cows, sheep,
goats, fowls, pepper, and gold, which is weighed out to the purchaser,
and principally in salt, which is properly the money of this country.

When the Abyssins are engaged in a law-suit, the two parties make choice
of a judge, and plead their own cause before him; and if they cannot
agree in their choice, the governor of the place appoints them one, from
whom there lies an appeal to the viceroy and to the Emperor himself. All
causes are determined on the spot; no writings are produced. The judge
sits down on the ground in the midst of the high road, where all that
please may be present: the two persons concerned stand before him, with
their friends about them, who serve as their attorneys. The plaintiff
speaks first, the defendant answers him; each is permitted to rejoin
three or four times, then silence is commanded, and the judge takes the
opinions of those that are about him. If the evidence be deemed
sufficient, he pronounces sentence, which in some cases is decisive and
without appeal. He then takes the criminal into custody till he hath
made satisfaction; but if it be a crime punishable with death he is
delivered over to the prosecutor, who may put him to death at his own
discretion.

They have here a particular way of punishing adultery; a woman convicted
of that crime is condemned to forfeit all her fortune, is turned out of
her husband's house, in a mean dress, and is forbid ever to enter it
again; she has only a needle given her to get her living with. Sometimes
her head is shaved, except one lock of hair, which is left her, and even
that depends on the will of her husband, who has it likewise in his
choice whether he will receive her again or not; if he resolves never to
admit her they are both at liberty to marry whom they will. There is
another custom amongst them yet more extraordinary, which is, that the
wife is punished whenever the husband proves false to the marriage
contract; this punishment indeed extends no farther than a pecuniary
mulct, and what seems more equitable, the husband is obliged to pay a sum
of money to his wife. When the husband prosecutes his