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diers interpoling, his puniinment s changed, though perhaps not the better! he was put alone o a finall canoe, with arms and munition for his defence, but thout any provifions, and in that trefsful manner committed to the rey of the winds and waves. rried away by the current of the er, destitute of fuccour, and in a untry unknown, Martinez aban

and friends allemble and bury him naked; after which, they all drink till they are foundly intoxicated. After the body has lain long enough for the flesh to be quite putrified, the fame parties again meet, if alive, when the grave is opened, the bones taken out, and distributed among the relations, and the fame scene of riotous forrow is a fecond time performed.

CHARACTERISTIC MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

RIOUS PARTICULARS OF THE GALLA.

[From Bruce's Travels.] HE tribes of Galla gird Abyf finia round at all points from t to weft, making inroads, and reing and murdering all that fall o their hands. The privities of e men they cut off, dry, and hang em up in their houfes. They are merciless as to spare not even woen with child, whom they rip up hopes of deftroying a male. The ftern part of thefe Galla, which rounds the peninfula of Gojam Damot, are called the Boren lla; and those that are to the t are named Bertuma Galla, ugh this laft word is feldom ufed history, where the Galla to the ftward are called Boren; and the Lers Galla merely, without any er addition. All thefe tribes, ough the most cruel that ever apred in any country, are yet go

verned by the ftricteft difcipline at home, where the fmalleft broil or quarrel among individuals is taken cognizance of, and receives immediate punishment.

Each of the three divifions of Galla elect a king, that is, there is a king for every feven tribes. There is alfo a kind of nobility among them, from whofe families alone the fovereign can be chofen. But there are certain degrees of merit (all warlike) that raife, from time to time, their plebeian families to nobility, and the right of fuffrage. No one of thefe nobles can be elected till paft forty years of age, unless he has flain with his own hand a number of men, which, added to his years, makes up forty.

Iron is very fcarce among them, fo that their principal arms are poles fharpened at the end, and hardened in the fire, which they ufe like lances. Their fhields are made of bulls hides of a single fold,

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fo that they are very subject to warp in heat, or become too pliable and foft in wet weather. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, the report of their cruelty made fuch an impreffion upon the Abyffinians, that, on their first engagements, they rarely ftood firmly the Galla's firft onfet. Befides this, the fhrill and very barbarous noife they are always used to make at the moment they charge, used to terrify the horfes and riders, fo that a flight generally followed the attack made by Galla horse.

The women are faid to be very fruitful. They do not confine them felves even a day after labour, but wafh and return to their work immediately. They plow, fow, and reap. The cattle tread out the corn, but the men are the herdfmen, and take charge of the cattle in the fields.

Both fexes are fomething less than the middle fize, exceedingly light and agile. Both, but efpecially the men, plait their hair with the bowels and guts of oxen, which they wear likewise, like belts, twisted round their middle; and thefe, as they putrify, occafion a terrible stench. Both copiously anoint their heads and bodies with butter or melted greafe, which is continually raining from them, and which indicates that they came from a country hotter than that which they now poffefs. They greatly resemble the Hottentots in this filthy taste of drefs. The rest of their body is naked; a piece of fkin only covers them before; and they wear a goat's fkin on their fhoulders, in the fhape of a woman's handkerchief or tippet.

The Galla fometimes marry the Abyffinian women, but the iffue of those marriages are incapable of all employment. Their form of marriage is as follows: the bridegroom, ftanding before the parents of the bride, holds grafs in his right hand, and

the dung of a cow in his left. He then says, "May this never enter, nor this ever come out, if he does not do what he promifes;" that is, may the grafs never enter the cow's mouth to feed it, or may fhe die before it is difcharged. Matrimonial vows, moreover, are very simple; he fwears to his bride that he shall give her meat and drink while living, and bury her when dead.

Polygamy is allowed among them, but the men are commonly content with one wife. Such, indeed, is their moderation in this reípect, thar it is the women that folicit the men to increase the number of their wives. The love of their children feems to get a speedy afcendency over paffion and pleasure, and is a noble part of the character of thefe favages that ought not to be forgot. A young woman, having a child or two by her husband, intreats and folicits him that he would take another wife, when fhe names to him all the beautiful girls of her acquaintance, efpecially thofe that the thinks likelieft to have large families. After the husband has made his choice, fhe goes to the tent of the young woman, and fits behind it in a fupplicant pofture, till fhe has excited the attention of the family within. She then, with an audible voice, declares who he is; that she is daughter of fuch a one; that her hufband has all the qualifications for making a woman happy; that fhe has only two children by him; and, as her family is fo fmail, the comes to folicit their daughter for her husband's wife, that their families may be joined together, and bẹ ftrong; and that her children, from their being few in number, may not fall a prey to their enemies in the day of battle; for the Galla always fight in families, whether against one another, or against other enemies.

When he has thus obtained a wife for her husband, fhe carries her

home,

home, puts her to bed with her hufband, where, having left her, the feafts with the bride's relations. There the children of the first marriage are produced, and the men of the bride's family put each their hands upon these children's heads, and afterwards take the oath in the ufual manner, to live and die with them as their own offspring. The children, then, after this fpecies of adoption, go to their relations, and vifit them for the space of feven

days. All that time the husband remains at home in poffeffion of his new bride; at the end of which he gives a feast, when the first wife is feated by her husband, and the young one ferves the whole company. The first wife from this day keeps her precedence; and the fecond is treated by the first wife like a grown-up daughter. I believe it would be very long before the love of their families would introduce this cuftom among the young women of Britain.

PHILOSOPHICAL HISTORY.

HERSCHEL'S OBSERVATIONS ON THE PLANET SATURN. CONCLUDED FROM P. 286.

FR

ROM the ring and fatellites of Saturn, we now turn our thoughts to the planet, its belts, and its figure. Accordingly, Dr. Herfchel enumerates the belts which he obferved from April 9, 1775, to September 1780; and fays that he found them generally in equatorial fituations; but now and then they were otherwife. From all which, fays, be, two conclufions may be drawn. The firft, which relates to the changes in the appearance of the belts, is, that Saturn has probably a very confiderable atmosphere, in which these changes take place; juft as the alterations in the belts of Jupiter have been fhewn, with great probability, to be in his atmofphere. This has alfo been confirmed by other obfervations: thus, in occultations of Saturn's fatellites, I have found them to hang to the difk a long while before they would vanish. And though we ought to make fome allowance for the encroachment of light, whereby a fatellite is feen to reach up to the difk fooner than it actually does, yet, without a confiderable refraction, it could hardly be

kept fo long in view after the apparent contact. The time of hanging upon the difk, in the feventh fatellite, has actually amounted to twenty minutes. Now, as its quick motion during that interval carries it through an arch of near fix degrees, we find, that this would denote a refraction of about two feconds, provided the encroaching of light had no fhare in the effect. By an obfervation of the fixth fatellite, the refraction of Saturn's atmosphere amounts to nearly the fame quantity; for this fatellite remained about fourteen or fifteen minutes longer in view than it should have done; and as it moves about 2 degrees in that time, and its orbit is larger than that of the feventh, the difference is inconfiderable. What has been faid will fuffice to fhew, that very probably Saturn has an atmosphere of a confiderable denfity.

The next inference we may draw from the appearance of the belts on Saturn is, that this planet turns upon an axis which is perpendicular to the ring. The arrangement of the belts, during the courfe of fourteen years that I have obferved them, has always followed the direction of the ring, which is what I have called being equatorial. Thus, as

the

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