marriage is, unless for some marked transgression of the marriage laws, binding for life.

We entered a yard covered with fresh green boughs, and scattered with hay, which is always prepared for the reception of the guests, and is called the dass. On a couch or angareb in one corner of the yard reclined the bridegroom, the priest, and the best men; on another, in another corner, were the chief guests; whereas the ordinary guests who had just come to feed lay thick as leaves in Vallombrosa on the floor. The bride sat in state in an adjoining hut, with a curtain before her, which was raised for our benefit that we might inspect her richly embroidered dress, and give her our best wishes. She received us with apparent shyness; but as she had gone through the ceremony at least twice before, and was no longer young, we put this down to affectation.

Cooking was going on on all sides; there stood steaming pots of boiled meat, dishes of raw meat, jugs of beer and hydromel, baskets of bread, awaiting the appointed moment for distribution amongst the guests. The atmosphere of the bride's hut was so stifling we could not wait there long, and chairs were provided for us outside. Presently the music came; the inevitable drum, and two asmaris with their guitars. Splendidly dressed men sat around us, in lovely warrior garb; the man who had slain a lion a few days before wore the animal's mane round his red satin cap; long swords in red sheaths stuck out everywhere, and the festive costumes were

fascinating to behold. The agarafi, or masters of the ceremonies, kept order with long canes, and drove out the children when their presence became too annoying. Then there was a little dancing, and when everything was ready for the viands, children trooped out of the hut, bearing baskets on their heads containing the food, each basket being covered with Turkey red (a fashion observed at all respectable wedding feasts); the bowls of beer and

FESTIVAL IN HONOUR OF A LION-SLAYER, ASMARA

hydromel were placed on stools; and then, when all was ready, the priest stood forth, blessed the food, and said something polite to the bride and bridegroom, and the victuals were distributed.

Everywhere in Northern Abyssinia, people, when they eat, are hidden from public gaze by having sheets hung over them; thus the company were fed in little batches of four to six, and over each batch was hung the sheet. This custom is universal, whether the

meal is partaken of by the roadside or in their huts. Some say the custom originates from the necessity of having to give to beggars if the food is seen, but I think that is hardly likely. It originates, doubtless, in some very antique form of modesty, that the process of mastication is not a decent one, and it is maintained in Tigrè to this day by all from the prince to the muleteer. When the beer and tedge had been handed round in horns to wash down the cooked and raw meat, hilarity spread with wonderful rapidity; the lion-slayer and other warriors kept order with their wands, having hung up their black shields with silver mountings on the branches of the dass. Dancing, music, and singing were becoming now so fast and furious, that we thought a dignified retreat was the best, and we left the revellers to finish the day alone.

Very different was another wedding we witnessed at Asmara, and far more interesting, inasmuch as it was a religious one, and was binding for life. A young deacon was about to take unto himself a wife. prior to being ordained. The marriage of a priest in Abyssinia is exactly as it is in the Greek Church; he must take to himself a wife prior to ordination, after which ceremony he cannot marry a second time should he have the misfortune to lose his wife. As in Greece, those who devote themselves to the monastic orders take also a vow of celibacy. Our young deacon, who was about to take the important step of matrimony once and for all, was a shy, nervous boy of fourteen. After the religious ceremony in

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the church, at which the Sacrament was administered under a huge red umbrella, the elements being bread and, in the absence of wine, a concoction made out of raisins, the wedding party proceeded to the house of the bride's parents, one of the best houses in Asmara, long and gloomy, lighted only by a door, and redolent of the most disgusting odours.

We were placed on an angareb as a mark of honour, and when our eyes had become accustomed to the gloom, we learnt that the bridegroom elect was concealed behind a sheet in one corner of the room, whilst the bride was hidden in an inner chamber. As on the previous occasion, much food was eaten and much tedge was drunk, with the addition of small horns of absinthe, which rendered the scene even more festive. Then a lot of little almost naked black children danced prettily in the centre of the room, and each received a strip of cloth, which he forthwith girt around his loins. When this was over, all the priests—and there were at least fourteen, assembled from neighbouring villages, dressed in their long white robes and with turbaned heads-commenced a series of religious dances, to the tune of a drum and the sistra. Each priest had a sistrum in one hand and a long crutch in the other, and their movements were exceedingly graceful, sometimes almost wild in their evolutions, singing, as they danced, sacred songs in Gez. The women looked on and marked their approbation with the gurgling noise peculiar to these dark Ethiopian beauties, which is called ulultà, and

which made one almost feel as if one was present at a rehearsal of the opera of Aida.'

When once Abyssinian priests begin to dance and sing it is extremely difficult to stop them. Some of them had undoubtedly taken more than was good for them; but at last they were suppressed and the bridegroom was brought out from behind his sheet; he was adorned with the great mitre on his head, which, being far too big for him, was stuffed with Turkey red to make it fit. Before his face he held a great brazen cross, so that his countenance was completely hidden, his body was covered with a huge burnouse, and thus attired he danced to and fro with the priests, nervously and with much hesitation, and requiring much guidance in his steps. Finally he was conducted to greet his mother-in-law, and was led outside by his best men, who performed a war dance with their shields and spears in the courtyard. Meanwhile the bride was carried out through the crowd on somebody's back, a bundle of velvets and silks, with no portion of her person visible, and was conveyed to a mule which was to carry her to her husband's village some miles from Asmara. We followed the bridegroom and his best man for some little distance, and when he was out of sight of the crowd he took off his mitre and burnouse with intense relief, and appeared before us as a young stripling in cotton drawers and the red-striped shamma of everyday wear.

Such is marriage in Abyssinia. The laxity of its ties in most ordinary cases has had a very