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