“Females are rarely gross or immodest outwardly, seeing that they need in no way be ashamed of the freest intercourse with the other sex,” “Rape is venial, and adultery regards only the husband.”

The Christian Abyssinians are in this respect no better than the others, regarding lewd conduct with indifference.  But the most startling exhibition of Abyssinian grossness is given by the Habab and Mensa concerning whom Munzinger says (150), that whenever a girl decides to give herself up to a dissolute life “a public festival is arranged, cows are butchered and a night is spent amid song and dances.”

The four volumes of Combes and Tamisier on Abyssinia give a vivid idea of the utter absence of sexual morality in that country.  With an intelligence rare among explorers they distinguish between love of the senses and love of the heart, and declare that the latter is not to be found in this country.  “Abyssinian women love everybody for money and no one gratis.”  They do not even suspect the possibility of any other kind of love, and the only distinction they make is that a man who pleases them pays less.

“But what one never finds with anyone in Abyssinia is that refined and pure sentiment which gives so much charm to love in Europe.  Here the heart is seldom touched; tender words are often spoken, but they are banal and rarely sincere; never do these people experience those extraordinary emotions of which the very remembrance agitates us a long time, those celestial feelings which convert an atheist into a believer.  In this country love has all its existence in a moment, having neither a past nor a future.”

The authors go so far as to doubt a story they heard of a girl who was said to have committed suicide to escape a hated suitor forced on her; but there is nothing improbable in this, as we know that a strong aversion may exist even where there is no capacity for true love, and the former by no means implies the latter.  Jealousy, they found further,

“is practically unknown in Abyssinia,” “If jealousy is manifested occasionally by women we must not deceive ourselves regarding the nature of this feeling; when an Abyssinienne envies the love another inspires she is jealous only of the comfort which that love may insure for the other” (II., Chap.  V.).

ABYSSINIAN BEAUTY AND FLIRTATION

Abyssinian women are not deficient in a certain sensual kind of beauty.  Their fine figures, large black eyes, and white teeth have been admired by many travellers.  But Parkyns (II., 5) avers that “though flowers of beauty nowhere bloom with more luxuriance than in Aethiopia, yet, alas! there shines on them no mental sun.”  They make use of their eyes to great advantage—­but not to express soul-love.  What flirtation in this part of the world consists in, may be inferred from Donaldson Smith’s amusing account (245, 270) of a young Boran girl who asked permission to accompany his caravan, offering to cook, bring wood, etc.  She was provided with a piece of white sheeting for a dress, but when tired from marching, being unused to so much clothing, she threw the whole thing aside and walked about naked.  Her name was Ola.  Some time afterward one of the native guides began to make love to Ola: