Note 50 — Chapter VI

I do not know whether the women drink much tedj, but even the ladies of the land did so in Bruce’s time. He was in Gondar when “Ozoro Esther’s sister, the Iteghe’s” (queen-mother’s) “youngest daughter was married to Powussen, the governor of Begemder. The king gave her large districts of land in that province, and Ras Michael a large portion of gold, muskets, cattle, and horses.” On this occasion “the Ras, Ozoro Esther, and Ozoro Altash entertained all Gondar. A vast number of cattle were slaughtered every day, and the whole town was one great market: the common people, in every street, appeared laden with pieces of raw beef, while drink circulated in like profusion. The Ras insisted upon Bruce’s dining with him every day. After dinner they slipped away to parties of ladies, where anarchy prevailed as completely as at the house of the Ras. All the married women ate, drank and smoked like the men; in fact it is impossible to convey to the English reader, in terms of proper decency, any idea of this bacchanalian scene” (Head’s “Life of Bruce,” pp. 297, 298). In Parkyns’s time a wedding-feast was an orgy of the same kind for all classes and both sexes. And as there is a complete absence of gêne in the conduct of modern Abyssinian women in other respects, I have little doubt that they still favour the tedj when the mood prompts them.