Aethiopia produces very near the same kinds of provision as Portugal,
though, by the extreme laziness of the inhabitants, in a much less
quantity. What the ancients imagined of the torrid zone being a part of
the world uninhabitable, is so far from being true, that the climate is
very temperate. The blacks have better features than in other countries,
and are not without wit and ingenuity. Their apprehension is quick, and
their judgment sound. There are, in this climate, two harvests in the
year; one in winter, which lasts through the months of July, August, and
September; the other in the spring. They have, in the greatest plenty,
raisins peaches pomegranates, sugar-canes, and some figs. Most of these
are ripe about lent, which the Abyssins keep with great strictness. The
animals of the country are the lion, the elephant, the rhinoceros, the
unicorn, horses, mules, oxen, and cows without number. They have a very
particular custom, which obliges every man, that has a thousand cows, to
save every year one day's milk of all his herd, and make a bath with it
for his relations. This they do so many days in each year, as they have
thousands of cattle; so that, to express how rich a man is, they tell
you, 'he bathes so many times.'
"Of the river Nile, which has furnished so much controversy, we have a
full and clear description.
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