The capital punishments in Abyssinia are the cross. Socinios[1] first ordered Arzo, his competitor, who had fled for assistance and refuge to Phineas king of the Falasha, to be crucified without the camp. We find the same punishment inflicted by Artaxerxes upon Haman[2], who was ordered to be affixed to the cross till he died. And Polycrates of Samos, Cicero tells us[3], was crucified by order of Orætis, prætor of Darius.
The next capital punishment is flaying alive. That this barbarous execution still prevails in Abyssinia is already proved by the fate of the unfortunate Woosheka, taken prisoner in the campaign of 1769 while I was in Abyssinia; a sacrifice made to the vengeance of the beautiful Ozoro Esther, who, kind and humane as she was in other respects, could receive no atonement for the death of her husband. Socrates[4] says, that Manes the heretic was flayed alive by order of the king of Persia, and his skin made into a bottle. And Procopius[5] informs us, that Pacurius ordered Basicius to be flayed alive, and his skin made into a bottle and hung upon a high tree. And Agathias[6] mentions, that the same punishment was inflicted upon Nachorages more majorum, according to ancient custom.
Lapidation, or stoning to death, is the next capital punishment in Abyssinia. This is chiefly inflicted upon strangers called Franks, for religious causes. The Catholicpriests
