However these people may
differ from us in their descent, their manners and their customs,
the effects of the above mentioned causes are the same in Africa
as they were in Europe, for they operate on man himself
independently of the particular locality in which he may be
planted; and the conditions of the Abyssinians of modern times is,
in regard to superstition, a mirror of the condition of the
European nations of the middle ages. Should this appear a bold
assertion it will be strengthened by the fact that in Abyssinia
two examples of superstitions occur which are completely in
accordance with occurrences of the Middle Ages that took place
contemporarily with the dancing mania. THE ABYSSINIANS HAVE THEIR
CHRISTIAN FLAGELLANTS, AND THERE EXISTS AMONG THEM A BELIEF IN A
ZOOMORPHISM, WHICH PRESENTS A LIVELY IMAGE OF THE LYCANTHROPY OF
THE MIDDLE AGES. Their flagellants are called Zackarys. They are
united into a separate Christian fraternity, and make their
processions through the towns and villages with great noise and
tumult, scourging themselves till they draw blood, and wounding
themselves with knives. They boast that they are descendants of
St.
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