which seems to come from a species of worm-wood. Like it the Cusso
sheds its seed very easily; from this circumstance, and its smallness,
no great quantity of the seed is gathered, and therefore the flower is
often substituted. It is bitter, but not nearly so much as the semen
santonicum.
The Cusso grows seldom above twenty feet high, very rarely straight,
generally crooked or inclined. It is planted always near churches,
among the cedars which surround them, for the use of the town or
village. Its leaf is about 2-1/4 inches long, divided into two by a
strong rib. The two divisions, however, are not equal, the upper being
longer and broader than the lower; it is a deep unvarnished green,
exceedingly pleasant to the eye, the fore part covered with soft hair
or down. It is very much indented, more so than a nettle-leaf, which in
some measure it resembles, only is narrower and longer.
These leaves grow two and two upon a branch; between each two are the
rudiments of two pair of young ones, prepared to supply the others
when they fall off, but they are terminated at last with a single leaf
at the point. The end of this stalk is broad and strong, like that of
a palm-branch. It is not solid like the gerid of the date-tree, but
opens in the part that is without leaves about an inch and a half from
the bottom, and out of this aperture proceeds the flower. There is a
round stalk bare for about an inch and a quarter, from which proceed
crooked branches, to the end of which are attached single flowers; the
stalk that carries these proceeds out of every crook, or geniculation;
the whole cluster of flowers has very much the shape of a cluster of
grapes, and the stalks upon which it is supported very much the stalk
of the grape; a very few small leaves are scattered through the cluster
of flowers.
[Illustration: _Cusso or Banksia Abissinica_
_London. Published Dec.^r 1.^{st} 1789 by G. Robinson & Co._]
[Illustration: _Flower of the Banksia_
_Abissinica._
_London Publish’d Dec.^r 1.^{st} 1789 by G. Robinson & Co._]
The coral itself is of a greenish colour, tinged with purple; when
fully blown, it is altogether of a deep red or purple; the flower is
white, and consists of five petals, in the midst is a short pistil with
a round head, surrounded by eight stamina of the same form, loaded with
yellow farina. The cup consists of five petals, which much resemble
another flower; they are rounded at the top, and nearly of an equal
breadth every way.
The bark of the tree is smooth, of a yellowish white, interspersed with
brown streaks which pass through the whole body of the tree. It is not
firm or hard, but rather stringy and reedy. On the upper part, before
the first branch of leaves set out, are rings round the trunk, of
small filaments, of the consistence of horse hair; these are generally
fourteen or sixteen in number, and are a very remarkable characteristic
belonging to this tree.
As the figure of this plant is true and exact beyond all manner of
exception, I cannot but think it may be found in latitudes 11 or 12°
north in the West Indies or America; and having been found a gentle,
safe, and efficacious medicine in Abyssinia, it is not doubted but the
superior skill of our physicians would turn it to the advantage of
mankind in general, when used here in Europe. In consequence of the
established prerogatives of discoverers, I have named this beautiful
and useful tree after Sir Joseph Banks, President of the royal Society.
TEFF.
This grain is commonly sown all over Abyssinia, where it seems to
thrive equally on all sorts of ground; from it is made the bread which
is commonly used throughout Abyssinia. The Abyssinians, indeed, have
plenty of wheat, and some of it of an excellent quality: They likewise
make as fine wheat-bread as any in the world, both for colour and
for taste; but the use of wheat-bread is chiefly confined to people of
the first rank. On the other hand, Teff is used by all sorts of people
from the king downwards, and there are kinds of it which are esteemed
fully as much as wheat. The best of these is as white as flour,
exceedingly light, and easily digested. There are others of a browner
colour, and some nearly black; this last is the food of soldiers and
servants. The cause of this variation of colour is manifold; the Teff
that grows on light ground having a moderate degree of moisture, but
never dry; the lighter the earth is in which it grows, the better and
whiter the Teff will be; the husk too is thinner. That Teff, too, that
ripens before the heavy rains, is usually whiter and finer, and a
great deal depends upon sifting the husk from it after it is reduced
to flour, by bruising or breaking it in a stone-mill. This is repeated
several times with great care, in the finest kind of bread, which is
found in the houses of all people of rank or substance. The manner of
making it is by taking a broad earthen jar, and having made a lump of
it with water, they put it into an earthen jar at some distance from
the fire, where it remains till it begins to ferment, or turn sour;
they then bake it into cakes of a circular form, and about two feet
in diameter: It is of a spungy, soft quality, and not a disagreeable
sourish taste. Two of these cakes a-day, and a coarse cotton cloth once
a-year, are the wages of a common servant.
[Illustration: _Teff_
_London Publish’d Feb.^y 9.^{th} 1790. by G. Robinson & Co._]
At their banquets of raw meat, the flesh being cut in small bits, is
wrapt up in pieces of this bread, with a proportion of fossile salt
and Cayenne pepper. Before the company sits down to eat, a number of
these cakes of different qualities are placed one upon the other,
in the same manner as our plates, and the principal people, sitting
first down, eat the white Teff; the second, or coarser sort, serves
the second-rate people that succeed them, and the third is for the
servants. Every man, when he is done, dries or wipes his fingers upon
the bread which he is to leave for his successor, for they have no
towels, and this is one of the most beastly customs of the whole.
The Teff bread, when well toasted, is put into a large jar, after being
broken into small pieces, and warm water poured upon it. It is then set
by the fire, and frequently stirred for several days, the mouth of the
jar being close covered. After being allowed to settle three or four
days, it acquires a sourish taste, and is what they call Bouza, or the
common beer of the country. The bouza in Atbara is made in the same
manner, only, instead of Teff, cakes of barley-meal are employed; both
are very bad liquors, but the worst is that made of barley.
The plant is herbaceous: from a number of weak leaves proceeds a stalk
of about twenty-eight inches in length, not perfectly straight, smooth,
but jointed or knotted at particular distances. This stalk is not much
thicker than that of a carnation or jellyflower. About eight inches
from the top, a head is formed of a number of small branches, upon
which it carries the fruit and flowers; the latter of which is small,
of a crimson colour, and scarcely perceptible by the naked eye, but
from the opposition of that colour. The pistil is divided into two,
seemingly attached to the germ of the fruit, and has at each end small
capillaments forming a brush. The stamina are three in number, two on
the lower side of the pistil, and one on the upper. These are, each
of them, crowned with two oval stigmata, at first green, but after,
crimson. The fruit is formed in a capsula, consisting of two conical,
hollow leaves, which, when closed, seems to compose a small conical
pod, pointed at the top. The fruit, or seed, is oblong, and is not so
large as the head of the smallest pin, yet it is very prolific, and
produces these seeds in such quantity as to yield a very abundant crop
in the quantity of meal.
Whether this grain was ever known to the Greeks and Romans, is what we
are no where told. Indeed, the various grains made use of in antiquity,
are so lamely and poorly described, that, unless it is a few of the
most common, we cannot even guess at the rest. Pliny mentions several
of them, but takes no notice of any of their qualities, but medicinal
ones; some he specifies as growing in Gaul, others in the Campania of
Rome, but takes no notice of those of Ethiopia or Egypt. Among these
there is one which he calls Tiphe, but says not whence it came; the
name would induce us to believe that this was Teff, but we can only
venture this as a conjecture not supported. But it is very improbable,
connected as Egypt and Ethiopia were from the first ages, both by
trade and religion, that a grain of such consequence to one nation
should be utterly unknown to the other. It is not produced in the low
or hot country, the Kolla, that is, in the borders of it; for no grain
can grow, as I have already said, in the Kolla or Mazaga itself; but
in place of Teff, in these borders, there grows a black grain called
Tocusso. The stalk of this is scarce a foot long; it has four divisions
where the grain is produced, and seems to be a species of the meiem
msalib, or gramen crucis, the grass of the cross. Of this a very black
bread is made, ate only by the poorest sort; but though it makes worse
bread, I think it makes better bouza.
Some have thought, from the frequent use of Teff, hath come that
disease of worms which I have mentioned in the article Cusso. But I
am inclined to think this is not the case, because the Gibbertis, or
Mahometans, born in Abyssinia, all use Teff in the same proportion as
the Christians, yet none of these are troubled with worms. And from
this I should be led to think that this disease arises rather from
eating raw meat, which the Mahometans do not, and therefore are not
affected with this disorder as the Christians are.
OF QUADRUPEDS.
I believe there is in the world no country which produces a greater
number, or variety of quadrupeds, whether tame or wild, than Abyssinia.
As the high country is now perfectly cleared of wood, by the waste made
in that article from the continual march of armies, the mountains are
covered to the very top, with perpetual verdure, and most luxuriant
herbage.
The long rains in summer are not suddenly absorbed by the rays of the
sun: a thick veil defends the ground when it is in the zenith, or
near it, affording heat to promote vegetation without withering it by
destroying the moisture, and by this means a never-failing store of
provender is constantly provided for all sorts of cattle. Of the tame
or cow-kind, great abundance present themselves everywhere, differing
in size, some having horns of various dimensions; some without horns
at all, differing also in the colour and length of their hair, by
having bosses upon their backs, according as their pasture or climate
varies. There are kinds also destined to various uses; some for
carriage, like mules or asses, some to be rode upon like horses; and
these are not the largest of that kind, but generally below the middle
size. As for that species bearing the monstrous horns, of which I have
often spoke in my narrative, their size is not to be estimated by
that of their horns; the animal itself is not near so big as a common
English cow; the growth of the horn is a disease which proves fatal
to them, because encouraged for a peculiar purpose. Whether it would
be otherwise curable, has not yet, I believe, been ever ascertained
by experiment. But the reader may with confidence assure himself,
that there are no such animals as carnivorous bulls in Africa, and
that this story has been invented for no other purpose but a desire
to exhibit an animal worthy of wearing these prodigious horns. I have
always wished that this article, and some others of early date, were
blotted out of our philosophical transactions; they are absurdities
to be forgiven to infant physic and to early travels, but they are
unworthy of standing among the cautious, well-supported narratives of
our present philosophers. Though we may say of the buffaloe that it is
of this kind, yet we cannot call it a tame animal here; so far from
that, it is the most ferocious in the country where he resides; this,
however, is not in the high temperate part of Abyssinia, but in the
sultry Kolla, or valleys below, where, without hiding himself, as wild
beasts generally do, as if conscious, of superiority of strength, he
lyes at his ease among large spreading shady trees near the clearest
and deepest rivers, or the largest stagnant pools of the purest water.
Notwithstanding this, he is in his person as dirty and slovenly as
he is fierce, brutal, and indocile; he seems to maintain among his
own kind the same character for manners that the wolf does among the
carnivorous tribe.
But what is very particular is, this is the only animal kept for giving
milk in Egypt. And though apparently these are of the same species, and
came originally from Ethiopia, their manners are so entirely changed by
their migration, difference of climate or of food, that, without the
exertion of any art to tame them, they are milked, conducted to and
fro, and governed by children of ten years old, without apprehension,
or any unlucky accident having ever happened.
Among the wild animals are prodigious numbers of the gazel, or antelope
kind; the bohur, sassa, secho, and madoqua, and various others; these
are seldom found in the cultivated country, or where cattle pasture,
as they chiefly feed on trees; for the most part, they are found in
broken ground near the banks of rivers, where, during the heat of the
day, they conceal themselves, and sleep under cover of the bushes;
they are still more numerous in those provinces whose inhabitants have
been extirpated, and the houses ruined or burnt in time of war, and
where wild oats, grown up so as to cover the whole country, afford
them a quiet residence, without being disturbed by man. Of this I have
mentioned a very remarkable instance in the first attempt I made to
discover the source of the Nile, (vol. III. p. 439.) The hyæna is still
more numerous: enough has been said about him; I apprehend that there
are two species. There are few varieties of the dog or fox kind. Of
these the most numerous is the Deep, or, as he is called, the Jackal;
this is precisely the same in all respects as the Deep of Barbary and
Syria, who are heard hunting in great numbers, and howling in the
evening and morning. The true Deep, as far as appears to me, is not yet
known, at least I never yet saw in any author a figure that resembled
him. The wild boar, smaller and smoother in the hair than that of
Barbary or Europe, but differing in nothing else, is met frequently in
swamps or banks of rivers covered with wood. As he is accounted unclean
in Abyssinia, both by Christians and Mahometans, consequently not
persecuted by the hunter, both he and the fox should have multiplied;
but it is probable they, and many other beasts, when young, are
destroyed by the voracious hyæna.
The elephant, rhinoceros, giraffa, or camelopardalis, are inhabitants
of the low hot country; nor is the lion, or leopard, faadh, which
is the panther, seen in the high and cultivated country. There are
no tigers in Abyssinia, nor, as far as I know, in Africa; it is an
Asiatic animal; for what reason some travellers, or naturalists, have
called him the tiger-wolf, or mistaken him altogether for the tiger,
is what I cannot discover. Innumerable flocks of apes, and baboons of
different kinds, destroy the fields of millet every where; these, and
an immense number of common rats, make great destruction in the country
and harvest. I never saw a rabbit in Abyssinia, but there is plenty of
hares; this, too, is an animal which they reckon unclean; and not being
hunted for food, it should seem they ought to have increased to greater
numbers. It is probable, however, that the great quantity of eagles,
vultures, and beasts of prey, has kept them within reasonable
bounds. The hippopotamus and crocodile abound in all the rivers, not
only of Abyssinia, but as low down as Nubia and Egypt: there is no good
figure nor description extant, as far as I know, of either of these
animals; some unforeseen accident always thwarted and prevented my
supplying this deficiency. There are many of the ass kind in the low
country towards the frontiers of Atbara, but no Zebras; these are the
inhabitants of Fazuclo and Narea.
[Illustration: _Rhinoceros of Africa._
_London Publish’d Dec.^r 1.^{st} 1789 by G. Robinson & Co._
_Heath. Sc._]
RHINOCEROS.
Naturalists seem now in general to be agreed that there are two species
of this quadruped, the first having two horns upon his nose, the second
one. It is also a generally received opinion, that these different
species are confined to distant places of the old continent; that with
one horn is thought to be exclusively an inhabitant of Asia, that with
two horns to be only found in Africa.
Whether this division is right in all its parts, I shall not advance.
That there is a rhinoceros in Asia with one horn is what we positively
know, but that there is none of the other species in that part of
the continent does not appear to me as yet so certain. Again, there
is no sort of doubt, that though the rhinoceros with two horns is an
inhabitant of Africa, yet is it as certain that the species with one
horn is often found in that country likewise, especially in the eastern
part, where is the myrrh and cinnamon country, towards Cape Gardefan,
which runs into the Indian ocean beyond the Straits of Babelmandeb. And
if I was to credit the accounts which the natives of the respective
countries have given me, I should be induced to believe that the
rhinoceros of the kingdom of Adel had but one horn. They say this is
the case where little rain falls, as in Adel, which, though within the
tropics, is not liable to that several months deluge, as is the inland
part of the country more to the westward. They say further, that all
that woody part inhabited by Shangalla, corresponding to Tigré and
Siré, is the haunt of the rhinoceros with two horns. Whether this is
really the case I do not pretend to aver, I give the reader the story
with the authority; I think it is probable; but as in all cases where
very few observations can be repeated, as in this, I leave him entirely
to the light of his own understanding.
The animal represented in this drawing is a native of Tcherkin, near
Ras el Feel, of the hunting of which I have already spoken in my
return through the desert to Egypt, and this is the first drawing of
the rhinoceros with a double horn that has ever yet been presented to
the public. The first figure of the Asiatic rhinoceros, the species
having but one horn, was painted by Albert Durer, from the life, from
one of those sent from India by the Portuguese in the beginning of the
sixteenth century. It was wonderfully ill-executed in all its parts,
and was the origin of all the monstrous forms under which that animal
has been painted, ever since, in all parts of the world. Several modern
philosophers have made amends for this in our days; Mr Parsons, Mr
Edwards, and the Count de Buffon, have given good figures of it from
life; they have indeed some faults, owing chiefly to preconceived
prejudices and inattention. These, however, were rhinoceroses with one
horn, all Asiatics. This, as I have before said, is the first that has
been published with two horns, it is designed from the life, and is an
African; but as the principal difference is in the horn, and as the
manners of this beast are, I believe, very faithfully described and
common to both species, I shall only note what I think is deficient in
his history, or what I can supply from having had an opportunity of
seeing him alive and at freedom in his native woods.
It is very remarkable, that two such animals as the elephant and
rhinoceros should have wholly escaped the description of the
sacred writers. Moses, and the children of Israel, were long in
the neighbourhood of the countries that produced them, both while
in Egypt and in Arabia. The classing of the animals into clean and
unclean, seems to have led the legislator into a kind of necessity of
describing, in one of the classes, an animal, which made the food of
the principal Pagan nations in the neighbourhood. Considering the long
and intimate connection Solomon had with the south-coast of the Red
Sea, it is next to impossible that he was not acquainted with them, as
both David his father, and he, made plentiful use of ivory, as they
frequently mention in their writings, which, along with gold, came from
the same part. Solomon, besides, wrote expressly upon Zoology, and,
we can scarce suppose, was ignorant of two of the principal articles
of that part of the creation, inhabitants of the great Continent of
Asia east from him, and that of Africa on the south, with both which
territories he was in constant correspondence.
There are two animals, named frequently in scripture, without
naturalists being agreed what they are. The one is the behemoth, the
other the reem, both mentioned as the types of strength, courage, and
independence on man, and as such exempted from the ordinary lot of
beasts, to be subdued by him, or reduced under his dominion. Tho’ this
is not to be taken in a literal sense, for there is no animal without
the fear or beyond the reach of the power of man, we are to understand
this as applicable to animals possessed of strength and size so
superlative as that in these qualities other beasts bear no proportion
to them.
The behemoth, then, I take to be the elephant; his history is well
known, and my only business is with the reem, which I suppose to be the
rhinoceros. The derivation of this word, both in the Hebrew and the
Ethiopic, seems to be from erectness, or standing straight. This is
certainly no particular quality in the animal itself, who is not more,
or even so much erect as many other quadrupeds, for, in its knees it
is rather crooked; but it is from the circumstance and manner in which
his horn is placed. The horns of all other animals are inclined to
some degree of parallelizm, with his nose, or _os frontis_. The horn
of the rhinoceros alone is erect and perpendicular to this bone, on
which it stands at right angles, thereby possessing a greater purchase,
or power, as a lever, than any horn could possibly have in any other
position.
This situation of the horn is very happily alluded to in the sacred
writings: “My horn shalt thou _exalt_ like the horn of an unicorn[31]:”
and the horn here alluded to is not wholly figurative, as I have
already taken notice of in the course of my history[32], but was really
an ornament, worn by great men in the days of victory, preferment, or
rejoicing, when they were anointed with new, sweet, or fresh oil, a
circumstance which David joins with that of erecting the horn.
Some authors, for what reason I know not, have made the reem, or
unicorn, to be of the deer or antelope kind, that is, of a genus whose
very character is fear and weakness, very opposite to the qualities by
which the reem is described in scripture; besides, it is plain the reem
is not of the class of clean quadrupeds; and a late modern traveller,
very whimsically, takes him for the leviathan, which certainly was a
fish. It is impossible to determine which is the silliest opinion of
the two. Balaam, a priest of Midian, and so in the neighbourhood of
the haunts of the rhinoceros, and intimately connected with Ethiopia,
for they themselves were shepherds of that country, in a transport,
from contemplating the strength of Israel whom he was brought to curse,
says, they had as it were the strength of the reem[33]. Job[34] makes
frequent allusion to his great strength, and ferocity, and indocility.
He asks, Will the reem be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?
that is, Will he willingly come into thy stable, and eat at thy manger?
And again, Canst thou bind the reem with a band in the furrow, and will
he harrow the vallies after thee[35]? In other words, Canst thou make
him go in the plow or harrows?