I observed he was very fond of eggs: pigeons eggs, and small birds
eggs, were first brought him, which he devoured with great avidity;
but he did not seem to know how to manage the egg of a hen, but when
broke for him, he ate it with the same voracity as the others. When he
was hungry, he would eat bread, especially with honey or sugar. It
was very observable that a bird, whether confined in a cage near him,
or flying across the room, engrossed his whole attention. He followed
it with his eyes where-ever it went, nor was he at this time to be
diverted by placing biscuit before him, and it was obvious, by the
great interest he seemed to take in its motions, that he was accustomed
to watch for victories over it, either for his pleasure or his food.
He seemed very much alarmed at the approach of a cat, and endeavoured
to hide himself, but shewed no symptom of preparing for any defence.
I never heard he had any voice; he suffered himself, not without some
difficulty, to be handled in the day when he seemed rather inclined to
sleep, but was exceedingly unquiet and restless so soon as night came,
and always endeavouring his escape, and though he did not attempt the
wire, yet with his sharp teeth he very soon mastered the wood of any
common bird-cage.
From the snout to the anus he was about ten inches long, his tail five
inches and a quarter, near an inch on the tip of it was black. From the
point of his fore-shoulder to the point of his fore-toe, was two inches
and 7/8ths. He was two inches and a half from his occiput to the point
of his nose, the length of his ears three inches and 3/8ths. These
were doubled, or had a plait on the bottom on the outside; the border
of his ears in the inside were thick-covered with soft white hair, but
the middle part was bare, and of a pink or rose colour. They were about
an inch and a half broad, and the cavities within very large. It was
very difficult to measure these, for he was very impatient at having
his ears touched, and always kept them erect, unless when terrified
by a cat. The pupil of his eye was large and black, surrounded by a
deep blue iris. He had strong, thick mustachoes; the tip of his nose
very sharp, black, and polished. His upper jaw reached beyond the
lower, and had four grinders on each side of the mouth. It has six
fore-teeth in each jaw. Those in the under jaw are smaller than the
upper. The canine, or cutting teeth, are long, large, and exceedingly
pointed. His legs are small, and his feet very broad; he has four toes
armed with crooked, black, sharp claws; those on his fore-feet more
crooked and sharp than behind. All his body is nearly of a dirty white,
bordering on cream colour; the hair of his belly rather whiter, softer,
and longer than, the rest, and on it a number of paps, but he was so
impatient it was impossible to count them. He very seldom extended or
stiffened his tail, the hair of which was harder. He had a very sly and
wily appearance. But as he is a solitary animal, and not gregarious,
as he has no particular mark of feebleness about him, no shift or
particular cunning which might occasion Solomon to qualify him as
wise; as he builds his nest upon trees, and not on the rock, he cannot
be the saphan of the scripture, as some, both Jews and Arabians, not
sufficiently attentive to the qualities attributed to that animal, have
nevertheless erroneously imagined.
[Illustration: _Ashkoko._
_London Publish’d Dec.^r 1^.{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]
ASHKOKO.
This curious animal is found in Ethiopia, in the caverns of the rocks,
or under the great stones in the Mountain of the Sun, behind the
queen’s palace at Koscam. It is also frequent in the deep caverns in
the rock in many other places in Abyssinia. It does not burrow, or
make holes, as the rat and rabbit, nature having interdicted him this
practice by furnishing him with feet, the toes of which are perfectly
round, and of a soft, pulpy, tender substance; the fleshy parts of the
toes project beyond the nails, which are rather broad than sharp, much
similar to a man’s nails ill grown, and these appear rather given him
for the defence of his soft toes, than for any active use in digging,
to which they are by no means adapted.
His hind foot is long and narrow, divided with two deep wrinkles, or
clefts, in the middle, drawn across the centre, on each side of which
the flesh rises with considerable protuberancy, and it is terminated by
three claws, the middle one is the longest. The forefoot has four toes,
three disposed in the same proportion as the hind foot; the fourth,
the largest of the whole, is placed lower down on the side of the
foot, so that the top of it arrives no farther than the bottom of the
toe next to it. The sole of the foot is divided in the centre by deep
clefts, like the other, and this cleft reaches down to the heel, which
it nearly divides. The whole of the forefoot is very thick, fleshy, and
soft, and of a deep black colour, altogether void of hair, though the
back, or upper part of it, is thick-covered like the rest of its body,
down to where the toes divide, there the hair ends, so that these long
round toes very much resemble the fingers of a man.
In place of holes, it seems to delight in less close, or more airy
places, in the mouths of caves, or clefts in the rock, or where one
projecting, and being open before, affords a long retreat under
it, without fear that this can ever be removed by the strength or
operations of man. The Ashkoko are gregarious, and frequently several
dozens of them sit upon the great stones at the mouth of caves, and
warm themselves in the sun, or even come out and enjoy the freshness
of the summer evening. They do not stand upright upon their feet, but
seem to steal along as in fear, their belly being nearly close to the
ground, advancing a few steps at a time, and then pausing. They have
something very mild, feeble like, and timid in their deportment; are
gentle and easily tamed, though, when roughly handled at the first,
they bite very severely.
This animal is found plentifully on Mount Libanus. I have seen him also
among the rocks at the Pharan Promontorium, or Cape Mahomet, which
divides the Elanitic from the Heroopolitic Gulf, or Gulf of Suez. In
all places they seem to be the same, if there is any difference it is
in favour of the size and fatness, which those in the Mountain of the
Sun seem to enjoy above the others. What is his food I cannot determine
with any degree of certainty. When in my possession, he ate bread and
milk, and seemed rather to be a moderate than voracious feeder. I
suppose he lives upon grain, fruit, and roots. He seemed too timid and
backward in his own nature to feed upon living food, or catch it by
hunting.
The total length of this animal as he sits, from the point of his nose
to his anus, is 17 inches and a quarter. The length of his snout, from
the extremity of the nose to the occiput, is 3 inches and 3/8ths. His
upper jaw is longer than his under; his nose stretches half an inch
beyond his chin. The aperture of the mouth, when he keeps it close in
profile, is a little more than an inch. The circumference of his snout
around both his jaws is 3 inches and 3/8ths; and round his head, just
above his ears, 8 inches and 5/8ths; the circumference of his neck
is 8 inches and a half, and its length one inch and a half. He seems
more willing to turn his body altogether, than his neck alone. The
circumference of his body, measured behind his forelegs, is 9 inches
and three quarters, and that of his body where greatest, eleven inches
and 3/8ths. The length of his foreleg and toe is 3 inches and a half.
The length of his hind thigh is 3 inches and 1/8th, and the length of
his hind leg to the toe taken together, is 2 feet 2 inches. The length
of the forefoot is 1 inch and 3/8ths; the length of the middle toe 6
lines, and its breadth 6 lines also. The distance between the point
of the nose and the first corner of the eye is one inch and 5/8ths;
and the length of his eye, from one angle to the other, 4 lines. The
difference from the fore angle of his eye to the root of his ear is one
inch 3 lines, and the opening of his eye 2 lines and a half. His upper
lip is covered with a pencil of strong hairs for mustachoes, the length
of which are 3 inches and 5/8ths, and those of his eye-brows 2 inches
and 2/8ths.
He has no tail, and gives at first sight the idea of a rat, rather than
of any other creature. His colour is a grey mixt with a reddish brown,
perfectly like the wild or warren rabbit. His belly is white, from the
point of the lower jaw, to where his tail would begin, if that he had
one. All over his body he has scattered hairs, strong and polished like
his mustachoes, these are for the most part two inches and a quarter in
length. His ears are round, not pointed. He makes no noise that ever I
heard, but certainly chews the cud. To discover this, was the principal
reason of my keeping him alive; those with whom he is acquainted he
follows with great assiduity. The arrival of any living creature, even
of a bird, makes him seek for a hiding-place, and I shut him up in a
cage with a small chicken, after omitting feeding him a whole day; the
next morning the chicken was unhurt, tho’ the Ashkoko came to me with
great signs of having suffered with hunger. I likewise made a second
experiment, by inclosing two smaller birds with him, for the space
of several weeks; neither were these hurt, though both of them fed,
without impediment, of the meat that was thrown into his cage, and the
smallest of these a kind of tit-mouse, seemed to be advancing in a
sort of familiarity with him, though I never saw it venture to perch
upon him, yet it would eat frequently, and at the same time, of the
food upon which the Ashkoko was feeding; and in this consisted chiefly
the familiarity I speak of, for the Ashkoko himself never shewed any
alteration of behaviour upon the presence of the bird, but treated it
with a kind of absolute indifference. The cage, indeed, was large, and
the birds having a perch to sit upon in the upper part of it, they did
not annoy one another.
In Amhara this animal is called Ashkoko, which I apprehend is derived
from the singularity of those long herinacious hairs, which, like small
thorns, grow about his back, and which in Amhara are called Ashok. In
Arabia and Syria he is called Israel’s Sheep, or Gannim Israel, for
what reason I know not, unless it is chiefly from his frequenting the
rocks of Horeb and Sinai, where the children of Israel made their forty
years peregrination; perhaps this name obtains only among the Arabians.
I apprehend he is known by that of Saphan in the Hebrew, and is the
animal erroneously called by our translators Cuniculus, the rabbit or
coney.
Many are the reasons against admitting this animal, mentioned by
scripture, to be the rabbit. We know that this last was an animal
peculiar to Spain, and therefore could not be supposed to be either
in Judea or Arabia. They are gregarious indeed, and so far resemble
each other, as also in point of size, but in place of seeking houses
in the rocks, we know the cuniculus’ desire is constantly sand. They
have claws, indeed, or nails, with which they dig holes or burrows,
but there is nothing remarkable in them, or their frequenting rocks,
so as to be described by that circumstance; neither is there any
thing in the character of the rabbit that denotes excellent wisdom,
or that they supply the want of strength by any remarkable sagacity.
The saphan then is not the rabbit, which last, unless it was brought
to him by his ships from Europe, Solomon never saw. It was not the
rabbit’s particular character to haunt the rocks. He was by no means
distinguished for feebleness, or being any way unprovided with means of
digging for himself holes. On the contrary, he was armed with claws,
and it was his character to dig such, not in the rocks, but in the
sands. Nor was he any way distinguished for wisdom, more than the hare,
the hedge-hog, or any of his neighbours.
Let us now apply these characters to the Ashkoko. He is above all other
animals so much attached to the rock, that I never once saw him on the
ground, or from among large stones in the mouth of caves, where is his
constant residence; he is gregarious, and lives in families. He is in
Judea, Palestine, and Arabia, and consequently must have been familiar
to Solomon. For David describes him very pertinently, and joins him
with other animals perfectly known to all men: “The hills are a refuge
for the wild goats, and the rocks for the saphan, or ashkoko[63].” And
Solomon says, “There be four things which are little upon the earth,
but they are exceeding wise[64]:”--“The saphannim are but a feeble
folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks[65].” Now this, I think,
very obviously fixes the Ashkoko to be the saphan, for this weakness
seems to allude to his feet, and how inadequate these are to dig
holes in the rock, where yet, however, he lodges. These are, as I have
already observed, perfectly round; very pulpy, or fleshy, so liable to
be excoriated or hurt, and of a soft fleshy substance. Notwithstanding
which, they build houses in the very hardest rocks, more inaccessible
than those of the rabbit, and in which they abide in greater safety;
not by exertion of strength, for they have it not, but are truly as
Solomon says, a feeble folk, but by their own sagacity and judgment,
and are therefore justly described as wise. Lastly, what leaves the
thing without doubt is, that some of the Arabs, particularly Damir,
say, that the saphan has no tail; that it is less than a cat, and lives
in houses, that is, not houses with men, as there are few of these in
the country where the saphan is; but that he builds houses, or nests of
straw, as Solomon has said of him, in contradistinction to the rabbit,
and rat, and those other animals, that burrow in the ground, who cannot
be said to build houses, as is expressly said of him.
The Christians in Abyssinia do not eat the flesh of this animal, as
holding it unclean, neither do the Mahometans, who in many respects
of this kind in abstinence from wild meat, have the same scruple as
christians. The Arabs in Arabia Petrea do eat it, and I am informed
those on Mount Libanus also. Those of this kind that I saw were very
fat, and their flesh as white as that of a chicken. Though I killed
them frequently with the gun, yet I never happened to be alone so as to
be able to eat them. They are quite devoid of all smell and rankness,
which cannot be said of the rabbit.
I have no doubt that the El Akbar and the El Webro of the Arabs, are
both the same animal. The El Akbar only means the largest of the
Mus-montanus, under which they have classed the Jerboa. The Jerd, and
El Webro, as also the Ashkoko or Akbar, answer to the character of
having no tail.
BOOTED LYNX.
This is a very beautiful species of Lynx, and, as far as I know, the
smallest of the kind. His body from the tip of the nose to the anus
being only 22 inches. His back, neck, and forepart of his feet are of
a dirty grey. His belly is of a dirty white, spotted with undefined
marks, or stains of red. Below his eyes, and on each side of his nose,
is a reddish brown,the back of his ears being of the same colour, but
rather darker; the inside of his ears is very thickly clothed with fine
white hair, and at the end is the pencil of hairs distinctive of this
genus. On the back of his forefeet, he has a black streak or mark,
which reaches from his heel two inches up his leg. On his hinder
foot he has the same, which reaches four inches from the heel, and ends
just below the first joint, and from this circumstance I have given him
his name.
[Illustration: _Lynx._
_London Publish’d Dec.^r 1^.{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]
His tail is 13 inches long, the lower part of it, for 6 inches, is
occupied with black rings. Between these rings his tail is nearly
white, the rest much the same colour as his back. From his nose to his
occiput is 4 inches and three quarters. From one eye to the other,
measuring across his nose, is one inch and three quarters. From the
base of one ear to that of the other, is 2 inches and 2/8ths. The
aperture of the eye three quarters of an inch, and of a yellow iris.
The length of his ear from its base to the point of the pencil of hairs
at the top of it, 4 inches and three quarters. From the sole of his
forefoot to his shoulder, as he stands, 13 inches and three quarters.
From the sole of his hind foot, to the top of his rump, 15 inches and a
quarter.
He has very much the appearance of a common cat, both from the length
of his tail, and the shape of his head, which however is broader, and
his neck thicker than that of a domestic animal. He is an inhabitant
of Ras el Feel, and, small as he is, lives among those tyrants of the
forest, the elephant and rhinoceros. I do not mean that he has any
hunting connections with them, as the jackal with the lion, I rather
think he avails himself of what is left by the hunters of the carcases
of those huge beasts. But the chief of all his food is the Guinea-hen,
of which the thickets and bushes of this country are full. For these he
lurks chiefly at the pools of water when they drink, and in this act
of violence I surprised him. He is said to be exceedingly fierce, and
to attack a man if any way pressed. At this time he mounts easily upon
the highest trees; at other times he is content with hiding himself in
bushes, but in the season of the fly he takes to holes and caverns in
the ground. I never saw its young ones, nor did I ever hear any noise
it makes, for the shot killed him outright, but did not in the least
disfigure him; so that the reader may depend upon this representation
of him as I have given it, with all possible truth and precision.
OF BIRDS.
The number of birds in Abyssinia exceeds that of other animals beyond
proportion. The high and low countries are equally stored with them,
the first kind are the carnivorous birds. Many species of the eagle
and hawk, many more still of the vulture kind, as it were overstock
all parts of this country. That species of glede called Haddaya, so
frequent in Egypt, comes very punctually into Ethiopia, at the return
of the sun, after the tropical rains. The quantity of shell-fish which
then covers the edges of the desert, and leaves the salt springs where
they have been nourished, surprised by the heat, and deserted by the
moisture, are the first food these birds find in their way. They then
are supplied in the neighbouring Kolla, by the carcases of those large
beasts, the elephant, rhinoceros, and giraffa, the whole tribe of the
deer kind, and the wild asses that are slain by the hunters, part of
which only are used in food.
The vast quantity of field-rats and mice that appear after harvest, and
swarm in the cracks, or fissures in the ground, are their next supply.
But above all, the great slaughter made of cattle upon the march of the
army, the beasts of burden which die under carriage and ill treatment,
the number of men that perish by disease and by the sword, whose
carcases are never buried by this barbarous and unclean people, compose
such a quantity, and variety of carrion, that it brings together at
one time a multitude of birds of prey, it would seem there was not
such a number in the whole earth. These follow the camp, and abide by
it; indeed, they seem another camp round it, for, besides those that
ventured among the tents, I have seen the fields covered on every side
as far as the eyes could reach, and the branches of the trees, ready to
break under the pressure of their weight.
This unclean multitude remain together in perfect peace till the rains
become constant and heavy; which deprive them of their food by forcing
the hunters and armies to retire home. Nor are other circumstances
wanting equally obvious, which account for the great number of birds
that live on insects. The fly, of which we have already spoken so
often, reigns in great swarms from May to September on the plains, and
in all the low country down to the sands of Atbara. These are attended
by a multitude of enemies, some of whom seek them for food; others
seem to persecute them from hatred, or for sport, from the multitude
they scatter upon the ground, without further care concerning them.
Honey is the principal food of all ranks of people in Abyssinia, and
consequently a multitude of bees are produced everywhere. Part of
these are kept in large cages, or baskets, hung upon the trees; others
attach themselves to the branches, others build nests in the soft
wood of the trees, especially the Bohabab, whose large and fragrant
flower furnishes them with a honey which it strongly perfumes. The
honey generally borrows its colour from the flowers and herbs from
whence it is gathered. At Dixan we were surprised to see the honey red
like blood, and nothing can have an appearance more disgusting than
this, when mixed with melted butter. There are bees which build in the
earth, whose honey is nearly black, as has been observed by the jesuit
Jerome Lobo, I willingly place this truth to his credit, the only one,
I think, I can find in his natural history, a small atonement for
the multitude of falsehoods this vain and idle romancer has told on
every occasion. Nor are the granivorous birds fewer in number or worse
provided for; all the trees and shrubs in Abyssinia bear flowers, and
consequently seeds, berries, or fruit, of some kind or other; food for
all or some particular species of birds. Every tree and bush carries
these likewise in all stages of ripeness, in all seasons of the year.
This is, however, not to be understood as meaning that any tree
produces in the same part, fruit or flowers more than once a-year; but
the time of each part’s bearing is very particularly distributed. The
west side of every tree is the first that blossoms, there its fruit
proceeds in all stages of ripeness till it falls to the ground. It is
succeeded by the south, which undergoes the same process. From this
it crosses the tree, and the north is next in fruit; last of all
comes the east, which produces flowers and fruit till the beginning
of the rainy season. In the end of April new leaves push off the old
ones without leaving the tree at any time bare, so that every tree in
Abyssinia appears to be an evergreen. The last I saw in flower was
the coffee-tree at Emfras the 20th of April 1770: from this time till
the rains begin, and all the season of them, the trees get fully into
leaf, and the harvest, which is generally in these months throughout
Abyssinia, supplies the deficiency of the seed upon bushes and trees.
All the leaves of the trees in Abyssinia are very highly varnished,
and of a tough leather like texture, which enables them to support the
constant and violent rains under which they are produced.
This provision made for granivorous birds, in itself so ample, is
doubled by another extraordinary regulation. The country being divided
by a ridge of mountains, a line drawn along the top of these divides
the seasons likewise; so that those birds to whom any one food is
necessary become birds of passage, and, by a short migration, find the
same seasons, and the same food, on the one side, which the rains and
change of weather had deprived them of on the other.
There is no great plenty of water-fowl in Abyssinia, especially of the
web-footed kind. I never remember to have seen one of these that are
not common in most parts of Europe. Vast variety of storks cover the
plains in May, when the rains become constant. The large indigenous
birds that reside constantly on the high mountains of Samen and
Taranta, have most of them an extraordinary provision made against
the wet and the weather; each feather is a tube, from the pores of
which issue a very fine dust or powder, in such abundance as to stain
the hand upon grasping them. This I shall presently mention in the
description of one of these birds, the golden eagle of Lamalmon. In
looking at this dust through a very strong magnifying power, I thought
I discerned it to be in form of a number of fine feathers.
Though all the deep and grassy bogs have snipes in them, I never once
saw a woodcock: swallows there are of many kinds, unknown in Europe;
those that are common in Europe appear in passage at the very season
when they take their flight from thence. We saw the greatest part
of them in the island of Masuah where they lighted and tarried two
days, and then proceeded with moon-light nights to the south-west.
But I once saw in the country of the Baharnagash, in the province of
Tigré, the blue forked-tailed swallow, which builds in the windows in
England, making his nest out of season, when he should have been upon
his migration; this I have already taken notice of in my journey from
Masuah to Gondar.