beauty. The crow is marked white and black nearly in equal portions.
There is one kind of raven; he, too, of a large size, his feathers
black intermixed with brown; his beak tipt with white, and a figure
like a cup or chalice of white feathers on his occiput, or hinder part
of his head. I never saw either sparrow, magpie, or bat in Abyssinia.
Pigeons are there in great numbers, and of many varieties; some of them
very excellent for eating. I shall hereafter describe one of them whose
name is Waalia. All the pigeons but one sort are birds of passage,
that one lives in the eaves of houses or holes in the walls, and
this is not eaten, but accounted unclean for a very whimsical reason;
they say it has claws like a falcon, and is a mixture from that bird.
The same sort of imagination is that of the Turks, who say, that the
Turkey, from the tuft of black hair that is upon his breast, partakes
of the nature of the hog. This pigeon’s feet are indeed large, but very
different in formation from that of the falcon.
There are no geese in Abyssinia, wild or tame, excepting what is called
the Golden Goose, Goose of the Nile, or Goose of the Cape, common in
all the South of Africa: these build their nests upon trees, and when
not in water, generally sit upon them.
I have already spoken of fishes, and have entered very sparingly into
their history. These, and other marine productions of the Arabian Gulf,
or even the small share that I have painted and collected, would occupy
many large volumes to exhibit and describe, and would cost, in the
engraving, a much larger sum than I have any prospect of ever being
able to afford.
[Illustration: _Nisser Werk._
_London Publish’d Dec.^r 1.^{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]
NISSER, OR GOLDEN EAGLE.
I have ventured from his colour to call this bird the Golden Eagle, by
way of distinction, as its Ethiopic name, Nisser, is only a generic
one, and imports no more than the English name, Eagle. He is called by
the vulgar Abou Duch’n, or Father Long Beard, which we may imagine was
given him from the tuft of hair he has below his beak.
I suppose him to be not only the largest of the eagle kind, but surely
one of the largest birds that flies. From wing to wing he was 8 feet 4
inches. From the tip of his tail to the point of his beak when dead, 4
feet 7 inches. He weighed 22 pounds, was very full of flesh. He seemed
remarkably short in the legs, being only four inches from the joining
of the foot to where the leg joins the thigh, and from the joint of the
thigh to the joining of his body 6 inches. The thickness of his thigh
was little less than 4 inches; it was extremely muscular, and covered
with flesh. His middle claw was about 2 inches and a half long, not
very sharp at the point, but extremely strong. From the root of the
bill, to the point, was 3 inches and a quarter, and one inch and three
quarters in breadth at the root. A forked brush of strong hair, divided
at the point into two, proceeded from the cavity of his lower jaw at
the beginning of his throat. He had the smallest eye I ever remember to
have seen in a large bird, the aperture being scarcely half an inch.
The crown of his head was bare or bald, so was the front where the bill
and scull joined.
This noble bird was not an object of any chace or pursuit, nor stood
in need of any stratagem to bring him within our reach. Upon the
highest top of the mountain Lamalmon, while my servants were refreshing
themselves from that toilsome rugged ascent, and enjoying the pleasure
of a most delightful climate, eating their dinner in the outer air with
several large dishes of boiled goats flesh before them, this enemy,
as he turned out to be to them, appeared suddenly; he did not stoop
rapidly from a height, but came flying slowly along the ground, and
sat down close to the meat within the ring the men had made round it.
A great shout, or rather cry of distress, called me to the place. I
saw the eagle stand for a minute as if to recollect himself, while the
servants ran for their lances and shields. I walked up as nearly to
him as I had time to do. His attention was fully fixed upon the flesh.
I saw him put his foot into the pan where was a large piece in water
prepared for boiling, but finding the smart which he had not expected,
he withdrew it, and forsook the piece which he held.
There were two large pieces, a leg and a shoulder, lying upon a wooden
platter, into these he trussed both his claws, and carried them off,
but I thought he looked wistfully at the large piece which remained in
the warm water. Away he went slowly along the ground as he had come.
The face of the cliff over which criminals are thrown took him from our
sight. The Mahometans that drove the asses, who had, as we have already
observed in the course of the journey, suffered from the hyæna, were
much alarmed, and assured me of his return. My servants, on the other
hand, very unwillingly expected him, and thought he had already more
than his share.
As I had myself a desire of more intimate acquaintance with him, I
loaded a rifle-gun with ball, and sat down close to the platter by
the meat. It was not many minutes before he came, and a prodigious
shout was raised by my attendants, He is coming, he is coming, enough
to have discouraged a less courageous animal. Whether he was not
quite so hungry as at the first visit, or suspected something from my
appearance, I know not, but he made a small turn, and sat down about
ten yards from me, the pan with the meat being between me and him. As
the field was clear before me, and I did not know but his next move
might bring him opposite to some of my people, and so that he might
actually get the rest of the meat and make off, I shot him with the
ball through the middle of his body about two inches below the wing,
so that he lay down upon the grass without a single flutter. Upon
laying hold of his monstrous carcase, I was not a little surprised at
seeing my hands covered and tinged with yellow powder or dust. Upon
turning him upon his belly, and examining the feathers of his back,
they produced a brown dust, the colour of the feathers there. This
dust was not in small quantities, for, upon striking his breast, the
yellow powder flew in fully greater quantity than from a hair-dresser’s
powderpuff. The feathers of the belly and breast, which were of a
gold colour, did not appear to have any thing extraordinary in their
formation, but the large feathers in the shoulder and wings seemed
apparently to be fine tubes, which upon pressure scattered this dust
upon the finer part of the feather, but this was brown, the colour of
the feathers of the back. Upon the side of the wing, the ribs, or hard
part of the feather, seemed to be bare as if worn, or, I rather think,
were renewing themselves, having before failed in their function.
What is the reason of this extraordinary provision of nature is not in
my power to determine. As it is an unusual one, it is probably meant
for a defence against the climate in favour of those birds which live
in those almost inaccessible heights of a country, doomed, even in its
lower parts, to several months of excessive rain. The pigeons we saw
upon Lamalmon, had not this dust in their feathers, nor had the quails;
from which I guess these to be strangers, or birds of passage, that had
no need of this provision, created for the wants of the indigenous,
such as this eagle is, for he is unknown in the low country. That same
day I shot a heron, in nothing different from ours, only that he was
smaller, who had upon his breast and back a blue powder, in full as
great quantity as that of the eagle.
[Illustration: _Nisser Tokoor._
_London Publish’d De.^r 1.^{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]
BLACK EAGLE.
This beautiful bird was the first subject that suffered the loss
of liberty, after the king and whole army had vindicated theirs,
had passed the Nile in circumstances scarcely within the bounds of
credibility, had escaped all the deep-laid schemes of Fasil, and by a
train of accidents almost miraculous, passed triumphantly on before him
after the battle of Limjour, having joined Kefla Yasous, advanced and
encamped at Dingleber the 28th of May 1770.
This bird, who from the nobleness of his kind was appositely enough
thought to be a type of the king, fell by a fate, in which he still
more resembled him, overpowered by the strength and number of a species
of birds in character infinitely below him. It has been repeatedly
observed in the course of my narrative, that an inconceivable
number of birds and beasts of prey, especially the former, follow an
Abyssinian army pace by pace, from the first day of its march till its
return, increasing always in prodigious proportion the more it advances
into the country. An army there leaves nothing living behind, not the
vestige of habitation, but the fire and the sword reduces everything to
a wilderness and solitude.
The beasts and birds unmolested have the country to themselves, and
increase beyond all possible conception. The slovenly manner of this
savage people, who after a battle neither bury friends nor enemies,
the quantity of beasts of burden that die perpetually under the load
of baggage, and variety of mismanagement, the quantity of offal and
half-eaten carcases of cows, goats, and sheep, which they consume
in their march for their sustenance, all furnish a flock of carrion
sufficient to occasion contagious distempers, were there not such a
prodigious number of voracious attendants, who consume them almost
before putrefaction. In their voracious stomachs lies the grave
of the bravest soldier, unless very high birth or office, or very
extraordinary affection in their attendants, procure them a more
decent, though more uncommon fate, a sepulchre in a neighbouring
church-yard. There is no giving the reader any idea of their number,
unless by comparing them to the sand of the sea. While the army is in
motion they are a black canopy, which extend over it for leagues. When
encamped, the ground is discoloured with them beyond the sight of the
eye, all the trees are loaded with them. I need not say that these are
all carrion birds, such as the vulture, kite, and raven, that is a
species to which nature has refused both the inclination and the power
of feeding upon living subjects.
By what accident this small eagle, who was not a carrion bird, came
among these cowardly and unclean feeders, is more than I can say; but
it met the fate very common to those who assort with bad company, and
those of sentiments and manners inferior to their own. One of these, a
kite, vulture, or raven, I know not which, struck the poor eagle down
to the ground just before the door of the king’s tent, and hurt him so
violently, that he had scarcely strength to flutter under the canopy
where the king was sitting; pages and officers of the bed-chamber soon
seized him. It was not long before they made the application that the
king was to be dethroned by a subject, and Fasil was in everybody’s
mouth. The omen was of the kind too unpleasant to be dwelt upon; the
sensible people of the attendants hurried it away, and it of course
came to me with all the circumstances of the accident, the moral of
that tale, and twenty prophecies that were current to confirm it. I
confess my own weakness; at first it made a strong impression upon me.
In the moment the passage of Shakespeare came into my mind,
------“On Tuesday last,
“A falcon tow’ring in his pride of place,
“Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d.”
And this recollection occupied my mind so forcibly, that I stood for
a moment speechless, and as it were rivetted to the ground. This
behaviour, unusual in me, who used always to laugh at their presages,
and prophecies, was observed by the page that brought me the bird, and
was reported to the king; and though he did not speak of it that time,
yet some days after, when I was taking my leave of him on his retreat
from Gondar to Tigré, he mentioned it to me: said we were mistaken, for
the omen referred to Powussen’ of Begemder, and not to Waragna Fasil.
After sketching his genteel and noble manner while alive, our
unfortunate prisoner found his death by the needle, was put out of
sight, and carried to Gondar, where the drawing was finished. He was
altogether of a dark brown, or chesnut, leading to black. The whole
length, from the extremity of the tail to the nose, was two feet four
inches. The breadth, from wing to wing, four feet six inches. He was
very lean, and weighed something less than five pounds. The fourth
feather of his wing after the three largest, was white. The feathers
of the lower side of his tail were of a bluish brown, checkered with
white, and those of the upper side of the tail were black and white
alternately. His thighs were thick-covered with feathers, and so were
his legs, down to the joining of the foot. His feet were yellow, with
strong black claws. The inside of his wings was white, with a mixture
of brown. His leg, from the joining of the foot, was three inches. His
beak, from the point to where the feathers reached, was two inches
and a quarter. The length of his crest from the head to the longest
feather, five inches. The eye was black, with a cast of fire colour in
it, the iris yellow, and the whole eye exceedingly beautiful. He seemed
wonderfully tame, or rather sluggish, but whether that was from his
nature or misfortune I cannot be a judge, never having seen another.
[Illustration: _Rachamah_
_London Publish’d Feb.^y 10.^{th} 1790 by G. Robinson & Co._]
RACHAMAH.
This bird is met with in some places in the south of Syria and in
Barbary, but is no where so frequent as in Egypt and about Cairo. It is
called, by the Europeans, Poule de Faraone, the hen or bird of Pharaoh.
It is a vulture of the lesser kind, not being much larger than our rook
or crow, though, by the length of its wings, and the erect manner in
which it carries its head, it appears considerably larger. In Egypt
and all over Barbary it is called Rachamah, and yet it has been very
much doubted what bird this was, as well as what was the origin of
that name. Some of the Arabs will have it derived from Archam, which
signifies variegated, or of different colours. It has been answered,
that this is not the derivation, as archam in Arabic signifies
variegated, or of more colours than two or three blended together,
whereas this is in its feathers only black and white, separate from
one another, and cannot be called variegated. But I must here observe,
that this is by no means a proper interpretation of the Arabic word.
Among many examples I could give, I shall adduce but one. There is a
particular kind of sheep in Arabia Felix, whose head and part of the
neck are black, and the rest of the beast white; it is chiefly found
between Mocha and the Straits of Babelmandeb. This in Arabic is called
Rachama, for no other reason but because it is marked black and white,
which are precisely the two colours which distinguish the bird before
us.
But I still am induced to believe the origin of this bird’s name has
an older and more classical derivation than that which we have just
spoken of. We know from Horus Apollo, in his book upon Hieroglyphics,
that the Rachma, or she-vulture, was sacred to Isis, and that its
feathers adorned the statue of that goddess. He says it was the
emblem of parental affection, and that the Egyptians, about to write
an affectionate mother, painted a she-vulture. He says further, that
this female vulture, having hatched its young ones, continues with
them one hundred and twenty days, providing them with all necessaries;
and, when the stock of food fails them, she tears off the fleshy part
of her thigh, and feeds them with that and the blood which flows from
the wound. Rachama, then, is good Hebrew, it is from Rechem, female
love, or attachment, from an origin which it cannot have in men. In
this sense we see it used with great propriety in the first book of
Kings[66], in Isaiah[67], and in Lamentations[68], and it seems
particularly to mean what the Egyptians made it a hieroglyphic of in
very ancient ages, and before the time of Moses, maternal affection
towards their progeny. No mention is here made of the male Rachama, nor
was he celebrated for any particular quality.
From this silence, or negative personage in him, arose a fable that
there was no male in this species. Horus Apollo[69], after naming this
bird always in the feminine gender, tells us roundly, that there is no
male of the kind, but that the female conceives from the south wind.
Plutarch[70], Ammianus[71], and all the Greeks, say the same thing;
and Tzetzes[72], after having repeated the same story at large, tells
us that he took it all from the Egyptians, so there seems to be little
doubt either of the origin or meaning of the name.
The fathers in the first ages, after the death of Christ, seem to
have been wonderfully pressed in point of argument before they could
have recourse to a fable like this to vindicate the possibility of
the Virgin Mary’s conception without human means. Tertullian[73],
Orgines[74], Bazil[75], and Ambrosius[76], are all wild enough to found
upon this ridiculous argument, and little was wanting for some of
these learned ones to land this fable upon Moses, who probably knew
it as a vulgar error before his time, but was very far from paying any
regard to it; on the contrary, it is with the utmost propriety and
precision, that, speaking to the people, he calls it Rachama in the
feminine, because he was then giving them a list of birds forbidden to
be ate[77], among which he selected the female vulture, as that was
best known, and the great object of idolatry and superstition; and the
male, and all the lesser abominations of that species, he included
together in the word that followed _his_ kind; though the English
translator, by calling the female vulture _him_, has introduced an
impropriety that there was not the least foundation for. That Moses was
not the author of or believer in this Egyptian fable, is plain from a
verse in Exodus, where, at another time, he speaks of this bird, as a
male, and calls him Racham, and not Rachama.
It will not be improper that I here take notice, that the English
translator, by his ignorance of language, has lost all the beauty and
even the sense of the Hebrew original. He makes God say, “Ye have seen
what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings,
and brought you unto myself[78]”. Now, if the expression had been
really Eagle, the word would have been Nisr, and would have signified
nothing; but, in place of eagle, God says Vulture, the emblem of
maternal affection and maternal tenderness towards his children, which
has a particular connection with, “brought you unto myself;” so that
the passage will run thus, Say to the children of Israel, See how I
have punished the Egyptians, while I bore you up on the wings of the
Rachama, that is, of parental tenderness and affection, and brought you
home to myself. It is our part to be thankful that the truths of Holy
Scripture are preserved to us entire, but still it is a rational regret
that great part of the beauty of the original is lost.
Notwithstanding all that has been said, this bird has been mistaken
nearly by all the interpreters Hebrews, Syrians, and Samaritans; the
Greeks, from imaginations of their own, have thought it to be the
pelican, the stork, the swan, and the merops. Bochart, after a variety
of guesses, acknowledges his own ignorance, and excuses it by laying
equal blame upon others. Hitherto, says he, we have not been able to
condescend upon what bird this was, because those that have wrote
concerning it were as ignorant in the natural history of things as they
were skilful in the interpretation of words.
The point of the beak of this bird is black, very sharp and strong
for about three quarters of an inch, it is then covered by a yellow,
fleshy membrane, which clothes it as it were both above and below,
as likewise the forepart of the head and throat, and ends in a sharp
point before, nearly opposite to where the neck joins the breast; this
membrane is wrinkled, and has a few hairs growing thinly scattered
upon the lower part of it. It has large, open nostrils, and prodigious
large ears, which are not covered by any feathers whatever. The body
is perfect white from the middle of the head, where it joins the
yellow membrane, down to the tail. The large feathers of its wing are
black; they are six in number. The lesser feathers are three, of an
iron-grey, lighter towards the middle, and these are covered with three
others lesser still, but of the same form, of an iron rusty colour;
those feathers that cover the large wing-feathers are at the top for
about an inch and a quarter of an iron-grey, but the bottom is pure
white. The tail is broad and thick above, and draws to a point at the
bottom. It is not composed of large feathers, and is not half an inch
longer than the point of its wings. Its thighs are cloathed with a soft
down-like feather, as far as the joint. Its legs are of a dirty white,
inclining to flesh colour, rough, with small tubercules which are soft
and fleshy. It has three toes before and one behind; the middle of
these is considerably the longest; they are armed with black claws,
rather strong than pointed, or much crooked. It has no voice that ever
I heard, generally goes single, and oftener sits and walks upon the
ground than upon trees. It delights in the most putrid and slinking
kind of carrion, has itself a very strong smell, and putrifies very
speedily.
It is a very great breach of order, or police, to kill any one of these
birds near Cairo. But as there are few of its species in Egypt, and its
name is the same all over Africa and Arabia, it seems to me strange
that the Arabian or Hebrew writers should have found so much difficulty
in discovering what was the bird. It lays but two eggs, and builds
its nest in the most desert parts of the country. More of its history
or manners I do not know. The books are full of fanciful stories
concerning it, which the instructed reader at first sight will know to
be but fable.
[Illustration: _Abba Gumba._
_Heath. Sc._
_London Publish’d Dec.^r 1.^{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]
ERKOOM.
It would appear that this bird is part of a large tribe, the greatest
variety in which lies in his beak and horn. The horn he wears sometimes
upon the beak, and sometimes upon the forehead above the root of the
beak. These are the only parts that appear in collections. I gave to
the cabinet of the king of France the first bird of this kind seen
entire, and I have here exhibited the first figure and description
of it that ever was seen in natural history, drawn from the life. In
the east part of Abyssinia it is called Abba Gumba, in the language
of Tigré; on the western side of the Tacazzè it is called Erkoom; the
first of its names is apparently from the groaning noise it makes, the
second has no signification in any language that I know.
At Ras el Feel, in my return through Sennaar, I made this drawing from
a very entire bird, but slightly wounded; it was in that country
called Teir el Naciba, the bird of destiny. This bird, or the kind
of it, is by naturalists called the Indian crow, or raven; for what
reason it is thus classed is more than I can tell. The reader will see,
when I describe his particular parts, whether they agree with those of
the raven or not. There is one characteristic of the raven which he
certainly has, he walks, and does not hop or jump in the manner that
many others of that kind do; but then he, at times, runs with very
great velocity, and, in running, very much resembles the turkey, or
bustard, when his head is turned from you.
The colour of the eye of this bird is of a dark brown, or rather
reddish cast; but darker still as it approaches the pupil; he has very
large eye-lashes, both upper and lower, but especially his upper. From
the point of the beak to the extremity of the tail is 3 feet 10 inches;
the breadth from one point of the wing to the other extended, is 6
feet, and the length 22 inches. The length of the neck 10 inches, and
its thickness 3 inches and a half; the length of the beak measuring
the opening near the head straight to the point, 10 inches; and from
the point of the beak to the root of the horn 7 inches and 3/8ths.
The whole length of the horn is 3 inches and a half. The length of
the horn from the foot to the extremity where it joins the beak, is 4
inches. The thickness of the beak in front of the opening is one inch
and 7/8ths. The thickness of the horn in front is one inch and 5/8ths.
The horn in height, taken from the upper part of the point to the beak,
2 inches. The length of the thighs 7 inches, and that of the legs 6
inches and 5/8ths. The thickness in profile 7 lines, and in front 4
lines and a half. It has three toes before and one behind, but they are
not very strong, nor seemingly made to tear up carcases. The length of
the foot to the hinder toe is one inch 6 lines, the innermost is one
inch 7 lines, the middle 2 inches 2 lines, and the last outer one 2
inches one line.