Angollala continued bitterly cold throughout the month of December; and
fires, although not quite indispensable, were always found pleasant
enough. A dry cutting wind from the eastward blew throughout the day;
but the clouds, which often gathered over the surrounding mountains,
occasionally disturbed the serenity of the afternoon with a squall of
hail. Snipe abounded among the serpentine streams which intersected the
environs of the palace-hill; and the hero who possessed courage to cast
off the blankets before the sun rose, invariably saw the hoar-frost
lying white over the faded meadows. Dogs continued to howl in packs,
and mendicants to importune as of yore. Dirty pages and troublesome
idlers still infested my tent; and the approaches were choked by
numerous bands of Yedjow Galla, who were begging their way to the
country of Dedjasmach Paris. Day and night their monotonous voices
arose from every quarter of the town, and Christian adjurations by
"Miriam" and "Kedoos Michael" were often nearly drowned by the choral
hymn uplifted to Allah and the false prophet.
A new invoice of beads, cutlery, trinkets, _ghemdjia_, and other
"pleasing things," had been received from the coast; and visits were
therefore unusually frequent on the part of all who loved to be
decorated. Abba Mooalle, surnamed "the Great Beggar in the West," with
his adopted brother, appeared to hold the lease of the tent in
perpetuity; and in return for amber necklaces and gay chintz vestments,
hourly volunteered some promise, simply, it would seem, that they might
afterwards enjoy the pleasure of forfeiting a gratuitous oath. If
solemn asseverations by highly respectable saints and martyrs, were to
be received with credit, messengers were almost daily despatched, and on
fleet horses too, for the purpose of bringing from the Galla
dependencies on the Nile, amongst other treasures, the spoils of the
_gassela_, a black leopard, elsewhere not procurable, and "worn only by
the governors of provinces." But by some unaccountable fatality, not
one of these fleet couriers ever found his way back to the English camp
at Angollala; and the cry meanwhile continued, without
intermission,--"Show me pleasing things; give me delighting things;
adorn me from head to foot."
Nor were there wanting other standing dishes of an equally rapacious and
insatiable character, and scarcely more addicted to veracity. Gadeloo,
"the hen-pecked," was punctual in his attendance, by order of the
Emabiet of Mahhfood, who had always a new want to be supplied. "May
they buy," with an unsound steed for sale at an unconscionable price,
brought daily an urgent request of some sort from his spouse. Neither
did any morning pass without a protracted visit from Shunkoor, "Sugar,"
own brother to the queen, escorted by Ayto Dedjen, "Doors," his shadow
and boon companion, and grand-nephew to the monarch himself. But the
attachment subsisting between these inseparable allies was one day
suddenly dissolved over a decanter of unusually potent hydromel, and a
sabre-cut on the head of either, demonstrated, alas! the fleeting and
unstable nature of all sublunary friendship.
As each evening closed, the nobility were to be seen streaming towards
our tents from the royal banquet, supported upon their ambling mules by
a host of armed and not very sober retainers; and a tribe of ragged
pages bringing messages from the palace, accidentally entered at the
same time to report the substance of the conversation, although many of
the illustrious visitors were absolutely inarticulate. Lances were
hurled at a target to the imminent peril of all spectators; and the neck
of the vanquished having been duly trampled under foot, according to the
ancient Oriental form of military triumph, all who anticipated any
difficulty in reaching their own abodes, staggered back to the Gyptzis
to laugh at the mad pranks of Daghie, the obsequious court buffoon, and
the flower of Abyssinian minstrelsy.
Decked by the favour of the monarch in a shining silver sword, this
Merry Andrew, fiddle in hand, came scraping and chanting his way
homeward, with eyes sufficiently inflamed to indicate where he had been
dining. Kissing the earth as he took his seat in the tent, amid many
antics, grimaces, and inquiries, he proceeded to elicit from his
instrument imitations of the human voice under various intonations of
joy, surprise, and sorrow; and a host of retainers, crowding round the
doors with shoulders bared, next shouted their approval to some
travestie of the wild Adel slogan, or joined their voices in full chorus
to swell the Amhara death triumph, or this, the pibroch of the Nile:--
"The sword is burning for the fight,
And gleams like rays of living light;
Let thoughts of fear inthral the slave--
Rouse to the strife, ye Gojam brave.
"Clustering they come, the Turkish rout
Ring back on high the Amhara shout;
For honour, home, or glorious grave--
Rouse to the strife, ye Gojam brave.
"The sword of Confu leads the war.
And dastard spirits quail afar;
None here to pity, none to save--
Rouse to the strife, ye Gojam brave.
"Our swords in tint shall soon outvie
Yon scabbard of the crimson dye.
And overhead shall ruddy wave--
Rouse to the strife, ye Gojam brave.
"Red as their belts their blood shall flow,
Deep as the hue of sunset glow;
Mercy to none who mercy crave--
Rouse to the strife, ye Gojam brave."
Pages and abigails were hourly in attendance, on the part of their royal
master or mistress, with some rubbish from the palace, which was
carefully removed from its red and yellow basket of Gurague grass,
divested of all its numerous wrappers, and confidentially exhibited with
an inquiry, _sotto voce_, "whether more of the same description was not
to be obtained?" The outcry raised for detonating caps was wearisome
and incessant; for although it was notorious that the royal magazines
boasted a hoard sufficient to answer the utmost demand of at least three
generations, the king was ever apprehensive of bankruptcy, in event of a
quarrel with the Adaiel, "because his own people knew not the road
beyond the world of waters." Thus it happened that Kidana Wold, "the
long gunman," who had charge of the royal armoury, received private
instructions to look in at the Residency at least twice a week, with a
_mamalacha_ for fifty or a hundred _tezabs_, and regularly once a month
averred that he had been so unfortunate as to drop from his girdle
another box of His Majesty's patent anticorrosives--a loss which, unless
timely repaired, must inevitably result in the forfeiture of his
liberty. "The _Gaita_ has discovered my carelessness," he would add,
with tears in his eyes; "and, by Mary, if you don't help me immediately,
I shall be sent to Goncho." Treble strong canister gunpowder was also
in high demand, its superiority over the manufacture of Shoa being
admitted even by the maker. But the sulphur monopoly remained as
heretofore most jealously guarded. The ill-starred individual who had
charge of the mines on the frontier, in an evil hour accepted silver for
a lump of the purified commodity, which was required for the cure of
applicants having the beggar's disease; and spies reporting the
peculation, the delinquent was condemned to perpetual labour in the hot
valleys of Giddem.
This convict was accompanied in his exile by a shrewd lad, who had been
detected at the Bool Worki market in giving circulation to two
counterfeit dollars. Weeks of incessant toil had enabled him to produce
out of a lump of pewter, very creditable imitations of the coinage of
Maria Theresa. Every spot and letter had been most closely represented
with a punch and file; and the ingenious artist, naturally enough,
seemed vastly mortified at the untoward consequences of his labour.
"Tell me," inquired the king, as the culprit was being removed, "how is
that machine made which in your country pours out the silver crowns like
a shower of rain?"
Architecture now occupied a full share of the royal brain. The hand
corn-mills presented by the British Government had been erected within
the palace walls, and slaves were turning the wheels with unceasing
diligence. "Demetrius the Armenian made a machine to grind corn,"
exclaimed His Majesty, in a transport of delight, as the flour streamed
upon the floor; "and although it cost my people a year of hard labour to
construct, it was useless when finished, because the priests declared it
to be the Devil's work, and cursed the bread. But may Sahela Selassie
die! These engines are the invention of clever heads. Now I will build
a bridge over the Bereza, and you shall give me your advice."
Early the ensuing morning the chief smith was accordingly in attendance
with hammer and tongs; and "when the sun said hot," the pious monarch,
having first paid his orisons in the church of the Trinity, proceeded,
with all suitable cunning, to plan the projected edifice beneath a
fortunate horoscope. Twelve waterways were traced with stones under his
skilful superintendence on a site selected after infinite discussion;
and in five minutes a train of slaves from the establishment at Debra
Berhan were heaping together piles of loose boulders to serve as piers.
Splinters of wood connected the roadway, and in three days the structure
was complete, its appearance giving promise of what actually happened--
demolition within as many short hours, on the very first violent fresh
to which the river is subject during the annual rains.
But our predictions of this impending catastrophe were received with an
incredulous shake of the head; and my advice that orders should be
issued to the Governors on the Nile to keep a vigilant lookout for the
upper timbers on their voyage down to Egypt, was followed by a
good-humoured laugh and a playful tap on the shoulder of the audacious
foreigner, who, to the horror and amazement of the obsequious courtiers,
had thus ventured to speak his mind to the despot. In vain was it that
I proposed to construct a bridge upon arches which might defy the
impetuosity of the torrent. "All my subjects are asses," retorted His
Majesty: "they are idle and lazy, and devoid of understanding. There is
not one that will consent to labour, no, not one; and if through your
means they should be compelled to perform the task, they would weep, and
invoke curses on the name of the Gyptzis. Your corn mills are approved,
because they save the women trouble, but by the shades of my
ancestors!--a bridge--" Here all sense of the decorum due to the sceptre
was forgotten for the moment, and the monarch whistled aloud.
And the king was right. Weaving excepted, which in so cold a climate is
an art indispensable to existence, the people of Shoa can hardly be said
to practise any manufacture. The raw cotton, which is as cheap as it is
excellent and abundant, is, by him who would be clad, handed over with a
number of _amoles_ proportioned to the size of the cloth required. A
common bow is used to spread the wool; and the spinning jenny being
unknown, the thread is twisted by means of the ancient spindle, to which
motion is imparted by a rapid pressure betwixt the left palm and the
denuded thigh, whilst the right hand is simultaneously carried upwards
for the purpose of "roving." Time is here held of no account; and
female labour having supplied the want of machinery in these preliminary
operations, the twist is transferred to a rude locomotive loom, and a
warm durable mantle is produced with the aid only of a simple shuttle.
British commerce has not only forced its way, but created markets and
customers in many a wilder and more inaccessible portion of the globe
than highland Abyssinia, and its operation promises to open the only
means of improvement and civilisation. Even in the absence of water
carriage, the experience of many years has proved that the living ship
of the desert is a machine of transport adequate to the most important
traffic; and, if once established, that traffic would in a few years
doubtless bind both people and ruler in the strongest chains of personal
interest. It would rapidly change the pursuits of the people--convert
the rude hut into a comfortable dwelling--limit, if not extinguish, the
slave trade with Arabia, and if not reform, at least enlighten, the
clouded Christianity of Ethiopia.
A commercial convention betwixt Great Britain and Shoa was a subject
that had been frequently adverted to; and His Majesty had shaken his
head when first assured that five hundred pair of hands efficiently
employed at the loom would bring into his country more permanent wealth
than ten thousand warriors bearing spear and shield. But he had
gradually begun to comprehend how commerce, equitably conducted, might
prove a truer source of wealth than forays into the territories of the
heathen. This conviction resulted in the expression of his desire that
certain articles agreed upon might be drawn up on parchment, and
presented for signature, which had accordingly been done; and the day
fixed for the return of the embassy to Ankober was appointed for the
public ratification of the document by the annexure thereto of the royal
hand and seal.
Nobles and captains thronged the court-yard of the palace at Angollala,
and the king reclined on the throne in the attic chamber. A highly
illuminated sheet, surmounted on the one side by the Holy Trinity--the
device invariably employed as the arms of Shoa--and on the other by the
Royal Achievement of England, was formally presented, and the sixteen
articles of the convention in Amharic and English, read, commented upon,
and fully approved. They involved the sacrifice of arbitrary
appropriation by the crown of the property of foreigners dying in the
country, the abrogation of the despotic interdiction which had from time
immemorial precluded the purchase or display of costly goods by the
subject, and the removal of penal restrictions upon voluntary movement
within and beyond the kingdom, which formed a modification of the
obsolete national maxim, "never to permit the stranger who had once
entered, to depart from Abyssinia." All these evils His Majesty
unhesitatingly declared his determination to annul for the good of his
people.
Tekla Mariam, the royal notary, kneeling, held the upper part of the
unrolled scroll upon the state cushion, and the king, taking the
proffered pen, inscribed after the words "Done and concluded at
Angollala, the Galla capital of Shoa, in token whereof we have hereunto
set our hand and seal,"--"Sahela Selassie, who is the Negoos of Shoa,
Efat, and the Galla." The imperial signet, a cross encircled by the
word "Jesus," was then attached by the scribe in presence of the chief
of the church, the Dedj Agafari, the Governor of Morat, and three other
functionaries who were summoned into the alcove for the purpose.
"You have loaded me with costly presents," exclaimed the monarch as he
returned the deed: "the raiment that I wear, the throne whereon I sit,
the various curiosities in my storehouses, and the muskets which hang
around the great hall, are all from your country. What have I to give
in return for such wealth? My kingdom is as nothing."
Volume Two, Chapter XLVI.