Sahela Selassie, "the clemency of the Trinity," seventh king of Shoa,
whose surname is Menilek, was twelve years of age when the assassination
of Woosen Suggud called him from a monastery to the throne, and placed
in his hands the reins of despotic government over a wild Christian
nation. His sire had enjoyed a brief, but exceedingly active reign of
four and a half years, during which he extended his empire far beyond
the limits bequeathed to him by Asfa Woosen--made conquests in the south
to the mountains of Garra Gorphoo, and in the west to the Nile. The
most despotic measures marked his transient but iron rule; and had he
survived, the expectations formed of him would in all probability have
been realised, and he would have become monarch of all Abyssinia. But
the nation groaned under his oppression; and after a series of the
harshest acts, induced by visits in disguise, like those of Haroun
Alraschid, the great Kaliph of Bagdad, to the houses of his subjects,
and to places of public resort, a Shankela slave, whom he had provoked
by ill usage, turned upon his royal master, and having slain him with a
sword, set fire to the palace at Kondie, which was burned to the ground;
and the wealth amassed in many earthen jars melted, according to the
tradition, into a liquid stream of mingled silver and gold, which flowed
over the mountain-side.
In Shoa, as in other savage countries, the tidings of the dissolution of
the monarch, unless timely concealed, spread like lightning to the
furthest extremities of the kingdom, and become a signal for rapine,
anarchy, and murder, which rage unrestrained during the continuance of
the interregnum. Every individual throughout the realm deems himself at
full liberty to act according to the bent of his own vicious
inclinations--to perpetrate every atrocity, and to indulge in the
gratification of every revengeful and licentious passion, without fear
of retribution or of punishment; and it being perfectly understood that
there exists neither law nor rule until the new sovereign shall have
been proclaimed, the kingless land for a season runs rivers of blood.
Fearful was the tragedy that followed the assassination of Woosen
Suggud. The royal family residing at Ankober, and the heir-apparent at
a still greater distance from Kondie, there ensued a scene of anarchy
and confusion which it would be difficult to describe; and at Debra
Libanos alone there fell no fewer than eight hundred victims to private
animosity, of whose murder no account was ever taken.
The eyes of the monarch being closed in death, the minister styled Dedj
Agafari, "the introducer through the door," proceeds to the inauguration
of the successor, who, unless some other arrangement shall have been
willed, is usually the heir-apparent. Presented to the senators and to
the inmates of the palace, the herald proclaims aloud, "We have reason
to mourn, and also to rejoice, for our old father is dead, but we have
found a new one." The accession thus declared, the king is invested
with the robes of state, and taking seat upon the throne, the public
officers first in order, and then the people, offer homage, and bow
before his footstool.
General mourning is invariably observed during the seven days which
follow the promulgation of the national calamity. Men, women, and
children, evince their grief by tearing the hair, scarifying the temples
with the nails, and casting themselves sobbing and screaming upon the
ground--the good qualities of the deceased being extolled the while.
But the chief mourners on the melancholy occasion are those princes of
the blood-royal who are affected by the barbarous practice handed down
from the earliest periods of Abyssinian history. For in the kingdom of
Shoa revolutionary projects against the crown have invariably been
anticipated by consigning the uncles and brothers of the sovereign to a
subterranean dungeon, where they pass the remainder of their days in the
elaborate carving of harps and ornaments of ivory.
Widely different from that of the aspiring Rasselas is the lot of these
pining members of the dynasty of Shoa. No happy valley is theirs, whom
a barbarous policy has from time immemorial condemned thus to linger in
hopeless imprisonment during the remnant of their sublunary pilgrimage,
unless the demise of the despot without issue should, peradventure, call
some one of the captives from the dank vault to the throne. Food, with
scanty materials for amusement and occupation, are indeed allowed,
together with permission to breathe the air of heaven after the sun has
set upon their own green hills. But no domestic tie links them to the
society from which they are immured--no sympathy of wife or child can
ever, by a word of kindness, alleviate their lonely condition. The
bonds of relationship have been rudely snapped asunder, and the very
name of brother is the stern curse of those whose only crime is their
affinity to the monarch.
Seven princes of the blood-royal were inmates of the vaults of Goncho on
the arrival of the British Embassy in Shoa. The legitimate issue male
of the reigning sovereign has fortunately been limited to two; but it
was not the less melancholy to reflect, that one or other of these
interesting youths must, in all human probability, drag out the noon and
evening of his days within the walls of that dismal dungeon, where so
many have sunk into the grave unrecorded and unpitied. The crown,
although hereditary in the house of Solomon, is elective by will at each
decease, and the eldest born can assert no exclusive title to succession
by right of primogeniture. Bashakh Woorud, "go down if go like," is an
ominous title enough to distinguish the heir-apparent to the throne.
Better known by his Christian appellation of Hailoo Mulakoot, and now in
his sixteenth year, he has by his royal sire been permitted to accompany
the army into the field, when he slew some of the Galla with his own
hand; but entertaining a predilection for the church, he is educating in
the monastery of Loza; whilst his brother, Seifa Selassie, "the sword of
the Trinity," who is three or four years younger, is the favourite of
his father, and may be regarded as the heir-presumptive.
In accordance with the custom of the land, this prince is also secluded
in a monastery at Medak, under the Alaka Amda Zion. In addition to a
eunuch and a nurse, each of the royal scions is attended by guardians,
whose office it is to prevent his playing truant or creating
disturbances in the kingdom. They are trained to equestrian and warlike
exercises, and to the use of the shield and spear; and are made to
attend divine service, to fast, to repeat their prayers, and to peruse
the psalms at night. Their course of education differs little from that
of other Abyssinian youths, than whom they are even more under monkish
influence. The study of the Gebata Hawariat, or "table of the
apostles," which comprises the seven epistles of Peter, John, James, and
Jude, and the acquisition of the Psalter by heart, is followed by the
perusal of the Revelation, the epistles of Saint Paul, and the gospels--
the histories of the Holy Virgin, of Saints George and Michael, Saint
Tekla Haimanot, and others, completing the course. Few of the
priesthood understand the art of writing, and all regard the exercise of
the pen as shameful and derogatory. The royal princes therefore stand
little chance of instruction in this branch of education, and their
acquaintance with the Abyssinian code of jurisprudence must depend also
upon the erudition of their preceptors. The strictest discipline is
enforced; disobedience is punished by bonds and corporal chastisement,
which latter the king causes to be inflicted in his presence; and fully
imbued with the conviction that to "spare the rod is to spoil the
child," His Majesty occasionally corrects the delinquent with his own
hands.
Queen Besabesh--"thou hast multiplied"--the mother of the young princes,
and also of four princesses, is the daughter of the last independent
ruler of Morabeitie. She was relict of Tekla Georgis, a commoner of
Shoa; and although not permanently resident in the palace, is much
beloved by Sahela Selassie. Five hundred concubines complete the royal
harem, of whom seven reside under the palace roof, thirteen in the
immediate outskirts, and the residue in various parts of the empire. By
these ladies the king has a numerous progeny; the males, who are not
obnoxious to imprisonment on a new accession, being created governors of
provinces, whilst the illegitimate daughters are bestowed in marriage
upon whomsoever his despotic Majesty may think proper to select among
the nobles and magnates of the land.
The ceremony of taking into the royal harem a concubine of rank, which
measure is usually connected with some political object, consists in an
interchange of presents betwixt the monarch and the parents of the
damsel. Chamie, the Galla Queen of Moolo Falada, near the Nile,
presented with her daughter, who occupies a niche in the harem, a dower
consisting of two hundred milch cows, one hundred teams of oxen with
ploughs, a number of horses, and many slaves of both sexes, _gassela_
skins, and other choice peltries, and five hundred vessels of virgin
honey, with twelve cats to watch over and protect them from the inroads
of the mice. Mohammadans and Pagans are compelled, after the formation
of the royal alliance, to embrace the Christianity of Ethiopia; but that
fidelity is far from being a consequence of the conversion has been
evinced in numerous disgraceful instances, the not least notorious of
which involves the reputation and the health of one who long enjoyed a
most exalted place in the king's affections--a sister of Wulasma
Mohammad.
Throughout intra-tropical Africa the _nugareet_, or kettle-drum, forms
the emblem of power, as does the sceptre in other realms. Appointments,
edicts, and proclamations, roll with its notes to the ears of the
attentive nation of Shoa. It accompanies all forays and campaigns, is
the symbol of investiture, and even the Church is controlled by its
echoes reverberating from the palace hill. The trumpet is also a
concomitant on state occasions, when two large crimson _debaboch_, or
aftabgirs, screen the royal person. The attire of Sahela Selassie,
although usually plain and unassuming, is, on certain pageants, more
imposing, and is then assisted by all the gold and tinsel that the
wardrobe can boast. The precious metal, for which he entertains a vast
affection, forming his exclusive prerogative, is displayed in massive
bracelets and rings, and in the embroidery with which his tight vest of
green silk is profusely loaded, although partially hidden beneath the
enveloping robe of Abyssinia. His Majesty's crown is an elegantly
embossed tiara, with numerous chains hanging in gorgeous clusters around
the brow, and surmounted by the imperial plume of white egret feathers.
On the Saturday in Passion week, a solemn assembly is held in the palace
court, which is decked out with carpets, and velvets, and gay cloths.
The priests then rehearse the military achievements of the monarch, and
the gathered population respond with the loud hum of approbation; but
with this exception, and that of the great annual review at the feast of
Maskal, or the triumphal return from the successful foray against the
heathen Galla, there is little pomp or pageant to be witnessed at the
present day. Badges and honorary distinctions, however, still continue
to be conferred upon the brave in war. The high-sounding titles of
household officers are yet scrupulously retained; and these, with the
embossed shield, the silver sword, the gauntlet, the bracelet, the
armlet, and the glittering _akodama_, attest the presence at the court
of Shoa of the last remnant of the ancient, but faded grandeur of the
proud emperors of Ethiopia.
Volume 3, Chapter IV.