Geez, the ancient Ethiopic, was the vernacular language of the
shepherds. Until the fourteenth century of the Christian era it
remained that of the Abyssinian empire, and in it are embodied all the
annals of her religion. After the downfall of the Zeguean dynasty, and
the restoration of the banished descendants of Solomon, Amharic became
the court language, to the complete exclusion of the Geez. It prevails
in Shoa, as well as in all the provinces included between the Taccaze
and the blue Nile, and is thus spoken by the greater portion of the
population of Abyssinia.
The province from which the language has derived its appellation is at
the present day in occupation of the Yedjow, and other Mohammadan Galla
tribes, who speak a distinct dialect; but the fact of "Amhara" being a
term held synonymous with "Christian," would prove that it must formerly
have exerted pre-eminent influence in the empire.
Of Semitic origin, and acknowledging the Ethiopic as its parent, the
Amharic displays much interchange with the surrounding African
languages--those, especially, which are spoken by the Danakil, the
Somauli, the Galla, the people of Argobba, and those of Hurrur and of
Gurague. The cognate dialect peculiar to Tigre has received much less
adulteration from other tongues, and consequently preserves a closer
similitude to the Ethiopic; and this circumstance may be traced to the
greater intercourse maintained with a variety of foreign nations by the
versatile and unstable population in the south.
Amharic excepted, none of the many languages extant in Abyssinia have
assumed a written form. The Ethiopic characters, twenty-six in number,
are the Coptic adaptation of the Greek alphabet, modelled upon the plan
of the Arabic, deranged from their former order, and rendered rude and
uncouth by the fingers of barbarous scribes. Each individual consonant,
being subjected to variations of figure correspondent with the number of
the vowels, produces a prolific kaleidoscope mixture, which might have
been deemed sufficient. But the ingenious phonologist who applied these
to the Amharic tongue, has superadded seven foreign letters, each
undergoing seven transformations by the annexure of as many vowel
points; and these, with the addition of a suitable modicum of
diphthongs, complete a total of two hundred and fifty-one characters, of
the separate denomination of any of which, notwithstanding that most
have possessed names from all antiquity, it may not perhaps be
considered extraordinary that the most erudite in the land should
profess entire ignorance.
When the Egyptian monarch interdicted the employment of the papyrus,
parchment was invented. The Jews very early availed themselves of the
_charta pergamena_, whereupon to write their Scriptures. The roll is
still used in their synagogues; and being introduced into Abyssinia on
the Hebrew emigration, it continues the only material used by the
scribe. His ink is a mucilage of gum-arabic mixed with lamp-black. It
acquires the consistency of that used in printing, and retains its
intense colour for ages. The pen is the reed used in the East, but
without any nib, and the inkstand is the sharp end of a cow's horn,
which is stuck into the ground as the writer squats to his task.
But it must be confessed that the Abyssinian scribe does not hold the
pen of a ready writer; and the dilatory management of his awkward
implement is attended with gestures and attitudes the most ludicrous.
Under many convulsive twitches of the elbow, the tiny style is carried
first to the mouth, and the end having been seized between the teeth, is
masticated in a sort of mental frenzy. Throughout the duration of this
necessary preliminary, the narrow strip of dirty vellum is held at arm's
length, and viewed askance on every side with looks of utter horror and
dismay; and when at last the stick descends to dig its furrow upon the
surface, no terrified school-boy, with the birch of the pedagogue
hanging over his devoted head, ever took such pains in painting the most
elaborate pothook, as does the Abyssinian professor of the art of
writing, in daubing his strange hieroglyphics upon the scroll.
As with the Chinaman, each individual character must, on completion, be
scrutinised from every possible point of view, before proceeding to the
next. Every word must be read aloud by the delighted artist, spelt and
re-spelt, and read again; and the greasy skin must be many times
inverted, in order that the happy effect may be thoroughly studied.
During each interval of approval, the destructive convulsions of the jaw
are continued, to the complete demolition of the pencil, and, long
before the termination of the opening sentence, European patience has
become exhausted at the scene of awkward stupidity, and the gross waste
of valuable time which it involves.
Seventeen years have been employed in transcribing a single manuscript,
and an ordinary page is the utmost that can be produced by one entire
day's steady application. A book is composed of separate leaves
enclosed between wooden boards, usually furnished with the fragment of a
broken looking-glass for the toilet of the proprietor, and carefully
enveloped in a leathern case. The contents being of a sacred nature,
and generally in an unknown tongue, they are looked upon with the eye of
superstitious credulity, and more especially venerated if embellished
with coloured daubs and an illuminated title-page.
The pictorial art is still far behind the middle ages of Europe; and the
appearance of the limner arranging his design with a stick of charcoal,
or tilling in the gaudy partitions with the chewed point of a reed
dabbled in the yolk of an egg, which is placed on end before him, proves
sufficiently diverting. The conceits of some of the most celebrated
masters also afford a fund of amusement. Christ stilling the tempest is
a subject fraught with perplexity to those who have never seen either a
maritime vessel or the "great water," and firearms are placed somewhat
before their invention in the hands of the heroes of antiquity. Our
common father in the enjoyment of Paradise is at the present day
invariably depicted with an emblazoned buckler, a sprig of asparagus,
and a silver sword; and his erring partner appears with a bushy beehive
wig most elaborately buttered, and with silver ear-rings resembling
piles of cannon shot. But although doubts exist as to the complexion of
the first parents of mankind, the fact is not a little complimentary to
the heretic Franks, that the fairest skin is given to saints, angels,
and the "dead kings of memory," whereas black or blue are the colours
invariably employed in depicting his Satanic majesty.
One hundred and ten volumes [Vide Appendix] comprise the literature at
this day extant in Abyssinia; but tradition records the titles of other
works, which it has already been said were deposited for security in the
islands of the lake Zooai, at the period of the Mohammadan inroads. Of
the accumulated lore of ages, four manuscripts only are written in the
language at present spoken and understood; and, with exception of the
Holy Scriptures, the whole is little more than a tissue of absurd church
controversy and lying monkish legend.
Four monstrous folios, styled Senkesar, which are to be found in every
church, briefly record the miracles and lives of the numerous saints and
eminent persons who receive adoration in Abyssinia; and on the day
ordered by the calendar for the service of each, his biography is read
for the edification of all those of the congregation who comprehend the
Ethiopic tongue. A host of pious worthies thus preside over every day
of the entire year; and fables of the most preposterous kind, detailed
with scrupulous minuteness, are vouched for upon unexceptionable
authority.
Idle legends form the delight of the people of Shoa. The Ethiopic saint
is nothing inferior to his western brethren. He performs yet more
marvellous miracles, leads a still more ascetic life, and suffers even
more dreadful martyrdom; whence he is proportionably adored in the
native land of credulity, superstition, and religious zeal. Between
apocryphal and canonical books no distinction is made. Bel and the
Dragon is read with as much devotion as the Acts of the Apostles, and it
might be added, with equal edification too; and Saint George vanquishing
his green dragon is an object of nearly as great veneration as any of
the heroes in the Old Testament.
But the stores of literature being wholly bound up in a dead letter, few
excepting the priests and _defteras_ can decipher them, and many of
these learned men are often more indebted to the memory of their early
youth than to the well-thumbed page in their hand. The ignorance of the
nation is indeed truly deplorable; for those children only receive the
rudiments of an education who are designed for the service of the
church; and the course of study adopted being little calculated to
expand the mind of the neophyte, a peculiar deficiency is presented in
intellectual features. The five churches of Ankober have each their
small quota of scholars, but the aggregate does not amount to eighty out
of a population of from twelve to fifteen thousand!
Abyssinia, as she now is, presents the most singular compound of vanity,
meekness, and ferocity--of devotion, superstition, and ignorance. But,
compared with other nations of Africa, she unquestionably holds a high
station. She is superior in arts and in agriculture, in laws, religion,
and social condition, to all the benighted children of the sun. The
small portion of good which does exist may justly be ascribed to the
remains of the wreck of Christianity, which, although stranded on a
rocky shore, and buffeted by the storms of ages, is not yet wholly
overwhelmed; and from the present degradation of a people avowing its
tenets, may be inferred the lesson of the total inefficacy of its forms
and profession, if unsupported by enough of mental culture to enable its
spirit and its truths to take root in the heart, and bear fruit in the
character of the barbarian. There is, perhaps, no portion of the whole
continent to which European civilisation might be applied with better
ultimate results; and although now dwindled into an ordinary kingdom,
Habesh, under proper government and proper influence, might promote the
amelioration of all the surrounding people, whilst she resumed her
original position as the first of African monarchies.
Volume 3, Chapter XXI.