But by far the greatest holiday of the Abyssinian year is held on the
Epiphany, styled Temkat, [i.e. Baptism] when the baptism of our Lord, by
John, in the river Jordan, is commemorated with extraordinary pomp. He
who neglects to undergo the annual purification enjoined on this day by
the Ethiopic church, is considered to carry with him the burden of every
sin committed during the preceding twelve months, and to be surely
visited by sickness and misfortune, whereas those who perform the rite,
are believed to have emerged thoroughly cleared and regenerated.
On the evening preceding this festival, the priests of all the churches
in Ankober and the environs, carrying the holy _tabots_ under gaudy
canopies, assembled in the open space, termed Arada, immediately in
front of the palace. Here, according to custom, they were received by
the governor of the town, who, after falling prostrate on his face
before the arks, escorted the procession to the river Airara--the clergy
dancing and singing, whilst the female portion of the inhabitants lining
the hill-side, indulged in the shrillest vociferation. A tent for each
church had been erected on the bank; and a temporary dam being thrown
across the stream, the night was spent in chanting appropriate hymns and
psalms.
Long before dawn, the pent up waters having been blessed by the
officiating priest, the entire population, the young, the old, the
wealthy, and the indigent, gathered from many miles round, casting off
their habiliments, flocked promiscuously into the pool--even babes who
were unable to totter being thrown in by their naked mothers. Not the
slightest modesty was evinced by either sex, all mingling together in a
state of perfect nudity, and affecting, under the light of innumerable
torches and flambeaux, which shed the broad glare of day over the
disgraceful scene, to believe that a supernatural veil concealed each
other's shame.
The sacrament of Christ's supper was then administered, accompanied by
rites and ceremonies highly unbecoming the solemnity of this most sacred
of Christian institutes. The multitude next proceeded to devour a pile
of loaves, and to drain accumulated pitchers of beer, supplied by the
neighbouring governors. Here too the most indecent excesses were
committed. Declaring themselves to have swallowed a specific against
intoxication, the clergy indulge to any extent they please, and each
priest vying with his brother in the quantities he shall quaff, avers
that if "the whole of the Lord's bread and the Lord's wine" be not
consumed on the spot, a famine will arise throughout the land!
Festivities terminated, the officiating dignitaries, robed and mitred,
preceded the holy arks and canopies in grand procession to the capital,
singing hallelujahs. Holding in their left hands cymbals in imitation
of David, and in the right the ecclesiastical staff, wherewith various
absurd gesticulations are described, they danced and sang for some time
in front of the palace gate. As usual, the performance displayed the
most uncouth attitudes, and the least graceful figures. The beard and
the crutch, and the aged face, and the sacred calling, were but ill in
unison with the mountebank capers undertaken; and the actors rather
resembled masks at the carnival than holy functionaries of the church.
"The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests," is a
passage of Scripture which the clergy of Shoa interpret to their own
advantage. "Who are the foxes," they invariably inquire, "but the kings
and the governors of the land, who seek only after worldly vanities? and
who the birds but the priests and bishops, who in hymns and hallelujahs
thus fly upwards, and build their nests in heaven?"
The clergy are distinguished from the laity by a beard, and by a
monstrous white turban encumbering the head. This is designed to typify
Moses covering his face on his descent from the Mount, when he had
received the tables of the law. Their sacred persons are usually
shrouded in a black woollen cloak, studded with emblems of the faith,
and furnished with a peaked hood. The sacerdotal vest was first
embroidered by command of Hatze David, the father of Saint Theodorus, to
commemorate the arrival from Jerusalem of a fragment of the true cross
on which Christ died; and officiating priests are expected to appear in
one of these, composed either of scarlet or party-coloured cloth.
A silver or brazen cross and a slender crutch are the never-failing
accoutrements of the priest; and on all occasions of ceremony, the
mitre, the censer, and the great umbrellas are conspicuous objects.
Long rods, furnished with streaming pennants, manufactured of the light
pith of the juwarree, in alternating bands of red and white, were
carried by the host of dirty boys who swelled the procession; and after
the labours of the day were over, these emblems of regeneration were
hung up in the churches as votive offerings. On the conclusion of the
exhibition, the clergy dispersed under a salvo of musketry to their
respective churches, and individuals who, from any unavoidable
circumstance, had been precluded from participating in the general
immersion, were then privately baptised, males and females being alike
divested of every portion of apparel, and plunged into a large reservoir
prepared for their reception.
Four years have elapsed since Sahela Selassie underwent this lustration,
wherein he was wont annually to participate, but from which he is now
held exempt, in consideration of the height of his power. Although in a
state of perfect nudity, a cloth was held around him during the
ceremony--a privilege to which neither virgins nor females of the
highest rank are ever admitted.
Pots and pans that have been defiled by the unclean touch of a
Mohammadan, are on this day purified by immersion in the water that has
been blessed by the priest. Among many other superstitions there exists
a firm belief, that all mules and horses that are not led forth to
exercise on the festival of _Temkat_ will die during the ensuing year.
It is considered to be "a day of great splendour;" and on pain of
excommunication, every good Christian is bound to appear clad in his
best habiliments, and in all the trinkets he can muster, to the end that
he may prostrate himself before the ark which he has adopted.
If enforced with rigour, excommunication is in fact a capital
punishment, for it is _interdictio aqua et igne_. No one can speak to,
or eat, or drink with the proscribed person, nor even enter his house.
The offender can neither buy nor sell, nor visit. He cannot recover
debts. He may be murdered at pleasure by any ruffian who will take the
trouble to cut his throat, and when dead his body cannot be buried.
The bell, book, and candle are to be hired by any disappointed enemy,
and the hooded priest may be purchased to perform the ceremony; but the
undertaking in some cases is not without its attendant danger. The
cells of the state prison frequently enclose the rash fanatic who
wantonly interferes with the royal salvation. Scanty fare and close
confinement eventually insure absolution, and the martyr to religious
intolerance is summarily banished from the realm. Another powerful
antidote is found in the _argumentum baculinum_, which, when
persuasively applied to the shoulders of arrogant church pride, by the
sturdy sinews of Europe especially, possesses a wonderful efficacy in
allaying the storm.
A century has not elapsed since excommunication was performed upon one
of the fair sons of the North. The turbaned bearer of the bell, book,
and candle, was quietly introduced into the domicile, and his
countenance fell as he perceived the object of his visit armed with a
formidable cudgel. "My father must have been mistaken," was the
exordium that greeted his astounded ear, as the staff descended with an
equally startling salutation--"My father never could have proposed the
excommunication of his dear friend." Again the weapon pattered upon the
priestly back; and during full five minutes an able running commentary
was supported by frequent playful taps over the head, to quicken the
clerical understanding. This powerful appeal concluded, the
crest-fallen functionary willingly withdrew his ban, and bestowing
entire absolution, slunk back to his cell, mentally resolved to
interfere no more with the incomprehensible European, who neither
displayed terror at the curse of the church, nor entertained respect for
the sacred persons of her ministers.
Unquies, the Bishop of Shoa, had long meditated the adoption of extreme
measures towards the British escort, whom he declared to be no better
than Mohammadans, since it was notorious that they did not kneel when
the holy ark passed, and had no hesitation in partaking of flesh
slaughtered by an infidel, instead of in the name of the holy Trinity.
No one, however, could be found sufficiently bold to undertake the
customary process where the Irish soldier was concerned; and the king's
"strong monk" had been fain at length to content himself with the
clandestine promulgation of his spiritual denunciation for the many
heresies committed.
The honorary distinctions conferred by the monarch for the destruction
of the elephant first produced a good effect, which was still increased
by the presentation of the silver shield that distinguishes the highest
functionaries in the land; and although the opinions of the clergy
generally were still far from favourable, there was a certain
influential priest who invariably found it convenient to pass the long
dreary evenings over the Residency fire. The pious father evinced no
disinclination to participate in the good things of this world; and
whilst sipping his strong drink, it was his delight to speculate upon
scriptural grounds whether the skin of Eve was really white or black,
and to prove that locusts could never have been tasted by John the
Baptist, because they form the food of the unclean Mohammadan.
Edifying topics such as these were doubtless handled with greater
eloquence than either abstinence, or the mortification of the flesh.
Proceeding on his annual visit to Debra Libanos, the principal resort of
those who prey upon the credulity of the public, the devout father at
length stood voluntarily forward as the advocate of the Gyptzis; and so
eloquently did he explain away the non-observance of fasts and other
imputed heresies, that a wax taper of which we had made him the bearer
was actually lighted in the sanctuary of Saint Tekla Haimanot, and an
immediate revulsion thereby created in the ecclesiastical sentiments
entertained throughout the entire realm.
Volume 3, Chapter XXIV.