[Footnote 114: This blight is known as “asal,” or “honey,”

from the sticky deposit formed all over the plant and leaves. At the

time of the expedition it prevailed more or less severely throughout

the greater part of the Kassala Moudirieh. The stalks of the plants

attacked become black.]

[Footnote 115: These are watertanks of galvanized iron. Two of them

form a camel’s load.]

[Footnote 116: Mr. Dupuis’s account of this place has been published

in Sir W. Garstin’s Report (p. 219), and is in the following

terms: “This is a very remarkable spot, and the probable site

of large canal works in the future, if such are ever undertaken

on the Atbara. Just above the “meshra,” or watering-place,

the Atbara flows in a narrow deep trench, perfectly straight for

a couple of miles or so, with a width of little over one hundred

metres, and a depth of about ten metres all across the pool when at

summer level. The sides of this trench are nearly vertical cliffs

of extremely hard granitic rock rising twenty metres or more from

the water. At the meshra this trench suddenly fans out into a wide

shallow channel, the pool ceases, and the river breaks up into three

or four separate branches, amidst a confusion of rocky islands, and

is not fully re-united into a single stream for several miles. The

rocky substratum through which the river has cut its way here gives

little or no indication of its presence in the level uplands, which

continue as before to form an unbroken bush-covered plain of black

soil up to within a couple of miles or so of the river, where it

suddenly breaks into ravines.”]

[Footnote 117: “Life in Abyssinia,” pp. 102, 103.]

[Footnote 118: “The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia,” p. 66.]

[Footnote 119: “This peculiar fly is about the size of a wasp, with

an orange-coloured body, with black and white rings; the proboscis

is terrific, it is double, and appears to be disproportioned, being

two-thirds the length of the entire insect. When this fly attacks an

animal, or man, it pierces the skin instantaneously, like the prick

of a red-hot needle driven deep into the flesh. At the same time the

insect exerts every muscle of its body by buzzing with its wings as

it buries the instrument to its greatest depth. The blood starts from

the wound immediately, and continues to flow for a considerable time;

this is an attraction to other flies in great numbers, many of which

would lay their eggs upon the wound.” (“The Nile Tributaries of

Abyssinia,” pp. 184, 185.)]

[Footnote 120: “The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia,” pp. 107,

109, 110.]

[Footnote 121: Water-sack. These are made from skins.]

[Footnote 122: “The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia,” pp. 240, 241.]

A NOTE ON THE RELIGION, CUSTOMS, ETC., OF ABYSSINIA

In _The Pall Mall Gazette_ of August 19, 1904, an interesting account

of an interview with M. Hugues Leroux was published. M. Leroux

had just returned from a “diplomatic and scientific mission”

to Abyssinia. He had been the bearer of an autograph letter from

M. Loubet to the Emperor Menelek. M. Leroux brought back much

interesting information which concerns only the present circumstances

of the country—_e.g._ that the Emperor “is striving to follow out

what he himself calls a policy of good-humour. He wants to be on good

terms with all the world, but he does not want to be devoured. He is

anxious to open up Abyssinia, but to commerce, not to conquest.”

And again, “he has at last granted permission for the railway from

Djibouti, which hitherto went only as far as Harrar, to be carried

up to Addis Abiba. He will probably refuse the British and Italian

requests to build branch lines connecting this railway with Zeila

and Massouah, the towns on the coast to the north and the south

of Djibouti which belong respectively to Great Britain and Italy,

his comment upon this scheme being, ‘I would like one ladder up

to my front door, but not three.’”

M. Leroux had been entrusted with an autograph reply from the

Emperor Menelek to the President of the French Republic. But he bore

away from Ethiopia a much more interesting document, which—if

it is genuine and is rightly described by the traveller and the

interviewer—is invaluable for the clue that it gives to the origin

of the Abyssinian nation. It is said to be “a most extraordinary

Abyssinian manuscript, which is certain to make a great sensation

when the translation of it is published, for it throws a flood of

light upon the early history of the Jews. The Abyssinian monarchs

have always considered this manuscript to be among their most sacred

possessions. It was appropriated by the English at the capture of

Magdala, but on Emperor John succeeding to the throne, he opened

diplomatic negotiations and recovered it from the British Museum,

where it had been deposited. It is written in the Geez language,

which is of Hebraic origin, of great antiquity, and known only to the

priests. It relates that after the plagues of Egypt some hundreds

of thousands of Jews did not follow Moses across the Red Sea, but

went west, down the Blue Nile, to found a kingdom of their own,

which they called Saba—‘Saba’ merely meaning west. These were

the original Abyssinians.”

We are told that “the original of this manuscript had remained

seventeen hundred years in an island of Lake Zouai, whose inhabitants

are still of the purest Jewish type, but they were Christianized

at a very early date, and their religion has now degenerated into

fetishism. They knew nothing as to the contents of the manuscript,

which they nevertheless regarded as a very precious object.”

Whatever may be the real antiquity of this document its existence and

the importance attributed to it seem to give evidence of a tradition

of great age, and this tradition offers a credible explanation of the

fact that such a people as the Abyssinian is found in the mountains

of East Africa. No doubt the Habashes are now, almost universally,

a race of mixed blood, but they possess a national character which

is quite distant from that of the neighbouring tribes. The Semitic

invasion may have taken place immediately after the captivity of the

Jews in Egypt or at an earlier or later date, but it was powerful

enough to affect the whole polity and population of Ethiopia.

Generally, writers upon Abyssinia ascribe the incursion to the

reign of King Solomon, and this is in accordance with a legend

that is believed throughout the country. The Queen of Sheba was, of

course, the Queen of Ethiopia; her visit to the wise and much-married

king provided her with an heir; “her son Menelek was in due time

transmitted to his august sire. The young prince was duly instructed

in all the mysteries of Jewish law and science, and being anointed

king under the name of David, he was returned to his native land,

escorted by a large suite of the nobles of Israel, and a band of her

most learned elders under the direction of Ascarias, the son of Zadok,

the High Priest.

“The gates of the temple of Jerusalem were left unguarded, and the

doors miraculously opened in order that the holy ark of Zion and the

tables of the law might, without difficulty, be stolen and carried

away. The journey was prosperously performed, and the Queen-Mother,

on resigning the reins of authority to her son at her death, about

nine hundred and seventy years before the birth of Christ, caused

a solemn obligation to be sworn by all that henceforth no female

should hold sway in the land; and that those princes of the blood

royal upon whom the crown did not devolve should, until the succession

opened to them or during the natural term of existence, be kept close

prisoners on a lofty mountain; a cruel and despotic enactment which,

through a long succession of ages, was jealously observed.”[123]

“The impetuous zeal of the emigrants,” wrote Mr. Stern, “found

ample scope for its loftiest inspiration in the new world to

which they were transplanted, and in the course of a few years the

worship of the God of Israel extensively supplanted the idolatries

of Ethiopia.

“From these vague traditions,” the same writer prudently added,

“in which truth and fiction are inextricably jumbled together, the

inquirer does not gain much trustworthy information on the history

of Ethiopia and the settlement of the Jews in that country.”[124]

Mr. Augustus Wylde visited a charming and sequestered spot where,

according to one legend, the stolen ark was deposited. “We

halted for lunch just _vis-à-vis_ to the first sources of the

Taccazze. . . . Just before reaching the sources, on a hill on

the north side of the valley, is the church of Chevenan Gorgis, in

a splendid grove of juniper trees; immediately above the sources

on the hill is another church, also surrounded by juniper trees,

dedicated to Debbessa Jesu; tradition has it that when Menelek, the

son of the Queen of Sheba by King Solomon, came from Jerusalem with

the ark, it was placed on the ground at this spot, where he camped,

and these springs gushed forth, and he immediately ordered a temple

to be built on the spot.

“On leaving this camp Menelek commenced his march towards the

east, and on the bearers of the ark putting it down, after about

an hour’s march, they found that they could not move it, as it

firmly adhered to the ground. This spot is supposed by some of the

Abyssinians to be the true resting-place of the ark that was brought

from Jerusalem; there is a church built over the spot called Eyela

Kudus Michael. . . . It is nearly impossible for a stranger to obtain

admittance to this church, and the place in the Holy of Holies where

the ark is supposed to rest is shown to no one. This ark cannot be

in two places; the people of the north declare it is in the sacred

grove of Axum in the church of Selata Musser (place of Moses), and

the priests of the Eyela district declare it is in their church,

so they always quarrel and wrangle over this vexed question, the

same as European priests do over their sacred relics.”[125]

Perhaps the soundest opinion which can be formed under present

conditions as to the origin of the Abyssinian people has been

expressed by Mr. Wylde:—“The race, as the name Habash or

Abyssinian denotes, is a mixture, undoubtedly of very long standing,

but most likely of Jew with the inhabitants of Southern Arabia and

the non-negro races of Eastern Africa.”[126]

According to tradition, Christianity was introduced into the country

in the fourth century.

“In the year 330 after the birth of our Saviour, Meropius, a

merchant of Tyre, having undertaken a commercial voyage to India,

landed on the coast of Ethiopia, where he was murdered by the

barbarians, and his two sons, Frumentius and Edesius, both devout men,

being made prisoners, were carried as slaves before the Emperor. The

abilities, the information, and the peaceable demeanour of the

brothers soon gained not only their release but high office in the

court; and living in the full confidence of the monarch until his

decease, and subsequently under the protection of the Queen-mother,

the good-will of the entire nation quickly succeeded. The work of

conversion was commenced, and proceeding with wonderful rapidity

and success, a thriving branch was shortly added to the great

Eastern Church.

“Bearing the happy tidings, Frumentius appeared in Alexandria, and

was received with open arms by the Patriarch Athanasius. Loaded with

honours, and consecrated the first bishop of Ethiopia, a relation

was thus happily commenced with Egypt, which has remained firm and

friendly to the present day, and throughout fifteen centuries has

bestowed upon a Coptish priest the high office of Patriarch Abouna

(_i.e._ our Father) of the Ethiopic Church.

“On his return to the country of his hopes, Frumentius found that

the spark of life had spread rapidly throughout the gloomy darkness of

the land. Baptism was instituted, deacons and presbyters appointed,

churches erected, and a firm foundation laid whereon to establish

the Christian religion in Abyssinia.

“During the succeeding century, priests and apostles, men of

wonderful sanctity, flocked into the Empire from all parts of the

East, and miracles the most stupendous are related in the legends

of those days. Mountains were removed, and the storms of the angry

ocean stilled by the mere application of the staff. The adder and the

basilisk glided harmless under foot, and rivers stayed their roaring

torrent, that the sandal of the holy man should remain unstained by

the flood. Aragáwi raised the dead—the fingers of Likános flamed

like tapers of fire—Samuel rode upon his lion; and thus the kingdom

of Arwé, the old serpent of Ethiop, was utterly overthrown.”[127]

The conservatism of the Abyssinian people in matters of religion is

well illustrated by the fact that throughout the many and violent

vicissitudes of their history since the introduction of Christianity

they have always received their Patriarch from the mother-church. His

position is one of great authority. “The chief man in the country

after the king of kings is the Abouna, or archbishop, the head of

the Church; without the Abouna no king can be crowned, and it is

he that, at his own or the king’s wish, can excommunicate any

of his subjects, or the king himself, if necessary, and then the

king can only rule by the strength of his followers who adhere to

him. These archbishops come from the Coptic Monastery at Alexandria

or Cairo, and when they reach Abyssinia, they never leave it on

any consideration.”[128] Moreover, “the Abyssinian Church,

in common with all other Christian communities in Asia and Africa,

is strictly episcopal. The Abouna, or primate, who is consecrated

to his office by the Patriarch of Alexandria, the revered successor

of St. Mark, can alone confer the priestly title. Every candidate,

before presenting himself for ordination, must have acquired some

knowledge in the reading of the sacred language of Ethiopia, and

in the complicated ceremonies of the liturgical service. On the day

appointed for ordination the primate, in full canonicals and seated

on the episcopal throne, receives the applicants for the sacred

office. All being properly ranged before the chair of St. Mark,

each candidate, instead of the imposition of hands, receives the

Abouna’s consecrating breath. Former archbishops, less scrupulous

than the present successor of Frumentius, indiscriminately breathed

on all, whether qualified or not, who could pay the requisite fee

of two salts—fourpence.[129]

“Deacons are selected from among boys, who are only allowed to serve

in the Church till they attain the age of twelve or thirteen; after

that period their purity of life is suspected, and they are no longer

considered fit to approach the sacred shrine of the _tabot_.[130]

The bishop and monks may not marry, while the priests may; and as,

on the death of their wives, they cannot contract a second alliance,

the reverend wooers invariably choose for their partners the most

robust and sprightly lasses in the land.

“The _debterahs_, or scribes, constitute the lowest but the most

influential body in the Church. These worthies enjoy no ecclesiastical

rank and are under no ecclesiastical discipline, and yet no service

can be properly performed unless they take part in it. Their chief

duty consists in chanting the Psalms and Liturgy, but their uncouth

gesticulation and discordant shouting, instead of elevating devotion,

tend rather, at least in European estimation, to convert the service

of God into a sinful burlesque and the sanctuary into a bedlam. The

scanty learning of the country is exclusively monopolized by this

order; and they are so proud of their erudition that they deem it a

disgrace to exchange, by the breathing of the Abouna, the proud title

of _debterah_ for the less learned appellation of _kas_, or priest.

“These literati, notwithstanding their better acquaintance with the

sacred volume and the lives of the saints, are considered the most

arrant scoundrels in the land. Gondar, which contains a considerable

number of the fraternity, is notorious for the dissolute profligacy

of its inhabitants; and it is proverbial throughout the country that

wherever _debterahs_ abound there vice and immorality thrive.”[131]

Mansfield Parkyns found that many of the _debterahs_, or _defterers_,

professed to practise witchcraft. He wrote: “There are persons

in the country who are supposed to be able to call up spirits and

obtain from them any information they may require. These men are

mostly _defterers_ (or Scribes), and are regarded with a certain

amount of rather dubious respect. The scene of their incantation is

generally some ravine, with a stream running through it. As I have

only heard the reports of the common people on the subject, I cannot

describe accurately what ceremonies are observed, or what form the

devil assumes on quitting the water at their summons. My informants,

however, assured me that he came as a great chief, with the usual

train of shield-bearers behind him and gunners before him.”[132]

The Abyssinian liturgy is not impressive, according to European

ideas. Stern was present at one of the services, and gave a lively

description of it. “The deafening tom-tom of the _negareet_,

intermingled with the nasal chorus of a host of _debterahs_ in

varying cadences, reverberated on my ear. This indication that the

service had already begun put a stop to our contemplation of the

grand mountain scene, and in a most reverent mood we hastened to the

uproarious sanctuary. A wooden gate in a circular wall brought us

within an open grassy space that formed the cemetery, and the spot

where, adjoining to the church, rises the Bethlehem in which the

priests prepare the eucharistic bread. A crowd of men and women,

as if in some place of amusement and dissipation, were spread in

picturesque knots over the soft turf. The majority were busily

plying their tongues, but I fear from the burst of merriment which

now and then broke from one or the other of those animated groups

that their conversations had very little to do either with religion

or the service in honour of the saint. Not belonging to this impure

class, who are justly excluded from the interior of the sacred edifice

(_i.e._ those whose marriage is secular and dissoluble), we mounted

a few steps, and then, through a partition occupied by the laity,

stepped into a second compartment concentric with the outer one, and

there found ourselves at the porch of the enclosure which constitutes

the _sanctum sanctorum_.

“Crowds of priests and _debterahs_ thronged the whole of that

corridor. The _debterahs_ constitute the choir in all their churches;

and their devotionless mien, as they chanted to the monotonous

sound of the _negareet_, quite excited my indignation. During the

maddening noise created by the _debterahs_, the priests, robed

in gaudy canonicals, were exerting to the utmost their cracked

voices in intoning the liturgy and psalms. At certain intervals

an ecclesiastic, clad in his garish finery, and attended by an

incense-waving boy-deacon and a bearer of the Ethiopic Gospel,

marched out of his sanctum into the cemetery to edify the godless

and profane multitude by reading to them a portion of Scripture in

an unknown tongue. A reverend gentleman near me, who was evidently

a great Church dignitary, as he wore a huge turban, and had a very

stupid unmeaning face, pointed his gaunt fingers towards the daubed

walls, and condescendingly inquired whether I knew St. George and

Miriam, the mother of God? . . .

“Unable to perform any religious rite without the savage

accompaniment of tinkling keys and other discordant sounds, the

sacrament of the mass (_Corban_), the most solemn service of the

Church, is also performed amidst the most confused and distracting

clangour. The liturgy and consecration service over, all, except

the communicants, leave the place of worship. These now approach

the vestibule of the holy of holies, where the officiating priests,

enveloped in clouds of incense, are busily occupied in washing their

hands—this ceremony is copied from Pilate’s example. The water,

which this act sanctifies, must not be spilled on the ground, but,

as a regeneration emblem, it is sprinkled on the bended heads and the

garments of the faithful, whilst the priest says, ‘If you think that

I have now cleansed your garments and purified your bodies, and yet

continue to cherish hatred and malice in your hearts, I tell you that

the body of Christ will prove to be a burning fire to consume you,

and His blood a bottomless sea to drown you!’ After this exhortation

the _tabot_, the substitute for the altar, is taken out of the holy

of holies, and each communicant receives a small piece of wheaten

bread and a spoonful of raisin wine. To prevent the desecration of

the sacred elements every one, before he quits the church, drinks

a cup of water, and also refrains from expectorating that day.”[133]

The ecclesiastical art of Abyssinia has already been mentioned. Stern

has given an account of a singular instance of its development and

of an equally strange result of the devotional use of pictures. He

visited “Kudus Yohannes, which next to that at Quosquam, is the

handsomest and most gorgeously bedaubed of the forty-four churches

in and around Gondar.” Here “one aspiring artist, weary perhaps

of the antiquated cherubims and saints, the blazing flames and

leafy bowers, which are the ordinary ornaments of the churches, had

sought immortal fame by painting quite a new subject—the Migration

of the Israelites. In his picture he represented them marching in

soldier-like attitude over the heaving and surging waves of the Red

Sea, clad in British uniform, with muskets and bayonets on their

shoulders.” Again, Major Harris, at the time of his mission to

Sahela Selassie, who was then Negus, had presented His Majesty with a

portrait of Queen Victoria. This “lay securely guarded amidst the

regalia of the Ethiopian Empire till the death of the despot. His

heir and successor, Hailu Malakot, to atone for some indiscretion,

presented it in pious contrition to the Cathedral Church, and there

the people flock on all grand festivities to worship it as the

representation of the Virgin Mary.”[134]

Reference has been made to certain Abyssinian saints, to whose

exploits Major Harris alluded. But these are neither the most notable

nor the most venerated in the ecclesiastical chronicles. Tekla

Haimanot—_facile princeps_—“is said to have converted the

devil, and induced him to become a monk for forty days, though

what became of him afterwards we are at a loss to know. The same

holy man, wishing to ascend a steep mountain with perpendicular

sides was accommodated in answer to prayer with a boa-constrictor,

which took him up on its back.”[135] Before the birth of this

saint, “a glorious light rested for several days over the parental

house. At the baptism of the child the priest was so dazzled by its

supernatural beauty that, lost in admiration, he dropped the babe,

and might have killed it, had not an invisible hand kept it suspended

above the hard floor.” In due course Tekla Haimanot became a monk,

and “the mortifications, self-imposed penances and incredibly long

fasts which followed his initiation into the monastic brotherhood are

faithfully recorded in the annals of the Church for the edification

of the faithful.” Later, he visited the Holy Sepulchre, after

marvellous adventures among the Moslems, and was subsequently ordained

priest by the Copt Patriarch in Egypt. He then proceeded to the Galla

country, where his mother had been kept prisoner, and converted the

heathen by hundreds of thousands. On one occasion he repaired to

the monastery of Debra Damo, but here “the brotherhood did not

much sympathize in the general jubilee that greeted the austere

monk. The monastery stands on the summit of a perpendicular rock,

and, being quite inaccessible, no visitor can reach it unless drawn

up by a rope. The Evil One did not like the ascetic to tamper with

the merry fellows on the rock, and, to effect his wicked purpose, he

maliciously cut the frail support when Tekla Haimanot was in mid-air,

and probably he would have been dashed to pieces in a ravine below,

had not immediately six wings unfurled themselves under his garb and

borne him aloft. In commemoration of this miraculous volant power,

the saint is represented, in most of the churches dedicated to him,

as nearly smothered in a profusion of gorgeous plumage.”

Tekla Haimanot’s ascetic practices in “tenantless wastes and

malarious jungles” did not suffice him as the years advanced. “He

hit upon an original idea of mortifying the flesh. There is in Shoa a

small lake, which the saint in his peregrinations had often passed. To

these waters he now repaired. The good people who followed him from

all parts to hear his discourses and to obtain his blessing entreated

him not to expose his precious person to the alligators and other

aquatic monsters; but the holy man, who knew that all his exploits

for the glory of the Church had not yet been accomplished, fearlessly

stepped into the deep. Seven successive years he continued in the

water, and probably he would have expired on his liquid couch, had

not one of his legs dropped off. The clamour for this valuable relic

created quite a dissension in the Church, but the monarch judiciously

put a stop to the fierce war between the rival claimants by ordering

it to be kept as a Palladium in the royal metropolis. This sacred

talisman possesses more wonderful sanitary virtues than all the

drugs in the universe. Patients from every province of the country

visit the shrine to make votive offerings and to quaff the healing

water in which the saint’s leg is weekly washed.”[136]

That the miracles above related are stock miracles—if one may

use such a phrase—and that the same legends are connected with

more than one saint is evident from the following _gesta sanctorum_

cited by Mansfield Parkyns:—

“Gabro Menfus Kouddos (Slave of the Holy Ghost) was a great saint

from his birth; nay, more—he was born a saint. No sooner did he

enter the world than he stood up, and three days after his birth

he bowed his head thrice, saying in a distinct voice, ‘Glory be

to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.’ He never

tasted of his mother’s milk, nor during the whole period of his

life partook of food or drink of any sort. Once, when praying on a

mountain, he fell over a precipice two hundred cubits deep. Two angels

immediately joined their spread wings under him to support him; but

he refused their assistance, saying that he trusted to God alone for

help. Another time he was ascending a very high mountain, and, being

fatigued, the Holy Trinity came and assisted him. Many other equally

absurd and almost blasphemous stories are related of him; at last,

after a very long life, I forget of how many years, the Almighty sent

Azrael, the angel of death, to take him. But the saint refused to die,

saying, that as he had neither eaten nor drunk, he could not die. So

all the saints came to him in turn for the purpose of persuading him

to leave earth for Paradise. St. John the Baptist first addressed

him, saying that he had gone the way of all flesh, notwithstanding

his many privations and sufferings. Gabro Menfus Kouddos, however,

at once met him with the answer, ‘Yes; but _you_ could not fast

even for forty days, but fed on locusts and wild honey.’ Thus he

replied to all the saints, and at last even to the Virgin and our

Saviour. Still, however, the decrees of the Omnipotent must be obeyed,

and his life was taken from him; but then there was a dispute among

the elements as to what was to become of his body. The earth refused

to receive it, as he had never partaken of her produce. A similar

refusal was made by the water, for he had never taken a drop within

his lips. The fire had also equally strong objections. So the saint

was restored to life, and taken up alive into heaven. His tomb is,

however, shown at Zoukwahla in Shoa; but it is said to contain

only one of his ribs, which, at the time of his ascent to heaven,

he took out and left on earth as a memento for his followers.

“Abouna Aragawy was one of the nine missionaries sent to Abyssinia

by St. Athanasius. His doctrine and the miracles which he wrought

gained for him many followers; but from some of the unbelieving he

suffered persecution. This is the account given by some historians;

while others assert that, overcome by his popularity, he sought

retirement from this world, in order to devote the remainder of his

days to religious duty. Be it as it may, he came to the rock on which

is now the celebrated monastery of Debra Damo. After walking several

times round it, without finding any means of access to its summit,

he prayed to the Almighty, who sent him an enormous boa-constrictor,

which offered to carry him up in its mouth; but he said, ‘I fear

your mouth; turn round and let me take your tail.’ So the snake

did as he was desired; and the saint, holding fast by its tail,

was drawn up to the summit of the rock in perfect safety. The snake

having performed its duty offered to leave the saint if he wished

it; but Aragawy begged that it would remain, making, however, the

condition of its not alarming or destroying any of his disciples

who might come to visit him. They then took possession of the caves

and holes which are in the mountain, where they are by many supposed

to be still living. Some, however, pretend that the snake is dead;

but no one is so wanting in faith as for a moment to deny that

the saint yet lives there, and will continue to live till the day

of judgment. No curious person, however, dares to venture into the

cave. The monks will not allow lights to be taken in; and the people

assert that a spirit which protects the place will not permit any

one who enters to come out alive.

“When I first went to Rohabaita it was reported that an immense

snake had some years before been killed there by a hunter. The man

was severely reproached by the priests, who said that the snake

was the guardian angel of the place. It was reported to have been

twenty-seven cubits, or forty feet in length, and was probably of

the boa tribe.”[137]

Another saint of remarkable powers was Tederos (St. Theodore). He

resided at the hamlet near Rohabaita which now bears his name. Here,

“on the face of the rock is the little hole wherein he lived; it

is barely high enough for a person to squat in; and the marks worn

in the stone by the crown of his head, the soles of his feet, and

his elbows are still shown. His miracles were many. Among others,

a leopard ate up his son, the saint, returning home, missed him,

and set out in search of him. When in the forest he called aloud

to him three times, and at the third time the leopard appeared:

on seeing him, the saint guessed how the matter stood with the

unfortunate youth; but, nothing discouraged, he coolly ordered the

beast to return him safe and sound. Now this was rather difficult,

as the leopard had, no doubt, half digested him; nevertheless, so

great was the saint’s power that the boy left the leopard’s maw

none the worse, perhaps rather the better, for having been dismembered

and reconstructed. Being asked where a church should be built, the

saint threw his staff, desiring the inquirers to build where they

found the staff had fallen. After many days it was found several

miles off in Serawi, on the other side of the valley, exactly on

the spot where now stands the church of Debra Mariam.

“Many other wonderful stories were told me of his feats, but I

have forgotten them. The most useful act attributed to him was that

he caused the rock below him to become hollow, in order to receive

the rain-water. The hollow still exists, though I should strongly

suspect it to be of Nature’s construction; or, if the saint had

a hand in its design, he must have been a clumsy fellow, for with

half the labour he might have made a place capable of containing

twice the quantity of water.”[138]

Parkyns was not sure of the parentage of the youth who was disgorged

by the leopard. “I hope I am right in giving St. Theodore a son,”

he wrote. “I don’t know whether his being a father would preclude

his being a saint: however, it was a youth nearly related to him,

if I remember the story right.”

Some chroniclers “pretend that St. Matthew and St. Bartholomew

actually visited the country. Some even go so far as to assert that

the Virgin Mary herself, with the child Jesus, came into Abyssinia

when she fled to Egypt, and show a place in a high mountain which

is called her throne or seat.”[139] Bruce wrote that “in the

Synaxar, or history of their saints, one is said to have thrown the

devil over a high mountain; another persuaded him to live as a monk

for forty years; another had a holy longing for partridges, upon

which a brace perched on his plate—martyrs ready roasted.”[140]

“In many cases,” Parkyns wrote, “the patron saint is preferred

to the Almighty; and a man who would not hesitate to invoke the

name of his Maker in witness to a falsehood would have difficulty

in disguising his perjury if he were appealed to in the name

of St. Michael or St. George. It is also a well-known fact, and

most common of occurrence, that a favour besought in the name of

God would often be refused, while, if the request were immediately

after repeated in the name of the Virgin or of some favourite saint,

it would probably be granted. This may be observed in the appeal of

the common street beggar in Tigre, whose ordinary cry is, ‘Silla

Izgyheyr! Silla Medhainy Allam!’ (For the sake of God! For the

sake of the Saviour!)—while, if he be very importunate, he will

change his usual whining tone, and add with persuasive emphasis,

‘Silla Mariam! Silla Abouna Tekla Haimanout!’” (For the sake

of Mary! For the sake of Tekla Haimanout!)

It has already been said that Tekla Haimanot and other early

celebrities of the Church were monks. Monasteries are plentiful

in the land, and there are also hermits who practise asceticism in

desolate and lonely places. Mr. Herbert Vivian gained admission to a

conventual house, and has given a lively description of it.[141] The

sanctity of the Abyssinian monk or anchorite is in proportion to his

prowess in mortifying the flesh, and this class of men still retains

much religious _prestige_ and influence in the land. But probably

the pristine rigour of their life has been much relaxed, and the

remarks of Major Cornwallis Harris are applicable at the present time.

“Education was in former days to be obtained alone from the inmate

of the monastic abode, and a life of scanty food, austerity, and

severe fasting was embraced only by the more enthusiastic. But the

skin-cloak and the dirty headdress now envelope the listless monk,

who, satisfied with a dreamy and indolent existence, basks during

the day on the grassy banks of the sparkling rivulet, and prefers

a bare sufficiency of coarse fare to the sweeter morsel earned by

the sweat of the brow.”[142]

The same writer’s account of the consecration of a friar is

interesting. “The monk is admitted to the order of his choice by

any officiating priest. A prayer is repeated, the skull-cap blessed

with the sign of the cross, and the ceremony is complete. But a more

imposing rite attends the oath of celibacy before the Abouna. The

clergy assemble in numbers, and fires are lighted around the person

of the candidate. His loins are bound about with the leathern girdle

of Saint John, and the prayer and the requiem for the dead rise

pealing from the circle. The _glaswa_—a narrow strip of black cloth

adorned with coloured crosses—is then placed on the shaven crown,

and shrouded from view by the enveloping shawl; and the archbishop,

clad in his robes of state, having repeated the concluding prayer

and blessing, signs with his own hand the emblem of faith over the

various parts of the body.”[143]

Consul Plowden wrote in a somewhat censorious mood of the Abyssinian

regulars. “Monasteries are not wanting to complete the resemblance

to the Roman Catholic Church and to the Middle Ages, where every

immorality is practised; nor solitary hermits, who dwell in gloomy

forests, feeding on roots, and exposed to ferocious animals, and

who are sometimes as sincere as they are useless.” He added,

“nunneries alone are absent from the picture; though vows of

celibacy are sometimes taken, if rarely kept save at an advanced

age.”

With regard to religious sisterhoods he was in error. Bruce wrote

that, “all women who choose to renounce acquaintance with men are

allowed to turn priests, they then wear a skull-cap, like the men;

and these priests, male and female, all pretend to possess charms

of a nature both offensive and defensive, which are most generally

believed in.”[144] The same writer asserted that he and his party

on one occasion, after passing the River Taccazze, “at last reached

a plain filled with flowering shrubs, roses, jessamines, etc., and

animated by a number of people passing to and fro. Several of these

were monks and nuns from Waldubba, in pairs, two and two together. The

women, who are both young and stout, were carrying large burdens of

provisions on their shoulders, which showed that they did not entirely

subsist upon the herbs of Waldubba. The monks, their _compagnons de

voyage_, had sallow faces, yellow cowls, and yellow gowns.”[145]

Bruce may have been mistaken as to the character of these young

women; but not all who take the vows are strict in the observance

of them. Mr. Augustus Wylde met a nun in the flesh, a lady of

high rank in the country, whose charms were neither “offensive

nor defensive.” He wrote, “before getting to Mokareet we were

joined by Ras Mangesha’s young sister. She is supposed to be a nun

and devote her time to charity and good actions, and she has asked

permission of Hailou to join us and camp with us for the next three

or four days. I now quote from my diary—

“I believe this is a got-up job, as Hailou had his hair replaited

this morning and put on clean cloths, and the pair are evidently very

old friends. She is dressed in the most spotless white garments of the

very best quality, and is most clean and neat in her appearance. From

under her clean white hood a pretty face appears with a pair of

roguish merry eyes. . . . She sent over her pretty waiting-maid as

soon as camp was pitched, asking me to come and pay her a visit,

but I was too seedy with fever, so sent Schimper to make my excuses;

when he came back his first remark in his precise manner of talking

was: ‘Oh, Mr. Wylde, I do not think she is a very good lady, she

has asked me for many things, and she wants your umbrella.’ Of

course I had to send it, and next morning on the way to Merta I had

some of the sweetest of smiles, and we kept up a long conversation;

she had never seen an Englishman before, and she wanted to know if

they all had red heads and moustaches and were big men . . .

“I found out that she was considered very ‘rapid’ even for

Abyssinia, where the young ladies are fast, and that her brother

had sent her to a nunnery as he could not keep her in order, and she

absolutely refused to marry the men of his choice; she was changing

her quarters from one nunnery to another, and was evidently sweet

on Hailou.”

But Mr. Wylde had met other nuns, “good pious old ladies at

Abbi-Addi and Macalle, who fasted for over half the number of

days in the year, and were perpetually praying and singing from

the early grey dawn till late at night, and they seemed to live

a calm and peaceful life in their beautiful natural surroundings,

and bothered themselves very little with the troubles of this life,

and passed their days in eating, sleeping, and praying, and doing

what little acts of charity they could in the way of tending the

sick and feeding any poor beggars that came to their houses.”[146]

Many rites and ceremonies of Hebrew origin have been incorporated in

Abyssinian Christianity, _e.g._ circumcision is practised. Considering

the history and traditions of the people, this respect for Judaic

ordinances is not surprising. Major Harris devoted a chapter of his

book to “Abyssinian Rites and Practices which would appear to have

been borrowed from the Hebrews,” and most of the authors who have

written about the country have alluded to the same subject. Perhaps

the most remarkable example of the influence of Jewish doctrines is

the veneration in which the _tabot_ is held.

“The Jewish temple consisted of three distinct divisions—the

forecourt, the holy, and the holy of holies. To the first laymen

were admitted, to the second only the priest, and to the third the

high priest alone. All entrance was denied to the Pagan, a custom

which is rigorously enforced in Abyssinia; and her churches are in

like manner divided into three parts.

“Eight feet in breadth, the first compartment stretches, after the

fashion of a corridor, entirely around the building. It is styled

_Kene Máhelet_, and, strewed throughout with green rushes, forms the

scene of morning worship. To the right of the entrance is the seat of

honour for priests and erudite scribes; and beyond this court, save on

certain occasions, the bare foot of the unlearned layman cannot pass.

“_Makdas_ is the second compartment. This is the sanctuary in which

the priests officiate, and a corner is set apart for laymen during

the administration of the holy supper, whilst a cloth screens the

mysteries of the interior. Here also hang, arranged around the walls,

the bones of many deceased worthies, which have been carefully

gathered from the newly opened sepulchre, and are deposited by

the hand of the priest in cotton bags. By the nearest relative

the first opportunity is embraced of transporting these mouldering

emblems of mortality to the sacred resting-place of Debra Libanos,

where the living and the dead are alike blessed with a rich treasure

of righteousness, since the remains of Tekla Haimanot, the patron

saint of Abyssinia, still shed a bright halo over the scene of his

miracles upon earth.

“To _Kedis Kedisen_, the holy of holies, none but the Alaka[147]

is admitted. Behind its veil the sacrament is consecrated, the

communion vessels are deposited, and the tremendous mysteries of the

_tabot_, or ark of the covenant, are shrouded from the eyes of the

uninitiated. The gold of the foreigner has penetrated the secret

of the contents of this box, which are nothing more than a scroll

of parchment, on which is inscribed the name of the patron saint of

the church; but the priest who dared to open his lips on the subject

to one of his own countrymen would incur the heavy penalties due to

the sacrilege.”[148]

Another foreigner whose gold “penetrated the secret” of the _Kedis

Kedisen_ was Mr. Herbert Vivian. In company with a friend he was, for

a consideration of two dollars, admitted to the _sanctum sanctorum_

of the Church of St. Raguel at Entotto. “The custodians seemed

to know very well that they were doing wrong, and displayed huge

anxiety to get the thing over as quickly as possible. They hurried us

up the rickety steps, opened the door of the sanctuary, took great

care to keep us as far off as possible, and kept exclaiming, ‘Now

that is all. I hope you are satisfied. Let us go away again. You

ought really to give us some more dollars for what we have done.’

There was, however, really next to nothing to see. In the darkness

I could just make out the tabernacle inside the holy of holies. It

was a kind of ark, covered with cheap draperies and surmounted by

a crucifix. A few lanterns lay about. That was all. At any rate,

that was all that we could induce the priest to show us.”[149]

Mr. Hormuzd Rassam has given a sketch of a _tabot_ in his book, with

the following description: “The _tabot_ is a square block of wood

on which the emblem of the cross, with some appropriate passage of

Scripture, is sometimes represented. No church can be consecrated

without it, and in the church from which it has been removed the

Lord’s Supper cannot be celebrated. It is placed upon the altar

in the centre of the holy of holies, and by the ignorant clergy is

regarded with as much veneration as the consecrated elements.”[150]

Annually, on the eve of the festival which commemorates Christ’s

baptism, the _tabot_ is carried out of the church by the chief

officiating priest, “and left all night covered in a tent or

hut erected for the purpose near a stream or pool. At daybreak

the following morning it is taken to the water, and after being

sprinkled with a few drops is again enveloped in the church-cloth,

and replaced under the tent until the time arrives for its formal

restoration to the church—a grand religious ceremony, accompanied

with singing of psalms and dancing.” In this recessional solemnity,

which Mr. Rassam saw, “the priests led the way, bearing various

sacred symbols, and chanting psalms all the while, followed by a

train of about three hundred men and a score of damsels, all dancing,

singing, and screeching as they went.”[151]

The appearance of Abyssinian churches has already been alluded to,

but the following general description, given by Major Harris, may

serve to bring the principles of their construction clearly before

the reader. “There are, perhaps, more churches in Abyssinia than

in any other part of the Christian world; and he who has erected

one believes that he has atoned for every sin. But even the best

are very miserable edifices of wattle plastered with mud, only to

be distinguished from the surrounding hovels by a thin coating of

whitewash, which is dashed over the outside to point with the finger

of pride to the peculiar privilege of the two great powers in the

land. Circular in form, with a door to each quarter of the compass,

and a conical thatch, they have an apex surmounted by a brazen cross,

which is usually adorned with ostrich eggs; and the same depraved and

heathenish taste pervades the decorations of the interior. Sculpture

is strictly forbidden; but the walls are bedaubed with paintings

of the patron saint of the church, the Blessed Virgin, and a truly

incongruous assemblage of cherubim and fallen angels, with the

evil one himself enveloped in hell flames. Timbrels and crutches

depend in picturesque confusion from the bare rafters of the roof,

and no ceiling protects the head from the descent of the lizard

and the spider.”[152] Mr. Hormuzd Rassam has given a sketch of

the ground plan of an Abyssinian church, showing the entrances and

“courts.”[153] According to him “the outer enclosure is for

the congregation generally, male and female, the former occupying

the western portion, and praying with their faces towards the east;

the latter standing opposite to them and facing the west.”[154]

The “crutches” mentioned by Major Harris astonished Mr. Vivian

at a later date. He saw them in a monastery, and “imagined they

had been contributed by lame people, to whom the saint of the

place had restored the use of their legs. As a matter of fact,

however, they were merely the crutches which every priest uses in

the ritual of the dance.”[155] The manner in which these singular

adjuncts of the priestly office are employed has been described by

Mr. Vivian. He attended a service at Trinity Church in Addis Abiba,

and has given a very interesting account of the ceremonies. At a

certain stage “all the priests grasp their long crutches and go

through a kind of gymnastic exercise, which reminds me of the use

of spears at a Somali dance. The crutches are five feet long, and

must, I imagine, have originally taken their origin from spears,

adapted for civilian use. The tops are either of ivory or brass,

some of them elaborately carved. . . . One priest acts as conductor,

and the others imitate his movements, all singing loudly through

their noses. . . . The crutches are held in the middle and darted

at the ground, now near, now far, with a forward movement made by

slightly bending the right knee. It is as though spears were being

poised and aimed playfully at objects on the floor. The crutches are

then lifted, crook end up, a foot into the air, they are poised,

they are swung, with ever-increasing vigour. All of a sudden the

whole exercise ceases without any warning whatever.”[156]

Major Harris wrote, with regard to certain other clerical

functions—“The Father Confessor is bound to the strictest secrecy;

and it is believed that on this point a dread oath is taken before

ordination, when all the mysteries are expounded by the Abouna,

and especially those which have reference to the preparation of

bread for the holy supper. In a small house styled Bethlehem,[157]

which rises immediately behind every church, the mysterious ceremony

is performed. The deacon can alone bake the cake; and the most

vigilant guard is invariably preserved against the approach or

intrusion of females or other improper visitors during the hour of

solemn preparation.”[158]

The first appendix to Vol. III. of Major Harris’s book contains

a list of the sacred writings used by the Abyssinian Church. These

include, _inter alia_—

The Old Testament.

The four gospels with readings, and all the other books of the

New Testament.

_Genset._ A book used in funeral solemnities, ascribed to Athanasius,

and stated to have been discovered by Helena at the digging out of

the Holy Cross.

_Retna Haimanot._ The orthodox faith.

_Henoch._ The prophecies of Enoch.

_Gadela Tekla Haimanot._ Life of Tekla Haimanot. (And the lives of

many other saints.)

_Synodos._ Canons of the Church, attributed to the Apostles.

_Sena Febrak._ History of the Creation; containing certain fabulous

traditions concerning the Creation and the Antediluvian world, said

to have been communicated to Moses on Mount Sinai, but not recorded

in the Book of Genesis.

_Tamera Mariam._ Miracles of the Holy Virgin, wrought during her

sojourn in Abyssinia, where she is said to have tarried three years

and six months with the infant Jesus, before her return to Palestine.

_Nagara Mariam._ Words of the Holy Virgin.

_Ardeet._ Words said to have been spoken by Christ before his

ascension.

_Kedasie._ Liturgy of the Abyssinian Church.

_Gadela Adam._ History of Adam.

_Auda Negest._ Book for prognostication.

_Kufalik._ Mysteries revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, not written

in the Pentateuch.

_Serata beita Chrestian._ Institutions of the Christian Church.

_Degwa._ Book of anthems, in which all the pieces of the liturgy

that are chanted are set to music by St. Yareed, a native of Simien,

who lived thirteen centuries ago and is believed to live still.

_Lefafa Zedik._ Prayers and spells against evil spirits and diseases,

a book much esteemed, and buried along with the corpse.

_Zalota Musa._ Prayers of Moses against the influence of evil

spirits.

_Melka Michael._ Prayers to St. Michael.

_Mazafa Tomar._ A letter which Christ is said to have written.

_Germama._ Prayers to frighten evil spirits.

_Fekaric Yasoos._ Christ’s prophecy of the consummation of the world.

_Haimanot Abao._ Doctrines of the Abyssinian Church, comprising

extracts from the Holy Scriptures, from synods, councils, and

writings of the Fathers.

_Gelota Monakosat._ Prayers of the monks.

_Felekisus._ Book on monastic subjects.

_Gadela Yob._ Life of Job.

_Raia Miriam._ Dream of the Holy Virgin.

_Gadela Samoetal._ Lives of the martyrs.

The second appendix of the same volume contains a summary of the

“Senkesar, or Synaxaria, being a _Collectio Vitarum Sanctarum_

together with the Calendar of the Ethiopic Christian Church.” The

compiler of the summary wrote, “The following calendar, translated

from the Latin of Ludolf, has been considerably enlarged by a

comparison at Ankóber with a complete copy of the ‘Senkesar.’

The lives of the Saints, or the detail of miracles written against

each day, are publicly read in the churches at the services beginning

at the cock’s first crowing.”

The first month of the Abyssinian year is September. It is not

surprising that in the long list of saints, patriarchs, prophets,

martyrs, virgins, hermits, kings, “Fathers,” presbyters,

emperors, and male and female ascetics whose deeds are commemorated

between New Year’s Day (September 1, by Ethiopian reckoning) and

the festival of St. Andrew and Moses, Bishop of Ferme, (being the

thirtieth and last day of August according to the same computation),

there should occur many names of worthies who are unknown to most

European readers. For instance—

Abba Anbasa, who rode upon a lion.

Eustathius, who brought a dead child back to life. (This miracle is

attributed to many of the saints.)

Ananias, who baptized St. Paul.

Pantaleon.

Jemrah, a martyr. On the spot where his blood was spilt there grew

up a fine vine.

Naakweto-Laab, the last Emperor of Ethiopia, of the family of

Zague. He did not die.

Cosmus, Metropolite. It is said that the image of Mary shed tears

when it beheld his excruciating tortures.

The two hundred and ninety-two brothers and forty-nine sisters

of Cosmus.

Abba Marina, who was discovered after death to have been a woman.

Barsufius.

Johannes Cama, whose fingers and nails seemed burning like candles

during prayer.

Abba Libanus, who brought water out of a rock.

Daniel, the woman-hater, who vowed never to look at a woman.

The forty-nine old hermits.

Joseph, who was saved out of a fiery oven.

The 80,107 martyrs with Isidorus.

Atom and Arianus.

Eusebius, who, “being threatened to be burnt, was taken to heaven

by Uriel the archangel, and remained there fourteen years.”[159]

And many others whose sanctity is as little known in the Western

Churches.

If there is anywhere a leisured and adventurous student of comparative

hagiology, he would obtain some interesting results by tracing the

origin and growth of the legends which glorify these worthies.

A survey of what has been said shows that Consul Plowden was fully

justified when he wrote, “the Christianity professed and taught

in Abyssinia is much materialized.” Nevertheless, the credulity

and superstition which prevail in the country are not in essence

grosser than the unwarranted beliefs which were accepted in Europe

when the _Aurea Legenda_ passed as sound devotional reading, and it

would be as unjustifiable to judge the intellectual capability of the

Habashes by their faith in myths as it would have been to estimate

the ability of our forefathers by a similar standard. Nor is it

certain that any sudden reformation would improve the religious

state of the people. An intemperate zeal for enlightening them

might, by introducing an ideal far above their real sympathies and

comprehension, discredit the old conceptions without effectually

substituting the new. Moreover, the fabulous feats of the saints

may require a cautious and sparing criticism; for to differentiate

the degrees of probability in miracles, among an unscientific

but argumentative race, would, perhaps, be more likely to promote

scepticism as to all thaumaturgy than to lead to the repudiation of

certain miracles and the continued acceptance of others.

It is, of course, the fact that at present “religion” consists

of little more than a mere series of outward observances. Veneration

of the fabric of the church takes the place of devotion within its

precincts. Dufton wrote:—“The prayers are read in Ethiopic”

(Geez), “a language which the people know nothing about, so that

little profit can be derived from the service. Indeed, most persons

content themselves with kissing the floor or the walls of the edifice,

and such is a criterion of a man’s piety; he kisses the church,

they say, and so esteem him a good Christian. Some will utter a

prayer. The petition takes a form similar to the following, which

an old woman was heard to offer up during my visit, though the last

clause is probably in most cases omitted—

“‘O Lord, give me plenty to eat and drink, good raiment, and a

comfortable home, or else kill me outright!’”

Mr. Vivian visited the Church of the Blessed Virgin at Entotto,

and noticed that all the Abyssinians who were with him “hastened

to kiss the floor-beam and side-posts or lintels of the door in the

outer wall.” And at Trinity Church in Addis Abiba “whenever a

peasant approached the church on a mule, he dismounted and kissed a

large black stone which stood some twenty yards away. Other persons

of a more pious turn of mind went right up to the entrance and kissed

not only the lintels, but even the floor-beam of the doorway. This

was also done by everybody who was coming to church, and my servant,

in whom I had never detected any semblance of piety on the road,

was particularly punctilious in this respect.”[160]

But it is not the case that the Habashes avoid all religious duties

that are irksome. Parkyns wrote: “Their fasts are more numerous

perhaps than those of any other Christian people, more than two-thirds

of the year being assigned to abstinence. Nor in their fasting do

they get off as easily as Roman Catholics; for it is not sufficient

that they should abstain from animal food only; an Abyssinian,

during fast-time, neither eats nor drinks anything till late in the

afternoon. . . . It is true the Mohammedans do nearly the same during

their month of Ramadan; but they only change the day into night,

feasting during the night-time on more luxurious food than many of

them could allow themselves during the remainder of the year; while

the Abyssinian, when he does eat, confines himself to dried peas,

dressed in a sort of bad oil, or to an equally unpalatable dish made

of a kind of spinach, called ‘hamly’ or ‘goummen.’ . . . Many

of the Abyssinian fasts are of long duration. The time of day when

the people may eat is determined by the length of a man’s shadow,

measured by his own feet, and varies in different fasts. Thus the fast

of Advent is during the last ten days of the month Hedar (October)

and the whole of Tahsas (November), and during each day till a man’s

shadow measures nine and a half feet. The fast of Lent lasts till

sunset during fifty-five days. . . . Besides these are the Wednesdays

and Fridays, making nearly 260 days of fasting. . . . Some of the

priests are very rigorous in keeping all these fasts, and many even

voluntarily add a number for their own observance. The people, too,

in general are tolerably attentive to this duty; and I have frequently

met with men undergoing extreme labour, yet persevering in what they

have been brought up to consider as one of the most essential parts of

their religion; for, strictly speaking, a man who has been known to

neglect the rules of the Church is looked upon almost as an infidel,

and should he die in such a state of disobedience, his body would

be refused sepulture in the churches. Good Friday and the following

day are passed by the priests and the rigidly devout in an absolute

fast of forty-eight hours.”[161]

Plowden remarked: “So much do they attach importance to this

(fasting) and other outward forms that a man of Hamazayn[162]

will slay his near relative, and returning home calmly, will be

horror-stricken should his wife have ground flour on a saint’s day,

or prepared his meal before the hours of fasting have expired.”[163]

It must be owned that the Habashes recompense themselves as far as

possible for the severity of their abstinence by gluttony at the

numerous feasts which the Church also ordains.

Major Cornwallis Harris drew attention to a singular custom in the

following words—“Fasts, penances, and excommunication form the

chief props of the clerical power; but the repentant sinner can always

purchase a substitute to undergo the two former, and the ban of the

Church is readily averted by a timely offering.”[164] This seems

to indicate an opinion among the Abyssinians that a sin is expiated

not by the contrition of the evil-doer, but by a formal amount of

punishment undergone somewhere by some one—no matter by whom.

The Abyssinian Church teaches, and the great majority of the people

accept, the doctrine of transubstantiation. Those who hold this

belief “assert that the actual body and blood of our Saviour are

partaken of by the faithful, but that an angel takes them away from an

unbeliever, and restores the bread and wine, in his hands, in their

natural state, such as they were previous to the benediction. The

wine is merely an infusion of dried raisins.”[165] Stern tells the

story of a miracle which is supposed to have established the fact

of transubstantiation, and adds, “The erudite reject the legend,

and, in their sentiments, approximate to the Lutheran doctrine of

consubstantiation.”[166] The Church also teaches the doctrine

of purgatory and that “prayers for the dead are necessary,

and absolution indispensable. The souls of the departed do not

immediately enter upon a state of happiness, the period being in

exact accordance with the alms and prayers that are expended upon

earth.”[167] Stern declared that “the number of masses requisite

for the repose of the soul has not been defined by the Church, and

thus the misery or bliss of the defunct is at the mercy of niggardly

relatives and exacting priests.”[168] Both writers attribute the

introduction of this opinion to the Jews.

The badge of Ethiopian Christianity, worn by all classes, is the

_mateb_, a blue neck-thread of silk or wool. This is the distinctive

mark of the Abyssinians’ creed; they hardly believe that one

who does not wear it is in reality a Christian, and, said Dufton,

besides disdaining their Mohammedan and Jewish neighbours, “they

often include in their contempt every form of Christianity even which

does not conform to their own”[169]—in which prejudice they are

not so singular as at a first glance they may appear to be. Commonly

a silver ring or cross is attached to the cord.

The general character of the clergy appears from what has already

been related. Parkyns saw them in remote places and in their

least spiritual aspect. For instance, in describing the feast on

St. Michael’s day at Addy Harisho, he wrote: “An old priest came

up to me and offered, on the part of himself and his brethren, to

perform, if I pleased, the religious dance and song used by them on

such occasions. I never shall forget their ludicrous efforts to appear

graceful, at the same time staggering every step; while the expression

of devotion they affected to assume was reduced to a languid smile

and thickening eyelids, expressive of nothing but liquor. A hiccup or

two occasionally interfered with the solemn words they were chanting;

and the stately movements they had begun with changed gradually,

and by degrees the dance became a reel, or rather reeling movement,

the words only which accompanied it remaining solemn. At last an old

priest, suddenly forgetting the original chant, changed its words

to those of a jovial drinking ditty: ‘Don’t you stop the liquor,

and I will dance for ever!’ Instead of the marks of disapprobation

from his fellow-priests, they only burst into a loud laugh, and,

declaring the entertainment to be changed for the better, all with

one consent followed his example and his tune.”[170]

Nevertheless, Parkyns wrote of the priests with tolerance and good

humour. And it is worthy of note that two other British writers

who knew the country well have had a good word to say for the

clergy. Plowden, after mentioning some of their faults, observed:

“It is just to say that they have preserved the Christian faith,

impure indeed, but still alive, in the midst of foreign invasion,

domestic degradation, and the extinction of Government, and that it

is under their protection that agriculture flourishes, and villages

are built where deserts would else be seen.”[171] Mr. Augustus

Wylde, among several remarks in a similar sense, said: “I have

found the clergy, if left alone, peaceable, simple-minded men, very

hospitable and always willing to do me a good turn, and ready to

help me and pass me on to their neighbouring friends, and I expect

other travellers would find them the same as long as they treated

them properly.”[172]

An interesting instance of the survival of a Jewish institution among

the Christians of Abyssinia is that of Cities of Refuge. Plowden

wrote, “All the larger towns are entirely under their (the

priests’) control, and being cities of refuge, sacred even from

the Ras, are filled with dissolute and dangerous characters.”[173]

Parkyns mentioned Axum as a place of this kind, and added, “at

Adoua the whole of that part called after the church, in fact the

parish, is sanctuary (‘guddam’), and no person having taken

refuge there can be arrested, although he walk about the public

streets in broad daylight, so long as he does not pass the parish

boundaries.”[174] Stern alluded to the subject, and had formed

the impression that churches in general were sanctuaries. “In

most cases the murderer may elude the violent rage of his pursuers

by taking refuge in a church, where the priests will negotiate the

price of his release.”[175] He mentioned also certain rivers—the

Taccazze and the Abai—forming the limits of provinces, which the

“avenger of blood” may not pass.[176]

The Jewish Sabbath is still held in veneration by the Abyssinian

Christians. Parkyns observed that a feast called “adam Souaur,”

or “left Saturday,” was observed, “as that day was formerly

the Jewish Sabbath, but given up by the Christians for the Sunday at

the time of the resurrection of our Saviour. The priests collect a

quantity of rushes, and bless them in the church; and then a priest

and a deacon take them out into the parish, the deacon carrying the

bundle, and the priest distributing the rushes to all passers-by,

binding them on the head of the receiver. They also visit the houses

with them, and generally receive a handsome present.”[177] It would

be interesting to discover the origin of this custom. Major Harris,

writing in 1843, said, “The Jewish Sabbath is strictly observed

throughout the kingdom. The ox and ass are at rest. Agricultural

pursuits are suspended. Household avocations must be laid aside,

and the spirit of idleness reigns throughout the day.”[178] The

same writer has given a brief history of the observance.[179]

It is well known that at one time Abyssinia was, so far as the

Emperor’s power extended at that period, converted to Roman

Catholicism by the instrumentality of Portuguese missionaries. The

connection with Portugal commenced in 1499, when Pedro Covilham

penetrated by way of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, to Shoa,

where the Emperor then held his court. He was well received. An

ancient Ethiopian law decreed that no foreigner who reached Abyssinia

should be allowed to leave the country, but Covilham was permitted to

send home an account of his experiences. At a later date a further

communication from the traveller induced the Portuguese Government

to despatch an embassy, which, after many privations and adventures,

arrived in Shoa in October, 1520. It brought no presents, and was not

cordially welcomed. However, the Emperor desired to send an answer

to the King of Portugal, and therefore—in defiance of the ancient

usage—allowed the ambassador to return to Lisbon, taking with him

an Ethiopian envoy. But certain of the Portuguese were detained in

Abyssinia, among whom was a priest named John Bermudez.

Some years later this man was appointed Abouna, or Patriarch, on

the death of the incumbent of that office. He made his way to Rome,

where Pope Paul III. confirmed his title, and he thence proceeded,

in accordance with the Emperor’s desire, to Portugal, and solicited

the aid of European troops to assist the Abyssinians in repelling

the Mohammedan invasion which then threatened the country.

The Portuguese Government despatched an expedition of some four

hundred men under Don Christopher de Gama. These troops disembarked

at Massowah in 1542. In an engagement with the Mohammedan forces

on August 30 of that year the Abyssinian allies took to flight,

and the Portuguese were surrounded. They cut their way through the

enemy and effected their retreat, but Don Christopher, who had been

wounded, was captured by the enemy and murdered by the Mohammedan

commander. His skull was sent to Constantinople as a trophy. The

surviving Portuguese besought of the Emperor an opportunity to avenge

their leader, and they shortly afterwards took part in an action in

which the Mohammedan forces were routed with great slaughter.

These circumstances added to the influence of Bermudez, but he

insisted rigorously on the complete acceptance of Roman doctrine and

ritual by the Abyssinians, and thus incurred the resentment of the

Emperor. As a consequence he lost the advantages which he and his

compatriots had gained, and finally abandoned his task and quitted

the country, embarking at Massowah, where he had landed.

A subsequent mission under the leadership of Oviedo, Bishop

of Hieropolis, which reached Massowah in 1558, failed equally,

after many adventures—including an Abyssinian Council at which

the Emperor and the bishop publicly and heatedly disputed about

points of doctrine—and in 1560 Oviedo received orders from Rome

to withdraw from Ethiopia and proceed to Japan.

Peter Paez was the next missionary who attempted to bring Abyssinia

into communion with the Catholic Church. After suffering shipwreck in

the Red Sea and enduring a seven years’ captivity in the hands of

the Turks he landed at Massowah in 1600. Paez was a man of prudence

and ability. He prepared himself for his task by learning the Geez

language and opening a school at Maiguagua, in which he was able to

study the character of the Abyssinian people. He acquired a reputation

as a teacher and disputant, and in 1604 was summoned to the court,

where the reigning Emperor, Za Dengel, received him as a person

of distinction. He soon acquired influence over this monarch, who

sanctioned the use of the Roman ritual and shortly became a convert to

Catholicism. A rebellion—one of the ordinary incidents of Abyssinian

politics—was organized against him, and he was slain. A period of

civil war ensued, during which his successor shared the same fate.

The crown then passed to the Emperor Segued (called also Socinios and

Susneus).[180] Paez aroused his interest by his skill in architecture

and his other talents, was received into favour, and for the second

time induced the ruler of the country to recognize the authority

of the Catholic Church. Letters announcing the event, signed by the

Emperor himself, were sent to the Pope and the King of Portugal. Paez

died in 1623, shortly after receiving Segued’s formal abjuration

of heresy and administering to him the sacrament of penance.

Upon receipt of the Emperor’s letter, the Pope, in 1624, despatched

to Ethiopia a mission headed by Alphonso Mendez, a Jesuit and

doctor of divinity. This envoy and his followers reached Abyssinia

in 1625. On February 11, 1626, before the court and the magnates

of the country, the Emperor avowed his submission to the head of

the Catholic Church, and took the oath of obedience to the Holy

See. A proclamation was then made that “all persons intended for

priests should embrace the Catholic religion under pain of death,

and that all should follow the forms of the Church of Rome in the

celebration of Easter and Lent under the same penalty.”

The change of creed was not popular in the country. It was opposed

by force, and became the occasion of a renewal of civil war. The

Emperor found that he had alienated his subjects, and, in spite of the

protests and resistance of Mendez, he issued, in 1632, an edict by

which he restored the ancient religion to its former authority, and

abdicated in favour of his son. Segued died a few months afterwards,

still professing the Catholic faith. His successor banished Mendez

and his retinue, whereupon they sought protection with the Prince

of Bar, who had been at enmity with the Abyssinian king; but this

chieftain delivered them to the Turks. Father Jerome Lobo, who

wrote a history of the mission, and some of his companions, reached

Europe after many adventures; others were ransomed from the Pasha of

Souakim and proceeded to India, and the few Jesuits who had remained

in Abyssinia were put to death.

Of nine Capuchins who endeavoured to enter the country soon after

these events, seven were killed, the three who arrived last being

murdered by the Pasha of Souakim, at the Emperor of Abyssinia’s

request, as soon as they reached the coast.

No subsequent attempt of similar importance was made to convert

the Abyssinian nation to Catholicism, and the story of the struggle

between the Roman and the Alexandrian forms of belief may be said

to have ended with the banishment of Mendez.

There have been theological contentions in the Abyssinian Church as

in others, and it has not escaped schism. The fiercest dispute arose

about the number of the births of Christ, and the sword has been

used—as elsewhere—to lend force to arguments. Major Harris wrote:

“At the expense of a bloody civil war, Gondar, with Godjam, Damot,

and all the south-western provinces of Amhára, has long maintained

the three births of Christ—Christ proceeding from the Father from

all eternity, styled ‘the eternal birth;’ His incarnation, as

being born of the holy Virgin, termed His ‘second or temporal

birth;’ and His reception of the Holy Ghost, denominated His

‘third birth.’ The Tigre ecclesiastics, on the other hand,

whose side is invariably espoused by the Primate of Ethiopia, deny

the third birth, upon the ground that the reception of the Holy

Ghost cannot be so styled.”[181] Bishop Samuel Gobat, whose book

was published in 1834, gave a fuller account of the controversy,

which Parkyns quoted.[182] In Stern’s time the Abouna (primate)

was supported by King Theodore in his opposition to the doctrine of

the three births, and “the royal herald made proclamation that in

future all who adhered to the obnoxious dogma of the threefold birth

would be taught obedience by the _giraffe_ (scourging). The Shoa

clergy denounced this decision as arbitrary and tyrannical, as indeed

it was; but an application of the promised whip wrought a wonderful

change among that insubordinate body.”[183] The same author on

one occasion saw about a dozen priests in chains, who were brought

before the Abouna to be admonished because “they had pertinaciously

clung to the abolished dogma of the three births of Christ.”[184]

The penalty which they incurred “consisted of several months’

successive fasts, divers fines, and the promise of the _giraffe_.”

For a detailed account of Abyssinian Christianity and ecclesiastical

history, reference should be made to the books already mentioned in

this volume—Bruce, Gobat, Harris, Lobo, Legrand, Stern, Dufton,

Plowden, and Parkyns especially—and to the works of F. Alvarez[185]

and Job Ludolphus.[186] A digest of the writings of the early

travellers and missionaries in Abyssinia was published by F. Balthazar

Tellez, and translated into English by John Stevens (1710).

Mention has already been made of the Falashas (Jews) of

Abyssinia. These people, said Stern, “claiming a lineal descent

from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, pride themselves on the fame of their

progenitors and the purity of the blood that circulates in their

own veins. Intermarriages with those of another tribe or creed are

strictly interdicted,[187] nay, even the visit to an unbeliever’s

house is a sin, and subjects the transgressor to the penance of a

thorough lustration and a complete change of dress before he can

return to his own home. Their stern uncompromising sectarian spirit

has been highly beneficial in excluding from their community that

licentious profligacy in which all the other inhabitants of Ethiopia

riot; and it is generally admitted that Falasha men and women seldom,

if ever, stray from the path of virtue, or transgress the solemn

law of the decalogue.”[188]

Various accounts, of which two have already been mentioned, are

given of the origin of the Jewish colony in Abyssinia. It is commonly

believed among the people that a large retinue returned with Maqueda,

Queen of Sheba, from her visit to King Solomon. Harris remarked,

“The tradition of Queen Maqueda has been ascribed to the invention

of those fugitive Jews, who, after the destruction of Jerusalem by

the Emperor Titus, emigrated into the northern States by way of the

Red Sea, who disseminated it with the design of obtaining the desired

permission to settle in the country, and whose descendants are the

Falashas still extant among the mountains of Simien and Lasta.”[189]

According to Stern, “the most probable conjecture is that at a

very early period—perhaps when Solomon’s fleet navigated the

Red Sea—some adventurous Jews, impelled by love of gain, settled

among the pleasant hills of Arabia Felix; whilst others of a more

daring and enterprising spirit were induced to try their fortune

in the more remote mountain scenes of Ethiopia. . . . Subsequent

troubles in Palestine and the final overthrow of the Jewish monarchy

by Nebuchadnezzar increased the number of the emigrants, and in

the lapse of a few centuries the Jews formed a powerful state in

Arabia, and a formidable and turbulent people in the Alpine regions

between Tigre and Amhara in Ethiopia.”[190] Mr. Vivian alluded to

“a colony of aboriginal Jews up in the mountains of Tigre. They

live in pastoral fashion, like the old Hebrew patriarchs, upon the

produce of the flocks and herds. They have been there for centuries,

perhaps even for thousands of years, and the Abyssinians confess

that they have always failed to dislodge them from their inaccessible

fastnesses.”[191] Falashas are also found in the provinces bordering

on Lake Tsana, including Godjam, and it was in this district that

Stern visited them. It seems probable that the Jews who have retained

their religion are the descendants of those who refused to conform to

the doctrines of the Coptic Church when they were generally adopted

in the country. Bruce mentions that “about one hundred and eighty

years after the establishment of Christianity, a religious war is said

to have taken place between the converted and unconverted Abyssinians

(the Christians and the Jews),”[192] and if one may judge by the

steady and successful opposition which Hebrews in other countries have

offered to the most strenuous methods of conversion, it appears likely

that a portion of those in Abyssinia adhered to their ancient creed.

There is a tradition that in the tenth century the Jews obtained

ascendency in Ethiopia, and preserved their supremacy for about three

centuries. “In the year 960 the Jews, supported by their king and

by his daughter Judith, a woman of great beauty, resolved to attempt

the subversion of the Christian religion and the destruction of the

race of Solomon (Queen Maqueda’s descendants having been converted

to the Alexandrian doctrines). They surprised the mountain of Damo,

the residence of the Christian princes, the whole of whom, about four

hundred, were massacred, excepting one infant, who escaped into the

powerful and loyal province of Shoa. A solitary representative of the

blood of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba was thus preserved. Judith

took possession of the throne, and not only enjoyed it herself

for forty years, but transmitted it to five of her posterity. On

the death of the last of these the crown descended to one of his

relations, a Christian, and is said to have remained in his family

(who, though Christians, were not of the line of Solomon) for five

generations. Finally, Tekla Haimanot, the famous saint, persuaded

the reigning king to restore the crown to the house of Solomon,

whose descendants had survived in Shoa.”[193]

Differing accounts of the former political status of the Hebrews in

the land have been given by various writers; Stern said that in their

“mountain fastnesses of Simien and Bellesa they maintained, under

their own kings and queens, called Gideon and Judith, a chequered

and independent existence till the beginning of the seventeenth

century.”[194] Harris, following Bruce more closely, wrote,

“Christianity became the national religion of Abyssinia in the

beginning of the fourth century. The Falashas, descendants of the

Jews who were believed to have accompanied Menelek from Jerusalem,

had meanwhile waxed extremely powerful, and refusing to abandon the

faith of their forefathers, they now declared independence. Electing

a sovereign of their own creed, they took possession of the almost

impregnable mountain fastnesses of Simien, where their numbers were

augmented by continual accessions from the Jews who were expelled from

Palestine and from Arabia. Under the constant titles of Gideon and

Judith, a succession of kings and queens held a limited sway until,

in the middle of the _tenth_ century,” the Princess Esther brought

about the revolution which Bruce ascribed to Judith—one writer

probably using the name and the other the title of the usurper in

question. Whatever the circumstances may really have been, there

seems reason to believe that the Jews were at one time sufficiently

influential to impose a dynasty of their choice upon the nation.

Stern has given a full and very interesting account of the Falashas

whom he saw. According to this they dwell as a rule, though not

invariably, apart from the remainder of the population, and “their

settlements are strikingly distinguished from the Christian villages

by the red earthen pot on the apex of their _mesquid_, or place of

worship, which towers from the centre of the thatched huts by which

it is environed. . . . Husbandry and a few simple trades—such as

smiths, potters, and weavers—constitute the sole occupations in

which they engage; commerce they unanimously repudiate as incompatible

with their Mosaic Creed, and it is quite a disappointment not to

find a single merchant among a quarter of a million of people,

the lineal descendants of those who are supposed to have acquired a

taste for traffic and riches on the very eve of their emancipation

from Egyptian servitude.”

Though they had very few copies of the Scriptures in Stern’s

time they were well acquainted with the Old Testament, especially

the Pentateuch and the Psalms. “Their sacrifices,” he wrote,

“are most capriciously offered, and with the exception of the

Paschal Lamb, neither the offering on the Sabbath nor on the day of

atonement is in accordance with the original command. . . . Every

Falasha settlement has a hut at its outskirts, and there the unclean

and impure must take refuge during the prescribed number of days. This

ritual scrupulosity involves many social hardships and inflicts on

numbers many a keen pang. Particularly in the hour of dissolution,

when the sweet expressions of friendship and love are so soothing

to the agonized soul and anguished frame, the dying Falasha has

no affectionate hand clasped in his, and no words of comfort from

beloved objects whispered in his ears. The inflexible law forbids

the last offices to the weeping relative, and the helpless sufferer

is in death’s agonizing convulsions dragged from the weary couch

into the open air, where the polluted and unclean remove him from

the bare ground to the tainted and lonely hut.”

On the Sabbath “the service, which consists in chanting psalms

and hymns relieved by allegorical stories and a few verses or a

chapter of the book of Leviticus, lasts a considerable time, and

in some places the plaintive notes of the worshippers may even be

heard across the quiet valley and around the lonely hill throughout

the night. . . . Broad phylacteries and the garments of fringes are

utterly unknown among them, nor do they wash the cup or practise

any of the decrees of the rabbins. . . . About the advent of the

Messiah they have no intelligent or definite idea. ‘We believe

that Jerusalem will again be rebuilt,’ is the answer on the lip

of every Falasha, when questioned as to the future destiny of his

nation. This event they regard as the consummation of their brightest

hopes—the realization of their fondest mundane visions. . . .”

Asceticism, borrowed from the Christian hermits, has become a practice

among the Falasha priests, who “after their initiation frequently

pass months and years in swampy marshes, stern wilds and poisonous

jungles, where roots or dried peas, which latter they carry with them,

are their only means of subsistence. Numbers succumb to the noxious

influence of the atmosphere, others perish of famine, whilst not a few

become the prey of the lion, hyena, and other voracious beasts which

inhabit those unsightly tracts.” There are also Falasha monks,

and “the dwellings and convents of these ascetics are carefully

isolated from the abodes of the impure and unholy people.”

There were, in Stern’s day, three Falasha high-priests in Abyssinia,

one in the province of Quara, the other in Armatgioho, and the

third, Aboo Maharee, in Dembea. The missionary had some indecisive

discussion with the last-named, a man about sixty years of age,

“of a noble and commanding figure, swathed in a white _shama_,

and holding a long bamboo staff, which in the distance looked like

the crosier of a bishop.” He had a “high and expressive forehead,

melancholy restless eyes, and a countenance once no doubt mild and

pleasing, but to which self-imposed penances and a repulsive practice

had imparted an expression most strange and unearthly.”

“The common people have all an erect, upright carriage;” the

women are intelligent and _sympathiques_, and the younger of them

attractive. To judge by Stern’s description,[195] the Falashas are

generally a worthy, simple and devout race, bigoted but “exemplary

in their morals, and cleanly in their habits”—in which latter

respect they form a striking contrast to their co-religionists in

the slums of London. Plowden said of the Abyssinian Jews, “They are

still found in some numbers, and, though despised, are not persecuted;

this may be owing to their poverty. They know nothing of the Hebrew

tongue, but some read the Mosaic books in Geez, and are as scrupulous

in their ceremonials as their brethren elsewhere. They are the best

masons in the country.”[196]

“The _mesquids_, like the Christian churches, consist of three

divisions, with an entrance towards the east. The admission into

these different courts is rigorously regulated by Levitical law,

and the severest penalty would be inflicted on any one who should

incautiously pollute the sacred edifice. In the rear of every place

of worship is a small enclosure with a huge stone in the centre;

and on this crude altar the victim is slaughtered, and all other

sacrificial rites performed.”[197]

For a notice of a curious superstition of which a class of Jewish

people are often the object among Christian Abyssinians, see p. 288.

In the “Jewish Year-Book”[198] for 1904 the number of Jews in

Abyssinia is computed at 50,000; the “American Jewish Year Book”

estimates it to be 120,000. Both these figures must be conjectural,

and the former differs very widely from that given by Stern, who had

had opportunities of obtaining information in the country. Considering

the fecundity of the Jews in most parts of the world it is unlikely

that their numbers have diminished in Ethiopia during the last

forty years.

In Plowden’s time there was a large and prosperous Mohammedan

population in Abyssinia. He wrote: “In all large towns they

have a separate quarter, with mosques and public prayers. From

the advantage that their commerce in slaves gives them over their

Christian competitors, the Mussulman traders are the most wealthy,

and are, therefore, generally appointed to the high post of Negadeh

Ras, or collector of all customs, literally ‘head of merchants.’

To enforce their authority these keep large bodies of armed men, and

confidently predict the final triumph of the faith of the Prophet in

Abyssinia. The Abyssinian Mussulmans, as distinguished from the Galla,

are all traders; they will not eat meat killed by Christians, and are

frequently their superiors in morality and intelligence. They live

on terms of equality, good humour and friendship with the Christians,

openly defend their creed, and receive any proselyte that offers, and

do not appear to think that the restrictions in the Koran respecting

strong drinks apply to them at all.” Plowden added that they,

like the Christians, did not generally seclude their women.

King Theodore, early in his reign, issued an edict which “required

peremptorily the expulsion from the country, or the instant return

to the bosom of the Church of his apostate countrymen,” _i.e._

Mohammedans.[199] Circumstances prevented him from enforcing this

decree. It was revived by King Johannes, and no doubt, had in other

parts of Abyssinia the effect which Stecker observed in Korata.[200]

But Mohammedans are still to be found—_e.g._ in the district of

Axum[201] and in Shoa.[202]

Allusion has already been made to the Waitos.[203] Plowden wrote of

them: “They call themselves Mohammedans, but are not recognized

by the other followers of that creed. They principally reside near

the Lake Tsana, and are a very handsome race. They are regarded

with as much aversion as the Jews.”[204] It must be owned that

the appreciation of their personal appearance is a matter of taste.

Another singular sect is that known as Koomants, or Kamants. These

people, “found only in the neighbourhood of Gondar, are acknowledged

by neither Christian, Mussulman, or Jew, and have a bastard creed,

a compound of all three. They are skilful carpenters, and supply

all Gondar with wood. They are despised, but being very courageous,

and having lately shown an inclining towards Christianity, it is not

improbable that their distinctions will soon disappear; many even now

have ceased a practice which was the chief separating cause. They

hung heavy weights in the lobe of the ear of the girls, who are

thereby excluded from any chance of marriage with Christians.”[205]

Hormuzd Rassam on one occasion halted at a village of Kamants called

Saraba, north of Lake Tsana, in the direction of Gondar. He saw

there “a place of worship, which they hold in great veneration. The

entire space between the spring and this temple, or, more strictly,

grove—they have no building for their religious services—is

regarded as sacred, and no Christian or Mohammedan is allowed to

enter within the hallowed precincts. When engaged in prayer, they

take up a position under a tree, on the banks of the stream, or

in the wood about half a mile from the spring. It is owing to this

practice that the Christian Abyssinians style them ‘Worshippers of

wood,’ or simply ‘Wood.’ Their religion is as great a mystery

in Abyssinia as that of the Ansairies is in Syria, and although the

late king (Theodore) obliged them to wear the ‘mateb’ cord,

yet they still continue to practise certain rites and ceremonies

unknown either to Christians or Mussulmans. They only eat meat which

has been slaughtered by themselves, and eschew fish and coffee;

yet they adopt Christian names, and have a kind of baptism, which

their Christian countrymen designate a ‘mockery.’”[206]

Stern’s first experience of these people was agreeable. In a deep

valley called Walee Dubba, on the way to Tschelga, he met some young

women who had jars of _dallah_, a beer made from sprouting barley,

to sell. “It was quite an unexpected surprise,” he wrote, “to

see the solitude of an African wilderness enlivened with the gay

song and sprightly converse of a number of young lasses, who, clad

in rustling leather petticoats, moved about amongst the various

groups resting under the leafy foliage, with a grace and innate

modesty which elicited admiration, whilst at the same time it forbad

all unbecoming liberty.” At Tschelga he questioned some of the

Kamants “about their knowledge of God and their hopes of eternity;

but they had so little to communicate, beyond a belief in a Supreme

Being and the existence of a future state, that the most simple query

caused them the utmost wonder and surprise. . . . Their language is

Amharic, but amongst themselves they speak in the Falasha tongue;

and the striking Jewish features of many a man and woman amongst

them inclined us to credit the report which assigns to them a Jewish

origin.” The same writer has mentioned the legendary derivation of

their name,[207] and he described them as industrious, energetic,

and active. He saw many of their women in Gondar, and remarked

that “it was a strange sight to see these young females—clad in

simple leather petticoats and equally simple earrings of wood, which,

according to the orthodox fashion, must be weighty enough to distend

in a few years the flap of the ear down to the shoulders—walking

about in the market, or groaning under a heavy burden of wood,

utterly unconcerned about everything except the graceful ornament

that dangled round their necks.”[208]

At the present time European creeds are represented in Abyssinia

by converts, whose change of faith is due to the activity of

missionaries. Mr. Wylde wrote upon this subject—“I believe the

majority of the Abyssinians care a great deal for their religion, and

it is only the more worthless ones that are found round the different

mission stations; people who are willing to change their faith the

same as they would their clothes, and when they have worn out all

that are to be got, revert to their original one again, without

perhaps being any the better or any the worse for the experience,

but only to be marked by others as being utterly worthless and

unreliable characters. I will never have a male servant in my employ

that has been near a mission, if I can help it. Female servants are

different; they usually are taught to sew, wash, and cook, and are

generally cleanly in their habits, but when they get to a certain

age the majority of them run away from these establishments, as they

cannot stand the discipline and restraint; and I don’t blame them,

as a more unlovely and monotonous life does not exist.”[209]

There is a code of law in Abyssinia, which is called _Fatha Negest_,

or _Feth Negust_. According to Major Harris this volume of “The

Judgments of the Kings” is said to have fallen from heaven in the

time of Constantine the Great, and he includes it among the books

of which MSS. are still extant in the country.[210] Plowden stated

that it was supposed “to have been compiled by the Council of Three

Hundred, in the earlier ages of the Church, and regarded originally

as of almost equal authority with the sacred writings.”[211]

He further remarked that this code “is a bad translation from

that of Justinian; three parts of it being occupied with Church

affairs and regulations, and a small portion only with the civil

and criminal law, this latter being also much mixed up with the

institutions of the Pentateuch. Bad as it is, there are probably

not twenty persons in the country that are conversant with it; and

some singular judgments are given on its authority, much after the

fashion of the _sortes Virgilianæ_. Though it is consulted with much

ceremony, and considered a sacred volume, law is, in fact, simplified

to the will of the chief. Still, the fact of there being a written

law has assisted in retarding the degradation of the people.”[212]

The following extract from Parkyns’s work shows the spirit of

Ethiopian jurisprudence in dealing with serious crime: “As for

the laws of the country, they are for the most part formed on the

basis of the old Mosaic dispensation. ‘An eye for an eye, and

a tooth for a tooth’ is followed nearly to the letter—so much

so that, if a man kill another, the murderer must be put to death

by the nearest relatives of the deceased with precisely the same

kind of weapon as that with which he killed his victim.”[213]

The murderer may redeem his life by paying a ransom, which, in

Stern’s time, varied from fifty to two hundred and fifty Maria

Theresa dollars. If he did not possess the requisite amount he was

chained to a relative of the deceased and obliged to beg till he

had collected the stipulated sum. The severity of the punishments

in vogue varies with the temperament of different rulers, the

Emperor being the final authority in such matters, and a right of

appeal to him is admitted in favour of all accused persons.[214]

Mutilation is a common penalty.[215] “This,” said Mr. Wylde,

“has not the terrors that it would have in England, as some of the

thieves in Abyssinia have been operated on a second and a third time,

and I saw one man with his left foot being the only extremity left,

and he was being fed by the priests at the church at Adowa.”[216]