[1] The Ashantees at customs' time run across the royal threshold to
escape being seized and sacrificed; possibly the trace of the pagan rite
is still preserved by Moslem Harar, where it is now held a mark of respect
and always exacted from the citizens.
[2] I afterwards learned that when a man neglects a summons his door is
removed to the royal court-yard on the first day; on the second, it is
confiscated. The door is a valuable and venerable article in this part of
Africa. According to Bruce, Ptolemy Euergetes engraved it upon the Axum
Obelisk for the benefit of his newly conquered AEthiopian subjects, to whom
it had been unknown.
[3] In Abyssinia, according to the Lord of Geesh, this is a mark of royal
familiarity and confidence.
[4] About seven years ago the Hajj Sharmarkay of Zayla chose as his agent
at Harar, one of the Amir's officers, a certain Hajj Jamitay. When this
man died Sharmarkay demanded an account from his sons; at Berberah they
promised to give it, but returning to Harar they were persuaded, it is
believed, by the Gerad Mohammed, to forget their word. Upon this
Sharmarkay's friends and relations, incited by one Husayn, a Somali who
had lived many years at Harar in the Amir's favour, wrote an insulting
letter to the Gerad, beginning with, "No peace be upon thee, and no
blessings of Allah, thou butcher! son of a butcher &c. &c.!" and
concluding with a threat to pinion him in the market-place as a warning to
men. Husayn carried the letter, which at first excited general terror;
when, however, the attack did not take place, the Amir Abubakr imprisoned
the imprudent Somali till he died. Sharmarkay by way of reprisals
persuaded Alu, son of Sahlah Salaseh, king of Shoa, to seize about three
hundred Harari citizens living in his dominions and to keep them two years
in durance.
The Amir Abubakr is said on his deathbed to have warned his son against
the Gerad. When Ahmad reported his father's decease to Zayla, the Hajj
Sharmarkay ordered a grand Maulid or Mass in honour of the departed. Since
that time, however, there has been little intercourse and no cordiality
between them.
[5] Thus M. Isenberg (Preface to Ambaric Grammar, p. iv.) calls the city
Harrar or Ararge.
[6] "Harar," is not an uncommon name in this part of Eastern Africa:
according to some, the city is so called from a kind of tree, according to
others, from the valley below it.
[7] I say _about_: we were compelled to boil our thermometers at Wilensi,
not venturing upon such operation within the city.
[8] The other six were Efat, Arabini, Duaro, Sharka, Bali and Darah.
[9] A circumstantial account of the Jihad or Moslem crusades is, I am
told, given in the Fath el Habashah, unfortunately a rare work. The Amir
of Harar had but one volume, and the other is to be found at Mocha or
Hudaydah.
[10] This prince built "Debra Berhan," the "Hill of glory," a church
dedicated to the Virgin Mary at Gondar.
[11] A prince of many titles: he is generally called Wanag Suggad, "feared
amongst the lions," because he spent the latter years of his life in the
wild.
[12] Yemen submitted to Sulayman Pasha in A.D. 1538.
[13] "Gragne," or in the Somali dialect "Guray," means a left-handed man;
Father Lobo errs in translating it "the Lame."
[14] This exploit has been erroneously attributed to Nur, the successor of
Mohammed.
[15] This reverend Jesuit was commissioned in A.D. 1622, by the Count de
Vidigueira, Viceroy of the Indies, to discover where his relative Don
Christopher was buried, and to procure some of the relics. Assisted by the
son in law of the Abyssinian Emperor, Lobo marched with an army through
the Gallas, found the martyr's teeth and lower jaw, his arms and a picture
of the Holy Virgin which he always carried about him. The precious remains
were forwarded to Goa.
I love the style of this old father, so unjustly depreciated by our
writers, and called ignorant peasant and liar by Bruce, because he claimed
for his fellow countrymen the honor of having discovered the Coy
Fountains. The Nemesis who never sleeps punished Bruce by the justest of
retributions. His pompous and inflated style, his uncommon arrogance, and
over-weening vanity, his affectation of pedantry, his many errors and
misrepresentations, aroused against him a spirit which embittered the last
years of his life. It is now the fashion to laud Bruce, and to pity his
misfortunes. I cannot but think that he deserved them.
[16] Bruce, followed by most of our modern authors, relates a
circumstantial and romantic story of the betrayal of Don Christopher by
his mistress, a Turkish lady of uncommon beauty, who had been made
prisoner.
The more truth-like pages of Father Lobo record no such silly scandal
against the memory of the "brave and holy Portuguese." Those who are well
read in the works of the earlier eastern travellers will remember their
horror of "handling heathens after that fashion." And amongst those who
fought for the faith an _affaire de coeur_ with a pretty pagan was held to
be a sin as deadly as heresy or magic.
[17] Romantic writers relate that Mohammed decapitated the Christian with
his left hand.
[18] Others assert, in direct contradiction to Father Lobo, that the body
was sent to different parts of Arabia, and the head to Constantinople.
[19] Bruce, followed by later authorities, writes this name Del Wumbarea.
[20] Talwambara, according to the Christians, after her husband's death,
and her army's defeat, threw herself into the wilds of Atbara, and
recovered her son Ali Gerad by releasing Prince Menas, the brother of the
Abyssinian emperor, who in David's reign had been carried prisoner to
Adel.
The historian will admire these two widely different accounts of the left-
handed hero's death. Upon the whole he will prefer the Moslem's tradition
from the air of truth pervading it, and the various improbabilities which
appear in the more detailed story of the Christians.
[21] Formerly the Waraba, creeping through the holes in the wall, rendered
the streets dangerous at night. They are now destroyed by opening the
gates in the evening, enticing in the animals by slaughtering cattle, and
closing the doors upon them, when they are safely speared.
[22] The following are the names of the gates in Harari and Somali:
_Eastward._ Argob Bari (Bar in Amharic is a gate, _e.g._ Ankobar, the gate
of Anko, a Galla Queen, and Argob is the name of a Galla clan living in
this quarter), by the Somal called Erar.
_North._ Asum Bari (the gate of Axum), in Somali, Faldano or the Zayla
entrance.
_West._ Asmadim Bari or Hamaraisa.
_South._ Badro Bari or Bab Bida.
_South East._ Sukutal Bari or Bisidimo.
At all times these gates are carefully guarded; in the evening the keys
are taken to the Amir, after which no one can leave the city till dawn.
[23] Kabir in Arabic means great, and is usually applied to the Almighty;
here it is a title given to the principal professors of religious science.
[24] This is equivalent to saying that the language of the Basque
provinces is French with an affinity to English.
[25] When ladies are bastinadoed in more modest Persia, their hands are
passed through a hole in a tent wall, and fastened for the infliction to a
Falakah or pole outside.
[26] The hate dates from old times. Abd el Karim, uncle to the late Amir
Abubakr, sent for sixty or seventy Arab mercenaries under Haydar Assal the
Auliki, to save him against the Gallas. The matchlockmen failing in
ammunition, lost twenty of their number in battle and retired to the town,
where the Gallas, after capturing Abd el Karim, and his brother Abd el
Rahman, seized the throne, and, aided by the citizens, attempted to
massacre the strangers. These, however, defended themselves gallantly, and
would have crowned the son of Abd el Rahman, had he not in fear declined
the dignity; they then drew their pay, and marched with all the honors of
war to Zayla.
Shortly before our arrival, the dozen of petty Arab pedlars at Harar,
treacherous intriguers, like all their dangerous race, had been plotting
against the Amir. One morning when they least expected it, their chief was
thrown into a prison which proved his grave, and the rest were informed
that any stranger found in the city should lose his head. After wandering
some months among the neighbouring villages, they were allowed to return
and live under surveillance. No one at Harar dared to speak of this event,
and we were cautioned not to indulge our curiosity.
[27] This agrees with the Hon. R. Curzon's belief in Central African
"diggings." The traveller once saw an individual descending the Nile with
a store of nuggets, bracelets, and gold rings similar to those used as
money by the ancient Egyptians.
[28] M. Krapf relates a tale current in Abyssinia; namely, that there is a
remnant of the slave trade between Guineh (the Guinea coast) and Shoa.
Connexion between the east and west formerly existed: in the time of John
the Second, the Portuguese on the river Zaire in Congo learned the
existence of the Abyssinian church. Travellers in Western Africa assert
that Fakihs or priests, when performing the pilgrimage pass from the
Fellatah country through Abyssinia to the coast of the Red Sea. And it has
lately been proved that a caravan line is open from the Zanzibar coast to
Benguela.
[29] All male collaterals of the royal family, however, are not imprisoned
by law, as was formerly the case at Shoa.
[30] This is a mere superstition; none but the most credulous can believe
that a man ever lives after an Eastern dose.
[31] The name and coin are Abyssinian. According to Bruce,
20 Mahallaks are worth 1 Grush.
12 Grush " " 1 Miskal.
4 Miskal " " 1 Wakiyah (ounce).
At Harar twenty-two plantains (the only small change) = one Mahallak,
twenty-two Mahallaks = one Ashrafi (now a nominal coin,) and three Ashrafi
= one dollar.
Lieut. Cruttenden remarks, "The Ashrafi stamped at the Harar mint is a
coin peculiar to the place. It is of silver and the twenty-second part of
a dollar. The only specimen I have been able to procure bore the date of
910 of the Hagira, with the name of the Amir on one side, and, on its
reverse, 'La Ilaha ill 'Allah.'" This traveller adds in a note, "the value
of the Ashrafi changes with each successive ruler. In the reign of Emir
Abd el Shukoor, some 200 years ago, it was of gold." At present the
Ashrafi, as I have said above, is a fictitious medium used in accounts.
[32] An old story is told of the Amir Abubakr, that during one of his
nocturnal excursions, he heard three of his subjects talking treason, and
coveting his food, his wife, and his throne. He sent for them next
morning, filled the first with good things, and bastinadoed him for not
eating more, flogged the second severely for being unable to describe the
difference between his own wife and the princess, and put the third to
death.
[33] El Makrizi informs us that in his day Hadiyah supplied the East with
black Eunuchs, although the infamous trade was expressly forbidden by the
Emperor of Abyssinia.
[33] The Arusi Gallas are generally driven direct from Ugadayn to
Berberah.
[34] "If you want a brother (in arms)," says the Eastern proverb, "buy a
Nubian, if you would be rich, an Abyssinian, and if you require an ass, a
Sawahili (negro)." Formerly a small load of salt bought a boy in Southern
Abyssinia, many of them, however, died on their way to the coast.
[35] The Firman lately issued by the Sultan and forwarded to the Pasha of
Jeddah for the Kaimakan and the Kazi of Mecca, has lately caused a kind of
revolution in Western Arabia. The Ulema and the inhabitants denounced the
rescript as opposed to the Koran, and forced the magistrate to take
sanctuary. The Kaimakan came to his assistance with Turkish troops, the
latter, however, were soon pressed back into their fort. At this time, the
Sherif Abd el Muttalib arrived at Meccah, from Taif, and almost
simultaneously Reshid Pasha came from Constantinople with orders to seize
him, send him to the capital, and appoint the Sherif Nazir to act until
the nomination of a successor, the state prisoner Mohammed bin Aun.
The tumult redoubled. The people attributing the rescript to the English
and French Consuls of Jeddah, insisted upon pulling down their flags. The
Pasha took them under his protection, and on the 14th January, 1856, the
"Queen" steamer was despatched from Bombay, with orders to assist the
government and to suppress the contest.
[36] This weight, as usual in the East, varies at every port. At Aden the
Farasilah is 27 lbs., at Zayla 20 lbs., and at Berberah 35 lbs.
[37] See Chap. iii. El Makrizi, describing the kingdom of Zayla, uses the
Harari not the Arabic term; he remarks that it is unknown to Egypt and
Syria, and compares its leaf to that of the orange.
[38] In conversational Arabic "we" is used without affectation for "I."
[39] The Shaykh himself gave me this information. As a rule it is most
imprudent for Europeans holding high official positions in these barbarous
regions, to live as they do, unarmed and unattended. The appearance of
utter security may impose, where strong motives for assassination are
wanting. At the same time the practice has occasioned many losses which
singly, to use an Indian statesman's phrase, would have "dimmed a
victory."
[40] In the best coffee countries, Harar and Yemen, the berry is reserved
for exportation. The Southern Arabs use for economy and health--the bean
being considered heating--the Kishr or follicle. This in Harar is a
woman's drink. The men considering the berry too dry and heating for their
arid atmosphere, toast the leaf on a girdle, pound it and prepare an
infusion which they declare to be most wholesome, but which certainly
suggests weak senna. The boiled coffee-leaf has been tried and approved of
in England; we omit, however, to toast it.
[41] In Harar a horse or a mule is never lost, whereas an ass straying
from home is rarely seen again.
[42] This is the Abyssinian "Tej," a word so strange to European organs,
that some authors write it "Zatsh." At Harar it is made of honey dissolved
in about fifteen parts of hot water, strained and fermented for seven days
with the bark of a tree called Kudidah; when the operation is to be
hurried, the vessel is placed near the fire. Ignorant Africa can ferment,
not distil, yet it must be owned she is skilful in her rude art. Every
traveller has praised the honey-wine of the Highlands, and some have not
scrupled to prefer it to champagne. It exhilarates, excites and acts as an
aphrodisiac; the consequence is, that at Harar all men, pagans and sages,
priests and rulers, drink it.
[43] The Caliph Umar is said to have smiled once and wept once. The smile
was caused by the recollection of his having eaten his paste-gods in the
days of ignorance. The tear was shed in remembrance of having buried
alive, as was customary amongst the Pagan Arabs, his infant daughter, who,
whilst he placed her in the grave, with her little hands beat the dust off
his beard and garment.
[44] The Eastern parent of Free-Masonry.
[45] Two celebrated Arabic dictionaries.