situated on the greatest and highest cliffs, or the deepest they can
find. This one of St. Michael is situated on a very steep rock at the
foot of another very high rock, where no one can ascend. The stone of
which these rocks consist is of the grain of the walls of the port of
Portugal.[10] They are very great rocks. The land around these rocks
is all covered with very great forests, and besides wild olive trees
and high grass between them, in which there is much basil. The trees
which are not wild olive trees are not trees known to us; all are
without fruit. In the narrow valleys which belong to this monastery
there are orange trees, lemon trees, citron trees, pear trees and fig
trees of all kinds, both of Portugal and India; peach trees, cabbages,
coriander, cardamine, wormwood,[11] myrtle and other sweet-smelling
and medicinal herbs, all ill profited by because they are not good
working men: and the earth produces these like wild plants, and it
would produce whatever was planted and sown in it. The monastery house
looks quite like a church building, constructed like ours. It has
around it a circuit like a cloister, covered above in the same manner
as the body of the monastery. It has three entrances, as ours are, one
principal one, and two side ones. The roof of the church and of its
cloisters is of wild straw, which lasts a man’s life: the body of the
church is built with naves very well constructed, and their arches
are very well closed; all appears to be vaulted. The church has a
chancel and a transept, in the centre transept are curtains from end to
end; and there are other curtains before the side doors, from wall to
wall. They are curtains of silk: the entrance through these curtains
is in three places, they are open in the middle, and they reach one to
another, also they can be entered close to the walls. In the said three
entrances there are little bells suspended to the curtains themselves,
and nobody can enter by any part without these bells ringing. Here
there is not more than one altar, which is in the chancel: this has
a stand on four props, and the altar reaches to these four props.
This stand is covered over above as though with a vault, and there is
an altar stone which they call _tabuto_. Upon this altar stone
there is a basin of copper, very large and flat below, and with low
sides. This basin also reaches to the supports of the stand, which are
disposed in a square. Within this large basin there is another smaller
one. This stand has curtains hanging down from it to the ground, that
is, at the back and sides, which screen the altar, except that in
front it is open. One can go all round the altar. The bells are of
stone, and in this manner: long thin stones, suspended by cords passed
through them, and they strike them with sticks made for the purpose,
and they make a sound as of cracked bells heard at a distance. Also
at festivals they take the basins from the altar and strike them with
sticks, and they help to make a sound. They have also other iron bells,
not round, but with two sides, they have a clapper which strikes first
on one side and then on the other, and it makes a noise as of helving
a mattock. They also have other small ill-made bells, which they carry
in their hands at processions, and they ring the whole of them at the
festivals. On other days the bells of stones and iron are used. In all
churches and monasteries they ring for matins two hours before dawn.
They say the prayers by heart and without light, except in the lamps
or chandeliers, for they have not got lamps. They burn butter in these
chandeliers, for they have not got oil. They pray or chaunt very loud,
without art of singing, and they do not recite (alternate) verses,
but all sing straight on. Their prayers are psalms, and on feast days
besides psalms they recite prose, according as the feast is so is the
prose. They always stand in the churches; at matins they only say one
single lesson: this is said by a priest or a friar, rather shouted
than intoned, and he reads this lesson before the principal entrance.
When this lesson is finished, on Saturdays, Sundays, and feast days,
they make a procession with four or five crosses on their poles, and
a cross not so much raised as carried like a stick in the left hand,
because they carry a thurible in the right hand, since as many as
carry a cross carry a thurible, there are always as many thuribles as
crosses. They wear some silk cloaks, not well made, because they are
not wider than the width of a piece of damask, or other silk from top
to bottom. Before the breast, a cross piece to the flanks on each side,
of any other stuff and of any colour, even though it should not match
the principal part, and of this principal part a good ell hangs behind
dragging on the ground. They make this procession through the circuit,
which is like a cloister. This being ended, on the said Saturdays,
Sundays, and feasts, he who has to say mass enters with two others
into the chancel; they bring out an effigy of Our Lady, which they
have in ancient pictures in all churches and monasteries. He who has
to say mass places himself in the centre of the transept with his face
towards the principal entrance, and the image in his hands held before
his breast: and those who stand by his sides hold lighted candles in
their hands, and all the others commence a chaunt like prose, and
all walk, shouting and leaping as if dancing[12] they hold hands and
go round, before the image,[13] and at the sound of that chaunt or
prose which they sing, they also ring the little bells and sound the
cymbals to the same tune. Each time that they pass before the image
they make a great reverence to it. Certainly it has a good appearance
and causes devotion, from being a thing done for the praise of the
Lord God. There also proceed crosses and thuribles in this feast as
in the procession. When this is ended, which lasts a good while, they
put by the picture and go to a small building which is on the North
side, and of the gospel according to our mass; and outside the covered
circuit, where they make the bread which they call _corbom_, and
we _hostia_. They carry cross, thurible, and bell, and bring
thence the bread of wheat flour, and without leaven, made at that
moment, very white and nice, of the size and roundness of a patena,
in this monastery in which are few people. In other monasteries and
churches, where there are many people, they make large loaves, and
many of them according to the people, because all are communicants who
go to the church. According to the width of the bread they make its
thickness, from half a finger’s breadth to an inch, or larger. They
bring this loaf in a small vase, which is one of those of the altar,
covered with a cloth, and with the cross and thurible, sounding a bell.
Behind the church, that is, behind the chancel,[14] in that circuit
which is like a cloister, nobody must remain unless he were in holy
orders, and all the others must be before the principal entrance in
another large circuit, which all the churches have; for near this,
which is like a cloister, anybody who likes may stand. Whilst bringing
the bread, as many as are in the church or in its circuit, when they
hear the bell, bow their heads until the bell is silent, which is when
they place the wafer on the altar with the small vase in which they
brought it. They place this vase in the other larger one, and cover
the bread with a dark cloth, after the fashion of a _corporale_.
They have a silver chalice in this monastery, and so in all honourable
churches and monasteries there are silver chalices, some have them of
gold: in poor churches, which they call churches of _Balgues_,
that is, of rustics, there are copper chalices. The vases are very wide
and ill made, and they have not got patenas. They put into the chalice
wine of raisins, in large quantities, because as many as partake of
the communion of the body also partake of the blood. He who has to say
mass begins it with Hallelujah in a loud voice, rather shouted than
sung; all respond and continue the chaunt. He of the mass is silent
and continues his benedictions, which he does with his small cross,
which he holds in his hand. Those who are outside sing as well as those
who are inside the church and cloister, up to a certain distance.
Here one of those who is at the altar, takes a book and goes to read
the epistle at the principal door of the church. When it is ended, he
who read it at once begins a chaunt as a response; those who are at
the altar, or in the church, follow him. This ended, he who says the
mass takes a book from the altar; and gives it to him who has to read
the gospel, and he bows his head and begs a blessing. After he has
received it he goes to the place where the epistle was read, and with
him two others, one with a cross and thurible, the other with a bell.
They read the gospel, and likewise the epistle, fast and loud, as much
so as the tongue can speak and the voice be raised. Returning to the
altar, on the way another chaunt commences, and those that accompany
them join in it. On reaching the altar they give the book to kiss to
him who says the mass, and they deposit the book in its place; because
at the altar they say nothing from a book. Then he who says mass takes
the thurible, or they give it into his hand, and he incenses the altar
above it, and then takes several turns round it, giving incense. When
these circuits and incensing are ended, he turns to the altar and gives
many blessings with the cross, and then uncovers the bread which was
covered up, and which is for the sacrament: they take it with both
hands, and let go the right hand and it remains in the left hand: with
the thumb of the right hand he makes five marks like little hollows,
that is to say, one in the upper part, one in the middle, another at
the lower part, another on the left, and another on the right hand,
and then he consecrates in his language, and with our own very words,
and does not elevate it. He does as much with the chalice, and says
over it our own very words, in his language: and again covers it, and
takes the sacrament of the bread in his hands and divides it in the
middle, and of the part which remains in his left hand, from the top
of it he takes a very small portion, and places the other pieces one
upon another. The priest takes this small portion for himself, and also
takes a portion of the sacrament of the blood. After that he takes the
vase with the sacrament covered up and gives it to him who read the
gospel, and likewise takes the chalice with the sacrament and gives
it to him who read the epistle. He then administers the communion to
the priests who are near the altar, taking the sacrament in very small
portions from the vase which the deacon holds in his right hand, and
as often as he administers it the sub-deacon takes of the blood with a
spoon of gold, or silver, or copper, according to the church, and gives
a very small quantity to the person who has received the body. There
is also on one side another priest with a ewer of holy water, and the
person who has received the communion puts out the palm of his hand and
he pours some of that holy water, and with it he washes his mouth and
swallows it. This being done all go to the altar with this sacrament
before the first curtain, and in this manner they give the communion
to those that are there, and thence to those who are at the other
curtain, and thence to the secular people who are at the principal
door, both men and women, if it is a church to which women come. At
the giving of the communion, and likewise at all the offices of the
church, all are standing up. When they come to receive the communion,
all come with their hands raised before their shoulders, and the palms
forward. As soon as each one receives the sacrament of the blood he
takes the said water as has been said, and so generally as many as are
communicants. Before mass they wash their hands with the water which
is in all the churches and monasteries. The priest who said the mass,
and those who stood with him at the altar, when the communion is ended,
return to the altar, and wash the vase in which the sacrament was, with
the water which remains in the ewer, which they say is blessed, this
water they pour into the chalice, and the priest who said mass takes it
all. This done, one of these ministers of the altar takes a cross and a
bell, and beginning a low chaunt goes to the principal entrance, where
the epistle and gospel were read, and the administering the communion
ended, and as many as are in the church, and outside of it, bow their
heads, and go away in peace. They say this is the blessing, without
this no one goes away. On Saturdays and Sundays, and feast days, in all
the churches and monasteries, blessed bread is distributed. The method
which they have in this small monastery, which will not have more than
20 or 25 friars, is that which is followed in all the monasteries and
churches, great and small. The office of the mass, exclusive of the
processions, is short; and the mass on week days is quickly finished.
CAP. XII.--_Where and how the bread of the Sacrament is made,
and of a Procession they made, and of the pomp with which the
mass is said, and of entering into the church._
The making of this sacramental bread is in this manner. The building
in which it is made, in all churches and monasteries, is, as I said
above, on the gospel side, outside of the church and its circuit,
which is like a cloister, in the space contained by the other outer
circuit, which is not covered in, which space serves for a churchyard.
All the churches and monasteries have such a building, and it does
not contain anything else except what is requisite for this purpose;
that is to say, a mortar for pounding wheat, a machine for making very
clean flour, and such as is required for such a purpose, for they do
not prepare this sacrament from flour or wheat on which women have laid
their hands. They have pots for preparing the paste, which they make
thicker than ours. They have a furnace, as for distilling water, and
upon it a plate of iron, and in some churches of copper, and in other
poor churches of clay. This plate is round and of a good size; they
place fire underneath it, and when it is hot clean it with a waxed
cloth, pour on it a portion of paste, and spread it out with a wooden
spoon of such size as they intend to make the bread, and they make it
very round. When it is set they take it off and place it on end, then
they make another in the same way. When this second one is set, they
take the first and place it upon it, that is to say, the side of the
first which was uppermost they put upon the top of the other, fresh
with fresh, and so the bread remains one whole one, and they do nothing
more than make it round and turn it from one side to the other, and
move it about on the plate, that it may bake on both sides and on the
circumference. In this manner they make one or as many as they wish.
In this same house are the raisins from which the wine is made, and
a machine for pressing. In this same house the blessed bread is made
which is given away on Saturdays and Sundays and feast days; and on
great feasts, such as Christmas, Easter, Our Lady of August, etc., they
carry this bread of the sacrament with a pallium,[15] bell, and cross
devoutly. Before they enter the church with it they go round the church
by the circuit like a cloister; when it is not a feast they enter the
church at once and without the pallium. On a Saturday before Ascension
these friars made a procession, and from being in a new country it
seemed to us very good, and they did it in this way. They took crosses,
and the altar stone covered with a silk cloth, a friar carried it on
his head, which was also covered with the said cloths; and they carried
books and bells, and thuribles, and holy water; and all went chaunting
to some millet fields: there they made their devotions and cries after
the fashion of litanies, and with this procession they returned to the
monastery. We asked why they did that, and they said that the animals
ate their millet, and so they went to pour out holy water and pray God
to drive them out. In this country he that says the mass has no other
difference from the deacon and sub-deacon in his vestments than a long
stole with an opening in the middle to allow the head to pass through;
before and behind it reaches to the ground. The friars say mass with
hair on their heads; the priests do not wear hair, and are shaven and
so say mass. Also, both friars and priests say mass barefooted, nobody
enters the church with his feet shod, and they allege for this what God
said to Moses: “Take off thy shoes from off thy feet, for thou art on
holy ground.”
CAP. XIII.--_How in all the churches and monasteries in the
country of Prester John only one mass is said each day; and
of the situation of the monastery of Bisam where we buried
Mattheus; and of the fast of Lent._
In the monastery of St. Michael, where we were staying, we said mass
each day, not in the monastery, but in the circuit which is like a
cloister. In this country they do not say more than one mass in each
church or monastery. The friars came to our mass with great devotion,
as it appeared; and they supplied a thurible and incense, because we
had not brought any with us, and they do not think mass is properly
said without incense; and they said that they approved of all, except
that we had only one priest to say mass; because among them not less
than three, five, or seven stand at the altar to say mass. They also
were surprised at our coming into the church with our shoes on, and
still more at our spitting in it. In this manner we said mass every
day up to Trinity Sunday, and when we intended to say mass on the
following Monday they did not allow us to say it, at which we were
much scandalised and aggrieved, and it seemed to us that they had some
evil suspicion of us, not knowing why they so acted. Later we learned
how they preserved some things of the Old Law together with the New;
such as that of the fast of Lent, which they began on Monday after
Sexagesima Sunday, that is, ten days before the beginning of our Lent;
and so they make fifty days of Lent. They say they take these days in
anticipation for the Saturdays when they do not keep the fast. When
they fast they eat at night, and because all fast they say mass at
night, because all have to take the communion. Likewise, as they take
fifty days’ fast in Lent, so they take as many days after Easter which
are not fast days. Then, when there is no fast, they say mass in the
morning. This secret we did not know, and we had no one to explain it
to us: as soon as their liberty not to fast had ended, their mass could
not be said, except at night, and so they did not consent to our saying
it; thus we felt aggrieved without cause. This time having ended and
Trinity passed by, all priests and friars are obliged to fast every day
except Saturdays and Sundays. They keep this fast up to Christmas Day,
and as all fast they say mass at night. They allege for this the supper
of Christ, when He consecrated His true Body, having been a fast time,
and almost night. The general people, that is secular men and women,
are obliged to fast from Trinity to Advent, Wednesdays and Fridays of
each week, and from Christmas day to the Purification of Our Lady,
which they call the feast of Simeon,[16] they have no fast. The first
three days after the Purification, not being Saturday or Sunday, are
great fast days for priests, friars, and laymen. They say that in these
three days they do not eat more than once: it is called the penitence
of Niniveh. At the end of these three days, up to the beginning of
Lent, they again fast as from after Trinity. During Advent and the
whole of Lent, priests, friars, lay friars, men and women, small and
great, sound and sick, all fast. Thus from Easter to Trinity, and from
Christmas to the Purification, they say mass in the morning, because
there is no fast, and all the other time at night, because they are
fasting. Where we buried Mattheus is a great and honourable monastery,
which is named Bisam, and its patron, Jesus. From the monastery where
we stayed to this is a league of very precipitous country. It is on a
very high rock, and looking round all sides of it there appear like the
depths of hell. The monastery house is very large in bulk, and larger
in revenues, and this monastery is very well fitted. The fashion of
this house is of three large and beautiful naves, with their arches
and vaulted roofs. They appear to be of wood, and because all is
painted, it is not certain whether it is stone or wood. It has two sets
of cloisters round the body of the church, both covered in, and much
painted with figures of apostles, patriarchs, prophets, and many things
of the Old Law, and many angels, and St. George on horseback, who is in
all the churches. This monastery also possesses a great cloth, like a
piece of tapestry, on which is the crucifix and effigy of Our Lady and
the apostles, and other figures of patriarchs and prophets, and each
one has his Latin name written, so that no man of the country made it.
It has many small and ancient pictures, not well made, and they are
not upon the altars, for it is not their custom: they keep them in a
sacristy, mixed up with many books, and they bring them out on feast
days. There is in this monastery a very large kitchen and bakehouse,
also a very large refectory, in which they eat. They mostly eat three
and three[17] in a large dish, it is not deep, but flat like a tray,
and their food is very poor. The bread is of maize and barley, and
other grain which they call _taffo_,[18] a small black grain. They
make this bread round, and of the size and roundness of a citron,[19]
and they give three of these to each friar: to the novices they give
three loaves to two of them, it is a matter of amazement how they can
maintain themselves. They also give them a few vegetables, without salt
or oil. Of this food they send to a great many old pensioners, who do
not come to the refectory. Besides seeing these things when we buried
Mattheus, I saw them many times, because I came there to pass time with
the friars, principally on feast days, when we were near there. In this
way I learned about them and their property, and revenues and customs.
In my opinion there were generally always a hundred friars in this
monastery, most of them old men of great age, and as dry as wood; very
few young men. This monastery is entirely surrounded by a wall, and
this wall is closed with two gates, which are always locked.
CAP. XIV.--_How the monastery of Bisan is the head of six
monasteries, of the number of the brothers, and ornaments, of
the “castar”[20] which they do to Philip, whom they call a
Saint._
This monastery is the head of six monasteries, which are around it in
these mountains; the furthest off is at a distance of three leagues
from it, and all are subject to it, and are governed and ruled by it.
In each of them is a David, that is a guardian appointed by the Abbot
or provincial of this monastery, who is also David under the Abba.
I always heard say that there were in this monastery three thousand
friars, and because I doubted it much I came here to keep the feast
of our Lady of August, in order to see if they would come together.
Certainly I rejoiced to see the riches of this monastery, and the
procession which they made: in my judgment the friars did not exceed
three hundred, and most of them were very old. There is a circuit to
this monastery which surrounds the two which are like cloisters covered
in, and this one which is not covered in was on that occasion all
covered in with brocades and inferior brocades, and velvets of Mekkah,
all long pieces, sewn one to another in order that they might shelter
the whole circuit. They made a very beautiful procession through this
canopied circuit; all wore cloaks of the same stuffs, brocades, and
velvets of Mekkah, badly made as I mentioned above. They carried fifty
small crosses of silver, of bad workmanship, and as many thuribles
of copper. When mass was said, I saw a great gold chalice and gold
spoon, with which they administered the communion. Of the three hundred
friars who came to this monastery, very few were those that I knew
as belonging to it: and I asked some of my friends how it was, that
with so large a number of friars in the monastery as they said, they
were not present at such a feast. They told me that even though there
were more than they had said, that they were scattered about in these
monasteries and churches, and markets, to seek for their living,
because that could not be in the monastery whilst they were young
men; and when they were old men, and could not walk, they came to die
in the monastery. On that day I saw the habit put on seventeen young
men. There is a tomb in this monastery which they say is of an Abba
or provincial of this monastery who is named Philip, and they give
him the merits of a Saint, saying that there was a King Prester John
who commanded that Saturday should not be observed in his kingdoms
and lordships, and this Abba Philip went to that King Prester with
his friars, and undertook to show how God had commanded that Saturday
should be kept, and that whoever did not keep it should die by stoning,
and that he would maintain this before all the fathers of Ethiopia: and
he made it good before the King. Therefore they say that he was a Saint
for making Saturday to be kept, and they treat him as a Saint, and they
hold a feast for him every year, in the month of July, which they call
_Castar_ Philip, which means funeral or memorial of Philip.[21] On
this account the people of this monastery are the most Judaizing of all
the kingdoms of Prester John. I came twice to this Castar of Philip, at
which they did me much honour, and they kill many cows at this feast.
In one year they killed thirty, and in another year twenty-eight, and
in each of the years that I came there they gave me two quarters of
the fattest cow that was killed. This flesh is distributed amongst the
people who come to the Castar, and the friars have none because they
do not eat meat. And these cows are all brought as offerings by their
breeders in the district, who vow them to Philip. This monastery, and
the others that are subject to it, have this rule in addition, that no
females enter them, that is to say, neither women, nor she-mules, nor
cows, nor hens, nor anything else that is female. And these cows which
they kill are killed a long way from the wall, and when I came there
they came to the distance of a crossbow shot to take my mule, and they
took her away to their farm of Jamgargara, where Mattheus died.
CAP. XV.--_Of the agriculture of this country, and how they
preserve themselves from the wild beasts, and of the revenues of
the monastery._