there are extensive lands and lordships, as they say. And in these
countries and parts is the land of Sabaim, whence the Queen Saba took
her name and title, and where the black wood is found which she sent to
Solomon to make inlaid work in the temple. From this town of Aquaxumo
to the beginning of the country of Sabaim there are two days’ journey.
This lordship is now subject to the kingdom of the Tigrimahom, and a
brother-in-law of the Prester John is lord and captain of it: they say
it is a great and good lordship. On the north side there lies another
lordship named Torate, a country of mountainous ridges; there is a
distance of four leagues to these mountains and lordship of Torate. It
is on a great and high mountain, and at its foot and on the top of it
is a flat space of half a league, with large trees, and a monastery
with great revenues (as they say) named Hallelujah, containing many
friars. They say that it bears this name, because in the commencement
of Christianity in this country, when St. Mary of Syon was built in
Aquaxumo, this monastery was built next. They say that they did not
know then what they ought to pray or to chaunt, and that there was here
a devout father who kept vigils, and commended himself to God at night,
and this devout man affirmed that he heard the angels in heaven, who
sung Hallelujah, and that from this the custom remained in this country
that all the masses commenced with Hallelujah, and so this monastery
is called by name Hallelujah. And if in that time that friar was good
and devout, now, those who are here, have the reputation of being great
robbers. The hill and range on which this monastery stands is entirely
surrounded by dry channels, which only have water after the thunder
showers for a space of two or three leagues. In another mountain in the
same lordship of Torate, is another great monastery, but not so great
as that of Hallelujah, and they say that it has good friars, they also
say that they are not good friends with the others, because they have a
bad reputation. Returning to our road, at a distance of three leagues
from the town of Aquaxumo, there is another monastery on another hill,
this is named St. John. Further on, a distance of two leagues, there
is another monastery which is named Abbagarima. They say that this
Abbagarima was king of Greece, and that he left his kingdom, and came
to do penance, and there ended his life in sanctity. There is behind
his chapel a cave very convenient for doing penance, and they say that
he abode there. They say that this king works many miracles: we came
here on the day of his feast, and there were here more than three
thousand cripples, blind men and lepers. This monastery is between
three peaks, almost on the side of one of them, and it seems as though
it would fall into the hollow where they say he did penance. They
descend into it by a ladder, and bring out of it earth like gravel,
or soft stone, and they carry it away and hang it to the necks of the
sick in rags. (They say that some have received health.) I asked about
the revenue of this monastery, the friars told me it had a revenue of
sixteen horses, and besides, some endowments of provisions. It is a
small monastery of few friars and small revenues, and at the foot of it
they sow much garlic; there are between the peaks, large tilled fields,
and it has an infinite number of very good vineyards, they make much
raisins of them: they come in very early, they begin in January and end
in March.
CAP. XLI.--_How we departed from the church and houses of St.
Michael, and went to Bacinete, and from there to Maluc; and of
the monasteries which are near it._
We went away from the Church of St. Michael, with the country people
who carried our baggage, and went to sleep at a town named Angueha,
at a Beteneguz, which means a king’s house, as I have already said
various times. And already in other towns we had halted in houses
like these: no one uses them, except the lords of the country who
at times hold the authority of the Prester John. They respect these
houses so much that their doors are always open, and no one touches
anything there, nor enters within, except when the lord is there; and
when he goes away nothing remains inside except the open doors, and
sleeping couches ready for use,[64] and the place for making a fire.
We departed from this place with our baggage, and travelled three or
four leagues, and went to sleep on a high hill, and above a large
river, which is named Abacinete,[65] and so the country and lordship
is named. They said that this lordship belonged to the grandmother of
the Prester John; and whilst we were there it was taken away from her,
because she was on bad terms with the country. This lordship lies in
the kingdom of Tigrimahom, and it is a very populous country in all
parts, and fertile, a country of mountains and rivers; all the towns
are on heights, and away from the roads: this they do on account of the
travellers, who take from them by force whatever they have. The people
who carried our baggage made a great fence of thorny bushes for us, and
for the mules, which was to defend us from the wild beasts; however,
we neither heard nor perceived anything at night. We set out from this
place, and went to sleep at a town which is named Maluche, which may
be two leagues from where we had slept. This town was surrounded by
very beautiful tilled fields of wheat, barley, and millet, the best and
thickest we had seen yet. Close to this town is a very high mountain,
not very broad at the foot, for it is as broad at the top as it is at
the bottom, for it is all scarped like a wall, of sheer cliff, all
bare, without any crops or verdure of anything. It makes like three
divisions; two at the ends are pointed, that of the middle flat. In
one of the pointed divisions, that is, ascending to the summit from
the bottom, there is a monastery of Our Lady, named Abbamata. They say
that they are friars leading a good life. The order of friars is all
one and the same in all the dominions of Prester John. It is all of
St. Anthony of the Wilderness, and from this proceeds another order,
which they name _estefarruz_.[66] These hold the others as bad,
and say that they burn many on account of there being many heresies
among them, such as their not adoring the cross. These are the people
who make the crosses which all the clergy and friars carry in their
hands, and the laity at their necks, and their opinion is that we have
only one cross to adore, and that it is that on which Jesus Christ
suffered, and that the crosses which they make, and which other men
make, are not to be adored, because they are the work of men’s hands;
and there are other heresies which they say, hold, and do. Looking at
this monastery where it appears in sight, it seems like a league. I
wished to go there; they told me not to go, as it was a day’s journey,
and that they could not go there except by clinging on with the hands,
and otherwise it was not possible to go there. On the hill in the
middle, which is like a table, there is another house of Our Lady, to
which they say much devout visitation is made. On the other peak is a
house of Holy Cross; it is a further distance of a league and a half
or two leagues. On another hill, which is also scarped, like that of
Abbamata, there is another monastery, which is named St. John. There
is nothing on the top of this hill but the monastery and houses of the
friars, without any verdure, as it appears to sight from below; and
its officials live at the foot of the hill in fertile lands, and send
thence what is necessary to those who live in the monastery. Already in
these lands a great difference is seen from the lands left behind. In
the countries and kingdom of the Barnagais, and in the commencement of
that of the Tigrimahom, there are many beggars, cripples, blind men,
and poor people; in this country there are not so many. The men wear
different costumes; so also the women who are married or living with
men. Here they wear wrapped round them dark coloured woollen stuffs,
with large fringes of the same stuff, and they do not wear diadems[67]
on their heads like those of the Barnagais. The girls go from bad to
worse; there are women of twenty or twenty-five years old, who have the
breasts coming to their waists, and their body bare and gaily covered
with little beads. Some of the women of full size and age wear a sheep
skin suspended to their shoulder, without its covering more than one
side. In the parts of Portugal and Spain people marry for love, and on
account of seeing beautiful faces, and the things inside are hidden
from them; in this country they can well marry on account of seeing
everything quite certain.
CAP. XLII.--_Of the animals which are in the country, and how we
turned back to where the ambassador was._
There are in this country tigers and other animals, which at night
kill the cows, mules and asses, in the closed towns, which they did
not do in the kingdom of the Barnagais which we had left behind. We
departed from this place[68] on the 6th of August of 1520, and returned
back to where we had left the ambassador, who was lodged by order of
the Tigrimahom, and much to his satisfaction, with all the Portuguese
who had started with him from Temei, a country in the kingdom of the
Barnagais. In the said place a great lord was lodged, by order of
the Tigrimahom, in order to protect and provide for the ambassador;
and likewise other gentlemen were lodged in towns within sight of
this, and many others who accompanied the Tigrimahom. He was lodged
in a Beteneguz, and the ambassador was at the distance of a league
from that place. On the day that we arrived the Tigrimahom sent to
summon the ambassador; and he went at once, and all the Portuguese
went with him. When we arrived at the Beteneguz where he was, they
told us that he was in the church, he and his wife, to receive the
Communion; and this was an hour before sunset, which is the hour for
saying mass on fast days. We went towards the church, and met with him
on the way. Each came on his mule, with very good state, like great
gentlemen as they are; so they came accompanied by many great lords.
This Tigrimahom is an old man, of a good and reverend presence: his
wife came entirely covered up with blue cotton stuffs; we did not see
either her face or her body, because it was all covered up. As soon as
we came up to him, he asked me for a cross which I carried in my hand,
and he kissed it and ordered it to be given to his wife to kiss it; she
kissed it through her wrapper, and received us with a good welcome.
This Tigrimahom keeps a very large household, both of men and women,
and great state, in a great measure grander than the Barnagais. The
ambassador and those that were with him told us that they had received
great honour and hospitable reception from the Tigrimahom, both in
favour and provisions. It is but a short time that this Tigrimahom has
held this lordship, and as yet, he has not finished visiting all his
lands which are under his orders and rule, and also those who have the
title of kings, as well as the others underneath them in rank. The
Prester John deposes them and appoints them whenever he pleases, with
or without cause; and on this account there is no ill humour here, and
if there is any it is secret, because in this period that we remained
in this country I saw great lords turned out of their lordships, and
others put into them, and I saw them together, and they appeared to be
good friends. (God knows their hearts.) And in this country, whatever
happens to them, of good fortune or of loss, they say of all of it,
that God does it. These great lords, who are like kings, are all
tributaries of the Prester John; those of this kingdom in horses, and
those of the Barnagais in brocades, silks, and some cotton cloths; and
those further on from this place (as they say) are tributaries in gold,
silk, mules, cows, and plough oxen, and other things which there are
at court. The lords who are beneath these, even though they hold their
lordships from the hand of Prester John, pay their tribute to the other
lords; and they account for all on delivering it to the Prester. The
lands are so populous that the revenues cannot but be large; and these
lords, even though they receive their revenues, eat at the cost of the
people and the poor.
CAP. XLIII.--_How the Tigrimahom being about to travel, the
ambassador asked him to despatch him, and it was not granted to
him, and the ambassador sent him certain things, and he gave him
equipment, and we went to a monastery, where the friars gave
thanks to God._
As the Tigrimahom was about to set out for other countries we went to
take leave of him, and ask him to give us a good equipment for our
journey, and to this he answered us saying: that the goods which we
were taking to the Prester John he would have them taken to him, and
that our own goods which were our clothes, and pepper and cloths for
our provisions, that we should take charge of them, and with this he
dismissed us and went his way, and we went to where we were lodged.
Seeing that we could not travel with so much baggage, we agreed to
send again to the Tigrimahom, and Jorge D’Abreu and Mestre Joam went
and took to him certain goods, that is to say, a rich dagger and a
sword furnished with a velvet scabbard and gilt ends. There came a
message that they should carry all our goods, and that in all his
lands they should give us bread, wine, and meat to eat. As soon as
this message arrived, the same day we departed, which was the 9th of
August. We went to sleep at some small hamlets, fenced in like those we
had passed from fear of the tigers. On the night that we slept here,
when it was about two hours of the night, a little more or less, on
two men of the country going outside of a yard the tigers attacked
them, and wounded one of them in the leg. God protected him and we
who hastened to him, because certainly they would have killed him, as
they are such pestilent animals. In this country there are villages
of Moors, separated from the Christians; they say that they pay much
tribute to the lords of the country in gold and silk stuffs. They do
not serve in the general services like the Christians; they have not
got mosques, because they do not allow them to build or possess them.
All these countries are great pasture lands, like those left behind,
but not less of tilled land and mountain ridges (not very high), but
rather undulating plains. From these small villages we went a distance
of four leagues to sleep at another small village, and a little before
coming to it we saw on the left hand on a high hill much green grass
and woods, in which is another monastery of St. John, like the one
seen before. They say that it is a monastery of many friars and much
revenue. Close to the village where we halted is a church of St.
George, a very well arranged building, almost in the fashion of our
churches, small and vaulted, its paintings very well executed, that is,
of apostles, patriarchs, prophets, Elias and Enoch. Ten priests and
friars officiate in it. Up to this time we have not met with a church
ruled by clergy, in which there are not friars, and in monasteries
no priest. In truth the friars behave more honestly in their habits,
and the priests behave as laymen, except that their lives are more
honest. In the fairs priests and friars are all the same, and they are
the merchants. Across this church of St. George, towards the east, at
the foot of a mountain about a league from this church, there is a
monastery on a river, named Paraclitos, which amongst us means Holy
Ghost. There will be in it twenty or twenty-five friars, the house is
very devout, and so the friars appear to be. When we came there, they
gave great thanks to God for their having seen Christians of another
country and language who had never come before: they showed us all
their affairs. The house of the monastery is vaulted and small, and
well painted, its cloisters and cells very well arranged, better than
we had yet seen in this country. It has very good vegetable gardens,
with many cabbages, garlic, onions, and other species of vegetables,
many lemons, limes, citrons, peaches, grapes, figs, common nuts, and
figs of India; many tall cypresses, and many other fruit trees and
plants. After we had seen all, the friars were at their wits’ end,
because it was Saturday, and they could not gather anything to give us,
asking us to pardon them, and that they would give us of what they had
in the house. Then they gave us dry garlic and lemons; last of all they
took us to the refectory, and there gave us to eat boiled cabbage of
the day before, hashed and salted, and mixed with garlic, without any
other sauce, only boiled with water and salt. They gave us, besides,
two rolls, one of wheat, the other of barley, and a jar of the beverage
of the country, which they call _cana_, and it is made of millet.
They gave it all with great good will, and we likewise received it in
the same manner, giving thanks to God as they did. At a distance of two
leagues from this place where we halted, there is a town named Agroo,
where the Tigrimahom has a Beteneguz, to which we went on various
occasions. Here there is a house of Our Lady, made in a rock, hewn and
wrought with the pickaxe, very well constructed, with three naves,
and their supports made of the rock itself. The principal chapel, the
sacristy, and the altar, all is of the rock itself, and the principal
doorway, with its supports, which could not be better if made of
pieces. It has not got side doors, because both sides are of hewn rock,
or of living rock. It is a beautiful thing, and to be rejoiced at to
see, and hear the chaunt in it and the grand tone it gives. Mention of
bells may be dispensed with, since they are all of stone, drums and
cymbals generally and specially.
CAP. XLIV.--_How we went to the town of Dangugui, and Abefete,
and how Balgada Robel came to visit us, and the service which he
brought, and of the salt which is in the country._
On the 13th of August we set out from this place, where we had kept
Saturday and Sunday, and went to stop at a town named Dangugui. In this
town there is a well built church, its naves very well constructed
upon very thick stone supports, well hewn. The patron of this church
is named Quiricos, who amongst us is named Quirici.[69] The town is
a very good one, situated close to a pretty river, and they say that
it has the privilege that no one may enter it on horseback; but on a
mule they may. From here we went to sleep at some very bad villages,
and we went to sleep without supper and apart, because we were not
able to do otherwise. Next day, in the morning, we set out, and went
quickly to a town named Belete, where there was a Beteneguz. Whilst
we were there a great gentleman arrived named Robel, and his lordship
is named Balgada,[70] and so his appellation and title is Balgada
Robel. He brought with him many people on horseback, and mules and
horses, and led mules for state and drums. This gentleman is subject
to the Tigrimahom. This gentleman sent to beg the ambassador to come
and speak to him outside of the Beteneguz and of his lodgings, because
he could not go to him there without the Tigrimahom’s being there;
because, as I have already written, they respect these Betes very
much, which remain with open doors, and no one enters them, saying that
it is forbidden under pain of death for any one to enter any Beteneguz
without the lord being there who rules the country in the name of the
Prester John. When this message arrived, the ambassador sent to tell
him that he had come a distance of five thousand leagues, and whoever
wished to see him might come to his lodgings, for he was not going to
go out of them. Upon this, the gentleman sent a cow and a large jar
of honey, white as snow and hard as stone, and sent word that for an
interview[71] with the ambassador he would come to the Beteneguz, and
that by reason of foreign Christians he would be excused the penalty.
On arriving close to the Bete the rain was so heavy that it suited him
to enter inside, and he remained talking to the ambassador and with all
of us about our coming, and of the Christianity of our countries, which
are unknown to them. After that he spoke of the wars that they had
with the Moors, who divided with them the countries towards the sea,
and that they never ceased warring; and he gave a very good mule for a
sword, and the ambassador gave him a helmet. We learned afterwards at
court, on the many occasions that we there saw this gentleman, that he
was a very great warrior, and was never free from wars, as they related
to us, and that he was very fortunate. His lands go to the south along
our road, and on the east lie towards the Red Sea, and part of them
reach the road by which we were travelling; and they say it is a great
lordship. There is in it the best thing there is in Ethiopia, that is
the salt, which in all the country is current as money, both in the
kingdoms and dominions of the Prester and in the kingdoms of the Moors
and Gentiles, and they say that it goes as far as Manicongo. This salt
is of stone taken from the mountain (as they say), and it comes in
the shape of bricks. Each stone is a span and a half in length, and
four fingers in width and three in thickness, and so it goes loaded
on beasts like faggots. They say that in the place where the salt is
collected a hundred and twenty or a hundred and thirty stones are worth
a drachm, and the drachin (as I have already said) is worth three
hundred reals, according to our account. Then, at a market which is in
our road, at a town named Corcora, which is about a day’s journey from
the place where the salt is got, it already is worth five or six stones
less, and so it[72] goes on diminishing from market to market. When it
arrives at court, six or seven stones are worth a drachm; I have seen
them at five to the drachm when it was winter. The salt is very cheap
where it is got, and very dear at the court, because it does not travel
easily. They say that entering into Damute they get a good slave for
three or four stones, and that on reaching the countries of the slaves
they say they get a slave for a stone, and almost for a stone its
weight in gold. We met on this road three or four hundred animals, in
herds, laden with salt, and in the same way others going empty to fetch
salt. They say that these belong to great lords, who all send them to
make a journey each year for their expenses at court. One meets other
files of twenty or thirty beasts (these are like those of muleteers);
in other parts one meets men laden with salt, which they carry for
themselves, and others in order to make profit from fair to fair. So it
is worth and current as money, and whoever carries it finds all that he
requires.
CAP. XLV.--_How we departed, and our baggage before us, and how
a captain of the Tigrimahom who conducted us was frightened by a
friar who came in search of us._
We departed from this Beteneguz to some very vile places in a mountain
named Benacel; and the next day we set out, and our baggage went on in
front, and we found it set down in the middle of a plain where there
was much water. When we arrived, it grieved us to see our goods thus.
Whilst we were thus at our wits’ end, there came up four or five men
on mules, and ten or twelve men on foot with them; amongst them came a
friar, and as soon as this friar came up he at once seized the captain
by the head, who had charge of our baggage, and gave him buffets. We,
on seeing this, all ran up to him to know for what reason he did that.
The ambassador, seeing the captain covered with blood, laid hold of the
friar by the breast, and was going to strike him, and I do not know
whether he did strike him. I and all those who came up with him carried
their arms ready, and almost at the breast of the friar. It availed
him that he spoke a little Italian, because Jorge d’Abreu was there
who understood it a little; and if this had not been the case, and I,
who saw his hood and said that he was a friar, he would not have got
off well. This matter having been pacified, the friar told how he had
come by order of the Prester John to cause our luggage to be carried,
and that he had been amazed at that captain, and what he had done to
him he did it on account of the bad equipment which he was giving us.
The ambassador answered that those buffets had not been given to the
captain, but to him, since he had given them in his presence, and that
he felt it much. All having been restored to peace, the friar said
that he had to go forward on the road by which we had been travelling,
to the house of the Balgada Robel, the gentleman we had left behind,
and that from him and from his house he would bring mules and camels
to carry our baggage, and that we should go and wait for him at a
Beteneguz which was at a distance of half a day’s journey from this
place. (This is the friar who is going as ambassador to Portugal.) We
departed on our way, and went to sleep at a small village where there
is a good church; its patron is Quercos. At night we thought we should
have been eaten by the tigers. On the following day we went forward
little more than half a league to the Beteneguz which the friar had
told us of: this is at a town called Corcora, with very good houses for
resting in, and a very good church. Here we remained Saturday, Sunday,
and Monday, waiting for the friar. They told us that to the eastward
from this place there was a large monastery named Nazareth; they say
it is one of large revenues and many friars, and that there are in it
abundance of grapes, peaches, and other fruits; and they brought us
small nuts from it. They say that to the westward, which is towards the
Nile, there are great mines of silver, and that they do not know how to
get it out, nor to profit by it.
CAP. XLVI.--_How we departed from the town of Corcora, and of
the luxuriant country through which we travelled, and of another
which was rough, in which we lost one another at night, and how
the tigers fought us._