nothing to eat, for the country is very sterile; and we left the friar
with all our goods which could not travel, and we had not got people
to carry it. Before we started they caused us more fear than we had
before, telling us that, besides the Moors, there were there many
robbers, who went about among the thickets, and killed travellers
with poisoned arrows; and because we had generally seen them carried
we had more fear. So they told us to go all together, and with our
weapons ready. The road which we travelled this day was flat, like that
behind, and with larger thickets; the road was wider, because every
year they cut the bushes. We always travelled alongside the mountains,
as we did the day before, and further off from the mountains of the
Moors, because every step we left them further off. With all this, they
said that there was greater danger here, and that there were wider
passages of dry rivers and thick woods, where bad people might lie in
wait. They also inspired us with fear, telling us not to sleep on the
low ground, nor to rest near the water, because the country was very
unwholesome, and that we ought to ascend to the high ground as much as
possible. Thus, we travelled without our baggage all that day, and came
to sleep at a large river named Sabalete, at which river the kingdom
of Tigrimahom ends, and the kingdom of Angote begins. On a very high
hill to the westward of this river is a church of St. Peter, which is
called in our language San Pedro d’Angote; and they say that it is the
head of this kingdom, and that it is the church of the kings, and that
when this kingdom is bestowed they come here to take possession of it.
And on the eastern side, on another very high mountain, which is two
or three leagues from this road (and now it is not a country of the
Moors), is a monastery which they say is large and of much revenue and
many friars. However, we saw nothing of it, except the trees. At this
river we remained Saturday and Sunday, and on Sunday night, at the
first sleep, the tigers attacked us, with all the fires we had burning,
and a great part of the mules got loose, and we at once caught most
of them. One mule and an ass escaped, and we thought they had been
devoured. Next day, in the morning, they came from a village to tell
us that in the night two runaway beasts had come there, and that we
should see if they were ours, and go there and fetch them. On Monday,
the 3rd of October of 1520, we set out on our way, and travelled for
two leagues along a very flat road, and from that spot the friar, who
was now with us with the goods, took us by some very rough roads over
mountains, to sleep at some pinnacles, saying that the low grounds
were sickly. The goods could not ascend, and remained on the road. On
account of this night’s halt, we were all discontented with the friar,
and told him not to bring us and our mules up such mountain ridges;
that we were not afraid of sickness, and if he did it for the sake of
eating, that we were bringing the goods of the King of Portugal, to
provide ourselves withal, and to be able to give him food also. Here
he said that he would not again bring us out of the road, and that
he would go wherever we pleased, and that we should be satisfied. On
Tuesday we descended from the said pinnacle, and came back to the road
where the baggage had remained, close to a large church of Our Lady.
Here we had our midday rest. This church has many priests, and friars,
and nuns, and it is directed by the priests. This town is named Corcora
of Angote. It is different from Corcora[84] of the Tigrimahom, where on
Wednesday of every week there is a great market or fair. At this church
we left the camels, with a large part of the goods, because[85] they
could not go any further over the rough mountains that we had to pass;
and this afternoon we crossed a mountain with great labour, for in
many places we went on foot, and with both feet and hands, like cats.
We passed this bad road over a mountain ridge, still between other
ridges. There are two hills almost level ground, between which lies a
valley of great pastures and tillage of all sorts of seeds, which grow
all the year round, because we passed by here several times, and we
always found wheat just sown, and other wheat springing up, and other
in grass, other in the ear, other ripe, and other reaped or threshed
on the threshing floor; and so with other seeds of this country, for
in the same manner as it is with the wheat, so it is with all other
things. This land is not irrigated, because it is almost marshy; and
all the land of this nature, or which is capable of irrigation, gives
crops all through the year; when one is got in another is sown. In this
country, on both sides, on all the slopes, there are an infinite number
of towns, and all have their churches; it is a very good country. For a
man to know where the churches are, they have around them large trees;
by that they are known, even before they are reached.
CAP. LI.--_Of the church of Ancona, and how in the kingdom of
Angote iron and salt are current for money, and of a monastery
which is in a cave._
On the following Wednesday we travelled (not a long way), and began to
descend through a large and beautiful valley and lowland, where there
were large fields of millet and beans. This vale is named the country
of Ancona. At the head of this vale is a very noble church named St.
Mary of Ancona (as they say), of great revenues. This church has many
canons, and an Alicanate over them. Besides these canons it has many
priests and friars. All the large churches here and further on are
named King’s churches, all have canons, whom they call Debeteras, and
in all an Alicanate, who is like a prior. This church has two small
bells, badly made, and they are low down near the ground, and as yet we
had not seen any others in all the country that we had gone through.
We remained in this town till Thursday, because there is then a great
market, which they call _gabeja_.[86] In this country, and in
all the kingdom of Angote, iron is current as money. It is made like
a shovel, and this shape is of no advantage for anything, except for
making something else with it. Of these pieces of iron, ten, eleven,
and sometimes twelve, are worth a drachm, which in our Portugal, or
in India, would be worth a cruzado (as has been said). Salt also is
current as money, because it is current in all the country: here six
or seven blocks of salt are worth one piece of iron. From here there
lies almost opposite to the westward, a large country named Abrigima:
it is a country of very high mountains, and very cold. On the top of
this mountain there is much matting grass,[87] and they say that it is
very good. I brought some of it to the Genoese who were with us, and
they said that they had never seen so good, and that it was better
than that of Alicante. The provisions of these mountains are all
barley in the low ground, and wheat in the valleys, the best that can
be named among many other good wheats. The flocks, both cows, sheep,
and goats, are very small, as in the country of Maia, between Douro
and Minho, in Portugal. They call this country Abime raz, it is under
Angote raz, which is the kingdom of Angote. This country of Abrigima
is six days’ journey in length, and three in breadth. They say that
after the country of Aquaxumo became christian with its neighbourhood,
this country followed next after it. In this country the Kings had
their tribunal, as the Queens had in Aquaxumo. Whilst this country
is so sterile, and at first sight sad, there are in it the edifices
which I saw. First, in a very high mountain, there is a very great
cave, and within it is a handsome monastery, house of Our Lady, named
Iconoamelaca,[88] which means: God gives it plenty; and the spot of
land is named Acate. The house is not so large, as is its elegance.
It has not got large revenues, yet it has a great number of friars
and nuns. The friars have their dwelling above the cavern, entirely
enclosed, and they go down to the monastery by a single path. The nuns
have their dwelling below the cavern, they are not enclosed, they live
upon the slope of the mountain. All these friars and nuns dig and prune
in this country, and they sow wheat and barley, which they eat, for
the monastery gives them little. The affection which they bear to this
country, and to the monastery, makes them dwell there. This monastery
is inside this cavern, and well built in a cross, well contained in
the cave, so that they go freely with their procession round the
building. In front of the door of this house there is a wall ten or
twelve fathoms long, and as high as the edge of the cave, and between
the wall and door of the monastery, for there are no churches within
the enclosure of the cave, there is a space of five fathoms, here the
nuns stand to hear the offices, and here they receive the communion.
This station of the nuns lies to the south, because the church lies
east and west, and the station is on the side of the epistle.[89] Above
this cave, descending from the mountain, a river runs during the whole
year, and the water falls on the right hand of this monastery, near the
place where the nuns are, much beyond the wall which shelters them.
The friars, even if they were much more numerous than they are, would
find room in the cave around the church, although they do not enter
it. The monastery, or body of the church, has three doors, that is,
one principal, and two side doors, as though it were in the open air,
and one is wide. And because I say that it is in the form of a cross,
it is in this manner, namely, of the form and size of a monastery of
San Frutuoso, which is close to the city of Braga, in the kingdom of
Portugal.
CAP. LII.--_Of a church of canons who are in another cave in
this same lordship, in which lie a Prester John and a Patriarch
of Alexandria._
This monastery before mentioned possesses, at two days’ journey to the
west, a large and rich church in another cave; according to my judgment
three large ships with their masts would find room in this cave. The
entrance to it is not larger than to allow two carts with their side
rails[90] to enter. Above this cave the mountain continues to rise for
quite two leagues. I walked over them, and was near dying in them from
the great ascent, and with the great cold there was. God protected
me. And I was fastened to a cord, and a strong slave to pull it, who
assisted me to ascend, and another behind who drove the mules, because
I did not send them in front for fear of their falling upon me. We
started before morning, and at midday we had not finished ascending
the ground. This church which is in this cave is very large, like a
cathedral, with its large naves, very well wrought, and well vaulted:
it has three very rich chapels, and well adorned altars. The entrance
of this cave is to the east, and the backs of the chapels are that way,
and if one goes at the hour of tierce[91] there is no seeing in the
church, all the offices are done with lamps. There are in this church
(as they say) two hundred canons or debeteras, according to their
language; I saw an infinite number, they have not got friars; they have
an alicanate, a very noble prior; he is over all of them, as has been
said before. They say that it has much revenue. These canons are like
well-to-do and honourable men. This church is named Imbra Christus,
which means the path of Christ. Entering this cave a man faces the
chapels, and on the right hand when one enters are two painted
chambers, which belonged to a King who lived in this cave, and who
ordered this church to be built. On the epistle side are three honoured
sepulchres, and as yet we had not seen others such in Ethiopia. This
principally is high, and has five steps all around it. The tombs are in
this manner. This tomb is covered with a large cloth of brocade, and
velvet of Mekkah, one cloth of one stuff, and another of the other,
which on both sides reach the ground. It was covered over, because it
was the day of its great festival. They say that this tomb belongs to
the King who lived here, whose name was Abraham. And the other two
sepulchres are of the same fashion, except that one of them has four
steps, and the other three: and all are in the middle of the cave.
They say that the largest of these two belongs to a Patriarch of
Alexandria, who came to see this King, having heard of his sanctity,
and he died here. The smallest and the lowest belongs they say to a
daughter of this King. They also say that this King was a mass priest
for forty years, and that after he withdrew himself he said mass in
this church each day: and this is written in a large and ancient book,
which I saw with my eyes and had in my hands, quite like a chronicle
or life of this King, and they went over part of it with me during
two days that I was there at leisure. Among other miracles which they
related of this King, and which they read to me in this book, is that
when he wished to celebrate the angels administered to him what was
requisite, that is, bread and wine, and this was in those forty years
that he was in retreat. In the beginning of this book this King is
painted with the state of a priest before the altar, and from a window
in the same painting there comes out a hand with a roll and a little
pitcher of wine, as though it brought bread and wine; and so it is
painted in the principal chapel. (I say that I heard and saw it read in
the book.) And besides that the canons told me that the stone of which
this church was built had come from Jerusalem, and that it is like the
stone of Jerusalem, which is dark and of a fine grain. And going on
the mountain above, where my slave led me or assisted me, at the top
of the mountain I found an ancient quarry, with great excavations and
many pieces of stone, and very large stones with ancient wedges.[92] I
looked at these stones with great care, and this stone is of the same
colour and grain as that of the church, because I broke off some pieces
of it, and examined it well, and knew that it was the same stone, and
that the stone for the church had been brought from here, and had not
come from Jerusalem as they had told me. It is also written in the said
book that during the whole life of this King he had not taken dues from
his vassals, and if anyone brought them to him, that he ordered them
to be distributed among the poor; and his maintenance was from the
great tillage which he used to order to be made. It is also written
that to this King it was revealed that there ought not to be any
relations of the King in his dominions, that all of them should be shut
up, except only the eldest son, the heir, as will be related further
on. I saw this church the day of its feast, in order to see that which
I had heard of it. There came to it that day fully twenty persons, and
all as many as come to it in pilgrimage have to receive the communion.
This feast was on a Sunday, and they said mass very quickly, and then
they commenced giving the communion at all the three doors of the
church, and they finished after nightfall. This I saw because I was at
the beginning, and I went away to dinner, and I returned and remained
until they finished with torches.
CAP. LIII.--_Of the great church edifices that there are in the
country of Abuxima, which King Lalibela built, and of his tomb
in the church of Golgotha._
At a day’s journey from this church of Imbra Christo are edifices, the
like of which and so many, cannot, as it appears to me, be found in
the world, and they are churches entirely excavated in the rock, very
well hewn. The names of these churches are these: Emanuel, St. Saviour,
St. Mary, Holy Cross, St. George, Golgotha, Bethlehem, Marcoreos, the
Martyrs. The principal one is Lalibela. This Lalibela, they say, was
a King in this same country for eighty years, and he was King before
the one before mentioned who was named Abraham. This King ordered
these edifices to be made. He does not lie in the church which bears
his name, he lies in the church of Golgotha, which is the church of
the fewest buildings here. It is in this manner: all excavated in the
stone itself, a hundred and twenty spans in length, and seventy-two
spans in width. The ceiling of this church rests on five supports,
two on each side, and one in the centre, like fives of dice, and the
ceiling or roof is all flat like the floor of the church, the sides
also are worked in a fine fashion, also the windows, and the doors
with all the tracery, which could be told, so that neither a jeweller
in silver, nor a worker of wax in wax, could do more work. The tomb
of this King is in the same manner as that of Santiago of Galicia, at
Compostella, and it is in this manner: the gallery which goes round the
church is like a cloister, and lower than the body of the church, and
one goes down from the church to this gallery; there are three windows
on each side, that is to say, at that height which the church is higher
than the gallery, and as much as the body of the church extends, so
much is excavated below, and to as much depth as there is height above
the floor of the church. And if one looks through each of these windows
which is opposite the sun, one sees the tomb at the right of the high
altar. In the centre of the body of the church is the sign of a door
like a trap door, it is covered up with a large stone, like an altar
stone, fitting very exactly in that door. They say that this is the
entrance to the lower chamber, and that no one enters there, nor does
it appear that that stone or door can be raised. This stone has a hole
in the centre which pierces it through, its size is three palms.[93]
All the pilgrims put their hands into this stone (which hardly find
room), and say that many miracles are done here. On the left hand side,
when one goes from the principal door before the principal chapel,
there is a tomb cut in the same rock as the church, which they say is
made after the manner of the sepulchre of Christ in Jerusalem. So they
hold it in honour and veneration and reverence, as becomes the memory
to which it belongs. In the other part of the church are two great
images carved in the wall itself, which remain in a manner separated
from it. They showed me these things as though I should be amazed at
seeing them. One of the images is of St. Peter, the other of St. John:
they give them great reverence. This church also possesses a separate
chapel, almost a church; this has naves on six supports, that is, three
on each side. This is very well constructed, with much elegance: the
middle nave is raised and arched, its windows and doorways are well
wrought, that is, the principal door, and one side door, for the other
gives entrance to the principal church. This chapel is as broad as it
is long, that is, fifty-two spans broad, and as many in length. It has
another chapel, very high and small, like a pinnacle,[94] with many
windows in the same height: these also have as much width as length,
that is, twelve spans. This church and its chapels have their altars
and canopies, with their supports, made of the rock itself, it also
has a very great circuit cut out of the rock. The circuit is on the
same level as the church itself, and is all square: all its walls are
pierced with holes the size of the mouth of a barrel. All these holes
are stopped up with small stones, and they say that they are tombs,
and such they appear to be, because some have been stopped up since a
long time, others recently. The entrance of this circuit is below the
rock, at a great depth and measure of thirteen spans, all artificially
excavated, or worked with the pickaxe, for here there is no digging,
because the stone is hard, and for great walls like the Porto in
Portugal.
CAP. LIV.--_Of the fashion of the church of San Salvador, and of
other churches which are in the said town, and of the birth of
King Lalibela, and the dues of this country._
The church of St. Saviour stands alone, cut out of a rock; it is very
large. Its interior is two hundred spans in length, and a hundred and
twenty in width. It has five naves, in each one seven square columns;
the large one has four, and the walls of the church have as much. The
columns are very well worked, with arches which hang down a span below
the vaulted roof. The vaulted roofs are very well worked, and of great
height, principally the centre one, which is very high. It is of a
handsome height; most of the ends are lower, all in proportion. In the
principal height of these naves there is much tracery, such as ...,[95]
or keystones, or roses, which they put on the vaults, on which they
make roses and other graceful works. On the sides it has very pretty
windows, with much tracery, long and narrow in the middle. Within and
without, these are long, like the loopholes[96] of a wall, narrow
without and wide within; these are wide both within and without, and
narrow in the middle, with arches and tracery. The principal chapel is
very high, and the canopy over the altar is very high, with a support
at each corner. All this is made from the rock itself. In the other
naves they do not deck the chapels and altars with canopies like the
high altar in its grandeur. The principal door has at each side many
and large buttresses, and the door commences with very large arches,
and goes on narrowing with other arches until they reach a small door,
which is not more than nine spans high and four and a half wide. The
side doors are in this manner, only that they do not commence with so
much width, and they end with the width of the principal door. On the
outside part of this church are seven buttresses with arches,[97]
which are twelve palms distant from the wall of the church, and from
buttress to buttress an arch, and above the church, on these arches, a
vault constructed in such manner that if it were built of pieces and
soft stone it could not be straighter nor better constructed, nor with
more work about it. These arches outside may be about the height of
two lances. There is not any variation in the whole of this rock in
which this church stands; it all looks like one block of marble. The
court or cloister which the church has round it is all worked with the
same stone. It is sixty palms wide at each end, and in front of the
principal church door quite a hundred palms. Above this church, where
it should be roofed, there are on each side nine large arches, like
cloisters, which descend from the top to the bottom, to the tombs along
the sides,[98] as in the other church. The entrance to this church is
by a descent through the rock itself, eighty steps cut artificially
in the stone, of a width that ten men can go side by side, and of the
height of a lance or more. This entrance has four holes above, which
give light to the passage above the edges. From this rock to the
enclosure of the church is like a field; there are many houses, and
they sow barley in it.
The house or church of Our Lady is not so large as that of St. Saviour,
but it is very well constructed. It has three naves, and the centre one
is very high, with large loops and roses very ingeniously carved in the
rock itself. Each nave has five columns, and upon them their arches
and vaults, very high pitched,[99] and well made. It has, besides, a
high column in the cross of the transept, on which is placed a canopy
which from its fretted work looks as if it were stamped in wax. At the
head of each nave there is a chapel, with its altar like those of St.
Saviour; only it has, besides, altars at each of the doors, which are
of the size and fashion of those of St. Saviour. It has six buttresses
on the exterior; two on each side are adhering to the wall, and four
are distant from it, and well made arches spring from one to the other
of them, and upon them are very well constructed canopies, which are
very high and like a portico, over the doors. These canopies are all of
one size, as broad as they are long. It has a very high and graceful
circuit, and behind, as well as at the sides and in front, all round
of the height of the church. This church is eighty spans in length and
sixty-four in width. This church, also, has in front of its principal
door, made out of the rock itself, a large house, in which they give
food to the poor; and the way out of the church is through this house
to the outside, or they enter the church through it underneath the rock
a good distance. On each side of this church, in front of the side
doors, are two churches each at its end. This church of Our Lady is
the head of all the other churches of this place. It has an infinite
quantity of canons, and the church which is on the side of the epistle
is as long and as wide as that of Our Lady. It has three naves, and
in each nave three columns well wrought of level work. It has not got
more than one chapel, and one altar, made like those of other churches.
Its principal door is very well worked; it does not face outwards, but
to a corridor below the rock, which comes like a path to the house of
Our Lady. This corridor comes from a distance; where it begins they
ascend to it by fifteen steps of the rock itself. This is a very dark
entrance. On the side towards the church of Our Lady, this church has a
very pretty side door and two very elegant windows, and behind and on
the other side all hewn rock and very rough, without having any work
whatever. This church is called the Martyrs, and the church which is
on the gospel side of the church of Our Lady, is called Holy Cross. It
is small, it is sixty-eight spans in length, it has not got naves,
it has three columns in the middle, which appear to have their tops
above (_the roof_), very well made and vaulted; inside all is
smooth work. On the side of Our Lady’s church it has a very handsome
side door and two well made windows; it has a single altar, like
others; the principal door is well wrought. It has not got a court nor
faces outwards, only to a corridor like a path, which goes outside,
underneath the rock, very long and very dark.