small. It is forty-two spans in length inside, and twenty in width. It
has three naves, the middle one very high and with domed[100] vaults:
the side naves are not vaulted, and are flat underneath, that is, the
ceiling is like the floor of the church. These naves are upon five
supports: the breadth and thickness of these supports are of four spans
from corner to corner, and the wall of the church has four others. It
has very well worked doors, both the side and principal doors, and all
of the same size, that is to say, nine spans high, and four wide. It
is all enclosed; on the outside there is a space[101] of three steps,
which go all round it, except at the doors, which each have a wide
court, each with five steps above those which surround the church.
It is all of the rock itself, without a piece or fault. This church
also has what none of the others have, that is, a choir, to which they
ascend by a spiral staircase: it is not large, for a tall man with a
span more would knock his head against the ceiling, which is flat, like
the floor of the church, and so also over the naves and sides, large as
they are; they go to small cells by doors from one to another, and from
the choir itself doors open to these little rooms or cells. They do not
make use of this choir except for keeping there chests of vestments and
church ornaments. These chests must have been made inside this choir,
because they could not enter by any way, I do not know how they could
come in even in pieces. The outside walls of this church, also, have
what others have not, that is to say, like tiers of walls, one bends
outwards and another turns inwards two inches, another, again, turns
outwards and another goes inwards, and so it is from the commencement
of the steps to the top of the church; and the tier of stone which goes
outwards is two spans wide, and that going inwards one span, and in
this fashion and width they cover the whole wall, and reckoning up the
spans, this wall is 52 spans high. The church has its circuit cut like
a wall outside, and inside of the rock itself, and this wall is entered
by three good doors like small gates of a city or walled town.
The church of St. George is a good bit lower down than the others,
almost separated from the place; it is in the rock, like the others.
The entrance to it is under the rock or cliff: there are eight steps to
ascend, and when they are ascended one enters into a large house, with
a bench which goes all round it on the inside, for outside it is rough
rock. In this house alms are given to the poor, who seat themselves
on these benches. Entering from this house one comes at once to the
church circuit, which is made in the form of a cross. The church also
is in the form of a cross, and the distance from the principal door to
the chancel is the same as that from one side door to the other, all
of one compass. The doors are very well worked outside. I did not go
inside, as it was locked. In the circuit of the church, entering from
outside, to the right hand, for it is all rough rock, without more
than one entrance, there is, at the height of a man or a little more,
placed in the wall, a kind of ark full of water. They go up to it by
steps; and they say that this water springs there, but it does not
flow out: they carry it away for intermittent fevers, and say that it
is good for them. All this enclosure is full of tombs, like the other
churches. On the top of this church is a large double cross, that is,
one within the other, like the crosses of the order of Christ. Outside
the circuit the rock is higher than the church, and on this rock are
cypresses and wild olive trees. It wearied me to write more of these
works, because it seems to me that they will not believe me if I write
more, and because as to what I have already written they may accuse
me of untruth, therefore I swear by God, in whose power I am, that
all that is written is the truth, and there is much more than what I
have written, and I have left it that they may not tax me with its
being falsehood. And because no other Portuguese went to these works
except myself, and I went twice to see them from what I had heard of
them. This place is on a slope of the mountain, and from the peak of
the mountain to this is a day and a half’s journey of descent. This
slope or mountain seems to be quite separate from the other mountain,
yet it is subject to it, and from this town to the bottom there is
still a great descent, and at the end of it a view over four or five
leagues, and many great plains which they say are two days’ journey
distant. (It seemed to me that one could go in one.) They say that
there are in these plains other such edifices as those of Aquaxumo,
such as stone chairs and other buildings, and that the residences of
the Kings were there, like the other buildings of the Queens, and this
is in the direction of the Nile. I did not go there, and I relate on
hearsay a thing at which I was more amazed. They told me that the
works of these churches were done in twenty-four years, and that this
is written, and that they were done by Gibetas, that is, white men,
for they well know that they do not know how to do any well executed
work. They say that King Lalibela ordered this to be done; this name of
Lalibela means miracle. They say that he took, or that they gave him,
this name, because when he was born he was covered with bees, and that
the bees cleaned him without doing him any hurt. They also say that he
was not the son of the King, but son of a sister of the King, and that
the King died without having a son, and the nephew, the sister’s son,
inherited the kingdom. They say that he was a saint, and that he did
many miracles, and so there is much pilgrimage to this place.
This lordship of Abrigima was given by the Prester John, before our
departure, to the ambassador whom he sends to Portugal; and as I say
that I came twice to see these churches and edifices, the second
time that I came to see them I came with the ambassador, who came to
take possession of his lordship. And whilst we were thus going about
the country there came to us two _calaces_, which means messengers
or word from the King: these calaces said to the ambassador who was
taking the lordship of Abrigima, that the Prester John sent to tell
him to send him the _gibir_, that is to say, the dues which were owing
by his predecessor, for he did not owe anything yet, as he was then
taking possession. And what they said was owing was this, namely, a
hundred and fifty plough oxen, thirty dogs, thirty assagays, and thirty
shields. The new captain gave for answer that he would at once send to
know what property was belonging to his predecessor, and that he would
pay out of it. In this manner they paid in these kingdoms, as in other
places. I have said that those towards Egypt and Arabia pay horses and
silks, and so the other lands and lordships pay each their own produce,
according to their quality and breed.
CAP. LV.--_How we departed from Ancona, and went to Ingabelu,
and how we returned to seek the baggage._
We departed from the church and fair of Ancona, and having gone a
distance of three leagues we reached some villages with all the goods;
in these they would not receive us nor carry our baggage, saying that
these villages belonged to the mother of Prester John, and that they
did not obey any one except her. And they desired to beat the friar
who conducted us, and they did give a beating to one of his men. We
left the baggage here, and went to sleep at a large town of good houses
named Ingabelu. Its situation is on a hill in the midst of extensive
cultivated lands between very high mountains, the skirts of which are
studded with an infinite number of towns, the largest number and the
greatest that we had yet seen: it seems to me that these towns exceed
a hundred. This town has pretty rivers on each side of it. They were
building here a pretty church of masonry, of good workmanship; and that
it may not appear to be a lie that so many towns could be seen from
this Ingabelu, I say that all were not in sight from there, but we
saw them from the mountains by which we passed. Those which might be
furthest off from this town would be a league and a half. We found in
this town an infinite quantity of fowls, which, if not in a hurry,[102]
could be bought a hundred, if one wanted so many, in exchange for a
little pepper. In this place there are many lemons and citrons: we
remained here Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday night the tigers sprung
into the town, and fell in with a boy and carried him off. From that
place they attacked a large farm where we were lodging, and there broke
loose from us a mule and an ass, which already once before had escaped
at the river of Sabalete: they got away from the farm house, the mule
jumped into a cow yard and so escaped, and the ass was devoured. On
the morning of Monday the 11th day of September, we set out from the
said town, turning back to where the baggage had remained, and on the
road we met many people, half peacably inclined, the other half hostile
(these were they who would not receive the baggage), and their arms
were cudgels; they received us with welcome, and we did likewise to
them, and that night we slept in their town, and they made amends for
the past, for they gave us very good food. On the following day we set
out on our road, a distance of two leagues or three, and again slept
without our goods. On the Thursday we turned back again in search of
it, and when we found it we still travelled straight on a good three
leagues, all of it crossing mountains and passing valleys as before,
and the whole of it seemed to be mountains. This Kingdom of Angote is
almost all of it valleys and mountains, and the tilled land has little
wheat and little barley, yet it gives much millet, taffo, and dagusha,
pulse, peas, lentils, beans, many figs, garlic, and onions, and great
abundance of all vegetables. Iron is current as money in this country,
as has been said.
CAP. LVI.--_How the ambassador separated from the friar, and how
those of us who remained with the friar were stoned, and some
captured, and how the ambassador returned, and we were invited
by the Angote raz, and went with him to church, and of the
questions he asked, and dinner he gave us._
On Thursday the 14th of the said month of September our baggage went
and stopped at a dry river without any water at all, and it was about
a league from where the Angote raz was staying: he is the lord of this
Kingdom of Angote. And because it was a dry land, and because the
ambassador had no inclination to speak to the Ras of Angote, because
we had no need of him, he went on before the baggage a distance of a
league and a half, and some of us went on with him, and others remained
with the friar and the baggage. The friar told us that we should go
with him to a village about a league on one side of the road, and the
baggage remained on the road with the country people who carried it.
As we were travelling, before we arrived at the village, people of the
country shouted, and we thought that they were calling people to bring
our baggage. But they collected together to shake us, and they took
possession of three hills, and we remained in the hollows. On each hill
there were quite a hundred men, most of them with slings, and others
with their hands threw stones so thickly that they seemed to rain upon
us (well did we think of our deaths). There might be in the company of
the friar quite forty persons, that is, captains who accompanied him,
and his men, and our slaves. There was not one without a blow of a
stone, or a wound; I, and a young man who went with us, named Cafu, and
who was sick with sores, God was pleased to protect us that we received
no stones: but five or six men of the friar, and a captain of Angote,
came out with broken heads, and Mestre Joam the same. Not satisfied
with wounding, they took prisoners those who were most wounded, and we,
those who escaped, returned to sleep at the baggage, without supper.
Each one cried out for the bruises from the stones he had received,
except myself and the young man of the sores. Friday, in the morning,
I set out in search of the ambassador, who was gone on a league and a
half. On reaching him they at once got ready; when I related to him
the case which had happened to us, he hurried the saddling, mounting,
and departure, saying that he would die for the Portuguese. When he
and those that came with him arrived at the baggage, we found there
the Ras of Angote, who had come to us, and had brought with him a
good number of people. When we came up to where he was, the friar who
conducted us was with him, the ambassador said to the interpreter:
“Tell the Ras of Angote that I do not come to see him nor that friar
who is with him, but I come to seek for the Portuguese whom I have
lost in his country.” Whilst the battle was being related, Mestre Joam
arrived, who had remained wounded and a prisoner, he was much covered
with blood, and had large wounds on the head, and he said that he had
escaped. When a long conversation was ended, which the ambassador, and
the Ras of Angote, and the friar, held upon this affair, the Has of
Angote entreated the ambassador that he and I, and our company, should
come and stay Saturday and Sunday in his house. The ambassador having
consulted with all of us, and it seeming to us good to accede to his
entreaty, he granted him the going, and we all went with him, and it
might be a league and a half from where we were to his house: and he
ordered us to be lodged very well. Here we kept Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday he sent to call us; we came and found him on his dais, his
wife and a few people with him: we had no detention on entering, only
what takes place in the house of any man. The pomp, presentation, and
welcome all consisted in drinking. He had near him four large jars of
very good mead, and with each jar a cup of crystalline glass. We began
to drink, and his wife and two other women who were with her assisted
as well. They would not leave us until the jars were finished, and such
is their custom; each jar held six or seven canadas, and yet he ordered
more to be brought. We left him with good excuses, saying we were going
away for our necessities.
The following Sunday we went to the church, and there we found the
Ras of Angote, who came out to receive us with much good grace. Then
he began to talk to me about matters of our holy faith; he asked to
bring apart with me two friars and our interpreter, and the friar
who conducted us as a third person; and they asked me common-place
questions.[103] The first was: Where Jesus Christ was born; what road
he took to Egypt, and how many years he passed there, and how old he
was when his mother, our Lady, lost him, and found him in the temple;
and where he made the water into wine, and who was there; on what
beast he had ridden into Jerusalem; in what house he had supped in
Jerusalem, and if he had a house of his own there, and who washed his
feet; and what Peter meant, and what Paul meant. Our Lord was pleased
to assist me, that I answered them truly. Our interpreter told me that
the friar who conducted us, and was there as a third person, told the
others that I was a man who knew much. May God forgive him, but there
was little for me to forget. By reason of what this friar thus said,
they perforce kissed my feet. From what these friars said of me to the
Ras of Angote, he received me with much good will, and kissed my face.
This gentleman, who is now Ras of Angote, is one of the good priests
that there are in Ethiopia, and at the time of our departure was
Barnagais and in gospel orders, who may say mass. At the end of mass
he invited us to come and dine with him, which dinner we accepted, and
the ambassador ordered our dinner to be taken in as it was; there were
very fat roast fowls, and fat beef boiled with good cabbage: and the
ambassador ordered this to be taken in because their meals are not like
ours. The dinner was in this manner--it should be known how it is in a
great house of one story, which is a Beteneguz: before the raised seat,
on which he was seated, there were many mats spread out; he descended
from the seat, and sat down on the mats, and over the mats they had put
dark sheep skins, and upon them two trays for cleaning wheat, which
they call _ganetas_; these were large and handsome, and very low,
they have only a rim of two inches; the largest of these had sixteen
spans circumference, and the other fourteen. These are the tables of
the great lords. We all sat round with the Ras of Angote: the water
came, and we washed, but no towel came to clean our hands, neither
for putting bread upon, except it was put upon the _ganetas_
(trays) themselves; there came bread of different kinds, namely, of
wheat, barley, millet, pulse, and taffo. Before we began to eat, the
Ras of Angote ordered to be placed before him rolls of that inferior
bread, and upon each roll a piece of raw beef, and so he ordered it to
be given to the poor who were outside the gate waiting for alms. Upon
this we pronounced the blessing according to our usage, at which the
Ras of Angote showed much satisfaction. Then came the dainties, and
they were these, namely, three sauces or potages, which might well be
called sauce of Palmela,[104] one of clove of garlic, and another I
know not of what. In these potages there was an admixture of cow dung
and of gall, which in this country they consider an esteemed food; and
only great personages eat it. These sauces came in small sauce dishes,
of a dark clay, and were well made. They put into this sauce the
most inferior bread, broken very small, and butter with it. We would
not eat of these potages, and the ambassador ordered our victuals to
be brought, which he had very well cooked, because we could not eat
their viands, neither did they eat ours. The wine was passed round
freely.[105] The wife of the Ras of Angote ate close to us, with a
curtain betwixt, at a table like ours. She ate her own viands; they
also gave her some of ours, I do not know whether she ate them, because
the curtain was between her and us. In drinking, she assisted us well.
After all the dainties there came a raw breast of beef, and we did not
taste it: the Ras of Angote ate some of it, like a person eating cake
or other dainties for dessert. So we came to an end of the dinner, and
thanks be to God, and we went away to our lodging.
CAP. LVII.--_How the ambassador took leave of the Ras of Angote,
and the friar, with most of us, returned to the place where we
were stoned, and from there we went to a fertile country, and a
church of many canons._
On Monday morning we took leave of the Has of Angote, and the friar
who conducted and guided us must needs have us wait for a mule of the
Prester John, and an ass with certain baggage, which they had taken
from us in the rout of the stone throwing. The ambassador departed with
those who had been with him before, and we remained with the friar
who had been with him in the hail of stones. On this Monday, near
nightfall, they came with the said mule and the ass which had remained
there, and the friar at once said that we should start, and that we
could still go and sleep where the ambassador was. As it seemed to us
it might be so we made ready and departed whilst night was closing in,
thinking that we should keep to the road; and he goes and takes us
through some bushes, and takes us to where we were stoned, and said he
was going to do justice; and there were eight men on mules and fifteen
on foot going with us. We went to lodge for the night in the house of
one of those chief men who had stoned us, and we found the house and
the whole village without people in it. They were all in a mountain
which was above the village. We found plenty to eat for ourselves and
our mules. As soon as we were in the house those men who came with us
left us: certainly we were not without fear, and complained of the
friar because he was bringing us to be killed, and because he did not
take us on our road. He told us that we came to do justice, and that in
the morning we would depart. When morning came he said that we could
not go till midday. When we saw this we waited till midday, and when
it was midday we required him to start, then he said that we could not
go till next day. Seeing these delays, we started and left him. This
same day, however, we rejoined the baggage, because it was waiting for
us. In the night the friar reached us, because he did not dare to sleep
alone among those people who had stoned us, and he brought with him
two mules, a cow, and eight pieces of stuff, which they gave him for
the blood they had shed. This is their justice, and no other, namely,
to take away the goods, which are only mules, cows, and stuffs, from
those who can do little. These villages where they stoned us are named,
one Angua, and another Mastanho: they said they belonged to the Abima
Marcos.
Here we entered into a very pretty country between very high mountains,
the feet of which were very thickly peopled with large towns and noble
churches. This country is laid out in large tillage fields of all
sorts. Here there is an infinite quantity of figs, those of India, many
lemons, oranges, and citrons, and extensive pastures of cattle. And on
another occasion when I returned here with this friar, who then called
himself an ambassador, we came and stayed a Saturday and a Sunday in
the house of an honourable debetera, that is, canon, and these two
days we went with him to the church: because there were a great number
of canons in that church, we asked him how many there might be in it.
He told us that there were five thousand three hundred canons, and we
asked what revenues they had. He said that they were very little for
so many; and we said, since the revenues are so small, why were there
so many canons. He told us that at the beginning of that church there
were not many, but that afterwards they had increased, because all the
sons of canons, and as many as descended from them, remained canons,
and the fathers each taught their sons, and so they had been increased
in number, and that this happened in the King’s churches, and that
frequently Prester John diminished them, when he set up a church in a
new country, and sent to fetch canons from these churches, as he had
ordered two hundred canons to be taken away to the church of Machan
Celace,[106] and that in this valley there were eight churches, and
there would be in them fully four thousand canons, and that the Prester
took canons from here for the new churches, and also for the churches
at court, because otherwise they would eat one another up.
CAP. LVIII.--_Of the mountain in which they put the sons of the
Prester John, and how they stoned us near it._