which is ten days before our Lent, and after the day of the
Purification they observe three days of severe fast, generally,
clergy, friars, and laymen. They say that they observe the fast of the
city of Niniveh, and they assert that there are many friars here who
in these three days do not eat more than once, and do not eat bread
but only herbs, and they also say that most of the women do not give
milk to their children more than once a day. The general fast of Lent
is almost bread and water, because even though they should wish to eat
fish, in that country they have not got it. In the sea and in the fresh
water, where there are rivers, there is much fish, and yet here there
is very little skill in catching them, although some little, but not
much, is caught for the great gentlemen. The general food during Lent
is bread: at this time there are no vegetables here, for they have not
got them except when it rains, from their want of skill, because there
is plenty of water for gardens and orchards and other good works, if
they would choose to make them. In most of the monasteries the friars
have got some cabbages like the kind called “orto”, which they keep
taking the leaves off (this all through the year), and they eat them.
In the districts where there are grapes and peaches, these come in
Lent, because they begin in February and finish at the end of April,
so that those who have them have something to eat. What they generally
eat is cardamine seed, which they call _canfa_, and they make with
it a sauce and call it _tebba_, and they soak their bread in it,
and it is very hot. They do the same with linseed, which they also eat
in sauce, and call it _tebba_; and so they prepare mustard and
call it _cenafiche_. These three sauces are the general food of
Lent: and they do not eat milk or butter, nor drink wine of grapes or
honey. The general drink is a beverage made of barley, which they call
_çanha_, and they also make it of Indian corn[205] and of another
grain called _guza_;[206] they also make it of darnel. They do not
drink this when it is fresh because it brings a man to the ground, and
when it is cold and settled, this is the best drink here. There are
many friars who do not eat bread in Lent, and others in the whole year,
and others who in all their lives do not eat it, and I will relate what
I saw of this. When the ambassador and I were going on the road to
the court, in a district which is called Janamora, a friar came to us
to go in security from the robbers: and he travelled with us for more
than a month, and because he was a friar I kept him near me. This friar
brought with him six or seven novices who were going to be ordained,
and he carried four large books to sell: he carried the books on a
mule. He lodged with me in my tent, and the first day at night I called
him to eat, as it was his supper hour; he excused himself, that he did
not want to eat; upon this, the novices came with water-cresses,[207]
and they gave them a boiling without salt or oil, or anything else,
and they ate those cresses without any other addition. I asked the
novices about this, and they told me they never ate bread. And because
I had often heard say that there were many friars here who did not eat
bread, and I doubted this, I watched this friar and looked after him
night and day: the whole day he was close to me like my groom, and
at night he slept near me on the ground in his habit as he wore it
by day; and always, in all this time that this friar was with me, I
never saw him eat anything but herbs, that is to say, water-cresses,
mallows, water-parsley, where they found them, nettles, and if we
passed near any monastery, he sent there to find a cabbage, and not
finding herbs, the novices brought him lentils in a gourd of water
newly grown with the sprout just out; he ate of those, and I ate them,
and it is the coldest food in the world. This friar travelled with
us more than a month, and at the court he was in our company three
weeks without eating anything except what has been mentioned. Later,
I saw this friar in the town of Aquaxumo, where Prester John sent us
to for eight months: as soon as he knew that I was there, he came to
see me and brought me a few lemons; he was wearing a habit of leather
without sleeves, and his arms were bare; and we embraced. I succeeded
in putting my hand under his arm, and I found that he was girt with an
iron girdle four fingers broad, and I took the friar by the hand and
brought him into my room; and I showed that to Pero Lopez, my nephew,
and besides we also found that this girdle was lined[208] on both edges
on the side towards the skin with points of the size of those of a saw
for sawing wood, not sharpened (and all this out of Lent). This friar
considered himself aggrieved by this, and he never visited me again,
and on my account he went away from that town: later I saw many of
these. We also heard tell of many friars here, who, during the whole
of Lent, did not sit down, and always remained on foot. I heard that
there was one in that condition at a distance of two leagues from where
we were in a grotto. As it was Lent, I rode and went to see him, I and
others, and we found him standing in a tabernacle of wall the size of
himself. This tabernacle was made like a box without a covering, much
plastered with clay and dung: and this tabernacle was already old, and
others had been there before; and where the hips reached there was a
ledge,[209] and the walls were thinner by three inches; and where the
elbows reached, for each of them there was another such recess; and in
front was a stand in the wall with a book. This friar was clothed with
a haircloth woven with the hair of oxtails, and underneath it he had
another such iron girdle as that of Aquaxumo. He showed it us of his
own will, without our asking him, or knowing that he had got it. In
another grotto near this one lodged two friars, young boys who supplied
him with food of herbs. These grottoes had been long used for these
purposes,[210] because there were tombs in them. This friar became
much our friend after this visit, and came to see us often after Lent.
In the town of Barua, during another Lent, we saw two friars in the
outer part of the church of that town, in similar tabernacles, one on
one side, and the other on the other. They ate the same kind of herbs
and sprouted lentils. I used to visit them frequently, and they showed
that they rejoiced much at my visitation: and if any day I did not go
to visit them, they sent to visit me. These were in their habits; I
do not know whether they wore a haircloth or a girdle underneath. I
asked if they went outside from there; they told me how they visited
one another, and yet they did not sit down; and one of them, the one
who showed most friendship towards me, said that he was a relation
of Prester John. They remained in this abstinence until Easter; and
came out at the mass of the resurrection. We also heard that on the
Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent many slept in water up to their necks;
and we could not believe it: when we were in Aquaxumo, we heard that
we might see this in a great tank, which I have already mentioned
when I spoke of this place, and that there was a great function there
during Lent. Joam Escolar, clerk of the embassy, and Pero Lopez, my
nephew, went one night to this tank, and they came back amazed at the
multitude of people who were there, all in the water up to the neck.
These were canons and wives of canons, and friars and nuns, because
there are here many of all orders, as has been said. Hearing of this
wonder on Thursday, I went in the morning to this tank to see how they
were: and I found the tank full of stone resting-places along the edge,
where it was shallow a stone, and as it increased in depth so the
stones increased one above the other, as they sit upon them with the
water up to their necks. As they told me that in this place and in the
neighbourhood there are at this season hard frosts and cold at night,
and after this, seeing Pero de Covilham at a place called Dara, I told
him what I had seen. He told me that since he had seen it he had not
any doubt about it, and that I should know that this was general in all
the country of Prester John, and that here there were many who not only
did not eat bread amongst people, but who abode in the large forests,
and in the greatest depths and heights of the mountains, where they
find any water, and where living people never come. Close to this Dara
are some ravines of very great depth, like those before mentioned, and
these are without inhabitants in the plains or flat ground. A great
river falls into these ravines, and so great is the fall, that the
water becomes broken up in the air, and when it reaches the bottom it
seems rather a mist than water. Pero de Covilham showed to me in that
ravine a grotto, which was scarcely perceptible, and he told me that a
friar abode there who was esteemed as a saint, and below this grotto
there seemed to be a garden, because something green showed. And on
one of the slopes of this ravine he showed me a long way off where had
died a white man, who was unknown, and who had lived fully twenty years
in that solitude, in another grotto, and they did not know the time of
his death, only not perceiving him on the mountain, they went to look
at his abode or grotto, and they found it closed up from inside with
a good wall, so that no one could enter it or come out of it. They
informed Prester John of it, and he ordered that this grotto should not
be opened.
CAP. CX.--_Of the fast of Lent in the country of Prester John,
and of the office of Palms and of the Holy Week._
The general fast of Lent for most of the friars and nuns, and also some
of the clergy, is to eat every second day and always at night. Sundays
are not fast days. Some old women also, who are in a way withdrawn
from the world, keep this fast; and they say that Queen Helena fasted
every day in the whole year, and only ate the said three times a week,
on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. In the kingdoms of Tigray, which
are those of the Barnagais and Tigrimahom, the people in general during
Lent eat meat on Saturdays and Sundays, and in these two days of Lent
they kill more cows than in all the year, and more if they should marry
their first or second wife on the Thursday before Shrove Tuesday; and
they marry on that day because they hold that after marriage they may
eat meat for two months, in whatever time of the year it may be, and
so those who marry in these two kingdoms eat meat and drink wine, and
eat butter all through Lent. I saw this in the kingdom of Barnagais,
and heard of it in that of Tigrimahom; and because I say, or a second
wife, let it not be supposed, or let it appear that all have more than
one wife, because generally they have one as has been said; and whoever
has plenty to live upon has two or three, and they are not prohibited
to them by the secular justice, but only by the Church, which casts
them out, and they are not capable of any benefit, as has been said. I
have seen with my eyes, on the above-mentioned Thursday, married men,
friends of mine, who brought other wives to their houses, and used and
enjoyed this evil privilege. In this district was the commencement of
Christianity, and in all the other kingdoms they hold these to be very
bad Christians for this bad custom of theirs. In all the rest of the
country and other kingdoms and lordships the fast is kept throughout
Lent by great and small, men and women, boys and girls, without any
breach, and they do almost the same at Advent. On Palm Sunday they
celebrate their office in this manner. They begin their matins a little
after midnight, and keep up their singing and dancing with all their
images and pictures uncovered until it is quite daylight: and at the
hour of prime they take the branches which each holds in his hand into
the church or to the principal door, because neither women nor laymen
come inside. The clergy then enter the church with the boughs, and
there sing a great deal and very hurriedly, and they come out with
the cross and with the palms, and give to each person his branch, and
then they make a procession round the church, with the palms in their
hands, and returning to the principal entrance, there go inside the
church six or seven, as we go in, and they close the door, and he who
has to say mass remains with the cross in his hand; they also sing
both inside and outside, as we do; that is to say, in that manner,
for their language is not ours, and they say mass according to their
custom, and give the communion to all. In holy week mass is not said,
except on Thursday and Saturday. It is usual to give salutations among
one another, principally the grandees, when they meet once in the
day to kiss one another on the shoulders, both together on the right
shoulder, and the other remains on the left hand side; and during holy
week they do not give this salutation of peace to those they meet, nor
do they speak, but pass one another as if they were dumb, and without
raising the eyes. And a man of fashion does not dress in this week in
white clothes, all go dressed in black or blue. They abstain during
this week from all work, and every day they celebrate long offices in
the churches (but not with tapers, as we do). On Thursday, at hour
of vespers, they perform mandato[211]; that is to say, the office
of washing feet, and all the people assemble in the church, and the
superior of the church sits on a three-legged stool, with a towel
girt round him, and a large basin of water before him, and beginning
by washing the feet of the clergy, ends with all of them. When this
is finished they begin their chaunt, and they chaunt all the night,
and the clergy, friars, and zagonais do not go out of the church any
more, and do not eat or drink till Saturday after mass. On Friday at
midday they very much decorate the church with hangings, according
to their circumstances, because some of them are hung with brocades,
coarse brocade, and crimson, and others with whatever they have got,
or are able to get. They put their hangings principally before the
chief entrance, because that is the station of the people: and before
the door they put on the hangings a paper crucifix, that is to say, a
print,[212] and above it a small curtain, with which it is covered.
They sing all night, and all day they read the passion; when that is
concluded, they draw the curtain from off the crucifix, and when it
is uncovered they all cast themselves on the ground, and prostrate
themselves, and give one another buffets, and they knock their heads
against the walls, and also strike themselves with buffets and thumps.
This lamentation lasts quite two hours. When this is over, two priests
go to each door of the circuit which leads to the churchyard, and in
all the churches there are three doors; at each door are two priests,
one on each side, and each has in his hand a small scourge with five
straps, and all, as many as were standing before the principal church
door, go out through these doors stripped from the waist upwards.
Passing through them they stoop, and those who stand with the scourges
keep striking them as long as they are still. Some pass quickly, and
receive few strokes; others wait, and receive many. Old men and old
women will remain half an hour, until the blood runs, and then they
sleep in the circuit of the church, and when it is midnight they begin
their mass, and all receive the communion. On Easter at midnight they
begin their matins, and before morning make a procession. When dawn
breaks they say mass, and keep all this week until Monday of the Sunday
after Easter,[213] so they make sixteen days of observance, that is,
from Saturday before Palm Sunday to the Monday after Sunday after
Easter.[214]
CAP. CXI.--_How we kept a Lent at the Court of the Prester, and
we kept it in the country of Gorage, and they ordered us to say
mass, and how we did not say it._
We happened to keep a Lent at the Court of Prester John, which we
kept at the extremity of a country of pagans, who are named Gorages,
a people (as they say) who are very bad, and of these there are no
slaves, because they say that they sooner allow themselves to die,
or kill themselves than serve Christians. This district in which the
Court was situated is outside of the Gorages. As it appears, and as the
Abyssinians say, these Gorages dwell underground. All the Court and we
were encamped above a great river, which ran through great ravines,
and on each side was a plain like that of Çarnache dos alhos[215] in
Portugal; and in all parts of the river there were an infinite number
of dwellings placed in the cliffs, one above the other, and some of
them very high, which had no more door than the mouth of a large vat,
through which a man could easily pass, and above these doors, an iron
in the stone to which they fastened cords so as by them to know the
house; and so they kept them now because in these dwellings many of the
lower people of the Court were lodging, and they said that they were so
large inside that twenty or thirty persons could find room inside with
their baggage. And there was on this river a very strong town, which,
on the side towards the river, was a very high scarped rock, and on the
side towards the land a very high cave, which had fifteen fathoms in
height, and six in width, and on both sides it stood over the river,
and inside this cave on both sides there were everywhere dwellings
like the above-mentioned; and inside the circuit were small houses of
walls and thatched in which Christians now live, and they have in it a
very good church. The entrance to this town is of stone, and low, with
many turns, so that it seems that neither mules nor cows could enter
there; yet they enter into a large portion of it, for the space of the
third of a league. Up the stream there is a great rock scarped from top
to bottom, and quite at the top it is level. There is nearly in the
middle of this rock a monastery of our Lady, and they say that there
was the palace of the king of that country and kingdom of Gorages. This
rock faces to the rising sun, and they ascend to this monastery by a
movable ladder of wood: and they say that they raise it every night
from fear of the Gorages, when the Court is not here. After that[216]
the ascent is by stone steps to the left hand, and a corridor runs past
fifteen cells for friars, all which have windows over the water, and
very high; further on are their pantries and refectory, and store rooms
for provisions. Turning to the right hand by a dark path a man reaches
broad daylight, and the principal door of the monastery, which is not
made of the rock itself, only it seems that in ancient times it was a
great hall, and the form is of a church with screens:[217] it is very
light and spacious, because it has many windows over the river, and
there are few friars. Many people of the Court used to come here to
receive the communion, as they have much devotion for this house and
its friars, because they say that they lead good lives, and suffer much
injury from the bad neighbours they have. As the people of the Court
and the Court are encamped in such a situation that the left wing,
which belongs to the great Betudete, is towards these Gorages, there
were few days that it was not said: “Last night the Gorages killed
fifteen or twenty persons of the people of the great Betudete;” and
they took no measures for this, because it was Lent, and on account of
the rigid fast no one fights from the debility and weakness of their
bodies, for the fast must not on any account be broken. During holy
week, near to Easter, Prester John sent to tell us to be ready to say
mass near his tent as he wished to hear it. I sent to tell him that
I was ready, and that we were all ready, but that we had no tent, as
one that they had given us had become rotten with the rains, and was
quite worn out. He sent to say that he would give a tent and order it
to be pitched, and also would send to call us for us to be ready and
come with all our arrangements. When it was a little past midnight he
sent to call us, and we went at once, and they conducted us before the
king’s door, which we found in this state. A great part of the fence
enclosure was broken and removed, from the great tent of the Prester as
far as the church of Holy Cross, and on each side facing one another
were more than six thousand lighted candles in very good array, and
the length of the lines might be a musket shot, and from face to face
of those who held the candles the distance might be fully two games of
ball, one in front of the other, and it was all smooth ground. There
were more than five thousand persons behind these who held the candles,
and those of the candles remained like a wall,[218] and they could
not be broken because they had before them canes fastened together,
and they held the candles upon them in array. Before the tent of the
Prester four gentlemen were riding and caracolling their horses; and
they placed us near them. Upon this Prester John came out of the tent
upon a black[219] mule like a raven, the size of a large horse, which
the Prester holds in great estimation, and this mule always travels
when the Prester travels, and if he does not ride upon it he goes
on a litter. And he came out in this manner, namely, in a cloak[220]
of brocade which almost reached to the ground, and the mule was also
caparisoned and covered over; the Prester had his crown on his head and
a cross in his hand, and there were on each side two horses with their
haunches almost in a line with the head of the mule, but not near, for
they went a good distance apart; these horses were so caparisoned and
adorned and covered with brocade, that with the light it seemed that
they were sewn up in gold; and they had great diadems on their heads,
which descended to the bits, and large plumes set in the diadems. As
soon as the Prester came out, the four who before that were caracolling
their horses between the candles went out, and did not show here again;
and when Prester John passed, those who had come to call us placed us
behind him, without any one else coming there or passing before the
candles, only twenty or thirty gentlemen who went on foot a good bit
in front of the Prester. Thus we arrived at the church of Holy Cross,
where the Prester went to hear the office of the resurrection, and
here he dismounted and entered the church, and at once went inside his
curtain, and we remained at the door. Soon after, an immense number
of clergy came out from inside, and a great many more joined them who
were outside, for there was not room for them in the church, and a
great procession was ordered, and they put us at the head of it, with
the most honoured dignities of the church, so we walked until the
procession returned to the church; and as many as it would hold entered
it, and the rest remained in the plain, and they bade us enter, and
we were near the curtain till mass was finished. When they were going
to give the communion Prester John sent to say that we should go and
make ready to say our mass, as the tent was pitched for us, and that he
was coming soon. We went with those who had called us and always had
accompanied us, and they conducted us to a black tent close to that of
the Prester, and we, seeing the black tent, said: “They have pitched
this tent for us as a mockery.” Then the ambassador said: “Padre, you
will do well not to say mass, because this is done to put us to the
proof.” I answered him: “Neither do I wish to say it, let us go to our
tents:” and this was when dawn was breaking. We went to our tents,
which were in the grove close to the river. Then there came two pages
in a great hurry over the rocks to call us, and they called us with
anger. We were discussing about not going; however, we went and arrived
at Prester John’s tent as the sun was rising. At once there came a
message from inside, asking, Why we had omitted to say mass on so great
a feast? I answered, that I did not choose to say mass on account of
the great affront which had been offered--not to us, but to God and his
holy resurrection, as they had pitched a black tent for us to say mass
in, such as they do not pitch, except for horses and vagabonds.[221]
They returned with another message, asking what tent they were to
pitch. I answered that, it must be a white one, to represent the
splendour of the resurrection, and the purity of Our Lady, and that a
red one might well do, as it would represent the blood which Christ
shed for us, and that which the apostles and martyrs had shed for him.
With this they went away and returned, saying, that we should send and
tell him who were the persons who had pitched the tent, and we should
see the justice which he would order to be done. We replied that we did
not know who had pitched the tent, neither did we ask him to do justice
on any one, as this had not been done to us, but to God, and it grieved
us more than any one else, because we could not say mass on so great a
feast. They then returned, asking that we should have patience, and
that he would punish those who had pitched the tent, and that we should
go to it, since it was not to say mass, but to dine. We held council
whether we should go to it or not, however we went, and they sent us a
very good meal of many good viands, and good wines, among which were
grape wines of good flavour, and very red. Pero de Covilham was with us
during all that passed that night and day, and he told us at the dinner
that he felt such great pleasure such as he had never felt in this
country, nor had expected to feel, that we had not said mass in this
tent, and at the answer which we had given; and that all this had only
been in order to test the estimation we had for the things belonging
to God and the Church, and that now they would hold us in esteem as
good Christians. All this Lent we were very well provided with food
and drink, and plenty of grapes and peaches which there are in this
district. At the end of the dinner there came to us the old priest who
performed the baptism, and he said that Prester John sent him to say
that since to-day we did not say mass, that we should anyhow say it
next Sunday, and that he would order a good tent to be given, and that
we should celebrate offices after our fashion and usage for the soul of
his mother, who had died a year ago, and that they would then do her
teskar, that is to say, memorial service. All this we did according to
our custom.
CAP. CXII.--_How Don Luis de Meneses wrote to the ambassador to
depart, and how they did not find him at Court, and how the King
Don Manuel had died._