An account of the religion of the Abyssins.
Yet though there is a great difference between our manners, customs,
civil government, and those of the Abyssins, there is yet a much greater
in points of faith; for so many errors have been introduced and ingrafted
into their religion, by their ignorance, their separation from the
Catholic Church, and their intercourse with Jews, Pagans, and
Mohammedans, that their present religion is nothing but a kind of
confused miscellany of Jewish and Mohammedan superstitions, with which
they have corrupted those remnants of Christianity which they still
retain.
They have, however, preserved the belief of our principal mysteries; they
celebrate with a great deal of piety the passion of our Lord; they
reverence the cross; they pay a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the
angels, and the saints; they observe the festivals, and pay a strict
regard to the Sunday. Every month they commemorate the assumption of the
Virgin Mary, and are of opinion that no Christians beside themselves have
a true sense of the greatness of the mother of God, or pay her the
honours that are due to her. There are some tribes amongst them (for
they are distinguished like the Jews by their tribes), among whom the
crime of swearing by the name of the Virgin is punished with forfeiture
of goods and even with loss of life; they are equally scrupulous of
swearing by St. George. Every week they keep a feast to the honour of
the apostles and angels; they come to mass with great devotion, and love
to hear the word of God. They receive the sacrament often, but do not
always prepare themselves by confession. Their charity to the poor may
be said to exceed the proper bounds that prudence ought to set it, for it
contributes to encourage great numbers of beggars, which are a great
annoyance to the whole kingdom, and as I have often said, afford more
exercise to a Christian's patience than his charity; for their insolence
is such, that they will refuse what is offered them if it be not so much
as they think proper to ask.
Though the Abyssins have not many images, they have great numbers of
pictures, and perhaps pay them somewhat too high a degree of worship. The
severity of their fasts is equal to that of the primitive church. In
Lent they never eat till after sunset; their fasts are the more severe
because milk and butter are forbidden them, and no reason or necessity
whatsoever can procure them a permission to eat meat, and their country
affording no fish, they live only on roots and pulse. On fast-days they
never drink but at their meat, and the priests never communicate till
evening, for fear of profaning them. They do not think themselves
obliged to fast till they have children either married or fit to be
married, which yet doth not secure them very long from these
mortifications, because their youths marry at the age of ten years, and
their girls younger.
There is no nation where excommunication carries greater terrors than
among the Abyssins, which puts it in the power of the priests to abuse
this religious temper of the people, as well as the authority they
receive from it, by excommunicating them, as they often do, for the least
trifle in which their interest is concerned.
No country in the world is so full of churches, monasteries, and
ecclesiastics as Abyssinia; it is not possible to sing in one church or
monastery without being heard by another, and perhaps by several. They
sing the psalms of David, of which, as well as the other parts of the
Holy Scriptures, they have a very exact translation in their own
language; in which, though accounted canonical, the books of the
Maccabees are omitted. The instruments of music made use of in their
rites of worship are little drums, which they hang about their necks, and
beat with both their hands; these are carried even by their chief men,
and by the gravest of their ecclesiastics. They have sticks likewise,
with which they strike the ground, accompanying the blow with a motion of
their whole bodies. They begin their concert by stamping their feet on
the ground, and playing gently on their instruments; but when they have
heated themselves by degrees, they leave off drumming, and fall to
leaping, dancing, and clapping their hands, at the same time straining
their voices to the utmost pitch, till at length they have no regard
either to the tune or the pauses, and seem rather a riotous than a
religious assembly. For this manner of worship they cite the psalm of
David, "O clap your hands all ye nations." Thus they misapply the sacred
writings to defend practices yet more corrupt than those I have been
speaking of.
They are possessed with a strange notion that they are the only true
Christians in the world; as for us, they shunned us as heretics, and were
under the greatest surprise at hearing us mention the Virgin Mary with
the respect which is due to her, and told us that we could not be
entirely barbarians since we were acquainted with the mother of God. It
plainly appears that prepossessions so strong, which receive more
strength from the ignorance of the people, have very little tendency to
dispose them to a reunion with the Catholic Church.
They have some opinions peculiar to themselves about purgatory, the
creation of souls, and some of our mysteries. They repeat baptism every
year, they retain the practice of circumcision, they observe the Sabbath,
they abstain from all those sorts of flesh which are forbidden by the
law. Brothers espouse the wives of their brothers, and to conclude, they
observe a great number of Jewish ceremonies.
Though they know the words which Jesus Christ appointed to be used in the
administration of baptism, they have without scruple substituted others
in their place, which makes the validity of their baptism, and the
reality of their Christianity, very doubtful. They have a few names of
saints, the same with those in the Roman martyrology, but they often
insert others, as Zama la Cota, the Life of Truth; Ongulari, the
Evangelist; Asca Georgi, the Mouth of Saint George.
To bring back this people into the enclosure of the Catholic Church, from
which they have been separated so many ages, was the sole view and
intention with which we undertook so long and toilsome a journey, crossed
so many seas, and passed so many deserts, with the utmost hazard of our
lives; I am certain that we travelled more than seven thousand leagues
before we arrived at our residence at Fremona.
We came to this place, anciently called Maigoga, on the 21st of June, as
I have said before, and were obliged to continue there till November,
because the winter begins here in May, and its greatest rigour is from
the middle of June to the middle of September. The rains that are almost
continually falling in this season make it impossible to go far from
home, for the rivers overflow their banks, and therefore, in a place like
this, where there are neither bridges nor boats, are, if they are not
fordable, utterly impassable. Some, indeed, have crossed them by means
of a cord fastened on both sides of the water, others tie two beams
together, and placing themselves upon them, guide them as well as they
can, but this experiment is so dangerous that it hath cost many of these
bold adventurers their lives. This is not all the danger, for there is
yet more to be apprehended from the unwholesomeness of the air, and the
vapours which arise from the scorched earth at the fall of the first
showers, than from the torrents and rivers. Even they who shelter
themselves in houses find great difficulty to avoid the diseases that
proceed from the noxious qualities of these vapours. From the beginning
of June to that of September it rains more or less every day. The
morning is generally fair and bright, but about two hours after noon the
sky is clouded, and immediately succeeds a violent storm, with thunder
and lightning flashing in the most dreadful manner. While this lasts,
which is commonly three or four hours, none go out of doors. The
ploughman upon the first appearance of it unyokes his oxen, and betakes
himself with them into covert. Travellers provide for their security in
the neighbouring villages, or set up their tents, everybody flies to some
shelter, as well to avoid the unwholesomeness as the violence of the
rain. The thunder is astonishing, and the lightning often destroys great
numbers, a thing I can speak of from my own experience, for it once
flashed so near me, that I felt an uneasiness on that side for a long
time after; at the same time it killed three young children, and having
run round my room went out, and killed a man and woman three hundred
paces off. When the storm is over the sun shines out as before, and one
would not imagine it had rained, but that the ground appears deluged.
Thus passes the Abyssinian winter, a dreadful season, in which the whole
kingdom languishes with numberless diseases, an affliction which, however
grievous, is yet equalled by the clouds of grasshoppers, which fly in
such numbers from the desert, that the sun is hid and the sky darkened;
whenever this plague appears, nothing is seen through the whole region
but the most ghastly consternation, or heard but the most piercing
lamentations, for wherever they fall, that unhappy place is laid waste
and ruined; they leave not one blade of grass, nor any hopes of a
harvest.
God, who often makes calamities subservient to His will, permitted this
very affliction to be the cause of the conversion of many of the natives,
who might have otherwise died in their errors; for part of the country
being ruined by the grasshoppers that year in which we arrived at
Abyssinia, many, who were forced to leave their habitations, and seek the
necessaries of life in other places, came to that part of the land where
some of our missionaries were preaching, and laid hold on that mercy
which God seemed to have appointed for others.
As we could not go to court before November, we resolved, that we might
not be idle, to preach and instruct the people in the country; in
pursuance of this resolution I was sent to a mountain, two days' journey
distant from Maigoga. The lord or governor of the place was a Catholic,
and had desired missionaries, but his wife had conceived an implacable
aversion both from us and the Roman Church, and almost all the
inhabitants of that mountain were infected with the same prejudices as
she. They had been persuaded that the hosts which we consecrated and
gave to the communicants were mixed with juices strained from the flesh
of a camel, a dog, a hare, and a swine; all creatures which the Abyssins
look upon with abhorrence, believing them unclean, and forbidden to them,
as they were to the Jews. We had no way of undeceiving them, and they
fled from us whenever we approached. We carried with us our tent, our
chalices, and ornaments, and all that was necessary for saying mass. The
lord of the village, who, like other persons of quality throughout
AEthiopia, lived on the top of a mountain, received us with very great
civility. All that depended upon him had built their huts round about
him; so that this place compared with the other towns of Abyssinia seems
considerable; as soon as we arrived he sent us his compliments, with a
present of a cow, which, among them, is a token of high respect. We had
no way of returning this favour but by killing the cow, and sending a
quarter smoking, with the gall, which amongst them is esteemed the most
delicate part. I imagined for some time that the gall of animals was
less bitter in this country than elsewhere, but upon tasting it, I found
it more; and yet have frequently seen our servants drink large glasses of
if with the same pleasure that we drink the most delicious wines.
We chose to begin our mission with the lady of the village, and hoped
that her prejudice and obstinacy, however great, would in time yield to
the advice and example of her husband, and that her conversion would have
a great influence on the whole village, but having lost several days
without being able to prevail upon her to hear us on any one point, we
left the place, and went to another mountain, higher and better peopled.
When we came to the village on the top of it, where the lord lived, we
were surprised with the cries and lamentations of men that seemed to
suffer or apprehend some dreadful calamity; and were told, upon inquiring
the cause, that the inhabitants had been persuaded that we were the
devil's missionaries, who came to seduce them from the true religion,
that foreseeing some of their neighbours would be ruined by the
temptation, they were lamenting the misfortune which was coming upon
them. When we began to apply ourselves to the work of the mission we
could not by any means persuade any but the lord and the priest to
receive us into their houses; the rest were rough and untractable to that
degree that, after having converted six, we despaired of making any
farther progress, and thought it best to remove to other towns where we
might be better received.
We found, however, a more unpleasing treatment at the next place, and had
certainly ended our lives there had we not been protected by the governor
and the priest, who, though not reconciled to the Roman Church, yet
showed us the utmost civility; the governor informed us of a design
against our lives, and advised us not to go out after sunset, and gave us
guards to protect us from the insults of the populace.
We made no long stay in a place where they stopped their ears against the
voice of God, but returned to the foot of that mountain which we had left
some days before; we were surrounded, as soon as we began to preach, with
a multitude of auditors, who came either in expectation of being
instructed, or from a desire of gratifying their curiosity, and God
bestowed such a blessing upon our apostolical labours that the whole
village was converted in a short time. We then removed to another at the
middle of the mountain, situated in a kind of natural parterre, or
garden; the soil was fruitful, and the trees that shaded it from the
scorching heat of the sun gave it an agreeable and refreshing coolness.
We had here the convenience of improving the ardour and piety of our new
converts, and, at the same time, of leading more into the way of the true
religion: and indeed our success exceeded the utmost of our hopes; we had
in a short time great numbers whom we thought capable of being admitted
to the sacraments of baptism and the mass.
We erected our tent, and placed our altar under some great trees, for the
benefit of the shade; and every day before sun-rising my companion and I
began to catechise and instruct these new Catholics, and used our utmost
endeavours to make them abjure their errors. When we were weary with
speaking, we placed in ranks those who were sufficiently instructed, and
passing through them with great vessels of water, baptised them according
to the form prescribed by the Church. As their number was very great, we
cried aloud, those of this rank are named Peter, those of that rank
Anthony. And did the same amongst the women, whom we separated from the
men. We then confessed them, and admitted them to the communion. After
mass we applied ourselves again to catechise, to instruct, and receive
the renunciation of their errors, scarce allowing ourselves time to make
a scanty meal, which we never did more than once a day.
After some time had been spent here, we removed to another town not far
distant, and continued the same practice. Here I was accosted one day by
an inhabitant of that place, where he had found the people so prejudiced
against us, who desired to be admitted to confession. I could not
forbear asking him some questions about those lamentations, which we
heard upon our entering into that place. He confessed with the utmost
frankness and ingenuity that the priests and religious have given
dreadful accounts both of us and of the religion we preached; that the
unhappy people were taught by them that the curse of God attended us
wheresoever we went; that we were always followed by the grasshoppers,
that pest of Abyssinia, which carried famine and destruction over all the
country; that he, seeing no grasshoppers following us when we passed by
their village, began to doubt of the reality of what the priests had so
confidently asserted, and was now convinced that the representation they
made of us was calumny and imposture. This discourse gave us double
pleasure, both as it proved that God had confuted the accusations of our
enemies, and defended us against their malice without any efforts of our
own, and that the people who had shunned us with the strongest
detestation were yet lovers of truth, and came to us on their own accord.
Nothing could be more grossly absurd than the reproaches which the
Abyssinian ecclesiastics aspersed us and our religion with. They had
taken advantage of the calamity that happened the year of our arrival:
and the Abyssins, with all their wit, did not consider that they had
often been distressed by the grasshoppers before there came any Jesuits
into the country, and indeed before there were any in the world.
Whilst I was in these mountains, I went on Sundays and saints' days
sometimes to one church and sometimes to another. One day I went out
with a resolution not to go to a certain church, where I imagined there
was no occasion for me, but before I had gone far, I found myself pressed
by a secret impulse to return back to that same church. I obeyed the
influence, and discovered it to proceed from the mercy of God to three
young children who were destitute of all succour, and at the point of
death. I found two very quickly in this miserable state; the mother had
retired to some distance that she might not see them die, and when she
saw me stop, came and told me that they had been obliged by want to leave
the town they lived in, and were at length reduced to this dismal
condition, that she had been baptised, but that the children had not.
After I had baptised and relieved them, I continued my walk, reflecting
with wonder on the mercy of God, and about evening discovered another
infant, whose mother, evidently a Catholic, cried out to me to save her
child, or at least that if I could not preserve this uncertain and
perishable life, I should give it another certain and permanent. I sent
my servant to fetch water with the utmost expedition, for there was none
near, and happily baptised the child before it expired.
Soon after this I returned to Fremona, and had great hopes of
accompanying the patriarch to the court; but, when we were almost setting
out, received the command of the superior of the mission to stay at
Fremona, with a charge of the house there, and of all the Catholics that
were dispersed over the kingdom of Tigre, an employment very
ill-proportioned to my abilities. The house at Fremona has always been
much regarded even by those emperors who persecuted us; Sultan Segued
annexed nine large manors to it for ever, which did not make us much more
wealthy, because of the expensive hospitality which the great conflux of
strangers obliged us to. The lands in Abyssinia yield but small
revenues, unless the owners themselves set the value upon them, which we
could not do.
The manner of letting farms in Abyssinia differs much from that of other
countries: the farmer, when the harvest is almost ripe, invites the chumo
or steward, who is appointed to make an estimate of the value of each
year's product, to his house, entertains him in the most agreeable manner
he can; makes him a present, and then takes him to see his corn. If the
chumo is pleased with the treat and present, he will give him a
declaration or writing to witness that his ground, which afforded five or
six sacks of corn, did you yield so many bushels, and even of this it is
the custom to abate something; so that our revenue did not increase in
proportion to our lands; and we found ourselves often obliged to buy
corn, which, indeed, is not dear, for in fruitful years forty or fifty
measures, weighing each about twenty-two pounds, may be purchased for a
crown.
Besides the particular charge I had of the house of Fremona, I was
appointed the patriarch's grand-vicar through the whole kingdom of Tigre.
I thought that to discharge this office as I ought, it was incumbent on
me to provide necessaries as well for the bodies as the souls of the
converted Catholics. This labour was much increased by the famine which
the grasshoppers had brought that year upon the country. Our house was
perpetually surrounded by some of those unhappy people, whom want had
compelled to abandon their habitations, and whose pale cheeks and meagre
bodies were undeniable proofs of their misery and distress. All the
relief I could possibly afford them could not prevent the death of such
numbers that their bodies filled the highways; and to increase our
affliction, the wolves having devoured the carcases, and finding no other
food, fell upon the living; their natural fierceness being so increased
by hunger, that they dragged the children out of the very houses. I saw
myself a troop of wolves tear a child of six years old in pieces before I
or any one else could come to its assistance.
While I was entirely taken up with the duties of my ministry, the viceroy
of Tigre received the commands of the Emperor to search for the bones of
Don Christopher de Gama. On this occasion it may not be thought
impertinent to give some account of the life and death of this brave and
holy Portuguese, who, after having been successful in many battles, fell
at last into the hands of the Moors, and completed that illustrious life
by a glorious martyrdom.