A Short Description of Abyssinia.
The kingdom of Habbesh, Abyssinia, or Ethiopia, the oldest monarchy in
Africa, is a small, highly-elevated, mountainous district, lying in the
middle of the north torrid zone, within the limits of the tropical
rains, enclosed by forests of enormous extent, a small part of the Red
Sea, and unknown, trackless regions. This secluded spot, cut off from
communication with the civilized world by poisonous winds, burning
deserts of moving sand, and by the character of its people, far more
dangerous to the traveller than either their climate or country, is
nevertheless connected with Europe by two circumstances that distinguish
it from the rest of Africa. The two ties which thus connect the
Christian world with Abyssinia are its river and its church; and it is
surely pleasing to reflect, that Egypt--the granary of the East, a field
annually enriched by a triple harvest, a smiling, luxuriant garden, in a
remote corner of the blank, lifeless desert of Africa--owes its
fertility to a river which, rising in a Christian country, may not
unjustly be considered as a type of that religion which, calmly
proceeding on its course, is ever offering to the vast moral deserts
through which it flows, the blessings of peace, civilization, and
abundance here, and everlasting happiness hereafter.
Abyssinia, surrounded by enemies, expands or contracts its boundaries
with every victory or defeat; but, in general terms, it may be said that
it is about equal in extent to Great Britain. It is bounded on the north
by Sennaar and the great woods of the Shangalla; on the south it is
hemmed in by various tribes of the Galla nations, which also approach
its borders on the west and partly on the east, while the rest of its
eastern frontier is formed by the Red Sea. Abyssinia has therefore been
compared to a bow, of which the Shangalla tribes on the north form the
string, and the various nations of the Galla the arch. It is, generally
speaking, mountainous; or, to describe it more minutely, it is composed
of groups and ranges of very high mountains, overlooking the plains and
deep valleys which surround them.
Before it is possible to give a clear idea of the climate of this
country, there are certain phenomena which it is necessary to describe.
It is well known that, from Suez to Masuah, the ancient harbour of
Abyssinia, and from thence to the Straits of Babelmandel, a chain of
mountains runs nearly parallel to the western coast of the Red Sea.
These mountains, to the north of Abyssinia, pass through the country of
the Shepherds, and there separate vast districts, which, though exactly
in the same latitude, have nevertheless a most remarkable difference in
the period of their rains. Both countries are deluged with rain for six
months in the year; but the wet seasons on the two sides of these
mountains are diametrically opposite to each other. On the east side, or
in the country which lies between the mountains and the Red Sea, it
rains during the six months which constitute our winter in Europe; while
on the opposite side it rains during the whole of our summer months.
From the violence of these rains, and on account of the fly that
accompanies them, either region becomes, for six months of the year,
almost unfit for the habitation of man; while the country on the
opposite side of the mountains is teeming with luxuriance, and basking
under the rays of a prolific sun. The shepherds, or inhabitants of
these adjoining territories, availing themselves of this singular
dispensation of Providence, annually migrate from one side of the
mountains to the other; so that, although one or the other country is
always suffering from the rain and fly, the natives of both manage to
enjoy a perpetual summer; and while their cattle are feeding, in the
cool of the morning, on the most luxuriant pasture, and, during the
burning sunshine of the day, are browsing on exuberant foliage, a mere
geographical line divides them from a land deluged with a pouring rain,
deserted by almost every living creature, and condemned to gloomy and
cheerless solitude. It may easily be conceived that this wandering life
of the shepherd creates predatory, pilfering habits; and the old
Abyssinian proverb, "beware of the man who drinks two waters," agrees
with our own experience, how badly men of roaming, unsettled
dispositions are suited to the enjoyment of stationary, civilized life.
These periodical rains, which in themselves constitute one of the
wonders of nature, produce another which is almost equally
extraordinary; for, as soon as the fat, black earth of the mountains of
Abyssinia becomes saturated with water, immense swarms of flies burst
into existence; and, with the rains, assist in driving almost every
living creature from them. This insect, called by the Abyssinians
tsaltsalya, although it is scarcely larger than a common bee, becomes
formidable from its immense numbers; and the buzzing sound announcing
its arrival is no sooner heard, than the cattle forsake their food and
run wildly about the plain, till they actually die from fear, pain, and
fatigue. The camel, whose patience under every other affliction is
proverbially unalterable, becomes ungovernable from the violent
punctures of these flies; his body is soon covered with lumps, which
break and putrify, and the wretched creature sinks and dies. Even the
rhinoceros and elephant, whose hides are considered almost impenetrable
to a musket-ball, are severely persecuted by these insects; but they
instinctively fortify themselves against their attack by wallowing in
the mud, which, when dried by the sun, forms a coating that is
impenetrable to their stings. All the inhabitants of Melinda, down to
Cape Gardfui, Saba, and the south coast of the Red Sea; and all those of
the countries from the mountains of Abyssinia to the confluence of the
Nile and the Astaboras, are obliged annually to quit the region of black
earth, and, driving their cattle before them, to seek refuge in the
cheerless sands of the desert; and so many human beings and huge animals
thus flying before an army of little flies, certainly forms a very
remarkable and surprising feature in the great picture of Nature.
Of all the writers on these countries, Isaiah is, we believe, the only
one, before Bruce, who has given an account of this insect. "And it
shall come to pass," says the prophet, "in that day, that the Lord shall
hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt,
and they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys."
For one moment we must stop to observe, that Bruce's account of the
number and the effect produced by these flies is a part of his narrative
which was long pointed at and ridiculed as being particularly unworthy
of belief; yet the description already quoted from Denham (page 100)
strongly corroborates Bruce's statement, which has also been confirmed
by the testimony of the Abyssinian, Dean, who was publicly examined at
Cairo by Dr. Clarke. No author has ever yet been able to impart to his
reader an adequate idea of the clouds of locusts which, in some parts of
the world, suddenly convert, for a hundred miles together, a green
country into a brown one, by the total destruction of vegetable life.
Bruce's account, therefore, of the havoc which the tsaltsalya, zimb, or
fly of Abyssinia produces among living creatures, however strange it may
sound in this country, does not, in the natural history of the world,
stand unsupported.
Why a portion of the animal and vegetable creation should be annoyed by
such scourges as the zimb and the locust; why parts of the world should
be disordered by hurricanes and earthquakes; and why the whole of
mankind should occasionally suffer from pestilential disorders, &c., are
problems which Bruce need not be called on to solve. He has merely added
one to a number of facts, concerning which all we know is, that they
form parts of a wise and beneficent system which it is entirely beyond
our power to comprehend.
Abyssinia being mountainous, lying in the middle of the torrid zone, and
being subject also to the heavy periodical rains just described, the
effect naturally produced by these three causes is, that the climates of
the high and low country are totally different. The mountainous or high
land of Abyssinia, which, it may be observed, is covered with long grass
and destitute of wood, is at all times dry, cool, temperate, and
healthy, and often even extremely cold; while the low, woody country,
hazy, close, and insufferably hot, suffers severely from the sickness
invariably produced by the excessive rains. Part of this low country,
however, is not covered with wood; and, though equally hot, from being
better ventilated, it is, generally speaking, healthy, while it is as
productive as Egypt, and covered with the finest cattle of all
descriptions. But where the waters of the rainy season, for want of
descent, stagnate on the plains, these hot, swampy marshes produce no
pasture, and are exceedingly unhealthy.
The little kingdom of Abyssinia, thus possessing within itself districts
of such various climates, is inhabited by people of races and
complexions as different as the soil and altitudes which they
respectively occupy. In Abyssinia, royalty sits perched on the tops of
the highest mountains; the great bulk of the community enjoy themselves
on the sides of the hills, or in the wide, healthy plains; and in the
hot, feverish, putrid atmosphere of the low woods, we meet that
wretched, unfortunate being, the black, woolly-headed negro, who there,
as in other regions of the world, finds his fellow-creature, pagan as
well as Christian, a more cruel, cunning, relentless enemy than the
savage beasts of the field.
THE SHANGALLA.
The Shangalla of Abyssinia, the ancient Cushites or Ethiopians, occupy a
low, flat, sultry country, with a dark, rich soil, on an average about
forty miles broad. They are pagans, black, naked, and inveterate enemies
of the Abyssinian government. During the first half of the year, the
Shangalla live under the friendly shade of their own trees, the lower
branches of which they bend downward and fix into the ground, thus
forming a verdant tent, which they cover on the outside with the skins
of animals. For food and amusement they hunt the elephant, rhinoceros,
hippopotamus, and those other large animals which either inhabit their
woody territory, or are found wallowing in the sultry pools which it
encloses; and hence it follows, that where the forest is the broadest,
the jungle the thickest, and the stagnant ponds the largest, there the
tribes of the Shangalla are the most numerous and formidable. In those
parts of the country where the large animals do not abound, the
Shangalla subsists on buffaloes, deer, boars, lions, and even serpents:
in places where there is little wood, whole tribes of them eat the
crocodile, fish, locusts, lizards, and ostriches; and thus they are
still the rhizophagi, elephantophagi, acridophagi, struthiophagi,
agriophagi, &c., which Ptolemy, in his account of the Ethiopians, has so
accurately described.
During the summer, the Shangalla tribes subsist on the animals which
they catch; but, in order to provide for the rainy season, they prepare
their food in a very singular manner. Venison and other flesh is cut
into strips or thongs about as broad as a man's thumb. These are dried
in the sun until they resemble tough leather; even locusts are dried and
packed in baskets for the winter's consumption. Before the rainy season
commences, they strike, or, rather, uncover their tents, leaving the
boughs still pinioned to the earth; and thus bidding adieu to the
skeleton of their deserted village, they seek refuge in caves which are
rudely excavated in gritty, sandy rocks, so soft that they are often
made to contain several apartments. Soon after the rains subside, the
high grass becomes dry, brown, and parched; and, being inconvenient to
the Shangalla, they set fire to it. The flames rapidly extend over the
country, and run down the ravines and gullies, in which, but a few weeks
before, another element was seen rushing on its course!
The Shangalla have but one language, which has a highly guttural sound.
They worship trees, serpents, the moon, planets, and stars in certain
positions. They have, of course, many superstitions: for instance, a
star passing near the horns of the moon denotes, they conceive, the
approach of an enemy. They have priests, but only to defend them from
evil spirits: to their good, benevolent spirits they fancy they may
appeal without human assistance.
They are all archers from their infancy. Their bows, which are made of
wild fennel, are usually long and thick, and so elastic that the same
weapon is used in childish sports which afterward defends them when they
grow up--the only difference being that whereas, when boys, they are
obliged, from its length, to hold the bow horizontally, the being able
to bend it vertically is, among the Shangalla, the admitted sign of
manhood. As a sort of religious, or, rather, superstitious, offering,
they place on their bow a ring or strip of every animal they kill; and
when the bow, covered with these rude trophies, becomes too heavy to be
used, they carefully preserve it.
The old Shangalla has always, therefore, a number of these weapons in
his possession. From them he selects a favourite one to be buried with
him, in order that, when he rises again, he may not be at a loss to
defend himself from his enemies; for these poor people, as we shall soon
learn, are so accustomed to enemies in this world, that they cannot
conceive that even a future existence can be without them; and yet, rude
and mistaken as their notions are, we must all admit that there is no
one idea more deserving of respect--which more directly tends to
civilize the human mind, making all men act towards each other as
brothers, than a belief, however vague, in a state of future existence.
It would be difficult to point out a more striking contrast than what is
presented in the sedentary life of the negro or Cushite of Abyssinia,
compared with the wandering habits of his neighbour the shepherd. The
former, whether he lives in a tent or in a cave, moves only to avoid the
zimb or the rain; the latter is constantly migrating from one side of
the mountain to the other, or else driving camels laden with merchandise
across the burning deserts of Africa.
Although the Shangalla live in separate tribes, yet they are in the
habit of joining together, and of forming alliances offensive and
defensive, but principally to assist each other in repelling the
barbarous attacks which are made upon them by the Abyssinians and Arabs.
Mothers, who stand most in need of protection, naturally look for it to
their own offspring; and it is a habit among these women, as among the
Galla tribes, to entreat their husbands to maintain a plurality of
wives, that, by the number of children in the family, the means of
safety may be proportionally increased. Their moral character is,
nevertheless, defended by Bruce with so much good feeling, that we must
give it to the reader in his own words:
"I will not fear to aver, as far as concerns these Shangalla, or negroes
of Abyssinia (and, I believe, most others of the same complexion, though
of different nations), that the various accounts we have of them are
very unfairly stated. To describe them justly, we should see them in
their native purity of manners, among their native woods, living on the
produce of their own daily labours, without other liquor than that of
their own pools and springs, the drinking of which is followed by no
intoxication, or other pleasure than that of assuaging thirst. After
having been torn from their own country and connexions, reduced to the
condition of brutes, to labour for a being they never before knew; after
lying, stealing, and all the long lists of European crimes have been
made, as it were, necessary to them; and the delusion occasioned by
drinking spirits is found, however short, to be the only remedy that
relieves them from reflecting on their present wretched situation, to
which, for that reason, they most naturally attach themselves; then,
after we have made them monsters, we describe them as such! forgetful
that they are now not as their Maker created them, but such as, by
teaching them our vices, we have transformed them into, for ends which,
I fear, one day will not be found a sufficient excuse for the enormities
they have occasioned."
It would be well for the character of human nature if we could here
close the history of the Shangalla; but, as yet, nothing has been
offered but a sketch of their _lives_: the account of their _death_, or,
what is even worse, of their _slavery_, remains still to be told.
On the accession of every new king to the throne of Abyssinia, and on
many other occasions, it has been the custom to amuse the country by a
great hunting match, which lasts several days; and in this pastime
rewards are given, according to a fixed scale, for each of the wild
beasts that are killed.
As soon as the hunting of the animals is concluded, license is granted
for a general hunt after the Shangalla; and exactly the same reward is
offered for the murder of one of them as for slaying an elephant, a
rhinoceros, or any other of the larger species of beasts.
The moment usually preferred for the persecution of these ill-fated
people is just before the rains, while they are yet living in their
vegetating tents, and before the soil of their country, by dissolving
into mire, obliges them to seek refuge in their winter-quarters.
In order to hunt these people, the Abyssinians, in overpowering numbers,
and armed with every sort of weapon they can collect, enter the forest,
and then, like hounds, they regularly draw the covers which contain
their game. The men of the Shangalla being extremely active,
intelligent, and accustomed to the intricacies of their native woods,
could easily evade their pursuers; but each man, tethered by his
affections to his own little family, can only retreat at the rate of
the weakest, and they are consequently very soon overtaken by the
Abyssinians. In the hot, gloomy, unhealthy recesses of the forest, far
beyond the regions of civilization, out of the hearing of mercy, out of
the sight of every people that would rush forward to prevent such
enormities, the sport or slaughter begins. The grown-up men are all
killed and then mutilated, parts of their bodies being carried away as
trophies: several of the old mothers are also killed, while others,
frantic with fear and despair, kill themselves. The boys and girls of a
more tender age are then carried off in brutal triumph; the former are
afterward to be found as servants in all the great houses in Abyssinia;
while the latter, the weaker sex, are dragged into more remote and
distant countries, to be sold as attendants to the Turks, who profess to
admire the Ethiopians in summer, because, as they say, like toads, they
have a cold skin.
Any one who has ever had the misfortune to witness an African
slave-market, and for a moment to stand surrounded by its wretched,
emaciated victims, must, after his first feelings have subsided, have
found himself filled with astonishment that human nature could ever be
induced deliberately to continue so guilty a traffic! To account for it,
or, rather, to excuse it, it has often been urged that negroes are a
race of inferior beings, whose minds are not susceptible of those
painful sensations which we should suffer were we to be placed in their
unfortunate condition. In short, to explain the problem, we paint the
map of the world in our own way, and then gravely say, "the inhabitants
of these (our countries) have acute feelings, and those who dwell in
that have none!"[24] But this strange assertion is most curiously
contradicted by the history of the negroes or Shangalla of Abyssinia;
for they and their enemies, the persecuted and the persecutors,
absolutely live under the same sun, in the same country, and separated
only by a few hundred feet of elevation. No one can therefore rationally
maintain that these children of one family can be divided by feelings of
such different degrees of susceptibility; for the Shangalla must surely
enjoy freedom and independence in the valley, as much as the Abyssinians
can enjoy them on the higher ground.
But the real truth is, that the sun is hotter in the lower stratum than
it is in the upper. The human body, exhausted by its heat, becomes
weaker; and it is because the Shangalla are less powerful than the
Abyssinians, and for no other reason, that the former are murdered and
persecuted by the latter. The African slave-trade rests precisely on the
same foundation.
THE GALLA.
The Galla are a very numerous race of shepherds living to the south and
west of Abyssinia, and also in parts of the interior of that country. As
their land is high, and the rains screen it for a considerable time from
the sun, the general complexion of these people is brown; though some
who inhabit the valley of the lower country are perfectly black, with
long hair of the same colour. They are divided into tribes, for every
seven of which a king or chief is elected. There exists, also, a sort of
rude nobility among them, whose ancestors have been raised to this
dignity by valorous feats in war; and it is from these families alone
that the chieftain can be chosen.
No one of these superiors can be elected until time has conferred on him
forty years of experience. However, in their savage calculation, the
killing of an enemy is considered as equivalent to a year's experience;
and, therefore, any noble becomes eligible for supreme command whenever,
between years of age and enemies slain, he shall have made up the number
of forty. The Galla are almost all mounted on horses, which, from
constant practice, they of course manage with great dexterity. In
passing rivers they dismount, and grasp the tails of their horses, which
in this way tow them across. The amount of assistance they thus receive
does not exceed a few ounces; whereas, by remaining mounted, they would
subject animals badly adapted for swimming, and scarcely able to support
themselves, to the extra burden of the whole of that part of their body
which is above the water. Their arms consist of a shield made of bull's
hide, and a long lance sharpened at the end, and then hardened by fire.
The attack of these wild people is very much dreaded by the Abyssinians;
for, besides their cruelty, they utter, in charging, such a shrill,
barbarous, frantic howl, that the Abyssinian horses are said to tremble
with fear, in which their riders very readily participate.
When they march into the country of an enemy, they carry with them small
balls about as big as pigeon's eggs, composed of a particular sort of
bean, pulverized and mixed with butter; and it is affirmed that, by
eating one of these boluses, a Galla soldier can, in health and spirits,
endure a whole day's fatigue.
Both sexes are rather below the middle size, but they are remarkably
light and agile. The women are generally very prolific; and the sun
which shines on the infant's birth seldom sets before the mother has
resumed her occupations: such is the healthy state of savage life! The
dress, or, rather, undress of some of the tribes of the Galla, present a
costume which, although curious, has not yet reached our fashionable
world. Round their persons they wind as ornaments the entrails of oxen,
which also hang in festoons or necklaces from their throats. Their
bodies are anointed with grease, poured so copiously on their heads that
it melts, and, like our pomatum, is continually dropping on their
shoulders, over which is thrown a piece of goatskin. Like the
Abyssinians, they eat raw meat; but Pierce, the English sailor,
describes a Galla who drank blood warm from the neck of the cow, and
still, from an odd refinement, refused to eat the flesh of the animal
until it had been broiled.
The Galla of the south are principally Mohammedans, but those of the
east and west are Pagans. The religion of the latter is very little
understood; and it has, therefore, as usual, been said that they have
none at all. It appears, however, that the Wansey-tree, under which
their rude kings are crowned, is worshipped as a god by every tribe;
there are also particular stones which they have been observed to
venerate. They worship the moon and some of the stars: they have no idea
of future punishment, but believe that, after death, they will live
again and for ever.
Their form of marriage is as follows: The bridegroom comes to the
parents of the bride with some food for a cow in his right hand, and he
then very seriously and solemnly says, "May it never enter the cow or
leave her if I do not perform my promise;" which is, that he will give
to this young wife meat and drink while she lives, and bury her tidily
when she dies.
As in the Abyssinian climate, girls marry at eleven, ten, and even nine
years of age; and there being no difficulty in supporting children, it
is, by a Galla, reckoned creditable to be encircled by a numerous
family; and, therefore, if his wife presents him with only a few
children, she herself endeavours to persuade her husband, for her sake,
to take another to assist her in surrounding him with his most natural
protectors. To any objections he may urge, she replies by naming and
describing to him all the most interesting girls of her acquaintance;
and, as soon as he relents, her next step is to proceed to the house of
the person selected, whom she asks of her parents to be her husband's
wife, that their united families may be strong enough in the day of
battle not to fall into the hands of the enemy.
After this second marriage is concluded, the old wife still retains her
precedence, treating her companion, not as a rival, but more like a
grown-up daughter.
When the father, from old age, has become useless and unfit for war, he
is obliged to surrender the whole of his effects to his eldest son, who
is bound to support him; and in case this son dies, leaving a widow, the
youngest brother of all is expected, out of respect to his memory, to
marry her.
Bruce's description of the Gallas, from which the above sketch has been
principally taken, was one of the many parts of his narrative which were
very generally disbelieved; and yet no one acquainted with savage life
but must recognise in Bruce's description all those general lines which
form its characteristic features.
Bruce described the Galla tribes as being intelligent and active, but,
at the same time, dirty, ignorant, and having the most absurd religious
notions; and this general description being strictly correct, his
details should in justice never have been doubted. But he unfortunately
experienced that a man may suffer from prejudices and narrow-minded
incredulity long after he has bid adieu to savage society.
The uncivilized tribes which surround, as well as inhabit Abyssinia,
having been now described, the character of the Abyssinians themselves
will appear in the following short abstract of their history.
FOOTNOTE:
[24] The Chinese have a map which consists of a very large country, and
a little speck; the former, they say, is "China;" the latter, "the rest
of the world."