Staying at Farree with Mr. Scott.--Both placed under parole.--
Description of the houses of Farree.--Of the flour mill.--
Some remarks upon the origin of the Amhara.--Dr. Prichard
upon identity of the Amhara with the Antomali of Herodotus.--
Physical characters of the people.--Interview with the
Wallasmah.--Saltpetre rock.--Province of Efat.--Take leave
of Escort.--Tyrannical conduct of the Wallasmah.
_May 26, 1842._--After Mr. Scott joined me at Farree, I considered
that all my troubles were at an end, although I had still to go above
fifty miles before I could meet the members of the British Political
Mission who had accompanied the King to his residence at Angolahlah,
the most western town of his dominions. An establishment was still kept
up at Ankobar, situated about one third of the way between Farree and
Angolahlah, at the head of which was the naturalist attached to the
Mission, Dr. Roth, with whom was Mr. Bernatz, the artist, and there
also Mr. Scott was stationed. Captain Harris the Ambassador, Captain
Graham, the second in command, and Mr. Assistant-Surgeon Kirk, lived
at Angolahlah, where I now expected to be permitted to go by my gaoler
the Wallasmah. I found, however, I was reckoning without my host, for
a new difficulty had arisen, from the circumstance of Mr. Scott having
come down to Farree without the permission of Walda-anna, the Governor
of Ankobar. He was accordingly given to understand that he must
consider himself a prisoner with me until the pleasure of the negoos
should be known as to our disposal. It was in vain we expostulated
with our surly gaoler; we were to be opposed by force if we attempted
to leave Farree, and other sentinels were charged with the care of us.
Something we did effect, and that was the liberation of the messenger
who was detected bringing me a letter the day before, for as soon as
this request was made to the Wallasmah it was at once acceded to, and
the man was ordered to be set at liberty. Taking this as an evidence of
some relaxation of the harsh treatment with which we had been treated,
we sat sometime chatting with the old gentleman, and I hinted my
intention of making him some present if he would honour me so far as to
accept of my poor gifts. When we got up from the ground where we had
been sitting, the Wallasmah directed his son, a fine young man about
three or four and twenty years old, to accompany us to our residence;
a sufficient intimation of his being graciously disposed, without the
broad hint given by one of his followers, who whispered into the ears
of Mr. Scott, “Give your _memolagee_ to that man.” Our imprisoned
servant not making his appearance before we left the Wallasmah, we
asked where he was, and were surprised to hear that he had left Farree
for Angolahlah without seeing us, but which we supposed he had been
obliged to do, so that there should be no chance of our slipping a note
into his hands for our friends in that town.
We returned to our house, and for the rest of the day amused ourselves
with hearing and telling whatever most interested us, whether of home
or foreign news. I must observe that a present of three pieces of
calico and a pound of gunpowder was made to the Wallasmah, who sent
us back his compliments, and that he was highly delighted with the
present, but would be obliged for a little more gunpowder.
Mr. Scott and I were entertained and taken care of for four days
in Farree, much to our discomfort and vexation. Fortunately this
gentleman had brought with him two native servants, who made themselves
useful by marketing and cooking during the term of our confinement,
so we suffered nothing from want of food. We could also walk about
the straggling town on pledging our word that we would not attempt
to escape, although our parole was not deemed sufficient, for, like
Buonaparte at St. Helena, two sentinels, on such excursions, always
followed at a certain distance in our rear.
Many of the houses in Farree, instead of being the usual circle of
closely placed sticks, some five feet high and surmounted by a high
conical straw roof, are partial excavations in the soft trachytic
stone, so as to leave a back and sides of natural rock. Over this is
laid a flat roof, consisting of untrimmed rafters covered by a thick
layer of brushwood, upon which is placed a layer of earth some inches
in thickness, well stamped down with the feet. A front of wattled
sticks, in which the entrance is made, completes the house, and in one
such as this was I lodged during my stay in this town.
The internal arrangements were equally simple. A raised platform of
stones and clay, about two feet high, occupied one half of the single
apartment, and upon one end of this, reaching to the roof, stood a huge
butt-like basket, smoothly plastered over inside and out with clay.
This was the family granary, in which was preserved the teff seed, or
wheat, from the depredations of the numerous mice that are a thorough
pest in Abyssinia. In a corner below, stood side by side two of the
peculiar handmills used in this country, each consisting of a large
flat stone of cellular lava, two feet long and one foot broad, raised
upon a rude pedestal of stones and mud, about one foot and a half from
the ground. The rough surface of this stone sloped gradually down from
behind forwards into a basin-like cavity, into which the flour falls
as it is ground. A second stone, grasped in the hand of the woman who
grinds, weighs about three pounds, beneath which, as it is moved up and
down the inclined plane of the under millstone, the grain is crushed,
and gradually converted into a coarse flour.
This is the same kind of mill that was used by the ancient Egyptians,
and is represented in the excellent work upon those people, recently
written by Sir G. Wilkinson, although he describes it as being used for
fulling clothes, having mistaken, I suppose, the flour represented as
falling into the cup-like recipient for a stream of water. I observe,
also, in another plate in the same work, a representation of this
mill, but without any allusion to its real purposes. Moses, in the
fifth verse of the eleventh chapter of Exodus, describes exactly the
character of the occupation, and the instrument, where he speaks “of
the maid-servant that is behind the mill,” for women are only employed
on this duty, and they always stand in the rear, leaning forward over
their work. Very few houses, those only of the poorest people, have but
one mill; generally two or more stand side by side in a row, and the
number is always mentioned when the idea is wished to be conveyed of
the large dependent retinue that the master of the house feeds.
A few large jars containing water, or ale, ranged along one side of the
house, and a shield hung from the projecting end of one of the sticks
that formed the front, were the only articles that occupied prominent
positions as furniture in my residence. Three or four “maceroitsh,” or
earthenware pots for cooking, generally lay upset in the white wood
ashes contained in the large circular hearth that occupied a portion of
the floor opposite to the mills; and some of the necessary but small
instruments for clearing or spinning cotton were placed when not being
used upon a skin bag, in which a quantity of that useful material was
contained.
I was very much struck with the extreme contrasts that could be drawn
between the inhabitants of Farree and the Dankalli Bedouins. The large
and portly forms of the former, their apparent love of quiet, the
affection they evinced for their children, and that of the children
for their parents, were all points characteristic of these great
differences. The physiognomy of the two people exhibited equally
varying features, and as the men of Farree are a good type of the
real Amhara population, I shall endeavour to give an idea of the form
of the countenance and the head peculiar to this family of man, by a
description drawn from my first observations in that town, where the
people have less admixture of Galla blood, than the inhabitants of the
table land of Shoa above and beyond them.
This will be preceded, however, by some necessary, and, I believe,
novel information respecting the origin of the Amhara, which I became
acquainted with during my residence in Shoa, and which has been
singularly confirmed by a comparison of the reports and prejudices I
noted down while in that country, with recorded circumstances of the
earlier history of Egypt, and of other powerful empires that once
existed along the course of the Nile.
Amhara, which word is at present only used to designate the Christian
population of Abyssinia, was, previous to the introduction of the
Mahomedan religion, the descriptive appellation of an extensive red
people, who principally occupied the eastern border of the Abyssinian
table land, from the latitude of Massoah in the north to that of lake
Zui in the south. To the west of these, and occupying the portion of
the table land in that direction, lived a people decidedly different
in their complexion, their features, their language, their religion,
and their customs. These were the Gongas, or Agows, who I believe
to have been the original possessors of the whole plateau, until a
period remarkable in history, when the Emperor of Meroë or Ethiopia
located upon a portion of their country, those disaffected soldiers
of Psammeticus who had sought an asylum in his kingdom. Were I not
convinced that the Amhara population of Abyssinia, at the present day,
can be physically demonstrated to be the descendants of these fugitives
from Egypt, I would not venture to advance such an innovation upon
the generally received opinion, that the Amhara are aborigines of the
country they now inhabit.
Under the term Abyssins, Dr. Prichard, in his invaluable work upon
the natural history of man, includes all the different nations that
now inhabit the lofty plain of Abisha or Abyssinia. Of one of these
nations, the Amhara, he remarks, “So striking is the resemblance
between the modern Abyssinians and the Hebrews of old, that we can
hardly look upon them but as branches of one nation, and if we had not
convincing evidence to the contrary, and knew not for certain that
the Abramidæ originated in Chaldæa, and to the northward and eastward
of Palestine, we might frame a very probable hypothesis, which would
bring them down as a band of wandering shepherds from the mountains
of Habesh, and identify them with the pastor kings, who, according to
Manetho, multiplied their bands in the land of the Pharaohs, and being,
after some centuries, expelled thence by the will of the gods, sought
refuge in Judea, and built the walls of Jerusalem. Such an hypothesis
would explain the existence of an almost Israelitish people, and the
preservation of a language so nearly approaching to the Hebrew in
intertropical Africa.” The learned ethnologist goes on to observe--“It
is certainly untrue; and we find no other easy explanation of the facts
which the history of Abyssinia presents, and particularly of the early
extension of the Jewish religion and customs through that country, for
the legend which makes the royal house of Menilek descend from Solomon
and the Queen of Sheba, is as idle a story as ever monks invented to
abuse the reverent ignorance of their lay brethren.”
Herodotus, and other ancient historians and geographers, have recorded
the migration of a vast body of discontented native soldiers from
Egypt, in the time of Psammeticus. These, we are told, to the number
of 240,000, retired to the country of Ethiopia, where they were
kindly received by the Emperor. They assisted him in his wars, and in
return were apportioned, as a residence, some country on the confines
of Ethiopia, from which they were to drive a rebellious people to
make room for themselves. Herodotus places this country “upon the
Nile, at about the same distance beyond Meroë as this last is from
Elephantine, or fifty days’ journey;” and he also adds, that “the
Antomali (deserters) are known by the name of Asmach, which, being
translated, signifies ‘standing on the left hand’ of the King.” It is
a most remarkable circumstance that the reason or origin of the name
of the country of Gurague, literally “on the left side,” has long been
a question of interest with every Abyssinian traveller, but none have
given any satisfactory explanation for what reason this particular, and
evidently significant, name was first applied. The situation of the
Amhara with respect to the Abi or Bruce’s Nile at once accounts for
the designation, as they live upon the left hand of the stream as it
flows south from lake Dembea, whilst that portion of this people still
retaining their ancient name and purity of descent, the present Gurague
occupy a country similarly situated with respect to the river Zebee,
or Azzabi, or Assabinus, the Ethiopian Jupiter. Abi and Abiah, other
names for branches of the Nile in Abyssinia, are expressive of _father_
or _king_, evidently from having been, at a former period, the chief
objects of worship by the people inhabiting their banks. “Asmach,” and
“Gurague,” bear, therefore, the same interpretation, “to the left of
the king,” and none other can explain the circumstance of the latter
name being given to the Amhara. It appears, however to have been
bestowed in contra-distinction to the “Gongas,” or “Kongue,” a people
who originally occupied the right banks solely of the Abi and Abiah.
This singular correspondence between “Asmach” of the Grecian historian,
and “Gurague” of modern travellers, would be alone, perhaps,
inconclusive evidence that these terms apply to the same people or
country, but some additional evidence may be drawn from the account
which Pliny gives of these Egyptian fugitives. On the authority of
Aristocreon, he states, that “Seventeen days from Meroë is Esar, a city
of those Egyptians who fled from Psammeticus, and entered the service
of the monarch of that country, and in return received a considerable
tract of territory upon the confines, from which the Ethiopian prince
ordered them to expel a tribe of people, at that time in rebellion
against him, and this migration of the Egyptian troops, introducing the
arts and manners of a refined nation, had a very sensible effect in
civilizing the Ethiopians.” The most interesting particulars we gather
from this information, is the name of the city, or, as I presume, the
chief seat of these fugitives, Esar.
By a singular coincidence in the Old Testament, we are told that Esau
is Edom, and although I am not going to infer from this alone, any
connexion between that patriarch and the Ethiopian city, Esar, yet the
philological analogy between the scriptural proper names, curiously
enough, also exists between those of profane history; for the Esar and
Amhara of our subject, express the very same idea as Esau and Edom,
which by all Biblical commentators, is allowed to be the colour red.
“And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they
called his name Esau.” (Genesis xxv. 25.)
In the present Dankalli language, and I think also, in that of ancient
Meroë, Assar signifies red. In the Persian, I am given to understand
that the planet Mars is called Azer, from its characteristic colour,
a circumstance of significant import when it is considered that the
word Calla, from which is derived Galla, “Ab” the root of Abi, and
“Nil,” from which comes Nile, with others I have yet to speak of, as
designations of places in Abyssinia, are all referable to the same
language. To return, however, to Esar, and its connexion with the
colour red, for it is the same with Esau, and that it is the same as
Edom in Hebrew, I advance the testimony of Dr. Stukeley, who, speaking
of the Red Sea, remarks, “That sea had its name from Erythras, as
the Greeks and the same Pliny write; who is Edom, or Esau, brother
of Jacob. The words are synonymous, signifying red.”[1] Amhara, also
bears the same interpretation in Amharic, and although it has another
meaning, that of beautiful, this is only because of the national taste
directing the name of the favourite complexion among them, to be
employed as the term for beauty itself. The Dankalli slave-merchant
well understands this, for a light-red Abyssinian girl is the
Circassian of oriental harems. In Arabia, where the original word still
conveys the more common idea, we find “hamah” employed to express the
colour red.
In this manner, I connect the “Asmach” of Herodotus, with Gurague
of modern travellers, and the Esar of Pliny, with the Amhara
of the present day, and from these two mutually corroborating
correspondencies, the identity of the modern Abyssinians of Dr.
Prichard with the Automali of Herodotus may perhaps be deduced, and
the difficulty of accounting for a Hebrew people, situated on the
Abyssinian plateau only requires proof to be advanced that the
revolted soldiers of Psammeticus were of the same family of man as
the fugitive Israelites who sought a refuge, under nearly similar
circumstances, in Syria, and built the walls of Jerusalem; and as
their languages are nearly the same, as also their manners, customs,
and ancient religion, previous to the introduction of Christianity,
it will not, perhaps, be difficult to adduce such evidence. For my
part, I am inclined to believe in this national relationship, because
it is partly confirmed by the received account of the brothers, Esau
and Jacob, contained in the book of Genesis, and the connexion between
the two patriarchs, and the country of Egypt, will perhaps receive
some illustration from the opinion I have ventured to advance upon
the subject. In the elder brother, Esau, I perceive the father of the
royal shepherds, and among the list of the dukes, his descendants may
be found, perhaps the pastor kings who held for some time the sovereign
power in Egypt.
The connexion also of the name Esau, or Esar, with the profession of
soldiers, is evident, for in oriental mythology it is identified with
the god Mars; whilst on the other hand, the word _Israel_, in Hebrew, I
believe, as in Amharic has an immediate reference to _labour_, as the
name Jacob has also to the _heel_, which coincides very singularly with
the idea prevalent in India, that the labouring class have all sprung
from the foot of Brahmah. It would be very interesting, if future
discoveries in hieroglyphics, or other cotemporary histories, which, I
believe, do exist in central Africa, should prove that the appearance
of the Jews as a family of man, under the patriarch Abraham, marks the
disruption of an African community of castes, where the Priest class,
excited by the ambition of a Psammeticus, should determine upon the
expulsion of the soldiers, who thereupon fled to Ethiopia; and, also,
that after a tyrannical and cruel oppression should ultimately occasion
the flight of the workmen, or Israelites, into Palestine. I leave
the question, however, now, to more profound ethnologists, and shall
conclude this, I am afraid, very uninteresting subject, with a short
but necessary description of the features and physical characteristics
of the present Amhara population of Abyssinia.
In the British Museum are many Egyptian statues that possess exactly
the features of the genuine Amhara race. One more, especially of a
woman in the lower saloon marked 16, I will particularize, to enable
those who have the opportunity of examining these relics of an extinct
nation to form a proper idea of the physiognomy of the people I am
speaking of.
Their general complexion cannot be better described by reference
to a familiar object than comparing it with that of red unpolished
copper. Their skin is soft and delicate; the general stature is below
the middle height of Europeans. Their forms are not fully developed
until they have arrived at the same years of puberty as ourselves; and
it is very uncommon for women under seventeen to bear children. The
features of the women conform to a general characteristic type, and
less variations from this are observed among them than in the men.
This observation extends to other races besides the Amhara, for I have
invariably found more consistency of countenance, more nationality
preserved in the features of females than in the males of the many
different people I have met with in my travels in Abyssinia.
The Amhara face is ovate, having a considerably greater expression
of breadth in the upper than in the lower part. The scalp in front
encroaches upon the forehead, making its length disproportionate to its
height, and, in consequence, it appears exceedingly low. The eyes are
long, but rather full, and the separation of the eyelids longitudinal,
as in Europeans. Their cheeks are high, yet finely rounded, and
sometimes, with the long forehead, giving to the countenance a nearly
triangular form. The nose straight and well-formed, with a small
and beautiful mouth, a finely-curved edge gradually rising from the
commissure to the fulness of a most inviting pair of lips. A voluptuous
fulness, in fact, pervades the whole countenance; a something more
than muscular fibre, yet not exactly fat, giving a healthy fleshiness,
that reminds you of the chubbiness of children; and I expect the
fascinating expression so generally ascribed to Abyssinian beauties by
all orientals is owing to the idea of innocence and simplicity, that
inseparably connects itself with this infantile character of face. The
hair is soft and long; it is neither woolly, like the negro, nor is it
the strong, coarse, straight hair of the Gongas, or yellow inhabitants
of the right bank of the Abi and Abiah branches of the Azzabi, or red
Nile.
I saw few or no cases of distortion among the families I met with in
Efat, and my impression is that they but rarely occur, the natural and
simple lives of the people conducing to easy parturition and a healthy
offspring. The Amhara, however, in their most unchanged condition in
Gurague, and the neighbouring Christian states, have yet to be visited.
The inhabitants of these countries may exhibit characteristic traits
that I have had no opportunities of observing, for those I met with
were the most favourable specimens of the imported slaves, or their
immediate descendants, who were married to Mahomedans of Efat.
Individuals possessing what I believe to have been the characteristic
features of the genuine Amharic countenance are but seldom seen on the
high land of Shoa, although it might naturally be expected that their
situation would favour a lighter complexion than the dark-brown Shoans
exhibit. This is to be attributed to the very recent period that their
Galla ancestorial relations intruded themselves into this former Amhara
district, as Abyssinian history records that the first appearance of
these invaders from the low plains of Adal occurred no later than the
year 1537.
From the 27th to the 31st of May, Mr. Scott and I remained in easy
durance at Farree. We were frequently summoned to the presence of the
Wallasmah, whom we would amuse by firing off my gun, or teaching his
son, a boy about fourteen years old, to let off percussion caps without
shutting his eyes. The dreadful experiment would never be attempted
by papa, but he wonderfully enjoyed the bright promise of his hopeful
progeny, the child of his old age, who, on the other hand, annoyed us
not a little by the unsatisfied pertness with which he demanded to be
so indulged.
Day after day were we most solemnly promised that we should start
upon the morrow, but without any intention of being permitted to do
so, beyond the accident occurring of our being sent for by the King.
Perhaps our importunity excited a desire to gratify us, and what they
wished for our sake the kind-hearted people of Farree asserted would
be, because of the great probability that the messenger who had been
sent to the King to receive his commands, would return sooner than he
did.
I am not going to acquit the Wallasmah on this plea, for his want of
courtesy towards us; for from some incomprehensible antipathy, he
would, had he dared, have placed us in irons, and even on occasions
of our visiting him, when we endeavoured to do everything we could
to please him, a surly smile was our only return for some little
gratification we might afford to his boy. His people frequently made
excuses for the conduct of their chief, by stating that he either had
been drinking, or else that he had not; so, drunk or sober, it seemed
quite natural to them that the old fellow should be in a continual
ill-humour from some undefined connexion with strong drink.
I took care to promise him another present on the occasion of our
leaving Farree, as I conceived that it might be some expectation of the
sort that was operating to cause our tiresome detention. I was wrong
in this, for it was not his pleasure, but the King’s, his master, that
we should be kept at Farree, although he tried to make us believe it
was his own, and assuming an authority that did not belong to him, made
our confinement more irksome than it needed to have been, on purpose
to evince his power. With our sentinels behind us, however, we could
wander all over the hill of Farree, and we accordingly amused ourselves
by endeavouring to extend our information upon the various subjects of
novel interest with which we were surrounded.
One observation I cannot do better than to insert here, respecting the
rocks and soil of Farree, which abound with the nitrate of potass,
the bald face of the former, in many places, being hollowed into deep
grooves by the constant attrition of the tongues of the numerous flocks
and herds, which seem to be as fond of this salt as the same animals
are of common table salt in other countries; a circumstance that is
well shown in those saline resorts of deer and buffaloes, called the
“licks” of North America. The geological structure of the hills in this
neighbourhood is a finely-grained trachytic rock; grey, save where
the intrusion of narrow dykes of some blacker rocks, a few feet in
thickness, and evidently heated on their first appearance, has changed
the general colour to a deep red, which gradually recovers its natural
hue at the distance of some yards on either side the dyke. This rock
contains a considerable quantity of decomposing felt-spar, supplying
the potass, and, I presume, deriving from the atmosphere, and the
moisture it contains, the other necessary elements to form the thick
efflorescence of saltpetre that covers in some places the surface of
the rock.
The religion of Farree is exclusively Mahomedan, as is also that of
more than three-fourths of the towns and villages of the province of
Efat, all of which are under the hereditary viceregal Wallasmah, who
boasts a descent from the famous Mahomed Grahnè, the Adal conqueror
of many portions of the ancient Abyssinian empire, in the sixteenth
century. Efat forms a portion of the valley country, or Argobbah, which
extends from the edge of the table land of Shoa to the Hawash, that
flows along the base of this slope, from the south towards the north.
The northern boundary of Efat is the river Robee, the southern one
being the Kabani; both of them flow into the Hawash.
Late in the afternoon of the 30th of May, the messenger returned
from Angolahlah, with orders from the King that I should be allowed
to proceed thither, and that the stores should be conveyed to his
presence. Considerable bustle and confusion seemed thereupon to take
possession of the previously quiet town. Vociferous proclamations
were from time to time issued by the misselannee in person, standing
upon the stone enclosure in the centre of the market-place. Numerous
informants, willing to be the first bearers of good news, hurried to
acquaint us with the cause of all the stir, and to assure us that
we were to start in the morning; for that the requisite permission
had arrived from the King, and the Wallasmah had directed our mules
to be brought in from the grazing ground. The proclamations of the
misselannee were to the effect that all persons owing suit and service
to the Wallasmah, on account of land held of him, must present
themselves; and either personally, or by their slaves, convey the boxes
and other packages as far as Aliu Amba, on the road to Angolahlah, from
which town a relief party would then take the duty of carrying them the
remaining distance.
From the character of the road, badly constructed and in wretched
condition, all the packages had to be conveyed up the long ascent
to Shoa upon the shoulders of men. Besides, the only beasts of
burden, except an occasional worn-out mule or horse, employed by the
Abyssinians, are asses, and these were found to be unequal to the
carriage of large angular-formed boxes, which, in fact, could not have
been properly secured upon the backs of these little animals.
In the evening the Hy Soumaulee came to bid me good-bye, objecting to
the cold of Angolahlah, when I asked them if they did not intend to
visit me there. They shuddered at the thought of it, and all business
transactions, as regarded payment for their services, were referred
to the agency of the two heads of the Kafilah, Ohmed Mahomed and Ebin
Izaak, who were obliged, of course, to present themselves to the Negoos
Sahale Selassee, and to the British ambassador.
I saw them depart with feelings of regret that I had no means in
my power to reward the services of these faithful, and I will add,
attached Bedouins; beyond bearing testimony to the great capabilities
of their people, who are possessed certainly of the greatest virtues
and of the noblest attributes of our nature, if judged by the standard
of human excellence contained in the Iliad or Æneid, the heroes of
which I would undertake to match with many Dankalli warriors of the
present day. During my stay in this town, it was customary for them to
come from Channo, where they were quartered, to sit with me an hour or
so in the cool of the morning or the evening. On these occasions their
appearance always gave me pleasure, bursting into sight all at once as
they chased each other over the crest of the hill, their dark forms for
a moment boldly relieved upon the bright sky behind them; down they
would come full speed along the tortuous, but easy sloping descent
across the market-place and up the low bank to my residence, shouting
as they came, “Ahkeem, ahkeem,” to give me notice of their approach.
On entering, four or five of them, with their usual impetuosity, would
extend their hands for the sliding contact with the palm of mine,
at the same time calling out together the oft-repeated expression,
“Negarsee,” or “Myhisee,” which respectively characterizes the evening
or morning salutation.
It was after sunset of the last day we were at Farree, before the
Wallasmah sent for us to communicate the pleasure of the King, or
Negoos, as I shall call him for the future. We were ordered to proceed
to Angolahlah; and whilst we were talking, our mules were brought up
and delivered over to Mr. Scott’s servants, that we might start as
early as we pleased the next morning. The Wallasmah also was ordered
to attend at Angolahlah, which was one reason of his having withheld
the information of our departure from us until the last moment. The
summons which he was obliged to obey did not exactly accord with his
wishes, and a two days’ journey for an old man of sixty years of age,
we admitted was a sufficient reason for the increased ill-temper with
which he received the causers of so much trouble when we visited him on
the last occasion. I took with me another pound of gunpowder and some
more coloured cotton cloth; and these had the good effect of restoring
him to perfect good humour: indeed, to show his regard for us, much
to our surprise, he directed some of his attendants to liberate the
unfortunate messenger who had been detected bringing me a letter the
day before Mr. Scott’s arrival, and who, we conceived, had returned to
Ankobar, according as had been stated on one of our first visits by
the Wallasmah himself. Instead of this being the fact, we now found
that the poor fellow had been the whole time confined in his thatched
lock-up, and supplied with a scanty fare of the worst kind of bread
and water. I felt very sorry for him when he came staggering out of
prison, with blood-shot eyes and squalid look; and it was with feelings
of pity rather than of contempt, that I witnessed the broken spirited
man, with shoulders bare, and with the most abject submission, stoop
and kiss the earth at the feet of his unjust and tyrannical oppressor.
The Wallasmah, with the penetrating glance of suspicious cunning,
read in my countenance the detestation I felt at such unwarrantable
conduct on his part, and muttered in excuse, something about the man
having been “one of Krapf’s servants,” as if he considered that quite a
sufficient pretext for the harshest treatment. The Mahomedans of Efat
fully believe, that the exhortations of that zealous missionary alone
prevented the Negoos from changing his religion; as, shortly before his
arrival in Shoa, a Koran and a mollum to expound it to the Christian
monarch, had been sent for to the palace.
Mr. Scott and I were so astonished at seeing the man whom we thought
to be far distant, that we could not say anything. It would have been
a great relief to my indignation if I could have told my thoughts to
the old scoundrel, but this being out of the question, I walked away as
quickly as possible from his presence, followed by Mr. Scott and our
servants; and I do hope that our abrupt and unceremonious departure
annoyed him a little, and thus retaliated in some measure for his
contempt of, and disrespect towards us.
The politic Sahale Selassee, Negoos of Shoa, is well aware of the
character of the Wallasmah, and the value of having such an imbecile
ruling over the restless Mahomedan population of his kingdom. A
governor, indeed, of whom he may truly say, as our Charles the Second
did of himself and of his brother the Duke of York, “That his subjects
would never kill him to make the other King.”
The inhabitants of Efat, much as they dislike the opprobrious position
of living under a Christian monarch, never entertain an idea of
revolting from the Negoos to place themselves under the power of
that vindictive drunkard the Wallasmah Mahomed; whose only claim to
their respect is his religion and his descent from the hero of modern
Abyssinian history, Mahomed Grahnè, of whose extensive kingdom of Adal
this little province of Efat, not so large as Middlesex, is all that
has remained to his family, and even that is now a portion of the
Christian state of Shoa.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Dr. Stukeley. “Stonehenge, a British Temple,” page 53.