Return to Aliu Amba.--Visited by Hy Soumaulee--Complain of
being cheated by Ohmed Mahomed.--Christians of Abyssinia
and of the Greek Church generally forbidden the use of
tobacco.--Miriam’s house and furniture.--Islam contempt for
Christianity.--Evening walk.--Begging monks.
This morning, Walderheros having hired a mule for two salt-pieces,
we proceeded to Aliu Amba. I was not sorry, on reaching the summit
of the ridge in front of Ankobar, to see again the Dinkee vale,
stretching away before me, studded with eminences and little hill
villages. As nearly as possible in the centre of them all, was the flat
circumscribed summit of the rock of Aliu Amba, which we did not lose
sight of during the whole hour occupied in descending to its foot. The
ride was most tiresome, but my mule had more reason to be dissatisfied
than myself, and glad she was to be at length ascending the irregular
sized steps of displaced stones, which leads on to the little plain
before we reach the first houses in the town. Here she broke into a
gallop, and carried me unresistingly across the market-place, and along
a narrow winding lane, with thatched houses, each in its own snug
enclosure, on either side. At the wicket of one of these the animal
stopped, and my sudden appearance rather astonished two women who were
sitting in the door porch busily spinning cotton. “Woi Gypt, Woi Gypt,”
they repeatedly exclaimed, as they got up from the ground, just in time
to meet Walderheros, who now came running up. He soon explained the
mistake of the mule, and taking hold of the bridle, led her about one
hundred yards farther along the lane, to a house the most miserable
looking of any I had yet seen in the town.
Here, however, I was informed Lieut. Barker had resided for nearly
four months, previously to his return to Aden, and I had been advised,
in Ankobar, to live in the same house, at least until a better one
could be obtained from the Governor. The landlady was a poor Mahomedan
woman, named Miriam, a widow with two children, one a grown up youth of
seventeen, named Ibrahim, and the other a daughter, not more than three
years old.
Arrangements were immediately made for my accommodation, and the news
of my arrival soon spread about the town. Numerous visitors, Christian
and Islam, thronged the entrance of the house all day, the floor being
occupied by the more influential ones. I lay in a little recess, just
long and deep enough to receive my bedstead, a low wooden frame, with a
bottom of interlaced strips of hide, over which an ox skin was thrown
for a mattress.
With such of my new friends who could speak Arabic, I managed to
keep up something like a conversation, and also with some Indians
and Persians, who came, among others, to pay their respects, whom
I gratified with the relation of all the latest news from their
respective countries.
The Governor of Aliu Amba, whose name was Tinta, had not returned from
Angolahlah, but his misselannee, or deputy, dragged into my presence,
by the horns, a fine goat, which he requested me to accept. Walderheros
readily consented in my name, and relieved him at once of his charge,
which was taken forthwith and slaughtered; the Deputy-Governor being
chief butcher on the occasion, getting for his trouble the head and
bowels, which, however, were first brought into me very dutifully, to
obtain my permission for such a disposal.
Seeing preparations made for eating, the crowd gradually withdrew, and
with considerable natural politeness left me alone to partake of my
evening’s meal, without interruption. Fortunately I had brought with
me, from the coast, a tea-kettle, frying-pan, and two other vessels of
tinned copper. These now became very useful, and Walderheros was not
long in placing before me a nicely cooked dinner of boiled meat.
A report of my arrival at Aliu Amba having been carried the same
evening to Channo, the next morning I was astonished at seeing the
house beset by a number of my Hy Soumaulee friends, who, although they
were glad to see me, appeared to be not at all satisfied with something
or other.
As none of the Tajourah people had come with them, I sent for an
Islam sheik, Hadjji Abdullah, who lived in the next house, to come
and interpret between us. This man, by-the-by, came from Berberah, on
the banks of the Nile, in Upper Egypt, yet he made himself perfectly
understood in the Affah language; and I expect, therefore, that some
ethnological connexion will be found to exist between the people of
Dongola and the Dankalli tribes, although I understand that this has
been denied by some modern travellers, on the ground, singularly
enough, of the total distinctness between their two languages.
I was not much surprised to learn that the cause of complaint among the
Hy Soumaulee was, that Ohmed Mahomed, who had received from the British
Embassy one hundred and twenty dollars, to pay them their wages, at the
rate of four dollars each man, had thought proper to give them no more
than one each, and a small coarse cotton cloth not the value of half a
dollar. Of course the Hy Soumaulee knew nothing of the British Embassy;
it was to me they looked for the payment of their stipulated wages, and
which, for the latter part of our journey, I had always stated would
be five dollars to each man. I recollected perfectly that when they
were first engaged I refused to sanction more than four dollars being
given, on the plea that, perhaps, the expense I was incurring would
be objected to as unnecessary, considering that Mr. Cruttenden had
paid in Tajourah all the expenses that we were told would be necessary
upon the road. Ohmed Mahomed, however, replied, that in case the extra
dollar should be refused, Ebin Izaak and himself would each give half
a dollar, and so make up the five dollars per man, and I had therefore
always told the Hy Soumaulee they would receive five dollars each.
When I discovered how they had been cheated by Ohmed Mahomed, who had
actually told them that he had not received a dollar from the Embassy,
but that the dollar he had given to each was that one promised by
himself and Ebin Izaak, I was only surprised they did not sacrifice me
at once to their resentment. I soon disabused them of the deceit that
had been practised upon them, and promised that, as the British Mission
would be in Ankobar in the course of two days, I would go up and see
the Ambassador on purpose that the matter should be examined into.
My old escort then went away very peaceably; but so strict are the
orders of the Negoos to prevent any strangers, more especially those
coming from Adal, to enter the kingdom without special permission, that
the arrival of the Hy Soumaulee in Aliu Amba created quite an alarm,
lest, on the one hand, they should commit violence, although they were
unarmed, except with their heavy knives; or, on the other, that the
displeasure of the Negoos should be excited against the townspeople for
having permitted them to come into Aliu Amba at all.
It was sometime before I became accustomed to the new circumstances
by which I was surrounded. My house was merely a round shed, having a
diameter of about twelve feet, the wall of dry sticks, five feet high,
being surmounted by the usual conical roof of thatch. Opposite to the
entrance was a slight deviation from the exact periphery of a circle,
occasioned by the recess before mentioned, in which was contained
my wide couch. Here the wall bulged out something like a bow window
in form, and was covered by a little elongation of the roof in that
situation. Nearly in the centre of the apartment was a dilapidated
raised ring of clay and pebbles, some five or six inches high, and
about three feet in diameter. This formed the hearth, within which two
large stones, and the broken-off neck of an old jar, formed a kind
of tripod, that occasionally supported a smoke-blacked earthenware
“macero,” or cooking pot, in which was being boiled either some sort
of grain or other for the family, or else the meat for mine and
Walderheros’ supper.
On one side, ranged along the wall, stood several large jars, two
of which, covered by gourd shell drinking cups, contained water,
whilst others, superannuated by sundry cracks, were partly filled with
teff, or wheat. The former is the minute seed of a kind of grass,
of which is made the bread of the temperate countries of Abyssinia,
as it flourishes best in situations between the wheat and barley
fields cultivated upon the high table land of Shoa, and the jowarree
plantations in the very low countries on a level with the Hawash.
The only piece of furniture, strictly speaking, in the house, except my
bed, was a chair of the most primitive construction, its thong-woven
bottom being scarcely six inches from the ground. It would have been
altogether a good model for some rustic seat builder about to fit up
the interior of a garden alcove. My two boxes assisted, however, in
producing a showy effect, one of them being a Chinese trunk, covered
with bright red leather, the other a shiny tin medicine chest, and to
make them useful as well as ornamental, they were generally converted
into seats on the occasion of any visitors of rank calling upon me.
Besides these things, old red gowns of my landlady, and some tattered
grass-made baskets and sieves used in dressing and cleaning grain, were
suspended from the projecting ends of the stick wall, and made the
interior of the house look rather untidy.
Walderheros was one of the few Abyssinians I have met who appeared to
delight in cleanliness, and a pretty dust he was continually raising,
by sweeping with a large handful of well-leaved boughs the clay floor
of our residence. He delighted also in the unholy pleasures of the
pipe, a severe rheumatism always affecting him when he was about to
indulge; and I often smile when I think of the canting tone and long
visage with which he used to apostrophise the inanimate object of his
affections, a gourd shell pipe, as he drew it towards him, and excused
such a dereliction of duty as a Greek Christian, upon the plea that
nothing but the smoke of tobacco could drive out the “saroitsh,” or
demons, who, according to Abyssinian belief, affect the frame when
suffering from any disease.
According to a tradition of the Greek Church, it appears that the devil
paid repeated visits to Noah when he commenced building the ark, for
the purpose of ascertaining by what means and of what materials he
constructed it. The patriarch, however, kept his own counsel, until
the devil called to his aid the herb tobacco, with which, it seems, he
made poor Noah drunk, and whilst in that state the enemy of mankind
wormed his secret from him. Thus assisted (for it is said Noah became
an inveterate smoker), the devil availed himself of the darkness of
night to undo all that Noah had put together during the day, and this
was the principal cause that the building of the ark extended over so
long a period. “Ever since that time,” saith the tradition, “God has
laid a heavy curse upon tobacco.”[4] If some of the precepts of the
Gospel were observed with equal veneration as is this ridiculous story
by Abyssinian Christians, we should not have to regret the low ebb to
which our religion has been reduced in this priest-ridden, but I must
not say consequently, benighted land.
Walderheros, however, was a business man, and before he sat down to
smoke, he was careful to shut out observers of the fact, by fixing
in its place the old rotten door of three or four untrimmed trunks
of small trees, tied into a kind of flat surface by the tough bark
of a species of mimosa tree. This hung by two hinges of thongs to a
crooked door-post, and shut against the wall on the opposite side,
where its own weight kept the entrance securely closed. When all had
been arranged satisfactorily, he would drag the clumsy chair into a
position opposite to my couch, and sitting down with his back to the
door, place the rude pipe between his feet. Then applying his mouth
to the end of its long stem, between each puff he would look up, to
tell me in Amharic the name of some object for me to write down,
whilst he in return would endeavour to learn their Arabic names,
which language for some reason or other, he seemed very anxious to
learn. I found afterwards that he thought it was English, and wished
to learn something of it, on purpose to understand me when speaking
my own language, and thus become the admiration of a circle of his
acquaintance burning with curiosity to know what I might be saying.
Walderheros was, in fact, the best caricature I ever met of that spirit
which prompts empirics to employ unintelligible language to increase
the presumption of their extensive learning. If any of his friends were
present, I could never get a syllable from him but one or other of
about a dozen Arabic words he had picked up. Everything was “_ewah_”
(yes) or “_la la_” (no), and how happy he was when circumstances
admitted of his saying “_tahle_” (come), or “_rah_” (go), and the grave
satisfaction with which he turned round to interpret to his simple
gaping companions the meaning of the conversation they had just been
treated with, was most ridiculously absurd. When he met a real Arab
it was still better; all impatience to display his vast knowledge of
their language, every word he knew of it would be pressed into service,
whilst the wondering auditor, who would have understood him well enough
in Amharic, with a vacant look would probably turn to me, and say,
“_Arder rigal muginoon fee!_” (That man is a fool!)
His temper, however, was provokingly good, for besides its being a
great contrast to my own, I half suspected under such a bland exterior
some deceit must lurk, but he was a lesson in human nature, and patient
ugliness will for the future be a recommendation to me. When illness
and pain had contrived to make me the most fretful and irritable
of mortals, how often have I been reproved, for my unreasonable
upbraidings and continually finding fault, by his constantly mild
reply, “_Anter gaitah_,” “_Anter gaitah_” (“You are my master,” “You
are my master”.)
I was not unfrequently visited by venerable sheiks and learned mollums,
who, with the usual Mahomedan assumption of superiority, squatted down
upon the boxes uninvited, and considered themselves at liberty to beg,
borrow, or steal, as opportunities afforded, without any remonstrance
from the Feringhee they affected to patronize.
Although at this time the town of Aliu Amba had a Christian governor,
more than three-fourths of its inhabitants were Mahomedans. These were
exceedingly cautious in the expression of any dislike towards the
religion of their rulers, but their prejudice against the Christian
faith only rankled the more in their bosoms. It showed itself chiefly
in petty acts of contempt or slight that could not well be complained
of without betraying some littleness of spirit. Many of my visitors,
for example, when they saw the body of a slaughtered sheep hanging
upon the wall, would, with the coolest impudence imaginable, hold their
noses when they came into the house, as if it had become tainted by
being killed by Walderheros.
Again, they always expected to have the first cup of coffee handed to
them, and, in fact, this was the only refreshment they ever deigned
to partake with me. When my servant complained to me that my visitors
represented this, which my politeness in the first place had induced
me to practise, to be an acknowledgment of their superiority as Islam
believers, I soon put a stop to the mistaken idea, and if they did
not choose to take the only cup I had, after me, they went without.
It was some time before they became reconciled to the precedence of a
Christian, even in such a trivial matter as this. In doing as I did,
there was, perhaps, but little credit on my side, for I opposed their
prejudice from a zealous weakness that differed not the least from the
principle which had actuated them; but the heart of man is everywhere
the same. “Thus I trample,” said Diogenes, “upon the pride of Plato.”
“With equal pride,” retorted the insulted sage.
Towards evening it was usual whilst I lived at Miriam’s, for me,
attended by Walderheros, to walk to the edge of the precipitous face,
looking towards the east, of the rock upon which Aliu Amba is built.
Here, upon a large stone, high above the narrow winding footpath, that
leads from one end of the ridge to the other, I would sit looking
upon the narrow but fertile valley in front, formed by the junction
of the two flanking streams that nearly encircled the hill. Numerous
little tributaries on each side had formed small pyramidal knolls,
carefully cultivated to the very tops. One in particular, higher than
the rest, was crowned with a snug-looking village, the conical roof of
the largest house in which, pointed into an exact cone the figure of
the hill. The name of this village was Sar-amba; the road to Ankobar
skirts along its base, leaving on the right hand the town and hill of
Aliu Amba. To the left of my position, the peak of the stateprison hill
of Gauncho, and the seat of the Wallasmah Mahomed, was just visible
over a continuous range of hills, that diminished in elevation as they
approached nearer to the town of Farree, and which marked very well the
original level of the once sloping talus, or scarp, which connected the
high table land of Abyssinia with the low plains around the Hawash.
Whilst sitting one evening upon my usual stone, the loud whining appeal
of two turbaned dirty figures announced the presence of begging monks,
an order very numerous in Shoa. Their long prayer to the Almighty was
still going on, and I in utter ignorance for what purpose two robust
and healthy men could be addressing me in such a monotonous duet.
Walderheros pretended to know nothing about them, and had it not been
for some women who stood by amusing themselves with the appearance of
the new come Gypt, or Egyptian, the monks would have had as much chance
of obtaining alms from the rocks around me, as of opening my heart or
understanding to their appeal. “Ahmulah, ahmulah!” cried two or three
of the women, and I then found out that I must bestow in charity a salt
piece, the name of which had already become familiar to me.
Walderheros soon came back from the errand I had sent him upon, to
procure the bulky coin, which was, however, refused by the surly
monks, with a look and grimace that said quite enough, as they duly
measured the ahmulah with a span, and found that it was too short
for their taste. Again Walderheros was sent to the skin bag in which
was deposited the remainder of my last change for a dollar. The
cunning fellow, however, instead of procuring another, as he told me
afterwards, brought back the same ahmulah again, and as the monks did
not think it decent to return it a second time, they growled out the
usual blessing of peace and good fortune for me, with an imprecating
curse for the benefit of Walderheros, and then walked away.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] This is an old tradition of the Greek Church. Where it
is to be found I cannot say, although it is said to be
recorded in some of the works of the early Fathers.
It is, I think, a proof that tobacco was known in
Africa previously to the discovery of America. It is
a curious fact, also, that Ignez Pallmee, the German
traveller in Kordofan, found in that country potatoes
used largely as food.