Division of time.--My new servant, Goodaloo.--Thatching house.--
Islam assistants.--Kindness of Tinta.--Finish roof.--Feast
upon the occasion.--Remarks upon practice of eating raw meat.
The Abyssinians divide the day and night into eight portions of three
hours each, and as they commence their fasts the evening preceding, it
is to be presumed that they begin a new day at sunset, like the Jews
and Arabs. Three hours after sunset is _leilet_, “evening,” all the
time intervening between nine o’clock and twelve being so called. From
“night’s noon,” or _aculilielet_, until _duro-oitshiart_, “cockcrow,”
is another term of three hours, and from cockcrow to _twart_,
“sunrise,” is three more; after twart is _arrafat_, or “nine o’clock;”
then _aculican_, “mid-day,” between which and sunset is _tuzziart_, or
“afternoon.”
During the first night after taking possession of my new house,
about the hour of “duro-oitshiart,” (here let the reader learn a
little Amharic), I was awakened, by a loud thunder-storm, to the
disagreeable discovery that my new residence was not water-proof, for
the roof admitted a great deal more rain than it threw off, and had
not Walderheros constructed a kind of pent-house over my bed with a
stiffly-dried ox-hide, I should have been very soon wet through. The
necessity, too, of having some kind of candle or other on emergencies,
was forcibly suggested to us, by the difficulty we experienced in
getting the damp fire-wood lighted, by the blaze of which alone we
could see to arrange our substitutes for umbrellas. Walderheros,
however, soon overcame all difficulties, and after extending his bed,
the aforesaid skin, over me for my protection, he coiled himself up
under a huge Amharic shield, tilted upon its edge, and supported by a
stick in that position.
It is unnecessary to say we did not go to sleep again, but kept talking
away about what we would do to the roof, as soon as the sun had risen,
and we could only get out. Accordingly by twart (sunrise), Walderheros
had started on a long walk nearly to Ankobar to get some straw, and
also to engage a “wandum,” that is, a near relation of his whom I had
determined, at his request, to receive as an additional servant. His
wages were to be only five ahmulahs a-month, about one shilling and a
half-penny, and as he was stated to be the very first of all modern
thatchers, I did not consider this an extravagant demand, particularly
as I required his services so much at this time.
“Wandum” is, strictly speaking, brother, but with the Shoans it
is used as a general term for all male relatives. An uncle is the
“wandum,” of the mother or father, as the case may be, whilst cousins,
especially between opposite sexes, appear to be more affectionately
related than our brothers or sisters. A friend is called “wordage,”
a name derived from some relation between them and one’s own bowels,
“word,” signifying that viscera, which reminded me of a scriptural
passage, where, describing the affection of some one for another, it is
said that “his bowels yearned towards him.” “Bal-ingero,” is another
expressive term for a companion, signifying “the possessor or sharer of
bread.” And as I am on the subject, I may mention, that an additional
term of friendly relationship among this very social people, is derived
from the circumstance of the marriage tie in this country, being but
very loosely observed. “Leech enart,” mother’s child, is sometimes
bestowed upon a very dear friend, as being expressive of a great deal
more affection than “Leech abat,” father’s child.
By “arrafat,” nine o’clock, A.M., Walderheros, and his wandum,
Goodaloo, appeared at the rude misshapen wicket in the small ring
fence of jowarree stalks, that enclosed my garden. Both were bending
beneath huge bundles of the straw-like cimbyllal grass, but being too
large to admit of passing through the narrow entrance, they were thrown
down in the little lane that led from my house, and from a few other
neighbouring ones, into the principal street on our side of the town,
to the market-place.
Goodaloo, was spare, short, and active, seemingly designed by nature
for the ticklish occupation he professed; for the frail stick skeleton
roof, when divested of the old straw, looked as if it would have given
way beneath the foot of a cat. After a professional survey, and a
most important consultation with Tinta, his deputy, a Christian like
himself, and half-a-dozen rich Islam inhabitants, it was determined to
be most advisable, that only a portion of the roof should be renewed
at once, so that I might have the shelter, either of the old or of the
newly finished roof, to sleep under, during the three days required to
put all to rights. The Governor and his Deputy, however, were the only
useful members of this Council, for the former directed his servants to
supply me with the necessary grass, whilst the latter assisted Goodaloo
in thatching. The Islam gentlemen, with the cool dignity which, somehow
or other, they do assume most naturally, sat down upon the skins
brought for that purpose, and proceeded to call for coffee, and to give
directions to their Christian superiors, in a manner that would have
delighted Satan himself, to have observed, if he takes any pleasure at
all, in seeing honest, simple humility, treated with the most evident
contempt.
All this time, I was glad to keep out of the way, lying upon the alga
inside; but when actual business commenced, I began to think I must
retreat into the open air. Black, sooty flakes, now began to fall
thickly from the glistening well-smoked roof frame, which consisted of
long bamboo canes, that diverging from an elevated centre spread around
in a wide circumference, to rest upon a round wattled wall of sticks
and mud. To this annoyance, was soon added falling bits of rotten
thatch, that descended upon my bare head and shoulders, until I could
stand it no longer, but rushed out of the dirty mess and seated myself
upon a quantity of clean straw near to my Mahomedan visitors, who
appeared to have made my garden a public café, for they kept coming and
going all day, staying a little to watch if the proceedings were going
on to their satisfaction, and aiding, to the extent of an “Inshallah”
(please God), “it would be finished by to-morrow.”
Before evening, one-third of the roof was well covered in, for as I had
promised to give a couple of sheep at the conclusion of the business,
to the servants of Tinta, they worked away at his cimbyllal grass, as
if it had been all my own; and had I not inwardly resolved to return
his kindness in some way or other, my conscience would have often
induced me to call out, “Hold! enough!”
_July 30th._--By cock-crow again Tinta’s servants were at my gate
with straw, and Walderheros and Goodaloo went out to recommence upon
the roof. We continued to be highly favoured by the weather, only a
slight shower or two interrupting the otherwise bright sunshine in
which I lay basking on my straw couch all day. A thick mist enveloped
the whole length of the Ankobar range in front, which seemed to
attract all the clouds, or at least condensed the moisture in the
atmosphere to the west of Aliu Amba, leaving the more favoured country
to the east beneath a clear and beautiful sky. The heavy bank of fog,
however, prognosticated rain to us, and every time it caught the eye of
Walderheros, he seemed to move as quickly again, as he supplied with
fast filled arms the bundles of cimbyllal to the two workmen upon the
roof. So expeditiously, indeed, did all proceed, that before sunset
the whole was finished, although, for farther security and ornament,
another day’s labour was required, which was promised with much
self-gratulation by Goodaloo, who confidently asserted that had the
house been thatched for the Negoos himself, it could not have been done
more quickly or more scientifically.
It being too late, and the men too tired to kill and dress sheep,
Tinta’s servants partook, as last evening, of a plain repast with
Goodaloo and Walderheros, consisting only of dry teff pancakes, and
a sop or two in a shallow earthenware vessel of the cayenne soup. To
improve this very poor dinner, I gave Walderheros an ahmulah to get
some “tallah,” and he bought for that sum about fifteen gallons of
excellent ale. This he and two of his companions brought into the
house in three large jars, a girl following with the ahmulah, which,
I expect, she had changed for one of her mother’s smallest, and after
spanning the salt-piece before my face, with a very lackadaisical look,
intimated that it was a very thin one, and she hoped I would give her
a larger one instead. Walderheros, who was just as cunning as any of
his countrymen or women either, always kept the ahmulahs he received in
exchange for dollars in two bags, one containing the larger, the other
the smaller ones. With the former, sheep and tobacco were purchased,
as for these commodities none but the best ahmulahs are taken, whilst
the latter were generally given in return for services performed by any
of the neighbours, and which I paid for, according to Walderheros’s
idea, far too liberally. In the present case, on my telling the girl
she should choose for herself, down came the bag containing the little
ones, the trick of which I was not then aware, and after a long search,
none pleasing the lady, she withdrew, keeping the one which had been
originally given to her.
One of the jars being now placed upon a low chair that had come to
me as a memolagee for some medicine, a long mekanet, or girdle, from
the loins of one of the party was carefully wrapped around the wide
circular mouth of the jar, after the dirty dry seal of cow-dung and
clay had been removed. Over the lip of the vessel, slowly strained
through the cloth, flowed the now released liquor, which was received
into well-shaped drinking-horns of a conical form, and about nine
inches deep. One, full of the sparkling beverage, was handed to me,
Walderheros, in the first place, pouring a little into the hollow of
his hand and drinking it, as the tasters of food and of drink of old
are represented to have done previous to serving their superiors. This
little ceremonial, though its origin is entirely forgotten by the
Shoans, is never omitted by them, and we here find a custom, first
established by a fearful policy, still retained as a matter of form,
and as a dutiful obeisance of inferiors to their masters. The drinking
party sat together in the dark talking for some hours, industriously
replenishing the horns until two of the jars were emptied of their
contents, when, pretty comfortable, no doubt, Walderheros and his
friends quietly subsided upon the ground, where they had been sitting
so long; their busy talk was stayed at once, and all was soon as still
as the night should be.
_July 31st._--Long before sunrise I was again disturbed by Tinta’s
servants, who were up and leaving my house to return home, so as not to
be absent at the first call of their master. This day was to be devoted
to the beautifying and adorning the new roof after the most approved
design. The broken neck of an old jar was soon found, which served as
a kind of coronet to gather the loose ends of the thatch at the apex.
Immediately below this were thrust two sticks across each other, their
projecting extremities preventing a tight band of very pliant twigs
from starting, and which beneath it had been twisted several times
around the loose ends, still farther to secure this part of the roof,
that, as the centre of the whole, was something analogous to the key
stone of an arch.
This being finished, the flat hands of Walderheros and Goodaloo were
applied to the irregular projecting straw ends of the lower edge or
circumference of the roof, which were patted gently back into one even
line, with something like the attention to detail of a careful barber
arranging the straggling hairs of a full-bottomed wig. The circuit of
the whole having been made, I was duly called upon to inspect their
work; but as I supposed that it was not so much to give an opinion as
it was to express my approbation, I took care sufficiently to gratify
them, by stating it to be my firm belief that no “Gypt” could have done
it half so well. To subdue unqualified approbation, and that my praise
should have the more importance, as coming from a man of decidedly good
taste, I suggested that a brightly painted red earthenware crown piece
to the whole, like those used to beautify their churches, would have
looked more religious, and better than the ragged rusty looking neck
of the broken jar, which, not having been put on exactly square, but
cocked a little on one side, gave a rather saucy slovenly finish to my
cottage ornée.
My indefatigable Islam friends now came to congratulate me upon my roof
being finished, and began asking about the cow, with the blood of which
I was to sanctify the door-posts, as they said, to keep “Shaitan” from
disturbing me. They contended that, to render the charm efficacious,
the animal must be killed by a Mahomedan. I shook my head, and denied
the necessity of this, or indeed of the sacrifice at all; but I told
them, as they had helped me so much, they were very welcome to partake
of the two sheep Walderheros had already gone to purchase. They said
not a word in reply, and many of them considered my offer to be a
gross insult, and stayed away several days in consequence. However, as
I had now begun to speak a little Amharic, and did not require their
assistance so much as formerly to interpret for me, I was ungrateful
enough to allow them to come round again in their own good time.
The evening was spent by Walderheros and his friends killing the
sheep; and having boiled the meat in several earthenware vessels,
demonstrated, by a very hearty meal, that on ordinary occasions the
Shoans are as fond of cooked meat as the rest of mankind.
The customary practice of eating it raw, so singular, and apparently
so characteristic of a barbarous and savage disposition, has, in
Abyssinia, a natural inducement for its indulgence, which, I think, is
an apt illustration of the manner, in which man is led instinctively,
to the employment of such means within his reach, to enable him fully
to enjoy life, under whatever circumstances of situation he may be
placed.
The difference of food between the inhabitants of the Arctic region
and those of low intertropical countries is so great, that it has not
failed to strike physiologists, who have, from the comparison, been led
to the knowledge of an important truth in the natural economy of man.
It has been observed that human life is supported in these opposite
extremes of situation by different kinds of food, and that whilst in
the north, blubber and enormous quantities of raw meat are devoured
by the natives, that in the torrid zone, vegetables constitute the
principal diet. The reason is, that during the process of digestion a
considerable amount of natural heat is engendered in the system, and
this is found to be determined in quantity by the nature of the food.
An entirely fleshy diet occasions the development of its maximum,
and contributes materially to the comfort of man in cold situations,
whilst, on the contrary, vegetables are scarcely able to excite
sufficient heat necessary to convert them into nutriment; and, in fact,
beneficent nature has provided for such a want, by supplying in hot
climates a sort of artificial warmth, in the stimulating aromatics
which are the characteristic productions of the torrid zone.
The high table land of Abyssinia, although situated between the tropic
of Cancer and the equator, from its great elevation of ten thousand
feet or more above the level of the sea, possesses a climate which
is not less cold than that of the northern parts of Scotland. Being
a country but poorly wooded, the chief supply of fuel being the dung
of cattle, an instinctive feeling dependent upon the pleasures of a
state of warmth, has taught the Abyssinians that the flesh of animals
eaten raw is a source of great physical enjoyment, by the cordial and
warming effects upon the system produced by its digestion, and to which
I am convinced _bon vivants_ more civilized than the Abyssinians would
resort if placed in their situation. Travellers who have witnessed
their “brunde” feasts can attest the intoxicating effects of this kind
of food, and they must have been astonished at the immense quantities
that can be eaten in the raw state, compared to that when the meat is
cooked, and at the insensibility which it sometimes produces. Eating
raw meat, therefore, a usual practice with the Esquimaux, and which
among them is an absolute necessity, by the Abyssinians is considered
a luxury, or in fact as a kind of dissipation, for eating it in that
state is only indulged in by them at festivals, and it is then taken
as a means of enjoyment, and is not more barbarous or disgusting than
getting tipsy upon strong drinks.