Abyssinian dress.--Visit to the Negoos.--Inspection of fire-arms.--
Congratulated on my reception.--Return to Aliu Amba.--A
troublesome companion.--Pleasant beverage.--Market day.--
Numerous visitors.--Home manufacture of cloth.
_August 13th._--Every endeavour was now made by the worthy priests
to obviate any ill effects from the exposure during the night; fresh
billets were piled upon the hearth, and dry clothes being sent for
from the palace, with Walderheros’ assistance I was soon dressed as
a southern Abyssinian. I did not look to advantage, certainly, in my
new suit, for the _sennafil_, a pair of very loose petticoat drawers,
fastened by a thick, but soft, cotton rope around my waist, left my
white thin legs bare for more than a hand’s-breadth above the knee.
In lieu of my shirt the long _mekanet_, or girdle, a narrow band of
cloth one cubit wide, and sometimes twenty or even thirty cubits long,
was wrapt around my loins, being spread open over my chest, and behind
almost as high as my shoulders. It is not usual for the Abyssinians to
wear this in the house, but as I thought that I was not quite bound by
their habits, considering my present weak state, I had put it on as a
substitute for a shirt. Over all was thrown a most comfortable thick
cloth of the softest cotton, more like a light blanket than anything
else. This part of the dress, which is called _legumbigalla_, is about
four times the size of a Scotch plaid, and worn very much in the same
manner, but is an ordinary, not extraordinary, article of clothing, and
is hardly ever off the shoulders of an Abyssinian, except when occupied
in some laborious duty.
Being thus attired in the costume of the country, and having drank a
bottle of the very strongest barilla tedge, I felt quite recovered, and
in reply to a message from the Negoos, inquiring if I were well enough
to wait upon him that morning; proposed going at once to the palace, as
I was anxious, whilst under the influence of the reaction, to get over
a considerable portion of the fatiguing road home.
It was ten o’clock, however, before a second messenger from the Negoos
desired me to go immediately to see him, as he wanted me to give an
opinion upon the respective merits of a number of rifles and other
guns. Accordingly, on arrival at the palace, I was ushered into an
inner apartment beyond the large central room, and which corresponded
with the porch on the front side, where I had seen his majesty the day
before. This opened, however, into a private court, at the farther
end of which, was the house assigned to the female part of the royal
household, as a residence. In the back porch, if I may so term it,
therefore, I found the Negoos reclining upon a couch covered with a
white cloth, and the usual yellow satin cushions at each end. He was
in his customary dress, a large legumbigalla, like the one I had on,
only ornamented with numerous bars of the red and blue shumlah, which
adds considerably to the value of the cloth. He had also on his feet
a pair of red Turkish slippers and white socks, the only European
articles of dress he had adopted, and these he only wore in the palace;
for whenever I have seen him in the fields around his palaces, he was
always barefooted like his courtiers. I have often regretted that I,
at that time, did not know how to knit, nothing would have pleased
the monarch so much as to have learned the process, and seen growing
beneath his fingers a well-formed stocking. In a cold country, situated
like Abyssinia, knitting would be a most useful art to introduce among
the natives, and I hope, therefore, if any traveller intending to visit
that country reads this book, he will make himself acquainted with that
mysterious accomplishment, which I can assure him is much easier than
he may suppose.
Upon the ground before his Majesty lay some twenty or thirty fowling
pieces and rifles, and several pages and attendants were bringing in
others from the private armoury, where he keeps the more valuable of
his fire-arms. An ox skin was brought and laid down for me to sit
upon, and his Majesty then began to examine me in my knowledge of his
language, but he soon got tired of conversing with me in my halting
Amharic, and directing my attention to the guns, inquired of me to tell
him which was the best among them; I knew very well that he was a much
better judge than myself, and told him so, but unfortunately truth will
never be believed in a court, and he supposed I was complimenting him,
and insisted upon my pointing out the strongest, that he might take it
with him on the next “_zemitchar_” or expedition against the refractory
Galla tribes, which would be during the next month.
On looking over the very decent collection which he had made during
his reign by the contributions of various travellers, who had visited
his kingdom, I observed a rifle, manufactured by Theophilus Richards,
of Birmingham, and pointed it out to the Negoos as having been made in
the town I came from, and as being one of the best. He took it out of
my hands as he said, “Agger sou?” (townsman?) and cocking and uncocking
it, as if there had been music in the sound, remarked that it was
his greatest favourite, and, as if, because I had come from the same
neighbourhood, I must be a gunmaker, added, “You know all about guns,
and when you are quite well, you must teach my servants how to make
them.”
After nearly an hour’s conversation upon the same subject, he bid me
“Good bye,” in the usual abrupt manner, and I retired with Walderheros
to the house of the monks, followed by Tinta, who had been present the
whole of the interview, and who now congratulated me upon the position
I stood in with regard to the Negoos. I certainly did not attach that
importance to his friendship as he seemed to do, although I felt
gratified at the attention my endeavours to serve him and his subjects
appeared to command.
By the time we returned to the college, my wet clothes were all dried,
and I soon divested myself of the Abyssinian costume and resumed my
usual appearance.
There being, however, every prospect of the rain recommencing, we
were all anxious to return to warm weather and Aliu Amba as soon as
possible, and I only remained sitting with the priests until my mule
was brought up. A large goat that had been royally fed with barley
and salt for the king’s own table, afforded a tiresome occupation to
Walderheros and Goodaloo, as in turns they took the long rope attached
to his horns, and endeavoured, much against his inclination, to drag
him along with us. He was as large as a roebuck, and as contumacious
and stiff-necked as well-fed beasts of all descriptions are apt to
be. Now hanging behind, nothing but being positively carried up the
steep miry hill could induce him to ascend to the top, but when
arrived there, he afforded every assistance to my servants on the
descent; beginning the war by rearing up on his hind legs, and with
nose pressed down upon his chest, darted like a flying battering ram,
upon his persecutors, who generally went to the bottom of the hill by
one application of the sort. In this manner he compelled us to come
to terms, and when we arrived at Dubdubhee, Walderheros left him in
charge with his mother, who was to take every care of him for the few
remaining days of the fast; at the conclusion of which, he was destined
to form a prominent actor in the festivity, which it is usual among the
Shoans to indulge in, the day after any term of abstinence has expired.
After remaining nearly all day at Dubdubhee, where my ague paroxysm
came on, and obliged me to stay, we again started, and arrived at Aliu
Amba a few hours before sunset, where I was right glad to lay myself
comfortably down upon my own bed, and under my own roof. A bright fire
soon blazed upon the hearth, and my first essay in the art of brewing
was tested, a large gambo of tallah being brought out of the store
recess, a small concavity being first made in the earthen floor, to
receive its round bottom. The potent beverage was soon being decanted
into large drinking-horns, and the value of misfortunes to heighten
the enjoyment of succeeding pleasures, was demonstrated by the zest
that the comforts of the night derived, from the recollection of the
miseries of the last we had spent at Myolones. My teakettle, half
filled with the ale, was soon heating over the fire, whilst eggs, and
honey, and butter, in another vessel, were being mixed together for the
manufactory of a certain beverage that Wallata Gabriel protested was
to be a cure for my fever, whilst Walderheros, to expel the “saroitsh”
that I understood had already taken possession of his hips and
shoulders, drew from its hiding place his clumsy pipe. In the folds of
his mekanet he soon found some tobacco, and breaking the hard cake in
which it is dried into smaller pieces, charged the slightly excavated
stone bowl, upon the top of which a glowing piece of charcoal was
placed, and consolation and comfort in vast clouds soon spread through
the close apartment.
The “moack,” or egged ale, Wallata Gabriel now prepared for me, was
a drink fit for the entertainment of the gods when, in the good
old times, they made Abyssinia an annual visit, and from whom the
knowledge of it must have been first derived. It consisted of two or
three drinking-hornsful of strong tallah, as many eggs, and two large
spoonsful of honey for each horn of beer. A little butter was added,
when the mixture was boiling over the fire; that which, however, gave
to it its pleasantest flavour was a small portion of a warm spice
called _korareema_, a large kind of coriander, one inch and a-half
long, which is brought from Gurague, and the spice country to the
south. They are brought into Shoa by priests travelling to Gondah,
the only individuals that can traverse in safety the different Galla
tribes to the south of the Hawash, between their country and Shoa.
Forty of these _korareema_, threaded upon a strong hempen string, may
be purchased in Aliu Amba for an ahmulah, and in aromatic flavour are
equal, I think, to the best nutmeg or cloves.
Drunk warm this “moack” was an excellent cordial, and I very soon got
into the habit of concluding very pleasantly by its assistance many
very uncomfortable days, either from circumstances or ill-health.
_August 12th._--Market-day again in Aliu Amba, and as usual there was
a deal of bustle in the town, and many visitors calling; however, the
first duty to attend to after getting up was the important business
of breakfast. This invariably consisted of a large teff crumpet which
was fresh toasted in the frying-pan, and well overlaid with butter
and honey. Coffee, having been scorched and pounded by Walderheros,
whilst his wife attended to the bread, was boiled in an earthenware
jar, and black and strong, was then poured into a cup which had at
one time formed part of the canteen of Lieut. Barker. He had bestowed
it upon an Islam friend of his, who resided in a neighbouring town,
and who offered it to me in exchange for a small ounce phial, and
a pomatum pot, which I had previously been obliged to drink out of
for want of anything else. The flavour of the unsugared coffee, was
rendered doubly agreeable by the honey, the cloying sweetness of which,
subduing, and being subdued, by the bitterness of the berry, left the
pleasant and peculiar aroma of the latter alone sensible to the palate.
Scarcely had I partaken of breakfast this morning, before patients
and visitors from distant villages, coming to the market, and taking
this opportunity of calling upon me, thronged around my house, and
memolagees of eggs, butter, and fowls, would, if I had accepted them
all, have most inconveniently occupied the floor of my house. Among
others, the father of Wallata Gabriel came for some medicine he
required, having long been labouring under a rheumatic affection of the
hip. As an offering on the occasion, he brought the entire tapering
trunk of a ted tree, more than fifteen feet long, which I had desired
Walderheros to get me, for the purpose of manufacturing into an English
chair, and also a pair of window frames, over which I intended to
stretch a glaze of oiled parchment, and place in the outer wall of one
of the recesses, to convert it into a study. Another daughter of his,
named Wallata Selassee, assisted the old man in carrying the tree, and
she brought me besides, a number of eggs tied up in the girdle around
her waist.
These had not sat long, and before the old man had finished his
doleful story, when another married daughter of his, her husband,
Walder-Yoannes, and an infant, slung in the lady’s tobe upon
her shoulders, also arrived. They lived in the town of Lomee, a
neighbouring height, visible from my garden, and about half-way
between Aliu Amba, and Myolones, and coming to market with some grain,
they came to my house, to stay for the day, with Wallata Gabriel. In
accordance with Abyssinian custom, they had brought their provisions
with them, a large roll of teff bread being taken out of the mekanet
of Walder-Yoannes, and placed in charge of my housekeeper until after
_tuzziart_, three o’clock, P.M., when, by the regulations of the canon
law, they might make their first meal for the day. A pretty noisy party
I had now collected about me, for they talked at the top of their
voices, and had a great deal to say about one thing or another, and
as they were invited to stay the whole day, and also to make my house
their resting-place, on all other occasions of coming to Aliu Amba,
they soon felt themselves quite at home.
The confused buzzing sound of the distant market, was audible at my
house, and the cries of the different vendors hawking their wares,
resounded along the narrow winding lanes. _Tut allishe ahmulah_,
cotton in exchange for a salt-piece. _Burr allishe ahmulah_, silver in
exchange for the same. _Gaisho allishe tut._ All being different cries,
which, with many others, might be heard in all directions.
My female visitors remaining after their lords and masters had gone
to the market, with the usual industry characteristic of the women
of Shoa, they sat down upon the floor, and chatting away, commenced
spinning cotton; for I had made up my mind to have a cloth woven at
home, from the first operation of cleaning the cotton, to the weaving
of the last bit of _shumlah_, in the ornamented extremity of the tobe.
Walderheros had entered into the spirit of my wish, and had already
exchanged some grain, which we did not require, for a quantity of raw
cotton, as it is taken from the pods of the plant; in which state it
is full of seeds, and other substances, that have to be separated by a
simple process of cleansing I shall describe in another place. He had
now gone to market upon the same business, to purchase more of the raw
material, the value of three ahmulahs, or about thirty pound weight of
cotton, being considered as sufficient for a cloth about eight yards
long, and one cubit broad.