No prospect of recovery.--Slaughter of the goat.--Manufacture
of skin-bags.--The process.--Farming.--The bark employed.--
Morocco leather.--Carcase butchers.--Process of cutting up meat.
_August 21st._--The termination of the fast of Felsat was hailed with
considerable pleasure by the very best of Christians in Shoa, and this
happened on the last day of the interval which dates this chapter, for
increasing want of space compels me to relinquish the usual diurnal
account. As it happened, nothing of importance occurred, except only
that I began to find myself gradually getting weaker and weaker, and
the symptoms of my illness increasing in violence upon every fresh
attack. I attributed this, in a great measure, to the wet season, which
was now most decidedly set in, and for the last three or four days
especially it had rained without intermission. It was a cheerless time,
the moist foggy state of the atmosphere, and the muddy condition of the
road, quite prevented me from taking my usual walks, and looking at the
dripping state of my thatched roof, or listening to the pattering of
the large rain drops against my parchment window, was all the amusement
I had after I had determined to confine myself more to bed, either
to recruit myself after the severe fever paroxysms, or with the hope
of averting in some measure the force of their attack by a little
careful nursing. I ceased, too, to take any pleasure in the interesting
conversations of Ibrahim, or Sheik Tigh, or, in fact, any one from whom
previously I had ever been most inquiring respecting every subject of
importance or novelty I could think of to ask about. My cup of coffee
in the morning, or a drinking hornful of the warmed ale, was the only
thing I dare indulge in, for solids of any kind had a great tendency to
occasion congestion in the brain, and after eating anything a severe
headache was the certain consequence. I took the hint, and gave up
the honeyed repast at breakfast and the fricassee at night, and made
a point of conciliating as much as possible that irritable viscus the
stomach, that seemed after all to be at the bottom of the evil.
It was a horrible retribution, therefore, for Walderheros to
contemplate, and which, no doubt, will have a beneficial effect upon
his future conduct as regards the respect due to the institutions of
the Church, when, on the morning after the end of the fast, which was
to be a day of great rejoicing, I intimated my determination to eat
no more flesh meat for at least a week. After all my jests about the
folly of fasting, telling my people that during the continuance of such
terms of abstinence, I was a good Mahomedan, and having by my example
on more than one occasion, tempted him and the others of my household
to indulge in food when they ought to have been observing a stricter
discipline--after all this, on the day appointed for rejoicing, to
see all appetite taken from me was so evidently a judgment from
heaven, that I was strongly recommended to propitiate the Virgin
Mary immediately by bestowing the goat, which the Negoos had sent to
me at Myolones, upon a church dedicated to the Mother of Christ. So
disinterested in fact, was Walderheros, that he went off to procure one
of the priests upon the establishment, and who, when he arrived, had I
carried out my servant’s intentions, would have walked away with the
goat immediately, such was his anxiety for my restoration to the favour
of heaven.
I could not be very well angry with Walderheros, and I was too ill
either to laugh at, or to endeavour to convert the priest, so I
dismissed him with an ahmulah, for his willingness to relieve me of the
supposed ban under which I was laid. When he was gone, however, the
weather having cleared up a little, I directed my servants to kill the
goat, and to ask such of their Christian friends who lived in Aliu Amba
to come to the party on the occasion, as I wanted it eaten up, that no
temptation should exist to divert me from my resolution not to take any
animal food.
The best butcher in the place, Tinta’s misselannee, who had always
shown himself ready to render assistance whenever I required some
extra hand, could not, of course, be omitted. Gwalior, another servant
of Tinta, and a patient of mine, was also called in at the death of
the doomed goat, which gallantly showed fight, surrounded, as he was,
by a host of hungry enemies, who, besides seeking the satisfaction
of revenge for the indiscriminate tuppings and bumpings he had given
and occasioned among the party, had had their interest excited by the
portions of his venison mutton, that each, in the mind’s eye, already
saw hanging up in a mimosa tree that grew in my garden, and which
formed the shambles generally on such occasions.
A lot of yelping boys came into the enclosure, and crowded about the
butchers aiding the goat in his attempts to get away, by attempting to
catch him, and of course running in the way of those who might have
been able to do it. A number of women also thronged in as the stir
became faster, and who stood around me as a kind of body-guard, for
the leaping “diabolus” of a goat sometimes threatened even to make our
heads a stepping-stone to fly over the high enclosure. A long lasso at
length being thrown ignobly at his feet, the next move he made ensnared
him by the leg, and the triumph of his life-hunters was complete. The
rope being run around the trunk of the mimosa, the unwilling goat was
dragged, like a victim of Spanish civil war, backwards to his doom, and
a prayer of peace being muttered by the clerk, Walderheros, the high
priest, the misselannee, cut the throat of their prey, the invocation
of the Trinity, like the Islam “ul Allah,” sanctifying the bloody
business of depriving an animal of life.
It is singular to observe the pertinacity of custom, and how
characteristic of descent particular habits and ceremonies become
long after the separation of different nations from their original
root. The Arabs, the Amhara, or the Abyssinians, and the Jews, all
precede the slaughter of animals for food with some short prayer,
which, differing in form, is still the same custom, and which, I think,
originated at a period antecedent to their dispersion as different
nations into the several countries they now occupy. It has also
continued among them, even changed as these nations are in religion and
social character, the Hebrew trader, the Arab nomade shepherd, and the
Abyssinian agriculturist. Jew, Mahomedan, and Christian, still retain
this evidence of a common origin, but which marks an ethnological era
posterior, I believe, by many centuries to the more general custom of
circumcision common to all these people, and to many other African
nations.[10]
Such a goat as had just been killed, fed up to the high condition he
was in, could not have been bought in the market for less than ten
ahmulahs, two shillings and twopence. The skin alone, however, is
supposed to be worth three ahmulahs; and great care is taken not to
injure it with the point of the knife, when flaying the carcase. To be
of any value, it must be taken off uncut, except around the neck, and
in those situations necessary to enable the butchers to draw the legs
out of the skin. Also, of course, where the first incision is made to
commence the process, and which is a circular cut carried around both
haunches, not many inches from and having the tail for a centre. The
hide is then stripped over the thighs, and two smaller incisions being
made around the middle joint of the hind legs, enable them to be drawn
out. A stick is now placed to extend these extremities, and by this,
for the convenience of the operators, the whole carcase is suspended
from the branch of a tree, and by some easy pulls around the body,
the skin is gradually withdrawn over the forelegs, which are incised
around the knees to admit of their being taken out; after which, the
head being removed, the whole business concludes by the skin being
pulled inside out over the decollated neck. One of the parties now
takes a rough stone and well rubs the inside surface, to divest it of
a few fibres of the subcutaneous muscle which are inserted into the
skin, and after this operation it is laid aside until the next day; the
more interesting business of attending to the meat calling immediate
attention.
These entire skins are afterwards made into sacks by the apertures
around the neck and legs being secured by a double fold of the skin
being sewed upon each other, by means of a slender but very tough
thong. These small seams are rendered quite air-tight, and the larger
orifice around the haunches being gathered together by the hands, the
yet raw skin is distended with air, and the orifice being then tied
up, the swollen bag is left in that state for a few days until slight
putrefaction has commenced, when the application of the rough stone
soon divests its surface of the hair. After this has been effected,
a deal of labour, during at least one day, is required to soften the
distended skin by beating it with heavy sticks, or trampling upon it
for hours together, the labourer supporting himself by clinging to the
bough of a tree over head, or holding on by the wall of the house. In
this manner, whilst the skin is drying, it is prevented from getting
stiff, and still further to secure it from this evil condition, it is
frequently rubbed with small quantities of butter. When it is supposed
that there is no chance of the skin becoming hard and easily broken,
the orifice is opened, the air escapes, and a very soft flaccid
leather bag is produced, but which, for several days after, affords an
amusement to the owner, when otherwise unemployed, by well rubbing it
all over with his hands.
Almost all the produce of the fields is conveyed to the market in such
sacks as these--cotton, grain, and the Berberah pepper. It is even the
only moneybag employed to carry home the salt returns for the different
wares that have been sold. None other could have been employed by
Joseph’s brethren when they loaded their asses and went down into
Egypt; for none are more naturally the resources of a shepherd people,
or better adapted by their form and size for the little useful animal
which seems to have been as universally employed by the Jews as by
the Amhara of the present day. By a species of gratitude, sincere as
it is deserved, _hiyah_, the word signifying _ass_, is used by the
latter people as another designation for friend; and I well remember
the mistake of a learner of that language who went into a great rage by
being accosted “hiyah” by an Amhara friend.
The skins of sheep and of small goats are made into parchment by being
more particularly divested of the fleshy fibres with the rough stone,
and then, after the hairs have been removed by putrefaction, simply
drying in the sun. For this purpose, it is stretched in a favourable
situation, a few inches from the ground, by a number of small wooden
pegs, which are inserted into small apertures made in the edge of the
skin, and it is thus prevented from becoming corrugated during the
process of drying.
In the same manner, the larger hides of cows and oxen are dried,
most frequently before putrefaction has produced any effect upon the
hairs, and which, of course, then remain. This is the general seat
for visitors during the day, and their bed at night, unless a tanned
hide (_nit_, as it is termed) can be procured, and which is considered
softer and more suitable for a respected guest.
The _nit_, or leather, is tanned by being made into a kind of trough,
which contains an infusion of the bark of the _kantuffa_ acacia.
This trough is formed by a skin being loosely extended upon four
stick supports, which elevate it about a foot from the ground. The
kantuffa bark, after being well pounded in a mortar, is strewed over
the surface, and the hollow is then filled with cold water, and in the
course of a few days a strong red infusion is made, with which the
whole surface of the skin is frequently washed, and when evaporation
has reduced its contents to a sloppy paste, the sticks are withdrawn,
the ends folded in, and with the contained mass, the skin then
undergoes the usual fatiguing process of treading, until the evidences
of the nit being properly prepared are satisfactory.
The bark of the _kantuffa_ reminded me of that of the red mimosa of
Adal, which produced an astringent gum, something like _kino_, but
not, I considered, so powerful a drug. This tree, however, was pointed
out to me as being that with the bark of which the Dankalli tan their
affaleetahs, or small water-skins, carried by travellers; for the
larger ones are prepared with the hair left on, by simply drying in the
hot sun, after having been distended with air, to expose them fully to
its influence. It is very probable that the celebrated Morocco leather,
derives its bright red colour from the bark employed in tanning being
obtained either from the kantuffa or the Adal tree, for both these
trees give a very red colour to the skins that are prepared with their
bark. From this I am inclined to believe, that among other articles of
commerce that might be advantageously drawn from the Barbar states
in the north of Africa, a good tanning bark could be obtained in
considerable quantities, and at a very reasonable rate.
Walderheros and the misselannee proceeded to carve the flayed carcase,
not in any systematic manner, as I could observe, but directed chiefly
in the size of the lumps of meat that were cut off by the character
of the individual to whom they were severally assigned: thus, Tinta
got a noble haunch forwarded to him, whilst, on the other hand, the
_matrabier_, or axe, was called in to aid in dividing the other into
three portions, for as many minor acquaintances of my servants. In the
same manner, a certain number of ribs were counted for Gwalior, but
the mother of Goodaloo got a great many more of the opposite side, and
in this irregular manner, after a very busy scene of some two or three
hours, except the portions which Walderheros had retained for himself,
the whole of the goat had disappeared by degrees through the wicket of
the inclosure, for the rain that was now commencing prevented the party
from holding the festival in the garden, and I was a great deal too ill
to have it celebrated within my own house.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] A singular fact connected with this custom of making
a short prayer, whilst slaughtering the victim, I
gathered from a note in a recent edition of “Sale’s
Koran.” It appears that by a decision of those learned
in the law, which is laid down in that book, animals
killed by the Jews may be partaken of by Mahomedans.
A representation to the Cadi of Cairo having been
made, that nearly all the butchers of that city were
followers of the law of Moses, they were about to be
suspended from that employment, when their Chief Rabbi
proved to the satisfaction of their Moslem judges,
that the Koran bids Mahomedans not to refuse food
which has been sanctified to the one true God, which
was always done by those who professed the faith of
Abraham and the law of Moses, when killing animals for
food. This circumstance, and also the disrespect shown
by the Whaabbees to the tomb of the Prophet, and the
temple at Mecca, demonstrate to my satisfaction that
education alone is required to show to the Mahomedans,
the absurdity of the false hopes with which their
Prophet has surrounded the worship of the only one
God, and of the inapplicability of his laws to improve
or humanize mankind. I could point out, if this were
a proper place, proofs without end, of the liberality
and extreme toleration of learned and enlightened
Mahomedans, and we ought not to attribute the bigotry
of ignorance, alike fierce and cruel in Christian,
Mahomedan, and Jew, to their _religious belief_, which
on examination will be found to have been originally
very similar amongst all these denominations, and that
the greatest differences appear to be in the several
codes of social laws adopted by each.