Book: A Voyage to Abyssinia

F >> Father Jerome Lobo >> A Voyage to Abyssinia




The empire of Abyssinia hath been one of the largest which history
gives us an account of: it extended formerly from the Red Sea to
the kingdom of Congo, and from Egypt to the Indian Sea. It is not
long since it contained forty provinces; but is now not much bigger
than all Spain, and consists but of five kingdoms and six provinces,
of which part is entirely subject to the Emperor, and part only pays
him some tribute, or acknowledgment of dependence, either
voluntarily or by compulsion. Some of these are of very large
extent: the kingdoms of Tigre, Bagameder, and Goiama are as big as
Portugal, or bigger; Amhara and Damote are something less. The
provinces are inhabited by Moors, Pagans, Jews, and Christians: the
last is the reigning and established religion. This diversity of
people and religion is the reason that the kingdom in different
parts is under different forms of government, and that their laws
and customs are extremely various.

The inhabitants of the kingdom of Amhara are the most civilised and
polite; and next to them the natives of Tigre, or the true Abyssins.
The rest, except the Damotes, the Gasates, and the Agaus, which
approach somewhat nearer to civility, are entirely rude and
barbarous. Among these nations the Galles, who first alarmed the
world in 1542, have remarkably distinguished themselves by the
ravages they have committed, and the terror they have raised in this
part of Africa. They neither sow their lands nor improve them by
any kind of culture; but, living upon milk and flesh, encamp like
the Arabs without any settled habitation. They practise no rites of
worship, though they believe that in the regions above there dwells
a Being that governs the world: whether by this Being they mean the
sun or the sky is not known; or, indeed, whether they have not some
conception of the God that created them. This deity they call in
their language Oul. In other matters they are yet more ignorant,
and have some customs so contrary even to the laws of nature, as
might almost afford reason to doubt whether they are endued with
reason. The Christianity professed by the Abyssins is so corrupted
with superstitions, errors, and heresies, and so mingled with
ceremonies borrowed from the Jews, that little besides the name of
Christianity is to be found here; and the thorns may be said to have
choked the grain. This proceeds in a great measure from the
diversity of religions which are tolerated there, either by
negligence or from motives of policy; and the same cause hath
produced such various revolutions, revolts, and civil wars within
these later ages. For those different sects do not easily admit of
an union with each other, or a quiet subjection to the same monarch.
The Abyssins cannot properly be said to have either cities or
houses; they live either in tents, or in cottages made of straw and
clay; for they very rarely build with stone. Their villages or
towns consist of these huts; yet even of such villages they have but
few, because the grandees, the viceroys, and the Emperor himself are
always in the camp, that they may be prepared, upon the most sudden
summons, to go where the exigence of affairs demands their presence.
And this precaution is no more than necessary for a prince every
year engaged either in foreign wars or intestine commotions. These
towns have each a governor, whom they call gadare, over whom is the
educ, or lieutenant, and both accountable to an officer called the
afamacon, or mouth of the King; because he receives the revenues,
which he pays into the hands of the relatinafala, or grand master of
the household: sometimes the Emperor creates a ratz, or viceroy,
general over all the empire, who is superior to all his other
officers.

Aethiopia produces very near the same kinds of provisions as
Portugal; though, by the extreme laziness of the inhabitants, in a
much less quantity: however, there are some roots, herbs, and
fruits which grow there much better than in other places. What the
ancients imagined of the torrid zone being uninhabitable is so far
from being true, that this climate is very temperate: the heats,
indeed, are excessive in Congo and Monomotapa, but in Abyssinia they
enjoy a perpetual spring, more delicious and charming than that in
our country. The blacks here are not ugly like those of the
kingdoms I have spoken of, but have better features, and are not
without wit and delicacy; their apprehension is quick, and their
judgment sound. The heat of the sun, however it may contribute to
their colour, is not the only reason of it; there is some
peculiarity in the temper and constitution of their bodies, since
the same men, transported into cooler climates, produce children
very near as black as themselves.

They have here two harvests in the year, which is a sufficient
recompense for the small produce of each; one harvest they have in
the winter, which lasts through the months of July, August, and
September, the other in the spring; their trees are always green,
and it is the fault of the inhabitants that they produce so little
fruit, the soil being well adapted to all sorts, especially those
that come from the Indies. They have in the greatest plenty
raisins, peaches, sour pomegranates, and sugarcanes, and some figs.
Most of these are ripe about Lent, which the Abyssins keep with
great strictness.

After the vegetable products of this country, it seems not improper
to mention the animals which are found in it, of which here are as
great numbers, of as many different species, as in any country in
the world: it is infested with lions of many kinds, among which are
many of that which is called the lion royal. I cannot help giving
the reader on this occasion a relation of a fact which I was an eye-
witness of. A lion having taken his haunt near the place where I
lived, killed all the oxen and cows, and did a great deal of other
mischief, of which I heard new complaints every day. A servant of
mine having taken a resolution to free the country from this
destroyer, went out one day with two lances, and after he had been
some time in quest of him, found him with his mouth all smeared with
the blood of a cow he had just devoured; the man rushed upon him,
and thrust his lance into his throat with such violence that it came
out between his shoulders; the beast, with one dreadful roar, fell
down into a pit, and lay struggling, till my servant despatched him.
I measured the body of this lion, and found him twelve feet between
the head and the tail.



Chapter II



The animals of Abyssinia; the elephant, unicorn, their horses and
cows; with a particular account of the moroc.


There are so great numbers of elephants in Abyssinia that in one
evening we met three hundred of them in three troops: as they
filled up the whole way, we were in great perplexity a long time
what measures to take; at length, having implored the protection of
that Providence that superintends the whole creation, we went
forwards through the midst of them without any injury. Once we met
four young elephants, and an old one that played with them, lifting
them up with her trunk; they grew enraged on a sudden, and ran upon
us: we had no way of securing ourselves but by flight, which,
however, would have been fruitless, had not our pursuers been
stopped by a deep ditch. The elephants of Aethiopia are of so
stupendous a size, that when I was mounted on a large mule I could
not reach with my hand within two spans of the top of their backs.
In Abyssinia is likewise found the rhinoceros, a mortal enemy to the
elephant. In the province of Agaus has been seen the unicorn, that
beast so much talked of, and so little known: the prodigious
swiftness with which this creature runs from one wood into another
has given me no opportunity of examining it particularly, yet I have
had so near a sight of it as to be able to give some description of
it. The shape is the same with that of a beautiful horse, exact and
nicely proportioned, of a bay colour, with a black tail, which in
some provinces is long, in others very short: some have long manes
hanging to the ground. They are so timorous that they never feed
but surrounded with other beasts that defend them. Deer and other
defenceless animals often herd about the elephant, which, contenting
himself with roots and leaves, preserves those beasts that place
themselves, as it were, under his protection, from the rage and
fierceness of others that would devour them.

The horses of Abyssinia are excellent; their mules, oxen, and cows
are without number, and in these principally consists the wealth of
this country. They have a very particular custom, which obliges
every man that hath a thousand cows to save every year one day's
milk of all his herd, and make a bath with it for his relations,
entertaining them afterwards with a splendid feast. This they do so
many days each year, as they have thousands of cattle, so that to
express how rich any man is, they tell you he bathes so many times.
The tribute paid out of their herds to the King, which is not the
most inconsiderable of his revenues, is one cow in ten every three
years. The beeves are of several kinds; one sort they have without
horns, which are of no other use than to carry burthens, and serve
instead of mules. Another twice as big as ours which they breed to
kill, fattening them with the milk of three or four cows. Their
horns are so large, the inhabitants use them for pitchers, and each
will hold about five gallons. One of these oxen, fat and ready to
be killed, may be bought at most for two crowns. I have purchased
five sheep, or five goats with nine kids, for a piece of calico
worth about a crown.

The Abyssins have many sort of fowls both wild and tame; some of the
former we are yet unacquainted with: there is one of wonderful
beauty, which I have seen in no other place except Peru: it has
instead of a comb, a short horn upon its head, which is thick and
round, and open at the top. The feitan favez, or devil's horse,
looks at a distance like a man dressed in feathers; it walks with
abundance of majesty, till it finds itself pursued, and then takes
wing, and flies away. But amongst all their birds there is none
more remarkable than the moroc, or honey-bird, which is furnished by
nature with a peculiar instinct or faculty of discovering honey.
They have here multitudes of bees of various kinds; some are tame,
like ours, and form their combs in hives. Of the wild ones, some
place their honey in hollow trees, others hide it in holes in the
ground, which they cover so carefully, that though they are commonly
in the highway, they are seldom found, unless by the moroc's help,
which, when he has discovered any honey, repairs immediately to the
road side, and when he sees a traveller, sings, and claps his wings,
making many motions to invite him to follow him, and when he
perceives him coming, flies before him from tree to tree, till he
comes to the place where the bees have stored their treasure, and
then begins to sing melodiously. The Abyssin takes the honey,
without failing to leave part of it for the bird, to reward him for
his information. This kind of honey I have often tasted, and do not
find that it differs from the other sorts in anything but colour; it
is somewhat blacker. The great quantity of honey that is gathered,
and a prodigious number of cows that is kept here, have often made
me call Abyssinia a land of honey and butter.



Chapter III



The manner of eating in Abyssinia, their dress, their hospitality,
and traffic.


The great lords, and even the Emperor himself, maintain their tables
with no great expense. The vessels they make use of are black
earthenware, which, the older it is, they set a greater value on.
Their way of dressing their meat, an European, till he hath been
long accustomed to it, can hardly be persuaded to like; everything
they eat smells strong and swims with butter. They make no use of
either linen or plates. The persons of rank never touch what they
eat, but have their meat cut by their pages, and put into their
mouths. When they feast a friend they kill an ox, and set
immediately a quarter of him raw upon the table (for their most
elegant treat is raw beef newly killed) with pepper and salt; the
gall of the ox serves them for oil and vinegar; some, to heighten
the delicacy of the entertainment, add a kind of sauce, which they
call manta, made of what they take out of the guts of the ox; this
they set on the fire, with butter, salt, pepper, and onion. Raw
beef, thus relished, is their nicest dish, and is eaten by them with
the same appetite and pleasure as we eat the best partridges. They
have often done me the favour of helping me to some of this sauce,
and I had no way to decline eating it besides telling them it was
too good for a missionary.

The common drink of the Abyssins is beer and mead, which they drink
to excess when they visit one another; nor can there be a greater
offence against good manners than to let the guests go away sober:
their liquor is always presented by a servant, who drinks first
himself, and then gives the cup to the company, in the order of
their quality.

The meaner sort of people here dress themselves very plain; they
only wear drawers, and a thick garment of cotton, that covers the
rest of their bodies: the people of quality, especially those that
frequent the court, run into the contrary extreme, and ruin
themselves with costly habits. They wear all sorts of silks, and
particularly the fine velvets of Turkey.

They love bright and glaring colours, and dress themselves much in
the Turkish manner, except that their clothes are wider, and their
drawers cover their legs. Their robes are always full of gold and
silver embroidery. They are most exact about their hair, which is
long and twisted, and their care of it is such that they go bare-
headed whilst they are young for fear of spoiling it, but afterwards
wear red caps, and sometimes turbans after the Turkish fashion.

The ladies' dress is yet more magnificent and expensive; their robes
are as large as those of the religious, of the order of St. Bernard.
They have various ways of dressing their heads, and spare no expense
in ear-rings, necklaces, or anything that may contribute to set them
off to advantage. They are not much reserved or confined, and have
so much liberty in visiting one another that their husbands often
suffer by it; but for this evil there is no remedy, especially when
a man marries a princess, or one of the royal family. Besides their
clothes, the Abyssins have no movables or furniture of much value,
or doth their manner of living admit of them.

One custom of this country deserves to be remarked: when a stranger
comes to a village, or to the camp, the people are obliged to
entertain him and his company according to his rank. As soon as he
enters a house (for they have no inns in this nation), the master
informs his neighbours that he hath a guest; immediately they bring
in bread and all kinds of provisions; and there is great care taken
to provide enough, because, if the guest complains, the town is
obliged to pay double the value of what they ought to have
furnished. This practice is so well established that a stranger
goes into a house of one he never saw with the same familiarity and
assurance of welcome as into that of an intimate friend or near
relation; a custom very convenient, but which gives encouragement to
great numbers of vagabonds throughout the kingdom.

There is no money in Abyssinia, except in the eastern provinces,
where they have iron coin: but in the chief provinces all commerce
is managed by exchange. Their chief trade consists in provisions,
cows, sheep, goats, fowls, pepper, and gold, which is weighed out to
the purchaser, and principally in salt, which is properly the money
of this country.

When the Abyssins are engaged in a law-suit, the two parties make
choice of a judge, and plead their own cause before him; and if they
cannot agree in their choice, the governor of the place appoints
them one, from whom there lies an appeal to the viceroy and to the
Emperor himself. All causes are determined on the spot; no writings
are produced. The judge sits down on the ground in the midst of the
high road, where all that please may be present: the two persons
concerned stand before him, with their friends about them, who serve
as their attorneys. The plaintiff speaks first, the defendant
answers him; each is permitted to rejoin three or four times, then
silence is commanded, and the judge takes the opinions of those that
are about him. If the evidence be deemed sufficient, he pronounces
sentence, which in some cases is decisive and without appeal. He
then takes the criminal into custody till he hath made satisfaction;
but if it be a crime punishable with death he is delivered over to
the prosecutor, who may put him to death at his own discretion.

They have here a particular way of punishing adultery; a woman
convicted of that crime is condemned to forfeit all her fortune, is
turned out of her husband's house, in a mean dress, and is forbid
ever to enter it again; she has only a needle given her to get her
living with. Sometimes her head is shaved, except one lock of hair,
which is left her, and even that depends on the will of her husband,
who has it likewise in his choice whether he will receive her again
or not; if he resolves never to admit her they are both at liberty
to marry whom they will. There is another custom amongst them yet
more extraordinary, which is, that the wife is punished whenever the
husband proves false to the marriage contract; this punishment
indeed extends no farther than a pecuniary mulct, and what seems
more equitable, the husband is obliged to pay a sum of money to his
wife. When the husband prosecutes his wife's gallant, if he can
produce any proofs of a criminal conversation, he recovers for
damages forty cows, forty horses, and forty suits of clothes, and
the same number of other things. If the gallant be unable to pay
him, he is committed to prison, and continues there during the
husband's pleasure, who, if he sets him at liberty before the whole
fine be paid, obliges him to take an oath that he is going to
procure the rest, that he may be able to make full satisfaction.
Then the criminal orders meat and drink to be brought out, they eat
and drink together, he asks a formal pardon, which is not granted at
first; however, the husband forgives first one part of the debt, and
then another, till at length the whole is remitted.

A husband that doth not like his wife may easily find means to make
the marriage void, and, what is worse, may dismiss the second wife
with less difficulty than he took her, and return to the first; so
that marriages in this country are only for a term of years, and
last no longer than both parties are pleased with each other, which
is one instance how far distant these people are from the purity of
the primitive believers, which they pretend to have preserved with
so great strictness. The marriages are in short no more than
bargains, made with this proviso, that when any discontent shall
arise on either side, they may separate, and marry whom they please,
each taking back what they brought with them.



Chapter IV



An account of the religion of the Abyssins.


Yet though there is a great difference between our manners, customs,
civil government, and those of the Abyssins, there is yet a much
greater in points of faith; for so many errors have been introduced
and ingrafted into their religion, by their ignorance, their
separation from the Catholic Church, and their intercourse with
Jews, Pagans, and Mohammedans, that their present religion is
nothing but a kind of confused miscellany of Jewish and Mohammedan
superstitions, with which they have corrupted those remnants of
Christianity which they still retain.

They have, however, preserved the belief of our principal mysteries;
they celebrate with a great deal of piety the passion of our Lord;
they reverence the cross; they pay a great devotion to the Blessed
Virgin, the angels, and the saints; they observe the festivals, and
pay a strict regard to the Sunday. Every month they commemorate the
assumption of the Virgin Mary, and are of opinion that no Christians
beside themselves have a true sense of the greatness of the mother
of God, or pay her the honours that are due to her. There are some
tribes amongst them (for they are distinguished like the Jews by
their tribes), among whom the crime of swearing by the name of the
Virgin is punished with forfeiture of goods and even with loss of
life; they are equally scrupulous of swearing by St. George. Every
week they keep a feast to the honour of the apostles and angels;
they come to mass with great devotion, and love to hear the word of
God. They receive the sacrament often, but do not always prepare
themselves by confession. Their charity to the poor may be said to
exceed the proper bounds that prudence ought to set it, for it
contributes to encourage great numbers of beggars, which are a great
annoyance to the whole kingdom, and as I have often said, afford
more exercise to a Christian's patience than his charity; for their
insolence is such, that they will refuse what is offered them if it
be not so much as they think proper to ask.

Though the Abyssins have not many images, they have great numbers of
pictures, and perhaps pay them somewhat too high a degree of
worship. The severity of their fasts is equal to that of the
primitive church. In Lent they never eat till after sunset; their
fasts are the more severe because milk and butter are forbidden
them, and no reason or necessity whatsoever can procure them a
permission to eat meat, and their country affording no fish, they
live only on roots and pulse. On fast-days they never drink but at
their meat, and the priests never communicate till evening, for fear
of profaning them. They do not think themselves obliged to fast
till they have children either married or fit to be married, which
yet doth not secure them very long from these mortifications,
because their youths marry at the age of ten years, and their girls
younger.

There is no nation where excommunication carries greater terrors
than among the Abyssins, which puts it in the power of the priests
to abuse this religious temper of the people, as well as the
authority they receive from it, by excommunicating them, as they
often do, for the least trifle in which their interest is concerned.

No country in the world is so full of churches, monasteries, and
ecclesiastics as Abyssinia; it is not possible to sing in one church
or monastery without being heard by another, and perhaps by several.
They sing the psalms of David, of which, as well as the other parts
of the Holy Scriptures, they have a very exact translation in their
own language; in which, though accounted canonical, the books of the
Maccabees are omitted. The instruments of music made use of in
their rites of worship are little drums, which they hang about their
necks, and beat with both their hands; these are carried even by
their chief men, and by the gravest of their ecclesiastics. They
have sticks likewise, with which they strike the ground,
accompanying the blow with a motion of their whole bodies. They
begin their concert by stamping their feet on the ground, and
playing gently on their instruments; but when they have heated
themselves by degrees, they leave off drumming, and fall to leaping,
dancing, and clapping their hands, at the same time straining their
voices to the utmost pitch, till at length they have no regard
either to the tune or the pauses, and seem rather a riotous than a
religious assembly. For this manner of worship they cite the psalm
of David, "O clap your hands all ye nations." Thus they misapply
the sacred writings to defend practices yet more corrupt than those
I have been speaking of.

They are possessed with a strange notion that they are the only true
Christians in the world; as for us, they shunned us as heretics, and
were under the greatest surprise at hearing us mention the Virgin
Mary with the respect which is due to her, and told us that we could
not be entirely barbarians since we were acquainted with the mother
of God. It plainly appears that prepossessions so strong, which
receive more strength from the ignorance of the people, have very
little tendency to dispose them to a reunion with the Catholic
Church.

They have some opinions peculiar to themselves about purgatory, the
creation of souls, and some of our mysteries. They repeat baptism
every year, they retain the practice of circumcision, they observe
the Sabbath, they abstain from all those sorts of flesh which are
forbidden by the law. Brothers espouse the wives of their brothers,
and to conclude, they observe a great number of Jewish ceremonies.

Though they know the words which Jesus Christ appointed to be used
in the administration of baptism, they have without scruple
substituted others in their place, which makes the validity of their
baptism, and the reality of their Christianity, very doubtful. They
have a few names of saints, the same with those in the Roman
martyrology, but they often insert others, as Zama la Cota, the Life
of Truth; Ongulari, the Evangelist; Asca Georgi, the Mouth of Saint
George.

Copyright (c) 2007. knowncrafts.net. All rights reserved.