Chapter VI: Part 6

We set out from this town, and travelled through thick maize fields, as high as large cane brakes, and we went to sleep at no great distance, at the foot of a hill close to a church, because at night we were always away from the road, and near the towns, on account of the food which they gave us. Here the friar told us not to scatter ourselves, and all to keep close together, with our arms ready, and all the goods in front, because we had to pass a very dangerous country of Moors, who are always hostile. From this road which we were now travelling, which is towards the sea, and towards the South, all are Moors, who are named Dobas, because the country is named Doba, and it is not a kingdom. They say that there are twenty-four captaincies, and that at times twelve of them are at peace, and the others always at war. In our time we saw them all at war, and we saw the twelve captains who are used to be at peace at times, all at the court, for they had made a rising, and were come to make peace. When they came near the tent of Prester John each of these captains carried a stone upon his head, holding it with both his hands. They said that this was a sign of peace, and that they came to sue for mercy. These captains were received with honour, and they brought with them more than a hundred men, and very good led horses and mules, because they entered on foot with the stones on their heads. They may have stayed at court more than two months: they gave them each day beef, mutton, honey, and butter. At the conclusion of peace the Prester John ordered them to be banished from their country more than a hundred leagues, and ordered the captains and people they brought with them to be placed in the kingdom of Damute, with numerous guards. As soon as the people of these captains learned that their lords had been banished they made other captains, and raised the whole country in war. And another time that we were travelling by this road we had to keep Twelfth-day in this country, and it was on a Friday, so we rested Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. At this time, on account of the rising of these captains, the Prester John sent thither many gentlemen, captains of the country, and they went and pitched their camp on a mountain which showed from where we were halting, and we saw the smoke which they made there. The ambassador arranged to send thither two Portuguese to visit those captains and lords, on his part: and they brought back six cows which the captains sent us, and these Portuguese told us that some very great lords were there as captains, and that they had there more than fifteen thousand men, placed in a very large enclosure of thorny bushes, and they name this enclosure _catamar_;[79] and the Portuguese said that they had water outside of the enclosure, and that they did not dare go for it, nor take the horses and mules to drink, except with a large force, because if the Moors saw only a small number they rushed upon them and killed them. They also related that every Saturday and Sunday the Moors came and affronted them, because the Christians do not fight on those days. It is said that this war and ill-feeling is with this Prester John, more than with his predecessors, inasmuch as they are tributaries of the Prester. The preceding Presters, until the father of this one who now reigns, always had five or six wives, and they had them from the daughters of the neighbouring Moorish Kings, and from the Pagans; and from the captains of these lordships or captaincies they had one or two, if they found them suitable; and from the King of Dancali another; and from the King of Adel, and the King of Adea. And at the present times known to us there arrived for this David who now reigns, a daughter of the King of Adea, before he had any other wife, and because she had large front teeth, when he saw her he did not like her. And because he had already ordered her to be made a Christian, and she could not return to her father, he gave her in marriage to a great lord; and he did not choose to take any other daughter of a Moorish King, nor of these lordships, and married the daughter of a Christian, and would not have more than one wife, saying that he would follow the law of the gospel. He asks for the tribute from these Kings, his tributaries, which their predecessors were obliged to pay him. They did not bring him this tribute on account of the marriage, and for that reason make this war, which is being continually waged. They also say in this country that these Dobas are such great warriors, that they have a law amongst them that they cannot take a wife without a man’s being able to certify that he has killed twelve Christians. No one passes here by this road except in a cafila, which they call a _negada_.[80] This assemblage passes twice a week, once in coming, and another time returning, or to express it better, one goes and the other comes; and there always pass a thousand persons and upwards, with a captain of the _negadas_, who awaits them in certain places. There are two captains, because the negada commences in two parts, and they set out from one end and from the other. These negadas have their origin in two fairs, that is to say, in Manadeley and in Corcora of Angote; and yet, even with these negadas and assemblages, many people are killed in the passage. I know this, because a nephew of mine, a gentleman of the household of the King our sovereign, and a servant of the ambassador of Portugal, Don Rodrigo, determined to pass with this negada; and they told us that the Doba Moors had attacked the van, and had killed twelve persons before the people could put themselves on guard. It is a great peril traversing this evil pass, because it is a two days’ journey, all through level ground and very large woods, and very high and dense thickets of thorn bushes; and in these two marches, besides that the road is flat and very long, and that they frequently cut them, that is, the thorn bushes near the road, and set fire to them, yet they do not burn, except those that are cut and dried, and some that have withered at the roots, because the thorn bushes which are standing remain in their strength. It is about two leagues from this road to the district of the Dobas, at the commencement of the mountain range, and the ground is flat throughout these thorn thickets. There are in these lands or mountains an infinite number of elephants and other animals, as in the other mountains.

CAP. XLIX.--_How the people of Janamora have the conquest of
these Doba Moors, and of the great storm of rain that came upon
us during our halt in a river channel._

The conquest[81] of these Moors of Doba is of a great captain named Xuum Janamora, that is captain of the country. The captaincy is named Janamora, which is a large district, with many people subject to it, and all of it mountainous. They say that they are good warriors, and so they ought to be, for they always keep an eye over their shoulder. In the lands and mountains where they dwell, the Moors come to burn the houses and churches, and carry off the cows from the yards. In this country I saw a priest with poisoned arrows; and I opposed him on account of its being ill done, as he was a priest. He answered me: Look that way, and you will see the church burnt by the Moors, and close to it they carried off from me fifty cows, and also they burned my beehives, which were my livelihood; for that reason I carry this poison,[82] to kill him who has killed me. I did not know what to answer him, with the sorrowfulness which I saw in his countenance, and perceived in his heart. We set out from this halt, and travelled by the said flat road, alongside the hills which are on the side of the Christians, and all peopled by these Janamoras, and we crossed rivers which descend from the said mountains, and close to one of them we went to take our midday rest in some good shade of willow trees. It was very hot, and the sun and day were very bright, and the river did not bring water enough to irrigate a garden. We were divided into two parties, on each side of the water, at speaking distance. During this there began thunder a long way off, and we said that these were thunderstorms such as there are sometimes in India. Being in security, without there being here any wind or rain, and the said thunder having ceased, we commenced collecting the baggage to set out; and there was a tent where we dined and reposed ourselves. The halt having ended, one of our Portuguese, that is, Mestre Joam, went sauntering along the river up stream, and immediately returned running, and calling out with loud shouts: Take care, take care. We all looked in the direction from which he came shouting, and we saw water coming, of the height of a lance (without any doubt), and quite straight and square: and we could not take care sufficiently to prevent its carrying away part of our goods. And it would have carried away both us and our goods if we had still been staying in the tent where we had dined. From me, amongst other things, it carried off a breviary and a bottle full of wine which I carried for celebrating the masses; and so, likewise, it carried off a portion from each of us. From one it took a cloak, from another a hat, from another a sword; another, in escaping, fell in such a manner, that on the one hand it was a fearful thing, and on the other a matter for laughter. It pleased God that I had got the silver chalice put in the skin of a kid and hung up at the height of a man on the trunk of a willow tree; and a man of the country ran to it, and saved the chalice, for he climbed up the willow tree with it, and remained there until the water went down. This river came from among very high mountains, among which it had overflowed, and out of them came this water in a mass. This river brought down stones as big as barrels of twelve almudes,[83] and from the noise made by these stones it seemed that the earth was being overwhelmed, and that the heavens were falling. It was a thing not to be believed; and as this water came suddenly, so also it passed away in a short space of time, for even this day we crossed over it, and we did not see in it the rocks which we had before seen, and we saw others newly come which had descended from the mountains. We went to sleep at some poor houses, or near them, where they received us throwing stones at us, and we slept without supper, and under heavy rains which fell in the night, with thunderstorms in the flat land, as there had been by day in the mountains.

CAP. L.--_How we departed from this poor place, and of the
fright they gave us, and how we went to sleep Saturday and
Sunday at a river named Sabalete._

We set out from this place, we and the Portuguese, because there was nothing to eat, for the country is very sterile; and we left the friar with all our goods which could not travel, and we had not got people to carry it. Before we started they caused us more fear than we had before, telling us that, besides the Moors, there were there many robbers, who went about among the thickets, and killed travellers with poisoned arrows; and because we had generally seen them carried we had more fear. So they told us to go all together, and with our weapons ready. The road which we travelled this day was flat, like that behind, and with larger thickets; the road was wider, because every year they cut the bushes. We always travelled alongside the mountains, as we did the day before, and further off from the mountains of the Moors, because every step we left them further off. With all this, they said that there was greater danger here, and that there were wider passages of dry rivers and thick woods, where bad people might lie in wait. They also inspired us with fear, telling us not to sleep on the low ground, nor to rest near the water, because the country was very unwholesome, and that we ought to ascend to the high ground as much as possible. Thus, we travelled without our baggage all that day, and came to sleep at a large river named Sabalete, at which river the kingdom of Tigrimahom ends, and the kingdom of Angote begins. On a very high hill to the westward of this river is a church of St. Peter, which is called in our language San Pedro d’Angote; and they say that it is the head of this kingdom, and that it is the church of the kings, and that when this kingdom is bestowed they come here to take possession of it. And on the eastern side, on another very high mountain, which is two or three leagues from this road (and now it is not a country of the Moors), is a monastery which they say is large and of much revenue and many friars. However, we saw nothing of it, except the trees. At this river we remained Saturday and Sunday, and on Sunday night, at the first sleep, the tigers attacked us, with all the fires we had burning, and a great part of the mules got loose, and we at once caught most of them. One mule and an ass escaped, and we thought they had been devoured. Next day, in the morning, they came from a village to tell us that in the night two runaway beasts had come there, and that we should see if they were ours, and go there and fetch them. On Monday, the 3rd of October of 1520, we set out on our way, and travelled for two leagues along a very flat road, and from that spot the friar, who was now with us with the goods, took us by some very rough roads over mountains, to sleep at some pinnacles, saying that the low grounds were sickly. The goods could not ascend, and remained on the road. On account of this night’s halt, we were all discontented with the friar, and told him not to bring us and our mules up such mountain ridges; that we were not afraid of sickness, and if he did it for the sake of eating, that we were bringing the goods of the King of Portugal, to provide ourselves withal, and to be able to give him food also. Here he said that he would not again bring us out of the road, and that he would go wherever we pleased, and that we should be satisfied. On Tuesday we descended from the said pinnacle, and came back to the road where the baggage had remained, close to a large church of Our Lady. Here we had our midday rest. This church has many priests, and friars, and nuns, and it is directed by the priests. This town is named Corcora of Angote. It is different from Corcora[84] of the Tigrimahom, where on Wednesday of every week there is a great market or fair. At this church we left the camels, with a large part of the goods, because[85] they could not go any further over the rough mountains that we had to pass; and this afternoon we crossed a mountain with great labour, for in many places we went on foot, and with both feet and hands, like cats. We passed this bad road over a mountain ridge, still between other ridges. There are two hills almost level ground, between which lies a valley of great pastures and tillage of all sorts of seeds, which grow all the year round, because we passed by here several times, and we always found wheat just sown, and other wheat springing up, and other in grass, other in the ear, other ripe, and other reaped or threshed on the threshing floor; and so with other seeds of this country, for in the same manner as it is with the wheat, so it is with all other things. This land is not irrigated, because it is almost marshy; and all the land of this nature, or which is capable of irrigation, gives crops all through the year; when one is got in another is sown. In this country, on both sides, on all the slopes, there are an infinite number of towns, and all have their churches; it is a very good country. For a man to know where the churches are, they have around them large trees; by that they are known, even before they are reached.

CAP. LI.--_Of the church of Ancona, and how in the kingdom of
Angote iron and salt are current for money, and of a monastery
which is in a cave._

On the following Wednesday we travelled (not a long way), and began to descend through a large and beautiful valley and lowland, where there were large fields of millet and beans. This vale is named the country of Ancona. At the head of this vale is a very noble church named St. Mary of Ancona (as they say), of great revenues. This church has many canons, and an Alicanate over them. Besides these canons it has many priests and friars. All the large churches here and further on are named King’s churches, all have canons, whom they call Debeteras, and in all an Alicanate, who is like a prior. This church has two small bells, badly made, and they are low down near the ground, and as yet we had not seen any others in all the country that we had gone through. We remained in this town till Thursday, because there is then a great market, which they call _gabeja_.[86] In this country, and in all the kingdom of Angote, iron is current as money. It is made like a shovel, and this shape is of no advantage for anything, except for making something else with it. Of these pieces of iron, ten, eleven, and sometimes twelve, are worth a drachm, which in our Portugal, or in India, would be worth a cruzado (as has been said). Salt also is current as money, because it is current in all the country: here six or seven blocks of salt are worth one piece of iron. From here there lies almost opposite to the westward, a large country named Abrigima: it is a country of very high mountains, and very cold. On the top of this mountain there is much matting grass,[87] and they say that it is very good. I brought some of it to the Genoese who were with us, and they said that they had never seen so good, and that it was better than that of Alicante. The provisions of these mountains are all barley in the low ground, and wheat in the valleys, the best that can be named among many other good wheats. The flocks, both cows, sheep, and goats, are very small, as in the country of Maia, between Douro and Minho, in Portugal. They call this country Abime raz, it is under Angote raz, which is the kingdom of Angote. This country of Abrigima is six days’ journey in length, and three in breadth. They say that after the country of Aquaxumo became christian with its neighbourhood, this country followed next after it. In this country the Kings had their tribunal, as the Queens had in Aquaxumo. Whilst this country is so sterile, and at first sight sad, there are in it the edifices which I saw. First, in a very high mountain, there is a very great cave, and within it is a handsome monastery, house of Our Lady, named Iconoamelaca,[88] which means: God gives it plenty; and the spot of land is named Acate. The house is not so large, as is its elegance. It has not got large revenues, yet it has a great number of friars and nuns. The friars have their dwelling above the cavern, entirely enclosed, and they go down to the monastery by a single path. The nuns have their dwelling below the cavern, they are not enclosed, they live upon the slope of the mountain. All these friars and nuns dig and prune in this country, and they sow wheat and barley, which they eat, for the monastery gives them little. The affection which they bear to this country, and to the monastery, makes them dwell there. This monastery is inside this cavern, and well built in a cross, well contained in the cave, so that they go freely with their procession round the building. In front of the door of this house there is a wall ten or twelve fathoms long, and as high as the edge of the cave, and between the wall and door of the monastery, for there are no churches within the enclosure of the cave, there is a space of five fathoms, here the nuns stand to hear the offices, and here they receive the communion. This station of the nuns lies to the south, because the church lies east and west, and the station is on the side of the epistle.[89] Above this cave, descending from the mountain, a river runs during the whole year, and the water falls on the right hand of this monastery, near the place where the nuns are, much beyond the wall which shelters them. The friars, even if they were much more numerous than they are, would find room in the cave around the church, although they do not enter it. The monastery, or body of the church, has three doors, that is, one principal, and two side doors, as though it were in the open air, and one is wide. And because I say that it is in the form of a cross, it is in this manner, namely, of the form and size of a monastery of San Frutuoso, which is close to the city of Braga, in the kingdom of Portugal.

CAP. LII.--_Of a church of canons who are in another cave in
this same lordship, in which lie a Prester John and a Patriarch
of Alexandria._

This monastery before mentioned possesses, at two days’ journey to the west, a large and rich church in another cave; according to my judgment three large ships with their masts would find room in this cave. The entrance to it is not larger than to allow two carts with their side rails[90] to enter. Above this cave the mountain continues to rise for quite two leagues. I walked over them, and was near dying in them from the great ascent, and with the great cold there was. God protected me. And I was fastened to a cord, and a strong slave to pull it, who assisted me to ascend, and another behind who drove the mules, because I did not send them in front for fear of their falling upon me. We started before morning, and at midday we had not finished ascending the ground. This church which is in this cave is very large, like a cathedral, with its large naves, very well wrought, and well vaulted: it has three very rich chapels, and well adorned altars. The entrance of this cave is to the east, and the backs of the chapels are that way, and if one goes at the hour of tierce[91] there is no seeing in the church, all the offices are done with lamps. There are in this church (as they say) two hundred canons or debeteras, according to their language; I saw an infinite number, they have not got friars; they have an alicanate, a very noble prior; he is over all of them, as has been said before. They say that it has much revenue. These canons are like well-to-do and honourable men. This church is named Imbra Christus, which means the path of Christ. Entering this cave a man faces the chapels, and on the right hand when one enters are two painted chambers, which belonged to a King who lived in this cave, and who ordered this church to be built. On the epistle side are three honoured sepulchres, and as yet we had not seen others such in Ethiopia. This principally is high, and has five steps all around it. The tombs are in this manner. This tomb is covered with a large cloth of brocade, and velvet of Mekkah, one cloth of one stuff, and another of the other, which on both sides reach the ground. It was covered over, because it was the day of its great festival. They say that this tomb belongs to the King who lived here, whose name was Abraham. And the other two sepulchres are of the same fashion, except that one of them has four steps, and the other three: and all are in the middle of the cave. They say that the largest of these two belongs to a Patriarch of Alexandria, who came to see this King, having heard of his sanctity, and he died here. The smallest and the lowest belongs they say to a daughter of this King. They also say that this King was a mass priest for forty years, and that after he withdrew himself he said mass in this church each day: and this is written in a large and ancient book, which I saw with my eyes and had in my hands, quite like a chronicle or life of this King, and they went over part of it with me during two days that I was there at leisure. Among other miracles which they related of this King, and which they read to me in this book, is that when he wished to celebrate the angels administered to him what was requisite, that is, bread and wine, and this was in those forty years that he was in retreat. In the beginning of this book this King is painted with the state of a priest before the altar, and from a window in the same painting there comes out a hand with a roll and a little pitcher of wine, as though it brought bread and wine; and so it is painted in the principal chapel. (I say that I heard and saw it read in the book.) And besides that the canons told me that the stone of which this church was built had come from Jerusalem, and that it is like the stone of Jerusalem, which is dark and of a fine grain. And going on the mountain above, where my slave led me or assisted me, at the top of the mountain I found an ancient quarry, with great excavations and many pieces of stone, and very large stones with ancient wedges.[92] I looked at these stones with great care, and this stone is of the same colour and grain as that of the church, because I broke off some pieces of it, and examined it well, and knew that it was the same stone, and that the stone for the church had been brought from here, and had not come from Jerusalem as they had told me. It is also written in the said book that during the whole life of this King he had not taken dues from his vassals, and if anyone brought them to him, that he ordered them to be distributed among the poor; and his maintenance was from the great tillage which he used to order to be made. It is also written that to this King it was revealed that there ought not to be any relations of the King in his dominions, that all of them should be shut up, except only the eldest son, the heir, as will be related further on. I saw this church the day of its feast, in order to see that which I had heard of it. There came to it that day fully twenty persons, and all as many as come to it in pilgrimage have to receive the communion. This feast was on a Sunday, and they said mass very quickly, and then they commenced giving the communion at all the three doors of the church, and they finished after nightfall. This I saw because I was at the beginning, and I went away to dinner, and I returned and remained until they finished with torches.

CAP. LIII.--_Of the great church edifices that there are in the
country of Abuxima, which King Lalibela built, and of his tomb
in the church of Golgotha._

At a day’s journey from this church of Imbra Christo are edifices, the like of which and so many, cannot, as it appears to me, be found in the world, and they are churches entirely excavated in the rock, very well hewn. The names of these churches are these: Emanuel, St. Saviour, St. Mary, Holy Cross, St. George, Golgotha, Bethlehem, Marcoreos, the Martyrs. The principal one is Lalibela. This Lalibela, they say, was a King in this same country for eighty years, and he was King before the one before mentioned who was named Abraham. This King ordered these edifices to be made. He does not lie in the church which bears his name, he lies in the church of Golgotha, which is the church of the fewest buildings here. It is in this manner: all excavated in the stone itself, a hundred and twenty spans in length, and seventy-two spans in width. The ceiling of this church rests on five supports, two on each side, and one in the centre, like fives of dice, and the ceiling or roof is all flat like the floor of the church, the sides also are worked in a fine fashion, also the windows, and the doors with all the tracery, which could be told, so that neither a jeweller in silver, nor a worker of wax in wax, could do more work. The tomb of this King is in the same manner as that of Santiago of Galicia, at Compostella, and it is in this manner: the gallery which goes round the church is like a cloister, and lower than the body of the church, and one goes down from the church to this gallery; there are three windows on each side, that is to say, at that height which the church is higher than the gallery, and as much as the body of the church extends, so much is excavated below, and to as much depth as there is height above the floor of the church. And if one looks through each of these windows which is opposite the sun, one sees the tomb at the right of the high altar. In the centre of the body of the church is the sign of a door like a trap door, it is covered up with a large stone, like an altar stone, fitting very exactly in that door. They say that this is the entrance to the lower chamber, and that no one enters there, nor does it appear that that stone or door can be raised. This stone has a hole in the centre which pierces it through, its size is three palms.[93] All the pilgrims put their hands into this stone (which hardly find room), and say that many miracles are done here. On the left hand side, when one goes from the principal door before the principal chapel, there is a tomb cut in the same rock as the church, which they say is made after the manner of the sepulchre of Christ in Jerusalem. So they hold it in honour and veneration and reverence, as becomes the memory to which it belongs. In the other part of the church are two great images carved in the wall itself, which remain in a manner separated from it. They showed me these things as though I should be amazed at seeing them. One of the images is of St. Peter, the other of St. John: they give them great reverence. This church also possesses a separate chapel, almost a church; this has naves on six supports, that is, three on each side. This is very well constructed, with much elegance: the middle nave is raised and arched, its windows and doorways are well wrought, that is, the principal door, and one side door, for the other gives entrance to the principal church. This chapel is as broad as it is long, that is, fifty-two spans broad, and as many in length. It has another chapel, very high and small, like a pinnacle,[94] with many windows in the same height: these also have as much width as length, that is, twelve spans. This church and its chapels have their altars and canopies, with their supports, made of the rock itself, it also has a very great circuit cut out of the rock. The circuit is on the same level as the church itself, and is all square: all its walls are pierced with holes the size of the mouth of a barrel. All these holes are stopped up with small stones, and they say that they are tombs, and such they appear to be, because some have been stopped up since a long time, others recently. The entrance of this circuit is below the rock, at a great depth and measure of thirteen spans, all artificially excavated, or worked with the pickaxe, for here there is no digging, because the stone is hard, and for great walls like the Porto in Portugal.

CAP. LIV.--_Of the fashion of the church of San Salvador, and of
other churches which are in the said town, and of the birth of
King Lalibela, and the dues of this country._

The church of St. Saviour stands alone, cut out of a rock; it is very large. Its interior is two hundred spans in length, and a hundred and twenty in width. It has five naves, in each one seven square columns; the large one has four, and the walls of the church have as much. The columns are very well worked, with arches which hang down a span below the vaulted roof. The vaulted roofs are very well worked, and of great height, principally the centre one, which is very high. It is of a handsome height; most of the ends are lower, all in proportion. In the principal height of these naves there is much tracery, such as ...,[95] or keystones, or roses, which they put on the vaults, on which they make roses and other graceful works. On the sides it has very pretty windows, with much tracery, long and narrow in the middle. Within and without, these are long, like the loopholes[96] of a wall, narrow without and wide within; these are wide both within and without, and narrow in the middle, with arches and tracery. The principal chapel is very high, and the canopy over the altar is very high, with a support at each corner. All this is made from the rock itself. In the other naves they do not deck the chapels and altars with canopies like the high altar in its grandeur. The principal door has at each side many and large buttresses, and the door commences with very large arches, and goes on narrowing with other arches until they reach a small door, which is not more than nine spans high and four and a half wide. The side doors are in this manner, only that they do not commence with so much width, and they end with the width of the principal door. On the outside part of this church are seven buttresses with arches,[97] which are twelve palms distant from the wall of the church, and from buttress to buttress an arch, and above the church, on these arches, a vault constructed in such manner that if it were built of pieces and soft stone it could not be straighter nor better constructed, nor with more work about it. These arches outside may be about the height of two lances. There is not any variation in the whole of this rock in which this church stands; it all looks like one block of marble. The court or cloister which the church has round it is all worked with the same stone. It is sixty palms wide at each end, and in front of the principal church door quite a hundred palms. Above this church, where it should be roofed, there are on each side nine large arches, like cloisters, which descend from the top to the bottom, to the tombs along the sides,[98] as in the other church. The entrance to this church is by a descent through the rock itself, eighty steps cut artificially in the stone, of a width that ten men can go side by side, and of the height of a lance or more. This entrance has four holes above, which give light to the passage above the edges. From this rock to the enclosure of the church is like a field; there are many houses, and they sow barley in it.

The house or church of Our Lady is not so large as that of St. Saviour, but it is very well constructed. It has three naves, and the centre one is very high, with large loops and roses very ingeniously carved in the rock itself. Each nave has five columns, and upon them their arches and vaults, very high pitched,[99] and well made. It has, besides, a high column in the cross of the transept, on which is placed a canopy which from its fretted work looks as if it were stamped in wax. At the head of each nave there is a chapel, with its altar like those of St. Saviour; only it has, besides, altars at each of the doors, which are of the size and fashion of those of St. Saviour. It has six buttresses on the exterior; two on each side are adhering to the wall, and four are distant from it, and well made arches spring from one to the other of them, and upon them are very well constructed canopies, which are very high and like a portico, over the doors. These canopies are all of one size, as broad as they are long. It has a very high and graceful circuit, and behind, as well as at the sides and in front, all round of the height of the church. This church is eighty spans in length and sixty-four in width. This church, also, has in front of its principal door, made out of the rock itself, a large house, in which they give food to the poor; and the way out of the church is through this house to the outside, or they enter the church through it underneath the rock a good distance. On each side of this church, in front of the side doors, are two churches each at its end. This church of Our Lady is the head of all the other churches of this place. It has an infinite quantity of canons, and the church which is on the side of the epistle is as long and as wide as that of Our Lady. It has three naves, and in each nave three columns well wrought of level work. It has not got more than one chapel, and one altar, made like those of other churches. Its principal door is very well worked; it does not face outwards, but to a corridor below the rock, which comes like a path to the house of Our Lady. This corridor comes from a distance; where it begins they ascend to it by fifteen steps of the rock itself. This is a very dark entrance. On the side towards the church of Our Lady, this church has a very pretty side door and two very elegant windows, and behind and on the other side all hewn rock and very rough, without having any work whatever. This church is called the Martyrs, and the church which is on the gospel side of the church of Our Lady, is called Holy Cross. It is small, it is sixty-eight spans in length, it has not got naves, it has three columns in the middle, which appear to have their tops above (_the roof_), very well made and vaulted; inside all is smooth work. On the side of Our Lady’s church it has a very handsome side door and two well made windows; it has a single altar, like others; the principal door is well wrought. It has not got a court nor faces outwards, only to a corridor like a path, which goes outside, underneath the rock, very long and very dark.

The church of Emanuel is well wrought, both inside and out, it is small. It is forty-two spans in length inside, and twenty in width. It has three naves, the middle one very high and with domed[100] vaults: the side naves are not vaulted, and are flat underneath, that is, the ceiling is like the floor of the church. These naves are upon five supports: the breadth and thickness of these supports are of four spans from corner to corner, and the wall of the church has four others. It has very well worked doors, both the side and principal doors, and all of the same size, that is to say, nine spans high, and four wide. It is all enclosed; on the outside there is a space[101] of three steps, which go all round it, except at the doors, which each have a wide court, each with five steps above those which surround the church. It is all of the rock itself, without a piece or fault. This church also has what none of the others have, that is, a choir, to which they ascend by a spiral staircase: it is not large, for a tall man with a span more would knock his head against the ceiling, which is flat, like the floor of the church, and so also over the naves and sides, large as they are; they go to small cells by doors from one to another, and from the choir itself doors open to these little rooms or cells. They do not make use of this choir except for keeping there chests of vestments and church ornaments. These chests must have been made inside this choir, because they could not enter by any way, I do not know how they could come in even in pieces. The outside walls of this church, also, have what others have not, that is to say, like tiers of walls, one bends outwards and another turns inwards two inches, another, again, turns outwards and another goes inwards, and so it is from the commencement of the steps to the top of the church; and the tier of stone which goes outwards is two spans wide, and that going inwards one span, and in this fashion and width they cover the whole wall, and reckoning up the spans, this wall is 52 spans high. The church has its circuit cut like a wall outside, and inside of the rock itself, and this wall is entered by three good doors like small gates of a city or walled town.

The church of St. George is a good bit lower down than the others, almost separated from the place; it is in the rock, like the others. The entrance to it is under the rock or cliff: there are eight steps to ascend, and when they are ascended one enters into a large house, with a bench which goes all round it on the inside, for outside it is rough rock. In this house alms are given to the poor, who seat themselves on these benches. Entering from this house one comes at once to the church circuit, which is made in the form of a cross. The church also is in the form of a cross, and the distance from the principal door to the chancel is the same as that from one side door to the other, all of one compass. The doors are very well worked outside. I did not go inside, as it was locked. In the circuit of the church, entering from outside, to the right hand, for it is all rough rock, without more than one entrance, there is, at the height of a man or a little more, placed in the wall, a kind of ark full of water. They go up to it by steps; and they say that this water springs there, but it does not flow out: they carry it away for intermittent fevers, and say that it is good for them. All this enclosure is full of tombs, like the other churches. On the top of this church is a large double cross, that is, one within the other, like the crosses of the order of Christ. Outside the circuit the rock is higher than the church, and on this rock are cypresses and wild olive trees. It wearied me to write more of these works, because it seems to me that they will not believe me if I write more, and because as to what I have already written they may accuse me of untruth, therefore I swear by God, in whose power I am, that all that is written is the truth, and there is much more than what I have written, and I have left it that they may not tax me with its being falsehood. And because no other Portuguese went to these works except myself, and I went twice to see them from what I had heard of them. This place is on a slope of the mountain, and from the peak of the mountain to this is a day and a half’s journey of descent. This slope or mountain seems to be quite separate from the other mountain, yet it is subject to it, and from this town to the bottom there is still a great descent, and at the end of it a view over four or five leagues, and many great plains which they say are two days’ journey distant. (It seemed to me that one could go in one.) They say that there are in these plains other such edifices as those of Aquaxumo, such as stone chairs and other buildings, and that the residences of the Kings were there, like the other buildings of the Queens, and this is in the direction of the Nile. I did not go there, and I relate on hearsay a thing at which I was more amazed. They told me that the works of these churches were done in twenty-four years, and that this is written, and that they were done by Gibetas, that is, white men, for they well know that they do not know how to do any well executed work. They say that King Lalibela ordered this to be done; this name of Lalibela means miracle. They say that he took, or that they gave him, this name, because when he was born he was covered with bees, and that the bees cleaned him without doing him any hurt. They also say that he was not the son of the King, but son of a sister of the King, and that the King died without having a son, and the nephew, the sister’s son, inherited the kingdom. They say that he was a saint, and that he did many miracles, and so there is much pilgrimage to this place.

This lordship of Abrigima was given by the Prester John, before our departure, to the ambassador whom he sends to Portugal; and as I say that I came twice to see these churches and edifices, the second time that I came to see them I came with the ambassador, who came to take possession of his lordship. And whilst we were thus going about the country there came to us two _calaces_, which means messengers or word from the King: these calaces said to the ambassador who was taking the lordship of Abrigima, that the Prester John sent to tell him to send him the _gibir_, that is to say, the dues which were owing by his predecessor, for he did not owe anything yet, as he was then taking possession. And what they said was owing was this, namely, a hundred and fifty plough oxen, thirty dogs, thirty assagays, and thirty shields. The new captain gave for answer that he would at once send to know what property was belonging to his predecessor, and that he would pay out of it. In this manner they paid in these kingdoms, as in other places. I have said that those towards Egypt and Arabia pay horses and silks, and so the other lands and lordships pay each their own produce, according to their quality and breed.

CAP. LV.--_How we departed from Ancona, and went to Ingabelu,
and how we returned to seek the baggage._

We departed from the church and fair of Ancona, and having gone a distance of three leagues we reached some villages with all the goods; in these they would not receive us nor carry our baggage, saying that these villages belonged to the mother of Prester John, and that they did not obey any one except her. And they desired to beat the friar who conducted us, and they did give a beating to one of his men. We left the baggage here, and went to sleep at a large town of good houses named Ingabelu. Its situation is on a hill in the midst of extensive cultivated lands between very high mountains, the skirts of which are studded with an infinite number of towns, the largest number and the greatest that we had yet seen: it seems to me that these towns exceed a hundred. This town has pretty rivers on each side of it. They were building here a pretty church of masonry, of good workmanship; and that it may not appear to be a lie that so many towns could be seen from this Ingabelu, I say that all were not in sight from there, but we saw them from the mountains by which we passed. Those which might be furthest off from this town would be a league and a half. We found in this town an infinite quantity of fowls, which, if not in a hurry,[102] could be bought a hundred, if one wanted so many, in exchange for a little pepper. In this place there are many lemons and citrons: we remained here Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday night the tigers sprung into the town, and fell in with a boy and carried him off. From that place they attacked a large farm where we were lodging, and there broke loose from us a mule and an ass, which already once before had escaped at the river of Sabalete: they got away from the farm house, the mule jumped into a cow yard and so escaped, and the ass was devoured. On the morning of Monday the 11th day of September, we set out from the said town, turning back to where the baggage had remained, and on the road we met many people, half peacably inclined, the other half hostile (these were they who would not receive the baggage), and their arms were cudgels; they received us with welcome, and we did likewise to them, and that night we slept in their town, and they made amends for the past, for they gave us very good food. On the following day we set out on our road, a distance of two leagues or three, and again slept without our goods. On the Thursday we turned back again in search of it, and when we found it we still travelled straight on a good three leagues, all of it crossing mountains and passing valleys as before, and the whole of it seemed to be mountains. This Kingdom of Angote is almost all of it valleys and mountains, and the tilled land has little wheat and little barley, yet it gives much millet, taffo, and dagusha, pulse, peas, lentils, beans, many figs, garlic, and onions, and great abundance of all vegetables. Iron is current as money in this country, as has been said.