Chapter XII (4)

An interesting instance of the survival of a Jewish institution among the Christians of Abyssinia is that of Cities of Refuge. Plowden wrote, “All the larger towns are entirely under their (the priests’) control, and being cities of refuge, sacred even from the Ras, are filled with dissolute and dangerous characters.”[173] Parkyns mentioned Axum as a place of this kind, and added, “at Adoua the whole of that part called after the church, in fact the parish, is sanctuary (‘guddam’), and no person having taken refuge there can be arrested, although he walk about the public streets in broad daylight, so long as he does not pass the parish boundaries.”[174] Stern alluded to the subject, and had formed the impression that churches in general were sanctuaries. “In most cases the murderer may elude the violent rage of his pursuers by taking refuge in a church, where the priests will negotiate the price of his release.”[175] He mentioned also certain rivers—the Taccazze and the Abai—forming the limits of provinces, which the “avenger of blood” may not pass.[176]

The Jewish Sabbath is still held in veneration by the Abyssinian Christians. Parkyns observed that a feast called “adam Souaur,” or “left Saturday,” was observed, “as that day was formerly the Jewish Sabbath, but given up by the Christians for the Sunday at the time of the resurrection of our Saviour. The priests collect a quantity of rushes, and bless them in the church; and then a priest and a deacon take them out into the parish, the deacon carrying the bundle, and the priest distributing the rushes to all passers-by, binding them on the head of the receiver. They also visit the houses with them, and generally receive a handsome present.”[177] It would be interesting to discover the origin of this custom. Major Harris, writing in 1843, said, “The Jewish Sabbath is strictly observed throughout the kingdom. The ox and ass are at rest. Agricultural pursuits are suspended. Household avocations must be laid aside, and the spirit of idleness reigns throughout the day.”[178] The same writer has given a brief history of the observance.[179]

It is well known that at one time Abyssinia was, so far as the Emperor’s power extended at that period, converted to Roman Catholicism by the instrumentality of Portuguese missionaries. The connection with Portugal commenced in 1499, when Pedro Covilham penetrated by way of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, to Shoa, where the Emperor then held his court. He was well received. An ancient Ethiopian law decreed that no foreigner who reached Abyssinia should be allowed to leave the country, but Covilham was permitted to send home an account of his experiences. At a later date a further communication from the traveller induced the Portuguese Government to despatch an embassy, which, after many privations and adventures, arrived in Shoa in October, 1520. It brought no presents, and was not cordially welcomed. However, the Emperor desired to send an answer to the King of Portugal, and therefore—in defiance of the ancient usage—allowed the ambassador to return to Lisbon, taking with him an Ethiopian envoy. But certain of the Portuguese were detained in Abyssinia, among whom was a priest named John Bermudez.

Some years later this man was appointed Abouna, or Patriarch, on the death of the incumbent of that office. He made his way to Rome, where Pope Paul III. confirmed his title, and he thence proceeded, in accordance with the Emperor’s desire, to Portugal, and solicited the aid of European troops to assist the Abyssinians in repelling the Mohammedan invasion which then threatened the country.

The Portuguese Government despatched an expedition of some four hundred men under Don Christopher de Gama. These troops disembarked at Massowah in 1542. In an engagement with the Mohammedan forces on August 30 of that year the Abyssinian allies took to flight, and the Portuguese were surrounded. They cut their way through the enemy and effected their retreat, but Don Christopher, who had been wounded, was captured by the enemy and murdered by the Mohammedan commander. His skull was sent to Constantinople as a trophy. The surviving Portuguese besought of the Emperor an opportunity to avenge their leader, and they shortly afterwards took part in an action in which the Mohammedan forces were routed with great slaughter.

These circumstances added to the influence of Bermudez, but he insisted rigorously on the complete acceptance of Roman doctrine and ritual by the Abyssinians, and thus incurred the resentment of the Emperor. As a consequence he lost the advantages which he and his compatriots had gained, and finally abandoned his task and quitted the country, embarking at Massowah, where he had landed.

A subsequent mission under the leadership of Oviedo, Bishop of Hieropolis, which reached Massowah in 1558, failed equally, after many adventures—including an Abyssinian Council at which the Emperor and the bishop publicly and heatedly disputed about points of doctrine—and in 1560 Oviedo received orders from Rome to withdraw from Ethiopia and proceed to Japan.

Peter Paez was the next missionary who attempted to bring Abyssinia into communion with the Catholic Church. After suffering shipwreck in the Red Sea and enduring a seven years’ captivity in the hands of the Turks he landed at Massowah in 1600. Paez was a man of prudence and ability. He prepared himself for his task by learning the Geez language and opening a school at Maiguagua, in which he was able to study the character of the Abyssinian people. He acquired a reputation as a teacher and disputant, and in 1604 was summoned to the court, where the reigning Emperor, Za Dengel, received him as a person of distinction. He soon acquired influence over this monarch, who sanctioned the use of the Roman ritual and shortly became a convert to Catholicism. A rebellion—one of the ordinary incidents of Abyssinian politics—was organized against him, and he was slain. A period of civil war ensued, during which his successor shared the same fate.

The crown then passed to the Emperor Segued (called also Socinios and Susneus).[180] Paez aroused his interest by his skill in architecture and his other talents, was received into favour, and for the second time induced the ruler of the country to recognize the authority of the Catholic Church. Letters announcing the event, signed by the Emperor himself, were sent to the Pope and the King of Portugal. Paez died in 1623, shortly after receiving Segued’s formal abjuration of heresy and administering to him the sacrament of penance.

Upon receipt of the Emperor’s letter, the Pope, in 1624, despatched to Ethiopia a mission headed by Alphonso Mendez, a Jesuit and doctor of divinity. This envoy and his followers reached Abyssinia in 1625. On February 11, 1626, before the court and the magnates of the country, the Emperor avowed his submission to the head of the Catholic Church, and took the oath of obedience to the Holy See. A proclamation was then made that “all persons intended for priests should embrace the Catholic religion under pain of death, and that all should follow the forms of the Church of Rome in the celebration of Easter and Lent under the same penalty.”

The change of creed was not popular in the country. It was opposed by force, and became the occasion of a renewal of civil war. The Emperor found that he had alienated his subjects, and, in spite of the protests and resistance of Mendez, he issued, in 1632, an edict by which he restored the ancient religion to its former authority, and abdicated in favour of his son. Segued died a few months afterwards, still professing the Catholic faith. His successor banished Mendez and his retinue, whereupon they sought protection with the Prince of Bar, who had been at enmity with the Abyssinian king; but this chieftain delivered them to the Turks. Father Jerome Lobo, who wrote a history of the mission, and some of his companions, reached Europe after many adventures; others were ransomed from the Pasha of Souakim and proceeded to India, and the few Jesuits who had remained in Abyssinia were put to death.

Of nine Capuchins who endeavoured to enter the country soon after these events, seven were killed, the three who arrived last being murdered by the Pasha of Souakim, at the Emperor of Abyssinia’s request, as soon as they reached the coast.

No subsequent attempt of similar importance was made to convert the Abyssinian nation to Catholicism, and the story of the struggle between the Roman and the Alexandrian forms of belief may be said to have ended with the banishment of Mendez.

There have been theological contentions in the Abyssinian Church as in others, and it has not escaped schism. The fiercest dispute arose about the number of the births of Christ, and the sword has been used—as elsewhere—to lend force to arguments. Major Harris wrote: “At the expense of a bloody civil war, Gondar, with Godjam, Damot, and all the south-western provinces of Amhára, has long maintained the three births of Christ—Christ proceeding from the Father from all eternity, styled ‘the eternal birth;’ His incarnation, as being born of the holy Virgin, termed His ‘second or temporal birth;’ and His reception of the Holy Ghost, denominated His ‘third birth.’ The Tigre ecclesiastics, on the other hand, whose side is invariably espoused by the Primate of Ethiopia, deny the third birth, upon the ground that the reception of the Holy Ghost cannot be so styled.”[181] Bishop Samuel Gobat, whose book was published in 1834, gave a fuller account of the controversy, which Parkyns quoted.[182] In Stern’s time the Abouna (primate) was supported by King Theodore in his opposition to the doctrine of the three births, and “the royal herald made proclamation that in future all who adhered to the obnoxious dogma of the threefold birth would be taught obedience by the _giraffe_ (scourging). The Shoa clergy denounced this decision as arbitrary and tyrannical, as indeed it was; but an application of the promised whip wrought a wonderful change among that insubordinate body.”[183] The same author on one occasion saw about a dozen priests in chains, who were brought before the Abouna to be admonished because “they had pertinaciously clung to the abolished dogma of the three births of Christ.”[184] The penalty which they incurred “consisted of several months’ successive fasts, divers fines, and the promise of the _giraffe_.”

For a detailed account of Abyssinian Christianity and ecclesiastical history, reference should be made to the books already mentioned in this volume—Bruce, Gobat, Harris, Lobo, Legrand, Stern, Dufton, Plowden, and Parkyns especially—and to the works of F. Alvarez[185] and Job Ludolphus.[186] A digest of the writings of the early travellers and missionaries in Abyssinia was published by F. Balthazar Tellez, and translated into English by John Stevens (1710).

Mention has already been made of the Falashas (Jews) of Abyssinia. These people, said Stern, “claiming a lineal descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, pride themselves on the fame of their progenitors and the purity of the blood that circulates in their own veins. Intermarriages with those of another tribe or creed are strictly interdicted,[187] nay, even the visit to an unbeliever’s house is a sin, and subjects the transgressor to the penance of a thorough lustration and a complete change of dress before he can return to his own home. Their stern uncompromising sectarian spirit has been highly beneficial in excluding from their community that licentious profligacy in which all the other inhabitants of Ethiopia riot; and it is generally admitted that Falasha men and women seldom, if ever, stray from the path of virtue, or transgress the solemn law of the decalogue.”[188]

Various accounts, of which two have already been mentioned, are given of the origin of the Jewish colony in Abyssinia. It is commonly believed among the people that a large retinue returned with Maqueda, Queen of Sheba, from her visit to King Solomon. Harris remarked, “The tradition of Queen Maqueda has been ascribed to the invention of those fugitive Jews, who, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus, emigrated into the northern States by way of the Red Sea, who disseminated it with the design of obtaining the desired permission to settle in the country, and whose descendants are the Falashas still extant among the mountains of Simien and Lasta.”[189] According to Stern, “the most probable conjecture is that at a very early period—perhaps when Solomon’s fleet navigated the Red Sea—some adventurous Jews, impelled by love of gain, settled among the pleasant hills of Arabia Felix; whilst others of a more daring and enterprising spirit were induced to try their fortune in the more remote mountain scenes of Ethiopia. . . . Subsequent troubles in Palestine and the final overthrow of the Jewish monarchy by Nebuchadnezzar increased the number of the emigrants, and in the lapse of a few centuries the Jews formed a powerful state in Arabia, and a formidable and turbulent people in the Alpine regions between Tigre and Amhara in Ethiopia.”[190] Mr. Vivian alluded to “a colony of aboriginal Jews up in the mountains of Tigre. They live in pastoral fashion, like the old Hebrew patriarchs, upon the produce of the flocks and herds. They have been there for centuries, perhaps even for thousands of years, and the Abyssinians confess that they have always failed to dislodge them from their inaccessible fastnesses.”[191] Falashas are also found in the provinces bordering on Lake Tsana, including Godjam, and it was in this district that Stern visited them. It seems probable that the Jews who have retained their religion are the descendants of those who refused to conform to the doctrines of the Coptic Church when they were generally adopted in the country. Bruce mentions that “about one hundred and eighty years after the establishment of Christianity, a religious war is said to have taken place between the converted and unconverted Abyssinians (the Christians and the Jews),”[192] and if one may judge by the steady and successful opposition which Hebrews in other countries have offered to the most strenuous methods of conversion, it appears likely that a portion of those in Abyssinia adhered to their ancient creed.

There is a tradition that in the tenth century the Jews obtained ascendency in Ethiopia, and preserved their supremacy for about three centuries. “In the year 960 the Jews, supported by their king and by his daughter Judith, a woman of great beauty, resolved to attempt the subversion of the Christian religion and the destruction of the race of Solomon (Queen Maqueda’s descendants having been converted to the Alexandrian doctrines). They surprised the mountain of Damo, the residence of the Christian princes, the whole of whom, about four hundred, were massacred, excepting one infant, who escaped into the powerful and loyal province of Shoa. A solitary representative of the blood of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba was thus preserved. Judith took possession of the throne, and not only enjoyed it herself for forty years, but transmitted it to five of her posterity. On the death of the last of these the crown descended to one of his relations, a Christian, and is said to have remained in his family (who, though Christians, were not of the line of Solomon) for five generations. Finally, Tekla Haimanot, the famous saint, persuaded the reigning king to restore the crown to the house of Solomon, whose descendants had survived in Shoa.”[193]

Differing accounts of the former political status of the Hebrews in the land have been given by various writers; Stern said that in their “mountain fastnesses of Simien and Bellesa they maintained, under their own kings and queens, called Gideon and Judith, a chequered and independent existence till the beginning of the seventeenth century.”[194] Harris, following Bruce more closely, wrote, “Christianity became the national religion of Abyssinia in the beginning of the fourth century. The Falashas, descendants of the Jews who were believed to have accompanied Menelek from Jerusalem, had meanwhile waxed extremely powerful, and refusing to abandon the faith of their forefathers, they now declared independence. Electing a sovereign of their own creed, they took possession of the almost impregnable mountain fastnesses of Simien, where their numbers were augmented by continual accessions from the Jews who were expelled from Palestine and from Arabia. Under the constant titles of Gideon and Judith, a succession of kings and queens held a limited sway until, in the middle of the _tenth_ century,” the Princess Esther brought about the revolution which Bruce ascribed to Judith—one writer probably using the name and the other the title of the usurper in question. Whatever the circumstances may really have been, there seems reason to believe that the Jews were at one time sufficiently influential to impose a dynasty of their choice upon the nation.

Stern has given a full and very interesting account of the Falashas whom he saw. According to this they dwell as a rule, though not invariably, apart from the remainder of the population, and “their settlements are strikingly distinguished from the Christian villages by the red earthen pot on the apex of their _mesquid_, or place of worship, which towers from the centre of the thatched huts by which it is environed. . . . Husbandry and a few simple trades—such as smiths, potters, and weavers—constitute the sole occupations in which they engage; commerce they unanimously repudiate as incompatible with their Mosaic Creed, and it is quite a disappointment not to find a single merchant among a quarter of a million of people, the lineal descendants of those who are supposed to have acquired a taste for traffic and riches on the very eve of their emancipation from Egyptian servitude.”

Though they had very few copies of the Scriptures in Stern’s time they were well acquainted with the Old Testament, especially the Pentateuch and the Psalms. “Their sacrifices,” he wrote, “are most capriciously offered, and with the exception of the Paschal Lamb, neither the offering on the Sabbath nor on the day of atonement is in accordance with the original command. . . . Every Falasha settlement has a hut at its outskirts, and there the unclean and impure must take refuge during the prescribed number of days. This ritual scrupulosity involves many social hardships and inflicts on numbers many a keen pang. Particularly in the hour of dissolution, when the sweet expressions of friendship and love are so soothing to the agonized soul and anguished frame, the dying Falasha has no affectionate hand clasped in his, and no words of comfort from beloved objects whispered in his ears. The inflexible law forbids the last offices to the weeping relative, and the helpless sufferer is in death’s agonizing convulsions dragged from the weary couch into the open air, where the polluted and unclean remove him from the bare ground to the tainted and lonely hut.”

On the Sabbath “the service, which consists in chanting psalms and hymns relieved by allegorical stories and a few verses or a chapter of the book of Leviticus, lasts a considerable time, and in some places the plaintive notes of the worshippers may even be heard across the quiet valley and around the lonely hill throughout the night. . . . Broad phylacteries and the garments of fringes are utterly unknown among them, nor do they wash the cup or practise any of the decrees of the rabbins. . . . About the advent of the Messiah they have no intelligent or definite idea. ‘We believe that Jerusalem will again be rebuilt,’ is the answer on the lip of every Falasha, when questioned as to the future destiny of his nation. This event they regard as the consummation of their brightest hopes—the realization of their fondest mundane visions. . . .”

Asceticism, borrowed from the Christian hermits, has become a practice among the Falasha priests, who “after their initiation frequently pass months and years in swampy marshes, stern wilds and poisonous jungles, where roots or dried peas, which latter they carry with them, are their only means of subsistence. Numbers succumb to the noxious influence of the atmosphere, others perish of famine, whilst not a few become the prey of the lion, hyena, and other voracious beasts which inhabit those unsightly tracts.” There are also Falasha monks, and “the dwellings and convents of these ascetics are carefully isolated from the abodes of the impure and unholy people.”

There were, in Stern’s day, three Falasha high-priests in Abyssinia, one in the province of Quara, the other in Armatgioho, and the third, Aboo Maharee, in Dembea. The missionary had some indecisive discussion with the last-named, a man about sixty years of age, “of a noble and commanding figure, swathed in a white _shama_, and holding a long bamboo staff, which in the distance looked like the crosier of a bishop.” He had a “high and expressive forehead, melancholy restless eyes, and a countenance once no doubt mild and pleasing, but to which self-imposed penances and a repulsive practice had imparted an expression most strange and unearthly.”

“The common people have all an erect, upright carriage;” the women are intelligent and _sympathiques_, and the younger of them attractive. To judge by Stern’s description,[195] the Falashas are generally a worthy, simple and devout race, bigoted but “exemplary in their morals, and cleanly in their habits”—in which latter respect they form a striking contrast to their co-religionists in the slums of London. Plowden said of the Abyssinian Jews, “They are still found in some numbers, and, though despised, are not persecuted; this may be owing to their poverty. They know nothing of the Hebrew tongue, but some read the Mosaic books in Geez, and are as scrupulous in their ceremonials as their brethren elsewhere. They are the best masons in the country.”[196]

“The _mesquids_, like the Christian churches, consist of three divisions, with an entrance towards the east. The admission into these different courts is rigorously regulated by Levitical law, and the severest penalty would be inflicted on any one who should incautiously pollute the sacred edifice. In the rear of every place of worship is a small enclosure with a huge stone in the centre; and on this crude altar the victim is slaughtered, and all other sacrificial rites performed.”[197]

For a notice of a curious superstition of which a class of Jewish people are often the object among Christian Abyssinians, see p. 288.

In the “Jewish Year-Book”[198] for 1904 the number of Jews in Abyssinia is computed at 50,000; the “American Jewish Year Book” estimates it to be 120,000. Both these figures must be conjectural, and the former differs very widely from that given by Stern, who had had opportunities of obtaining information in the country. Considering the fecundity of the Jews in most parts of the world it is unlikely that their numbers have diminished in Ethiopia during the last forty years.

In Plowden’s time there was a large and prosperous Mohammedan population in Abyssinia. He wrote: “In all large towns they have a separate quarter, with mosques and public prayers. From the advantage that their commerce in slaves gives them over their Christian competitors, the Mussulman traders are the most wealthy, and are, therefore, generally appointed to the high post of Negadeh Ras, or collector of all customs, literally ‘head of merchants.’ To enforce their authority these keep large bodies of armed men, and confidently predict the final triumph of the faith of the Prophet in Abyssinia. The Abyssinian Mussulmans, as distinguished from the Galla, are all traders; they will not eat meat killed by Christians, and are frequently their superiors in morality and intelligence. They live on terms of equality, good humour and friendship with the Christians, openly defend their creed, and receive any proselyte that offers, and do not appear to think that the restrictions in the Koran respecting strong drinks apply to them at all.” Plowden added that they, like the Christians, did not generally seclude their women.

King Theodore, early in his reign, issued an edict which “required peremptorily the expulsion from the country, or the instant return to the bosom of the Church of his apostate countrymen,” _i.e._ Mohammedans.[199] Circumstances prevented him from enforcing this decree. It was revived by King Johannes, and no doubt, had in other parts of Abyssinia the effect which Stecker observed in Korata.[200] But Mohammedans are still to be found—_e.g._ in the district of Axum[201] and in Shoa.[202]

Allusion has already been made to the Waitos.[203] Plowden wrote of them: “They call themselves Mohammedans, but are not recognized by the other followers of that creed. They principally reside near the Lake Tsana, and are a very handsome race. They are regarded with as much aversion as the Jews.”[204] It must be owned that the appreciation of their personal appearance is a matter of taste.

Another singular sect is that known as Koomants, or Kamants. These people, “found only in the neighbourhood of Gondar, are acknowledged by neither Christian, Mussulman, or Jew, and have a bastard creed, a compound of all three. They are skilful carpenters, and supply all Gondar with wood. They are despised, but being very courageous, and having lately shown an inclining towards Christianity, it is not improbable that their distinctions will soon disappear; many even now have ceased a practice which was the chief separating cause. They hung heavy weights in the lobe of the ear of the girls, who are thereby excluded from any chance of marriage with Christians.”[205] Hormuzd Rassam on one occasion halted at a village of Kamants called Saraba, north of Lake Tsana, in the direction of Gondar. He saw there “a place of worship, which they hold in great veneration. The entire space between the spring and this temple, or, more strictly, grove—they have no building for their religious services—is regarded as sacred, and no Christian or Mohammedan is allowed to enter within the hallowed precincts. When engaged in prayer, they take up a position under a tree, on the banks of the stream, or in the wood about half a mile from the spring. It is owing to this practice that the Christian Abyssinians style them ‘Worshippers of wood,’ or simply ‘Wood.’ Their religion is as great a mystery in Abyssinia as that of the Ansairies is in Syria, and although the late king (Theodore) obliged them to wear the ‘mateb’ cord, yet they still continue to practise certain rites and ceremonies unknown either to Christians or Mussulmans. They only eat meat which has been slaughtered by themselves, and eschew fish and coffee; yet they adopt Christian names, and have a kind of baptism, which their Christian countrymen designate a ‘mockery.’”[206]

Stern’s first experience of these people was agreeable. In a deep valley called Walee Dubba, on the way to Tschelga, he met some young women who had jars of _dallah_, a beer made from sprouting barley, to sell. “It was quite an unexpected surprise,” he wrote, “to see the solitude of an African wilderness enlivened with the gay song and sprightly converse of a number of young lasses, who, clad in rustling leather petticoats, moved about amongst the various groups resting under the leafy foliage, with a grace and innate modesty which elicited admiration, whilst at the same time it forbad all unbecoming liberty.” At Tschelga he questioned some of the Kamants “about their knowledge of God and their hopes of eternity; but they had so little to communicate, beyond a belief in a Supreme Being and the existence of a future state, that the most simple query caused them the utmost wonder and surprise. . . . Their language is Amharic, but amongst themselves they speak in the Falasha tongue; and the striking Jewish features of many a man and woman amongst them inclined us to credit the report which assigns to them a Jewish origin.” The same writer has mentioned the legendary derivation of their name,[207] and he described them as industrious, energetic, and active. He saw many of their women in Gondar, and remarked that “it was a strange sight to see these young females—clad in simple leather petticoats and equally simple earrings of wood, which, according to the orthodox fashion, must be weighty enough to distend in a few years the flap of the ear down to the shoulders—walking about in the market, or groaning under a heavy burden of wood, utterly unconcerned about everything except the graceful ornament that dangled round their necks.”[208]

At the present time European creeds are represented in Abyssinia by converts, whose change of faith is due to the activity of missionaries. Mr. Wylde wrote upon this subject—“I believe the majority of the Abyssinians care a great deal for their religion, and it is only the more worthless ones that are found round the different mission stations; people who are willing to change their faith the same as they would their clothes, and when they have worn out all that are to be got, revert to their original one again, without perhaps being any the better or any the worse for the experience, but only to be marked by others as being utterly worthless and unreliable characters. I will never have a male servant in my employ that has been near a mission, if I can help it. Female servants are different; they usually are taught to sew, wash, and cook, and are generally cleanly in their habits, but when they get to a certain age the majority of them run away from these establishments, as they cannot stand the discipline and restraint; and I don’t blame them, as a more unlovely and monotonous life does not exist.”[209]

There is a code of law in Abyssinia, which is called _Fatha Negest_, or _Feth Negust_. According to Major Harris this volume of “The Judgments of the Kings” is said to have fallen from heaven in the time of Constantine the Great, and he includes it among the books of which MSS. are still extant in the country.[210] Plowden stated that it was supposed “to have been compiled by the Council of Three Hundred, in the earlier ages of the Church, and regarded originally as of almost equal authority with the sacred writings.”[211] He further remarked that this code “is a bad translation from that of Justinian; three parts of it being occupied with Church affairs and regulations, and a small portion only with the civil and criminal law, this latter being also much mixed up with the institutions of the Pentateuch. Bad as it is, there are probably not twenty persons in the country that are conversant with it; and some singular judgments are given on its authority, much after the fashion of the _sortes Virgilianæ_. Though it is consulted with much ceremony, and considered a sacred volume, law is, in fact, simplified to the will of the chief. Still, the fact of there being a written law has assisted in retarding the degradation of the people.”[212]

The following extract from Parkyns’s work shows the spirit of Ethiopian jurisprudence in dealing with serious crime: “As for the laws of the country, they are for the most part formed on the basis of the old Mosaic dispensation. ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth’ is followed nearly to the letter—so much so that, if a man kill another, the murderer must be put to death by the nearest relatives of the deceased with precisely the same kind of weapon as that with which he killed his victim.”[213] The murderer may redeem his life by paying a ransom, which, in Stern’s time, varied from fifty to two hundred and fifty Maria Theresa dollars. If he did not possess the requisite amount he was chained to a relative of the deceased and obliged to beg till he had collected the stipulated sum. The severity of the punishments in vogue varies with the temperament of different rulers, the Emperor being the final authority in such matters, and a right of appeal to him is admitted in favour of all accused persons.[214] Mutilation is a common penalty.[215] “This,” said Mr. Wylde, “has not the terrors that it would have in England, as some of the thieves in Abyssinia have been operated on a second and a third time, and I saw one man with his left foot being the only extremity left, and he was being fed by the priests at the church at Adowa.”[216]

All Abyssinian litigants are required to find security. “These securities must be persons whom the judge is certain of being able to seize if necessary. If the charge be serious they must be persons of property, and are liable both for the appearance of their principals, and for the sentence whatever that may be. This custom obtains both in civil and criminal law. In default of such security, each party is chained by the wrist; an additional expense, as the chains must be hired, and the jailor—that is, the person to whom he is chained, paid a sum fixed by law. This bail is the prop of Abyssinian society; no commercial or market transfer takes place without it. The Abyssinian judge or creditor cares nothing for the principal in a cause; the bail is seized, and in self-defence produces his man; and it is an honourable trait that the principal rarely absconds. A friend will thus become security in a case of murder, though rendering himself thereby liable to suffer death, or to pay the price of blood, to them a fortune.

“After both parties have given security the plaintiff only is allowed to produce his witnesses; the defendant can, when they are called by name, admit or reject their evidence, in almost every case great indulgence being shown in this respect. . . . In small affairs, such as a sudden dispute on the high road, the meeting of an absconded debtor, or any civil matter, the first decent person to be found is obliged to act as a temporary judge, if adjured by the ‘death of the chief’ paramount. He must then place the accused in bonds, which is done by tying his cloth (_shama_) to that of his accuser, and escort or send them to the nearest magistrate, who, should the accused demand it, must in like manner forward him to his immediate master or chief, where the case is first heard, the plaintiff having right of appeal; the law in this being, however, highly favourable to the defendant, the plaintiff not being always disposed for a long journey.”[217]

Every man is his own advocate. Those who wish to read an account of the proceedings “in court” should refer to “Modern Abyssinia,” p. 308, or “Wanderings among the Falashas,” pp. 48, 170. The hearing usually gives occasion for a good deal of eloquence and a great deal of lying.

There is no sort of general education in Abyssinia. Men of attainments are found in the upper classes, and some of the higher officials are capable linguists. But as regards the bulk of the nation learning has advanced little since the days of Harris. “The stores of literature being bound up in a dead letter (the Geez language), few excepting the priests and _defterers_ can decipher them, and many of these learned men are often more indebted to the memory of their early youth than to the well-thumbed page in their hand. The ignorance of the nation is, indeed, truly deplorable; for those children only receive the rudiments of an education who are designed for the service of the Church; and, the course of study adopted being little calculated to expand the mind of the neophyte, a peculiar deficiency is presented in intellectual features.”[218] Plowden remarked of the priests that they “teach but one book to the children of the laity, ‘The Psalms of David;’ and without forbidding other learning, discourage it, confining it as much as possible to the clergy and the scribes.”[219] Allusion has already been made to the classes held by the priests in the precincts of the churches.[220] Such instruction as is obtainable is given, of course, to all pupils under clerical supervision. There are no secular schools, and at the present time, as Mr. Vivian remarked, “no one in Abyssinia ever does get any education beyond learning to read and write, and quote passages from the Gospels.”[221] Those whose acquirements exceed this standard are not indebted for them to native teachers.

The habits of the young girls, among the generality of the people, do not foster any strict notions of morality. Parkyns wrote: “The boys are turned out wild to look after the sheep and cattle, and the girls, from early childhood, are sent to fetch water from the well or brook, first in a gourd, and afterwards in a jar proportioned to their strength. If the well be far from the village, the girls usually form parties to go thither and amuse themselves on the road by singing sentimental or love songs; while, during their halt at the well for an hour or so, they engage in romps of all kinds, in which parties of the other sex frequently join. This early licence lays the foundation for worse, when at a later period they are sent to the woods to collect fuel.”[222]

Courtship can hardly be said to exist. “In Abyssinia young people begin to think of marriage at a very early age. I have seen brides of eight or nine years old; and boys at a proportionally youthful age are considered marriageable. When a lad wishes to marry he only inquires for a girl who may possess twice the number of oxen that he can muster, or their value. His proposals are made to the girl’s father, and, unless there is some strong motive for rejecting him, he is accepted, and everything is arranged without consulting the lady’s taste or asking her consent. They are usually betrothed three or four months before marriage, during which time the bridegroom frequently visits his father-in-law elect, and occasionally propitiates him with presents of honey, butter, a sheep, or a goat; but he is never allowed to see his intended wife even for a moment, unless, by urgent entreaty or a handsome bribe, he induces some female friend of hers to arrange the matter, by procuring him a glance at his cruel fair one. For this purpose he conceals himself behind a door or other convenient hiding-place, while the lady, on some pretext or other, is led past it. Should she, however, suspect a trick, and discover him, she would make a great uproar, cover her face, and, screaming, run away and hide herself, as though her sense of propriety were greatly offended by the intrusion; although previous to his making the offer she would have thought it no harm to romp with him, or any other male acquaintance, in the most free and easy manner. Even after she has been betrothed, she is at home to every one, except to him who most sighs for the light of her countenance.

“In Tigre, and especially in Shire, there is a superstition that if a girl leave her father’s house during the interval between her betrothal and marriage she will be bitten by a snake.

“When the wedding day approaches the girl is well washed, her hair combed and tressed, and she is rendered in every way as agreeable as possible. She has then to undergo a course of diet and medicine.”[223]

Of marriages there are three kinds. The foregoing extract refers to the usual merely civil contract; for such unions there are “bridesmen” (_arkees_), who have peculiar privileges in the community, including that of theft, remain “on duty” after the nuptials, and occupy the most singular relation to the newly wedded damsel.[224] There are also bridesmaids, who keep their faces covered during the wedding, which is a very simple ceremony. Mr. Wylde and an Italian friend obtained an illicit view of an Abyssinian bride and bridesmaids, and were rewarded by the sight of some very charming girls. Both he and Parkyns have written entertaining descriptions of an Abyssinian marriage of this kind.[225]

Rassam has given the following particulars with regard to such contracts. “The parties simply swear, in the presence of two witnesses, that they will live together as husband and wife. This bond may be dissolved at any time by mutual consent; in that case, the wife is entitled to retain whatever property she possessed before wedlock, as also any presents which she may have received from her husband during coverture, unless a stipulation to the contrary was agreed to by both sides, on their union. Most Abyssinian marriages are of this sort, and the generality of the respectable classes so wedded live together as husband and wife until separated by death.”[226]

Harris wrote: “In Shoa a girl is reckoned according to the value of her property; and the heiress to a house, a field, and a bedstead is certain to add a husband to her list before many summers have shone over her head. Marriage is generally concluded by the parties declaring, before witnesses, ‘upon the life of the King,’ that they intend to live happily together, and the property of each being produced is carefully appraised. A mule or an ass, a dollar, a shield and a sheaf of spears on the one side,[227] are noted against the lady’s stock of wheat, cotton, and household gear; and the bargain being struck, the effects become joint for the time, until some domestic difference results in either taking up their own, and departing to seek a new mate.

“Favourite slaves and concubines are respected as much as wedded wives. No distinction is made betwixt legitimate and illegitimate children; and, to the extent of his means, every subject follows the example set by the monarch (Sahela Selassie), who, it has been seen, entertains upon his establishment, in addition to his lawful spouse, no fewer than five hundred concubines.

“Few married couples even live long together without violating their vow; and the dereliction being held of small account, a beating is the only punishment inflicted upon the weaker party. The jewel chastity is here in no repute; and the utmost extent of reparation to be recovered in a court of justice for the most aggravated case of seduction is but fivepence sterling.

“Morality is thus at the very lowest ebb; for there is neither custom nor inducement to be chaste, and beads, more precious than fine gold, bear down every barrier of restraint. Honesty and modesty both yield to the force of temptation, and pride is seldom offended at living in a state of indolent dependence upon others. The soft savage requires but little inducement to follow the bent of her passions according to the dictates of unenlightened nature; and neither scruples of conscience nor the rules of the loose society form any obstacle whatever to their entire gratification.”[228]

Plowden confirms the observation that “no distinction is made between legitimate and illegitimate children,” and adds, “all share alike on the decease of their father.”[229]

The reader will have noticed that Rassam’s account of the duration and even tenour of these alliances does not agree with the comments made by Harris. Stern observed that the wedded pair “may, perhaps, become attached to each other and live in peace and conjugal bliss; or, as it frequently happens, they may become disgusted with each other after the lapse of a brief period and separate.”[230]

Parkyns wrote:—“The civil marriage may be dissolved on the shortest notice and for the most trifling reasons. Parties have only to express their wish to separate, and a division of property and children takes place. The boys, if there be any, usually go to the father, and the girls to the mother. This having been done, the parties are at liberty to contract a second marriage as soon as they please. It is not an uncommon thing for a man thus separated from his wife to maintain her in a house near his own, furnish her with the necessary means of subsistence for herself and family, and continue apparently in perfect friendship with her, while at the same time he takes another bride in her place.”[231]

The custom of entering into civil contracts of this kind is of old standing; for Lobo remarked, “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.”[232]

According to Mr. Vivian, provision is sometimes made at the time of the secular marriage for the event of divorce—“a certain sum is agreed upon for payment by the husband. My friend, the coffee-planter at Harrar, had to promise to pay £10 to his little Galla wife if ever he sent her away, but that was considered an exceptionally heavy fee.”[233]

There are, however, nuptials of greater sanctity. Rassam thus described them: “The most binding marriage with the Abyssinians consists of an interchange of vows between the bridegroom and bride, confirmed by their jointly partaking of the holy Eucharist; in fact, the union in this case is solemnized much in the same way as in other Christian Churches. Here, however, as elsewhere, certain breaches of their mutual vows by either party dissolves the tie and renders the transgressor legally obnoxious to punishment; but as Abyssinian law in such matters has been disregarded for centuries, and Might has taken the place of Right, it follows that an offending husband generally escapes with impunity; so also does the guilty wife, if she happens to belong to the family of a powerful chief. Hence, an unprincipled husband, when tired of his wife, finds no difficulty whatever in getting rid of her; and such repudiation is undoubtedly very common. Many cases of the kind fell under my own cognizance, and, in nearly all, the husbands were leading incontinent lives; on the other hand, I never heard of a single instance of a wife who had been sacramentally married proving unfaithful to her husband, even after his repudiation of her. Most women so situated remain single, and many become nuns. In consequence of this deplorable state of things, Abyssinian females generally entertain a great distrust of the opposite sex, and not one in twenty would willingly contract the more binding marriage.”[234]

Mr. Vivian confirmed this observation. “Marriage is not popular with the women,” he wrote, “in either of these countries” (Abyssinia and Somaliland), “and they will only consent to it when physical force is actually used.” He added, with regard to Abyssinia, “The permanent marriage seems to be very rare, only priests and persons of extraordinary piety indulging in it.”[235] It is to be hoped that these worthies do not resort to violence in order to gratify their wish. Plowden said of this form of wedlock, that “it is usual in old age only to take the sacrament together in the church, thereby pledging themselves to fidelity.”[236]

Doubtless this account of the Abyssinian usage is correct, for it agrees with the observations made by Parkyns. “Church marriages,” he wrote, “are rarely solemnized except between persons, who, having first been civilly married, and having afterwards lived happily together till the decline of life, begin to feel that they could not hope to suit themselves better, and so determine to sanctify the marriage by going to church and partaking of the Sacrament. The bond is then considered indissoluble.”[237] Stern stated that the Negus is in the same position as the clergy with regard to monogamy.[238]

“According to the canons of the Abyssinian Church, the King is bound by the same marital laws as a priest; and, consequently, if his wife dies, he dare not marry another. The bereaved predecessors of Theodoros scrupulously evaded such a contingency by substituting the regularly stored harem in the place of the one lawful wife.”[239]

Rassam made the following observations on the third form of wedlock: “This last is little better than concubinage. The contracting parties merely engage to cohabit during pleasure, and while so living are regarded as husband and wife. The national Church recognizes only the sacramental marriage as valid; but the laity, as a rule, set all ecclesiastical law in such matters at defiance. Hence, a wealthy Abyssinian Christian, who is debarred by the two higher degrees of wedlock from having more than one wife, may nevertheless have as many third-rate wives as he pleases, and cohabit with them simultaneously. In the course of my inquiries into these matrimonial customs, and the laws affecting inheritances among this peculiar people, I applied to the Abouna to aid me in the research. His reply was, ‘My son, you have asked me questions which I am unable to answer. This only I can tell you; Abyssinian marriages, with few exceptions, are so abominably revolting that the issue are all bastards.’”[240]

From the opinions quoted it may be judged that the inclination towards conjugal constancy is usually greater in the wife than in the husband, but this is not invariably the case. Rassam tells the following story of a couple at Magdala. “The husband was in such dread of losing his partner, knowing that, as he had been united to her by the secondary (civil) marriage only, she might leave him any day, that her refusal to accompany him to the altar, there to partake of the Lord’s Supper with him, in token of their more indissoluble union, nearly drove him mad. The matter was eventually referred to the Abouna, my intervention being also sought, and after considerable trouble we overcame the obstinacy of the lady, and induced her to be sacramentally joined to her lovesick lord.”[241] Of course this may have been only an instance of an Ethiopian woman’s mistrust of the male sex.

Lobo gave some curious details of the penalties that followed upon infidelity when he was in the country. “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 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 is 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.”[242]

According to Mr. Wylde, Abyssinian girls have many attractions for men. “They perfectly understand the utility of ‘feeding the beast’ with a nice dinner to keep him good-tempered, and from what I have seen of these young ladies, they do everything they possibly can to make a man happy, and being good-tempered, jolly girls, they seldom ‘nag,’ and no wonder the southern Italians have taken a liking for them, and find themselves perfectly happy in their society.” He admits that “their great drawback is their dirtiness;” but adds, “all those that get the chance of being clean keep themselves very neat and tidy.” However, “nearly all the lower-class Abyssinian women use oil or fat for their heads; this they do to keep the small parasites quiet, as they cannot get about when the head and hair are thickly besmeared and saturated, and the oil or fat also serves for softening the skin of the face and preventing it from chapping in the cold weather, or blistering during the hot season of the year.”[243] Mr. Vivian remarked of the Ethiopian woman, “though her features are comely, she is not the sort of person one would care to choose as a companion. For one thing, I do not suppose that she ever washes herself in her life, the butter on her hair grows rancid and emits a peculiarly pungent odour, which affronts the nostrils when you pass her in the desert, and wherever she goes she carries with her a large black cluster of flies congregated on her back.”[244] Probably she would “find herself” under the influence of a cleaner civilization.