Chapter XI: Book V (9)

The experiment was twice tried afterwards in presence of Ras Michael. But he would not risk his good shields, and always produced the table, saying, “Engedan and those foolish boys were rightly served; they thought Yagoube was a liar like themselves, and they lost their shields; but I believed him, and gave him my table for curiosity only, and so I saved mine.”

As I may now say I was settled in this country, and had an opportunity of being informed of the manners, government, and present state of it, I shall here inform the reader of what I think most worthy his attention, whether ancient or modern, while we are yet in peace, before we are called out to a campaign or war, attended with every disadvantage, danger, and source of confusion.

CHAP. X.

_Geographical Division of Abyssinia into Provinces._

At Masuah, that is, on the coast of the Red Sea, begins an imaginary division of Abyssinia into two, which is rather a division of language than strictly to be understood as territorial. The first division is called _Tigré_, between the Red Sea and the river Tacazzé. Between that river and the Nile, westward, where it bounds the Galla, it is called _Amhara_.

Whatever convenience there maybe from this division, there is neither geographical nor historical precision in it, for there are many little provinces included in the first that do not belong to Tigré; and, in the second division, which is Amhara, that which gives the name is but a very small part of it.

Again, in point of language, there is a variety of tongues spoken in the second division besides that of Amhara. In Tigrè, however, the separation as to languages holds true, as there is no tongue known there but Geez, or that of the Shepherds.

Masuah, in ancient times, was one of the principal places of residence of the Baharnagash, who, when he was not there himself, constantly left his deputy, or lieutenant. In summer he resided for several months in the island of Dahalac, then accounted part of his territory. He was, after the King and Betwudet, the person of the greatest consideration in the kingdom, and was invested with sendick and nagareet, the kettle-drum, and colours, marks of supreme command.

Masuah was taken, and a basha established there soon after, as we have seen in the history, in the reign of Menas, when the Baharnagash, named Isaac, confederated with the Turkish basha, and ceded to him a great territory, part of his own government, and with it Dobarwa, the capital of his province, divided only by the river Mareb from Tigré. From this time this office fell into disrepute in the kingdom. The sendick and nagareet, the marks of supreme power, were taken from him, and he never was allowed a place in council, unless specially called on by the king. He preserves his privilege of being crowned with gold; but, when appointed, has a cloak thrown over him, the one side white, the other a dark blue, and the officer who crowns him admonishes him of what will befal him if he preserves his allegiance, which is signified by the white side of the cloak; and the disgrace and punishment that is to attend his treason, and which has fallen upon his predecessors, which he figures to him by turning up the colour of mourning.

Besides the dignity attending this office, it was also one of the most lucrative. Frankincense, myrrh, and a species of cinnamon, called by the Italians Cannella, with several kinds of gums and dyes, all very precious, from Cape Gardefan to Bilur, were the valuable produce of this country: but this territory, though considerable in length, is not of any great breadth; for, from south of Hadea to Masuah, it consists in a belt seldom above forty miles from the sea, which is bounded by a ridge of very high mountains, running parallel to the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, as far as Masuah.

After Azab begin the mines of fossile salt, which, cut into square, solid bricks of about a foot long, serve in place of the silver currency in Abyssinia; and from this, as from a kind of mint, great benefit accrues also.

From Masuah the same narrow belt continues to Suakem; nay, indeed, though the rains do not reach so far, the mountains continue to the Isthmus of Suez. This northern province of the Baharnagash is called the Habab, or the land of the Agaazi, or Shepherds; they speak one language, which they call Geez, or the language of the Agaazi. From the earliest times, they have had letters and writing among them; and no other has ever been introduced into Abyssinia, to this day, as we have already observed.

Since the expulsion of the Turks from Dobarwa and the continent of Abyssinia, Masuah has been governed by a Naybe, himself one of the Shepherds, but Mahometan. A treaty formerly subsisted, that the king should receive half of the revenue of the customhouse in Masuah; in return for which he was suffered to enjoy that small stripe of barren, dry country called Samhar, inhabited by black shepherds called Shiho, reaching from Hamazen on the north to the foot of the mountain Taranta on the south; but, by the favour of Michael, that is, by bribery and corruption, he has possessed himself of two large frontier towns, Dixan and Dobarwa, by lease, for a trifling sum, which he pays the king yearly; this must necessarily very much weaken this state, if it should ever again have war with the Turks, of which indeed there is no great probability.

The next province in Abyssinia, as well for greatness as riches, power, and dignity, and nearest Masuah, is Tigrè. It is bounded by the territory of the Baharnagash, that is, by the river Mareb on the east, and the Tacazzè upon the west. It is about one hundred and twenty miles broad from E. to W. and two hundred from N. to S. This is its present situation. The hand of usurping power has abolished all distinction on the west-side of the Tacazzè; besides, many large governments, such as Enderta and Antalow, and great part of the Baharnagash, were swallowed up in this province to the east.

What, in a special manner, makes the riches of Tigré, is, that it lies nearest the market, which is Arabia; and all the merchandise destined to cross the Red Sea must pass through this province, so that the governor has the choice of all commodities wherewith to make his market. The strongest male, the most beautiful female slaves, the purest gold, the largest teeth of ivory, all must pass through his hand. Fire-arms, moreover, which for many years have decided who is the most powerful in Abyssinia, all these come from Arabia, and not one can be purchased without his knowing to whom it goes, and after his having had the first refusal of it.

Siré, a province about twenty-five miles broad, and not much more in length, is reckoned as part of Tigré also, but this is not a new usurpation. It lost the rank of a province, and was united to Tigré for the misbehaviour of its governor Kasmati Claudius, in an expedition against the Shangalla in the reign of Yasous the Great. In my time, it began again to get into reputation, and was by Ras Michael’s own consent disjoined from his province, and given first to his son Welled Hawaryat, together with Samen, and, after his death, to Ayto Tesfos, a very amiable man, gallant soldier, and good officer; who, fighting bravely in the king’s service at the battle of Serbraxos, was there wounded and taken prisoner, and died of his wounds afterwards.

After passing the Tacazzè, the boundary between Sirè and Samen, we come to that mountainous province called by the last name. A large chain of rugged mountains, where is the Jews Rock, (which I shall often mention as the highest), reaches from the south of Tigré down near to Waldubba, the low, hot country that bounds Abyssinia on the north. It is about 80 miles in length, in few places 30 broad, and in some much less. It is in great part possessed by Jews, and _there_ Gideon and Judith, king and queen of that nation, and, as they say, of the house of Judah, maintain still their ancient sovereignty and religion from very early times.

On the N. E. of Tigré lies the province of Begemder. It borders upon Angot, whose governor is called Angot Ras; but the whole province now, excepting a few villages, is conquered by the Galla.

It has Amhara, which runs parallel to it, on the south, and is separated from it by the river Bashilo. Both these provinces are bounded by the river Nile on the west. Begemder is about 180 miles in its greatest length, and 60 in breadth, comprehending Lasta, a mountainous province, sometimes depending on Begemder, but often in rebellion. The inhabitants are esteemed the best soldiers in Abyssinia, men of great strength and stature, but cruel and uncivilized; so that they are called, in common conversation and writing, the peasants, or barbarians of Lasta; they pay to the king 1000 ounces of gold.

Several small provinces are now dismembered from Begemder, such as Foggora, a small stripe reaching S. and N. about 35 miles between Emfras and Dara, and about 12 miles broad from E. to W. from the mountains of Begemder to the lake Tzana. On the north end of this are two small governments, Dreeda and Karoota, the only territory in Abyssinia that produces wine, the merchants trade to Caffa and Narea, in the country of the Galla. We speak of these territories as they are in point of right; but when a nobleman of great power is governor of the province of Begemder, he values not lesser rights, but unites them all to his province.

Begemder is the strength of Abyssinia in horsemen. It is said, that, with Lasta, it can bring out 45,000 men; but this, as far as ever I could inform myself, is a great exaggeration. They are exceeding good soldiers when they are pleased with their general, and the cause for which they fight; otherwise, they are easily divided, great many private interests being continually kept alive, as it is thought industriously, by government itself. It is well stocked with cattle of every kind, all very beautiful. The mountains are full of iron-mines; they are not so steep and rocky nor so frequent, as in other provinces, if we except only Lasta, and abound in all sort of wild fowl and game.

The south end of the province near Nefas Musa is cut into prodigious gullies apparently by floods, of which we have no history. It is the great barrier against the encroachments of the Galla; and, by many attempts, they have tried to make a settlement in it, but all in vain. Whole tribes of them have been extinguished in this their endeavour.

In many provinces of Abyssinia, favour is the only necessary to procure the government; others are given to poor noblemen, that, by fleecing the people, they may grow rich, and repair their fortune. But the consequence of Begemder is so well known to the state, as reaching so near the metropolis, and supplying it so constantly with all sorts of provisions, that none but noblemen of rank, family, and character, able to maintain a large number of troops always on foot, and in good order, are trusted with its government.

Immediately next to this is Amhara, between the two rivers Bashilo and Geshen. The length of this country from E. to W. is about 120 miles, and its breadth something more than 40. It is a very mountainous country, full of nobility; the men are reckoned the handsomest in Abyssinia, as well as the bravest. With the ordinary arms, the lance and shield, they are thought to be superior to double the number of any other soldiers in the kingdom. What, besides, added to the dignity of this province, was the high mountain of Geshen, or the grassy mountain, whereon the king’s sons were formerly imprisoned, till surprised and murdered there in the Adelan war.

Between the two rivers Geshen and Samba, is a low, unwholesome, though fertile province, called Walaka; and southward of that is Upper Shoa. This province, or kingdom, was famous for the retreat it gave to the only remaining prince of the house of Solomon, who fled from the massacre of his brethren by Judith, about the year 900, upon the rock of Damo. Here the royal family remained in security, and increased in number, for near 400 years, till they were restored. From thenceforward, as long as the king resided in the south of his dominions, great tenderness and distinction was shewn to the inhabitants of this province; and when the king returned again to Tigrè, he abandoned them tacitly to their own government.

Amha Yasous, prince at this day, and lineal descendant of the governor who first acknowledged the king, is now by connivance sovereign of that province. In order to keep himself as independent and separate from the rest of Abyssinia as possible, he has sacrificed the province of Walaka, which belonged to him, to the Galla, who, by his own desire, have surrounded Shoa on every side. But it is full of the bravest, best horsemen, and best accoutred beyond all comparison of any in Abyssinia, and, when they please, they can dispossess the Galla. Safe and independent as the prince of Shoa now is, he is still the loyalist, and the friend to monarchy he ever was; and, upon any signal distress happening to the king, he never failed to succour him powerfully with gold and troops, far beyond the quota formerly due from his province. This Shoa boasts, likewise, the honour of being the native country of Tecla Haimanout, restorer of the line of Solomon, the founder of the monastery and Order of the monks of Debra Libanos, and of the power and wealth of the Abuna, and the clergy in general, of Abyssinia.

Gojam, from north-east to south-east, is about 80 miles in length, and 40 in breadth. It is a very flat country, and all in pasture; has few mountains, but these are very high ones, and are chiefly on the banks of the Nile, to the south, which river surrounds the province; so that, to a person who should walk round Gojam, the Nile would be always on his left hand, from where it went south, falling out of the lake Tzana, till it turns north through Fazuclo into the country of Sennaar and Egypt.

Gojam is full of great herds of cattle, the largest in the high parts of Abyssinia. The men are in the lowest esteem as soldiers, but the country is very populous. The Jesuits were settled in many convents throughout the province, and are no where half so much detested. The monks of Gojam are those of St Eustathius, which may be called the Low Church of Abyssinia. They are much inclined to turbulence in religious matters, and are, therefore, always made tools by discontented people, who have no religion at all.

On the south-east of the kingdom of Gojam is Damot. It is bounded by the Temci on the east, by the Gult on the west, by the Nile on the south, and by the high mountains of Amid Amid on the north. It is about 40 miles in length from north to south, and something more than 20 in breadth from east to west. But all this peninsula, surrounded with the river, is called Gojam, in general terms, from a line down through the south end of the lake to Miné, the passage of the Nile in the way to Narea.

It is surprising the Jesuits, notwithstanding their long abode in Gojam, have not known where this neighbouring country of Damot was situated, but have placed it south of the Nile. They were often, however, in Damot, when Sela Christos was attempting the conquest and conversion of the Agows.

On the other side of Amid Amid is the province of the Agows, bounded by those mountains on the east; by Burè and Umbarma, and the country of the Gongas, on the west; by Damot and Gafat upon the south, and Dingleber on the north.

All those countries from Abbo, such as Goutto, Aroosi, and Wainadega, were formerly inhabited by Agows; but, partly by the war with the Galla beyond the Nile, partly by their own constant rebellions, this territory, called Maitsha, which is the flat country on both sides of the Nile, is quite uninhabited, and at last hath been given to colonies of peaceable Galla, chiefly Djawi, who fill the whole low country to the foot of the mountains Aformasha, in place of the Agows, the first occupiers.

Maitsha, from the flatness of the country, not draining soon after the rains, is in all places wet, but in many, miry and marshy; it produces little or no corn, but depends entirely upon a plant called Ensete[18], which furnishes the people both with wholesome and delicate food throughout the year. For the rest, this province abounds in large fine cattle, and breeds some indifferent horses.

Upon the mountains, above Maitsha, is the country of the Agows, the richest province still in Abyssinia, notwithstanding the multitude of devastations it has suffered. They lie round the country above described, from Aformasha to Quaquera, where are the heads of two large rivers, the Kelti and Branti. These are called the Agows of Damot, from their nearness to that province, in contradistinction to the Agows of Lasta, who are called Tcheratz-Agow, from Tchera, a principal town, tribe, and district near Lasta and Begemder.

The Gafats, inhabiting a small district adjoining to the Galla, have also distinct languages, so have the Galla themselves, of whom we have often spoken; they are a large nation.

From Dingleber all along the lake, below the mountains bounding Guesgué and Kuara, is called Dembea. This low province on the south of Gondar, and Woggora the small high province on the east, are all sown with wheat, and are the granaries of Abyssinia. Dembea seems once to have been occupied entirely by the lake, and we see all over it marks that cannot be mistaken, so that this large extent of water is visibly upon the decrease; and this agrees with what is observed of stagnant pools in general throughout the world. Dembea is called Atté-Kolla, _the king’s food_, or maintenance, its produce being assigned for the supplying of the king’s household. It is governed by an officer called Cantiba; it is a lucrative post; but he is not reckoned one of the great officers of the empire, and has no place in council.

South from Dembea is Kuara, a very mountainous province confining upon the Pagan blacks, or Shangalla, called Gongas and Guba, the Macrobii of the ancients. It is a very unwholesome province, but abounding in gold, not of its own produce, but that of its neighbourhood, these Pagans--Guba, Nuba, and Shangalla. Kuara signifies the sun, and Beja (that is Atbara, and the low parts of Sennaar, the country of the Shepherds, adjoining) signifies the _moon_, in the language of these Shangalla. These names are some remains of their ancient superstitions. Kuara was the native country of the Iteghè, or queen-regent, of Kasmati Eshté, Welled de l’Oul, Gueta, Eusebius, and Palambaras Mammo.

In the low country of Kuara, near to Sennaar, there is a settlement of Pagan blacks called Ganjar. They are mostly cavalry, and live entirely by hunting and plundering, the Arabs of Atbara and Fazuclo. Their origin is this: Upon the invasion of the Arabs after the coming of Mahomet, the black slaves deserted from their masters, the Shepherds, and took up their habitation, where they have not considerably multiplied, otherwise than by the accession of vagrants and fugitives, whom they get from both kingdoms. They are generally under the command of the governor of Kuara, and were so when I was in Abyssinia, though they refused to follow their governor Coque Abou Barea to fight against Michael, but whether from fear or affection I know not; I believe the former.

The governor of Kuara is one of the great officers of state, and, being the king’s lieutenant-general, has absolute power in his province, and carries _sendick_ and _nagareet_. His kettle-drums are silver, and his privilege is to beat these drums even in marching through the capital, which no governor of a province is permitted to do, none but the king’s nagareets or kettle-drums being suffered to be beat there, or any where in a town where the king is; but the governor of Kuara is intitled to continue beating his drums till he comes to the foot of the outer stair of the king’s palace. This privilege, from some good behaviour of the first officer to whom the command was given, was conferred upon the post by David II. called Degami Daid, who conquered the province from the _Shepherds_, its old inhabitants.

Nara, and Ras el Feel, Tchelga, and on to Tcherkin, is a frontier wholly inhabited by Mahometans. Its government is generally given to a stranger, often to a Mahometan, but one of that faith is always deputy-governor. The use of keeping troops here is to defend the friendly Arabs and Shepherds, who remain in their allegiance to Abyssinia, from the resentment of the Arabs of Sennaar, their neighbours; and, by means of these friendly Arabs and Shepherds, secure a constant supply of horses for the king’s troops. It is a barren stripe of a very hot, unwholesome country, full of thick woods, and fit only for hunting. The inhabitants, fugitives from all nations, are chiefly Mahometans, but very bold and expert horsemen, using no other weapon but the broad sword, with which they attack the elephant and rhinoceros.

There are many other small provinces, which occasionally are annexed, and sometimes are separated, such as Guesgué, to the eastward of Kuara; Waldubba, between the rivers Guangue and Angrab; Tzegadé and Walkayt on the west side of Waldubba; Abergalè and Selawa in the neighbourhood of Begemder; Temben, Dobas, Giannamora, Bur, and Engana, in the neighbourhood of Tigré, and many others: Such at least was the state of the country in my time, very different in all respects from what it has been represented. As to the precedency of these provinces we shall further speak, when we come to mention the officers of state and internal government in this country.

CHAP. XI.

_Various Customs in Abyssinia similar to those in Persia, &c.--A bloody Banquet described, &c._

For the sake of regularity, I shall here notice what might clearly be inferred from what is gone before. The crown of Abyssinia is hereditary, and has always been so, in one particular family, supposed to be that of Solomon by the queen of Saba, Negesta Azab, or queen of the south. It is nevertheless elective in this line; and there is no law of the land, nor custom, which gives the eldest son an exclusive title to succeed to his father.

The practice has indeed been quite the contrary: when, at the death of a king, his sons are old enough to govern, and, by some accident, not yet sent prisoners to the mountain, then the eldest, or he that is next, and not confined, generally takes possession of the throne by the strength of his father’s friends; but if no heir is then in the low country, the choice of the king is always according to the will of the minister, which passes for that of the people; and, his inclination and interest being to govern, he never fails to choose an infant whom thereafter he directs, ruling the kingdom absolutely during the minority, which generally exhausts, or is equal to the term of his life.

From this flow all the misfortunes of this unhappy country. This very defect arises from a desire to institute a more than ordinary perfect form of government; for the Abyssinians first position was, “Woe be to the kingdom whose king is a child;” and this they know must often happen when succession is left to the course of nature. But when there was a choice to be made out of two hundred persons all of the same family, all capable of reigning, it was their own fault, they thought, if they had not always a prince of proper age and qualification to rule the kingdom, according to the necessities of the times, and to preserve the succession of the family in the house of Solomon, agreeable to the laws of the land. And indeed it has been this manner of reasoning, good at first view, though found afterwards but too fallacious, which has ruined their kingdom in part, and often brought the whole into the utmost hazard and jeopardy.

The king is anointed with plain oil of olives, which, being poured upon the crown of his head, he rubs into his long hair indecently enough with both his hands, pretty much as his soldiers do with theirs when they get access to plenty of butter.

The crown is made in the shape of a priest’s mitre, or head-piece; it is a kind of helmet, covering the king’s forehead, cheeks, and neck. It is lined with blue taffety; the outside is half gold and half silver, of the most beautiful filligrane work.

The crown, in Joas’s time, was burnt, with part of the palace, on that day when Ras Michael’s dwarf was shot in his own house before him. The present was since made by the Greeks from Smyrna, who have large appointments here, and work with very great taste and elegance, though they have not near so much encouragement as formerly.

Upon the top of the crown was a ball of red glass, or chrystal, with several bells of different colours within it. It seems to me to have formerly been no better than part of the stopper of a glass-decanter. Be that as it may, it was lost in Yasous’s time at the defeat of Sennaar; It was found, however, by a Mahometan, and brought by Guangoul, chief of the Bertuma Galla, to the frontiers of Tigrè, where Michael, governor of that province, went with an army in great ceremony to receive it, and, returning with it, gave it to king Yasous, making thereby a great advance towards the king’s favour.

Some people[19], among the other unwarranted things they have advanced, have said, That, at the king’s coronation, a gold ear-ring is put into his ears, and a drawn sword into his hand, and that all the people fall down and worship him; but there is no such ceremony in use, and exhibitions of this kind, made by the king in public, at no period seem to have suited the genius of this people. Formerly his face was never seen, nor any part of him, excepting sometimes his foot. He sits in a kind of balcony, with lattice-windows and curtains before him. Even yet he covers his face on audiences or public occasions, and when in judgment. On cases of treason, he sits within his balcony, and speaks through a hole in the side of it, to an officer called Kal-Hatzè, the “voice or word of the king,” by whom he sends his questions, or any thing else that occurs, to the judges who are seated at the council-table.

1 _Crown_

2 _Standard_

3 _Shield outside_

4 _Shield inside_

5 _Javelins_

6 _Ornament after victory of all Kasmatis_

7 _Silver disc worn on festivals by
soldiers of quality._

London. Publish’d Dec{^r.} 1{^st.} 1789 by G. Robinson & Co.]

The king goes to church regularly, his guards taking possession of every avenue and door through which he is to pass, and nobody is allowed to enter with him, because he is then on foot, excepting two officers of his bed-chamber who support him. He kisses the threshold and side-posts of the church-door, the steps before the altar, and then returns home: sometimes there is service in the church, sometimes there is not; but he takes no notice of the difference. He rides up stairs into the presence-chamber on a mule, and lights immediately on the carpet before his throne; and I have sometimes seen great indecencies committed by the said mule in the presence-chamber, upon a Persian carpet.

An officer called Serach Massery, with a long whip, begins cracking and making a noise, worse than twenty French postillions, at the door of the palace before the dawn of day. This chases away the hyæna and other wild beasts; this, too, is the signal for the king’s rising, who sits in judgment every morning fasting, and after that, about eight o’clock, he goes to breakfast.

There are six noblemen of the king’s own choosing, who are called Baalomaal[20], or gentlemen of his bed-chamber; four of these are always with him. There is a seventh, who is the chief of these, called Azeleffa el Camisha, groom of the robe, or stole. He is keeper of the king’s wardrobe, and the first officer of the bed-chamber. These officers, the black slaves, and some others, serve him as menial servants, and are in a degree of familiarity with him unknown to the rest of the subjects.

When the king sits to consult upon civil matters of consequence, he is shut up in a kind of box opposite to the head of the council table. The persons that deliberate sit at the table, and, according to their rank, give their voices, the youngest or lowest officer always speaking first. The first that give their votes are the Shalaka, or colonels of the household-troops. The second are the great butlers, men that have the charge of the king’s drink. The third is the Badjerund, or keeper of that apartment in the palace called the _lion’s house_; and after these the keeper of the banqueting-house. The next is called Lika Magwass, an officer that always goes before the king to hinder the pressure of the crowd. In war, when the king is marching, he rides constantly round him at a certain distance, and carries his shield, and his lance; at least he carries a silver shield, and a lance pointed with the same metal, before such kings as do not choose to expose their person. That, however, was not the case in my time, as the king carried the shield himself, black and unadorned, of good buffalo’s hide, and his spear sharp-pointed with iron. His silver ornaments were only used when the campaign was over, when these were carried by this officer. Great was the respect shewed formerly to this king in war, and even when engaged in battle with rebels, his own subjects.

No prince ever lost his life in battle till the coming of the Europeans into Abyssinia, when both the excommunicating and murdering of their sovereigns seem to have been introduced at the same time. The reader will see, in the course of this history, two instances of this respect being still kept up: the one at the battle of Limjour, where Fasil, pretending that he was immediately to attack Ras Michael, desired that the king might be dressed in his insignia, lest, not being known, he might be slain by the stranger Galla. The next was after the battle of Serbraxos, where the king was thrice in one day engaged with the Begemder troops for a considerable space of time. These insignia, or marks of royalty, are a white horse, with small silver bells at his head, a shield of silver, and a white fillet of fine silk or muslin, but generally the latter, some inches broad, which is tied round the upper part of the head over his hair, with a large double or bow-knot behind, the ends hanging down to the small of his back, or else flying in the air.

After the Lika Magwass comes the Palambaras; after him the Fit-Auraris; then the Gera Kasmati, and the Kanya Kasmati, their names being derived from their rank or order in encamping, the one on the right, the other on the left of the king’s tent; Kanya and Gera signifying _the right_ and _the left_; after them the Dakakin Billetana Gueta, or the under chamberlain; then the secretary[21] for the king’s commands; after him the right and left Azages, or generals; after them Rak Massery, after him the basha, after him Kasmati of Damot, then of Samen, then Amhara, and, last of all, Tigrè, before whom stands a golden cup upon a cushion, and he is called Nebrit, as being governor of Axum, or keeper of the book of the law supposed to be there.

After the governor of Tigrè comes the Acab Saat, or guardian of the fire, and the chief ecclesiastical officer of the king’s household. Some have said that this officer was appointed to attend the king at the time of eating, and that it was his province to order both meat and drink to be withdrawn whenever he saw the king inclined to excess. If this was really his office, he never used it in my time, nor, as far as I could learn, for several reigns before. Besides, no king eats in public, or before any person but slaves; and he never would chuse that time to commit excess, in which he might be controuled by a subject, even if it was that subject’s right to be present when the king eats, as it is not.

After the Acab Saat comes the first master of the household; then the Betwudet, or Ras; last of all the king gives his sentence, which is final, and sends it to the table, from the balcony where he is then sitting, by the officer called, as aforementioned, Kal-Hatzè.

We meet in Abyssinia with various usages, which many have hitherto thought to be peculiar to those ancient nations in which they were first observed; others, not so learned, have thought they originated in Abyssinia. I shall first take notice of those that regard the king and court.

The kings of Persia[22], like these we are speaking of, were eligible in one family only, that of the Arsacidæ, and it was not till that race failed they chose Darius. The title of the king of Abyssinia is, _King of Kings_; and such Daniel[23] tells us was that of Nebuchadnezzar. The right of primogeniture does not so prevail in Abyssinia as to exclude election in the person of the younger brothers, and this was likewise the case in Persia[24].

In Persia[25] a preference was understood to be due to the king’s lawful children; but there were instances of the natural child being preferred to the lawful one. Darius, tho’ a bastard, was preferred to Isogius, Xerxes’s lawful son, and that merely by the election of the people. The same has always obtained in Abyssinia. A very great part of their kings are adulterous bastards; others are the issue of concubines, as we shall see hereafter, but they have been preferred to the crown by the influence of a party, always under name of the Voice of the People.

Although the Persian kings[26] had various palaces to which they removed at different times in the year, Pasagarda, the metropolis of their ancient kings, was observed as the only place for their coronation; and this, too, was the case of Abyssinia with their metropolis of Axum.

The next remarkable ceremony in which these two nations agreed, is that of adoration, inviolably observed in Abyssinia to this day, as often as you enter the sovereign’s presence. This is not only kneeling[27], but an absolute prostration. You first fall upon your knees, then upon the palms of your hands, then incline your head and body till your forehead touch the earth; and, in case you have an answer to expect, you lie in that posture till the king, or somebody from him, desires you to rise. This, too, was the custom of Persia; Arrian[28] says this was first instituted by Cyrus, and this was precisely the posture in which they adored God, mentioned in the book of Exodus.

Though the refusal of this ceremony would, in Abyssinia and Persia, be looked upon as rebellion or insult, yet it seems in both nations to have met with a mitigation with regard to strangers, who have refused it without giving any offence. I remember a Mahometan being twice sent by the prince of Mecca into Abyssinia during my stay there, who, neither time, would go farther than to put his hands across upon his breast, with no very great inclination of his head; and this I saw was not thought so extraordinary as to give offence, as it was all he did to his own sovereign and master.

We read, indeed, of a very remarkable instance of the dispensing with that ceremony being indirectly, yet plainly, refused in Persia to strangers. Conon[29], the Athenian, had occasion for an interview with Artaxerxes, king of Persia, upon matters of great concern to both states; “You shall be introduced to the king by me, says the Persian minister to Conon, without any delay; do you only first consider with yourself, whether it is really of any consequence that you should speak with the king yourself, or whether it would not be as well for you to convey to him, by letter, any thing you have to say; for it is absolutely necessary, if you are introduced into the king’s presence, that you fall down upon your face and worship him. If this is disagreeable or offensive to you, your business shall nevertheless be equally well and quickly done by me.” To which Conon very sensibly replied, “For my part, it never can be offensive _to me_ to shew every degree of respect possible to the person of a king. I only am afraid that this salutation may be misinterpreted by my citizens, who, being themselves a sovereign state, may look upon this submission of their ambassador as a reproach to themselves, and inconsistent with their independency.” Conon, therefore, desired to wave his introduction, and that his business might be done by letters, which was complied with accordingly.

I have already mentioned transiently the circumstance of the king not being seen when sitting in council. The manner of it is this: When he had business formerly, he sat constantly in a room of his palace, which communicated with the audience and council by two folding doors or large windows, the bottom of which were about three steps from the ground. These doors, or windows, were latticed with cross bars of wood like a cage, and a thin curtain, or veil of taffety silk was hung within it; so that, upon darkening the inner chamber, the king saw every person in the chamber without, while he himself was not seen at all. Justin[30] tells us, that the person of the king of Persia was hid to give a greater idea of his majesty; and under Deioces, king of the Medes, a law was made that nobody might look upon the king; but the constant wars in which Abyssinia has been engaged, since the Mahometans took possession of Adel, have occasioned this troublesome custom to be wholly laid aside, unless on particular public occasions, and at council, when they are still observed with the ancient strictness. And we find, in the history of Abyssinia, that the army and kingdom have often owed their safety to the personal behaviour and circumstance of the king distinguishing and exposing himself in battle, which advantage they must have lost had the ancient custom been observed. However, to this day, when he is abroad riding, or sitting in any of his apartments at home where people are admitted, his head and forehead are perfectly covered, and one of his hands covers his mouth, so that nothing but his eyes are seen; his feet, too, are always covered.

We learn from Apuleus, that this was a custom in Persia; and this gave an opportunity to the magi to place Oropastus, the brother of Cambyses, upon the throne, instead of Merdis who should have succeeded; but the covering of the face made the difference pass unperceived.

It is the constant practice in Abyssinia to beset the king’s doors and windows within his hearing, and there, from early morning to night, to cry for justice as loud as possible, in a distressed and complaining tone, and in all the different languages they are masters of, in order to their being admitted to have their supposed grievances heard. In a country so ill governed as Abyssinia is, and so perpetually involved in war, it may be easily supposed there is no want of people, who have real injuries and violence to complain of: But if it were not so, this is so much the constant usage, that when it happens (as in the midst of the rainy season) that few people can approach the capital, or stand without in such bad weather, a set of vagrants are provided, maintained, and paid, whose sole business it is to cry and lament, as if they had been really very much injured and oppressed; and this they tell you is for the king’s honour, that he may not be lonely by the palace being too quiet. This, of all their absurd customs, was the most grievous and troublesome to me; and, from a knowledge that it was so, the king, when he was private, often permitted himself a piece of rather odd diversion to be a royal one.

There would sometimes, while I was busy in my room in the rainy season, be four or five hundred people, who all at once would begin, some roaring and crying, as if they were in pain, others demanding justice, as if they were that moment suffering, or if in the instant to be put to death; and some groaning and sobbing as if just expiring; and this horrid symphony was so artfully performed that no ear could distinguish but that it proceeded from real distress. I was often so surprised as to send the soldiers at the door to bring in one of them, thinking him come from the country, to examine who had injured him; many a time he was a servant of my own, or some other equally known; or, if he was a stranger, upon asking him what misfortune had befallen him, he would answer very composedly, Nothing was the matter with him; that he had been sleeping all day with the horses; that hearing from the soldiers at the door I was retired to my apartment, he and his companions had come to cry and make a noise under my window, to do me _honour_ before the people, for fear I should be melancholy, by being too quiet when alone; and therefore hoped that I would order them drink, that they might continue with a little more spirit. The violent anger which this did often put me into did not fail to be punctually reported to the king, at which he would laugh heartily; and he himself was often hid not far off, for the sake of being a spectator of my heavy displeasure.

These complaints, whether real or feigned, have always for their burden, _Rete O Jan boi_, which, repeated quick, very much resembles Prete Janni, the name that was given to this prince, of which we never yet knew the derivation; its signification is, “Do me justice, O my king!”

Herodotus[31] tells us, that in Persia, the people, in great crowds and of both sexes, come roaring and crying to the doors of the palace; and Intaphernes is also said to come to the door of the king making great lamentations.

I have mentioned a council of state held in Abyssinia in time of danger or difficulty, where the king sitting invisible, though present, gives his opinion by an officer called Kal-Hatzè. Upon his delivering the sentence from the king the whole assembly rise, and stand upon their feet; and this they must have done the whole time the council lasted had the king appeared there in person. According to the circumstances of the time, the king goes with the majority, or not; and if, upon a division, there is a majority against him, he often punishes the majority on the other side, by sending them to prison for voting against his sentiments; for tho’ it is understood, by calling of the meeting, that the majority is to determine as to the eligibility of the measure, the king, by his prerogative, supersedes any majority on the other side, and so far, I suppose, has been an encroachment upon the original constitution. This I understand was the same in Persia.

Xerxes[32], being about to declare war against the Greeks, assembled all the principal chiefs of Asia in council. “That I may not, says he, be _thought_ to _act_ only by my own judgment, I have called you together. At the same time, I think proper to intimate to you, that it is your duty to obey my will, rather than enter into any deliberation or remonstrances of your own.”

We will now compare some particulars, the dress and ornaments of the two kings. The king of Abyssinia wears his hair long; so did the ancient kings of Persia. We learn this circumstance from Suetonius and Aurelius Victor[33]. A comet had appeared in the war with Persia, and was looked upon by the Romans as a bad omen. Vespasian laughed at it, and said, if it portended any ill it was to the king of Persia, because, _like him_, it wore long hair.

The diadem was, with the Persians, a mark of royalty, as with the Abyssinians, being composed of the same materials, and worn in the same manner. The king of Abyssinia wears it, while marching, as a mark of sovereignty, that does not impede or incommode him, as any other heavier ornament would do, especially in hot weather. This fillet surrounds his head above the hair, leaving the crown perfectly uncovered. It is an offence of the first magnitude for any person, at this time, to wear any thing upon his head, especially white, unless for Mahometans, who wear caps, and over them a large white turban; or for priests, who wear large turbans of muslin also.

This was the diadem of the Persians, as appears from Lucian[34], who calls it a white fillet about the forehead. In the dialogue between Diogenes and Alexander, the head is said to be tied round with a white fillet[35]; and Favorinus, speaking of Pompey, whose leg was wound round with a white bandage, says, It is no matter on what part of the body he wears a diadem. We read in Justin[36], that Alexander, leaping from his horse, by accident wounded Lysimachus in the forehead with the point of his spear, and the blood gushed out so violently that it could not be stanched, till the king took the diadem from his head, and with it bound up the wound; which at that time was looked upon as an omen that Lysimachus was to be king, and so it soon after happened.

The kings of Abyssinia anciently sat upon a gold throne, which is a large, convenient, oblong, square seat, like a small bed-stead, covered with Persian carpets, damask, and cloth of gold, with steps leading up to it. It is still richly gilded; but the many revolutions and wars have much abridged their ancient magnificence. The portable throne was a gold stool, like that curule stool or chair used by the Romans, which we see on medals. It was, in the Begemder war, changed to a very beautiful one of the same form inlaid with gold. Xerxes is said to have been spectator of a naval fight sitting upon a gold stool[37].

It is, in Abyssinia, high-treason to sit upon any seat of the king’s; and he that presumed to do this would be instantly hewn to pieces, if there was not some other collateral proof of his being a madman. The reader will find, in the course of my history, a very ridiculous accident on this subject, in the king’s tent, with Guangoul, king of the Bertuma Galla.

It is probable that Alexander had heard of this law in Persia, and disapproved of it; for one day, it being extremely cold, the king, sitting in his chair before the fire, warming and chaffing his legs, saw a soldier, probably a Persian, who had lost his feeling by extreme numbness. The king immediately leaped from his chair, and ordered the soldier to be set down upon it. The fire soon brought him to his senses, but he had almost lost them again with fear, by finding himself in the king’s seat. To whom Alexander said, “Remember, and distinguish, how much more advantageous to man my government is than that of the kings of Persia[38]. By sitting down on my seat, you have saved your life; by sitting on theirs, you would infallibly have lost it.”

In Abyssinia it is considered as a fundamental law of the land, that none of the royal family, who has any deformity or bodily defect, shall be allowed to succeed to the crown; and, for this purpose, any of the princes, who may have escaped from the mountain of Wechnè, and who are afterwards taken, are mutilated in some of their members, that thus they may be disqualified from ever succeeding. In Persia the same was observed. Procopius[39] tells us, that Zames, the son of Cabades, was excluded from the throne because he was blind of one eye, the law of Persia prohibiting any person that had a bodily defect to be elected king.

The kings of Abyssinia were seldom seen by their subjects. Justin[40] says, the Persians hid the person of their king to increase their reverence for his majesty. And it was a law of Deioces[41], king of the Medes, that nobody should be permitted to see the king; which regulation was as ancient as the time of Semiramis, whose son, Ninyas, is said to have grown old in the palace, without ever having been known by being seen out of it.

This absurd usage gave rise to many abuses. In Persia[42] it produced two officers, who were called the king’s eyes, and the king’s ear, and who had the dangerous employment, I mean dangerous for the subject, of seeing and hearing for their sovereign. In Abyssinia, as I have just said, it created an officer called the king’s mouth, or voice, for, being seen by nobody, he spoke of course in the third person, “_Hear what the king says to you_”, which is the usual form of all regal mandates in Abyssinia; and what follows has the force of law. In the same stile, Josephus thus begins an edict of Cyrus king of Persia, “Cyrus the king says[43],”--And speaking of Cambyses’s rescript, “Cambyses the _king says thus_,”--And Esdras also, “Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia[44],”--And Nebuchadnezzar says to Holofernes, “Thus saith the Great King, Lord of the whole earth[45];”--and this was probably the origin of _edicts_, when writing was little used by sovereigns, and little understood by the subject.

Solemn hunting-matches were always in use both with the kings of Abyssinia and those of Persia[46]. In both kingdoms it was a crime for a subject to strike the game till such time as the king had thrown his lance at it. This absurd custom was repealed by Artaxerxes Longimanus in one kingdom[47], and by Yasous the Great in the other, so late as the beginning of the last century.

The kings of Abyssinia are above all laws. They are supreme in all causes ecclesiastical and civil; the land and persons of their subjects are equally their property, and every inhabitant of their kingdom is born their slave; if he bears a higher rank it is by the king’s gift; for his nearest relations are accounted nothing better. The same obtained in Persia. Aristotle calls the Persian generals and nobles, slaves of the great king[48]. Xerxes, reproving Pytheus the Lydian when seeking to excuse one of his sons from going to war, says, “You that are my slave, and bound to follow me with your wife and all your family[49].”--And Gobryas[50] says to Cyrus, “I deliver myself to you, at once your companion and your slave.”

There are several kinds of bread in Abyssinia, some of different sorts of teff, and some of tocusso, which also vary in quality. The king of Abyssinia eats of wheat bread, though not of every wheat, but of that only that grows in the province of Dembea, therefore called the king’s food. It was so with the kings of Persia, who ate wheat bread, Herodotus says, but only of a particular kind, as we learn from Strabo[51].

I have shewn, in the course of the foregoing history, that it always has been, and still is the custom of the kings of Abyssinia, to marry what number of wives they choose; that these were not, therefore, all queens; but that among them there was one who was considered particularly as queen, and upon her head was placed the crown, and she was called Iteghè.