The Highlands of Aethiopia

Front matter

THE HIGHLANDS OF ÆTHIOPIA DESCRIBED, DURING EIGHTEEN MONTHS' RESIDENCE _l _3rtttsi) ..mbassB AT THE CHRISTIAN COURT OF SHOA. Si forte Deus annueret votis nostris, ut arnica Christiana, hujus nationis commercia cum nostratibus instituerentur. Ludolfi, Comment, ad Hist. Æthiop. London : Printed by A. Spottiswoode, New- Street- Square. -.—■- bj s Zulia. *L le. 45 TEIE 3KDTHIE-K. OW &BÆB " London JUik/k*<& iy2,o?t<rn%a*%>£, Cf J& '■/•< '. .- : . THE HIGHLANDS OF ÆTHIOPIA BY MAJOR W. CORNWALLIS HARRIS, OF THE HON. E. I. COMPANY'S ENGINEERS ; AUTHOR OF " WILD SPORTS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA," " PORTRAITS OF AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS," ETC. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER-SOW. 1844. CONTENTS OF THE. SECOND VOLUME.

Chapter I

Page The Capital of the Kingdom of Shoa - - - 1 CHAP. II. Residence in Ankober - - - - - 13 CHAP. HI. Interviews with the King - - - - 24 CHAP. IV. Special Summons to Machal-wans - - - 31 CHAP. V. Termination of winter - - - - - 37 CHAP. VI. Debra Berhan, " the Hill of Glory " 43 CHAP. VII. The Royal Slave Depot - - - CONTENTS. VIII CHAP. VIII. Page New Year's Day - - - - - (il CHAP. IX. The Falls of the Bereza - - - - 68 CHAP. X. The Annual Review - - - - - 74 CHAP. XI. The Galla Capital - - - - - 88 CHAP. XII. Chasm of the Clmcha - - - - - 98 CHAP. XIII. Medoko the Rebel - - - -105 CHAP. XIV. Escape from Goncho - - - - -113 CHAP. XV. Insurrection of the Galla - - - - 119 CHAP. XVI. Massacre of the Christians at Cherkos - - - 126 CHAP. XVII. Battle of Angollala - - - - - 132 CHAP. XVIII. Tragic End of Medoko - - - ■ - CONTENTS.

IX CHAP. XIX. Page The Galla Borders. — Proclamation of War - - 147 CHAP. XX. A Lecture on Physic - - - - - 156 CHAP. XXI. The Campaign - - - - - 163 CHAP. XXH. The Enemy's Country - - - - 175 chap. xxni. The Foray - - - - - - 185 CHAP. XXIV. The Royal Achievement - - - - 199 CHAP. XXV. Liberation of the Prisoners of war - - - 212 CHAP. XXVI. The Triumph - - - - - - 218 CHAP. XXVII. Nuptials in High life ----- 224 CHAP. XXVIII. Chronicle of the invasion of Mohammad Graan - 231 CHAP. XXIX. Proceedings at Angollala - - - - CONTENTS. X CHAP. XXX. Page Triumphal Entry to the Capital ... 252 CHAP. XXXI. The Palace at Ankober - - - - 261 CHAP. XXXII. The Forest of Mamrat ----- 269 CHAP. XXXIII. The Necromancer, a Legend of Shoa - 275 CHAP. XXXIV. Thavanan the Tormentor - 284 CHAP. XXXV. The Reign of Superstition - 295 CHAP. XXXVI.

Excursion along the North-western Frontier of Efat - 303 CHAP. XXXVII. The Shrew of Mahhfood - - - - 317 CHAP. XXXVHI. Hospitality at Kokfari ----- 327 CHAP. XXXIX. The Wilderness of Giddem - 334 CHAP. XL. Downfall of the Elephant - CONTENTS. XI CHAP. XLI. Page The Northern Galla, from e\j'gobba to the Tulema - 347 CHAP. XLII. Thermal Wells at Feelamba - - - - 359 CHAP. XLni. Return to Ankober ----- 366 CHAP. XLIV. Honorary Distinctions ----- 375 CHAP. XLV. Conclusion of a Treaty of Commerce - 383

Appendix

. No. 1. — Abstract of a Thermometrical Register kept at Ankober, the Capital of Shoa, during the Years 1841, 1842 - - - - - - - 397 No. 2. — Remarks on the Geology, Botany, and Zoology of the Highlands of Southern Abyssinia - - 398 No. 3. — On the Cotton and Coffee Tree of Southern Abyssinia - - - - THE HIGHLANDS OF ÆTHIOPIA, etc

CHAPTER I. THE CAPITAL OF THE KINGDOM OF SHOA.

His Christian Majesty passed the greater portion of the wet night succeeding the presentation of the British Embassy, in revels amid the foreign riches so unexpectedly heaped upon him. Every novel article was minutely examined with all the curiosity of the savage ; and the royal scribes, having been duly assembled, elaborate inventories were penned upon scrolls of parchment, to be deposited for the edification of posterity in the archives of the king dom. The fire-arms and the warlike munitions were transferred forthwith to the grand arsenal ; the rich manufactures of the loom were added to the shelves of the palace wardrobes ; and the curi osities, including the Chinese dancing girls, were carefully immured in the mouldy magazines of Mamrat, Kondie, and Aramba, with labels and tickets setting forth their respective properties, and VOL. II.

B THE CARES OF THE CROWN. proclaiming to future occupants of the throne of Shoa that these wonders were added to the state treasures by the red men called Gyptzis, who came " from beyond" during the auspicious reign of Sahela Sekissie. Ere day had dawned, the favourite page was deputed to inquire how the interval of rest had been passed by the king's guests, and whether all had slumbered happily. Etiquette demanded that the reply should be in the affirmative, but if an esti mate were formed from the drenched and miserable aspect of the tent, the report made to the palace must have been far from favourable. In the ab sence of the cap, which had been lost upon the road, the fly of the marquee was hastily lashed with cords to the pole, and becoming saturated during the pelting storm which ushered in the dark hours, it had presently slidden down, and formed a funnel, which completely put an end to sleep.

Hajji K_sim and Izhak, who, with some of their bigoted Moslem retainers, had repaired to court to witness the reception of " the Christian dogs," had presented themselves at nightfall, wet, shivering, and famished, to implore an asylum, which, together with food, had been denied by the officers of the royal household. Upon the principle of good for evil, the hunger of the applicants was at once appeased ; but the untoward fall of the canvas fabric had rendered nugatory the hospitality extended in the form of bedclothes, to which A " BRUNDO " FEAST. 3 each of the party had contributed his mite. Drenched to the skin, the true believers, spite of their covering of lard, were fairly swamped where they lay, and the Ras el Kafilah's pet Koran having been trampled under foot in the confusion attendant upon re-pitching, he angrily left the tent in the morning by one door, at the moment that the spoiled page entered by the other, grumbling as he went, " Allah ! how could the sacred volume ex perience any better fate at the hand of infidels ?"

Six hundred peasants, who had been pressed on the service of the state from the Mohammadan villages of Argobba, after transporting the king's baggage from Alio Amba to Machal-wans, had bivouacked without food or shelter upon the bare saturated ground, and were strewed over the green sward like the slain on a battle-field. As the day dawned, their loud cries of " Abies, abiet," " Master, master," arose to the palace gates from every quar ter of the valley ; but they lifted up their sad voices in vain, and reiterated entreaties for dismissal pass ing unheeded, a number of oxen, sufficient to allay the cravings of hunger, were with great difficulty purchased by the Embassy, delivered over for slaughter, and slain and eaten raw upon the spot. The sceptic in Europe who still withholds his credence from Bruce's account of an Abyssinian brind feast, would have been edified by the sight now presented on the royal meadow.

Crowds swarmed around each sturdy victim to the knife, b THE PURVEYOR-GENERAL. and impetuously rushing in with a simultaneous yell, seized horns, and legs, and tail. A violent struggle to escape followed the assault. Each vigorous bound shook off and scattered a portion of the assailants, but the stronger and more athletic retained still their grasp, and resolutely grappling and wrestling with the prize, finally prevailed. With a loud groan of despair the bull was thrown kicking to the earth. Twenty crooked knives flashed at once from the scabbard — a tide of crimson gore proclaimed the work of death, and the hungry butchers remained seated on the quivering carcass, until the last bubbling jet had welled from the widelysevered and yawning throat. Rapidly from that moment advanced the work of demolition.

The hide was opened in fifty places, and collop after collop of warm flesh and muscle — sliced and scooped from the bone — was borne off in triumph. Groups of feasting savages might now be seen seated on the wet grass in every direction, greedily munching and bolting the raw repast, and pounds were with all held of light account. Entrails and offal did not escape. In a quarter of an hour nought remained of the carcass save hoofs and horns, and the disappointed vultures of the air assembling round the scene of slaughter with the village curs, found little indeed to satisfy their hunger. During this general carousal of the grateful host, the smooth-spoken purveyor-general, who THE ROAD TO THE METROPOLIS. 5 was completely at a loss to comprehend the meaning of the liberality extended, advanced with a sleek and pampered band of parasites.

The assistance of the unfeeling functionary had been craved in vain, and he now, after casting a contemptuous glance towards the sated serfs, in honied words inquired with obvious surprise, " whether the party had not rested well that they thus troubled their heads unnecessarily about the worthless bondsmen of the Negoos?" Preparatory to setting out for Ankober the Embassy had an audience of the king. " My children," quoth His Majesty, " all my gun-people shall accompany you ; may you enter in safety ! What soever your hearts think and wish, that send word unto me. Saving myself ye have no relative in this distant land. Ye have travelled far on my affairs. I will give you what I can according to that which my country produces. I cannot give you what I do not possess. Be not afraid of me. Listen not to the evil insinuations of my people, for they are bad.

Look only unto Sahela Selassie. May his father die, he will accomplish whatsoever ye desire !" The sun shone bright amid the fleecy white clouds of an azure sky, as the party left the wet encampment in the valley, and under an escort of fusileers took the way to the capital without that regret which is usually felt on quitting the precincts of royalty. A green swampy meadow led b CONTRAST TO THE DESERT. lo the foot of the mountains, over which numberless cascades foamed furiously to the plain. Supported from the base to the utmost summit by artificial terraces, and clothed with the most luxuriant cultivation, there were parts over which it seemed hardly possible that the plough should have passed at so great an angle. But wheat and barley delight in a dry stony soil, and with a fair proportion of the " former and the latter rain," will here yield abundant return to those who by their industry strive to emulate the prosperity of more happily located neighbours.

From Machal-wans to Ank6ber the distance does not exceed six miles ; but the ascent is great and immediate, and the reduction in temperature per ceptible at every step. Springs gushed out clear and sparkling on either side of the rugged path. Many beautiful plants, the pride of the greenhouse of exotics, luxuriated in the moist atmosphere. At intervals farm-steadings varied the scene ; and although the rich sheets of cultivation in the more immediate vicinity of the capital had somewhat abstracted from the bloom of native verdure, still the prospect was delightful, and the change more than ever striking from the hot deserts of the Adaiel, which now at a yet greater depression, stretched away in fading tints to the extreme point of vision . The latter portion of the road lay through a forest of venerable trees.

Cedar-like junipers, MONASTERY OF AFERBEINE. 7 scarred by the unsparing hand of time, and many dried up by the wrath of centuries, rearing towards the cold sky their tall withered barkless trunks and skeleton arms, rocked to every breeze. Younger scions of the stock, clothed in a sombre cypress garb, flourished in vigour among the drooping and silvery woira, of which the pensive branches were hoary with ancient moss hanging in fanciful festoons; and saving when the zephyr sighed through the foliage, or a bird whistled from the topmost branch, silence reigned throughout the sylvan scene. Whether in Europe or in half-civilised Abyssinia, monastic establishments are invariably seated in spots the most romantic. Deep in the recesses of Aferbeine stands the church and monastery dedicated to Tekla Ha'imanot, an ecclesiastic of extraordinary abilities who flourished during the thirteenth century, and rescuing the greater portion of the empire from the yoke of usurpation, restored it to the hands of Yekweno Amlak, the lineal descendant of the ancient Æthiopic dynasty.

Subsequently canonised for his successful exertions in the cause both of Church and State, the monk, whose history is obscured with numberless superstitious traditions, is to the present day held in the highest odour and veneration. Thrice during the year is a festival held in celebration of his birth, death, and ascension, and by the entire Christian population he is regarded as the patron saint of Abyssinia. b PALACE OF THE NEGOOS. Instantly on emerging from the forest, the metropolis of Shoa, spreading far and wide over a verdant mountain, shaped like Afric's appropriate emblem, the fabled sphynx, presented a most singu lar if not imposing appearance. Clusters of thatched houses of all sizes and shapes, resembling barns and haystacks, with small green enclosures and splinter palings, rising one above the other in very irregular tiers, adapt themselves to all the inequalities of the rugged surface; some being perched high on the abrupt verge of a cliff, and others so involved in the bosom of a deep fissure as scarcely to reveal the red earthen pot on the apex.

Connected with each other by narrow lanes and hedge-rows, these rude habitations, the residence of from twelve to fifteen thousand inhabitants, cover the entire mountain side to the extreme pinnacle — a lofty spire-like cone, detaching itself by a narrow isthmus to form the sphynx' s head. Hereon stands the palace of the Negoos, a most ungainly-looking edifice with staring gable ends and numerous rows of clay chimney pots, well fortified by spiral lines of wooden pali sades, extending from the base to the summit, and interspersed with barred stockades, between which are profusely scattered the abodes of household slaves, with breweries, kitchens, cellars, storehouses, magazines, and granaries. Over those portions unengrossed by cultivation or by architecture, shrubs and bushes and great beds of nettles assumed the most luxuriant and lively CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS. 9 appearance.

Huge fallen masses of rock strewed the lower valleys, and others, frowning at an acute angle upon the impending steeps, seemed ready to be launched at a moment's notice upon the cluster ing habitations below ; whilst in the distance, the bronze cross of the church of " our Lady," peep ing above the dark foliage of the yew-like juniper, touched the string of strange sensations, surrounded as the spectators were by wild objects and by a wilder escort, above whose streaming locks floated bloody emblems that breathed aught save confor mity to the mild tenets of the Christian religion. Anko, who was queen over the Galla tribe, by which this mountain was peopled from the invasion of Graan until its reconquest by the crown of Shoa, has bequeathed her name to the narrow winding path which forms the " her" or gate to the suburbs.* Skirting the brink of a yawning abyss, and scarcely wide enough for the foot of a mule, it is not tra versed without a feeling of insecurity, and the labour of a few hours would suffice to render all approach to the capital impracticable, unless to the mountain goat.

Loud cheers from the whole as sembled population, female as well as male, greeted the arrival of the king's guests, the thunder of whose guns in the adjacent valley had given birth to a feeling of respect in the breast of all ; nor was it without considerable difficulty that way was made through the dense crowd that whitened the * Ankober is thus literally " the gate of Anko." ABYSSINIAN ARCHITECTURE. entire hill-side, and lined every valley. A newly erected building fronting the palace had been set apart by His Majesty for the occupation of his visiters, and it was now completely thronged by porters, and beleaguered by clamorous spectators. Wistful looks were exchanged as the party entered this barn-like and dreary abode, which for months, if not for years, was to form their asylum. A decent new thatch, and a neat basket-work ceiling, did indeed form a roof to the structure, but further, the crude and unfinished shell whereon they rested, could hardly claim the denomination of " a house."

It rather resembled a den in Exeter 'Change, or an aviary upon a magnified scale ; and the open hide-lashed ribs, being innocent through out of dab or plaster to choke the interstices, wind, rain, and mountain fog considered themselves to be equally His Majesty's guests, entitled to the occu pation of the uninviting interior. Oblong in form, windowless, chimneyless, and provided at either end with a lofty but narrow door, rudely fashioned of massive planks and beams, each of which, in the absence of a saw, had involved the demolition of an entire tree, the edifice yet afforded an unusually favourable specimen of Shoan architecture ; and to account for its desolate and unfinished condition, it may be proper to add, that the proprietor, who had been honoured with the fair hand of a princess of the blood royal, having a few weeks previously been so unfortunate as to incur the displeasure of THE UNION JACK. 11 his despotic father-in-law, now occupied apartments in the state prison, whilst the management of his estate was, ad interim, considerately undertaken by the crown, without even the preliminary of a fieri facias.

Inner walls divided the centre room from two narrow verandahs, intended for the reception of mules, horses, and household lumber. The floor was precisely as nature made it, depressed rather than raised, and little improved by the many recent inundations to which it had been subjected. Torrents of muddy water rushed impetuously round the trench which environed the entire structure, and occasionally bursting the banks of the dyke, oozed copiously between the palisades, to cover the soil with artificial lakes ; whilst the small open area beyond, into which it disembogued — hemmed in on all sides by rank vegetation, stinging nettles, and half-ruined but noisily inhabited hovels — was, without any exaggeration, eighteen inches deep in honest mire. The pilgrimage thus finally terminated, the pro spect, both within and without, was still altogether far from encouraging ; but the mercury in Fahren heit's thermometer standing at 58°, it became ne cessary to adopt immediate measures towards the exclusion of the cold driving mist and the whistling wind, which the absence of a fire rendered far from agreeable.

The union flag of old England, stretched across the hall, lent the aid of its ample folds to UNIQUE QUARTERS. enliven the interior. Tent walls and tarpaulins composed tolerably comfortable, though straitened, cabins in the verandah closets. Gun-cases, placed on end, and connected by the lid of a chest, formed a highly enviable table, and with a puncheon as a washing-stand, and two swinging shelves overhead, completed the furniture of each apartment. Boxes and bales, as they continued to arrive, were piled around the inner walls, and soon towering to the ceiling, the appearance of a booth at a country fair, on a rainy day, ere the wares have been exposed for sale, was gradually imparted to this highly unique residency in the capital of Shoa. CHAP. II. RESIDENCE IN ANKOBER. But darkness now reigned within the cheerless abode, no less during the stormy nights than throughout the livelong day.

Candles that will burn for more than ten minutes together, or afford light sufficient either to read or write, are luxuries which have no existence in so primitive and be nighted a land ; and strips of old cotton rag dipped in unpurified bees' wax, forming, like most other good things in the empire, a royal monopoly, are doled out by the purveyor-general to the savoured few, with but a sparing and niggard hand ; whilst the absence of glass or other transparent substance, and the continued presence of rain, sleet, clouds, and fog thicker than the steam of a wash-house, rendered it for some time difficult to admit the scanty light of heaven during its fitful visits through the overcast atmosphere. Wood, too, belongs exclusively to the despot, and is far from being abundant in the timberless realm ; but packing-cases as they became empty, were fur nished with a sheet of oiled parchment, and these admirable substitutes for glazed sashes, were, in THE RAINY SEASON. defiance of exhortations not to deface the king's walls, inserted therein from time to time.

A chafing desk, raised upon a high mud pedestal, at length cheered the long dreary evenings, but the wet sodden fuel yielded a very feeble blaze, and its dense smoke, choldng the chimneyless room, covered walls and roof with soot ; — and lastly, tallow dips manufactured of the fat tail of the sheep, afforded sufficient light by which to retire to bed, where fleas, revived by the unwonted warmth of English blankets, denied all rest. The low moaning of the storm behind Mamrat, and the distant growl of the thunder, ushered in the darker hours. There was a sound as of the surf breaking over a rocky shore, and at the next instant the hurricane was at its height, careering madly over Ankober. The rush of the fierce wind, and the dazzling flight of the levin bolt, madly strove for mastery in the race.

Crashing reverber ations of thunder rattled among the serrated cliffs like a feu de joie of great guns : the prolonged roll of one deafening clap confounded with the burst of its successor, whilst the very gates of heaven seemed to open to the flooding of the earth with a deluge of water, which poured in sheets over the heights. Every lane and footpath throughout the town became a sluice ankle deep in running water, and ever and anon, so long as the night lasted, might be heard the distant boom, like the signal-gur of a vessel in distress. BANKS OF FOG. Dawn next revealed a strange phenomenon. The saturated earth, heated by the rays of the rising sun, gave birth to an impenetrable vapour, which like a vast sheet of snow, lay extended in a solid mass full fifty miles across. The spectator rode upon a sea of billowy clouds which rolled beneath his foot, lashing with their spray the dark islands formed by the peaks of the higher mountains ; and beyond, in the hot Adel plain might be seen the Hawash, like a thread of burnished silver, winding and gleaming through the distance until melted into the limits of the sensible horizon.

As the great bank of fog ascended, all around became wet and clammy to the touch ; and the mist, although slug gish and slow to move, was of a nature so keenly searching, that in defiance of all muffling, it seemed to penetrate to the very bones of each shrinking mortal. Together with those privations which are com mon to a residence among all savage nations, there are many which Abyssinia claims exclusively as her own ; nor, if viewed only as a place of abode, does the country possess aught save the salu brity of the climate to counterbalance its mani fold discomforts and disadvantages. Although in the midst of abundance, the utmost difficulty was experienced in obtaining the most common neces saries of existence — bread, meat, and water; and notwithstanding that a sufficiency of wheat to sus tain life for an entire year may be purchased for DESPOTIC MONOPOLIES. one German crown, yet where the stranger is con cerned, the grain without the assistance of the monarch, can scarcely be converted into the staff of life — the process entailing all the petty worry and annoyance which in other lands are solely under taken and performed by menials.

In a kingdom where the inhabitants are solely dependent upon the exertions of slaves, the diffi culties are increased ten-fold to those who are obliged to employ hired domestics. The markets are at a great distance from the capital, and held at lengthy intervals between ; nor are they at any time so well supplied as to admit of the requisite weekly stock being purchased at any individual place. Hence much trouble and inconvenience arose from the necessity of despatching messengers simul taneously to the various remote bazaars ; and very great difficulty was experienced in preserving even the small number of live stock required for con sumption in a country where all the surrounding meadows pertain alike to the crown, and where hired labour is so difficult to be procured. Whilst porters are not to be obtained unless through a direct mandate from the king, the un willingness of mule owners to hire their cattle at the existing low rate, the displeasure and heart burning of the authorities if a larger bribe were offered, the badness of the roads, and the steepness of the hills, all combine to render it a perplexing matter to dispense with this species of service.

TRIALS OF TEMPER. On the other hand the greatest difficulty is ex perienced in providing the means of maintenance for a permanent establishment of baggage horses with their attendants, owing to the existing necessity of distributing them in small lots among the limited private grazing grounds in the vicinity, whence, when wanted, they are not to be obtained without infinite difficulty. Every arrangement, however minute in detail, or trivial in importance, here demands a sacrifice of time and temper in a tedious and lengthy con ference, which, in accordance with the custom of the country, must be carried on by the principal persons engaged in the transaction. Nothing whatever is to be purchased, nor can any thing, however trifling, be accorded without the royal mandate, and when that is at last obtained, the applicant would appear to be further than ever removed from the realiza" tion of his object.

" It is done," is the mode of signifying that a request is granted, and the despot believes that to will is to accomplish ; but whilst his commands are usually obeyed more to the letter than in the spirit in which they have been given, his pubbc officers embrace every opportu nity of consulting the interests of the privy purse, to the stranger's disadvantage. In utter abhorrence of the country and its in habitants, the Moslem servants who accompanied the Embassy from India, all took their departure, willing rather to brave the dangers and difficulties vol. n. c ABYSSINIAN DOMESTICS. of a long journey through the inhospitable deserts ofthe Adaiel, than to prolong a hateful sojourn in Abyssinia. One half of the number were murdered on the way down, and the places of all long remained empty. In any part ofthe world it would be diffi cult to find domestics inferior to their Christian successors, all equally mangy from their diet, and glorying alike in vermin.

The consumption of brundo, or raw beef, and the sleeping off a surfeit which, in its progress towards stupor ex hilarated them to positive intoxication, formed the sum total of their services ; yet every idle noisy vagabond who was in the receipt of four pieces of salt per mensem, with the promise of a new cloth annually, value three shillings and nine-pence ster ling, held himself entitled to a permanent place before the drawing-room fire. All stipulated for one day out of the thirty on which to drink cosso, and during the other twenty nine, few ever stirred without grumbling. Honesty is not prominent among the Abyssinian virtues, and the lack of it sometimes redounded to the discredit of the master. A youth who was entrusted with a star-dollar to purchase sheep in the adjacent mar ket, ingeniously contrived to smuggle into the flock two for which he had not paid, being convinced that such an economical arrangement must prove highly agreeable to his employers, and thus lead to his own advancement.

A hue and cry was raised on the discovery of the theft, and it required some THE KING'S "AFERO." 19 time to persuade the magisterial authorities that the goat-herd had not been defrauded with the cognizance of the bala-beit* An afero or janizary had been specially appointed as a spy over the actions of the foreigners, and he speedily rendered himself sufficiently obnoxious. Not satisfied with prying into the con tents of boxes for the information of the purveyor general, his immediate superior, he reported to the throne every the most minute circumstance that occurred, and was the originator of such serious mischief, that he was shortly turned out of the house in disgrace, with an order never to show his face again. Æthiopia derived her faith from the fountain of Alexandria ; but how is her Christianity disfigured by folly and superstition !

The intolerance of the bigoted clergy, who rule with the iron hand of religious ascendancy, soon proclaimed the British worse than pagans, for the non-observance of absurd fasts and blasphemous doctrines; and the inhabitants, priest-ridden to a degree, received their cue of behaviour principally from their most de spotic tyrant, the Church. Unquies, the Comus or Bishop of Shoa, was the most open and undisguised in his hostilities. Beset by evil thoughts at an early age, he imitated the example set by Origines, the celebrated ecclesiastic, who lived in the third cen tury ; and so much is he respected by the monarch * Master of the house. C MOHAMMADAN ABOMINATIONS. for his austerities and religious devotion, that His Majesty invariably speaks of him as " the strong monk." To him was traced a report that the Embassy were to be summarily expelled the country, in consequence of the non-observance of the fasts prescribed by the Æthiopic creed, and because a Great Lady, whose spies they were, was on her way from the sea-coast, with a large military force, to overturn the true religion, put the king to death, and assume possession of all Abyssinia.