FRESCOES IN THE CHURCH AT KORATA.
See [p. 120.]
The church of Korata has a large staff of priests and defterers or scribes.[79] To benefit fully by the sanctity of the place, they sleep in the porches, on the beds which are called angareebs in the Soudan. A theological school is attached to the holy building, and we saw five or six of the students. One of them was suffering from the disease which Stecker found to be so distressingly prevalent in Abyssinia. The Chief Priest received us very graciously. He was much interested when we named the saints depicted in the frescoes, and appeared suddenly to realize that we were Christians. He seemed to have the impression that an English official’s training comprised instruction in all handicrafts; for he put into my friend Dupuis’s hands the separate parts, including the mainspring and all the wheels, of an old silver timepiece, and signified through the interpreter to my astonished companion that he was desired to put them together again and return the watch in working order. Dupuis explained that he was not a “practical jeweller and repairer.” The agreeable old dignitary, whose name was John, received an offering of ten dollars with great gratitude.
Later in the day he sent me as a patient one of his students, who was suffering from ophthalmia. This man brought a citron for each of us three Europeans; why, I cannot guess, for this pulpy kind of lemon is not a useful gift, nor a delight for a gourmet. The fruit may have had some symbolical meaning, but, if so, we remained in ignorance of it. I saw many other patients. Nearly all suffered from trivial ailments. A woman and her husband, who both appeared to be in sound health, kept trying to tell me some long tale or other, hovered about near me, and drew my attention at every turn. Finally they induced a soldier to interpret for them, and besought me to attend to the woman’s case. When I examined her, I found that she had come to consult me about the traces of the scar of an abscess which had healed, as far as I could judge, some twenty years before! This blemish on her “beauty” was about the size of a shilling.
In the afternoon we went shooting. The boy—Zody by name—who had been so tickled by my friend’s dumb-show on the previous day, and had earned his dollar by taking my comrades where guinea-fowl were plentiful, again attached himself to our party. He guided us well, and we made a good bag of quail, guinea-fowl, and partridges.
When we returned we found that we had received a present from the lady of the Ras in whose dominions we were. It consisted of loaves of “teff” bread, ten fowls, sixty eggs and a jar of honey. All this we distributed among the men. The Ras’s wife was owner of the soil hereabouts; it had been given to her as dowry, and in such a case a woman has practically absolute proprietorship, and the taxes are collected for her benefit. But her authority does not extend to the selection of officials; that power remains in the hands of the Ras. As the Mussulmans had killed during the day the ox which we had bought for twelve shillings and sixpence, the men had plenty of good fare before them, and our own larder was not badly stocked. Vultures of enormous size gathered round the spot where the animal was slaughtered, and fought over the offal that was left on the ground. Numbers of carrion crows had flocked to the feast, and had to be spectators for the most part. But they slipped in among the big combatants now and then, and filched away a morsel adroitly.
I have given rather fully my impressions of Korata, which is a typical township of Western Abyssinia. It may interest the reader if I supplement it by the brief note written by Stecker, who sojourned in the place more than a fortnight. He wrote—
“On April 1” (1881) “we reached Korata, the most important, most charmingly situated and largest town on Lake Tsana. Korata has often been visited by Europeans before, most recently by Piaggia, who stayed here about a year and a half and occupied himself with ornithology. Korata is famous for the first-rate excellence of its coffee, which, as I was able to satisfy myself, flourishes here exceptionally. The place is almost the most important market on the Tsana, but at the moment does not contain more than eight hundred to one thousand inhabitants against three thousand in Theodore’s time, as very many have either migrated from the town or died of fever. At an earlier time the Mohammedans were numerous here, but most of them emigrated to Gallabat after the order issued to them by King John that they should one and all embrace Christianity. Only a few families abandoned Islamism and adopted the Coptic faith. There are also three Jewish families living here. Korata is divided into ten districts whose names are Dengelteffa, Tukuwodeb, Margeza, Kulomalfia, Siet biet Negus, Guaguata, Guwi, Adisamba, Vof tschogevia, Gusudur, and Slam biet (or Slam modeb), which last is at present entirely deserted. Korata is the abode of an exceptionally numerous priesthood.” Dr. Stecker formed friendships among the laity in the place, but “by no means lived in the best harmony with the pretentious clergy.”[80]