The source of the Blue Nile

by Arthur J. Hayes

According to tradition, Christianity was introduced into the country in the fourth century.

“In the year 330 after the birth of our Saviour, Meropius, a merchant of Tyre, having undertaken a commercial voyage to India, landed on the coast of Ethiopia, where he was murdered by the barbarians, and his two sons, Frumentius and Edesius, both devout men, being made prisoners, were carried as slaves before the Emperor. The abilities, the information, and the peaceable demeanour of the brothers soon gained not only their release but high office in the court; and living in the full confidence of the monarch until his decease, and subsequently under the protection of the Queen-mother, the good-will of the entire nation quickly succeeded. The work of conversion was commenced, and proceeding with wonderful rapidity and success, a thriving branch was shortly added to the great Eastern Church.

“Bearing the happy tidings, Frumentius appeared in Alexandria, and was received with open arms by the Patriarch Athanasius. Loaded with honours, and consecrated the first bishop of Ethiopia, a relation was thus happily commenced with Egypt, which has remained firm and friendly to the present day, and throughout fifteen centuries has bestowed upon a Coptish priest the high office of Patriarch Abouna (i.e. our Father) of the Ethiopic Church.

“On his return to the country of his hopes, Frumentius found that the spark of life had spread rapidly throughout the gloomy darkness of the land. Baptism was instituted, deacons and presbyters appointed, churches erected, and a firm foundation laid whereon to establish the Christian religion in Abyssinia.

“During the succeeding century, priests and apostles, men of wonderful sanctity, flocked into the Empire from all parts of the East, and miracles the most stupendous are related in the legends of those days. Mountains were removed, and the storms of the angry ocean stilled by the mere application of the staff. The adder and the basilisk glided harmless under foot, and rivers stayed their roaring torrent, that the sandal of the holy man should remain unstained by the flood. Aragáwi raised the dead—the fingers of Likános flamed like tapers of fire—Samuel rode upon his lion; and thus the kingdom of Arwé, the old serpent of Ethiop, was utterly overthrown.”[127]

The conservatism of the Abyssinian people in matters of religion is well illustrated by the fact that throughout the many and violent vicissitudes of their history since the introduction of Christianity they have always received their Patriarch from the mother-church. His position is one of great authority. “The chief man in the country after the king of kings is the Abouna, or archbishop, the head of the Church; without the Abouna no king can be crowned, and it is he that, at his own or the king’s wish, can excommunicate any of his subjects, or the king himself, if necessary, and then the king can only rule by the strength of his followers who adhere to him. These archbishops come from the Coptic Monastery at Alexandria or Cairo, and when they reach Abyssinia, they never leave it on any consideration.”[128] Moreover, “the Abyssinian Church, in common with all other Christian communities in Asia and Africa, is strictly episcopal. The Abouna, or primate, who is consecrated to his office by the Patriarch of Alexandria, the revered successor of St. Mark, can alone confer the priestly title. Every candidate, before presenting himself for ordination, must have acquired some knowledge in the reading of the sacred language of Ethiopia, and in the complicated ceremonies of the liturgical service. On the day appointed for ordination the primate, in full canonicals and seated on the episcopal throne, receives the applicants for the sacred office. All being properly ranged before the chair of St. Mark, each candidate, instead of the imposition of hands, receives the Abouna’s consecrating breath. Former archbishops, less scrupulous than the present successor of Frumentius, indiscriminately breathed on all, whether qualified or not, who could pay the requisite fee of two salts—fourpence.[129]

“Deacons are selected from among boys, who are only allowed to serve in the Church till they attain the age of twelve or thirteen; after that period their purity of life is suspected, and they are no longer considered fit to approach the sacred shrine of the tabot.[130] The bishop and monks may not marry, while the priests may; and as, on the death of their wives, they cannot contract a second alliance, the reverend wooers invariably choose for their partners the most robust and sprightly lasses in the land.

“The debterahs, or scribes, constitute the lowest but the most influential body in the Church. These worthies enjoy no ecclesiastical rank and are under no ecclesiastical discipline, and yet no service can be properly performed unless they take part in it. Their chief duty consists in chanting the Psalms and Liturgy, but their uncouth gesticulation and discordant shouting, instead of elevating devotion, tend rather, at least in European estimation, to convert the service of God into a sinful burlesque and the sanctuary into a bedlam. The scanty learning of the country is exclusively monopolized by this order; and they are so proud of their erudition that they deem it a disgrace to exchange, by the breathing of the Abouna, the proud title of debterah for the less learned appellation of kas, or priest.

“These literati, notwithstanding their better acquaintance with the sacred volume and the lives of the saints, are considered the most arrant scoundrels in the land. Gondar, which contains a considerable number of the fraternity, is notorious for the dissolute profligacy of its inhabitants; and it is proverbial throughout the country that wherever debterahs abound there vice and immorality thrive.”[131]

Mansfield Parkyns found that many of the debterahs, or defterers, professed to practise witchcraft. He wrote: “There are persons in the country who are supposed to be able to call up spirits and obtain from them any information they may require. These men are mostly defterers (or Scribes), and are regarded with a certain amount of rather dubious respect. The scene of their incantation is generally some ravine, with a stream running through it. As I have only heard the reports of the common people on the subject, I cannot describe accurately what ceremonies are observed, or what form the devil assumes on quitting the water at their summons. My informants, however, assured me that he came as a great chief, with the usual train of shield-bearers behind him and gunners before him.”[132]