Among the things Sartawold wanted, was some medicine for the Negoos, whom he did not hesitate to assert, had a most disreputable complaint; but as I did not think proper to understand him until I knew something more of the particulars of the case, he soon ceased making the request. Our halting conversation terminated at length by his getting up from the floor, where he had been sitting upon an ox hide, and telling me that the King desired me to remain at Aliu Amba till I was quite well, and, in the meantime, I must learn to speak Amharic. After recommending each other a dozen times to the care of heaven, Sartawold retired, but it was some time before I could get the talkative Islam to leave me to my much-required repose.
After an early breakfast next morning, Walderheros prepared for our departure, rolling up my plaid, Arab cloak, and two large Abyssinian tobes that formed my bed clothes, and putting them all into a large goat skin bag, in which they were usually carried on occasions of leaving home for a time.
I presented my female friends with a few small strings of blue and gold coloured beads, which are the kind most preferred by the Christian inhabitants of Shoa. Of these beads they construct the more superior kind of “martab,” the particular symbol of their faith; which, of some material or other, they invariably wear. It sometimes consists merely of a white or blue thread, tied around the throat, but those in most general use are made of dark blue silk, imported by the merchants of Giddem and of Hurrah. This colour, once universally worn, is not insisted upon at the present day, for although it still continues to be considered the most orthodox, the white and yellow coloured threads of beads have become very fashionable of late. The custom of wearing coloured “martabs” bears some reference, I believe, to a personal distinction between the Christian and Islam faiths, established by some former Negoos; for red head dresses of cotton cloth, and long red gowns, are invariably the “outward and visible” sign of the profession of Islamism, among the women of Efat, and other Mahomedan provinces, as the blue martab is of the Christian population.
It was nine o’clock before we were fairly started, but we soon lost sight of the palace hill, with its crest of thatched roofs appearing above the bristling stockade; and of its red flanks dotted with squatting noblemen and courtiers, who in clean white tobes sat enjoying the fresh air and the genial influence of a morning sun. Walderheros ran by the side of my mule, poising upon his head the skin bag which contained my bed. When, however, the view of Angolahlah was shut out by the projecting shoulder of a low ridge, along the base of which our road lay, his burden was transferred to the crupper of my saddle, and relieving me of my carabine, the respectful bearing of a servant was changed for the familiarity of a tutor, and one long lesson in Amharic again occupied the way.
We reached Ankobar late in the afternoon, and as I was completely worn out, and the mule was tired also, I agreed to the proposal of Walderheros that we should stay for the night at the house of a married sister of his, the husband of whom was the “ullica,” or the superior of those slaves of the Negoos, whose duty it is to cut and carry wood for the use of the royal residences.
The house was very conveniently situated at the junction of the lower road, around the base of the ridge of Ankobar, with the steep ascending one that leads to the town on its summit.
Walderheros found his sister at home, with a fat slave-girl, Mahriam, as her attendant and companion. Musculo, the husband, was absent upon some duty, but he appeared in the course of the afternoon, and all endeavoured to make me as comfortable as they could.
Their house was of the better sort, built of splinted ted, and consisted of a central apartment, with recesses formed by the division of the space between two circular walls, which were placed at about four feet distant from each other. In one of these recesses was placed a bed-stead, covered with an ox skin tanned with the bark of the kantuffa, which gives to this kind of leather a red colour. A skin so prepared is called “net.” The kantuffa is a pleasing looking tree, and might be cultivated as a lawn shrub in England. It is a species of acacia, and the bright red seed vessels formed like those of the English ash, remaining after the foliage disappears, would diminish considerably, I think, the dreary aspect of a shrubbery in that season.
In the other two recesses were numerous jars containing ale, grain, and water, and side by side stood four pedestal hand mills, in the rear of which a hole, knocked through the mud and stick wall, served the double purpose of a window and chimney. The large circular hearth occupied the usual situation, nearly in the centre of the apartment, which was itself not more than twelve feet in diameter. Two solid planks of the “sigbar” tree, each of which had been cut with no little labour from a single tree, formed a pair of folding-doors. The hinges on which they revolved consisted of strong projecting extremities on one side of the top and bottom of each, which were received into corresponding holes on the wooden lintel and threshold. At night the two flaps were secured by an iron hasp shutting upon a staple, that admitted a kind of wooden linch-pin to be thrust through.
The sigbar tree, of which these doors were made, is the principal forest-tree of Shoa, it sometimes attains the height of one hundred feet, with a diameter of not less than five feet. In flocks along its crushing branches, the flying “gurazo,” a species of monkey, makes the circuit of the forest, and to watch them, as they take the most fearful leaps from tree to tree, is most interesting. I have seen the dam, with a young one held tightly to her breast with one arm, exactly like a human being would do, fearlessly dart from the greatest height to the lower branch of a neighbouring tree, and quickly gaining its summit, keep well up with the rest, in their leaping progress.