Tinta, in two or three days, brought a reply from the Negoos, that I was to look out what house would suit me, and if I were well enough to visit him at Ankobar, where he was coming to from Angolahlah, in the course of the week, he would then give the necessary directions to put me in possession of my choice.
Night and morning we were now to be seen, Walderheros and myself, slowly walking along the narrow confined lanes in search of a house that would suit us. I leaning upon him on one hand, and in the other, to assist in supporting my weakened frame, I carried a slender rod, about seven feet long, called a “zank,” in common use, as an aid when walking, by the people of Shoa. We visited every vacant house in the town to examine their condition and character, and occupied ourselves entirely by suggesting alterations and repairs, or devising sundry projects of domestic comfort, in connexion with the expected grant by the Negoos of the one which I should prefer. For five or six days we thus amused ourselves, and when the eve of the day came on which I was to see the Negoos at Ankobar, we were as far from having come to a decisive choice, as upon the first day we commenced the search. Some were too old, some stood in a crowded neighbourhood, the repairs of others would have required an outlay of five or six dollars, here the thatch was nearly all gone, and there the garden was too small, and the last was worse than all, for, by a curious accident, the roof settled down on the top of us as we entered, the wattled wall on the outside giving way as we pushed open the dilapidated door to get in. There was not one, in fact, that I could fix my mind upon, and Walderheros being equally difficult to please, we might have continued a long time without coming to a decision, had not the next day’s visit to the Negoos rendered it necessary to fix upon some one, that I might be prepared to answer the Negoos’s usual question, “What is it you desire?” in return for the memolagee or offering I had prepared for his acceptance, and which, as it was of a peculiar kind, it shall be treated of in the next chapter.
CHAPTER XIII.
Custom of giving Memolagee.—Sugar boiling.—Success.—Gratify the Negoos.—Receive house.—Claims of kindred.—Remarks upon intestate property.—The two brothers of late owner.—Removal to new residence.
A custom exists in every Abyssinian court, which requires that no one shall go empty handed into the presence of royalty. Every visitor to the Negoos of Shoa in this manner brings with him some present, which, after having been registered by an officer appointed for that purpose, is deposited at the feet of the monarch. In return, it is expected that some request on the part of the inferior is to be graciously acceded to, and if what is asserted be true, the Negoos is obliged by the law of custom to consent to whatever is asked, should he accept, in the first instance, the proffered gift. A monstrous exaggeration of this system of presenting gifts, to be returned by some greater amount of property, is, at all events, practised very considerably, by the Abyssinians, upon ignorant strangers, for the custom is not confined to an interchange of favours with royalty, but is general also among all classes. I have myself frequently been imposed upon, or at least have had attempts made to impose upon me in this manner, when ridiculously small presents were offered, and then on my acceptance followed some exorbitant request. A memolagee of eggs, for example, would usher in a modest demand for as many dollars; when, from a calculation I have frequently made, one of the latter would purchase one thousand eggs, at the rate of five eggs for a needle, of which two hundred could be bought for a dollar. Again, a jar of ale, containing about five gallons, which would cost the third of an ahmulah, or salt-piece, or the third of two-pence halfpenny, would be deemed quite a sufficient gift to ask in return a slave girl, or a mule. To prevent all mistakes, after I had discovered that I had given considerable offence, in some cases, by refusing what had been demanded, I made it a rule to know previously to my accepting it, what was the object for which the memolagee was offered, and even then it was very seldom I would consent to give more than the market value of the pumpkins, water melons, and smuggled honey, which generally constituted these propitiatory offerings.
The memolagee I had prepared for this visit to the Negoos, at Ankobar, was about two pounds of sugar which I had managed to manufacture from cane growing in the neighbourhood of Aliu Amba. I calculated upon the effect that such a present would have upon the naturally sagacious mind of the gifted monarch of Shoa, and that the usefulness of such an article, introduced as a manufactured product of his own country, would strike him as being of more importance than many richer presents, the use and value of which he could not, from the circumstances of his situation, have any idea of.
On my arrival in Shoa, I found that the Wallasmah Mahomed cultivated sugar-cane in a valley, at the foot of the prison hill of Guancho, and that he supplied the table of the Negoos with it as a sweetmeat, small pieces being cut off with a knife, and masticated as I have seen the inhabitants of Ceylon enjoying it. Whilst staying at Miriam’s house, I conceived the project of boiling down some sugar as a mode of employing myself when confined indoors by the fever, or the wet weather. For this purpose I sent Walderheros to the Wallasmah with a canister of gunpowder as a memolagee for some sugar-cane, and got in return as much as my zealous servant could stand under, considering that he had to carry the bundle upon his head and shoulders for nearly six miles, along roads of no ordinary kind in the wet season, for that rich, greasy, slipperiness of surface, where toes well stuck into the mud, alone admits of any chance of the barefooted wayfarer, pulling himself up the steep “banks and braes” he has to surmount.
Possessing no means of crushing the cane properly, I was obliged to have resort to simply pounding it in a large wooden mortar, two or three of which, of different sizes, are generally to be found in every house in Shoa. Miriam, her son, Walderheros, and myself occupied ourselves one day peeling and slicing the long stalks before we could place the cut-up cane in the mortar, and then we were employed two days more in triturating it, during which process a little water was added to take up the saccharine juice, and to free it, according to my idea, more readily from the cane. Two handsful of the beaten mass were then placed at a time, in one of my towels, which being folded up, the two extremities were collected together, and by dint of a great deal of twisting and screwing by two of us, we managed to force out the liquid portion, leaving a hard round ball of woody fibrous substance, which, however, had been pounded sufficiently fine to receive and retain, very visibly, the diaper pattern of the cloth in which it was strained. These refuse cakes were very greedily eaten by some goats, and I dare say, such food would be highly nutritious to animals. The expressed juice having been received into my copper cooking vessels, they were placed uncovered upon a low fire, where they continued until more than one-half of the liquid portion was driven off. The remainder was then poured into some shallow earthenware dishes, which, with stones carefully placed under the lower edges of the vessels, to obviate the inconvenient slope, were exposed upon the conical roof of the house, to the evaporating influence of the temporary and dodging glimpses of sunshine, that struggled through the vast number of clouds, which at this season of the year obscured the sky.
How well I recollect my querulous anxiety, and the patient watchfulness of Walderheros, as all day long we were obliged to be on the expectant quick move, to bring out of the passing showers these evaporating dishes, and which, at length, we were obliged to submit to the continued action of a slow fire indoors to effect our object, for we discovered, that what between the moisture in the air, and the frequent falls of rain the season was not at all propitious for sugar making. In the end we succeeded in obtaining about two pounds of very excellent brown sugar, as the result of our joint labours, and very well pleased all parties were with their success.
It was curious to observe the interest that was taken in the process by the inhabitants of Aliu Amba, nearly all of whom visited me during the three or four days we were employed, and not a few insisted upon helping us. Of these latter, Walderheros was especially jealous, as he wished all the honour and glory as the actual manufacturer to devolve upon himself, giving me only the credit of knowing how it should be done, and of directing him. When the sugar had crystallized and assumed the shape of the much-desired luxury, a new class of visitors then came begging for a little as a medicine for their sick children, and these became so numerous, and I could not well refuse their request, that at last Walderheros, in despair, complained to Tinta, who had all along been much interested in the success of the experiment, and who immediately came, and advised me to put the sugar into his charge, if I wished to save any for the Negoos.