I had an opportunity during to-day of making some inquiries; for one of the inmates of the Tabeeb convent, near Myolones, called to ask me for some medicine. He produced from beneath his tobe a drinking-horn, very neatly made, which he presented as his memolagee. After I had given him what he required I got Walderheros to ask him a few questions, and he seemed quite pleased that I took an interest in the religious opinions of the sect. He denied with a deal of indignation the common rumour of the men and women living promiscuously; on the contrary, he insisted that not only did a breach of chastity exclude the parties from the community, but no married people were allowed to live among them. It is only in the Goodam, or convent, this discipline is enforced, for a Tabeeb can marry and live like the other Shoans, but he then only visits the “Goodam,” of his relations as a stranger until, tired of society, disabled or old, when he can again claim admission as a brother of their order. The Tabeebs are Christians, but do not pray to the Virgin Mary, and believe that Christ had no father, but still was a man like ourselves. They have no “tabot,” or moveable altar (an ark), like the other Christians of Shoa, or as they would have, I suppose, if they were Jews. Every day in the week, except Saturday and Sunday, is a strict fast. They have no bed to sleep upon, as they sit up all night in their church, ranged along the wall, to which straps are secured, and within which the people sit at prayers, so that should any one go to sleep, he might not fall and hurt himself, or disturb the others. The Goodam is divided into two portions, one side being occupied with the women, the other by the men, and no unnecessary communication is permitted between the sexes. They eat and drink together once a-day in the evening, each having a fixed portion of food. The women grind flour, and work as do other Shoan females; the monks labour at the forge, or in the fields belonging to their convent. The Tabeeb women also make the earthenware vessels in the country, as all ironwork is done by the men. There are two superiors, an aged woman who has charge of the females, and an old man placed in authority over the males. The Negoos is a great friend to the Tabeebs, and gives to them several oxen during the year. Besides he has bestowed a great deal of land upon the various monasteries of these people, of which institutions there are no less than forty-two in Shoa. When the good man left me, I gave him a pair of scissors in return for his drinking horn, as I now made it a rule not to receive any memolagees. He was so delighted with my gift, that he pressed me very much to come and see him at his convent, as soon as ever I dared to move about, and promised me a very good reception.
The Abyssinians in making their drinking-horns, show considerable ingenuity, not so much in the complexity of their machinery, as in the great simplicity of the few aids they require to turn out a very neatly made article. A proper ox-horn being selected, it is cut into such lengths as are required. One of these is then gradually fixed upon a conical wooden mould; boiling water being employed to soften the horn, and make it more readily adapt itself to the shape, it is then laid aside for a few days, when the form becoming fixed, it is placed in the lathe to receive a series of circular cut rings, with which the outside is usually ornamented.
The lathe is nothing more than two short sticks placed in the ground, not more than three inches high above its surface. From the centre of each end of the mould an arm projects about six inches long, which is armed with a bit of iron. These iron points are received in the short stick supports, and the mould, with the horn upon it, then revolves freely. The workman sits upon the ground, and with his feet pressed hard against a stick, supports it in this manner against two stones, placed at a convenient distance in front of his work. This forms a rest for his cutting instrument, which he holds in his left hand, and presses against the horn, whilst with his right he wheels backwards and forwards the mould by a small catgut string bow, applied and used in the same manner as is the same tool by many artisans in England.
Not only are drinking-horns thus fashioned (and which, I must observe, are finished by a piece of round wood being fitted like a thin cork into the lower and smaller end), but also earrings are turned from the long black horn of the sala, a species of antelope, common in Adal and the low countries around Abyssinia. The solid extremities of the horns only are used, so that not more than two pair of earrings can be made from one horn, which is at least two feet long. The earrings are large and clumsy, but, considering the simple means employed in making them, are not despicable works of art. Each is turned in two pieces, not at all unlike in form and size high convex buttons, with small straight shafts projecting from the inside centres. These shafts are made so that one receives the other, and the earring thus formed looks like two small wheels connected by a short axle. To receive them into the ear a very large hole is required, and the axis of one of the halves being first introduced, the other is fixed upon it, and the lady then turns round, to ask how the new ornament looks.
Sometimes I have seen these horn earrings ornamented with an inlaid star of silver, and many an hour’s labour have I had myself, letting in little brass studs from an old box-lid into the surface in the same manner, to please some of my female friends, who would come begging to have their earrings thus improved in appearance. Besides these ornaments turned from the sala horn, small black rings are cut, and I have also seen a neat little bottle, about two inches long, turned in a very ingenious manner, and which was intended to hold “col” (the black oxide of antimony), with which the Mahomedans adorn their eyelids, and the Christians employ as a medicine, applying it in the same manner. Besides horn earrings, the Abyssinian women wear large silver ones, sometimes weighing as much as two or three dollars each. One fashion alone is general in Shoa, a back and front portion, each of which invariably consists of three large beads, surmounted by a fourth. These are fixed in the ear in a similar manner as the horn ones, and look not unlike small bunches of grapes projecting before and behind.
Whilst I am upon this subject, I may observe that the Shoan women are exceedingly fond of silver ornaments, and all their riches consist of such stores. Dollars are only valued as the means of thus enabling the possessors to adorn themselves or their women, for all the coin of this sort which enters Shoa ultimately finds its way into the crucible, except such as falls into the hands of the King, and which are destined for a less useful end, these being securely packed in jars, and deposited in caves. One hill, called Kundi, a few miles to the north of Ankobar, is pierced by numerous subterranean passages, in which are hidden in this manner immense treasures in gold and silver. They are kept closed by heavy doors of iron, and the whole hill, which is surmounted by a church, dedicated to the Virgin, is under the care of a vast number of priests. I think it not improbable that some excavated chambers that have been found in Egypt, and in rocks near Jerusalem, and considered to have been intended for tombs, were in fact the treasuries of the monarchs of these countries.
One ornament of silver, and which is worn by the women of Shoa upon the breast, hanging from the neck by a chain, also of silver, is in the form of a clasp, three or four inches long, and one inch broad; upon its front surface not unfrequently is rudely engraved some simple design in waving lines. Bracelets of silver are sometimes seen, and with the Mahomedan women, they are invariably of that metal; but the Christians generally wear plain ones, made of pewter, with anklets to correspond.
Besides the little unpretending martab of blue silk, the Christian women, if they can afford it, wear large necklaces of beads, and the British Political Mission have greatly increased the stock of these ornaments that is now brought into the market. Those I have seen were made generally by a succession of loops, consisting of seven or eight threads of different coloured seed beads, collected at certain lengths into one string, through a large angular-cut piece of amber. Eight or ten of these loops formed a long negligee, which, ornamented with a large tassel of small beads, was a present suited even for the acceptance of royalty. The Mahomedan women, on the contrary, wear one string of beads around their necks, formed of a hundred large and differently coloured beads, among which bright red ones seem to be preferred. These are divided into lengths by the interposition of pieces of amber, at least twice as long as those employed by the Christian women in collecting together into one, the various bead threads of their necklaces. The silver bracelets of the Islam are also different in form from those worn by the Christians, consisting of two or three thick silver wires, twisted upon each other, and finished at each extremity by a beaten square head. This is looped around the wrist, where it remains until required as security for loans, the most important use, I think, of silver articles in Shoa, amongst all religious denominations. No golden ornaments are ever observed among the Shoans, for a sumptuary edict of the Negoos forbids his subjects the use of this metal; the royal family of course being excepted.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Wallata Gabriel dismissed.—Reinstated.—Comparison of different races of man.—Of human varieties.—Of the process of brewing.—Abyssinian ale.—Ingredients.—The horn of plenty.