August 14th.—Wallata Gabriel was a very good housekeeper, but unfortunately, like most other young women in Shoa, and, I believe, in all Abyssinia, she had a great many followers. Whenever Walderheros and I walked out, some one or other would always be manœuvring to get out of the house unobserved on our return; and although I was rather suspicious of some of her lovers making free with what little property I had, still I had as yet never missed anything. I had frequently reminded Walderheros of this weakness in his wife, but he always, in reply, appealed to me if she was not a good servant, although, he added, that it was for my convenience that he recognised her as his wife, and would previously have divorced her, only he thought that together they were so well adapted to manage my domestic affairs, that he could not do better than keep her. Coming in rather inopportunely this afternoon, after a long walk round the town, I could do nothing else but turn her away at once; whilst Walderheros expostulated with her paramour, among other severe things, asking him if he were not ashamed to intrude in such a manner when the balla bait (the master of the house) was not at home.
About an hour after I had dismissed Wallata Gabriel, an old lady, a relation of Walderheros, made her appearance, bringing some of the sweetly-scented herb called Err-guftah, as a memolagee. On requesting to know what she required, a long apologizing palliating intercession, of no ordinary character, was made for my delinquent housekeeper. She attributed my severity, she said, entirely to my not knowing Abyssinian customs, and turning to Walderheros, who sat on the raised rim of the hearth, stirring up the dry ashes with a stick, she upbraided him for not raising his voice in the behalf of his lawful wife. I was determined she should not return, and was dismissing the mediatrix with a positive refusal, when Walderheros looked at me with a most grievous expression of countenance, and lifted up the top of the straw bread-basket, to intimate, by its empty condition, how badly we should be off for dinner if I persisted in not recalling his wife. I could not help smiling, and the old lady, seeing me relent, put her head out of the door, and called out “Wallata Gabriel!” two or three times. The fair penitent very soon appeared, for she had been sitting in the lane all the time, and came tripping in, laughing and looking quite happy at being reinstated, and without the least trace of sorrow or contrition in her countenance.
This apparent lack of morality amongst the Shoans, like their Church history, is quite beyond my understanding. Yet even as respects this, a person educated in the more correct principles of what is considered to constitute social happiness, does not perceive in Shoa that violence done to propriety, which similar conduct in many of the southern states in Europe is apt to excite. The loose habits and indiscriminate intrigue, which displeased me when I witnessed it among the inhabitants of various countries situated upon the northern shores of the Mediterranean, only occasioned a smile when I observed it in Abyssinia. Among the former it was the pretension and affectation of virtue that made their sins stand in bolder comparison as vices, than a somewhat similar course of conduct among the simple, good-natured inhabitants of the latter country, who have no public opinion to propitiate, or, on the other hand, to control them, and whose naturally yielding disposition renders them too prone to indulgence; where also, let it be recollected, religion applies no curb, for the priests themselves in Shoa have had the decency to cease preaching that, which they never pretend to practise.
I was not many weeks upon the banks of the Ganges, and had not many opportunities of observing the native population of India, but the impression upon my mind of the moral character of the people generally of that country, apart from their particular worship, is, that the Indians, especially the women, possess in a great degree that moral principle, that delicacy of the mind, which is essentially the basis of that high sense of honour and personal respect, which constitute female chastity. I was enabled to draw, by my visit to India, a very interesting contrast between the women of that country and those of Shoa. Let me compare two extreme specimens, which will illustrate more broadly that which I wish to establish; that important differences in the constitution of the mind are the primary causes of those varieties in human nature; but which have been previously determined by differences in the features and form. This comparison will assist me, as truth, I think, is sometimes strikingly demonstrated by widely different contrasts; the paradox surprises and amuses the mind, and its effect in consequence is more permanent.
We will first, however, cursorily allude to the physical differences between the Indian girl and the Abyssinian, as a kind of introduction to their habits. The former is tall, thin, long-waisted, with an angular configuration of form, her features regular, sharply defined, bright and placid. She is a Circassian with a dark skin. Turn to the Abyssinian beauty, her eyes smile uncontrollably as you look. Her figure is short, plump, and roundly formed, with small, but full voluptuous features, that appear blended together with an infantile expression.
The minds of both are uneducated and natural: in this circumstance of their character, fortunately for the effect of the comparison, they may be supposed to be alike. But are their dispositions or conduct the same? How very different. The Indian girl has considerable personal vanity, is fond of ornaments and show, and seeks to attract attention by rich clothes, or studied graces. Even in their national attitudinizing, and the alluring nautch, repose and quiet seem to distinguish her from the laughing, romping, dress-neglecting Abyssinian, who, to attract notice, affects the child, and endeavours to please by artlessness and simplicity. As lovers, the Indian girl capriciously selects one lord, but the Abyssinian would consider this to be petty treason against nature, and a crying sin; she always loves the nearest, and whilst the eyes of that one are upon her, is reluctantly constant, but considers all engagements quite at end by absence, however short. Our coquettes, tall girls, with thin lips and cold sparkling eyes, always remind me of the Indian beauty, whilst our laughter-loving romps, even in their features and form, seem to belong to the Abyssinian mould, in some measure demonstrating the solution of the difficult problem, of accounting for the origin of those differences in the several varieties into which ethnologists have divided mankind. Among our own acquaintances, under external circumstances, exactly alike, nature produces by the mysterious agency of mental endowments, the possible mothers of families of man, which, under different circumstances of situation and of social education, would ultimately present two nations as distinct in every phenomenon of external appearance as are the most opposed specimens of the Circassian or the negro type.
The Shoans are certainly not a virtuous people, according to our ideas, and if we are to judge them by the standard of our moral code; but I positively deny that they are an immodest people, except among those where the dehumanizing influence of Mahomedanism, by degrading woman to the condition of a slave, has engendered the disgusting sensuality which characterizes the professors of that religion, and even these in Abyssinia are as superior as possible in this respect to the Mahomedans of Arabia and Persia. My opinion as to the modesty of the Shoan women may not perhaps be sufficiently understood, to be considered correct; but it was formed by observing the freedom from all restraint which they appear to enjoy in their country and among their families. This implies some confidence on the part of the men, and a woman must be modest to the extent that society requires, to command such a mark of deference and respect from the opposite sex.
I have seen sufficient, indeed, to convince me that the youth of Abyssinia, males and females, whilst influenced by the feelings natural to that age, are diffident, confiding, and good-natured, and however they may become altered by the experience of increasing years, and the education of after life, these moral principles still prevail, and give a favourable inclination to the practice of virtue and justice, that renders their social condition productive of much happiness to themselves, and affords some pleasure to the mind, that contemplates their character and condition, uninfluenced by the bias derived from the moral discipline of a very differently constituted community.
August 15th.—Being unable to go much abroad to extend my acquaintance with the habits and manners of the Shoans, I was particularly desirous that my establishment should be entirely conducted upon the principles of Abyssinian domestic economy. As this exactly suited the inclination of Walderheros, and as it did not matter to Goodaloo in what way things were managed, so that he got a large roll of teff bread in a morning to wrap up in his mekanet when he went to cut fuel, and his supper in the evening when he re turned, the proposal met with universal approbation from the members of my household, and my wishes were attended to in every particular.
Among other employments that occupied Walderheros and his wife two or three days every fortnight, was that of brewing, which was no trifling affair, as a fresh jar of ale, holding at least four gallons, was broached every day. The process is simple enough as performed in Shoa, and instead of being obliged to stand some time after it is made, five or six days is the time that is required to ripen and fine the beverage, which, if made well, is agreeable and very strong, with a slight acidity, that reminded me of the oldest ale I had ever drunk in England.