CHAP. VII.
Books in Use in Abyssinia—Enoch—Abyssinia not converted by the Apostles—Conversion from Judaism to Christianity by Frumentius.
The Abyssinians have the whole scriptures entire as we have, and count the same number of books; but they divide them in another manner, at least in private hands, few of them, from extreme poverty, being able to purchase the whole, either of the historical or prophetical books of the Old Testament. The same may be said of the New, for copies containing the whole of it are very scarce. Indeed no where, unless in churches, do you see more than the Gospels, or the Acts of the Apostles, in one person’s possession, and it must not be an ordinary man that possesses even these.
Many books of the Old Testament are forgot, so that it is the same trouble to procure them, even in churches, for the purpose of copying, as to consult old records long covered with dust and rubbish. The Revelation of St John is a piece of favourite reading among them. Its title is, the Vision of John Abou Kalamsis, which seems to me to be a corruption of Apocalypsis. At the same time, we can hardly imagine that Frumentius, a Greek and a man of letters, should make so strange a mistake. There is no such thing as distinctions between canonical and apocryphal books. Bell and the Dragon, and the Acts of the Apostles, are read with equal devotion, and, for the most part, I am afraid, with equal edification; and it is in the spirit of truth, and not of ridicule, that I say St George and his Dragon, from idle legends only, are objects of veneration, nearly as great as any of the heroes in the Old Testament, or saints in the New. The Song of Solomon is a favourite piece of reading among the old priests, but forbidden to the young ones, to the deacons, laymen, and women. The Abyssinians believe, that this song was made by Solomon in praise of Pharaoh’s daughter; and do not think, as some of our divines are disposed to do, that there is in it any mystery or allegory respecting Christ and the church. It may be asked, Why did I choose to have this book translated, seeing that it was to be attended with this particular difficulty? To this I answer, The choice was not mine, nor did I at once know all the difficulty. The first I pitched upon was the book of Ruth, as being the shortest; but the subject did not please the scribes and priests who were to copy for me, and I found it would not do. They then chose the Song of Solomon, and engaged to go through with it; and I recommended it to two or three young scribes, who completed the copy by themselves and their friends. I was obliged to procure licence for these scribes whom I employed in translating it into the different languages; but it was a permission of course, and met with no real, though some pretended difficulty.
A nephew of Abba Salama[337], the Acab Saat, a young man of no common genius, asked leave from his uncle before he began the translation; to which Salama answered, alluding to an old law, That, if he attempted such a thing, he should be killed as they do sheep; but, if I would give him the money, he would permit it. I should not have taken any notice of this; but some of the young men having told it to Ras Michael[338], who perfectly guessed the matter, he called upon the scribe, and asked what his uncle had said to him, who told him very plainly, that, if he began the translation, his throat should be cut like that of a sheep. One day Michael asked Abba Salama, whether that was true; he answered in the affirmative, and seemed disposed to be talkative. “Then,” said the Ras to the young man, “your uncle declares, if you write the book for Yagoube, he shall cut your throat like a sheep; and I say to you, I swear by St Michael, I will put you to death like an ass if you don’t write it; consider with yourself which of the risks you’ll run, and come to me in eight days, and make your choice.” But, before the eighth day, he brought me the book, very well pleased at having an excuse for receiving the price of the copy. Abba Salama complained of this at another time when I was present, and the name of frank was invidiously mentioned; but he only got a stern look and word from the Ras: “Hold your tongue, Sir, you don’t know what you say; you don’t know that you are a fool, Sir, but I do; if you talk much you will publish it to all the world.”
After the New Testament they place the constitutions of the Apostles, which they call Synnodos, which, as far as the cases or doctrines apply, we may say is the written law of the country. These were translated out of the Arabic. They have next a general liturgy, or book of common prayer, besides several others peculiar to certain festivals, under whose names they go. The next is a very large voluminous book, called Haimanout Abou, chiefly a collection from the works of different Greek fathers, treating of, or explaining several heresies, or disputed points of faith, in the ancient Greek Church. Translations of the works of St Athanasius, St Bazil, St John Chrysostome, and St Cyril, are likewise current among them. The two last I never saw; and only fragments of St Athanasius; but they are certainly extant.
The next is the Synaxar, or the Flos Sanctorum, in which the miracles and lives, or lies of their saints, are at large recorded, in four monstrous volumes in folio, stuffed full of fables of the most incredible kind. They have a saint that wrestled with the devil in shape of a serpent nine miles long, threw him from a mountain, and killed him. Another saint who converted the devil, who turned monk, and lived in great holiness for forty years after his conversion, doing penance for having tempted our Saviour upon the mountain: what became of him after they do not say. Again, another saint, that never ate nor drank from his mother’s womb, went to Jerusalem, and said mass every day at the holy sepulchre, and came home at night in the shape of a stork. The last I shall mention was a saint, who, being very sick, and his stomach in disorder, took a longing for partridges; he called upon a brace of them to come to him, and immediately two roasted partridges came flying, and rested upon his plate, to be devoured. These stories are circumstantially told and vouched by unexceptionable people, and were a grievous stumbling-block to the Jesuits, who could not pretend their own miracles were either better established, or more worthy of belief.
There are other books of less size and consequence, particularly the Organon Denghel, or the Virgin Mary’s Musical Instrument, composed by Abba George about the year 1440, much valued for the purity of its language, though he himself was an Armenian. The last of this Ethiopic library is the book of Enoch[339]. Upon hearing this book first mentioned, many literati in Europe had a wonderful desire to see it, thinking that, no doubt, many secrets and unknown histories might be drawn from it. Upon this some impostor, getting an Ethiopic book into his hands, wrote for the title, The Prophecies of Enoch, upon the front page of it. M. Pierisc[340] no sooner heard of it than he purchased it of the impostor for a considerable sum of money: being placed afterwards in Cardinal Mazarine’s library, where Mr Ludolf had access to it, he found it was a Gnostic book upon mysteries in heaven and earth, but which mentioned not a word of Enoch, or his prophecy, from beginning to end; and, from this disappointment, he takes upon him to deny the existence of any such book any where else. This, however, is a mistake; for, as a public return for the many obligations I had received from every rank of that most humane, polite, and scientific nation, and more especially from the sovereign Louis XV. I gave to his cabinet a part of every thing curious I had collected abroad; which was received with that degree of consideration and attention that cannot fail to determine every traveller of a liberal mind to follow my example.
Amongst the articles I consigned to the library at Paris, was a very beautiful and magnificent copy of the prophecies of Enoch, in large quarto; another is amongst the books of scripture which I brought home, standing immediately before the book of Job, which is its proper place in the Abyssinian canon; and a third copy I have presented to the Bodleian library at Oxford, by the hands of Dr Douglas the Bishop of Carlisle. The more ancient history of that book is well known. The church at first looked upon it as apocryphal; and as it was quoted in the book of Jude, the same suspicion fell upon that book also. For this reason, the council of Nice threw the epistle of Jude out of the canon, but the council of Trent arguing better, replaced the apostle in the canon as before.