1 Crown
2 Standard
3 Shield outside
4 Shield inside 5 Javelins
6 Ornament after victory of all Kasmatis
7 Silver disc worn on festivals by
soldiers of quality. London. Publish’d Decr. 1st. 1789 by G. Robinson & Co.
The king goes to church regularly, his guards taking possession of every avenue and door through which he is to pass, and nobody is allowed to enter with him, because he is then on foot, excepting two officers of his bed-chamber who support him. He kisses the threshold and side-posts of the church-door, the steps before the altar, and then returns home: sometimes there is service in the church, sometimes there is not; but he takes no notice of the difference. He rides up stairs into the presence-chamber on a mule, and lights immediately on the carpet before his throne; and I have sometimes seen great indecencies committed by the said mule in the presence-chamber, upon a Persian carpet.
An officer called Serach Massery, with a long whip, begins cracking and making a noise, worse than twenty French postillions, at the door of the palace before the dawn of day. This chases away the hyæna and other wild beasts; this, too, is the signal for the king’s rising, who sits in judgment every morning fasting, and after that, about eight o’clock, he goes to breakfast.
There are six noblemen of the king’s own choosing, who are called Baalomaal[20], or gentlemen of his bed-chamber; four of these are always with him. There is a seventh, who is the chief of these, called Azeleffa el Camisha, groom of the robe, or stole. He is keeper of the king’s wardrobe, and the first officer of the bed-chamber. These officers, the black slaves, and some others, serve him as menial servants, and are in a degree of familiarity with him unknown to the rest of the subjects.
When the king sits to consult upon civil matters of consequence, he is shut up in a kind of box opposite to the head of the council table. The persons that deliberate sit at the table, and, according to their rank, give their voices, the youngest or lowest officer always speaking first. The first that give their votes are the Shalaka, or colonels of the household-troops. The second are the great butlers, men that have the charge of the king’s drink. The third is the Badjerund, or keeper of that apartment in the palace called the lion’s house; and after these the keeper of the banqueting-house. The next is called Lika Magwass, an officer that always goes before the king to hinder the pressure of the crowd. In war, when the king is marching, he rides constantly round him at a certain distance, and carries his shield, and his lance; at least he carries a silver shield, and a lance pointed with the same metal, before such kings as do not choose to expose their person. That, however, was not the case in my time, as the king carried the shield himself, black and unadorned, of good buffalo’s hide, and his spear sharp-pointed with iron. His silver ornaments were only used when the campaign was over, when these were carried by this officer. Great was the respect shewed formerly to this king in war, and even when engaged in battle with rebels, his own subjects.
No prince ever lost his life in battle till the coming of the Europeans into Abyssinia, when both the excommunicating and murdering of their sovereigns seem to have been introduced at the same time. The reader will see, in the course of this history, two instances of this respect being still kept up: the one at the battle of Limjour, where Fasil, pretending that he was immediately to attack Ras Michael, desired that the king might be dressed in his insignia, lest, not being known, he might be slain by the stranger Galla. The next was after the battle of Serbraxos, where the king was thrice in one day engaged with the Begemder troops for a considerable space of time. These insignia, or marks of royalty, are a white horse, with small silver bells at his head, a shield of silver, and a white fillet of fine silk or muslin, but generally the latter, some inches broad, which is tied round the upper part of the head over his hair, with a large double or bow-knot behind, the ends hanging down to the small of his back, or else flying in the air.
After the Lika Magwass comes the Palambaras; after him the Fit-Auraris; then the Gera Kasmati, and the Kanya Kasmati, their names being derived from their rank or order in encamping, the one on the right, the other on the left of the king’s tent; Kanya and Gera signifying the right and the left; after them the Dakakin Billetana Gueta, or the under chamberlain; then the secretary[21] for the king’s commands; after him the right and left Azages, or generals; after them Rak Massery, after him the basha, after him Kasmati of Damot, then of Samen, then Amhara, and, last of all, Tigrè, before whom stands a golden cup upon a cushion, and he is called Nebrit, as being governor of Axum, or keeper of the book of the law supposed to be there.
After the governor of Tigrè comes the Acab Saat, or guardian of the fire, and the chief ecclesiastical officer of the king’s household. Some have said that this officer was appointed to attend the king at the time of eating, and that it was his province to order both meat and drink to be withdrawn whenever he saw the king inclined to excess. If this was really his office, he never used it in my time, nor, as far as I could learn, for several reigns before. Besides, no king eats in public, or before any person but slaves; and he never would chuse that time to commit excess, in which he might be controuled by a subject, even if it was that subject’s right to be present when the king eats, as it is not.
After the Acab Saat comes the first master of the household; then the Betwudet, or Ras; last of all the king gives his sentence, which is final, and sends it to the table, from the balcony where he is then sitting, by the officer called, as aforementioned, Kal-Hatzè.
We meet in Abyssinia with various usages, which many have hitherto thought to be peculiar to those ancient nations in which they were first observed; others, not so learned, have thought they originated in Abyssinia. I shall first take notice of those that regard the king and court.