Trifolium saxatile cespitosum (Nagad) is sown on the best meadows for green fodder. Vicia faba (Bakkela) is most extensively cultivated in Shoa and in the Galla countries to the west; the beans are eaten either fresh and green during the season, or, when dry, made up into soups. Ervum lens (Missur), Cicer arietinum (Shimbrah), Pisum sativum (Attur), Phaseolus spec. (Adunguari), are produced in Efát and other warm provinces of the kingdom. Many species of Indigofera, wild and unheeded, grow in the desert and on the borders of cultivation. Pterolobium lacerans (Kantuffa) is an impenetrable hedge-shrub abounding in Efát: the bark gives a red dye for leather. Tamarindus Indica attains a majestic size in the jungles of Efát, but is quite neglected; as are also various kinds of Senna (Senamaki). Dichrostachys cinerea. Acacia eburnea. Acacia planifrons, and other Camel-thorn trees called Gerar, are of the utmost importance to the wilderness and desert; in the latter, the umbrella-like tops collect man and beast beneath their scanty shade during the hottest hours of the day. Some yield superior gum arabic; the twigs serve as food for the camel, and the pods for goats and sheep.
The foregoing list of Abyssinian plants comprehends nearly all those which are of importance to the cultivator, farmer, or physician; but no doubt double the number could be added by any people more enterprising and inquisitive than the inhabitants of Shoa. All kind of vegetation not directly useful and beneficial is regarded as a weed, and receives no special appellation; and few of the population know the names of any plant that is not a daily necessary of the kitchen. The physician’s lore is kept a profound mystery; and there is not much lost by its limited diffusion, since the whole is a motley collection of very questionable experience and most degrading superstition.
Zoology.
Of the lowest order of animals, the Radiates, nearly the same may be said that was remarked above respecting the lowest order of plants; namely, that their species are in a less degree bound to certain limits of geographical distribution than those in which the respective types hasten in more marked characters to the highest possible perfection. None of the numerous tribe of Radiatae are, in their proper home, directly exposed to the external air and its changes. They live in a medium, which generally preserves a mean temperature, with extremes not prohibiting the possibility of animal existence, and their ephemeral life is little liable to be cut short by any sudden change. Thus we find that the waters and animal humours produce, in different climes, similar beings, in which either the deficiency in bulk is made up by countless multitudes of individuals, or the deficiency in number by high reproductive powers.
Intestinal worms (Wosfat) prove one of the chief plagues of the Abyssinians. Not only ascarides, but also tape and thread worms (Taenia and Filaria), are to be constantly contended with. The frequency of this disposition must have its source in the usual diet, consisting of unleavened dough-like bread and raw meat, which the accompanying pepper sauce is not sufficient to correct. Once in every month the Cosso and other powerful purgatives are resorted to, and bring momentary relief; but the Guinea-worm, living in the fleshy parts of the limbs, must be endured until it shall have perforated the skin.
The influence exercised upon the nature of the Articulated Animals or Insects by the quality of the other visible organised beings, both plants and animals, is much more apparent than in the above-named order of the Radiatae. Being bound by the strongest ties to the limits of those beings which are assigned to them as food and home, their species present distinctly marked characters of geographical distribution throughout the world.
In Shoa and Efát there appears with the increase of vegetation a larger number of insects, but the most noxious of them remain only during the height of the season. This is most perceptible in the migrations of locusts and caterpillars, which, by a few cold rains, are induced to descend into the open wildernesses and deserts. Such a sudden relief from countless hosts of the locusts, called Anbasa, is invariably ascribed, by the superstitious farmer, to the special interposition and agency of his guardian saint, at whose shrine, in the hour of need, offerings and vows are liberally made. Various grasshoppers (Sada), mantidae (Feenta), and cockroaches, do considerable damage during the hot season. A large black ant (Goonda), which bites ferociously, constructs no water-tight habitation, but intrudes at the beginning of the rains into the huts, from which it is expelled with the utmost difficulty. The Egyptian honey-bee (Neb), either kept in the farm-yards within baskets, or existing wild in the woods, finds abundance of odoriferous flowers. Honey is an important article of consumption, both in its natural form and when converted into mead.
Although so cold, the country is not free from the annoyances of flies (Sembi), and musquitoes (Tenang). White ants (Mest) are not so numerous and destructive in the upper as in the lower country. Small colonies of them live and build their chambers beneath loose stones, but they never come into the houses, and, in fact, the juniper timber of the fragile edifices is seldom attacked by any wood vermin. Various most beautiful butterflies, phalaenes, and moths, while in the caterpillar state (Tel), despoil trees and plants that are of no value to the Abyssinian; but his plantations of cotton and cabbage rarely suffer. Neither the silkworm nor the mulberry-tree are found in the country.
Numerous varieties of beetles, of those families especially which remove animal matter and soil, with others of more cleanly habits, are comprised under the general appellation of Densissa. Among the former, the Coprophaga, many Egyptian species may be met with, as Copris Isidis, Ateuchus sacer, and others; among the latter, chiefly Cetoniae, are found species nearly allied to or identical with some of Senegambia. One notable Inca, the male of which is armed with a powerful head excrescence, lives principally on the sap of wounded trees; Lycus appendiculatus frequents chiefly the flowers of Umbelliferae; many Curculionides inhabit the plants of the family Compositae, but Coccinellae are the most numerous. Species of Lytta abound, but no use is made of them, the Shoans having no real medicine prepared from the animal kingdom. Spiders (Sherarit) and scorpions (Kind) are studiously avoided, or destroyed, as particularly impure and noxious, though the former never attack aught save their prey, and the sting of the latter is little dangerous. Total disregard of cleanliness is punished with a frightful increase of bodily vermin, as fleas (Kunitsha), lice (Kemal), bugs (Tochan), and acarus scabici (Ekak).
The large number of water-birds upon the lakes and morasses of Shoa effectually restrain an increase of Snails and Shells; some species of Bulimus (Kendautchi), minute Helices, Pupa, and Limax, are so few, that the damage done by them is not perceptible. Neither serve the larger kinds as food.