As well from religious as from worldly motives, Sáhela Selássie entertains a vast number of pensioners, who receive dirgo, or daily rations, in various proportions—some being limited to dry bread, whilst others extend to mead, the greatest luxury which the country can afford. The distribution of this maintenance comes exclusively within the province of the Purveyor-General, the food being prepared in the royal kitchen by the numerous slaves, who, shame to the Christian monarch, compose the entire household establishment. All foreigners and visitors receive it; and, in addition to about one thousand of this class, there are many besides who possess the privilege of always dining at the royal table.
Making munificent donations to churches and monasteries, the king stands in high odour with the fanatic clergy, and thus enjoys the advantage of their influence over the priest-ridden population, whom he rules principally through the church; and, never undertaking any project without consulting some of its members, is in turn much swayed by their exhortations, prophecies, dreams, and visions. Strongly attached to the Christianity of Ethiopia, which abounds in Jewish prejudices, he is still far from being intolerant. According to the best of his uncultivated ideas he encourages letters, and spends considerable sums of money in collecting ancient manuscripts. Possessing natural talents and shrewdness, which have been improved by the rudiments of education, he rules his hereditary dominions with tact and advantage; and might, had his energies been properly directed, have shone one of the greatest potentates that ever wielded the sceptre in the now disorganised empire.
Were the active life of Sáhela Selássie guided by superior principles—could he be brought to despise petty things, and to sink the details of unimportant affairs in matters of greater moment—how wealthy and powerful a monarch might he not still become! He would have time at command to plan truly royal projects; and, possessed as he is of means the most ample, would find leisure to carry through his designs. Although, like other rulers of Abyssinia, he is ever entertaining some project of aggrandisement, his mind is yet filled with trifles, and not sufficiently expanded to mature a plan of operations upon an extended scale. Precluded by want of liberal education or of intercourse with civilised nations, from calculating events, or looking deep into the page of futurity, he lives in fact for little beyond the present day. Old in constitution, though not in years—enfeebled by excess, as well in mind as in body—uncivilised—called early to the throne, and ruling during a long succession of years according to one unvarying system—the dictates of his own caprice—he requires some violent impulse, some imminent and apparent peril, to arouse him from the torpor of security, to stimulate his latent energies to greater exertion, and to induce him temporarily to sacrifice a portion of his idolised gold, in order to reap a harvest five hundred fold.
From the merciful hand of this unique specimen of absolute authority, the sceptre falls lightly upon the head of the offender. “I have before mine eyes the fear of God,” is his frequent exclamation when passing the extreme sentence of the law. Guilty of none of the cruelties or enormities which stain most of the other rulers of Abyssinia—accessible, not easily offended, even-tempered, patient in his investigations, mild and usually just in his despotism—he is universally adored in his own dominions, rather through love than through fear. The oath by the life of the king is the only binding obligation in the land; and from the general success of his military expeditions, he is feared and respected by all the adjacent tribes. Conducting himself with that easy freedom which generally distinguishes conscious superiority, his demeanour is dignified and commanding; and the appearance of the half-civilised Christian savage, who sways the destinies of millions in the heart of heathen Africa, would proclaim his high descent even in the courts of Europe.
Volume Three—Chapter Five.
The Government and the Royal Household.
The hereditary provinces subject to Sáhela Selássie are comprised in a rectangular domain of one hundred and fifty by ninety miles, which area is traversed by five systems of mountains, whereof the culminating point divides the basin of the Nile from that of the Háwash. The Christian population of Shoa and Efát are estimated at one million of souls, and that of the Mohammadan and Pagan population of the numerous dependencies at a million and a half. Without including tribute in kind, the royal revenues are said to amount to about eighty or ninety thousand German crowns, accruing chiefly from import duties on slaves, foreign merchandise, and salt. The annual expenses of the state not exceeding ten thousand dollars, it is probable that His Christian Majesty, during his long reign of nearly thirty years, must have amassed considerable treasure, which is carefully deposited underground, and not lightly estimated by its possessor.
Nearly in the centre of the kingdom presides Zenama Work, “the golden rain,” relict of Woosen Suggud, and mother of the reigning monarch. The seat of her government, it has already been said, is at Zalla Dingai, “the rolling stone;” and she rules over nearly the whole of the north-west, or in fact over almost one half of the realm—appropriating in reversion to the crown the entire revenues of her dependent territories, and appointing her own governors with the royal approval. Judge in her own dominions, her decisions nevertheless lie under appeal to the throne; and even as queen-dowager, she is debarred participation in certain privileges which form the exclusive prerogatives of her son, over whose mind she exerts an influence, compared by the people of Shoa to that which they believe the holy Virgin to exercise over the Redeemer.