It has been shown that the Abyssinian Christian, whilst execrating Mohammadanism, and forswearing all its abominations, can take unto his bosom four wives and more, and that the solemnisation of matrimony is almost the only occasion on which the priest is not called in. Such had ever been the case in the house of the Master of the Horse, who was nevertheless inconsolable under his present bereavement. Certain malicious whispers had flown abroad, to the effect that applications of the cudgel were sometimes resorted to by the epicure in support of his marital authority; but whether true or without foundation, these scandalous tales were known to have been circulated by Dinkoo, a mischief-making brat, with the falsest of tongues, and the offspring of one whose divorce, from incompatibility of temper, had left the deceased undisputed mistress of the premises, whereas of the matchless “Etagainya” now no more, the neighbours were ever wont to exclaim, “Where shall you find her equal?”
At the appointed season, Graham and myself went in compliance with Abyssinian custom, to pay a visit of condolence, after having with considerable difficulty succeeded in shaking off the attentions of the court buffoon, who, with his wonted politeness, exerted somewhat mal-à-propos to so melancholy an occasion, insisted upon the exercise of his ingenuity in the comic drama. The widower, enveloped in a black woollen mantle, was seated in a gloomy corner, the very personification of mourning—his temples deeply scarified with his little finger nail, as were those also of the wrinkled old woman who wept beside him. In an opposite corner, equally the victim of grief, and supported by the family priest with cross, crutch, and cowl, sat Marietta, a fat daughter of the former unfortunate union, who, like her mother, had been wedded and divorced, and having taken shelter again under her father’s roof, was now sobbing aloud.
“God hath taken her,” said one of the guests, breaking silence after the conclusion of the customary salutations. “The life of man is in His hand.”
“Alas!” sobbed the bereaved, “that it had pleased Heaven to spare her until after you had left Abyssinia, that I alone might have found cause for affliction. Who could prepare shiro, and wotz, and dilli, like Etagainya? When was the house ever destitute of quanta or of qualima? (Note 1) and who ever asked for tullah or for tedj, that she did not reply, ‘Malto,’ There is abundance? ‘Waiye, waiye,’ Woe is me. Where shall I find her equal? But there could have been no ring on the finger that gathered the medánit!”
Note 1. Shiro, a sauce composed of peas or lentils boiled with grease and spices. Wotz, another, consisting of grease and red pepper. Dilli, a third abominable condiment. Quanta, sun-dried flesh. Qualima, sausages.