Among These Nations The Galles, Who First Alarmed The
World In 1542, Have Remarkably Distinguished Themselves By The
Ravages They Have Committed, And The Terror They Have Raised In This
Part Of Africa.
They neither sow their lands nor improve them by
any kind of culture; but, living upon milk and flesh, encamp like
the Arabs without any settled habitation.
They practise no rites of
worship, though they believe that in the regions above there dwells
a Being that governs the world: whether by this Being they mean the
sun or the sky is not known; or, indeed, whether they have not some
conception of the God that created them. This deity they call in
their language Oul. In other matters they are yet more ignorant,
and have some customs so contrary even to the laws of nature, as
might almost afford reason to doubt whether they are endued with
reason. The Christianity professed by the Abyssins is so corrupted
with superstitions, errors, and heresies, and so mingled with
ceremonies borrowed from the Jews, that little besides the name of
Christianity is to be found here; and the thorns may be said to have
choked the grain. This proceeds in a great measure from the
diversity of religions which are tolerated there, either by
negligence or from motives of policy; and the same cause hath
produced such various revolutions, revolts, and civil wars within
these later ages. For those different sects do not easily admit of
an union with each other, or a quiet subjection to the same monarch.
The Abyssins cannot properly be said to have either cities or
houses; they live either in tents, or in cottages made of straw and
clay; for they very rarely build with stone. Their villages or
towns consist of these huts; yet even of such villages they have but
few, because the grandees, the viceroys, and the Emperor himself are
always in the camp, that they may be prepared, upon the most sudden
summons, to go where the exigence of affairs demands their presence.
And this precaution is no more than necessary for a prince every
year engaged either in foreign wars or intestine commotions. These
towns have each a governor, whom they call gadare, over whom is the
educ, or lieutenant, and both accountable to an officer called the
afamacon, or mouth of the King; because he receives the revenues,
which he pays into the hands of the relatinafala, or grand master of
the household: sometimes the Emperor creates a ratz, or viceroy,
general over all the empire, who is superior to all his other
officers.
Aethiopia produces very near the same kinds of provisions as
Portugal; though, by the extreme laziness of the inhabitants, in a
much less quantity: however, there are some roots, herbs, and
fruits which grow there much better than in other places. What the
ancients imagined of the torrid zone being uninhabitable is so far
from being true, that this climate is very temperate: the heats,
indeed, are excessive in Congo and Monomotapa, but in Abyssinia they
enjoy a perpetual spring, more delicious and charming than that in
our country. The blacks here are not ugly like those of the
kingdoms I have spoken of, but have better features, and are not
without wit and delicacy; their apprehension is quick, and their
judgment sound. The heat of the sun, however it may contribute to
their colour, is not the only reason of it; there is some
peculiarity in the temper and constitution of their bodies, since
the same men, transported into cooler climates, produce children
very near as black as themselves.
They have here two harvests in the year, which is a sufficient
recompense for the small produce of each; one harvest they have in
the winter, which lasts through the months of July, August, and
September, the other in the spring; their trees are always green,
and it is the fault of the inhabitants that they produce so little
fruit, the soil being well adapted to all sorts, especially those
that come from the Indies. They have in the greatest plenty
raisins, peaches, sour pomegranates, and sugarcanes, and some figs.
Most of these are ripe about Lent, which the Abyssins keep with
great strictness.
After the vegetable products of this country, it seems not improper
to mention the animals which are found in it, of which here are as
great numbers, of as many different species, as in any country in
the world: it is infested with lions of many kinds, among which are
many of that which is called the lion royal. I cannot help giving
the reader on this occasion a relation of a fact which I was an eye-
witness of. A lion having taken his haunt near the place where I
lived, killed all the oxen and cows, and did a great deal of other
mischief, of which I heard new complaints every day. A servant of
mine having taken a resolution to free the country from this
destroyer, went out one day with two lances, and after he had been
some time in quest of him, found him with his mouth all smeared with
the blood of a cow he had just devoured; the man rushed upon him,
and thrust his lance into his throat with such violence that it came
out between his shoulders; the beast, with one dreadful roar, fell
down into a pit, and lay struggling, till my servant despatched him.
I measured the body of this lion, and found him twelve feet between
the head and the tail.
Chapter II
The animals of Abyssinia; the elephant, unicorn, their horses and
cows; with a particular account of the moroc.
There are so great numbers of elephants in Abyssinia that in one
evening we met three hundred of them in three troops: as they
filled up the whole way, we were in great perplexity a long time
what measures to take; at length, having implored the protection of
that Providence that superintends the whole creation, we went
forwards through the midst of them without any injury.
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