Every Month They Commemorate The
Assumption Of The Virgin Mary, And Are Of Opinion That No Christians
Beside Themselves Have A True Sense Of The Greatness Of The Mother
Of God, Or Pay Her The Honours That Are Due To Her.
There are some
tribes amongst them (for they are distinguished like the Jews by
their tribes), among whom the crime of swearing by the name of the
Virgin is punished with forfeiture of goods and even with loss of
life; they are equally scrupulous of swearing by St. George.
Every
week they keep a feast to the honour of the apostles and angels;
they come to mass with great devotion, and love to hear the word of
God. They receive the sacrament often, but do not always prepare
themselves by confession. Their charity to the poor may be said to
exceed the proper bounds that prudence ought to set it, for it
contributes to encourage great numbers of beggars, which are a great
annoyance to the whole kingdom, and as I have often said, afford
more exercise to a Christian's patience than his charity; for their
insolence is such, that they will refuse what is offered them if it
be not so much as they think proper to ask.
Though the Abyssins have not many images, they have great numbers of
pictures, and perhaps pay them somewhat too high a degree of
worship. The severity of their fasts is equal to that of the
primitive church. In Lent they never eat till after sunset; their
fasts are the more severe because milk and butter are forbidden
them, and no reason or necessity whatsoever can procure them a
permission to eat meat, and their country affording no fish, they
live only on roots and pulse.
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