CHAPTERXVI.
Visit from Sheik Tigh.—Strange news.—Arrival of Abdoanarch.—Situation of my house.—Wallata Gabriel.—Baking bread.—Vapour bath.—Cure for hernia.
Visit from Sheik Tigh.—Strange news.—Arrival of Abdoanarch.—Situation of my house.—Wallata Gabriel.—Baking bread.—Vapour bath.—Cure for hernia.
Aftermy visit to the market, I was confined to my house for two or three days by illness, but feeling a little better this morning (August 1st), I brought out a small saw I was possessed of, and began to amuse myself, in giving the last finish to the roof, by removing the projecting ends of the cane rafters, which made the low eaves look very ragged. Whilst thus employed, Sheik Tigh, who had been absent some days at a “tescar,” or funeral feast of a frontier Islam Governor, called, and after congratulating me upon having come into some property at last, gave me the astounding information that Tinta had been removed from the government of the town, and a rich Hurrah merchant, who had come as an Ambassador to Sahale Selassee, from the Imaum of that city, was now the Governor.
The day that I left Miriam’s house, I heard that a Hurrahgee kafilah was coming into Shoa, andlearnt then, that Aliu Amba was the town appointed for the people belonging to it, as Channo was for the Adal kafilahs. I sent Walderheros to Tinta’s house to get more information, but he had already left the town and gone to Angolahlah to see the Negoos; as I supposed, to remonstrate. I did not tell Sheik Tigh I was very sorry at the news he brought me, because, as he was a Mahomedan, he seemed so to enjoy the circumstance of having a governor of his own religion, and my regret, as a Christian, I was afraid, would only elate him the more. I did the good man wrong by my unworthy suspicion, for he was certainly one of the best-hearted men I ever met. On asking him who the new governor was, and what business he had come upon to Shoa, he told me that his name was Abdoanarch, and the Wizeer of Sheik Houssein, Imaum of Hurrah, and that he had come to induce the Negoos to join in a league with all the other monarchs of Southern Abyssinia to prevent the ingress of Europeans into that country. I was not well enough to ask many questions, but felt glad, that the return of the Embassy to the coast had been decided upon, previous to the arrival of Abdoanarch from Hurrah, and that consequently he could not boast of having effected such a desideratum among the Mahomedans of Shoa.
The bestowal of the government of Aliu Amba upon the Hurrah ambassador, was a proofof very high regard; and as the language of that celebrated but little known city is a dialect of the Geez, similar to the Amharic, Abdoanarch was not considered to be altogether a foreigner. Besides, he was, as I have remarked, a Mahomedan, and as three-fourths of the inhabitants of Aliu Amba professed the same belief, his appointment caused great satisfaction. With him, a large kafilah of his countrymen had arrived, at least, two hundred, so that they made a sensible addition to the population, which, at most, did not exceed three thousand people. Indeed, accommodations for them could not be found, and they were obliged to erect a number of straw huts, on the other side of the cemetery in the market-place. This new village consisted of about fifty houses, all of them, merely thatched roofs, resting upon the ground, with a low entrance, not three feet high, cut out in front.
Sheik Tigh sat with me nearly all day; the singularly situated and nearly unknown city of Hurrah affording an inexhaustible subject of conversation. As, however, he had never visited it, and I subsequently received more accurate information respecting this interesting place from a native, I shall not now attempt to describe it.
August 2.—My house was situated on the western face of the rock of Aliu Amba standing upon its own little terrace, which was enclosed partially by a thick-leaved hedge, and where this failed by a row of the yellow-stalks of the high Indian corn plant.It overlooked and was overlooked by a number of other houses similarly constructed, each built upon its own garden platform, one above the other, like a series of high steps, from half way down the steep hill-side, to the summit of a bluff, cone-like eminence, in which the northern extremity, of the otherwise flat-topped hill of Aliu Amba terminated. On this exalted point, the long thatched roof of the largest house of the town was visible over a strong palisading of splintered ted, and over which two tall mimosas towered like giant sentinels. To go near here was considered a crime, and to break through the enclosure would have been a sacrilege. This of course was royal property, the “gimjon bait,” where was preserved until the annual account was made by the Governor to the King, all the fines, lapses by death, and duties, that had accumulated during that time. Beneath this public storehouse was a long terrace, divided into several enclosures, in each of which stood a snug cottage; and these again looking upon one below, the top of which scarcely reached the level of the ground, the upper ones were built upon. Here dwelt a most respectable man, an Islam slave-merchant, who kept a gratuitous school for boys, whom he instructed in Arabic, that is to say, in reading and writing passages of the Koran. Far beneath the level of this my own house stood, and before it, and on either hand, were several others whose gardens all surrounded mine. The hill at this point, too,seemed to assume a more umbrageous aspect, for high “shuahlah,” sycamore fig-trees, and mimosas, sheltered beneath their foliage the unassuming roofs of thatch, which less and less, diminishing as they descended the slope of the hill-side, seemed at a very short distance from my garden to have dropped into the yawning valley that separated Aliu Amba from the opposite height; which still higher, differed in its more gently sloping ascent, and its ridge being occupied by a village inhabited exclusively by Christians. Over this again could be seen still more elevated crests, and beyond these others, until the eye reached the last, the commanding height of Ankobar; which, extending some ten or twelve miles north and south, each extremity then curved towards the east in one vast amphitheatre, that encircled, as in an embrace, an extensive valley of little village-crowned hills and sunny slopes of cultivated fields.
This afternoon, having another serious attack of my fever fit, one of my first acquaintances in Aliu Amba, Hadjji Abdullah, undertook to provide me with a certain cure. He went away, and returned after a short time with a large bundle of green odoriferous herbs. Walderheros was directed to boil these well in my tea-kettle, and having poured out the decoction into an open-mouthed earthen vessel. I was wrapt up in a large tobe, underneath the folds of which the remedy was placed. In thismanner I sat for about a quarter of an hour, until a profuse perspiration resulted from this primitive kind of vapour bath, which had certainly one good effect, that of producing at night a long-continued sleep.
August 3d.—As I felt a good deal better this morning, I took a walk as far as the market-place, to see the houses of the new come Hurrahgee people. A great many turned out for my inspection, to gratify themselves by looking at me; which party was most entertained, I or them, at the mutual novelty of our appearance, I do not know, but after exchanging salutations with an old man belonging to them, I returned home with Walderheros.
Finding that I was still laying myself under great obligations to Miriam, who came for a few hours every day to grind flour and bake bread, I determined that Walderheros should send for his wife to come and take up her abode with him as housekeeper. Goodaloo was accordingly sent on this errand, and before night they returned together. As a kind of offering upon the occasion she brought, hanging in her tobe upon her back, a large pumpkin. She was a good-looking girl of about seventeen or eighteen years of age, and had been married to Walderheros for five years. Her father was one of the King’s watchmen, holding a farm for that service, which required his absenceone week out of four, at whichever palace of Ankobar or Angolahlah the King should be then absent from.
She was very soon down upon her knees before a broad circular pan of earthenware placed upon three stones, which was being heated for baking-bread over a glaring fire of sticks. Taking a short horn, in which was contained the well-powdered dust of the oily seed of the cotton plant, she scattered a small portion over the surface of the nearly flat dish, which was about a foot and a-half in diameter. She then rubbed this well over the whole with a rag. The leavened batter had been made ready in the morning by Miriam, so Wallata Gabriel, my new housekeeper, had only to take a little out in a basin, and from this pour it upon the heated dish, quickly spreading it into a thin layer, and then placing over all a hollow shield-like cover, also of earthenware, the edges of which, where it rested upon the pan, being luted with wet rags that stood by contained in another spare basin of water.
Sticks, a bundle of which had been brought in by Goodaloo, lay upon the floor of the house, and with these a bright fire was kept flaring away for about five minutes, when the cover being taken off a nice-looking crumpet curled up its edge all round, as if anxious to be taken off and eaten. This was adroitly done by Wallata Gabriel placing upon her lap as she knelt a neat straw mat, somethinglarger than the baking-dish itself, made of a band of grass folded around one end as a centre, and stiched into that situation. Upon this was pulled, by a quick jerk, the warm cellular-surfaced bread, and then getting up, my new handmaiden presented it to me as it lay on the mat, with a look that said “Taste it yourself, and see if I cannot bake bread.”
In this manner she soon turned over six or eight of these pan-cakes, and a fowl having been boiled to-day for the sake of the broth, of which alone I could partake, no other food was cooked for my three servants, they so far observing the fast, and soon after their meal they retired to rest; Walderheros and his wife occupying an ox-skin upon the floor, Goodaloo making his bed in the porch, which was formed by the passage into the house leading through the outer and inner wall, being closed in on either side by a mud-plastered partition.
August 4th.—I was glad to find Tinta come back this morning, he having returned with a message, that if I knew how to make gunpowder, the Negoos wished me to manufacture some for him. On inquiring, I found that my balderabah still continued in the good graces of the Negoos, who, instead of the town of Aliu Amba, which convenience had required should be given to Abdoanarch, had put Tinta into possession of a much more valuable one called Ramsey, in sight from my garden. He was instructed, however, to live as usual in Aliu Amba, to communicate between the Negoosand myself, and to keep, at the same time, a careful watch upon the outgoings and incomings of the great Abdoanarch himself.
I soon satisfied him about the gunpowder, and the next day was appointed for taking the first step in the process, by making some charcoal, for I was led to suppose that the inferiority of the coarse grey-looking sort of native manufacture was owing to the badness of that article. Two of Tinta’s servants were immediately despatched for wood of the “ted” (Juniperus oxycedrus) tree, which I had chosen as best calculated for charcoal. The ted tree is a species of pine, and grows in the characteristic form of that tree. The wood smells exactly like cedar, and is extensively used for fuel in the royal residences. It does not grow on the table land, but only in the upper portions of the valleys of Efat and corresponding situations, at an elevation of between six and eight thousand feet above the level of the sea.
A large euphorbia called kol-qual, sometimes thirty feet high, with strong spreading arms, bearing at their extremities a little red fig-like fruit, was pointed out to me by the Shoans as the tree supposed to produce the best charcoal. This cannot be the tree that Bruce asserts yielded so much milk-like juice upon striking it with his scimitar, although I have heard it asserted that it is. On making the experiment myself on several of different ages, I never could produce more thana mere exudation of a white fluid, which collected in drops, and which I found upon inspissation turned black, and formed a substance not unlike Indian rubber. The most singular circumstance respecting this tree is the four-sided character of its branches, being as angular as if put together by a carpenter. On examining the interior of a decayed portion, I found a shell of hard wood not more than three-fourths of an inch in thickness; and the interior sometimes, from side to side, several inches wide, hollow, but divided into chambers by partitions, consisting of a substance like the paper formed by wasps in constructing their tree-suspended nests.
I was called in to a singular case to-day; for in Aliu Amba, I must observe, my professional services were in great request, and I had stated hours of attendance daily at my house, from sunrise to nine o’clock, during which time my door was regularly thronged. I went to see my new patient with Walderheros, and found a youth about sixteen years old, afflicted with a rupture in the groin, but the protruded intestine had been returned by the boy’s father just previously to my going into the house. The people I found there, wanted me to do something to prevent the recurrence of the complaint, but as I had no trusses with me, I only recommended rest and future care against violent exertion. Understanding that I could do nothing more, it was determined among them to proceedwith an operation customary in their country, and which I was invited to witness. I accordingly sat down whilst the boy was laid upon his back on the alga. The father then took a red burning stick, Walderheros and others holding the patient down, and restraining him whilst the former placed the rude searing instrument over the diseased part, blowing it with great vigour all the time to keep it alight. In less than a minute the painful operation was over; and the boy, who had been previously reminded that he was a man, bore it with great fortitude.
The Shoans assert, that after this application of the actual cautery rupture does not again occur; and I could readily conceive it probable, considering the great contraction sometimes consequent upon burns, that this effect produced over the parts affected in hernia might, in such cases, counteract the relaxation of muscular fibre which occasions this disease. At all events, where so few practical preventives for a most serious complaint are known, I have considered this observation worth recording, and as a medical man even recommend the operation.
August 5th.—Three long bundles of splintered ted, carried upon the head of as many slaves of the Negoos, were brought to my house this morning. Cutting and carrying wood is the principal occupation in Shoa of the male slaves, as carrying water is of the females; and the prophets, when they say of the Jews carried into captivity, that “they will be cutters of wood and drawers of water,” convey theallusion that both sexes will be oppressed alike, and suffer equally the laborious hardships of a state of slavery.
It rained too much to-day to be able to make any charcoal; and as I required the pieces of wood brought me to be cut into more convenient lengths, Walderheros and Goodaloo occupied themselves doing this within doors. Sheik Tigh having gone to reside at Bulga for a month, had given up his office as my teacher in Amharic, so I determined to look out for a duptera, or Christian scribe, as I was anxious not only to speak Amharic as quickly as possible, but also to read the Geez character, and get some knowledge of that very interesting but neglected language.
To-day commences a long fast for fifteen days, called “Felsat.” No meat is allowed to be eaten, and the first food taken daily must be after three o’clock in the afternoon. Walderheros grants me an indulgence, as I am very ill and weak. It seems children and sick people are not required to fast. I never saw the members of any Church less bigoted than the Christians of Shoa, but I am given to understand that more to the north much less toleration is exhibited towards Mahomedans and individuals of other faiths. I have often thought, civilized as I considered myself to be, that had I been in the place of Sahale Selassee, I should not have acted quite so fairly to my Mahomedan subjects; and when we consider that theyare far inferior in numbers to the Christians, in the proportion of about three to one, a great deal more credit is due.
August 6th.—Being a very fine morning, I had my alga brought into the garden, and superintended Walderheros and Goodaloo making the pile of wood for burning it into charcoal; covering it with the stalks of the thorn apple-plant, which alone seemed to flourish around my house to the exclusion of every other kind of herb. Upon this green kind of thatch a layer of earth was placed, and all being completed, fire was applied below, and the aperture through which it was introduced immediately closed up; a vent, or chimney, through the centre alone being left open.
Instead of any length of time being necessary, I found my charcoal-heap blazing away as if air entered at twenty places. Being my first attempt as a practical burner, I somehow expected this, and therefore carried off the failure as a thing intended, for Walderheros began to think his learned master a bit of a quack when he found that I was ignorant of the simple native cure for hernia; and he would now have been downright sure of it had he not supposed that all my present proceedings, regarding the charcoal-burning, was necessary to produce the excellent article required to make gunpowder as it was manufactured in my country. I therefore sat and looked at the blazing pile, revolving in my mind what could possibly have caused the failure, for Ibelieved I had observed every particular, that I had been taught was necessary to convert wood into charcoal. Fortunately for my credit, just when I concluded that I knew nothing about it, and had best say so, and before the whole heap had been consumed, a sudden shower of rain poured down; this of course spoiled all my arrangements, and among other things, to all appearance put out the fire. Here was a case for condolence; and Walderheros, thinking I must want something to support me under the disappointment, when the rain had ceased, which was not for some hours, took a straw basket and went to examine the ruins. One effect of the rain, it seems, had been to beat down the dome of earth and moist stalks of the thorn apple, when the support of the wood inside had been lost by the combustion. This buried considerable portions of unburnt extremities of the pieces of ted, and as they continued smouldering underneath the fallen cover, the result was that, much to my surprise, Walderheros brought me back the basket full of beautifully close-grained shining black and very light pieces of charcoal. As Walderheros thought it was all quite natural and right, I made no other remark than merely asking him “if the people in Shoa ever made charcoal like that.”
Having succeeded so well in this, it encouraged us to proceed, and I sent to Tinta to say, that on the morrow he must supply me with hand-mills andmortars to grind down and pulverize the other ingredients, sulphur and saltpetre, of which a large quantity of each had been brought to my house from Ankobar during the day.
Both sulphur and saltpetre abound in Shoa, the former being obtained from the volcanic country immediately to the west of the Hawash, near Azbottee. From an extinct crater, nearly half a mile from our halting-place at Lee Adu, I had brought to me a piece of the purest sulphur, that required no farther process of refinement than the natural sublimation by which it had been deposited in the fissures of the cone. The Adal Bedouins who occupy that neighbourhood bring it to the Negoos of Shoa as a kind of tribute, and sometimes a demand is made upon them for a certain quantity, which is delivered in a few days, so plentifully is it found, to the Wallasmah Mahomed, who forwards it to the Negoos.
Saltpetre is found in many places, both on the table-land of Shoa, and in the valley countries to the south and east. It is principally brought from Bulga, where the grey rubbly earth it forms is ploughed over, and the disturbed soil containing more than fifty per cent. of the salt is placed in immense earthenware jars containing water, in which, by frequent agitation, the saltpetre becomes suspended. The liquor is then decanted, and in large saucers allowed to evaporate, when the finest needle-formed crystals of the salt are formed.