drugged, and ``whatever person he dreams of is fixed on as
the criminal. . . . If the boy does not dream of the person
whom the priest has determined on as the criminal, he is kept
under drugs until he does what is required of him'' (Count
Gleichen, With the Mission to Menelik, chap. xvi., 1898).
The Abyssinian character reflects the country's history.
Murders and executions are frequent, yet cruelty is not a marked
feature of their character; and in war they seldom kill their
prisoners. When a man is convicted of murder, he is handed
over to the relatives of the deceased, who may either put him
to death or accept a ransom. When the murdered person has no
relatives, the priests take upon themselves the office of
avengers. The natural indolence of the people has been
fostered by the constant wars, which have discouraged peaceful
occupations. The soldiers live by plunder, the monks by alms.
The haughtiest Abyssinian is not above begging, excusing himself
with the remark, ``God has given us speech for the purpose of
begging.'' The Abyssinians are vain and selfish, irritable but
easily appeased; and are an intelligent bright people, fond of
gaiety. On every festive occasion, as a saint's day, birth,
marriage, &c., it is customary for a rich man to collect
his friends and neighbours, and kill a cow and one or two
sheep. The principal parts of the cow are eaten raw while yet
warm and quivering, the remainder being cut into small pieces
and cooked with the favourite sauce of butter and red pepper
paste. The raw meat eaten in this way is considered to
be very superior in taste and much more tender than when
cold. The statement by James Bruce respecting the cutting
of steaks from a live cow has frequently been called in
question, but there can be no doubt that Bruce actually saw
what he narrates. Mutton and goat's flesh are the meats
most eaten: pork is avoided on religious grounds, and the
hare is never touched, possibly, as in other countries, from
superstition. Many forms of game are forbidden; for
example, all water-fowl. The principal drinks are me'mse,
a kind of mead, and bousa, a sort of beer made from
fermented cakes. The Abyssinians are heavy eaters and
drinkers, and any occasion is seized as an excuse for a
carouse. Old and young, of both sexes, pass days and nights
in these symposia, at which special customs and rules
prevail. Little bread is eaten, the Abyssinian preferring
a thin cake of durra meal or teE, kneaded with water and
exposed to the sun till the dough begins to rise, when it is
baked. Salt is a luxury; ``he eats salt'' being said of a
spendthrift. Bars of rock-salt, after serving as coins, are,
when broken up, used as food. There is a general looseness of
morals: marriage is a very slight tie, which can be dissolved
at any time by either husband or wife. Polygamy is by no means
uncommon. Hence there is little family affection, and what
exists is only between children of the same father and mother.
Children of the same father, but of different mothers, are
said to be ``always enemies to each other.'' (Samuel Gobat's
Journal of a Three Years' Residence in Abyssinia, 1834.)
The dress of the Abyssinians is much like that of the
Arabs. It consists of close-fitting drawers reaching below the
knees, with a sash to hold them, and a large white robe. The
Abyssinian, however, is beginning to adopt European clothes
on the upper part of the body, and European hats are becoming
common. The Christian Abyssinians usually go barehead and barefoot,
in contrast to the Mahommedans, who wear turbans and leather
sandals. The women's dress is a smock with sleeves loose to the
wrist, where they fit tightly. The priests wear a white jacket
with loose sleeves, a head-cloth like a turban and a special
type of shoe with turned-up toes and soles projecting at the
heel. In the Woldeba district hermits dress in ochre-yellow
cloths, while the priests of some sects wear hides dyed
red. Clothes are made of cotton, though the nobles and great
people wear silk robes presented by the emperor as a mark of
honour. The possessor of one of these is allowed to appear in
the royal presence wearing it instead of having one shoulder
bared, as is the usual Abyssinian method of showing respect.
A high-born man covers himself to the mouth in the presence of
inferiors. The men either cut their hair short or plait it;
married women plait their hair and wind round the head a black
or parti-coloured silk handkerchief; girls wear their hair
short. In the hot season no Abyssinian goes without a
flag-shaped fan of plaited rushes. The Christian Abyssinians,
men and women, wear a blue silk cord round the neck, to
which is often attached a crucifix. For ornament women wear
silver ankle-rings with bells, silver necklaces and silver
or gold rosettes in the ears. Silver rings on fingers and
also on toes are common. The women are very fond of strong
scents, which are generally oils imported from India and
Ceylon. The men scarcely ever appear without a long curved
knife, generally they carry shield and spear as well. Although
the army has been equipped with modern rifles, the common
weapon of the people is the matchlock, and slings are still in
use. The original arms were a sickle-shaped sword, spear and
shield. The Abyssinians are great hunters and are also
clever at taming wild beasts. The nobles hunt antelopes with
leopards, and giraffes and ostriches with horse and greyhound.
In elephant-hunting iron bullets weighing a quarter of a pound
are used; throwing-clubs are employed for small game, and
lions are hunted with the spear. Lion skins belong to the
emperor, but the slayer keeps a strip to decorate his shield.
Stone and mortar are used in building, but the Abyssinian
houses are of the roughest kind, being usually circular huts,
ill made and thatched with grass. These huts are sometimes
made simply of straw and are surrounded by high thorn hedges,
but, in the north, square houses, built in stories, flat-roofed,
the roof sometimes laid at the same slope as the hillside,
and some with pitched thatched roofs, are common. The inside
walls are plastered with cow-dung, clay and finely chopped
straw. None of the houses have chimneys, and smoke soon
colours the interior a dark brown. Generally the houses are
filthy and ill ventilated and swarm with vermin. Drainage
and sanitary arrangements do not exist. The caves of the
highlands are often used as dwellings. The most remarkable
buildings in Abyssinia are certain churches hewn out of the
solid rock. The chief native industries are leather-work,
embroidery and filigree metal-work; and the weaving of straw
mats and baskets is extensively practised. The baskets are
particularly well made, and are frequently used to contain milk.
Abyssinian art is crude and is mainly reserved for rough
frescoes in the churches. These frescoes, however, often
exhibit considerable skill, and are indicative of the lively
imagination of their painters. They are in the Byzantine style
and the colouring is gaudy. Saints and good people are always
depicted full face, the devil and all bad folk are shown in
profile. Among the finest frescoes are those in the church
of the Holy Trinity at Adowa and those in the church at
Kwarata, on the shores of Lake Tsana. The churches are usually
circular in form, the walls of stone, the roof thatched.
The chief musical instruments are rough types of trumpets and
flutes, drums, tambourines and cymbals, and quadrangular harps.
HISTORY
(12) Abyssiania, or at least the northern portion of it, was
included in the tract of country known to the ancients as
Ethiopia, the northern limits of which reached at one time to
about Syene. The connexion between Egypt and Ethiopia was in
early times very intimate, and occasionally the two countries
were under the same ruler, so that the arts and civilization
of the one naturally found their way into the other. In early
times, too, the Hebrews had commercial intercourse with the
Ethiopians; and according to Abyssinian tradition the queen
of Sheba who visited Solomon was a monarch of their country,
and from their son Menelek the kings of Abyssinia claim
descent. During the Captivity many of the Jews settled here
and brought with them a knowledge of the Jewish religion.
Under the Ptolemies, the arts as well as the enterprise of the
Greeks entered Ethiopia, and led to the establishment of Greek
colonies. A Greek inscription at Adulis, no longer extant,
but copied by Cosmas of Alexandria, and preserved in his
Topographia Christiana, records that Ptolemy Euergetes, the
third of the Greek dynasty in Egypt, invaded the countries
on both sides of the Red Sea, and having reduced most of the
provinces of Tigre to subjection, returned to the port of
Adulis, and there offered sacrifices to Jupiter, Mars and
Neptune. Another inscription, not so ancient, found at Axum,
states that Aizanas, king of the Axumites, the Homerites,
&c., conquered the nation of the Bogos, and returned thanks
to his father, the god Mars, for his victory. Out of these
Greek colonies appears to have arisen the kingdom of Auxume
which flourished from the ist to the 7th century A.D.
and was at one time nearly coextensive with Abyssinia
proper. The capital Auxume and the seaport Adulis were then
the chief centres of the trade with the interior of Africa
in gold dust, ivory, leather, aromatics, &c. At Axum, the
site of the ancient capital, many vestiges of its former
greatness still exist; and the ruins of Adulis, which was
once a seaport on the bay of Annesley, are now about 4 m.
from the shore (see ETHIOPIA, The Axumite Kingdom.)
Introduction of Christianity.
(13) Christianity was introduced into the country by Frumentius
(q.v.), who was consecrated first bishop of Ethiopia by St
Athanasius of Alexandria about A.D. 330. From the scanty
evidence available it would appear that the new religion
at first made little progress, and the Axumite kings seem
to have been among the latest converts. Towards the close
of the 5th century a great company of monks are believed to
have established themselves in the country. Since that time
monachism has been a power among the people and not without
its influence on the course of events. In the early part of
the 6th century the king of the Homerites, on the opposite
coast of the Red Sea, having persecuted the Christians, the
emperor Justinian I. requested the king of Auxume, Caleh or
El-Esbaha, to avenge their cause. He accordingly collected
an army, crossed over into Arabia, and conquered Yemen (c.
525), which remained subject to Ethiopia for about fifty
years. This was the most flourishing period in the annals
of the country. The Ethiopians possessed the richest part of
Arabia, carried on a large trade, which extended as far as
India and Ceylon, and were in constant communication with
the Greek empire. Their expulsion from Arabia, followed
by the conquest of Egypt by the Mahommedans in the middle
of the 7th century, changed this state of affairs, and the
continued advances of the followers of the Prophet at length
cut them off from almost every means of communication with
the civilized world; so that, as Gibbon says, ``encompassed
by the enemies of their religion, the Ethiopians slept for
near a thousand years, forgetful of the world by whom they
were forgotten.'' About A.D. 1000, a Jewish princess,
Judith, conceived the design of murdering all the members
of the royal family, and of establishing herself in their
stead. During the execution of this project, the infant king
