Ropes Formerly those miserable Ethiopic Princes were here cag'd up in wild places in low Cottages among Shrubs and wild Cedars starv'd from all things else but Air and Earth as if they who were descended from a high Parentage were to be confind in a high and lofty Exile In Gojam as (y) In Mulurgia sua Univers T. 3. l. 9. c. 6. where instead of Iches Fays read Petrus Pays Kercher tells us from the Relation of Peter Pays there is a certain Rock so curiously hollow'd by Nature that afar off it resembles a Looking-Glass and over against it another on the top of which there is nothing that can be so softly whisper'd but may be heard a great way off and the reverberation of the sound is like the encouraging Ho up of Mariners Between these Mountains are immense Gulphs and dreadful Profundities which because the Sight cannot fathom Fancy takes them for Abysses whose bottoms Tellezius will have to be the Center of the Earth Nor did Gregory describe them otherwise than as places most dreadful and formidable to the Eye Levels are very rare the largest Plain is that in Dembea near the Lake Tzanicus about twenty Portugal Leagues in length and four or five broad A Region so Mountainous and so like to Switzerland may be look'd upon justly by all people as a most rude and unhusbanded Country but they that consider the benefits which the Habessines receive thereby will from the same reasons be drawn to an admiring Contemplation of Divine Providence For that stupendious height of their Mountains contemns the scorching heat which renders their Country the more inhabitable in those high places where the people breath a more serene Air. In the next place Heaven has thereby provided for their security so many inaccessible Mountains being like so many Castles which afford them not only Habitation but a safe defence against their Enemies For had it not been for those Fortresses of Nature they had been ruin'd long e're this by the Adelenses and the Gallans Moreover thorough all those Mountains you shall find most pleasant Springs of Water which are wanting in the Levels of the torrid Zone The reason of which we shall give you in another place CHAP. VII Of Metals and Minerals Abassia abounds in Metals and Minerals especially Gold which is found in the Sand of the Rivers and in Damota and Enarrea upon the Superficies of the Earth Silver they have not and yet not without Lead They neither know nor care to know what belongs to Metals Salt plentifully digg'd out of the Earth Gems they want They more esteem black Lead with which they colour their Eye-brows THat so many and so vast Mountains afford plenty of Metals and Minerals the Fathers of the Society attest And certainly 't is a thing easily credible that that part of the Earth lying under the fiercest and most maturing heat of the Sun cannot be without Metals and more especially Gold which is found in the shallows of Rivers polish'd and pure in great quantities about the bigness of a Tare or Vetch Whence it is conjectur'd that the Gold is brought to perfection in the neighbouring Mountains and carry'd away together with the Sand by the forces of the Stream Pliny affirms that sort of Gold to be the finest and most perfect Damota but more especially Enarrea enjoy this advantage it being the chiefest Tribute which they pay They are destitute of Silver whether it be that Nature denies them that benefit or that they know not how to dig it out and refine it For they have Lead which is said to be the Mother of Silver But they are altogether ignorant of the Minery Trade For the digging of Wells boaring of Mountains supporting of Mines with massy Timber hewing of Stones or forcing Rocks with Gunpowder or Fire to live in the dark sometimes hours sometimes days together and to be half strangled with Smoke and Damps to (z) Thus Pliny discourses concerning Minerals search the Vains of the Earth and examin the Secrets of Rocks are things altogether unsuitable to the Genius of the Habessines Rather they count it a piece of folly to pine after Minerals and heap up Riches to encourage the Turk to make War upon them They think themselves far more safe in Iron as being that with which Gold may be won And for Iron they have no occasion to delve for it in regard they find it in great plenty upon the Superficies of the Earth as P. Antonio Fernandez testifies Moreover in the Confines of Tigra and Angora from a place call'd the Land of Salt there (a) Concerning such kind of Salt see Pliny l. 31. c. 7. are natural Mountains of Salt from whence they supply themselves with inexhaustible quantities cutting it out of the sides of the Mountains in great pieces of a white and solid Substance In the Mountain it is soft and sliver'd off with little labour but in the Air it hardens From thence it is fetch'd by great numbers of Merchants who conveigh it away in Caravans which are call'd Cafila and vended through all the neighbouring Nations and Countries where it is a scarce Commodity Alphonsus Mendez the Patriarch writes That there is in another place a Mountain of Red Salt very useful in Physic So propitiously has Heaven compensated their want of Money with plenty of Salt which by virtue whereof as with ready Coyn in other places they purchase other necessaries Thus they abound in Salt which the Life of Man cannot want but they are destitute of other things that less conduce to the happiness of Human Being Nor do they desire those things of whose dazling Beauties and glittering Colours they are ignorant I mean Gems and Jewels rarely yet seen in Ethiopia whatever that same Trifler Valentinian Romances The Royal Diadem it self glitters only with counterfeit Jewels thinking it not worth their while to send their Salt or Gold to foreign and barbarous Nations to purchase true ones and admiring at our imprudence for expending our Money so idly They much more esteem those Minerals that conduce to the health and preservation of the Body chiefly among the rest Stibium or Black Lead which they in their Language call (b) A word well known in all the Eastern Languages from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Stibium from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fucavit or besmear'd with Fucus and whence the Greek word Collyrium as it were Cohollyrium seems deriv'd The Arabic word Elcohol still remains in the Spanish Language wherein there is a Proverb Elpolve de las ovejas Elcohol es para el Lobo The Dust which the Sheep raise is a Collyrium to quicken the Wolf's sight Cuehel or Cohol and believe it to be a great preserver of the Sight nor do they less esteem it for Ornament and to beautifie their Faces with it For being powder'd they mix it with Soot moisten'd and with a small Pencil which they call Blen besmear their Eye-brows
those Fountains and Spring-heads have been since discover'd so long and unsuccessfully sought for by the Ancients Athanasius Kircher has describ'd them from the Relation of Peter Pays who view'd them himself In the Kingdom of Gojam saith he and in the Western Parts thereof in the Province of Sabala which the Agawi inhabit are to be seen two round Spring-Heads very deep in a place somewhat rais'd the ground about it being quaggy and mershy nevertheless the Water does not spring forth there but issues from the foot of the Mountain About a Musquet Shot from thence toward the East the River begins to flow then winding to the North about the fourth part of a League it receives another River a little farther two more flowing from the East fall into it and soon after it enlarges it self with the addition of several other Streams About a days journey farther by the Relation of the same Peter it swallows up the River Jema then winding Westward some twenty Leagues it turns again to the East and plunges it self into a vast Lake This Relation differs not from what Gregory has discoursed to me only he particulariz'd the names of the Countries that perhaps were the more special Denominations of those places of which Sabala was the more general Name For as he related to me the Spring-head of Nile is in a certain Land call'd Secut upon the top of Dengla which perhaps is the name of a Mountain He also affirm'd that it had five Spring-heads reckoning in the Heads of other Rivers which have no particular name and are therefore taken for the Nile But it passes through the Lake Tzanicum preserving the colour of its own Waters like the Rhosne running through the Lake Lemann and the Rhine through Acronius or the Lake De Zell Then winding to the South it washes on the left hand the principal Kingdoms of Habessinia Bagemdra Amhara Waleka Shewa Damota and takes along the Rivers of those Countries Bashlo Tzohha Kecem Jema Roma and Wancit Then on the right hand embracing Gojam its Native Country almost like a Circle and swell'd with the Rivers of that Region Maga Abaja Aswari Temci Gult and Tzul it turns again to the West as it were bidding farewel to its Fountains and with a prodigious mass of ramass'd Rivers leaving Habessinia upon the right hand rolls to the North through several thirsty Nations and sandy Deserts to enfertile Egypt with its Inundations and there makes its way through several mouths into the Sea For the more certain Demonstration of the Truth it will be of particular moment to insert the Relation of Gregory himself perhaps the first that was ever made public by an Ethiopian Epist d. 20. Octob. 1657. The Course of Nile is like a Circle it encompasses Gojam but so that it never returns back to its Head making directly to Sennar And therefore Gojam lies always upon the right hand of Nile but all the other Kingdoms of Ethiopia as well those that lye near as those at a distance remain still upon the left As it flows along it takes in all the Rivers great and small with several Torrents as well Foreign as Habessinian which by that general Tribute acknowledge him their King who having thus muster'd together all the Waters of Ethiopia jocundly takes his leave and proceeds on his Journey like a Hero according to the Command of his Creator to drench the Fields of thirsty Egypt and quench the drowth of Thousands The Spring-head of this famous River first shews it self in a certain Land which is called Secut upon the top of Dengla near Gojam West of Bagemdra Dara the Lake Tzana and Bada Rising thus it hastens with a direct course Eastward and so enters the Lake of Dara and Bed as it were swimming over it Passing from thence it flows between Gojam and Bagemdra but leaving them upon the right and left speeds directly toward Amhara Having touch'd the Confines of Amhara he turns his Face toward the West and girdles Gojam like a Circle but so that Gojam lies always upon the right hand of it Having past the Limits of Amhara it washes the Confines of Walaka and so on to the extream bounds of Mugara and Shewa Then it slides between Bizama and Gonga and descends into the Country of the Shankelites Whence he winds to the right hand and leaves by degrees the Western Clime upon the left hand to visit the Kingdom of Sennar But before he get thither he meets with two great Rivers that plunge themselves into his Streams coming from the East of which one is call'd Tacazè that falls out of Tigra and the other Guangue that descends from Dembea After he has taken a view of the Kingdom of Sennar away he travels to the Country of Dengula and so comes to the Kingdom of Nubia and thence turns to the right hand in order to his intended Voyage for Alexandria and comes to a certain Country which is call'd Abrim where the Stream is unnavigable by reason of the Cliffs and Rocks after which he enters Egypt Sennar and Nubia are seated upon the shore of Nile toward the West so that they may drink of his Waters besides that he guards their Eastern Limits as far as he approaches near them But our People and Travellers from Sennar after they have cross'd Nubia quit the River Nile leaving it upon the right hand toward the East and ride through a Desert of 15 days journey upon Camels where neither Tree nor Water but only Sand is to be seen but then they meet with it again in the Country of Riffe which is the Upper Egypt where they either take Boat or travel a foot in Company with the Stream But as to what he wrote concerning the flowing of great and small Rivers into Nile he explains himself in these words All great Rivers and smaller Torrents flow into Nile excepting only two The one is call'd Hanazo which rises in Hangota and the other Hawash which runs near Dawara and Fatagara But as if this had not been enough he goes on with a farther Explanation in another Epistle as follows But whereas I told you in a Description of Nile that all the Rivers of Ethiopia flow'd into it except two I am not to be understood as if I spoke of all Ethiopia For those Rivers that are upon the Borders of the Circuit of Ethiopia which are near the Ocean they fall into the Sea every one in their distinct Regions Now the Countries adjoyning to the Ocean are these Canbat Guraghè Enaria Zandera Wed Waci Gaci and some others The Native Country of Nile being thus discover'd the cause of his Inundation is manifest For most of the Countries under the Torrid Zone when the Sun returns into the Winter Signs are wash'd as we have said with immoderate Showers So that the prodigious mass of Waters that randevouzes from all parts cannot be contain'd within his Channel and therefore when it comes into the Levels of Egypt
retain never pester'd with confusion either marching or sitting still The constant disposal and largeness of the Camp may be understood from hence that the same Dialect and the same words continue in the same Streets and Quarters in other Quarters another sort of words and a different Dialect as for Dala a word used in the Front of the Camp which signifies to put in the Vulgar in the Rear Quarter say Tshammara Of old before the Gallans conquer'd it the Camp was pitch'd in Shewa a fertile and most plentiful Countrey But for the most part in December and that for three or four years together in one place In the beginning of Susneus's Reign in the year 1607 they pitch'd at Coga Thence they remov'd to Gorgora in the year 1612 from thence to Dancaza and lastly to Guendra which place Bernier because he had heard perhaps that it was the Residence of the King calls the Metropolis of Ethiopia of which perhaps in a few years there will be nothing to be seen These Camps take up a vast deal of room as well in the Summer as in the Winter for they do not onely contain the Souldiers but their Wives and their Children whose work it is to bake their Bread and make their Hydromel So that the weak and helpless multitude far exceeds the number of the Souldiery Nor are they without Merchants and Tradesmen of all sorts besides Slaves and Lackeys necessary for such a Multitude So that the Camp looks more like an Ambulatory City and moving Houses then a Martial Camp So many Tents and Pavilions seeming a far off to represent the Prospect of some great Town But less wonderful is that which is reported out of India That near the Island of Sumatra there are certain Cities if they may be so call'd which are always swimming and yet great Markets and Fairs are kept therein and many People live there who have no other Country or Habitation Now for the Camp masters whom the Ethiopians call Sebea Catine they carry a great sway in managing the Succession of the Kings and affairs of greatest moment The Kings also themselves are guided by them in making and abrogating Laws and generally they are the first springs of Faction and Sedition And as formerly the Pretorean Bands gave Laws to Prince and People so among the Habessines the effect of all Consultations good or bad derive themselves from the Camp CHAP. XIV Of the Military Affairs of the Habessines Continual war The Winter causes a Truce The Habessines good Soldiers Strong and active They serve without pay They plunder the Countries as they march The Gallans secur'd by their Poverty The Habessines ignorant in Fire-Arms Few Muskets and fewer Musketeteers Their Armies consist most of Foot Light Armour Drumms us'd by the Horse Their Weapons Bad Discipline because they count it no shame to flie Their Onsets furious Their Rocks are their Fortresses The King Commands in chief Theives unpunish'd THat the Habessines are a Warlike People and continually exercis'd in War we have already declar'd neither is there any respit but what is caus'd by the Winter at what time by reason of the Inundations of the Rivers they are forc'd to be quiet For they have neither Ships nor Boats neither do they know how to make Bridges to command a passage over their violent Streams Concerning which Gregory wrote to me in these words There is no making War in Ethiopia in the Winter time neither does the Enemy attack us nor we them by reason of the great falls of Rain and the Inundations of the Rivers Tellezius also further testifies That the Habessines are good Souldiers They ride and manage a Horse well and readily take Arms as well in obedience to their Soveraign as for other causes already mention'd They are strong They endure hunger and thrist beyond belief and with little sustenance can brook any unseasonable sort of weather They serve without pay contented with honour and applause and such Lands as the King after the Roman Custom bestows upon the well deserving Therefore they must certainly be thought to sight much more generously and faithfully in the defence of their Countrey then Hirelings They expect no part of the Enemies Booty nor no redemption and therefore never serve them in the Field and because they know not the art of protracting a War therefore they never are sparing of themselves to return home rich However the Poverty of the Souldiers impoverishes the Countries through which they march For in regard it is a difficult thing to carry Provisions over such steep and rugged Mountains and long wayes they take by force what is not freely given them and by that means lay wast their own Countries no less then their Enemies whereby the poor Countrey people are constrain'd to turn Souldiers and so taught to deal by others as they were dealt with themselves For which reason they neither can vanquish nor make any long pursuit after the Gallans who being retir'd with their Droves the Pursuers find nothing left behind but Lands untill'd and empty Cottages So invincible a Fortress is Poverty to withstand the stoutest Enemy But as we have said already Those Gallans might easily be vanquish'd did but the Habessines know the use of Muskets Tellezius writes that they have among them about fifteen hundred Musquets but not above four Musqueteers and they but very bad Fire-men neither neither do the Commanders know how to place and order them to the best advantage and therefore after they have once discharg'd the Enemy rushes on so furiously before they can charge again that they they are forc'd to to throw their Musquets away and then another thing is they have but very little Powder The biggest Army which the King brings now into the Field hardly amounts to Forty thousand Men among which he has not above Four or Five thousand Horse the rest are all Foot Their horses are couragious and mettlesome but they never get upon their backs till they are ready to charge the Enemy at other times they ride their Mules and lead their Horses They are slightly arm'd after the manner of the antient Velites and tho their Stirrups are no bigger then onely to thrust in their great Toes least if the Horse should fall their feet should be hung in the Stirup yet they sit very fast Their Weapons are Swords and Darts as also Launces and short Javelins with which they fight at a distance after which they dispute it hand to hand with their Swords or Launces and Bucklers Their War like Musick for the Horse are Drums much bigger then ours and the King 's which are the biggest go by the name of the Bear and the Lyon Besides which several Hornes and Fifes march before Him They for the most part are arm'd with two Spears of which they dart away the one at a distance and maintain a close fight with the other defending themselves with their Bucklers The Horse never fight a foot nor the Foot a
of the Jews Error who were learned in the Books of the Mosaic Law Most Nations have a particular Dyet some by custome some through superstition Not to speak of the Mahumetans who abstain not only from Swines flesh but from Wine is not the custom of the Bannians not much different from the ancient Pythagoreans to be strangely admir'd who onely feed upon Herbs and Meats made of Milk which we hardly believe sufficient to sustain Nature Others there are that devour all sorts of Creatures which the flesh consuming Beasts themselves refuse and otherwise nauseous to the most part of Men. The Oriental Tartars feed upon Camels Foxes and all sorts of wild Beasts Some of our Europeans indulging their appetites please their palats with a sort of Dyet abominated by all other People as Frogs Cockles and I know not what sort of Insects Gregory had an utter aversion to Lobsters Crabbs Crayfish and Oysters which we accompt our chiefest Delicacies and it turn'd his stomach to see Turkies Hares and several other Dishes to which he was unaccustom'd brought to our Tables Being ask'd why he abstain'd from Swines flesh he retorted still and why we from Horse-flesh And most certainly were we to banquet with the Tartars there are but very few of us that would easily be induc'd to eat Horse-flesh with an Appetite tho it be one of their principal junkets Nay their Embassadors to our Princes desire fat Horses for their Kitchins However they abstain from blood and things strangl'd not out of any observance of the Mosaic Law but an Apostolic Decree always in force in the Eastern Church which was also for many Ages observ'd in the Western Church and reviv'd in some Councils They also rebuke us for that we suffer'd that Decree to be laid aside Nor do they allow the Jews Sabboth out of a respect to Judaism or that they learnt it from some certain Nations that kept the Seventh day holy But because the ancient Custom of the Primitive Church who observ'd that day perhaps out of complacency to the Jews being long retain'd in the East was at length carry'd into Ethiopia For thus we find it written in some ancient Constitutions which they call the Constitutions of the Apostles Let the Servants labour five days but let them keep the Holydays the Sabboth and the Lords Day in the Church for the sake of Pious Instruction The Council of Laodicea decreed that the Gospels with other parts of Scripture should be read upon the Sabboth when before the Paragraphs of the Law of Moses were onely read upon the Sabboth and the Gospels upon the Sunday the Texts of the old Law being thought most agreeable to the Old Sabboth and the Texts of the New Testament to the New Sabboth Socrates also farther testifies that the People us'd to assemble at Church upon the Sabboth and Lords Day And Gregory Nyssen whose Writings the Ethiopians have among them saith With what Eyes dost thou behold the Lords Day who hast defil'd the Sabboth Know'st thou not that these two days are Twins and that if thou injur'st the one thou dost injury to the other But Claudius makes so much difference between both days that he prefers the Lords day before the Sabaoth But as to what pertains to our Celebration of the ancient Sabaoth we do not celebrate it as the Jews did who Crucify'd Christ saying Let his blood be upon Us and our Children For those Jews neither draw water nor kindle fires nor dress meat nor bake bread neither do they go from house to house But we so celebrate it that we administer the Sacrament and relieve the Poor and the Widow as our Fathers the Apostles commanded Us. We Celebrate it as the Sabaoth of the first Holiday which is a new day of which David saith This is the day which the Lord made let us rejoyce and exult therein For upon that day our Lord Jesus Christ rose and upon that day the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles in the Oratory of Sion And in that day Christ was incarnated in the Womb of the Perpetual Virgin St. Mary and upon that day he shall come again to reward the Just and punish the Evil. Gregory also testify'd That the Habessines abstain from no sort of Labour upon the Sabaoth but from the most servile sorts of Labour This Custom continu'd long in the Church till it was abrogated by degrees for by the 22d Canon of the said Council of Laodicea the Christians are forbid to work upon the Sabaoth Nevertheless the Sacred Lectures were continu'd for a time as appears by the Canon above mention'd till at length those were also left off perhaps because that the People having a licence to work there were but few that repair'd to Church Moreover according to the Custom of the Jews it is lawful in Abessinia to marry the Widow of the Brother deceas'd as Alvarez testifies Adding That the Habessinian defend their so doing by the Laws of the Old Testament But Gregory positively deny'd that it was lawful but onely conniv'd at by the Magistrate However that such Wives are also prohibited from coming to the Holy Communion wherein Alvarez agrees with him However it does not therefore follow that this Custom was translated from the Jews to the Habessines no more then if any one should assert that the Laws of Polygamie and Divorce were deriv'd from the Jews And yet this is somewhat strange I must confess that they abstain from that Muscle which the Hebrews call Ghid Hannesheh or the Sinew mutilated the Ethiopians Sereje Berum the forbidden Nerve the Amharies Shalada Which very probably they might learn from the Jews in their own Country of which Nation there are several Colonies in Ethiopia But as to what is reported concerning Queen Candaces Eunuch we have already shew'd that she was not Queen of Habessinia but of the Ethiopians that inhabited the Iland of Meroe and if the Eunuch were a Jew it does not follow that his Lady the Queen shall be so too Others there are who tell us That Menilehec's Successors in a short time return'd to the worship of Idols Which if it be true the assertion of the Continuation of the Jewish Religion till the time of the Apostles will prove altogether vain tho in Europe most certainly the Habessines were long suspected of Judaisme and so are many to this day Which King Claudius observing by his Disputations with Gonsalo Rodriguez and the Writings which he compos'd to refute the Errors of the Habessines set forth a Confession of which we have already cited several parcels as they related to our business The chief Scope of which was to remove that Suspition of Judaism from himself and his Subjects which in my opinion he very effectually did CHAP. II. Of the Conversion of the Habessines to the Christian Faith The Conversion of the Habessines attributed to Queen Candace's Eunuch but contrary to authentic Histories Candace no Habessinian Other Traditions nothing better Demonstrated when and by
the Name of Altar growing out of Mind For so Minutius Felix D' ye think says he that we conceal the Deity whom we serve because we have not Temples and Altars properly so call'd Afterwards they began in respect of the Oblations to be call'd Altars But in process of Time when the Sacrament came to be Administer'd without controul there happen'd a great Change For that some thought it not lawful to perform the Sacred Duty otherwhere then at those wooden Chests which long Custom had now made Religious And therefore being brought forth of the Caves where they had been Consecrated they were set apart for the Administration of the Eucharist and it is not unlikely that in regard they were to be plac'd upon low Tables they were made the more plain and the lesser that they might be more fit for use till at length they came to be made like the Tables themselves so that now the form being chang'd the name only appears among the Ethiopians But after that when Christians began to rear great and stately Fabricks those Arks or Chests together with the Tables were plac'd in the Sanctuary and in most Churches the Name of Table remain'd but in Latin Church the Name of Altar as the more worthy and decent Appellation prevail'd But this was an establish'd Custom among the Ancients That the Basis upon which the Sacred Vessels were to be set should be first consecrated Whence it came to pass that the Tables or Altars themselves were consecrated and so the use of those Arks or Chests ceas'd But where there were no Altars or that the question was whether they were consecrated or no there the Greeks had their Antimensae or little Crickets the Latins their Portalia or small Portative Tables which they set upon those Altars that were not consecrated But for the Ethiopians they make use of their Chest and their Table both together to the end the Service may be the more fully and absolutely perform'd and nothing left undon Now in regard these Chests were formerly made of Wood it was not material what sort of Wood. But after the Popes had commanded that the Altars should be made of Parget the little Portative Altar was also made of the same matter for that reason call'd Lapis Sacratus or the Consecrated Stone The little Chest which the Ethiopians use is generally of Wood though they do not Prohibit those that are made of Stone or cast Metal However the Fathers of the Society would not permit them to make use of any but of Stone the rest they either burnt or melted down A MARBLE COFFIN diggd up in a Church Yard nere the high way calld Priscillas Salter's Way Representing the Communion of the Ancients in a Caue Book 3d Chap 6 P 296 a The Arke or Arched Bier Coverd with a Linnen cloath in stead of a Table b. The holy Loaves Signd with the Cross Moreover 't is well known that in the Infancy of the Catholic Church the Altars were of Wood like little Chests and there were no other Altars of Stone till the time that Silvester began to Consecrate Altars of kind However he left remaining in the Cathedral of St. Peters others say in St. John Laterano a little wooden Chest which for so many years had bin the Altar which so many Pious Popes had made use of and upon which it is not lawful at this day for any Person but the Pope himself to Celebrate Thus the Studious Reader may perceive frequent mention to have bin made of these Chests and if the little Chest of which Tellez has given us a Relation be still Extant at Rome there can be no room left for any farther doubt concerning the Matter or the Form and our Conjecture concerning their Original will stand good till the Learned shall give us better Information Now that the Martyrs Bones were anciently put into these Chests we gather from the Council of Carthage which approves and confirms the Custom For so runs the 14 Canon of the Fifth by Name but Third in Order of Time The Altars In which he doth not say above nor under there are no Reliques of Martyrs shall be remov'd Neither could those Bones be dispos'd of in Tables nor in the Altars so call'd of the Ancients And in this we have bin the more prolix to the end the Original and Use of the Ethiopic Chest appropriated to the Communion might be the better understood The other holy Vessels are Pahal the Dish Tzevae the Cup and Spoon for distribution of the Wine call'd Eref Maskel the Spoon of the Cross by reason that the handle ends in a little Cross Besides these they have their consecrated Urns and Censors in regard they frequently fume with Frankincense which Necessity constrain'd them to do while they were forc'd to make use of Caves and Subterraneal Places In the Administration of the Sacrament they use a sort of leaven'd Bread as was done in the Latin Church for many Ages Mark'd with a Cross ✚ imprinted into the Mass of the Loaf This Bread they call Korban and Bake it new every day admiring at the Latins for keeping their Holy Bread till the Morrow But upon the Fifth Holy-day of the great Week in Memory of Christ's unleaven'd Loaves they also use unleaven'd Bread pieces of which the Priest distributes to the Communicants For they all participate of one Loaf The Wine is by the Deacon given out of the Cup in a Spoon indifferently to all as well Layety as Clergy True it is they want real Wine the defect of which they supply by steeping the bruis'd Stones of Raisins in Water and then squeezing and straining the Infusion which makes a kind of Raisin Liquor Yet not believing it thus made to be small enough the Subdeacon pours a Spoonful or two of Water into the hollow of the Communicants hand with which he first washes his mouth and after that sups it up Tellez will not allow this Liquor to be other then meer Water and for that reason laughs at the Habessines for believing they Communicate in both kinds when they Communicate in neither tho the Fathers of the Society for want of Wine were forc'd to use the same Liquor in the former Age. Which Sandovall calls a Holy and Provident Invention Most certain it is that many Countreys especially inhabited by barbarous People and remote from the Sea are destitute of Wine as the Copts in Egypt and the Christians of the Order of St. Thomas in India Nay some there were who were put to harder shifts than all this having no other way but to dip a linnen Cloth in Wine when they could come at it and dry it again This Cloath they kept very charily and when they had an occasion to Administer the Sacrament they moisten'd a part of the Cloath in water and wrung the moisture out again with their hands Which water so relish'd and tinctur'd they gave to the People These Shifts Pope Julius condemns however in a case of
A NEW HISTORY OF ETHIOPIA BEING A Full and Accurate DESCRIPTION OF The Kingdom of Abessinia Vulgarly though Erroneously called the EMPIRE of PRESTER JOHN IN FOUR BOOKS Wherein are Contained I. An Account of the Nature Quality and Condition of the Country and Inhabitants their Mountains Metals and Minerals their Rivers particularly of the source of the Nile and Niger their Birds Beasts amphibious Animals as the River Horse and Crocodile Serpents c. II. Their Political Government the Genealogy and Succession of their Kings a description of their Court and Camp their Power and Military Discipline their Courts of Justice c. III. Their Ecclesiastical Affairs their Conversion to the Christian Religion and the Propagation thereof their Sacred Writings their Sacraments Rites Ceremonies and Church Discipline the decrease of the Romish Religion their Contentions with the Jesuits their Separation from the Greek Church c. IV. Their private Oeconomy their Books and Learning their common Names their Dyet Marriages and Polygamies their Mechanick Arts and Trades their Burials their Merchandize and Commerce c. Illustrated with Copper Plates By the Learned Job Ludolphus Author of the Ethiopic Lexicon Made English by J. P. Gent. LONDON Printed for Samuel Smith Bookseller at the Prince's Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1682. J. LUDOLPHUS TO THE Courteous Reader AT length I present you with my Ethiopic Historie long-promis'd long expected by my friends Nor will this delay be wonder'd at by those that consider how I am ty'd to public duty and employment utterly dissonant from these sort of Studies Beside which there were many other Reasons For I had collected indeed the Body of the matter from the Writings and Discourses of Gregory the Habessinian but the Circumstances of time and place and the names of persons were yet wanting So that there was Timber and Bricks for the Building but only Lime and Cement was wanting Moreover after so many Fables had been Printed upon this subject I thought it would not be so prudently done to utter more novelty upon the credit of one single person lest a new truth might be lookt upon as a new Tale. At length having got into my hands Balthazer Tellez from whom as well to supply what I wanted as also to confirm what might seem to be doubtfull yet then likewise I wanted Leisure Which when the most Serene Saxo-Gotan Dukes had indulg'd me I Translated my family to Frankfort upon the Main to the end that I might have the benefit of several famous Libraries in that Noble City and the opportunity of a Learned Conversation and by that means accomplish my intended work which by Gods Assistance I did in six weeks After this when all was ready for the Press there still wanted what was necessary to forward the Publishing of this work A proper Amanuensis to transcribe the whole matter and to attend upon the Correction of the Impression which my occasions would not permit me to do and then in the next place such Forraign Characters as this work requir'd which Impediments were also at last remov'd For there was a certain Young Gentleman recommended to me eminent for his Learning and integritie by name John Henry Majus a Student in Theology and the Oriental Tongues Who being well skill'd in the Hebrew Language and the Dialect of the Rabbins by my help easily made himself Master of the Ethiopic and so fitted himself for the imployment I design'd Him He therefore by my directions made the heads of the Chapters the Sections the Index and Translated the Ethiopic into Latin assisted the work and put it forward taking upon him the whole Correction of it For which reason I can recommend his deserts the more justly to all good and learned Men. The Printing part was undertaken by Balthasar Christopher Wustius as well for that he was well known among Forainers as because he had a Printing House furnished with all sorts of Letters for Foraign Languages He also caused the Ethiopic and Amharic Characters to be engrav'd in Copper by the famous John Adolphus Schmide and afterwards to be cast for farther use But these could not be brought to perfection so soon as the Compositers requir'd and therefore there was a necessitie of mixing some old and less elegant with the new and neater Characters As to the Work it self I have said enough in the Proem No man understandeth the warts and defects better than my self Therfore I resolv'd to deferr the Publishing till newer and fuller relations return'd out of Ethiopia or that I might receive them from the bordering Regions as being furnished for that purpose with very great and most generous Recommendations till I had brought my design to a full and elaborate perfection But many Illustrious men and my most honour'd friends interceded with me telling me That never any thing came forth perfect at first in all its parts And that therefore this History was no longer to be conceal'd from the Christian and Learned World which it concerned to know these things For that if any thing should fall out hereafter worthy of remark it might be put into an Appendix or added to a new Edition Which makes me hope for pardon from the more Candid Reader if his desire or expectation be not satisfied in all particulars For I relate not altogether things beheld with my own eyes but what I have either read my self or heard from others yet congruous to Truth and well cohering between themselves If I have not reach'd the sence of my Authors I will amend upon admonition or else return my thanks and satisfaction to the admonisher That I should please all men a thing which never mortal yet attained none in prudence can exact from me nor dare I hope to have done it However I propose to my self to injure no man but every where to study moderation So they who take offence ought to be offended with my Authors not with me There are some perhaps who believe I might have spoken more in matter of Religion others that I have said too much certainly I had rather I could have omitted all so ungratefull to me are the Altercations of Christians among themselves in matters of Religion chiefly where the Decisions tend to Force and Arms. For they who think mutual Love and Charity is only due to men of their own sect certainly wander much from the scope of Christian perfection according to the precepts of Christ and his Apostles I have not aim'd at my own advantage nor my own increase of Reputation hard to be acquir'd now the world is so fertile in soaring Genius's I have only endeavoured to be in some measure profitable to the Commonwealth of Christianity and Learning out of a peculiar kindness to that for ought we know most ancient Nation of the Habessines I confess I have frequently bewail'd their misfortune for this that the enmitie ran so high between them and the Portuguesses that for their sakes all the other Europeans are suspected to that
beginning of the Christian Religion and its Advance in those Countries their Differences with the Greek and Latin Church And Lastly in the Fourth Book Of their Domestick Concerns and Private Oeconomy An ETHIOPIC ALPHABET Divided into seven Orders according to the seven sounds of their vowells Hoi ha hu hi ha he hε ho  Lawi la lu li la le lε lo  Haut ha hu hi ha he hε ho  Mai ma mu mi ma me mε mo  Saut sa su si sa se sε so  Rεεs ra ru ri ra re rε ro  Sat sa su si sa se sε so  Kaf ka ku ki ka ke kε ko K. Eth. Bet ba bu bi ba be bε bo  Tawi ta tu ti ta te tε to  Harm ha hu hi ha he hε ho  Nahas na nu ni na ne nε no  Alph a u i a e ε o  Qaf qa qu qi qa qe qε qo  Wawe wa wu wi wa we wε wo  Ain a u i a e ε o  Zai za zu zi za ze zε zo Z. French Jaman ja ju ji ja je jε jo Y. French Dent da du di da de dε do English Geml ga gu ghi ga ghe ghε go  Tait ta tu ti ta te tε to T. Eth. Pait ê‘a ê‘u ê‘i ê‘a ê‘e ê‘ε ê‘o P. Eth. Zadai tza tzu tzi tza tze tzε tzo Tz. Eth. Zappa tza tzu tzi tza tze tzε tzo tz Eth. Af fa fu fi fa fe fε fo  Psa pa pu pi pa pe pε po  A Specimen of such of their diphthongs that could be gotten kua kua kue kuε  hua hue huε qua qua  quε gua gua gue guε A Specimen of their numbers or numerall figures taken from the Greek 1 3 4 8. 10 60 100 c.  A Specimen of the Amharie Letters Sh Engl. sha shu  sha she shε  Tj Hung. tja     tjε  nÌ„ Spanish      njε  Ch Germ. hha   haa   hho s French ja  ji ja   jo D Bohem dja     djε  Cia Ital tjha tjhu tjhi tjha tjhe tjhε  OF THE Nature of the Countrey AND THE INHABITANTS BOOK I. CHAP. I. Of the Various Names of the Abessines and Original of the Nation The Original of the Name of the Abassines is Arabian But they rather chose to be called Ethiopians more particularly Agazjan i. e. Free as the Germans call'd themselves Franks They transported themselves out of Arabia-Felix into Africa for they derive their Original from the Sabeans or Homerites Their Language agrees with the Arabian The Grecians call them Axumitae others Indians hence confusion of Story Erroneously called Caldeans The Name of Abassia or Ethiopia to be retained IT behoves us to begin with the Name of the Nation They are now generally called Habessines by others Abessines or Abassenes the Name being given them by the Arabians in whose Language Habesh (a) For Habesha speaking of a multitude of People is no more than Convenit or the multitude gathered together in the Second Conjugation Habesha congregavit or Congregated together From whence the words Habesh c. signifie a multitude of men gathered together from several Tribes of People So that the Abessines may not be improperly called by one Latin word Convenae or such as come together signifies a (b) The Germans sound it Shabash or Hhabash the Italians Habascia the French Habech the Portugueses Abex pronounced after the same manner with variety of Letters in regard of the Arabick Habesh which is the Original of all these words Ill written Chabatti for Chabassi in the Prolegoniena of Walton's Poly-Glotton Cap. 15. Pag. 98. Confusion or mixture of People which Appellation as being somewhat ignominious they for a long time despised neither do they yet acknowledge it in their Writings For they rather choose to call their Kingdom Manghesta Itjopia the Kingdom of Ethiopia and themselves Itjopiawjan Ethiopians assuming the Name from the Greeks tho it be too general and were formerly common as well to all tho swarthy Complexion'd People in Asia as to the Blacks of Ethiopia (c) Hence Ethiopia was by the Ancients divided into Oriental and Occidental into African and Asiatick Of which those Places of Scripture that speak of the Cushites are to be understood Now adays Ethiopia is only Attributed to Africa But if you require a special Name from them then they call their Kingdom Geez also the Countrey of Ag-azi or the Land of the Ag-azjan or (d) For which Gregory is my Author in a Letter to my self Freemen either from the Liberty they enjoy or their transporting themselves from one place to another for that the radical Word Geeza admits of both significations Perchance (e) See my Ethiopick Lexicon Col. 405. because that in ancient times translating themselves out of Arabia and Africa in search of other Habitations they assumed that Name in sign of Liberty as of old the Germans passing the Rhine gave themselves the Name of Franks (f) Which I believe as Agreeing with those Authors cited by Pontanus concerning the Original of the Franks For they are not Natives of the Land but came out of that Part of Arabia which is called The Happy which adjoyns to the Red Sea and from whence there is an easie Passage into Africa For the Abassenos formerly inhabited Arabia and were reckon'd (g) For the Sabeans and Homerites are the same from the Region of the Axumites the Red Sea lying between as saith Procop. Gazeus upon the Tenth Chapter of the Third Book of Kings Ver. 1. upon the words Queen of Sheba into the number of the Sabeans or Homerites as the ancient Geographers testifie (h) Stephanus in his Book concerning Cities upon the word Abasseni writes Abasseni a Nation of Arabia and relates out of the Arabicks of Uranius that they bordered upon the Sabeans and many other Convincing Arguments sufficiently prove For their Ancient Language which we call the Ethiopick is very near a kin to the Arabick They have also many Customs as Circumcision which are common with the Arabians Their Genius and the shape of their Bodies and the Lineaments of their Countenances resemble the Arabians much more than the African Ethiopians Besides that Severus the Emperor among the Vanquished People of Arabia caused the Name of the Abessines to be (i) Scaliger in Comput Eccles Ethiop de Emendat temp Lib. 7. Engraven on his Coyn. The Habessines themselves also while they claim the Queen of Sheba for their Princess betray their Original For the Arabians unanimously confess That she was descended from the Lineage of the Homerites The Grecian Writers ignorant of the proper Name from the Royal City Axuma called them Axumites (k) Stephanus makes mention of these
Damota Dewaro Dombeja and its Provinces Enaria Fatagara Gafata Gajghe Ganna Ganz Gidm Gojam Gombo Gongha Guraghe Ifat Samen Se◠Sowa Shat. Tigra and its Prefectures Those which are under Bahrnagassus Walaka Wed. Tellez reckons more Others he omits More remarkable Provinces What the King of Habessinia possesss at this day THE Regions of which Ethiopia consists are neither equally nor with the same observance of number but variously set down Most of them enjoy the Name of the Kingdom Menghest or Ethiopia in General perhaps because in ancient times they had their proper Princes and peculiar Laws as we know that formerly Spain was divided into several Kingdoms of the same nature The rest in the Amharic Dialect are called Shumet Prefectures which are not however Governed by Vice-Roys but are under peculiar Governours of their own which being confounded with the Kingdoms so call'd Hist l. 18. must needs render the number of the Kingdoms uncertain Paulus Jovius distinguishes the Empire of the Habessines into more than forty Kingdoms others add yet more which are more easily set down in writing than demonstrated In Epist Ev. Johan Matthew the Armenian first Ambassador to the Portugals from the Abessines will needs have (a) Dam. à Goez de legat Indorum ad Emanuel 3. Lus. Reg. sixty Tesfa Sionus who set forth the New-Testament in Ethiopic affirms sixty two Kingdoms in Subjection to his Emperor Unless perhaps the Numerical Character for sixty be mistaken for that denoting only twenty of which sort there are most frequent faults both in Prophane and (b) Ludovic Capell in Critic Sacr. Lib. 1. Cap. 10. brings an Example of Sam. Bochart in Hieroz suo lib. 2. cap. 27. ad Maccab. 1.6.36 concerning thirty two Soldiers upon one Elephant Sacred Writers P. Nicolaus Godignus from the Relation of John Gabriel a Portugueze Collonel a Person of great Fame and one that had long resided in Ethiopia asserts That the Abessine Empire according to its ancient Right comprehends no less than twenty six Kingdoms and fourteen Provinces But he mixes some Neighbouring Kingdoms which are no way Subject to the King of the Abessines and some he also omits (c) Certainly Godignus's enumeration is most confused for the most part ill pronounced as Leca for Waleka And why does he reckon Adela and Aucagurecè among the number of the Kingdoms when the latter is onely the Metropolis and no Kingdom watered by the River Hawashi for so it ought to be written and yet confesses that the Inhabitants are no way Subject to the Abessine Emperor However most certain it is that we may safely reckon twenty computing those which the Gallans have subdued Gregory named thirty to me adding perhaps some small ones which others allow to be no more than Prefectures These I shall reckon up from his own mouth and as he wrote them down himself that the (d) This was very necessary by reason of the great variation and corruption of Names so frequent in all Authors Reader may be assured of their true and genuine Pronunciation The first and that the best and most fertile is the Kingdom of Tigra but for Nobleness Amhara exceeds it which we shall put in the first place the rest following according to the Order of the Latin Alphabet Amhara is now the most noble Kingdom of all Ethiopia by reason of those inaccessible Fortified Rocks Ghesen and Amhacel where formerly the Kings Sons excluded from the Kingdom were secured and is therefore accounted the Native Country of the late and present Kings and of all the Nobility It lies almost in the Center of Habessinia having on the North the Kingdom of Bagemder upon the West Nile and beyond that the Kingdom of Gojam Upon the South it views Walake and Eastward beholds Angota The Provinces that belong to it are these that follow 1 Akamba 2 Amhacel 3 Anbacit 4 Armon-em 5 Atronca Marjam 6 Bada-Bad 7 Barara 8 Batata 9 Beda-gadal 10 Dada 11 Dad 12 Demah 13 Ephrata 14 Ewarza 15 Feres-Bahr 16 Ganata-Ghiorghis 17 Gesha-bar 18 Grumghe 19 Ghel 29 Gheshe 21 Gheshen 22 Hagara Christos 20 Karna-Marjam 24 Kicarja 25 Lai-Kueita 26 Macana-Celece where Gregory was Born 27 Malza 28 Shegla 29 Tabor 39 Tadbaba-Marjam 31 Tat-Kueja 02 Walsa 33 Waro 34 Wagda 35 Wanz-egr 36 Zar-amba The Second Kingdom is Angot which is also called Hangot The Third Kingdom is Bagembder in the vulgar Mapps Bagamidri a large and fertile Kingdom watered with many Rivers Gregory compared it with our Germany saying Here is much water as in Bagemhder The River Bashlo divides it from Amhara It is distinguished into several Territories 1 Andabet the Trumpeters Countrey 2 Atcana 3 Dahr more particularly like Germany as Gregory said 5 Este 3 Guna 6 Koma 7 Maket bordering upon Angota 8 Mashalamja 9 Nafasmauca 10 Smada 11 Tzama 12 Wainalga famous for the slaughter of Grainus in the former Century 13 Wudo The fourth Kingdom is Bali most Easterlie which the Gallans first subdued and thence afflicted the Abessines with so many Calamities The fifth Kingdom is Bizamo divided from Gojam by the River Nile The sixth Kingdom is Bugna in some Mapps called Abugana a mountanous and small Kingdom The seventh Kingdom is Cambata the Inhabitants whereof are called Hadja or Hadiens From whence it comes to pass that Adea or Hadea is in the Mapps erroneously called a Kingdom It is the last Kingdom toward the South lying not far from Enarrea for the most part Christians but mixed with Pagans and Mahumetans The eighth Kingdom is Cont by the Portugals called Conch The ninth Kingdom is Damot a Southerly Kindom seated beyond Nile and the Gafats The tenth Kingdom is Dawaro the Eastern limits of the Empire adjoyning to the Southern part of Bali The eleventh Kingdom is Dembeja or Dembea a Kingdom now famous for the Royal Camp continually pitched there The Prefectures belonging to it are 1 Arebja 2 Decal-ariva 3 Dehhana 4 Edn 7 Gaba 6 Guender 7 Kuara 8 Nara 9 Sarako 10 Sera-karn 11 Takuesa 12 Tenqel 13 Tshelga as it were the Gates of Abuassia toward Sennar 14 Walwad The twelfth Kingdom is Enarea inhabited both by (d) By the Portugals called Narea by Godignus Nerea lib. 1. cap. 4. Christians and Gentiles This Kingdom was subdued by Melech-Saghed who converted the Governour thereof to the Christian Faith Gregory very much applauded the Inhabitants for their Probity and Integrity he said it was a fertile Soile and abounding in Gold adding That he had heard from the Portuguezes that this Kingdom was five and thirty days journey distant from the Indian Ocean but would not assert it for Truth The thirteenth Kingdom is Tatagar formerly inhabited by Christians Eastward adjoyning to Bali The fourteenth Kingdom is Gafat bordering upon Damota The fifteenth Kingdom is Gajghe pronounce it as the French do Gajegue The sixteenth Gan by the Portuguezes called Ganhe The seventeenth Ganz Erroneously joyned with Bali and in the feigned Title of
pronounced for Ksoa Shoa for Goyam Gojam and so onward But he laughed outright when I question'd him concerning the Kingdoms of Barnagassus Tigremahon (k) In the vulgar Tables also you shall find Tigre and Tigray as if they were two distinct Kingdoms Which error B. Telles severely reprehends L. 1. Ch. 4. and Ambiancantiva For after a short hesitation he understood them to be compound words in which the Titles of the Vice-Roys were conjoyned with the Names of the Regions over which they were made Governors and besides that very much corrupted by the Portugal pronunciation and spelling For Barnagasso in the Amharic Language extends it self to Bahr-Nagash a compound word of Bahr which signifies the Sea and Nagash a Governour as much as to say a Commander or Admiral at Sea Tigremahon corruptly for Tigre-macuonen that is to say Judge or President of Tigre Ambian-cantiva for Dembea-cantiba that is Governour or President of Dembea The same inference happens to the most noble City and Court of Royal Residence Axuma which never appears in the Mapps by reason that the Portugals pronounce Axum Acassum for they cast away the A as an Article of declension and adding their own termination O made it Cassumo Upon which City we stood pausing a long time before we could tell what to make of it I pass by an innumerable company of other mistakes which rendred the Mapp altogether useless to me Nor is it to be doubted but the same thing often falls out in other Exotic Tables So that unless a Man can divine the Language of the Author or where he was born it is impossible but he must read the Names of the plaes most extravagantly For we find that because the Modern Europeans have no Letters of their own but onely have accommodated the Latin Letters to their own sounds it comes to pass that one and the same Letter is variously pronounced by various Nations which frequently appears in Consonants conjoyned As for Example Ch among the Germans Belgians and Polonians is a rough Aspiration like the Hebrew ח or the Greek Χ. Among the Italians Ch is pronounced like a k among the French like an Hebrew ש But among the English Spaniards and Portugueses who alone genuinely pronounce the word China there is a kind of hissing compos'd between the Letter Z. and sch which the Italians express by a C before e or i the Polonians by Ch the Hebrews more lively in their ש the Germans Sch the English by Sh the French Ch the Italians Sc before e and i and which the Portugueses would do by their Letter X but that they are unwilling to have it a superfluous Letter in their Alphabet For which reason it would be very requisite that the Publishers of Foraign Mapps should also Publish their Instructions and tell the World according to what Pronounciation the Names of Countries and Cities ought to be read Or else that in the compiling of some universal Geographical Work care might be taken to add such an Index as should be the standard of Pronunciation in every Country to prevent the common mistakes We must acknowledge that our Chorographick Table is not without its defects For though Gregorie were sufficiently skill'd in the Names and Situation of places yet he was ignorant of the Degrees of the Sphere and Elevation of the Pole Therefore in the first Mapps of Habessinia which I made I follow'd the Longitude and Latitude of the vulgar Tables but because I found them false in that too we thought it more prudence not to Publish any at all I must confess being in company with certain Persons of Learning and Quality upon a (l) There not makes mention of that which I gave to the Elector of Ments in his Remarks upon the History of Ethiopia I presented one also to Frederick 3d. King of Danemark another to Charles Lewis the Elector Palatine and some others I could not refuse the same satisfaction of their curiosity discourse that happen'd concerning Ethiopia after I had made my Apology I produc'd a Manuscript exemplar of both sorts But such they were that should they ever come to light by any misfortune I dare not be responsible for their Credit But at length having happen'd upon the Chorographick Table of Tellezius delineated by the Fathers of the Society with the help of the Astrolabe I made no scruple to retain the Degrees as by them set down and then to make them common together with a new Mapp for universal information I have added the Midland Regions tho without any adventure of justification in regard those Regions by reason of their vast distance being so seldom visited by Travellers afford little of certainty CHAP. V. Of the Nature of the Soil Temper of the Air Tempests Winds and such like Meteors The Air uncertain Wonderful effects of heat The Torrid Zone is nevertheless habitable The high places cold No Snow The temper and wholesomness of the Air. Horrid Thunders A dirty Winter describ'd by Gregory Diversity of Tempests in the same situation The four seasons of the year different from the Europeans The beginning of the Spring the 25th of Septemb. They have only three seasons of the year the days and nights almost always equal Their dawnings and evenings very short The most impetuous wind call'd a Snake The two sorts of Whirl-winds Prestor and Typhon most raging and pernicious IN so many and such various Regions the Constitution of the Air is as various In low and open places which the Abessines call Kolla the heat of the Sun is intolerable such as Seneca describes in these words The stones burn as if neal'd in the fire not onely in the middle of the day but also toward the evening the Silver unsoders the footsteps of men are impatient of the scorching sand The fastening of the standard melts No exterior covering of outward Ornament remains In which respect both coasts of the Red Sea have but a bad report as also the Islands especially Suaquena whose heat Gregorie many times us'd to call Infernal For said he it excoriates the Skin melts hard Indian wax in a Cabinet and sears your shoos like a red hot Iron But these Persons consider'd not the nature of those People that inhabit that Country much less have they weighed with themselves the strange Patience of those that covet rule and dominion who can endure the parching beams of the Sun and willingly too though unus'd to those immoderate violences of raging heat However the ancient Philosophers were in a very great error that believ'd the (m) Aristot Meteorotog L. 2. c. 11. and his followers Torrid Zone unhabitable or that the middle parts of the Earth where the Sun continually moves should be parch'd up with flames and tosted with the raging fire (n) The Spaniards have a Proverb he that is intent upon his own Interest minds not in conveniences Assuredly there are some Philosophers who deliver things uncertain and unprov'd for real and assured
truths and discourse in such a manner of the nature of the Air the Heavens and the Stars as if their residence had long been there For that the Air is colder upon the Mountains all Nations in their own Countries find by experience but that the Air is cold of it self and not warmed but by the repercussion of the Suns beams among the exhalations of the Earth is the opinion of other sage Philosophers which exhalations in the lower Region near the Earth rise more close and condens'd in the upper parts more thin and rarify'd so that tho the lower parts frie with heat high places freez the cool nature of the Air not suffering any alteration through the defect of heat Therefore the higher you ascend the Mountains of Ethiopia from the coast of the Red Sea the more temperate you shall feel the Air insomuch that as Tellezius witnesses in many Regions of Ethiopia the Summer heats are more mild then in Portugal so many degrees distant toward the North. Nay there are some Mountainous Countries as in Samen where the cold is more dreaded than the heat Nevertheless there falls none or very little Snow in those parts only a certain small sort of Hail sometimes covers the ground which at a distance looks like Snow It was a thing not known to Gregorie for as I Travelled with him over the Mountains of Tirol toward the end of September seeing some Snow that had fallen a little before crying out Haritz Haritz full of admiration he called it Meal From such a temper of the Air it follows that the Country must needs be healthy and consequently the Inhabitants sane and vivacious insomuch that some of them live to a hundred years of Age. Onely in Tigra toward the beginning of the Ethiopic Spring that is to say in the Months of September and October Feavers are very rise However this variety of the Air is the cause of most dreadful Thunders Which when Gregory describ'd he astonish'd his hearers For upon the rising of several Tempests altogether the Skie is of a sudden cover'd over with black and thick as it were Globes of smokie Clouds by and by the Thunder breaks forth on every side ratling continually with Lightning as incessantly flashing enough to amaze the most resolute and most accustom'd to the noise Their Rains are very violent powering from the Clouds not by drops but as it were in streams With those the torrents being swell'd rowle along with that rapid fury that they carry Trees and Stones and all things before ' em All their Rivers overflow and then the high ways being either covered with water or else all mirie and dirtie 't is a most tedious thing to Travel And this enduring three Months together renders their Winters very unpleasant Gregory describ'd the Ethiopian Winter to me in these words The Ethiopian Winters are not caus'd onely by the Rain which falls from the Skie for the Earth also opens her mouth and vomits up water There is a Fountain in every man's house if it stands low And therefore we never Build in low places but in high grounds So many and so great Rivers and Springs of water out of the Earth and such violent Rains are no where the like to be seen as in our Country This tempestuous weather is so troublesome and tedious to Forraigners that in a dispute which happen'd between an Abossine and an Egyptian about the excellency of their Countries when the first vaunted to the latter the natural fertilitie of Abessinia the temperateness of the Air their double Harvests and other benefits of the Country adding withall That the Egyptians cannot live without the assistance of Ethiopia in regard that Nilus fatten'd Egypt with the Mud of Ethiopia without which both Man and Beast would perish for want of Sustenance the Egyptian retorted upon the Abyssinian upbraiding him with the prodigious Showers the rapid Torrents the steep and rugged Mountains and the dreadful Thunders that render'd the Country so unpleasant upon which the Victory was allow'd on his side Nor does the season of the Winter keep the same Months nor the same Temperature in all places alike tho the situation may be the same for it is not only milder in some places sharper in others but also in different Months from our Climate Which was of old observ'd by (p) In the History of his Embassy some Collections out of which are to be seen in Bibliothec. Photii n. 3. p.m. 2. Nonnosus Ambassador from the Emperour Justinian to the King of the Axumites who travelling those Parts himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. From the City of the Adulites as far as Aüe the same Summer and Drouth affects the Air as with us From Aüe towards Axuma the Winter is very rigorous c. Gregory told me That the Coast of the Red Sea and all that two days Journey from the Shore to the Mountains of Ethiopia the Winter keeps its Station in November December and January as in Europe but they differ nothing in the Degrees of Latitude So that it is not always true what some (q) See the Notes upon Cluverius's Introduction to Geography l. 1. c. 5. and Aristot l. 2. de Meteorologic who without experience writes That the Heat and Cold do not exceed in regard of the Longitude but in regard of the Latitude Geographers have written That the Perioeci or those that dwell under the same Meridian have the same Winter and Summer Now what the Winter of that Coast is you may easily guess from the answer of Gregory who being ask'd upon a very sultry day whether it were not very hot in Germany made answer To day has been something hot Such is the Winter in Suaqena which is an Island upon that Coast Being ask'd concerning the Seasons of the Year he answer'd The Season Matzau the Season of Flowers or the Spring The Season Tzadai the Season of Harvest or Autumn The Season Hagai or the Summer The Season Crampt or Winter Thus he reckon'd the four Seasons But there is not the same reason for them nor the same benefits by them as with us nor could Gregory himself reconcile them with ours Matzau indeed may deservedly be call'd the Spring because it succeeds the Winter and covers the Fields with Grass and Flowers It begins upon a certain day of the Month that is upon the 25th of September But the Tzadai of the Ethiopians cannot be call'd properly Autumn as Gregory imagin'd for it is the second part of the year that succeeds the Spring and exhilarates the Husbandman with ripen'd Fruits and therefore ought more truly to be call'd Summer But how Hagai is to be interpreted is a question it is the third part of the year yet cannot justly be call'd Autumn in regard the Habessines are ignorant of any benefit they receive by it They get no Vintage in but are parch'd with extremity of Heat and therefore they oppose this hottest time of the year to the sharpest Cold of
Grass always no Hay sundry sorts of Herbs Amadmagda cures broken Bones Assazoi intoxicates Serpents The ancient Psylli safe by the vertue of this Herb. Oyl of Saffron They want Hops Grapes they have but no Wine They abound in Sugar want Spices The Indian Fig Manz perhaps the Dudaim of the Hebrews No Pears nor Apples Citrons c. they have Their Trees Ensete a Pot-herb Another Tree that kills Worms in Children The Herb and Fruite Called in Hebrew Dudaim Gen. 30.14 and Cant. 7.13 In the Arabic language Mauz or Muza The Indian Figg Book 1. Chap. 9. P. 48. 1. The Herb it self growing like a tree 2. The ripe fruit 40 or 50 upon one stalke 3. One Figg to the full proportion 4. The young shootes that spring from the root of the tree every yeare Herbs of all sorts grow in this Country not only the fragrant and medicinal Plants of Europe but some more peculiar and of admirable vertue The Amadmagda cures broken and dis-joynted Bones contrary to the Ossifraga of Norway which snaps the Bones of Cattel that tread upon it The Herb Assazoe is of that rare vertue against the biting of Asps that the most hurtful Serpents touch'd with this Herb are streight intoxicated and lye for dead He that eats of the Root of this Herb may walk without danger in the midst of Adders and Water-Snakes and for many years shall be free from the fear of them In so much that some of the Habessines have been seen after they have eaten of this Root to handle the most venomous Snakes like Eels twist 'em about their Necks and then to kill 'em when they had done shewing tricks with ' em So Providence ordering the most efficacious Remedies where the Poysons are mos pernicious Which makes me believe that it was not a thing peculiar or a particular faculty in the Psylli an ancient People of Africa that they could cure the biting of Serpents but got by the use of this Herb only they kept the thing secret to render themselves the more admired For they made a Trade of it by carrying Venemous Animals about the World without danger for the sight whereof the more curious gave them Money Garden Saffron which the Ethiopians call Denguelet is frequent in Habesinia the Seed of it Gregory shewed me for a great Rarity and cryed up the Oyl which was to be pressed out of it against the Hypocondriacal Evil and Obstructions of the Spleen They want Hopps and boyl their Drink without it And therefore Gregory finding that it was the vertue of the Hopps which kept our Drink so long took great care to carry some of the Seed along with him into his own Country Their Vine and Grapes are most Transcendant but they never make any Wines whether out of ignorance or because the Grapes being ripen'd in Summer the excessive heat hastens the fermentation and sowers the Liquor before the Lee be setled They abound in Sugar but as for Pepper Ginger and other such like Spices they have none rather out of carelesness to Plant as I believe than through the fault of the Soyl which considering the variety of the Air and the continual heat of some Places seems most proper for such a sort of Husbandrie The Indian Figg also which the Arabians call Muz or Mauz grows plentifully here a most Excellent Fruit it is and you shall have fifty Figgs about the bigness and shape of a Cucumber hanging upon one stalk of a most delicious odour and taste They are ripe in June as I learnt from the Itinerary of Prince Radzevile who had seen some of them near Damascus where they are rare for they require a hotter Climate Which Circumstances make me believe that this same Fruit may be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dudaim mention'd in Genesis which occasion'd so much discontent between the two Wives of Jacob. Soon after I observ'd that many others Learned Men lighted upon the same Conjecture though they do not give their Reasons For in my Opinion it should be some rare and pleasant Fruit that should move the Boy to gather it yet not so much a Boy neither as to think it worth his while to carry home a stinking Mandrake which could be a fruit little worth contending for Besides Rachel might have sent her Servant as well to have gathered Amiable Flowers as some render the Word that is to say Lillies Violets or the like And besides the Hebrew word seems to confirm this Opinion as being in the dual Number and seeming to infer a relation of more than one Fruit to one and the same Stalk Apples and Pears such as grow in our Climates they have none For at what time they Ripen with us Storms and Tempests rage in Habessinia For the Trees as I have heard the Habessines acknowledge observe our Seasons sprout forth and shed their Leaves in the same Month with ours but with the Plants it is otherwise which Flower there in our Winter However they have Pome-Citrons Abricots Peaches and Pomegranates rip'ned to their full and due Perfection Gregory admired to behold our Woods of tall Firrs some seventy some eighty Foot high and often call'd them Arbores benedictas blessed Trees especially when he heard how useful they were towards the building of Ships and Houses However we do not find but that Ethiopia has its share of tall Trees as well as other Countries But the Tree which goes by the Name of Ensete is not to be pass'd over without Admiration being like that which bears the Indian Figg two fathoms in thickness For being half cut down it renews again by means of innumerable shouts that spring again from the remaining Trunk all which is fit to be eaten so that there is no need that the Tree should bear any other Fruit it being all Pot-herb of it self For being slic'd and boyl'd it asswages the Thirst of the common sort of People who bruise the Leaves and boyl them with Meal and then eat the Composition instead of a Hastie-pudding There is another Tree which Godignus praises most excellent against the Worms in the Belly a Distemper frequent among the Abessines by reason of their feeding upon Raw Flesh For remedy whereof the Habessines Purge themselves once a Moneth with the Fruit of this Tree which causes them to Void all their Worms CHAP. X. Of Fourfooted Beasts Oxen of a stupendious bigness the Cause Bull-Elephants their Horns The Heards of Africa The Graziers of Bek Generous Horses of various Colours Horses for War Mules for other occasions taught to amble by Art Camells onely useful in level Grounds The ponderous tails of their Sheep in Sacred Writ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alia Flocks of Elephants They lay the Countrey waste make High-ways they fodder upon Trees Docible they observe the Laws of Hospitality The Habessines more properly call those things Horns which we call Teeth they never make any attempt upon Man they are careful of their Probosces none tame in Ethiopia The
Empty The People of the Country aver that they are not their Teeth but their Horns of which the Ivory is made and indeed their substance and situation demonstrate the same thing for they grow out of the Head and not out of the Jaws and besides that they only adorn the brows of the Males the Females like our Does have none at all The Elephant never offers to attempt upon any person unless provok'd if he be threatn'd with sticks or cudgels he hides his Probosces under his Belly and goes away braying for he is sensible it may be easily chop'd off the extream parts of it being very nervous and tender which cause him to be afraid of hard blows At the end of it three little sharp pointed Langets come forth by the help of which he can take up the smallest thing that is as men do with their fingers They never take care to tame them here where there is no use of them either in Peace or War among so many high Mountains The next is the Camelo-pardalis or Panther-Camel which is and bulkie as the Elephant but far exceeds him in tallness For this Beast is so very high that a man of a just Statue reaches but up to his knees so that it seems very credible what is reported That a Man on horseback sitting upright on his saddle may ride under his Belly He derives his Name from hence that he has a long Head and a long Neck like a Camel but a Skin spotted all over like a Panther The Romans when they first beheld this Beast called it a Wild-Sheep tho being more remarkable for its Aspect then its Wildness or Fierceness as we read in Pliny By the Abissines by reason of the smallness of his Tayl he is call'd Jeratakaein that is slender Tayl by the Italians Giraffa from the Arabian word Zucaffa But there is a Beast which is called Zecora which for beauty exceeds all the Four-footed Creatures in the World They of Congo give it the Name of Zebra This Creature is about the bigness of a Mule and is brought out of the Woods of Habessinia and the Countries possessed by the Galans and easily tam'd A present of great esteem and frequently given to the Kings of Habessinia Tellez briefly describes him thus A Circle of a black Colour encompasses his Loyns like a girdle adjoyning to which Nature has pencill'd out several others some broader some narrower some black and some of a bright shining Ash-Colour with so much Elegancy and Order as no Painters Art can equalize His Eares are the only thing that disfigures him being of a disproportionable length for which reason he is called by the Portugals Burro do Matto though improperly the wild Ass But you may guess at his beauty by his price For King Susneus having given one of these Beasts to the Turkish Basha of Suaqena he sold the same for Two thousand Venetian Pieces to a certain Indian that bought him for a Present to the great Mogul Book 1. Chap. 10. Page 57 A Description of the APES 1. Scrambling about the Mountains 2. Remoueing great huge Stones to come at the wormes 3. Sitting upon Ant Hills and devouring the little Creatures 4. Throwing sand or dust in the eyes of wild beast that came to sett upon them Tygers and Panthers are much more Cruel and Fierce than Lyons for they never spare Mankind yet they covet the Ethiopians before White-men as more accustomed to that sort of Dyet These two Beasts differ only in (e) Panthers and Tygers are the only Beasts remarkable for the variety of their Spots saith Pliny L. 8. c. 17. In which place the Panther is taken for the Leopard but when the Panther is oppos'd to the Leopard then it is to be taken for the Tygre For the Antients have not accurately enough distinguished these Beasts as being very much like to one another and very rarely or never seen together They knew there were two sorts of Beasts but to which to give the true name they either knew not or very much doubted Colour for the Panthers are brown spotted with black the Tigers gold-Coloured with fine black Spots like Five leav'd Grass they are Beasts of a dreadful celerity and boldness by Night they break into Villages and make doleful Massacres among the poor innocent Cattle yet Alvarez affirms That these Burcheries never happen in Midra-Bahrà As for their Wolves they are small and lazie such as Africa and Aegypt bred in former times as Pliny testifies L. 8. c. 22. But the Hyaena or the Crocuta neer akin to the Wolfe is the most Voracious of all the wild Beasts (f) Begot between a Hyena and a Lioness familiar to Ethiopia See Solinus c. 65. and Salmatius upon him for she not only by Night and by stealth but openly and in the day time Preys upon all she meets with Men or Cattle and rather than fail diggs down the walls of Houses and Stables Gregory describ'd her to be speckl'd with black and white spots Of Apes there are infinite Flocks up and down in the Mountains themselves a thousand and more together there they leave no stone unturn'd If they meet with one that two or three cannot lift they call for more Ayd and all for the sake of the Worms that lye under a sort of Dyet which they relish exceedingly They are very greedy after Emmets So that having found an Emmet-hill they presently surround it and laying their fore Paws with the hollow downward upon the Ant-heap as fast as the Emmets creep into their treacherous Palmes they lick 'em off with great comfort to their Stomachs and there they will lie till there is not an Emmet left They are also pernicious to fruit and Apples and will destroy whole Fields and Gardens unless they be carefully look'd after For they are very cunning and will never venture in till the return of their Spies which they send always before who giving Information that all things are safe in they rush with their whole Body and make a quick dispatch Therefore they go very quiet and silent to their Prey and if their young ones chance to make a noise they chastise them with their fists but if they find the Coast clear then every one hath a different noise to express his joy Nor could there be any way to hinder them from further Multiplying but that they fall sometimes into the ruder hands of the wild Beasts which they have no way to avoid but by a timely flight or creeping into the clefts of the Rocks If they find no safety in flight they make a vertue of necessity stand their ground and filling their Paws full of Dust or Sand fling it full in the Eyes of their Assailant and then to their Heels again But there is another sort of Creature very harmless and exceeding sportive call'd in the Ethiopic Language Fonkes in the Amharc Dialect Guereza which is a kind of Marmoset and in Latine Cercopitheculus Of which the
Mankind Other sorts of Serpents commonly and generally known I forbear to mention The vulgar sort of People contemn 'em walk among 'em and kill 'em at their pleasure Therefore as often as they go into the Country they carry with them a croked stick for being streight it hits only with the Point but being bent like a Bow it strikes with greater force and certainty Gregory hearing there were a great many Serpents about Helburgh in Franconia belonging to the Duke of Saxony provided himself with such a sort of Weapon and when he met a Snake never struck it upon the head but upon the middle of the back by which means having disabled the Serpent from creeping any further he easily kill'd it Those parts of Africa which are most subject to heat are most Infested with Serpents which being for the same reason uncultivated are therefore impassable And therefore Gregory seeing our Boots said they were excellent defences against the Biting of Serpents Sometimes they drive their Cattle as I am apt to believe fortified before-hand by feeding upon the Plant Assazoe into the Fields and places that are strew'd with Serpents Eggs on purpose that they should trample 'em to pieces with their Hoofs otherwise they are so Fruitful that they would encrease beyond Imagination But much more pernicious than these are the Locusts which do not frequent the Desert and Sandy places like the Serpents but places best Manur'd and Orchards most laden with Fruit. They appear in Prodigious Multitudes like a thick Cloud that obscures the Sun nor Plants nor Shrubs nor Trees remain untouch'd and wheresoever they feed their leavings seem as it were parch'd with the Fire Sometimes they enter the very Bark of the Trees and then the Spring it self cannot repair the Damage A general Mortality ensues and Regions lye wast for many years in regard the Habessines never take care (e) Dapper in his Description of Guiny or the Golden-shoar p. 459. but in this he is deceiv'd because he says they came out of Arabia the Happy so far off for Stores of Provision or to stack their Hay Indeed for some time they may support themselves by feeding upon the Locusts themselves which they greedily eat as well to satisfie their hunger as in Revenge for it is a very sweet and wholesom sort of Dyet by means of which a certain Portuguez Garrison in India that was ready to yield for want of Provision held out till it was Relieved another way And therefore it is not to be doubted but that St. John the Baptist fed upon these Locusts in the Wilderness Concerning other Insects of which that Climate is sufficiently fruitful it will be needless to say much more only as to their Bees we have this to observe That they swarm in Habessinia and produce Prodigious quantities of Honey They are a small sort of black Earthing Bee which make the whitest and the sweetest Honey that is used in Medicaments From their Labours the Habessines gather their wild Honey of the same nature with that which fed John the Baptist but in regard they want Stings they seek for security in concealment for they build their Architecture under Ground into which the entrance is so narrow that upon the sight of a man five or six of them will fill it and place their little heads equal with the ground so like Artists as to delude the quickest sight Next to these their Ants or Emmets are very remarkable of which there are likewise several sorts not so bigg as a small Dogg (f) This I rather believe than the story of Plinie L. 11. 9. 30. concerning Emmets among the Northern Indians that dig up great pieces of Gold themselves as big as Egyptian Foxes Soline also makes them as big as great Doggs Polyhist c. 40. al. 27. such as Thuanus relates was sent among other Presents by Thamus the Persian King to Solyman Emperour of the Turks but bigger than those in our Climates as the African and Indian Insects generally are Among the rest the most observable are those which they call Gundan for they always march in a kind of Military Array observing Order and Discipline leaving a kind of High-way behind them They do not gather with industry but presently devour and the pricks of their Stings are not a little painful The next to these are those which by the Inhabitants are call'd the Gundan's Servants being as it were Slaves to the Greater sort they march in Order but carry their Provision in the nippers of their little Snowts and lay it up when it is moist they bring it forth again and dry it in the Sun of these by reason of their great Industry it is thought that Solomon spake There are some that have Wings at certain seasons with which they can Fly which happens sometimes in Germanie once I saw such in my own Country and these flying Ants I remember were easily devoured by the Poultrie CHAP. XIV Of the Nature and Genius of the Inhabitants The Habessines of a towardly disposition The commendations which Tellezius gives them The best of all the Africans Servants of this Nation priz'd all over the World Prester-Chan why so called The Habessines desirous of Arts and Sciences especially the Latine Tongue The causes of Gregorie's going into Germany They want the Opportunities of attaining to Learning and why They of Tygra are blam'd For shape and features the Habessines excell White Ethiopians in Guiny They prefer Blackness They paint the Devil White The Men very strong So are the Women and bring forth with little pain Nor are they unfruitful and therefore the Country Populous The Jews Inhabiting among them formerly enjoy'd their own Priviledges now Dispers'd and Exiles They use a corrupt Talmudic Dialect Mahumetans mixt with Christians Pagans innumerable wandring Naked Creatures by the Portugals call'd Cafres or Infidels HAving thus given an account of the Beasts Insects and Fish peculiar to these Regions we are now to speak of the Inhabitants Man being the most perfect of all the Creation and for whose benefit the rest were designed And first we must confess That there is not the same harshness and roughness in the Dispositions of the People as in the nature of the Soyl for the Habessines as Tellezius Witnesses in other things not so just to them are well inclin'd and of an excellent good Nature All the Habessines saith he are endu'd with a pregnant Wit and goodness of Disposition not Cruel nor Bloody they easily forgive Injuries there are few Quarrels among them or if any do arise they are seldom determin'd by the Sword only Boxing and Cuffing decides the difference They are Naturally given to Justice and Equity so that having Cufft a while they presently choose Arbitrators or repair to the Lord of the Place and there set forth their Complaint in Words without any of our Parchment Ambiguities and hearing the Sentence which he gives submit without any delay or tergiversation So that they have no need
Polyhist c. 43. al. 30. out of Pomponius Mela. The Long-livers or Macrobii saith he Honour Justice Love Equitie they are very strong and particularly well-favoured But presently after he brings in the old Fable the Fable of the Sun which Herodotus sets forth at large L. 3. where he Treats of the Ambassie of Cambyses to the King of the Macrobii Their Women are also strong and lusty and bring forth with little pain as most Women do in hot Countries When they are in Labour they kneel down upon their knees and so are (l) Thus did the Hebrew Women as it is said of Elis Daughter in Law She fell upon her knees and brought forth delivered without the help of a Midwife unless very rarely And that they are Fruitful you may well imagine from the Multitude of People for though Habessinia be not so numerously Inhabited yet the Latine Patriarch Alphonsus Mendez going his Visitation in one little Province reckon'd Forty thousand in other places a Hundred thousand and in other places others of the Fathers Baptiz'd a Thousand two hundred and five Nor is it to be question'd but that if the Kingdom were at Peace if their Cities and Towns were Fortify'd and that they took care of their Granaries that the number of Inhabitants in so healthy a Country would soon be multiply'd Besides the Abyssines several other Nations Inhabit this Kingdom Jews Mahumetans with several Pagans mix'd amongst the rest The Jews formerly held several fair and large Provinces almost all Denbea as also Wegara and Samen stoutly and long Defending themselves by means of the Rocks till they were driven thence by Susneus at that time they also liv'd according to their own Customs whence perhaps arose the report already hinted at by us That they liv'd either within the Dominions of Prester John or near them under a Prince of their own Now they are dispers'd though many still remain in Dembea getting their livings by Weaving and exercising the Trade of Carpenters Others have retired themselves without the bounds of the Kingdom to the Westward near the River Nile adjoyning to the Cafers whom the Ethiopians call Falusjan or Exiles Most of them still keep up their own Synagogues have their own Hebrew Bibles and speak in a corrupt Talmudic Dialect The Fathers of the Society never took care to enquire when or upon what occasion the Jews came first into Ethiopia whether they are addicted to the Sect of the Karri or the Jews what Sacred Books they use whether with Points or without Points whether they have any other Books especially Histories or whether they have any Traditions concerning their own or Nation of the Habessines which to know would certainly be most grateful to many Learned Men in regard it seems very probable that there may be found some Ancient Books among them since they have liv'd so long and so securely in such inaccessible holds Next to these the Mahumetans are frequently admitted into this Kingdom intermix'd up and down the Country with the Christians employing themselves altogether in Tillage or Merchandizing Trade being all in their hands by reason of their freedom of Traffick which the Turks and Arabians grant them and the liberty of Commerce which they have by their means in all the parts of the Red Sea where they exchange the Habessinian Gold for Indian Wares There are yet many other Barbarous Nations that wander about in the sandy Deserts having no knowledge of God and living without any Government of King or Laws varying in Customes and Language having no certain Habitations but where Night compells them to rest Savage Naked flat Nos'd and blubber Lipp'd Agriophagi devourers of wild Beasts or rather Pamphagi All-eaters for they feed upon (m) For many of the Barbarians have been nam'd from the particular Dyet they fed upon as the Man-Eaters Fish-Eaters Ostrich-Eaters c. Solin in Polyhist c. 30 al. 43. Plin. L. 6. c. 30. Dragons Elephants and whatever they meet in their way The most sordid and vilest of Human Creatures L. 5. c. 8. Gregory described them to me as Pliny described the Troglodytes for they dig themselves Dens in the Earth which are instead of Houses they feed upon Serpents Flesh their Language being only an inarticulate Noise the Portuguezes called these sort of people Cafers borrowing the Word from the Arabians who call all People that deny one God Cafir in the plural Number Cafruna Infidels or Incredulous There are also other Pagans that have their peculiar Names and Regions as the Agawi that Inhabit the Mountainous part of Gojam the Gongae Gafates and the Gallans themselves otherwise the most professed Enemies of the Abessines but being expell'd by Factions of their own the King Assign'd them certain Lands in Gojam and Dembea and makes use of them against their own Country-men from whence they Revolted CHAP. XV. Of the various Languages us'd in Ethiopia particularly of our Ethiopic Erroneously call'd Chaldaic in the last Century The Antiquity of the Ethiopic Language its various Appellations formerly the natural Language of those of Tigra in that all their Books written The Tegian Language what Joh. Potken first divulg'd the Ethiopic in Europe and call'd it Chaldee by mistake more like the Arabic the use of it in the Hebraics An Example in the words Adama and Adam not so called from the Redness of the Earth What now the natural Habassian It differs from the Ethiopic which is much more noble to be learnt by reading and use for that they have neither Grammer nor Lexicon Few understand it difficult to pronounce Multitude of Dialects Eight Principal Languages They understand not the Greek The number of Languages in vain prefix'd not so numbred in Africa AMong so many and such variety of Nations it is no wonder there should be such diversity of Languages The most Noble and most Ancient Language of this Kingdom is our Ethiopic commonly so call'd by the Learned for the Attaining of which we set forth a Lexicon and Grammer some while since in England 1661. the Abissines call it Lesana Itjopia the Language of Ethiopia or Lesana Gheez and sometimes singly Gheez or the Language of the Kingdom or if you please the Language of the Study for that the Word signifies both also the Language of Books either because it is only us'd in Writing or else because it is not to be attained without Study and Reading of Books It was formerly the Natural Language of those of Tigra when the Kings kept their Court at Aexuma the Metropolis of Tigra in this Language all their Books as well Sacred as Prophane were written and still are written and into this Language the Bible was formerly Translated For whereas others Write that the Abessines read the Scripture in the Tegian Language (n) Walton in his Prolegomena before the Bible c. 15. out of Alvarez for the r. and the i. written without a Point after the Italian manner deceiv'd the Readers that 's a mistake for
due Priviledges His Prerogative in Ecclesiastical Affairs was most apparently made manifest by the making of that severe Decree for the abrogating the Latin Worship and restoring that of Alexandria Moreover the King summons the Synods of the Clergy as often as need requires he sends for the Metropolitan out of Egypt exercising plenary Jurisdiction over him and all the rest of his Clergy and punishing them according to the nature of their Offences which the Examples recited by Alvarez sufficiently demonstrate In one thing however he differs from our European Kings that he never nominates to Ecclesiastical Benefices For the Patriarch of Alexandria sends a Metropolitan at the request of the King indeed but he knows not who or what he is He also admitted the Patriarch whom the Pope sent tho not he but the King of Portugal nam'd him Neither are there in Ethiopia any other Ecclesiastical Dignities and therefore the Prerogative of nominating Bishops and Archbishops signifies little or nothing In Seculars he acknowledges no positive Laws And well it were that he did not think himself also altogether free from the Fundamental Laws of his Realm upon which the Safety of the Kingdom depends For Naod dispenc'd with the wholesome Constitutions of his Ancestors by vertue of which the Kings Children were sent to the Rock of Amhara And Malec-Saghed would have preferr'd his natural Son Jacob before his Brothers Legitimate Son Zadenghel both which prov'd very disadvantagious presidents to the whole Nation But such things frequently come to pass where the Kingdome is without Estates For they are the most Trusty Guardians of the Law and the true Bulwarks of the Peoples Liberty against the Encroachments of the Ambitious For they have a more vigilant eye and tender care over the Common-weal of which they are themselves Members than the Friends of Princes whose Fortunes hardly descend to their Heirs so that a man may admire at their Counsels who taking away the Priviledges of Estates endeavour to assume the whole Power into their own hands as deeming every slight bond of the Law to themselves heavy and intollerable So that they are forc'd to distribute those Favours and Kindnesses which are due to their fellow Citizens among the Souldiery whose fidelity is brittle and inconstant not caring who are poor so they be rich and many times the Souldiers turn those Arms which were put into their hands for the defence of their Prince against him being put upon the ferment either by the Ambition or the Wealth of some particular person Which in Habessinia as in all other absolute Goverments frequently happens to the destruction of those that bear the sway He has also the sole disposal of Peace or Warr and indeed all the Prerogatives that a King can claim both the greater and the lesser Regalia are solely at his devotion tho he makes no use of many of them merely because he is ignorant of them as the Prerogative in reference to Metals Coyning of Money and the like As for the liberty of Hunting he grants it to all in regard there are such multitudes of Wild Beasts that breed up and down in the over-grown Woods and high Mountains that it is not onely troublesome but dangerous to find out their haunts by which means that which in other Countries is a Pleasure to the Abessines becomes a Toyl and Detriment One thing is much to be admir'd and rare ev'n among the Turks which is that no private person whether Peasant or Lord except some few can call any thing his own All the Lands and Farms in the Country belong to the King and are held by the Subjects onely at the Kings pleasure so that no man takes it amiss if the King takes away their Lands and bestowes them upon another as he pleases himself and that not onely after two or three years but also the same year they were given So that it often happens that one man ploughs and another man sowes Whence it comes to pass that they are more submissive to their Kings then a Servant to his Master or a Vassal to his Lord they serve him in Peace and War and bring him Presents according to their Ability in hopes of obtaining new Farms or for fear of losing those they have For being commanded out of possession they never grumble but presently obey without the least distast against the King or envy to the person that succeeds in their Room Custome and long use prevailing while they see the same happening to others However there are some ancient and Illustrious Families especially in Tigra who enjoy by right of Inheritance not only Lands and Possessions purchas'd by their Ancestors but some certain Prefectures also retaining their ancient Title as Bahr-Nagash Shum Serawè Sirè Temben and others as also Cantiba in Dembea over whom the King claims no other Authority than to confer the public Employments every two year or yearly or as he pleases upon others yet so as that they be of the same Family CHAP. X. Of the Power and Revenues of the Habessine Kings The Power of the Habessine Kings formerly great Formidable to their Neighbours it fail'd after the Saracens came in Play Yet strong at home till the Adelan War and Incursions of the Gallans Easie to be restor'd The wayes and means Our Princes unkind to Forraign Christians Demonstrated by Examples They took no care of their Sea Ports The Kings Revenues the Natural Commodities of the Country what they are His Tribute Farms Herds the Prices of things low The King has enough to supply him both in Peace and War SO great and so absolute a Power and so uncontroulable a Dominion over their Subjects one would think should render the Kings of Ethiopia vastly Potent and so no doubt it would if other things were correspondent Certainly of old it was vastly great when they kept their Courts at (o) Nonnosus in Bibliothec. Phot. n. 3. calls the Ethiopians the Homerites and Saracens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stoutest of the Nations at that time Axuma for there was no considerable Empire near then to withstand their Fortune and for that cause the adjoyning petty-Princes were all at the devotion of the Habessinian Kings But as to what several have written through mistake or misapplication of the name (p) Scal. in his notes ad Comp. Eccl. Ethiop but I know not by what Authority of their Expeditions into the North parts of Asia they are all meer fables and figments Yet this cannot be deny'd but that formerly they were very terrible to the neighbouring Nations for they made several Expeditions into (q) The Arabians wont to use this Computation From the Invasions of the Abessines For so Altcodajus They computed their years from the Arabians invading Abessina Arabia We have already mention'd the Famous and Successful War with Caleb made against the Homerites With no less Renown King Cyriacus hearing of the Christian Persecution in Egypt led a very numerous Army against the
horseback a practice very necessary in such a Country where many times there is no use of Horse In brief the Military Discipline of the Habessines is very irregular rather the fault of the Captains that know not how to command them than of the Souldiers For they run away without any fear of Infamy or Punishment neither do they know how to rally when they are once disorder'd so that the first array being broken the rest are carry'd away like a Torrent neither do they strengthen their Wings with Reserves neither do they separate the Veterans from the Raw Souldiers disheartning the Courage of the one by the unequal mixture of the other The fury of the first Onset for the most part wins the Field for which reason the Gallans surpassing the Habessines in heat and violence have so often vanquish'd them They are not easily perswaded to avoid the Combat believing it sloathful and dastardly to tire out an Enemy by delay and wait for opportunities Which has bin the Ruin of many of their Kings that have joyn'd Battel with more Courage than Prudent Advice The Kings themselves for the most part bred up in the field command their own Armies themselves or else they create a Ras to command in their stead One thing more remains behind That this Country is very much infested with Robbers as well as Enemies who many times robb in Troops like Souldiers and very much infest the Roads and this without any searching after or care taken to punish them by reason that the King and the Governours being wholly busied with continual Wars have no time to ridd the Nation of these Vermin who being pursu'd presently shelter themselves among the Rocks and Mountains CHAP. XV. Of the Wars in the last Century Especially of the Fatal War of the Adelans Their ancient Wars incertain the distance between Egypt and our Ethiopia Caleb's Expedition into Arabia The Wars of the last Century First the Adelan dreadful The Lamentations of the Ethiopians at Rome Caus'd by the sloath and voluptuousness of their Princes The assistance of the Turk and Fire-Arms The Portugals assist the Habessines The Enemie vanquish'd by Gomez His Fame His Fidelity tempted by Grainus but in vain They both act warily Grainus fights and his Horse shot under him A second Battel The Enemies Camp taken Gomeus forces the Jews Rock Gomez wounded kill'd his death reveng'd by Claudius Grainus overcome and slain The Kingdom at quiet The Adelans recover strength vanquish and kill Claudius To whom Menas succeeds who is also slain in the Field Serzadenghel vanquishes the Turk Civil Wars after his death WE shall forbear to set down over-ancient or incertain Relations concerning the Expeditions of the Kings of Ethiopia into Egypt in regard it does not appear to us what part of Ethiopia those Writers mean or how far the Empire of the Abessines of old extended For those things which Historians have deliver'd to memory in reference to the Ethiopians adjoyning upon Egypt are not presently to be apply'd to the Ethiopians For that the distance between Egypt and our Ethiopia comprehends Eight or nine degrees or a hunder'd German Miles and more In which wide space Nubia was seated so that there might be Kings of other Ethiopick Nations next to that And therefore till we see the Histories themselves of the Abissines we are unwilling to publish Incertainties for Certainties But that the Habessines did make several Famous Expeditions into Arabia is a thing not to be question'd insomuch that some of them have made a Computation of their Years from thence and that the Kingdom of the Homerites was totally subdu'd by Caleb we have already declar'd To omit then several other Wars wag'd with their Neighbours the Stories of which are to us unknown as for example that with the Nubians in the 25th Year of the former Century recorded by Alvarez the most lamentable and most fatal was that War which they enter'd into with the Adelans their Ancient Enemies True it is indeed that in the beginning of his Raign David vanquish'd them in several Battels But after the Turks had vanquish'd Egypt and some Ports of the Red Sea the Adelans strengthen'd by their assistance turn'd the Scale of Fortune and were always Victors For King Adelis sent one Ahmed a Mahumetan vulgarly call'd Grainus or Grannus that is to say Left-handed with an Army to invade Habessinia and revenge the Losses of the Adelans He about the Year 1526 subdu'd all Fatagara For the first two Years the War was carry'd on with various Success but the next Twelve Years to the Year 1540 at what time King David deceas'd the Habessines had the worst of it The King having lost the choicest of his Kingdoms and his Second Son Menas who was taken Prisoner languish'd out the rest of his days in the Rock Damus And indeed the Habessines were brought to that low and miserable Condition that they began to despair of their Countrey For such are the Lamentations which we find made by those that liv'd at Rome in the Epilogue printed after the Gospel of St. John Not without reason do we weep when we call to mind the Captivity of our Brethren our Countrey layd wast Our Temples Burnt our Books and our Sanctuaries consum'd with Fire and the Profanation of our Monasteries by that wicked and impious Grainus a Companion for Goats a Perscutor and Invader of the Sheep from Waigaci to the Red Sea Among the Causes of such a Torrent of Calamities these may be reck'nd not to be the least for that the King vanquish'd by his own sluggish humour had given himself wholly up to the Temptations of Pleasure so dedicated to Women that he permitted some of them to have their Idols in his Palace Next the Turks out of their inbred hatred to Christianity had supply'd their Mahumetan Friend with Fire-Arms and such as knew well how to use them whose Thunder then by the Abessines first heard they were not able to endure nor did they know how to cure the Wounds which the Bullets made as not being accustom'd to them besides that on the other side the Mahumetans so numerously abounding throughout Abessinia favourably every where entertain'd those of their own Sect. Many also of the Abessines themselves following as is usual the Fortune of the Victor forsook their Native Soveraign So that now every thing threaten'd utter destruction and desolation when the King lurking among the Rocks began to bethink himself of craving Succour from the Portugals To that purpose in the Year 1535 one John Bermudes a Portuguese was sent Who first arriv'd at Rome in the Year 1538 where he was made Patriarch joyntly of Ethiopia and Alexandria and afterwards went into Portugal in the Year 1539 and there obtain'd a Commission from John the Third to the Vice-Roy of India to send Assistance to the Abessines Their Commander was Christopher Gomez a Person of great Valour who in the Month of July in the Year 1541 enter'd the Kingdom
whom To which the Book of Axuma agrees The Reasons of doubting and deciding Frumentius how call'd His Encomium Cedrenus and Nicephorus refuted IT is the Common Fame among the Europeans That the Conversion of the Habessines to the Christian Faith was begun by that Ethiopic Eunuch Acts 8.27 And perhaps the Habessines themselves believing it to be for their Honour were the authors of the Story confiding in the Credit of the Book of Axuma where the same history is set down as in the Acts of the Apostles and without any other Circumstances by which it may seem this story had not its first original among them but was transcrib'd Neither was Tzagazaabus better inform'd as appears by his Confession of Faith Nevertheless it seems very strange that King David should either assert or give his assent to Alvarez asserting the same thing whereas the Credit as well of the Ethiopic as Greek History absolutely tells us the contrary Some endeavour a Reconciliation of this difference as if the first dawnings of Christianity tho but very dark and obscure began at that time first to glimmer But then this should have bin demonstrated by solid Reasons relating not onely to the Ethiopic Nation in general but to the Habessinians in particular Whereas the Testimonies which we shall cite by and by do not speak of the Conversion of those that were half Christians before but either of the Jews or Heathens For we have already shew'd that Candaces was never Queen of the Habessines Neither is her Proper Name Lacasa which we find in the Vulgar Catalogues to be found in Tellezius For Hhendaqe or Hindaqe is a quite different word from Candace from whence others casting away the Aspirate derive the name Judith others as if they would correct the Error have strain'd it to Judith Nor was the name of Candace ever known to the Habessines tho familiar to the Inhabitants of Meroe Others refer the Conversion of the Habessines not to Candace's Eunuch but to the times of the Apostles and particularly ascribe it to St. Bartholmew others to St. Matthew or because there is no such thing to be found in his life to St. Matthias Of all which Fancies the Habessines knew nothing who hearing such Whimseys from our Countreymen not without reason answer'd That perhaps those things were to be understood of the Lower Ethiopia that lyes between Abassia and Egypt However we can never find out what the Success of those Apostles Preaching was what Kings or People withstood that Conversion what Pastors what Ceremonies what Books they made use of what form of Discipline or what was the Doctrine of that time Concerning all which things in regard there is so deep a silence we cannot acknowledg any such beginnings of the Christian Religion in Habessinia However this is certain That both the Habessine Grecian and Latin Writers Especially Ruffinus and his followers agree with one consent That the Conversion of the Ethiopian happen'd in the time of St. Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria under Constantine the Great about the Year of Christ 330. or not long after and that in this manner One Meropius a Merchant of Tyre Ruffinus calls him a Philosopher intending for India put into Harbour upon the Coast of Ethiopia in the Red Sea which at that time was also call'd the Indian Sea There dying or as Ruffinus will have it slain by the Barbarians he left two Young men Frumentius and Adesius Fremonatum and Sydracum the Habessines call them who being taken and brought to the King became highly favour'd and caress'd by reason of their Ingenuity and Industry and at length being made free of the Country were preferr'd by the King to keep his Books and Papers The King dying they remain'd in the same Imployment under the Queen Regent till the Young King came of age All this while they entertain'd the Christian Merchants that Traffick'd into those Parts with all kindness and did them all the good offices Imaginable and made themselves so remarkable for their Vertue and their Integrity among those Nations that the Christian Religion was highly esteem'd by all Which foundation being laid Frumentius took a Journey to St. Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria and was by Him for his great parts and Constancy in the Faith created the first Bishop of Ethiopia Thereupon returning into Ethiopia he initiated the Inhabitants in the Christian Religion by Baptisme then he ordain'd Presbyters and Deacons built Churches and so introduc'd the Christian Religion into Ethiopia Agreeable to this are those Relations which the Ethiopians have in their Book of Axuma onely that there is this addition to the Story of the Conversion made by Candace that these Tyrian Young men admir'd that the Ethiopians should believe in Christ and adore the Holy Trinity and that the Women wore Crosses upon their heads seeing that the Gospel had bin preach'd among them by none of the Apostles We wonder much more that Ethiopia should be converted in the time of the Apostles and yet have no Bishop no Baptism no Priests nor Deacons and that all these things should be first settled in the time of St. Athanasius Besides no man can be easily perswaded that such a beginning should remain so long time without a farther progress and that the Ethiopians themselves or the Bishops of the Neighbouring Christians should be so neglectful as not to lend their helping hands to the advancement of such fair Beginnings Especially at such a time when the Christians over the whole Roman Empire chiefly in Egypt suffer'd a most dreadful Persecution under Dioclesian How came it to pass that they did not seek for refuge in this Kingdom out of the reach of their Enemies where they were sure of Sanctuary and Protection from a Prince of their own Religion Could all the Ecclesiastical Histories and the Annals of the Patriarch of Alexandria have forgotten a Prince the first in all the World that had receiv'd the light of the Gospel Were there no Martyrs whose memories the Habessines are so sollicitous to preserve No War no Seditions upon the change of Religion but so great an Alteration without any noise To assert a thing of so much moment and yet to bring no Circumstances no particular Events and Casualties seems very discrepant from the Truth of History It is sufficient that the Ethiopians agree with us in the principal matters For whether Meropius dy'd or were slain whether Frumentius and Edesius were call'd Fremonatus and Sydrac signifies little Yet in that Place Ruffinus was strangely deceiv'd For he seems with others to have meant India properly so call'd when he neither knew the Bounds or Situation of it where he sayes That the Hithermost India adjoyns to Ethiopia Between which and Parthia he places the farthermost India So that he makes the farthermost India nearest to Ethiopia and Parthia more remote This was the reason that Baronius believ'd there were two Frumentius's and that one was a Preacher of the Gospel at Axuma whereas it was
but one and the same person that was Apostle and Bishop of the Habessines call them Indians or Axumites which you please This reconciliation of differing Writers was not known till this time nor does he undeservedly give the honour of the discovery to the Jesuites and that then and not before the Christian Religion was first introduc'd in Form as he calls it as being led by tradition also that Christianity had some kind of bloomings before in Ethiopia But what it was or to what growth it arriv'd there is no man that can unfold Neither does Ruffinus make mention of any Jewish Religion or any other deformed Sect that preceded On the contrary to use his own rough expression he sayes That this Land meaning Abassia was never broken up with the Plough-share of personal Preaching In short Gregory affirm'd to me that there was not any other Preaching of the Gospel in Habessinia then what was first begun by Abba Salma in the time of St. Athanasius and in the Reigns of Atzbeha and Abreha Brethren And this Abba Salma was Frumentius He is celebrated among the Metropolitans of Ethiopia in the Ethiopic Liturgie as also by our Ethiopic Poet as being the first that display'd the light of the Gospel in those Parts for which he gives him this Encomium Peace to the Voice of Gladness I pronounce The fair Renowned Salama for he at once Did open wide the Gate of Mercy ' and Grace And Ethiopia shew'd the splendid Face Of Truth and Zeal by which we Christ adore Where onely Mist and Darkness dwelt before Where we are to take notice of the words Mist and Darkness which the Poet would not have made use of if according to the Tradition aforesaid there had bin any knowledg of Christ in Habessinia before that time Moreover the same Poet makes this addition upon the same subject Peace to thee Salama who didst obey Divine Command Hid Doctrine to display That Doctrine which in Ethiopia shone Like the bright Morning Star and which alone To Ethiopia first by Thee conveigh'd Still makes the Grateful Ethiopian Glad Which Story of the first Conversion of Ethiopia being grounded upon a firm foundation must of necessity overthrow what (z) In the 15 year of Justinian N. 14. Cedrenus and after him (a) Many famous men were deceiv'd by their Authority as Joseph Scaliger in emendat tem Calvisius in Op. Arron John Laet in Comput Hist Univers Cherer in Hist Univers in Justinian Nicephorus Callistus a Historian of little credit have deliver'd concerning the Conversion of the Habissines as happening a long time after this For they write That Adad King of the Axumites who are no other than our Abessinians about the Year of Christ 542 and the 15th Year of Justinian 's Reign made a Vow That if he overcame the King of the Homerites he would Embrace the Christian Faith Whereupon succeeding in his Enterprize he sent Embassadors to Justinian and desir'd him to send him certain of his Bishops who were the first that divulg'd the Doctrine of Christianity in those places But we have already shew'd that the Kingdom of the Homerites was utterly subverted near Seventy Years before by Caleb Emperour of the Ethiopians afterwards it fell under the Dominion of the Persians the Habessines who were then Masters of those Territories and the defenders of Christianity in vain contending with the Persian Power which not long after was also constrain'd to yield to the Victorious Arms of the Saracens How then could it happen that the King of the Homerites should be overthrown by Adad Neither is it likely that Adad if there were any such King would send for Bishops so far off altogether ignorant of the Language and Customs of his Country which he might have had at that time much nearer at hand either from Alexandria or Jerusalem Besides that if it had bin so done Justinian would not have sent Jacobites but Melchites and so the Habessines would have follow'd the Opinions of the Melchites whereas they always were and still are known to be Jacobites Not to mention the (b) So in the Edition of Turrian but the 84. in the Version of Abrahamus Ecchellensis They are both in the Arabic and Ethiopic languages and brought into Europe in the last Century 36. Nicene Canon in which the Seventh Seat of Dignity in the Council is assign'd next after the Prelate of Seleucia to the Prelate of Ethiopia Which may certainly teach us That our Ethiopians at the time of that Council were most certainly Christians and were under a Christian Superintendent or Metropolitan And therefore it is apparent that those Historians were false in all their Circumstances CHAP. III. Of the Increase of Christianity in Habessinia the Original of their Monastical way of Living and of their Saints After Frumentius many Monks Some out of the Roman Empire and some out of Egypt Nine more remarkable nam'd The first Aragawi Extoll'd by the Poet for destroying the Kingdom of Arwè What that Kingdome was Pantaleontes Cell his Sepulchre and Encomium The Encomium of Likanus another of the Nine Other Doctors and Martyrs Portentous Miracles of their Saints Their Austerity Gabra Monfes-Kaddus the restorer of Monastical Living which began in Egypt by the Institution of Anthony Imitated by several Anchorites Their Spontaneous torments Anthonie's Successors The Tradition of the Monastical Scheme Icegue the Abbot his Habitation Abba Eustachius famous for Miracles He left Successors but no Institutions Habessinia full of Monks Their Institutions and Habits different from the Greek and Latin They practice Husbandry and bear Civil Offices THe Conversion of Ethiopia being thus begun by Frumentius many Pious men partly call'd by him to his assistance and partly of their own accord repair'd thither to Him We find in the Chronicle of Axuma that in the Raign of King Amiamid the Son of Saladoba many Monks came from Rome and grew very Numerous in the Country But by the name of Rome the Ethiopians mean the Roman Empire For in Imitation of the Arabians they call the (c) Frequent in the Saracen History of Elmacin where by the Lantin Language of Greek is still meant Greeks Errum who at that time were most prevalent in the Eastern Parts Nine of these Persons were more Famous then the rest who seated themselves in Tygra and there erected their Chappels It is most probable that they came out of the Neighbouring Parts of Egypt which at that time was under the Greek or Constantino Politan Emperours but their names were all chang'd by the Habessinians except that of Pantaleontes by whom they are number'd in this Order 1. Abba Aragawi 2. Abba Pantaleon 3. Abba Garima 4. Abba Alef 5. Abba Saham 6. Abba Afe 7. Abba Likanos 8. Abba Adimata 9. Abba Oz who is also call'd Abba Guba I find the most of them mention'd by my Poet who highly applauds them for their singular Piety and their extraordinary Miracles Of Aragawi otherwise call'd Michael he has
Necessity he permits the cluster it self to be squeez'd into the Cup and the Liquor to be mix'd with water The time of receiving the Sacrament is left to every man's liberty some receive every Week some every Month but always within the Church For they hold it a great Sin to carry the Holy Mysteries out of the Church into private Houses Neither does the King nor the Metropolitan assume to themselves that Priviledge They never spit that day they have receiv'd They also receive Fasting and toward the Evening too if it be a fasting day But now to Administer the Sacrament in large and crowded Churches and upon Solemn days it requires four or five Men at least Bahen the Priest or Kasis the Presbyter Nefek Kasis the Sub-Presbyter Daj-kan the Deacon and Nefeh Dajkan the Sub-Deacon There are also present other Assistants to hold the Candles and to attend upon the Priests These every one taking his particular part perform the whole Duty reading of several Prayers as the variety of Action and the use of distinct Vessels require Lastly they recommend both the Living and the Dead to God which they call receiving the Dapdukon the Diptych or Church Register which among the Ancient Greeks consisted of two Tables wherein the Name of those were written who were to be Pray'd for in the Register There are some that bring their Offerings to the Holy Table as Bread Oyl Tithes first Fruits and the like which at the Conclusion of the Sacrament are distributed to the Poor Which I take to be understood of that ancient Custom mention'd by Claudius in his Confession of Faith Vangaber Bat Mesah that day meaning the Sabbath we make a Charitable Feast These Holydaies they keep two days every Week that is to say upon the Sabaoth and the Lord's-Day That they call Sanbat Ejehude which they say they celebrate in commemoration of the professed Creation and therefore they do not keep it so solemnly as the Lord's-Day But upon the Lord's-Day which they call Sanbat Ehad or the Sabbath of the first Holyday or Ehude the first Holyday singly or Sanbat Christejan the Christians Sabbath they keep after the custom of the Catholic Church and read over all the Offices and Services requir'd They have no Bells of Brass or mix'd Metal like ours instead of which they only use a kind of hollow Vessels resembling Bells made of Iron Stone or Wood more for Noise than delightful to the Ear. Neither is their Church Music any thing more pleasing For besides that the Voices of their Singing Priests whom they call Dabetra are very harsh and ungrateful the Instruments they make use of after the Egyptian manner such as Cimbals Morrice Bells and Kettle Drums which the Grandees themselves think no dishonour to rattle upon those Solemnities are no way agreeable to the Harmony of Europe With their Music they use Skipping and Dancing in imitation of David Dancing before the Ark of the Covenant At what time they make the Floor ring again after such a rude manner that you would believe them rather at a Wedding than at a Christian Solemnity This they call exulting rejoycing and clapping hands to the God of Jacob as they are commanded in the Psalms and this they call Praising God upon the Harp and Organ and with Cymbals tho it cannot be said they are so sweet sounding as those in David's Time may be imagin'd to be Which things tho they seem to us not to correspond with the gravity of Christian Worship yet will not they much admire who well know that in some places among the Latins the Feast of the Body of God was solemniz'd with Dancing which as it could not be done without Music there were others that play'd in disguise before the Dancers upon Harps Fasting days are no where more exactly observ'd Not that they abstain from some Meats and gluttonize upon others For that they look upon as a mockery of Fasting For they keep themselves whole dayes without either Food or Drink even till Sunset of the third Evening Others there are that abstain the two Holydaies of the Passion Week The Monks put themselves upon greater Extremities than all this by which means they not only mortifie but destroy Besides all which they fast twice in seven days upon the Fourth and Sixth Holyday like the rest of the Eastern Churches The reason of which was by Tzagazaab said to be for that the Fourth day the Murther of Christ was concluded upon and the Sixth it was executed according to what many of the Ancients taught But we believe that these two Fasting-days as many other things were admitted and observ'd in imitation of the Jews by the Primitive Christians who were either Jews or else had learn't from the Jews that this Custom was introduc'd and us'd as a Duty both Pious and Necessary for these times For the Jews fasted twice in a Week which is that which the Pharisee boasted I fast twice upon the Sabbath that is within the two days in seven viz. upon the Second and Fifth Holyday which the Christians because they would not fast upon the same day with the Jews alter'd for the Fourth and Sixth Afterwards Innocent and Gregory the Seventh abrogating the Fast of the Fourth Holyday impos'd Abstinence from Flesh upon Sunday not minding the ancient Canon If any Clergy-man shall be known to Fast upon any Sabbath or Lord's-Day one excepted let him be suspended from his Office That one Sabbath is Easter Eve Otherwise to fast upon the Lord's-Day the Ethiopians account it Criminal like the ancient Christians as Tertullian witnesses Besides these and other Fasts of the Eastern Church they observe in the first place the Forty days Lent which they make up Fifty For it begins Ten days before the Roman Lent That is upon the second Holyday after Sexagesima Sunday And this as a Command of God they observe both healthy and sick People most exactly and religiously only as we said before upon Sundays they eat Flesh After Easter they supply the pinching hardship and sobriety of the past Weeks with the Jollity and Mirth of those that succeed For during all the time of Pentecost so formerly was the interval of the Fifty days call'd from the Feast of the Resurrection till the Feast of tending the Holy Gost they spend their time in all manner of Feasting and Jocundry suitable to the Country All that time as of old with the Latins so among the Ethiopians being still observ'd as one continu'd Festival Gregory considering these things and admiring that the Protestants in Germany observ'd no other Fasts but what were commanded by their Princes in case of Public Calamity was answer'd out of St. Ambrose we do not Fast because the Lord abideth with us not only those Fifty days but all the year long nay as long as we live Thus Christ answer'd them who objected to his Disciples Can the Sons of the Bridegroom mourn while the Bridegroom is among them But the time shall come
but only by a Tacit Connivance and that in the mean time there should be a Cessation of all Penalties and Mulcts Upon this the King intending a Third Expedition against the Lasteneers to make his Soldiers the more stedfast and obedient he put forth an Edict by which in general words an Indulgence was granted for the Exercise of all ancient Ceremonies not repugnant to Faith Thus every Person being left to his particular Liberty the Alexandrian Worship was again to the great Satisfaction of the People freely exercis'd but to the great grief of the Portugueses especially the Patriarch who presently wrote to the King complaining That contrary to his advice a Lay Prince should publish an Edict of that Nature in reference to spiritual Affairs for that it belong'd to him to set forth such Decrees putting him in mind of the words of Azariah the High-Priest to King Uzziah and of the Punishment that follow'd and admonishing him to amend that Fault by publishing some other Edict which should be propos'd by the assistance of some one of the Fathers of the Society The King obey'd and propounded an Edict which contain'd Three Articles 1. That the Ancient Liturgy but Corrected should be read in the Mass 2. That the Festivals should be observ'd according to the ancient Computation of Time except Easter and those other Festivals that depended upon it 3. That whosoever pleas'd instead of the Sabbath might fast upon the fourth Holyday And then as for answer to the Patriarchs Complaints he made this reply That the Roman Religion was not introduc'd into his Dominions by the Preaching or Miracles of the Fathers but meerly by his Edicts and Commands not by the assent of his People but of his own free will because he thought it better then the Alexandrian Therefore the Patriarch had no reason to Complain But these Concessions not being sufficient and coming too late prov'd altogether ineffectual not serving in the least to pacifie the Lasteneers or any other of the Discontented Parties CHAP. XII Of the Decrease of the Roman Religion and the Restoration of the Alexandrinian The Fathers ill Success The King prepares to restore the Alexandrian Religion Over-perswaded by the Queen and his Son The Decrees resolv'd on in Council The Patriarch makes a grave Speech to the contrary Vpbraids him with his Victories and threatens him At length he Supplicates but in vain The Edict passes Signify'd to the Patriarch who proposes a Medium The Edict publish'd to the great Satisfaction of the People The Ancient Ceremonies us'd An Invective Satyr against the Fathers The sudden Change censur'd WEE have hitherto seen the great Progress of the Roman Religion in Ethiopia the Authority of the Patriarch advanc'd to the utmost extent the King and his Brothers together with a great many of the Nobility some sincerely some feignedly favouring the Jesuits For the Latin Worship was with great diligence impos'd and exercis'd all over several Provinces of the Kingdom Many of the Habessine Priests were Ordain'd by the Patriarch and great diligence was us'd for the building of Churches and Colleges Already besides the Patriarch they had increas'd their Number to One and twenty Companions that is to say Nineteen Fathers and Two Brothers of the Society distributed into Thirteen Residencies Nor could the Fathers but be well pleas'd with so many Thousands of Baptized and Converted People for certainly the gaining of so many lost Souls by Baptism was not to be despised When on a suddain behold a suddain Change upon which the Banishment of the Fathers and the Subversion of the Roman Religion ensu'd For the Fathers believing that the opportunity of the time was not to be neglected made it their Business to abrogate all the Alexandrian Rites even those which were formerly tolerated under the Roman Bishops on the other side the Common People Wedded to their Old Customs but more especially the Monks and Clergy the chief Supporters of the old Religion most stoutly oppos'd their Proceedings Besides them several of the Nobility either out of Hatred of the Romans or out of Ambition frequently revolted and through the strength of their unaccessible Rocks easily eluded the King 's more mighty Power A most remarkable Lesson to teach us That that sort of Worship to which the People are averse is not easily to be introduc'd by the Prince and that it is no piece of Prudence or Policy to attempt the Liberty of those who are well defended by the Situation of their Country Therefore the King tho otherwise most addicted to the Fathers wearied with so many Exclamations of his own People growing in years utterly disliking the present posture of Affairs and fearful of what might ensue tormented with the continual Importunities of his Friends his Jealousie of his Brother the Contumacy of the Lasteneers the Diminution of his Prerogative and the dread of losing his Kingdom at length began to think of abrogating the Roman and restoring the ancient Alexandrian Worship And which was more to be admir'd a prosperous Fight with the Lasteneers was that which settled his wavering Thoughts For making a fourth Expedition against them he came upon them so unlook'd for that he gave them a Total tout Killing eight Thousand upon the place with several of the Leaders of the Faction and chief Deserters of their King and Country The Portugueses rejoyc'd at the News believing the Rebellion quietted by this Victory and that for the future nothing would presume so much as to hiss against the Roman Religion But it fell out quite otherwise For they who favour'd the the Alexandrian Religion the next day carry'd the King to view the Field of the Battel and shewing him the multitude of the Slain thus bespake him Neither Ethnics nor Mahumetans were these in whose Slaughter we might have some reason to rejoyce No Sir they were Christians once your Subjects and our dear Countrymen and partly to your self partly to us related in Blood How much more laudable would it have bin for these couragious Breasts to have bin oppos'd against the most deadly of your Enemies This is no Victory because obtain'd against your own Subjects With the same Sword wherewith you Slaughter them you Stab your own Bowels Certainly they bare no hatred to us whom we make War upon so cruelly Only they are a verse to that Worship to which you would compel them How many have we already kill'd upon this Change of Ceremonies How many remain behind reserv'd for the same Slaughter When will these Bloody Conflicts end Forbear we beseech your Majesty to constrain them to Novelties and Innovations lest they renounce their Allegiance otherwise we shall never behold the Face of Peace again We are hated even by the Gallans and Ethnicks for abandoning our ancient Ceremonies and are therefore by them call'd Apostates For it seems that the King of Adel having apprehended and put to Death two of the Fathers travelling into Habessinia thorow his Country in the accompt which he