PROLOGUE TO THE KING OUR SOVEREIGN. (continued 2)

Cap. xxii.—Of the manner of baptism and circumcision, and how they carry the dead to their burial.

Circumcision is done by anybody without any ceremony, only they say that so they find it written in the books, that God commanded circumcision. And let not the reader of this be amazed—they also circumcise the females as well as the males, which was not in the Old Law. Baptism they do in this manner: they baptize males at forty days, and females at sixty days after their birth, and if they die before they go without baptism. I, many times and in many places, used to tell them that they committed a great error, and went against what the Gospel says: Quod natum est ex carne caro est; et quod natum est ex spiritu spiritus est. They answered me many times that the faith of their mother sufficed for them, and the communion which she received whilst in a state of pregnancy.[31] They perform this baptism in the church, with water which they keep in a vase, and which they bless, and they put oil on the forehead and on the breasts and shoulder-blades. They do not put ointment,[32] nor do they have it, nor the oil of extreme unction. This office of catechism which they celebrate seems to me to be much the same form as the Roman, and at the time of pouring the water on the child they do it in this way. One who is the godfather takes the child from the hands of the woman that has it and raises it, holding it under the arms, and holds it suspended; and the priest who baptizes, with one hand holds the vase and pours the water over the child, and with the other washes it all over, saying in his language the words which we say, that is: I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. They always perform this office on a Saturday or a Sunday, and it is done in the morning at mass, because every child that receives baptism receives the communion, and they give it in very small quantities, and cause it to be swallowed by means of water. With regard to this, also, I used to tell them that this communion was very dangerous, and in no wise necessary. As I said that they put oil on the forehead, you should know that every child comes to baptism shaved with a razor, and the scars or marks which they bear on the nose, between the eyes, and at the corners of the eyes, are not made by fire nor for anything of Christianity, but with cold iron for ornament, and because they say that it is good for the sight. There are here women who are very skilful at making these marks. They make them in this manner: they take a clove of garlic, large and moist, and place it on the corner of the eye; with a sharp knife they cut round the garlic, and then with the fingers widen the cut, and put upon it a little paste of wax, and over the wax another paste of dough, and press it down for one night with a cloth, and there remains for ever a mark which appears like a burn, because their colour is dark. On the occasion of death, I never saw great personages borne away; but of small people, and of others rather better, an infinite number. Their burials are in this manner. They do not use candles after death, but much incense. They carry them away wrapped up[33] in a shroud, and some of the more honoured have over the shroud tanned ox-hides, and are placed on trestles. The priests come for them, and pray shortly, and then set out at once with them on the way to the church, with cross, thurible, and holy water, running so that a man cannot catch them up. They do not bring the dead man into the church, but place him close to the grave; they do not use our office for him, nor do they recite psalms, neither do they say anything from the Book of Job. I asked what it was that they prayed; they told me that they read the Gospel of St. John all complete. And so they give him to the grave with their incense and holy water, and they do not say mass for the defunct, nor of devotion for any living person, nor more than one mass a day in each church; and all are communicants, as many as go to it.

Cap. xxiii.—Of the situation of the town of Barua, chief place of the kingdom of the Barnagais, and of his hunting.

This town of Barua is very good, and it is situated on a very high rock above a river, upon which are situated the king’s houses, which they call Beteneguz, which means houses of the king. They are well situated in the manner of a fortress. All the rest is a great plain and an infinite number of large villages at the extremities of the fields. There is much breeding of all sorts of flocks, cows, goats, and sheep, and of much game of all sorts. In the river there is much fish, and many wild ducks of different kinds,[34] and on land much game of all kinds, such as wild cattle; in the plains hares in great quantity, so that every day we killed twenty or thirty of a morning, and that without dogs, but caught with nets. There are partridges of three kinds, which do not differ from ours, except in size and the colour of their legs. There are partridges like big capons of the same colour and fashion as ours, except that their beaks and feet are yellow. There are others the size of hens; these have red beaks and feet like ours. There are others the size of ours, not different in colour or in anything else, except that their beaks and feet are grey. To the taste all are very good partridges, as they are good in colour. They do not frighten them to the earth.[35] Wild hens cover the ground, quails are in infinite numbers, and so of all other birds that can be mentioned, such as parrots and other birds not known to us, great and small, and of many shapes and colours; birds of prey, such as royal eagles, falcons, hawks, sparrow hawks, blue herons, and river cranes, and all other sorts that can be mentioned. In the mountains are many hogs, stags, antelopes, gazelles, deer. It will be said, how is it that there is so much game on the land and fish in the river, when the country is so populous? I say that nobody hunts or fishes, nor have they engines nor devices, nor the will to do it; on this account the game is very easy to kill, because it is not pursued by the people. There are many wild beasts—lions, ounces, tigers, wolves, foxes, jackals, and other animals not known to us. I never heard that these wild beasts did any harm, although the people are in great fear of them; only in one place which is called Camarua, and which is about half a league from this town of Barua, a man was lying asleep at night at the door of his enclosure, and his little son was with him, keeping his cows, and a lion came and killed this man without anyone perceiving it, and he ate his nose and opened his heart, without touching the child. The people of the country were greatly afraid, and said that he would remain with a taste for man’s flesh,[36] and that no one would escape from him. The Lord was pleased that he never did any more harm. We used to go hunting at that time near this place, and we never found any lion, but we found ounces and tigers; we did them no harm, neither did they do us any.

Cap. xxiv.—Of the lordship of the Barnagais, and of the lords and captains who are at his orders and commands, and of the dues which they pay.

The lordship of the Barnagais is in this manner: its title is that of King, because nagais means King, and bar means sea, so Barnagais means King of the Sea. When they give him the rulership they give it him with a crown of gold on his head, but it does not last longer than what the Prester John pleases. For in our time, which was a stay of six years, there were here four Barnagais, that is to say, when we arrived Dori was Barnagais; he died, and at his death the crown came to Bulla, his son, a youth of ten or twelve years of age, by order of the Prester John. When they crowned him he was at once summoned to court, and while he was at the court Prester John took away his sovereignty and gave it to a noble gentleman, who was named Arraz anubiata. This man held it two years, and they took from him this lordship and made him the greatest lord of the court, which is Betudete,[37] and the lordship of Barnagais was given to another lord, who was named Adiby, who was now Barnagais. Beneath the Barnagais are some great lords whom they call Xuums, which means captains; and these are, first, Xuum Cire, a very great captaincy, he is now married to a sister of Prester John. We never went to this country and Xuumeta because it is distant and out of the way. There is another Xuumeta named Ceruil. We knew this lordship, and they say that its Xuum brings into the field fifteen thousand spearmen with shields and archers. Also Xuum Cama, and Buno Xuum, and Xuum bono. These Xumetas had been one, and on account of its being large, and the Prester having misgivings that they might set themselves up against the Barnagais, he made it into two, and even yet each of them is very large. They say that this lordship which is now two was the dominion of Queen Candace, without having been larger in her time. She was the first Christian that there was in this country, and whom the Lord called powerful. Also two other captaincies, one is named Dafilla, the other Canfila; these two border on Egypt, and their captains are like lords of the marches. All these captains before mentioned are of kettledrums, which nobody except great lords can carry: and all these serve with the Barnagais in wars when he goes to them, and wherever he may go. They have other great gentlemen under their command who are called Arraz,[38] which means heads. We knew one of these, who was named Arraz Aderaan, he is head over fifteen thousand men at arms, whom they name chavas. I saw this Arraz Aderaan twice at the court, both times I saw him before the gate of the Prester John going without a shirt, and from his waist downwards a very good silk cloth, and on his shoulders the skin of a lion, in his right hand a spear, and in his left hand a shield. I asked how it was so great a lord went about in that manner, they told me that the greatest honour he had, since he was Arraz of the Chaufas, that is, head or captain of the men at arms, was to go about like a man at arms. In the fashion that he went, there followed behind him twenty or thirty men with spears and bucklers, so that he goes about the court like a provost with his men. I knew another Arraz Tagale, and Arraz Jacob, lords of large lands, and many other Xuums, lords of lands, but without titles. Thus the Barnagais is the lord of many lords, and of many lands and people, and so he and all these lords that have been mentioned are subject to the Prester John, and he removes and appoints them as he pleases: so they pay to him large dues. As all these lords and their lordships are on the side of Egypt and Arabia, from whence come the good horses, and the brocades and the silks, they pay in these same goods: that is to say, horses, brocades, and other silks. They come to the Barnagais with all these dues, and the Barnagais to Prester John, and pays for himself and for the others, in each year, a hundred and fifty horses; as to the brocades and silks, it cannot be known how much they amount to, only I heard say that they were many; I also heard that they pay a large sum of cotton cloths from India for the customs which they levy in the port of Arquiquo.

Cap. xxv.—Of their method of guarding their herds from wild beasts, and how there are two winters in this country: and of two churches that are in the town of Barua.

The settlement of this town of Barua and of those adjoining it, is this. There are ten, twelve, or fifteen houses, and one walled and closed yard, served by a gate: in this yard they shut up their domestic cows which they use for their milk and butter, and also small flocks, and mules and asses. They keep the gate well fastened, and a great fire, and men who sleep there to watch, from fear of the animals that roam about the villages all night: and if they did not keep this watch nothing alive would remain which they would not devour. The people who go to sow millet in the mountains of Bisan belong to this country and the neighbouring towns. The reason why they go and do it is this. Here there are very numerous grain crops of every kind and nature that can be mentioned, as I have already said; and because it is near to the sea, by which go all the provisions for Arabia, Mekkah, Zebid, Jiddah, and Toro,[39] and other parts; and they carry the provisions to the sea to sell them. And because in this country the winters are divided into seasons, and the seed crops do not grow except with the rains, they go to sow these millet fields at the mountain of Bisan, where it is winter in the months of February, March, and April. There is this same winter in a mountain called Lama, in this kingdom of the Barnagais, which is fully eight days’ journey from the mountain of Bisan. In another country, which is named Doba, and which is quite a month’s journey from this lordship of Lama, there is winter in these same months. As for these millet fields, they require rains, and as these winters happen out of season, they go and sow them where it rains, and so profit by both winters. In this town of Barua are two churches with many priests, one close to the other, one is for men, the other for women. The men’s church is called St. Michael, that of the women is named after the apostles Peter and Paul. They say that a great lord, who was then Barnagais, built the men’s church, and gave it the privilege that no woman should enter it, except only the wife of the Barnagais, with one damsel, whenever she went to take the communion, and even she does not now enter the church, but takes the communion at the door in the inner circuit with the laity, and so the other women do in the church of the apostles, who take it in its place. I always saw the women of the Barnagais go to the women’s church to take the communion with the other women, and I did not see them use the privilege which they say they have, of taking the communion, with one damsel, in the church of the men. The circuits of the churchyards join to one another; they are of very high walls. They make the sacramental bread for both churches in one building, and they say the masses in both churches at the same time, and the priests who serve in one church serve also in the other; that is two thirds of the priests in the men’s church, and one third in the women’s church, and so they are distributed. These churches have not got tithes, but they have got much land belonging to the priests, and they put it out to profit and divide the revenues of the lands among themselves: the Barnagais gives what is necessary to the churches, such as ornaments, wax, butter, incense in sufficient quantity, and he supplies them with everything. There may be in these churches twenty priests and always twenty-two friars. I never saw a church of priests which had not got friars, nor a monastery of friars which had got priests; because the friars are so numerous that they cover the world, both in the monasteries as also in the churches, roads, and markets: they are in every place.

Cap. xxvi.—How the priests are, and how they are ordained, and of the reverence which they pay to the churches and their churchyards.

The priests are married to one wife, and they observe the law of matrimony better than the laity: they live in their houses with their wives and children. If their wife should die they do not marry again; neither can the wife, but she may become a nun or remain a widow as she pleases. If a priest sleeps with another woman whilst his wife is alive he does not enter the church any more, nor does he enjoy its goods, and remains as a layman. And this I know from having seen a priest accused before the patriarch of having slept with a woman, and I saw that the priest confessed the offence, and the patriarch commanded him not to carry a cross in his hand, nor to enter a church, nor to enjoy the liberties of the church, and to become a layman. If any priests after becoming widowers marry, they remain laymen. As it happened to Abuquer, who married Romana Orque, sister of Prester John, who I have already said was a priest, chief chaplain of Prester John, and he was disordained[40] and made a layman. He no longer enters the church, and receives the communion at the door of the church as a layman, and among the women. The sons of the priests are for the most part priests, because in this country there are no schools, nor studies, nor masters to teach, and the clergy teach that little that they know to their sons: and so they make them priests without more legitimisation, neither does it seem to me that they require it, since they are legitimate sons. All are ordained by the Abima Markos, for in all the kingdoms of Ethiopia there is no other bishop or person who ordains. The orders are given in two stages, as I will relate further on. I with my own eyes saw them given many times. In all this country the churchyards are inclosed by very strong walls, that the wild beasts may not disinter the dead bodies. They show them great reverence, no man riding on a mule passes before a church, even though he is going in a great hurry, without dismounting, until he has passed the church and churchyard a good bit.

Cap. xxvii.—How we departed from Barua, and of the bad equipment we had until we arrived at Barra.

We were at Barua the first time, without their giving us equipment for our departure, for eleven days; we departed on the 28th day of June 1520, joyful and contented, because we were travelling on our way; and those that conducted us went with our baggage a distance of half a league, saying that their bounds went no further, and that another town had to take us further on. As I said, it was in June, in the force of the winter of this country, and they set us down, and our goods, in a plain, and very heavy rain. The ambassador and three of us went on the road to Barra to speak to the Barnagais, the factor and clerk and the other Portuguese remaining with our goods. As soon as we arrived we went to the palace of the Barnagais to tell him what his vassals were doing to us. They did not give us an opportunity to speak to him that day. On the following day we did not sleep in the morning, and went to speak to him: as soon as we spoke to him he told us he would at once send for the goods. He ordered it to be brought a distance of a league and a half, in which it passed through three districts, by reason of the great population which is in that country, and they came and placed the baggage in another plain, where they let it remain four days in the rain and storms. In these days the ambassador and those that were with him were not quiet: at one time we went to the baggage, which was a league and a half off from us, at other times at our resting place, at others in the house of the Barnagais, to require him to send for these goods which belonged to the King, and were going to Prester John, or to tell us that he did not choose, and we would have it set on fire, and go our way disembarrassed. His speech was always fair, but the fruits of it never came. When four days were completed he sent for the goods.

Cap. xxviii.—How the goods arrived at the town of Barra, and of the bad equipment of the Barnagais.

On the 3rd day of July of the said year, ’20, our baggage arrived at the town of Barra, where we were. We hoped to start at once, and went to speak to the Barnagais requiring him to despatch us. We met with good words from him. On the following day a gentleman from the court of Prester John arrived, and the Barnagais gave him such a reception that he forgot us. When this gentleman arrived the Barnagais went out of the town to receive him at a small hill near the houses; and there went out with him many people, and he was naked from the waist upwards. The gentleman placed himself on the highest spot above the rest, and his first words were: the King sends to salute you. At these words all went with their hand upon the ground, which is the courtesy and reverence of this country. After that, he spoke the message which he had brought, and when he had finished hearing it the Barnagais clothed himself with rich garments, and took the gentleman to his house. It is the usage of this country to hear the words which the Prester sends outside the house, and on foot, and he to whom they are sent has to be naked above the waist until they have been delivered, and if the message is one of satisfaction on the part of Prester John, as soon as it is given he at once dresses himself: if it expresses his dissatisfaction, he remains naked as when he heard it. This Barnagais is brother of the mother of Prester John. After this the ambassador, and we with him, came to speak to the Barnagais, and he sent us away saying that for the love of God we should leave him, that he was sick. When we came they did not allow us to enter, saying that he was sleeping. So much passed of this sort that the ambassador said that he ill remembered what he had sworn and promised to the Captain-major of the King of Portugal, that is to say, to assist us and order equipment to be given us for our journey, that he forgot all this, and also that he was not mindful of the friendship which they had established and sworn, since he did so little for the affairs of the King of Portugal. Neither on this account did he make any more haste, but always excused himself with his guest, and with being ill. On the 6th of July seven or eight horsemen arrived, very gaily caparisoned, these were Moors, and seemed to be honourable persons, they came from other countries, and brought many very beautiful horses, which they were bringing to pay as tribute which they owed to Prester John and the Barnagais. As the arrival of the Moors redounded to his profit, neither his guests nor his sickness impeded him. The great reception and honour which the Barnagais paid to these Moors gave us great trouble. The ambassador had told him that he wanted twelve mules, and asked him to order them to be lent: he said that he could not lend them, and that we should buy them. When we wished to buy these mules which the people of the country were selling to us, the servants of the Barnagais came and interrupted the purchase, telling the vendors not to sell them, and that if they sold them they would be punished, and the gold would be taken away from them, for in this country money is not current. This happened in such manner that the rumour of it spread throughout the country, and the people told us that even if they wished to sell to us they did not dare, from fear of the Barnagais, because he wished to sell his own mules, and therefore forbade their selling them. (He has another method with the people of his country.) In all the kingdoms of Prester John money is not current, but only gold by weight, and the principal weight is called ouquia,[41] and this, which is an ounce, makes in weight ten cruzados, and for change there is a half ouquia, and from twelve drachms to ten make an ouquia. This Barnagais forbade the people in his country having any other weights except his own, and they had to ask the Barnagais or his factors for the weights whenever they had to sell or receive gold, so that he had knowledge of what was in the country, and he takes it when he pleases, according to what his country people say, who must know it well.

Cap. xxix.—Of the church of the town of Barra, and its ornaments, and of the fair there, and of the merchandise, and costumes of the friars, nuns, and priests.

In this town of Barra there is a church of Our Lady, large, new, very well painted and well built, and handsomely ornamented with many brocades, crimson silks, and Mekkah velvets, and red camlets. The church in this town is served like that at Barua, only that the offices are more solemnized because the Barnagais resides here, and because here there are more clergy and an infinite number of friars. The church is managed by priests. I saw them make a procession round the church in the greater circuit, which is of the churchyard. In it there were many priests, friars, and men and women, because in this church the women receive the communion in the place where the laity do so. In that procession I saw the ornaments which I have mentioned: they must have taken quite thirty turns round the church chaunting like a litany, and sounding many drums and cymbals, as they sound them when they make a procession before the effigy of Our Lady on Sundays and feast days; and they sing and celebrate a feast; and likewise when they give the communion on feast days. They said that this procession was made in supplication to God for rain for their sowing. The bells are of stone, like those of other churches, and the bells badly made. In this town there is a great fair like that of Barua, and so likewise in all the places which are chief towns of districts, every week. The fairs consist of bartering one thing for another, as for instance, an ass for a cow, and that which is of least value gives to the other two or three measures of bread. By means of bread they buy stuffs, and with stuffs they buy mules and cows, and whatever they want, for salt, incense, pepper, myrrh, camphor, and other small articles.[42] They buy fowls and capons, and whatever they need or want to buy is all to be found at these fairs in exchange for others, for there is no current money. The principal merchants at these fairs are priests, friars, and nuns. The friars are decent in their habits, which are full, and reaching to the ground. Some wear yellow habits of coarse cotton stuff, others habits of tanned goat skins like wide breeches,[43] also yellow. The nuns also wear the same habits; the friars wear, besides, capes of the fashion of Dominican friars, of the same yellow skins or stuffs, they wear hats; and the nuns wear neither capes nor hats, but only the habit, and are shaven with a razor; and they wear a leather strap wound or fastened round the head. When they are old women they wear fillets[44] round their heads over their tonsures. These nuns are not cloistered, nor do they live together in convents, but in villages, and in the monasteries of the friars, on account of belonging to those houses and order. The order is all one, and the nuns give obedience where they receive their habits. With regard to entering churches and monasteries, the nuns do not enter except as other women do. There is a great multitude of nuns, as well as of friars; they say that some of them are very holy women, and others are not so. The priests show very little difference from the laity in their dress, because all wear a good cloth wrapped round, like smart men, and their difference is that they carry a cross in their hand, and are shaven, and the laity wear long hair. The priests also have this, that they do not cut their beard, and the laity shave below the chin and the throat. There are other priests, whom they call Debeteraas, which means canons; these belong to great churches, which are like their cathedrals or collegiate churches, and are not monasteries. These are very well dressed, and at once appear as what they are: these do not go to the fairs and markets.

Cap. xxx.—Of the state of the Barnagais and manner of his house, and how he ordered a proclamation to be made to go against the Nobiis,[45] and the method of his justice.

The service of this Barnagais is very poor in state, although he is a great lord and has the title of king. As many times as we spoke to him we always found him seated on a bedstead beneath a coverlid, and himself covered with hairy cotton cloths which they name basutos; they are good for the country, and there are some here of a high price. Behind the sides of the bedstead, walls, without anything except four swords hung each on a pole, and two great books, also suspended on poles. In front of the bedstead, mats on the floor, upon which sit those who come; the houses rarely swept, his wife always seated on a mat near the head of the bedstead, many people always before him, the great people seated on mats. In sight of his bedstead stand four horses, one always saddled, and the others covered, not caparisoned for war, but as horses are in the stables. In these houses of his are two inclosures, and each one has its gate, and in it porters with whips in their hands, and in the one nearest to him are smarter porters. Between these gates, the inner one and the outer one, is always his Alicaxi, which means his judge, hearing causes and administering justice. If the cause is important, he hears the parties until he has determined upon it, and then he goes and relates the cause to the Barnagais, who gives the sentence: if it is a small cause, or if the parties wish it, the Alicaxi gives sentence, and the cause is concluded. Moreover, in all judgments, whether the Barnagais or the Alicaxi judges, there must be present an honourable man, whom they call by the name of his office Malaganha, who is like a tabellion or notary of Prester John, and if either of the parties wishes to appeal, he requires from this man the certifying of the cause for Prester John and his judges. All the lords of the countries of any of the kingdoms of Prester John have an Alicaxi and a Malaganha appointed by the Prester; so also have the captains subject to the Barnagais and to the other great lords. The gentlemen who are about the house of the Barnagais, and other grandees who come on business, have this manner of coming from their abodes. Whilst at the place he is living at he mounts his mule, seven, eight, or ten men on foot go before him as far as the first gate, and there he dismounts. If he is a person of greater importance, he takes seven, eight, or ten mules, or else three or four, according as the person is. So he dismounts at the first gate, and arrives at the second, after that, if they are bidden at once to enter, they go in, if not, they sit outside like beehives in the sun, without any other pastime. All these honourable persons wear sheep skins at their necks or on their shoulders, and he who wears the skin of a lion, tiger, or ounce, is more honourable. When they come before the lord they take off the skin, as we take off our caps. Whilst we were in this town of Barra on a market day, they made a solemn proclamation that the Barnagais intended to make war on the Nobiis, five or six days’ journey from the limits of his country, towards Egypt, neighbouring to the countries of Canfilla and Dafolha,[46] which are subject to the Barnagais, as I have before mentioned. These Nobiis are neither Moors, nor Jews, nor Christians. It is said that they had been Christians, and had lost their faith, and are thus without any faith. They say that there is among these Nobiis much fine gold. They said that but a short time ago they had killed a son of the Barnagais, and that he wished to go and avenge his death. I heard say that in the frontier districts of these Nobiis there were four or five hundred horsemen, very great warriors, and that it is a country very well supplied with provisions, and it cannot be otherwise because it is on this and the further side of the Nile, which they say is a very fertile country. The proclamation said that he would set out in fifty days from that time: but up to this there had been no muster nor movement of arms. This would be because in the country there are not many, and few people possess them except the Chavas, who are the men at arms. These men have javelins, bows and arrows. These great lords have a few swords, hangers, and shirts of mail (not many of them). On the occasion of this little revolt, the Barnagais asked the ambassador for swords, and the ambassador gave him his own, which he wore on the road, and which was very good, and he still persistently begged another rich sword with ornaments which he carried with him, saying he wanted it for the war he was going to make, and the ambassador not being able to excuse himself, it suited him to buy another from his companions with gilt ends and a velvet scabbard, which he gave him instead of his own. And in the house where we kept our goods, and where our Portuguese slept, which was a house without doors, on the following night they stole from them two swords and a helmet. All this would be on account of the war.

Cap. xxxi.—How we departed from Barra to Temei, and of the quality of the town.

Here we bought mules for our own riding, and the Barnagais gave us three camels, and with great fatigue we set out from this place, amidst heavy rains and storms, which harassed us very much; for in this time the winter was in force; it begins the 15th of June, a little sooner or later, and ends the 15th of September; whatever it takes more in one month it gives up in the other. In all this time they do not travel, and yet we were hurrying on our journey, for we did not know the usage of the country, nor the danger we were running into. So we began our journey with a part of our goods, for the rest of them remained at the said town, and our factor with it. We went and halted at a town which is named Temeisom, belonging to the district of Maiçada, and which is about four leagues from the town of Barra, from which we had set out. We got over this distance in three days on account of the severe storms; everything that we carried with us getting spoiled. In this town of Temei, where we arrived, there dwelt a Xuum of this district of Maiçada, who was first cousin of the Barnagais, a very honourable man, who used to show us great honour, and who was also a brother of the mother of Prester John. They say that there are in his Xumeta or captaincy twenty towns and no more, for this is (as they say) the smallest district and Xumeta which there is in the kingdom of the Barnagais. This town is on a high eminence (without rocks), but all tilled land and plains with small hollows: and on three sides it has a view over fourteen or fifteen leagues, but on the other, at the distance of a league, there commence great declivities which descend to a great river, and in the neighbourhood of this river appear more than a hundred large villages. It seems to me that in the world there is not so populous a country, and so abundant in crops, and breeding of infinite herds, game of all kinds and of the wildest. There is nothing here but tigers, wolves, foxes, jackals, and other game. Let not this amaze any one who hears or reads this: that there should be game in a plain country with so much population: because, as I said before, they neither kill nor are able to kill anything except some partridges, which they kill with arrows. Many other kinds of game they do not kill because they do not eat them, others because they do not know how, and have no devices for that purpose. So they breed because they do not kill them. All the game is almost tame, because it is not pursued. Without dogs we killed and carried away twenty hares with nets in an hour, and as many partridges with springes, just like piping goats to a fold, or hens to the roost: so we killed the game that we wanted.

Cap. xxxii.—Of the multitude of locusts which are in the country, and of the damage they do, and how we made a procession, and the locusts died.

In these parts and in all the dominions of Prester John there is a very great plague of locusts which destroy the fresh crops in a fearful manner. Their multitude, which covers the earth and fills the air, is not to be believed; they darken the light of the sun. I say again that it is not a thing to be believed by any one who has not seen them. They are not general in all the kingdoms every year, for if they were so, the country would be a desert in consequence of the destruction they cause: but one year they are in one part, and another year in another; as if we said, speaking in Portugal and Spain, one year they are in the parts of Galicia, another in Entre Douro and Minho, in Traz os Montes, another year in Beira, another in Estremadura, another in Andalucia, another in Old Castile, and another in Aragon. Sometimes they are in two or three parts of these confines. Wherever they come the earth remains as though it had been set on fire. These locusts are like large grasshoppers, they are yellow in the wings; when they are on the way it is known a day before, not because the people see them, but because they see the sun yellow, and the earth yellow, that is, the shadow which they cast. Then the people are dismayed, saying we are lost because the Ambatas are coming, and this is their name among them. I will relate what I saw on three occasions. The first was in the town of Barua, we had then been three years in this country, and many times we had heard say, such a kingdom, such a country is destroyed by the Ambatas; while we were there, we saw this sign: the sun became yellow, and the shadow on the earth likewise, and the people were all dismayed. Next day, it was a thing not to be believed, for they spread over a width of eight leagues, according to what we learned later: and when this plague was close by, most of the priests of the town came to ask me to give them some remedy for it. I answered them that I did not know of any remedy, except to commend ourselves to God, and pray Him to drive the plague out of the country. Upon this, I went to the ambassador to tell him that it seemed to me well that we should make a procession with the people of the country, and that it might please the Lord to hear us. This seemed good to the ambassador, and next day in the morning we caused the people of the country to come together, and all the priests, and we took our altar stone, and those of the town theirs after their usage, and our cross and theirs, and singing our litany we went out from the church, all the Portuguese and the greater part of the townspeople. I told them not to go in silence, but to cry out like us, saying in their language, Zio marenos,[47] which means in our language, Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon us. With this cry and litany we went through a plain of fields of wheat for the space of a third of a league to a small eminence, and there made an admonition which I had brought already written out that night with a requisition and admonition of excommunication[48] on it, that within three hours they should begin to set out on their way, and go to the sea, or to the country of the Moors, or to mountains of no profit to the Christians: and should they not do so, it called upon and invoked the birds of the air and the animals of the earth, and the stones and tempests to disperse and break and devour their bodies. For this, I commanded to catch a quantity of the locusts, and thus made this admonition to those present, in their names, and those of the absent ones, and ordered them to be let go in peace. It pleased the Lord to hear the sinners. When we were returning to the town, because their road was to the sea from whence they came, there were so many coming after us, that it seemed as though they would break our ribs and heads driving against us, such were the thumps they inflicted on us. When we arrived at the town, we found all the men, women, and children who had remained in it, placed on the top of the terraces of the houses, giving thanks to God for the manner in which the locusts went flying before us, and others coming after us. Meanwhile a great storm arose from the sea, which met them, confronting them with violent rain and hail, which lasted quite three hours. The river and streams swelled very much, and when they had ended running off, it was a wonderful thing that they measured two ells deep of their dead bodies, on the brink of the water of the great river, and likewise at the little brooks, a great multitude dead on the edges. The next day in the morning there was not a single one alive in the whole country. The people of the towns all round whence the locusts had arrived, hearing of this, came to see what had happened; some said: These Portuguese are holy, and by the power of God they have cast out the Ambatas. Others, and chiefly the priests and friars of the neighbourhood (not those of this town) said: Rather they are sorcerers, and by sorcery have cast out the Ambatas; and so they have no fear of the lions and other animals, on account of the sorceries they work. Sixteen days after this, there came to me a Xuum, that is, captain of a town, named Coiberia,[49] with men and priests and friars, to entreat us for the love of God to succour them, for they were all ruined by the Ambatas. This town is fully eight leagues and more from Barua towards the sea. They reached us at the hour of vespers. That same hour we set out, five Portuguese, and we travelled all night, and arrived an hour after sunrise. Already the people of the town were collected, and those of other towns around (in which also there were locusts), to beg us for the love of God to go there. This town is on a high hill, from which a great extent of country and many villages were in view, all yellow with locusts. The church is at the foot of the town; we went to it, and with our procession went to the town and took a turn round it, and in four directions and in four villages we made an admonition, having caught some locusts and letting them loose as we had done the other time. When the procession was ended, we went to eat, and having finished eating and gone out of the house, in all the country not a single one showed itself. The people of the country would not leave us alone, and insisted that by all means we should go to their villages, and they would give us whatever we wished for. It did not avail me to say that they were gone, and that it was not necessary. They persisted in importuning us to go and give them the blessing, as they were afraid of their returning. So the people went away in peace, and on the following day we returned to our resting-place. Here they began to affirm more strongly, that through devotion and prayer the locusts went away.

Cap. xxxiii.—Of the damage which we saw in another country caused by the locusts in two places.

Another time we saw the locusts in another country called Abrigima, whence the Prester ordered provisions to be given us, in the kingdom of Angote. This country is distant from Barua, from which place we were thirty days in travelling the journey. While we were in this country I went with the ambassador who came from Portugal, and five Genoese with us, towards a country named Aagao. We travelled five days through country entirely depopulated, and through maize canes as thick as canes for propping vines, it cannot be told how they were all cut and bitten, as if bitten by asses, all done by the locusts. The wheat, barley, and tafo, as though they had never been sown there, the trees without any leaves, and the tender twigs all eaten, there was no memory of grass of any sort, and if we had not been prepared with mules laden with barley and provisions for ourselves, we and the mules would have perished. This country was entirely covered with locusts without wings, and they said these were the seed of those which had been there and destroyed the country, and they said that as soon as they had wings they would at once go and seek their country. I am silent as to the multitude of these without wings, because it is not to be believed, and it is right that I should relate what more I saw in this country. I saw men, women, and children, seated horror-struck amongst these locusts. I asked them: Why do you remain there dying, why do you not kill these animals, and revenge yourselves for the damage which their parents did you, and at least the dead ones will do you no further harm. They answered that they had not the heart to resist the plague which God gave them for their sins. The people were going away from this country, and we found the roads full of men, women, and children, on foot, and some in their arms, with their little bundles on their heads, removing to a country where they might find provisions (it was a pitiful sight to see them). When we were in this lordship of Abrigima, in a town named Aquate, there came travelling thither such a multitude of locusts as cannot be told, and they began to arrive there one day about the hour of tierce, and till night they did not cease, and as they arrived they settled to rest. Next day, at the hour of prime, they began to depart, and at midday there was not one there; and not a leaf remained upon a tree. At that moment others began to arrive, and they remained like the others till next day at the same hour, and these did not leave any crop with a husk, nor a green blade. In this way they did for five days, one after the other; and the people said these were the children going in search of their fathers. They showed the way for the others who had not got wings. After these had passed we learned the width of the passage of these locusts, and saw the destruction they had caused. The breadth of this exceeded three leagues, in which there did not remain a husk or a tree, and the country did not looked burned, but much snowed with the whiteness of the sticks and dryness of the grass. God was pleased that the fruits had already been gathered in. We did not know whence they came, because they came from towards the sea of the kingdom of Dandali, which is of hostile Moors; neither did we learn where was the end of their journey.

Cap. xxxiv.—How we arrived at Temei, and the ambassador went in search of Tigrimahom, and sent to call us.

Let us return to our journey: two days after our arrival at this town of Temei, before our baggage arrived which had remained in Barra, the ambassador, Don Rodrigo, set out with six men riding, on his way to the Tigrimahom’s residence. He has the title of King of extensive countries, and has very great lords under his orders and rule. Don Rodrigo went to ask him to give us equipment for our journey, as soon as we should enter his lands. We remained in this town of Temei, Joam Escolar and I, and two other Portuguese: in this time the factor arrived with the baggage which had remained in Barra; and so we brought it all together in this town of Temei, where we had a very hospitable reception from the first Xuum of the district, who is a brother of the Barnagais. On the 28th July of the said year of 1520 there came a message to us from the ambassador, to go with the goods to where he was staying in the house of the Tigrimahom,[50] with the Portuguese who had accompanied him. We were still waiting two days for the people of the country to carry our goods, and then a Xuum arrived who gave us assistance (and this with heavy squalls, storms, and rains); we travelled the space of a league through plains, and then began to descend a very steep road and a very deep descent for the distance of another league, and we went to sleep within the circuit of a church from fear of the tigers, and much vexed by the storms. The following day we went through mountains, both rocky ridges and forests of trees without fruit, until we came to a very large river, which, as it was winter, we found very large for passing over: this is the river on which the town of Barua is situated, and it runs to the Nile, where[51] the kingdom of the Barnagais ends, and that of Tigrimahom begins. From where we slept to this river will be two leagues, a little more or less, and, notwithstanding the mountains and woods, all peopled.

Cap. xxxv.—How the Tigrimahom sent a captain in search of our goods, and of the buildings which are in the first town.

On reaching the river, the men who came with us unloaded the baggage, and from the other side of the river we heard drums and a noise of people: we asked what it was, and they said that a captain of Tigrimahom had come for us. We passed over without our goods to the other side of the river with a good deal of difficulty, on account of the strong body of water: we found a fine body of people come to fetch us; they might be five or six hundred men to carry our goods. There was at once uncertainty between the people of either side of the river. Those of the country of Tigrimahom said that they had not got to take the baggage except in their country; and those of the Barnagais, that they had no obligation except to place it on the shore close to the water in their country; and they engaged in great shouting and obstinacy upon this matter. As the water was running high, they concluded upon passing over the baggage together, in a brotherly way, so that it should not remain out of doors on one or the other bank, but that which was just should be done. As soon as the baggage had been got across, and taken up by the people of Tigrimahom, they travelled with the baggage as fast as we did with our mules. We still travelled on, this portion of the day, through mountains like those we had left behind. On this road we saw herds of wild swine; some passed of fifty hogs; partridges and other birds covered the ground and the trees. Here, also, it was said there was every kind of animals, and according to what the mountains are it could not be otherwise. This night we slept in the open air, surrounded by fires from fear of the animals. Here the people began to change, also the country and the trees, and the costume of the people. Principally here we began to enter amongst very high peaks, which appear to rise up to the sky, so high are they; the space at their feet is not extensive, and all are separate one from another, and they are in a line, and not very wide at the base. All those that can be ascended, even though there is danger in it, have chapels on them, most of them of Our Lady. On many of these peaks we saw chapels, and we could not determine by what way people could go to them. We went this day to sleep at a town between the peaks called Abafazem, in which town is a very good church of Our Lady, well built, with the middle nave raised on two sides or walls, with its windows very well constructed, and all the church vaulted.[52] We had not seen any of this fashion in this country: in Portugal, in Entre Douro, and Minho, there are monasteries of this fashion. Close to the said church is a very large and handsome tower, both for its height and the good workmanship of the walls, and for its width, it is already getting damaged, and yet it has all the look of a regal building, all of well hewn stone: we have not seen such another building. This tower is surrounded by houses, which match well with it, with both good walls and terraces above, like residences of great lords. They said that these edifices belonged to Queen Candace, and because her house where she became a christian is very near here, this would be the truth. This town, church, and country, are situated between these peaks, in very pretty fields, all irrigated by conduits of water descending from the highest peaks, artificially made with stone. The sowings which they irrigate here are wheat, barley, beans, pulse, peas, garlic, onions, garden rue, much mustard; in the water conduits, many good water cresses. In this town there are many priests, and well dressed; they seemed to be good men, and they told us that in the commencement of christianity in this country seven churches had been built, and that this was one of them: and there is much appearance of its being so, because christianity commenced very near here, that is, in the town of Aquaxumo.

Cap. xxxv.[53]—How we departed from Bafazem, and went to the town called Houses of St. Michael.

We departed from this town as we had come, and also the people of the country who carried our baggage (this carrying is called Elfa), and we went to sleep at another town called St. Michael. On arriving at this town they did not give us lodging, saying that the town was privileged; and on account of the rain we went to the circuit of the church, and in the outer circuit, which serves as a churchyard, we put our mules, because there was plenty of grass on account of the winter rains. In this country it is not the custom to give victuals more than once a day, and it is the custom to do that at night, in all the kingdoms and lordships of Prester John. Having arrived thus, and not having had quarters given us, so also they did not give us anything to eat, according to their custom, and we were hungry. Our factor said to me: Father let us eat. I replied, What shall we eat? He said to me, I have brought two fowls cooked, let us eat them. Our clerk and I were horrified at eating meat without bread, but nevertheless we accompanied him. After this repast we many times ate meat without bread, and bread without meat, and bread without salt, because it is not usual in the country; and bread soaked in water, and pepper, so that we forgot our first amazement. In the night they sent us food, and as we were sleeping in the cloister of the church, for greater cleanliness we went to the place where they give, or used to give, the communion. Whilst we were there with light some pigeons began to stir; as soon as we heard them we rushed to the doors, for the rest was closed, not one escaped us, nor the young pigeons which we found in the holes: and we filled a bag with them. Later we returned to halt in this town, and we were received without their bringing forward their privileges, that we might not kill the pigeons of the church, which was now again peopled with them. The difference which there is between the people of this country and that of the Barnagais, is in their clothes and dress. The men wear girt round them some small skirts, some of stuff, some of tanned leather, like large breeches, also plaited, like those of the women of our country, and their extent is not more than two spans; when they are walking it seems that they spread them out so that they cover their nakedness, but if they stoop or sit down, or if there is wind, it shows. The married women wear very little covering, and the single women, who have neither husbands nor friends, have less shame. The beads which other women wear round their necks these wear girt round their bodies, and a large quantity of beads over their private parts, and whoever can get a hawk’s bell, or a small bell, wears it there; and some of these women (not married) wear a sheep’s skin at their neck, which covers one side and not more, because they wear it loose, and only one foot and one fore foot of the sheep is tied and suspended to the neck. The[54] road which is taken in this country of the Prester as soon as one arrives from the Red sea, or comes from Egypt to Çuaquem, is at once to turn one’s back on the North, and travel to the South until arriving at the gates of Badabaje; this is because a few hours from here they go in one direction, others in another, asking where the court may be, in a straight line, or to the East or to the West, according to the country where the Prester is staying. At these passages are separated the kingdoms of Amara and Xoa, and because we went about in these countries for six years, sometimes to one part, at others to another, going out of the road and then again returning to it, according as it seemed to us that that was a better arrangement.

Cap. xxxvi.—Which speaks of the town of Aquaxumo, and of the gold which the Queen Saba took to Solomon for the temple, and of a son that she had of Solomon.

Amongst these peaks where we were still going, in the parts to the West are wonderful lands and very great lordships, among which is a very good town named Aquaxumo, and it is two days’ journey from the town of St. Michael, always between these peaks. We stayed in it for eight months, by order of the Prester John. This town was the city, chamber, and abode (as they say) of the Queen Saba, who took the camels laden with gold to Solomon, when he was building the temple of Jerusalem. There is in this town a very noble church, in which we found a very great chronicle written in the language of the country, and it stated in its commencement how it had been written first in Hebrew, and afterwards put into Greek, and from Greek into Chaldee, and from Chaldee into the Abyssinian tongue, in which it now is, and it begins thus. How the Queen Sabaas hearing related the great and rich works which Solomon had begun in Jerusalem, she determined to go and see them; and she loaded certain camels with gold to give for these works. And on arriving near the city, and being about to cross a lake, which they passed by some bridges,[55] she dismounted and worshipped the beams and said: “Please God my feet shall not touch the timber on which the Saviour of the world has to hang.” And she made a circuit of the lake, and went to see Solomon, and induced him to withdraw those beams from there, and she came to the works, and offered her gifts and said: “These works are not such as they told me in richness and beauty, because their beauty and richness has no equal, so that they are greater than what was related to me, so much so that the tongues of men cannot tell their nobility and richness, and much I grieve for the small gift which I brought; I will return to my countries and lordships, and I will send whatever abounds for the works, of gold, and blackwood to inlay.” Whilst she was at Jerusalem Solomon had intercourse with her, and she became pregnant of a son, and remained at Jerusalem until she brought him forth. After she was able to travel she left her son, and returned to her country, and sent from it much gold and blackwood to inlay the works. And her son grew up to the age of seventeen years, and among the many other sons that Solomon had this one was so proud that he outraged[56] the people of Israel, and all the country of Judæa. And the people came to Solomon and said to him: “We are not able to maintain so many Kings as you have got, for all your sons are Kings, especially this one of Queen Saba; she is a greater lady than you, send him to his mother, for we are not able to maintain him.” Then Solomon sent him very honourably, giving him the officers that are usual in a King’s household (as I will relate in its place), and besides, he gave him, in order that he might rest on the road, the country of Gazaā, which is in the land of Egypt, and he made his journey to the country of his mother, where he was a very great ruler. The chronicle says that he ruled from sea to sea, and that he had sixty ships in the Indian sea. This book of chronicles is very large, and I only took from it the beginnings.

Cap. xxxvii.—How St. Philip declared a prophecy of Isaiah to the eunuch of Queen Candace, through which she and all her kingdom were converted, and of the edifices of the town of Aquaxumo.

In this town of Aquaxumo was the principal residence of the Queen Candace,[57] who was the beginning of the Christianity of this country. Her birth (as they say) was half a league from here, in a very small village, which now is entirely of blacksmiths. Her commencement of Christianity was this. According to what they say in their books the angel said to St. Philip: Rise and go towards the South, by the road which goes from Jerusalem to Gaza in the desert. St. Philip went, and met with a man who was an eunuch, and he was major-domo of the Queen Candace, ruler of Ethiopia. In the country of Gaza, which Solomon had given to his son, this man was the keeper of all the riches of the Queen, and he had been to Jerusalem and was returning to his house, and he was going on a chariot. St. Philip came up to him, and heard him sing a prophecy of Isaiah, and asked him how he understood what he was singing. He replied that he did not know, unless some other man taught him. St. Philip mounted into the chariot, and went on explaining to him that prophecy, and converted him, and baptized and instructed him in the faith. Then the Spirit snatched away St. Philip, and he remained informed. They say that here was fulfilled the prophecy which David spoke: “Ethiopia shall arise, and stretch forth her hands to God.” Thus they say they were the first Christians in the world. The eunuch at once set out very gaily on the road to Ethiopia, to the house of his mistress, and converted her and all her household, and baptized them in consequence of what he related to them. And the Queen caused all her kingdom of Buno to be baptized. This Buno is towards the east from the town of Aquaxumo, in the kingdom of the Barnagais, and it is now two lordships. In this town of Aquaxumo, where she became Christian, she built a very noble church, the first there was in Ethiopia: it is named St. Mary of Syon. They say that it is so named because its altar stone came from Sion. In this country (as they say) they have the custom always to name the churches by the altar stone, because on it is written the name of the patron saint. This stone which they have in this church, they say that the Apostles sent it from Mount Sion. This church is very large; it has five naves of a good width and of a great length, vaulted above, and all the vaults covered up, the ceiling and sides all painted. Below, the floor of the church is well worked with handsome cut stone. It has seven chapels, all with their backs to the east, and their altars well placed. It has a choir after our fashion, except that it is low, and they reach the vaulted roof with their heads; and the choir is also over a vault, and they do not use it. This church has a very large circuit, paved with flagstones like gravestones. This consists of a very high wall, and it is not covered over like those of the other churches, but it is left open. This church has a large enclosure, and it is also surrounded by another larger enclosure, like the wall of a large town or city. Within this enclosure are handsome habitations of terraced buildings, and all spout out their water by strong figures of lions and dogs of stone. Inside this large enclosure there are two palaces, one on the right hand and the other on the left, which belong to two rectors of the church; and the other houses are of canons and friars. In the large enclosure, at the gate nearest to the church, there is a large ruin, built in a square, which in other times was a house, and it has at each angle large stone pillars, squared and wrought. This house is called Ambazabete, which means house of lions. They say that in this house were the captive lions, and there are still some always, and there go before the Prester John four captive lions. Before the gate of this great enclosure there is a large court, and in it a large tree, which they call Pharaoh’s fig tree,[58] and at each end of it there are some very cool platforms of well worked masonry, merely laid down. Where they reach near the foot of the fig tree, they are injured by the roots, which raise them up. There are, on the top of these platforms, twelve stone chairs, as well made with stone as though they were of wood, with their seats and rests for the feet. They are not made out of a block of stone, but each one with pieces of of stone. They say these belong to the twelve judges who at this time serve in the court of Prester John. Outside of this enclosure there is a large assemblage of very good houses, such as there are not in the whole of Ethiopia, and very good wells of water, of wrought masonry, and also in most of the houses the before-mentioned ancient figures of lions and dogs and birds, all well made in stone. At the back of this great church is a very handsome tank of masonry, and upon this masonry are as many other chairs of stone, such as those in the enclosure of the church. This town is situated at the head of a beautiful plain, and almost between two hills, and the rest of this plain is almost all full of these old buildings, and among them many of these chairs, and high monumental stones with inscriptions. Above this town there are many stones standing up, and others on the ground, very large and beautiful, and wrought with handsome designs, among which is one raised upon another, and worked like an altar stone, except that it is of very great size, and it is set in the other as if inchased. This raised stone is sixty-four ells in length, and six wide; and the sides are three ells wide. It is very straight and well worked, made with arcades below, as far as a head made like a half moon; and the side which has this half moon is towards the south. There appear in it five nails, which do not show more on account of the rust; and they are like fives of dice in compass. And that it may not be said, How could so high a stone be measured? I have already said how it was all in arcades as far as the foot of the half moon, and these are all of one size; and we measured those we could reach to, and by those reckoned up the others, and we found sixty ells, and we gave four to the half moon, although it would be more, and so it made sixty-four ells. This very long stone, on its south side, and where the nails in the half moon are, at the height of a man, has the form of a portal carved in the stone itself, with a bolt and a lock, as if it were shut up.[59] The stone on which it is set up has an ell in thickness, and is well worked; it is placed on other large stones, and surrounded by other smaller stones, and no man can tell how much of it enters the other stone, or if it reaches to the ground. There are other stones raised above the ground, and very well worked; some of them will be quite forty ells long, and others thirty. There are more than thirty of these stones, and they have no patterns on them; most of them have large inscriptions, which the country people cannot read, neither could we read them; according to their appearance, these characters must be Hebrew. There are two of these stones, very large and beautiful, with designs of large arcades, and ornaments of good size, which are lying on the ground entire, and one of them is broken into three pieces, and each of these exceeds eighty ells, and is ten ells in width. Close to them are stones, in which these had to be, or had been let in, which were bored and very well worked.

Cap. xxxvii.—Of the buildings which are around Aquaxumo, and how gold is found in it, and of the Church of this town.

Above this town, on a hill which overlooks much land, and far away, and which is about a mile, that is the third of a league, from the town, there are two houses under the ground, into which men do not enter without a lamp. These houses are not vaulted, but of very good straight masonry, both the walls and the upper part; the walls may be twelve ells high; the stones inside and out are set in the wall so close one to the other, that it all looks like one stone. One of these houses is much divided into chambers and granaries; in the doorways are holes for the bars and for the sockets of the doors. In one of these chambers are two very large chests, each one four ells in length, and one and a half broad, and as much in height and inside, and in the upper part on the inner side they are hollowed at the edge, as though they had lids of stone, as the chests also are of stone. (They say that these were the treasure chests of Queen Saba.) The other house, which is longer, has only got a portico and one room. From the entrance of one house to that of the other will be a distance of a game of manqual,[60] and above them is a field. There were in our company some Genoese and Catalans, who had been prisoners of the Turks, and they affirmed and swore that they had seen Troy, and the granary of Joseph in the Kingdom of Egypt, and that their buildings were very large, but that these of this town were and are, in a great manner, larger, and it seemed to us that the Prester John had sent us here, in order that we should see these edifices, and we had rejoiced at seeing them, as they are much grander than what I write. In this town, and in its plains, which are all sown in their season with all kinds of seed, when there come thunderstorms, and they are over, there do not remain in the town women or men, boys or children, who are old enough, who do not come out to look for gold among the tillage, for they say the rains lay it bare, and that they find a good deal. So they go by all the roads seeking the water-courses, and raking with sticks. Seeing this, and hearing it said how much gold they found, both in the town and in the tilled lands, I determined on making a washing-board, such as I had seen in Portugal, at Foz darouca,[61] and in Ponte de Mucela. When it was done, I began to wash earth, and set up two boards, and did not find any gold. I do not know whether I did not know how to wash, or whether I did not know it when washed, or whether there was not any here: the report was, that there was a great deal. As they say that the church of Aquaxumo is the most ancient, so likewise they hold it to be the most honoured of all Ethiopia: and the offices are well done in it. In this church there are a hundred and fifty canons, and as many friars. It has two head men, one is named Nebrete[62] of the canons, which means master of instruction, and the other, Nebrete of the friars. These two heads reside in the palaces which are within the great inclosure and circuit of the church; and the Nebrete of the canons lodges at the right hand, and he is the principal one, and the most honoured. He does justice for the canons and for the laity of all this country: and the Nebrete of the friars only hears and rules the friars. Both use kettledrums and trumpets. They have very large revenues, and besides their revenues they have every day a collation which they call Maabar[63] of bread and wine of the country, when mass is finished. The friars have this for themselves, and the canons also, and this Maabar is such, that the friars seldom eat other food than that. They have this every day except Friday of the Passion, because on that day no one eats or drinks. The canons do not make their Maabar within the circuit of the church, and are seldom there, except at fixed hours, neither is the Nebrete in his palace, except at some chance time when he goes to hear causes. This is because they are married, and live with their wives and children in their houses, which are very good and which are outside. Neither women nor laymen enter into the inclosure of this church, and they do not enter to receive the communion. On account of their being married, and that the women do not enter this circuit, they make their Maabar outside, so that their wives and children may enjoy it.

Cap. xxxix.—How close to Aquaxumo there are two churches on two peaks, where lie the bodies of two saints.

Not very far from this town are two hills, one at one end and the other at the other, one to the east and the other to the west. At that which is to the west there is a good bit of ascent, and at the top there is quite half a league of a smiling plain which has some very good villages, and delightful vineyards. On this hill, towards the town of Aquaxumo, and in sight of it, there is a very handsome edifice, it is a tower of very fine masonry: and much of this tower is cast down, and with its masonry a church has been built of St. Michael, to which come many people from the town of Aquaxumo to take the communion on Saturdays and Sundays, on account of its devotion. On the hill which is to the east, on its peak there is another church which is named Abbalicanos, and this saint lies here, and they say that he was confessor of Queen Candace. This church is like an annex of the great church of Aquaxumo, and it is served by its canons. This house and church of Abbalicanos is one of great devotion amongst them, there come to it also many people from the town to hear the offices and take the communion. This church also has a large village at the foot of the hill which is its parish. Further on than this church, about a third of a league, there is a peak which is slender from its base, and appears to mount up to the sky: it is ascended by three hundred steps winding round it. On the top of it there is a very elegant small church of much devotion, which has no more than a small nave, and around it a circuit of well-wrought masonry of the height of a man’s breast, and men are afraid to look down over it. There is not more width from this wall to the church than what three men can cover together holding hands. This church has no cloister nor circuit, nor space where it could be made. This church is named Abbapantalian, and his body lies here: it possesses large revenues, and has fifty canons or debeteras, according to their names, and they have a Nebrete like those of Aquaxumo. As the church of Aquaxumo was the beginning of Christianity in Ethiopia, so this one is surrounded by the sepulchres of Saints like Braga in Portugal.

Cap. xl.—Of the countries and lordships that are to the west and to the north of Aquaxumo, where there is a monastery, named Hallelujah, and of two other monasteries to the east.

In the country to the west of Aquaxumo, which is towards the Nile, there are extensive lands and lordships, as they say. And in these countries and parts is the land of Sabaim, whence the Queen Saba took her name and title, and where the black wood is found which she sent to Solomon to make inlaid work in the temple. From this town of Aquaxumo to the beginning of the country of Sabaim there are two days’ journey. This lordship is now subject to the kingdom of the Tigrimahom, and a brother-in-law of the Prester John is lord and captain of it: they say it is a great and good lordship. On the north side there lies another lordship named Torate, a country of mountainous ridges; there is a distance of four leagues to these mountains and lordship of Torate. It is on a great and high mountain, and at its foot and on the top of it is a flat space of half a league, with large trees, and a monastery with great revenues (as they say) named Hallelujah, containing many friars. They say that it bears this name, because in the commencement of Christianity in this country, when St. Mary of Syon was built in Aquaxumo, this monastery was built next. They say that they did not know then what they ought to pray or to chaunt, and that there was here a devout father who kept vigils, and commended himself to God at night, and this devout man affirmed that he heard the angels in heaven, who sung Hallelujah, and that from this the custom remained in this country that all the masses commenced with Hallelujah, and so this monastery is called by name Hallelujah. And if in that time that friar was good and devout, now, those who are here, have the reputation of being great robbers. The hill and range on which this monastery stands is entirely surrounded by dry channels, which only have water after the thunder showers for a space of two or three leagues. In another mountain in the same lordship of Torate, is another great monastery, but not so great as that of Hallelujah, and they say that it has good friars, they also say that they are not good friends with the others, because they have a bad reputation. Returning to our road, at a distance of three leagues from the town of Aquaxumo, there is another monastery on another hill, this is named St. John. Further on, a distance of two leagues, there is another monastery which is named Abbagarima. They say that this Abbagarima was king of Greece, and that he left his kingdom, and came to do penance, and there ended his life in sanctity. There is behind his chapel a cave very convenient for doing penance, and they say that he abode there. They say that this king works many miracles: we came here on the day of his feast, and there were here more than three thousand cripples, blind men and lepers. This monastery is between three peaks, almost on the side of one of them, and it seems as though it would fall into the hollow where they say he did penance. They descend into it by a ladder, and bring out of it earth like gravel, or soft stone, and they carry it away and hang it to the necks of the sick in rags. (They say that some have received health.) I asked about the revenue of this monastery, the friars told me it had a revenue of sixteen horses, and besides, some endowments of provisions. It is a small monastery of few friars and small revenues, and at the foot of it they sow much garlic; there are between the peaks, large tilled fields, and it has an infinite number of very good vineyards, they make much raisins of them: they come in very early, they begin in January and end in March.

Cap. xli.—How we departed from the church and houses of St. Michael, and went to Bacinete, and from there to Maluc; and of the monasteries which are near it.

We went away from the Church of St. Michael, with the country people who carried our baggage, and went to sleep at a town named Angueha, at a Beteneguz, which means a king’s house, as I have already said various times. And already in other towns we had halted in houses like these: no one uses them, except the lords of the country who at times hold the authority of the Prester John. They respect these houses so much that their doors are always open, and no one touches anything there, nor enters within, except when the lord is there; and when he goes away nothing remains inside except the open doors, and sleeping couches ready for use,[64] and the place for making a fire. We departed from this place with our baggage, and travelled three or four leagues, and went to sleep on a high hill, and above a large river, which is named Abacinete,[65] and so the country and lordship is named. They said that this lordship belonged to the grandmother of the Prester John; and whilst we were there it was taken away from her, because she was on bad terms with the country. This lordship lies in the kingdom of Tigrimahom, and it is a very populous country in all parts, and fertile, a country of mountains and rivers; all the towns are on heights, and away from the roads: this they do on account of the travellers, who take from them by force whatever they have. The people who carried our baggage made a great fence of thorny bushes for us, and for the mules, which was to defend us from the wild beasts; however, we neither heard nor perceived anything at night. We set out from this place, and went to sleep at a town which is named Maluche, which may be two leagues from where we had slept. This town was surrounded by very beautiful tilled fields of wheat, barley, and millet, the best and thickest we had seen yet. Close to this town is a very high mountain, not very broad at the foot, for it is as broad at the top as it is at the bottom, for it is all scarped like a wall, of sheer cliff, all bare, without any crops or verdure of anything. It makes like three divisions; two at the ends are pointed, that of the middle flat. In one of the pointed divisions, that is, ascending to the summit from the bottom, there is a monastery of Our Lady, named Abbamata. They say that they are friars leading a good life. The order of friars is all one and the same in all the dominions of Prester John. It is all of St. Anthony of the Wilderness, and from this proceeds another order, which they name estefarruz.[66] These hold the others as bad, and say that they burn many on account of there being many heresies among them, such as their not adoring the cross. These are the people who make the crosses which all the clergy and friars carry in their hands, and the laity at their necks, and their opinion is that we have only one cross to adore, and that it is that on which Jesus Christ suffered, and that the crosses which they make, and which other men make, are not to be adored, because they are the work of men’s hands; and there are other heresies which they say, hold, and do. Looking at this monastery where it appears in sight, it seems like a league. I wished to go there; they told me not to go, as it was a day’s journey, and that they could not go there except by clinging on with the hands, and otherwise it was not possible to go there. On the hill in the middle, which is like a table, there is another house of Our Lady, to which they say much devout visitation is made. On the other peak is a house of Holy Cross; it is a further distance of a league and a half or two leagues. On another hill, which is also scarped, like that of Abbamata, there is another monastery, which is named St. John. There is nothing on the top of this hill but the monastery and houses of the friars, without any verdure, as it appears to sight from below; and its officials live at the foot of the hill in fertile lands, and send thence what is necessary to those who live in the monastery. Already in these lands a great difference is seen from the lands left behind. In the countries and kingdom of the Barnagais, and in the commencement of that of the Tigrimahom, there are many beggars, cripples, blind men, and poor people; in this country there are not so many. The men wear different costumes; so also the women who are married or living with men. Here they wear wrapped round them dark coloured woollen stuffs, with large fringes of the same stuff, and they do not wear diadems[67] on their heads like those of the Barnagais. The girls go from bad to worse; there are women of twenty or twenty-five years old, who have the breasts coming to their waists, and their body bare and gaily covered with little beads. Some of the women of full size and age wear a sheep skin suspended to their shoulder, without its covering more than one side. In the parts of Portugal and Spain people marry for love, and on account of seeing beautiful faces, and the things inside are hidden from them; in this country they can well marry on account of seeing everything quite certain.

Cap. xlii.—Of the animals which are in the country, and how we turned back to where the ambassador was.

There are in this country tigers and other animals, which at night kill the cows, mules and asses, in the closed towns, which they did not do in the kingdom of the Barnagais which we had left behind. We departed from this place[68] on the 6th of August of 1520, and returned back to where we had left the ambassador, who was lodged by order of the Tigrimahom, and much to his satisfaction, with all the Portuguese who had started with him from Temei, a country in the kingdom of the Barnagais. In the said place a great lord was lodged, by order of the Tigrimahom, in order to protect and provide for the ambassador; and likewise other gentlemen were lodged in towns within sight of this, and many others who accompanied the Tigrimahom. He was lodged in a Beteneguz, and the ambassador was at the distance of a league from that place. On the day that we arrived the Tigrimahom sent to summon the ambassador; and he went at once, and all the Portuguese went with him. When we arrived at the Beteneguz where he was, they told us that he was in the church, he and his wife, to receive the Communion; and this was an hour before sunset, which is the hour for saying mass on fast days. We went towards the church, and met with him on the way. Each came on his mule, with very good state, like great gentlemen as they are; so they came accompanied by many great lords. This Tigrimahom is an old man, of a good and reverend presence: his wife came entirely covered up with blue cotton stuffs; we did not see either her face or her body, because it was all covered up. As soon as we came up to him, he asked me for a cross which I carried in my hand, and he kissed it and ordered it to be given to his wife to kiss it; she kissed it through her wrapper, and received us with a good welcome. This Tigrimahom keeps a very large household, both of men and women, and great state, in a great measure grander than the Barnagais. The ambassador and those that were with him told us that they had received great honour and hospitable reception from the Tigrimahom, both in favour and provisions. It is but a short time that this Tigrimahom has held this lordship, and as yet, he has not finished visiting all his lands which are under his orders and rule, and also those who have the title of kings, as well as the others underneath them in rank. The Prester John deposes them and appoints them whenever he pleases, with or without cause; and on this account there is no ill humour here, and if there is any it is secret, because in this period that we remained in this country I saw great lords turned out of their lordships, and others put into them, and I saw them together, and they appeared to be good friends. (God knows their hearts.) And in this country, whatever happens to them, of good fortune or of loss, they say of all of it, that God does it. These great lords, who are like kings, are all tributaries of the Prester John; those of this kingdom in horses, and those of the Barnagais in brocades, silks, and some cotton cloths; and those further on from this place (as they say) are tributaries in gold, silk, mules, cows, and plough oxen, and other things which there are at court. The lords who are beneath these, even though they hold their lordships from the hand of Prester John, pay their tribute to the other lords; and they account for all on delivering it to the Prester. The lands are so populous that the revenues cannot but be large; and these lords, even though they receive their revenues, eat at the cost of the people and the poor.