Volume 3 / Book 6 — CHAP. XIX. Kind reception among the Agows—Their Number, Trade, Character, &c.

After having given my reader so long, though, I hope, no unentertaining lecture, it is time to go back to Woldo, whom we had left settling our reception with the chief of the village of Geesh. We found the measures taken by this man such as convinced us at once of his capacity and attachment. The miserable Agows, assembled all around him, were too much interested in the appearance we made, not to be exceedingly inquisitive how long our stay was to be among them. They saw, by the horse driven before us, we belonged to Fasil, and suspected, for the same reason, that they were to maintain us, or, in other words, that we should live at discretion upon them as long as we chose to tarry there; but Woldo, with great address, had dispelled these fears almost as soon as they were formed. He informed them of the king’s grant to me of the village of Geesh; that Fasil’s tyranny and avarice would end that day, and another master, like Negadé Ras Georgis, was come to pass a chearful time among them, with a resolution to pay for every labour they were ordered to perform, and purchase all things for ready money: he added, moreover, that no military service was further to be exacted from them, either by the king or governor of Damot, nor from their present master, as he had no enemies. We found these news had circulated with great rapidity, and we met with a hearty welcome upon our arrival at the village.

Woldo had asked a house from the Shum, who very civilly had granted me his own; it was just large enough to serve me, but we were obliged to take possession of four or five others, and we were scarcely settled in these when a servant arrived from Fasil to intimate to the Shum his surrendry of the property and sovereignty of Geesh to me, in consequence of a grant from the king: he brought with him a fine, large, milk-white cow, two sheep, and two goats; the sheep and goats I understood were from Welleta Yasous. Fasil also sent us six jars of hydromel, fifty wheat loaves of very excellent bread, and to this Welleta Yasous had added two middle-sized horns of excellent strong spirits. Our hearts were now perfectly at ease, and we passed a very merry evening. Strates, above all, endeavoured, with many a bumper of the good hydromel of Buré, to subdue the devil which he had swallowed in the inchanted water. Woldo, who had done his part to great perfection, and had reconciled the minds of all the people of the village to us, had a little apprehension for himself; he thought he had lost credit with me, and therefore employed the servant of Ayto Aylo to desire me not to speak of the sash to Fasil’s servant. I assured him, that, as long as I saw him acting properly, as he now did, it was much more probable I should give him another sash on our return, than complain of the means he had used to get this last. This entirely removed all his fears, and indeed as long after as he was with us, he every day deserved more and more our commendations.

Before we went to bed I satisfied Fasil’s servant, who had orders from Welleta Yasous to return immediately; and, as he saw we did not spare the liquor that he brought us, he promised to send a fresh supply as soon as he returned home, which he did not fail to perform the day after.

Woldo was now perfectly happy; he had no superior or spy over his actions; he had explained himself to the Shum, that we should want somebody to buy necessaries to make bread for us, and to take care of the management of our house. We displayed our lesser articles for barter to the Shum, and told him the most considerable purchases, such as oxen and sheep, were to be paid in gold. He was struck with the appearance of our wealth, and the generosity of our proposals, and told Woldo that he insisted, since we were in his houses, we would take his daughters for our house-keepers. The proposal was a most reasonable one, and readily accepted. He accordingly sent for three in an instant, and we delivered them their charge. The eldest took it upon her readily, she was about sixteen years of age, of a stature above the middle size, but she was remarkably genteel, and, colour apart, her features would have made her a beauty in any country in Europe; she was, besides, very sprightly; we understood not one word of her language, though she comprehended very easily the signs that we made. This nymph of the Nile was called by nickname Irepone, which signifies some animal that destroys mice, but whether of the ferret or snake kind I could not perfectly understand; sometimes it was one and sometimes another, but which it was I thought of no great importance.

The first and second day, after disposing of some of our stock in purchases, she thought herself obliged to render us an account, and give back the residue at night to Woldo, with a protestation that she had not stolen or kept any thing to herself. I looked upon this regular accounting as an ungenerous treatment of our benefactress. I called on Woldo, and made him produce a parcel that contained the same with the first commodities we had given her; this consisted of beads, antimony, small scissars, knives, and large needles; I then brought out a pacquet of the same that had not been broken, and told her they were intended to be distributed among her friends, and that we expected no account from her; on the contrary, that, after she had bestowed these, to buy us necessaries, and for any purposes she pleased, I had still as many more to leave her at parting, for the trouble she had given herself. I often thought the head of the little savage would have turned with the possession of so much riches, and so great confidence, and it was impossible to be so blinded, as not to see that I had already made great progress in her affections. To the number of trifles I had added one ounce of gold, value about fifty shillings sterling, which I thought would defray our expences all the time we staid; and having now perfectly arranged the œconomy of our family, nothing remained but to make the proper observations.

The houses are all of clay and straw. There was no place for fixing my clock; I was therefore obliged to employ a very excellent watch made for me by Elicott. The dawn now began, and a few minutes afterwards every body was at their doors; all of them crowded to see us, and we breakfasted in public with very great chearfulness. The white cow was killed, and every one invited to his share of her. The Shum, priest of the river, should likewise have been of the party, but he declined either sitting or eating with us, though his sons were not so scrupulous.

It is upon the principal fountain and altar, already mentioned, that once a-year, on the first appearance of the dog-star, (or, as others say, eleven days after) this priest assembles the heads of the clans; and having sacrificed a black heifer that never bore a calf, they plunge the head of it into this fountain, they then wrap it up in its own hide, so as no more to be seen, after having sprinkled the hide within and without with water from the fountain. The carcase is then split in half, and cleaned with extraordinary care; and, thus prepared, it is laid upon the hillock over the first fountain, and washed all over with its water, while the elders, or considerable people, carry water in their hands joined (it must not be in any dish) from the two other fountains; they then assemble upon the small hill a little well of St Michael, (it used to be the place where the church now stands) there they divide the carcase into pieces corresponding to the number of the tribes, and each tribe has its privilege, or pretensions, to particular parts, which are not in proportion to the present consequence of the several clans. Geesh has a principal slice, though the most inconsiderable territory of the whole; Sacala has the next; and Zeegam, the most considerable of them all in power and riches, has the least of the whole. I found it in vain to ask upon what rules this distribution was founded; their general and constant answer was, It was so observed in old times.

After having ate this carcase raw, according to their custom, and drunk the Nile water to the exclusion of any other liquor, they pile up the bones on the place where they sit, and burn them to ashes. This used to be performed where the church now stands; but Ras Sela Christos, some time after, having beaten the Agows, and desirous, at the Jesuits instigation, to convert them to Christianity, he demolished their altar where the bones were burnt, and built a church upon the site, the doors of which, I believe, were never opened since that reign, nor is there now, as far as we could perceive, any Christian there who might wish to see it frequented. After Sela Christos had demolished their altar by building this church, they ate the carcase, and burnt the bones, on the top of the mountain of Geesh out of the way of profanation, where the vestiges of this ceremony may yet be seen; but probably the fatigue attending this, and the great indifference their late governors have had for Christianity, have brought them back to a small hillock by the side of the marsh, west of saint Michael’s church, and a little to the southward, where they perform this solemnity every year, and they will probably resume their first altar when the church is fallen to ruins, which they are every day privately hastening.

After they have finished their bloody banquet, they carry the head, close wrapt from sight in the hide, into the cavern, which they say reaches below the fountains, and there, by a common light, without torches, or a number of candles, as denoting a solemnity, they perform their worship, the particulars of which I never could learn; it is a piece of free-masonry, which every body knows, and no body ventures to reveal. At a certain time of the night they leave the cave, but at what time, or by what rule, I could not learn; neither would they tell me what became of the head, whether it was ate, or buried, or how consumed. The Abyssinians have a story, probably created by themselves, that the devil appears to them, and with him they eat the head, swearing obedience to him upon certain conditions, that of sending rain, and a good season for their bees and cattle: however this may be, it is certain that they pray to the spirit residing in the river, whom they call the Everlasting God, Light of the World, Eye of the World, God of Peace, their Saviour, and Father of the Universe.

Our landlord, the Shum, made no scruple of reciting his prayers for seasonable rain, for plenty of grass, for the preservation of serpents, at least of one kind of this reptile; he also deprecated thunder in these prayers, which he pronounced very pathetically with a kind of tone or song; he called the river “Most High God, Saviour of the World;” of the other words I could not well judge, but by the interpretation of Woldo. Those titles, however, of divinity which he gave the river, I could perfectly comprehend without an interpreter, and for these only I am a voucher.

I asked the priest, into whose good graces I had purposely insinuated myself, if ever any spirit had been seen by him? He answered, without hesitation, Yes; very frequently. He said he had seen the spirit the evening of the 3d, (just as the sun was setting) under a tree, which he shewed me at a distance, who told him of the death of a son, and also that a party from Fasil’s army was coming; that, being afraid, he consulted his serpent, who ate readily and heartily, from which he knew no harm was to befal him from us. I asked him if he could prevail on the spirit to appear to me? He said he could not venture to make this request. If he thought he would appear to me, if, in the evening, I sat under that tree alone? he said he believed not. He said he was of a very graceful figure and appearance; he thought rather older than middle age; but he seldom chose to look at his face; he had a long white beard, his cloaths not like theirs, of leather, but like silk, of the fashion of the country. I asked him how he was certain it was not a man? he laughed, or rather sneered, shaking his head, and saying, No, no, it is no man, but a spirit. I asked him then what spirit he thought it was? he said it was of the river, it was God, the Father of mankind; but I never could bring him to be more explicit. I then desired to know why he prayed against thunder. He said, because it was hurtful to the bees, their great revenue being honey and wax: then, why he prayed for serpents? he replied, Because they taught him the coming of good or evil. It seems they have all several of these creatures in their neighbourhood, and the richer sort always in their houses, whom they take care of, and feed before they undertake a journey, or any affair of consequence. They take this animal from his hole, and put butter and milk before him, of which he is extravagantly fond; if he does not eat, ill-fortune is near at hand.

Nanna Georgis, chief of the Agows of Banja, a man of the greatest consideration at Gondar, both with the king and Ras Michael, and my particular friend, as I had kept him in my house, and attended him in his sickness, after the campaign of 1769, confessed to me his apprehensions that he should die, because the serpent did not eat upon his leaving his house to come to Gondar. He was, indeed, very ill of the low country fever, and very much alarmed; but he recovered, and returned home, by Ras Michael’s order, to gather the Agows together against Waragna Fasil; which he did, and soon after, he and other seven chiefs of the Agows were slain at the battle of Banja; so here the serpent’s warning was verified by a second trial, though it failed in the first.

Before an invasion of the Galla, or an inroad of the enemy, they say these serpents disappear, and are nowhere to be found. Fasil, the sagacious and cunning governor of the country, was, as it was said, greatly addicted to this species of divination, in so much as never to mount his horse, or go from home, if an animal of this kind, which he had in his keeping, refused to eat.

The Shum’s name was Kefla Abay, or Servant of the river; he was a man about seventy, not very lean, but infirm, fully as much so as might have been expected from that age. He conceived that he might have had eighty-four or eighty-five children. That honourable charge which he possessed had been in his family from the beginning of the world, as he imagined. Indeed, if all his predecessors had as numerous families as he, there was no probability of the succession devolving to strangers. He had a long white beard, and very moderately thick; an ornament rare in Abyssinia, where they have seldom any hair upon their chin. He had round his body a skin wrapt and tied with a broad belt: I should rather say it was an ox’s hide; but it was so scraped, and rubbed, and manufactured, that it was of the consistence and appearance of shamoy, only browner in colour. Above this he wore a cloak with the hood up, and covering his head; he was, bare-legged, but had sandals, much like those upon ancient statues; these, however, he put off as soon as ever he approached the bog where the Nile rises, which we were all likewise obliged to do. We were allowed to drink the water, but make no other use of it. None of the inhabitants of Geesh wash themselves, or their cloaths, in the Nile, but in a stream that falls from the mountain of Geesh down into the plain of Assoa, which runs south, and meets the Nile in its turn northward, passing the country of the Gafats and Gongas.

The Agows, in whose country the Nile rises, are, in point of number, one of the most considerable nations in Abyssinia; when their whole force is raised, which seldom happens, they can bring to the field 4000 horse, and a great number of foot; they were, however, once much more powerful; several unsuccessful battles, and the perpetual inroads of the Galla, have much diminished their strength. The country, indeed, is still full of inhabitants, but from their history we learn, that one clan, called Zeegam, maintained singly a war against the king himself, from the time of Socinios to that of Yasous the Great, who, after all, overcame them by surprise and stratagem; and that another clan, the Denguis, in like manner maintained the war against Facilidas, Hannes I. and Yasous II. all of them active princes. Their riches, however, are still greater than their power, for though their province in length is no where 60 miles, nor half that in breadth, yet Gondar and all the neighbouring country depend for the necessaries of life, cattle, honey, butter, wheat, hides, wax, and a number of such articles, upon the Agows, who come constantly in succession, a thousand and fifteen hundred at a time, loaded with these commodities, to the capital.

As the dependence upon the Agows is for their produce rather than on the forces of their country, it has been a maxim with wise princes to compound with them for an additional tribute, instead of their military service; the necessities of the times have sometimes altered these wise regulations, and between their attachment to Fasil, and afterwards to Ras Michael, they have been very much reduced, whereby the state hath suffered.

It will naturally occur, that, in a long carriage, such as that of a hundred miles in such a climate, butter must melt, and be in a state of fusion, consequently very near putrefaction; this is prevented by the root of an herb, called Moc-moco, yellow in colour, and in shape nearly resembling a carrot; this they bruise and mix with their butter, and a very small quantity preserves it fresh for a considerable time; and this is a great saving and convenience, for, supposing salt was employed, it is very doubtful if it would answer the intention; besides, salt is a money in this country, being circulated in the form of wedges, or bricks; it serves the purpose of silver coin, and is the change of gold; so that this herb is of the utmost use in preventing the increase in price of this necessary article, which is the principal food of all ranks of people in this country. Brides paint their feet likewise from the ancle downwards, as also their nails and palms of their hands, with this drug. I brought with me into Europe a large quantity of the seed resembling that of coriander, and dispersed it plentifully through all the royal gardens: whether it has succeeded or not I cannot say.

Besides the market of Gondar, the neighbouring black savages, the woolly-headed Shangalla, purchase the greatest part of these commodities from them, and many others, which they bring from the capital when they return thence; they receive in exchange elephants teeth, rhinoceros horns, gold in small pellets, and a quantity of very fine cotton; of which goods they might receive a much greater quantity were they content to cultivate trade in a fair way, without making inroads upon these savages for the sake of slaves, and thereby disturbing them in their occupations of seeking for gold and hunting the elephant.

The way this trade, though very much limited, is established, is by two nations sending their children mutually to each other; there is then peace between those two families which have such hostages; these children often intermarry; after which that family is understood to be protected, and at peace, perhaps, for a generation: but such instances are rare, the natural propensity of both nations being to theft and plunder; into these they always relapse; mutual enmity follows in consequence.

The country of the Agows, called Agow Midrè, from its elevation, must be of course temperate and wholesome; the days, indeed, are hot, even at Sacala, and, when exposed to the sun, we are sensible of a scorching heat; but whenever you are seated in the shade, or in a house, the temperature is cool, as there is a constant breeze which makes the sun tolerable even at mid-day, though we are here but 10° from the Line, or a few minutes more.

Though these Agows are so fortunate in their climate, they are not said to be long-livers; but their precise age is very difficult to ascertain to any degree of exactness, as they have no fixed or known epoch to refer to; and, though their country abounds with all the necessaries of life, their taxes, tributes, and services, especially at present, are so multiplied upon them, whilst their distresses of late have been so great and frequent, that they are only the manufacturers of the commodities they sell, to satisfy these constant exorbitant demands, and cannot enjoy any part of their own produce themselves, but live in misery and penury scarce to be conceived. We saw a number of women, wrinkled and sun-burnt so as scarce to appear human, wandering about under a burning sun, with one and sometimes two children upon their back, gathering the seeds of bent grass to make a kind of bread.

The cloathing of the Agows is all of hides, which they soften and manufacture in a method peculiar to themselves, and this they wear in the rainy season, when the weather is cold, for here the rainy seasons are of long duration, and violent, which still increases the nearer you approach the Line, for the reasons I have already assigned. The younger sort are chiefly naked, the married women carrying their children about with them upon their backs; their cloathing is like a shirt down to their feet, and girded with a belt or girdle about their middle; the lower part of it resembles a large double petticoat, one ply of which they turn back over their shoulders, fastening it with a broach, or skewer, across their breast before, and carry their children in it behind. The women are generally thin, and, like the men, below the middle size. There is no such thing as barrenness known among them. They begin to bear children before eleven; they marry generally about that age, and are marriageable two years before: they close child-bearing before they are thirty, though there are several instances to the contrary.

Dengui, Sacala, Dengla, and Geesh, are all called by the name of Ancasha, and their tribute is paid in honey. Quaquera and Azena pay honey likewise; Banja, honey and gold; Metakel, gold; Zeegam, gold. There comes from Dengla a particular kind of sheep, called Macoot, which are said to be of a breed brought from the southward of the Line; but neither sheep, butter, nor slaves make part of their tribute, being reserved for presents to the king and great men.

Besides what they sell, and what they pay to the governor of Damot, the Agows have a particular tribute which they present to the king, one thousand dabra of honey, each dabra containing about sixty pounds weight, being a large earthen vessel. They pay, moreover, fifteen hundred oxen and 1000 ounces of gold: formerly the number of jars of honey was four thousand, but several of these villages being daily given to private people by the king, the quantity is diminished by the quota so alienated. The butter is all sold; and, since the fatal battle of Banja, the king’s share comes only to about one thousand jars. The officer that keeps the accounts, and sees the rents paid, is called Agow Miziker182; his post is worth one thousand ounces of gold; and by this it may be judged with what œconomy this revenue is collected. This post is generally the next to the governor of Damot, but not of course; they are separate provinces, and united only by the special grant of the king.

Although I had with me two large tents sufficient for my people, I was advised to take possession of the houses to secure our mules and horses from thieves in the night, as also from the assaults of wild beasts, of which this country is full. Almost every small collection of houses has behind it a large cave, or subterraneous dwelling, dug in the rock, of a prodigious capacity, and which must have been the work of great labour. It is not possible, at this distance of time, to say whether these caverns were the ancient habitation of the Agows when they were Troglodytes, or whether they were intended for retreats upon any alarm of an irruption of the Galla into their country.

At the same time I must observe, that all the clans, or districts of the Agows, have the whole mountains of their country perforated in caves like these; even the clans of Zeegam and Quaquera, the first of which, from its power arising from the populous state of the country, and the number of horses it breeds, seems to have no reason to fear the irregular invasions of naked and ill-armed savages such as are the Galla. The country of Zeegam, however, which has but few mountains, hath many of these caverns, one range above another, in every mountain belonging to them. Quaquera, indeed, borders upon the Shangalla; as these are all foot, perfectly contiguous, and separated by the river, the caverns were probably intended as retreats for cattle and women against the attacks of those barbarians, which were every minute to be apprehended.

In the country of the Tcheratz Agow, the mountains are all excavated like these in Damot, although they have no Galla for their neighbours whole invasions they need be afraid of. Lalibala, indeed, their great king and saint, about the twelfth century, converted many of these caves into churches, as if he had considered them as formerly the receptacles of Pagan superstition. At the same time, it is not improbable that these caverns were made use of for religious purposes; that of Geesh, for instance, was probably, in former times, a place of secret worship paid to the river, because of that use it still is, not only to the inhabitants of the village, but to the assembly of the clans in general, who, after the ceremonies I have already spoken of, retire, and then perform their sacred ceremonies, to which none but the heads of families in the Agows country are ever admitted.

When I shewed our landlord, Kefla Abay, the dog-star, (Syrius) he knew it perfectly, saying it was Seir, it was the star of the river, the messenger or star of the convocation of the tribes, or of the feast; but I could not observe he ever prayed to it, or looked at it otherwise than one does to a dial, nor mentioned it with the respect he did the Abay; nor did he shew any sort of attention to the planets, or to any other star whatever.

On the 9th of November, having finished my memorandum relating to these remarkable places, I traced again on foot the whole course of this river from its source to the plain of Goutto. I was unattended by any one, having with me only two hunting dogs, and my gun in my hand. The quantity of game of all sorts, especially the deer kind, was, indeed, surprising; but though I was, as usual, a very successful sportsman, I was obliged, for want of help, to leave each deer where he fell. They sleep in the wild oats, and do not rise till you are about to tread upon them, and then stare at you for half a minute before they attempt to run off.

The only mention I shall make of the natural productions of this place comes the more properly in here, as it relates to my account of the religion of this people. In the writings of the Jesuits, the Agows are said to worship canes183; but of this I could find no traces among them. I saw no plant of this kind in their whole country, excepting some large bamboo-trees. This plant, in the Agows language, is called Krihaha. It grows in great quantity upon the sides of the precipice of Geesh, and helps to conceal the cavern we have already mentioned; but though we cut several pieces of these canes, they shewed no sort of emotion, nor to be the least interested in what we were doing.

Our business being now done, nothing remained but to depart. We had passed our time in perfect harmony; the address of Woldo, and the great attachment of our friend Irepone, had kept our house in a chearful abundance. We had lived, it is true, too magnificently for philosophers, but neither idly nor riotously; and I believe never will any sovereign of Geesh be again so popular, or reign over his subjects with greater mildness. I had practised medicine gratis, and killed, for three days successively, a cow each day for the poor and the neighbours. I had cloathed the high priest of the Nile from head to foot, as also his two sons, and had decorated two of his daughters with beads of all the colours of the rainbow, adding every other little present they seemed fond of, or that we thought would be agreeable. As for our amiable Irepone, we had reserved for her the choicest of our presents, the most valuable of every article we had with us, and a large proportion of every one of them; we gave her, besides, some gold; but she, more generous and nobler in her sentiments than us, seemed to pay little attention to these that announced to her the separation from her friend; she tore her fine hair, which she had every day before braided in a newer and more graceful manner; she threw herself upon the ground in the house, and refused to see us mount on horseback, or take our leave, and came not to the door till we were already set out, then followed us with her good wishes and her eyes as far as she could see or be heard.

I took my leave of Kefla Abay, the venerable priest of the most famous river in the world, who recommended me with great earnestness to the care of his god, which, as Strates humorously enough observed, meant nothing less than he hoped the devil would take me. All the young men in the village, with lances and shields, attended us to Saint Michael Sacala, that is, to the borders of their country, and end of my little sovereignty.