Aedui

“ And this father wrote a letter of blessing, and sent it to the King of Ethiopia, and to all the Ethiopians, and blessed them. When that letter reached the country of Ethiopia God removed His anger from them and sent to them His compassion and mercy; and the rain descended upon them, and God removed the famine and the plague and the people rejoiced with great joy. And this is what happened in the days of that king. Salutation to the Patriarch, the son of Torayk, to whose name was added that of the angel Gabriel. Glory be to God Who is glorified in His Saints. ”

“ It remains for us to go forth, sons and daughters of Ethiopia, embrace our privileges, obtain the lands, dwell thereon, and become a great nation. Then the heathen will be turned from their idols, and join the true worship: then Ethiopia will stretch her hands unto God, and the islands shall be filled with his glory. Thus shall we be a blessing to all people, and all people will be a blessing to us, and the Lord will prosper us in all things. ”

“ In the customary preparations for the coming of Annadoah's unborn child Ootah had entered with rare tenderness and solicitude. When a little one is expected among these northern people, new clothing, of the rarest skins of animals and the feathers of birds, must be made for both mother and child; a new igloo is built for the event by the happy father, for the little one they believe should come in a house unspotted and white as the driven snow. Annadoah was deserted, husbandless; the women of the tribe remained aloof from her; Ootah alone stood by her. ”

“ Thus converted at an early period of the Christian age, Ethiopia spread her new religion deep into the recesses of heathen Africa. Extending her wide empire on every side, the praise of the Redeemer soon arose from the wildest valleys and the most secluded mountains. From the great river Gochob to the frontiers of Nubia, the crutch and the cowl pervaded the land. Churches were erected in every convenient spot; and the blue badge of nominal Christianity encircled the necks of an ignorant multitude. ”

“ Under the Ptolemies, the arts as well as the enterprise of the Greeks entered Ethiopia, and led to the establishment of Greek colonies. A Greek inscription at Adulis, no longer extant, but copied by Cosmas of Alexandria, and preserved in his Topographia Christiana, records that Ptolemy Euergetes, the third of the Greek dynasty in Egypt, invaded the countries on both sides of the Red Sea, and having reduced most of the provinces of Tigré to subjection, returned to the port of Adulis, and there offered sacrifices to Jupiter, Mars and Neptune. ”

“ Atooi lies to the north-west of Woahoo, and is distant from it about twenty-five leagues. The face of the country to the north-east and north-west is broken and ragged; but to the south it is more even; the hills rise with a gentle slope from the sea side, and, at some distance back, are covered with wood. Its productions are the same with those of the other islands; but the inhabitants far surpass all the neighbouring islanders in the management of their plantations. In the low grounds, adjoining to the bay where we lay at anchor, these plantations were divided by deep and regular ditches ”

“ Settled in an elevated region, which in tropical climes has generally been found to be the seat of civilization, [6] they seem to have been once celebrated for learning, and in the early ages of the post-diluvian world, the district of Auxuma was probably the mother country of the wisdom and inhabitants of Egypt. [7] The Ethiopians boasted, according to the historians of Greece, that they were the most ancient people of the globe, that amongst them first originated the worship of the gods, and that they were the first inventors of religious rites and ceremonies. ”

“ Auwae's father repeats a legend handed down through generations of his family. "More than four hundred years ago," he says, "not far from this very spot, there lived a great chief. His home was not Hawaii, but he came from a distant land to fight and win honour under the king of this island. He became powerful, and was much loved by the people. ”

“ I asked the chief what he was, whether an Earee, or a Toutou? and the answer I received was, that he was taata eno; that is, a bad man. And yet, notwithstanding this, and the little notice any of the natives seemed to take of the mad prophet, superstition has so far got the better of their reason, that they firmly believe such persons to be possessed with the spirit of the Eatooa. Omai seemed to be very well instructed about them. He said that, during the fits that come upon them, they know nobody, not even their most intimate acquaintances ”

“ The high civilisation of Aethiopia, as attested by historians and confirmed by its monuments, was confined to the insular area of Meroë and to Aethiopia Aegypti, and is more particularly described under the head of Meroe.
The connection between Egypt and Aethiopia was at all periods very intimate. The inhabitants of the Nile valley and of Aethiopia were indeed branches of the same Hamite stream, and differed only in degree of civilisation. Whether religion and the arts descended or ascended the Nile has long been a subject of discussion. ”

“ Shall the Nile, which is looked upon by some people as the proper boundary line between Asia and Libya,188 and which extends southward in length more than 10,000 stadia, embracing in its breadth islands which contain populations of above ten thousand men, the largest of these being Meroe, the seat of empire and metropolis of the Ethiopians, be regarded as too insignificant to divide Ethiopia into two parts? ”

“ In the Odyssey he conducts Neptune into Ethiopia; and the account he gives seems to warrant the belief, that by the Ethiopians he meant not merely the Ethiopians of Africa, but the inhabitants of India: we know that the ancients, even so late as the time of Strabo and Ptolemy, considered all those nations as Ethiopians who lived upon the southern ocean from east to west; or, as Ptolemy expresses it, that under the zodiac, from east to west, inhabit the inhabitants black of colour. ”

“ Of the Ethiopians above Egypt and of the Arabians the commander, I say, was Arsames; but the Ethiopians from the direction of the sunrising (for the Ethiopians were in two bodies) had been appointed to serve with the Indians, being in no way different from the other Ethiopians, but in their language and in the nature of their hair only; for the Ethiopians from the East are straight-haired, but those of Libya have hair more thick and woolly than that of any other men. ”

“ Ge'ez was understood by the learned People of the Church. but was not readily understood by the ordinary people. Arising from this, the scholars in their preaching and work have for centuries been forced in their teaching to interpret from Ge'ez into Amharic. And these conditions prevailed until Our own times.
Since the time when, by God's goodness, We were chosen to ascend the Throne of Ethiopia and while We have been leading Our people to progress in learning and knowledge, We have laboured in every way possible with an eye to their growth in spiritual and material learning and knowledge. ”

“ There were tribes among the Ethiopians which were of a low grade of civilization, just as in the most civilized countries of the present times, there are peoples of a very low grade, not only in civilization but in intelligence. But, there existed a highly cultured and civilized Ethiopian people, who dwelt in cities, erected temples and other edifices, and who had good government and humane laws. Moreover, their fame and progress in knowledge and their social arts spread in the earliest ages over a considerable part of the earth. ”

“ The hands which Ethiopia shall soon stretch out unto God are not mere hands of helplessness and supplication, but rather are they hands of pain and promise; hard, gnarled, and muscled for the world's real work; they are hands of fellowship for the half-submerged masses of a distempered world ”

“ Yes, Auwae shall see, not only this, but [99] many wonders beside. She shall ride through the streets with neither man nor animal to carry her. She shall talk with people miles away by placing her mouth to a tube. She shall see how her white cousins live and dress.
But her father does not doubt that she will be glad to come home again to this little grass house with the quiet and the peace of the village life. ”

“ And we have become like unto sheep which have been turned out, and have no shepherd. Our bishops, and priests, and kings have died, and our churches have been pulled down; but we acknowledge that this tribulation hath come upon us rightly in return for what we did to our Bishop Abba Peter.” And when the letter of the King of Ethiopia came to King George in Noba, and he had read it, he was exceedingly sorry that trials and tribulation had come upon the country of Ethiopia. ”

“ It is understood that enemies slain in battle are the sole objects of this abominable custom.
The island, at which our voyagers had now touched, was called Atooi by the natives. Near it was another island, named Oneeheow, where our commander came to an anchor on the 29th of the month. The inhabitants were found to resemble those of Atooi in their dispositions, manners, and customs; and proofs, too convincing, appeared that the horrid banquet of human flesh is here as much relished, amidst plenty, as it is in New Zealand. ”

“ You see no instances of an Otaheitan drawing near the Eatooa with carelessness and inattention; he is all devotion; he approaches the place of worship with reverential awe; uncovers when he treads on sacred ground; and prays with a fervour that would do honour to a better profession. He firmly credits the traditions of his ancestors. None dares dispute the existence of the Deity.' Thieving may also be reckoned as one of their vices; this, however, is common to all uncivilized nations, and, it may be added, civilized too. ”

“ Should inter-tribal hostilities break out they must leave their father and fight for their mother’s tribe, even against their own parent if need so be. Until this is understood the relationships of the Tuareg appear very puzzling to the traveller. When I first met Ahodu he informed me that he was of the Kel Tadek people, who are Kel Amenokal, but he had a half-brother and a paternal cousin who belonged to the Añastafidet. It appears that the fathers of Ahodu and Efale, the famous eastern guide, were brothers of a man in the noble Kel Fares of the Kel Owi confederation. ”

“ Those of Otaheite do not inter their dead, but expose them to waste by time and putrefaction, though the bones are afterward buried; and as this is the case, it is very remarkable that they should inter the entire bodies of their human sacrifices. They also offer other animals and vegetables to their gods; but are by no means attentive to the state of the sacred places where those solemn rites are performed; most of their morais being in a ruinous condition, and bearing evident marks of neglect. The people of Atooi, again, inter both their common dead and human sacrifices, as at Tongataboo ”

“ Having traversed this part in forty days as I have said, you will take boat again and so travel for twelve days till you come to a great city called Meroe, which is said to be the capital of all Ethiopia. The people of the place worship no other gods but Zeus and Dionysus; these they greatly honour, and they have a place of divination sacred to Zeus; they send out armies whenever and whithersoever this god by oracle commands them. ”

“ All ideas regarding salvation are thus vague and indefinite; and vain; foolish doctrines have taken entire possession of the shallow thoughts of the Christian of Ethiopia. Born amid falsehood and deceit, cradled in bloodshed, and nursed in the arms of idleness and debauchery, the national character is truly painted in the confession of one of her degenerate sons:—“Whensoever we behold the pleasing ware, we desire to steal it; and we are never in the company of a man whom we dislike, that we do not wish to kill him on the spot.” ”

“ The condition of this people in ancient times is very far from indicating intellectual or moral inferiority. Ethiopia held a conspicuous place among the nations. Her princes were wealthy and powerful, and her people distinguished for integrity and wisdom. Even the proud Grecians evinced respect for Ethiopia, almost amounting to reverence, and derived thence the sublimest portions of their mythology. The popular belief that all the gods made an annual visit to the Ethiopians, shows the high estimation in which they were held ”

“ Such is a brief account of the ancient traditions of mythical Maori gods and of the culture-hero. In practice, the conception of Atua (or a kind of more or less malevolent extra-natural power or powers) possesses much influence in New Zealand. All manner of spirits, in all manner of forms, are Atuas. "A great chief was regarded as a malignant god in life, and a still worse one after death." ”

“ The chiefs of districts at Otaheite are powerful princes, who have not more respect for Otoo than the Greek heroes had for the "king of men;" and the common people are so little noticed in the Iliad, that they appear to have had no greater consequence, than the towtows in the South Seas. ”

“ From the remotest times to the present, the Ethiopians have been one of the most celebrated, and yet the most mysterious of nations. In the earliest traditions of nearly all the more civilized nations of antiquity, the name of this distant people is found. The annals of the Egyptian priests are full of them, and the nations of inner Asia, on the Euphrates and Tigris, have interwoven the fictions of the Ethiopians with their traditions of the wars and conquests of their heroes; and, at a period equally remote, they glimmer in Greek mythology. ”