Shoa

“ The presiding deities over the liquor jars were unceasingly employed in serving out their contents, and as the brain reeled under the influence of strong old mead, the words of contempt burst from every lip. “Who is the King of Shoa, that he should trample upon men braver than himself? Here is our protector and avenger. Medóko is our leader, and he alone shall be our king!” But the uproar, which for a time rose wildly from the hut, gradually died away as the horn was carried with a more unsteady hand to the mouth. ”

“ It is just possible to conceive the relation between the monarch of Shoa and his people by comparison with the state and condition of the household of some rich and powerful nobleman in England; with this difference, that in the latter case it is optional on the part of the dependents to continue their servitude; whilst the Negoos possesses the stronger hold upon the services and property of his subjects, and consequently a greater power of exercising his will, because they have no means of removing themselves away from his power. ”

“ Next to the merciful disposition of Sáhela Selássie, his munificence to the indigent may be ranked among his most prominent virtues. Whilst the needy never retire empty-handed from his door, no criminal ever suffers under the barbarous mutilation, so many distressing monuments of which had this day shared his liberality. Blood flowing from the veins of a subject finds no pleasure in the eyes of the ruler of Shoa. ”

“ In Shoa, the silver sword is the emblem of rank and authority, and it is girded on the loins of none but those who enjoy an exalted place in the sovereign’s favour. The forfeiture of government and the loss of the cumbrous badge go hand in hand, and many are the weary hours of attendance indispensable towards the restoration of either. On no foreigner who had yet visited the Christian land had this mark of distinction been conferred, but the despot now suddenly resolved that the fluted tulip scabbard should adorn his English guests. ”

“ May 22d.—Famous in my history for being the last day’s journey before reaching the first frontier station of the kingdom of Shoa. In a calahm the evening before it had been arranged that Ohmed Medina, Ohmed Mahomed, Ebin Izaak, and all the Hy Soumaulee, except their Chief, Carmel Ibrahim, and two others who had stayed with their countrymen at Mulkukuyu, should accompany me during the night, leaving the Kafilah to come on by sunrise. ”

“ He who hurls the first successful spear is entitled to an honorary reward from the king, and to a triumph in the capital, which is attended with ceremonies and rejoicings similar to those that celebrate the return of the murderous foray against the heathen Galla. Owing to the excess of cultivation on the highlands, Shoa generally presents a peculiar deficiency of objects worthy of the chase; baboons and monkeys, it has been seen, are royal game ”

“ Like those of Gondar, the civilised Christian peoples of Shoa are mainly Amharinians, but they are separated from the body of the nation by lofty mountains. Whilst most of the Abyssinians live on the lands sloping towards the Blue Nile, those of Shoa occupy more especially the watershed of the Awash, a tributary of the Red Sea. Moreover, a large part of the plateau bounding Shoa towards the north is inhabited by peoples of Gulla origin. ”

“ The entire mountain-side is well-peopled by Mohammadan subjects of Shoa, whose progenitors arriving from the country of the sun with the great invader Graan, selected this as the location most congenial to their habits, and with it bequeathed to their descendants all the ancestral aversion to a cold climate. A stronger and more athletic race than the Amhára, the dark-eyed females present features far more feminine and agreeable than their coarse highland sisters, with forms more becomingly attired. ”

“ Aboo Bekr, the reigning Ameer, has wielded the sceptre during the last seven years, and pursuing the barbarous custom of Shoa, his brothers and family are permanent inmates of subterranean dungeons, which for better security are constructed immediately below the foundations of his own palace. Although cruel and vindictive, he is reputed a brave prince, heading the foray in person, and taking the front in the battle field ”

“ The appeal, indeed, of the former to Joseph, expresses exactly the request made to the Negoos of Shoa by his subjects; “Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and the land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh, and give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land be not desolate.” ”

“ Chief of all the sycophants who bask in the favour of the monarch, may be ranked Wulásma Mohammad, who, in finesse, plausibility, and the manifold specious devices that are employed to cover total want of sincerity, can find no equal in the kingdom of Shoa. Lavish in professions of friendship, he never suffered to escape an opportunity of gratifying his inwardly-cherished animosity. ”

“ A serious rebellion had broken out in Shoa, and Theodore, leaving his prisoners, wives and camp-followers at Magdala, made a quick march through the Wallo Galla country; but he found the rebels so strong that he could do nothing against them. He was greatly annoyed at the Bishop's refusal to accompany him. The Shoa people are of all Abyssinians the most bigoted, and have the greatest regard for their Abouna; with him in his camp many of the opposing chiefs would at once have laid down their arms and returned to their allegiance. ”

“ I confess myself, therefore, unequal to the task of giving any account of the Christian religion in Shoa. To give a correct one, would require a man educated entirely for the purpose by a long study of the subject in all its relations, as connected with the Greek Church, and the Archbishopric of Alexandria, to enable him to collect, compare, and arrange that chaos of religious opinions that seem to characterize the modern Abyssinian faith ”

“ I shall build a wall. My father subdued all the population of Shoa, and I fear no enemy to the south, in Guráguê, Enárea, or Zingero. None can stand before me. The Adaïel and the people of Geshe (a province on the northern frontier of Shoa) alone contend with me. In Geshe they have large shields, and fight hand to hand. The country of the Adel is difficult of access, and unfortunate for the Amhára. It is an old dependency of the empire of my ancestors; but the men are brave, and stand firm in battle. They will not run away. ”

“ The fact is, the good people of Shoa manage, as in every other country, to remedy by some conventional subterfuge any political or social injustice; and here, where the descent of property is diverted from its natural course by an arbitrary custom, the evil is counteracted by the exchange, during illness, of everything valuable in furniture or household utensils with near relations, for the most worthless description of the same articles, so that in case of death the Negoos gets a very sorry collection as the heir-at-law to the deceased. ”

“ As it is to be presumed that they had no intention of taking any personal part in this marauding expedition, we are not disposed to criticise their acquiescence; otherwise there could be no doubt whatever, that they had no right to assist the king of Shoa in his foray on his neighbours, more than they would have had a right to assist his neighbours in their attacks upon the king of Shoa. ”

“ The large and fine cloth, valued in Shoa at thirty dollars, sent by Sahale Selassee, as a present to our Queen, is woven of thread spun in the palace of Debra Berhan; and the monarch, sole visitor to the apartments occupied by these royal cotton-spinners, has no doubt frequently stimulated his favourite slaves to more careful efforts, as they produced the finely long-drawn thread, by dwelling upon the munificence and wealth of his Egyptian sister, our own well-beloved Sovereign. ”

“ In Shoa this principle is carried out for the sole benefit of the monarch, and Paley’s metaphor of the lording pigeon, over the productive wealth of the whole dovecote, typifies exactly the respective conditions of the Shoans and their Negoos. The strictly selfish and monopolizing rule, established 185 by the sagacious monarch, has reduced all his people to the most abject state of submission, dependent upon him for every kind of property they possess. Most fortunately for them, he is a just and good man, for he can give and take away at pleasure ”

“ My kingdom is as nothing."
The hereditary provinces at this day subject to the King of Shoa, are comprised in a rectangular domain of 150 by 90 miles; an area traversed by five systems of mountains, of which the culminating point divides the basin of the Nile from that of the Hawash. The Christian population of Shoa and Efat are estimated at a million; and the Moslem and Pagan population at a million and a half. The royal revenues are said to amount to 80,000 or 90,000 German crowns, arising chiefly from import duties in slaves, merchandise, and salt. ”

“ Instead, therefore, of proceeding to Shoa, as his intention was, he encamped at Bahalla, and there kept the feast of Christmas, laying the whole province, by parties, under military execution; and hearing there that Joseph, governor of Serca, was in understanding with those of Dawaro, he put him in prison, carrying off all his horses, asses, mules, and a prodigious quantity of other cattle, which he drove before him, and ended his expedition by his entry into Shoa. ”

“ Foreigners, more especially French and Italians, are relatively numerous in Shoa, and since the visits of Rochet, Lefebvre, Harris, Combes and Tamisier, Isenberg and Krapf, hundreds of missionaries, artisans, and merchants have presented themselves in the nomad court of the successors of Sehla Sellasieh; but hitherto the natives have benefited little by the European inventions. ”

“ Yet even as respects this, a person educated in the more correct principles of what is considered to constitute social happiness, does not perceive in Shoa that violence done to propriety, which similar conduct in many of the southern states in Europe is apt to excite. The loose habits and indiscriminate intrigue, which displeased me when I witnessed it among the inhabitants of various countries situated upon the northern shores of the Mediterranean, only occasioned a smile when I observed it in Abyssinia. ”

“ Horses abound in the kingdom of Shoa, as well as throughout the adjacent champaign country of the Galla; but save during the foray, they are rarely mounted by the indolent Amhára, the sure-footed mule being better adapted to his taste, and to the rugged hills that compose the greater portion of the frontier. The note of war, however, had so materially increased the value of the steed, that even the few horses we required had been obtained with difficulty. ”

“ Had I not known that the more wealthy of their religion invariably invest their money in slaves, to supply the Dankalli and Hurrah dealers, I should certainly have inferred from the scanty and very limited stores placed before the saleswomen of that faith in Aliu Amba market, that the Islam inhabitants of Shoa were exceedingly poor. ”

“ The arrival in the kingdom of Shoa of the many valuable presents brought by the Embassy, had not proved more agreeable to the traders from Gondar and Tigré who reside in Ankóber, than to the narrow-minded governor of Alio Amba. These men had been in the habit of selling glass-ware, cloths, and fire-arms to the king at a very considerable premium, and now did not fail to repeat and to improve the absurdities circulated by the mischievous Danákil regarding the foreign intruders. ”

“ In Ankobar my time was principally occupied in receiving information respecting the character and customs of the inhabitants of Shoa, but these I had more opportunity subsequently of observing for myself.
Respecting the slaves of the Negoos, in addition to the water-bearers just spoken of, I learned that he possessed several hundreds of others. All the gunmen who constitute the body-guard are bondsmen, and of these there are at least one thousand. These are divided into three bodies, relieving each other in rotation after one week’s attendance at the palace ”

“ They are brought into Shoa by priests travelling to Gondah, 310 the only individuals that can traverse in safety the different Galla tribes to the south of the Hawash, between their country and Shoa. Forty of these korareema, threaded upon a strong hempen string, may be purchased in Aliu Amba for an ahmulah, and in aromatic flavour are equal, I think, to the best nutmeg or cloves. ”

“ Among others who addressed the Negoos in favour of the children, whose numbers amounted to scarcely more than five hundred, were the officers of the British Mission, a fact, however, of which I never heard until my arrival in this country, nor is it, I am afraid, very generally 161 known to have been the case by the inhabitants of Shoa, who have no other idea but that it was the effect of religious feeling, and of the great sense of justice, for which their sovereign, Sahale Selassee, is celebrated all over the eastern horn of Africa, and far into the interior towards the west. ”

“ Even the political mission to Shoa, which has failed in its proposed objects, yet affords some consolation by supposing that the evidences of our wealth and power, demonstrated by the presents which were laid at his feet by our representative, will confirm him in his renewed attachment to our religion, which only requires his countenance, to contend successfully in Abyssinia against the encroachments of the Islam faith, until fresh efforts shall be made by the friends of the Gospel in this country, more firmly to establish the pure faith of Christ in that benighted land. ”