Caffa is the mountainous peninsula formed by the junction of the Omo with the Gochob. It is an independent country of mixed Pagans and Christians, over whom presides Balee, the relict of King Hullaloo. She is represented to be a young woman of extraordinary energy and ability, very hospitable to the rovers who visit her with blue calico, beads, and trinkets, in return for which she gives cloth and other produce of the country. On the demise of her husband she a.s.sembled all the governors of the different provinces, and having caused them to be put in irons, proclaimed herself queen. Her only son Gomarra, "the hippopotamus,"
still a youth, leads the army into the field; but she often proceeds with the troops in person, and invariably plans the expedition.
Whensoever she moves abroad, her subjects are bound to spread the way with their raiment; and as well during the administration of justice from behind a screen with a small aperture, as during the public banquet, drums, fiddles, and flutes play incessantly.
Nyhur, Moyey, Ziggahan, Boora, and Alera, are the princ.i.p.al towns of Caffa; and the entire rugged and mountainous country is covered with thick forests, which also clothe the banks of the Gochob, affording shelter to the elephant, the buffalo, the rhinoceros, and other wild beasts, in extraordinary numbers. The river is said to take its source in the distant provinces of Bedee Yedee and Goma, and below the cataracts abounds in hippopotami, which are much hunted by the natives.
Dumbaro, Wurretta, and Tufftee, as also the Golda negroes, who go perfectly naked, are tributary to Balee, and pay chiefly in gold obtained from the hot valleys. The inhabitants of Caffa reverence Friday and Sunday, as do the Galla, and like them celebrate the festival of Saint Michael by a great feast; but their language, which is common to Gobo, Tufftee, and Dumbaro, is quite distinct from that spoken by the Galla nation.
A considerable trade exists with Enarea in slaves and cotton cloths, which latter are to be purchased for a piece of salt value twopence-halfpenny sterling. Coffee is produced in immense quant.i.ties, of the finest quality, and tradition points to this country as the first residence of the plant. It was spread by the civet cat over the mountains of the Ittoo and Aroosi Galla, where it has flourished for ages in wild profusion, and is thence said to have been transported five hundred years ago by an enterprising trader from the opposite coast of Arabia.
Beyond the extensive wilderness which bounds Caffa on the south, are the Doko, an exceedingly wild race, not much exceeding four feet in height, of a dark olive complexion, and in habits even more closely approximated to "the beasts that perish" than the bushmen of Southern Africa. They have neither idols, nor temples, nor sacred trees; but possess a glimmering idea of a Supreme Being, to whom in misfortune--such as any of their relatives being slain by the kidnapper--they pray with their feet resting against a tree: "_Yere_, if indeed thou art, why dost thou suffer us to be killed? We are only eating ants, and ask neither food nor raiment. Thou hast raised us up. Why dost thou cast us down?"
Many natives of Caffa and Enarea, who for evil purposes have visited the country inhabited by this people, describe the road to it from the former kingdom to pa.s.s through forests and mountains, for the most part without population, and swarming with wild beasts, the elephant and buffalo especially. From Bonga, distant about fifty or sixty miles, it is ten days journey to Tufftee, the Omo river being crossed midway by a rude wooden bridge, sixty yards in length. Seven easy stages beyond Tufftee is Kooloo, whence the Doko may be reached in one day. Their climate is warm and the seasons extremely wet, the rains commencing in May, and continuing with occasional intermission until February.
The wilderness is princ.i.p.ally clothed with a dense forest of bamboo, in the depths of which the natives construct their rude wigwams of bent canes and gra.s.s. They have no king, no laws, no arts, no arms; possess neither flocks nor herds; are not hunters, do not cultivate the soil, but subsist entirely upon fruits, roots, mice, reptiles, ants, and honey. They beguile serpents by whistling in a certain note, and having torn them piecemeal with their long nails, devour them raw; but although the forests abound to such an extent with elephants, buffaloes, lions, and leopards, they have no means of destroying or entrapping them. A large tree called Loko is found, amongst many other species, attaining an extraordinary height, the roots of which, when sc.r.a.ped, are red, and serve for food. The _yebo_ and _meytee_ are the princ.i.p.al fruits; and to obtain these, women as well as men ascend the trees in numbers, and in their quarrels and scrambles not unfrequently throw each other down from the branches.
Both s.e.xes go perfectly naked, and have thick pouting lips, diminutive eyes, and flat noses. The hair is not woolly, and in the females reaches to the shoulders. The men have no beard. The nails, never pared, grow both on the hands and feet like eagles" talons, and are employed in digging for ants. The Doko are ignorant of the use of fire.
They perforate the ears in infancy with a pointed bamboo, so as to leave nothing save the external cartilage, but they neither tattoo nor pierce the nose; and the only ornament worn is a necklace composed of the spinal bones of a serpent.
Great annual slave hunts are undertaken from Dumbaro, Caffa, and Kooloo; and the dense forests of bamboo, the creaking of which is represented to be loud and incessant, often prove the scene of fierce and b.l.o.o.d.y struggles between rival tribes. Wide tracts having been encircled, the band of rovers, converging, impel the denizens to the centre. Holding a gay cloth before their persons, they dance and sing in a peculiar manner; and the defenceless negroes, aware from sad experience that all who attempt to escape will be ruthlessly hunted down, and perhaps slain, tamely approach, and suffer themselves to be blindfolded. One hundred merchants can thus kidnap a thousand Doko; and although long p.r.o.ne to their old habits of digging for ants, and searching for mice, serpents, or lizards, the captives rarely attempt to escape. Their docility and usefulness, added to very limited wants, rendering them in high demand, none are ever sold out of the countries bordering on the Gochob, and none therefore find their way to Shoa.
Nothing that is related of these people, whether as respects stature or habits, would seem to be preposterous or unworthy of credit, the descriptions given of them differing in no very material points from what is known of the Bushmen of Southern Africa, amongst whom I have travelled. Agreeing in every respect with the type of Herodotus, they are unquestionably the pygmies of the ancients, who describe them as found in tropical Africa; and it is a fact, well worthy of observation, that the natives of Caffa represent their forefather _Boogazee_ to have issued from a cave in a forest--a tradition which cannot fail to call to mind the Troglodytes, who are also mentioned by the father of history as being inhabitants of this portion of the African continent.
It would be beside my purpose to collect and introduce here all that the ancients and modems have written to render probable the existence of a diminutive race of men; but it may be worth observing, in addition to what has been adduced above, that Aristotle, in his History of Animals [Book eight chapter 12] professes his belief in the existence of such a race, which he supposes to have inhabited the marshes about the sources of the Nile, and to have dwelt, like the Troglodytes, in caverns. It would appear from this, that some report of the Doko had reached Greece.
The great naturalist does not fix the stature of the small men of whom he speaks, though he adopts the popular name of Pygmies, because he is led to speak of them while noticing the Homeric fable respecting their battles with the Cranes. Homer [Iliad, iii 3, onwards], however, himself, places them near the ocean, where, according to the accounts I received, they are really found. Strabo [Geography xvii 2], who had already imbibed something of the spirit of modern philosophy, thought it better to sneer than to inquire, and rejected the whole story; though he did not hesitate to believe, contrary to experience, that all the animals of Upper Egypt were of diminutive size. Pliny [Natural History vi 35], whose faith was of boundless expansion, could discover no absurdity in the supposition, that there existed a race of men twenty-seven inches high, probably because he may have seen individual dwarfs who were no larger. He makes, however, one remark which may be worth notice,--namely, that the small race had scarcely any nose at all, but instead, two spiracles above the mouth, which served them in lieu of nostrils.
But laying aside all these legends, I can discover no absurdity in what is related concerning the stature of the Doko. They are, it is said, about four feet high, in which they resemble the Laplanders, the Samoyedes, and, as I have already observed, the Bushmen. The Naturalist, Commerson [Camus, Notes sur l"Histoire des Animaux d"Aristot, page 405] had heard of a similar people, called Quimos, in the opposite island of Madagascar, though Rochon, and other modern travellers, say they could obtain no information respecting them. Some naturalists, in this as in most other cases, easily elude the difficulty by a bold profession of incredulity. [Virey, Histoire Naturelle du Genre Humain, volume ii page 240, onwards.] It would, perhaps, be more philosophical to investigate and inquire. Great differences we know exist in the stature of different nations, and it has possibly not been yet ascertained what is the smallest or the largest size to which the human body can attain. That no specimens of the Doko race should reach Shoa is remarkable, and may be deemed suspicious; but the reasons given are not altogether dest.i.tute of plausibility; and, at all events, the rumours in circulation throughout that part of Africa deserve to be reported, in order that, as discovery advances, they who are destined to achieve it may be prompted to careful examination.
Volume 3, Chapter IX.
THE RIVER GOCHOB.
An inspection of the map will show on the eastern coast an extensive hiatus, which, from the scanty reports that have been gleaned, is most certainly studded with high mountains, and drained by numerous and powerful rivers; but no details have hitherto been obtained that justified the laying down of either with any geographical accuracy. The first accounts of the existence in central Africa of a great river were brought to Etearchus, king of the Oasis of Ammon, by certain youths of the Na.s.samonians, who, as related by Herodotus, "had been deputed to explore her solitudes. After a journey of many days they were seized and carried into captivity by some men of dwarfish stature, who conducted them over marshy grounds, to a city in which all the inhabitants were of the same diminutive appearance, and of a black colour. This city was washed by a great river, now ascertained to be the Niger, which flowed from west to east, and abounded in crocodiles."
The early Arabian geographers specifically mention large rivers descending from the high mountain land to the southward of the blue Nile, and flowing to the Indian ocean; and it is a curious fact, that they designate one of these "the River of Pygmies." The Portuguese were the next who spoke of this stream, upwards of two centuries ago; and from the highlands of Abyssinia a clue to its origin and course has now been obtained, which will serve in a great measure to supply the existing deficiencies, and to cover the wide s.p.a.ce of _terra incognita_ in Eastern Africa north of the equator.
The Gochob is described to rise in the great central ridge which is now known to divide the waters that discharge themselves east into the Indian Ocean, from those that flow west into the Bahr el Abiad, and more southerly into the Atlantic. Spreading into a lake, and bearing on its bosom a n.o.ble body of water, it is joined, fifteen days" journey south of Enarea, by the Omo, a large tributary which rises beyond Tufftee in Susa Maketch, in a jet of water playing the height of a spear shaft.
Half a day"s journey below the point of junction, the united volume rolls over a stupendous cataract called Dumbaro, the roar of which can be heard many miles, whence pursuing its course to the south-east, it forms the southern limit of Zingero, and finally disembogues into the sea.
There seems every reason to believe that the Gochob must be identical with the Kibbee of the best extant maps, described to be a very large river coming from the north-west, and entering the sea near the town of Juba, immediately under the equator. If not the Kibbee, it must be the Quilimancy, which disembogues by several estuaries between Patta and Malinda, four degrees further to the south; but all accounts of the latter that have yet been collected from the coast, authorise the adoption of the first hypothesis.
The general course of the Nile to the north, and of the Kibbee to the south, are said to have been well-known to the Egyptians three thousand years ago. The sacristan of the temple of Minerva in Thebes told Herodotus that half the waters of the father of rivers flowed to the north, and the other half to the south, and that they were produced by the tropical rains. The currents experienced in five degrees north of the equator, in the vicinity of the coast, confirm the opinion of a great river rolling a vast body of water into the eastern ocean. At their height during the prevalence of the monsoon in August and September, they are known to sweep a vessel along at the rate of one hundred and twenty miles a day, frequently exposing the inexperienced navigator to the chance of shipwreck on Socotra, whereas before and after the tropical rains the current is scarcely perceptible. Were this caused by the monsoon, it would prevail equally over these lat.i.tudes during the influence of the south-westerly winds; but the fact remains, that it is felt only off the coast in about five degrees north lat.i.tude, at the period alone when the river must be swollen with the volume of water gathered from the highest mountain land in the interior.
Beyond Zingero, and considerably lower down the great river, is the kingdom of Koocha, which is described to be hot, and subject to annual rains of two months" duration. It extends on both sides, with a numerous population inhabiting many large towns, of which Laade, Seylo, Umpho, Jella, Gulta, Aara, and Wunjo, all on the northern bank, are the princ.i.p.al. The houses are conical, and constructed of mud and bamboos, which there grow abundantly. All the nation are Galla, with features strictly those of the Negro, and their king is Bosha, the son of Laade, surnamed, from the t.i.tle of his war-steed, Abba Wabotoo, "I am he who seizes."
In addition to the two umbrellas of state, the one composed of blue, and the other of crimson, this chieftain is distinguished by a shield covered with ma.s.sive gold, and by many ornaments of the same precious metal on his person. The costume of all cla.s.ses consists of party-coloured raiment--red, blue, and white, being mingled together in profusion. Large pewter ear-rings are worn by the males; and by the females, whose hair is braided in long ringlets, silver armlets, anklets, and bracelets. Both s.e.xes are great equestrians. The saddles are covered with red imported leather, and the horses and mules are large and abundant. Cultivation in every description of tropical grain is universal; honey abounds in every quarter, and beer and hydromel are manufactured by all.
Spices, odoriferous woods, and aromatic herbs, tea, coffee, oranges, nutmeg, and ginger, are exceedingly plentiful. Precious stones are also found, and bartered to certain white men, who, wearing shoes, trousers, and hats, and having yellow hair, come with their merchandise in rowing-boats thirty days from the sea. They bring blue calico, chintz, pepper, tobacco, copper, cutlery, and "fire water," and receive in exchange slaves, ivory, spices, and gold, which latter is brought in large quant.i.ties from Douro.
Slaves being in great demand, and their acquisition extremely lucrative, Bosha is at perpetual war with all the surrounding tribes, save during the annual rains. The Dannagem, and the Danna-Oorkeshool Galla, are attacked every year, as are also the Malee Galla, a people armed with bows and arrows, who dig pits, throw up bamboo stockades, and place pointed stakes in the ground to annoy the cavalry of Koocha, whose horses being kept in the house all the year round, and abundantly fed, are very superior. Murderers are punished according as they have dealt with their victim--one or two or more spear wounds or blows with the sword being inflicted by the nearest relative of the deceased--but all thieves, delinquents, and poor people, are sold to the white traders, and immense numbers of slaves of both s.e.xes are brought down by the Douro Galla, in rafts with high gunwales, containing six or eight persons.
The great river, which in this kingdom is supplied by two large tributaries--the Toreech, rising in the country of the Gama Gobo, and the Teeto, coming from the Alla Galla--is the medium of all trade. It is very broad, and, except during the rainy season, has little perceptible motion. The volume of water is always large, and comes from a great distance inland. Hippopotami and elephants abound; and the _gimjah_, or tree tiger, which infests the borders, is greatly feared for its ferocity, and prized for the beauty of its skin. Native crafts reach the sea in fifteen days, and ivory, slaves, coffee, and a variety of other merchandise, are constantly brought on rafts by the tribes higher up; but the white people never go beyond Koocha, neither do the interior tribes pa.s.s down to the sea.
The Gochob, of which the discovery promises important accessions in a geographical as well as in a commercial point of view, may be conjectured to be the "Bargamo," or great water, from beyond which the Galla describe their hordes to have poured, when they invaded Abyssinia, after being driven from the vast unexplored interior by the centrifugal force yet unexplained. Like the barbarous nations who were made the weapons of Divine chastis.e.m.e.nt upon the corrupted empire of Rome, they also brought darkness and ignorance in their train, but were unable to eradicate the true religion. Throughout the regions included between the Nile, the Hawash, and the Gochob, which may properly be termed Galla, none but their own tongue is spoken; whereas to the south of the last-named river, the intruding population have lost their language and become gradually incorporated with the aboriginal possessors of the soil. Whatever may be the true magnitude of the river, it is clearly navigated to a considerable extent by a white people, who reap a lucrative harvest whilst draining the country of its population, by a traffic which must reflect the blackest disgrace upon the name of any civilised people, and is here not rendered the less infamous by the fact, that many of their purchases are Christians.
Volume 3, Chapter X.
EXISTING CHRISTIAN REMNANTS.
On both sides of the river Gochob, there exist in various quarters isolated communities professing the Christianity of Ethiopia, who, for a long period of years, have successfully held their position among the mountain fastnesses in the very heart of the now Pagan and Mohammadan country. One of the most remarkable of these seats is in the lake Zooai, called _Laki_ in the Galla language, and in that of Gurague, _Chillaloo_. Here, in the church of Emanuel, are deposited the holy arks, umbrellas, drums, gold and silver chairs, and other furniture belonging to all the sacred edifices of southern Abyssinia; which, with numerous ma.n.u.scripts no longer extant, were here deposited by Nebla Dengel, at the period of Graan"s invasion.
Five rivers empty themselves into this lake. It is described to be a n.o.ble sheet of water, teeming with hippopotami, which frequently destroy the frail bamboo rafts employed in maintaining communication betwixt the sh.o.r.e and the Five Islands, Tudduchu, Debra Tehoon, Debra Seena, Goragi, and Amshoot. They are covered with lofty trees, and contain upwards of three thousand Christian houses, constructed of lime and stone. In religion, the population are said by the clergy of Shoa to have sadly degenerated; but although dest.i.tute of priests, the churches are preserved inviolate, and monks and monasteries abound.
In Gurague, the population are almost exclusively Christian. Twelve isolated churches, previously unheard of, were discovered a few years since, on the conquest of Yeya by Sahela Sela.s.sie; and between Garro and Metcha, where forest commences in the south of Shoa, is a small tract peopled by Christians, who reside entirely in caves among the mountains, as a measure of security against the heathen, by whom they are compa.s.sed in on every side.
Eight days" journey from Aimellele on the frontier of Gurague, is Cambat, a small mountainous province, lying due east of Zingero. With exception of a few Mohammadan rovers, this independent state is inhabited solely by Christians, who have fifteen churches, and numerous monasteries, but, like the people of Zooai, are without priests. The capital, Karempza, is constructed on the summit of a lofty hill of the same name, and Degoyey, the king, who is extremely advanced in years, is represented as a just and upright ruler, very hospitable to strangers, and a great warrior. But between Aimellele, which is a dependency of Sahela Sela.s.sie, and Cambat, the road pa.s.ses through the Adeea and Alaba Galla, the latter governed by a queen whose notorious treachery renders the pa.s.sage unsafe.
Wollamo is another Christian province under an independent sovereign, lying below Cambat to the south-eastward of Zingero, and at constant war with both these states. The country is extremely mountainous, and the inhabitants, who are purchased for twenty pieces of salt, and frequently brought by the slave-dealers to Shoa, are of a fair complexion, and speak a distinct language. Wofana is the capital, and the province is watered by a considerable river termed the Ooma--the surrounding tribes being the Koolloo, Woradda, a.s.soo, and Jimma. Eight days" journey beyond Zingero is the country of Mager, the king of which is represented to be a very powerful monarch. Korcha.s.sie, which is famous for the great river Wabi, flowing to the Indian ocean, is peopled by Christians, as is Sidama also, and both are surrounded by the heathen.
But of all the isolated remnants of the ancient Ethiopic empire to the south of Abyssinia, Susa would appear to be the most important and the most powerful. This kingdom is situated beyond Caffa, and extends to the head of the Gitche, which rises in Chara-Nara, and is one of the princ.i.p.al sources of the Gochob. The rains are violent during three months of the year, and the climate is excessively cold, the elevation being much greater than that of Shoa, whilst beyond are mountains which "seem to touch the skies, and are covered with perpetual snow."
Sugga Surroo was king over Susa. He was a Pagan; but wore a "mateb," as many of the heathen tribes are wont to do. Hoti and Beddoo were his sons; and on his death-bed he bequeathed the sceptre to the former, who, after a reign of ten years marked by the most galling tyranny, was deposed by the people, and Beddoo elevated to the throne. Turning his attention to Christianity, which had greatly degenerated, he revived the custom of bathing the holy cross on Christmas-day, in the river Gitche, where all the surrounding Galla tribes perform the same ceremony without knowing why.
Hoti was exiled in Goma; and having contrived to raise three hundred cavalry, he set out to recover his throne, but was pursued and slain by Abba Rebo. Beddoo is brother to Balee, the Queen of Caffa; and it is now six years since he gave his daughter Shash in marriage to the King of Enarea, through whose country a constant traffic has since been carried on with Northern Abyssinia--numbers of muskets and matchlocks being annually imported, and exchanged for civet, ivory, gold dust, horses, and slaves.
The road being thus opened, the priests proceeded to Gondar to the patriarch of the Abyssinian church, who breathed the breath of the Holy Ghost into a leathern bag, which was safely conveyed back to Susa, and hung up in the cathedral. Ecclesiastics in great numbers have been since ordained by the process of opening this bag, and causing a puff to pa.s.s across the face. They are distinguished by antique robes and silver mitres, and the churches and religious observances would appear to be similar in every respect to those of Shoa.
The King of Susa is described as a tall, fair, and very handsome man of five and thirty, without beard or moustaches, and wearing the hair in the bushy wig-like form of the Amhara. He carries state umbrellas of yellow silk, surmounted by golden globes, wears a sword with a ma.s.sive golden scabbard, and bears a shield decorated with radii and crosses of the same metal. The government is not despotic. No subject can be put to death unless condemned by the judges. Property is free; and there is no restriction upon dress save in the article of gold, to wear which is the exclusive privilege of royalty.
Bonga is the princ.i.p.al town and capital of Susa; and there the king princ.i.p.ally resides, in a stone house of two stories. His queen is Meytee, but he has besides "concubines as numerous as the hairs of the head." The banqueting-hall is a long building similar to those of Sahela Sela.s.sie, and it is the scene of similar revels. His Majesty presides daily at the feast, but is concealed from the gaze of his carousing subjects by an intervening curtain, whilst the Dedj Agafari, styled "Gubburchu," acts as master of the ceremonies. Public audience is daily given, when the decisions of the judges are confirmed or annulled from a raised throne of solid gold concealed by velvet draperies.
Susa is a kingdom of much greater extent than Shoa, but in manners and customs nearly similar. The monarch is approached with shoulders bared, and three prostrations to the earth. On the festival of _Maskal_ an annual review takes place at Booretta. Oxen are then slain for the soldiery, and each warrior receives a jar of beer from the royal cellars. The herald proclaims the approaching expedition to the sound of the _nugareet_. The foray resembles that of the Amhara rabble--the same lack of discipline on the march--the same band of flutes and kettle-drums--the same female culinary establishment. The warriors are similarly armed, and adopt the green sprig of asparagus in token of deeds of blood; and the only existing difference would appear to be, that the booty captured in war is not monopolised by the crown.
Tribute is paid to Beddoo by the chiefs of many surrounding Countries, and princ.i.p.ally by the Shankela with tattooed b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He annually extends his dominions by murderous inroads, directed chiefly against the Sooroo, a tribe of naked negroes inhabiting the wild valleys of Sasa.
The Gumroo, a wild people clothed in hides, and rich in flocks and herds, are also frequently invaded, and hundreds swept into captivity.
The chief mountain ranges of Susa are Decha, Gobo, and Saadee; and the princ.i.p.al rivers are the Gitche, Cheso, and Adiyo. Large slave caravans pa.s.s through the realm at all seasons from the most remote parts of the interior, the Mohammadan rovers being frequently absent from one to two years.
The costume of the male portion of the population consists of a robe of striped red and blue cotton in alternate bands, with tight trousers and a loose kilt of the same colours and material. The hair is worn _en "goferi_," as in Shoa, unless after the slaughter of a foe, when it is braided in long tresses like the ancient Egyptians. Copper and ivory bracelets decorate the successful warrior; and a ring of silver is worn in the ear by those who have slain the giant amongst mammalia.
The females are described as being fairer and more comely than their frail sisters of Shoa. They wear red and blue striped trousers, reaching mid-leg, with a loose shift and a robe, also party-coloured, the former enclosed by a zone of beads. The hair is dressed, like that of the Amhara, in the shape of a beehive, with minute rows of elaborate curls; but the odour of rancid b.u.t.ter with which these are clotted, is somewhat alleviated by the liberal application of oil of cloves.
Marriage is celebrated without the intervention of the priesthood, and polygamy is universally exercised at the discretion of the man according to his worldly substance. The contracting parties simply pledge fidelity, and in event of subsequent separation, the lady carries off her portion. Every house possesses its slaves; but those both of king and subject are permitted to work for themselves one day out of the seven. All occupation is interdicted on the Sabbath, as well as on the festivals of Gabriel, Michael, and Georgis, which are the only saints"
days observed in Susa.
The language spoken is quite distinct from that of the Galla, from the Amharic, and from the ancient Geez or Ethiopic. It possesses a written character. The houses are constructed upon a circular plan of wattle and thatch. All cla.s.ses are warriors, well mounted, and frequently engaged in the chase--large packs of dogs being kept for the purpose of hunting the rhinoceros, buffalo, elephant, lion, leopard, giraffe, zebra, and ostrich, which, with many other animals new to natural history, are said to abound. Bridles are manufactured of the skin of the hippopotamus, with which the rivers teem, and numbers of them are slain by the wandering Wato.
Raw flesh, eaten with pepper, b.u.t.ter, and wheaten bread, forms the princ.i.p.al diet. Edible fruits are abundant. Citrons, nutmeg, ginger, coffee, and tea, grow wild over the whole country. The two latter are taken by the Christians of Susa, as is also snuff; but tobacco is not inhaled. The grape vine is indigenous and extensively cultivated; and the Outoo, the Gondweiyo, and the G.o.ddo, are described as aromatic trees, of which the flowers, possessing the richest perfume, are dried, pulverised, and amalgamated with civet--the cats producing which are kept in every house, fed on raw beef, and placed before the fire, as in Enarea.
Amongst the manifold superst.i.tions of the people of Susa, a new knife, before being used for cutting meat, must be blown upon by the priest.
Witchcraft has a firm hold upon every mind; and many a luckless worker in iron is with his whole family condemned to be burnt alive in his house, as an atonement for evil deeds. Theft is punished by sewing up the culprit in a green hide, when he is suspended by the heels in the market-place, with the stolen property about his neck, until the contraction of the drying skin at length puts a period to his sufferings--a refinement this upon the cruelty of the Emperor Maximin.