Mourning relatives threw themselves in sackcloth at the imperial footstool, and cried aloud for the blood of the prisoner. Arraigned before the monarch, the investigation had been patiently conducted during the beggars feast, and the "Fetha Negest" having been duly consulted, the sentence proceeded from the royal lips--"Take him hence, and deal with him as you will."
The last sun that was to shine upon the malefactor was sinking fast towards the western horizon, when, with hands bound behind his back, he was hurried from the presence for instant execution. Its rising rays had seen him seated at the door of the hut, whilst his young wife adorned his locks with the newly-plucked branch of asparagus, that was the record of his infamy, but the meridian beam had witnessed his arrest. The relatives of the murdered, and a band of the king"s headsmen, each armed with shield and broad-headed spear, now formed a close phalanx round him as he proceeded with the stoicism of the savage to meet his well-merited doom; and an infuriated mob followed, to heap taunts and ignominy upon his numbered moments.
Impatient of delay, the friends of the deceased were about to immolate their victim on the meadow close to the encampment of the Emba.s.sy; but adjured by the life of the monarch, they urged the culprit over the rocky mound adjoining the Galla wall, which was already crowded with a vast concourse of spectators, burning for the consummation of the last sentence of the law. Scarcely had the unresisting criminal pa.s.sed the summit, than an eager hand stripped the garment from his shoulder, and twenty bright spears being poised at the moment, he turned his head to the one side, to receive a deep stab on the other. Whilst still reeling, a dozen blades were sheathed in his heart, and a hundred more transfixed the prostrate body. Swords flashed from the crooked scabbard--the quivering corse was mutilated in an instant, and on the next the exulting executioners took their way from the gore-stained ground, bearing the trophy aloft, as they howled with truly savage satisfaction the Christian chorus of death!
Mother, sisters, and wives, now flocked around the lifeless clay, rending the air with their piercing shrieks.--"Alas! the brave have fallen, the spirit of the bold has fled."
"_Waiye, waiye_--woe unto us, we have lost the son of our declining years"--"our brother and our husband is gone for ever!" Bared b.r.e.a.s.t.s were beaten and scarified, and temples were torn with the nails until the evening closed, and it was dark when the mourners ceased their shrill lamentation. But the turbaned priest was not there; no absolution had been given, nor had the last sacrament been partaken; and the unhallowed remains of the murderer would have found a tomb in the maw of the hyena and the vulture, had not a charitable hand enclosed them under a cairn of stones by the highway side, where many a gra.s.s-grown mound marks the fate of the cowardly a.s.sa.s.sin, who had destroyed his brother in the wood, and whose memory is coupled with dishonour.
Volume Two, Chapter x.x.x.
TRIUMPHAL ENTRY TO THE CAPITAL.
"Reculer pour mieux sauter," is a maxim strictly in accordance with His Majesty"s notions of strategy. Twenty days had elapsed since the return of the expedition, when the arrival before the palace of six thousand head of cattle proclaimed the success of a second sweeping foray directed against the Ekka and Finfinni Galla. A Mohammadan merchant residing at Roque, the market town and great slave-mart of Yerrur, was suspected of having with his own hand slain the son of Ayto Besuehnech, grand-nephew to the king--this youth having pressed on far in advance of his comrades in pursuit of the retreating pagans. To avenge his untimely death, a detachment, consisting of five thousand horse, was despatched under the command of Aytos Berkie, Chilo, and Dogmo, the government of which latter chief had previously been extended in acknowledgment of his recent services. They made a forced march through Bulga, and although foiled in their princ.i.p.al object by the precipitate flight of the rover whose life they sought, the whole of his family and followers were ma.s.sacred, his effects plundered, and his house burnt to the ground.
The survivors of the Ekka and Finfinni tribes, believing the fatal storm to be expended, had already returned with the residue of their flocks and herds, and were actively engaged in restoring their dilapidated habitations, when the Amhara hordes again burst over their fair valley, slew six hundred souls, and captured all the remaining cattle, thus completing the chastis.e.m.e.nt of these devoted clans, who, notwithstanding the generous restoration of their enslaved families, had failed to make submission--and redeeming the royal pledge "to play the rebels another trick."
The king had not honoured Ankober with his presence since the arrival in Shoa of the British Emba.s.sy, but His Majesty now announced his intention of entering the capital in triumph. Thinly attended, and unscreened by the state umbrellas, he issued at sunrise on horseback through the _sirkosh ber_, the only addition to his usual costume being a plume of nine feathers stripped from the _Rasa_, or egret, which were worn in the hair in token of his recent prowess at Boora Roofa. Putting his horse into a gallop, he never drew bridle until stopped by the Bereza, many parties under governors of the adjacent districts joining the royal _cortege_ from various quarters, and swelling the retinue to two thousand equestrians, who continued at a furious pace to clatter over the stony ground.
Mosabeit, a village standing on a peninsula formed by the junction of the Toro Mesk water with the Bereza, imparts its name to this, the most direct road from Angollala to Ankober. The river forded, the king mounted his mule, and diverging to the right, pa.s.sed through a valley studded with hamlets, the inhabitants of which, male and female, came forth with many prostrations to the earth, whilst the women raised their voices together in the usual ringing _heleltee_.
On all occasions of rejoicing and ceremony, whether on the successful return of the monarch or of the warrior, or on the sight of a pa.s.sing procession, the ladies of Abyssinia, with their characteristic love of noise, thus burst forth into a thrilling clamour of welcome, moving the tongue with more than ordinary volubility against the palate, and producing a continuous succession of tremulous notes. One watchful dame on the outskirts perceives the approach of the cavalcade, and forthwith gives out her wild screech of warning. In a moment the mountain side is covered with every female within hearing; the _Hil! lil! lil_!
progresses fast and furious as they bend nearly double to a.s.sist in upraising the yelling chorus; tears stream from their eyes in the violence of the exertion, and far and near the hills resound with the gathered volume of their shrill throats.
The king halted for a moment at a pile of stones by the way-side, covered with rags, feathers, and flowers, to which every devout Christian adds his tribute whilst saluting it with his lips. It points to the white-roofed church of Saint Michael the Archangel, peeping through a dark clump of junipers at some distance from the road, and many were the fervent kisses of adoration bestowed by the triumphant warriors. A little beyond, a large black cross on the summit of a tumulus directs attention to the residence of Ayto Berri, quarter-master-general of the Amhara forces. Here His Majesty again diverged, in order to lead the cavalcade through the most thickly populated tract; and after resting for half an hour in the Ungua-mesk, one of the many royal meadows, now black with the Galla herds, he turned suddenly off to the Motat.i.t road, according to his invariable custom, when proceeding to the capital after a successful foray.
The Arsiamba, styled at its point of intersection with the route usually pursued, _Ya Wurjoch Maderia_, the "resting-place of merchants," is a singular cataract rolling over columnar basalt, of which the ribbed cliffs on either side are thronged by bees. But by far the most interesting object is a certain white pillar, overgrown with nettles, standing at the foot of the hills which bound the Ungua-mesk. It is designated "Graan"s stone," and is famous from an existing tradition that the Moslem invader tied his war-horse to it on the occasion of his leading the Adaiel to the destruction of Debra Berhan.
Abundantly cultivated, and rich in grazing land, the tract we had pa.s.sed over is throughout so dest.i.tute of trees and even of bushes, that the inhabitants employ no other fuel than dried manure. Arrived at the summit of the Chaka mountain, where straggling _cossos_ break the monotony of the landscape, many hundred females, a.s.sembled from the numerous villages in the vicinity, lining the surrounding heights, again kept up one continued cry. It was drowned at intervals by discharges of musketry which echoed among the broken glens as the despot descended; and, preceded by a war-dance, wherein all the warriors joined, he finally took up his quarters for the night in a house separated by a deep valley from the capital.
Early the ensuing morning we rode out to the Chaffa meadow at the foot of the palace, to meet and welcome His Majesty, who, after arraying himself within a marquee erected for his accommodation, shortly appeared through a gorge in a low range of hills, which was crowned on either side by matchlock-men of the imperial body-guard. These kept up an incessant fire as the royal _cortege_ advanced over the gra.s.sy plain, preceded by a band of mounted warriors, who, as on the occasion of the triumphant entry to Angollala, careered in intersecting circles. The king bestrode a richly caparisoned mule, and wore a green scarf mantle of Delhi embroidery. A golden collar encircled his neck, and a ma.s.sive silver akodama extended on either side a considerable distance beyond the temples. The ends of the beam were hung with a profusion of silver chains a yard in length, whilst a row of spangled pendants across the brow half obscured the eyes, and imparted a peculiarly savage aspect, which was enhanced by a large branch of wild asparagus floating above the curly locks, and by a white and crimson robe drawn across the lower portion of the face.
As the cavalcade advanced, the braves continued to caracole until reaching the extremity of the meadow, where the a.s.sembled priests and monks of Ankober, as well as of the neighbouring churches and monasteries, were drawn up to receive their sovereign. The holy arks were each screened under the canopy of a large embroidered umbrella; and that of Saint Michael, the senior, which had accompanied the army into the field, was carried beneath a _debab_ of solid embossed silver, decorated with chain pendants and fretwork. Psalms having been chanted by the turbaned body, who danced vehemently to their own chorus, the _Alaka_ of the cathedral advancing, laid his hands on the head of the victorious monarch, and gave his blessing, when the procession moved slowly forward towards the foot of the hill, singing the death knell of the pagan,--
"Moolohoy Moolo? Hai hai!
Wokao? Selala dabito!"
The warriors, preceded by the royal band of kettle-drums and wind instruments, took the lead up the long steep and narrow path, which winds along the verge of a precipitous ascent to the palace, perched on the very pinnacle of the cone. A proclamation, through the herald, having commanded the presence of all the inhabitants of the capital and of the villages adjacent, every roof, bank, and cliff, was crowded with women and girls. As the king pa.s.sed on, they kept up an unceasing clamour, and it increased to a deafening din as he approached the gate of the outer enclosure, where a dense ma.s.s of curled heads extended across the entire open area in front of the palisades.
The British escort, drawn up before the lower defences, presented arms as the monarch pa.s.sed, and within the stockade stood the high priests of the five churches, robed and mitred. The clamour, the music, and the echo of musketry, continued during the tedious ascent of the steep and difficult path, which, broken into steps, winds betwixt lofty palisades, through nine gateways and lodges, to the inner enclosure. Here His Majesty took his seat in a raised alcove, the throne, and the usual trappings of royalty, being on this occasion new throughout, and more than wonted cleanliness pervading every quarter of the palace.
Once more the large drum in the middle of the court gave forth its deep notes. Three hundred concubines, seated in a circle around, again screamed and clapped their stained hands in deafening concert. A dancing girl, flanked by two wild braves, whirled in front of the throne, and in a series of eulogistic rhymes, composed by herself, chanted a rehearsal of the recent heroic deeds of the puissant monarch, "who, although invariably triumphant over his heathen foes, had never decorated his royal brow with a branch greener than that by which it was now surmounted." Each time she turned towards the crowd, a shrill clamour of united voices rang forth the chorus to her verse. The skin-clad warriors leapt and howled;--akodamas, coronets, and silver swords, glistened in the morning sun; and as the chiefs, governors, and n.o.bles, formed in a semicircle on either side of the latticed balcony, stamped and clapped their hands in savage triumph--the populace, crowding the carpeted yard, and lining every wall, capered, yelled, and shouted with the wildest enthusiasm. A general war-dance followed the cessation of the shrill notes of the songstress, and the pageant concluded with a royal salute, fired by the artillery detachment over the British flag, which, in honour of His Majesty"s arrival, floated far below in the centre of the capital of Shoa.
Volume Two, Chapter x.x.xI.
THE PALACE AT ANKOBER.
The entire slope of the palace eminence is studded with thatched magazines and out-houses; and these, shame to the Christian monarch, form the scene of the daily labours of three thousand slaves. In one quarter are to be seen groups of busy females, engaged in the manufacture of beer and hydromel. Flat cakes of teff and wheat are preparing by the hundred under the next roof, and from the dark recesses of the building arises the plaintive ditty of those who grind the corn by the sweat of their brow. Here cauldrons of red pepper soup yield up their potent steam; and in the adjacent compartment, long twisted strips of old cotton rag are being dipped in bees" wax. Throughout the female establishment the bloated and cross-grained eunuch presides; and his unsparing rod admonishes his giggling charges that they are not there to gaze at the pa.s.sing stranger.
In the sunny verandah of the wardrobe, tailors and curriers are achieving all manner of curious amulets and devices--the offspring of a savage brain. Blacksmiths are banging away at the anvil under the eaves of the banqueting hall. Turbaned priests, seated in the porch, armed with a party-coloured cow"s tail, indolently drive away the flies from volumes which are elevated on a rack before their ancient eyes, and detail the miracles of the saints. Under one shed, notaries are diligently committing to parchment elaborate inventories of tribute received. Sacred books are being bound in a second. In a crowded corner painters are perpetrating on the illuminated page atrocious daubs of our first father carrying spear and buckler in the Garden of Eden; and in the long shadow thrown by the slaughterhouse, whence a stream of blood is ever flowing across the road, carpenters are destroying bad wood in a clumsy attempt to fashion a gun stock with a farrier"s rasp, for the reception of an old honeycombed barrel which promises to burst upon the very first discharge.
Governors and n.o.bles, with shields and silver swords, are seated above.
Clamourous paupers, itinerant monks, and applicants for justice, fill the lower courts. The open _Arada_ before the great-gate is choked with idlers, gossips, and immoveable beggars, who, from the rising up to the going down of the sun, maintain one incessant howl of importunity. Oxen and a.s.ses, goats and sheep, have established their head-quarters in every filthy avenue. Newly-picked bones and bullocks" skulls strew the rugged descent; and on the last terrace, surrounded by stagnant mire, behold Ayto Wolda Hana himself, seated in magisterial dignity, arranging the affairs of the nation. Hundreds tremble at his uncompromising nod; and appellant and respondent, accuser and accused, alike bared to the girdle, bend in cringing submission, as in a cracked and querulous voice the despotic legislator delivers his arbitrary fiat.
During the absence of the Negoos on military expeditions, the most inquisitorial espionage is exercised over the actions of every foreigner, and the strictest police established, to insure the safety of the almost deserted capital. Every avenue is vigilantly guarded, and no stranger allowed to enter the town without permission of the viceroy.
Children only are suffered to leave the houses after dark; and watchmen, patrolling in all directions, apprehend every adult who may be found abroad during the night.
But Ankober was now thronged to overflowing. Brawls disturbed the streets, and, during the early hours of each evening, drunken parties were to be seen streaming home from the royal banquet, shouting the war chorus, and not unfrequently preceded by one of the court buffoons, engaged in the performance of the most absurd follies, antics, and grimaces. Day and night the invocations of a host of mendicants arose from every lane and alley, and the importunity to which we were exposed on the part of the wealthy had attained the point beyond which it was scarcely possible to advance. Each ruffian who had destroyed an infant considered that he possessed an undeniable right to be "decorated from head to foot, and completely ornamented." Villains, streaming with rancid b.u.t.ter, entered the Residency, and desired that the "Gyptzis"s bead shop might be opened, as they had brought salt to purchase a necklace;" whilst the king"s three fiddlers, who had each slain a foe during the foray, appearing with the vaunting green _sareti_, attuned their voices and their squeaking instruments to the detail of their prowess, and demanded the merited reward. "The gun is the medicine for the cowardly Pagan who ascends a tree," was the maxim of many who aspired to the possession of one of these weapons; and for hours together men stood before the door with c.o.c.ks and hens and loaves of bread, to establish their claim to the possession of "pleasing things."
With the design of aiding his fast-swelling collection of natural history. Dr Roth had offered rewards to all who chose to contribute, and the king"s pages were kept well supplied with ammunition for the destruction of birds; but the unconquerable love of sticking a feather in the hair almost invariably spoiled the specimen. A bat, firmly wedged between the p.r.o.ngs of a split cane, was one day brought by a boy, who extended the prize at arm"s length: "I"ve caught him at last," he exclaimed with exultation--"It is the Devil, who had got into the monastery of Aferbeine; I"ve caught the rascal; _min abat_?" "what is his father?"
After this strong invective, which is indiscriminately applied also as occasion demands, to man, beast, and every inanimate thing, the youth was not a little surprised to perceive the naturalist quietly extricate the much-dreaded animal with his fingers. A party of females, who carried pitchers of water at their backs, had halted in the road, and looking over the hedge, were silent spectators of the proceeding.
"_Erag, erag_," they exclaimed with one accord, placing their hands before their months as they ran horror-stricken from the spot--"_O wai Gypt_," "Alas, Egyptians! far be such things from us!"
On the festival of Michael the Archangel, whose church immediately adjoins the palace, the monarch received the holy sacrament in the middle of the night, and returned thanks for his victory, a chair having previously been obtained from the Residency to obviate the fatigue stated to have resulted from former orisons. The holy ark, which had brought success to his arms, was again placed under the silver canopy, and thrice carried in solemn procession around the sacred edifice, under a salute of musketry and ordnance. Large offerings were as usual made to it, alms distributed among the poor, a new cloth given to each of the king"s slaves, and a feast prepared for every inhabitant of Ankober.
Rejoicings, which had continued throughout the city since the triumphal entry, were this day renewed with increased energy, even girls and young children whooping war-songs in celebration of the safe return of the warriors from battle.
But the voice of lamentation succeeded to the strains of joy. An eclipse had suddenly inumbrated the moon, and as the black shadow was perceived stealing rapidly onwards, and casting a mysterious gloom over the face of nature, late so bright, the exulting Christians were seized with the direst consternation. The sound of the drum was hushed, and the wild chorus was heard no more. Believing the orb to be dead, and that her demise prognosticated war, pestilence, and famine, the entire town and suburbs became a scene of panic, tumult, and uproar, whilst women and men, priests and laity, collecting together in the streets and in the churches, cried aloud upon the "Saviour of the world to take pity on them--to screen them from the wrath of G.o.d--and to cover them with a veil of mercy, for the sake of Mary, the mother of our Lord."
The pagan Galla, of whom there are many in Ankober, lifting up their voices, joined in the general pet.i.tion, and, from not comprehending the Amharic tongue, placed upon it the most absurd construction. During the whole period of the moon"s obscuration, the wailing continued without intermission; and when the planet, emerging, sailed again through the firmament in all her wonted brilliancy, a universal shout of joy burst from the lips of the savages, in the firm belief that the prayers and sobs of the mult.i.tude had prevailed, and awakened her from the sleep of death.
His Majesty had been previously apprised of the precise hour and minute at which the obscuration was to commence and terminate, and his incredulity in the first instance was followed by equally unfeigned surprise at the powers of divination displayed. "Eclipses are bad omens," said the king, when their causes had been explained. "Was Subagadis not slain on the appearance of one, and did another not bring defeat to Ras Ali?" The chief smith was, nevertheless, instructed to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the use of logarithmic tables, and of "the instruments that read the heavens;" and the royal attention was temporarily diverted from the study of medicine to the contemplation of the celestial bodies.
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 c.u.mbrous 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. "You bring the stars upon earth, and foretell coming events," said His Majesty, as he presented these tokens of favour and confidence--"you are my children; you possess strong medicine. You must wear these swords in a.s.surance of my permanent love, that your name may be great in the eyes of all my people."
Volume Two, Chapter x.x.xII.
THE FOREST OF MAMRAT.
Excursions abroad continued as usual to occupy the royal leisure; and even when rats and horned owls formed the ignominious quarry, the king"s Gyptzis were invariably summoned. But the dark forests which clothe the foot of Mamrat proved the favourite scene of these rambles, and thither the steps of the monarch were usually directed. Large colonies of the _gureza_, which inhabit the n.o.blest trees, offered an irresistible attraction; and although, from their retired habits no less than from their appearance, these inoffensive apes are regarded in the light of monks, their holy character did not exempt them from frequent and severe punishment. A shower of iron and stone b.a.l.l.s tumbled one after the other from his perch on the topmost branches of some venerable moss-grown _woira_, where, notwithstanding many cunning artifices, the white cowl and the long snowy cloak upon the otherwise sable body, betrayed the place of concealment; and numbers being soon prostrate upon the ground, the survivors, amazed at the murderous intrusion, were to be seen swinging from bough to bough like a slack-rope dancer, and leaping from tree to tree as they sought more secure quarters in the, to man, inaccessible sides of the hail-capped mountain.
Occupying manifold caves and subterranean crannies in this the most elevated pinnacle within the range of vision, the idolised riches of Sahela Sela.s.sie are covered with ma.s.sive iron plates, barred, and secured by large heaps of stone. A strong guard of matchlock-men occupies the only practicable ascent to the treasury; and the keys of its well-crammed coffers, which are never opened unless for the purpose of being still further stuffed, are strictly confided to Ayto Habti, the master Cyclops of the realm. At the extremity of a forest vista, the huge wooded cone presents a grand and imposing object, avenues of tall trees screening its dark defiles, whilst the fleecy vapour that steals across the h.o.a.ry summit, discloses glimpses of the many smiling hamlets which crest the Abyssinian Alps.
A Mohammadan legend a.s.serts, that in time of yore, "the Mother of Grace"
towered even to the skies, and so remained until the first invasion of Graan. Ameer Noor, his brother, the ruler of Hurrur in its golden days, having formed his camp upon a rising ground above Alio Amba, despatched his chieftains in all directions to slay, burn, and plunder. Upon their return, laden with rich booty, obtained without having encountered a single Amhara, the disappointed Ameer exclaimed, in his religious zeal, ""tis the mountain Mamrat that hides the dastardly infidels. May Allah, the only one G.o.d, who rules over the universe, grant that it be overthrown, and my foes revealed!" Scarcely had the pious prayer escaped his lips, than the pile reeled to and fro like a drunken man, and sank to its present level.
"The country of the Adaiel," adds the same veracious authority, "through which the Ameer led the followers of the true Prophet, was in those days a trackless desert, totally dest.i.tute of springs; but on his stamping his foot upon the thirsty soil at the termination of each day"s march, there gushed forth a fountain of living water, which has continued to flow until the present time." During the struggle that followed the arrival of the Moslem invaders, the Christians are said to have been in danger of perishing from lack of provisions, until the inhabitants of Argobba, who are styled Shooggur, from the name of their ancestor, supplied the army, by rolling over the mountain side skins filled with grain. In a battle fought shortly after the arrival of this seasonable supply, Ali Muggan, the governor of Zeyla, was slain on the terrace betwixt Mamrat and Alio Amba, and his body left to the wild beasts; whereupon Noor, his brother, cursing the race who, professing the faith of Islam, had been the agents of so dire a calamity, doomed their necks to be chafed for ever by the galling yoke of va.s.salage to unbelievers.
Far hid in the rugged bosom of the "Mother of Grace," is a s.p.a.cious cell, often visited by the king. During one half of the fourteenth century, it formed the abode of an anchorite, renowned far and wide for the austerity of his life, who invariably slept upon a bed of sharp thorns, and whose food was restricted to roots and wild honey. Hatze Amda Zion was then engaged in his disastrous war with Adel; and the ascetic, seizing his white staff, abandoned his rigorous solitude for the first time, and fired by religious zeal, rushed into the presence of the Emperor, who was encamped on the banks of the Hawash. Displaying the holy cross to the dispirited soldiery, he exhorted them to be of good heart, and not to let the standard of Christ droop before the profane ensign of the infidels; for that it was written in the book of the Revelation of Saint John, that Islamism was that year to be crushed and trodden under foot throughout the world. At his bidding, three merchants of Hurrur, who, under the guise of suttlers, performed the office of spies, were hung without trial, and their heads being transmitted to the King of Adel, proved the forerunners of a b.l.o.o.d.y defeat, which he shortly afterwards sustained.
To the latest occupant of the cave of Mamrat is attached the legend embodied in the two ensuing chapters. It is fully ill.u.s.trative of the grovelling superst.i.tion that enthrals the Amhara, of whom none ever allude to the dread sorcerer Thavanan, without an invocation to the Deity. He was an exiled n.o.ble of Northern Abyssinia, high in the favour of Asfa Woosen, fifth monarch of Shoa, who took forcible possession of his sister, and after degrading the courtier for opposing this despotic measure, sentenced him to the loss of an eye, which was put out with a hot iron. Resolved to have his revenge, the outcast became a worshipper of the eighty-eight invisible spirits, termed _Saroch_, believed to be the emissaries for evil of Warobal Mama, the King of the Genies, whose court is held at the bottom of Lake Alobar, in Mans, whence his drum is heard pealing over the water whenever war, famine, or pestilence are about to visit the land.
Having purchased supernatural powers at the price of his hope of salvation, Thavanan tormented the king day and night--spirited away his seraglio, and, having thus recovered his sister, deprived her oppressor of sight by means of magic spells. Taking the name of Abba Zowald, he then became a stern ascetic; and his bones now lie interred in the cell beneath a pile of rough stones, which, during a long period of mortification, served him for a couch, whilst roots and wild fruits formed his only fare. Angels are said to have ministered unto him; his voice was the voice of an oracle; and none recognising the sorcerer in a holy Christian anchorite, who had despised the world and its vanities during a period of fifty years, he lived universally regarded in Abyssinia as a second Peter.
Volume Two, Chapter x.x.xIII.
THE NECROMANCER, A LEGEND OF SHOA.
In the lone recesses of a rocky cave reclined the youth Thavanan, lost in gloomy meditation. The hues of care and study were indelibly stamped upon his lofty forehead; and although the bent brow and the quivering lip betokened a stern mental conflict, still courage and high daring shone bright through the shroud of revenge which had settled over his dark features. The white robe of Abyssinia lay uneasy on his shoulder; and the blue silk cord which encircled his neck, the badge of Christianity, nearly burst in twain as the swollen sinews started from the throat, in this his hour of agony.