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i

Alternative Iron Ages

Alternative Iron Ages examines Iron Age social formations that sit outside
traditional paradigms, developing methods for archaeological characterisa-
tion of alternative models of society. In so doing it contributes to the debates
concerning the construction and resistance of inequality taking place in
archaeology, anthropology and sociology.
In recent years, Iron Age research on Western Europe has moved towards
new forms of understanding social structures. Yet these alternative social
organisations continue to be considered as basic human social formations,
which frequently imply marginality and primitivism. In this context, the
grand narrative of the European Iron Age continues to be defined by cul-
tural foci, which hide the great regional variety in an artificially homo-
genous area. This book challenges the traditional classical evolutionist
narratives by exploring concepts such as non-​triangular societies, heterarchy
and segmentarity across regional case studies to test and propose alternative
social models for Iron Age social formations.
Constructing new social theory both archaeologically based and
supported by sociological and anthropological theory, the book is perfect
for those looking to examine and understand life in the European Iron Age.

Brais X. Currás’s (postdoctoral researcher, Coimbra University) research

focuses on the understanding of the social and territorial organisation
of Iron Age communities with the onset of Roman domination in north-​
western Iberia, employing both landscape archaeology and anthropological
perspectives. His particular interest is also the economy of the Roman
Empire, particularly the exploitation of gold and salt.

Inés Sastre (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) chairs the

Social Structure and Territory, Landscape Archaeology research group. She
also serves as scientific secretary of the Archivo Español de Arqueología and
director of the Bibliotheca Praehistorica Hispana. Her particular research
interest is the evolution of social structures in pre-​Roman and Roman rural
territories of the north-​western Iberian Peninsula.
ii

Routledge Studies in Archaeology

Exploring the Materiality of Food “Stuffs”

Transformations, Symbolic Consumption and Embodiment(s)
Edited by Louise Steel and Katharina Zinn

Archaeologies of “Us” and “Them”

Debating History, Heritage and Indigeneity
Edited by Charlotta Hillerdal, Anna Karlström and Carl-​Gösta Ojala

Balkan Dialogues
Negotiating Identity between Prehistory and the Present
Edited by Maja Gori and Maria Ivanova

Material Worlds
Archaeology, Consumption, and the Road to Modernity
Edited by Barbara J. Heath, Eleanor E. Breen and Lori A. Lee

New Perspectives in Cultural Resource Management

Edited by Francis McManamon

Dwelling
Heidegger, Archaeology, Mortality
Philip Tonner

Visualising Skyscapes
Material Forms of Cultural Engagement with the Heavens
Edited by Liz Henty and Daniel Brown

Alternative Iron Ages

Social Theory from Archaeological Analysis
Edited by Brais X. Currás and Inés Sastre

For more information about this series, please visit www.routledge.com/​

Routledge-​Studies-​in-​Archaeology/​book-​series/​RSTARCH
iii

Alternative Iron Ages

Social Theory from Archaeological
Analysis

Edited by Brais X. Currás

and Inés Sastre
iv

First published 2020

by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Brais X. Currás and Inés Sastre; individual chapters,
the contributors
The right of Brais X. Currás and Inés Sastre to be identified as the authors of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-​in-​Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-​in-​Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-​1-​138-​54102-​3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-​1-​351-​01211-​9 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Newgen Publishing UK
v

Contents

List of figures  viii

List of tables  xi
List of contributors  xii
Preface  xv
TI M OTH Y E A R L E

Introduction  1
I N É S SA S TR E A N D B RA IS X. CURRÁ S

PART I
Theory from and for the field  7

1 Reconsidering egalitarianism for archaeological

interpretation  9
I N É S SA S TR E A N D B RA IS X. CURRÁ S

2 Interpreting the dialectic of sociopolitical tensions in

the archaeological past: Implications of an anarchist
perspective for Iron Age societies  29
B I L L A N G E L B ECK

3 Egalitarianism as an active process: Legitimacy

and distributed power in Iron Age West Africa  50
S TE P H E N A . DUE P P E N

4 Anarchy in the Bronze Age? Social organisation

and complexity in Sardinia  74
R A L P H A R AQU E GO N ZÁ L E Z
vi

vi Contents
5 Reconstructing Iron Age societies: What went wrong  95
J O H N C O L LIS

6 Egalitarianism in the southern British Iron Age: An

“archaeology” of knowledge  109
R I C H A R D HIN GL E Y

7 Segmentary societies: A theoretical approach from

European Iron Age archaeology  127
B R A I S X . C URRÁ S A N D IN É S SASTRE

PART II
The different Iron Ages: Critical insights in a comparative
perspective  149

8 All together now (or not): Change, resistance and

resilience in the NW Iberian Peninsula in the Bronze
Age–​Iron Age transition  151
C É SA R PA RCE RO - O
​ UB IÑ A , XO SÉ - ​L O IS A RMADA, SAMU EL NIÓN
A N D F É L I X GO N ZÁL E Z IN SUA

9 Characterising “communities” in the Early Iron Age

of southern Britain  176
DAV I D M C OMISH

10 Hierarchy to anarchy and back again: Social

transformations from the Late Bronze Age to the
Roman Iron Age in Lowland Scotland  195
IAN ARMIT

11 Confusing Iron Ages: Communities of the middle

Danube region between “tribal hierarchy”
and heterarchy  218
V L A D I M I R D. MIH AJL OVI Ć

12 A bit of anarchy in the Iron Age: New perspectives

on social structure in the Dutch coastal area of
North-​Holland  257
M A R J O L I J N KO K
vii

Contents vii
13 Iron Age religions beyond warrior ideologies  268
A L B E RTO SA NTO S CA N CE L AS

14 Monumentalising the domestic: House societies in

Atlantic Scotland  284
NIALL SHARPLES

PART III
From the core of the state: New visions on
Mediterranean societies  307

15 Social theory and the Greek Iron Age  309

J O H N B I N TL I F F

16 The peasantry as a social theory, and its application to

Celtiberian society  322
F R A N C I S C O B URIL L O -​M O ZOTA A N D M A . P IL A R BU R ILLO-​C UADR ADO

17 Social dynamics in Eastern Iberia Iron Age: Between

inclusive and exclusionary strategies  337
I G N A S I G R AU -​M IRA

Index  359
viii

Figures

2.1 Common principles of anarchism presented in polar

opposition to their dialectical opposites 38
2.2 Models for the “shape” of societies according to social
distance and proportion of population 44
3.1 Clockwise from upper left: Map of West Africa showing
location of Kirikongo; map of Kirikongo; vessels found near
pottery kiln at Mound 11; burned ritual structure at Mound 4 51
3.2 Kirikongo in Yellow I (left) and Yellow II (right) 58
3.3 Kirikongo prior to the revolution in Red I/​II (left) and after
the revolution in Red II/​III (right) 61
4.1 Sardinian bronzetti, artificially arranged in a “social
pyramid” including obviously mythological characters 80
4.2 Nuraghe Losa 82
4.3 Distribution of nuraghi: 1. high-​plateau of Abbasanta;
2. Sinis-​Montiferru region 83
4.4 Sanctuary of Santa Cristina-​Paulilatino: meeting hut, sacred
well and precinct 85
5.1 Reconstruction of “Celtic Society,” after Cunliffe undated / c​ .
1989, drawing by David Salariya 98
5.2 The “Celtic warrior” in Andover Museum 99
5.3 Models for the possible social structures relating to Danebury 100
5.4 The “crisis model” 101
5.5 “Non-​triangular” social structures 102
6.1 The distribution of (re)constructed roundhouses at open-​air
museums and heritage venues across Britain 111
7.1 Segmentary lineage organisation 130
7.2 Distribution of the Iron Age castros of Northwest Iberia 140
7.3 Castro of Borneiro 142
8.1 Longhouses recently documented in different settlements 154
8.2 Hillforts with C-​14 dates 159
8.3 Hillforts with C-​14 dates before the fifth century BC 160
8.4 Time span (sum of probability of C-​14 dates) of the fortified
settlement across North-​west Iberia 161
ix

List of figures ix
8.5 Interpolation of the probability of occurrence of fortified
settlements across the region in three moments in time
(1000, 900 and 800 B C ) 162
8.6 Hilltop settlements in the Late Bronze Age 163
8.7 Distribution of “special places” in the Late Bronze
Age: Settlements with large storage facilities, settlements
with long houses and ceremonial enclosures 164
8.8 Distribution of Late Bronze Age metal objects 165
8.9 Distribution of Bronze Age gold objects 166
8.10 Comparative distribution of Bronze Age axes: Palstave axes
with casting jet vs. Samieira type 167
8.11 The economy of power in the Late Iron Age in North-​west
Iberia, according to González-​Ruibal 169
9.1 Drone image of Cley Hill hillfort 177
9.2 Location plan showing the position of the main Early Iron
Age midden sites mentioned in the text 178
9.3 All Cannings Cross is located at the base of a steep
escarpment slope 179
9.4 Reconstructed short-​necked furrowed bowl from All
Cannings Cross 182
9.5 Potterne was excavated by Wessex Archaeology between
1982 and 1985 184
9.6 Plan of the earthworks at East Chisenbury 185
9.7 The excavations at East Chisenbury, although covering
a small area, produced a substantial array of material
culture, largely of Early Iron Age date 190
9.8 Casterley Camp is located on a chalk plateau on
Salisbury Plain 191
10.1 Location map: East Lothian 196
10.2 Traprain Law, East Lothian 197
10.3 AMS dates from Traprain Law 198
10.4 (a) Iron Age enclosed settlements around Broxmouth
and Traprain Law. (b) Size range of enclosed settlements
(including those conventionally classed as hillforts) in East
Lothian. The two outliers relate to successive phases of
enclosure at Traprain Law 200
10.5 The development of the ramparts at Broxmouth from
Phases 2–​4 203
10.6 Multivallate hillforts in East Lothian comparable to
Broxmouth in size and general morphology: a. Broxmouth
itself; b. Easter Pinkerton; c. The Chesters, Spott;
d. Snawdon 2; e. Spott Dod; f. White Castle; g. Snawdon 3;
h. Sherrifside 1; i. Friar’s Nose; j. and k. Doon Hill 205
10.7 Cropmark enclosures in the vicinity of Broxmouth 206
10.8 Triangular and non-​triangular societies 207
x

x List of figures
10.9 Multiple entrances at Traprain Law 211
11.1 The territory of the Scordisci according to traditional
interpretation 220
11.2 The enwalled settlements in the “territory of the Scordisci” 223
12.1 The Oer-​IJ area situated in the Netherlands 258
12.2 Bronze neck ring, inner diameter just over 13 cm 262
12.3 Ritually deposited lower jaw of a young man in a ditch at
Beverwijk/​Heemskerk Broekpolder from the Middle Iron Age 262
12.4 Location of Early and Middle Iron Age sites 265
14.1 A map of Scotland showing the distribution of brochs and,
inset, a sketch plan and elevation of the broch at Mousa in
Shetland 290
14.2 A view of the broch at Dun Carloway on the Western Isles
showing its prominent location and the well-​preserved wall 291
14.3 Schematic floor plans for four brochs or monumental
roundhouses on Orkney: The Howe; Bu, Gurness and
Tofts Ness 293
14.4 The broch villages surrounding the brochs at Gurness and
The Howe on Orkney and Old Scatness on Shetland 295
14.5 A reconstruction of typical broch interior based on the
broch of Dun Carloway 297
14.6 The relationship of the ruined Neolithic chambered tomb
and the Early Iron Age roundhouse at The Howe on Orkney 301
15.1 Gaignerot-​Driessen’s model for the rising scale of
sociopolitical networks in the eastern Crete Mirabello
region at three stages of their evolution 315
17.1 Example of two Iberian oppida in the Eastern Iberian Iron Age 341
17.2 Map of the Eastern Iberian Peninsula during the fifth to
fourth centuries B C 342
17.3 Map of the Eastern Iberian Peninsula during the third
century BC with the main towns 343
17.4 The Iberian Iron Age territory of La Serreta during the third
century BC 346
17.5 (A) Scheme of the networks of competitive oppida during
the fourth century B C and (B) the corporate coalitions of
oppida during the third century B C 348
17.6 Example of the most relevant elements of the funerary
record in the fourth century B C 349
17.7 The Iberian sanctuary of La Serreta (top) and its votives
(down) 352
xi

Tables

8.1 The most characteristic features of the record of the Late

Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in North-​west Iberia 153
10.1 Summary of the principal phases of human activity at
Broxmouth (based on Hamilton et al 2013). The sequence
is continuous between Phases 1–6. Phase 7 follows a hiatus
of two centuries or more 202
11.1 Surface areas of the enwalled settlements in the “territory of
the Scordisci” 225
11.2 Contents of the burials of phase Belgrade 3 in Karaburma 228
11.3 Contents of the burials of phase Belgrade 4 in Karaburma 234
11.4 Distribution of warrior equipment in the graves of Bg3 and
Bg4 phases in Karaburma 239
xii

Contributors

Bill Angelbeck (Douglas College)

Ralph Araque González (University of Freiburg)
Xosé-​Lois Armada (Instituto de Ciencias del Patrimonio. Consejo Superior
de Investigaciones Científicas)
Ian Armit (University of Leicester)
John Bintliff (Leiden University)
Mª. Pilar Burillo-​Cuadrado (University of Zaragoza)
Francisco Burillo-​Mozota (University of Zaragoza)
John Collis (University of Sheffield)
Brais X. Currás (University of Coimbra–​Centro de Estudos em Arqueologia,
Artes e Ciências do Património)
Stephen A. Dueppen (University of Oregon)
Timothy Earle (Northwestern University)
Félix González Insua independent researcher
Ignasi Grau-​Mira (University of Alicante)
Richard Hingley (University of Durham)
marjolijn kok independent researcher
David McOmish (Historic England)
Vladimir D. Mihajlovic (University of Novi Sad)
Samuel Nión (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela)
César Parcero-​Oubiña (Instituto de Ciencias del Patrimonio. Consejo
Superior de Investigaciones Científicas)
xii

List of contributors xiii

Alberto Santos Cancelas independent researcher
Inés Sastre (Instituto de Historia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Científicas)
Niall Sharples (University of Cardiff)
xiv
xv

Preface
Timothy Earle

The main point for us, anyways, is that: in egalitarian societies, access to
resources and power is not only guaranteed, it is equal. And we add: the pro-
duction of surplus is minimized.
(Sastre and Currás, Chapter 1)

Sastre and Currás capture in these sentences the central thesis of this worthy
book. Its objective is to attend to communal practices as the dominant
organising forms of many, if not most, prehistoric human societies. For me
the most exciting theme is the book’s focus on egalitarianism. Egalitarianism
is often conceived by prehistorians in terms of what it lacks, its absence
of many characteristics of complex societies. Egalitarian societies are seen
as simply organised, involved primarily in subsistence activities without
characteristics of complexity that include technological advances, high levels
of craft specialisation, cities, markets, social hierarchy (with aristocrats),
writing, and the high arts. Rather, Sastre and Currás focus attention on what
egalitarian societies were and how they operated effectively for thousands of
years without strong leaders and social inequality.
Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity is the revolutionary motto of the French
Republic. It captures well an ethos of egalitarianism, based on philosoph-
ical ideals from the Age of Enlightenment. These ideals were foundational
to the eighteenth-​century American, French and Haitian revolutions, and
to a broader desire at the time among political philosophers and their new
science of societies to search for practical understanding that would guide
political improvements. Enlightenment thinkers were romantic and ideal-
istic, desiring to find possibilities to counter the central power and inequality
of monarchies. Although grounded first on foundational, logical principles,
these political philosophers also considered comparatively non-​ Western
cultures as models for better and more egalitarian conditions. They believed
that societies based on equality and democracy were in fact possible.
Opposed to Hobbes’s conception of the “social contract” for which powerful
states (exemplified by England) were considered necessary, Rousseau, for
example, sought principles and practices that would liberate humanity from
the oppression of monarchy. Following the revolution, he was interred as a
xvi

xvi Preface
French national hero in the Pantheon in Paris. During the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, major political philosophers and political economists
continued to argue for ways to restructure the economy to make for a more
equal society.
The question was, and continues to be: How and when could egali-
tarian principles work? Such principles appeared logically to rely on equal
access to resources and power, little surplus extraction, constrained gov-
ernmental powers and participatory democracy among citizens. To counter
the Hobbesian view, case examples were needed to document outcomes of
such principles. In the nineteenth century, the new field of anthropology
studied non-​Western societies, documenting cases of non-​hierarchical pol-
itical systems. The comparative study of Lewis Henry Morgan provided,
for example, support for Marx and Engels’s progressive narrative of human
history. But details of their argument were fundamentally flawed by the
poor evidence available at the time. Were the ideas of political economy
simply romantic and unrealistic? Robust comparative data were needed. In
the twentieth century, anthropological ethnography began to establish an
evidenced-​based understanding of traditional societies with strongly egali-
tarian principles. Many progressives, of which I and most anthropologists
claim affiliation, hold such revolutionary ideals, and anthropology has a
tradition of glorifying egalitarian traditional societies. The evolution of
strong leadership, institutionalised power, and social stratification are not
solutions; they are seen as the problem.
As discussed in the introduction, an important trend in anthropological
archaeology and prehistory now exists to study the potential and possibility
for egalitarian societies to operate across the long term without the forma-
tion of hierarchical social structures. Several theoretical threads, including
heterarchy, collective action theory, and anarchism, have strong theoretical
implications for understanding these topics. This trend has been glossed as
bottom-​up approaches, emphasising the self-​organising character of trad-
itional societies. Through my friendship with Antonio Gilman, Inés Sastre
came with a predoctoral fellowship to work with me at Northwestern
University. It was great fun to hear about her research on the Iron Age,
hillfort society of Castro in north-​ western Spain. Here, continuing into
late prehistory, each small, fortified community operated independently in
defence of land against outsiders and retained a high level of equality through
broad household access to farmland and other necessary resources. Castro
and other prehistoric examples from this book seem immediately familiar
to me. Many of their characteristics are immediately comparable to the Late
Intermediate Period Andean hillfort chiefdoms that I had been studying.
Among the Wanka of Peru’s highland Montaro Valley, any expression of
social hierarchy was muted in prehistory. They, however, built impressive
stonewall defences around their settlements and effectively restrained state
formation until the overwhelming, conquering power of the Inca Empire.
Theoretically, Inés drew creatively on an argument that fit well with ideas
xvi

Preface xvii
of James Scott and my former professors, Eric Wolf and Marshall Sahlins.
In her 2008 Current Anthropology article “Community, identity, and con-
flict,” she captured well the essence of egalitarianism and its ties to defensive
warfare. I am honoured to provide this preface for her (jointly with Currás)
edited book on this topic.
So, what are egalitarian societies and how did they operate successfully
in prehistory? You must start by understanding individual communities and
how they functioned. From reading this book, three points appear critical
to analyze prehistoric cases. First are political structures that restrained
personal power by emphasising leaders as agents of their groups. These
remind me of what Renfrew called “group-​oriented chiefdoms,” which built
the impressive megalithic monuments but showed no strong social stratifica-
tion in burials. Second is the extreme localism of such groups. Their intimate
scales meant that everyone knew each other and could easily form group
identities. Third is equal access to subsistence and social resources based on
group ownership of lands. These societies were probably all organised as
corporate social groups, in which resources were the group’s landed prop-
erty, to which all had rights of use. Only minimal surpluses in labour and
resources were extracted to support governing institutions of power. In these
societies, the family and the community have high degrees of subsistence
self-​sufficiency and self-​organising to solve mutual objectives. In Marxist
terms, these represent kin-​ordered modes of production.
Is this conception of the egalitarian community new? Yes and no. In fact,
it is the foundational concept of mid-​twentieth century cultural anthropology
studying traditional societies, for which kinship was the primary structuring
mechanism. A host of ethnographers sought to describe how the logic and
operation of small-​scale societies differed from the market-​dominated, state
societies of the West. Theoretical frameworks looking at these community-​
focused societies were of different stripes, but they represented some
common themes. First was the structural functionalism of British and French
social anthropologists, who included anthropology’s dominant ancestors—​
Malinowski, Firth, Radcliffe-​Brown, Durkheim and Mauss to mention but a
few. America’s functionalism was reformulated as cultural ecology, including
Steward, Service, Sahlins and Harris as major proponents. Karl Polanyi’s
substantivist economics in particular looked at how economies in traditional
societies functioned to maintain social, kin-​ based structures through reci-
procity and redistribution. Leaders, to the degree that they existed, were seen
as operating for the general good of the community.
Kinship was singled out by these anthropologists as the primary organising
structure for egalitarian societies, and so it is perhaps surprising that kinship
as a theme is so little discussed in the present book. The probable reason
is simply practical: kinship itself is all but invisible archaeologically. But,
I suggest, that the patterns analysed here were most probably based heavily
on the logic of kinship that defined, on a fine grain, who was a compat-
riot and who was the enemy. These societies were most probably corporate,
xvi

xviii Preface
meaning that they owned land as a group in which all member had rights
of access, principles so important to the conception of egalitarianism. From
this perspective, it is the grounding of the group and its household in the
locality that is critical to the case material. Practically, these patterns of cor-
porate ownership as based on kinship are visible archaeologically in the
mortuary practices and cooperative work projects involved.
The foundational ideas of much anthropological thinking during the
mid-​century was based on a functionalist logic of how social actions
supported the social group. Limitations of such functionalist approaches
became evident, however: these approaches did not sufficiently consider
the agency of individuals with different statuses and roles and thus with
conflicting interests. A faction of archaeologists could see that leaders often
acted in their own interests, and not the broader interests of the group.
To remediate this limitation, this new band of anthropologists adopted a
more Marxist orientation, recognising conflict; they included prominent
anthropologists: Marshall Sahlins with his Domestic Mode of Production
emphasising the goals of family self-​ sufficiency and Eric Wolf with his
Closed Corporate Peasant Communities formed as reactions against states.
I and other archaeologists, including Liz Brumfiel, Bob Chapman, Antonio
Gilman, Kristian Kristiansen and Mike Rowlands, took a more top-​down
approach that showed how strong chiefs and a ruling aristocracy sought to
control societies for their own benefit. This was necessary to understand that
human societies, even at fairly small scales, did not function as homeostatic
system, but rather were an outcome of inherent conflicts of interests and
power. Perhaps we simply took for granted the importance of household
and community action within this broader political context, but the result
has been a misrepresentation of social realities studied by prehistorians.
Simply stated, much of what happens in traditional societies has nothing to
do with the governing power of chiefs and kings, and all of these elements
of community life have been understudied.
The pendulum has now swung back, and this book helps transfer
attention among prehistorian to the egalitarian character of traditional
communities as richly documented in prehistory. This refocusing is both
intellectually needed and practically sensible. Archaeology deals first and
foremost with the detritus of everyday life, in which households and com-
munities operated largely as self-​organising groups. I want to emphasise
how much our understandings of egalitarian social formations are based in
twentieth-​century anthropological ethnographies. In the introduction, key
references are made to important sociocultural anthropologists, including
Woodburn’s conception of “assertive egalitarianism” among foragers, to
Evans-​Pritchard’s segmentary societies among pastoralists, and to Leach’s
important study of the highly dynamic, Burmese horticultural societies.
The conception of house societies, as articulated by Lévi-​Strauss, provides
another useful analytical framework (see Sharples, c­hapter 14). In many
societies that anthropologists have studied, small groups of relatives and
xix

Preface xix
relations are corporate owners of land and other resources, and this prop-
erty system guarantees, at least in principle, equal resource access to all
members. That is what Wolf labelled a kin-​ordered mode of production.
To understand egalitarianism, however, James Scott’s Moral Economy of
Peasants and Eric Wolf’s Europe and the People without History emphasise
the necessity to understand entangled elements of egalitarianism within an
expanding world economy. They argue that all societies must be seen as open
and engaged with others in a dynamic and changing set of relationships. This
is the key point of Leach’s analysis of the highland Burmese societies, which
were differentially engaged with a China-​dominated world economy. Wolf
argues that societies cannot be viewed as isolated cases (what he refers to
as “billiard balls” to emphasise their theoretical conception as independent
social systems); rather, societies are always intertwined with the economies,
societies, and politics of neighbours and ruling sectors. He reasons, there-
fore, that societies studied by cultural anthropologists were not “trad-
itional” in the sense of historically isolated and representative of pure social
forms without historical transformation. Rather, these societies have formed
through long-​term interaction with imperial and commercial powers.
In his approach to dialectics, Angelbeck (Chapter 2) adds significantly to
the theoretical overview provided in the book. We must study social “phe-
nomena not as isolated, but as nested within webs or relationships, many of
which are contradictory.” The dynamics between centralisation and anarchy
were, for example, underlying the dialectics of European Iron Age societies.
Anarchy describes scales of self-​organising actions where no institutional
governance exists or else is inoperative. Egalitarian societies, imbedded in
broad regional networks of interaction, as well as in chiefdoms and states,
must be analysed in multi-​scalar ways. Each level (family, community and
regional polity) needs to be considered with its competing and conjoined
interests. Thus, egalitarian communities can exist either within equal
and competing regional polities or within an overarching, hierarchically
structured political system. In all the analyses of this book, it is important to
consider societies not as representing types but as variants along spectra of
interacting structural forms, as Leach so well described for historic Burma.
This point of structuring dynamics leads us to investigate variability within
“egalitarian” societies.
How egalitarian are egalitarian societies after all? The famous quotation
from George Orwell’s satirical novel is “All animals are equal, but some are
more equal than others.” As an allegory for twentieth-​century communist
states, the egalitarian ethos of Animal Farm became transformed into its
tyranny. In prehistory, it is likely that egalitarian societies were spectra of
more or less leadership-​structured behaviour. Thus, in the Nuer pastoralist
societies, the seminal ethnographic case of egalitarian segmental societies,
leopard-​skin chiefs certainly existed, but their authority was restrained to
particular roles, such as conflict resolution, in which they worked for the
general good. Although chiefs were present, their authority and scale of
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weight, but merely that of the article to be exchanged; of course
such a weighing-machine can only be employed in barter.
Honey and butter are not regularly brought to the market as the
supply is dependant in a great measure upon the season, scarcely
any during the latter part of the dry, and the earlier part of the wet
season, being to be obtained but through the favour of the Negoos,
who forwards to his governors or favoured guests large jars of these
articles as presents during the period of its scarcity. The manner in
which butter is preserved by the Abyssinians is rather peculiar; and I
must observe, that strictly, all the honey produced in the country is
claimed by the Negoos, who, however, generally gives some
equivalent for it, so that I never heard this apparently arbitrary
circumstance complained of; although I have frequently noticed the
clandestine manner in which small quantities of this delicacy were
obtained by the nominal owners, who wished to have the
opportunity of obtaining some few ahmulahs by selling it to me. The
kind that was exposed in the market for sale, was the refuse of the
first droppings of the comb, or merely the last drainings mixed with
more than one-half of fragmentary wax, and the dead bodies of
bees. The Abyssinians, to their credit, do not kill these interesting
and industrious insects, but place in juxtaposition to the hive,
supposed to be nearly full of honey, an empty one, and in a very
short time, the whole of the inhabitants of the older hive, have
commenced constructing fresh combs in the new one placed for
their convenience.
For one ahmulah a winechar, or drinking-hornful, holding about a
pint of honey, is obtained; and double that quantity of butter brings
the same price, so that I consider both articles very dear.
Immediately after the rains, however, three or four times this
quantity of butter may be obtained for an ahmulah. Besides cotton
and tobacco, “gaisho,” or the dried leaves of a shrub belonging to
the same species of plant as the tea-tree, is also sold by weight
against salt; these leaves are used as a bitter in brewing the native
beer instead of hops. Six times in weight of this article is given in
exchange for one of salt, but if weighed against cotton, four times
the quantity of gaisho is given.
Tobacco in small round cakes, two inches in diameter, and half an
inch thick is also weighed in exchange for salt, two of tobacco being
considered equal to one of salt; it is grown in the wana-daggan
country, or where the climate is temperate, in contradistinction to
daggan, or highlands, and kolla, or lowlands. Tobacco is the article in
which the people of the wana-daggan chiefly speculate, taking it
down to the kolla country in exchange for cotton, seven times its
weight being then demanded. They also carry berberah, or the red
cayenne-pepper pods to the daggan, or cold country, where they
obtain wheat or other grain in exchange, five times the weight of
berberah being given. The quantity of grain given for tobacco
depends greatly upon circumstances; the eye of the seller, and the
appetite of the purchaser of the tobacco, determining the rate of
exchange.
Besides these articles, all of which are exposed for sale in the
market-place of Aliu Amba, saddle-makers from Ankobar, spear and
sword manufacturers from the Tabeeb, or artificers’ monasteries,
supply it with their wares, and the industrious inhabitants of the
latter also bring hoes and plough-irons, and their women and
children hawk about the town, with loud cries, coarse earthenware
utensils for sale.
No Hebrew pedlar is to be seen in this, or any other market-place,
though a recent traveller of Shoa has asserted such to be the case,
and to allow the assertion to pass without denying it at once, might
lead to some ethnological error among the naturalists of the human
race, who might be speculating upon the origin and descent of the
true Abyssinian. Such was the ignorance of both the Amhara and the
Islam of these people, that scarcely a stranger called upon me, but
desired to know if I were not a “Yahude” (Jew). I questioned them in
return upon the very subject, and none had even met with one,
except some of the travelled slave-dealers, the two or three pilgrims
Shoa could boast of who had visited Mecca, and who always
advanced, as one evidence of the extensive journeys they had
made, that they had seen a Jew. The Falasha of northern Abyssinia,
speaking the Agow language, cannot be pretended to be of Hebrew
descent, and the more we hear of this interesting people the more
assured we shall be, that although practising somewhat similar
customs, no connexion, more recent than prior to the era of the
Exodus, can be traced between them and the Jews.
Having noticed everything that can interest the reader in an
account of an Abyssinian market, I shall now return home.
Walderheros slings over his shoulder a broad chain of ahmulahs,
connected together by the pliant lit bark; ten of the salt-pieces
reposing upon his chest, and the other half-dollar’s worth in a
corresponding manner hang upon his back. Having arranged his
burden, the change for one dollar, we proceed together, saluting
Tinta as we pass him, sitting in judgment upon a case of dispute
that has just arisen; with shoulders bare, the noisy declaimant
addressing him, gesticulates with much energy; the etiquette of
respectful undress, (unrobed to the waist,) admitting of the freest
exercise of the upper limbs, and a corresponding display of the most
approved oratorical action is the consequence.
The evening of the market-day in Aliu Amba, closes with similar
scenes of jollity to those which characterize the hebdomadal
meetings of farmers and their friends in our own agricultural towns;
and the expression “market fresh,” best expresses the condition of
the staggering Christians, and of the singing groups of male and
female Abyssinians returning home, who have been closing the
labours of the day with sundry deep potations of beer.
 CHAPTER XVI.
Visit from Sheik Tigh.—​Strange news.—​Arrival of Abdoanarch.—​
Situation of my house.—​Wallata Gabriel.—​Baking bread.—​Vapour
bath.—​Cure for hernia.
After my visit to the market, I was confined to my house for two or
three days by illness, but feeling a little better this morning (August
1st), I brought out a small saw I was possessed of, and began to
amuse myself, in giving the last finish to the roof, by removing the
projecting ends of the cane rafters, which made the low eaves look
very ragged. Whilst thus employed, Sheik Tigh, who had been
absent some days at a “tescar,” or funeral feast of a frontier Islam
Governor, called, and after congratulating me upon having come into
some property at last, gave me the astounding information that
Tinta had been removed from the government of the town, and a
rich Hurrah merchant, who had come as an Ambassador to Sahale
Selassee, from the Imaum of that city, was now the Governor.
The day that I left Miriam’s house, I heard that a Hurrahgee
kafilah was coming into Shoa, and learnt then, that Aliu Amba was
the town appointed for the people belonging to it, as Channo was
for the Adal kafilahs. I sent Walderheros to Tinta’s house to get
more information, but he had already left the town and gone to
Angolahlah to see the Negoos; as I supposed, to remonstrate. I did
not tell Sheik Tigh I was very sorry at the news he brought me,
because, as he was a Mahomedan, he seemed so to enjoy the
circumstance of having a governor of his own religion, and my
regret, as a Christian, I was afraid, would only elate him the more. I
did the good man wrong by my unworthy suspicion, for he was
certainly one of the best-hearted men I ever met. On asking him
who the new governor was, and what business he had come upon to
Shoa, he told me that his name was Abdoanarch, and the Wizeer of
Sheik Houssein, Imaum of Hurrah, and that he had come to induce
the Negoos to join in a league with all the other monarchs of
Southern Abyssinia to prevent the ingress of Europeans into that
country. I was not well enough to ask many questions, but felt glad,
that the return of the Embassy to the coast had been decided upon,
previous to the arrival of Abdoanarch from Hurrah, and that
consequently he could not boast of having effected such a
desideratum among the Mahomedans of Shoa.
The bestowal of the government of Aliu Amba upon the Hurrah
ambassador, was a proof of very high regard; and as the language
of that celebrated but little known city is a dialect of the Geez,
similar to the Amharic, Abdoanarch was not considered to be
altogether a foreigner. Besides, he was, as I have remarked, a
Mahomedan, and as three-fourths of the inhabitants of Aliu Amba
professed the same belief, his appointment caused great satisfaction.
With him, a large kafilah of his countrymen had arrived, at least, two
hundred, so that they made a sensible addition to the population,
which, at most, did not exceed three thousand people. Indeed,
accommodations for them could not be found, and they were
obliged to erect a number of straw huts, on the other side of the
cemetery in the market-place. This new village consisted of about
fifty houses, all of them, merely thatched roofs, resting upon the
ground, with a low entrance, not three feet high, cut out in front.
Sheik Tigh sat with me nearly all day; the singularly situated and
nearly unknown city of Hurrah affording an inexhaustible subject of
conversation. As, however, he had never visited it, and I
subsequently received more accurate information respecting this
interesting place from a native, I shall not now attempt to describe
it.
August 2.—My house was situated on the western face of the
rock of Aliu Amba standing upon its own little terrace, which was
enclosed partially by a thick-leaved hedge, and where this failed by a
row of the yellow-stalks of the high Indian corn plant. It overlooked
and was overlooked by a number of other houses similarly
constructed, each built upon its own garden platform, one above the
other, like a series of high steps, from half way down the steep hill-
side, to the summit of a bluff, cone-like eminence, in which the
northern extremity, of the otherwise flat-topped hill of Aliu Amba
terminated. On this exalted point, the long thatched roof of the
largest house of the town was visible over a strong palisading of
splintered ted, and over which two tall mimosas towered like giant
sentinels. To go near here was considered a crime, and to break
through the enclosure would have been a sacrilege. This of course
was royal property, the “gimjon bait,” where was preserved until the
annual account was made by the Governor to the King, all the fines,
lapses by death, and duties, that had accumulated during that time.
Beneath this public storehouse was a long terrace, divided into
several enclosures, in each of which stood a snug cottage; and these
again looking upon one below, the top of which scarcely reached the
level of the ground, the upper ones were built upon. Here dwelt a
most respectable man, an Islam slave-merchant, who kept a
gratuitous school for boys, whom he instructed in Arabic, that is to
say, in reading and writing passages of the Koran. Far beneath the
level of this my own house stood, and before it, and on either hand,
were several others whose gardens all surrounded mine. The hill at
this point, too, seemed to assume a more umbrageous aspect, for
high “shuahlah,” sycamore fig-trees, and mimosas, sheltered
beneath their foliage the unassuming roofs of thatch, which less and
less, diminishing as they descended the slope of the hill-side,
seemed at a very short distance from my garden to have dropped
into the yawning valley that separated Aliu Amba from the opposite
height; which still higher, differed in its more gently sloping ascent,
and its ridge being occupied by a village inhabited exclusively by
Christians. Over this again could be seen still more elevated crests,
and beyond these others, until the eye reached the last, the
commanding height of Ankobar; which, extending some ten or
twelve miles north and south, each extremity then curved towards
the east in one vast amphitheatre, that encircled, as in an embrace,
an extensive valley of little village-crowned hills and sunny slopes of
cultivated fields.
 This afternoon, having another serious attack of my fever fit, one
of my first acquaintances in Aliu Amba, Hadjji Abdullah, undertook to
provide me with a certain cure. He went away, and returned after a
short time with a large bundle of green odoriferous herbs.
Walderheros was directed to boil these well in my tea-kettle, and
having poured out the decoction into an open-mouthed earthen
vessel. I was wrapt up in a large tobe, underneath the folds of which
the remedy was placed. In this manner I sat for about a quarter of
an hour, until a profuse perspiration resulted from this primitive kind
of vapour bath, which had certainly one good effect, that of
producing at night a long-continued sleep.
August 3d.—As I felt a good deal better this morning, I took a
walk as far as the market-place, to see the houses of the new come
Hurrahgee people. A great many turned out for my inspection, to
gratify themselves by looking at me; which party was most
entertained, I or them, at the mutual novelty of our appearance, I
do not know, but after exchanging salutations with an old man
belonging to them, I returned home with Walderheros.
Finding that I was still laying myself under great obligations to
Miriam, who came for a few hours every day to grind flour and bake
bread, I determined that Walderheros should send for his wife to
come and take up her abode with him as housekeeper. Goodaloo
was accordingly sent on this errand, and before night they returned
together. As a kind of offering upon the occasion she brought,
hanging in her tobe upon her back, a large pumpkin. She was a
good-looking girl of about seventeen or eighteen years of age, and
had been married to Walderheros for five years. Her father was one
of the King’s watchmen, holding a farm for that service, which
required his absence one week out of four, at whichever palace of
Ankobar or Angolahlah the King should be then absent from.
She was very soon down upon her knees before a broad circular
pan of earthenware placed upon three stones, which was being
heated for baking-bread over a glaring fire of sticks. Taking a short
horn, in which was contained the well-powdered dust of the oily
seed of the cotton plant, she scattered a small portion over the
surface of the nearly flat dish, which was about a foot and a-half in
diameter. She then rubbed this well over the whole with a rag. The
leavened batter had been made ready in the morning by Miriam, so
Wallata Gabriel, my new housekeeper, had only to take a little out in
a basin, and from this pour it upon the heated dish, quickly
spreading it into a thin layer, and then placing over all a hollow
shield-like cover, also of earthenware, the edges of which, where it
rested upon the pan, being luted with wet rags that stood by
contained in another spare basin of water.
Sticks, a bundle of which had been brought in by Goodaloo, lay
upon the floor of the house, and with these a bright fire was kept
flaring away for about five minutes, when the cover being taken off
a nice-looking crumpet curled up its edge all round, as if anxious to
be taken off and eaten. This was adroitly done by Wallata Gabriel
placing upon her lap as she knelt a neat straw mat, something larger
than the baking-dish itself, made of a band of grass folded around
one end as a centre, and stiched into that situation. Upon this was
pulled, by a quick jerk, the warm cellular-surfaced bread, and then
getting up, my new handmaiden presented it to me as it lay on the
mat, with a look that said “Taste it yourself, and see if I cannot bake
bread.”
In this manner she soon turned over six or eight of these pan-
cakes, and a fowl having been boiled to-day for the sake of the
broth, of which alone I could partake, no other food was cooked for
my three servants, they so far observing the fast, and soon after
their meal they retired to rest; Walderheros and his wife occupying
an ox-skin upon the floor, Goodaloo making his bed in the porch,
which was formed by the passage into the house leading through
the outer and inner wall, being closed in on either side by a mud-
plastered partition.
August 4th.—I was glad to find Tinta come back this morning, he
having returned with a message, that if I knew how to make
gunpowder, the Negoos wished me to manufacture some for him.
On inquiring, I found that my balderabah still continued in the good
graces of the Negoos, who, instead of the town of Aliu Amba, which
convenience had required should be given to Abdoanarch, had put
Tinta into possession of a much more valuable one called Ramsey, in
sight from my garden. He was instructed, however, to live as usual in
Aliu Amba, to communicate between the Negoos and myself, and to
keep, at the same time, a careful watch upon the outgoings and
incomings of the great Abdoanarch himself.
I soon satisfied him about the gunpowder, and the next day was
appointed for taking the first step in the process, by making some
charcoal, for I was led to suppose that the inferiority of the coarse
grey-looking sort of native manufacture was owing to the badness of
that article. Two of Tinta’s servants were immediately despatched for
wood of the “ted” (Juniperus oxycedrus) tree, which I had chosen as
best calculated for charcoal. The ted tree is a species of pine, and
grows in the characteristic form of that tree. The wood smells
exactly like cedar, and is extensively used for fuel in the royal
residences. It does not grow on the table land, but only in the upper
portions of the valleys of Efat and corresponding situations, at an
elevation of between six and eight thousand feet above the level of
the sea.
A large euphorbia called kol-qual, sometimes thirty feet high, with
strong spreading arms, bearing at their extremities a little red fig-like
fruit, was pointed out to me by the Shoans as the tree supposed to
produce the best charcoal. This cannot be the tree that Bruce
asserts yielded so much milk-like juice upon striking it with his
scimitar, although I have heard it asserted that it is. On making the
experiment myself on several of different ages, I never could
produce more than a mere exudation of a white fluid, which
collected in drops, and which I found upon inspissation turned black,
and formed a substance not unlike Indian rubber. The most singular
circumstance respecting this tree is the four-sided character of its
branches, being as angular as if put together by a carpenter. On
examining the interior of a decayed portion, I found a shell of hard
wood not more than three-fourths of an inch in thickness; and the
interior sometimes, from side to side, several inches wide, hollow,
but divided into chambers by partitions, consisting of a substance
like the paper formed by wasps in constructing their tree-suspended
nests.
I was called in to a singular case to-day; for in Aliu Amba, I must
observe, my professional services were in great request, and I had
stated hours of attendance daily at my house, from sunrise to nine
o’clock, during which time my door was regularly thronged. I went to
see my new patient with Walderheros, and found a youth about
sixteen years old, afflicted with a rupture in the groin, but the
protruded intestine had been returned by the boy’s father just
previously to my going into the house. The people I found there,
wanted me to do something to prevent the recurrence of the
complaint, but as I had no trusses with me, I only recommended
rest and future care against violent exertion. Understanding that I
could do nothing more, it was determined among them to proceed
with an operation customary in their country, and which I was
invited to witness. I accordingly sat down whilst the boy was laid
upon his back on the alga. The father then took a red burning stick,
Walderheros and others holding the patient down, and restraining
him whilst the former placed the rude searing instrument over the
diseased part, blowing it with great vigour all the time to keep it
alight. In less than a minute the painful operation was over; and the
boy, who had been previously reminded that he was a man, bore it
with great fortitude.
The Shoans assert, that after this application of the actual cautery
rupture does not again occur; and I could readily conceive it
probable, considering the great contraction sometimes consequent
upon burns, that this effect produced over the parts affected in
hernia might, in such cases, counteract the relaxation of muscular
fibre which occasions this disease. At all events, where so few
practical preventives for a most serious complaint are known, I have
considered this observation worth recording, and as a medical man
even recommend the operation.
 August 5th.—Three long bundles of splintered ted, carried upon
the head of as many slaves of the Negoos, were brought to my
house this morning. Cutting and carrying wood is the principal
occupation in Shoa of the male slaves, as carrying water is of the
females; and the prophets, when they say of the Jews carried into
captivity, that “they will be cutters of wood and drawers of water,”
convey the allusion that both sexes will be oppressed alike, and
suffer equally the laborious hardships of a state of slavery.
It rained too much to-day to be able to make any charcoal; and
as I required the pieces of wood brought me to be cut into more
convenient lengths, Walderheros and Goodaloo occupied themselves
doing this within doors. Sheik Tigh having gone to reside at Bulga
for a month, had given up his office as my teacher in Amharic, so I
determined to look out for a duptera, or Christian scribe, as I was
anxious not only to speak Amharic as quickly as possible, but also to
read the Geez character, and get some knowledge of that very
interesting but neglected language.
To-day commences a long fast for fifteen days, called “Felsat.” No
meat is allowed to be eaten, and the first food taken daily must be
after three o’clock in the afternoon. Walderheros grants me an
indulgence, as I am very ill and weak. It seems children and sick
people are not required to fast. I never saw the members of any
Church less bigoted than the Christians of Shoa, but I am given to
understand that more to the north much less toleration is exhibited
towards Mahomedans and individuals of other faiths. I have often
thought, civilized as I considered myself to be, that had I been in the
place of Sahale Selassee, I should not have acted quite so fairly to
my Mahomedan subjects; and when we consider that they are far
inferior in numbers to the Christians, in the proportion of about three
to one, a great deal more credit is due.
August 6th.—Being a very fine morning, I had my alga brought
into the garden, and superintended Walderheros and Goodaloo
making the pile of wood for burning it into charcoal; covering it with
the stalks of the thorn apple-plant, which alone seemed to flourish
around my house to the exclusion of every other kind of herb. Upon
this green kind of thatch a layer of earth was placed, and all being
completed, fire was applied below, and the aperture through which it
was introduced immediately closed up; a vent, or chimney, through
the centre alone being left open.
Instead of any length of time being necessary, I found my
charcoal-heap blazing away as if air entered at twenty places. Being
my first attempt as a practical burner, I somehow expected this, and
therefore carried off the failure as a thing intended, for Walderheros
began to think his learned master a bit of a quack when he found
that I was ignorant of the simple native cure for hernia; and he
would now have been downright sure of it had he not supposed that
all my present proceedings, regarding the charcoal-burning, was
necessary to produce the excellent article required to make
gunpowder as it was manufactured in my country. I therefore sat
and looked at the blazing pile, revolving in my mind what could
possibly have caused the failure, for I believed I had observed every
particular, that I had been taught was necessary to convert wood
into charcoal. Fortunately for my credit, just when I concluded that I
knew nothing about it, and had best say so, and before the whole
heap had been consumed, a sudden shower of rain poured down;
this of course spoiled all my arrangements, and among other things,
to all appearance put out the fire. Here was a case for condolence;
and Walderheros, thinking I must want something to support me
under the disappointment, when the rain had ceased, which was not
for some hours, took a straw basket and went to examine the ruins.
One effect of the rain, it seems, had been to beat down the dome of
earth and moist stalks of the thorn apple, when the support of the
wood inside had been lost by the combustion. This buried
considerable portions of unburnt extremities of the pieces of ted,
and as they continued smouldering underneath the fallen cover, the
result was that, much to my surprise, Walderheros brought me back
the basket full of beautifully close-grained shining black and very
light pieces of charcoal. As Walderheros thought it was all quite
natural and right, I made no other remark than merely asking him “if
the people in Shoa ever made charcoal like that.”
Having succeeded so well in this, it encouraged us to proceed,
and I sent to Tinta to say, that on the morrow he must supply me
with hand-mills and mortars to grind down and pulverize the other
ingredients, sulphur and saltpetre, of which a large quantity of each
had been brought to my house from Ankobar during the day.
Both sulphur and saltpetre abound in Shoa, the former being
obtained from the volcanic country immediately to the west of the
Hawash, near Azbottee. From an extinct crater, nearly half a mile
from our halting-place at Lee Adu, I had brought to me a piece of
the purest sulphur, that required no farther process of refinement
than the natural sublimation by which it had been deposited in the
fissures of the cone. The Adal Bedouins who occupy that
neighbourhood bring it to the Negoos of Shoa as a kind of tribute,
and sometimes a demand is made upon them for a certain quantity,
which is delivered in a few days, so plentifully is it found, to the
Wallasmah Mahomed, who forwards it to the Negoos.
Saltpetre is found in many places, both on the table-land of Shoa,
and in the valley countries to the south and east. It is principally
brought from Bulga, where the grey rubbly earth it forms is
ploughed over, and the disturbed soil containing more than fifty per
cent. of the salt is placed in immense earthenware jars containing
water, in which, by frequent agitation, the saltpetre becomes
suspended. The liquor is then decanted, and in large saucers
allowed to evaporate, when the finest needle-formed crystals of the
salt are formed.
 CHAPTER XVII.
Determine to be cupped.—​Mode of operating.—​Medical knowledge
of the Shoans.—​Surgery.—​Remarks upon their diseases and their
remedies.—​The cosso tree.—​Mode of using the cosso.—​Other
curative processes.—​Manufacture of gunpowder.—​Success.—​
Health improving.
August 7th.—Being Sunday, Tinta did not come to my house. I also
staid within all day, and took advantage of Walderheros having
nothing to do, to be cupped in the Abyssinian manner, during the
cold stage of the fever, and which I expected would attack me in the
afternoon. A constant dull pain in the left side, just over the region
of the spleen, gave me considerable uneasiness, for although I was
aware that in ague this viscus is always affected, still I could not
divest myself of the idea that in my case it must be organically
diseased. I proposed, therefore, that the incisions should be made in
that situation, but Walderheros would not hear of such a thing.
Abstracting blood, to be beneficial, he asserted, must either be upon
the crown of the head or at the back of the neck, and should he
perform the operation anywhere else, and after all I should die, that
the Negoos would put him to death as my murderer. Seeing that I
could not induce him, and both his wife and Goodaloo being of the
same opinion as himself, I allowed him to use his own discretion.
During the consultation, however, that was held upon the occasion,
Hadjji Abdullah came in, and it was decided among them I should be
cupped upon the top of the head. The hair being accordingly shaved
off the assigned place, in a circle about the size of a crown-piece,
the hollow upper end of a horn, about four inches in length was then
placed upon the bare skin. To the tapered extremity of this, through
which was a small hole communicating with the interior, Walderheros
applied his mouth and exhausted the air. This being done, he then
closed the aperture with a piece of wax, that had been placed ready
for that purpose around the end of the horn. The usual tumefaction
of the integument immediately beneath was occasioned by being
thus relieved of atmospheric pressure. After a little time remaining in
this position, a needle was inserted into the wax, and air being
admitted into the horn, it fell off. Walderheros, with the heel of a
sharp razor, then gave three jerking cuts in the skin, and
immediately replacing the horn over the part, again withdrew the air,
and a slight movement of the tongue closed the aperture as before
with the wax. In a few minutes, the ascending surface of the blood,
seen through the white semi-transparent horn, indicated that
sufficient had been extracted, and holding down my head, at the
request of Walderheros, the primitive instrument was withdrawn, the
whole operation having been performed by these simple means as
speedily and as effectually as with the most expensive apparatus.
Excepting their acquaintance with some few cathartic remedies,
all derived from the vegetable kingdom, the Shoans possess but little
knowledge of medicine. A specific effect upon the bowels appears to
be absolutely necessary to convince them that the remedy employed
is medicine; and it is upon this principle that the articles contained in
their limited “Materia Medica” have been selected. The only
exception to this is a demulcent drink, made with honey and the
mucilaginous seeds of the soof, Carthamus tinctorius, which is taken
to relieve the local symptoms of “goomfon” (common catarrh).
The science of medicine principally consists of mysterious
ceremonies, to be observed whilst collecting the few herbs employed
as remedies, and in a knowledge of certain absurd formula of
characters, which, being inscribed upon a little bit of parchment, is
then enclosed in a case of red leather. The amulet is worn around
the left arm above the elbow, or among the women around the
neck, attached to the front of the martab. Pieces of red coral, sea
shells, and various other things, are also believed to have protective
powers against diseases. Copper rings, especially around the ancles
or wrists, are considered to be very efficacious in the cure of
rheumatism. These kind of remedies are supposed to be obnoxious
to certain demons who afflict the body during sickness, named
“saroitsh,” of which there are several, but great difference of opinion
exists as to their exact number.
The Shoans have also external applications, and little operations,
by which they remedy the consequences of accidents, but these are
mere exigencies, conceived at the moment by the most sagacious of
the spectators, and, excepting blood-letting and cupping, no art or
mystery exists among them worthy of being dignified with the name
of surgery. A strange operation for the removal of the whole tonsil,
when enlarged by inflammation, I have often heard spoken of, but
never had any opportunity of witnessing, although I believe one of
the Irish soldiers attached to the Embassy, was foolish enough to
submit to the operation, and almost died in consequence. The mode
they employ of blood-letting and cupping is of very ancient origin,
and appears to have been received from former Egyptian connexion;
as, since my return to England, I have observed, in some
representations preserved to us of the arts and manners of the
people of that ancient country, the same method of venesection was
adopted by them, as by modern Abyssinians, and also, I may
remark, by their less civilized neighbours, the Dankalli. This is
performed in Shoa with the blade of a small razor, held between the
fore-finger and thumb. The point of the left thumb of the operator is
then placed upon the frontal vein of the forehead, which becoming
turgid, is laid open by a jerking cut with the razor, and the blood
flows freely. Cupping with the assistance of a cow’s horn, as I have
before been describing, I have also seen practised in exactly the
same manner, by the negroes of the western coast of Africa, so that
this method of abstracting blood appears to be very general, and
strongly attests a previous civilized condition among the ancestors of
the inhabitants of this continent, as such a practice argues a greater
advance in intellectual acquirement for its first introduction into use,
than we are willing, ignorant as we are yet of what civilization exists
in the unknown countries of intertropical Africa, to accord to the
ignorant natives, with whom we are at present acquainted.
 I must not omit to observe, that among other external remedies,
counter-irritation is a very favourite practice among the Abyssinians.
Thus, in inflammations of the lungs, several small burns are made
upon the chest, either with a red-hot iron rod, or a piece of burning
charcoal, and this remedial process appears, and, I dare say,
deservedly, to rank high as being very efficacious in the opinion of
the inhabitants. In rheumatism, also, this kind of treatment, and the
disease, is so common on the high table land of Shoa, that an
exhibition of joints, to intimate how the patients have suffered, is
sometimes most ludicrous; our inclination to laugh, such is man’s
nature, not at all diminishing with increased evidences of the patient
submitting to the barbarous, but still, I have no doubt, excellent
remedy.
Syphilis has been represented to be the curse of the land; and
certainly, from King to beggar, according to their own account, they
either have it, or are about to have it. Priests and their wives are not
exempt, nor do even children of the tenderest age escape. The
reputation of this disease is as general among the Shoans, as
scrofula is in England, and it is admitted and spoken of in the same
manner without any reluctance or shame. This disease is supposed
by the natives to originate from several causes; among others, that
of eating the flesh of fowls which have become diseased, by living in
the neighbourhood of some one more than usually afflicted, and
great care accordingly is taken, when purchasing fowls in the
market, to learn from whence they came. The prevalent opinion also
is, that it is communicable by the simplest contact, and those who
are suffering from it are, therefore, carefully avoided, except by their
own relations, and for years after they are quite cured, a reluctance
to eat or drink with them, except with certain precautions, may be
observed among those of their acquaintance who are aware of their
previous condition. From these and many other observances against
contagion, it may be surprising that the disease should be so
general. As it struck me as being very remarkable, I made a point of
examining into the subject, and have concluded that by far the
greater majority of sores, and unhealthy appearances upon the
body, though referred by the patients themselves to this disease,
arise, in fact, from other causes, and are confounded with syphilis,
sometimes, probably, from the consciousness of having deserved it,
but more frequently from their ignorance of the fact, that the
peculiarity of their situation, and the character of their system in
consequence, predisposes them to an extensive ulceration, should
the continuity of the skin be separated by the slightest bruise. The ill
effects which arise from this, the unfortunate sufferers, unable to
account for it in any other manner, refer to a complaint, whose best
known symptoms are of a similar character; and without any idea of
disgrace attaching to them for what has arisen most innocently, they
jump to the conclusion that they have become contaminated by an
unfortunate contact with some affected individual. This is one
reason, also, of the very various remedies popularly employed; for
many of the cases, as I have observed, not having the least taint of
syphilis, when a rapid recovery takes place by the use of any simple
cathartic, a reputation is immediately gained for it, as being a certain
cure for the presumed obstinate disease for which it has been taken,
and which it has so readily subdued. Many vegetables in this manner
are considered to be most efficacious in this disease, without the
least claim to it, farther, than being gentle aperients and generally, in
consequence, having a beneficial influence upon the human frame.
On many such mistaken cases, the effect of blue pill was most
wonderful, and it was a general observation with the medical officers
of the Embassy, the remarkable efficiency of this remedy upon the
Abyssinian human system, when, if its cause had been examined
into, it would have been found that its simple alterative effects,
producing a healthy reaction, was all that was required to establish a
healing process very rapidly in the numerous cases of common
ulcers, that were prescribed for under the impression that they
proceeded from one sole cause: that a universal syphilitic taint
characterized the whole population of Shoa.
The Abyssinians, immoral as they appear to be, are much more
simple than depraved. It is the virtuous confidence of people
afflicted with the reputed complaint, conscious of having no
improper cause to attribute it to, and still, in their ignorance,
believing it to be syphilis, which has given support to the general
opinion among them of its extremely contagious character, and
which has occasioned that apparent shamelessness with which this
disreputable and distressing disease is spoken of by all classes and
conditions.
The most generally employed remedy, for common purposes, by
the inhabitants of Shoa, is the flowers and unripe seeds of the
Hagenia Abyssinica, called by them “Cosso.” Bruce gives us a good
description, and was the first who directed the attention of
Europeans to this remarkable tree. In Shoa it grows frequently to
the height of fifty feet. About one half of the way up the Tchakkah
ascent, it flourishes remarkably well. It appears to be a short-lived
tree. Of its wood the Negoos has all his gun-stocks manufactured, as
it approaches nearly in colour to that employed for the same
purposes in the European firearms he possesses. The wood,
however, is far from being strong; but whilst the colour satisfies the
eye of the monarch, the workmen he employs find it is well adapted,
by its soft nature, to their tools, and its excellence for the purposes
required is therefore never questioned, except by the unfortunate
gunman, who, when the stock of his piece is fractured by any
accident, must submit to a stoppage in his rations or pay, until its
value has been reimbursed to the monarch, who always takes this
method of ensuring carefulness as regards valuable property.
The cosso tree, as was remarked by Bruce, does not grow below
a certain elevation, which is about eight thousand feet above the
level of the sea, in the 10th degree of latitude north of the equator.
It is a very beautiful tree in appearance, and, I think, would grow
very well in England. Its leaves are largely pennated, and of a lively
green colour; a great deal brighter than the foliage of the chesnut-
tree, which, in figure, the cosso somewhat approaches to, except
that it is not quite so high. The flowers are of a blood red colour, and
hang in large bunches, sometimes a foot or a foot and a half long,
consisting of numerous small flowerets attached to one common
footstalk. Amidst the bright green leaves of the tree, these drooping
crimson masses have a very picturesque appearance. Cosso-trees do
not seem to be so carefully cultivated at the present day in the
country to the west of Tchakkah, as they appear to have been when
the Sara and Durra Galla tribes occupied the country between the
Barissa and Angolahlah. We find them now generally marking the
sites of former Galla villages. On riding off the road on one occasion
to examine a group of these trees, a civil herdsman conducted
Walderheros and myself into a cave of some extent where cattle
used formerly to be kept by the Galla, whom I then learned, in this
situation had their principal town.
The fruit of the cosso is gathered for medicinal purposes before
the seeds are quite ripe, and whilst still a number of the flowerets
remain unchanged. The bunches are suspended in the sun to dry,
and if not required for immediate use deposited in a jar. Cosso is
taken in considerable quantities to the market, where it is disposed
of in exchange for grain or cotton, a handful of the latter, or a
drinking-hornful of the former, purchasing sufficient for two doses,
two large handsful. When taken, this medicine is reduced upon the
mill to a very fine powder, having previously been well dried in the
sun upon a small straw mat, upon which from some superstitious
reason or other, several bits of charcoal are placed. The largest
drinking-horn being then produced, the powdered cosso is mixed
with nearly a pint of water, and, if it can be obtained, a large
spoonful of honey is also added. When everything is quite ready, a
naked sword is placed flat upon the ground, upon which the patient
stands. The nurse then takes between two bits of sticks, as a
substitute for tongs, a small bit of lighted charcoal, and carries it
around the edge of the vessel three times, mumbling a prayer, at the
end of which the charcoal is extinguished in the medicine, which is
immediately drank off by the patient, who all this time has been
pulling most extraordinary faces, expressive of his disgust for the
draught. The operation is speedy and effectual, and to judge by the
prostration of strength it occasioned in my servants, when they
employed this medicine, it must be dreadfully severe. I can answer
for this, that it occasions frequent miscarriages, often fatal to the
mother, and even men have been known, after a large dose, to have
died the same day from its consequences. I am, therefore, surprised
at the noise this remedy has occasioned the last few years in
Europe, as if it promised to be a valuable addition to our Materia
Medica. This, I conceive, can never be, for no civilized stomach
could bear the bulk of the drug necessary to produce its effects.
Even in Abyssinia it is but barely tolerated, and let another remedy,
equally efficacious for dislodging tape-worm be introduced into that
country, and the use of cosso will be soon abandoned. In fact,
several other vegetable productions are now employed to escape the
punishment of a dose of this violent cathartic. Among many I could
enumerate, but without any benefit arising from the list, is the
“kolah,” the same berry which is used in making the “barilla” tedge,
also the red berries of a climbing plant called “inkoko,” growing in
the forest at the foot of the hill of Kundi, near Michael wans. These
are swallowed whole, like pills, but a very great number are required
to produce the desired results.
Besides the use of the cold bath, employed in the manner I have
before related, and which may be of considerable benefit in some
diseases, I have no notes upon any other medical treatment
employed by the Shoans, excepting that from which I derived
considerable benefit in my intermittent; the vapour bath, prepared
by putting several species of odoriferous herbs, such as wormwood,
rue, bergamot, and some others in boiling water, and then placing
the vessel beneath a large tobe, I was wrapt up in, and which was
securely fastened around my neck and in front, to prevent the
escape of the vapour of the medicated decoction. This kind of bath
was always followed by profuse perspiration, and assisted materially
to relieve the violence of reaction in the hot stage, by accelerating
that relaxation of the pores of skins which marks the return of
something like comfort to the suffering patient.
August 8th.—Felt a great deal better after the cupping, and even
proposed, as the Negoos was now at his palace at Michael wans,
about six miles distant from Aliu Amba, that either on the morrow or
the next day after, I should take the gunpowder which we had
begun very early this morning to manufacture. Tinta sent me a good
pair of English scales, several wooden mortars, and two handmills,
with a party of labourers, consisting of eighteen or twenty men and
boys. One request he made was, that as he desired to learn how to
make gunpowder, I would not, therefore, commence weighing and
mixing the ingredients till he could come to me.
My garden now exhibited a lively scene, several men standing
around huge mortars two feet and a half high, made out of the
round trunks of trees, and pounding the charcoal, or else the
saltpetre into fine powder. The pestles consisted of heavy pieces of
wood three feet long, which were generally kept going up and down
by two men standing opposite each other, and who were relieved
three or four times in the course of an hour. Several others were on
their knees upon the ground, leaning over coarse flat stones,
grinding the sulphur beneath another heavy one they moved about
with the hands. Some hours were employed in this occupation, for it
was long before the several materials were reduced to a sufficiently
fine powder to commence mixing them together. It was too much to
expect such another fortunate accident, by which the supply of
charcoal had been obtained, and as I knew quite as little of the
manufacture of gunpowder, I was very much afraid I should fail in
this attempt also; I determined, however, it should not be for want
of pounding, and to encourage the men, sent Wallata Gabriel with
an ahmulah to purchase some ale.
Tinta came very soon after, and with him, a learned scribe, who
had been desired by the Negoos to watch the proceedings, and
mark the proportionate amounts of saltpetre, charcoal, and sulphur,
I used. The scales were produced, and then it was discovered there
were no weights, but this difficulty I soon got over by employing
bullets, and having duly apportioned the necessary amount of each
ingredient, they were thrown together into the largest mortar, with
water sufficient to make a stiff paste. A second pounding match now
commenced, for to do the business effectually, I divided the mass
into three portions, which I placed in separate mortars, and set as
many couples at work again. The constant fear, that the whole party
was now in, was most ludicrous. I was scarcely permitted to sit a
moment—here, I was wanted—there, I must go and look, and the
other mortar would, perhaps, be actually deserted; and all arose
from a suspicion that an explosion would take place; water was
continually being added, and the least approach to friableness
frightened the workmen, as if a hot cinder was about to be thrown
into a barrel of dry gunpowder. However, I managed to keep them to
their guns until sunset, when they were discharged, without any
casualty, from the dangerous duty; for which, I don’t know, if the
Negoos has not rewarded some of them for military service.
After Tinta, scribe, and all were gone, then my anxious moments
came as to my success. A small quantity being taken out of the
mortar, was placed upon paper near the fire, and soon drying,
Walderheros had the immortal honour of firing the first sample,
which flashed off in the most approved manner, much to the delight
of Wallata Gabriel, and Goodaloo, and in fact, of us all, and more
especially of myself, as I least expected it.
August 9.—Tinta was at my house, as soon as it was light, and as
I had put the evening before a small portion of the damp powder in
the fragment of a jar, and placed it among the warm ashes of the
hearth, sufficient for two charges, was quite dry and ready for
proofing when he came. I soon loaded my double-barrelled carabine,
and having examined the nipples of the locks, covered them with
caps. The shoulder-bone of an ox was our make-shift target, and
each taking a shot at the distance of about forty yards, both of us
were successful in perforating it with the balls.
It was now determined, that Tinta should provide me with a
mule, and that next day I should follow him to Michael wans, usually
pronounced Myolones, to bring the gunpowder and present it to the
Negoos. Accordingly, Walderheros returned with Tinta to his house,
and after some hours brought me back a mule; during which time, I
and Goodaloo, dividing the powder into small portions, dried them
well before a low red fire of the spare charcoal. The temerity of the
latter was extraordinary, but it was quite in keeping with the silent
steady manner he always performed any service I required. The
large grains of the powder being afterwards forced through a sifting
basket of grass, used in fining flour, I then secured it in a quart
bottle I happened to possess; and which it about two-thirds filled.
 CHAPTER XVIII.
Start for Myolones.—​Account of the road.—​Effect of the Earthquake.
—​Dangerous passage.—​Ford the Gindebal wans.—​Dubdubhee.—​
Reach Myolones.—​Remarks upon taking possession of the land.
August 10th.—It had rained very heavily all night, and as the sky
was covered with clouds, I did not feel inclined to go to Myolones.
Walderheros, however, had set his mind upon it, and as the ride was
a very short one, and might, perhaps, be of service in many
respects, I at last consented. Walderheros had the mule ready
before I could change my mind, and giving some precautions to
Wallata Gabriel to look after everything well whilst we were away,
and to let no one enter the house upon any pretence, off we started,
Goodaloo running before, with the skin containing my bed-clothes
upon his head, and Walderheros following slowly after me, having in
special charge the very precious bottle of gunpowder.
We proceeded along the narrow arid winding path, that leads
down the steep western slope of the rock of Aliu Amba. Here the
road is deeply worn in the hard stone, so as to form a kind of hollow
way, upon each bank of which thick bushes of a large strong-leaved
plant, meeting above the head of the traveller, forms an umbrageous
tunnel, nearly impervious to the sun’s rays. At the bottom of the
descent we crossed a stream, yellow with suspended earth, for, like
most other rivers of Shoa, during the wet season, its running water
is an active agent of denudation. We now slowly ascended the
opposite bank of the valley, and passing through the little Christian
village upon its summit, called Aitess, we then again descended to
the level of another stream, along whose miry banks, crossing and
re-crossing it several times in its tortuous course, we at length
reached, where, in a narrow cascade, the water falls suddenly the
distance of two hundred feet, with the usual rushing din of an
impetuous torrent. Here the bald face of a rock, across which not
the trace of a road could be perceived, projected a smooth surface
of compact stone, from beneath a super stratum of a loose schistose
formation of several hundred feet high, whilst below us appeared an
almost perpendicular wall, with just such a sliding inclination as
suggested an idea of the bridge said to be situated by some
Orientalists between heaven and earth, for there required scarcely
the impetus of a wish, to have slipped from life to death during the
walk across. The earthquake that ushered in the rains had
occasioned this obliteration of the road, for the effects of some
thousands of tons of the overlying detritus which had been
detached, with bare skeleton branches of overturned trees
protruding amongst the ruins, were visible over the devastated fields
of vetches and horse-beans that occupied the bottom of the large
valley into which we had opened, where the stream we had
previously kept along, fell over the waterfall into this the bed of the
principal tributary of the Dinkee river. This fallen earth, scattered far
and wide, had converted the green appearance of large tracts of
cultivated lands, with the crops far advanced, to the condition and
character of a freshly ploughed fallow.
I halted when I arrived at the dangerous pass, to see if there
were not another passage somewhere else, and looked up and
down, but saw no way available but the one back again, which, as I
had come so far, I did not choose to take, so at once put the
question of its practicability to my mule by urging her forward,
willing to depend upon instinct not leading the animal into a
position, where she was not perfectly satisfied that her preservation
was well assured. The termination of the road, where its continuity
had been swept away by the land-slip, was opposite and in sight;
and with this encouragement, and perhaps satisfied, that her rider
was a reasonable creature, and would not attempt anything
impracticable, the mule did not hesitate the least, and on my
intimation to proceed, began carefully to place her feet, one after
the other, on the sloping rock, and slowly entered upon the death-
inviting scene. After we had started, and it was impossible to come
back, as usual I began to think of the value of life, and the little
courage that man really has, just sufficient to make him take the
first step into peril, and then, from despair, or the recklessness of a
suicide, bear himself up against all contingencies, and comes out a
brave man if he lives, with the certainty of being thought a wretched
fool if he is killed. With teeth set, and eyes fixed upon the yawning
gulph on one side, I muttered to my mule, as if she had been my
murderess, “my blood be upon your head,” and to her folly, not my
own, attributed my present perilous position. Once I looked upon the
other side, but there, overhanging, as if suspended by the air which
it projected into, was the high black wall of the loose angular
fragments of an easily fractured schistose rock, which seemed as if a
thousand ton torrent of stones was suspended only whilst I passed,
to follow in one rush of ruin the land-slip which, but a few mornings
before, had been detached and, precipitated into the foaming river
below, carrying along with it many acres of jowarhee and cotton
plantations. My carefully slow mule seemed to invite the
catastrophe, and it was long after I had really passed the horrible
ordeal, before the conscience-stirring scene lost its repentant effect
upon my mind.
Having got safely over this delicate pass of about one hundred
yards long, I turned round to look after Walderheros. I found he had
not dared to attempt it until he saw that I had reached the end of
the road, when he came cautiously along, making no reply to my
loud shout of caution that he should take care of the bottle. He
looked perfectly satisfied, however, when he saw himself landed
upon sound ground again, after a little spring over the two or three
last feet of the distance, impatient even then of peril impending.
Away we went, talking over the rash feat, and determined not to
come back that way again if we could help it. A little reaction, too,
consequent upon the excitement had taken place, and I no longer
felt fatigued as I had done before, but proceeded in much better
spirits. The hill, or a prolonged height of Lomee, was now crossed,
covered almost entirely with fields of the common horse-bean,
whose grey blossoms perfumed the whole neighbourhood. Generally,
the fields were quite green with young grain but a few inches high,
and through these our road lay for nearly an hour, when, by a
gradual descent, we found ourselves upon the edge of a coarse
gravel bank, that in this situation had been cut into a perpendicular
cliff, about thirty feet high, by the action of the confined, impetuous
river that rushed around its base. The river is here called “Gindebal
wans,” the tree-eating stream, and is singularly characteristic, like
most other Abyssinian names of localities. Here, in the little reaches
that alternated with rough stone waterfalls, were numerous trunks
of the sigbar, ted, and “waira,” or wild olive tree, which had been
brought down from the forests that surround its remotest sources.
Through the dark green mass of foliage could be observed, in
several places, broadly cut channels, produced by the crashing
boulders from the edge of the table land behind, detached by the
late earthquake, and it is such an agent, rather than the denuding
effect of the stream itself, that occasions such vast numbers of these
trees that are annually floated down the “Gindebal wans.”
I considered that it would be hopeless to attempt fording this
stream, for although above it widened considerably, and was spread
over a rocky cascade, still between the huge stones that there
appeared above its surface, wide channels existed, and however
shallow the water might be, the swiftness of the current would have
turned a man over like a leaf. At all events the mule would not take
me over, and so I sat down whilst Walderheros was looking out for
the ford, leaping from stone to stone, and instructed by Goodaloo,
who, on the other side, was shouting out directions, which were very
indistinctly heard amidst the noise of the torrent. His appearance
alone demonstrated the possibility of the passage, but seeing him in
a very short time joined by Walderheros, who, for a few moments
had disappeared, I got up to see what success I might have.
Walderheros having given the bottle containing the gunpowder to
Goodaloo, returned to assist me, and I soon found that by a very
indirect mode of progress, successively leaping in different
directions, the opposite bank was being gained. The mule came
clattering after me, jumping like a cat, her four feet occupying
sometimes the summit of a stone not the size of a dinner-plate, and
sometimes scratching up on to a high rock, as if she had strong
claws rather than smooth horny hoofs. I kept a sharp look out
behind, for though she was making use of me as a guide, she came
so fast that, occasionally, a very summary kind of ejectment
precipitated me forward, to make room for her upon the stone.
After reaching the opposite bank we all sat down to rest
ourselves, previous to commencing an ascent before us, that if not
so steep, seemed to promise to be as long as that of Tchakkah. As I
looked up I could not help expostulating with Walderheros for having
persuaded me, ill as I was, to undertake a journey which I had
calculated would only occupy me an hour, and here we had now
been that time, and by his own confession we were not half way yet.
Some consolation was afforded by the sun breaking out, and
enlivening me by its warmth and brightness. I mounted my mule
again, and with a desperate resignation faced the rugged steep. Half
an hour we were climbing this stone ladder before we reached the
little town upon its summit, called Dubdubhee. In one of the best
houses the mother of Walderheros lived, so here it was resolved to
stay and breakfast, having, after the usual Abyssinian custom,
brought the meal with us. Of course, I alone partook, as the
observance of the fast required my servants to abstain from food
until evening.
The mother of Walderheros lived with a second husband, by
whom she had had several children. Her first husband, the father of
Walderheros, occupied a farm a short distance from Myolones, and
he also had married again, and had another numerous family by his
second wife; so what between both parents, my servant was very
well off for parental and fraternal relations, a thing, too, which he
considered to be a great advantage; especially as all parties were
still on the very best of terms.
From Dubdubhee, the road to Myolones was along a narrow
ridge, similar, in many respects, to that in front of Ankobar, and it
was not until the shallow circular valley of Myolones spread below us
in full sight, that we commenced a short descent into it; having first
passed close to the side of the grove of the new church of St.
Michael, the cone-like thatched roof of which was terminated by a
wooden cross, on the top, and on the two arms of which were fixed
ostrich eggs; these eggs, by-the-by, are favourite ornaments of
Abyssinian churches; one that I had brought up to Shoa with me
from the Adal country had been begged from me by Tinta, who
presented it as a desirable offering, to the priests of the church of
St. George, on the road from Aliu Amba to Ankobar.
The palace, a number of long thatched residences, enclosed by a
strong stockade, and surrounded with ted and wild olive trees,
occupied the left side of the valley, as we approached from the east.
A little spur, projecting into the valley, affords a convenient perch,
and the side opposite to us was dotted with white tobed courtiers,
and numerous individuals passing and repassing, formed a lively
scene. The heights of Kundi and Mamrat behind, enveloped in fogs,
and the sun struggling through a thick bank of clouds, made
everything seem uncomfortable, which impression was aided
considerably when I dismounted, and found I had to walk some
distance up the palace hill on a moist, soddy turf, that seemed to
hold water like bog-moss.
My arrival was soon notified to the Negoos whilst I was invited
into a large new building of the usual character, constructed outside
of the palace enclosures, and which was intended for the
accommodation of the numerous train of attendants, guards, and
guests that now followed his Majesty; and which, having greatly
increased by the successes of his arms and his reputation for
wisdom, had rendered it necessary to enlarge considerably all the
royal residences since he had come to the throne. The palace of
Myolones, however, had been erected for his own use, numbers of
individuals having been dispossessed of their holdings to make room
for this favourite retirement of Sahale Selassee; for once or twice
during the year the ordinary public business is suspended, and here
the monarch indulges in a short relaxation for fourteen or fifteen
days.