ON ANCIENT KEMAINS IN ABYSSINIA. 561 



pagan religion, so we find in Abyssinia obvious traces of sun-worship 

 as the peculiar form of religion which had to give way to Christianity. 



In the first place all the churches are round, with four doors oriented 

 to the four points of the compass. They are all surrounded by an outer 

 enclosure, which is thickly planted with trees, and corresponds to the 

 sacred groves so associated in our minds with Baal- worship. 



During the Lenten fasts the services are always conducted at night, 

 and cease immediately at sunrise ; the peculiar ritual of dancing without 

 which no service in Abyssinia is complete — dancing to the tune of 

 an instrument exactly corresponding to the sisfrum of ancient Egyptian 

 days — is a trace of the dancing which formed an integral part of Baal- 

 worship. 



The great Abyssinian Church ceremony of Mascal, or the raising of 

 the Cross, which takes place in September, is accompanied by the lighting 

 of bonfires at night on all the neighbouring heights and the sacrifice of oxen 

 and other animals. The second great Church ceremony is the blessing 

 of the waters at Epiphany and the baptizing of the Cross, thus honouring 

 water as the next great element after the sun in the process of natural 

 generation. As a curious side proof of this theory may be mentioned an 

 illustration given in an Ethiopian catechism as an illustration of the 

 mystery of the Trinity. ' The Godhead is like the sun, consisting of 

 three parts joined in one and indivisible, namely, rotundity, light, and 

 heat.' 



The points in the Abyssinian ritual which have favoured the suppo- 

 sition that they belonged to Judaism before Christianity was preached 

 amongst them are these : The construction of their churches with an 

 outer circle, corresponding to the court of the Gentiles ; an inner circle, to 

 the court of the Levites ; and the Holy of Holies, where the Ark and the 

 tables of the law are supposed to be kept, with its veil hanging before it. 

 Secondly, the abstention from eating the same unclean animals which 

 the Jews abstain from. Thirdly, the practice of circumcision . Fourthly, 

 their calendars and feasts curiously correspond. I take it that the first 

 and last are purely accidental, and that the third and fourth are common 

 to all Semitic races ; and certainly the inscriptions from Aksum exclude 

 all possibility of Judaism having existed in the country as the national 

 religion prior to Christianity. 



Another feature which we noticed particularly with regard to the 

 Abyssinian Church is its strict adherence to the orthodox or Greek ritual, 

 and the antagonism which reigns still, and always has reigned, against 

 the tenets of Rome and Western Christianity. As in Greece, the priest- 

 hood is divided into monastic priests and working or village priests. 

 The dignities of the Church are reserved for the foi-mer: they never 

 marry, and live their useless lives on the top of isolated mountains. The 

 village priest, who performs the services of the Church, may marry before 

 he is ordained, and not after — ^just like the Greek priests — and he never 

 can aspire to any of the more lucrative positions in the Church. The 

 pictures of the Abyssinian Church are distinctly Byzantine in character, 

 exceedingly grotesque, but off'ering points of comparison to the work done 

 on Mount Athos. Their legends, superstitions, and quaint beliefs all 

 correspond to those of the Eastern Church ; and naturally this is to be 

 expected, as the Abyssinian Church is an afl&liated Church of the Alex- 

 andrian patriarchate, and is governed by an abouna sent out from the 

 Coptic Church of Cairo. But it shows in a remarkable manner the 



1893. 



