1844.] Agricultural and Land produce of Shoa. 291 



meat is seldom provided for family use, though constantly to be had 

 gratis at the " tescars" or public funeral feasts, where cattle are 

 slaughtered and devoured in honour of the deceased, and where any 

 one who choose may be a partaker. 



109. There is but little relaxation or amusement for the Abyssini- 

 an peasant. - Seed cake,' and " twice a week roast" form no joyous burden 

 to his song, and as yet no discerning poet has addressed himself to the 

 feelings to render more fortunate the lot of the husbandman. Instead 

 of holiday and feasting, saints' days and fasting are the high festivals 

 in Christian Shoa, half the year being strictly reserved for utter 

 idleness, and sternly marked by an exclusion of all meat diet under 

 the fearful penalty of excommunication. Eggs and butter are especially 

 forbidden, and also milk, which is called the '« cow's son." There is 

 nothing whatever eaten on these numerous occasions between sun- 

 rise and sun-set; and even at the appointed time a scanty mess of 

 boiled wheat, dried peas, or the leaves of the cow cabbage, with a 

 little vegetable oil, is alone permitted by the bigotted priesthood. 



110. Besides Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, 

 which are observed as holydays, the fast of the Apostles continues 

 eighteen days, that of the Holy Virgin sixteen, Christmas seven, 

 Nineveh four, and the fast of Lent fifty-six; during which, working- 

 men are strictly prohibited from all employment, and are obliged to 

 live like anchorites, (to the great diminution of their bodily strength,) 

 if they desire their souls to be saved from eternal damnation. En- 

 couraged and tolerated by the king, there is no system so baneful as 

 that of devoting so many precious and full days of the year to idleness 

 and vice, and none forming a more fatal obstacle to the amelio- 

 ration of the people. When such an awful waste of time is sanctified 

 by the name of religion, how deeply laid must be the foundation of 

 mental indolence ! One-half of the year devoted to listless idleness, 

 is indeed an enormous source of evil. The last generation has not 

 added one particle of knowledge to the ignorance of the former ; the 

 same gross superstitions exist, the same prejudices against introducing 

 any improvement or novelty, the same eternal reference to ancestral 

 custom ; and thus the Abyssinian peasants live and die without 

 adding one jot to their small portion of wealth, or one item to their 

 narrow stock of knowledge. 



