626 Report on Shoa [No. 140. 



of Shoa indeed forms an exception to most of the sweeping vices which 

 disgrace the land, and his master of the horse has imitated his laud- 

 able example ; both have been blessed with natural endowments, which 

 in a more favored country, would have thriven to maturity, but sad 

 though the truth may be, after months' wearisome endurance and patient 

 research, there is to be found no third individual to add to the limited 

 number of the praiseworthy. 



2d. The nation is priest-ridden and bigotted to a degree. The most 

 ridiculous doctrines must be believed, and the most severe fasts and pe- 

 nances must be endured, according to the pleasure and fiat of the 

 church. Twelve thousand clerical drones, " Fruges consumere nati," 

 fatten in idleness on the labour of the working classes, and even 

 the sites of their habitations tend to rivet the chain of bondage, which 

 encircles the neck of the infatuated Abyssinian. On the very sum- 

 mits of the ranges, stand the churches and the monasteries high over 

 the vales, and perched among the few remaining groves, dotting 

 the cool shady peaks, and far elevated in their pride of place, above 

 the residence of the common herd. The priestly intimation is re- 

 ceived with more attention, issuing from a temple, shrouded from 

 human ken in the thick heavy fog, and the thunder of excommunication 

 is listened to with utter abasement and prostration of spirit, proceeding 

 from the grand scene of elementary strife, and falling upon the ear of 

 the awe-stricken serf, amidst the prolonged echoes of the confirming 

 thunder of heaven. 



3rd. The king however, has lately taken upon himself to proclaim 

 by the voice of the herald, and the beat of the drum, those doctrines 

 which he conceives to be most conducive to salvation, and by the 

 summary deposition of the refractory spiritual chiefs, and confiscation of 

 their property, he bids fair in time to promulgate a most curious 

 religious code of his own, if not upset by a civil war, which may blaze 

 out in consequence of his innovations. 



4th. The land swarms with monks and anchorites, who are clothed in 

 yellow dresses, or in the prepared skins of the antelope, and who, 

 from the licentiousness of their manners, roam through the country 

 a perfect pest and plague to society. Men become monks at any period 

 of life. The rich deliver over their property to their children, who are 

 bound to support them until their death. The poor live upon the 



