1843.] and the Abyssinian Church. 665 



135. The stores of literature being thus bound up in a dead letter, 

 mistakes and false readings cannot be discovered in the low mumble of 

 the officiating priest by the bystanders, who are alike ignorant of the 

 text and the language ; nor is the course of study of that extended or 

 liberal nature to enlarge the mind of the neophyte. To know the 

 Psalms of David by rote, together with the miracles of the Virgin Mary 

 and Saint Tsela Huimandt, to elevate the voice into howling song, and 

 to cut a caper into the air two feet above the surface of the earth, form- 

 ing the envied accomplishments of the man of education. 



136. Parchment is said to have been invented at Pergamos when the 

 Egyptian monarch prohibited the exportation of papyrus. The Jews 

 very early availed themselves of the Charta Pergamora to write their 

 scriptures upon : the roll is still used in their synagogues, and was intro- 

 duced into Abyssinia on the Hebrew emigration, where it still continues 

 the only material in the country ; but all the books extant are composed 

 of many small leaves fastened one upon the other, enclosed between 

 wooden boards, and carefully deposited in leathern sacks ; many are 

 embellished with glaring colored daubs, and all are looked upon with 

 the eye of superstitious credulity. 



137. The epistolary correspondence* is exceedingly laconic ; the 

 letters are folded up into small rolls, varying in size from one inch to 

 four, and always enclosed in a coating of wax ; there is neither signature 

 nor superscription. The king possesses a signet seal, which is however 

 seldom applied, as the names of all parties are introduced into the body 

 of the note. 



138. The pen is the reed, kulum of the East, without the slit, and 

 the inkstand is the sharp end of a cow's horn, which is stuck in the 

 ground as the scribe squats to his work ; the ink is a foreign importa- 

 tion from the Somauli coast, and remains an intense black for ages, and 

 the writer when he wishes to replenish his horn, inserts a few particles 

 from his pocket, and adding a little liquid, produces a consistency similar 

 in thickness to that used in printing. 



* May this letter of queen Bezabesh come to my friend the English Ambassador. 

 Are you well ? Are you quite well ? Are you perfectly well ? 



That the soap may not end speedily, you will send it in large quantities, saith 

 Bezabesh. 



4 s 



