672 Report on Shoa [No. 140. 



149. Eclipses of the sun or moon, as in other savage countries, afford 

 an ample opportunity for the most abject superstition. They believe the 

 orb to be dead, and that her demise prognosticates war, famine and pes- 

 tilence. The whole town is in tumult and uproar, collecting together in 

 the streets and churches, they cry aloud upon the Saviour of the world to 

 take pity upon them, to screen them from the wrath of God, and to 

 cover them with a veil of mercy for the sake of Mary, the mother of our 

 Lord. The pagan Galla, who are present lifting up their voices, join in the 

 petition, and from their not comprehending the Amhara tongue, render 

 the most absurd construction on the prayer ; the wailing continues dur- 

 ing the whole period of obscuration, and when the orb again emerges, a 

 universal shout of joy is raised, in the full belief that the prayers of the 

 multitude have awakened her from the sleep of death. Any neglect 

 on their part, of these accustomed exertions, is certain to be followed by 

 some great public calamity, and the raining down of fire from heaven. 



150. The " bezel" or sacrifice for the sick, is considered lawful and 

 efficacious, and is frequently resorted to ; the animal which is meant as 

 the type of the sick man is driven round the bed of the invalid amidst 

 much noise and singing, and afterwards slaughtered outside the thres- 

 hold, and at other times, an egg is turned three times towards the head 

 of the patient, and then broken besides the bed. 



151. Whilst no religion can be more corrupt than the nominal 

 Christianity of this unhappy nation, which is a mass of absurdities bor- 

 rowed from the Jew, the Moslem and the Pagan, nothing can be more 

 humiliating than the superstition which it encourages. A thread of cotton 

 yarn is stretched by the hired sorcerer during the night completely round 

 the house, the extremities are fastened together by means of a link of iron, 

 well imbued in blood, and the walls are freely sprinkled and bedaubed with 

 gore,the day dawns upon the incantation which is supposed to be the work 

 of the devil himself ; and of the assembled multitude, who consider that 

 some heavy calamity, if not instant death, would follow the act, there is 

 not one individual sufficiently bold to remove the spell, and thus release 

 the inmates from its withering effects. On one occasion, when the inha- 

 bitants of Ankobar were thrown into the greatest consternation by the 

 dread appearance of the bloody finger, the Reverend Mr. Kraff tore 

 away the charm, to the astonishment of all, without any fatal consequence 

 to himself; but that very night the defeated sorcerer planned an attack 



