1843.] and the Abyssinian Church. 679 



171. The difficulties and perils of the journey, and the unsettled 

 state of the country, oblige to travel in caravans, and the slow tramp of 

 the wearied mule, and the foot-sore slave, render commercial inter- 

 course dilatory and of rare occurrence. Salt its still the great staple 

 of importation, together with a few beads and course Arabian manu- 

 factures, and the return, which is made in grain, cloth and slaves. 

 is certainly neither to the profit, nor to the increased enlightenment 

 of the Abyssinian. 



172. All the accommodations of life are simple and limited ; the houses 

 are mere stakes badly plastered with earth, and afford little shelter 

 from the elements, while the internal arrangements are equally rude 

 and scanty. 



173. The intellectual features present a peculiar deficiency. Few can 

 read the character, and still fewer understand the meaning of the manu- 

 script. The educated priests for the most part learn like the parrot, by 

 rote, and rant at the top of their lungs, passages of which they know 

 not the sense. The utter ignorance of the laity is truly deplorable .• few 

 can spell out a line during an hour's severe exertion, and none can 

 write three words together. Their books are all of a sacred nature, 

 and being written in an unknown language, are looked upon in the 

 light of charms, specially if well bound and filled with pictures ; and 

 although the kiss of debasing superstition be imprinted upon the 

 colored daub, the intellectual vision remains unlit by the words of the 

 text. 



174. Poetry and painting are in their veriest infancy. Music has been 

 ushered into existence a deformed monster ; and architecture still re- 

 mains unbegotten in the dark abyss of Abyssinian ignorance. 



175. In religion they are debased, superstitious, and bigotted, be- 

 lieving the most absurd and ridiculous doctrines, and resting their 

 only hope of salvation on fasts and pilgrimage, on confession and 

 priestly absolution. 



176. In private life their character is equally despicable, and they 

 have strangely contrived to accumulate all the vices of civilized as well 

 as of savage life, and have succeeded in retaining but few of the vir- 

 tuous traits of either. Nay, their very existence is the vegetation of a 

 noxious weed in the foul kennel ; but the refinements of civilized society 

 have not as yet supplied the beauties of original simplicity. The box of 



