1843.] and the Abyssinian Church. 687 



themselves to the ground, as the box, which resembles the Jewish ark, is 

 carried in procession through the street, and when replaced in its case 

 in the holy of holies the air is rent by the attendant priests with shouts 

 in the temple of the eternal God. 



Fasts, penances, and excommunications form the chief props of the 

 clerical power ; but the repentant sinner can always purchase a substi- 

 tute to undergo the two former, and the law of the Church is readily 

 averted by a timely offering. Spiritual offences are indeed of rare oc- 

 currence, for murder and sacrilege alone give umbrage to the easy con- 

 science of the Abyssinian, and all other crimes written in the book of 

 Christian commandment have been well nigh effaced from the surface of 

 the tables. The nation is by no means religiously inclined, and the 

 strict observance of weekly fasts, with suitable largesses to the priest 

 and mendicant, are quite sufficient to ensure the requisite absolution for 

 every sin committed in the flesh. 



The churches are in general very miserable edifices of wattle and mud 

 plaster, distinguished from the surrounding hovels by a thin coating of 

 whitewash, which is dashed over the outside, to point with the finger 

 of pride to the peculiar privilege of the two great powers in the land. 

 Circular in form, the wretched thatch is surmounted by grasses glitter- 

 ing with brass and ostrich eggs, whilst the interior decorations are 

 guided by the same depraved and heathenish taste. 



Eight feet in breadth, the first compartment stretches after the 

 fashion of a corridor, entirely around the building, and being strewed 

 throughout with green rushes, forms the scene of morning worship. 

 To the right of the entrance door is the seat of honor for priests and 

 erudite scribes, and beyond this court, save on certain occasions, the bare 

 foot of the unlearned layman cannot pass. 



The uncleansed walls are festooned with ancient and dingy cobwebs, 

 no unappropriate drapery to the wretched daubs which serve to cover 

 the mud, and are designed to represent St. George and his green dra- 

 gon, the patron saint of the church, the blessed virgin, and a truly 

 incongruous assemblage of cherubims and fallen angels, with the evil 

 one himself enveloped in hell's flames. 



A dark inner compartment forms a last separation from the holy of 

 holies which contains the sacred ark, and is completely shrouded from 

 sight by the screens of glaring cotton cloth. Timbrels and crutches de- 



