690 Report on Shoa [No. 140. 



a state of happiness, the period being in exact accordance with the alms 

 and prayers that are expended upon earth." 



All ideas regarding salvation are indeed vague and indefinite, and 

 vain, foolish doctrines have taken entire possession of the shallow 

 thoughts of the Abyssinian. Born in falsehood and deceit, cradled in 

 bloodshed, and nursed in the arms of idleness and debauchery, the 

 national character is truly painted in the confession of one of her de- 

 graded Sons : " Whensoever we behold the pleasing ware, we desire to 

 steal it, and we are never in the company of a man whom we dislike, 

 that we do not wish to kill him on the spot." 



Throughout the land the basest superstition reigns triumphant. The 

 kiss of adoration is imprinted on the external pillar of the Church, 

 and men proceed on their way in perfect security of the protection of 

 the patron saint. The unwilling female is driven to the Communion 

 Table only as a test to suspected infidelity. The preservation of a fast, 

 and absolution accorded by a licentious mortal, form the first grand 

 principles of the religion of Shoa, and it would indeed prove a far easier 

 task to sweep from off the face of the land, the present meretricious 

 fabric, and to raise up a new temple in its stead, than to attempt the 

 Herculean labour of cleansing, as it now stands, the impurities of this 

 augean stable. 



(Signed) D. C. Graham, Captain, 

 Principal Assistant to the Embassy. 



Rites and Practices of the Abyssinian Church, which appear to have been 

 adopted from the Jews. 



A lengthened detail of all the absurd confusion of doctrines which 

 prevails in the church of Shoa, would prove neither pleasant nor pro- 

 fitable to the reader, and may moreover be perused in the learned disser- 

 tations of the Jesuits ; but those rites and practices which the Abys- 

 sinians appear to have adopted from the Jews, are well worthy of 

 remark, and we here insert them as a sequel to fill up the blank in the 

 foregoing sketch of the Church History. 



