ABSTRACT
We had been at Genda from the 8th to the 18th of October, and although during that period we were constantly engaged in proclaiming the tidings of mercy to hundreds and hundreds of Falashas, who came from every part of Abyssinia—from the bleak summits of Semien, and the malarious jungles of Quara —we still thought it advisable, although the numbers of our visitors had not diminished, to carry the message of salvation to the homes and villages of the people, where both old and young, men and women, might be benefited by our message. This consideration induced us to set our small caravan again in motion. Our direction was south-west, over an extensive pasture land, on which browsed immense herds of cattle belong to the Zelan, a nomadic tribe, who profess a kind of hybrid creed, which unites to a few Christian rites all the senseless vagaries of their former Paganism. At Lai Belash, a small Falasha village, we made a short halt in order to speak to the people, who on our approach came out to meet us. There were about a dozen adults and a few children collected together, but in this little group there was not one who possessed the least biblical knowledge, or could answer the most simple question on religious subjects. “ We perform daily ablutions, fast twice a week, pay tithe to our priests, do penance, receive absolution; and these acts,” they repeatedly said, “ secure us heaven and the bliss of Paradise ! ” That the voice which spoke on Sinai’s Mount announced only promises limited to time, they had never heard, and their cheeks grew pale, and their looks bewildered, when we told them that the Law of Moses was designed to secure a temporal kingdom, and the Gospel of Christ to secure a heavenly inheritance. With many a keen pang of grief for this poor people, who are fettered in the trammels of a despotism far more crushing and blasting than their fathers ever experienced, we proceeded on our journey till the declining sun warned us to deviate from our path, and to seek a refuge for the night in one of the thickets whither a lawless soldiery compels the peasant to fly for refuge. Some of the Jews who accompanied us as guides led us across pathless hills and glens to a large Christian village, where, in the deep grass, we found a clean and soft bed. Mint, balsam, and other aromatic shrubs, interspersed with prickly weeds and brambles, grew in luxuriant profusion beneath the leafy canopy of the monkey-bread tree. About a dozen peasants, who had followed me in a ramble over their meadows and fields, were much amused to observe me gazing through the incomprehensible photographic camera at a magnificent specimen of their native forests. The tree measured upwards of forty feet in circumference, and the lower branches, which extended in a horizontal direction, were more than double this size in length. From the distance it had the appearance of a luxurious grove, in whose shade a whole regiment might find a comfortable retreat from the noontide heat. To rush from the fiery blaze of an ardent sun into the refreshing gloom of these umbrageous trees, would be the excess of pleasurable indulgence after a toilsome march ; but the certainty of fever or ague deters the wayfarer from stretching his aching limbs on the canopied verdure, in which the seeds of disease perpetually lurk. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315033532/7d5746f7-2859-489a-84b6-5ca7145e58ae/content/figu19_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
