The Shrew of Mahhfood.
Bidding adieu to the hospitable host, we continued our journey along the eastern side of the Turmáber range, through a country considerably improved in point of beauty. There was a warmth of appearance about the numerous hamlets, quite in unison with the increased temperature of this lower tract. Gayer flowers bloomed by the way-side; more brilliant birds fluttered among the thick corinda hedges, through which peeped the eglantine, the honeysuckle, and the blackberry; and the entire prospect, although exceedingly broken, was covered with the most luxuriant grass, in every spot where the hand of the cultivator had not been busy. The slope of each hill and abrupt eminence was wooded with junipers and other fantastic evergreens; fields of yellow safflower glowed in golden tints; and teff, growing in the depths of the valleys, resembled greatly the waving rice-fields of Asia.
Dame Twotit, one of the king’s choristers, who accompanied the army to Garra Gorphoo, and was now making a professional tour of the provinces, joined us en route, carrying a small wicker parasol; and as she ambled along upon her mule, with the butter pouring in streams over her shoulders, through the influence of the solar rays, the good lady was pleased to chant extemporaneous couplets in honour of the war about to be waged against the beasts of the forest. “The Gyptzis will slay the elephant, whereof all the warriors of Amhára are afraid”—whilst it formed the burden of her song, conveyed an opinion diametrically opposed to that entertained by the public; and the followers, inspired by the words of a woman, took up the sentiment, and made the valleys re-echo to their martial chorus, which attracted to the roadside the inhabitants of every hamlet in the vicinity.
Mahhfood, a village hemmed in by high kolquál hedges, formed the termination of the march. Its natural fortifications having uniformly proved insurmountable, this district has never been conquered either by the Galla or Mohammadans. The residence of the governor, who has been honoured with the hand of Wo?zoro Birkenich, daughter of Queen Besábesh by her former marriage, stands on the apex of the loftiest of the many isolated hills; and in accordance with the precaution invariably taken to prevent surprise on these disturbed frontiers, it is surrounded by a formidable fence. Our camp was pitched at the foot; and the thermometer having stood in the morning at 32 degrees on the summit of Dokáket, the difference in temperature was considerably felt during the afternoon, when the mercury mounted to 90° under the flimsy palls which formed our only screen.
Having been specially recommended to Ayto Gádeloo, whose acquaintance I had formed during the late foray, we paid him a visit of ceremony in the cool of the evening, and were received and entertained according to the perfection of Abyssinian etiquette. The whole of the dirty domestics and household slaves were mustered on the occasion, to witness the presentation of gifts brought for the “Emabiet,” (i.e. “The mother of the house”—a title of honour employed in speaking of the queen, the princesses royal, the mistress of a family, and the holy Virgin, who is usually styled “Our Lady.”) who, like the rest of the princesses royal, displayed unequivocal signs of being sole and undisputed mistress of the establishment. Fat, fair, and forty, she was seated in a gloomy recess, upon an “alga,” and partially screened from view by the intervention of a lusty handmaiden. The good man, who occupied a corner of the throne, presented in his owlish features the very personification of a well-trained, hen-pecked husband, for years accustomed to the iron rule of the shrew—and so complete was her monopoly, that he could be said to boast of little beyond the empty title of governor of Mahhfood.
The lady put a few preliminary questions touching the number of wives we each possessed, and appeared highly to approve of the matrimonial code that limited the number to one. But throughout the dingy mansion there was a miserable assumption of regal dignity which considerably retarded conversation, by imparting to the whole ceremony an air of unbending stiffness. The host, who was either unable or unwilling to answer any interrogatories respecting his own country, subjected us to a tiresome catechism; and like the Arab Bedouin, who formed his estimate of the poverty of Europe by the fact of its producing neither dates nor camels, Ayto Gádeloo conceived a passing indifferent idea of Great Britain, from the discovery that it boasted of no mules.
“Have you máshela, and dáboo, and túllah in your country?” (Anglice, “maize, bread, and beer”) he inquired, whilst his fair partner feasted her eyes upon the “pleasing things” presented, in none of which it was evident the lord of the creation was destined to participate—“Oh, you have all these; well, and have you oxen and sheep, and horses and mules?”—“How, no mules?” he shouted in derision, while the slaves tittered and hid their black faces, and their mistress laughed outright—“Why, what a miserable country yours must be!”
Shortly after daybreak we resumed our journey through very thriving crops, descending to the valley of the Robi, where the eye was greeted by a perfect scene of Eastern cultivation. Juwarree, fifteen feet high, teff, chilies, onions, oil-plant, and cotton, in many parts artificially irrigated, flourished with the utmost luxuriance on a rich-black soil, under a climate resembling that of the more favoured spots in Western India. The scenery of this richly-wooded and well-watered valley was not a little enhanced by the beauty of the surrounding mountains, of which the numerous peaks were tufted with trees, and crowned by populous hamlets, whilst the redundance of vegetation, and the growth and quality of the cotton, with a soil adapted for the production of sugar, coffee, and rice, proclaimed the locality to possess the very highest natural advantages as an emigrating settlement.
In the broad shallow channel of the Robi, upwards of two hundred yards across, which pours into the Háwash between a belt ............