m down carefully in my cell, I accompanied my
Coptic friend into the garden, and turning round some bushes, we
immediately encountered one of the Abyssinian monks walking with a book
in his hand under the shade of the trees. Presently we saw three or four
more; and very remarkable looking persons they were. These holy brethren
were as black as crows; tall, thin, ascetic looking men of a most
original aspect and costume. I have seen the natives of many strange
nations, both before and since, but I do not know that I ever met with
so singular a set of men, so completely the types of another age and of
a state of things the opposite to European, as these Abyssinian
Eremites. They were black, as I have already said, which is not the
usual complexion of the natives of Habesh; and they were all clothed in
tunics of wash leather made, they told me, of gazelle skins. This
garment came down to their knees, and was confined round their waist
with a leathern girdle. Over their shoulders they had a strap supporting
a case like a cartridge-box, of thick brown leather, containing a
manuscript book; and above this they wore a large shapeless cloak or
toga, of the same light yellow wash leather as the tunic; I do not think
that they wore anything on the head, but this I do not distinctly
remember. Their legs were bare, and they had no other clothing, if I may
except a profuse smearing of grease; for they had anointed themselves in
the most lavish manner, not with the oil of gladness, but with that of
castor, which however had by no means the effect of giving them a
cheerful countenance; for although they looked exceedingly slippery and
greasy, they seemed to be an austere and dismal set of fanatics: true
disciples of the great Macarius, the founder of these secluded
monasteries, and excellently calculated to figure in that grim chorus of
his invention, or at least which is called after his name, "La danse
Macabre," known to us by the appellation of the Dance of Death. They
seemed to be men who fasted much and feasted little; great observers
were they of vigils, of penance, of pilgrimages, and midnight masses;
eaters of bitter herbs for conscience' sake. It was such men as these
who lived on the tops of columns, and took up their abodes in tombs, and
thought it was a sign of holiness to look like a wild beast--that it was
wicked to be clean, and superfluous to be useful in this world; and who
did evil to themselves that good might come. P