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 Arduino

A Beginner’s Guide to Arduino Programming

 © Rivercat Books LLC Copyright 2022 - All rights reserved.
It is not legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of
this document in either electronic means or in printed format.
Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage
of this document is not allowed unless with written permission
from the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a
book review.
 Table of Contents

––––––––

Introduction
Chapter One: Arduino Models
Chapter Two: The Arduino Hardware
Chapter Three: The Arduino Software
Chapter Four: Coding Fundamentals
Chapter Five: Arduino Data Types
Chapter Six: Variables and Constants
Chapter Seven: Arduino Operators
Chapter Eight: Arduino Projects
Chapter Nine: Troubleshooting and Fixing Arduino Issues
Conclusion
References
 Introduction

We are living in an era of technological revolution where we

encounter new inventions and innovations each day. The average
number of people with technological literacy continues to rise as
more and more people become versed in the hardware and
software of this digital age.
Whether you are a dabbling hobbyist or a professional engineer,
you may have heard of Arduino technology and have found an
interest in it for one reason or another. Perhaps you have heard
of the flexibility and ease of using it to build gadgets, or you may
have seen a variety of projects built with Arduino technologies.
And if that’s not the case, then you may have seen some gadgets
and wondered how they really worked. Remote control boats,
vending machines, and the systems that control elevators or
electronic toys all have foundations in Arduino.
Regardless of the reason, if you have an interest or a passion
in knowing how Arduino technology operates and would love to
use it at some point to design interesting projects for pleasure or
for profit, you are in the right place. This book will help you do
just that. But before we dive deeper, let’s look at this Arduino
thing and how it started.

What exactly is Arduino?

Arduino is a open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use
hardware and software used for building and controlling electronic
objects and interactive systems. All Arduino boards use a
microcontroller with additional electronic components to maintain
the availability and durability of the computing unit. It also
consists of an integrated development environment, IDE, where
one can write and run the programs.
With Arduino, you can design and build devices that interact
with their environments. Arduino boards can read inputs—light on
a sensor, an object near a sensor, a finger on a button, or a
Twitter message—using their onboard microcontroller and convert
them into an output—activating a motor, ringing an alarm,
displaying information on an LCD, or publishing something online,
for example. However, in order for you to create this action, you
have to program the Arduino board, which I will explain later in
this book. Many developers and electricians can easily create
prototypes of products that make their ideas come to life using
Arduino boards. This has enabled these amazing boards to gain
considerable traction in both the hobby and professional markets.

A Brief History of Arduino

Many say that necessity is the mother of invention. Most of the

greatest inventions in the history of mankind were in response to
an existing problem or need that was lacking an easy solution.
That is exactly what happened with the invention of Arduino. In
the 2oth century, it was very complex and expensive to prototype
new electronics. This was an obstacle to many students in Italy
who couldn’t easily afford the BASIC Stamp microcontroller that
was going for $100 at the time. This posed a great challenge to
Massimo Banzi and his students at the Ivrea Interaction Design
Institute.

So Banzi and his colleagues decided to come up with a

solution to the complexity and increased costs of building
electronics. Therefore in 2003, they worked on a project that had
been started by one of their students and they successfully made
an inexpensive and easier platform for building electronics.
Hernando Barragán’s wiring platform was his Master’s thesis
project. The goal of the project was to make simple, less
expensive tools for creating digital projects using a non-
engineering platform. The result was a wiring platform made from
just three parts: an IDE, a microcontroller, and a printed circuit
board. Banzi and his team developed the project further and
added support for the less expensive ATmega8 microcontroller,
which helped them hit their target price for the board that they
later named Arduino.
Since that first board was built, lighter and cheaper versions
have been distributed through the open-source community. And by
May 2011, it is estimated that more than 300,000 Arduino boards
had been commercially produced.

Features of Arduino

● Arduino allows you to load your own code into your Arduino
IDE with a USB cable. You don’t need an extra piece of hardware
to load a new code into the board.
● Arduino is a cross-platform software. It can run on Windows,
Mac OS, and Linux while other microcontroller systems run on
Windows alone.

● Arduino only needs 5V to power up.

● You can control the board functions using its program (IDE).

● Arduino boards are able to read inputs using their onboard

microcontroller and convert them into outputs.

● It is easy to create and upload codes using Arduino IDE.

● Arduino also provides a standard form factor that breaks the

functions of the microcontroller down into more accessible
packages.

● It is open-source in both hardware and software.

● The Arduino IDE uses a simplified version of C++ with syntax

highlighting and other features that make it easier to learn how to
program.

Advantages of Arduino

● Open source and extensible The plans for Arduino boards are
published under a Creative Commons license; this permits
experienced circuit designers to build their own models based on
Arduino. These models might make changes and/or improve upon
the original design. Inexperienced users can also build the
breadboard version of the module so as to understand how it
works while saving some money.

● It is Compared to other microcontroller platforms, Arduino

boards are relatively cheap. You can get a pre-assembled Arduino
module for less than 40 USD. The least expensive ones are hand-
assembled.

● Open source and extensible Arduino also comes with an open-

supply software system feature that permits experienced
programmers to use the Arduino code with the prevailing
programming language libraries, which may be extended and
changed.

● It is simple and easy to Most beginners find using Arduino

Software (IDE) very simple. It is also flexible enough for advanced
users to take advantage of the benefits as well. Its processing
programming environment allows students to familiarize
themselves with how it works without any steep financial
commitment. In general, Arduino is as user-friendly as it gets and
can be operated by anyone, from beginners to experts.

● It is Most microcontroller systems can only be used on

Windows. Arduino’s IDE is among the very few software that
works on all kinds of operating systems. It works well on Linux,
Windows, Macintosh, etc.

● Wide variety. The Arduino platform has many variations, thus

giving you a chance to choose the one that best suits your
project. If you’re having space constraints, you can go for an
Arduino Nano which is only 43.18mm by 18.54mm. If you need
one with more memory space and processing power, Arduino
Mega would be your best choice.

Everything has a good side and a bad side. As many advantages

that Arduino has, it also has its downfalls:

● The board has a shield and libraries that make it hard to

connect to the internet. It is not impossible, but it isn’t easy.

● The Arduino IDE does not have a debugger; this makes it

hard to find errors in long codes.

● Arduino is not optimized for any specific use. It is meant to

fulfill the needs of multipurpose projects.

● As much as its user-friendliness is an advantage, it is also a

disadvantage. If you use it on electrical projects, it’s unlikely you’ll
gain a comprehension of the AVR microcontrollers.
● The Arduino doesn’t have a lot of processing power, so pretty
much any majorly intensive task is out of the question. So, there
can be scenarios where opting for a microprocessor, like Raspberry
Pi, is a better option over a microcontroller.

Real-Time Applications of Arduino

● Smart Home. We can control home activities using Arduino

boards. You may access control systems like motion sensors,
outlet control, temperature sensors, garage door control, airflow
control, etc.

● Industries. Arduino is used in many industries due to its easy

programming environment, signal types, and easy adaptation to
new setups. Arduino boards are the most flexible and affordable
alternatives to the industrial devices used to control and monitor
the functionality of small legacy industrial systems.

● Traffic Signal Nowadays, Arduino is often used to control

traffic lights. It can also be used in real-time to control systems
with programmable timings, like pedestrian lighting.

● Medical. An Arduino board can be used to make a heartbeat

monitor. This type of monitor counts the number of heartbeats in
one minute. It is designed in a way that a heartbeat sensor
module is attached in a way that when you put a finger on the
sensor, the heartbeat is detected. Arduino is also used to design
medical equipment like thermometers and breathalyzers.
● Arduino provides a useful platform in laboratories for
designing and learning circuit designing. The Arduino simulator
prevents any damage from occurring in the lab. In addition to
this, the students won’t need to spend money on hardware. It
also allows for faster circuit prototyping and no fuss with cabling
at all. The Arduino-based, automated, slide-movement microscope
is also a very cost-effective laboratory device.

● Defense. RADAR, Radio Detection and Ranging, is an Arduino

technology that uses radio waves to detect the range, altitude,
direction, and speed of objects. Radar has different sizes and
performance specifications, and it can be used to control air
traffic, long-range surveillance, and early warning systems in ships.
It is also used in war.
 Chapter One: Arduino Models

There are different types of Arduino boards that use different

microcontrollers. These boards are distinguished by the different
features that they possess. Some Arduino boards have more input
and output pins than others, and some models are faster than
others, have higher operation voltage, or opt for an embedded
programming interface. Some can run directly from a 3.7V battery
while others need at least 5V. However, all Arduino boards are
programmed through the Arduino IDE. Let’s take a close look at
these boards.

Arduino UNO

Arduino UNO, also known as classic Arduino, is a great choice

for your first Arduino board experience. It is the most commonly
used board and has everything you need to get started. That’s
why it is the most recommended for beginners. The board has
14 digital input/output pins; 6 can be used as PWM output and
6 as analog inputs, a reset button, a power jack, a USB
connection, and more. Uno runs on an ATMega328 chip and uses
a USB, AC/DC adapter, or battery as a power source.
With the help of Arduino shields, you can exchange information
over the internet using your Arduino board. You connect it to a
computer using a USB or you can power it with an AC-to-DC
adapter or battery, and you will be ready to go! The board
tolerates 12V power only. To avoid the risk of overheating, don’t
use higher currents than 12V. It also has a 5V pin that supports 5
volts of power and other lower voltages when running projects
that require lower currents.

Specs

● 8-bit CPU
● 2KB SRAM
● 32 KB flash memory
● 1 KB EEPROM
● 16MHz clock speed
● Form factor is 2.1 inches by 2.7 inches rectangular board

Advantages

● It has a simple circuitry that utilizes a small footprint; this

makes it the perfect Arduino for smaller projects.

● It is widely available and accessible.

● It is the cheapest Arduino board going for $30 or less.

Other documents randomly have
different content
see him at his convent, as soon as ever I dared to move about, and
promised me a very good reception.
The Abyssinians in making their drinking-horns, show
considerable ingenuity, not so much in the complexity of their
machinery, as in the great simplicity of the few aids they require to
turn out a very neatly made article. A proper ox-horn being selected,
it is cut into such lengths as are required. One of these is then
gradually fixed upon a conical wooden mould; boiling water being
employed to soften the horn, and make it more readily adapt itself
to the shape, it is then laid aside for a few days, when the form
becoming fixed, it is placed in the lathe to receive a series of circular
cut rings, with which the outside is usually ornamented.
The lathe is nothing more than two short sticks placed in the
ground, not more than three inches high above its surface. From the
centre of each end of the mould an arm projects about six inches
long, which is armed with a bit of iron. These iron points are
received in the short stick supports, and the mould, with the horn
upon it, then revolves freely. The workman sits upon the ground,
and with his feet pressed hard against a stick, supports it in this
manner against two stones, placed at a convenient distance in front
of his work. This forms a rest for his cutting instrument, which he
holds in his left hand, and presses against the horn, whilst with his
right he wheels backwards and forwards the mould by a small catgut
string bow, applied and used in the same manner as is the same tool
by many artisans in England.
Not only are drinking-horns thus fashioned (and which, I must
observe, are finished by a piece of round wood being fitted like a
thin cork into the lower and smaller end), but also earrings are
turned from the long black horn of the sala, a species of antelope,
common in Adal and the low countries around Abyssinia. The solid
extremities of the horns only are used, so that not more than two
pair of earrings can be made from one horn, which is at least two
feet long. The earrings are large and clumsy, but, considering the
simple means employed in making them, are not despicable works
of art. Each is turned in two pieces, not at all unlike in form and size
high convex buttons, with small straight shafts projecting from the
inside centres. These shafts are made so that one receives the other,
and the earring thus formed looks like two small wheels connected
by a short axle. To receive them into the ear a very large hole is
required, and the axis of one of the halves being first introduced, the
other is fixed upon it, and the lady then turns round, to ask how the
new ornament looks.
Sometimes I have seen these horn earrings ornamented with an
inlaid star of silver, and many an hour’s labour have I had myself,
letting in little brass studs from an old box-lid into the surface in the
same manner, to please some of my female friends, who would
come begging to have their earrings thus improved in appearance.
Besides these ornaments turned from the sala horn, small black
rings are cut, and I have also seen a neat little bottle, about two
inches long, turned in a very ingenious manner, and which was
intended to hold “col” (the black oxide of antimony), with which the
Mahomedans adorn their eyelids, and the Christians employ as a
medicine, applying it in the same manner. Besides horn earrings, the
Abyssinian women wear large silver ones, sometimes weighing as
much as two or three dollars each. One fashion alone is general in
Shoa, a back and front portion, each of which invariably consists of
three large beads, surmounted by a fourth. These are fixed in the
ear in a similar manner as the horn ones, and look not unlike small
bunches of grapes projecting before and behind.
Whilst I am upon this subject, I may observe that the Shoan
women are exceedingly fond of silver ornaments, and all their riches
consist of such stores. Dollars are only valued as the means of thus
enabling the possessors to adorn themselves or their women, for all
the coin of this sort which enters Shoa ultimately finds its way into
the crucible, except such as falls into the hands of the King, and
which are destined for a less useful end, these being securely
packed in jars, and deposited in caves. One hill, called Kundi, a few
miles to the north of Ankobar, is pierced by numerous subterranean
passages, in which are hidden in this manner immense treasures in
gold and silver. They are kept closed by heavy doors of iron, and the
whole hill, which is surmounted by a church, dedicated to the Virgin,
is under the care of a vast number of priests. I think it not
improbable that some excavated chambers that have been found in
Egypt, and in rocks near Jerusalem, and considered to have been
intended for tombs, were in fact the treasuries of the monarchs of
these countries.
One ornament of silver, and which is worn by the women of Shoa
upon the breast, hanging from the neck by a chain, also of silver, is
in the form of a clasp, three or four inches long, and one inch broad;
upon its front surface not unfrequently is rudely engraved some
simple design in waving lines. Bracelets of silver are sometimes
seen, and with the Mahomedan women, they are invariably of that
metal; but the Christians generally wear plain ones, made of pewter,
with anklets to correspond.
Besides the little unpretending martab of blue silk, the Christian
women, if they can afford it, wear large necklaces of beads, and the
British Political Mission have greatly increased the stock of these
ornaments that is now brought into the market. Those I have seen
were made generally by a succession of loops, consisting of seven or
eight threads of different coloured seed beads, collected at certain
lengths into one string, through a large angular-cut piece of amber.
Eight or ten of these loops formed a long negligee, which,
ornamented with a large tassel of small beads, was a present suited
even for the acceptance of royalty. The Mahomedan women, on the
contrary, wear one string of beads around their necks, formed of a
hundred large and differently coloured beads, among which bright
red ones seem to be preferred. These are divided into lengths by the
interposition of pieces of amber, at least twice as long as those
employed by the Christian women in collecting together into one,
the various bead threads of their necklaces. The silver bracelets of
the Islam are also different in form from those worn by the
Christians, consisting of two or three thick silver wires, twisted upon
each other, and finished at each extremity by a beaten square head.
This is looped around the wrist, where it remains until required as
security for loans, the most important use, I think, of silver articles
in Shoa, amongst all religious denominations. No golden ornaments
are ever observed among the Shoans, for a sumptuary edict of the
Negoos forbids his subjects the use of this metal; the royal family of
course being excepted.
 CHAPTER XXIII.
Wallata Gabriel dismissed.—​Reinstated.—​Comparison of different
races of man.—​Of human varieties.—​Of the process of brewing.—​
Abyssinian ale.—​Ingredients.—​The horn of plenty.
August 14th.—Wallata Gabriel was a very good housekeeper, but
unfortunately, like most other young women in Shoa, and, I believe,
in all Abyssinia, she had a great many followers. Whenever
Walderheros and I walked out, some one or other would always be
manœuvring to get out of the house unobserved on our return; and
although I was rather suspicious of some of her lovers making free
with what little property I had, still I had as yet never missed
anything. I had frequently reminded Walderheros of this weakness in
his wife, but he always, in reply, appealed to me if she was not a
good servant, although, he added, that it was for my convenience
that he recognised her as his wife, and would previously have
divorced her, only he thought that together they were so well
adapted to manage my domestic affairs, that he could not do better
than keep her. Coming in rather inopportunely this afternoon, after a
long walk round the town, I could do nothing else but turn her away
at once; whilst Walderheros expostulated with her paramour, among
other severe things, asking him if he were not ashamed to intrude in
such a manner when the balla bait (the master of the house) was
not at home.
About an hour after I had dismissed Wallata Gabriel, an old lady,
a relation of Walderheros, made her appearance, bringing some of
the sweetly-scented herb called Err-guftah, as a memolagee. On
requesting to know what she required, a long apologizing palliating
intercession, of no ordinary character, was made for my delinquent
housekeeper. She attributed my severity, she said, entirely to my not
knowing Abyssinian customs, and turning to Walderheros, who sat
on the raised rim of the hearth, stirring up the dry ashes with a
stick, she upbraided him for not raising his voice in the behalf of his
lawful wife. I was determined she should not return, and was
dismissing the mediatrix with a positive refusal, when Walderheros
looked at me with a most grievous expression of countenance, and
lifted up the top of the straw bread-basket, to intimate, by its empty
condition, how badly we should be off for dinner if I persisted in not
recalling his wife. I could not help smiling, and the old lady, seeing
me relent, put her head out of the door, and called out “Wallata
Gabriel!” two or three times. The fair penitent very soon appeared,
for she had been sitting in the lane all the time, and came tripping
in, laughing and looking quite happy at being reinstated, and
without the least trace of sorrow or contrition in her countenance.
This apparent lack of morality amongst the Shoans, like their
Church history, is quite beyond my understanding. Yet even as
respects this, a person educated in the more correct principles of
what is considered to constitute social happiness, does not perceive
in Shoa that violence done to propriety, which similar conduct in
many of the southern states in Europe is apt to excite. The loose
habits and indiscriminate intrigue, which displeased me when I
witnessed it among the inhabitants of various countries situated
upon the northern shores of the Mediterranean, only occasioned a
smile when I observed it in Abyssinia. Among the former it was the
pretension and affectation of virtue that made their sins stand in
bolder comparison as vices, than a somewhat similar course of
conduct among the simple, good-natured inhabitants of the latter
country, who have no public opinion to propitiate, or, on the other
hand, to control them, and whose naturally yielding disposition
renders them too prone to indulgence; where also, let it be
recollected, religion applies no curb, for the priests themselves in
Shoa have had the decency to cease preaching that, which they
never pretend to practise.
I was not many weeks upon the banks of the Ganges, and had
not many opportunities of observing the native population of India,
but the impression upon my mind of the moral character of the
people generally of that country, apart from their particular worship,
is, that the Indians, especially the women, possess in a great degree
that moral principle, that delicacy of the mind, which is essentially
the basis of that high sense of honour and personal respect, which
constitute female chastity. I was enabled to draw, by my visit to
India, a very interesting contrast between the women of that
country and those of Shoa. Let me compare two extreme specimens,
which will illustrate more broadly that which I wish to establish; that
important differences in the constitution of the mind are the primary
causes of those varieties in human nature; but which have been
previously determined by differences in the features and form. This
comparison will assist me, as truth, I think, is sometimes strikingly
demonstrated by widely different contrasts; the paradox surprises
and amuses the mind, and its effect in consequence is more
permanent.
We will first, however, cursorily allude to the physical differences
between the Indian girl and the Abyssinian, as a kind of introduction
to their habits. The former is tall, thin, long-waisted, with an angular
configuration of form, her features regular, sharply defined, bright
and placid. She is a Circassian with a dark skin. Turn to the
Abyssinian beauty, her eyes smile uncontrollably as you look. Her
figure is short, plump, and roundly formed, with small, but full
voluptuous features, that appear blended together with an infantile
expression.
The minds of both are uneducated and natural: in this
circumstance of their character, fortunately for the effect of the
comparison, they may be supposed to be alike. But are their
dispositions or conduct the same? How very different. The Indian girl
has considerable personal vanity, is fond of ornaments and show,
and seeks to attract attention by rich clothes, or studied graces.
Even in their national attitudinizing, and the alluring nautch, repose
and quiet seem to distinguish her from the laughing, romping, dress-
neglecting Abyssinian, who, to attract notice, affects the child, and
endeavours to please by artlessness and simplicity. As lovers, the
Indian girl capriciously selects one lord, but the Abyssinian would
consider this to be petty treason against nature, and a crying sin;
she always loves the nearest, and whilst the eyes of that one are
upon her, is reluctantly constant, but considers all engagements
quite at end by absence, however short. Our coquettes, tall girls,
with thin lips and cold sparkling eyes, always remind me of the
Indian beauty, whilst our laughter-loving romps, even in their
features and form, seem to belong to the Abyssinian mould, in some
measure demonstrating the solution of the difficult problem, of
accounting for the origin of those differences in the several varieties
into which ethnologists have divided mankind. Among our own
acquaintances, under external circumstances, exactly alike, nature
produces by the mysterious agency of mental endowments, the
possible mothers of families of man, which, under different
circumstances of situation and of social education, would ultimately
present two nations as distinct in every phenomenon of external
appearance as are the most opposed specimens of the Circassian or
the negro type.
The Shoans are certainly not a virtuous people, according to our
ideas, and if we are to judge them by the standard of our moral
code; but I positively deny that they are an immodest people, except
among those where the dehumanizing influence of Mahomedanism,
by degrading woman to the condition of a slave, has engendered the
disgusting sensuality which characterizes the professors of that
religion, and even these in Abyssinia are as superior as possible in
this respect to the Mahomedans of Arabia and Persia. My opinion as
to the modesty of the Shoan women may not perhaps be sufficiently
understood, to be considered correct; but it was formed by
observing the freedom from all restraint which they appear to enjoy
in their country and among their families. This implies some
confidence on the part of the men, and a woman must be modest to
the extent that society requires, to command such a mark of
deference and respect from the opposite sex.
I have seen sufficient, indeed, to convince me that the youth of
Abyssinia, males and females, whilst influenced by the feelings
natural to that age, are diffident, confiding, and good-natured, and
however they may become altered by the experience of increasing
years, and the education of after life, these moral principles still
prevail, and give a favourable inclination to the practice of virtue and
justice, that renders their social condition productive of much
happiness to themselves, and affords some pleasure to the mind,
that contemplates their character and condition, uninfluenced by the
bias derived from the moral discipline of a very differently
constituted community.
August 15th.—Being unable to go much abroad to extend my
acquaintance with the habits and manners of the Shoans, I was
particularly desirous that my establishment should be entirely
conducted upon the principles of Abyssinian domestic economy. As
this exactly suited the inclination of Walderheros, and as it did not
matter to Goodaloo in what way things were managed, so that he
got a large roll of teff bread in a morning to wrap up in his mekanet
when he went to cut fuel, and his supper in the evening when he re
turned, the proposal met with universal approbation from the
members of my household, and my wishes were attended to in
every particular.
Among other employments that occupied Walderheros and his
wife two or three days every fortnight, was that of brewing, which
was no trifling affair, as a fresh jar of ale, holding at least four
gallons, was broached every day. The process is simple enough as
performed in Shoa, and instead of being obliged to stand some time
after it is made, five or six days is the time that is required to ripen
and fine the beverage, which, if made well, is agreeable and very
strong, with a slight acidity, that reminded me of the oldest ale I had
ever drunk in England.
The ingredients are various, sometimes wheat or barley, or
jowarhee grain, but in the kolla or low countries the latter is
preferred, and as I also found some useful medical effects resulting
from its use, my ale most frequently was made from this grain. The
jowarhee is the durra of the Arabs, and is largely grown in India,
where I think English residents might, by following the Abyssinian
method, always have home-brewed ale in their houses.
When barley is employed for the purpose of brewing, it is first
well dried in the sun, and afterwards broken in a mortar to divest it
in some measure from the coarse outer skin, and which is separated
by the usual process of fining through a grass made sieve. The
prepared grain is then placed in a large earthenware saucer, at least
two feet in diameter, and in the centre about six inches deep. This
being raised upon three supports over a low fire, an attendant keeps
stirring the contents, using for this purpose the small reaping hook
of the country, the convex curve of which scrapes the barley from
the bottom of the saucer, and prevents its burning. Whilst this is
going on, another servant washes the jars intended to receive the
ale, and which, after being well rinsed out, are fumigated by a few
leaves of the bitter gaisho plant, placed upon a little lighted
charcoal, on a broken piece of earthenware, and is introduced
beneath the mouth of the vessel, which is held over it to receive the
ascending smoke.
Gaisho are the leaves of a species of Rhamnus indigenous to
Shoa, for besides being regularly cultivated in favourable situations
between six to eight thousand feet above the level of the sea, I have
also found it growing wild at the base of the hill of Kundi, above the
Tabeeb monastery, in that neighbourhood. These leaves are
serrated, and of the form and size of bay leaves, only of a lighter
green. When used, after being dried in the sun, they are pulverized
in a mortar until a very fine powder of an intensely but not
permanent bitter is produced. It is then ready for the purposes
required, which are similar to those of hops and gentian in brewing
our beer.
After the barley has been well roasted, it is taken out of the pan
and ground into a coarse meal, which, after being slightly wetted
with water, is again exposed to the action of heat in the same
manner as before, until it has become thoroughly scorched; being
kept the whole time well stirred to prevent its burning. During this
process, a small jar containing a thin acid mixture of flour and water,
called wahaka, or leaven, to which the powdered gaisho has been
previously added, has been standing to infuse in the warm wood
ashes. The meal being now removed from the fire, is put into
another jar, and sufficient water being added to make it into a paste,
the wahaka is also added, and the mixture remains for the rest of
the day. On the morrow, the whole contents of the lesser jar are
transferred into one much larger, capable of holding at least thirty
gallons of water, and which is now brought and poured by
successive jarsfull into it until full. This is allowed to stand another
day, when the surface, showing evidences of a certain point in the
process of fermentation having been attained, the whole is then
decanted, and strained through a large straw funnel into a number
of lesser jars, each of which contains from four to five gallons. These
are carefully stoppered by large cakes of a dirty mixture of the
refuse of the strainings of the large jar and of clay, and which are
plastered over the mouths of the jars. In about three days the ale is
ready for use, and if made properly, is most excellent; bright,
sparkling, and potent, it reminded me, by a slight acidity, of the best
October of England. After nine or ten days, Abyssinian ale gets too
sour to be a pleasant draught, which I attribute to the imperfect
covering afforded by the clay plasters which close the jars in which it
is contained.
When jowarhee, or durra is used, the grain, after being reduced
to a fine meal, is made into a paste, or rather thin batter, with the
wahaka. After standing one day and night, it is then made into thin
cakes, as in the usual manner of baking teff bread. These cakes are
afterwards broken up and placed in the large jar, the gaisho and
water being added exactly as in the process where barley is
employed, and when fermentation has somewhat progressed, the
wort is in the same manner strained and decanted into lesser jars.
There is a red variety of jowarhee, or millet, called tallange
largely cultivated in Shoa for brewing the tallah alone, as it is
considered to produce the best description of the beverage. It is said
to be injurious to man eaten in the form of nuffrau, or bread,
although the grain is given to cattle for food. This certainly makes
very fine ale, and should the experiment of making jowarhee beer
succeed in the East, where I hope it will be tried, it will be very easy
to procure some tallange for seed from Abyssinia, should the plant
not exist, as I do not expect it does at present, in India.
In conjunction with all these different grains, and with a mixture
of all, which is sometimes employed in the same brewing, it is not
unusual to add a little real malt called bikkalo, generally in the
proportion of double the quantity of gaisho. To make the bikkalo, a
quantity of barley is placed in a flat dish and well wetted with water,
a large stone being placed upon it. This presses the sprouting grain
into one mass of a wheel-like form, which, when the operation has
proceeded as far as is desired, is taken from the dish, a hole made
through the centre, and it is strung upon a rope, where it hangs to
dry against the wall, and is a common ornament of the interior of
the houses in Shoa. On occasions of brewing, the quantity required
is broken off, and its value as an ingredient is well-known, for a
common Shoan proverb says, “the more bikkalo the better ale.”
The proportions of the different ingredients are generally from
forty to fifty pounds of grain, to which is added one pound of gaisho,
and two pounds of bikkalo. From these quantities are made about
thirty gallons of very good beer, but which, as I have observed
before, will not keep more than ten or twelve days, which is one
reason why ale is brewed generally in such small quantities.
There is no beverage so largely indulged in by the Shoans,
whether Christian or Islam, as tallah. The Hurrahgee people are also
extremely addicted to drinking it, and when they arrive in the
country, every saltpiece that they can get is sure to be spent in ale.
It is, therefore, an essential on all occasions of rejoicings, whether of
a religious character, or at weddings, and even at funerals. In fact,
the number and size of the jars of ale provided for the company
indicates the importance of the feast, or the wealth of the
entertainer, whilst no one to whom the cornucopœia of ancient
mythology is familiar, but detects at once, the origin of that poetical
appendage to divinity, as he contemplates the parties engaged in
celebrating these jovial meetings. Every one bearing in his hand, a
deep drinking-horn, varying in length, from a long span to more than
half a cubit, which, as he drains its contents, is handed to the
servants in charge of the jars of tallah, who quickly replenish it, and
return it to the thirsty soul. Each reveller keeps to his own rude
flagon, and nothing could more strikingly typify agricultural wealth
and rustic happiness, than the representation of one of these
drinking horns; and which, ornamented and embellished by Grecian
and Latin poets, still I believe to have been the original of the
famous horn of plenty; probably derived from some Egyptian
hieroglyphic, which well expressed the condition of man it appears
so naturally to characterize.
 CHAPTER XXIV.
Visited by Ibrahim.—​Map of the Hawash.—​Its effect upon table-land
of Abyssinia.—​Future juncture with the Abi.—​Its early tributaries.—​
Effects of denudation.—​Zui lake.—​Popular tradition.—​Abyssinian
geographical work.—​Galla tribes.
August 16th.—Ibrahim, the retired slave-merchant, who had not
called since I had made the improvements in my house, came in to-
day. He was rather astonished at the transformation I had effected,
gave the table a good shake, sat down in my chair, and tabored with
his fingers against the parchment window. “Ahkeem e moot,” said he
at last, “may the doctor die! if it is not good; you are a tabeeb, and
the house of your Queen is not furnished so well.” The old
gentleman had brought his work with him, a piece of blue sood,
which he was embroidering with green and red silk in a large cross-
bar pattern, and which he told me was intended for a holiday guftah
for his wife. Here I must observe, that although the Islam women in
Shoa usually wear clothes of some common material dyed red, upon
festival days they display very rich headdresses of foreign silk, or
embroidered cotton cloth, such as Ibrahim was now working.
Walderheros placed the low Abyssinian chair for his
accommodation, and then, as was generally the case when Ibrahim
came to see me, a long conversation commenced respecting the
town of Hurrah, of which he was a native, although he had not been
to that city for the last eight or nine years. As usual, we had a map
sketched upon the floor before us, which, however, on this occasion
was not a very complicated one, merely the southern portion of the
Hawash, where it encircles Shoa, and which formed the conclusion
of the course of that river, the northern portion of which, as far as
the ford of Mulkakuyu, I had already received information of from
my Dankalli friends, Ohmed Medina and Ohmedu.
 The principal features of the geography of the country included in
the sketch map, were the three principal streams entering the
Hawash from the scarp of the Abyssinian table-land, all of which
flowed nearly to the south; but the most remarkable and interesting
one was the great indentation in the outline of the high country,
which in this situation seemed to be approaching to a separation into
two parts by the denudation of the sources of the Hawash on the
east, and a corresponding degradation on the west, occasioned by
the action of the waters of the Assabi, or Abiah, the red Nile falling
from the elevated plains of its earlier tributaries to join the Bahr ul
Abiad at Kartoom, where its height above the level of the sea does
not, I believe, exceed three thousand feet.
Surrounding the head of the Hawash, separated only by the
narrow valleys of denudation around its sources, are three elevated
countries, all forming part of the table-land of Abyssinia, and
between which, in the course of ages, this river has intruded itself
by slow degrees, and is still progressing annually farther to the west.
These three countries are Zingero to the south, Enarea to the west,
and Shoa to the north, whilst the corresponding portions of the
scarp are Gurague, Maitcha, and the ancient province of Fatagar, the
more westerly portion of which is now possessed by the Soddo
Gallas.
This now excavated portion of Abyssinia must have been at a
former period one continuous table land, and the countries of
Zingero and of Shoa then could only have been separated by
streams that flowed to the north into the Abi, or to the south into
the Gibbee, the ancient Assabi. The same convulsion which has
determined the peculiar course of the Abi, or Bruce’s Nile, seems to
have influenced the direction of the encroachment of the Hawash
into the limits of the plateau of Abyssinia; and also the position of
the débouché of the Red Nile from its summit to the plains below.
An examination of the map will show a curious correspondence
between the situation of the sources of the Hawash, of the southern
curve of the Abi, and of the break in the table land where that river
joins the Red Nile near Fazuglo. A great geological fault seems to
extend across Abyssinia in the direction of these several points, one
effect of which (that of the great disintegration of the material of the
rocks along its course) appears to me to have favoured the
denudation observed on the eastern and western borders of this
country. To this fracture I also attribute the sudden curve of the Abi
to the west, after flowing nearly due south from lake Dembea; the
physical barrier to its farther continuance in that direction not being
a ridge of hills, or what is generally termed an anticlinal axis, but the
presence of the opposite wall of the disjointed rock, which
characterizes the extension of the fault across the table land. This is
neither unfounded assertion nor rash conclusion, but the deliberate
opinion I have formed by a careful examination of the mighty
operations of nature that appear to have acted upon the surface
geography of Abyssinia from the most remote ages.
Let my reader return with me for a moment to the country of
Adal, an extensive plain, scarcely one thousand feet high above the
level of the sea. Its river, the Hawash, peculiarly its own, distinct in
the non-existence of opposite corresponding water-sheds to identify
it as having formed part of the original surface level of the
surrounding countries: an intruder, in fact, between the opposite
slopes of the river Tacazza to the north and of the river Whabbee to
the south; the countries of which were once continuous, but some
convulsion connected probably with that which has occasioned the
fault across the table land of Abyssinia, has in this position, severed
the country completely; and in the gaping chasm, filled up to a
certain level with the debris, has formed the bed of the Hawash,
which gradually progressing on every side, its wide circumference of
sources encroaches every year upon the elevated lands which
surround it.
A traveller in Adal cannot help noticing the singular character of
the situation of the river Hawash, for he crosses over its bounding
ridge to the east, and has partial opportunities of observing the bluff
scarp-like terminations of the Angotcha, the Abyssinian, and the
Hurrahgee table lands, all of which are being rapidly denuded by the
numerous little tributaries which flow to swell the Hawash. But this
extending operation is most strikingly illustrated in a line with the
fault which has extended from the sea-coast to Fazuglo, in the west
of Abyssinia. Here, to the south of Shoa, the Hawash has already
approached within one day’s journey from the deep valley of the Abi,
and removes annually great portions of the surrounding table land,
which had previously determined the rain drops to flow into that
river, but subsequent to which removal, all falling water must for the
future, aid in swelling the insidious river of the low-land of Adal. The
valleys of numerous small streams, the sides of which, denuded to
the required depth, have been thus gradually opened into, and as
this is naturally aided by the steep fall of the scarp, denudation goes
on rapidly when the first inclination towards the Hawash has been
given to the stream, that had previously meandered upon a nearly
level plain. In this manner I contend, that the valley of the Airahra,
between the narrow ridges of Ankobar, and the edge of the table-
land at Tchakkah, has been acted upon, and that the waters falling
to the west of Ankobar, and which now flow into the Hawash, were
formerly conducted to the Jumma, and so to the Abi, when the two
elevated points mentioned were continuous, as they most certainly
have been.
The geology of Abyssinia also favours these strange alterations of
its own face; for it is composed almost entirely of volcanic rocks,
easily decomposable, the operation, in fact, scarcely requires the aid
of water to occasion it; for the atmosphere alone crumbles the
hardest rocks, in the course of one year, into a stratum of loose
earth; and water appears to be merely the carrying agent, to
remove the soft soil, and expose a fresh surface to the action of the
air. It is this which adds so considerably to the fertility of the
Argobbah counties, situated on the scarp of the Abyssinian table-
land; for every fresh year, virgin earth of the most fertile capability,
is offered spontaneously, for the benefit of the cultivator, to whom,
in this situation, the use of manure is unknown.
Rain, however, aids considerably in removing vast portions of the
table-land; for during the wet season, generally some few days after
the commencement of the rains, and again, near its close, severe
thunder storms, with slight earthquakes, occur; and the devastation
which results, is not so much to be attributed to the latter, as it is to
the previously fallen rain; which, having penetrated to a certain
depth of the easily disintegrated rock, the least agitation brings
down immense quantities, from the nearly perpendicular cliffs. An
earthquake scarcely perceptible, and which, perhaps, is only
consequent upon meteoric explosion, by the reverberating vibrations
being communicated to the loose, yet prominent surfaces of the hilly
scarp; there always precipitates ruinous masses of earth and rock,
whilst not a trace of its effects can be perceived upon the table-land.
This is the real character of all earthquakes in Abyssinia I have
witnessed; and although the death of twelve or fifteen people, have
been consequent, it has only been in different situations of peril, the
proper precaution could have easily obviated, as it was where
denudation had been long undermining the foundation of their
houses, or of those on the terraces above; and which, when a
moment of extraordinary atmospheric commotion occurred, were
shaken from the sides of the valleys into the stream below. No
leaping of the earth, or those violent commotions, which mark these
convulsions in other countries, occur in Shoa. In Ankobar, during the
severest landslips, for they are nothing else, a loose stone building
thirty or forty feet high, and a still more rickety arch built by
Demetrius, although in exposed situations, were not affected in the
least.
The tremour of the earth consequent upon portions of its surface
being detached, was only felt upon the situation on which it
occurred; and were it not for the heavy fall of rocks from the
overhanging table-land, no evidences of a violent convulsion could
be ever observed; so that I am justified, in attributing to external
influences, rather than to internal operations, the occasional
agitations of the earth which are experienced in Abyssinia during the
wet season.
The combined effects, however, of all these disintegrating agents
of the table land of Abyssinia, is to increase farther westward the
course of the Hawash, and we find that in the situation most
favourable for the operation of denudation there is contained, its
most distant sources. Already, by the testimony of M. Rochet
d’Hericourt and Dr. Krapf, the head of the Hawash reaches within
thirty miles of the Abi, the Nile of Bruce, and that in that direction it
will still progress, may be safely assumed, whilst the present order
of things established by nature is continued; and in the course of
time a communication will most certainly be opened between this
river and that of Northern Abyssinia, when probably, by this addition
to its volume of water, and a continual denudation going on also
towards the east, diminishing daily the barrier between it and the
sea; the Hawash will then enter the sea, and open a fresh highway
into the interior of Africa. Geologists may observe in this mighty
operation, something analogous to that to which they attribute other
natural phenomena with which they may be familiar, and the facts
that I have stated, singular as they may appear, are as easily
demonstrated to be true as is the westward progress of the falls of
Niagara towards the lakes of Northern America.
Within the indentation in the table land to the south of Shoa,
Ibrahim placed three principal streams, all of which appear to flow
south from the scarp in that situation. These were, one stream
which separated the Maitcha Gallas from the Soddo Gallas; the
second, called Hashei, which separated the latter from the Abitshoo;
and the third was the Kassam, which flowed through the province of
Bulga. On inquiring the situation of the Zui lake, which, from
previous information, I knew was not far from the Hawash in this
situation, Ibrahim explained to me that it received the waters that
flowed from the opposite scarp to that of Shoa, and which
constituted, with the high land to the north of the Gibbee in this
situation, the country of Gurague. On the other side of the stream of
the Gibbee was Zingero. Zui, called also Lakee, has several small
islands situated in its waters, each of which is inhabited by monks,
but on the largest a very celebrated monastery exists, in which,
according to vulgar ideas, all the wealth and books relative to the
ancient empire of Abyssinia have been concealed since the
celebrated Mahomedan invasion of that country in the sixteenth
century, by Mahomed Grahnè. There may be some truth respecting
the manuscripts that are contained in the monastery of Lake Zui, but
I question much if any treasure is to be found there, for in that case
Sahale Selassee would, before this, have attempted to subdue the
Galla tribes intervening, which could be accomplished in one
campaign, for already, in that direction, the country as far as the
Hawash has submitted to him, and Zui is not more than two days’
journey to the south. That its conquest is intended by the Negoos of
Shoa, I have no doubt, and I think he only postpones it until he can
effect the reduction of the whole of Gurague, at the same time the
inhabitants of which are very much affected towards him, and in fact
consider him to be their monarch. I have witnessed two or three
interesting interviews between parties coming with unsolicited
tribute from Gurague; and when the monarch endeavoured to
induce me to remain with him, he held out the opportunity I should
have of visiting that country in the course of the next two years, by
accompanying him, and which he supposed would be a temptation
for me to stay.
The Negoos himself corroborated the statement of Ibrahim, who
had visited the shores of this lake several times, that there was no
outlet for its waters, but that it was entirely distinct from the river
Hawash. Karissa, a Galla, from Cambat, who when enslaved was first
taken to Gurague, and lived near Zui several years, also told me that
a number of small streams fell into the lake from all sides and that
there was a tradition that a long time ago, the length of which he
had no idea of, all the country now occupied by the lake which is
about fifteen miles in diameter, was possessed by seven chiefs,
whose lands, for their sins, of course, or it would not be an
Abyssinian legend, were swallowed up in one night, with loud
subterranean noises, and stars shooting out of the earth, and that
the next day nothing could be seen but the present lakes, and the
islands it contains. Considering the character of the country, and the
phenomena still witnessed in Adal, whilst the country around Zui
appears to be situated upon the same elevation above the sea; I
have no doubt that this tradition is partly founded upon fact, and
contains the national remembrance of an extensive and appalling
incident connected with some volcanic convulsion, that at a former
period occurred in this situation.
My morning’s lesson in geography terminated with a promise that
Ibrahim should get me the title of a Geez book upon the subject,
which he asserted he had seen in Hurrah, for I must observe he
ridiculed the idea of anything having been preserved during the
invasion of Grahnè into Abyssinia, by being taken to the monastery
of Zui. He stated that in the city of Hurrah, which was then the
capital of the kingdom of Adal, there was at the present day an
entire library which had formed part of the spoil of the conqueror on
that occasion, and that in the same building with the books is
preserved the original silver kettle drums that were formerly carried
before the Emperor. He had also seen a map which had been made
by the orders of Mahomed Grahnè, of the countries he had subdued
from Massoah and Gondah in the north, to Magadish in the south,
and upon which was particularly marked the site of every Christian
temple he had destroyed. A copy of this map could, I think, be easily
obtained by means of our Berberah acquaintance, Shurmalkee,
whose connexion with the city of Hurrah is much more considerable
than it is supposed to be by our Government.
Upon both banks of that part of the Hawash which partially
encircles Shoa, numerous tribes of Galla find sustenance for
immense herds of cattle. Among these, the most important are the
Maitcha and Soddo tribes, situated upon the earliest of its most
western tributaries; next to these, proceeding from the west, is the
Tchukalla; then Lakee, or those living between lake Zui and the
Hawash; to these succeed the Gilla, the Roga, and then the Gallahn,
the chief of which, Shumbo, is a son-in-law of the Negoos, baptized
and married the same day, whilst I was in Shoa. Through his district
lies the safest road to Gurague, and accordingly it is the one
principally taken by slave merchants, who, however, seldom return
that way, preferring a more circuitous one, around the sources of the
Hawash, among the tribes situated upon the table land of Abyssinia.
Adjoining to the Gallahn Galla are the Aroosee, a powerful and
warlike nation of the same people, but who appear to be
considerably in advance of their barbarous brethren. The Aroosee
are large agriculturists, and great quantities of coffee, and of a red
dye, called wurrsee, which is exported from Berberah to India and
Arabia, is produced in their country. They occupy all the district
between Hawash and the north-western streams of the Whabbee.
Where they terminate on the east, the possessions of the Hittoo
Galla commence, who also “drink of the waters of the Hawash,” and
are, it will be recollected the tribe, some of whom attacked the
Kafilah of the Hy Soumaulee, at Dophan, on the occasion of my
coming up to Shoa. On a map of a limited size, it would be
impossible to introduce the names of the numerous tribes of these
people that border upon Shoa to the south, nor would any benefit
arise from the list beyond that which may be obtained by the
general designation, “Galla tribes,” and which I have, therefore,
employed to mark the localities of these people.
 CHAPTER XXV.
No prospect of recovery.—​Slaughter of the goat.—​Manufacture of
skin-bags.—​The process.—​Farming.—​The bark employed.—​
Morocco leather.—​Carcase butchers.—​Process of cutting up meat.
August 21st.—The termination of the fast of Felsat was hailed with
considerable pleasure by the very best of Christians in Shoa, and this
happened on the last day of the interval which dates this chapter, for
increasing want of space compels me to relinquish the usual diurnal
account. As it happened, nothing of importance occurred, except
only that I began to find myself gradually getting weaker and
weaker, and the symptoms of my illness increasing in violence upon
every fresh attack. I attributed this, in a great measure, to the wet
season, which was now most decidedly set in, and for the last three
or four days especially it had rained without intermission. It was a
cheerless time, the moist foggy state of the atmosphere, and the
muddy condition of the road, quite prevented me from taking my
usual walks, and looking at the dripping state of my thatched roof,
or listening to the pattering of the large rain drops against my
parchment window, was all the amusement I had after I had
determined to confine myself more to bed, either to recruit myself
after the severe fever paroxysms, or with the hope of averting in
some measure the force of their attack by a little careful nursing. I
ceased, too, to take any pleasure in the interesting conversations of
Ibrahim, or Sheik Tigh, or, in fact, any one from whom previously I
had ever been most inquiring respecting every subject of importance
or novelty I could think of to ask about. My cup of coffee in the
morning, or a drinking hornful of the warmed ale, was the only thing
I dare indulge in, for solids of any kind had a great tendency to
occasion congestion in the brain, and after eating anything a severe
headache was the certain consequence. I took the hint, and gave up
the honeyed repast at breakfast and the fricassee at night, and
made a point of conciliating as much as possible that irritable viscus
the stomach, that seemed after all to be at the bottom of the evil.
It was a horrible retribution, therefore, for Walderheros to
contemplate, and which, no doubt, will have a beneficial effect upon
his future conduct as regards the respect due to the institutions of
the Church, when, on the morning after the end of the fast, which
was to be a day of great rejoicing, I intimated my determination to
eat no more flesh meat for at least a week. After all my jests about
the folly of fasting, telling my people that during the continuance of
such terms of abstinence, I was a good Mahomedan, and having by
my example on more than one occasion, tempted him and the
others of my household to indulge in food when they ought to have
been observing a stricter discipline—after all this, on the day
appointed for rejoicing, to see all appetite taken from me was so
evidently a judgment from heaven, that I was strongly
recommended to propitiate the Virgin Mary immediately by
bestowing the goat, which the Negoos had sent to me at Myolones,
upon a church dedicated to the Mother of Christ. So disinterested in
fact, was Walderheros, that he went off to procure one of the priests
upon the establishment, and who, when he arrived, had I carried out
my servant’s intentions, would have walked away with the goat
immediately, such was his anxiety for my restoration to the favour of
heaven.
I could not be very well angry with Walderheros, and I was too ill
either to laugh at, or to endeavour to convert the priest, so I
dismissed him with an ahmulah, for his willingness to relieve me of
the supposed ban under which I was laid. When he was gone,
however, the weather having cleared up a little, I directed my
servants to kill the goat, and to ask such of their Christian friends
who lived in Aliu Amba to come to the party on the occasion, as I
wanted it eaten up, that no temptation should exist to divert me
from my resolution not to take any animal food.
 The best butcher in the place, Tinta’s misselannee, who had
always shown himself ready to render assistance whenever I
required some extra hand, could not, of course, be omitted. Gwalior,
another servant of Tinta, and a patient of mine, was also called in at
the death of the doomed goat, which gallantly showed fight,
surrounded, as he was, by a host of hungry enemies, who, besides
seeking the satisfaction of revenge for the indiscriminate tuppings
and bumpings he had given and occasioned among the party, had
had their interest excited by the portions of his venison mutton, that
each, in the mind’s eye, already saw hanging up in a mimosa tree
that grew in my garden, and which formed the shambles generally
on such occasions.
A lot of yelping boys came into the enclosure, and crowded about
the butchers aiding the goat in his attempts to get away, by
attempting to catch him, and of course running in the way of those
who might have been able to do it. A number of women also
thronged in as the stir became faster, and who stood around me as
a kind of body-guard, for the leaping “diabolus” of a goat sometimes
threatened even to make our heads a stepping-stone to fly over the
high enclosure. A long lasso at length being thrown ignobly at his
feet, the next move he made ensnared him by the leg, and the
triumph of his life-hunters was complete. The rope being run around
the trunk of the mimosa, the unwilling goat was dragged, like a
victim of Spanish civil war, backwards to his doom, and a prayer of
peace being muttered by the clerk, Walderheros, the high priest, the
misselannee, cut the throat of their prey, the invocation of the
Trinity, like the Islam “ul Allah,” sanctifying the bloody business of
depriving an animal of life.
It is singular to observe the pertinacity of custom, and how
characteristic of descent particular habits and ceremonies become
long after the separation of different nations from their original root.
The Arabs, the Amhara, or the Abyssinians, and the Jews, all
precede the slaughter of animals for food with some short prayer,
which, differing in form, is still the same custom, and which, I think,
originated at a period antecedent to their dispersion as different
nations into the several countries they now occupy. It has also
continued among them, even changed as these nations are in
religion and social character, the Hebrew trader, the Arab nomade
shepherd, and the Abyssinian agriculturist. Jew, Mahomedan, and
Christian, still retain this evidence of a common origin, but which
marks an ethnological era posterior, I believe, by many centuries to
the more general custom of circumcision common to all these
people, and to many other African nations.[10]
Such a goat as had just been killed, fed up to the high condition
he was in, could not have been bought in the market for less than
ten ahmulahs, two shillings and twopence. The skin alone, however,
is supposed to be worth three ahmulahs; and great care is taken not
to injure it with the point of the knife, when flaying the carcase. To
be of any value, it must be taken off uncut, except around the neck,
and in those situations necessary to enable the butchers to draw the
legs out of the skin. Also, of course, where the first incision is made
to commence the process, and which is a circular cut carried around
both haunches, not many inches from and having the tail for a
centre. The hide is then stripped over the thighs, and two smaller
incisions being made around the middle joint of the hind legs, enable
them to be drawn out. A stick is now placed to extend these
extremities, and by this, for the convenience of the operators, the
whole carcase is suspended from the branch of a tree, and by some
easy pulls around the body, the skin is gradually withdrawn over the
forelegs, which are incised around the knees to admit of their being
taken out; after which, the head being removed, the whole business
concludes by the skin being pulled inside out over the decollated
neck. One of the parties now takes a rough stone and well rubs the
inside surface, to divest it of a few fibres of the subcutaneous
muscle which are inserted into the skin, and after this operation it is
laid aside until the next day; the more interesting business of
attending to the meat calling immediate attention.
These entire skins are afterwards made into sacks by the
apertures around the neck and legs being secured by a double fold
of the skin being sewed upon each other, by means of a slender but
very tough thong. These small seams are rendered quite air-tight,
and the larger orifice around the haunches being gathered together
by the hands, the yet raw skin is distended with air, and the orifice
being then tied up, the swollen bag is left in that state for a few
days until slight putrefaction has commenced, when the application
of the rough stone soon divests its surface of the hair. After this has
been effected, a deal of labour, during at least one day, is required
to soften the distended skin by beating it with heavy sticks, or
trampling upon it for hours together, the labourer supporting himself
by clinging to the bough of a tree over head, or holding on by the
wall of the house. In this manner, whilst the skin is drying, it is
prevented from getting stiff, and still further to secure it from this
evil condition, it is frequently rubbed with small quantities of butter.
When it is supposed that there is no chance of the skin becoming
hard and easily broken, the orifice is opened, the air escapes, and a
very soft flaccid leather bag is produced, but which, for several days
after, affords an amusement to the owner, when otherwise
unemployed, by well rubbing it all over with his hands.
Almost all the produce of the fields is conveyed to the market in
such sacks as these—cotton, grain, and the Berberah pepper. It is
even the only moneybag employed to carry home the salt returns for
the different wares that have been sold. None other could have been
employed by Joseph’s brethren when they loaded their asses and
went down into Egypt; for none are more naturally the resources of
a shepherd people, or better adapted by their form and size for the
little useful animal which seems to have been as universally
employed by the Jews as by the Amhara of the present day. By a
species of gratitude, sincere as it is deserved, hiyah, the word
signifying ass, is used by the latter people as another designation for
friend; and I well remember the mistake of a learner of that
language who went into a great rage by being accosted “hiyah” by
an Amhara friend.
The skins of sheep and of small goats are made into parchment
by being more particularly divested of the fleshy fibres with the
rough stone, and then, after the hairs have been removed by
putrefaction, simply drying in the sun. For this purpose, it is
stretched in a favourable situation, a few inches from the ground, by
a number of small wooden pegs, which are inserted into small
apertures made in the edge of the skin, and it is thus prevented
from becoming corrugated during the process of drying.
In the same manner, the larger hides of cows and oxen are dried,
most frequently before putrefaction has produced any effect upon
the hairs, and which, of course, then remain. This is the general seat
for visitors during the day, and their bed at night, unless a tanned
hide (nit, as it is termed) can be procured, and which is considered
softer and more suitable for a respected guest.
The nit, or leather, is tanned by being made into a kind of trough,
which contains an infusion of the bark of the kantuffa acacia. This
trough is formed by a skin being loosely extended upon four stick
supports, which elevate it about a foot from the ground. The
kantuffa bark, after being well pounded in a mortar, is strewed over
the surface, and the hollow is then filled with cold water, and in the
course of a few days a strong red infusion is made, with which the
whole surface of the skin is frequently washed, and when
evaporation has reduced its contents to a sloppy paste, the sticks
are withdrawn, the ends folded in, and with the contained mass, the
skin then undergoes the usual fatiguing process of treading, until the
evidences of the nit being properly prepared are satisfactory.
The bark of the kantuffa reminded me of that of the red mimosa
of Adal, which produced an astringent gum, something like kino, but
not, I considered, so powerful a drug. This tree, however, was
pointed out to me as being that with the bark of which the Dankalli
tan their affaleetahs, or small water-skins, carried by travellers; for
the larger ones are prepared with the hair left on, by simply drying
in the hot sun, after having been distended with air, to expose them
fully to its influence. It is very probable that the celebrated Morocco
leather, derives its bright red colour from the bark employed in
tanning being obtained either from the kantuffa or the Adal tree, for
both these trees give a very red colour to the skins that are prepared
with their bark. From this I am inclined to believe, that among other
articles of commerce that might be advantageously drawn from the
Barbar states in the north of Africa, a good tanning bark could be
obtained in considerable quantities, and at a very reasonable rate.
Walderheros and the misselannee proceeded to carve the flayed
carcase, not in any systematic manner, as I could observe, but
directed chiefly in the size of the lumps of meat that were cut off by
the character of the individual to whom they were severally
assigned: thus, Tinta got a noble haunch forwarded to him, whilst,
on the other hand, the matrabier, or axe, was called in to aid in
dividing the other into three portions, for as many minor
acquaintances of my servants. In the same manner, a certain
number of ribs were counted for Gwalior, but the mother of
Goodaloo got a great many more of the opposite side, and in this
irregular manner, after a very busy scene of some two or three
hours, except the portions which Walderheros had retained for
himself, the whole of the goat had disappeared by degrees through
the wicket of the inclosure, for the rain that was now commencing
prevented the party from holding the festival in the garden, and I
was a great deal too ill to have it celebrated within my own house.

FOOTNOTES:
[10] A singular fact connected with this custom of making a short
prayer, whilst slaughtering the victim, I gathered from a note in a
recent edition of “Sale’s Koran.” It appears that by a decision of
those learned in the law, which is laid down in that book, animals
killed by the Jews may be partaken of by Mahomedans. A
representation to the Cadi of Cairo having been made, that nearly
all the butchers of that city were followers of the law of Moses,
they were about to be suspended from that employment, when
their Chief Rabbi proved to the satisfaction of their Moslem
judges, that the Koran bids Mahomedans not to refuse food which
has been sanctified to the one true God, which was always done
by those who professed the faith of Abraham and the law of
Moses, when killing animals for food. This circumstance, and also
the disrespect shown by the Whaabbees to the tomb of the
Prophet, and the temple at Mecca, demonstrate to my satisfaction
that education alone is required to show to the Mahomedans, the
absurdity of the false hopes with which their Prophet has
surrounded the worship of the only one God, and of the
inapplicability of his laws to improve or humanize mankind. I
could point out, if this were a proper place, proofs without end, of
the liberality and extreme toleration of learned and enlightened
Mahomedans, and we ought not to attribute the bigotry of
ignorance, alike fierce and cruel in Christian, Mahomedan, and
Jew, to their religious belief, which on examination will be found
to have been originally very similar amongst all these
denominations, and that the greatest differences appear to be in
the several codes of social laws adopted by each.