The Highlands of Aethiopia Volume 3 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1844 Excerpt: ...the birds but the priests and bishops, who in hymns and hallelujahs thus fly upwards, and build their nests in heaven?" The clergy are distinguished from the laity by a beard, and by a monstrous white turban, impeding free motion of the head. This encumbrance is designed to commemorate the event of Moses covering his face on his descent from the Mount, when he had received the tables of the law. Their sacred persons are usually shrouded in a black woollen cloak, studded with emblems of the faith, and furnished with a peaked hood. The sacerdotal vest was first embroidered by command of Hatze" David, the father of St. Theod6rus, to commemorate the arrival from Jerusalem of a fragment of the true cross on which Christ died; and officiating priests are expected to appear in one of these, composed either of scarlet cloth, or an aggregate of party-coloured drapery. A silver or brazen cross and a slender crutch are the never-failing companions of the priest; and on all occasions of ceremony, such as the present, the mitre, the censer, and the great umbrellas are conspicuous objects. Long rods furnished with streaming pennants, manufactured of the light pith of the juwarree in alternating bands of red and white, were carried by the host of dirty boys who swelled the procession; and after the labours of the day were over, these emblems of regeneration were hung up in the churches as votive offerings. Dispersing after the exhibition, under a salvo of musketry to their respective churches, individuals who from any unavoidable circumstance had been precluded from participating in the general immersion, were there baptized, males and females being alike divested of every portion of apparel, and plunged into a large reservoir prepared for their reception. Four ...