The Source of the Blue Nile: Water Rituals and Traditions in the Lake Tana Region 1443846015, 9781443846011

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The Source of the Blue Nile

The Source of the Blue Nile: Water Rituals and Traditions in the Lake Tana Region

By

Terje Oestigaard and Gedef Abawa Firew

The Source of the Blue Nile: Water Rituals and Traditions in the Lake Tana Region, by Terje Oestigaard and Gedef Abawa Firew This book first published 2013 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2013 by Terje Oestigaard and Gedef Abawa Firew All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-4601-5, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4601-1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ................................................................................... vii Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1 Search for the Sources of the Nile Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 21 Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity and Holy Water Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 45 Abay: The Blue Nile from its Source to the Waterfalls Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 71 Lake Tana and the Island Monasteries Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 91 New Year, Meskel and Timkat Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 113 Indigenous Groups and Traditional Beliefs Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 131 The Almighty Father About the Authors ................................................................................... 145 Notes........................................................................................................ 147 Bibliography ............................................................................................ 155 Index ........................................................................................................ 161

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, we would like to thank all the friendly people we met over the course of this project and the informants who shared their knowledge and spent time with us. Most of the fieldwork was conducted in August/September 2009 and in January and March 2010, with additional follow-up inquiries in 2011 on specific topics being pursued during the process of writing. Academically, we would like to thank Prof. Randi Haaland, Prof. Terje Tvedt, Dr Tore Saetersdal and the Nile Basin Research Programme at the University of Bergen, Norway. We would also like to thank Prof. Yacob Arsano at Addis Ababa University and the members of the History Department at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. Finally, we would like to thank the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden, in particular Prof. Kjell Havnevik and Sonja Johansson, and lastly, Peter Colenbrander, who commented upon the language. Unless otherwise stated, the photos are taken by the authors and we are of course solely responsible for the presentation and the interpretations in this book.

Terje Oestigaard Gedef Abawa Firew Uppsala/Bergen, January 2013

CHAPTER ONE SEARCH FOR THE SOURCES OF THE NILE

Context and objectives The Nile, the longest river in the world, has been seen by many as the most important river in the world and as the father of African rivers. Its length is 6,671 kilometres1 and it drains a basin of 3,349,000 square kilometres, the equivalent of about one-tenth of the African continent. The Nile Basin catchment area is today shared among 11 countries: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. (Fig. 1.1). The White Nile has its headwaters in Lake Victoria and Lake Albert and the Blue Nile, called the Abay in Ethiopia, has it headwaters in Lake Tana. The White Nile flows through large parts of equatorial Africa where there is a considerable rainfall throughout the year, and it not only runs through Lakes Victoria and Albert, two large lakes, but also the Sudd. Consequently, the White Nile has an almost constant volume throughout the year, whereas the Blue Nile and the Atbara River are highly seasonal and dependent on summer rains. This difference between the White and the Blue Nile is important for the distribution of water. The Blue Nile and its Ethiopian tributaries provide Egypt with the floods during the summer, while the White Nile provides most of the water for the Nile during the winter. The White and the Blue Nile meet in Khartoum in Sudan, where they join and form the Nile, which flows northwards into Egypt. The last principle water source for the Nile is the Atbara, which also rises in the Ethiopian highlands and joins the Nile some 300 kilometres north of Khartoum. From here, the Egyptian-Nubian Nile is unique among rivers in the world because for 2,700 kilometres it passes through desert without receiving any substantial inflow of water. The White Nile provides approximately 15 per cent of the water to the Nile whereas the Ethiopian tributaries (Abay, Sobat and Atbara) together contribute approximately 85 per cent of the Nile’s waters as measured at Aswan in Egypt.

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Fig. 1.1. The Nile Basin catchment area. Source: Nile Basin Research Programme, University of Bergen, Norway.

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Since the river flows from south to north, unlike any other river known since antiquity, it has been seen as mysterious throughout history. Not only were the river’s sources unknown, but when the heat was at its most intense during the summer, the Nile started flooding in an arid desert. The secrets of and mystery surrounding the Nile’s sources have from the dawn of civilisation attracted both philosophers and emperors. The Blue Nile has been described as ‘the Everest of rivers’ and ‘the last unconquered hell on earth.’2 ‘From the very dawn of history, the secret of the Nile sources attracted the attention of the dwellers in its valley. Every conquering race … fell under the spell of this mystery and sought to solve it … They saw a great river, rising they knew not where, and traversing many hundreds of miles of desert unassisted by a single tributary,’ Garstin writes: They saw that it delivered an unfailing supply throughout the entire year, and – greatest marvel of all – they saw that, at the time when the sun’s rays were the most powerful, and the intense heat scorched and shrivelled up every green thing, its water rose, overflowing their channel, saturating the adjacent lands, and converting tracts that would otherwise have been arid wastes into the most productive agricultural areas in the world.3

The source of the Blue Nile is usually seen as either the Gish Abay spring or the river’s outlet from Lake Tana. Despite the importance of the River Nile since antiquity, very little research has been conducted into the cultural and religious aspects of the Blue Nile in general or into its sources in particular. One reason is that, apart from the scientific quest to find the source itself, later the main aim was hydrological, to find out how much water the river provided Egypt. Thus, after the source of the Blue Nile was discovered in 1618 (or 1613) by Portuguese missionaries, there were only some minor reports on the rituals and beliefs regarding this most famous river. James Bruce (1790) did give a detailed account of the religious practices and Charles Beke (1844) continued this tradition. As Major Robert Cheesman noted in 1935 (Fig. 1.2), ‘When I was first appointed to North West Ethiopia, in 1925, as His Majesty’s Consul, I found that very little was known of the Blue Nile in Abyssinia, and determined to see and survey the whole valley from its source at the Sacred Spring at Gish Abbai, through Lake Tana, and down to Roseires in the Sudan, a distance of about 600 miles.’4 However, his documentation of the source5 was not followed by other systematic, ethnographic fieldworks focusing on the beliefs and rituals from Gish Abay down the Blue Nile to Lake Tana and Tis Abay. Our study, by contrast, emphasises and, based on ethnographic research, empirically documents rituals, beliefs and traditions along the Blue Nile

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and analyses and discusses the role of water in the history of the Lake Tana region in past and present contexts. We also discuss the knowledge systems of this region.

Fig. 1.2. Lake Tana. Source: Cheesman 1935:490.

Discourses about the Nile have formed part of Western history since antiquity. From the dawn of civilisation, the sources of the Nile have been a meeting place for different knowledge systems and have shaped history. In an African context, Ethiopia is in a special position because the country has never been colonised, apart from the Italian conquest in 1935-41. This has had implications for knowledge systems, since there has not been a

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long-established Western academic tradition compared to other African countries. Moreover, in Ethiopia there is an extremely rich cultural and religious diversity which, comparatively speaking, has not been documented and studied. It is therefore of utmost importance to the cultural heritage of Ethiopia to address these issues before they disappear in the face of modernity. We further analyse how the role of water has structured society and religion throughout history in the Lake Tana region, and how the Abay, with its associated beliefs and traditions, has transcended religions such as Christianity and Islam. It has been said that ‘in transcendental religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, where the omnipotence of a single god renders that god’s existence totally independent of his creation, sacrifice becomes merely a token of individual and collective human gratitude for the deity’s favours.’6 This is in contrast to cosmogonic religions. Thus, prayer is the fundamental act of worship in the former and sacrifice in the latter.7 Nevertheless, even these world religions have incorporated the animist water-world of the Blue Nile and Lake Tana, where sacrifices are crucial. Moreover, in both Christian and Muslim belief, the source of the Blue Nile is the very source of the Gihon River flowing from Paradise. In this region, the mythology of Lake Tana defines important parts of Christianity, and the most holy festival – Timkat – is a celebration of the importance of baptism: all rituals and beliefs are within a cosmological water-world. Structurally, the book is divided into seven chapters. This chapter addresses the Nile quest and the search for the river’s sources from antiquity onwards, presenting a picture of the extent to which the Nile and the importance of finding its sources have been part of European intellectual history. Chapter 2 provides a short historical introduction to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, with a particular emphasis on water. Chapter 3 presents in historical context new ethnographic evidence on the source of the Blue Nile – Gish Abay – before following the river to Tis Abay, the spectacular waterfalls. Chapter 4 focuses on Lake Tana and the island monasteries where, according to the church, events occurred not only important in the history of Ethiopia, but also of Christianity. Chapter 5 analyses the three most important festivals in Ethiopia, New Year, Meskel and Timkat, all of which are related to water, in particular Timkat, which is truly unique in a water perspective. Chapter 6 examines the only indigenous group still living along the shores of Lake Tana and around the headwaters of the Blue Nile, and how their lives and beliefs are intimately connected to the Nile. Chapter 7 concludes with a brief discussion of the importance of the Blue Nile and its water and also raises the question of

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whether its source was known outside the Lake Tana region before the Portuguese came. This directly relates to the overall theme of the first chapter, namely the search for the sources of the Nile.

The Nile Quest It seems the Ancient Egyptians may have known the course of the Blue Nile up to Lake Tana. They exercised a form of rule over parts of northern and western Abyssinia and allegedly sent criminals and political exiles in the Samien Mountains to die of cold in the snow. With regard to the White Nile, on the other hand, it seems they had no idea where it originated.8 The Egyptian sources are unclear and diverse, and the Egyptians obviously knew about the Nile upstream of the First Cataract at Aswan, but this place had a special cosmological role in their religion. Although the river flowed hydrologically from the south further upstream, mythologically the source of the Nile was at Elephantine Island at Aswan. This belief may be the reason the Egyptians were not interested in the source of the White Nile and may, while perhaps knowing about Lake Tana and the Blue Nile, have not afforded this information any significance.9 Still, finding the source of the Nile was a major quest in antiquity. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote: With regard to the sources of the Nile, I have found no one among all those with whom I have conversed, whether Egyptians, Libyans or Greeks, who professed to have any knowledge, except a single person. He was the scribe who kept the register of the sacred treasures of Minerva in the city of Sais, and he did not seem to me to be earnest when he said that he knew them perfectly well. His story was as follows: ‘Between Syene, a city in the Thebais, and Elephantine, there are,’ he said, ‘two hills with sharp conical tops; the name of the one is Crophi, of the other Mophi. Midway between them are the fountains of the Nile, fountains which [it] is impossible to fathom. Half of the waters run northward into Egypt, half to the south towards Ethiopia.’10

When Herodotus visited Elephantine, he learnt from the locals that the river continued at least 40 days further southward, but he concluded that ‘… of the sources of the Nile no one can give any account…’11 Ethiopia has had a special place in this quest. According to Father Balthazar Tellez, who wrote The Travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia in 1710, ‘it was said of Alexander the Great that the first question he asked when he came to Jupiter Ammon was where the Nile had its rise, and we know that he sent discoveries throughout Ethiopia without being able to find out this

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source.’12 Alexander is said to have searched for the waters of life and even to have tried to fly up to heaven.13 Approaching the source of the Nile from another perspective and continent, it is commonly agreed that Alexander never crossed the Ganges, but it seems that the river had a mythical grandeur that attracted him. The king insisted on proceeding to the Ganges, but had to return. According to Plutarch, ‘he felt that unless he could cross the Ganges, he owed no thanks to his troops for what they had already achieved; instead he regarded their having turned back as an admission of defeat.’14 This obsession may have been tinged with ideological and religious considerations as well. It is said that Alexander the Great believed he would reach one of the Nile’s tributaries when he got to the Ganges.15 For a time, Alexander also believed he had found the sources of the Nile in the rivers Hydaspes and Akesines, which are tributaries to the Indus and are located in ancient India and today’s Pakistan. Explorations demonstrated that the Hydaspes was not the source of the Nile, but Hellenistic geographers continued to connect the two rivers, since both had a summer flood. Agatharkhides noted that shortly after the rains had swelled the Hydaspes, the heavy summer rains began in Egypt. Moreover, the mud of both rivers was also taken as an indication of their being linked.16 Artaxerxes Ochus thought there was a lake that connected India and Ethiopia and that the Indus was the Upper Nile.17 This was a conventional association of the time, as evidenced by Procopius in Wars 1.19: ‘the Nile River, flowing out of India into Egypt, divides that land into two parts as far as the sea.’ It was further believed that the Ethiopians had previously lived in India before migrating to Ethiopia, as Philostratos notes in his Life of the Apollonius. The Ethiopians were sons of the River Ganges and the subjects of King Ganges. However, they murdered the king and were compelled to migrate, and Heliodorus perhaps suggested that they accepted the sovereignty of another river-related ruler similar to their former overlords: in other words, connecting the Hydaspes and the Nile flood.18 This alleged link between India and Ethiopia survived a long time. Ansel Adorno, for instance, who travelled in the East in 1470-71, wrote that the Nile, which was Gihon,19 originated in India and flowed to Egypt through Ethiopia.20 The source of the Nile was a quest that interested philosophers, geographers and emperors alike. It is said of Julius Caesar that he ‘was so desirous of knowing this spring that, discoursing in Egypt with that grave old man Achoreus, and enquiring where the Nile had its origin, he went so far as to tell him it was the thing he most coveted to know in the world … adding that he would quit his country Rome for the satisfaction of

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discovering that source.’21 Emperor Nero sent two centurions to discover the source, but they failed.22 The soldiers seem to have reached the Sudd, according to Seneca: I have heard the narration of two centurions whom Nero, that great lover of all good things, but above all of truth, had sent to discover the Nile’s sources. After a long journey, directed by the help of the King of Aethiopia and with his recommendation to neighbouring princes, they penetrated into the beyond. There, they declared, they came on vast marshland. Its inhabitants had no idea of its extent and despaired of ever finding out. Plants and water were so entangled that any passage on foot or by boat was impossible. Scarcely could a very small boat, made to carry one person, make its way here. And there, they said, they saw two rocks from which burst out a huge force of water. Whether this was the source of the Nile or a tributary, whether it was born there or came up after a long subterranean course – can you doubt that a great lake under the earth feeds it, whatever it is? Waters, scattered about in various places, must come together, forced into the depths, in order to jet out with such violence.23

A Greek merchant named Diogenes on his return from India landed on the East African coast around 50 AD. He is said to have ‘travelled inland for a twenty-five days’ journey, and arrived in the vicinity of the two great lakes and the snowy range of mountains whence the Nile draws its twin sources.’ Since nothing is reported of his return journey, it seems more likely that he came into contact with Arab traders who informed him of the lakes a 25-day journey away. He was also told that the Nile united its two headstreams north of the lakes and flowed through marshes until it reached the River of Abyssina (the Blue Nile). The Syrian geographer Marinus of Tyre learned of this story, and in the 1st century published his geographical works. Although these were lost, they are quoted extensively by Ptolemy, who is credited as the first person to identify the origin of the Nile in Lakes Victoria and Albert and the Mountains of the Moon (Ruwenzori).24 Ptolemy also mentions a Lake of Koloe, which subsequent geographers have debated as a possible reference to Lake Tana.25 It has further been suggested, based on analysis of old maps, that Ptolemy’s lakes were in Abyssinia – Lake Tana and probably Lake Ashangi – and that the source of the Nile and the Mountains of the Moon are associated.26 Ptolemy was the authority on the sources of the Nile until the end of the 15th century and the most recent edition of his map was published in 1485.27 Ptolemy’s map of the Nile was, despite its many errors, the first to display a degree of accuracy, and it marks a great development in the geography of the Nile (Fig. 1.3). When English 19th century explorers uncovered the source, many of Ptolemy’s assertions were vindicated.28

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Fig. 1.3. The Nile according to Ptolemy. This is the oldest existing map by Ptolemy from about 930 AD, and is preserved in Mount Athos Monastery. From Johnston 1903, face page 26.

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After Ptolemy, the sources of the Nile continued to be a matter of discussion. Cosmas Indicopleustes, which literally means he ‘who sailed to India,’ was a 6th century Greek traveller and merchant. In describing Axum, he adds: ‘the sources of the Nile lie somewhere in these parts, and rain falls in torrents, and there are many snakes, and a multitude of rivers that all flow into the Nile.’29 Among Muslims, as well, the topic was discussed. Al Hamadhani, a 10th century geographer, compiled a book on the towns and countries of the Arab empire. With regard to the source of the Nile, he wrote: Behind the country of Alwa [Aloa] there is a nation of blacks called Takina. They go naked, like the Zang [slaves]. In this country gold grows or sprouts, and in their country the Nile forks, and they assert its rising is there, and behind the rising [the source of the Nile] there is darkness, and behind the darkness there is water in which gold grows, in the land of Takin and Ghana.30

Pedro Paez and James Bruce Rumours circulating among the Crusaders about a pious Christian monarch, Prester John, prompted the Portuguese to mount expeditions to find this Christian kingdom in Abyssinia. Here they arrived in 1520 and stayed for six years. Father Alvarez was part of this embassy.31 Later, the Christian rulers of Abyssinia were forced to appeal to Portugal for help against the famous general Mohammed Gragn and the Muslim Moors. Gragn’s Arabic name was Imam Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim, but he is commonly known as Ahmad Gragn, gragn meaning ‘left-handed.’ Four hundred and fifty Portuguese went with Christopher de Gama to assist the Christian Abyssinian rulers against Gragn in 1541.32 Da Gama commanded an army of 12,000 badly armed Abyssinians together with the Portuguese musketeers whereas Mohammed Gragn had 1,000 horsemen, 500 more men on foot and 50 Turkish musketeers. Da Gama won the first battle in 1542, but was bested in 1543. The defeated Portuguese were brutally treated by Gragn, and da Gama himself was beheaded. Three hundred of the Portuguese escaped the fatal battle, and fled to Jew’s Mountain in Semien province.33 The first Europeans to visit the source of the Blue Nile were probably the Portuguese sent to Ethiopia with Christopher de Gama in 1541. Exactly when they initially set eyes on the source is uncertain, since they did not document the event. However, some of the Portuguese remained in Ethiopia and finally settled at Nanina, which is only about 50 kilometres from the source.34

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The first European to visit and document the source of the Blue Nile was the Portuguese Jesuit priest Pedro Paez. The date of his visit is variously given as 21 April 1618 or 1615 or 1613. In the book by the Portuguese Jesuit, Father Lobo, the year 1613 is given, but James Bruce argues with reference to native Abyssinian chronicles that Paez’s visit was probably in 1615. The Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, who in 1652 published the History of Ethiopia, a Latin version of Paez’s journal account of his travels, gives the date 21 April 1618.35 Whatever the exact date, Paez was the first European to describe the source. The river, at this day, by the Ethiopians is called the Abaoy; it rises in the kingdom of Gojam, in a territory called Sabala, whose inhabitants are called Agows. The source of the Nile is situated in the west part of Gojam, in the highest part of a valley, which resembles a great plain on every side, surrounded by high mountains. On the 21st of April, in the year 1618, being here, together with the king and his army, I ascended the place, and observed everything with great attention; I discovered first two round fountains, each about four palms in diameter, and saw, with greatest delight, what neither Cyrus king of the Persians, nor Cambyses, nor Alexander the Great, nor the famous Julius Caesar, could ever discover. The two openings of these fountains have no issue in the plain on the top of the mountain, but flow from the foot of it. The second fountain lies about a stone-cast from the first …36

Father Lobo also visited the source in around 1629, and he described it thus: This spring, or rather these two springs, are two holes, each about two feet in diameter, a stone’s cast distance from each other. The one is but about five feet and an half in depth ... Of the other, which is somewhat less ... we could find no bottom, we were assured by the inhabitants that none ever had been found. It is believed here that these springs are the vents of a great subterranean lake.37

Lobo’s manuscript was translated into English and published by the Jesuit Father Balthazar Tellez in London in 1670.38 Another Jesuit, the Portuguese Father Manoel de Almeida, wrote the History of High Ethiopia or Abassia between 1628 and 1646. Almeida does not state that he actually visited the Nile’s source, but his description is more precise and differs from Paez’s, so it is likely that he was there and saw it with his own eyes:39

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Fig. 1.4. James Bruce. From Johnston 1903, face page 86. This [is a] pool ... where one sees clear and limpid water. The people who live near say that they are unfathomable and some of them have tested this by putting lances in up to 20 spans without finding the bottom. The water flows from this pool underground but the course it takes can be told from the grass. First it flows eastwards for a musket shot and then turns to the north. About half a league from the source the water comes to the surface in sufficient quantity to make not a very big stream, but others soon join it,

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which lose their own names when they do so, while the Nile begins to have that of a river.40

Almeida then describes how the water becomes muddied with black earth before it runs into the great lake named Dambeâ. He then proceeds to elaborate on the different flows of the Nile. The travellers to the source of the Blue Nile did not follow the Nile from Egypt to Sudan and further into Ethiopia because of the difficulties presented by the canyons in the mountainous areas. With one exception, all the Portuguese visitors journeyed to the highlands from the shores of the Red Sea, arriving first at Massawa before reaching their headquarters close to Axum. However, the old Greek road from Adulis to Axum, reputedly the best along with the route from Halai and Dixa, seems not to have been used by the Portuguese en route to Abyssinia.41 Following the Portuguese expulsion in 1633, no Europeans were present in Abyssinia, with the exception of the physician Poncet, who visited in 1699, prior to Bruce’s visit in 1770.42 James Bruce, who was born in 1730 at Kinnaird in Scotland, was an explorer who travelled from Cairo to the source of the Blue Nile (Fig. 1.4). When Bruce finally reached Gish Abay on 4 November 1770, he believed – or at least claimed when he published his accounts – that he was the first European to visit the spring. Bruce published his Travels to discover the source of the Nile: In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773, in five volumes in 1790.43 Bruce claimed that Paez’s account of his visit to the source was a modern interpolation, and he dedicates a number of pages in his third volume to disprove that Paez ever visited the source. One may assume that Bruce became aware that Paez and Lobo had seen the source before him and that he became very bitter when he learned of this and hostile to the memory of the two men. As we have seen, Bruce travelled between 1768 and 1773. In 1772, the French geographer D’Anville published a map of the Nile based on the Portuguese descriptions (Fig. 1.5). When Bruce met D’Anville in Paris on his way back to Britain, the geographer informed Bruce that the source of the Nile had been made known to Europe from the journeys of Paez and Lobo. D’Anville also tried to convince Bruce that the Blue Nile was not the main source of the Nile, and that at least two-thirds of the Nile mystery remained unsolved.44 Thus, ‘not being aware that he had been forestalled, [Bruce] thought he had discovered the source of the Blue Nile, and not only that, but of the White Nile as well, and was much disappointed when, on his return to Europe, he was disillusioned by Monsieur D’Anville in Paris on both points.’45 Bruce suffered from ill health after his expedition,

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Fig. 1.5. D’Anville’s map of the Nile from 1772. Note that Africa is named ‘Ethiopia’ and Ethiopia is named ‘Abyssinia.’

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but this information may account for the 17-year delay in the publication of his Travels.46 He really wanted to be recognised as the explorer who had discovered the source of the river, of life itself, after more than two millennia of Nile quest. In his own words: Far in antiquity as history or tradition can lead us, farther still beyond the reach of either ... begins the inquiry into the origin, cause of increase, and course, of this famous river. It is one of the few phenomena in natural history that ancient philosophers employed themselves in investigating, and people of all ranks seemed to have joined in the research with a degree of perseverance very uncommon; but still this discovery, though often attempted under the most favourable circumstances, has as constantly miscarried; it has baffled the endeavours of all ages, and at last come down, as great a secret as ever, to these latter times of bold and impartial inquiry.47

Bruce is here expressing his feeling of taking part in history, and indeed of defining it by accomplishing a marvellous act that he believed no one before him had succeeded in doing: It is easier to guess than to describe the situation of my mind at that moment – standing in that spot which had baffled the genius, industry, and inquiry of both ancients and moderns, for the course of near three thousand years. Kings had attempted this discovery at the head of armies, and each expedition was distinguished from the last, only by the difference of the numbers which had perished, and agreed alone in the disappointment which had uniformly, and without exception, followed them all. Fame, riches, and honour, had been held out for series of ages to every individual of those myriads these princes commanded, without having produced one man capable of gratifying the curiosity of his sovereign, or wiping off this stain upon the enterprise and abilities of mankind, or adding this desideratum for the encouragement of geography. Though a mere private Briton, I triumphed here, in my own mind, over kings and their armies … ‘Strates, said I, faithful squire, come and triumph with your Don Quixote at the island of Barataria where we have wisely and fortunately brought ourselves; come and triumph with me over all the kings of the earth, all their armies, all their philosophers, and all their heroes.’48

At the source, Bruce made a number of toasts to the good health of King George III and a long line of princes, as well as to ‘a more humble, but still sacred name – here is to Maria!’ Strates, his assistant, was hesitant about all the toasts Bruce proposed, and asked if the last was to the Virgin Mary. Bruce replied, ‘In faith, I believe so, Strates.’49 Strates responded:

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Chapter One … as for king George I drank to him with all my heart, to his wife, to his children, to his brothers and sisters, God bless them all! Amen; – but as for the Virgin Mary, as I am no Papist, I beg to be excluded from drinking healths which my church does not drink. As for our happy return, God knows, there is no one wishes it more sincerely than I do, for I have been weary of this beggarly country. But you must forgive me if I refuse to drink any more water. They say these savages pray over that hole every morning to the devil, and I am afraid I feel his horns in my belly already.50

Bruce accused Strates of being peevish, but Strates replied: ‘Peevish, or not peevish, a drop of it never again shall cross my throat … there is no jest in meddling with devil-worshippers, witchcraft, and inchantments, to bring some disease upon one’s self here, so far from home … No, no, as many toasts in wine as you please, or better in brandy, but no more water for Strates.’51 Bruce then proposed a toast to Empress Catherine of Russia, which Strates also drank while defying the Devil and keeping trust in St George. In fact, the Mary Bruce toasted was not the Virgin, but a Scotswoman he had become engaged to before he started his journey. It seems Bruce seriously expected that she should wait for him, even though she had received no letters or news from him. On his way back to Europe, he learned she had married an Italian aristocrat, Marchese Filippo d’Accoramboni, and was living in Rome.52 Bruce’s Travels enjoyed less popularity than he had expected. As Moorehead points out, even if it was true ‘that from Cyrus to Julius Caesar the kings of the ancient world had occupied themselves with this matter in vain,’ ‘who really cared about this discovery of a remote spring in Ethiopia?’53 Apart from that, Bruce’s dishonesty in claiming he was the first European to visit the source of the Blue Nile was completely exposed in 1796 by Professor Hartmann in his Edrisii Africa. Dr. Charles T. Beke wrote in 1847: ‘The attempt made by our contryman to deprive Paez of the merit of having anticipated him in the discovery and description of the source of Abái, or supposed Nile, must ever remain a sad blot on the fame to which he had sufficient legitimate claims, without seeking to appropriate to himself what justly belonged to others.’54 Moreover, Bruce faced incredulity back in England with regard to his descriptions of Abyssinians eating raw meat cut from living cows: critics claimed this was mere fancy.55 In fact, he was utterly ridiculed and viewed like Baron Münchhausen as a fabulist, and literary London went to great lengths to make a laughing stock of him. When a new edition of Baron Münchhausen was published, it was entitled Gulliver Reviv’d: The Singular Travels, Campaigns, Voyages, and Sporting Adventures of Baron

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Munnikhouson, commonly pronounced Munchausen; as he relates them over a bottle when surrounded by his friends. Or the Vice of lying properly Exposed. The book was dedicated to James Bruce.56 After Bruce visited Abyssinia, Lord Valentia and Henry Salt went there in 1805, and then Salt alone in 1810, this time as envoy of the British government. In 1830, Mr Gobat was the first European since Bruce to visit the capital Gonder. A few other travellers reached the Abay. Altogether, 42 European travellers visited Abyssinia during the first 40 years of the 19th century. Most entered Abyssinia from the north, although some approached it from the south.57 Of all these travellers, it was Dr. Charles T. Beke who undertook the most thorough investigation. Indeed, he compiled a map of some 70,000 square miles of the country, including areas hardly explored or documented by others. Moreover, although Arnault and Bell visited the source of the Nile, they left no account of their travels, and it was Beke who was the first traveller since Bruce to visit and document Gish Abay.58 The Nile quest was not only the result of personal ambition and rivalries, but was also a manifestation of the Victorian urge to travel and explore.59 While the source of the Blue Nile had been discovered, the source of the White Nile remained unknown. Beke noted in 1847 that ‘the position of the source of that celebrated river remains as unknown as it was in the earliest ages … its head is still enveloped in the clouds of mystery which have in all ages concealed it from our sight.’60 Thus, the Nile quest was not over. It was the British explorer John Hanning Speke who discovered the source of the White Nile. On 30 July 1858, he reached a great lake, which he named in honour of Queen Victoria, and he believed this to be the source of the Nile. Back in England, this caused a controversy because he had not seen the outlet. In 1862, on a second trip aimed at confirming his discovery, he found the Nile’s exit from Lake Victoria and named it Ripon Falls. Nevertheless, the Nile quest was only finally settled in 1875-1876, almost 20 years later, when H.M. Stanley (Fig. 1.6) proved that Speke’s claim to have found the source was fully justified.61 Then, in 1888, the Congo Nile was discovered. It rises in the Ruwenzori Mountains, six mountain massifs over 4,500 metres in height, with Mount Stanley (5,109 m) the highest. The rivers from these mountains drain into Lakes George, Edward and Albert. Henry Morton Stanley described this watershed by citing a 17th century Arab geographer: ‘From the Mountains of the Moon the Egyptian Nile takes its rise. It cuts horizontally the Equator in its course north. Many rivers come

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from these mountains and unite in a great lake. From this lake comes the Nile, the most beautiful and greatest of the rivers of all the earth.’62

Fig. 1.6. In 1871 Henry Morton Stanley meets David Livingstone and presumingly utters his famous words: ‘Doctor Livingstone, I presume?’ Source: How I found Livingstone. Illustration for French edition: Comment j'ai retrouvé Livingstone. Hachette, Paris. 1876.

With the discovery of the sources of the Nile, hydrological knowledge of the river developed. The White Nile has its headwaters in Lake Victoria and Lake Albert, and the Blue Nile in Lake Tana. Even so, the river posed many challenges. ‘The usual and most methodical mode of describing a river is to commence at its source, and to follow its course down the entire stream, noting its various tributaries as they consecutively join in,’ Beke wrote in 1847. But, he commented, ‘this method is … forbidden us in the case of the Nile.’63 Although he was in this case describing the White Nile, his observations also hold true of the Blue Nile: it has proven extremely difficult to follow it from its source to Sudan or the other way around. In 1936, William L. Langer wrote: ‘It has been estimated that five-sixths of all water of the Blue Nile enters that river between its outlet in Lake Tana and its crossing of the frontier into the Sudan. In that region the river flows through a tremendous canyon which has never been explored by white men, but which is known to drain a very large mountain area. Engineers agree that nothing man can do could in any way check this torrential flow.’64

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The first attempt to navigate the Blue Nile to Ethiopia from Sudan was initiated by a rich American big-game hunter named W.N. Macmillian. He hired the Norwegian B.H. Jessen in 1903 and 1905 to undertake the exploration, but Jessen was unsuccessful.65 In the late 1920s, Cheesman tried to follow the course of the river on foot, but was soon forced to continue on the plateau. Herbert Rittlinger, a German, together with a small party tried to canoe down the river in 1955, but numerous attacks by crocodiles forced him to give up. In 1962, an expedition by the Canoe Club of Geneva consisting of six men travelled from the Blue Nile Bridge in Bahir Dar to a point near the Sudanese border, where they were attacked by bandits while sleeping on an island. Two of them died, while the others escaped in one canoe. Arne Rubin, a Swedish canoeist, became the first to travel from the Blue Nile Bridge to the Roseires in 1965, and he did it alone.66 Thus, the quest for the source of the Blue Nile has had a long and eventful history, and even after the source was discovered, following the river from there to the Sudanese border has proven extremely taxing. And even though the source has been uncovered and hydrological knowledge of the flow of the river has been documented, the cultural and religious dimensions of the source and the rituals, beliefs and traditions of the Lake Tana region regarding water have hardly been studied. This gap we will try to partly address by first giving a short introduction to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, with a particular focus on water, and then proceed with an empirical and ethnographic presentation and discussion of water rituals and traditions in the Lake Tana region.

CHAPTER TWO ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY AND HOLY WATER

Holy water In order to understand the religious role of water, one should distinguish between ‘holy’ and ‘sacred.’ In general, ‘holy’ and ‘sacred’ are often seen as identical and used interchangeably, but the terms imply different relationships to the divine. Most people say ‘holy water,’ but not ‘sacred water,’ and this difference is important. Theoretically, ‘holiness’ refers to the divinity and what is derived from the divinity as attributes, whereas ‘sacredness’ points to consecrated items, ‘respected or venerated objects but not the divine itself and not to persons as individuals.’ Moreover, it is ‘the holy Bible,’ but the ‘sacred books of the East.’67 The difference lies in whether the scriptures are truly seen as divine revelations or as being compiled and written by sages and priests at a later stage. ‘Holy water’ thus implies a special and particular relationship to the divine. In Hinduism, Mother Ganga is truly a holy river encompassing everything in the religion, and the water itself is the goddess. This perspective is fundamental to understanding the role of holy water in religions. The water may be the very divinity itself and Hinduism is a water religion per se. On the other hand, holy water may take numerous forms, even in Christianity. As will be discussed below, in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church water is seen as holy. The beliefs in the holiness of water among the vast majority of the people in the study area may be linked to Gihon as the divine river in heaven and in the baptism by John the Baptist of Jesus in the Jordan River. Gihon as a divine river is mentioned in both the Bible and the Quran. When Jesus was baptised, he transferred holiness to the water as a substance, and hence, all water is holy. Gods and divinities may transfer holiness to any kind of substance, but water is the most common form. Such water, although holy, is different from, for instance, Ganga, which is solely a water goddess, and

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not all divine powers and qualities are embodied in water in Christianity. Nevertheless, the actual baptism of Jesus and the role baptism has made water holy in Christianity, because the sacrament was institutionalised by Jesus through his immersion in water. The importance is thus that the water, which is partly embodied by Jesus, contains his divine powers, and consequently it is holy and can be used by humans in rituals to partake in God’s grace and divine mercy. As will be evident later, the use of holy water may take place in the church’s liturgical ceremonies, where this divine gift is blessed by the clergy, but people may also use it by themselves because they believe in the divine power of the holy water. The different uses of holy water are also a matter of controversy, because before the introduction of Christianity, there were numerous water cults and beliefs in the power of water, which the church, then as today, viewed as pagan. However, throughout history there has also been syncretism in the various beliefs and uses of holy water. Thus, certain uses and beliefs with regard to holy water may be seen by the church as diabolical unless they are sanctioned by the clergy and performed within the liturgy, at which point they become truly Christian devotional acts and praises.

Ethiopian Orthodox Church Samuel Johnson’s A Voyage to Abyssinia (1735) was an English translation of Joachim Le Grand’s French manuscript on the Portuguese Jesuit Father Jerónimo Lobo.68 Johnson wrote: ‘No country in the world is so full of churches, monasteries, and ecclesiastics, as Abyssinia; it is not possible to sing in one church or monastery without being heard by another, and perhaps by several.’69 This description, although exaggerated, does give an idea of the importance of religion in Ethiopia in general and in Abyssinia (the highlands) in particular. Since this study is primarily about water rituals, beliefs and traditions, this presentation of the Ethiopian Church will be short and incomplete. The emphasis is on the religion as it is perceived and performed by the believers themselves. Specifically, local practices structured around water that have defined central parts of Christianity as it is perceived and observed by commoners – even though the Orthodox Church may oppose these practices as pagan – is the main focus. Ethiopian Christianity has many resemblances to Jewish traditions, and the question of how, when, and, some might say, even if, Jewish influences came to Ethiopia has been discussed for decades. Steven Kaplan argues that these influences do not appear before the first centuries

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AD. Moreover, Egypt is not the obvious cradle of these influences: Judaised communities of southern Arabia and the Red Sea are a likely source of the early Jewish influence.70

Fig. 2.1. Queen Sheba visits King Solomon. Painting by Edward John Poynter (1890). Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The founding myth of Ethiopia is the Queen of Sheba and Ethiopia’s role and place in the Old Testament (Fig. 2.1). According to an old tradition, the Abyssinians are descended from Ham, the second son of Noah. He, together with his brothers Shem and Japhet, were born before the flood. According to legend, the sons of Ham were the forefathers of various peoples: Kush in Nubia, Misraim in Egypt, Put in Libya, Kenaan in Phoenicia, and the Abyssinians, who stem from the Kush.71 In The Glory of the Kings, the historic Geez text on the Solomonic origins of the Ethiopian ruling dynasty, it is said of the Queen of Ethiopia: This Queen of the South was very beautiful in face, and her stature was superb, and her understanding and intelligence, which God had given her, were of such high character that she went to Jerusalem to hear the wisdom of Solomon; now this was done by the command of God and it was His good pleasure. And moreover, she was exceedingly rich, for God had given her glory, and riches, and gold, and silver, and splendid apparel, and camels, and slaves, and trading men.72

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When Sheba listened to King Solomon as he spoke about his God, the queen said, ‘From this moment I will not worship the sun, but will worship the Creator of the sun, the God of Israel. And that Tabernacle of the God of Israel shall be unto me my Lady, and unto my seed after me, and unto all my kingdoms that are under my domination.’73 After six months, she wished to return to her country and sent a message to Solomon when she was about to depart. Solomon pondered in his heart and said, ‘A woman of such splendid beauty hath come to me from the ends of the earth! What do I know? Will God give me seed in her?’ As was widely known, Solomon was a lover of women, and he married beautiful women from all over. It has been said that he had 400 queens and 600 concubines. This was not for the sake of fornication, but with the wise intent of the remembering what God had said to Abraham: ‘I will make thy seed like the stars of heaven for number, and like the sand of the sea.’ And he said in his heart; ‘What do I know? Peradventure God will give me men children from each of these women … My children shall inherit the cities of the enemy, and shall destroy those who worship idols.’74 The child King Solomon had with Queen Sheba was Menelik I. And according to legend, it was Menelik who brought the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia, and this religious relic has a place of utmost importance in Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity. Menelik I made Axum the centre for worshipping the God of Noah and the kings David and Solomon of Israel. According to the priests, ‘Ham begot Kush, Kush begot Aethiopis, after whom the country is called Aethiopia to this day. Aethiopia was buried in Axum, and his grave is known there to this day … Aethiopia begot Aksumawi … [the] six sons of Aksumawi became the fathers of Aksum.’ Thus, Ethiopia took her name from an unknown ancestor and Axum from his son.75 In Acts 8, there is a description of the Apostle Philip’s conversion and baptism of an Ethiopian eunuch, who was the treasurer to the Nubian Queen Candace, and this is taken as evidence that the Ethiopians were among the first who came to know about Christianity. It is generally agreed that Christianity was introduced to Axum in the 4th century AD by Frumentius, and during the 5th and 6th centuries the nine Syrian saints came to play an important institutional role in Christianity in Ethiopia.76 From the very beginning of Christianity until 1959, the Ethiopian head of the church – the abun – was appointed by the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria. Moreover, all of Ethiopia’s 111 abuns from the first in the fourth century to the first Ethiopian in the 1950s were Egyptians. One of the main problems with the Egyptian abuns was that all were Arabicspeaking and were mostly ignorant of Ethiopian culture and languages:

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being appointed abun in Ethiopia was almost perceived as being sent into exile.77 During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tensions between the Coptic Church and the Ethiopians worsened and were only relieved when the Copts eventually agreed to ordain five Ethiopian bishops in 19291930, and the first metropolitan in 1951. For the first and the last time an Ethiopian patriarch was consecrated in Alexandria in 1959, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church gained its independence from the Coptic Church in Egypt.78 Another conflict with the Coptic Church in Egypt was over the Jerusalem convent of Deir al-Sultan, adjacent to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is said to have been occupied by Coptic and Ethiopian monks since the 5th century, and was thus Ethiopia’s main link to the eternal city of Jerusalem and the royal ‘Solomonic’ ethos. In 1834, however, the Ethiopian monks were affected by plague and the Coptic monks gained access to the keys of the convent, thereafter admitting Ethiopians as guests only. The Ethiopian emperors argued for the return of the keys and the right to Deir al-Sultan, but in vain. It was only when the Israelis conquered East Jerusalem in 1969 that the keys were handed back to the Ethiopians, who now control Deir al-Sultan again.79 Thus, although the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has been intimately connected with the Coptic Church in Alexandria, this relationship has also been controversial. The Coptic Church had the spiritual authority until 1959, which Ethiopians saw as unreasonable. Moreover, Christian Ethiopians resent being called ‘Coptic’ Christians since a ‘Copt’ simply means an ‘Egyptian Christian,’ and their church community is much larger than that in Egypt. On the other hand, this intimate relationship between Christians in Ethiopia and Egypt has been a powerful tool against Muslims and the Arab rulers of Egypt, in particular regarding water and the Nile (Fig. 2.2). The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has developed into a separate branch of Christianity, and five defining aspects may be emphasised at the outset. First, Ethiopians followed the Coptic monophysite dogma, but included local beliefs and practices, thereby giving rise to a uniquely Ethiopian Christianity.80 Mysteries have a central role in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and mystery refers to something that is secret, hidden or unknown. In Christianity, the greatest mysteries are the resurrection of Christ and the participation in this event through the sacraments. For Christians, this implies a personal initiation into the mysteries through the ‘sacraments of initiation,’ of which baptism is the first.81 Liturgy is nothing less than the ongoing saving work of God’s onlybegotten Son. That is why Pope St Leo the Great could dare to say: ‘What

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Fig. 2.2. The Nile at the outlet of Lake Tana.

Mysteries are divine gifts and wisdom that have the purpose of salvation, and ‘from the beginning of the Mysteries the children of the Church are shown who they are and who their Father is. Those baptised in the Spirit call “Abba” the invisible eternal Father who has begotten them in perfect love in the bosom of water.’83 Second, in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church there are many fasts, which are strictly observed, and each year there are about 180 days of fast. Wednesday and Friday are days of fast. Fasting is also observed during the 40 days of Lent, which is preceded by the Fast of Heraclius and followed by the great Fast of Holy Week. Other fasting periods include the Nineveh Fast (three days in February), the Advent Fast (40 days) and the Fast of the Apostles (15 days) ending with the Festival of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Then there is the Fast of Assumption (15 days) during the first half of

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August, the Fast of Kueskuam (40 days) in October and November and finally during Christmas and Epiphany.84

Fig. 2.3. Priests carrying the tabots during the Timkat festival in Bahir Dar, 2010.

Third, the Ark of the Covenant, which the Ethiopians casually refer to as tabot, is believed to be in Ethiopia. The original Ark from Solomon’s temple is, according to tradition, in Axum, and as Munro-Hay writes, ‘whatever the processes that led to the identification of tabot and Ark, most rural Ethiopians today, worshipping in minor parish churches, believe that the tabot is somehow both the Ark of the Covenant and the tablets of Moses, an unquestioned mystical merging of three powerfully numinous objects, one very substantial in size, into a single smaller object’ (Fig. 2.3).85 Fourth, a central part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is mythmaking or expanding the stories in the Bible. The Ark is but one example. It was described in the Bible and disappeared from Jerusalem, and the story continues in Ethiopia. Similarly, when Jesus and his family fled Israel and stayed in Egypt, there is a gap in the Bible. However, according to the Ethiopian tradition, they continued to Ethiopia and their story unfolded there until they returned to Egypt, where their history continued

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as written in the Bible. This way of writing Ethiopians into historic events shapes important aspects of this branch of Christianity. Fifthly, Jesus’ baptism, which will be discussed in a separate chapter, and the Virgin Mary have prominent roles in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and these relate directly to water, the Nile and motherhood.

Virgin Mary The Virgin Mary is called the ‘Mother of God’ and not the ‘Mother of Christ,’86 and she has also been called the ‘Queen of Heaven’ and the ‘Chieftainess of all the Saints.’87 In The narrative of the Virgin Mary as told by herself to Timothy, Patriarch of Alexandria, Mary said: ‘I am Mary the Virgin, the Mother of God, King of the living and the dead. I am the woman who was vowed to God by her father, I am the daughter of a barren woman. I was begotten by Joachim, who was from Jerusalem, and like every man I was begotten by carnal union.’88 Moreover, ‘Mary’s perpetual virginity is especially emphasized in all these feasts as a special means of her total dedication to God. She is thereby regarded as a favourite model of monastic holiness by the monks who celebrate her feasts.’89 In The history of Hannâ, the mother of the blessed Virgin Mary, it is said that ‘the memorial of the praise of the Virgin is abundant like the flood of Pison and Euphrates, and is like unto the flood of Gihon [the Nile] and Tigris …’90 ‘When the Virgin Mary, the daughter of Joachim and Hannâ, gave birth unto Christ the King, the mountains became the bread of life, and the hills produced grapes of blessing, and the waters of the sea became milk and honey.’91 ‘And Hannâ was a barren woman, but because of her exceedingly great strenuousness in fasting, and in prayer, and in making supplications unto God, He gave her this daughter Mary, and God having seen her sorrow and weeping made her to rejoice, and in her all the sons and children of men also rejoiced.’92 According to The History of the Virgin Mary as told by her to Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, Mary said; ‘Rise up, be strong, and know that I am the Mother of the King of the heavens and earths. He Whom the heavens and the earth cannot contain did I bear in my womb for nine months, and by His Will I suckled with the milk of my breasts Him that giveth food unto all flesh.’93 Jesus as a child made water holy on several occasions. Once there was no water, Mary shred tears while thirsting. Jesus

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… sought [to stay] my tears with His hand. And He thrust His fingers down into the ground a little way, and forthwith beautiful water welled up; and we drank thereof. Now the water was as sweet as honey and as white as milk. Then He made the sign of the Cross over the water and said ‘Let this water be unto everyone one who wisheth to drink thereof healing and pleasant, except unto the people of this city…’94

In another case, Mary related the following: And in the morning we found a cistern of water, and we rejoiced because we could drink and could wash the Child, and I took Him to the cistern, and He stretched out His fingers and blessed it, and it became full of water. And straightaway He opened His mouth and blessed it, and said ‘Be thou sweet in the mouth of every one, and be thou like unto the stream of the river of the land of Egypt [the Nile]. And it shall heal everyone who shall be a believer in the true Faith and in it of his sickness or disease when they assemble in [this] house.’ And we dwelt [there] with the Child and Joseph, and Salômê went round about the house and found a pitcher and a bucket which they prepared for us; and she washed the Child continually, and I suckled Him at my breasts. And they brought me food from God, and I saw the angels and the hosts of heaven worshipping at the feet of my beloved Son continually, whilst my nipple was in His mouth.95

This image of the nursing Virgin Mary – the galaktotrophousa – has had a crucial role in Coptic Christianity as well as in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Galaktotrophousa means ‘she who nourishes with milk’ (Fig. 2.4).96 In the 2nd century AD, Clement of Alexandria described the milk in the Virgin Mary’s breast as having its origin in God, and it was ‘the drink of immortality.’ It was logos, since it has the same composition as the flesh and blood of Christ. The milk did not originate from the Virgin’s own body and it was seen as ‘liquid flesh.’97 Following Clement, What a surprising mystery! There is a single Father in the universe, a single Logos in the universe, and also a single Holy Spirit, everywhere identical. There is also a single virgin become mother, and I like to call her the Church. This mother, alone, did not have milk because, alone, she did not become a woman; she is at the same time virgin and mother, intact as a virgin, full of love as a mother; she draws to her the little children and nurses them with sacred milk, the Logos of nursling.98

Early in the 5th century, Cyril of Alexandria wrote: ‘He took thy breast, and he drew into His mouth the milk which was sweeter than manna. The savour of thy sacrifice was sweeter to Him than the savour of the sacrifice of Noah. He drank from thy immaculate breasts, He called thee “My

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Mother”.’99 Moreover, he argued that Mary deserved to have the flesh and blood of Christ placed in her body since this milk was given ‘in the heavens.’ Heaven contained rivers of milk and honey, and milk was given as reward to Christian martyrs. In the Ethiopian context, the river of milk is Gihon, which has its source at Gish Abay.

Fig. 2.4. Saint Mabâ SƟyôn together with the Christ Child at the Virgin Mary’s bosom. From Budge 1933, plate XXXII.

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In Egypt, newly baptised infants were given a special Eucharist consisting of milk mixed with honey because, according to the ‘Canons of Hippolytus,’ it is the flesh of Christ which ‘dissolves the bitterness of the heart through the sweetness of the logos.’100

Fig. 2.5. The Virgin Mary restores the sight of John of Bakansi by anointing him with breast milk. From Budge 1933, plate XXVI.

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Such monastery depictions of the nursing Virgin Mary may have had a political function from the 7th century onward. Since the Muslims claimed that Christ was simply a human prophet and not the divine son of God, from a Christian perspective the iconography would have underlined the divine aspects.101 Moreover, the practice of using milk and honey in the baptismal Eucharist, although declining in Rome after the 6th century, continued in Christian Egypt and Ethiopia in an unbroken tradition at least until the 19th century and in some places into the 20th.102 Today, however, this tradition and belief are now disappearing. In Ethiopia, the image of the Virgin breastfeeding the Child is rare in pictorial representations although common in the One Hundred and Ten Miracles of Our Lady Mary. Still, in the main church of the monastery of Daga Istafanos, there is such a painting from the mid-19th century. This image was repainted after a fire that destroyed the much older original image. In the church of Abreha Atsbeha, just north of Wukro, there is another fresco of this scene. Mary sits on her throne and Jesus is suckling her breast.103 In Ethiopia, there are three icons attributed to St Luke. One is in the monastery of Dabra Jamado Maryam in Lasta, and depicts a small curly-haired Jesus suckling at the breast of the Virgin Mary, which he supports with both hands. This icon is called Se’el Gebsawit, ‘The Egyptian picture,’ and it has miraculous powers and can both speak and shed tears. The monks argued that the icon’s miraculous powers would be transmitted to the photograph taken of it in the early 1970s, and that if the picture was widely distributed, it would lead to a spiritual revival and cause people to come to the monastery and venerate the original.104 Initially, there were 110 miracles of Lady Mary, but the number of miracles grew with time to 316.105 The nursing of Jesus was obviously the most important, but the Virgin Mary was also healing and curing people with her breast milk. According to legend, John Bakansi, a priest in Cairo, was more than 100 years old and had gone blind. In the church, there was a picture of the Virgin. In a dream, he saw her coming out of the painting, ‘And she drew nigh unto him and took out her breasts from inside her apparel, and she pressed milk out from them upon his eyes,’ and immediately his eyes were opened and he could see (Fig. 2.5).106 In Upper Egypt, the Virgin Mary cured a blind girl by sprinkling ‘upon her from her breasts some drops of milk of healing mercy; and straightway the eyes of the maiden were opened.’ Her milk was also used to cure a monk who had cancer of the lips.107 The association between the White Nile and milk goes back to the pharaonic civilisation in Egypt and the nursing Isis (Fig. 2.6).108 When the main flood from the Blue Nile and Atbara starts to recede, the Sobat River,

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Fig. 2.6. The divine breast milk. From the Dendera Temple, Egypt.

which is formed by two headstreams – the Baro and the Pibor – at the Ethiopian border, has its flood season in November and December. This flood is delayed by the plains and marches through which the Pibor flows, and this water reaches Egypt in January and February before the Nile waters rapidly decrease.109 Importantly, this flood would carry enormous discharges of whitish sediment, giving the White Nile its name,110 and the river would have turned muddy white. In the Egyptian religion, Hathor was believed to have created Nut, and Hathor was also seen as the mother of Osiris. Nut provided celestial milk – the milk of ‘the Milky way’ – and she had ‘long hair and pendant breasts.’111 The white colour of the Nile was also seen as Isis’s nursing breast milk when she breastfed Osiris: ‘Raise yourself, O King! You have your water, you have your inundation, you have your milk which is from the breasts of Mother Isis’ [Pyr. 734]. Thus, the Nile’s lifegiving waters were believed to encompass divine breast milk: ‘The deceased, now reborn through the sky-goddess as a god

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himself, is subsequently breast-fed by divine nurses and elevated to the heavens.’112

The Divine Nile Although the beliefs that the Nile had heavenly qualities differed according to religion, the Nile has always been seen as a holy and divine river in varying degree. An interesting feature of the name ‘Nile’ is the numerical value of the Greek letters used for it. The Greeks from around the 8th century BCE used the word ‘Neilos.’113 When adding up all the letters in ‘Neilos,’ which had numerical values 50, 5, 10, 30, 70 and 200, the result was 365 or the number of days in a year, thus indicating that the Nile encompassed everything.114 In antiquity, Classical writers praised the Nile. The Syrian writer Heliodorus wrote that the Nile is ‘the giver of life,’ ‘the saviour of all Egypt, both Upper and Lower,’ ‘the father of Egypt’ and ‘the creator of Egypt.’ Seneca also discussed the importance of the silt the Nile deposits on its banks annually: ‘… it renders a two-fold service to the fields … Egypt owes to the Nile not only the fertility of the land but the very land itself.’ According to Philostratus, the gymnosophists of Egypt recognised this dual nature, because they rendered ‘cultic worship to the Nile in particular, for they consider this river to be both earth and water.’115 In Egypt, among the Copts and the Desert Fathers Shenute was an abbot at the White Monastery from the latter part of the 4th century to the third quarter of the 5th.116 Since the monastery was situated in a desert, water and the Nile played a prominent role. In The Angel of the Waters, Shenute wrote of the tense wait for the annual flooding of the Nile and described the annual inundation of the Nile as God’s ‘yearly mercy.’117 Besa, who was his disciple and successor at the White Monastery,118 writes in his The Life of Shenoute: ‘It happened one year that [the Nile] did not flood, and our father apa Shenoute knew from God the hidden reason for it. He also revealed the matter to the brothers with his tears flowing from his eyes, and said to us: “Pray to God. I, too, will go into the desert and spend this week praying to the Lord. See that no-one at all comes to me”.’119 Shenoute told his disciples; ‘You know what I said to you that God has commanded that there should be no flooding of the land this year. Behold, then, I prayed to him, and he, as the good and merciful God, promised me that this year again he would cause the waters to come and cover the face of the land.’120 Water and the Nile were an important part of Christianity and ‘Shenoute’s self-proclaimed relationship with God gave him knowledge of what God required for salvation.’121 Thus, the coming

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of the annual flood was an important Christian event:122 ‘As it appears, the monks intone the owshia, the special liturgical prayer which distinguishes each of the three Coptic seasons. A new Coptic year has begun … Undoubtedly, some form of it antedates Christianity in Egypt when a pharaoh or his priest might have actually invoked the star and the subsequent flood.’123

Fig. 2.7. Lake Tana from where the Nile begins to flow.

During medieval times, the Nile was perceived as a wondrous, divine creation. It was associated with Gihon, one of the heavenly rivers. The 13th-century chronicler Jean de Joinville wrote in his Life of Saint Louis that ‘nobody knows how these inundations occur, unless it be by God’s will,’ and the products ‘come from the heavenly paradise.’ He also referred to a Mamluk expedition that searched for the source of the Nile: ‘After they had gone a considerable distance up the river they had come to a great mass of rock, so high and sheer that no one could get by. From these rocks the river fell streaming down.’ Thus, the source of the Nile was the unreachable earthly paradise, and ‘the Nile was the Gihon of the Scriptures.’124 This is evident in The Liturgy of the Nile at the British Museum (Or. 4951), written in a Palestinian Syriac dialect, which contains services of the church in Alexandria. The Patriarch of Alexandria, the metropolitan

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and all the priests and deacons declare the object of the service with the words: ‘We have come to prepare a good season and an acceptable year; risen in the well-spring of God, the Nile, and by the command of God has it mounted upwards.’125 The holiness of the Nile was reckoned in Europe already in the 14th century (Fig. 2.7). In 1338, Pope Benedict XII sent Franciscan Friar Giovanni da Marignolli together with three other legates to the Mongol court in Peking. When he returned 15 years later, he wrote that the River Gihon flowed around the land of Abyssinia and descended into Egypt through a crack called Abasty. He also commented that the people there were Christians of the Apostle Matthew and that the Sultan of Egypt paid them tribute since they could cut off the water to his country. Egypt’s fear of the Nile related not only to the absence of water but also to too much water, and there were similar myths regarding Ethiopia’s ability to inundate Egypt. In 1384, Simone Sigoli visited Egypt, the Sinai and Palestine. He was told the sultan paid tribute to Prester John in Ethiopia. The latter controlled the sluices of the Nile, which were opened only a little, but if he wanted to drown the whole of Egypt, he could open them completely. This myth continued to flourish, and as late as the 17th century Milton wrote that the Egyptians believed there was a sluice in the Nile that the Ethiopians opened on 12 June, when the rainy season started, widening the passage each day until 14 September.126 Bruce remarked: It is not to be wondered, that, in the long course the Nile makes from its source to the sea, it should have acquired a different name in every territory, where a different language was spoken; but there is one thing remarkable, that though the name in sound and letters is really different, yet the signification is the same … Among the Agows … it is called Gzeir, Geefa, Seir; the first of these names signifying God; it is also called Abba, or Ab, Father … with a fervent and unfeigned devotion, under these, or such like appellations, they pray to the Nile, or the spirit residing in that river.127

If the Christians in both Ethiopia and Egypt believed the river was imbued with divine qualities from heaven, so too did the Muslims of Egypt. In fact, they had to Islamise these beliefs and rituals because otherwise the life-giving source would have been in the hands of the Christians and their God. MaqrƯzƯ’s historical texts from 15th century Cairo describe the Coptic Nile festivals. The first Arab Muslim governor of Egypt forbade the practice of sacrificing a female virgin to the Nile, but due to this prohibition the Nile did not rise for three months. The governor began to

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despair and asked pious Caliph ǥUmar I for advice. The caliph replied that instead of sacrificing virgins, he should offer a piece of paper on which the caliph had written. Allah alone can cause the Nile water to flow. [The governor] threw the paper in the Nile, one day before the festival of al-SalƯb, but in the meantime, the people of Egypt were preparing to depart, because their welfare rested only on the Nile. However, on the day of the SalƯb festival, Allah, the Almighty, caused the Nile to flow, reaching 16 cubits in one night, thus preventing harm from happening to the people of Egypt.128

Hence, through rituals the Nile became part of Islam and was brought under the control of Allah. In 823AH, MaqrƯzƯ’ reported of drought: The Nile stopped increasing for several days. Grain prices rose and merchants stopped selling it. People’s worry increased. They were called upon to stop committing what Allah forbade, and instead to commit themselves to virtue. They were asked to fast for three days and to go out to the desert. Many people fasted the next day, including the sultan. So it was announced that there was an increase of one digit.129

Rain prayers also took place, but only when the Nile failed and there were signs of drought. The communal performance of rain rituals may be said to express a collective desire to pass from a state of sin to a state of virtue, in order to bring about forgiveness and mercy, thus effecting a reversal of the drought situation. Underlying the performance of these rituals is the common belief that natural catastrophes are caused by human transgressions of God’s laws, which may be reversed only if people repent their sins.130

Still, even though Egyptian Muslims Islamised beliefs about the Nile and saw it as a gift from Allah, throughout the Middle Ages one of the greatest tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia and Christianity and Islam was the belief that Christian Ethiopians could divert or withhold the Nile water from Muslim Egyptians.

Diverting or withholding the Nile This common myth was evident from the 11th century, when the question of Ethiopia’s alleged ability to interrupt the Nile’s flow became generally acknowledged.131 During a famine that lasted nearly seven years (1066-72 AD), the Egyptian caliph sent an embassy bearing valuable gifts to the

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king of Ethiopia, who was believed to be withholding the water. The Ethiopians accepted the gifts, and in the following years received tribute for sending the Nile waters. For centuries, the Christians had kept alive the idea that the coming of the Nile waters is one of the miracles of the Virgin Mary.132 During the reign of the Fatimid Sultan al-Mustansir, around 1089-1090, the flood failed and did not reach Egypt. The Arab writer alMakin reports that the sultan sent the Patriarch Michael of Alexandria to Ethiopia to ask the Ethiopians to restore the flood, which they accordingly did.133 During a war between the Christians and Muslims, the Virgin appeared saying that God had given the Christian Emperor Dawit of Ethiopia (1380-1413) the wisdom to divert the Nile. Learning of this power, the Muslims became fearful about their harvests and declared they were not the enemies of the Christians. When Dawit heard this news, he praised the Virgin.134 This episode is described in Miracle 268 of the corpus Tä’amrä Maryam [Miracles of Mary]. And on this day at Midnight Our Lady Mary, the holy twofold Virgin, bearer of God, appeared to the King of Ethiopia Dawit and she said to him: O my beloved and beloved of my son Jesus Christ, and now I have asked my son on behalf of you that you will go and rescue my nation, the Christians, and thus He has granted and made even for you your way. Get up and go. And He will perform through your hand many miracles … And God gave him wisdom and he stopped the river [Nile], so it did not descend into the land of Egypt, because there are no rains in the land of the people of Egypt; unless the water of the [Nile], which flows from Ethiopia, reaches them, they do not plough, they do not sow seed and they do not get water at all … [King Dawit said] Was it not said once: To restrain the water is like beginning a war, but the will of God, the Lord of the Christians, may come about.135

‘Since that time it was commonly accepted, not only by the Egyptians but also by European rulers, that the Ethiopians were the masters of the Nile.’136 The oldest Arab source referring to Ethiopia’s alleged ability to control and divert the Nile is probably the Kitab al-Jawahir al-buhur, written by Ibn Wasif Shah al-Misri (d. 1202-03). Of the Ethiopian sources the earliest is the Gad log King Lalibela. In Europe, the myth was known from at least 1335 when Jacob of Verona travelled to Palestine and reported back about Ethiopia’s power over the Nile.137 Thus, the fear Egypt faced was perceived to be real. With regard to whether it was possible to divert the Nile into the Red Sea and thereby famish Egypt, Bruce argued in 1790 that ‘there seems to be no doubt but that it is possible.’138

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However, the belief that the Ethiopian emperor had the power to control the Nile was a double-edged sword. In 1522, during the reign of Lebna Dengel (1508-40), a monk told the Venetian scholar Alessandro Zorzi that the emperor could take Nile water ‘so that it did not reach Cairo,’ but that he refrained from doing so for fear that the Muslims ‘would ruin the churches and the Christian monks who are in Jerusalem and those in Egypt of which there are many.’139 Moreover, ‘if Ethiopia was the source of the Nile for Egypt, Egypt was the source of the abun, the Egyptian metropolitan bishop, for Ethiopia,’140 and the abun was second only to the emperor. ‘The Egyptian card was the sultan’s or the Coptic patriarch’s ability to delay or avoid sending an abun.’141 In the 19th century, the ‘idea of diverting the Nile’ was again seen as a miracle of the Virgin Mary, thereby reanimating a theme that had been a challenging one in the relationship between Egypt and Ethiopia since early times.142 Egypt’s quest for water security can be seen in this context. By building the High Dam at Aswan, Egypt sent a signal that it was not dependent upon Ethiopian Lake Tana, but on Lake Nasser, which the Egyptians controlled.143 ‘In 1959, a few months after the breaking of the church connection, Nasser signed a water agreement with the Sudanese, bluntly ignoring Ethiopia, as if declaring it irrelevant in this context, too.’144 Thus, although Egyptian rulers could deny the Ethiopians the abun, ‘for Nasser and his new revolutionary concepts, however, this religious card was of secondary importance. It was sacrificed for the sake of other regional interests and to undermine further the institutions of the Coptic community at home.’145 Hence, historically, relations between Egypt and Ethiopia were to a large extent defined within a religious setting as a struggle over who controlled and defined the life-giving resources of the Nile. This is, however, only one aspect of the role water and the Nile have played in Ethiopian cultures and religions. Two further central aspects of these traditions and structures are now introduced, namely water in the liturgy and rainmaking practices.

Water in the liturgy The use of holy water is fundamental in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (Fig. 2.8). Holy water is used in all churches, and if there are no sacred springs or pools in the immediate vicinity, early in the morning before the church services begin an appointed nun or someone else fetches water from a local stream. This water is then blessed by the priests in prayers and hymns, and used for the ceremonial liturgy.

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If there are natural sources of water, these are often perceived to be holy. One of the larger bodies of water apart from Lake Tana is the crater lake named Zengena, which is believed to be a source of holy water. In the Church of Zengena Gabriel next to the crater, the water may also be used to save souls from hell. On the walls of the church there is a picture depicting St Gabriel and ‘the Image of Gold and the Fiery Furnace’ referred to in Daniel 3. St Gabriel is standing on top of the fiery furnace where three sinners are praying for repentance: ‘If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king’ (Daniel 3:17).

Fig. 2.8. Bahir Dar Giorgioys Church.

Thus, by prayers and the use of holy water, a sinner may be saved from the inferno of hell. This highlights the all pervasive and omnipresent role of water in Christianity. When a person dies, water has a ritually important role. In Christian funerals, water is used to wash the body. During our own visit to Gish Abay there was a funeral taking place in the village. When the deceased was interred, holy water was sprinkled on the body, and it was also sprinkled on the grave after it was filled in. The holy water used in funerals is believed to cleanse the deceased of sin and enable the

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deceased’s salvation from hell. This practice represents an initiation into the Kingdom of God and is part of the lifelong battle with the Devil that starts with the holy water of baptism. In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, there are three types of baptisms that take place on different occasions and under differing circumstances. 1) Ye liginet timket is the baptism of a newborn child. For boys, it takes place 40 days after birth and for girls after 80 days. In the Old Testament era, the child was taken to the temple where a sheep or pigeon was sacrificed. With the New Testament, this practice changed, and the child was baptised in the name of the Trinity (see Matt 19:13, Luke 18:1516). Baptism fulfils a number of purposes and is seen as a practice initiated by God. The child is initiated into the Kingdom of God and the baptism cleanses the initiate of the sin inherited from Adam and Eve. Baptism casts the Devil out, but also initiates the lifelong struggle with the Devil and allows the baptised to partake of Jesus’ death and resurrection. 2) Ye dewe timket is a baptism whereby, through immersion in water or being sprinkled by priests, physical pains and suffering are washed away. The priest has the same role and function as John the Baptist, and by making signs of the cross and through prayers and hymns, the water releases the pains of the devotees. 3) Ye nisha timket is the baptism for cleansing sins and the effects of wrong-doing and moral misconduct. If the sinner repents and prays for forgiveness, the water may cleanse the soul and save the wicked. The second and third types of baptism are repeated after three days and then again after seven, 14, 21 or 40 or even more days. A general aspect of Ye dewe timket and Ye nisha timket is that the devotee truly has to believe in the ritual and the power of the holy water, because otherwise the ceremonies will have no effect. This general notion also applies to the powers of the holy waters at, for instance, Gish Abay: if the water works, it is a gift and blessing from God. One may argue that the use of baptism throughout a person’s life for spiritual purification and cleansing of sins, not possible in the Catholic or Protestant churches, resembles the Holy Communion in these two denominations. In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Holy Communion is more restricted. The rite has to take place before the child is sexually mature and hence not physically defiled. On the day of the communion, the initiate has to fast before the ritual whereby he or she receives the communion and holy water. At the age of seven, he or she is required to start fasting in the strict sense of the faith. After this initiation, everyone has to observe the 16th day fast, which takes place annually in August. It is, however, possible to take Holy Communion again as an adult. This

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happens rarely and those who receive the second Holy Communion are mainly deeply devout, such as old persons on their deathbeds or very sick people. The importance of water in the liturgy and belief systems of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is pervasive, and baptism in its various forms exemplifies the role of water in Christianity in Ethiopia. It is during the main festivals that the most important religious events and rituals of the Orthodox Church take place. In the Bahir Dar region, they are to a large extent structured around the miracles of water in Lake Tana and the Abay. Finally, these miracles are not restricted to healing or erasing sin: a fundamental outcome of the rituals is life itself in its widest sense, which is dependent upon the right life-giving waters at the right time.146 Therefore, the relationship between river and rain is of the utmost importance, and controlling the good rains at the right time is a question of plenty or famine. Within a religious perspective, God will ultimately penalise those who have sinned and not repented with the absence of rain and life-giving waters.

Christian rainmaking rituals Rainmaking has been an intrinsic part of the practices of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The Mazmur is a liturgical book edited by the patriarchate of the Ortodox Church of Ethiopia to be used during church services. In the Mazmur (842), used during the ninth Sunday of the rainy season (from NahasƝ 22-26), it is written: Alleluia (three times). May he give us rain in due time, may he give us rain in due time. And may he give us food of the blessing. May he give us rain in due time. May he open the Rainy season. He works mercy, and may he give the rain of mercy. May he give us the rain in due time. Opening his eye, extending his right hand: he sends his compassion and he is glorified by what is able of awareness. May he give rain in due time. He has Sanbat for man’s rest and he has the power to remit sin. May he give us rain in due time. The eye of every living creature hopes in you: may he give them their food in due time!147

In the Lake Tana region and Bahir Dar, when there was too little or too much rain or if the rain came at the wrong time, the devotees turned to God to control the weather. Thus, the whole hydrological cycle has been incorporated within the church’s realm. If there was too much rain, people prayed to God to stop the rain. Thus, rain-stopping rituals were conducted if too much rain came at the wrong time because it would be as harmful

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and cause as much suffering as too little rain. If the seasonal rains were less than normal, resulting in failing harvests, people again turned to the church and God and prayed for the life-giving waters. Previously, sacrifices of oxen were part of the rainmaking or rain-stopping rituals of the church in the countryside. Today, according to the Orthodox Church, sacrifices are not necessary because God can create the life-giving rain if people show their devotion through prayers and moral behaviour. However, priests may pray for rain. In so doing, they still recall the original, victorious rainmaking ceremony performed by Elijah as it is described in the Bible. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table … Then Elijah said to them, ‘I am the only one of the LORD’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire – he is God’ … Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. ‘O Baal, answer us!’ they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered … Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention … At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: ‘O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command’ … Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench … Then Elijah commanded them, ‘Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let anyone get away!’ They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there … Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the LORD came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel. (1 Kings 18:19-46)

Thus, rainmaking and the hydrological cycle are within God’s realm, and as phenomena that affect humans are part of the church’s rituals. The original Jewish tradition that involved the sacrifice of a bull has changed, partly because other indigenous groups continue to sacrifice oxen to the Abay for wealth, prosperity and sufficient rain at the right time, a practice seen as pagan by the church. However, it has also been abandoned because the life-giving waters in the form of rain and rivers are a gift by the grace

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of God. Moreover, and more in accordance with the New Testament, only prayers are seen as the appropriate medium for the worship of and for dialogue with God. This is, however, what the priests and the church assert, because in the countryside sacrifices are still made in rainmaking and rain-stopping rituals in the name of Christianity. Water is part of God’s realm, since the divinity provides humans with the necessities for prosperity, welfare and life itself, most especially a successful and bountiful harvest. This has been the case with the waters of the Blue Nile from its source at Gish Abay through Lake Tana and then running into the Abay. Before the introduction of Christianity in this region, it was non-Christian water cults that played a dominant role in the religions of the people living there. These beliefs and worships, seen as pagan by the church, had to be combated, but some of these traditions have continued until today in altered form both in their own right and by being incorporated into Christianity. What is clear, however, is that the cultural and religious history of the Lake Tana region is to a large extent the history of water, the beliefs in and uses of holy water, and how these concepts and practices have shaped and structured local societies over time.

CHAPTER THREE ABAY: THE BLUE NILE FROM ITS SOURCE TO THE WATERFALLS

Gish Abay The Gish Abay spring is believed to be the source of the Blue Nile (Figs. 3.1 & 3.2). It is certainly the source of Gilgal Abay (meaning the Little Abay), the largest by volume of some 60 rivers flowing into Lake Tana. In the area around the small town of Bicolo, the river is also named Bicolo Abay, a name adopted during the Italian occupation period, bicolo meaning ‘small’ in Italian. However, the name of the local area was changed by Haile Selassie to Wetete Abay or Milk Abay, and the river is also called Milk or Wetet Abay. The source of the Nile is protected by the Gish Mikael monastery, and the water from the spring is believed to be of utmost holiness and to possess healing powers. Close to the spring there is another holy trio of springs, from which, it is believed, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit emerge. The holiness of Gish Abay has its origin in both Old and New Testament contexts. In the Genesis it is written: A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates (Genesis 2:11-14).

Before the Nile was called the Abay, its name was Gihon. Gihon, one of the four rivers from heaven and the Garden of Eden, has its earthly outlet at Gish Abay. Hence, Gish Abay is the direct source from heaven and is a physical conduit to the divine spheres whence the life-giving waters come.

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According to the priests, ‘Gihon feeds heaven,’ ‘Gihon has served heaven’ and ‘Gihon has rotated the world seven times and has fed the water for heaven, and has come back to Ethiopia.’ The river is always moving and circulating. It feeds heaven in the east and it emerges in Ethiopia. All water in different forms, such as rain and small streams, join the Nile and represents a circle. Heaven was the first place where Adam and Eve and hence humanity lived. Thus Gihon has always served humanity. In heaven, when Adam and Eve lived there, Gihon was a life-giving river in Paradise, and when humanity was expelled, Gihon flowed from heaven to earth. Thus in Ethiopia, Gihon may also be seen as a source of Christianity, of being a Christian and as a path to heaven. Since humans are dependent on the Nile and its water for survival, the water can be seen as a covenant between humans and God, since God penalises people with too little or too much water if they are sinful and disobedient.

Fig. 3.1. Gish Abay – the source of the Blue Nile.

There are two particular religious stories with regard to the holiness of the Nile on earth, one relating to Gihon and the other to Abay and Gish Abay. Following the Bible, the four divine rivers in heaven have different

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qualities and characteristics: one consists of honey, another of oil, the third of wine and Gihon of milk.

Fig. 3.2. Pilgrims at Gish Abay.

When these rivers are flowing on earth, they do not carry these divine substances. Instead, the holy waters appear as clear and normal water. According to the priests of Gish Abay, when Jesus was born, all the earthly counterparts of these divine rivers assumed their divine qualities for one day. The Gihon River turned into milk, hence its name Milk Abay. The day after Jesus’ birth, all the divine rivers reverted to their earthly characteristics, namely normal, clear and holy water. The other story is about the introduction of Christianity to this area, the miracles of Zerabruk and why the Nile is called the Abay and its source Gish Abay. Abune Zerabruk was born of Kidus Deme Christos (father) and Kidist Mariam Mogessa (mother) at the end of the 8th century AD. Kidus and Kidist literarily connote the male and female variants of the term ‘blessed.’ Before his birth, one of his forefathers is said to have foretold that a man would be born from his seventh generation in the maternal line who with his prayers and sacrifices would save the world.

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Zerabruk was a man of religious character from his early days. At about the age of seven, the abune prayed to God to blind him so he could not see the evil deeds of the secular world. Accordingly, he lost his vision for 12 years. From then on, the abune went to different places for religious education and eventually to monasteries. During this period, he is said to have performed a number of miracles and religious deeds. He also prayed for about 30 years at the source of the River Abay, which was to become Gish Abay. According to the legend of the church, the abune received from God the power to cure people of their physical diseases and spiritual sins by using water. Before he could do so, he had to bless the Gish Abay stream in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. People using this water would also gain eternal life. Even people not yet baptised could be considered so from that time on, since they had used the water from Gish Abay, or Gihon, as the river was then called. Owing to his growing fame for his religious deeds and powers, the abune eventually faced difficulties with regional rulers. Prior to his stay near Abay/Gihon, he was forced to leave Tsima because of political resistance to his religious teachings. At Gish Abay, he was eventually arrested by the king’s soldiers. Before he was arrested, the abune stood at the source of Gihon River and prayed, and finally consigned his seven sacred books to the source of the river. It is also said that God told him to give the books to the river. He was imprisoned for five years, during which time destructive events were said to have occurred in the jail. As a result, the king released the abune. After two more years of teaching and preaching in different places, the abune finally returned to the source of Abay where he had left his books. The abune prayed intensively and devotedly to God and asked the river to bring forth the books he had given in to its custody when he was imprisoned. Gish means ‘bring forth,’ and when Zerabruk stood at the source of the Nile where he had deposited the sacred books seven years earlier, he called out gish. Then the river brought forth the books, which were undamaged after being hidden in the water. Surprised and pleased by the miracle, the abune asked his old disciple Aba Zerufael to behold the miracle. He said ‘Aba Eyi’ in Amharic, which means ‘Father, look,’ directing the disciple’s attention to the miracle of the undamaged books. ‘Aba Eyi’ became Abay, which is the Ethiopian name for the Blue Nile. Hence, the name of the holy river and in particular its source – Gish Abay – derives from this religious event. After this miracle, the river’s name changed from Gihon to Abay and the river got a masculine character,

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indicated by the term ‘Aba Eyi’ – ‘Father, look.’ Lobo later wrote that the natives called the Nile Abavi, ‘that is, the Father of Waters.’148

Fig. 3.3. The stream, at its source, that later forms the Abay.

‘Abay’ normally implies greatness, strength and splendour, hence the river’s masculine association and status as a male river. However, in Geez, the old church language still in use, Abay may also connote ‘big’ or ‘great’ in terms of women or the feminine, or the quality of being a woman and hence motherhood and fertility. It can also be a female name and may indicate a girl as well as a woman, whereas Abei signifies a man or boy. Thus, after the miracles of Zerabruk, Abay acquired a particular etymology signifying ‘motherhood’ or the ‘feminine,’ and as a mother of her devotees, she is a life-giver providing wealth, prosperity and everything bountiful. Still, the feminine association is not the primary one, and the Blue Nile is first and foremost seen as masculine and as a male river. As Tafla argues, the Nile was simply the river or the father of rivers, and the Geez adjective ‘Abbawi’ means ‘fatherly.’ Ethiopian lexicographers believe that one reason the river is described as father is because it unites so many tributaries, like a father gathering together his

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children.149 One may also add that in the language of the Agows, gish means ‘dig,’ and thus Gish Abay becomes ‘Dig father.’ Gish Abay is believed to be the source of both secular and spiritual life. It is generally held that people who are baptised or sprinkled with water from the Gihon River in the name of the holy water of Abay/Ye Abay tsebel are cured of sins, sicknesses and misfortunes. This is because, the church claims, the abune once again prayed at Gihon for many years. On the behalf of the abune, it is believed that God bestowed all his mercy on up to 70 generations of the descendants of the devotees who used the water of this river and prayed at its source. Abune Zerabruk died at the age of 482 and was buried at Tsima Silasie, where he previously had prayed, healed and performed miracles. His seven sacred books have since his death been kept in the monastery at Gish Abay as most auspicious and sacred treasures. They are accessible to neither the public nor the monks. Today, only one living priest has seen them, and the books are still in perfect condition. Since the holy books are not accessible to anyone but of the utmost religious importance, the monastery sells an edited Amharic version of the sacred books, which the above account is partly based on. Thus, the river has a double religious, institutional function in the Christianity of this area (Fig. 3.3). The source of the river marked the birth of Jesus, and the miracles of Zerabruk coincided with the introduction of Christianity in this part of Ethiopia. Still, when Christianity was introduced here, people were reluctant to accept the new religion because they wished to continue to worship the river and its old spirit. The priests devised a compromise, and said that ‘we will believe in Abay again’ and ‘we will believe in Abay in the name of Jesus Christ.’ According to their version, they destroyed the former bad spirits in the river and the places where they lived. Henceforward, the river and the former beliefs associated with it were converted to Christianity, and the water worship continued in order to secure acceptance of Christianity as the new religion. The priests’ rationale for this stratagem was that if Christianity could first be established and institutionalised, the older pre-Christian beliefs and rituals could gradually be changed and displaced. The continuity of the older rituals conducted at Gish Abay has been pervasive. Next to the church of Zerabruk, where the water from the source forms the stream that later becomes the Nile, it was common to conduct sacrifices to the river, a tradition that has disappeared only in the last decade or so. Devotees praying to be healed of sickness and suffering would swing a chicken three times around their heads before throwing it into the river. Similarly, women praying for fecundity would pass a Bible

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three times around their heads. Today, following church practice, priests bless the water used by people and offer prayers in accordance with Orthodox teaching.

Fig. 3.4. St Mikael Church at Gish Abay.

Gish Abay is a major pilgrimage site. On the way to Gish Abay there is a small church where pilgrims and devotees give money either en route to the source or on their return. It is not only local people who attend the services at the source to collect and be blessed by the holy water, but pilgrims from all over the country. The most important festival, attracting the most pilgrims, is the holy day of Zerabruk, which falls on 13 January (Ethiopian calendar). The main ceremony takes place in St. Mikael Church, which houses the arks of both Michael and Zerabruk (Fig. 3.4). The service starts early in the morning. St Mikael’s is located on the upper hill, from where the devotees, after attending the church services and praying, descend the slope to the source of the Blue Nile. Within a small compound there are two churches. The source itself is located in the small church named after Zerabruk. However, the real source is also believed to be another church, just a few metres away but at a slightly higher elevation. To this church only priests

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are given admittance, but it is the Zerabruk Church that is generally perceived to be the most important.

Fig. 3.5. The holy water is blessed by priests at Manbebya Kifle Church.

Before approaching the source, the devotees must be in a pure condition, despite the fact they will use the holy water to cleanse themselves of impurities and sins. If a person brings impurity to the source, this is a triple sin. First, if a person defiles the holiness, he is desecrating God; second, as a consequence, God will punish the person not only in another existence, but possibly in the form of an accident such as a snake bite that will endanger his own life; and finally, desecrating the source reduces its holiness for other devotees who will then be less purified by the holy water. Therefore, the implications of bringing impurity to the holy water are not restricted to the relationship between God and the sinner, but also to the community of Christians who believe in the divine powers of Gish Abay. In practice, this means that everyone who approaches the source has to have fasted, not for many days, but by eschewing breakfast or any food on the day of the visit. Moreover, the source is only accessible to Christians, meaning Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, and anyone who is not a Christian will by their very presence pollute the holy water. Finally, wearing shoes is also a source of

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contamination and all those are entering the sanctuary to take the full ablution are barefooted. While some pilgrims take full ablution, others queue in front of the church with plastic bottles and cans. Devotees taking the full ablution and ritual baths at the source within the church do not need the assistance of priests or monks. There are two entrances to the source, each covered by a cloth. Women use the left entrance and men the right. Depending upon the devotees’ circumstances, the purification process may be felt as an exorcism of evil spirits from the body. On one occasion, a woman screamed out loudly several times ‘I am burning!’ as the water chased the evil out of her. Thus, the water has the power to cast out evil spirits and demons if devotees truly believe it has this capacity. Devotees wanting to collect holy water for later use do not have direct access to the source. Church attendants and assistants fill the bottles and cans, which are later blessed by priests. After the devotees have collected the water or taken full ablutions within the church, everyone proceeds to the Manbebya Kifle Church, literally meaning ‘reading room.’ Here, preaching and the blessing of the water take place (Fig. 3.5). The water is holy in itself, but when it is blessed by the priests it acquires additional holiness. The blessing takes place after a priest has preached about moral decay and degeneration among people and in society and that the only hope for salvation is believing in God and following the righteous Christian path. When the priest has finished, devotees give him money and collect their bottles and cans of holy water, which are then collectively blessed and rendered even more holy than before. Then the people are blessed by priests who sprinkle water on their torsos, which are partly uncovered. These rituals and procedures take place each morning, but on Sundays, when people have more time and do not have to work, the sermons are longer. The holy water is healing and life-giving, and cleanses devotees of sins and any kind of sickness or malignance. After drinking the water, the effects may be immediate, but it may also take days, months and even years before the prayers are fulfilled. As already noted, the effects of the holy water are not limited to the actual pilgrims praying at Gish Abay, but may work miracles for their descendants up to 70 generations. The holy water is also given to pilgrims or devotees unable to come to Gish Abay, for instance people living close to the Sudanese border and even further afield.

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Dr Beke and Major Cheesman at the source As mentioned above, very little ethnographic research has been done into the rituals, beliefs and traditions along the Blue Nile. Among the few who visited Gish Abay and documented the ritual practices and beliefs there were Beke and Cheesman. Charles T. Beke visited the source of the Blue Nile twice in 1842, and he was the first to scientifically document the course of that river. More importantly from our perspective, he gives important descriptions of the source and the ritual practices conducted at that time. His first visit to Gish Abay was on 26 March. About five yards distance from the principal source, he was shown another source. He asked about a third source, but was told no other sources existed. Of particular interest are the rituals that took place: On questioning my guides as to the celebration of religious ceremonies, they scorned the idea of their performing anything of the sort, being Christians; but they admitted that yearly in the month of Hedár, or Tahsás (about the end of November), after the rainy season, and when the ground is sufficiently dry to allow it, an ox is slaughtered on the spot by the neighbouring Shum, and its blood is allowed to flow into the spring, its flesh being eaten on the ground. I could not learn that any particular ceremonies accompany this act. Also at the close of the Abyssinian year (the beginning of September), on the eve of St John, sick persons are brought hither and left for seven days, which they say ensures their recovery. Logs of wood have from time to time been laid around the source to serve as a bed for these sick visitants … These practices are evidently remains of a higher degree of veneration paid to the spot at a period when the inhabitants of the country were not converted to Christianity.150

This syncretic practice is worth emphasis. As indicated, chickens have been offered to the source until recently, and sacrifices of oxen take place along the Abay today even among Christians and Muslims. Beke returned to Gish Abay on 23 December in quite different circumstances. Due to the unusual amount of rain, the whole area was saturated and he constantly sank up to his ankles in mud. Upon his arrival he sent for a priest, who told him that the church was known by three names; A’shihi St Michael, Abái minch (source) St Michael and Gíesh St Michael. The priest had brought his cross from the church, and with this he blessed the water before Beke could drink it. ‘On my inquiring what form of words he used, he was reluctant to answer. I asked, “Do you say, In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?” “Yes.” “Nothing else?”

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“Nothing else.” But this assertion is not to be relied on, and I may remark that I found him apparently averse to answer any questions.’151 Again, there were different perspectives on the qualities of the water and the rituals being conducted. ‘The slaughtering of cattle at the spring, [the priest] says, has ceased. Whilst the custom continued the head and horns of the beast were thrown into the source,’ Beke writes. He adds: ‘A countryman told me that it is customary to pour milk into the spring, in order to ascertain whether the person so doing will soon die or not. If it turns to blood, he will soon die; if it retains its natural colour, he will live.’ During Timkat the Ark from the neighbouring church was brought to the source and ‘much water is then consumed, without it having any effect on the level of the spring; and they said that if a 1000 people were to drink of it; it would still remain the same.’152 The length of the source was six feet and with a large rod Beke measured its depth. At seven feet and six inches he struck a stone, but was able to push past it through the mud a further eighteen inches or two feet. The priests and the countrymen, on the other hand, said the spring had no bottom, and that without the intervening mud and stones it would be possible to find a way through to the cave under Mount Gish.153 Major R.E. Cheesman made several trips to Lake Tana, his first two expeditions being in 1927 and 1929. In 1932-33 he was surveying the Lake Tana monasteries and his wife joined him at the source.154 When Cheesman visited Gish Abay, he inquired about Zerabruk. The church at Gish Abay is, as already noted, dedicated to both St Michael and Zerabruk. Some have suggested that the name Zerabruk was a corruption of Bruce’s name, for Bruce mentions only St Michael Gish in his book. The priests at Gish Abay, however, told Cheesman Zerabruk was a saint, but according to him, they had no idea who he was.155 However, Zerabruk has a specific meaning, and in Amharic zarburuk means ‘blessed seed.’156 It is interesting to note that in the 1930s the priests had no theological explanation regarding the origin and history of Zerabruk, which indicates that the process of Christianising this place has been very protracted and that combating the pre-Christian beliefs about the water-world has continued to this day. This is also evident in the perceptions of the dangers the water from the source represents. Moreover, Cheesman’s observations remind us of mythologies in the making, and that no religions are static and unchanging. Cheesman received holy water from a priest, but when the latter learned he had already eaten that day, he insisted that Cheesman had to wait until the next day and drink the water before breakfast. The water, it is held, loses its healing power if it is taken after food, but more

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importantly, it can be deadly. Several people who had ignored this warning and drunk the holy water after a meal had died. Similarly, when Cheesman visited the source with his wife in 1933, the priests took them to the spring. When she touched the water with the end of her stick, the surrounding pilgrims shouted: ‘Don’t let her touch it, she is a woman.’ She asked the priest what evil would befall her if she bathed in the spring, and he replied, ‘You would die.’157 When Cheesman inquired about the history of the church, a priest and several of his parishioners agreed that it was founded in the reigns of Yohannes Kadus or John the Holy (John I, 1667-82), and that the Ark came from Gonder. Apparently, the church was built using money donated by a woman named Bujet from Gonder. Her mother Iniya had brought Bujet to Gish to drink the water from the spring in the hope she would be cured of complaints her doctor could not relieve. Bujet recovered and fell in love with the chieftain of Sakala, whom she married, and refused to return to Gonder. Subsequent to Cheesman, there are no other references to Bujet or Iniya, but near Gish there is a small tributary to the Abay called the Bugeta, which may commemorate Bujet and her marriage.158

Bruce at Gish Abay in 1770 Although Bruce’s description is a child of its time in terms of his vivid language and style, he gives a good account of the rituals and beliefs. Based on Beke’s narrative and the ethnography we documented of Woyto indigenous practices (see chapter six), together with information about other sacrifices of oxen, the rituals Bruce describes seem to have been common. It is, however, easy to see why he became distrusted back in Britain when he told of these sacrifices and banquets where meat was eaten raw. But first, a description of the source. The water from these fountains is very light and good, and perfectly tasteless; it was at this time most intensely cold, though exposed to the mid-day sun without shelter, there being no trees nor bushes nearer it than the cliff of Geesh on its south side, and the trees that surround Saint Michael Geesh on the north, which, according to the custom of Abyssinia, is, like other churches, planted in the midst of a grove.159

When Bruce approached the bog where the sources arise, he had to take off his shoes. ‘We were allowed to drink the water, but make no other use of it. None of the inhabitants of Geesh wash themselves, or their cloaths, in the Nile, but in a stream that falls from the mountain of Geesh down into the plain.’160 Bruce gives great attention to the importance and

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holiness of the Nile and its source, in particular to the cult of sacrificing oxen. The source itself is called ‘God of Peace,’ indicating the particular holiness of this spot. The Agows of Damot pay divine honour to the Nile; they worship the river, and thousands of cattle have been offered, and still are offered, to the spirit supposed to reside at its source … all the tribes … meet annually at the source of the river, to which they sacrifice, calling it by the name of the God of Peace.161

The ox sacrifices are then described. ‘Upon the rock in the middle of this plain, the Agows used to pile up the bones of the beasts killed in sacrifice, mixing them with billets of wood, after which they set them on fire. This is now discontinued, or rather transferred to another place near the church, as they are at present indulged in the full enjoyment of their idolatrous rites, both under Fasil and Michael.’162 There seems to have been a relationship between the star Sirius and the rituals, which may have origins going back to the Ancient Egyptians. In the Egyptian religion, the Nile was believed to start rising with the helical rising of Sirius. If there is a connection between these belief systems, it may indicate that knowledge of the annual flood coming from the Blue Nile and that the river’s source was in Abyssinia must be very old. This is, of course, only – albeit tempting – speculation. It might just be a coincidence that two different water cosmologies – one at the headwaters in Ethiopia and the other at the outlet of this mighty river in Cairo and the Delta in Egypt – used the same astrological marker in the major rituals along the same river. It is upon the principle fountain and altar, already mentioned, that once ayear, on the first appearance of the dog-star, (or, as others say, eleven days after) this priest assembles the heads of the clans; and having sacrificed a black heifer that never bore a calf, they plunge the head of it into this fountain, they then wrap it up in its own hide, so as no more to be seen, after having sprinkled the hide within and without with water from the fountain. The carcase is then split in half, and cleaned with extraordinary care; and, thus prepared, it is laid upon the hillock over the first fountain, and washed all over with its water, while the elders, or considerable people, carry water in their hands joined (it must not be in any dish) from the two other fountains; they then assemble upon the small hill a little west of St Michael, (it used to be the place where the church now stands) there they divide the carcase into pieces corresponding to the number of the tribes.163

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The Christians opposed these rituals in vain, as is evident from Beke’s descriptions of the same sacrifices at a later date. Following Bruce: After having ate this carcase raw, according to their custom, and drunk the Nile water to the exclusion of any other liquor, they pile up the bones on the place where they fit, and burn them to ashes. This used to be performed where the church now stands, but [the missioners] demolished their altar where the bones were burnt, and built a church upon the site.164

Bruce’s descriptions of raw meat being eaten shocked the Europeans back home and furnished his critics with arguments to discredit his integrity, although raw beef is seen as a delicacy in Ethiopia. After they have finished their bloody banquet, they carry the head, close wrapt from sight in the hide, into the cavern … The Abyssinians have a story, probably created by themselves, that the devil appears to them, and with him they eat the head, swearing obedience to him upon certain conditions, that of sending rain, and a good season for their bees and cattle: however this may be, it is certain that they pray to the spirit residing in the river, whom they call the Everlasting God, Light of the World, Eye of the World, God of Peace, their Saviour, and Father of the Universe.165

The dual nature of the river Bruce describes is of importance, and has survived to today, as will be evident in the later ethnographic account of the river, the waterfalls at Tis Abay and the indigenous Woyto. The river represented both God and the Devil, in particular when the rain failed – often attributed to the malignant powers in the river – and sacrifices were made during rainmaking rituals for securing the life-giving waters. As noted earlier, when Bruce made numerous toasts to the world’s dignitaries when he first arrived at the source, his assistant Strates was reluctant to partake of the waters because of their associations with malignant powers and indeed the Devil. On the other hand, the divinities who procure rain and the life-giving waters are seen as benevolent and divine. ‘Our landlord, the Shum [priest of the river], made no scruple of reciting his prayers for seasonable rain, for plenty of grass, for the preservation of serpents, at least of one kind of this reptile; he also deprecated thunder in these prayers, which he pronounced very pathetically with a kind of tone or song; he called the river “Most High God, Saviour of the World”.’166 Bruce then asked the Shum or river priest what the spirit looked like. He said he was of a very graceful figure and appearance; he thought rather older than middle age; but he seldom chose to look at his face; he had a long white beard, his cloaths not like theirs, of leather, but like silk, of the

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fashion of the country. I asked him how he was certain it was not a man? He laughed, or rather sneered, shaking his head, and saying, No, no, it is no man, but a spirit. I asked him then what spirit he thought it was? He said it was of the river, it was God, the Father of mankind.167

This duality between good and evil powers associated with the water divinity was also emphasised by the river priest: ‘I then decided to know why he prayed against thunder. He said, because it was hurtful to the bees, their great revenue being honey and wax: then, why he prayed for serpents? he replied, Because they taught him the coming of good or evil.’168 These latter were directly related to the life-giving waters in the forms of rain and river. When Bruce and Strates were leaving, they were encouraged to take care of this river god. ‘I took my leave of Kefla Abay, the venerable priest of the most famous river in the world, who recommended me with great earnestness to take care of his god, which, as Strates humorously enough observed, meant nothing less than he hoped the devil would take me.’169 The duality in the forces in the Abay, with both benevolent and malevolent characteristics and capacities, is also seen in other beliefs along the river.

Father Lobo at the springs Father Lobo also described the annual sacrifice: On the top of this mountain is a little hill which the idolatrous Agaus have in great veneration; their priest calls them together at this place once a year, and having sacrificed a cow, throws the head into one of the springs of the Nile; after which ceremony, every one sacrifices a cow or more, according to their different degrees of wealth or devotion. The bones of these cows have already formed two mountains of considerable height, which afford a sufficient proof that these nations have always paid their adorations to this famous river. They eat these sacrifices with great devotion, as flesh consecrated to their deity. Then the priest anoints himself with the grease and tallow of the cows, and sits down on a heap of straw, on the top and in the middle of a pile which is prepared; they set fire to it, and the whole heap is consumed without any injury to the priest, who while the fire continues harangues the standers by, and confirms them in their present ignorance and superstition. When the pile is burnt, and the discourse at an end, every one makes a large present to the priest, which is the grand design of this religious mockery.170

The Portuguese were horrified by the Abyssinians and their Christian practices. In Lobo’s words: ‘The Christianity professed by the Abyssins is

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so corrupted with superstitions, errors, and heresies, and so mingled with ceremonies borrowed from the Jews, that little besides the name of Christianity is to be found here.’171

The holy and dangerous Abay Tsebel is the Amharic word for holy water, and those who speak the language say Ye Abay Tsebel – the holy water of Abay. The water that flows from Gish Abay is seen as holy when it runs into Lake Tana, because it comes from the very source of Gish Abay. However, holiness is not a static phenomenon but dependent on different variables and factors. The Nile is most holy during the Ethiopian spring (the Northern autumn), because of natural features appearing in the rainy season. In August and September, natural springs appear in the hill areas from the heavy rains in Lake Tana’s drainage area. These springs suddenly arise seemingly by themselves and they produce fresh, clear water, which is believed to be of particular holiness and possess special healing powers. Later, during the Ethiopian autumn, these springs dry up as the rains diminish. Since these springs drain into Lake Tana and the Blue Nile, Abay is at its most holy in September, which coincides with the New Year celebrations. The water from these springs in particular and from the Blue Nile in general, including Lake Tana, is believed to be holy and have healing powers. When people are sick with skin diseases, pains and stomach problems, they drink the holy water and sprinkle or pour it on the injured parts. The belief in the curative powers of the Nile water is so strong that many people prefer the holy water to seeking medical care from doctors and hospitals. The underlying reason for this is that sickness and calamities are seen as a punishment from God, and it is preferable to be cured by using his own medium, in this case, the water. Among Christian priests and laymen, the outlet from Lake Tana where the main Nile starts is not ascribed particular holiness, but, although all water is holy, the waters of the Nile are believed by many people to be holier than other types, since they stem from Gish Abay. And Gish Abay’s water is most holy since it originates in heaven. The entrance of the Abay into to Lake Tana is called Chimba, and from there the water changes character. Lake Tana is less holy, but the holiness increases in the Blue Nile beyond Kenferu Abay, which is the name of the mouth of the Milk Abay River into Lake Tana (Fig. 3.6). The reason for this change in holiness, or the way in which the water of the Nile preserves its holiness, is because, they say, the water of the Abay does not mix with the water in the lake. This claim has a hydrological explanation as well: the Nile flows

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more or less in one stream in Lake Tana from Milk Abay to north of Dek Island, which is the largest island in Lake Tana, and then southwards to the outlet. Thus, among people living in this region there is a general belief that the water in Lake Tana is less holy and of lesser importance than the water of the Abay. Other priests in the Tana region, however, claim that all water is equally holy, whether it be in rivers, lakes or in the form of rain. The holy character of all water types has its origin in the Bible and John the Baptist’s baptism of Jesus. This act was no coincidence, but a ritual that took place, according to the priests, on Jesus’ command. Thus, holiness is found in all kinds of water, and St Rufael has also given the water spiritual power (see the New Year’s festival, chapter five). Lastly, there are priests and monks who believe that the water of Lake Tana is of the utmost holiness.

Fig. 3.6. Milk Abay or the Little Abay, which flows into Lake Tana.

There are a number of historical reasons for this. In particular, the monastic churches on the islands and peninsulas of Lake Tana firmly believe in the holiness of the water and the lake (see chapter four). Numerous ceremonies take place along the Abay and the shores of Lake Tana. Along the Milk Abay, on New Year’s Day devotees milk a

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cow at the riverbed. Some of the milk is sprinkled in the Nile with wishes for a prosperous New Year. The rest is not brought back, but drunk by the river as part of a meal consisting of kita, an unfermented bread, together with butter and red pepper. The farmers living beside the Milk Abay also perform sacrifices to the river. Although the church has prohibited this practice, oxen, sheep and chickens are sacrificed. The offerings are mainly made in May and June before the rainy season starts, and the farmers pray to God that the river will bring rain. Rain comes from heaven where the Gihon has its origin, and thus sacrificing and praying to the river is intended to ensure a successful rainy season. The main sacrificial day is 12 June, the Day of St Mikael. This is when the river starts rising and the water flow becomes powerful: as such, the day symbolises the beginning of the wet season. The people make sacrifices and pray to the river god to have mercy on their children and to give justice. Normally a sheep is sacrificed to the river, but chicken are also common, and occasionally oxen are offered. After the animal’s throat is cut, the head is immersed in the river. A little later, the animal is pulled back after all its blood has been given to the river and not touched the ground. The spirit in the river has drunk all the blood. The church condemns this practice as pagan and ‘as sacrifices to the bad spirits.’ Those who conduct the sacrifices do not, however, see their actions as anti-Christian. They exclaim: ‘Ye Gihon Qole give justice,’ ‘Ye Gihon Qole have mercy,’ and in particular they ask the god to have mercy on their children. Qole is a god or spirit, and the people make promises to the river to behave righteously before they sacrifice and ask Qole for mercy and justice. In this region, Muslims also worship the Milk Abay. According to the Muslims, there are 40 major and divine rivers, but only four are visible on earth, the others being subterranean. The river Gihon of Christianity is called Mil in the Koran and they are identical. Thus, according to the Muslims, their divine river Mil has its origin at Gish Abay. The river is worshipped because it comes from the source of heaven, and Allah has given the water holy and healing powers. Although Muslims are denied access to the very source at Gish Abay, since the source is blessed by the abune and the Orthodox Church, they pray to Allah for mercy and ask for health, prosperity and welfare. If their wishes are granted, they may make sacrifices to the Milk Abay and the animals sacrificed are eaten along the riverside. As with the Christians, the Muslim authorities forbid this practice, but local people along the Milk Abay nevertheless continue their old traditions. They believe that the river spirit blesses them with fortune and prosperity, and they associate the Abay with heaven.

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The area through which the Milk Abay runs is called Wotet Ber, which means the Gate of Milk. Since this water is believed to come from heaven, it is always perceived as clean, even during the flood period, when silt changes the colour of the river from clear blue to red-brownish: physical changes in the character of the Blue Nile have no consequence for its holiness and people prefer to drink from it rather than from other sources of water. When a dam was built for irrigation in this area and the water was cleansed, it was not used for drinking but only for agriculture on account of the strong beliefs with regard to the qualities of the freeflowing Milk Abay. For practical reasons, however, people nowadays drink water from groundwater pumps. The perceptions that the Abay is holy shape not only religious practices, but also people’s daily activities, beliefs and uses of water. The river’s holiness creates a religious topography of practices and the religious role of the Nile takes many forms. It is believed that if a person has sinned and been punished by God, or if other people have brought down evil on that person, he can by crossing the Abay to another area free himself of the malignance, whether it is inflicted by God or other humans. Crossing the Nile has special significance. For instance, when a bus crosses the river, passengers make small sacrifices by throwing fruit or similar items into the waters. The river is also a symbol of identity and culture. Once, after three or four young men had taken a bath in the Abay, they exclaimed that the river was a ‘marvellous gift from God.’ This was not worship of the water spirit or the Christian God as such, but a personal perception of the greatness of the river. Although the practical benefits of the river may be limited, the mightiness and splendour of the river is a symbol of identity and source of pride. In villages along the Blue Nile there are beliefs that if humans have sinned and disobeyed God’s laws, they will be punished by being denied access to the life-giving waters of the river. According to some beliefs, the way this happens is that a snake with a misshapen head violently stirs the river so the sinners cannot come close to the shore and fetch water. Being physically prevented access to the river is seen as a penalty for sinful misconduct. Thus, the snake appears and disturbs the water when people are ‘unclean,’ such as menstruating women or couples who have had sexual intercourse. Similarly, where there is too much or too little water or there are other forms of collective punishment by God such as disease and disaster, it is believed that something in the community has gone wrong, and the people offer a communal prayer. God uses the power of water as a forceful, moral

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medium and, thus, water can be both a grace and, when it comes at the wrong time or not in the right amount, a curse. Thus, on one hand, the holiness of the water in the Abay was not only believed to have healing effects, but it could also relieve the effects of excommunication.172 On the other, the Abay waters were also fraught with danger and could represent the Devil himself. The famous Ethiopian writer Haddis Alamayyahu has described the dangers of crossing the Abay before the construction of the road and bridge at Gojjam: The Abbay was not one death, but rather a place where a host of deaths settled, where a multitude of sufferings and affliction rested. There was none who could number those who met their deaths within a year being carried away by the current of Abbay, eaten up by crocodiles, murdered by outlaws, stung by serpents … More dreadful than the deaths and sufferings converging in the Abbay was the rumour … the Abbay became as terrifying as hell when these stories spread by their inventors who exaggerated them a thousand times … [Traders and travellers] prayed to God so they might go across in safety, and where they made their wills…173

The Abay was believed to be the abode of mighty spirits – both good and evil. Visiting Tis Abbay around midday was dangerous because the spirits were most active at that time, and when Bruce visited the waterfalls, he had to take off his shoes because the place was holy.174 Even some monks believe that the spirit of Abay may be dangerous and take lives. If someone drowns in the Abay, particularly if the corpse is not recovered, it is believed that the bad spirit – called gin in Ahmaric – has taken the person.

Tis Abay When Father Lobo saw the waterfalls (Fig. 3.7), he did not refer to them as Tis Abay and he writes: Fifteen miles farther, in the land of Alata, it rushes precipitately from the top of a high rock, and forms one of the most beautiful water-falls in the world: I passed under it without being wet; and resting myself there, for the sake of the coolness, was charmed with a thousand delightful rainbows, which the sunbeams painted on the water in all their shining and lively colours. The fall of this mighty stream from so great a height makes a noise that may be heard to a considerable distance; but I could not observe that the neighbouring inhabitants were at all deaf. I conversed with several, and was as easily heard by them as I heard them. The mist that rises from this fall of water may be seen much farther than the noise can be heard. After

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this cataract the Nile again collects its scattered stream among the rocks, which seem to be disjoined in this place only to afford it a passage.175

Nor did Bruce describe the waterfalls as Tis Abay, but as the noble cataract of Alata.176 The cataract itself was the most magnificent sight that ever I beheld … The river, through swelled with rain, preserved its natural clearness, and fell, as far as I could discern, into a deep pool, or bason, in the solid rock, which was full, and in twenty different eddies to the very foot of the precipice, the stream, when it fell, seeming part of into run back with great fury upon the rock … in a noise like the loudest thunder, to make the solid rock (at least as to sense) shake to its very foundation, and threaten to tear every nerve to pieces, and to deprive one of [the] other senses besides that of hearing. It was the most magnificent sight, that ages, added to greatest length of human life, would not deface or eradicate from my memory; it struck me with a kind of stupor, and total oblivion of where I was, and of every other sublunary concern.177

These ‘smoking waters’ have always fascinated visitors who come to the waterfalls, and the common understanding of ‘Tis Abay’ – ‘smoking waters’ – is that it refers to these cascades. However, villagers at Tis Abay give another story about why the place is so named. This may help to explain why Lobo and Bruce did not refer to the waterfalls as Tis Abay, since the name is more recent. According to elders currently living in the village, the earlier name of the area was Genji, but that changed following an event that took place more than a century ago. The Abo Monastery, named after the Egyptian Abune Gebre Menfes Kidus, was located close to the village of Tis Abay in an area covered by dense forest. Annually, three major ceremonies were held in the monastery, which took place on 5 July, 5 October and 5 March (Ethiopian calendar), and were attended by pilgrims from neighbouring villages. According to the elders in Tis Abay, after the July ceremony in 1898, pilgrims from the other villages asked how they could establish whether those living in Tis Abay had survived the summer and whether there would be a ceremony in October. Heavy rain and landslides made the area dangerous and summers can be a difficult and hazardous time. The villagers from Tis Abay answered that if everything had gone well and they had all survived through July and August, they would light a huge fire to indicate that the October ceremony would proceed. The fire would create dense smoke – tis – that would serve as the signal. In due course, the fire was lit close to the Abay and so the village came to be called Tis Abay.

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Fig. 3.7. The waterfalls and ‘the smoking waters’ – Tis Abay.

Thus, the ‘smoking waters’ do not refer to the waterfall, but to the villagers’ promise to signal their survival through the summer and to confirm the holding of the next ceremony. This is what gave rise to the name of the village, and since the waterfall is close to the village, it was also named Tis Abay. Therefore, as the elders stressed, the name Tis Abay was not taken from the waterfall, but the other way around. It is particularly intriguing that there seem to be no important religious beliefs associated with the waterfall itself. Despite the power and roar of the falling water, these physical characteristics have not been afforded special religious significance. Or, as the elders say, it is the same water above the fall as below, and the holy Abay and the heavenly Gihon are identical. There is, however, one important Christian association with the falls. During the summer rains the water in the river is full of silt and mud. Although the water is clear in the months from January onwards, the amount of water is very small. From October to January, on the other hand, there is an abundance of clear water, which makes a wonderful rainbow, in particular from around 09h00 to 11h00am. This is called Yemariam mekenet, the Virgin Mary’s scarf, similar to the scarves women

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in their traditional folk costumes tie around their hips. This relates directly to Noah’s fear and destiny after the deluge. The sinful acts of humanity prompted God’s wrath, and all animals and humans not aboard the Ark were killed with boiling water. When the water receded, Noah was fearful of leaving the Ark since God had shown no hesitation in killing everything and everyone. He said to God that humans cannot be free from sin and will commit sins in future, and then they will become extinct again through the boiling water. God answered that he repented the act and would never extinguish humanity again, and as a sign of the promise and the new covenant with his children a rainbow appeared. The rainbow was made in the name of Virgin Mary, who is above all other women in the world. Today, the colours in the Ethiopian flag, red, yellow and green, are also seen as symbolising this covenant and the rainbow of St Mary. And, as already noted, the Abay itself is seen as the heavenly Gihon and is consequently of utmost holiness. When the life-giving rains do not appear on time and drought threatens society and prosperity, rainmaking prayers are made. Today, this is a collective practice performed in the church, with the priest and laity praying for rain together. Although it is not a Christian practice, after the prayers the laity may sacrifice an immature, not sexually active male calf, which is pure and clean. The sacrifice does not take place within the church compound, but may occur directly outside. Along the river, the villagers of Tis Abay have made lavish sacrifices to Gihon. Animals such as young male calves, sheep and chickens, together with beer and honey and other drinks have been offered. When they are making such sacrifices, some may give everything to the Abay, while others prepare the sacrificed animals for a meal. Although this tradition still takes place, nowadays it is declining and the church campaigns against it because it is seen as the worship of bad spirits – bad amleko. It seems reasonable to interpret the sacrifices to Gihon as syncretic practices whereby older non-Christian beliefs have been incorporated into Christianity. As the elders stressed, the sacrifices to Abay were not primarily to the Christian God but to the dangerous and evil spirits in the river which could otherwise cause great harm and danger. In sacrificing to the bad amleko, people avoided malignance and prayed for wealth and prosperity for farms, fields and families. Aganent – or the Devil – can live anywhere, but this particular bad spirit lives primarily in the waters of the Abay. People distinguish between two types of devils. On one hand, they make sacrifices to the bad spirit in the river, which seems to have an independent existence, hoping that he will not bring suffering to the people. On the other, there co-exists a belief

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that God has allowed the Devil particular powers that may harm people who disobey God’s laws and will. The consequences of failing to make the sacrifices are severe and may in the end be fatal, not only by the suffering that may be inflicted upon a household, but also upon the sacrificer himself. It is common for people to be taken by the river and to drown, and it is particularly believed that those who worship the river but do not perform the sacrifice or ritual will be taken by Aganent. Certain signs indicate whether a person has been taken by the unpropitiated bad spirit. If a person drowns in the river by mere accident during the flood, the corpse will disappear forever. If a person is taken by Aganent, this spirit will suck the blood from the victim through the nose, and when the body is empty of blood, he will return it exactly three days after the person’s disappearance in the river. Apart from those who have been taken by Aganent, there is no particular fate associated with drowning such as going either to heaven or hell. It is not only those who fail to make proper sacrifices to the Abay who may be in danger of the bad spirits in the river. Particularly at noon and throughout the night are the bad spirits thought to be active. For people to be close to the river, especially if alone, is seen as highly dangerous, since the bad spirits may attack people, causing sickness and pain, or may harm family prosperity. Thus, traditionally people have been reluctant to be close to Abay at these inauspicious and dangerous times. As they said, this would be like leaving a vulnerable donkey alone at night among hyenas. As noted earlier, there are three periods in the year when the main sacrifices of animals to Abay take place. These are the months of June, October and January. In addition, sacrifices are made on New Year’s day, 1 September. They can be offered at any spot along the Abay, and with the exception of Gish Abay, no particular places are holier than others, including Tis Abay. The spring at Gish Abay flows from the east and Paradise and it is the same water along the length of the river. Even so, one of the preferred places for conducting sacrifices is along the shore of Abay just above the current dam (Fig. 3.8), but this seems to be more a matter of convenience and closeness to the village than of particular holiness. Thus, the construction of the dam with the consequent reduction of water throughout much of the year has not altered beliefs about the Abay and the holiness of the river. The river has the same cultural and religious significance since it is the very same water that runs from Gish Abay. Still, Lake Tana itself is perceived in distinct ways, as is revealed by some of the most important island monasteries.

Abay: The Blue Nile from its Source to the Waterfalls

Fig. 3.8. A sacrificial site along the Abay just above the waterfalls.

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Christianity in the Lake Tana Region It is generally held that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which was established in the Axumite state during the reign of Ezana, did not suffer persecution during its expansion. This conclusion is, however, not entirely correct and one may rather argue the opposite. There is substantial evidence that the process of Christianisation encountered strong local opposition and hostile sentiment. The pre-Christian religions were strong, and the Nine Saints in their time faced considerable opposition. These hostile attitudes seem to have increased after the decline of Axumite power, and when the church spread further southward, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, it ran into huge difficulties.178 Many different religious practices existed at the time, with people worshipping the sky, springs, rivers, lakes, hills, trees and fire. As late as the mid-15th century, there were also references to the probable earlier practice of human sacrifice. Traditional African priests had comprehensive powers and controlled all natural phenomena: rain and drought, famine and epidemic, good and evil.179 The Tana region was the political and religious centre of the Christian empire in the period between the collapse of the Zagwe dynasty in the late 13th century and the establishment of Gonder as the permanent capital in the early 17th century. In this period, the Lake Tana monasteries played a fundamental role (Fig. 4.1). In late-medieval Ethiopia, there were two major phases of the spread of Christianity in the central highlands. The first phase is associated with the rule of Amda-Seyon (1314-44). Before this time, Christianity was in a weak position and the small isolated communities were dependent on the mercy of local chiefs. The Christians faced persecution, churches were burnt down and entire Christian villages were destroyed. Church communities in the south had little hope of military assistance from the Christian kings to the north, but this changed dramatically during the reign of Amda-Seyon.180

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Amda-Seyon has been seen as a defender of the church and a champion of its expansion. His local chiefs were obliged to protect priests and monks within their districts, but this does not mean there was no opposition to the Christians.

Fig. 4.1. Lake Tana seen from Tana Kirkos.

Numerous reports tell of monks being ambushed by militant groups, with heavy casualties. Even though non-Christians were defeated militarily, resistance to the new religion remained strong. The conflict between the religions was bitter, since Christian monks, protected by the king, insisted on building their churches on the sites of non-Christian sanctuaries, thus destroying the old sacred grounds. The non-Christian resistance was strongest in Gojjam, which was almost completely nonChristian until the beginning of the 15th century. The initial spread of Christianity into this region was most probably through the Tana Kirkos Monastery in Lake Tana, which seems to have been established in the Zagwe period (ca. 1137-1270). The monastery islands appear to have attracted many hermits at the beginning of the 14th century, but the Christian offensive and conquest took place with Amda-Seyon.181

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Protected by the Christian kings, the island monasteries in Lake Tana mounted evangelical initiatives on the mainland to the south, but the effects of the evangelisation were minor. This region was a non-Christian stronghold and the resistance was formidable. Even though the church had begun to make some headway in the region by the beginning of the 15th century, resistance remained strong, particularly among the Agaws. When Ahmad Gragn invaded Ethiopia in the first half of the 16th century, the Agaws joined the Muslims and inflicted considerable damage on the Christians of this region. Even as late as the 17th century, the church remained very weak in the Agaw region south and southwest of Lake Tana. In the process of making conversions from the traditional religion, Christian priests, on account of the strong opposition, did not require new converts to follow Christian religious practice strictly. Thus, former practices were not completely displaced, but continued to live on in the name of Christianity. However, this attempt to accommodate nonChristians – there is even one reference to the necessity of baptism being dispensed with – seems to have gone too far and threatened the very doctrinal foundations of the church. On one occasion, even the official preparations for Epiphany were subverted and the baptismal pool was demolished by indigenous people.182 Consequently, the adaptation to Christianity took many local forms without any central control or consent. The local distribution and character of the monasteries, together with the fact that the abun was from Egypt, meant that it was almost impossible to ensure doctrinal uniformity as Christianity spread throughout Ethiopia.183 The persistence of non-Christian strongholds prompted Emperor Zar’a-Ya’iqob (1434-68) to go so far as to decree that ‘if a Christian kills pagans, either with a spear or with another weapon ... he shall be a martyr, and the pagan whom he kills shall be considered for him as an offering to God ... Whoever kills pagans has committed no sins ... ’184 The reign of Zar’a-Ya’iqob represents the last stages of the second major phase of Christianising Ethiopia. The expansion of the church had taken place during the reigns of warrior kings such as Amda-Seyon and Yeshaq (141330), and therefore Zar’a-Ya’iqob’s main task was to consolidate Christian power in those regions that had been conquered. As part of this process, he aimed to abolish all sign of non-Christian practice and belief in the country, but the emperor was again faced with tremendous resistance.185 Calamities such as famines and epidemics have in Ethiopian Christian literature been seen as signs of the wrath of God, and they are often executed through intervention of Archangel Michael. For Almeida, the reasons for the calamities of 1634 were clear; ‘Pestilence, famines and

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wars are the ordinary scourges with which God punishes the Kingdoms which depart from the knowledge of Him, and, leaving His true faith and holy law, embrace falsehood and follow the wrong path of perdition.’186 The earliest records of famines and pestilence may go back to the 12th century, and in the 13th and 14th centuries several great famines were recorded and were seen as punishment by God. Failure to provide the means to celebrate St Michael would also evoke divine wrath.187 In a chronicle found in the church of Dabra Berhan Sellase at Gonder, it is stated that because of the death of Galawdewos (1540-169) ‘there was no rain for three years.’188 Divine wrath is a common theme in medieval and post-medieval times, and is also widely referred to by the Portuguese Jesuits. During times of famine and pestilence, when huge numbers of people died, the Jesuit priests were very busily occupied with baptising the halfdead to ensure them eternal life in heaven. Thomas Barnete, a Jesuit, claimed that during the plague in 1626 no less than 900 persons were baptised in three months, and he added that he had no time to rest because ‘great hunger’ and pestilence had hit the surrounding villages.189 The Jesuits put a lot of effort into baptising children who often died the same day, so they could go from hunger to the joy of heaven.190 Ganata Iyasus reports in 1627 that in a single day he baptised no less than 840, and 545 on another. Many of them died, some immediately after receiving the Holy Baptism.191 The Portuguese missionaries faced an immense task in trying to bring the Abyssinians to what they saw as the right Christianity. According to Father Lobo: Yet though there is a great difference between our manners, customs, civil government, and those of the Abyssins, there is yet a much greater in points of faith; for so many errors have been introduced and ingrafted into their religion, by their ignorance, their separation from the Catholic Church, and their intercourse with Jews, Pagans, and Mohammedans, that their present religion is nothing but a kind of confused miscellany of Jewish and Mohammedan superstitions, with which they have corrupted those remnants of Christianity which they still retain.192

Still, as Lobo observed: They are possessed with a strange notion that they are the only true Christians in the world; as for us, they shunned us as heretics, and were under the greatest surprise at hearing us mention the Virgin Mary with the respect which is due to her, and told us that we could not be entirely barbarians since we were acquainted with the mother of God. It plainly

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appears that prepossessions so strong, which receive more strength from the ignorance of the people, have very little tendency to dispose them to a reunion with the Catholic Church.193

As a consequence, the Portuguese Jesuits in Abyssinia were not successful as missionaries: the local people preferred their own Christianity and insisted on having a Coptic and not a Roman abun.194 Still, the presence of the Portuguese in Abyssinia linked Christianity from a European perspective with water and the Nile, although the main reason the Portuguese missionaries came to Ethiopia was not to search for the Nile’s sources, but for a mythological character.

The legendary and mysterious Abyssinia In Europe in the Middle Ages there were legends of a mysterious Christian kingdom believed to exist in Abyssinia under rule of the equally mysterious Prester John. He was known of before 1165, but a letter he allegedly sent that year made him famous. In this letter, which he sent to the Byzantine Emperor and which was forwarded to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, he describes himself as a Christian sovereign ruling in ‘India.’ The term ‘India’ meant nothing more than land lying to the east and for Europeans it applied to Eastern Africa as well as other parts in Asia (see p. 14). Prester John was thought to be a potential ally against the Muslims and figured in the plans of the Crusaders and later Portuguese expeditions.195 Father Lobo has this to say: This empire is known by the name of the kingdom of Prester-John. For the Portuguese having heard such wonderful relations of an ancient and famous Christian state called by that name, in the Indies, imagined it could be none but this of Aethiopia. Many things concurred to make them of this opinion: there was no Christian kingdom or state in the Indies of which all was true which they heard of this land of Prester-John: and there was none in the other parts of the world who was a Christian separated from the Catholic Church but what was known, except this kingdom of Aethiopia. It has therefore passed for the kingdom of Prester-John since the time that it was discovered by the Portuguese in the reign of King John the Second.196

Whereas the search for Prester John was unsuccessful, the Portuguese did make another and even more important discovery, the source of the Nile, whose whereabouts had haunted European emperors and explorers alike since the dawn of civilisation. Thus, in parallel with the Nile quest,

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Abyssinia itself has always been seen as a mysterious country. In 1868, Camden Hotten wrote: About no part of the habitable world has there been such prolonged misconception and ignorance as about the country of the Habese, or, as we style it, Abyssinia. To the classical writers it has been the land of monsters and terrors. To the learned of the Middle Ages it was the country of Prester John, – a land where the mountains were all of pure gold, and the children played at marbles with big diamonds, just as ours throw stone ones about. Men with long tails, ladies with two heads, and scores of other wonders were to be met with here. Even the Portuguese travelers who went there could only describe the country as either the most horrible and depraved, or the most beautiful and moral, which they have ever visited. It seems that there has always been something in the land which prevented a truthful estimate being formed of it.197

Abyssinia, with its myths and history, has fascinated Europeans for centuries. On the one hand, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, along with its long and rich traditions, the myths of Queen Sheba and the Ark of the Covenant, the role of Virgin Mary and the holiness of the Nile have combined to create the image of the mythical Abyssinia. On the other, the descriptions by the likes of Bruce of the elaborate sacrifices and the practice of eating raw meat disgusted European readers, but still nourished the idea of the mysterious Abyssinia. Today, the picture is of course different, but research into the cultural and religious traditions of the area has not been extensive. In 1932-33, Major Robert Cheesman was the first Westerner to visit all the islands of Lake Tana. As noted above, one of the most important monasteries in Lake Tana is Tana Kirkos. Before Christianity, Tana Kirkos was known as Debra Sahel, and it is believed there had been an Israelite period before the conversion to Christianity. Three stone pillars are held to have been used by Israeli priests as sacrificial altars. According to the mythology, Azarius, who was the son of the High Priest of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, accompanied the Ark when Menelik I took it from Jerusalem to Ethiopia. For 600 years before being taken to Axum it was placed in a tent. No church was built before the Ark had gone. This Ark was called Siyon (Zion), and another Ark, from Egypt, was called Michael and also brought to Lake Tana. There are no graves of these early emperors on the islands, but the grave of Azarius, who followed the Ark, is apparently there. The two kings Abreha and Asbeha, who reigned around 333 AD, founded the first church on the island.198 During our fieldwork, we visited the monasteries of Tana Kirkos and Daga Istafanos and documented other parts of the rich religious tradition

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of Lake Tana, with particular emphasis on the holiness of the water in the lake and the role it plays in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Tana Kirkos According to the monks at Tana Kirkos, the island became a religious centre in 4518 BC, and there are a number of pieces of evidence as to the holiness of this island. First, there is the presence of sacrificial stones, believed to have been used in Old Testament times when cows and calves were sacrificed (Figs. 4.2 & 4.3). Second, the Ark of the Covenant stayed at the very spot where the sacrificial pillars lie for up to 800 years before being transferred to Axum around 400 AD. Third, the first abune of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church – Abune Selama – baptised devotees at this place. Although Selama preached and worked in the 4th century, his presence on the island is seen as relating to older Old Testament practices. Fourth, St Yared – the first and the most famous Ethiopian composer of religious songs and hymns – wrote his greatest works on this island, apparently using a cup-mark engraving on one of the sacrificial stones to prepare the ink he used for writing. Fifth, the main church on the monastery island is differently constructed from the other churches in the region, and according to the monks it follows the same architectural plan as King Solomon’s Palace. Sixth, on the mountain rim where the sacrificial pillars and the evidence of the Holy Family are located, there are also nine invisible churches. Seventh, in a sacred museum are stored the Holy Books together with relics from the monastery’s history. Among the latter are the crowns of several kings, glass from Emperor Menelik and the metal cross used by Abune Selama. Finally, the Virgin Mary with her family, including Jesus and Joseph, spent three months and ten days on the island after they had fled from the persecution of Herod first to Egypt and then to Ethiopia. There are several items of physical evidence of their stay at the mountain rim where the sacrificial pillars and invisible churches are. One is a big stone bearing a mark believed to be the footprint of Jesus (Fig. 4.4).

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Fig. 4.2. The sacrificial stones that are believed to be of Old Testament origin.

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Fig. 4.3. The sacrificial stones.

Next to this stone there is a mark in poor condition on the mountain rim believed to be the footprint of St Mary. A little further away on the rim stands a small chapel covering marks on the ground held to be the traces from Mary’s dress when she rested there (Figs. 4.5 & 4.6). The material imprint of the Virgin Mary is the most sacred feature on the island,199 but all of these features together are of vital importance to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. They testify to and legitimise this island’s status as one of the oldest and greatest religious centres in Ethiopia, and for Christians bear witness to their salvation at the end of the world, or so the monks on the island believe. This long continuity and the tradition of sacrifices, ritual worship and praying have increased the holiness of this spiritual centre. In Old Testament times, the place of sacrifice was used for sacrifices of bullocks and cows, and sacrifices could only take place at this spot, otherwise devotees would be punished. There were two main reasons for sacrifices. It was believed that if a person had sinned grievously, God would punish the sinner directly and physically.

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Fig. 4.4. The footprint of Jesus.

Moreover, it was believed sinners would be marked with a sign on their skins and thus become alienated from their people and treated as an outcast. To repent and erase the sign, the sinner would make a sacrifice and give the blood to the cup-mark on the ‘stone chair,’ Ye dingie menber,

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one of the sacrificial pillars. Then, a fire would appear from the sky and usurp the blood, thereby signifying that the True God had received the sacrifice and that the sinner was cleansed of sin. In addition, any person could make a sacrifice even if they were not marked on the skin as a sinner. This practice continued until Abune Selama arrived in the 4th century and replaced the older Christian rituals with New Testament traditions. These sacrifices were different from those performed by indigenous groups to the Abay. The Christians at Tana Kirkos made sacrifices in the name of the True God whereas, according to the Christians, those sacrificing to the Abay did so in the name of the ‘bad spirit.’ The Christians making sacrifices were people of the Krubel – ‘messengers of God’ – who carried the spirit of God from the area where Jesus was born. In this light, one of the most significant religious events was the actual visit of Jesus with his family to the island, which also had implications for the perceived holiness of the water in Lake Tana. After the Virgin Mary, along with Jesus and her family, were persecuted by Herod in Jerusalem and fled to Egypt, she stayed in the mountainous desert for two years. One day Jesus pointed with his small finger towards Ethiopia, and when Mary asked what country that was, he said ‘Ethiopia.’ Then the Virgin Mary, Jesus and Joseph, together with Mary’s sister Salome, invisible saints and five lions started to walk from Egypt to Ethiopia. They passed through Eritrea on their way to Axum before they reached Waldiba, which is a monastery north of Gonder. The lions remained at this monastery when the rest of the group continued on their travels. From Waldiba they came to Tara Gedam, which is a monastery south of Gonder, before continuing southwards to Tana Dar and then Tana Ampa. At Tana Ampa, there is a stone imprint where St Mary rested awhile. The group continued to Gibtsawit Anbesamit Mariam in the Dera District, which Mary thought was similar to Egypt. They proceeded to Marefit Mariam monastery, located at the edge of Lake Tana near Rema, whence they crossed the lake by papyrus boat to Tana Kirkos. The island of Tana Kirkos was called Saf or Tsion, which are Old Testament or Jewish terms: the church in Axum, for instance, is called Axum Tsion. With the arrival of the Virgin Mary with her family, the island’s name was changed to Tana Kirkos. Jesus was five years old when they came to the island, where, as already noted, they stayed for three months and ten days.

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Fig. 4.5. The chapel with the traces of the Virgin Mary’s drapery.

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Fig. 4.6. The chapel on the mountain rim.

One day St Orael (Urael?) appeared and ordered them to return to Israel because Herod had died. St Mary, however, refused to leave the island and such a wonderful country where she had found safety and warm hospitality. In Israel, she had experienced war and Herod’s persecution and in Egypt she had suffered from hunger and thirst in the desert. By contrast, on Tana Kirkos she had enjoyed the peaceful and bountiful pleasures of the island. The saint, on the other hand, eventually convinced her that Jesus as the Son of God would come to teach the gospel to the people and in the end would be crucified and thereby take on humanity’s sins for their salvation. When St Mary was told about Jesus’ destiny and religious importance, she said ‘carry us’ and they were taken up in the clouds and transferred back to Egypt. When they left Ethiopia, they blessed the country, all parts of it – east, west, south and north – and that is how, according to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Ethiopia came to be mentioned in the Bible. In Ge’ez, tseane means ‘covered by,’ referring to the clouds on which Virgin Mary together with Jesus, Joseph and their followers were carried on their divine flight back to Egypt. The clouds carried the group in secret to Debra Qusquam Monastery in Egypt, whence they continued to

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Nazareth. Thus, the name of the lake – Tana – has its origins in this religious event. In the historical literature, the name of Lake Tana is more in accordance with the original word from which it is derived. Beke referred to Lake Tzána200 and Lake Tsána,201 and Budge to Lake SƗnƗ.202 The names of the lake were also discussed after Cheesman’s paper ‘The Upper Waters of the Blue Nile’ (1928) had been read at the Royal Geographical Society in his absence, since he was on his way back to Abyssinia. One of the questions concerned the name of the lake. The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names had decided that Tana and not Tsana was the correct translation of the name from Amharic into English.203 The earlier Portuguese usually called Lake Tana Dambia (or Dembea), the latter being the name of the fertile floodplain east of Lake Tana, which is flooded annually. The Portuguese also called the lake Sena, which is similar to Bruce’s Tsana,204 and probably refers to the story of Jesus and his family being borne back to Egypt in the clouds. In any event, the name of Lake Tana derives from this holy event and the water in the lake has a specific holiness. Water is holy, and the long religious continuity and practices at Tana Kirkos have further blessed the waters of Lake Tana. The religious beliefs and views regarding the holiness of this water held by the monastic community on this island differ from those among Christians living along the Abay and shores of the lake. Gish Abay as the source from heaven is not highlighted by the former when they explain particular sanctity of Lake Tana’s waters. On the other hand, there are several other important religious events that bestow special holiness on the water. First, the lake is holy in itself because streams with holy water run into it from the four cardinal corners. Second, Christos Semra, who was a devoted Christian, immersed her body in Lake Tana for 12 years while praying. She was baptised by Elijah, Moses and John the Apostle in the lake. Third, Elijah, Moses and John the Apostle brought with them a yellow cup with yellow water, which was given from the sky in the name of God, and they gave this water to the lake, thus adding a holy substance to the already holy Lake Tana. Finally, although Jesus was not baptised in the lake, he, together with St Mary, Joseph, Sister Salome and the invisible saints, bathed in the lake, further increasing the holiness of its water. Thus, for the monks living at Tana Kirkos, the lake has utmost holiness. Depending upon where other people live, there are varying understandings of the degrees of holiness of the water in the rivers and lake and in the form of rain. Still, for all Christians the use of holy water in their rituals is of cardinal cosmological importance, and water is an

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intrinsic part of the most important rituals and celebrations of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Daga Istafanos Major Cheesman documented the monasteries’ religious traditions and heritage. Daga Istafanos differs from the other monasteries in Lake Tana in particular with regard to the royal burials of Ethiopian emperors. Cheesman wrote of his visit in 1933 as follows: On March 4 a two-hours’ row in the tankwa took us to Daga Island lying three-quarters of a mile from the south-east corner of Dek. It is a volcanic cone 300 feet high, on the top of which is the Monastery of St Stephen. The whole island is considered sacred, and the monks inhabiting it are the most rigid recluses of any in Abyssinia. No female is allowed to land, and the ban extends to cows and hens. Stecker remarks that he also was not permitted to go there as it was holy ground. A forest of tropical growth covers the hill and hides everything. The little food required by the monks comes from their lands on Dek. The church is rectangular and modern, with the altar, chancel, and nave arranged as in English churches. The original church had been struck by lightning and burnt down. The Ikrbet [Ikabet], where church properties and books are kept, is a separate building, a masonry structure of rock and mortar of primitive design. The monks cannot open this without the presence of the Gebaz, a layman who holds the key. The office is hereditary and he lives on monastery land on Dek, but had come over by previous arrangement and turned the lock with an iron key. We found the room was quite dark and had to be lighted with a home-made wax taper, after a preliminary visit by a monk with a censer. It was crowded with ceremonial vestments of the priests, and church drums, and the books were brought out to the daylight. We spent some hours examining them. Each one had to be translated from Giz into Amharic, but we found no dates. There were several lists of kings, and I copied extracts. At the back of the same building are the mortal remains of seven Emperors: Yekuno Amlak (A.D. 1268-1283), who brought back the throne of Ethiopia to the Solomonic line; David I (1382-1411), during whose reign a portion of the True Cross was brought from Jerusalem to Ethiopia; Zara Yakob (14341468); Za Dengel (1603-1604); Fasiladas (1632-1665), who was the builder of some of the palaces at Gondar; Fasiladas’ little son Izur, a boy of seven, who reigned only six hours; and Bakaffa (1721-1730). They are in wooden coffins placed on shelves. Some of the monks of the more austere life, who had not been off the island for fifty years, did not come from their cells to see me, but invited me to come and speak with them in their secluded retreat.205

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According to the information we documented, the Daga Istafanos monastery was founded in the late 13th century by Hiruta Amlak, who was a nephew of Emperor Yikunno Amlak (1270-85). According to mythology, after being guided to the shores of Lake Tana by Istafanos, Hiruta Amlak sailed to the island on a pair of divine stones, yedingay tanqua, which today are located on the way to the monastery, which he founded in 1268. There are only monks at the monastery and women are still not allowed to visit the island, and the monks live on a sparse diet of bread made of finger-millet, which they eat once or twice a day to mortify their bodies. The Ark of the Covenant from Axum is also believed to have been kept safe on this island during Ahmad Gragn’s military campaign in the 16th century when he besieged Axum and devastated the Christian empire. Daga Istafanos has throughout the Christian period been an important religious place where numerous Ethiopian emperors came and worshipped God. The religious importance and power of this island was widely known, and it is believed that air from heaven blows on it. The heavenly breezes on the island connect it to heaven and a place where heaven is open for devotees. Thus, as Gish Abay is the source of heaven whence the divine river enters this world, Daga Istafanos is where the heavenly winds are felt and is consequently a place of supreme religious reverence and blessing. The location of Daga Istafanos in Lake Tana is also important on account of the holiness of the water. Abay is believed to be a promised river with particular divine qualities that enable healing and blessing. This inherent quality exists because Zerabruk made this promise. The Abay comes from heaven, where it had the character of milk, but when it flows in this world it looks like normal, clear water. Still, all the water is venerated and seen as deeply holy, and there is no difference between the water in the form of the Abay or of Lake Tana. The Abay was blessed by Zerabruk and the lake was blessed by St Mary and numerous abuns. The belief in the religious powers of this monastery island made it a pilgrimage site. Emperors visited and prayed there when they were alive, and some of them, such as Fasilidas, constructed burial places here. The mausoleum he constructed is now a museum where mummified emperors are buried. Today, the bones and mummies of Dawit I (1382-1413, Fig. 4.7), Zarayaqob (1434-68), Susneyos (1607-32, Fig. 4.8) and (Fasilidas 1632-67) are visible in display cases, which were given to the monastery by Haile Selassie after his visit in 1951. According to the monks, 10 kings and nine bishops are buried here. At what point the kings came to the island and whether all of them were originally buried there are open questions, just as is the reason for

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their particular form of preservation. Those books describing the actual funerals and associated rituals have disappeared from the monastery’s library. The monks have searched for them, including at the other monasteries in the Lake Tana region, but in vain, and consequently they cannot answer these questions based on their own documentation. The religious reason for these burials on the island is the holiness of the place and the divine winds, which make the place highly auspicious. Given the alleged role of the Ethiopian emperors in controlling and blocking the Nile by God’s will, one could assume that the burials on this strategic island in Lake Tana in the period when these beliefs were widespread were related in some way to the divine powers of the emperors and of the Abay. Upon inquiry, the priests and monks denied that the burials of the emperors had any connection with their ability to control, block and divert the river’s flow. The burials took place where they did because of the heavenly breezes and the association with heaven. Fasilidas’s sepulchre built to house his remains consists of two rooms. The first is a treasure chamber containing the holy books and relics of different kings, queens and abuns throughout the monastery’s history, and the inner room, also used as a storeroom, contains the display cases with the mummified emperors. In one of the closets in the treasury room, the crowns of Atse (King) Zera Yaqob, Atse Fasil and Atse Dawit are displayed (Fig. 4.9), and above them there is a picture of the Virgin Mary breastfeeding Jesus, which indicates that this tradition had vital importance in the past. The monks did not know the meaning of the depicted act and said it was uncommon to be baptised with milk or honey, although it was possible, but that it is preferable to be baptised with water because, unlike milk and honey, it is omnipresent. Moreover, water has another function that milk and honey lack: by being baptised with water the initiate is also purified by the water. Water not only initiates humans into the Kingdom of God, as honey and milk also do, but also purifies them, making water the ultimate medium in liturgical ceremonies. The original church at Daga Istafanos, built as a replica of King Solomon’s temple, burnt down in the 19th century and was rebuilt. This means that the painting of the Virgin Mary breastfeeding Jesus was part of the beliefs and traditions at least during the 19th century (Fig. 4.10). Thus, even though the painting is fairly recent, both at Daga Istafanos and elsewhere in the Lake Tana region knowledge of this tradition has faded or changed, as with many other aspects of the Ethiopian cultural and religious heritage.

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Fig. 4.7. The bones of King Dawit I.

Fig. 4.8. The mummy of Susneyos.

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Fig. 4.9. The crowns of Atse Zera Yaqob, Atse Fasil and Atse Dawit.

Fig. 4.10. The Virgin Mary breastfeeding Jesus.

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In other churches, some priests deny that the Virgin Mary breastfed him on account of Jesus’ divine character. Others, on the other hand, agree that Jesus was breastfed based on logical inference, even though this is not mentioned in the Bible. Since Jesus lived on earth as a normal person and did what people usually do, except commit sinful acts, he must also have been breastfed. However, this reasoning was made only on logical grounds and the Ethiopian tradition evident in both iconography and older texts seems to have changed and disappeared. According to the priests today, there is no relationship between the Virgin Mary and breastfeeding and the belief that the Gihon River changed to milk when Jesus was born. All the divine rivers changed into milk, wine, honey and oil respectively, and these changes were testimony of the power of the Lord and marked the historic event that the Messiah had come. At this very moment, even mountains, hills and certain animals spoke of the coming of the Lord. Hence, as the case studies from Gish Abay and along the Blue Nile to Lake Tana, with its monasteries, and further to Tis Abay attest, a host of rituals, beliefs and traditions are structured around water. This involves both changes within the Ethiopian Orthodox Church itself regarding practices that have always been seen as Christian, and also indigenous beliefs and practices. Indeed, the power of the latter belief systems regarding the Nile proved so strong they all but overpowered Christianity and have survived as syncretic practices. It is, then, perhaps no wonder that, even though the Ethiopian Orthodox Church aimed to stamp out what it saw as pagan practices, it is structured more around water than any other Christian church. The role of water in Ethiopian Christianity is best illuminated through the main festivals and the cosmological role water plays in these rituals, beliefs and traditions.

CHAPTER FIVE NEW YEAR, MESKEL AND TIMKAT

The festivals In Ethiopia there are numerous festivals throughout the year and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church celebrates a number of them in a manner and form unique within Christianity. Common to many of the festivals is the emphasis on and importance of water in the rituals, but also of the outcome of successful rains at the right time and the ensuing plentiful harvest and prosperity. The three most important festivals are New Year and Meskel, which we observed in 2009, and Timkat, observed in 2010.

New Year’s Day – Enkutatash and the Feast of John the Baptist The Ethiopian New Year is a three-day festival and starts on 1 September according to the Ethiopian calendar, or on 11 September in the Gregorian calendar. The celebration focuses on three events that coincide with this festival. First, New Year’s Day is called Enkutatash. According to legend, on 11 September Queen Sheba returned from her visit to King Solomon in Jerusalem. When she went to Jerusalem, she brought with her luxury gifts including gold and ivory, and stayed in King Solomon’s palace. According to the story, she converted to Judaism and became pregnant by King Solomon. Their child became the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik, and from then on the Ethiopian emperors laid claim to a royal genealogy stretching back to Sheba and Solomon. On her return to Ethiopia, which is believed to have occurred on 11 September, Sheba was welcomed by her chiefs who gave her jewels. Hence ‘Enkutatash’ means the ‘gift of jewels.’ Second, the New Year’s Day also marks the end of the rainy season. After months of heavy rain and the monsoon, the spring starts, the sun brings forth life-giving forces and the fields start sprouting and flowers blooming. Thus, if there has been sufficient rain by New Year’s Day, rain-

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stopping prayers are offered in the church. Rain is a gift from God. If the rains are too late or too little, people come to the church and pray for rain. This has been common practice, although there has been a change in the rituals. Rainmaking rituals may also take place at any time depending upon if there is sufficient rain or scarcity. Today, it is only the priests who pray to God for rain, as for instance in 2009. Similarly, if there is too much rain or if the rains damage crops and harm people and husbandry, prayers are uttered to stop the rain. Both too much and too little rain are seen as a penalty from God because humans have sinned. Third, although in most places in Ethiopia New Year’s Day is called Enkutatash, in the Lake Tana and the Bahir Dar region, it is commonly referred to only as the Feast (or Day) of John (or St John) the Baptist. The main celebration on 11 September is to remember St John the Baptist (Fig. 5.1), and it is a coincidence that it takes place on New Year’s Day. Following the Bible, John the Baptist opposed Herod’s marriage of his brother Phillipos’s wife. Herod had John imprisoned and then beheaded. According to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, he was imprisoned on 11 September and beheaded on 12 September. The Feast of St John the Baptist, however, also includes three days of prayer, the chanting of hymns and singing of psalms, and the performance of ceremonies. It is a time of physical and spiritual renewal and regeneration through holy and cleansing baths. This renewal has its parallel in the annual renewal of nature’s cycle marked by the ending of the rains and the commencement of the growing season, when life again flourishes. In Israel, according to Ethiopian priests, Jesus was baptised in the Jordan River by St John in January and not in August. Thus, the ritual preparation for the New Year has to be seen in relation to the Julian calendar, which is used in Ethiopia. Ethiopia enjoys, according to the commercials, ‘thirteenth months of sunshine,’ 12 months being of 30 days, leaving the last month of only five days at the end of each year. This 13th month is an important religious preparation for the next year, since it is a period of spiritual and ritual cleansing. Particularly in the Lake Tana region devotees take cleansing baths in the lake or the Abay. During the five days before New Year, Christians should take a ritual bath in Lake Tana or the Blue Nile ‘before the bird touches the water,’ that is, before the day has started and when the water in the lake and the river is untouched and at its most pure and holy. As part of the ritual bath, devotees wash away spiritual and physical uncleanness from the body and clothes, so that all impurity from the previous year is sluiced away and devotees can face the New Year in a spiritual and physically clean condition.

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All five days of the 13th month are auspicious for purification, but the most holy day is the third, the day of St Rufael, particularly at three o’clock after midnight. At this very moment, according to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, seven skies will be opened and the water will be without movement or waves.

Fig. 5.1. The daughter of Herod receives the head of John the Baptist, Matthew 14:6, 8. From G. Doré. The Bible Gallery. London. 1880.

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Devotees who immerse themselves in the holy water at this moment will be freed from sin and cured of physical suffering and malignance. When the skies open, the spirit of the True God is revealed to the people, and all the devotional acts, good deeds, prayers and rituals the devotees have performed over the previous year will be visible to God. Thus, before God’s eyes the devotees present all their religious penance and practice from the past year. By immersing themselves in the holy water, they will be blessed and freed of sin. This is not a baptism as such, but a physical washing and spiritual cleansing of devotees. Immersion in the sacred Abay also takes place on New Year’s Day. When celebrating John the Baptist, immersion in Lake Tana or the Abay is an individual and not a collective ritual, and is not assisted by a priest, since the water is already blessed. Depending on the strictness with which the religious rules are followed, New Year’s Eve is celebrated with plenty of food and drinks, but after the eve has turned to early morning on New Year’s Day and before the sun rises, the Blue Nile or Abay changes character. Even people who are not strict Christians believe in the holy power of the Nile at this moment, and devotees gather at the Nile’s edge and take a holy bath in the river just south of the mouth of Lake Tana. This place is the most holy for Christians, but also for those who worship the spirit of the Abay as part of their traditional beliefs. Unlike other ritual occasions when it is necessary for a priest to consecrate the water by chanting hymns and using incense, at this particular time early on New Year’s Day Christians believe that the water of the Nile is holy of itself and has the strongest power and capacity to remove all sins and impurities. Nowadays, the New Year’s celebration is mainly performed within families whereas previously it was a collective festival. Because nonChristian traditions still exist, the church has exerted strong influence to abolish them, and as a consequence the New Year’s celebration has turned into a family-based celebration. At least until the end of the reign of Haile Selassie (1974), it was also common for devotees to sacrifice white cattle or oxen within the church compound or the consecrated area to secure lifegiving waters in the form of sufficient rain at the right time. Although the church opposed this practice as pagan, the sacrifices continued, only ending under the socialist Derg regime. As already indicated, as these sacrifices were made, priests invoked 1 Kings 18 when they prayed, although nowadays only rainmaking and rain-stopping prayers are offered. Currently, on New Year’s Day a lamb is slaughtered in the household. As part of the preparations for the New Year’s celebration, lamb and chickens are bought at the market some days before or on the day itself. The sacrifice has a parallel in ancient Jewish tradition and takes place

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either in the backyard or inside the house, and the ceremonial place must be ritually cleansed. Ethiopian Orthodox Christians fast on Wednesday and Friday, which means they cannot eat anything before lunch and animal products such as meat, milk and eggs are forbidden the whole day. In 2009, New Year’s Day fell on a Friday and consequently most Ethiopians postponed the sacrifices to the day after. New Year’s celebrations are spread over three days and in 2009 ended on a Sunday. The end of the celebration coincided with the ordinary church services. Most people attended the services at the waterfront church in Bahir Dar, which is named Bahir Dar Giyorgis. From before dusk people gathered in the churches and some visited monasteries in Lake Tana, the closest to Bahir Dar being Debre Maryam. This monastery is located on an island in Lake Tana at the Blue Nile’s outlet from the lake, and Debre Maryam, which was founded in the 14th century, is also called ‘the second Jerusalem.’ In the monastery there are at least three ancient goatskin manuscripts in Geez. The inner construction of the building consists of 12 pillars, which symbolise the 12 disciples. Ordinary people from Bahir Dar come to the monastery for regular services and to be blessed by the priests, and on the Sunday after New Year’s Day many people attended the service that marked the end of the New Year celebrations. Being baptised on this day is also regarded as highly auspicious, since it coincides with the New Year’s festival.

Meskel – The celebration of the finding of the True Cross of Christ Meskel means ‘cross’ and the festival commemorates the finding of the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. In Christianity, the cross is the ultimate symbol. The Romans used it to execute the worst criminals within their empire. For Christians, Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection symbolises the only way to salvation, since he sacrificed himself for the past and future sins of humanity. According to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, after the death and the resurrection of Jesus, the cross continued to play a fundamental role. People who suffered illness were healed by touching the cross, and it was used for this purpose until the Romans besieged Jerusalem in 70 AD and took the cross and threw it on the city’s garbage heap. The cross was lost in the rubbish and over the ensuing centuries nobody could find it until Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, decided to search for it. The empress travelled to Jerusalem with a number of soldiers, who excavated several places in their quest for the cross, but without success.

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Discouraged by their failure, Helena started praying for a sign as to where to continue the search. An old rabbi came by and led her to the garbage dump, where she prayed again. She was told to light a huge mound of incense and the resulting smoke rose up before returning to the ground at a particular spot. The soldiers immediately started to excavate there and found three crosses, on one of which Jesus had been crucified. However, they did not know which the True Cross was, but Helena knew the story that this cross could heal the sick and perform miracles. A widow had recently died nearby and her body was carried to the site and brought into physical contact with each of the three crosses. When, suddenly, she came back to life after one of the crosses Fig. 5.2. The Church of the Holy had touched her corpse, Helena Sepulchre, Jerusalem. knew that this was the True Cross of Jesus Christ. According to tradition, Empress Helena found the True Cross on 19 March 327 AD, but today the festival is celebrated in Ethiopia on 27 September. The reason is that 19 March often coincides with Lent, when Ethiopian Orthodox Christians fast, thus making it difficult to celebrate the finding of the True Cross. Empress Helena built a cathedral on the spot where the cross was found. The cathedral was inaugurated and dedicated on 27 September, the day Ethiopians chose for the celebrations. This cathedral is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where the Ethiopians have their Deir al-Sultan monastery (Fig. 5.2). Ethiopian Emperor Dawit is believed to have brought the right arm of the cross to Ethiopia in the 14th century, and this is now in the keeping of Gishen Mariam Monastery. As a result, this festival has particular importance in Ethiopia.

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The Meskel festival starts on the evening on 27 September and the next day is a holiday. As part of the celebration, a bonfire is lit symbolising the mound of incense Emperor Helena made when she was searching for the cross. Such fires may be lit at family homes, but there are also huge public bonfires. When the bonfire has burnt, the direction in which the pole called demera fall, either to the east, west, north or south, indicates the fortunes of the next year. When the bonfire is extinguished by rain during the ceremony, this is taken as a good sign and believed to guarantee bountiful harvests in the coming year. In 2009, the remains of the main bonfire at the Meskel Square fell to the north, and this was interpreted as a sign of forthcoming prosperity. The devotees mix the ashes from the bonfire with water and make the sign of the cross with it on their foreheads. This rite takes place again early next morning before dawn (around 3-5 AM), in the church compounds before and during services. Devotees make the fires from which they take the ashes for the sign of the cross, and this sign is believed to have healing powers similar to those of blessings with holy water. The beliefs regarding the direction of the bonfire’s smoke and ash during the Meskel ceremony are not mentioned in the Bible and nor are they formally endorsed by the church. Instead, they are based on tradition and cultural values. Nevertheless, some priests do ascribe religious significance to and offer interpretations of this phenomenon. In the Orthodox Church, the cross has four equally long arms pointing in the cardinal directions. East represents glory and brightness, since heaven is in the east and both Jesus and the Virgin Mary came from this direction. Hence, if the bonfire’s smoke and ash fall to the east, it is a sign that the forthcoming year will be characterised by peace, happiness, bountifulness and prosperity (Fig. 5.3). West, on the other hand, represents darkness, death and hell, and it is generally held to be a bad omen if the smoke and ash fall in this direction. North and south do not have similarly strong connotations, and when the bonfire smoke moves in either direction it is believed to be a fortunate sign, although not as propitious as towards the east. As mentioned, in 2009 the demera pole fell to the north. This was interpreted as indicating prosperity, first and foremost in the form of successful harvests, which relate to the water-world and life-giving rain at the right time. Thus, the Meskel festival is associated with controlling and predicting the weather, with the hydrological cycle, although it is not a rainmaking ceremony as such. Moreover, both the New Year and Meskel ceremonies combine personal and spiritual cleansing with prosperity in the form of successful harvests as outcomes of life-giving water. Thus, water

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Fig. 5.3. A small bonfire during the Meskel celebration.

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has a crucial role in the religious beliefs and rituals because it operates at many levels simultaneously, and in Ethiopia the most important celebration and festival is Timkat, which commemorates the baptism of Jesus.

Timkat The main aim of Timkat is to celebrate the importance for humanity of the sacrament of baptism, which Jesus institutionalised. Baptism defined Christianity, specifically how to become a Christian and to follow the divine path laid down by God. The ceremony is a gift of grace for the people and Timkat means ‘immersion’ in Amharic. This celebration is unique to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and is the equivalent of Epiphany (‘manifestation’ in Greek) in the Western Christian tradition. In the West, Epiphany is celebrated on 6 January and commemorates the revelation of the infant Jesus to the Gentiles. Timkat, on the other hand, celebrates Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River at the age of 30 (some say 31), thereby revealing him to humanity. Timkat is celebrated on 18 and 19 January, and, with regard to St Michael, continues on 20 January. The main ceremony is in the morning of 19 January, but the festival starts the previous afternoon when the tabots are carried from the various churches to the body of water where the baptisms will take place the next day. Timkat is celebrated throughout Ethiopia, and there are local traditions and adaptations within the overall set of prescribed religious practices. The following presentation is based on the celebrations in Bahir Dar in 2010. Jesus’ baptism was not for himself but for humanity. It was an act of mercy enabling humans to partake of Christ and the Kingdom of God. It was a salvation rite for humanity and an instructional code for Christians, as is shown in the baptism of Jesus. Originally, John the Baptist refused to baptise Jesus and argued that Jesus could not be baptisted by an inferior servant. Jesus, on the other hand, replied that baptism is an act of obedience and teaches how the rich, wealthy and powerful should serve the less fortunate. Jesus offered humanity the opportunity to partake of this grace and the Kingdom of God. Water is a medium through which initiates may reach heaven, and the very act Jesus institutionalised is celebrated during the Timkat festival. Timkat is celebrated each year to commemorate the bountifulness and prosperity Jesus’ baptism promised humanity. The festival is similar to the Israelites’ celebration of God when they praise his deeds and greatness: not only had God made humans, he had also made everything they needed. Timkat acknowledges what God has provided and enabled for humanity

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and what God is and represents. It testifies to the importance of baptism, which enables salvation for Christians. In Matthew, baptism is celebrated to acknowledge the greatness of God and to praise the bountifulness, prosperity and wealth God provides. For Western churches, the celebration of Epiphany is directly and solely related to the Angel Gabriel’s annunciation to the Virgin Mary that she would be the mother of the Messiah, Jesus Christ (Luke 1:26-38). The Epiphany has the same meaning for the Eastern Orthodox Church, but has another meaning in addition involving an unusual manifestation of the spirit of God in the baptism of Jesus. In Western churches there is only one baptism and that baptism is a sacrament. The baptism of an infant or of an adult convert symbolises entry into a new and eternal life of salvation and faith in God. The meaning of baptism is the same in the Ethiopian Church, and initiates are baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is, however, an important difference between Eastern and Western churches with regard to the birth and baptism of Jesus. Lidet or Christmas Day is also celebrated in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. However, from a religious perspective, the most important event along the path to salvation and eternity for each Christian is baptism as a sacrament institutionalised by Jesus, not his birth. Christmas Day is celebrated, but no holy water is used in this ceremony, and the commemoration takes place within families or among households, with several households sometimes joining together and sacrificing an ox. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church clearly states and underlines that baptism during the Timkat festival is not a sacrament, and hence the associated rituals and the immersion in holy water do not constitute rebaptism. The fundamental doctrine of Christianity is that there is only one Lord, one faith and one baptism (Ephesos 4:5). Only infant baptism is a sacrament. Baptism during the Timkat festival is therefore not a new baptism or renewal of the original baptism, but commemorates the baptism of Jesus and the role this has for humanity. Being baptised as a child and initiated into the Kingdom of God does not, however, mean you cannot be baptised and immersed in water at a later stage of your life, but all other forms of baptism differ in function and religious meaning from the original infant baptism. Thus, baptism in the Timkat celebration is not a sacrament and does not lead to salvation. It is a baptism of repentance and for healing. Timkat is in honour of the Lord and saviour Jesus Christ who was baptised to fulfil divine prophecy and reveal the Trinity. Through the baptism, Jesus showed his humility and submission to his Father.

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The Timkat celebration serves a number of religious purposes. First, it celebrates the main function and outcome of baptism, initiation into the Kingdom of Heaven through baptism and thus being blessed. According to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Jesus’ baptism revealed the Trinity as unity – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as one. This essential truth was laid bare to believers in the year of revelation – Yemegelet zemene. The skies opened and the spirit of God descended as a Dove and the Trinitarian basis of Christianity was revealed (Fig. 5.4). God the Father spoke, God the Spirit descended like a dove, and God the Son was evident in Jesus in person, fully God and fully human. This dual character is captured in the word ‘Tewahedo,’ and the church in Ethiopia is consequently called the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Second, when believers are baptised with the blessed and holy water during Timkat, they may also be healed of sickness. The water has particularly purifying, curative and divine qualities. Third, the aim of Christ’s baptism was to fulfil the prophecy of King David (Dawit in Amharic). In the prophecy, the sea and the River Jordan retreated, the mountains and the hills were shaken and turned to water, and these events would come to pass with the baptism of Jesus. Fourth, when Jesus was baptised at the hands of John the Baptist, he served as a role model for Christians (John 13:15, Peter 2:21) in a double sense. On one hand, when Jesus as the King was baptised by John, he showed obedience in the same way as when he washed Peter’s feet. On the other, kings, nobles and authorities are shown that, whoever they may be, they should be baptised by the church and that everyone is under the King of Heaven and his power. Fifth, when Jesus requested John the Baptist to baptise him, John asked how he could baptise Jesus since he baptised others in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus answered that he would be a priest forever, and thereby institutionalised the practice of baptism and bestowed on the priesthood the power of baptising and initiating humans into the Kingdom of God. Sixth, when Jesus was baptised, he took on the sins of humankind. In Paradise, the Devil temped Eve who offered Adam the forbidden fruits of the tree of knowledge and they both committed a sin. As a consequence, they and humanity were subsequently expelled from Paradise. As a penalty, Adam became the servant of the Devil and Eve the Devil’s slave. One of them was sent to the River Jordan and the other to Hell. In order to rescue Adam and Eve and humanity from sin and suffering and enable salvation, Jesus institutionalised the essences of Christianity. By being baptised in the Jordan and not in another river, Jesus purified the sins

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perpetrated in Paradise. When Jesus was crucified and died on the cross, he took on the sins of humanity, thereby enabling devotees to escape Hell and gain eternal life and salvation in Heaven.

Fig. 5.4. The descent of the spirit, Acts 2:4. From G. Doré. The Bible Gallery. London. 1880.

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Turning to the actual celebrations we witnessed, the Timkat festival started in the churches on the afternoon of 18 January. The day before Timkat is called Ketera, which refers to the damming of a stream to create a baptismal pool. This pool is also called the sea, and all bodies of water are viewed as equally holy, regardless of whether they take the form of a constructed pool, a flowing river or a lake. Although Bahir Dar is located alongside Lake Tana and the Abay, nowadays the ceremony takes place at Meskel Square downtown. The square is a huge, open field upon which has been built a baptismal pool, Bahire Timiket, whose water is blessed by the bishop and splashed on the masses through pipes and a sprinkler system. In the past the rituals were performed in Lake Tana and the Abay, but with growing urbanisation and population pressure, there are now too many people in the city to allow for collective baptism along the waterfront. This change of venue to Meskel Square occurred in 1980 (Ethiopian calendar) for the sake of convenience and safety, but the move does not alter the religious significance of the ceremonies. There is no difference in the holiness of the water, because the water in the pool comes from Lake Tana and the Abay. Nevertheless, some priests were not satisfied with this solution because they preferred to perform the ritual in the running waters of the Abay. The baptismal pool is artificial and, while it may be convenient, is less than ideal from a religious viewpoint, because it is unlike the original setting of Jesus’ baptism, the Jordan River. In villages outside Bahir Dar people do perform the baptism in Lake Tana or in the Abay depending upon which body of water is the closest to their settlements. During Timkat, the tabot, or replica of both the Ark and of the tablets of the law that Moses placed in the Ark, is taken out of the church (see Fig. 9). This is the only time during the liturgical year the tabots leave the churches, other than during the annual celebration by individual churches of their saint’s day. All churches are built around the Ark of the Covenant in the same way as the Jewish temple was organised around the Ark. When the Ark is taken out of the church during Timkat, the church is purified. The holiness of the tabot and the possibility for devotees to see it and get close to it during the festival make this day a special occasion for worshipping God. Devotees also change their clothes and put on their best and newest to symbolise a new covenant with Jesus. Dirt, filth and sin are exchanged for holiness, beauty and divine love, a process similar to being baptised in water. The Ark is the home of the Lord and it is holy. According to tradition, the holiness and power of the Ark were manifested when St Iyasu carried the Ark through dry and barren deserts. Every area he visited with the Ark

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became wet and fertile. Moreover, every Ark contains the Greek signs alfa and omega, which symbolise that the Lord was here in the past, he is here now, and he will be here in the future, and consequently, that the Lord is alfa and omega. On the eve of 18 January, the tabot is carried to the bank of a river or close to the baptismal pool, and devotees fast from dusk to the dawn of the following day. Before the tabots are carried from their respective churches, there is a ceremony in each of them involving prayers for the safe return of the tabot. Then the tabots are carried by priests accompanied by large processions to the baptismal pool. The tabots are covered with gold and silver embroidered velvet clothes to protect them and seclude them from the public. Each church’s head priest carried the tabot on his head while other priests protected it from the sun by holding ceremonial umbrellas. In Old Testament times, the Ark was borne on a stretcher, but with the New Testament and in the Orthodox Church, the tabot is carried on the head of a priest. The procession started from the Bahir Dar Giorgioys, the main church in Bahir Dar, at around 3.30pm on 18 January, and it was led by older men bearing guns and blowing trumpets (Fig. 5.5). Following behind the priests who carried and protected the tabot were singing Sunday school choirs. They in turn were followed by the laity and youths, who sang and danced. The procession is seen as symbolising Jesus’ journey from Galilee to the Jordan River (Matthew 3) and David’s dancing around the Ark (2 Samuel 6). The road ahead of the procession was purified with water and swept with palm leaves in direct reference to Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Fig. 5.6). The processions with the Arks from the different churches in the Bahir Dar area converged from various directions on Meskel Square and the priests with the Arks gathered at the baptismal pool, together with the bishop and other dignitaries. When an Ark is carried to the river or any body of water, it symbolises the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. The patriarch, bishop or priest who blesses the water performs the same role as John the Baptist did when he baptised Jesus. The Ark is the most holy and venerated object in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Jesus went to the Jordan River and was baptised. Since the Ark embodies the Lord’s presence on earth, the Ark is carried to the water to be baptised in a way similar to what happened with Jesus. The Ark is the home of the Lord, and consequently this act commemorates the original baptism of Jesus whereby he blessed and made all water holy. The presence of the Ark at any body of water – a pool, a

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river, lake or the sea – recreates the original ritual by which Jesus enabled salvation for humanity by being baptised in holy water.

Fig. 5.5. Old men in the procession with guns and blowing trumpets.

Fig. 5.6. The street is cleansed with water.

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The Arks were not immersed in the baptismal pool, but their very presence in a tent nearby was seen as identical to the immersion of Jesus in the River Jordan. These Arks were blessed by the bishop in the same way Jesus was blessed by John the Baptist. In the past, when there were fewer people, the Arks were brought close to the given body of water. However, since there are now so many people participating in the Timkat festival, the Arks were held in the tent throughout the ceremony for security reasons and to avoid damage (Fig. 5.7). This did not, however, have any significance for the blessings and ceremony, since the mere presence of the Arks in the tent close to the pool made the water holy. Altogether 17 Arks were brought to Meskuel Square, and when all had arrived, the ceremony started. First there was a short introduction regarding practicalities, and then there were prayers followed by the singing and dancing of Sunday School students (Fig. 5.8). Then the bishop, Abune Barnabas, who was the head of the Ethiopian Church of West-Gojjam, preached and prayed from the podium of the baptismal pool and the main ceremony for the evening was finished. The priests carrying the Arks left the baptismal pool and brought them to the tent arranged in the form of a village church, a mobile church if you like, were the Arks remained overnight securely guarded. The main ceremonies at Meskel Square lasted from about 4.00pm until 6.00pm that evening. After the Arks were safely secured, the celebrations continued. Timkat is a collective festival celebrated with joy and great pomp. Various church and Sunday School communities sang and danced in the streets of Bahir Dar, some only during the evening, others throughout the night, and many people stayed at Meskel Square for the start of the further ceremonies early next morning. They had been fasting, but could now eat. In rural areas it has been common for a meal to be prepared by the river for the men and boys – women cannot partake – and during Timkat cattle are often sacrificed, although this is not the case in towns. Early in the morning of 19 January, devotees gathered around the tent were the Arks had been kept overnight. Some had been at Meskel Square the whole night, and others began to stream into the area. Before the dawn a huge crowd of people had gathered and were praising, praying and singing towards the Arks. When the sun started rising, attention turned to the baptismal pool. At around 7.00am the main ceremony began and an area in front of the baptismal pool was prepared for donations.

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Fig. 5.7. The tent where the Arks were kept overnight.

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Fig. 5.8. Singing and dancing Sunday School students.

Fig. 5.9. Bishop Abune Barnabas.

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The bishop together with other high priests and dignitaries climbed the stairs on the eastern side of the baptismal pool and then took up their seats on the western side (Fig. 5.9). The main consecration and blessing of the holy water in the baptismal pool took about two and a half hours of continuous prayer and religious songs (Fig. 5.10). As the ceremony started to draw to an end, three burning candles were put on a plate and placed on the water’s surface, symbolising the Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thereafter the bishop and a procession of clerks walked around the baptismal pool and the bishop blessed each of the cardinal points of the pool by quoting passages from the four Gospels. These blessings had to be repeated three times. After blessing the cardinal points, the bishop returned to the Western side of the pool and again blessed the water with his large cross. This blessing was to commemorate the baptism in Jordan and to bear witness to the tradition and the importance of holy water. The blessing did not alter the quality of the water because it is always holy and blessed, and in Amharic blessed is kidus. Another priest then filled up a bottle with water from the pool, which he gave to the bishop.

Fig. 5.10. The baptismal pool at Meskel Square.

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The bishop baptised the high priests next to him by sprinkling holy water on them, and at the very moment when these priests had been baptised, the sprinkler system around the baptismal pool was turned on and spouted water over the crowd (Fig. 5.11). People flocked around the sprinkler system so that the holy water fell on their faces and bodies, and many tried to get access to the baptismal pool itself (Fig. 5.12). Some got close enough to the pool and sprinkled themselves with the water, but the guards tried their best to keep the huge crowd away because if everyone reached the baptismal pool there would be an enormous and dangerous crush. That is why the sprinkler had been set up in such a way as to spout the water from the pool over as many people as possible. In fact, the water pressure in the sprinkler was so strong that for a short time it had to be turned off. How many people attended the Timkat-festival this year is hard to tell, but no less than 10,000 would appear to be a reasonable estimate. The whole of Meskel Square was packed with people.

Fig. 5.11. Sprinkling holy water on devotees.

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Fig. 5.12. Devotees at the baptismal pool.

The growing number of attendees has necessitated changes in the ritual performances associated with the celebration. However, the religious significance is the same as if the baptisms had taken place in Lake Tana or the Abay, because the very same holy water is involved. When everyone had been baptised with the holy water, the Timkat ceremony was over. The Arks were brought back to their respective churches in processions similar to those seen arriving in Mesquel Square the day before. The only Ark left guarded in the church tent was the Ark of St Michael. St Michael’s Day is 20 January and those church communities which have St Michael as their saint take the Ark back home in similar processions on that day. Thus, the Timkat festival may last for two or three days, depending upon which saint the church community is associated with, and the Arks will not be taken out of their churches again before the next Timkat or the celebration of specific name days. The Ethiopian Timkat ceremony has in the past often been misunderstood and misinterpreted by the Western Church as a real rebaptism, and therefore as sinful. The Jesuits in Ethiopia were horrified at the Epiphany, not only because they believed it to be a rebaptism, but also because of the promiscuity involved. In the words of Bruce:

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Chaper Five The baptism, Alvarez says, began at midnight, and the old tutor dipt every person under water, taking him by the head, saying, ‘I baptise thee in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ It was most thronged at sunrise, and ended about nine o’clock; a long time for an old man to stand in frozen water. The number (as women were promiscuously admitted) could not be less than 40,000; so that for even the nine hours this baptism-general officiated, he must have had exercise enough to keep him warm, if 40,000 (many of them naked beauties) passed through his hands.206

On the other hand, Bruce corrects Alvarez’s interpretation of Epiphany as a rebaptism: [T]he whole account of Alvarez is a gross fiction; that no baptism, or any thing like baptism, is meant by the ceremony; that a man is no more baptised by keeping the anniversary of our Saviour’s baptism, than he is crucified by keeping his crucifixion. The commemoration of our Saviour’s baptism on the epiphany, and the blessing the waters that day, is an old observance of the eastern church, formerly performed in public in Egypt as now in Ethiopia. 207 .

With regard to the nakedness, Bruce was also shocked, perhaps even stunned: The Abuna, the king and the queen, were the three first baptised, all three absolutely naked, having only a cotton cloth round their middle. I am sure there never could be a greater deviation from the manners of any kingdom, than this is from those of Abyssinia. The king is always covered; you seldom see any part of him but his eyes, The queen and every woman in Abyssinia, in public and private, (I mean where nothing is intended but conversation) are covered to the chin.208

In particular, the naked women were promiscuous, and in Bruce’s mind this must have tempted the priest to behave non-religiously. In his vivid language, he wrote: ‘The women were stark naked before the men, not even a rag about them. Without some such proper medium as frozen water, I fear it would not have contributed much to the interests of religion to have trusted a priest (even an old one) among so many bold and naked beauties, especially as he had the first six hours of them in the dark.’209 If Bruce is to be believed, one must assume that the cold water early in the morning of Timkat ensured that the celebration was performed according to prescribed religious orthodoxy.

CHAPTER SIX INDIGENOUS GROUPS AND TRADITIONAL BELIEFS

Non-Christian traditions There have been two indigenous groups living along the Blue Nile and the shores of Lake Tana. The Beta Israel (Falasha) is a group of Jewish origin. This group has been displaced and the majority of its members have migrated to Israel. As a result, we could not do fieldwork among them. However, another indigenous group still lives in this area, the Woyto. The Woyto or Negedie Woyto still live in Bahir Dar, although, like the Beta Israel, they have been displaced several times. They are believed to have their origin in Egypt and to have followed the Nile southwards through Sudan before ending up in the Bahir Dar region of Ethiopia. They attribute their displacement to a war that occurred while they were still living in Egypt. In the course of this war, they came near the river and their war leader, the king, ordered his people to drink from it and then to follow him again. However, the Woyto drank too much river water so they could not accompany the king and his army further, and they remained along the river, as they have ever since. The Woyto are believed to be the first arrivals in Bahir Dar. Their way of living has been entirely dependent on the papyrus and fish of the lake and the river. Women collect and dry papyrus and make household utensils while men have traditionally made grinding stones, which they sell on the market. Papyrus is also used to make houses and boats (Figs. 6.1 & 6.2). This has long been their way of living, but increasing urbanisation has made finding papyrus in abundance difficult, thereby jeopardising their livelihoods. The Christians view them as pagan, in part because as fishermen living off the resources of the Blue Nile and Lake Tana, they have eaten hippopotamus and species of fish, such as catfish, that Christians perceive as unclean and sinful. They used to live along the shores of the Abay south of its source in Lake Tana, but were forced to

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move to an area adjoining Bahir Dar Giyorgis before again being displaced to suburbia and the poor areas of Bahir Dar. This displacement from the lake further threatens their existence.

Fig. 6.1. The making of a papyrus boat.

Fig. 6.2. Transport on Lake Tana.

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The Woyto today embody most of the extant indigenous traditions, but other traditional practices also survive. Water is ubiquitous in traditional folklore and medicine. In Gedro village on the east side of the river just parallel to the dam at the outlet of Lake Tana lives a magician or healer renowned for his strong powers. At times, up to 100 followers may live in the compound where he resides. He blesses devotees by baptising them early in the morning and late at night with holy water from the Nile. Most of the devotees are sick and believe they are healed by the water in the rituals. Those who participate in the rituals may be ordered to perform other rituals as well, for instance, sacrificing a chicken to the river. Devotees may remain at this compound for days, weeks or months, depending on their sickness and how fast they recover. This use of the waters of the Abay for healing is part of an older African tradition of medicine, and is strongly disapproved of by the church as pagan and the legal authorities as dangerous. Another traditional healer was imprisoned for life because a couple of people died after being treated with his traditional medicine. If they had received timely medical treatment, they would probably have survived, and the healer was found guilty of bringing about the deaths of these people. As a consequence, traditional rituals involving the Nile are often performed in secret. Still, the old beliefs are strong as are indigenous practices based upon the magical and healing powers of the Nile, and the struggle with a church intent on abolishing these traditions has been going on for centuries. Debre Maryam Monastery is one of the oldest in the Lake Tana region. According to a priest, Debra Mariam Church on Debra Mariam Island was founded by Abuna Thadeos in the reign of Amda Seyon (1314-44), the grandson of Yekuno Amlak. This was once a famous monastery. When Abuna Thadeos first went to the island to establish the church, it is believed that he divided the waters and walked on dry land, just as Moses had done when he crossed the Red Sea.210 The location of the monastery at the source of the Nile had implications for Woyto and other non-Christian practices. This area is also one of the most important for the worship of the river and for making sacrifices. The church calls the old river spirit that, for instance, the Woyto worship, baed amlko – ‘bad spirit’ – in reference to the practice of not believing in and worshipping the True God. If Christians worship the river, they also fall prey to baed amlko. In sum, both Christian and non-Christian traditions ascribe to the Abay holy and healing powers. If people pray to the water as a god or spirit, the church treats this as heresy. For Christians, the water is a holy gift from God and consequently a blessing by God. Thus, it is impossible to be

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healed by the river’s spirit god and the traditional practices are seen as being in opposition to Christian values. Moreover, according to Orthodox priests, a person’s lifespan is predestined. In the words of one priest, ‘even a doctor cannot add a minute to a life, but he can relieve pains for a second.’ A person may live in pain for a number of years according to God’s will, although doctors may alleviate it within the predestined lifetime. An individual’s pain is perceived as a penalty for disobeying God, and it is also believed that God is teaching devotees to return to the true devotional path. Relief of pain through holy water or the achievement of prosperity are hence a blessing and a sign of God’s grace. When holy water cleanses a devotee of sin and prepares that person for heaven, repentance and God’s grace are in play. It is not the case that the water has miraculous powers in itself, but that God has used water as a medium for spiritual purity and as a path to salvation.

Abinas and Abay The religion of the Woyto is solely based on water, specifically the Blue Nile and Lake Tana. The primary belief is in the power of the Blue Nile. Abinas is the god of the Blue Nile or the spirit of the Abay, and he is a male spirit. He is the source of everything: it is from him that the Woyto receive wealth, health, prosperity, natural resources and all that they need. A central element in their religious practice is making sacrifices to the Abay, but also to Lake Tana. The sacrifices are performed by individuals, families or community groups. Personal and family sacrifices to the river may be made at any time of the year. Individuals may sacrifice hens and cocks as well as sheep and goats on various occasions (Figs. 6.3-6.6), but calves are only sacrificed at the community level and traditionally on the day before Lent, the last day Christians eat meat before the fast begins. This is the main sacrifice and most important ritual among the Woyto. The sacrifice before Lent takes place on the eastern shore of the Abay close to the outlet from Lake Tana and it is a collective ritual. The bullock that is offered should not be fertile and mature, but clean and uncontaminated, in other words, it should not have procreated. Before the sacrifice, money is collected to defray the costs of the ritual, which include both the calf and other ingredients and ritual items. If certain people from the community cannot take part in the ritual, for instance, they are away on that particular date, they still have to contribute money for the sacrifice, because the ritual is for the prosperity of the whole group. When calves and sheep are sacrificed, their blood is given to the river so that Abinas can drink of it directly.

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Fig. 6.3. Preparing for the sacrifice of chickens.

Fig. 6.4. Chicken sacrificed to Abinas.

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Fig. 6.5. Chickens sacrificed to Abinas.

Fig. 6.6. Preparing a meal from sacrificed chickens.

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The prosperity and destiny of the Woyto are totally dependent on Abinas and the gifts of the Nile. Before a sacrifice, the Woyto thank the river and make a wish for the future, for instance fecundity for a wife who has not yet conceived. Then they promise the river that if their wishes are granted, they will return the next year in gratitude and make a sacrifice that includes specific commitments. When the sacrifice is completed, the wish is repeated. However, if their wishes are not fulfilled, it is believed that Abinas was not satisfied with the previous sacrifice, so that they must return to sacrifice more. Moreover, misfortune, malignance or even catastrophe that befall individuals and collective groups are generally believed to be a punishment from Abinas or the spirit of the Blue Nile for moral misconduct. In such cases, people have to make sacrifices to the river in order to propitiate the spirit that has inflicted these calamites. According to the Woyto, there are several examples of Abinas penalising them harshly when they have not fulfilled their ritual commitments and made sacrifices to him. Since they are officially Muslims, the Islamic authorities, like their Christian counterparts, see these beliefs and ritual practices as pagan and have attempted to abolish them. In 1989 (Ethiopian calendar), the Muslim community imposed stringent restrictions on these ritual practices and the Woyto were unable to worship and make sacrifices to the river as before. As a direct result, seven or eight of their people died, some of them by drowning, and for the Woyto this was clear proof of the consequences of not worshipping Abinas and making sacrifices. Consequently, as the elders say, they cannot at any cost stop believing in and making sacrifices to the Nile. Although the younger generation would like to change or to abandon these traditions, the elders argue that the Abay is the central pillar of their religion and they cannot stop believing in it or making sacrifices to it, despite Muslim restrictions and if necessary in utmost secrecy. However, as noted above, Christians also oppose Woyto practices and beliefs and they are consequently stigmatised. Once, a young man with pain in his back prayed for good health and offered coffee to the river. Other people along the river mocked and ridiculed him for his ‘pagan’ practices, and more generally the Woyto are seen as ‘poor’ and ‘dirty.’ Thus, there is strong social and religious pressure by Christians and Muslims on the Woyto individually and collectively on account of their religion and practices. If someone dies in the river or lake, it is the Woyto who, as river people, collect the corpse. The Woyto believe that the Blue Nile and Lake Tana will not take their own lives since they are obediently making sacrifices to the river, and the water spirit does not wish to harm its own

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people. However, when one of their members drowns in the river or lake, the Woyto believe this is because they have not been sufficiently obedient and made the appropriate sacrifices. Consequently, new and more elaborate sacrifices are called for. There are no priests among the Woyto and the ceremonies and prayers are led and conducted by male elders. The main sacrificial site is now located along the western shore of the Abay just south of the outlet from Lake Tana and below the bridge in the area called Kebele 10. Here the Woyto still make their sacrifices for fecundity, wealth and prosperity. Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays are the preferred days for sacrifices since the spirit is believed to be most accessible on these days. In Woyto religion and cosmology, sacrifices to the river spirit to ensure well-being are of utmost importance, and Abinas is the supreme deity. The water has healing powers, but the water in the Abay is holier than that in Lake Tana. Even so, since water from the Nile is found in the lake, it also holds the spirit, but to a lesser degree. Hence, this spirit is known as Sher Abinas, which means minor or less powerful than Abinas in the Blue Nile. Abinas is the spirit of the Nile. Mythologically, the role of Abinas as the river spirit goes back to a meeting among all the indigenous gods of the area. Originally, there were 40 spirits of non-Christian origin (or 44, as well as 44 Christian Arks) in the regions nearby, in particular in the area around the outflow from Lake Tana. The presence of all these spirits increased the holiness of the river at this place, although the church claims this particular area has no extraordinary holiness. According to legend, the 40 spirits gathered on an island south of Tis Abay. The island was not at the waterfalls, but was secluded and secure from people. Otherwise it is not clear why this spot was chosen. While the 40 spirits were discussing among themselves which divine realms each of them should get, the spirit who later became Abinas had gone to the river to collect water for all of them. By the time he returned, they had divided the realms and territories over which they would rule among themselves, but had forgotten Abinas, who was then given the river as his realm. Today, the other gods have disappeared or enjoy only minor importance in local cosmologies, but Abinas is the omnipotent spirit for the Woyto. He was given the right to supervise and protect the river and this is reflected in his very name: Abay is the river, in means ‘position’ and yaz is ‘to control,’ hence Abinas. Following his appointment as guardian of this mighty river at the meeting of the 40 spirits, Abinas has only lived in the Abay. There is, however, another divinity in Lake Tana named Meshiha. He was not among the original 40 and has less power than Abinas and enjoys less

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popularity. Nevertheless, the Woyto pray to him for safety while they are on the lake, especially if they encounter problems with their papyrus boats. Although the church believes the waters of the Abay and Lake Tana have healing and miraculous powers that are a gift from the True God and a sign of his grace, it views Woyto belief in the power of the Abay as a separate deity as profoundly pagan. However, until a couple of decades ago even Christian priests believed in the Nile and accepted the worship of it and sacrifices to it, including calves. However, when school- and eliteeducated priests, seen by many as fundamentalists, came to the area, they actively campaigned against these indigenous practices. Some decades ago, Sunday School priests threw stones at and chased away the Woyto as they were preparing for their main sacrifice before Lent. Today, although they still strongly oppose the worship of the Nile, the priests are less aggressive and more tolerant and the Woyto take the view that if the Christians interrupt, Abinas may seek revenge and cause them harm. Due to the strong Christian influence in this region, several Woyto rituals coincide with similar Christian rituals. During the five days of the 13th month before New Year, the Woyto collect rain water, which they use for the ritual ablution of their bodies. They celebrate New Year’s Day, 12 June, which is the day of St Mikael, and they also celebrate 12 November, the day of St George. During these celebrations they conduct sacrifices to the Nile. Over Lent, they make no sacrifice, since the Christians do not eat meat during these 40 days. However, due to the Christian suppression of Woyto practices, which have made it difficult for these people to conduct their rituals in strict accordance with their traditions and religion, these rituals occurring simultaneously with Christian feasts are not as strongly rooted as before. On the other hand, among Christians it was also common practice to make sacrifices to the river and make offerings of chickens. These rituals did not take place on specific dates or during specific ceremonies, but whenever it was believed they were necessary to reduce misfortune or as repentance for sins that had caused hardship. Even now, the offering of sacrifices of poultry and sheep continues, but only at home. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church does not approve of sacrifices, dismissing them as ‘pagan practices’ or ‘bad practices,’ since prayers in church are the only acceptable ritual for approaching God. Although the church has absorbed many pre-Christian practices and beliefs in transfigured form into Christianity, such practices in their original form or in the way they have continued up to today are to be combated as heresy or paganism. Similarly, although Muslims are a minority and latecomers to Bahir Dar, they also strongly oppose any water cult that deviates from

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their own teachings and beliefs. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church calls Abinas or the Nile spirit aganent, which has associations with or is the equivalent of the Devil or Satan, and thus views Abinas as a truly pagan and ‘bad’ spirit. The Woyto, on the other, perceive their animistic deity as wholly good and as a totally dependable source of everything they need. Consequently, they associate the Abay and Abinas with heaven.

Sacrifice of a rooster This particular sacrifice took place on Saturday 27 September 2009, the same day the Christians celebrated Meskel. Before the sacrifice, the person who was to make it had to take a cleansing bath in the river. However, since the Woyto are officially Muslim, this bath is often performed as a Muslim ablution, in terms of which face, hands, elbows and feet are washed. This particular sacrifice of a cock involved a Woyto family consisting of an elderly father together with his wife, daughter and son-inlaw. After performing the ritual purification, the father of the household, who led the sacrifice, prayed to the Nile: ‘The power of the Nile is very strong, so I cannot sacrifice without first praying to the Nile,’ he said. Thereupon he asked the god to bless his family and to provide the family with everything it needed. While the sacrificer, usually the householder or the oldest man, was praying to the river for mercy and forgiveness before the sacrifice, the wife and daughter of the household began roasting coffee for the coffee ceremony, which is obligatory in most rituals. Thereafter, the wife prepared the ingredients for the meal. After the cockerel has been sacrificed, it forms the main part of the meal and will be eaten along with coffee and bread. Throughout the ritual, smoke was made to conciliate the spirit. The fire used to prepare the meal provided the smoke, but pleasant smelling incense may also be used, because the river spirit accepts what it receives. The more pleased the spirit is by the gifts, the greater are the chances that the sacrifice will be successful and the devotees’ wishes granted. When the householder had finished the prayers, which included the wishes and promises to Abinas, he took the cock and carried it to the river accompanied by his son-in-law. When a sacrifice is made to the Abay, the blood of the animal should not be spilled on the ground but released directly into the water, because the spirit of the river will drink the blood. The sacrificer stood next to the river and cut the throat of the cock with a knife. When the throat had been cut, the old man threw the cock into the river and turned his head away. The sacrificer must do this and not see the

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animal when it dies in the river. Sitting with his back to the river, he started praying: ‘Please give us mercy; please excuse our wrong doings; please favour us.’ The cock flapped its wings back and forth and stirred up the water until it was dead. Previously, everyone attending the sacrifice, not just the sacrificer, had to turn away, kneel and pray to the river. The sacrificer was not to turn his face to the river before he knew for sure that the sacrificial animal was dead. If the animal sank or drifted away from the river shore, then the river had taken the sacrifice and it is believed that the spirit had been satisfied and enjoyed the offer. If the river brings the animal back to its edge, the sacrificer can pick it up and the family can start preparing the meal. In this particular case, Abinas did not take the sacrifice, and after the cock had eventually died, the son-in-law picked it up and gave it to his wife, who had come to the river’s shore with a large cooking pot. Parts of the legs and skin were given to the river and all the feathers were plucked from the fowl. Then the bird was cut up in into largish pieces, all of which were washed thoroughly with water from the Abay. The remaining preparations took place by the fire some metres from the river. The meat was cut into smaller pieces and particular care was taken of the liver, which was kept apart from the rest of the carcase and the meal. While the cook cooked the meat in a traditional sauce, the others performed the traditional coffee ceremony. Everything that is to be eaten and drunk should first be presented and offered to the river. The sacrifice consisted of three offerings: first coffee or bread dipped in coffee; then the liver, because it smells good and has a strong flavour, and finally parts of the rest of the meal. All these offerings were given three times to the river. Thus, before the coffee ceremony, coffee was offered to the river and only afterwards did all the participants drink their coffee. Then three pieces of liver were given to the Abay, whereupon the organ meat was tasted by all. Finally, once the meal was prepared and everyone was ready to eat, three pieces of the cooked meat with sauce and bread were offered to the river, and then the family gathered and started eating. When sacrifices are made, Abinas must always have the first taste. The blood is drunk by the river spirit when the animal dies, and before those who make the sacrifice taste the coffee, liver and finally the meal, each item must be given to Abinas. As the people say: ‘The spirit of the water should taste first,’ or ‘the Nile spirit should taste first,’ otherwise the spirit will be offended and attack and endanger them. The power of the Nile is ubiquitous and if something goes wrong during the ritual or proper procedure is not followed, danger could ensue. Once, when only one

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person went down to the river to make the offerings, the others present said ‘he should not go alone,’ indicating that the Abay has special powers that can cause harm and jeopardise prosperity if people are not careful and obedient. In the ceremony witnessed, the participants were praying for success, prosperity and family well-being, and they believed that all their prayers would be answered by Abinas. The sacrifice was successful and complete, according to them, and they ate the meal by the banks of the river before returning home. Throughout the ceremony, khat was chewed. This is an important component of the ritual, since it helps devotees to concentrate and focus on their god while they seek mercy with sincere devotion. The stalks from the leaves were not thrown away but were carefully collected and tied together before being wrapped in a piece of white cloth and brought home. It is believed that bringing the stalks back home is of utmost importance, because they hold every aspect of the ritual together and if any are left at the site of the sacrifice, the ritual will not work and their wishes will not be answered. Thus the khat stalks have an important role in concluding the ritual. For two days after being brought home, the stalks are pounded. They are then boiled to make tea. The drinking of this tea is part of the ceremony, but is more a medical than a ritual and spiritual act. With regard to Abinas, the ceremony is completed by the river and he is not offended if they do not make tea. There is, however, an important taboo regarding the stalks, namely that they should not be stepped on. This would offend Abinas, since the stalks were part of the ritual, but otherwise the tea ceremony does not affect the worship of or relationship with Abinas. The tea made from the stalks is believed to have a great medicinal value in curing diarrhoea and relieving stomach pains, and these benefits sum up the outcomes of the ritual: prosperity, health and wealth.

The ‘Great Sacrifice’ The main Woyto sacrifice takes place before the Lent starts, and sacrifices are conducted on both the Saturday and Sunday prior to the Christian fasting period. In 2010, the Great Sacrifice took place on 7 February (Fig. 6.7). The festival is simply called the ‘Great’ and involves sacrifices made by both family and community. The family sacrifices take place first, in the morning. Numerous hens and cocks are sacrificed and are afterwards cooked and consumed. These fowl are sacrificed in the same manner as described above. It is worth noting that the appearance of the chicken is important. Preferably, the comb of the bird should be thick, a sign that the

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animal has charisma and is powerful. If the comb is small, thin or single, the chicken is believed to have fewer of these qualities. If, however, chickens with small combs are sacrificed, then one egg has also to be sacrificed to the river. Where devotees are unable to secure a calf, they may sacrifice chickens or sheep, although this is not ideal. The calf should be clean, with no physical blemishes on its body or horns. The sacrificial calf may be white or red, but never black. The reason a calf is preferred to a mature bull is that the sacrificial blood should be clean, and the Woyto believe that the blood of a young animal is cleaner than that from an older beast. Abinas will not accept the sacrifice of a mature bull, and will be offended. The sacrifice takes place at Abay Ras, the source of the Abay where it leaves Lake Tana. This spot is called Cherechera, a name with no specific meaning.

Fig. 6.7. The Great Sacrifice of a calf.

The Great Sacrifice of the calf sacrifice is performed after the chickens have been offered. Women may not participate in the Great Sacrifice, although one woman made the preparations for the coffee and bread ceremony before leaving the area. This was in accordance with Woyto

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tradition, although no one could give an explicit answer as to why women cannot participate in the sacrifice and meal. The Great Sacrifice is for the whole community. The calf’s throat was slit with a knife and the blood was collected in a plastic cauldron and given to the river. While the sacrifice was taking place, a young man read from a book with Muslim poetry describing the benefits and delights of plentiful harvests and good fortune (Fig. 6.8). After the calf had been sacrificed, a meal was prepared and eaten by the devotees and the rest of the meat was divided among the male participants.

Fig. 6.8. Muslim poetry recited during the ritual.

Importantly, it was not only the Woyto who came to the source of the Nile for this annual sacrifice. Families from remote rural villages came to the river and sacrificed chickens. These were Christians, but they followed the same rituals, even the devotees who did not sacrifice washed their hands and feet. According to the Woyto, Abinas was very satisfied that day because much blood had been offered to him. The sacrifice protected people from disease and provided good fortune to society. If, by contrast, no sacrifice had been made, the people would have been punished with misfortune and calamity.

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The Woyto as Muslims According to another legend, the Woyto accompanied the Queen of Sheba up the Nile when she visited King Solomon.211 Traditionally, they have been seen as river people and fishermen. As noted by Blundell in 1906, Wattu (Woyto) boatmen and lakeshore dwellers were viewed by the Gallas and Amharas as inferior and, to some extent, unclean on account of their eating hippopotamus and elephants, etc.212 The situation is very much the same a century later, although they no longer eat these animals. Another reason for these attitudes is the Woyto’s sacrifices to the Nile and the worship of Abinas.

Fig. 6.9. Hippopotamus.

Cheesman noted in his descriptions from the 1930s that a Woyto man could not marry before he had killed a hippopotamus (Fig. 6.9). At that time, the Woyto were already a small and marginalised group, and he estimated that there were only some 200-300 Woyto living in scattered villages along the shores of Lake Tana, and that they were most numerous in the south where the papyrus grew.213 The Woyto, long suppressed by Christians and treated as outcasts, converted to Islam, but mainly in name only so they would be left alone by the Christian majority. The Woyto do not know when they converted, but

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claim that their roots are in Islam. By the time Hormuzd Rassam wrote his Narrative of the British mission to Theodore, king of Abyssinia: with notices of the countries traversed from Massowah, through the Soodân, the Amhâra, and back to Annesley Bay in 1869, the Woyto were already Muslims. In the 1930s, when Cheesman visited the Lake Tana monasteries, he was transported by the Woyto, who, at that time, claimed that Islam was their religion and Amharic their language.214 Their Muslim heritage may be a consequence of historical events in the 16th century. The Woyto made an alliance with Gragn Mohammed, who conquered and ruled Abyssinia, including the Portuguese, and they may have adopted Islam then. When he was defeated, all those who had supported him were exiled to the lake.215 There is, however, one problem with this interpretation: Almeida did not refer to them as ‘Moors’.216 Orthodox Muslims do not accept the Woyto as proper Muslims, and although they officially are Muslims, their whole belief system still revolves around water: as one elderly Woyto man put it, ‘the water of the Nile is everything and we give everything to the Nile.’ Indeed, the Muslim community opposes their traditional rituals and beliefs. However, they continue with their worship of the Nile and sacrifices to Abinas, admitting that their relationship with Islam is superficial because for them the Nile is everything. Nevertheless, their perceptions of the river and Abinas have come to be strongly influenced by Islam and the Muslims over the centuries. According to tradition today, when the spirits divided the territories at Tis Abay, they decided their faith in front of Allah. It is also said that it was actually Allah who initiated and enabled the 40 spirits to divide all the territories among themselves on the island. In the Islamised version of Abinas, he has a human character. Abinas is not a water spirit but a god who resides in the Abay. Some elders today compare Abinas with Christian saints such as St Gabriel or St Mary, and he works as a mediator. Thus, they perceive Abinas to be a mediator with Allah just as Christian saints are seen as mediators with God in the Orthodox Church. Today, they believe Allah gave Abinas the position and role of protector of the river on account of his religious standing. Furthermore, Abinas also protects people against Aganent, the Devil, who has a more spiritual character than Abinas, with his human character. The very spot where the Great Sacrifice occurs is also believed to have been revealed by Allah. Finally, in the Islamised perceptions of Abinas, he is also called Che Abinas, Sheik Abinas. Thus, the indigenous water cult and animistic religion have been influenced by Islam, but the influence has also been the other way around.

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The water-world and cosmology of the Abay and Lake Tana have influenced local perceptions among Muslims. Muslims in Bahir Dar also worship water, which is an intrinsic aspect of Islam. For the ablutions performed five times a day, clean water from a river or stream cleanses both body and soul, externally as well as internally. Water in general is perceived as holy because it is given by Allah. The Nile or Abay is particularly holy because it comes from heaven and this water has healing and medicinal powers. Orthodox Muslims deny, however, that Muslims make sacrifices to the Nile. Even though the Woyto are Muslims, they are not seen as proper or strict Muslims because of these sacrifices, but also because they drink alcohol and deviate from other Muslim practices. Nevertheless, as noted earlier, Muslims along the Little Abay and in the villages around the inlet of Lake Tana do sacrifice calves, a practice that testifies to their incorporation of rituals and beliefs from the original cosmology of the region, as has been the case with Christianity as well.

CHAPTER SEVEN THE ALMIGHTY FATHER

Syncretism In Christianity, including Ethiopian Christianity, the Almighty Lord is God. In the Lake Tana region, however, the Nile has been almighty and these beliefs are still evident in Christian practice and belief. Syncretism is the amalgam of different beliefs and religious traditions to create distinct religious variants, such as the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The aim is to study ‘the development of religious syncretism, co-existence, adaptation, and the development of popular religious traditions.’ 217 This is particularly appropriate in the case of Ethiopian Christianity, which includes a large pre-Christian Judaic cultural element, but also folk beliefs of pre-Christian and African/Semitic-origin. In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church the Sabbath falls on Saturday, foods such as pork and shellfish are forbidden, boys are circumcised and in the liturgy equal precedence is given to the Old Testament. Moreover, spirits and possession cults are important parts of people’s lives. Timkat as the greatest festival has few parallels in the Christian world (Fig. 7.1). Baptismal pools or tanks may be constructed for the ritual. The most famous of these is the 17th century bathing pool of Fasilidas in Gonder measuring 50 by 30 metres (Fig. 7.2), which is still used today during the festival. Otherwise, the Timkat ceremony takes place in rivers,218 notably the Nile. As Niall Finneran argues in a comparative northeastern African context: We may only make very tentative conclusions about the nature of water veneration in pre-Christian Ethiopia, but from records of oral history and contemporary ethnographic survey, we may be sure that a number of markedly similar traditions of animist naturalistic worship of genii loci were probably widespread ... Syncretic (‘pagan/Christian’) concepts are noted widely in traditional African water veneration.219

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Fig. 7.1. The Timkat festival in Bahir Dar, 2010.

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Fig. 7.2. Fasilidas’s Bath in Gonder.

Such concepts include rainmaking. In his conclusion, he writes: In many cases, part of the process of ‘Christianisation’ involves a remodelling and re-conceptualisation of existing sacred spaces, be they natural places or man-made constructions. Water is of special interest; such sites were obviously of key spiritual significance in pre-Christian belief systems ... and through the rite of baptism – a means of conferring membership in the Christian context – it was easier to incorporate such places into the wider spiritual ‘Christianised’ landscape.220

This is a precise description of the history of Christianity in the Lake Tana region and along the Blue Nile. As noted earlier, in their eagerness to Christianise people, priests allowed old practices to continue, and in one instance they went so far as to waive the requirement for converts to be baptised. This strategy, which the priests were fully conscious of, was also evident at Gish Abay, where the clergy stated that once the place had become Christian, they could gradually erase former rituals and beliefs.

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Fig. 7.3. The holy water of Lake Tana.

Nevertheless, in many cases the potency of the Nile was too strong for Christianity. In Woyto perceptions, the river was almighty, Abinas was everything. The mighty river has also changed Christian perceptions and practices in a number of ways. The pervasive role of rainmaking in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church relates to the cultural and religious role of this practice in traditional African societies. The special function of baptism may be due to a separate theological development. On the other hand, it may also have been preChristian water-cults that have promoted the development of this doctrine, although this is of course only speculation. What is clear, however, is that the river and the water cult were of the utmost importance in pre-Christian beliefs and practices along the Blue Nile and at Lake Tana (Fig. 7.3), as is evident at Gish Abay.

Sacrifices to God – traditional African or Jewish relics? In the Lake Tana region today both mature oxen and calves are sacrificed. Ideally, the sacrificial animal should be a young bullock, preferably white, but sometimes heifers that have never been in calf and oxen have been

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sacrificed. Traditions regarding this offering differ by place, but in general the practice is declining. Moreover, some Christians say that the oxsacrifice is a substitute for Abraham’s sacrificing of his sons in the Old Testament, so that nowadays oxen are sacrificed instead. Thus, the tradition of sacrifice has some Old Testament or Jewish relics. The indigenous Woyto, who, one may assume, adhere more strictly to original tradition, continue the practice of sacrificing calves. Christians, particularly in rural areas, may sacrifice bulls as well and are not so strict about whether the animal has procreated or not. This may also relate to the different role the sacrifices play: the Woyto sacrifice to Abinas as the god of the Nile, whereas Christians, and even rural Muslims, make sacrifices as part of rainmaking rituals, which may explain why both calves and oxen can be sacrificed. Indeed, according to the Old Testament, when Elijah and the worshippers of Baal made sacrifices for rain, they used bulls (1 Kings). The traditional emphasis on sacrifice is of utmost importance, because it stresses the role the life-giving water plays in fertility, wealth and human health. According to Bruce, the sacrifices at the source were made to the God of Peace: ‘The Agows of Damot pay divine honour to the Nile; they worship the river, and thousands of cattle have been offered, and still are offered, to the spirit supposed to reside at its source.’221 Elsewhere, he gives a more precise description of the sacrificial animal as ‘a black heifer that never bore a calf.’222 The emphasis on calves rather than mature animals is reminiscent of the Woyto sacrifices, although the Woyto always sacrifice a red or white calf. Another difference is that the Woyto always sacrifice a male animal whereas, according to Bruce, the Agows sacrificed heifers. It is worth quoting Bruce’s description of the sacrifice again, because it has some striking parallels to the Old Testament; … and having sacrificed a black heifer that never bore a calf, they plunge the head of it into this fountain, they then wrap it up in its own hide, so as no more to be seen, after having sprinkled the hide within and without with water from the fountain. The carcase is then split in half, and cleaned with extraordinary care; and, thus prepared, it is laid upon the hillock over the first fountain, and washed all over with its water, while the elders, or considerable people, carry water in their hands joined (it must not be in any dish) from the two other fountains; they then assemble upon the small hill a little west of St Michael, (it used to be the place where the church now stands) there they divide the carcase into pieces corresponding to the number of the tribes ... After having ate this carcase raw, according to their custom, and drunk the Nile water to the exclusion of any other liquor, they pile up the bones on the place where they fit, and burn them to ashes. This used to be performed where the church now stands, but [the missioners]

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Although the Christians condemned these sacrifices as truly pagan, they bear strong similarities to sacrifices mentioned in the Old Testament. ‘The Water of Cleansing’ is described in Numbers 19:2-10: This is a requirement of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke. Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. Then Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting. While he watches, the heifer is to be burned – its hide, flesh, blood and offal. The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool and throw them onto the burning heifer. After that, the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. He may then come into the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean till evening. The man who burns it must also wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he too will be unclean till evening. A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They shall be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from sin. The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he too will be unclean till evening. This will be a lasting ordinance both for the Israelites and for the aliens living among them.

In both cases a heifer is sacrificed and burnt to ashes near a holy source of water to be used for cleansing. As described earlier, when prayers and sacrifices for rain take place, priests or commoners refer to story of Elijah when he proved to the worshippers of Baal on Mount Carmel that the Jewish God was the only God (1 Kings 18). The religious dispute was settled by sacrificing bulls, and those worshippers who could elicit rain by sacrifice and prayers proved that their God was the almighty. At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: ‘O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.’ Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice … When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, ‘The LORD – he is God! The LORD – he is God!’ ... And Elijah said to Ahab, ‘Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain’ (1 Kings 18:36-41).

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The emphasis on the sacrifice of calves or bulls in Judaism and in the Lake Tana region in relation to water and to elicit rain may be a coincidence, but it may also have historic roots in early Jewish influence and the Beta Israel community. As noted earlier, how and when Jewish influences came to Ethiopia is a subject that has been discussed for decades and is beyond the scope of this publication. However, if the traditions at Gish Abay and along the Blue Nile originally stem from Jewish and not traditional African practice, one may add new dimensions to the understanding of the source of the Blue Nile and to historical development of this understanding over the centuries.

When did Gish Abay become holy? One may ask two related questions: when did the source become holy and when was it reckoned that the water flowing from the source in Abyssinia reached Egypt? Or in other words, was the source perceived as holy of itself without knowledge that it flowed to Egypt or was it seen as holy because it was the source of the mighty river? On one hand, natural springs worldwide, as the sources of life-giving waters, are often seen as having holy attributes. Lourdes in France, with its healing waters, is the most visited pilgrimage site in Christianity apart from the Vatican. In Hinduism, the waters of the Varanasi may secure salvation from the cycle of birth and death. On the other hand, why has Gish Abay acquired this fundamental religious role as the source of the Nile unless those who afforded it this significance knew of the importance and the mythology of the mighty river further downstream? The sources of the Nile in Rwanda and Burundi were discovered late and do not have such religious importance, even though they flow into Lake Victoria and emerge from it as the White Nile, as Speke discovered in 1862. Gish Abay flows into Lake Tana and forms the Nile along with the other waters that drain into the lake, before eventually flowing through Egypt. Thus, the identification of Gish Abay as the source of the Nile may have required hydrological knowledge if the belief in the holiness of Gish Abay has its roots in Egypt, either with the Ancient Egyptians or the Coptic Christians (Fig. 7.4). According to the earliest European descriptions, the source was already seen as holy and divine. Lobo wrote that the Nile was ‘the Father of Waters.’224 Bruce reported that the name of the river denoted ‘God [and] they pray to the Nile, or the spirit residing in that river,’ and the source was called ‘God of Peace’.225 Today, Abay also signifies ‘father’ or ‘fatherly.’ Thus, one may go further back in history to shed more light on

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these issues, but the problem is, of course, the absence of sources. Still, one may consider different hypothetical scenarios and interpretations.

Fig. 7.4. Bruce’s map of the Nile’s sources. From Johnston 1903, face page 80.

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If one assumes that the origin of the holiness of Gish Abay originated in traditional African beliefs, it is impossible to say when the worship of the source started, but one may get hints as to when the source was Christianised. According to Christian mythology, the spring at Gish Abay was seen as Gihon and the outlet from heaven. According to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the miracles of Zerabruk took place in the late 8th or in the 9th century. This dating should not, however, be regarded as precise in a strict sense but part of the process of Christianising the source by making mythologies. Neither the Portuguese Jesuits nor Bruce mentioned Zerabruk. When Cheesman inquired about him, the priests had no idea regarding who he was except that he was a saint, and several of the parishioners agreed that the church was founded in the reign of Yohannes Kadus (1667-87). This may be accurate, since the Portuguese describe the sacrifices and the holiness of the source, but not any church. Moreover, although the initial spread of Christianity around Lake Tana took place with the monasteries of the Zagwe period (ca. 1137-1270), non-Christian resistance was formidable and was strongest in Gojjam province, which remained almost completely non-Christian until the beginning of the 15th century.226 What seems quite clear is that when the Christians came to the area and witnessed the holiness of the source of the Nile (Fig. 7.5), they Christianised the source by reference to an image already familiar to them, namely the divine Gihon as described in the Bible. Pre-existing perceptions of the holiness of the source may have facilitated this in several ways. If the church was going to Christianise these beliefs, its perception of the holiness of the spring could not be less than the perceptions in traditional religions, because then the process of conversion would prove extremely difficult. In fact, by augmenting the holiness within a Christian framework, the reverse would be true. By invoking the image of the divine Gihon of the Bible, this very spot could become a link unifying heaven and earth, and from a human perspective there is no better way than this to secure direct access to God and heaven. Moreover, Abay was ‘father.’ This father metaphor fitted well with the Christian belief in God as the Almighty Father. Thus the perception of the river as father could persist within an overall Christian framework, but this also perpetuated the preChristian beliefs. If one assumes, on the other hand, that the veneration of the source and the associated sacrifices have Jewish origins, then the question is part of the larger question of when Jewish influences first appeared in Ethiopia. Kaplan argues that this appearance was not before the first centuries AD and that the core area was the Lake Tana region, where the Beta Israel made sacrifices.227

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However, even if they were in this region at that time, it seems difficult to believe that the first thing they did was to worship this source.

Fig. 7.5. Christianity in the Lake Tana region. From Simma Monastery (13141327), Gorogora.

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A common theory is that this community had a Nilotic origin, which has its basis in the Jewish Diaspora in Egypt during the Second Temple Period (536 BC-70 AD) and the existence of a Jewish military garrison on Elephantine Island between the 7th and 5th centuries BC. Kaplan argues against this theory because the evidence is either lacking or conflicting. ‘Although we would certainly not claim that either the 800-mile overland journey from Aswan to Aksum or the far longer journey via the Nile to the Lake Tana region is an impossible endeavour, we would welcome further discussion of the precise route, timing, and motive,’ he writes.228 With regard to the routing, the Axum route (or another from the north) seems to be the most plausible for two reasons. First, as described earlier, following the Nile’s course from Egypt to Lake Tana is almost impossible, as is evidenced by the failures of all those who tried to do so throughout history. Second, if Jews from Egypt, part of the Hellenistic world, were searching for the source or followed the Nile, a major mystery in antiquity they must have been familiar with, one would expect written documents about the quest. The identification of Gish Abay as the heavenly River Gihon fits very well into Jewish belief, but it does likewise into Christian belief. Thus, it is difficult to say anything certain about the early beliefs regarding the source, since the evidence is scarce and mostly incomplete. They could have traditional African as well as Jewish origins, and the one does not necessarily preclude the other. Even if the sacrificial practices are relics of Jewish influences, there may still have been older water cults and forms of worship that became absorbed into later practices and traditions. The origins of the worship of this source are still shrouded in mystery, but early Christianity may provide a path to more knowledge about this issue.

When was the source of the Blue Nile discovered? The source of the Blue Nile has always been known in the sense that people living in the vicinity were aware of the spring, in the same way that America was not discovered by Columbus or the Viking Leif Ericson, since people had been living there for millennia. Still, it is interesting to hypothesise about when this spot became known in Egypt and elsewhere as the source of the river. On one hand, from the dawn of history nobody except for the local people knew about the sources, but it is more uncertain if they knew that these very sources were the sources of the mighty Nile flowing to Egypt. If the Ancient Egyptians knew of the source and Lake Tana, they did not pass this knowledge on to the Greeks and consequently it was lost. On the

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other hand, at least from the late 11th century there was a shared understanding among Egyptians and Ethiopians that the latter could block and control the Nile. Implicitly, if the Blue Nile came from Ethiopia, its source was also there and known. Thus, the question is: when did these two understandings meet? At a certain point after the classical period and before the 11th century, one may find a period or event when the Egyptian and the Classical understanding met the Ethiopian, thereby connecting the cosmologies and giving rise to perceptions of the Ethiopians’ alleged control of the Nile and thus ability to threaten the Muslims. In the 6th century, Cosmas Indicopleustes described Axum and added that ‘the sources of the Nile lie somewhere in these parts, and rain falls in torrents, and there are many snakes, and a multitude of rivers that all flow into the Nile.’229 It is possible that a person or persons had visited the source by this time, but these comments may simply echo older and more general beliefs that the source lay in Ethiopia. From an Arab perspective, the 10th century geographer Al Hamadhani wrote: ‘Behind the country of Alwa (Aloa) there is a nation of blacks called Takina ... In this country gold grows or sprouts, and in their country the Nile forks, and they assert its rising is there, and behind the rising (the source of the Nile) ... .’230 How much weight one should afford the term ‘assert’ is uncertain: it may indicate he had no certain knowledge about the source and that he was also expressing the general knowledge of the time. Although the myth of Zerabruk dating him to the late 8th century or 9th century is of dubious character, it seems that something significant was taking place around this time and in the following centuries. An interesting aspect is that the beliefs regarding Ethiopia’s ability to control and divert the Nile seem to have been established and known in Egypt before the actual Christianisation of the Lake Tana region through the monasteries during the Zagwe period (ca. 1137-1270). In Ethiopia, Christianisation did not follow the Nile, but started in Axum and spread from north to south, and in the Lake Tana region Tana Kirkos and Daga Istafanos were two early strongholds of Christianity. Still, they were established at a date when it was already believed the Christian emperor of Ethiopia could block and control the Nile, and consequently when there was hydrological knowledge of the Nile, including its source, whose religious and mythological importance was also known. This may indicate that there had been earlier missionary expeditions to this region sometime between the 9th and the 11th centuries, and most likely closer to the turn of the millennium. Such expeditions may have drawn on Ptolemy’s map, since he had identified in this part of Africa a large lake, which the early Christians may have associated with Lake Tana. Most likely, they would

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also have visited Gish Abay and perceived it as a pagan stronghold. And since this place was not only of utmost holiness to non-Christians but also described in the Bible as the divine Gihon, the missionaries could have ascribed Christian values to it and Christianised the myths and beliefs associated with the place. If these assumptions are right, the sacrifices the Christians encountered would probably been seen by them as sacrilegious and may have been a driving force behind the Christianisation of the area. Based on the Christian belief in Gish Abay as the source of heaven and the myths that the Ethiopian emperors could deny Egypt the waters of the Nile, it seems reasonable to suggest that it was Ethiopian Christians and not Coptic Christians in Egypt who first made this connection between the two bodies of belief, and the key to the spread of these combined beliefs was the institution of the Egyptian abun of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. To quote Beke again when he wrote about how to document a river: ‘The usual and most methodical mode of describing a river is to commence at its source, and to follow its course down the entire stream, noting its various tributaries as they consecutively join it.’231 The early Christians may have followed the Nile from Ethiopia to Egypt through Sudan by the end of the first millennium or by the turn of the second. Unless there are some unknown written sources in either the Ethiopian or Coptic churches documenting such an endeavour, this interpretation must remain in the realm of speculation. Exactly when this journey happened, if it happened at all, is perhaps one of the last unsolved or unsolvable questions in the history of the Nile quest. In any event, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church had close contact with Alexandria, and with the spread of Christianity to the Lake Tana region knowledge of the Abay and its source would have reached Christian communities in Egypt as well as in Europe over time. Thus, the myths about the almighty Father Nile would fascinate and haunt the European imagination, and the search for its sources would in part shape European history from antiquity to the 20th century.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Terje Oestigaard (Dr. Art) is Research Fellow with the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden. His recent books include Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism (2013) and Horus’ Eye and Osiris’ Efflux: The Egyptian Civilisation of Inundation ca. 3000-2000 BCE (2011). He is coeditor (with Terje Tvedt) of A History of Water, Series I, Volume 3: The World of Water (2006) and of A History of Water, Series II, Volume 1: Ideas of Water from Ancient Societies to the Modern World (2010). His current projects include rainfed agriculture in Tanzania in the face of modernization and globalization, and the source of the While Nile in Uganda. Gedef Abawa Firew (M. Phil) is lecturer in the History Department at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia, and PhD student in archaeology at the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Norway. His main field of interest is agriculture and aquatic adaptation in Ethiopia in general and in the Lake Tana region in particular. He is also conducting ethnographic research about rituals and indigenous practices among the Woyto.

NOTES 1

There are different estimates or measures, but this is often used. Blashford-Snell, J.N. et al. 1970. Conquest of the Blue Nile. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 136, No. 1: 42-60, p. 43. 3 Garstin, W. 1909. Fifty Years of Exploration, and Some of Its Results. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2: 117-47, p. 118. 4 Cheesman, R.E. 1935. Lake Tana and Its Islands. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 85, No. 6 (Jun., 1935): 489-502, p. 489. 5 Cheesman, R.E. 1968 [1936]. Lake Tana and the Blue Nile. An Abyssinian Quest. Frank Cass, London. 6 Trigger, B. 2003. Understanding Early Civilizations. A Comparative Study. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 473. 7 Faherty, R.L. 1974. Sacrifice. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica. 15th ed. Macropaedia. Vol. 16: 128-35, p. 128. 8 Johnston, H. 1903. The Nile Quest. Lawrence and Bullen, London, p. 6. 9 Oestigaard, T. 2011. Horus’ Eye and Osiris’ Efflux: The Egyptian Civilisation of Inundation ca. 3000-2000 BCE. Archaeopress, Oxford. 10 Herodotus (transl. G. Rawlinson). n.d. [1996]. The History of Herodotus. Wordsworth Classics of World Literature, Hertfordshire, pp. 89-90. 11 Ibid., p. 92. 12 Cheesman 1968 [1936], p. 13. 13 Budge, E.A.W. 1932. The Queen of Sheba and her only son Menylek (I). Oxford University Press, London, p.viii. 14 Scott-Kilvert, I. 1973. The Age of Alexander. Nine Greek Lives by Plutarch. Penguin, London, p. 319. 15 Arbel, B. 2000. Renaissance Geographical Literature on the Nile. In H. Erlich and L. Gershoni (eds). The Nile. Histories, Cultures, Myths. Lynne Rienner, London, p. 106. 16 Elmer, D.F. 2008. Heliodoros’s ‘Sources’: Intertextuality, Paternity, and the Nile River in the ‘Aithiopika’. Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. 138, No. 2: 411-50, pp. 439-40. 17 Tarn, W.W. 1923. Alexander and the Ganges. Journal of Hellenistic Studies, Vol. 43, Part 2: 93-101, p. 99. 18 Elmer 2008, p. 442. 19 See Chap. 2 below for further discussion of Gihon. 20 Arbel 2000, p. 109. 21 Cheesman 1968 [1936], p. 13. 22 Budge, E.A.W. 1928. A History of Ethiopia. Nubia and Abyssinia. Methuen, London, p. 112. 23 Lindsay, J. 1968. Men and Gods on the Roman Nile. Barnes and Noble, New York, p. 31. 24 Johnston 1903, pp. 22-3. 2

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Notes

Bent, T.J. 1893. The Ancient Trade Route across Ethiopia. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2: 140-6, p. 142. 26 Crawford, O.G.S. 1949. Some Medieval Theories about the Nile. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 114, No. 1/3: 6-23, p. 19. 27 Johnston 1903, p. 25. 28 Garstin 1908, p. 119. 29 Blundell, H.W. 1906. Exploration in the Abai Basin, Abyssinia. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 27, No. 6: 529-51, p. 545. 30 Ibid., p. 546. 31 Johnston 1903. p. 47. 32 Blundell 1906, p. 548. 33 Markham, C.R. 1868. The Portuguese Expeditions to Abyssinia in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 38: 1-12, pp. 4-6. 34 Friedlander, M.J. 2007. Ethiopia’s Hidden Treasures. A guide to the paintings of the remote churches of Ethiopia. Shama Books, Addis Ababa, p. 67. 35 Johnston 1903, p. 51. 36 Bruce, J. 1790. Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 in Five Volumes. J. Ruthven, London, Vol. 3, p. 619. 37 Lobo, J. 1789. A voyage to Abyssinia, by Father Jerome Lobo, a Portuguese Missionary. Containing the history, natural, civil, and ecclesiastical, of that remote and unfrequented country, continued down to the beginning of the eighteenth century: With fifteen dissertations ... relating to the antiquities, government, religion, manners, and natural history, of Abyssina. By M. Le Grand, translated from the French by Samuel Johnson, LL.D. To which are added, various other tracts by the same author, not published by Sir John Hawkins or Mr Stockdale. Elliot and Kay, London and C. Elliot, Edinburgh, pp. 110-11. 38 Johnston 1903, p. 64 39 Beckingham, C.F. and G.W.B. Huntingford, 1954. Some Records of Ethiopia 1593-1646. Being Extracts from the History of High Ethiopia or Abassia by Manoel De Almeida. Together with Bahrey’s History of the Galla. Printed for the Hakluyt Society, London, p. 22. 40 Ibid., pp. 23-4. 41 Markham 1868, p. 11. 42 Ibid., p. 12. 43 See footnote 36 above. 44 Johnston 1903, pp. 78-81. 45 Cheesman 1928, p. 361. 46 Johnston 1903, pp. 78-81. 47 Bruce 1790, Vol. 3, pp. 603-4. 48 Ibid., pp. 597-8. 49 Ibid., p. 598. 50 Ibid., p. 599. 51 Ibid., p. 600.

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Moorehead, A. 1962. The Blue Nile. Hamish Hamilton, London, p. 41. Ibid., p. 31-32. 54 Beke, C.T. 1847. On the Nile and Its Tributaries. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 17:1-84, pp. 14-15. 55 Johnston 1903, p. 81. 56 Moorehead 1962, p. 47. 57 Murchison, R.I. 1844. Address to the Royal Geographical Society of London. Journal of Geographical Society of London, Vol. 14: xlv-cxxviii, pp. cviii-cxvi. 58 Ibid., p. cxvii. 59 Middleton, D. 1972. The Search for the Nile Sources. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 138, No. 2: 209-21, p. 209. 60 Beke 1847, p. 2. 61 Baker, J.N.L. 1944. Sir Richard Burton and the Nile Sources. English Historical Review, Vol. 59, No. 233: 49-61, p. 49. 62 Stanley, H.M. 1889. ‘Letter from Mr H.M. Stanley, on his journey from the Albert Nyanza to the southern side of Victoria Nyanza’. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography, New Monthly Series 11, 12 December 1889: 720-6. The description is a quote by Stanley from a 17thcentury Arab geographer. 63 Beke 1847, p. 2. 64 Langer, W.L. 1936. The Struggle for the Nile. Foreign Affairs, Vol. 14, No. 2: 259-73, p. 265. 65 Tvedt, T. 2004. The River Nile in the Age of the British. Political Ecology and the Quest for Economic Power. I.B. Tauris. London, p. 61., Tvedt, T. 2012. Nilen – Historiens elv. Aschehoug. Oslo, p. 144-146. 66 Blashford-Snell et al. 1970, p. 43. 67 Oxtoby, W.G. 1987. Holy, Idea of the. In M. Eliade (ed.). The Encyclopaedia of Religion. Vol. 6: 431-8. Macmillian, New York, p. 434. 68 Gold, J.J. (ed.). 1985. Samuel Johnson. A Voyage to Abyssinia (Translated from French). Yale University Press. New Haven and London, p. Xxiii. 69 Lobo 1789, p. 78. 70 Kaplan, S. 2000. Did Jewish Influence Reach Ethiopia via the Nile? In Erlich and Gershoni (eds) 2000, pp. 57-69. 71 Budge 1932, pp. 142-3. 72 Ibid., p. 17. 73 Ibid., p. 29. 74 Ibid., pp. 30-1. 75 Ibid., pp. 142-3. 76 Friedlander 2007, p. 31. 77 Erlich, H. 2000. Identity and Church: Ethiopian-Egyptian Dialogue, 1924-59. International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 32, No. 1: 23-46, pp. 24-5. 78 Tafla, B. 2000. The Father of Rivers: The Nile in Ethiopian Literature. In Erlich and Gershoni (eds) 2000, p. 164. 79 Erlich 2000, pp. 27, 42. 80 Ibid., p. 24. 53

150

81

Notes

Urdániz, J.L.B. 2008. A Glance behind the Curtain. Reflections on the Ethiopian Celebration of Eucharist. Mater Printing, Addis Ababa, pp. 20-1. 82 Taft, R.F. 2000. The Liturgy in the Life of the Church. Eastern Churches Journal, Vol. 7, No. 2, p. 65. 83 Urdániz 2008, p. 27. 84 Budge 1928, p. 158. 85 Munro-Hay, S. 2005. The Quest for the Ark of the Covenant. I.B. Tauris, London, p. 37. 86 Budge 1928, p. 156. 87 Budge, E.A.W. 1933. Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual virgin and her mother Hannâ. Translated from the Ethiopic manuscripts collected by KingTheodore at Makdalâ and now in the British Museum. Martin Hopkinson, London, p. xlviii. 88 Ibid., p. 81. 89 Gruber, M. 2003. Sacrifice in the Desert. A Study of an Egyptian Minority through the Prism of Coptic Monasticism. University Press of America, New York, p. 182. 90 Budge 1933, p. 2. 91 Ibid., p. 3. 92 Ibid., p. 36. 93 Ibid., p. 62. 94 Ibid., p. 69. 95 Ibid., pp. 79-80. 96 Bolman, E.S. 2004. The Coptic Galaktotrophousa Revisited. In M. Immerzeel and J.v.d. Vliet (eds).Coptic Studies on the Threshold of a New Millennium. Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Coptic Studies, Leiden, 27 August – 2 September 2000. Peeters and Department of Oriental Studies, Leuven, p. 1174. 97 Ibid., p. 1177. 98 Ibid., p. 1179. 99 Budge 1933, p. xxxvi. 100 Bolman 2004, pp. 1179-80. 101 Ibid., pp. 1181-2. 102 Ibid., p. 1179. 103 Friedlander 2007, pp. 51-2. 104 Spencer, D. 1972. In Search of St Luke Icons in Ethiopia. Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. X, No. 2: 67-103, p. 80. 105 Six, V. 1999. Water, the Nile, and the Tä’amrä Maryam: Miracles of Virgin Mary in the Ethiopian Version. Aethiopica, Vol. 2: 53-68, p. 55. 106 Budge 1933, pp. 47-8. 107 Ibid., pp. 54-5. 108 Oestigaard 2011. 109 Lyons, H.G. 1908. Some Geographical Aspects of the Nile. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 32, No. 5: 449-475, pp. 454, 459.

The Source of the Blue Nile

110

151

New Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th edition; Budge, E.A.W. 1912. The Nile. Notes for Travellers in Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan. Thos. Cook and Sons, London, p. 167. 111 MacKenzie, D.A. 1922. Colour Symbolism. Folklore, Vol. 33, No. 22: 136-69. 112 Assmann, J. 1989. Death and Initiation in the Funerary Religion of Ancient Egypt. In W.K. Simpson (ed.). Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt. Yale Egyptological Studies 3, New Haven CT, p. 140. 113 Goedicke, H. 1979. Neilos – An Etymology. American Journal of Philology, Vol. 100, No. 1: 69-72. 114 Lindsay 1968, p. 39. 115 Wild, R.A. 1981. Water in the Cultic Worship of Isis and Sarapis. Brill, Leiden, p. 194. 116 Young, D.W. 1993. Coptic Manuscripts from the White Monastery: Works of Shenute. Hollinek, Vienna, p. 17. 117 Bell, D.N. (transl.) 1983. Besa. The Life of Shenoute. Introduction, translation, and notes. Cistercian Publications, Michigan, p. 107. 118 Ibid., p. 3. 119 Ibid., pp. 72-3. 120 Ibid., p. 73. 121 Krawiec, R. 2002. Shenoute and the Women of the White Monastery. Egyptian Monasticism in Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press, Oxford, p. 56. 122Oestigaard, T. 2009. Christianity and Islam as Nile Religions in Egypt: Syncretism and Continuity. In T. Oestigaard (ed.). Water, Culture and Identity. Comparing Past and Present Traditions in the Nile Basin Region. BRIC Press, Bergen, pp. 141-64. 123 Gruber 2003, p. 179. 124 Arbel 2000, pp. 106-7. 125 Margoliouth, G. 1896. The Liturgy of the Nile. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland: 677-731, p. 684. 126 Donzel, E. v. 2000. The Legend of the Blue Nile in Europe. In Erlich and Gershoni (eds) 2000, p. 122. 127 Bruce 1790, Vol. 3, pp. 654-5. 128 Lutfi, H. 1998. Coptic festivals of the Nile: Aberrations of the past? In T Philipp and U. Haarmann (eds). The Mamluks in Egyptian politics and society. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 256. 129 Ibid., p. 274. 130 Ibid., p. 273. 131 Pankhurst, R. 2000. Ethiopia’s Alleged Control of the Nile. In Erlich and Gershoni (eds) 2000, pp. 25-38. 132 Six 1999, p.53. 133 Pankhurst 2000, p. 26. 134 Six 1999, p. 57. 135 Ibid., p. 66. 136 Ibid., p. 58. 137 Donzel 2000, pp. 121-2.

152

138

Notes

Bruce 1790 Vol. 3, p. 712. Pankhurst 2000, p. 30. 140 Erlich, H. 2002. The Cross and the River. Ethiopia, Egypt and the Nile. Lynne Rienner, London, p. 9. 141 Ibid., p. 22 142 Six 1999, p. 68. 143 Erlich 2000, p. 38. 144 Ibid., p. 39. 145 Ibid., p. 42. 146 Oestigaard 2009. 147 Fritsch, F.E. 2001. The Liturgical Year of the Ethiopian Church. The Temporal: Seasons and Sundays. Ethiopian Review of Cultures, Special Issue, Vol. IX-X: 1446, p. 328. 148 Lobo 1789, p. 110. 149 Tafla 2000, pp. 155, 167-8. 150 Beke, C.T. 1844. Abyssinia: Being a Continuation of Routes in That Country. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 14:1-76, p. 13. 151 Ibid., p. 34 152 Ibid. 153 Ibid., p. 35. 154 Cheesman, R.E. 1928. The Upper Waters of the Blue Nile. Geographical Journal, Vol. 85, No. 6: 489-502, Cheesman 1935 and 1968 [1936]. 155 Cheesman 1968 [1936], p. 16. 156 Beckingham and Huntingford 1954, p. 29, fn. 1. 157 Cheesman 1968 [1936], p. 73. 158 Ibid., p. 74. 159 Bruce 1790 Vol. 3, p. 638. 160 Ibid., p. 735. 161 Ibid., p. 633. 162 Ibid., p. 636. 163 Ibid., p. 730. 164 Ibid., p. 731. 165 Ibid., p. 732. 166 Ibid. 167 Ibid., p. 733. 168 Ibid. 169 Ibid., p. 744. 170 Lobo 1789, pp. 111-12. 171 Ibid., p. 66. 172 Tafla 2000, p. 159. 173 Ibid., pp. 157-8. 174 Ibid., p. 158. 175 Lobo 1789, pp. 113-14. 176 Bruce 1790 Vol. 3, pp. 422, 572. 177 Ibid., pp. 425-7. 139

The Source of the Blue Nile

178

153

Tamrat, T. 1972a. A Short Note on the Traditions of Pagan Resistance to the Ethiopian Church (14th and 15th Centuries). Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. X, No. 1: 137-150, p. 137. See also Tamrat, T. 1972b. Church and state in Ethiopia: 1270-1527. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 179 Tamrat 1972a, p. 138. 180 Ibid., p. 139. 181 Ibid., pp. 139-41. 182 Ibid., pp. 145-8. 183 Ibid., p. 147. 184 Ibid., pp. 148-9. 185 Ibid., p. 149. 186 Pankhurst, R. 1972. The History of Famine and Pestilence in Ethiopia prior to the Founding of Gondar. Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. X, No. 1: 37-66, p. 62. 187 Ibid., pp. 37-8, 42. 188 Ibid., p. 51. 189 Ibid., p. 56. 190 Ibid., p. 58. 191 Ibid., p. 59. 192 Lobo 1789, p. 76. 193 Ibid., pp. 78-9. 194 Markham 1868, p. 7. 195 Novell, C.E. 1953. The Historical Prester John. Speculum, Vol. 28, No. 3: 43545. 196 Lobo 1789, p. 63. 197 Hotten, J.C. 1868. A Voyage to Abyssinia and Its People; or, Life in the Land of Prester John. John Camden Hotten, London, p. 13. 198 Cheesman 1968 [1936], p. 175-9. 199 Henze, P. 2000. Consolidation of Christianity around the Source of the Blue Nile. In Erlich and Gershoni (eds) (2000), p. 39-56. 200 Beke 1844, p. 47. 201 Beke 1847, p. 15. 202 Budge 1928, p. 128. 203 Cheesman 1935, p. 490. 204 Johnston 1903, p. 55. 205 Cheesman 1935, p. 496. 206 Bruce 1790 Vol. 3, p. 328. 207 Ibid., p, 332 208 Ibid., p. 328. 209 Ibid. 210 Cheesman 1968 [1936], pp. 163-4. 211 Tegegne, M. 1993. ‘Gojjam’ the Stigma. An Abyssinian Pariah. Guihon Books, Addis Ababa, p. 17. 212 Blundell 1906, p. 532. 213 Cheesman 1968 [1936], p. 93. 214 Ibid.

154

215

Notes

Tegegne 1993, p. 17. Beckingham and Huntingford 1954, p. 35, fn. 4. 217 Insoll, T. 2001. Introduction: The archaeology of world religion. In T. Insoll (ed.). Archaeology and World Religion. Routledge, London, p. 19. 218 Finneran, N. 2009. Holy waters: Pre-Christian and Christian Water association in Ethiopia. In Oestigaard (ed.) (2009), pp. 171-8. 219 Finneran 2009, p. 179. 220 Ibid., p. 182. 221 Bruce 1790 Vol. 3, p. 633. 222 Ibid., p. 730. 223 Ibid., pp. 730-1. 224 Lobo 1789, p. 110. 225 Bruce 1790 Vol. 3, pp. 654-5, 633. 226 Tamrat 1972, pp. 139-41. 227 Kaplan 2000, p. 67. 228 Ibid., p. 59. 229 Blundell 1906, p. 545. 230 Ibid., p. 546. 231 Beke 1847, p. 2. 216

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INDEX

Abay 1, 5, 17, 45-55, 56, 61-64, 66-68, 84, 86-87, 94, 103, 113, 115, 116, 119-121, 123, 128, 137, 143 Abinas 116-128, 134-135 ablution 53, 121, 122, 129 Abun 24, 39, 62, 73, 75, 77, 81, 86, 143 Abyssinia, legendary 6, 10, 16, 22, 23, 36, 57, 75-76 Achoreus 7 Adam 41, 46, 101 Adorno, Ansel 7 Aethiopia, King 8, 24, 75 Aganent 67-68, 122, 128 Agatharkhides 7 Agows 11, 36, 50, 57, 135 Akesines 7 Alata 64-65 Al Hamadhani 10, 142 Alexander the Great 6-7, 11 Alexandria 24, 25, 28, 29, 35, 38, 143 Allah 37, 62, 128 al-Makin 38 al-Misri, Ibn Wasif Shah 38 de Almeida, Manoel 11, 73, 128 Amda-Seyon (1314-44) 69, 70, 71 Amlak, Hiruta 86 Amlak, Yekuno 85, 115 amleko (bad) 67 ancient Egyptians 6, 38, 57, 137, 141 antiquity 3-6, 15, 34, 141, 143 D’Anville 13, 14 Arab traders 8 Ark of the Covenant, see tabot Artaxerxes Ochus 7 Aswan 1, 6, 39, 141

Atbara 1, 32 Axum 10, 13, 24, 27, 71, 76-77, 81, 86, 1 41-142 Azarius 76 Bahir Dar 19, 27, 40, 42, 92, 95, 99, 103-107, 113, 121, 129, 132 baptism 21, 24, 25, 41-42, 72, 7374, 99-112 of Jesus 28, 61, 92, 99, 100-101 commemoration 100, 112 pool 73, 103, 104, 106-110 Barbarossa, Frederick 75 Barnabas, Abune 106-108 Barnete, Thomas 74 beheaded 10, 92, 93 Beke, Charles 3, 16, 17, 18, 54-55, 58, 84, 143 Benedict XII, Pope 36 Besa 34 Beta Israel (Falasha) 113, 137-139 Bicolo Abay 45 blessed 22, 28-29, 39, 47, 51-54, 55, 62, 73, 86, 94-95, 101, 103, 104, 106, 109 Blue Nile, see Abay bonfire 97-98 breast milk 29-33 Bruce, James 3, 10-17, 36, 38, 55, 56-59, 65, 76, 84, 111-112, 135, 137, 138, 139 Bujet from Gonder 56 burning, water 53 Caesar, Julius 7, 11, 16 Caliph 37 calves 67, 77, 116, 121, 129, 134, 135

162 Candace, Nubian Queen 24 Canons of Hippolytus 31 Catherine of Russia, Empress 16 Cheesman, Robert 3, 4, 19, 54, 5556, 76, 84, 85, 127, 128, 139 chickens 54, 62, 67, 94, 117-118, 121, 122-126 Christianity 5, 22-24, 35, 38-42, 48, 50, 52, 71-75, 94, 99-101, 121, 131, 136, 139-141, 142,143 coffee ceremony 122, 123 Copts 25, 34 Coptic Church 25, 28, 39 Cosmas Indicopleustes 10, 142 Christmas Day 100 crossing the Nile 63 crowns 77, 87, 89 Cyril of Alexandria 29 Cyrus, king 11, 16 Daga Istafanos 32, 76, 85-89, 142 Dawit of Ethiopia (1380-1413) 38, 86-89, 96, 101 Debra Mariam Church 115 Deir al-Sultan 25, 96 Dembea 84 Demera 97-98 Desert Fathers 34 discovery 15-18, 75, 141-143 Diogenes 8 displacement 113 divine Nile 34-37 divine winds 87 diverting the Nile 37-39 Devil 16, 41, 58, 59, 64, 67, 101, 122, 128 Don Quixote 15 dove 101, 102 drink of immortality 29 drought 37, 67, 71 Eden 45 Egypt 1, 3, 6, 7, 13, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 32-33, 34, 36, 37-39, 57, 76, 77, 81-83, 112, 137, 141-143 Elijah 43, 84, 135-136

Index Enkutatash 91-92 Epiphany 27, 73, 99-100, 111-112 Ethiopian Orthodox Church 22-28, 39, 40, 41, 50, 71-73, 77, 82, 91-112, 131, 139, 143 Euphrates 28, 45 Eve 41, 46, 101 famine 37, 42, 71, 73, 74 Fasilidas 86, 131, 133 fasting 26, 28, 41, 55, 106, 124 first cataract 6 flooding 3, 34 Frumentius 24 funeral 40, 87 Gabriel, St 40, 100, 128 Galaktotrophousa 29 de Gama, Christopher 10 Ganges 7 Geez 23, 49, 83, 95 Genji 65 George III, King 15 Gihon River 5, 45-47, 67, 90 Gilgal Abay 45 Gish 48 Gish Abay 3, 13, 17, 30, 40, 41, 44, 45-53, 54-58, 59, 68, 84, 86, 90, 133-134, 137-143 The Glory of the Kings 23 God of Peace 57, 58, 135, 137 Gojjam 11, 64, 72, 106, 139 Gragn, Ahmad 10, 73, 86, 128 Great Sacrifice 124-126 Haile Selassie 45, 86, 94 Hannâ 28 Hartmann 16 Hathor 33 Helena, Empress 95-96 Heliodorus 7, 34 hell 3, 40, 41, 68, 101-102 Hellenistic geographers 7 Herodotus 6 hippopotamus 113, 127

The Source of the Blue Nile Holy Communion 41 Holy Sepulchre 25, 96 holy water 21-22, 39-41, 43, 47, 50-53, 55, 60, 61, 84, 94, 98, 100, 104, 109-110, 115, 116, 129, 134 honey 28-32, 47, 59, 67, 87, 90 Hotten, Camden 76 Hydaspes 7 indigenous practices 57, 58, 73, 113-115, 122-126, 135 impurity 52, 92 India 7, 8, 75 Isis 32, 33 Islam 5, 36-37, 119, 127-128 Iyasus, Ganata 74 Jessen, B.H. 19 Jesus 29, 47, 50, 93-94 baptism 22, 41, 61, 99-101, 104 child 28-29, 32, 77, 80-81, 83-84, 89 holy water 84, 92, 106 Jerusalem 23, 25, 27, 28, 39, 76, 81, 85, 91, 95, 96, 104 Jesuit priests 11, 74, 111, 139 Jewish influence 22-23, 43, 74, 94, 111, 134-137 John of Bakansi 31, 32 John the Baptist 21, 41, 61, 91-93, 94, 99, 101, 104, 106 Johnson, Samuel 22 de Joinville, Jean 35 Jordan River 21, 92, 99, 103, 104 Jupiter Amon 6 Kefla Abay 59 Kircher, Athanasius 11 knowledge systems 4-5, 141-143 Kush 23, 24 Lake Albert 1, 8, 17 Lake Ashangi 8 Lake of Koloe 8 Lake Nasser 39

Lake SƗnƗ 84 Lake Tana 3-5, 6, 8, 18, 26, 35, 45, 60-61, 71-72, 76, 81-84, 85-86, 90, 92, 94, 103, 113-115, 116, 120, 125, 134, 137, 141 Lake Tsána 84 Lake Victoria 1, 8, 18, 175 lamb, slaughtered 94 Langer, William L. 18 Lent 26, 96, 116, 121, 124 Liturgy 22, 25, 39-41, 42, 131 The Liturgy of the Nile 35 Lobo, Father 11, 13, 22, 49, 59, 64, 74, 75, 137 Logos 29, 31 Macmillian, W.N. 19 Manbebya Kifle Church 52, 53 MaqrƯzƯ 36, 37 da Marignolli, Friar Giovanni 36 Marinus of Tyre 8 Mary, Virgin 15-16, 28-32, 38-39, 66-67, 74, 77, 79-84, 89-90, 97, 100 Mazmur 42 Menelik I 24, 76, 77, 91 Meskel 91, 95-99 Mikael, St 51, 62, 121 milk 28-33, 45 47, 55, 86, 87, 89, 90 Milk Abay 45, 47, 60-63 monophysite 25 Moors 10, 128 Moses 27, 84, 103, 115 Mountains of the Moon 8, 17 nakedness 112 Nasser, Gamal Abdel 39 Neilos 34 New Year 60, 61, 68, 91-95, 97, 121 Old Testament 23, 41, 81, 131, 135, 136 Old Testament times 77-79, 101 Orael (Urael?), St 83 Osiris 33

163

164 Paez, Pedro 10, 11, 13, 16 papyrus 81, 113, 114, 121, 127 Paradise 5, 35, 46, 68, 101 persecution 71, 77, 83 Philostratus 34 pilgrimage 51, 86, 137 Pishon 45 Portuguese missionaries 3, 10, 11, 22, 59, 74-75, 112 Prester John 10, 36, 75 Procopius 7 Ptolemy 8-9, 142 rainbow 64, 66, 67 rainmaking rituals 39, 42-44, 58, 67, 92, 94, 97, 133-135 rain-stopping rituals 42-44, 94 rainy season 36, 42, 54, 60, 62, 91 raw meat 16, 58, 76 Ripon Falls 17 Rome 7, 16, 32 Roseires 3, 19 Royal Geographical Society 81 Rubin, Arne 19 Rufael 61, 93 Ruwenzori 8, 17 sacred water 21 sacrifice 5, 29, 41, 43-44, 47, 50, 54, 56-58, 59, 62-63, 67-68, 71, 77-81, 94-95, 106, 116-126, 128-129, 134-137, 139 sacrificial pillars 76-79 Salome 29, 81, 84 Samien Mountains 6 search for the Nile 6-17 Selama, Abune 77, 81 Seneca 8, 34 Sheba, Queen of Ethiopia 23, 24, 76, 91, 127 Sheik Abinas 128 Shenute 34 shoes 52, 56, 64 Shum 54, 58 Sigoli, Simone 36

Index Sirius 57 smoking waters 65, 66 Sobat 1, 32 Solomon 23, 24, 25, 27, 76, 77, 85, 87, 91, 127 Speke, John Hanning 17, 137 Stanley, Henry Morton 17, 18 Strates 15-16, 58, 59 Sudd 1, 8 Sunday School 104, 106, 108, 121 syncretism 22, 131, 133, 134 tabot 27, 99, 103, 104 Tana Kirkos Monastery 72, 77-88, 142 Tellez, Balthazar 6, 11 Tigris 28, 45 Timkat 5, 27, 55, 99-112, 131, 132 Tis Abay 58, 64-69, 90, 120, 128 Trinity 41, 100, 101, 109 Tseane 83 Tsebel 50, 60 Tsima 48, 50 Waterfalls, see Tis Abay Wetete Abay 45 White Monastery 34 White Nile 1, 6, 13, 18, 32, 33, 137 Wotet Ber 63 Woyto 56, 58, 113-129, 134, 135 Yared, St 77 Ye dewe timket 41 Ye liginet timket 41 Ye nisha timket 41 Yeshaq (1413-30) 73 Zagwe dynasty 71, 72, 139, 142 Zar’a-Ya’iqob (1434-68) 73 Zengena, crater lake 40 Zerabruk, Abune 47-52, 55, 86, 139, 142 Zerufael, Aba 48 Zorzi, Alessandro 39