The Press. — London, England, 1853-12-24 00:00:00

DECEMBER 24, 1853. Abyssinian customs, laws, religion, dress, &c., are described in these volumes with a minuteness of detail, and at the same time a vivacity of description, which not all writers can combine. Mr. Parkyns forms a tolerant but somewhat low estimate of the national character. lie describes the race as not only barbarous, but scarcely retaining any trace of their formerly MO state of civilisation ; in tonsely superstitious; profoundly ignorant ; vain to excess ; excitable, but easily ap peased ; not unmindful of the obligations of an oath ; never disposed to break one, except under strong inducement; gluttonous and debauched, yet strict observers of fasts ; hardy in physical constitution, but rather cowardly in tight. The same description. however, can never hold good of an entire people. The Amhara soldiers and towns people, to whom the above sketch applies, are the worst of all ; the peasantry of Tigre, if not more enlightened, have fewer vices. Their religion is an extraordinary jumble of eere monies borrowed from different nations. Two thirds of the entire year, 260 days out of MIS, is kept as a fast ; and this restriction is by no means nominal, since on such occasions all food is prohibited until lute in the afternoon. Neglect of these rules is regarded as infidelity, and held in abhorrence. But, en reranehe, the number of feasts is also large, and many of them are celebrated with every possible kind of mirth and jollity. Drunkenness at one of these is no disgrace, and often the priests are as bad as, or worse than, their neighbours. Other rites which they practise have a Judaic origin. The churches resemble tabernacles, there is a " Holy of Holies " and an ark, persons held to be in any way polluted are forbidden to enter even the court ; all living creatures suitable for food are divided into clean and unclean, according to the law of Moses ; while they have borrowed from Mahometanism the custom of killing animals after a rule, turning them towards Jerusalem instead of Mecca, pronouncing over them a tOrm of words, and cutting their throats. Native saints exist in almost uncounted num bers ; and the record of their wonderful works is not exceeded in absurdity by any similar collection belonging to any Church. Among popular superstitions the most usual is that of demoniacal possession, manifested in fits resembling epilepsy, but accompanied by various extraordinary symptoms, which, though creating suspicion of imposture, baffled ingenuity to detect. The narrative of these is interesting, but too long for extrac tion. The country vaguely called Abyssinia now consists of three principal kingdoms, Amhara, Tigre, and Shoa ; the second lying nearest the Red Sea, and the last far down to the south. They are independent of each other ; governed by kings, or head chiefs, whose supremacy has a feudal character, but who exercise an autho rity much more limited than that to which they lay claim. Civil wars are frequent ; government is irregularly carried on ; taxation arbitrary ; and a police can scarcely be said to exist. Murder is severely punished, if the murdered person have powerful relations ; otherwise it passes with little notice. The. Jewish and Mahometan system of retributive punishment is in full force; the representa tives of tho dead man, however, may, with their chief's permission, accept a tine in lieu of blood. This is a relaxation of the law, which in strictness ordains that the slayer shall be put to death in the same manner as he slew, and with the same weapon which he himself used : To exemplify this custom :—Two little boys were playin in the woods near a village. Wandering about, theychanced to see a tree called " owleh," on whose branches was a quantity of ripe wild fruit. The fruit is notvery delirious, not more so than the hips and haws found on our h 4 dgei ; yet any one who can remember the pleasure with which in his boyish days these berries were collected and eaten will excuse our young It( roes when I relate how, having looked upon the fruit, they longed for it. But, though the " owleli" is not usually of very large growth, still the lowest branches were above their reach. To climb the tree was an arduous task, for these children were lint of the ages of eight and live. The temptation. however, proved superior to the obstacles, and the elder boy with some difficulty succeeded in reaching the desired object, Higher and Weiler he mounted, till at last he stood on a bough from which he eonld gather the best fruit ; and then with what feelings of joy and pride at his superior age and powers did he help THE PRESS. himself, and throw down a aupplv to his littl e Hut Kite n ill have a fall !" anti whether in this ease it was brought shout by the Itough's breaking lit I t i, 4 slipping 1 VIIIIIItat well remember; lan. hone% el' 1t %nay have been, the adage 1.r0%t4 true. Juni down edllle our climle•r right on the head, and nearly down the throat, of his little t.tauratle, who happened at that moment to be standing with up turned eyes and expectant mouth, wa iti ftg a fresh shower of the golden ls•rries. The elder lad got up unhurt beyond a few bruises; but, to his horror, his friend rose not from the ground. Ile shook him, spoke to him. pinched him; but all itt uo purpttse, The bilk f e ll ow was dead The elder child. shcks'il mid frightened at hat ing so ate wittingly eamsed his eotortoiiiit's death, n u ► blubbering home, and told his mother all about it. The still.% got wind in the village, and the parents of Ole iltVellSed Chad brought limn,. the body, and set up leading and I 'sting over it. Moreoveronalling would satisfy them but that th e e ld e r boy should Is' put on trial ft n• his life, as having been the cause of the oth e r's death. This they urged in the hope, no d oub t, of a compromise in money from his family, or, in other words, making the best they possibly c o uld o f a bail business. 'l'l►r trial was long; but after tumuli exami►uttion of the ilitlerent hooks, and many opinion s taken o f th e w i, o ..t men in the eountry, it was ulti►uately rourlad►vlthat of a truth the boy washy law guilty i,fileath. lint how was . he . to he ? 11'hy, of course its he had killed the other : so, in fact, the sentence was, that the dead boy's brother should climb the tree and tumble down on the other's head till he killed hint. This, however, did not snit the deceased's mother's feelings : t thought s h e , " I consent t o this, INTIIIIpti my other boy may die, ur injure hituselj in his fall more than him whom he has to kill." No Nli preferred letting the culprit on . to risking the life of her only snrviving son. This story may appear a caricature. All I can say ill favour of 'ts credibility is, that I heard it. related by a highly respectable individuid, in a large ',arty. where I was the only man not an Abyssiniim mill the only person who up. geared to clonsider it us at all impri•balde. Debts and arrears of taxes are frequently recovered by torture. In cases of political rivalry, as also of robbery and violence, muti lation is inflicted ; the criminal losing his hand, his foot, or his eyes. lint, as compared with other• se►ni-savage eo►u►tries, Abyssinia does not present the spectacle of either a •ery bloodthirsty community or a rely oppressive government. The Youth a►►d Wonothhood fg . Mien Tyrrel. London : Parker and Son. Tuts work, in one volume, by the author of "Brampton Rectory" and "Compton Merl vale," is a religious novel, but the plot is so slight and simple that it would have been better to omit it, and to have given the matter of which it is the vehicle of introduction in another form. That matter is a discussion or the doctrines of the Evangelical party, awl of those views which are entertained by Pro fessor Maurice and others. The author evi dently inclines towards the latter, but he writes so calmly, fairly, and dispassionately, that those from whom he differs will have no cause to complain of his exposition of their opinions and description of their practices. Apart from the doctrinal and controversial ingredients in the volume, many subjects air treated with a good sense which all can acknowledge : " Yes, I feel what you say to lbe true," said Mr. liar. gnaw. " I shall do what I eau; have kentres in the distant hamlets, and so on." . . . " There was a g►eat 114 . 1,1 said at tone time," ssid Helen, "about building a e h ► u cl► at Longtield. .Ir. Nelson said it was time when a dissenting chapel was built there." " I should have rather thought," said Dr. Randolph, "it watt time when there was no place of worship at all." " But a church," said Mr. Ilargreave, " would 111V1slye the very difficulty you were speaking of—the necessity of having a full liturgical service—and would not be likely to rival the meeting in the affections of the poor." "Just so. When shall we lay aside our hypocrisies and jealousies, have a single aim, and go straightforward and wisely to it ?" _ _ Again, speaking of young persons who have injured their mental health by close attention to works in which the abstruser questions of theology are discussed, tho author says : Those hooka may have their use, and eapecially to those who have to be the guides of others ; though, in my opinion, they are very likely to nip religion in the bud, by directing upon it the cold blasts of suspicion. lint, at any rate, they are ahnost as unfit for the study of at young and inexperienced Christian, or fur any 0111, of a tender and scrupulous spirit, as medical hooks, full of the marks of disease, for the study of a nervous invalid. Those who read books for entertainment only need not open this, though, from a few slight sketches towards the close, it is evident that the powers of the author to discriminate and describe character and incident arc mini eient for the production of a novel. Such has not been his object in the work before us. It is a theologieal discussion, in which vexed questions are treated without ilittilenillee. and views front which the author dissents stated not unfairly. Notes aiirl Narralires if a Six Years' Mission, principally anion ! , the Vein off LovioN. 13 y It. NV. Vanderkiste, late Landon City Ilia sionary. !minion : Nisbet and Co. Tilts book bears on its litlepage a guarantee of authenticity, in the obey uuel occupation Of the writer ; remarks on the physical and moral condition of the labouring poor are all the 11101 . 0 Valuable, because imeoloured with the slightest tinge of political bigotry, and not indicating a greater degree of sectarianism than seems inseparable from the missionary elntnteter. As a " missionary" Mr. Van derkiste's chief object is to illustrate the state of religious opinion ; but he avoids the error, common to so many religionists, of neglecting as beneath notice those conditions of mental and bodily health without which, taking men in the mass, moral improvement is not to lie looked for. The duty of the City missionaries lies principally among that class to whom, from the very repulsi‘enems of their habits, a kind of mysterious interest attaches. Savages in the heart of a civilised community—lawless, amidst all the means of enforcing law—home less, in the densest and most extensive cone, • lion of human homes that mankind has ever seen—ignorant, idle, and oftentimes ferocious, in a metropolis famous through the world for industry. order, and intellectual development —they metmee us With a peril of which we have witnessed the reality in other countries —enemies of civilisat• , because civilisation has done nothing for them. One of the West initialer missionaries reports that he has " seen as many as forty policemen beaten out " of the coulrt in which they had attempted to " secure a prisoner:" and, to Alr.Vanderkista's knowledge, " twenty policemen had been most " severely handled whilst securing two pri " miners." Of the Clerkenwell dimtriet, ut which our author's labours lay, the following description is given : Formerly a large 'soli of this di-triet was culled "Jack Ketch's 11'arreti," from the fact of tho number of persons who were hung at Newgate from the clouts and alleys, especially at the period when I/. *totem were in eh , culatifill, and forgeries so co . Aged men, who were formerly %%titillation in this localitr, Line described to me the desperate 144.1104 which were formerly enacted. Tho disturbances which occurred welr of so desperate cha• rtteter that from thirty In forty eimmtublessonia be marched down with cutlasses, it being frequently impisosible for officers to net iu lons berm, or unanned. Thy must extrisordinary (+smilers lived here. Much has been done by the new police, the inefficiency of their predecessors, the %Idyll men, having been one principal cause of tho impunity of crime. Mr. I'anderkiste hints that this inefficiency was not altogether disapprovi'd by their superiors:— " Vim tow, Mir," Maid an 11111 wet elinlllll to tee, "there ain't H/1 cum otrisi at between the old eharlejs and these new pain.. If it watchman brought many p maple to the watehlionse he'd get a hint (pm understand me) not to make himself quite 1.1 Immy.'"flie cost of prosecutions to the county was considered, and, unless it watt 141 me very daring offence that hall been eommitted, little effort ap pears to have been made to apprehend offenders. Ms used to relel of some inebriated ruffian knocking down twenty or thirty watchtnen as fact as they came up It in quite tree that many men employed were old, or feeble, or defieient in stature or physique, and easily knocked down, but there can he no doubt also but that watehmen who were said to be knocked down frequently tumbled down. They had their orders not to put the county to needless expenses for prosecutions. Under the present improved system the very reverse is the fact, and no pains are spared to detect and bring thieves to justice. But, though law may preserve outward order, it can do nothing more. The criminal classes may be ICMI4 dangerous than formerly, owing to the more vigorous repressive measures em ployed ; but the reformation is external only, nut real and individual. Mr. Vanderkiste given a striking testimony to the advantages of early education in prmlneing habits of 111.1 . 141Vy and good living. alth o ugh it is filirrcnu►r k flint the children whose desire of !owning led them to seek instruction in youth are those most likely to develop into industrious orderly men, irrespective of the nature of the teaching gives at 5(110(1