The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-27 00:00:00

AN ABYSSINIAN CHURCH.

Half-way up a perpendicular rock, which rises some 500
feet from the ground, is something which looks like a Swiss
chalet. This is the church of Goon-Goona. The church
is said to have been placed in this extraordinary position
in order to make it safe from the attacks of the neigh-
bouring Shohoes, who are Mabomedans, and. certainly
there are few fortresses more impregnable. On the narrow
ledge, which at one point is little more than two feet
wide, an Abyssinian Codes might keep a host of Shoho
Porsennas at bay, and no eloquence that ever adorned
pulpit would, I fear, tempt any " well-greaved" European
to make the ascent twice, though the natives, with their
naked feet and long practice in climbing, run up and
down the rocks like goats. This church would in England
pass for a poor attempt at a barn or a cowhouse. It con-
tained seven rooms. The only article of ecclesiastical fur-
niture was a lectern of the rudest workmanship, standing
shakily upon three short legs, and requiring to be propped
by stones ; but the walls were profusely covered with queer
many-coloured daubs of horses in impossible attitudes,
armless male saints in bin e surplices, stiff red stocks, and
yellow wideawakes (apparently intended for auriolcs), and
inexpressibly grotesque faces of female saints, in widows'
caps of the liveliest hues, and with round, staring, black
and white eyes. Beyond this room was another, painted
over in much the same fashion, and containing a huge
time-worn Amharic Bible, illuminated with portraits
of the Virgin and Child, evidently the work of the artist
who adorned the walls, or of at least a kindred genius.
Behind these two rooms, and somewhat apart from them,
lay a third, containing a stone mortar and oven for pre-
paring the sacramental bread, though in other respects the
room had the appearance of being used as the parsonage,
a small square window leading from it into a hole, cut
out of the very heart of the rock, which seemingly did
duty as the principal sleeping apartment. If so the Abys-
sinian clergy deserve credit for abstemiousness, for no sleek
priest in good condition of the conventional type could pos-
sibly have insinuated himself through the narrow window.
One of the rooms contained the Abyssinian Ark of
the Covenant, or, more strictly speaking, an imitation of the
ark. The real ark is an Axum, having been brought there
miraculously through the air by Menilek and some other
devout Jew ; but every Abyssinian church contains an
imitation of it. Owing to the very imperfect light and
the scruples of my guide, who shook with cold and pious
horror, I could not well make out what this ark was ; but
it appeared to be a square wooden stand, about 2ft. broad
and 8f t. high, holding a few illuminated MSS. and a great
many evil-smelling relics and rags, probably the cast-off
clothes of Abyssinian saints who had lived and died in
the strongest odour of sanctity. Cleanliness is certainly
not, in Abyssinian eyes or practice, next to godliness. In
the next room to that containing the " Holy of Holies,"
there lay in one corner a wretched truckle-bed, covered
with religious books, some of them in massive boards an
inch thick, and richly illuminated, while in the other
corner lay a dustheap ! One of the most curious features
of the place was the number of wells. I think I counted
four, formed by water exuding from the mountain side,
and caught in basins hollowed out of the solid rock. It
was doubtless this natural supply of water, combined with
the inaccessibility of the place, that led to its selection
as a site for a sanctuary and stronghold. Christianity bas
had in its day to choose many strange places of refuge
from pagan persecution, and has too often been tainted by
admixture with impure or senseless rites, but it may be
doubted whether it ever chose a stranger place, or one
presenting a more revolting compound of piety and super-
stition than the little church which its half-naked, half-
savage votaries have built for it in the rock of Goon-
Gonna.

The place was visited by Sir Robert Napier, who ob-
tained the permission of the priest to have photographs
taken of several of the illustrations of Scripture events
with which their gospels are largely adorned. One or two
pages of the Gospel of St. Matthew in old Ethiopic were
also photographed, with a view to having the whole gospel
copied, should saran consider the text valuable. His
Excellency presented the church with a vestment of em
broidered silk, bearing an inscription in Amharic, stating
by whom and under what circumstances the presentation
was made. This the priests, whose wants are small and
to whom money is of comparatively little value, prize
immensely.

The Post's correspondent attempts a joke on this sub-
ject, which we will repeat simply because it is so far
fetched. He says
" The people hereabouts are all
Roman Catholics, which seems a pity, considering how
admirably such a sight ought to meet the views of a
thorough high-Churchman,"