Cyber Ethiopia

This on-going series of articles presents excerpts from historically interesting accounts of Ethiopian markets, and merchants, as seen over the centuries. mainly by foreign observers. The difficulties encountered by travelling merchants in the past were graphically described, in the early seventeenth century, by a prominent Portuguese Jesuit, Manoel de Almeida. "Very Frightening" Writing about the mercantile journey inland from the Red Sea port of Massawa to the province of Dambaya north of Lake Tana, a journey which was taken by many merchants in his day, Almeida states that it was necessary to make twelve river-crossings (without any bridges!) in a single day. After this the traveller reached "a very high mountain called Daguca". Climbed in half a day, it necessitated "going around it all the time as

if in a spiral along a path often so narrow that it is very frightening. As one goes up the mountain slope", Almeida continues, "a large part of it is over one's head and below are such precipices that if you once stumble and fell over that side there would be nowhere you could stop". There were, he explains, "many travellers" proceeding along that route, "for the journey is usually made in caravans of many people, because of the robbers that abound, so that a caravan going one way often meets an oncoming one. There are innumerable donkeys and it is common for many of them to be dashed to pieces over the precipices and their loads be lost. The latter generally consist of bars of salt which is the usual merchandise going from Tigre to Dambea and throughout the interior of Ethiopia". Drawings of amole, on bars of salt used instead of money-from A.H. Qwiggin, A survey of primitive money "Not Much Above Hell" "On top of Mount Daguca", Almeida declares, "is a very big piece of level ground over a league round. Here the caravan rests and sleeps because the pack animals are so tired with climbing that the cannot go on the same day and climb Lamalmon [Lamalmo]. Next day one starts upon a very difficult hill like a bridge or breakwater (this shape fits it better) because it is a ridge of land frighteningly narrow and sharp, especially as it is perpendicular on either side, and both the valleys are so deep that they seem to be not much above hell. Lamalmo "When you have surmounted this hill [Almeida continues] you find yourself at the foot of an eminence consisting almost entirely of craggy rock; it stands out from the mountain and appears to be a very strong and tall bastion. This is the roughest part of the whole journey because, although Nature has provided something like a ladder winding from one side to the other, yet it is so steep that it cannot be climbed without great fatigue. They unload the pack animals because unless they have a place to steady their feet most of them cannot reach the rocks which are like steps, only sometimes two or three covados high". (One covado was equal to about 16 centimetres). "This hill", Almeida continues, "is perhaps 250 to 300 paces high and on the top Nature has made a very level platform which is perhaps half a league round with a diameter of a good musket shot. It has the shape of a chair or stool without arms because the edges of the level piece are the highest part of Lamalmon [Lamalmo] and it is so sharply cut away that it seems to have been done with a pickaxe; it is all living rock. There is a village at this spot. It has good water which rushes down from the top of the mountain. Here dues are exacted from the merchants on the goods they bring from the sea and from Tigre. The caravan rests and sleeps because the pack animals are so exhausted by this part of the road that they are fit for no more that day". Rock Salt as Money Turning to the use of the amole, or bar of salt (which was already mentioned in last week's article), Almeida declares: "Salt is the commonest and most usual merchandise of Ethiopia. They have almost made it into money for in the markets all other things are generally bartered or bought for salt. It is not salt made from sea-water, but the Author of Nature provided some perpetual and inexhaustible mines of it in the ground. These are on the borders of the Kingdoms Tigre and Angot, on the side of Dancali. From these rocks of salt, as it were, they cut with an axe blocks nearly a span long and nearly three inches square on each surface. Everyone carries what he can, men, donkeys and oxen, some to the nearest markets, others to other more distant ones and so it circulates through the whole empire". In the first of these markets, Almeida explains, "they give 80 or 100 [bars of salt] for a drime of gold which is worth a pataca [an old Spanish coin], in others inside Tigre they give 50, 60, in Dambea 25, 30, in Gojam less, in Narea, which is the furthest part of empire and they do reach so far, they give 6 to 10 when there is plenty. Many blocks are broken on the way and thereby become less valuable, as when broken they are of less use... than when whole". Describing the transportation of this rock salt, he continues: "Pitiful" "It is pitiful to see the roads from Tigre to Dambea all constantly full of people in caravans of a thousand servers (as they call the men who carry it) and 500 donkeys loaded with these blocks so that they are crushed by their burdens, because they are usually far too great. What is worse is that nearly a third of the load is taken from them on the way at different customs posts by way of dues, and many leave it all at the precipices where they fall headlong because the mountains are so rugged and the path so narrow. The donkeys that die or are left exhausted in the desert for the wolves [by which Almeida doubtless meaning hyenas] are countless". Muslim Merchants Most merchants in and around Ethiopia at this time were Muslims, referred to by Almeida as "Moors". Many of them, he says, lived by trade. They were at a significant advantage over Christian merchants, he declares, in that the latter were not allowed to the sea ports, especially those on Arabian side of the Red Sea. Christian traders did, however, go as far as Massawa, but "the Moors" were "better received and more welcome there", so that the latter, as Almeida says, were "left in control of all the important trade of Ethiopia". Almeida went on to state that "the great and rich men" of the Ethiopian empire all had "many of these Moors as their agents". The latter carried gold to the sea for them, and brought them back silks and various items of clothing. The Portuguese Jesuit, who was badly disposed towards Muslims, here added: "As they are not very scrupulous they usually profit by their management of other people's business, so that they get fat and rich on the pickings".