We departed from this Beteneguz to some very vile places in a mountain named Benacel; and the next day we set out, and our baggage went on in front, and we found it set down in the middle of a plain where there was much water. When we arrived, it grieved us to see our goods thus. Whilst we were thus at our wits’ end, there came up four or five men on mules, and ten or twelve men on foot with them; amongst them came a friar, and as soon as this friar came up he at once seized the captain by the head, who had charge of our baggage, and gave him buffets. We, on seeing this, all ran up to him to know for what reason he did that. The ambassador, seeing the captain covered with blood, laid hold of the friar by the breast, and was going to strike him, and I do not know whether he did strike him. I and all those who came up with him carried their arms ready, and almost at the breast of the friar. It availed him that he spoke a little Italian, because Jorge d’Abreu was there who understood it a little; and if this had not been the case, and I, who saw his hood and said that he was a friar, he would not have got off well. This matter having been pacified, the friar told how he had come by order of the Prester John to cause our luggage to be carried, and that he had been amazed at that captain, and what he had done to him he did it on account of the bad equipment which he was giving us. The ambassador answered that those buffets had not been given to the captain, but to him, since he had given them in his presence, and that he felt it much. All having been restored to peace, the friar said that he had to go forward on the road by which we had been travelling, to the house of the Balgada Robel, the gentleman we had left behind, and that from him and from his house he would bring mules and camels to carry our baggage, and that we should go and wait for him at a Beteneguz which was at a distance of half a day’s journey from this place. (This is the friar who is going as ambassador to Portugal.) We departed on our way, and went to sleep at a small village where there is a good church; its patron is Quercos. At night we thought we should have been eaten by the tigers. On the following day we went forward little more than half a league to the Beteneguz which the friar had told us of: this is at a town called Corcora, with very good houses for resting in, and a very good church. Here we remained Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, waiting for the friar. They told us that to the eastward from this place there was a large monastery named Nazareth; they say it is one of large revenues and many friars, and that there are in it abundance of grapes, peaches, and other fruits; and they brought us small nuts from it. They say that to the westward, which is towards the Nile, there are great mines of silver, and that they do not know how to get it out, nor to profit by it.

On the morning of Tuesday, seeing that the friar did not come, we commenced our journey for the space of two leagues up a river which was very pretty with verdure, and trees without fruit; on either side were very high slopes of mountains, with much tillage of wheat and barley, and beautiful wild olive trees which looked like new olive trees, because they are frequently pruned and cut to allow of wheat and barley growing. In the middle of this valley is a handsome church, house of Our Lady. It has around it small houses for the priests, and twelve cypress trees, the highest and thickest that could be mentioned, and many other trees. Close to the principal door there is a very graceful fountain, and around the church large fields (but all irrigated), which are sown all the year round with all sorts of seed, that is to say, wheat, barley, millet, grain, lentils, peas, beans, tafo, daguza,[73] and as many other vegetables as there are in the country, some sown, others green, others ripe, others reaped, and others threshed. At the head of this valley there is a very high ascent, and before sighting it there is a church which has no other population except a very few houses for the priests; it is a very dry country. In sight of it is an old wall, in which is the form of a portal, as though in former times it guarded that pass, which guards itself by the wildness of the mountain ridge, for the people of the country say that for more than twenty leagues there is not another pass from one side to the other: it fully appears to be so from the many people who flock hither. Descending this mountain by another descent, such as was the ascent, we came at last to a great plain of much extensive tillage of seed crops for all the year (like those behind), and much pasture grass. At the entrance of this plain there is a large and handsome church, its patron Quercos, accompanied by good houses for the priests, almost like an enclosed monastery, and then a Beteneguz, and a large town above it. This plain or valley is about two leagues in length, and half a league wide, and on either side very high mountain ranges. At the feet of the hills, on both sides, there are many small towns and churches in them. Among these churches there are two monasteries, one at one end, the other at the other. One is of Holy Cross, the other of St. John. Both are small, and of few friars, each has no more than ten or twelve friars. In this plain we began to change to a new feature of the country, entering a mountain range not so much high as deep. We passed part of the night separated from one another. In the party where the ambassador went there were four, and I was with them, in the other there were two, and the baggage was amongst those cliffs, as it pleased God, with one man alone. In the direction in which I was going we saw fire outside of the valleys,[74] and as it was night it seemed to be near, it was more than two leagues off. While we were going in its direction so many tigers followed us that it was a thing not to be believed, and if we approached near any bushes they came so close to us that at close quarters[75] one might have struck them with a lance. In our company there was not more than one lance, all the others carried their swords drawn, and I, who did not bear any, went in the midst of them. Following the fire we arrived close to a wood, and we said, if we enter the wood we shall be devoured by these tigers, let us turn back to the tilled land, and sleep there. So we halted on the cleanest place we found, in the middle of a ploughed field, and fastened the mules all together. The companions, of their goodness, said to me: Father do you sleep, and we will watch over the mules with drawn swords; and so they did. On the next day, at two hours after midday, we all came together again with the ambassador; and even then not all, and we came together in a town which was about two leagues from where we slept, which is called Manadel. This town is one of about a thousand inhabitants, all Moors tributary to Prester John. At one end, as if apart, there live twenty or thirty Christians, who abide here with their wives, and these Christians receive dues as toll. And because I said that the nature of the country had changed, I say that it was two months since we began to travel, and it was always winter, but in this country which we were entering, and where we lost ourselves, it was not winter; rather indeed it was a hot summer. This is one of the countries, that is to say, of the three that I named before in Chapter XXV, where it is winter in February, March, and April, and this country is named Dobaa. These lands which have the winter season changed are low lands lying beneath the mountains. The size of this country of Dobaa is five long days’ journey in length; I do not know what its width may be, because it enters far into the country of the Moors, so that I could not learn it. In this country there are very beautiful cows, which cannot be numbered or reckoned, and of the largest that can be found in the world. Before we reached this town of Manadeley, on an uncultivated mountain, we heard great shouts: we went up to the bushes and found there many Christian people, with their tents pitched, and on our asking them why they were there, they replied that they were entreating the mercy of God that He might give them water, for they were losing their flocks, and were not sowing their millet nor any other seed, with the drought. Their cry was “Zio mazera Christus”,[76] which means: “Christ God have mercy upon us.” This town of Manadeley is a town of very great trade, like a great city or seaport. Here they find all kinds of merchandise that there is in the world, and merchants of all nations, also all the languages of the Moors, from Giada, from Morocco, Fez, Bugia, Tunis, Turks, Roumys, Greeks, Moors of India, Ormuz, and Cairo, also they bring merchandise from all parts. While we were in this country the Moors, inhabitants of this town, were complaining, saying that the Prester John had by force levied upon them a thousand ouquias of gold, saying that he borrowed them to trade with, and that each year they were to give him another thousand ouquias profit, and that his own thousand should always remain alive. The natives and dwellers in the city said that if it were not for the breeding of flocks they would go away from the country. (Foreigners have nothing to do with this.) They also say that besides this if the Prester John took away from them the Tigrimahom to whom this country belonged he would give them another plunderer. So they complain that they are unable to live (according as they say). In this town a great fair is held on Tuesday of each week, of as many things as can be named, and of an infinite number of people from the neighbouring districts; and it is a fair every day in the square, for all that merchants require to do.

While we were in this town of Manadeley, half forgetting the friar, there reached us a message that he was coming, and was bringing mules and camels to conduct us. Immediately some of us went out to receive him with joy and pleasure, having forgotten our first meeting. As soon as he arrived we at once departed, and we had not yet gone half a league, and then after another half league had been traversed we did not travel further. We went to sleep at a Beteneguz, which is in a mountain. Next day we travelled a distance of two leagues, and went to sleep at a large town of Christians, which may have near a thousand inhabitants: it is named Farso. There are more than a hundred priests and friars in the church of this town, and as many nuns: they have not got a monastery, they lodge about the town like laywomen. The friars are almost set apart in two courts, in which are a number of cottages, an unsubstantial matter, so great is the number of these friars, priests, and nuns, and the other people who are short of room. In other churches it is always the custom to give the communion before the door of the church, and these priests go and give the communion out of its place, in an open space belonging to the church, in a tent of silk which they pitch there, very well arranged, and there they carry on their solemnity of music with their drums and tambourines, and when they give the communion it is given as they do in other churches, where it is the custom to give it at the church door, and in no other place. Two nights that we slept in this town the nuns came to wash our feet, and drank of the water after they had washed them, and they washed their face with it, saying that we were holy christians of Jerusalem. At this town there is much tillage of all kinds. Here we saw plots of coriander, like those of wheat, and no less of a seed which is called nugo, which is like pampilhos,[77] and with their heads, after they are quite ripe and dry, they make oil. Not this time, but another that we came here, when we had more knowledge of the country, and the people of the country had more knowledge of us, I heard inhabitants of this town say that in that year they had gathered so much crops of all kinds, that if it were not for the worm, it would have been abundance for ten years. And because I was amazed, they said to me: Honoured guest, do not be amazed, because in the years that we harvest little we gather enough for three years’ plenty in the country; and if it were not for the multitude of locusts and the hail, which sometimes do great damage, we should not sow the half of what we sow, because so much remains that it cannot be believed, so it is sowing wheat, or barley, lentils, pulse, or any other seed. And we sow so much with the hope that even if each of those said plagues should come, some would be spoiled, and some would remain, and if all was spoiled the year before is in such manner abundant that we have no scarcity. This town is almost in a valley, and above it are two hills, and here we kept a Saturday and a Sunday. We used to go up to these hills in the afternoons, to see the beautiful herds of cows that were collected on the skirts of the town, and of the hills. Those of our company guessed[78] them at fifty thousand cows. I do not say a larger number, and yet the multitude there is cannot be believed. The language of this country is like that we had passed, and here begins the language of the kingdom of Angote, which is named Angutinha, and the country also. This town is the frontier of the kingdom of the Tigrimahom, as far as the Moors who are named the Dobas. After we had passed twice through this district (as I said above), there happened a good thing in it. It has two high hills, and they always have watchmen on them, because further on from this is country of the Moors. There are great plains, although wooded, and they extend quite two leagues, and then are the mountain ranges in which the Moors live. The watchmen saw the Moors come, and they emptied the place and fled away; the Moors came and plundered the provisions which they found, and took away what they could or chose. The watchmen were ashamed of having run away, and communicated with several neighbouring towns to the effect that if they saw them make signals they should come to their assistance, because they had determined to await the Moors if they should return there. These did not long delay returning, the people of the place made their signals, many people flocked to them, and came into the field against the Moors. God was pleased to assist the Christians, who killed eight hundred Moors, and of the Christians there died five. The Christians cut off the heads of all the Moors, and went and stuck them on trees half a league from there, along the great roads by which all people pass, and they sent the shields and javelins of all the dead Moors to the Prester John (this was whilst we were at court). And on our coming on our return from there we found the heads suspended to the trees along the road, as has been said: and we felt fear and disgust at passing under them. In all this country they make bread of any grain, as with wheat, barley, maize, pulse, peas, lentils, small beans, beans, linseed, and teff; they also make wine from many of these seeds: and the wine of honey is much the best of all. As the common people gave us victuals, since the friar found us, by order of the Prester John, they gave us of this bread, and as it was not of wheat, we could not eat it, also they brought it at unseasonable hours, because in all this country it is the custom to eat only once a day, and that is at night. Besides this their food is raw meat, and they make a sauce for it with cowdung, and that we did not eat: nor of the bread, unless it was of wheat, or at least of peas. Of the flesh we ordered our slaves to prepare food for us, until the friar came to adopt our custom, and to know our wishes, and endeavoured to give us fowls, mutton and beef, boiled or roasted, this done by our slaves.

We set out from this town, and travelled through thick maize fields, as high as large cane brakes, and we went to sleep at no great distance, at the foot of a hill close to a church, because at night we were always away from the road, and near the towns, on account of the food which they gave us. Here the friar told us not to scatter ourselves, and all to keep close together, with our arms ready, and all the goods in front, because we had to pass a very dangerous country of Moors, who are always hostile. From this road which we were now travelling, which is towards the sea, and towards the South, all are Moors, who are named Dobas, because the country is named Doba, and it is not a kingdom. They say that there are twenty-four captaincies, and that at times twelve of them are at peace, and the others always at war. In our time we saw them all at war, and we saw the twelve captains who are used to be at peace at times, all at the court, for they had made a rising, and were come to make peace. When they came near the tent of Prester John each of these captains carried a stone upon his head, holding it with both his hands. They said that this was a sign of peace, and that they came to sue for mercy. These captains were received with honour, and they brought with them more than a hundred men, and very good led horses and mules, because they entered on foot with the stones on their heads. They may have stayed at court more than two months: they gave them each day beef, mutton, honey, and butter. At the conclusion of peace the Prester John ordered them to be banished from their country more than a hundred leagues, and ordered the captains and people they brought with them to be placed in the kingdom of Damute, with numerous guards. As soon as the people of these captains learned that their lords had been banished they made other captains, and raised the whole country in war. And another time that we were travelling by this road we had to keep Twelfth-day in this country, and it was on a Friday, so we rested Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. At this time, on account of the rising of these captains, the Prester John sent thither many gentlemen, captains of the country, and they went and pitched their camp on a mountain which showed from where we were halting, and we saw the smoke which they made there. The ambassador arranged to send thither two Portuguese to visit those captains and lords, on his part: and they brought back six cows which the captains sent us, and these Portuguese told us that some very great lords were there as captains, and that they had there more than fifteen thousand men, placed in a very large enclosure of thorny bushes, and they name this enclosure catamar;[79] and the Portuguese said that they had water outside of the enclosure, and that they did not dare go for it, nor take the horses and mules to drink, except with a large force, because if the Moors saw only a small number they rushed upon them and killed them. They also related that every Saturday and Sunday the Moors came and affronted them, because the Christians do not fight on those days. It is said that this war and ill-feeling is with this Prester John, more than with his predecessors, inasmuch as they are tributaries of the Prester. The preceding Presters, until the father of this one who now reigns, always had five or six wives, and they had them from the daughters of the neighbouring Moorish Kings, and from the Pagans; and from the captains of these lordships or captaincies they had one or two, if they found them suitable; and from the King of Dancali another; and from the King of Adel, and the King of Adea. And at the present times known to us there arrived for this David who now reigns, a daughter of the King of Adea, before he had any other wife, and because she had large front teeth, when he saw her he did not like her. And because he had already ordered her to be made a Christian, and she could not return to her father, he gave her in marriage to a great lord; and he did not choose to take any other daughter of a Moorish King, nor of these lordships, and married the daughter of a Christian, and would not have more than one wife, saying that he would follow the law of the gospel. He asks for the tribute from these Kings, his tributaries, which their predecessors were obliged to pay him. They did not bring him this tribute on account of the marriage, and for that reason make this war, which is being continually waged. They also say in this country that these Dobas are such great warriors, that they have a law amongst them that they cannot take a wife without a man’s being able to certify that he has killed twelve Christians. No one passes here by this road except in a cafila, which they call a negada.[80] This assemblage passes twice a week, once in coming, and another time returning, or to express it better, one goes and the other comes; and there always pass a thousand persons and upwards, with a captain of the negadas, who awaits them in certain places. There are two captains, because the negada commences in two parts, and they set out from one end and from the other. These negadas have their origin in two fairs, that is to say, in Manadeley and in Corcora of Angote; and yet, even with these negadas and assemblages, many people are killed in the passage. I know this, because a nephew of mine, a gentleman of the household of the King our sovereign, and a servant of the ambassador of Portugal, Don Rodrigo, determined to pass with this negada; and they told us that the Doba Moors had attacked the van, and had killed twelve persons before the people could put themselves on guard. It is a great peril traversing this evil pass, because it is a two days’ journey, all through level ground and very large woods, and very high and dense thickets of thorn bushes; and in these two marches, besides that the road is flat and very long, and that they frequently cut them, that is, the thorn bushes near the road, and set fire to them, yet they do not burn, except those that are cut and dried, and some that have withered at the roots, because the thorn bushes which are standing remain in their strength. It is about two leagues from this road to the district of the Dobas, at the commencement of the mountain range, and the ground is flat throughout these thorn thickets. There are in these lands or mountains an infinite number of elephants and other animals, as in the other mountains.

The conquest[81] of these Moors of Doba is of a great captain named Xuum Janamora, that is captain of the country. The captaincy is named Janamora, which is a large district, with many people subject to it, and all of it mountainous. They say that they are good warriors, and so they ought to be, for they always keep an eye over their shoulder. In the lands and mountains where they dwell, the Moors come to burn the houses and churches, and carry off the cows from the yards. In this country I saw a priest with poisoned arrows; and I opposed him on account of its being ill done, as he was a priest. He answered me: Look that way, and you will see the church burnt by the Moors, and close to it they carried off from me fifty cows, and also they burned my beehives, which were my livelihood; for that reason I carry this poison,[82] to kill him who has killed me. I did not know what to answer him, with the sorrowfulness which I saw in his countenance, and perceived in his heart. We set out from this halt, and travelled by the said flat road, alongside the hills which are on the side of the Christians, and all peopled by these Janamoras, and we crossed rivers which descend from the said mountains, and close to one of them we went to take our midday rest in some good shade of willow trees. It was very hot, and the sun and day were very bright, and the river did not bring water enough to irrigate a garden. We were divided into two parties, on each side of the water, at speaking distance. During this there began thunder a long way off, and we said that these were thunderstorms such as there are sometimes in India. Being in security, without there being here any wind or rain, and the said thunder having ceased, we commenced collecting the baggage to set out; and there was a tent where we dined and reposed ourselves. The halt having ended, one of our Portuguese, that is, Mestre Joam, went sauntering along the river up stream, and immediately returned running, and calling out with loud shouts: Take care, take care. We all looked in the direction from which he came shouting, and we saw water coming, of the height of a lance (without any doubt), and quite straight and square: and we could not take care sufficiently to prevent its carrying away part of our goods. And it would have carried away both us and our goods if we had still been staying in the tent where we had dined. From me, amongst other things, it carried off a breviary and a bottle full of wine which I carried for celebrating the masses; and so, likewise, it carried off a portion from each of us. From one it took a cloak, from another a hat, from another a sword; another, in escaping, fell in such a manner, that on the one hand it was a fearful thing, and on the other a matter for laughter. It pleased God that I had got the silver chalice put in the skin of a kid and hung up at the height of a man on the trunk of a willow tree; and a man of the country ran to it, and saved the chalice, for he climbed up the willow tree with it, and remained there until the water went down. This river came from among very high mountains, among which it had overflowed, and out of them came this water in a mass. This river brought down stones as big as barrels of twelve almudes,[83] and from the noise made by these stones it seemed that the earth was being overwhelmed, and that the heavens were falling. It was a thing not to be believed; and as this water came suddenly, so also it passed away in a short space of time, for even this day we crossed over it, and we did not see in it the rocks which we had before seen, and we saw others newly come which had descended from the mountains. We went to sleep at some poor houses, or near them, where they received us throwing stones at us, and we slept without supper, and under heavy rains which fell in the night, with thunderstorms in the flat land, as there had been by day in the mountains.

We set out from this place, we and the Portuguese, because there was nothing to eat, for the country is very sterile; and we left the friar with all our goods which could not travel, and we had not got people to carry it. Before we started they caused us more fear than we had before, telling us that, besides the Moors, there were there many robbers, who went about among the thickets, and killed travellers with poisoned arrows; and because we had generally seen them carried we had more fear. So they told us to go all together, and with our weapons ready. The road which we travelled this day was flat, like that behind, and with larger thickets; the road was wider, because every year they cut the bushes. We always travelled alongside the mountains, as we did the day before, and further off from the mountains of the Moors, because every step we left them further off. With all this, they said that there was greater danger here, and that there were wider passages of dry rivers and thick woods, where bad people might lie in wait. They also inspired us with fear, telling us not to sleep on the low ground, nor to rest near the water, because the country was very unwholesome, and that we ought to ascend to the high ground as much as possible. Thus, we travelled without our baggage all that day, and came to sleep at a large river named Sabalete, at which river the kingdom of Tigrimahom ends, and the kingdom of Angote begins. On a very high hill to the westward of this river is a church of St. Peter, which is called in our language San Pedro d’Angote; and they say that it is the head of this kingdom, and that it is the church of the kings, and that when this kingdom is bestowed they come here to take possession of it. And on the eastern side, on another very high mountain, which is two or three leagues from this road (and now it is not a country of the Moors), is a monastery which they say is large and of much revenue and many friars. However, we saw nothing of it, except the trees. At this river we remained Saturday and Sunday, and on Sunday night, at the first sleep, the tigers attacked us, with all the fires we had burning, and a great part of the mules got loose, and we at once caught most of them. One mule and an ass escaped, and we thought they had been devoured. Next day, in the morning, they came from a village to tell us that in the night two runaway beasts had come there, and that we should see if they were ours, and go there and fetch them. On Monday, the 3rd of October of 1520, we set out on our way, and travelled for two leagues along a very flat road, and from that spot the friar, who was now with us with the goods, took us by some very rough roads over mountains, to sleep at some pinnacles, saying that the low grounds were sickly. The goods could not ascend, and remained on the road. On account of this night’s halt, we were all discontented with the friar, and told him not to bring us and our mules up such mountain ridges; that we were not afraid of sickness, and if he did it for the sake of eating, that we were bringing the goods of the King of Portugal, to provide ourselves withal, and to be able to give him food also. Here he said that he would not again bring us out of the road, and that he would go wherever we pleased, and that we should be satisfied. On Tuesday we descended from the said pinnacle, and came back to the road where the baggage had remained, close to a large church of Our Lady. Here we had our midday rest. This church has many priests, and friars, and nuns, and it is directed by the priests. This town is named Corcora of Angote. It is different from Corcora[84] of the Tigrimahom, where on Wednesday of every week there is a great market or fair. At this church we left the camels, with a large part of the goods, because[85] they could not go any further over the rough mountains that we had to pass; and this afternoon we crossed a mountain with great labour, for in many places we went on foot, and with both feet and hands, like cats. We passed this bad road over a mountain ridge, still between other ridges. There are two hills almost level ground, between which lies a valley of great pastures and tillage of all sorts of seeds, which grow all the year round, because we passed by here several times, and we always found wheat just sown, and other wheat springing up, and other in grass, other in the ear, other ripe, and other reaped or threshed on the threshing floor; and so with other seeds of this country, for in the same manner as it is with the wheat, so it is with all other things. This land is not irrigated, because it is almost marshy; and all the land of this nature, or which is capable of irrigation, gives crops all through the year; when one is got in another is sown. In this country, on both sides, on all the slopes, there are an infinite number of towns, and all have their churches; it is a very good country. For a man to know where the churches are, they have around them large trees; by that they are known, even before they are reached.

On the following Wednesday we travelled (not a long way), and began to descend through a large and beautiful valley and lowland, where there were large fields of millet and beans. This vale is named the country of Ancona. At the head of this vale is a very noble church named St. Mary of Ancona (as they say), of great revenues. This church has many canons, and an Alicanate over them. Besides these canons it has many priests and friars. All the large churches here and further on are named King’s churches, all have canons, whom they call Debeteras, and in all an Alicanate, who is like a prior. This church has two small bells, badly made, and they are low down near the ground, and as yet we had not seen any others in all the country that we had gone through. We remained in this town till Thursday, because there is then a great market, which they call gabeja.[86] In this country, and in all the kingdom of Angote, iron is current as money. It is made like a shovel, and this shape is of no advantage for anything, except for making something else with it. Of these pieces of iron, ten, eleven, and sometimes twelve, are worth a drachm, which in our Portugal, or in India, would be worth a cruzado (as has been said). Salt also is current as money, because it is current in all the country: here six or seven blocks of salt are worth one piece of iron. From here there lies almost opposite to the westward, a large country named Abrigima: it is a country of very high mountains, and very cold. On the top of this mountain there is much matting grass,[87] and they say that it is very good. I brought some of it to the Genoese who were with us, and they said that they had never seen so good, and that it was better than that of Alicante. The provisions of these mountains are all barley in the low ground, and wheat in the valleys, the best that can be named among many other good wheats. The flocks, both cows, sheep, and goats, are very small, as in the country of Maia, between Douro and Minho, in Portugal. They call this country Abime raz, it is under Angote raz, which is the kingdom of Angote. This country of Abrigima is six days’ journey in length, and three in breadth. They say that after the country of Aquaxumo became christian with its neighbourhood, this country followed next after it. In this country the Kings had their tribunal, as the Queens had in Aquaxumo. Whilst this country is so sterile, and at first sight sad, there are in it the edifices which I saw. First, in a very high mountain, there is a very great cave, and within it is a handsome monastery, house of Our Lady, named Iconoamelaca,[88] which means: God gives it plenty; and the spot of land is named Acate. The house is not so large, as is its elegance. It has not got large revenues, yet it has a great number of friars and nuns. The friars have their dwelling above the cavern, entirely enclosed, and they go down to the monastery by a single path. The nuns have their dwelling below the cavern, they are not enclosed, they live upon the slope of the mountain. All these friars and nuns dig and prune in this country, and they sow wheat and barley, which they eat, for the monastery gives them little. The affection which they bear to this country, and to the monastery, makes them dwell there. This monastery is inside this cavern, and well built in a cross, well contained in the cave, so that they go freely with their procession round the building. In front of the door of this house there is a wall ten or twelve fathoms long, and as high as the edge of the cave, and between the wall and door of the monastery, for there are no churches within the enclosure of the cave, there is a space of five fathoms, here the nuns stand to hear the offices, and here they receive the communion. This station of the nuns lies to the south, because the church lies east and west, and the station is on the side of the epistle.[89] Above this cave, descending from the mountain, a river runs during the whole year, and the water falls on the right hand of this monastery, near the place where the nuns are, much beyond the wall which shelters them. The friars, even if they were much more numerous than they are, would find room in the cave around the church, although they do not enter it. The monastery, or body of the church, has three doors, that is, one principal, and two side doors, as though it were in the open air, and one is wide. And because I say that it is in the form of a cross, it is in this manner, namely, of the form and size of a monastery of San Frutuoso, which is close to the city of Braga, in the kingdom of Portugal.

This monastery before mentioned possesses, at two days’ journey to the west, a large and rich church in another cave; according to my judgment three large ships with their masts would find room in this cave. The entrance to it is not larger than to allow two carts with their side rails[90] to enter. Above this cave the mountain continues to rise for quite two leagues. I walked over them, and was near dying in them from the great ascent, and with the great cold there was. God protected me. And I was fastened to a cord, and a strong slave to pull it, who assisted me to ascend, and another behind who drove the mules, because I did not send them in front for fear of their falling upon me. We started before morning, and at midday we had not finished ascending the ground. This church which is in this cave is very large, like a cathedral, with its large naves, very well wrought, and well vaulted: it has three very rich chapels, and well adorned altars. The entrance of this cave is to the east, and the backs of the chapels are that way, and if one goes at the hour of tierce[91] there is no seeing in the church, all the offices are done with lamps. There are in this church (as they say) two hundred canons or debeteras, according to their language; I saw an infinite number, they have not got friars; they have an alicanate, a very noble prior; he is over all of them, as has been said before. They say that it has much revenue. These canons are like well-to-do and honourable men. This church is named Imbra Christus, which means the path of Christ. Entering this cave a man faces the chapels, and on the right hand when one enters are two painted chambers, which belonged to a King who lived in this cave, and who ordered this church to be built. On the epistle side are three honoured sepulchres, and as yet we had not seen others such in Ethiopia. This principally is high, and has five steps all around it. The tombs are in this manner. This tomb is covered with a large cloth of brocade, and velvet of Mekkah, one cloth of one stuff, and another of the other, which on both sides reach the ground. It was covered over, because it was the day of its great festival. They say that this tomb belongs to the King who lived here, whose name was Abraham. And the other two sepulchres are of the same fashion, except that one of them has four steps, and the other three: and all are in the middle of the cave. They say that the largest of these two belongs to a Patriarch of Alexandria, who came to see this King, having heard of his sanctity, and he died here. The smallest and the lowest belongs they say to a daughter of this King. They also say that this King was a mass priest for forty years, and that after he withdrew himself he said mass in this church each day: and this is written in a large and ancient book, which I saw with my eyes and had in my hands, quite like a chronicle or life of this King, and they went over part of it with me during two days that I was there at leisure. Among other miracles which they related of this King, and which they read to me in this book, is that when he wished to celebrate the angels administered to him what was requisite, that is, bread and wine, and this was in those forty years that he was in retreat. In the beginning of this book this King is painted with the state of a priest before the altar, and from a window in the same painting there comes out a hand with a roll and a little pitcher of wine, as though it brought bread and wine; and so it is painted in the principal chapel. (I say that I heard and saw it read in the book.) And besides that the canons told me that the stone of which this church was built had come from Jerusalem, and that it is like the stone of Jerusalem, which is dark and of a fine grain. And going on the mountain above, where my slave led me or assisted me, at the top of the mountain I found an ancient quarry, with great excavations and many pieces of stone, and very large stones with ancient wedges.[92] I looked at these stones with great care, and this stone is of the same colour and grain as that of the church, because I broke off some pieces of it, and examined it well, and knew that it was the same stone, and that the stone for the church had been brought from here, and had not come from Jerusalem as they had told me. It is also written in the said book that during the whole life of this King he had not taken dues from his vassals, and if anyone brought them to him, that he ordered them to be distributed among the poor; and his maintenance was from the great tillage which he used to order to be made. It is also written that to this King it was revealed that there ought not to be any relations of the King in his dominions, that all of them should be shut up, except only the eldest son, the heir, as will be related further on. I saw this church the day of its feast, in order to see that which I had heard of it. There came to it that day fully twenty persons, and all as many as come to it in pilgrimage have to receive the communion. This feast was on a Sunday, and they said mass very quickly, and then they commenced giving the communion at all the three doors of the church, and they finished after nightfall. This I saw because I was at the beginning, and I went away to dinner, and I returned and remained until they finished with torches.

At a day’s journey from this church of Imbra Christo are edifices, the like of which and so many, cannot, as it appears to me, be found in the world, and they are churches entirely excavated in the rock, very well hewn. The names of these churches are these: Emanuel, St. Saviour, St. Mary, Holy Cross, St. George, Golgotha, Bethlehem, Marcoreos, the Martyrs. The principal one is Lalibela. This Lalibela, they say, was a King in this same country for eighty years, and he was King before the one before mentioned who was named Abraham. This King ordered these edifices to be made. He does not lie in the church which bears his name, he lies in the church of Golgotha, which is the church of the fewest buildings here. It is in this manner: all excavated in the stone itself, a hundred and twenty spans in length, and seventy-two spans in width. The ceiling of this church rests on five supports, two on each side, and one in the centre, like fives of dice, and the ceiling or roof is all flat like the floor of the church, the sides also are worked in a fine fashion, also the windows, and the doors with all the tracery, which could be told, so that neither a jeweller in silver, nor a worker of wax in wax, could do more work. The tomb of this King is in the same manner as that of Santiago of Galicia, at Compostella, and it is in this manner: the gallery which goes round the church is like a cloister, and lower than the body of the church, and one goes down from the church to this gallery; there are three windows on each side, that is to say, at that height which the church is higher than the gallery, and as much as the body of the church extends, so much is excavated below, and to as much depth as there is height above the floor of the church. And if one looks through each of these windows which is opposite the sun, one sees the tomb at the right of the high altar. In the centre of the body of the church is the sign of a door like a trap door, it is covered up with a large stone, like an altar stone, fitting very exactly in that door. They say that this is the entrance to the lower chamber, and that no one enters there, nor does it appear that that stone or door can be raised. This stone has a hole in the centre which pierces it through, its size is three palms.[93] All the pilgrims put their hands into this stone (which hardly find room), and say that many miracles are done here. On the left hand side, when one goes from the principal door before the principal chapel, there is a tomb cut in the same rock as the church, which they say is made after the manner of the sepulchre of Christ in Jerusalem. So they hold it in honour and veneration and reverence, as becomes the memory to which it belongs. In the other part of the church are two great images carved in the wall itself, which remain in a manner separated from it. They showed me these things as though I should be amazed at seeing them. One of the images is of St. Peter, the other of St. John: they give them great reverence. This church also possesses a separate chapel, almost a church; this has naves on six supports, that is, three on each side. This is very well constructed, with much elegance: the middle nave is raised and arched, its windows and doorways are well wrought, that is, the principal door, and one side door, for the other gives entrance to the principal church. This chapel is as broad as it is long, that is, fifty-two spans broad, and as many in length. It has another chapel, very high and small, like a pinnacle,[94] with many windows in the same height: these also have as much width as length, that is, twelve spans. This church and its chapels have their altars and canopies, with their supports, made of the rock itself, it also has a very great circuit cut out of the rock. The circuit is on the same level as the church itself, and is all square: all its walls are pierced with holes the size of the mouth of a barrel. All these holes are stopped up with small stones, and they say that they are tombs, and such they appear to be, because some have been stopped up since a long time, others recently. The entrance of this circuit is below the rock, at a great depth and measure of thirteen spans, all artificially excavated, or worked with the pickaxe, for here there is no digging, because the stone is hard, and for great walls like the Porto in Portugal.