Part 16

There were two large pieces, a leg and a shoulder, lying upon a wooden platter, into these he trussed both his claws, and carried them off, but I thought he looked wistfully at the large piece which remained in the warm water. Away he went slowly along the ground as he had come. The face of the cliff over which criminals are thrown took him from our sight. The Mahometans that drove the asses, who had, as we have already observed in the course of the journey, suffered from the hyæna, were much alarmed, and assured me of his return. My servants, on the other hand, very unwillingly expected him, and thought he had already more than his share.

As I had myself a desire of more intimate acquaintance with him, I loaded a rifle-gun with ball, and sat down close to the platter by the meat. It was not many minutes before he came, and a prodigious shout was raised by my attendants, He is coming, he is coming, enough to have discouraged a less courageous animal. Whether he was not quite so hungry as at the first visit, or suspected something from my appearance, I know not, but he made a small turn, and sat down about ten yards from me, the pan with the meat being between me and him. As the field was clear before me, and I did not know but his next move might bring him opposite to some of my people, and so that he might actually get the rest of the meat and make off, I shot him with the ball through the middle of his body about two inches below the wing, so that he lay down upon the grass without a single flutter. Upon laying hold of his monstrous carcase, I was not a little surprised at seeing my hands covered and tinged with yellow powder or dust. Upon turning him upon his belly, and examining the feathers of his back, they produced a brown dust, the colour of the feathers there. This dust was not in small quantities, for, upon striking his breast, the yellow powder flew in fully greater quantity than from a hair-dresser’s powderpuff. The feathers of the belly and breast, which were of a gold colour, did not appear to have any thing extraordinary in their formation, but the large feathers in the shoulder and wings seemed apparently to be fine tubes, which upon pressure scattered this dust upon the finer part of the feather, but this was brown, the colour of the feathers of the back. Upon the side of the wing, the ribs, or hard part of the feather, seemed to be bare as if worn, or, I rather think, were renewing themselves, having before failed in their function.

What is the reason of this extraordinary provision of nature is not in my power to determine. As it is an unusual one, it is probably meant for a defence against the climate in favour of those birds which live in those almost inaccessible heights of a country, doomed, even in its lower parts, to several months of excessive rain. The pigeons we saw upon Lamalmon, had not this dust in their feathers, nor had the quails; from which I guess these to be strangers, or birds of passage, that had no need of this provision, created for the wants of the indigenous, such as this eagle is, for he is unknown in the low country. That same day I shot a heron, in nothing different from ours, only that he was smaller, who had upon his breast and back a blue powder, in full as great quantity as that of the eagle.

London Publish’d De.^r 1.^{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co.]

BLACK EAGLE.

This beautiful bird was the first subject that suffered the loss of liberty, after the king and whole army had vindicated theirs, had passed the Nile in circumstances scarcely within the bounds of credibility, had escaped all the deep-laid schemes of Fasil, and by a train of accidents almost miraculous, passed triumphantly on before him after the battle of Limjour, having joined Kefla Yasous, advanced and encamped at Dingleber the 28th of May 1770.

This bird, who from the nobleness of his kind was appositely enough thought to be a type of the king, fell by a fate, in which he still more resembled him, overpowered by the strength and number of a species of birds in character infinitely below him. It has been repeatedly observed in the course of my narrative, that an inconceivable number of birds and beasts of prey, especially the former, follow an Abyssinian army pace by pace, from the first day of its march till its return, increasing always in prodigious proportion the more it advances into the country. An army there leaves nothing living behind, not the vestige of habitation, but the fire and the sword reduces everything to a wilderness and solitude.

The beasts and birds unmolested have the country to themselves, and increase beyond all possible conception. The slovenly manner of this savage people, who after a battle neither bury friends nor enemies, the quantity of beasts of burden that die perpetually under the load of baggage, and variety of mismanagement, the quantity of offal and half-eaten carcases of cows, goats, and sheep, which they consume in their march for their sustenance, all furnish a flock of carrion sufficient to occasion contagious distempers, were there not such a prodigious number of voracious attendants, who consume them almost before putrefaction. In their voracious stomachs lies the grave of the bravest soldier, unless very high birth or office, or very extraordinary affection in their attendants, procure them a more decent, though more uncommon fate, a sepulchre in a neighbouring church-yard. There is no giving the reader any idea of their number, unless by comparing them to the sand of the sea. While the army is in motion they are a black canopy, which extend over it for leagues. When encamped, the ground is discoloured with them beyond the sight of the eye, all the trees are loaded with them. I need not say that these are all carrion birds, such as the vulture, kite, and raven, that is a species to which nature has refused both the inclination and the power of feeding upon living subjects.

By what accident this small eagle, who was not a carrion bird, came among these cowardly and unclean feeders, is more than I can say; but it met the fate very common to those who assort with bad company, and those of sentiments and manners inferior to their own. One of these, a kite, vulture, or raven, I know not which, struck the poor eagle down to the ground just before the door of the king’s tent, and hurt him so violently, that he had scarcely strength to flutter under the canopy where the king was sitting; pages and officers of the bed-chamber soon seized him. It was not long before they made the application that the king was to be dethroned by a subject, and Fasil was in everybody’s mouth. The omen was of the kind too unpleasant to be dwelt upon; the sensible people of the attendants hurried it away, and it of course came to me with all the circumstances of the accident, the moral of that tale, and twenty prophecies that were current to confirm it. I confess my own weakness; at first it made a strong impression upon me. In the moment the passage of Shakespeare came into my mind,

------“On Tuesday last, “A falcon tow’ring in his pride of place, “Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d.”

And this recollection occupied my mind so forcibly, that I stood for a moment speechless, and as it were rivetted to the ground. This behaviour, unusual in me, who used always to laugh at their presages, and prophecies, was observed by the page that brought me the bird, and was reported to the king; and though he did not speak of it that time, yet some days after, when I was taking my leave of him on his retreat from Gondar to Tigré, he mentioned it to me: said we were mistaken, for the omen referred to Powussen’ of Begemder, and not to Waragna Fasil.

After sketching his genteel and noble manner while alive, our unfortunate prisoner found his death by the needle, was put out of sight, and carried to Gondar, where the drawing was finished. He was altogether of a dark brown, or chesnut, leading to black. The whole length, from the extremity of the tail to the nose, was two feet four inches. The breadth, from wing to wing, four feet six inches. He was very lean, and weighed something less than five pounds. The fourth feather of his wing after the three largest, was white. The feathers of the lower side of his tail were of a bluish brown, checkered with white, and those of the upper side of the tail were black and white alternately. His thighs were thick-covered with feathers, and so were his legs, down to the joining of the foot. His feet were yellow, with strong black claws. The inside of his wings was white, with a mixture of brown. His leg, from the joining of the foot, was three inches. His beak, from the point to where the feathers reached, was two inches and a quarter. The length of his crest from the head to the longest feather, five inches. The eye was black, with a cast of fire colour in it, the iris yellow, and the whole eye exceedingly beautiful. He seemed wonderfully tame, or rather sluggish, but whether that was from his nature or misfortune I cannot be a judge, never having seen another.

London Publish’d Feb.^y 10.^{th} 1790 by G. Robinson & Co.]

RACHAMAH.

This bird is met with in some places in the south of Syria and in Barbary, but is no where so frequent as in Egypt and about Cairo. It is called, by the Europeans, Poule de Faraone, the hen or bird of Pharaoh. It is a vulture of the lesser kind, not being much larger than our rook or crow, though, by the length of its wings, and the erect manner in which it carries its head, it appears considerably larger. In Egypt and all over Barbary it is called Rachamah, and yet it has been very much doubted what bird this was, as well as what was the origin of that name. Some of the Arabs will have it derived from Archam, which signifies variegated, or of different colours. It has been answered, that this is not the derivation, as archam in Arabic signifies variegated, or of more colours than two or three blended together, whereas this is in its feathers only black and white, separate from one another, and cannot be called variegated. But I must here observe, that this is by no means a proper interpretation of the Arabic word. Among many examples I could give, I shall adduce but one. There is a particular kind of sheep in Arabia Felix, whose head and part of the neck are black, and the rest of the beast white; it is chiefly found between Mocha and the Straits of Babelmandeb. This in Arabic is called Rachama, for no other reason but because it is marked black and white, which are precisely the two colours which distinguish the bird before us.

But I still am induced to believe the origin of this bird’s name has an older and more classical derivation than that which we have just spoken of. We know from Horus Apollo, in his book upon Hieroglyphics, that the Rachma, or she-vulture, was sacred to Isis, and that its feathers adorned the statue of that goddess. He says it was the emblem of parental affection, and that the Egyptians, about to write an affectionate mother, painted a she-vulture. He says further, that this female vulture, having hatched its young ones, continues with them one hundred and twenty days, providing them with all necessaries; and, when the stock of food fails them, she tears off the fleshy part of her thigh, and feeds them with that and the blood which flows from the wound. Rachama, then, is good Hebrew, it is from Rechem, female love, or attachment, from an origin which it cannot have in men. In this sense we see it used with great propriety in the first book of Kings, in Isaiah, and in Lamentations, and it seems particularly to mean what the Egyptians made it a hieroglyphic of in very ancient ages, and before the time of Moses, maternal affection towards their progeny. No mention is here made of the male Rachama, nor was he celebrated for any particular quality.

From this silence, or negative personage in him, arose a fable that there was no male in this species. Horus Apollo, after naming this bird always in the feminine gender, tells us roundly, that there is no male of the kind, but that the female conceives from the south wind. Plutarch, Ammianus, and all the Greeks, say the same thing; and Tzetzes, after having repeated the same story at large, tells us that he took it all from the Egyptians, so there seems to be little doubt either of the origin or meaning of the name.

The fathers in the first ages, after the death of Christ, seem to have been wonderfully pressed in point of argument before they could have recourse to a fable like this to vindicate the possibility of the Virgin Mary’s conception without human means. Tertullian, Orgines, Bazil, and Ambrosius, are all wild enough to found upon this ridiculous argument, and little was wanting for some of these learned ones to land this fable upon Moses, who probably knew it as a vulgar error before his time, but was very far from paying any regard to it; on the contrary, it is with the utmost propriety and precision, that, speaking to the people, he calls it Rachama in the feminine, because he was then giving them a list of birds forbidden to be ate, among which he selected the female vulture, as that was best known, and the great object of idolatry and superstition; and the male, and all the lesser abominations of that species, he included together in the word that followed his kind; though the English translator, by calling the female vulture him, has introduced an impropriety that there was not the least foundation for. That Moses was not the author of or believer in this Egyptian fable, is plain from a verse in Exodus, where, at another time, he speaks of this bird, as a male, and calls him Racham, and not Rachama.

It will not be improper that I here take notice, that the English translator, by his ignorance of language, has lost all the beauty and even the sense of the Hebrew original. He makes God say, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings, and brought you unto myself”. Now, if the expression had been really Eagle, the word would have been Nisr, and would have signified nothing; but, in place of eagle, God says Vulture, the emblem of maternal affection and maternal tenderness towards his children, which has a particular connection with, “brought you unto myself;” so that the passage will run thus, Say to the children of Israel, See how I have punished the Egyptians, while I bore you up on the wings of the Rachama, that is, of parental tenderness and affection, and brought you home to myself. It is our part to be thankful that the truths of Holy Scripture are preserved to us entire, but still it is a rational regret that great part of the beauty of the original is lost.

Notwithstanding all that has been said, this bird has been mistaken nearly by all the interpreters Hebrews, Syrians, and Samaritans; the Greeks, from imaginations of their own, have thought it to be the pelican, the stork, the swan, and the merops. Bochart, after a variety of guesses, acknowledges his own ignorance, and excuses it by laying equal blame upon others. Hitherto, says he, we have not been able to condescend upon what bird this was, because those that have wrote concerning it were as ignorant in the natural history of things as they were skilful in the interpretation of words.

The point of the beak of this bird is black, very sharp and strong for about three quarters of an inch, it is then covered by a yellow, fleshy membrane, which clothes it as it were both above and below, as likewise the forepart of the head and throat, and ends in a sharp point before, nearly opposite to where the neck joins the breast; this membrane is wrinkled, and has a few hairs growing thinly scattered upon the lower part of it. It has large, open nostrils, and prodigious large ears, which are not covered by any feathers whatever. The body is perfect white from the middle of the head, where it joins the yellow membrane, down to the tail. The large feathers of its wing are black; they are six in number. The lesser feathers are three, of an iron-grey, lighter towards the middle, and these are covered with three others lesser still, but of the same form, of an iron rusty colour; those feathers that cover the large wing-feathers are at the top for about an inch and a quarter of an iron-grey, but the bottom is pure white. The tail is broad and thick above, and draws to a point at the bottom. It is not composed of large feathers, and is not half an inch longer than the point of its wings. Its thighs are cloathed with a soft down-like feather, as far as the joint. Its legs are of a dirty white, inclining to flesh colour, rough, with small tubercules which are soft and fleshy. It has three toes before and one behind; the middle of these is considerably the longest; they are armed with black claws, rather strong than pointed, or much crooked. It has no voice that ever I heard, generally goes single, and oftener sits and walks upon the ground than upon trees. It delights in the most putrid and slinking kind of carrion, has itself a very strong smell, and putrifies very speedily.

It is a very great breach of order, or police, to kill any one of these birds near Cairo. But as there are few of its species in Egypt, and its name is the same all over Africa and Arabia, it seems to me strange that the Arabian or Hebrew writers should have found so much difficulty in discovering what was the bird. It lays but two eggs, and builds its nest in the most desert parts of the country. More of its history or manners I do not know. The books are full of fanciful stories concerning it, which the instructed reader at first sight will know to be but fable.

Heath. Sc.

London Publish’d Dec.^r 1.^{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co.]

ERKOOM.

It would appear that this bird is part of a large tribe, the greatest variety in which lies in his beak and horn. The horn he wears sometimes upon the beak, and sometimes upon the forehead above the root of the beak. These are the only parts that appear in collections. I gave to the cabinet of the king of France the first bird of this kind seen entire, and I have here exhibited the first figure and description of it that ever was seen in natural history, drawn from the life. In the east part of Abyssinia it is called Abba Gumba, in the language of Tigré; on the western side of the Tacazzè it is called Erkoom; the first of its names is apparently from the groaning noise it makes, the second has no signification in any language that I know.

At Ras el Feel, in my return through Sennaar, I made this drawing from a very entire bird, but slightly wounded; it was in that country called Teir el Naciba, the bird of destiny. This bird, or the kind of it, is by naturalists called the Indian crow, or raven; for what reason it is thus classed is more than I can tell. The reader will see, when I describe his particular parts, whether they agree with those of the raven or not. There is one characteristic of the raven which he certainly has, he walks, and does not hop or jump in the manner that many others of that kind do; but then he, at times, runs with very great velocity, and, in running, very much resembles the turkey, or bustard, when his head is turned from you.

The colour of the eye of this bird is of a dark brown, or rather reddish cast; but darker still as it approaches the pupil; he has very large eye-lashes, both upper and lower, but especially his upper. From the point of the beak to the extremity of the tail is 3 feet 10 inches; the breadth from one point of the wing to the other extended, is 6 feet, and the length 22 inches. The length of the neck 10 inches, and its thickness 3 inches and a half; the length of the beak measuring the opening near the head straight to the point, 10 inches; and from the point of the beak to the root of the horn 7 inches and 3/8ths. The whole length of the horn is 3 inches and a half. The length of the horn from the foot to the extremity where it joins the beak, is 4 inches. The thickness of the beak in front of the opening is one inch and 7/8ths. The thickness of the horn in front is one inch and 5/8ths. The horn in height, taken from the upper part of the point to the beak, 2 inches. The length of the thighs 7 inches, and that of the legs 6 inches and 5/8ths. The thickness in profile 7 lines, and in front 4 lines and a half. It has three toes before and one behind, but they are not very strong, nor seemingly made to tear up carcases. The length of the foot to the hinder toe is one inch 6 lines, the innermost is one inch 7 lines, the middle 2 inches 2 lines, and the last outer one 2 inches one line.