“The _debterahs_, or scribes, constitute the lowest but the most influential body in the Church. These worthies enjoy no ecclesiastical rank and are under no ecclesiastical discipline, and yet no service can be properly performed unless they take part in it. Their chief duty consists in chanting the Psalms and Liturgy, but their uncouth gesticulation and discordant shouting, instead of elevating devotion, tend rather, at least in European estimation, to convert the service of God into a sinful burlesque and the sanctuary into a bedlam. The scanty learning of the country is exclusively monopolized by this order; and they are so proud of their erudition that they deem it a disgrace to exchange, by the breathing of the Abouna, the proud title of _debterah_ for the less learned appellation of _kas_, or priest. “These literati, notwithstanding their better acquaintance with the sacred volume and the lives of the saints, are considered the most arrant scoundrels in the land. Gondar, which contains a considerable number of the fraternity, is notorious for the dissolute profligacy of its inhabitants; and it is proverbial throughout the country that wherever _debterahs_ abound there vice and immorality thrive.”[131] Mansfield Parkyns found that many of the _debterahs_, or _defterers_, professed to practise witchcraft. He wrote: “There are persons in the country who are supposed to be able to call up spirits and obtain from them any information they may require. These men are mostly _defterers_ (or Scribes), and are regarded with a certain amount of rather dubious respect. The scene of their incantation is generally some ravine, with a stream running through it. As I have only heard the reports of the common people on the subject, I cannot describe accurately what ceremonies are observed, or what form the devil assumes on quitting the water at their summons. My informants, however, assured me that he came as a great chief, with the usual train of shield-bearers behind him and gunners before him.”[132]