Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 3 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773Bruce, James
History
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 3 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773
Bruce, James
Egypt -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- History; Natural history -- Ethiopia; Nile River
All the churches are round, with thatched roofs; their summits are
perfect cones; the outside is surrounded by a number of wooden pillars,
which are nothing else than the trunks of the cedar-tree, and are
placed to support the edifice, about eight feet of the roof projecting
beyond the wall of the church, which forms an agreeable walk, or
colonade, around it in hot weather, or in rain. The inside of the
church is in several divisions, according as is prescribed by the law
of Moses. The first is a circle somewhat wider than the inner one;
here the congregation sit and pray. Within this is a square, and that
square is divided by a veil or curtain, in which is another very small
division answering to the holy of holies. This is so narrow that none
but the priests can go into it. You are bare-footed whenever you enter
the church, and, if bare-footed, you may go through every part of it,
if you have any such curiosity, provided you are pure, _i. e._ have
not been concerned with women for twenty-four hours before, or touched
carrion or dead bodies, (a curious assemblage of ideas) for in that
case you are not to go within the precincts, or outer circumference of
the church, but stand and say your prayers at an awful distance among
the cedars.
All persons of both sexes, under Jewish disqualifications, are obliged
to observe this distance; and this is always a place belonging to
the church, where, unless in Lent, you see the greatest part of
the congregation; but this is left to your own conscience, and, if
there was either great inconvenience in the one situation, or great
satisfaction in the other, the case would be otherwise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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