An account of the religion of the Abyssins.


Yet though there is a great difference between our manners, customs,
civil government, and those of the Abyssins, there is yet a much
greater in points of faith; for so many errors have been introduced
and ingrafted into their religion, by their ignorance, their
separation from the Catholic Church, and their intercourse with
Jews, Pagans, and Mohammedans, that their present religion is
nothing but a kind of confused miscellany of Jewish and Mohammedan
superstitions, with which they have corrupted those remnants of
Christianity which they still retain.

They have, however, preserved the belief of our principal mysteries;
they celebrate with a great deal of piety the passion of our Lord;
they reverence the cross; they pay a great devotion to the Blessed
Virgin, the angels, and the saints; they observe the festivals, and
pay a strict regard to the Sunday. Every month they commemorate the
assumption of the Virgin Mary, and are of opinion that no Christians
beside themselves have a true sense of the greatness of the mother
of God, or pay her the honours that are due to her. There are some
tribes amongst them (for they are distinguished like the Jews by
their tribes), among whom the crime of swearing by the name of the
Virgin is punished with forfeiture of goods and even with loss of
life; they are equally scrupulous of swearing by St. George. Every
week they keep a feast to the honour of the apostles and angels;
they come to mass with great devotion, and love to hear the word of
God. They receive the sacrament often, but do not always prepare