3-021-181 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Interior of an Abyssinian church at Chaffa, near Senafe, 1868. 'The church at the village of Chaffa, which is situated...two miles from the [British] camp at Senafe, may be taken as the type of an Abyssinian parish church of the humbler order. It is surrounded by a stone wall, with a door on the north side, leading into a roomy chamber, the roof of which is supported on timber pillars. Two raised platforms, intended as bed-places...form the furniture of what is intended as a resting-place for travellers...The church is oblong, built of sandstone and mud, with three projecting courses of slate. The walls are not more than 12 ft. high...In the porch, which is formed of three timber pillars, are two kettle-drums and some jingling instruments made of metal rings on long hoops. The interior of the church is very small, the tower being supported by rough timber pillars, across two of which a curtain is hung. This screen conceals the holy place, containing the ark, from the congregation. The ark is a timber frame of three shelves, on which are placed a large bunch of wild thyme, a printed Bible in Amharic; a very large manuscript Bible of great antiquity, written on parchment in the old Geez language; and some processional crosses'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.