3-021-411 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Abyssinian Expedition: priests and villagers of Wadela singing the Song of Moses before Sir Robert Napier, 1868. Ethiopians singing after the storming of Magdala. 'The song of Moses, upon the downfall of the tyrant Pharaoh, was not inappropriate to this occasion...It began with, "Oh, clap your hands and shout with joy, for the deliverer has returned in peace," and they all suited the action to the word by clapping their hands. The music is not what the European ear cares for, being like most Oriental efforts of that kind. It cannot even be complimented as Johnson is said to have complimented music, by saying that it was 'the least unpleasant of sounds.' The expression of their faces, full of the utmost earnestness, the swaying of their bodies, and the bright, white teeth which they exhibited as their mouths opened to the widest extent, were a little incongruous; but it is their manner, and on this occasion they tried to do their best. It would be unfair to find fault with what was so sincere and well-intentioned. In psalm-singing they at times increase their movement till it may be called a dance, and this is founded upon the fact that David danced before the Ark'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.