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very nice and interesting! I have a small prayer book with Pictures and prayers, but not a a scroll. Looks fascinating! I like the writing (although of course, I do not understand it).
If your little prayer book holds pictures it is something to treasure, because not all books holds pictures. If it is a small book it often is a popular part of the bible the owner loves and had it written by a priest for him.. Scrolls are for protection. The Ethiopian coptic bibles are written on leather (vellum) and in a sabean language called ge-ez. It is still used in the modern churches (like latine for the catholic church.
@Thank you Ingrid, again a lot of valuable Information. I knew about Ge-ez, but not much ( I did some Research via Internet). my Little prayer book is indeed written on goat skin, and has 4 or 5 paintings in it from the Bible, I had Pictures taken with jewellery on it... I must have a look, if it is here, so I can just add it. I treasure it a lot!
https://ethnicjewels.ning.com/photo/old-lalibela-cross-2?context=use...
this is just one double side of it. The cover is leather over Wood, nicely decorated.
While the writing Looks already fascinating to me, I wonder about the drawings...some look like angels, others like devils.......this Little figure on this one is difficult to interprete... and one (I) might be completely wrong in trying to figure the meaning. To me, it reminds me of Hundertwasser figure (an Austrian painter living in New Zealand, who painted heads in this style like some men from other planets. I like his style a lot, it is very unique and colourful).
I have a book called"Magic miniatures from Ethiopia" free translation from the Dutch Language, It must be also in English and French, because the writer who is very well known about Scrolls is Jacques Mercier, I know he hold sometimes large expositions in New York.(I think). The book is with these old biblical drawings and the colors which is being used for the ailments etc. The pictures in the book are very clear, but on the scrolls they do not always come so close to it, because the priests themselves make them and are not always good artists and leave out details of ignorance. It will be more clear when one reads the text. And I am illiterate in the Ethiopian reading and writing.
I hadn.t opened this scroll for many years and now that I open it the incence parfum from the church is still in my nostrils.
@Ingrid, thank you. Very nice to know! I have written down the title and author, once I have time, I will try to find it online (the book). Nice to have the insence perfume to smell! I just bought myself from a seller in Israel (from whom I had bought a beautiful Ethiopian hairpin for less than a Dollar, but with expensive postage), 10 red-white old dirty Ethiopian eyebeads! (not enough to make a necklace, but they are really old and I always wanted some). Am very curious how they will look in real.........
About the scroll - I have two rolls and one square in leather. The silver-metal boxes I have are all empty....
Hi Eva, Lucky you. it feels great to have a find like that sometimes. Now the eyebeads are actually from Italia, they are murano beads and traded throughout the world. They were very popular in Ethiopia, I hope you will show your beads and your hairpin , of course when you receive them. Could be the darker ones with the white heart. Could be a real find.
@Ingrid, the hairpin is here:
https://ethnicjewels.ning.com/photo/ethiopian-hairpin-1-2?context=user
I really paid less than one US Dollar for it!!! But the postage was 15 Dlrs.... so the seller earned something with the postage fee. The beads I will Show, when I get them, am curious. Went downtown today and was wearing your telsums....! But I always checked that they were still on my neck.. (too afraid to lose, I have lost many things!).