In 1903, stories of travelers who visited the mysterious Abyssinia, a country also known as Ethiopia, appeared on the pages of several European newspapers. Many interesting things could be learned from their letters. It was an ancient kingdom, which has changed little since the times of the Apostles, when its population was one of the first on the planet to adopt Christianity.
Justice without prisons
Abyssinia had many monasteries belonging to the local Orthodox Church, and about a third of the country's male population were monks. The monasteries maintained schools, and the boys who were sent to them lived at the monasteries in the position of novices.
From their number, the so-called labashi were recruited - people who were assigned the role of a mysterious instrument of justice in the system of criminal investigation, inherited by Ethiopians from ancient times.
A modern Ethiopian monk with a student boy
Introduced into a state of trance, the boys were tireless in the search for the criminal. According to reliable eyewitness accounts, one labashi, without stopping and resting, following an invisible trail to anyone, ran for 16 hours until he pointed out the culprit.
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The authority of the labashi was indisputable - whoever he pointed or hit, or fell asleep near whose house, was unconditionally considered a criminal. And no matter what he said, denying guilt, they did not believe him - the boy in a trance could not lie. He saw the higher, invisible, the labashi was an instrument of higher powers, like an angel of retribution.
The trial and reprisals against the suspects were not particularly intricate, everything happened as it had a thousand years before. The exposed criminals were brought before the governor of the negus. He listened to the arguments of the parties - what accusers and witnesses say about them, what they answer - and, having made a conclusion, announced the verdict. Those whom he considered innocent or worthy of pardon were released immediately.
Those guilty of serious crimes were executed by beheading, less dangerous criminals were beaten with sticks or mutilated by cutting off their feet or hands. Ethiopians did not hold prisons. It was considered expensive, troublesome and ineffective.
How the invisible is seen
Here is one of the high-profile crimes that occurred at the very beginning of the 20th century and solved with the help of a labashi. In the capital of Abyssinia, Addis Ababa, at the court of the country's ruler, Negus Menelik II, messengers from the distant province of the state were expected. They should have arrived long ago, but for some reason they were delayed.
A detachment of guards was sent to search for the missing, and they, at a distance of one foot crossing from Addis Ababa, not far from the road, noticed birds circling over the carrion. Coming closer, the guards found the bodies of the messengers - both were killed by shots in the head, their corpses had already been badly spoiled by animals and birds. The place is deserted, there were probably no witnesses, and the criminal himself had long disappeared without leaving any traces.
The commander of the detachment posted a guard near that place, and sent two subordinates to the city with a report. Towards evening, reinforcements arrived from the capital - important officials of the negus and an old monk-priest, who brought a boy-labash with him.
The old man asked for milk, and when they gave him, pouring it into a cup, he dissolved some green powder in it. He gave this drink to drink labashi, then read a prayer over the boy - and he fell into a somnabulous state. When the priest loudly and distinctly ordered him to look for the murderers, the labashi, with wide open but unseeing eyes, wandered through the thickets, now leaving, now returning.
The pace of his movements grew faster and faster. Finally he ran. Having run around the whole district several times, he jumped out onto the road leading to Addis Ababa, and, without stopping, ran along it in the direction of the capital. The guards rushed after him.
The killer is caught
Having reached Addis Ababa, the labashi on the outskirts of the city ran to the first church and, kneeling down, kissed its threshold. He did the same, reaching another temple, then stood for a while near the ancient crypt, and then ran again until he entered the waters of the stream that flowed through the city.
Labashi woke up from contact with cold water, surprised to see himself in the middle of the stream, but then the guards and his mentor arrived. The boy was again given a mixture of milk and powder to drink, and he, having entered the desired state of sleep in reality, at the command of the monk, continued his search.
Crossing the stream, the labashi began to run between the houses, which were molded in disorder next to each other. In this confused labyrinth, he seemed to be walking completely unmistakably to some one place he knew - and suddenly stopped at the threshold of one of the houses. After standing for a while, the labashi approached the threshold of the house, touched it with his hand, and immediately, falling to the ground, fell asleep in a deep sleep. This meant that the house of the criminal was found - the labashi pointed to him.
The guards entered the house and asked the women who met them where the owner of the house was. They replied that he was away, but should return soon. They left an ambush in the house, and soon, when the owner came home, he was arrested. After being interrogated, he denied everything, but his house was searched and found things too valuable for his wealth, the origin of which he could not explain.
These things were shown to the relatives of the deceased messengers, and they identified them as belonging to the killed.
Realizing that it was pointless to lock himself up, the criminal said that, being on business in the province from which the messengers were coming, he learned that both of them were wealthy people. The man asked them to serve him on a long journey, just wanting to save on food, travel expenses and earn a little extra money. But soon the newly minted servant began to be overcome by the rage of greed - and he decided to rob his companions.
Before the last crossing, they got up for a long day in order to wait out the unbearable heat, and in the evening, in the chill, move on to Addis Ababa. When both messengers fell asleep in the shade, the servant came close to them, shot the sleeping people with a gun, then dragged the bodies into the thicket, grabbed their things and was like that.
The criminal told in detail how he left the scene of the crime, and this route to the smallest detail coincided with the way the little labashi was leading the guard - who seemed to see a certain trail left by the killer and inaccessible to the eyes of people in a normal state.
European "angels"
European police officers of the beginning of the 20th century took the stories about Abyssinian labashi with skepticism and jealousy. They were looking for criminals with dogs, were proud of the success of fingerprinting, used accounting card indexes, introduced entire networks of informants into the criminal environment … And some African boys under the leadership of priests did without all this ?!
From the heights of their professionalism, the police hastened to call the practice of using labashi "a kind of savagery, if not fabulous exoticism, specially invented by the newspapermen for the sake of sensation." The European mind refused to accept the logic of a miracle.
European skepticism was based on ignorance of their own history. Children, like labashi, existed in Europe in former times, only they were called "angels", and they were used much more widely.
Virgins and virgins who have not reached puberty were the henchmen of mediums who plunged them into a trance, forcing them to predict the future, look for objects, hidden treasures, and find clues when making difficult decisions.
All the famous "magnetizers" who exploited their little servants mercilessly had their "angels". The "angels" took either orphans or children from poor families, who were bought from their parents, or even simply stolen, noticing in them signs of the ability to enter a deep hypnotic sleep.
From such frequent exercises, the psyche of children was quickly shaken, many died or went crazy. Those who grew up were simply thrown out by the cruel masters, to the mercy of fate, and only a few, the most capable, became students of the “masters”.
Serving them for many years, they also became "magnetizers", and they themselves chose their own "angels", with the help of which they earned a reputation as magicians, good money, fearful respect and an honorable position in society.
In this respect, the "Abyssinian Middle Ages" were much more humane. Boys brought up in monasteries and temples were taken to labashi, they were introduced into a trance infrequently, using a new child each time. Therefore, these "detective" exercises did not have any particular consequences.
For the grown up labashi, the careers of priests and learned monks awaited. And the fact that they once served the cause of justice only increased respect for them.
Nikolay SOROKIN
World of Crime Magazine August 2015