The dabtara thought for a moment and said, “No, I don’t know
for sure. But you might as well go there and find out,” he said.
“Go where?” Abora said. “The Garden of Eden?”
“Of course,” the dabtara answered. “If you want the fruit of the
original paradise, there’s no use going to Harrar. You might as well
go to Copenhagen or Beijing. Why don’t you just go directly there?”
“Where, exactly?” Webele said, “They haven’t yet published a
tourist brochure.”
“Lake Tana,” said the dabtara, “This is the source of the Nile.
This is our Eden. It is written in the bible.”
“But I thought the river went intothe garden to water it,” Roy
said.
“No. Read it again. The river comes out of Eden, then goes into
the garden and from the garden it branches into the four great rivers.
The Tigris, Euphrates, Ganges and the Nile. Its source is not in the
garden, true, but the garden is near the beginning of the Nile.”
“But by that logic it could be at the beginning of the Tigris,
Euphrates, or the Ganges too,” Roy protested, “We might as well be
looking in the Caucasus or Himalayan mountains.”
The dabtara just shook his head mournfully. “The bible story was
corrupted while the Jews were in exile in Babylon. Many say that the
Jews got their creation story from the Babylonians. But that is
nonsense. They were in captivity in Babylon for less than sixty years.
When Greece and then Rome ruled Israel for much longer periods
they did not take on the mythology of the Greeks and Romans.
Certainly, this was their own story. If the Jews borrowed elements of
their creation story from anyone, it was surely the Egyptians, their
first masters, under whom they coalesced from different desert
tribes. Their Egyptian masters correctly claimed that the origin of the
Nile was also the origin of all humans. For them the origin of the Nile
was in fact the origin of their world, and of course the origin of the
Nile is Lake Tana.”
It took a while for this to sink in. “So Lake Tana,” Roy echoed
him.
“Yes,” the dabtara replied, “But you must go by bus. There are no
flights there now for security reasons. We are at war with our
neighbor Eritrea.”
“And that will take how long exactly?” Roy said.
“Three days. And it won’t be a pleasure cruise. The buses are
terrible. The roads are criminal. You will get a lot of attention, of
ABYSSINIA
238
 |
 |
 |
 |