10. Three scrolls, eighteenth to nineteenth century, parchment, 203 x 16.2 cm., and 189 x 15.3 cm. Collection: Musee National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie, Paris. Gift of Jacques Mercier, Photo courtesy of Guy Vivien

A scroll is prepared for a person suffering from grave and recurring troubles--for women, mainly problems of maternity (sterility, miscarriages, children's death); for men, pains attributed to curses.

Until quite recently, all Ethiopia's bound books were handwritten on parchment. The use of this material for scrolls is therefore commonplace. But not any parchment will do: the horoscope may prescribe sacrificing either a sheep or goat of a certain color (gazelle parchment is sometimes prescribed, in which case there is no sacrifice, and a little hair is left to testify to the skin's origin), washing the patient with its blood and with the contents of its stomach, and using the skin to make a scroll, the length of which must equal the patient's height, so that he or she will be protected from head to toe.

Unlike its European counterpart, the Ethiopian process for making parchment includes no chemical treatment. The animal skin is simply shaved, scraped, and pumiced. Parchment for a codex is made thinner than scroll parchment, which has to be tough. The scroll comprises three bands of parchment of equal width (about three inches for the narrowest scrolls, about ten for the widest), sewn end to end. The patient's height is measured by a string (often the scroll is longer than the patient's body, as the cleric brings the string over the head to the nape of the neck, the better to protect the head), and the parchment is cut.

The cleric draws the scroll's images with a reed pen on the parchment's inner side. There is usually an image at the top, one in the middle, and one at the bottom. Then he writes the prayers, inserting the recipient's baptismal name in red ink. Finally he makes a cylindrical case for the scroll, in red leather.

11. King Solomon attended by two demons. Protective scroll (detail), nineteenth century, parchment, 22 x 7.7 cm. Collection: Musee National d'Art d'Afrique et d'Oceanie, Paris. Gift of Jacques Mercier. Photo courtesy of Guy Vivien

Ethiopian people may carry their scrolls with them when they feel threatened or ill. Some women won't carry a scroll during menstruation, considered a period of impurity. But other menstruating women keep their scrolls with them, to protect them from excessive bleeding and from attack by demons in search of blood. In the province of Tigray, invalids unroll their scrolls and hang them opposite their beds, where they can clearly see the images and text. When cured, they put the scroll away in a cupboard. In Wello the scroll is sealed in its case, and patients put it under their pillows, or under the part of the body that hurts. Even when they're better they carry the scroll with them almost daily. On the last day of the year, some people bury their scrolls for the night, so that it will keep its effectiveness from year to year.

12. Mrs. Tsahay of Aksum shows how she prays before her scroll, which she had hung over her bed three months earlier to cure an illness. Note how the scroll hangs next to modern images (portraits of relatives). Photo courtesy of Jacques Mercier, 1994