Decoration: Three illustrations in red, yellow, brown, and blue ink show (1) An eight-pointed star with a face at the center, and six faces of bearded men wearing a variety of head coverings; (2) a winged man, possibly an angel, with a sword held vertically in his right hand; Decoration: (3) the same winged figure or angel, dressed in a garment decorated with the star-shaped motif from the first image, holding a sword above his head and a scabbard in his left hand. A smaller figure in white is to the right, with arms crossed. Provenance: Purchased from Oinonen Book Auctions, January 2001. Scroll, written in Ge'ez [Ethiopic] script, constructed from three sheets of parchment stitched together. Written in a single long column with three illustrations present. The main text is written with carbon black ink; names and headings in red ink. Later notes in pink ink are present in a few places. Likely originally housed in a leather case designed to be worn round the neck or shoulder; now rolled onto a modern cylinder and housed in a conservation box. Ethiopian prayer scrolls, sometimes known as healing scrolls or magic scrolls, are created to purge spirits or demons from a single sick person. Used by people of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faith in northern Ethiopia, the scrolls are created by Dabtaras, clerics who engage in traditional medicine. The process is customized for an individual; the process begins with a ritual involving the live animal from which the scroll's parchment is ultimately made. The scroll is cut to the height of the customer, so that the whole body is protected.
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