# Africa by Élisée Reclus/Volume 1/Chapter 6

Contents
CHAPTER VI.
ABYSSINIA (ETHIOPIA).
HE name "Ethiopia," like so many other geographical terms, has changed in value during the lapse of centuries, Like Libya, it was once applied to the whole of the African continent; it even embraced a wider field, since it included India and all the southern lands of the Torrid zone occupied by the "men blackened by the sun," for such is the exact meaning of the term. The peoples of Ethiopia, the most remote in the world," says Homer, "dwell some towards the rising, others towards the setting sun." The "wise men" occupying the Upper Nile, of whom the Macrobians, or "Men of Long Life," are a branch, whose manners and customs pertain to the Golden Age, and "those virtuous mortals whose feasts and banquets are honoured by the presence of Jupiter himself," are called Ethiopians by Herodotus. But he applies the same term to the western Negroes, whose culture was scarcely superior to that of irrational beasts. However, according as our knowledge of Africa increased, the term Ethiopia became less vague, and was applied to a region of smaller extent. Now it is restricted to the uplands forming the water-parting between the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the middle Nile. This is the region known to the Arabs by the name of Habesh, or Abyssinia, a term supposed to denote a mixed or mongrel population, hence reluctantly accepted by natives acquainted with Arabic. The people occupying the plateau traversed by the Blue Nile and other large Nilotic affluents, conscious of a glorious past, proudly designate themselves as "Itiopiavian," that is, Ethiopians. Nevertheless, the term Abyssinia, like that of Germany, and so many others that the people themselves did not give to their country, has acquired amongst foreigners the force of custom, and must be employed to avoid misunderstandings.
Relief, Extent, Population of Abyssinia.
The shiftings of frontier caused by the fortunes of wars and conquests have long prevented, and still prevent, these terms, Ethiopia or Habesh, from conveying a clear political signification. Now applied merely to the lofty chain of mountains whose central depression is flooded by Lake Tana; now extended to all the ​ rounding lands westwards to the Nilotic plains, and eastwards to the shores of the Red Sea, in its ordinary usage the terra Abyssinia is specially employed in a political sense, its limits being indicated by the authority of the "King of Kings."
The word Ethiopia has a still wider sense. From the geographical standpoint its natural frontiers are traced by the elevations, which at the same time serve as boundary lines between the surrounding floras, faunas, and populations. Speaking generally, the whole triangular space, rising to an elevation of over 3,000 feet, between the Red Sea and the Nile, may be called Ethiopia proper. On all sides the exterior escarpments of the plateau indicate the zone of transition between the Ethiopian and surrounding lands. To the north they consist of those spurs projecting to the neighbourhood of the Red Sea, from which they are separated by a narrow strip of coastlands. Eastwards the rugged Tigre, Lasta, and Shoa highlands are abruptly limited by uneven plains stretching seawards, which appear to have formerly been partly submerged. Wadies and marshes skirt the foot of the hills, like those channels which encircle the foot of recently upheaved rocks. To the west the declivities are less precipitous ; the highlands, breaking into ridges and headlands, fall in successive stages merging at last in the undulating plains, but reappearing here and there in isolated crags and masses in the midst of the alluvial strata. To the south the natural boundaries of Ethiopia are less distinctly defined, the plateau extending in this direction towards the uplands of the Masai country. Still, depressions are known to exist in this region affording easy communication from the Nile Valley through the Sobat to the lands draining through the Juba to the Indian Ocean.
Until these little-known regions have been thoroughly explored, it will be impossible to accurately calculate the extent of Ethiopia in its wider sense. All we know is that, in their present political limits, Abyssinia and Shoa cover an area of about 80,000 square miles, or considerably less than half that of France. The Kaffa country and part of the region occupied by the Gallas and other tribes, as far as the water-parting between the Sobat and Juba, should be added to these countries as natural geographical dependencies. The lowlands, ancient political dependencies of the kingdom of Ethiopia, extend east of the Abyssinian mountains towards the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden over an area nearly equal to that of Abyssinia properly so-called. The whole of the region comprised between, the Nile, the Takka steppes, the seacoast from Suakin to Zeila, and the irregidar water-parting between the basins of the Awash, the Blue Nile, the Sobat, and the tributaries of the Indian Ocean, has a superficial area exceeding 240,000 square miles. Its population may be approximately estimated at about 9,000,000.
Historic Retrospect.
Separated from the surrounding countries by the relief of its plateaux and mountains, Ethiopia also differs from them in its climate, vegetation, fauna, inhabitants, and history. In this vast continent, where the people elsewhere intermingle like the waters of the sea, it rises like a vast highland citadel, constituting a world apart. ​ The Abyssinians have had an historic evolution different from that of the nations surging round the foot of their highlands, like the waves dashing against the cliffs. Wars and revolutions have been developed below them without affecting them, But if Ethiopia seems to have lived an independent existence amid its African neighbours, it offers on the other hand a development singularly analogous to that of temperate Europe. It is very remarkable that the Abyssinians alone, of all other African peoples, should have accepted and retained a religion which prevails under divers forms amongst European peoples. Not only its religious dogmas, but also its political institutions and usages, present a certain resemblance to those of mediæval Europe. In certain respects Abyssinia is an African Europe.
But for muny centuries the relations between Ethiopia and the countries north of Africa have been few and transitory. The Greeks were not brought into contact with the Abyssinian highlanders till the time of the Ptolemies, when the open ports on the neighbouring coast facilitated the exchange of merchandise and the propagation of the Hellenic religion, as is attested by the inscriptions found by explorers in many parts of Ethiopia. Christianity and its predecessor, Judaism, were introduced into the country by the same routes. Numerous traditions have survived from the period of Greek influence, and at the present day Ethiopians, the statements of travellers notwithstanding, are still inclined to believe that the Greeks are the most powerful nation in Europe.
Modern Exploration.
But seventy years'passed between Poncet's short visit and that of the Scotch- man Bruce, with whom begins the era of modern exploration. Since his time the country has been traversed by many European travellers, naturalists, traders, adventurers, soldiers, and missionaries, and European military expeditions have even been made into the heart of Abyssinia. Commercial relations are rapidly increasing, and many of the plateau districts have already been pointed out by explorers as a future field of emigration for Europeans. But it might be doubted whether the two races would continue to live on friendly terms, without the conflicts and wars of extermination generally preceeding the fusion of different peoples.
Certain parts of Ethiopia are already much better known than any other African region lying beyond the colonies and maritime regions under European influence. Since Bruce's visit, the country has been thoroughly studied by explorers, such as Salt, Riippel, Rochet, Ferret, and Galinier; Beke, Sapeto, Krapf, Combes, and Tamisier; Lejean, Munzinger, Raffray, Rohlfs, and Heuglin, who have brought back maps, charts and observations of every description. Moreover Antoine d'Abbadie, during his twelve years' stay in Ethiopia, made a geodetic survey of the country, by a rapid but accurate method, hardly inferior in precision to the lengthy and delicate system of triangulation usually adopted in Europe. On d'Abbadie's map the Red Sea coast is connected with the mountains of the plateau as far as Kaffa by a continuous series of triangles, fixing the latitude and longitude of about nine hundred points. The map is covered with a close network of geodetic lines and routes, the names of many localities being inserted with considerable accuracy. Detailed surveys were also taken by the British staff officers during the expedition of 1868 from Adulis Bay to the highland fortress of Magdala.
Abyssinia Proper.
Most European explorers who have visited the Ethiopian uplands have penetrated from the east, where these highlands present the most imposing aspect. Above the samhar or mudun, a naked plain separating the coast from the plateau, the outer terraces of the escarpment are seen piled up in domes and pyramids, barren rocks or verdant slopes, whose sharp hazy crests seem to merge in a single irregular range. At the mouth of the ravines which cleave the rocky masses with their parallel furrows, the argillaceous plains are succeeded by rolled stones and boulders, with here and there a solitary tree, or patches of scrub or herbage visible in the cavities occasionally flooded by the tropical rains. Still higher up rise rocky or wooded slopes and steep precipices, round which wind narrow and dangerous paths. When the traveller at last reaches the summit he does not find himself on a ridge, as he might have expected, but on almost level pasturelands interspersed with tall juniper-trees. At a height of from 7,000 to 9,000 feet the edge of the plateau stands out in relief, on one side overlooking the grey ​and naked plain, and on the other, the strange "chess-board" of the interior with
The Abyssinian Plateau.
On the whole, the Ethiopian plateau consists of numerous distinct table-lands, like the polyhedric prisms formed by the dessication of the clayey soil of plains exposed to the action of heat. These table-lands, intersected by precipices and surmounted by crags, stand at different elevations. Some of them form entire provinces, with towns and numerous populations; others, the so-called amba, are mere blocks or quadrangular masses some 800 or 1,000 feet high, similar to the drugs or "inaccessibles" of Southern India, or the isolated crags of Saxon Switzerland. In eastern Ethiopia the origin of these ambas is doubtless due to the disintegration of a thick layer of red or greyish sandstone, cleft into vertical masses, and revealing here and there stratas of lower schistose and crystaline formations. In the interior, and especially towards the west, where volcanic lands prevail, most of the natural cliffs consist, not of sandstone, like those of the eastern plateaux of India and of Saxony, but of lava, and terminate in basaltic columns, some disposed in converging clusters or else forming colonnades like the temples of the Acropolis. These crystaline rocks, whose upper terrace is large enough to contain arable tracts and form the source of rivers, have for the most part served as strongholds, where many a tribe or horde of robbers has remained for years besieged and cut off from the rest of the world. Other ambas have been chosen by the monks as the sites of their monasteries, and such holy places often serve as sanctuaries to those fleeing from justice or oppression. Lastly, the smaller basalt columns are frequently used as prisons for the great personages who have incurred the displeasure of the reigning sovereign.
In Eastern Ethiopia the general face of the plateau is more broken and cut up into more secondary plateaux and crystaline rocks than in the west. The escarpments of most of the isolated mountain masses slope more gradually westwards. They thus reproduce in miniature the general aspect of the whole region, which terminates abruptly towards the Red Sea, and slopes gradually towards the Nilotic plains. This general incline, however, can only be determined by accurate instruments, the aspect of the plateau and of the surrounding ranges being too irregular to enable the observer to detect its primitive outline. The ambas stand out at various elevations in bold relief against the blue sky like citadels and towers. Lower down, the verdant base of the plateau breaks into abrupt precipices, whose walls present from a distance the aspect of regular quadrangular lines. On these harder rocks rest the soft foundations, here scored by avalanches of falling rocks, elsewhere clothed with verdure. The Abyssinian landscapes, like those of the Rocky Mountains, consist of superimposed terrace-lands and vast strata of monumental aspect. Near Magdala the eastern edge of the Talanta plateau is said to terminate abruptly in a vertical wall of basaltic pillars over three thousand feet high.
The Kwallas and River Gorges.
The height of the Ethiopian plateaux varies greatly, presenting between the
this height are called dega, a term analogous to the Persian sarhad and Arab nejd. Below the altitude of 6,000 feet, the intermediate valleys and gorges dividing the plateau, excavated by the mountain torrents to various depths, take the name of kwalla, kolla, or kulla, a zone of "hot lands" corresponding to the ghermsir of Persia, or to the tehamas of Arabia. Between these two zones stretches the coina- -dega, or temperate region. In many places the rugged escarpments present a sudden contrast between the degas and the kwallas, the difference of their relief being heightened by that of their climate and vegetation. The cataracts, such as that of Davezut, near Debra-Tabor, fall either in a single sheet or through a suc- cession of rapids from one zone to another. Most of the partial granite or basalt masses of the plateau have outer walls formed of cliffs and superimposed talus, which give the hills the appearance of step-pyramids; but some of these kwallas are little more than fissures or gorges, like the North American cafions. Such chasms appear to be but a stone's throw across; their true size, however, can only
be seen on descending into the abyss, walking for hours on the edge of giddy precipices, crossing the torrents at the bottom, and then scaling their abrupt sides. The defiles are occasionally blocked by masses of rock swept down by the mountain torrents, and presenting serious obstacles to the local traffic. The most remark- able ravines occur along the eastern edge of the plateau, where the total fissure exceeds 6,500 feet, measured from the summit of the degas down to the sea-level. Nowhere else can a more convincing proof be observed of the erosive action of running waters. The two walls of certain gorges, rising nearly vertically within a few feet of each other to a height of some hundreds of feet, represent an erosion of hard rock amounting to at least ten thousand five hundred million cubic feet. Nevertheless, the waters have regulated the fall of the channel, which averages not more than one in forty yards. This incline is easily ascended, but several of the defiles remain blocked for months together by the mountain torrents; every year new paths have to be formed across the debris, while some have had to be entirely abandoned. The route to Kumaili, through which the English army marched to
the time of the Greeks. Ethiopia is thus divided by gorges into numerous natural ​ sections. Instead of focilitatinp communication, as in the lowlands, the Abyssinian rivers become so many defiles difficult to traverse, and often completely cutting off two conterminous provinces for weeks and months at a time.
Orographic System.
From a geological point of view, the Ethiopian highlands present a striking resemblance to those of Arabia facing them. The rocky formations are identical, and consequently the mountains have much the same outlines, the same general aspect, and almost the same vegetation ; while the populations, of common origin on both plateaux, have been developed in almost identical surroundings. The backbone of the whole Ethiopian plateau, still appearing on some old maps ubder the name of "Spina Mundi," is formed by the eastern edge of the mountains overlooking the low coastlands of the Red Sea. For a distance of about 600 miles this edge, precipitous on one side and developing a gentle incline on the other, runs north and south nearly in the direction of the meridian. West of this range, which also forms the water-parting, the whole of the plateaux gradually slope towards the Nile, as indicated by the kwallas through which flow the waters of the Mareb, Takkazeh, Beshilo, Abai, Jemna, and their affluents. On the eastern slope the escarpments are intersected at intervals by the deep valleys of the wadies rising on the plateau, which thus affords an accessible route to the heart of Ethiopia; but one river alone, the Awash, rises far west of the chain. The valley of this watercourse describes a regular semicircle south of the Shoa highlands, thus forming a natural barrier between the Abyssinian and southern Galla territory.
The Northern Highlands.
In its northern section the axis of the range is scarcely sixty miles broad, including the spurs and the lateral ridges. Its lowest eminences overlook the plain of Tokar from the south, where the river Barka loses itself in a marshy delta. Rising in abrupt terraces, it presents a steep face to the coast-line, which is here indented by inlets and broken into rugged headlands; the jagged crests leave only a narrow passage at their base, blocked by rocks and interrupted by wadies interspersed with quagmires. This region would prove an Ethiopian Thermopylae for an army endeavouring to reach the mountain regions on this side. Farther south the sea retires from the mountains, leaving a strip of lowlands known, as in Algeria, by the name of Sahel, which stretches at a mean breadth of twelve miles along the base of the gneiss, granite, and schist escarpments; a few volcanic cones are scattered between the hills and the seacoast, while lava-streams here alternate with the sand and clay beds of the arid zone. The mountain range rises to a height of from 4,000 to 6,000 feet above the Sahel. The Rora, as the iwirallel chains are here called, expand in some places into plateaux, which, from the abundant rainfal and fertility of the soil, would amply repay the labour of cultivation. Thus the Rora ​Azgedeh, running parallel with the coast, is connected by ridges with the Rora Isallim, or "Black Mountain," which lies still nearer the coast. They jointly bound the upland plain of Nakfa, about 5,000 feet above the sea, which drains into the Red Sea through one large torrent. At present a desolate district consisting of nothing but pasture lands, the Nakfa, "the most delightful region in Abyssinia," appears to be suitable for the culture of coffee, cotton, mulberries, the vine, and tobacco. A few mountain masses project in lofty headlands west of the Rora Azgedeh. Such is Hagar Abei Nejran, that is, "Capital of Nejran," over 8,000 feet in height, which is now covered with ruins, but which formerly contained the celebrated monastery frequented by pilgrims journeying from Aksum to Jerusalem.
Farther south the valley of the Anseba is dominated east by the Debr-Abi, or "Great Mountain," another almost solitary cliff, known also by the name of Tembelleh.
Bounded westwards by the valley of the Barka, the mountain range, forming a continuation of the Rora Azgedeh, is intersected by numerous headstreams of that river. The most important of these affluents, notably of the Anseba and the Barka itself, rise west of Massawah on the plateau, 4,000 feet high, which forms the north-east corner of Abyssinia proper. On this base another group of superb granite mountains rises to an elevation of some 16,000 feet. Such is the famous Debra Sina, or "Mount Sinai," to the east of Keren, and capital of the Bogo country. ​The crest of this mountain is a chaotic mass of rocks of all sizes, which might be supposed due to volcanic eruptions, but which are indebted for their present form to slow meteoric action. These rocks, lying obliquely on each other, form the arched roofs of numerous caves, which have been artificially worked into dwellings and in many places connected by galleries. One has even been hewn into a monastery and a church, which is annually visited by thousands of pilgrims from every part of Abyssinia. South of Keren stands the Isad Amba, or "White Fortress," another rock famous in the religious annals of Abyssinia. This
mountain rises almost vertically about 4,000 feet above the Barka Valley, its sharp peak scarcely affording sufficient space for the site of the convent walls.
The Hamasen and Simen Uplands.
In Abyssinia proper, commencing at the Hamasen plateau, the base of the uplands is at once broader and more elevated than in the Bogo (Bilen) country, its mean height exceeding 7,460 feet. Like most of the Ethiopian mountain masses, Humasen is covered with trachytic or basaltic lavas, which are themselves overlaid by a reddish or yellowish earth. There can be little doubt that this ochrous soil covering the Abyssinia plateaux consists of decomposed lava, like the vast laterite masses stretching over the Dekkan and most of southern India.
In various localities basaltic columns are found partially changed to masses of ​reddish clay. Red is the normal colour of the Abyssinian rocks, the very veins
of quartz being often of a pink hue, caused by the oxide of iron. According to; Heuglin, at least one of the craters, from which were formerly ejected the Hamasen lavas, has been perfectly preserved. Rising midway between Keren and Adua to a height of about 400 feet, it is stated to Fig. 45. — Lakes of East Abyssinia. Scale 1: 1,500,000. present the appearance of a crater but recently extinct, although Rohlfs, following the same route, failed to discover it. To the south, on the eastern edge of the plateau, rise the isolated cones of other volcanoes. Some of the Tigré crests are veritable mountains, not merely in absolute altitude, but also in their elevation relative to the surrounding plains. Thus east of Adua, the cleft cone of Semayata attains a height of 10,306 feet, or over 3,000 feet above the town occupying a depression of the plateau at its base. 7 Eastwards, near the outer ledge of the uplands, are other lofty hills, one of which, Aleqwa, rises to a height of 11,250 feet. To the west, between the Mareb and Takkazeh, the plateau gradually falls, the relative heights of the mountains diminishing in proportion.
rocks and pumice, although their snowy peaks contain no craters. Till recently the Rus Dajun, probably over 15,000 feet, was considered the highest point in this district, but this distinction belongs probably to that of Buahit, or Abba-Yared. The highest peaks of these two mountains, rivalling Mont Rosa or Mont Blanc of the European Alps, are streaked with snow, and according to the natives, snow rests on them throughout the year. The aspect of the Simen highlands is scarcely 80 imposing as that of the Alps. They rise little more than from 1,500 to 2,500 feet above the base of the plateau ; but at the escarpments of the terrace lands, from which they are separated by deep gorges, these mountains, with their fantastic towers, peaks, and successive vegetations of every climate clothing their flanks, stand out in all their sublimity. From the pass of Lamalmon on the Gondar route, the traveller on turning a rock comes suddenly on this amazing prospect, and utters an involuntary cry of admiration at the sight of the snowy peaks piercing the clouds.
The Eastern Border Range.
East of Tigre, the chain forming the eastern escarpment of Abyssinia is continued regularly north and south, interrupted by breaches some 8,000 or 10,000 feet high, which would facilitate communication with the plains on the Red Sea coast were the country not occupied by the dreaded Afar tribes. This border chain maintains its normal elevation for a distance of about 180 miles, but at certain points it merges in a rugged upland plain whose depressions are flooded by lakes such as Ashangi, Ilaik, and Ardibbo. P^astwards the mountainous tableland of Zebul, some 3,000 feet high, and dominated by peaks rising from 1,000 to 2,000 feet higher, advances far into the country of the Somali. Although their escarpments are so precipitous, and so densely clothed with matted vegetation, as to render them almost inaccessible, the Zebul heights are not to be compared with the majestic Abyssinian mountains. The Bekenna, or Berkona, an aflluent of the Awash, rising in the watershed near the sources of the Takkazeh and Beshilo, separates the border chain from the Argobba, a lateral ridge which projects far into the lowlands, forming in the south-west the last spur of the Abyssinian highlands.
The line of transverse depressions, indicated on the coast by the Gulf of Tajurah, and in the interior by the bed of Lake Tana, is well defined on the border terrace by a nucleus of diverging valleys constituting the main point of radiation of all the Abyssinian rivers. Near the hot spring forming its source rise other tributary rivers of the Takkazeh; the chief aflluents of the Beshilo or Beshlo, which with the Abai forms one of the main headstreams of the Blue Nile, also originate in these mountains, while their eastern slopes give birth to many tributaries of the Awash and of the Gwalima, or Golima, which latter finally runs dry in the plains of the Afars.
In the vicinity of Lake Haik, east of the fortress of Magtlala, the range is crossed by a pass said to be considerably less than 7,000 feet high, thus forming the ​ lowest breach in the border chain of Eastern Abyssinia. But on this side, where the regions are broken up into distinct fragments by the deep river gorges, many mountains attain a height inferior only to those of the SImen and Gojam, Thus east of Lake Ashangi, on the almost isolated upland province of Lasta, which is almost surrounded by the Takkazeh and Tzellari rivers, Mounts Biala and Gavzigivla exceed 12,600 feet; while the heights of Abuna, Yosef, and Imaraha, not far from the source of the Takkazeh, attain an elevation of over 13,000 feet. South of the Takkazeh an irregular plateau stretches westwards, terminating in Mount Guna, one of the highest Abyssinian summits (14,000 feet). Its western spur, sloping towards Lake Tana, forms the famous Debra-Tabor, or " Mount Tabor," site of the present military capital of Abyssinia. To the north rise the Beg- hemeder Mountains, beyond which are the still little-known Belessa highlands, connected with those of Wagara and Kwalla Wagara, the whole series forming a successive series of terraces towards the Nilotic plains.
Central and Western Highlands.
West of the Galla Wollo plateau, supposed to be a vast lava field, the slopes incline gradually towards the Blue Nile, interrupted, however, by secondary chains. Abruptly intersected southwards by the deep semicircular gorge containing the waters of the Abai, or Blue Nile, the plateau recommences more to the west, rising in terraces up to the Gojam Mountains, which, jointly with those of Simen and Lasta, form the culminating points of Abyssinia. The chief range of this mountainous province extends in a semicircle, concentric to that described by the Blue Nile; its highest crest, the Talba Waha, probably exceeds 12,000 feet. But although one of the peaks takes the name of Semayata, that is "Heaven-kissing," it does not appear to be ever covered with snow; nor do any of the summits in this region, between 11" and 12° of latitude, seem to reach the snow-line.
The Abyssinian Seaboard.
Beyond the Abyssinian plateaux in the vicinity of the Red Sea rise such pro- montories and isolated headlands as the Gadara, or Qedem, formerly an insular rock, but which now forms a promontory between the Gulf of Massawuh and Adulis Bay, terminating in an abrupt incline. This granite mass, although visible from Mussawah, has not yet been accurately measured, the estimates of travellers varying from 2,700 to 3,300 feet; but d'Abbadie has geodetically determined its highest point at over 5,000 feet. The Buri headhind, bounding Adulis Bay on the east, also terminates in the imposing volcanic cone of Awen, the Hurtow Peak of the English maps, which, although apparently extinct, is said by the natives still to emit steam and sulphureous vapours. Copious hot springs flow from its sides, while thousands of jets at a temperature of 168° F. bubble up amidst the surf on the beach.
South of the Buri peninsula are other irregular hills composed of volcanic rocks completely separated from the mountains of Abyssinia proper. But a still active volcano, known to the Afars under the name of Artali, or Ortoaleh, that is, "Smoky Mountain," rises at the extremity of a spur of the Abyssinian plateaux, south-west of Hantila (Ilumfuleh) Bay, attesting the existence of underground energy, of which so few examples still occur on the African coast. It is described by Hildebrandt, the only explorer who has approached its crater, as a cone of blackish lava seamed with crevasses, and ejecting dense volumes of whitish vapour. In its vicinity stands another now quiescent sulphureous mountain, from the deposits in its crater known as Kibrealeh, or "Sulphur Mountain;" whilst farther north, near the salt plains, are the isolated solfataras of Delol, or Dallol, whence the Abyssinian highlanders obtain the sulphur with which they manufacture their gunpowder. Finally, to th6 east, near the small harbour of Edd, a chaotic mass of solfataras and craters gives the district the appearance of a storm-tossed sea. Seafarers speak of lavas ejected within "a day's march" of Edd, especially in 1861, but their origin is unknown, unless they proceed from the already mentioned Mount Ortoaleh, which lies, however, not at a day's journey, but fully sixty miles inland. These volcanoes are greatly feared by the natives, who believe them to be the abode of evil spirits ; under the guidance of their wizards they sacrifice a cow to them, but directly the animal is placed on the flaming pyre they nm away, lest evil should befall them if they saw the spirits devouring their prey.
Lake Alalbed.
Although Ortoaleh is not situated on the sea-coast, it rises above the district of Rahad, a lacustrine plain which was formerly a marine inlet. This depression, which Munzinger called Ansali, from an isolated mound rising in its midst, stretched over a superficial area of about 1,000 square miles at a mean level of some 200 feet below the Red Sea. This plain, a miniature "ghor" similar to that flooded by the Jordan and the Dead Sea, is almost entirely surrounded by a sinuous belt of ​gypsum cliffs, here and there intersected by wadies. Their summits are crowned with feathery dum palms, and from their sides flow perennial springs. A verdant circle thus surrounds this desert waste, where nothing is visible but a few acacias and brushwood. At some distance from the cliffs are saline efflorescences, which become gradually solidified towards the middle of the plains, where they acquire the consistency of slabs some two feet thick. ere and there they present a greyish tesselated appearance, the interstices being filled with dazzling white crystals. At the lowest level of the depression, between the Ansali promontory and Mount Ortoaleh, are collected the waters of Lake Alalbed, or Allolebed, whose size varies according to the quantity of water brought down by the torrents. Its mean depth is said scarcely to exceed 40 inches. The dessication of the old bay of
Ansali may be explained by a gradual upheaval of the coast west of the Red Sea, as well as on the east side in Arabia. The coral banks and recent shells found at the north of the plain attest the presence of marine waters on the now upheaved depression between the plain of Ragad and Auwakil Bay. The rivers flowing from the Abyssinian chain are not sufficiently copious to repair the loss by evaporation, and thus the old lake, formerly of some extent, has gradually become a shallow swamp. The Taltals, who inhabit the surrounding district, assure the Abyssinians, possibly to protect themselves from their visits, that the lake occasionally "walks away" from its old bed in search of a new one; and woe to the caravans overtaken by this sudden inundation! Besides, even at some distance from the lake, travellers run the risk of sinking into the treacherous soil, and whole companies of men and beasts are said to have thus disappeared. ​ However, the banks of the lake are traversed in safety by hundreds of Taltals, who here procure nearly all the suit required for the Abyssinian market, and the little salt bricks used as a small currency in southern Abyssinia. According to Munzinger, they procure from the bed of this lake some thirty millions of bricks annually, equivalent at Antalo, on the plateau, to a sum of £320,000.
Dahlak Island.
The islands of the neighbouring coast, notably that of Dahlak, the largest in the Red Sea, which shelters Massawuh Bay from the cast, are partly of coral and partly of volcanic origin. They are skirted by headlands and lava streams, and in many places the land is intersected by deep crevices, apparently due to subterranean disturbances. The two walls of these chasms do not always stand at the same elevation, in some instances showing discrepancies of some fifty feet. During the rainy season the water collects in these hollows, and when evaporated verdant meadows spring up from the damp soil, contrasting pleasantly with the bare rocks surrounding them. The island of Dahlak is subject to earthquakes, which the natives say are caused by the movements of the " bull who supports the world." Hot springs are found in the interior, in which fish are said to live, although their temperature exceeds 172" F.
Climate.
Abyssinia, whose summits rise above the snow-line, while their base sinks to the level of the Torrid zone, naturally presents every diversity of climate according to the altitude and aspect of its uplands. On the slopes of the plateaux and mountains, the seasons are diversely distributed, continually overlapping the network of isothermal lines so regularly placed on our climatological maps of Abyssinia. How often have travellers, facing the bitter cold wind of the plateaux, succumbed to that frosty sleep which ends in death ! On military expeditions whole battalions have been frozen whilst crossing these snowy passes, and d'Abbadie quotes a chronicle, which states that a whole army thus perished in Lasta. But at the bottom of the narrow amhas death is more frequently caused rather by the intense heat, for under the summer sun these gorges become veritable furnaces, the soil glowing at times with a heat of some 190" lo 200° F. The air is generally calm in these apparently closed ravines; but if the equilibrium is suddenly disturbed, a raging tempest tears up the valley, the air soon returning to its former tranquillity. The absence of regular currents sweeping oway the impurities of the air, renders the amhas extremely dangerous to traverse. Before or after the rainy season they must be crossed rapidly, in order to reach the slopes above the fever zone. Although exposed to on almost equal degree of heat, the plains bordering the Red Sea are much more sulubrious, and are dangerous only in those years when the rainfall is excessive.
But these extremes of heat and cold are unknown in the central districts, where ​nearly all the urban populations are concentrated, with the exception of the towns that have sprung up round the mountain strongholds, or places of pilgrimage. The inhabited zone — that is, the voïna-dega, or "wine region," between the degas and
kwallas — lies mainly at a height of from 6,000 to 8,000 feet. At these elevations the mean temperature corresponds to that of the Mediterranean sea-coast, with this difference, that the changes of season are much less noticeable. As the plateaux ​ lie within the tropics, the sun's rays maintain their intensity throughout the year, the discrepancies between winter and summer being very slight, and due mainly to the purity of the air and density of the clouds. As in the West Indies and in all countries subject to regular monsoons, the Abyssinian year is regulated by the appearance and disappearance of the rains.
The rainy season varies in time and duration according to the height, latitude, and position of the various provinces. Some regions have even two rainy seasons, being lands of transition belonging at once to two meteorological domains. The southern Abyssinian uplands have two winters, the first commencing in July, when the sun is nearly vertical above the soil, and ending in September ; the second and shorter falling in January, February, or March, when the belt of clouds formed at the zone of contact between the trade- winds and polar currents is deflected south- wards. In the central region the winter, or azmara, commences usually in April, continuing, with a few interruptions, till the end of September; but at the north- west base of the mountains, in the Bogos, Galabat, Gcdaref, and Senaar provinces, this rainy season is broken into two, one beginning in April or May, the other, accompanied by tremendous downpours, lasting throughout the months of July, August, and September. The rains, brought by the wind blowing from the Red Sea or Indian Ocean, fall nearly always in the afternoon, accompanied by tempests, but soon clear off, leaving the sky unclouded during the night and following morning. On the eastern slope of the mountains, however, the seasons are reversed, the rains brought by the north wind falling in winter, which lasts from November to March.
The African coast of the Red Sea lies within the zone of the Mediterranean winter rains, whilst those of Arabia, the interior of Egypt, and Upper Abyssinia belong to a different climatic system. Certain mountains situated on the boundary of the two zones are alternately beaten by winter and summer rains, and the Abyssinian shepherds have but to go round the mountain to find, according to the season, the herbage necessary for their flocks or land ready for culture. During this period the air enveloping the lowland plains is excessively damp, the hygrometer never indicating a less proportion than 60 per cent., while the air of the plateaux is, on the contrary, usually dry.
Flora.
Thanks to its variety of climate, the flora of Abyssinia is extremely diversified. The two chief zones of vegetation are naturally those of the upland plateaux and lowland valleys; but many of the species flourish in both regions. Each plant has its particular zone, differing in range and vertical height along the slopes. The shores of the Red Sea have their special flora, characteristic of which are the kndel (cassipourca africana) and the shora (avicennia tomentosa) trees growing on the strip of coast which is alternately flooded by the tides. On the shores of Hawakil Bay these trees are similar in appearance and nearly as large as the European beech. At the foot of the range in the Sahel zone, often described as barren, the vegetation consists merely of scrub, except in the vicinity of the streams. The flora of the kwallas is distinguished especially by its wealth in deciduous trees, whose leaves fall in the dry season. Here flourish the sycamore and the fig ; here the tamarind and acacia intertwine their thorny branches along the banks of the mountain torrents. Here and there the huge baobab, "giant of the vegetable kingdom," which, nevertheless, in many respects presents the appearance of a grass, raises its bulging stem, often hollow and filled with water, its tufted branches terminating in wreaths of foliage. When blown down by the wind its huge trunk, some 60 to 80 feet in circumference, affords a refuge to the shepherds and their flocks.
The palm scarcely penetrates into the kwallas, being confined mostly to the Red Sea coast. Hence the Abyssinians import their dates from Arabia. The cereals are of a particular species, or else of varieties very different from those of Europe, and flourish best in the middle zone, where nearly all the Abyssinian towns are concentrated. The Shoa and Amhara peasants are said to possess twenty-eight varieties of millet, twenty -four of wheat, sixteen of barley, and several kinds of rye and maize. The most general cereal is the dakussa, an eleusina, which is now made into beer, but which formerly supplied bread exclusively for the royal family. The tef (tief), a species of poa, is also largely employed in the manufacture of farinaceous foods. The potato, introduced by Schimper, after flourishing for some time, was attacked by blight, and its culture has now been almost completely abandoned. The musa ensete, a species of banana growing in the kwallas, rarely bears fruit, probably because it comes originally from the Galla lowlands. The
​ One of the most characteristic wild plants of Abyssinian §cenory is the kolkwal, or branching euphorbia, similar to the giant euphorbias of the Canaries and Azores. The fleshy branches of these trees interlock so tenaciously that they are trained round villages to protect them from sudden attacks. Many attain a height of over 40 feet. Their milky sap is a rank poison, much employed in the Abyssinian pharmacopoeia, while the wood serves for the manufacture of gun-powder. Another plant, the jibara (rhynchopetalum montanum), an annual similar in appearance to the palm, clothes the mountain sides to a height of some 11,000 feet. It is remarkable for a gorgeous display of lilac blossom clustering round a floral stem shooting from 10 to 16 feet above a topmost tuft of sword-like leaves. Another characteristic plant of the uplands is a giant thistle (echinops giganteus), with a stem like that of a forest-tree, and flowers the size of a man's head. Still larger are the furze-bushes, which attain a height of some 26 feet. On the upland terraces also flourishes the majestic kusso (Brayera anthelmintica), whose dense foliage, interspersed with innumerable bunches of pink flowers, is employed in Abyssinia, and even in Europe, as an infusion, as recommended by Brayer, against the tape-worm; the ficus dara, a species of fig, resembles the Indian banian, with its aerial roots forming fresh stems and developing forests capable of sheltering some hundreds of people. The wanzeh (cordia Abyssinica), is a tufted tree usually planted round houses. The conifer family is represented on the upland plateaux by the yew, and especially by the juniper, whose huge trunk rises from 100 to 130 feet, and in Shoa even to 160 feet.
Fauna.
The diversity of climate and flora naturally gives rise to a corresponding variety in the animal kingdom. On the lowlands the fauna resembles that of Arabia or the Sahara, on the outer spurs that of Senegal, that of the Mediterranean on the plateaux, whilst it is almost European on the mountain summits. On the lower plains are found the giraffe, the zebra, the wild ass, and the ostrich. Of the numerous species of antelopes inhabiting Abyssinia, few advance far up the plateaux, although the wild goat is found on the crests of the Simen range, at a height of over 13,000 feet. Numerous varieties of the monkey family, amongst others the colubus guereza, noted for its beautiful black-and-white fur, are confined to the lowland forests of Shoa, Gojam, and Kwalla-Woggara. But a certain species of cynocephales are found at an altitude of some 6,000 feet. The rhinoceros has also been met at an elevation of 8,000 feet. The elephant also frequents the mountains, although he prefers the thickets of the valleys, where he conmiits extensive depredations on the plantations. But this pachyderm is disappearing before the attacks of the hunter, who eagerly pursues it, as much for the sake of its ivory as to retaliate for the havoc it commits on the cultivated lands. According to the Arab lowlanders, the elephant knows when to expect the caravans laden with durrah, attacks them from its ambuscades, and takes possession of the supplies. The hippopotamus is also forced by want of water as far into the interior as the foot of the cascades, and is also numerous in Lake Tana, where, however, it does not grow to such a size as those of the large African rivers.
The lion is rarely found above the lowlands or beyond the Beni-Amer territory in the north. It differs from its Central African congeners by its deep black mane; indeed, one variety, infesting the banks of the Takkazeh, is almost entirely black. A more dangerous animal is the leopard, which roams throughout the country to a height of 11,000 feet. Like the Indian tiger, these carnivora often become man-eaters, for when they have once tasted human flesh they prefer it to all other prey. A still more formidable beast is the woho or abasamho, believed by Lefebvre to be a wolf, and said to partake of the qualities of the lion and the leopard. The spotted hyaena is also very common. The buffalo, which frequents chiefly the riverain kwallas, is of all other savage beasts the readiest to attack man; it fears no enemy, and its furious rush is checked neither by quagmires, rocks, nor prickly thickets. The wild fauna also includes the wild boar, which, to spite the Mohammedans, is occasionally eaten by the Abyssinian Christians, although usually regarded as impure. The Abyssinians also reject the flesh of the tortoise, and of all animals show the greatest repugnance to the hare, in this latter respect strictly adhering to the law of Moses. It is usually stated that Africa possesses no song-birds, but Abyssinia best shows how erroneous this statement is, as it possesses numerous varieties of these birds, nearly all of gorgeous plumage. The sacred ibis (geronticus æthiopicus), no longer seen on the banks of the Egyptian Nile, is still met in the Upland Abyssinian valleys. The branches of trees overhanging rivers and pools are covered with the nests of the textor alecto ​ or ploceus aureus; Stecker has counted as many as eight hundred and seventy-two of these basket-nests on a single acacia.
According to the altitude of the country that they inhabit, the Abyssinians rear different domestic animals. Camels are used only on the lowlands, never being found beyond a height of 5,000 feet. The Abyssinian horse, bred throughout all the inhabited regions, is evidently of Arab stock, but smaller and stouter, of dog-like fidelity, and almost as strong and surefooted in climbing rocks as the mule. The donkey has also been introduced into the plateau, but it is weak and useless as a pack animal, possessing none of the qualities of the European variety.
Thanks to its immense and succulent pasture-lands, Abyssinia is an excellent cattle-breeding country, and some of its breeds, differing in stature, shape, length of horn and colour, almost rival the finest Europoan species. In many parts of the plateau are found the two kinds of sheep, the short and fat-tailed, besides an intermediate variety. The goat is also bred, its skin supplying the parchment on which most of the sacred books are written. There are neither pigs, pigeons, ducks, nor geese, but poultry is found in every village, and in some churches cocks are kept to announce the hour of morning prayer. Excepting the sheep-dog, which is large and courageous, the domestic dog is small and of indifferent qualities. The Abyssinians occupy themselves with apiculture in some districts, but the honey has poisonous properties whenever the bees obtain it from the flower of the branching euphorbia. A n analogous phenomenon has been observed for ages in the Caucasian and Pontine mountains.
Inhabitants.
The Felashas.
The Felashas, or "Jews of Abyssinia," variously estimated at from 10,000 to 20,000, are very probably of the same stock as the Agau. They are found throughout the plateaux, and even in Shoa and Gurageh, divided into three religious sects, each with its high priest. In southern Abyssinia they are called Fenjas, but are no longer found in the Siraen mountains, where they still predominated towards the close of the sixteenth century. The national name, Felasha, signifies "exiles," and in point of fact they claim descent from the ten tribes banished from the Holy Land. On the other hand, they are fond of quoting legends to prove that their ancestor was Menelik, the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Of the explorers who have visited them, several consider their type similar to that of the eastern Jews ; but observers have generally failed to notice any striking difference in features between them and their neighbours, except perhaps that their eyes are a little more oblique than those of the Agau. Their language, the kuara, huara, or huaraza, said to be dying out, also resembles that of the Agau, and lends additional force to the hypothesis of the two peoples springing from a common stock. But their religious zeal connects them so closely with the Jews that it would not be surprising to find other Israelites regarding them as of kindred race. In any case, there was a complete religious cohesion between the numerous Jewish communities of Palestine and Abyssinia at the period when uninterrupted communications existed between the Moriah of Jerusalem and the numerous "Mount Sinai's" of the African plateaus. Intercourse was maintained chiefly by means of the powerful Jewish republics then occupying a large part of the Arabian peninsula. One of these states still existed in the Himyaritic country fifty years before the birth of Mohammed. Their religion was spread from the east beyond the Red Sea, and at the period of their decadence the "chosen people" held their ground best in the west. The Felasha religion no longer predominates in Abyssinia, and their dynasties survive only in the popular traditions; still, unlike the Arabian Jews, they are not a hated race persecuted by the other sections of the community.
In nearly all the provinces they hold themselves aloof from the Abyssinians, occupying separate villages or else separate quarters in the towns. The mosques are divided into three compartments of unequal sanctity, like the primitive Jewish tabernacles, and are recognised from a distance by an earthenware vessel placed on the highest pinnacle. Desirous of preserving the purity of their race, the Felashas never marry women of alien religions ; they are even forbidden to enter Christian dwellings, and when they have been polluted by such a visit, are bound to purify themselves before returning to their own homes.
Polygamy is not practised, and marriage is much more respected by them than by the Abyssinians, although the women have more personal freedom. Early marriages, so common amongst the Christian families, are rare amongst them, the men marrying between the ages of twenty to thirty, and the women from fifteen to twenty. Like the Mohammedans, their morals are generally superior to those of their Christian masters, but unlike other Jews, they have no taste for trade. They ​ are mostly artisans, smiths, masons, carpenters, potters, and weavers; some also are farmers and cattle-breeders, but all unanimously reject the mercantile profession as contrary to the laws of Moses. Their interpretation of the holy books does not correspond to that of the rabbis of Europe and Asia ; besides, however zealous they are to obey the precepts of the " law," many of their practices are intermingle<l with numerous ceremonies borrowed from the native Christians. They are zealous in the strict observance of the Sabbath, in the sacrificial offerings on the holy stone of the temple, and adhering to the traditional rites in purifying themselves by frequent ablutions. Each family possesses a hut outside the village, where all sick persons must be removed for a stated term, a practice often causing the death of the aged, who are thus deprived of the services of their relations. But these religious customs will soon probably be but a memory of the past, as the Abyssinian Government considers that the subject should profess the same religion as the king. According to the reports of late travellers, a royal manifesto compelling the Felashas to become Christians was about to be issued.
The caste of the Kamants, believed to be of Agau origin, are found in small communities in the mountains surrounding Gondar, in the kwallas of the north- western slope of Abyssinia, as well as in Shoa. They speak the same language as the Felashas, whom they resemble in physical appearance; their traditions are the same, and like them they claim descent from the prophet Moses. If they do not celebrate the Sabbath, they at least abstain from work upon that day; some are also said to do no work on Christian feast-days. However, they are considered as pagans by Jews and Christians alike, and are said to practise certain ceremonies in the recesses of the mountains. At the beginning of his reign Theodore intended to forcibly convert them to Christianity; but he was advised that it would not be proper to treat as equals before God these despised people, the hewers of wood and drawers of water to the families of Gondar. The Kamants are far more industrious than the Abyssinians, who consider themselves their sui)eriors, and Gondar and the surrounding towns are dependent for their daily supplies on the labour of this tribe. Like the Orejones of the New World, and like the Wa-Kwafi of the Kilima N'jaro district and many other Bantu tribes, the Kamunt women distend the lobe of the ears with wooden discs, causing the outer curtilage to reach the shoulders.
The Woito, on the banks of Lake Tana, hippopotamus hunters and fishermen, who till recently still spoke the Agau dialect, belong also to the aboriginal populations. They do not circumcise their children, and oat the flesh of animals clean or unclean. The Tsellans, in the same region, are wandering shepherds.
The Bogos.
The Mensa, and Bogos, or Bilens, who occupy the northern slope of the Abyssinian mountains in the Senhit (Sennaheit or "beautiful") country, which separates the Sahel from the Barka Valley, are also said to be of Agau origin, although d'Abbadie connects them with the ancient Blemmyes. The Bogos, or ​ rather the Boasgors, that is "Sons of the Boas," say that their ancestor was an Agau of Lasta, who is said to have fled from his country towards the middle of the sixteenth century to escape the vendetta. Situated as they are, between the hostile lowland Mohammedans and upland Christians, the Bogos have been almost exterminated. In 1858 they numbered merely some 8,400, but this remnant have kept their Bilen language and a few of their Christian practices. Although reduced to a few family communities they have been studied most carefully, their customs being taken as typical of those found among all the peoples of Northern Abyssinia.
The community is divided into two classes, the Shumaglieh, or "elders," and the Tigre, or "clients;" these latter probably conquered Abyssinians or immigrants that have been received into the tribe. The Tigre is the slave of the Shumaglieh, who, however, cannot sell him, though he may yield him with his lands to another master; he is even bound to protect him and avenge his insults. The life of a Tigre is valued at that of another, or at ninety-three cows, whereas that of a Shumaglieh is worth another Shumaglieh, or one hundred and fifty-eight head of cattle. The eldest son of a Shumaglieh inherits his father's two-edged sword, white cows, lands, and slaves, but the paternal dwelling falls to the lot of the youngest son, the daughters receiving nothing. Female virtue is highly esteemed, but women have no personal rights or responsibilities, being regarded merely as so much property, and are classed with the hyaena, the most despised animal throughout Abyssinia. The Bogo husband never sees the face or pronounces the name of his mother-in-law, whilst it is criminal for the wife to mention the name of her husband or father-in-law. According to tradition the picturesque country now occupied by the Bogos was once the country of the Roms, who are still commemorated in song as daring warriors, who " hurled their spears against heaven." These ancient Roms were, perhaps, the advanced pioneers of Byzantine civilisation, or else Adulitains driven into the interior by the Mussulman conquest.
The Mensas and Mareas.
North of the Bogos, and occupying the same uplands, dwell the Takueh, also of Agau stock and speaking the Bilen language, whence their name of Bilen, sometimes given to them by the Bogos. Like most of their neighbours, and probably with good reason, they pride themselves on being a nation of conquerors, but they have been aborigines of African extraction since time immemorial, and lands formerly belonging to their families are still shown in Hamassen. The Dambellas in the west are also Abyssinians, whilst the Mensa highlanders of the east and the Marea in the mountainous region bounded north by the Anseba river, claim to be of Arab origin, and even trace their descent from an uncle of the Prophet. Although peasants, they are half nomads dwelling in tents. Yet the Mensas and» Mareas were formerly Christians like the Takueh and Bogos, and the work of converting them to Mohammedanism was not undertaken till the first half of this century. Since their conversion, in times of peril they still often pray to Ezgiabeher, their ​ former god, instead of to Allah, and have also ceased to raise mounds over their dead, like the Bogos. They number about 16,000, and are divided into two tribes, the "Blacks" and the "Reds." These last, forming the southern division, by a strange contrast, cultivate a blackish soil, whilst the former, or northern division, occupy a reddish soil. Their language is identical with that of their slaves, the conquered Tigre, who possess no rights, in spite of the precepts of Mohammedanism, which confers the title of brothers on all the faithful. On the death of a Marea the head of every Tigré family is bound to present a cow to his heirs. The Mareas exceed all other races in aristocratic pride. Death without defence is the only punishment they will receive, for they refuse to humble themselves by appearing before any tribunal and offering any excuses for their conduct. If the blood of the tribe is sullied by an illegitimate birth, father, mother, and child are all destroyed.
The Hababs.
North of the Mensas and Mareas are the Az-Hibbehs or Ilababs, pastors wandering over the mountainous plateaus bounded east by the Sahel plains of the Red Sea, and west by the Barka Valley. These people also are connected with the Abyssinians by their language—which, like the Tigré, is a Ghez dialect—as well as by their traditions. They were Christians, at least in name, down to the middle of the nineteenth century, but on adopting a nomad life they also conformed to the religion of the surrounding tribes. Divided into small republics, their only wealth consisting of cattle, the Hababs roam amongst the surrounding mountains and plains in search of water and pastures. During the winter the lonely Nafka plateau, which may be considered the centre of the Habab country, is completely abandoned to the wild beasts.
Nevertheless, the remains of buildings and graves disposed in three or four circular stages prove that this region was once permanently occupied. These ruins are attributed to the Bet-Maliehs, or "People of the wealthy abode," a small tribe believed to be of aboriginal extraction. Like the Habab people, the elephant of this region is also nomad; during the winter rains its herds frequent the eastern slopes of the plateau bordering the Sahel, in summer returning to the Nafka heights on their way westwards to the Barka Valley and the slopes of the Abyssinian mountains.
The Beni-Amers.
In the lowland districts north, west, and east of the Hababs dwell the Beni- Amers, who appear to be of mixed Abyssinian and Beja origin, speaking a dialect half Beja, "Bedouin," and half Tigré, locally known by the name of Ifassa. Amongst the Nebtabs of the Sahel—all nobles, and recognised as such by their neighbours—both languages are also current. The Abyssinian element is more strongly represented according as the Beni-Araer tribes approach the great plateau, and those living in the plains of Samhar, near the Mensas, speak Tigré almost ​ exclusively. They marry the women of the Bogos and other mountain tribes, but are too proud to give their daughters in marriage to the Abyssinians. In these regions of transition, as well as in the slave-markets surrounding the plateaux, strikingly different types are met, such as the broad faces and high cheekbones of the Agau, and the high forehead, hollow cheeks, delicate nose, and savage eye of the Arabs, or of those assimilated to the Arabs, such as the Hadendoas and Shaikiehs.
The Sahos.
The Sahos or Shohos, occupying the slope of the Hamassen plateau west of Massawah, live by cattle-breeding and acting as guides between the seaport and the highlands. Some authors look upon them as true Abyssinians, but most explorers connect them with the Afars, or even with the Gallas. Their dialects, of Afar origin, resemble those spoken throughout the southern region as far as the Awash River. Although very frugal, they have full features with a fresh and healthy complexion. Like all the other peoples of the coast, they are mostly Mohammedans; nevertheless, near the plateau there are some who intermingle Christian traditions with their Mussulman faith, whilst a few villages, where the missionaries reside, have become Catholic.
Although nominally subject to the " King of Kings," the Shohos are really independent, even the chiefs possessing merely a nominal authority over their subjects. All the members of the tribe have an equal voice in the assemblies, and anyone trying to dictate to another would be excluded or put to death. The observance of their hereditary customs and the respect of public opinion, unite the Shoho tribes in a compact nationality. The law of blood for blood is rigidly observed; a murderer must either die or pay the price fixed for a life, and if the assassin has no relations to answer for him, his tribe draw lots for a substitute. In some instances, however, the family of the murderer consents to his execution, and in this case his parents and friends assist in putting him to death, so as to share in the responsibility of his punishment. {{c|The Shangallas. "West of the Abyssinian plateaux, on the spurs facing the Atbara, the Rahad,
The Tigré and Amharas.
The civilised Abyssinian highlanders are divided into two main groups, differing from each other in speech and traditions—the Tigre nation, occupying the north-east highlands, and the Amharas and Shoas of the western and southern regions. The features of the Tigre, who have given their name to their province, are perhaps somewhat more characteristic than those of the other Abyssinians, from whom, however, they cannot easily be distinguished. But they speak the Tigrina, a peculiar form of speech derived from the Ghez, the classical language, in which are written all the religious works and liturgies of the Abyssinian nation. Like the Tigrié (Tigré, Tigrai), a kindred dialect current amongst the peoples of the northern slopes along the headstreams of the Barka, the Semitic roots of the Ghez are foimd more or less intermingled in the Tigrina, with Galla and other elements of foreign origin. The " Bedouin " language of the Hababs is a well-preserved form of Ghez, and many Abyssinian theologians have resided amongst these humble highland shepherds in order to study the origin of their sacred language. The Ilassa, another dialect of the same family, differing slightly from Tigrie, has survived amongst the Beni-Amers of the Samhar plains on the coast of the Red Sea. In this direction the Abyssinian linguistic domain is being gradually encroached upon by the Arab, just as the Christian religion itself has recently yielded to Mohammedanism.
Of the two chief Abyssinian languages, the Tigriña and the Amhariila, the latter, also derived from Ghez, predominates, thanks to the higher civilisation and political preponderance of the Arahara people. The Amhariua is the language of trade, diplomacy, and literature, possessing a special alphabet of thirty-three letters, each with seven forms, or two hundred and fifty-one characters altogether, written from left to right, like the European languages. Whole libraries of books have been written in this tongue. The most important works are found in Europe, especially in the British Museum, which possesses as many as three hundred and forty-eight, obtained chiefly from the collections of King Theodore. Most of the Amhariua books have been written for the edification of the faithful; but magic, history, and grammar are also represented in the national literature. Science already possesses three dictionaries of the Amhariila language, the last a philological work of great importance on which d'Abbadie spent more than twenty-five years. The Tigrina dialects possess no literature.
The Abyssinians.
The inhabitants of the various Tigré and Amhara provinces present striking contrasts according to their locality, trade, food, and racial crossings. But apart from the extremes, varying from the pure Negro to the European type, the Abyssinian on the whole may be considered as possessing shapely limbs and regular features. They are mostly of middle height, broad-shouldered, with somewhat slender body, and of very graceful action and carriage. They wear the shuma, a ​ garment resembling the Roman toga, which they fold grncefully round the body in divers fashions. In general the forehead is high, the nose straight, or even aquiline, the lips thick, the mouth somewhat pouting, and the chin pointed. The bead is dolichocephalous, and covered with slightly frizzled, almost woolly, hair, often arranged in little tufts, which the Mussulman slave-dealers call "peppercorns." Like most other Africans they are rarely bearded, but in common with them have the habit of lowering the eyelids, which often gives them a treacherous and deceitful appearance. The colour of the skin varies greatly, from the deep black of the Negro to the pale complexion of the Mediterranean coast peoples, but is generally of a darkish yellow hue, clear enough to admit of blushes being observed. Most of the women when young are very graceful, but their beauty does not last long; they are shorter than the men, their height, according to Hartmann, rarely exceeding from 4 feet 11 inches to 5 feet.
The Abyssinians, both men and women, are subject to internal parasites, probably due to the practice of eating raw flesh, common to all the natives, excepting those of the northern province of Seraweh, whose diet consists almost exclusively of vegetables. In the last century Bruce's account of these feasts of brondo, or steaks cut from the living animal and eaten with pepper and pimento, were discredited; but his statements have been confirmed by all subsequent explorers. To free themselves from these internal pests, the Abyssinians make decoctions of the kusso leaf, bitter barks, and various other herbs; but they prefer to expose themselves to this disorder rather than abandon their savoury brondo. Leprosy, amongst other diseases, is very common in the kwallas, and more especially in the Fclasha villages. Like those of Europe and South America, the Abyssinian highlanders, and especially the women, suffer much from goitre. According to Dr. Blanc, an Englishmen who was for some time a prisoner of King Theodore's, the women frequently die in parturition, whilst in the neighbouring countries they pass easily through this trial. Wounds heal slowly, the slightest contusion often causing bone diseases of long standing, although amputation of the arms and legs, and even the mutilations of eunuchs, are rarely mortal, and in general heal rapidly. The peoples of the upper plateaux dread the feverish atmosphere of the kwallus as much as Europeans, and rarely descend below a height of 3,000 feet during the rainy season. The danger these mountaineers run under the deleterious influence of this damp heat is the best safeguard of the lowlanders against the attacks of the Abyssinian marauders. When the "king of kings" has occasion to punish one of these lowland peoples, he despatches a band of Galla warriors, accustomed to a similar climate in their forests of southern Abyssinia. However, the elephant hunters and slave dealers, whose pursuits bring them to these regions, are said to brave the miasmas with impunity, protecting themselves successfully against the marsh fever by daily fumigations of sulphur.
Most European observers describe the Amharas and Tigrés as distinguished by their great intelligence, much natural gaiety, and easy address. Although untutored in elocution, they express themselves with a remarkable fluency, rendered the more impressive by their commanding height and appropriate gestures. Vain, selfish. ​ and irritable, they are easily led into foolhardy enterprises. Their ambition is insatiable, but when unsuccessful they resignedly accept their ill luck. The sad political state of Abyssinia fully accounts for the vices of its peoples. Continual wars put a stop to all peaceful labours; the soldiers live by plunder, the monks by alms; hence all work is despised and left to the women and slaves. Like the Egyptian fellahin, the haughty Abyssinians do not consider themselves degraded by asking for presents, remarking cynically, "God has given us speech for the purpose of begging." Amongst the Shohos the love of bakshish is pushed to such an extent that many of the chiefs are buried with the hand projecting from the grave, as if still soliciting from their tombs. Disregard of truth is another national vice, veracity being little respected in this country of theological quibblings, where each interpretation is based on a sacred text. "Lying gives a salt to speech which the pure truth never does," said an Abyssinian to d'Abbadie.
Agriculture.
Although the Abyssinians rank as a "civilised people," their agriculture is still in a very rudimentary state; many of the ploughs have merely a stick or iron lance for the share, which tears up the soil without turning it over. After the seed is sown, the land is never touched till harvest time, whilst certain useful plants are left to grow wild. Even the harvest is neglected, and the gums, yielded abundantly by the acacias on the Sahal and Sarahar slopes of the Abyssinian chains, are gathered only in the immediate vicinity of the trade routes between Massawah and the plateaus. However, numerous varieties of vegetables are known to have been introduced into the country, notably the vine, at the period of its trade with Byzantium. During the present century Schimper has spread the culture of the potato, the German missionaries have brought over the red cabbage, and Munzinger has introduced several new plants into the country of the Bogos. Were the arable lands cultivated, like those of the more flourishing European colonies, the Abyssinian highlands might supply the markets of the world with coffee and quinine, and the valleys of the advanced spurs might rival the United States in the production of cotton.
The Arts and Industries.
The industries, properly so called, are in the same state of neglect as agriculture, although the Abyssinians themselves are sufficiently intelligent and skilful to utilise their own raw materials instead of exporting them to foreign manufacturers. Incessant wars compelling all the able population to bear arms, and the contempt for labour and workmen existing in all feudal and slave countries, have prevented the Abyssinians from developing their natural skill and taste for the industries. All the masonry, carpentering, and upholstering, as well as the manufacture of tools, weapons, and instruments, are left to the Felasha Jews, who are rewarded for their services by being hated and persecuted as budas—that is, were- wolves—or else ​ as sorcerers. A few families of Hindu extraction, and naturalised Armenians, ornament the shields, swords, and saddles with filigree work, make trinkets, and prepare the jewels, necklaces, and bracelets of the women; whilst a few European workmen, residing at the court, also contribute somewhat to the industrial products of Abyssinia. The fine cotton tissues used for the shaman and other articles of clothing are manufactured in the country, but the red and blue cotton^fringes with which the borders are ornamented are usually imported. Like the Mohammedan peoples of the surrounding districts, the Abyssinians are very skilful in the preparation of all kinds of leatherware, such as shields, saddles, and amulets. Most of the people are their own tailors, and bleach their own cloth by means of endot seeds, which answer the purpose of soap. It is a poin.t of honour amongst them on feast-days to wear clothes of spotless whiteness.
Art, in the strict sense of the term, is wrongly supposed to be imknown to the Abyssinians. Most European explorers speak in very contemptuous terms of the work of the native painters, and certain barbarous frescoes are doubtless of a character to justify their sneers. Nevertheless, the Abyssinian school, sprung from the Byzantine ecclesiastical art, has produced several works which show at least imagination and vigour. In the ruins of the palace of Koskoam, near Goudar, remains of Portuguese frescoes and native paintings are still to be seen side by side, and here the foreign artists, with their insipid saints, scarcely compare favourably with the natives. Nor are there lacking in Abyssinia innovating artists who protest by their bold conceptions against the stagnation of the traditional rules. They even treat historic subjects, and produce battle-scenes, painting the Abyssinians in full face, and their enemies, such as Mohammedans, Jews, and devils, in profile. They also display much skill and taste in bookbinding, copying and illuminating manuscripts. As to the azmari, or strolling minstrels, they live on the bounty of the nobles, whose mighty deeds it is their duty to sing. Hence their poetry is a mere mixture of flattery and mendacity, except when they are inspired by the love of war. Abyssinian bards recite before the warriors, inspiring their friends and insulting their adversaries, whilst female poets mingle with the soldiers, encouraging them by word and deed,
Religion and Education.
In spite of the encroachments of Mohammedanism, which besieges the Abyssinian plateaux like the waves of the sea beating against the foot of the rocks, the old religion of "Prester John" is still professed. Introduced in the fourth century, at the period when the political preponderance belonged to Constantinople, and communications were easily established between Aksum and "Eastern Home" by way of the Red Sea, the Arabian peninsula, and Syria, the doctrine of the Abyssinian Christians is one of those which at one time contended for the supremacy among the Churches of Asia Minor. The Abyssinian Christians, like the Copts of Egypt, jointly forming the so-called "Alexandrian Church," are connected with these primitive communities through the sects condemned by the council of Chalcedon in the middle of the fifth century. The Abyssinian "Monophy sites," following the doctrines of ​ Dioscorus and Eutychius, differ from the Greek and Roman Catholics by recognising one nature only in Jesus Christ, and in making the Holy Ghost proceed from God the Father alone. Christ, however, although he became man, is none the less considered as God, thanks to his double or triple birth, the manner and succession of which have given rise to so many endless disputes between theologians, and have even caused sanguinary wars. Gondar and Aksum have often had recourse to arms to settle the vexed question of the "double" or "triple birth." Following the interpretations, the words, at one time taken in the proper sense, at another translated into a mystic language, completely change their value; and European Catholic or Protestant missionaries have often been able to explain, to the applause of their hearers, that there was no essential difference between the Abyssinian faith and that which they wished to introduce. For the Roman Catholics especially the process is easy enough, for have they not, like the Abyssinians, the worship of Mary, the veneration of images, the intercession of the saints, fasts, purgatory, indulgences, and begging commimities? Received like a native, Bermudez, the first Catholic missionary, who arrived in Abyssinia about 1525, caused himself to be consecrated by the Abyssinian primate, and became for a time his successor.
Meanwhile the Mohammedan Gallas, led by Ahmed Graneh, that is, "the Left-handed," who possessed firearms, invaded Abyssinia, destroying its armies, sacking and burning its villages, and the empire would probably have been destroyed, had not 400 Portuguese, led by Christopher de Gama, son of the famous navigator, hastened to restore the balance of power. These events took place in 1541. The Gallas were beaten, but the Portuguese demanded as the price of their services a fief comprising a third part of the kingdom, and the conversion of all the Abyssinians to the Catholic faith. Thus began the religious wars between the Alexandrian and Roman sectaries. One of the first Jesuit missions was compelled to leave the country before securing the recognition of the Pope's authority; but a second was more successful, and in 1624 the "king of kings" abjured the Monophysite faith and issued an order for the universal adoption of Romanism. The Inquisition was introduced, and revolts, barbarously suppressed, stained the kingdom with blood. For eight years Abyssinia was officially a province of the Catholic world; but after a terrible massacre of the peasants, the Emperor Claudius, wearied of bloodshed, issued an edict of toleration, and all the Abyssinians soon returned to the old faith. The Catholic priests were exiled or died violent deaths, excepting the Patriarch, whom the Arabs captured, and for whom they obtained a heavy ransom from the Portuguese of Goa.
During the present century the Catholic and Protestant missionaries have returned to Abyssinia, but being regarded with suspicion as strangers, have never been tolerated for any length of time. The Abyssinians are usually very indifferent to religious matters, and would readily allow churches of divers denominations to be built by the side of their own, but they fear lest conversion might be* the fore-runner of conquest. Prince Kassa, afterwards the famous King Theodore, is stated to have said, "The missionaries will be welcome in my kingdom, on the condition that my subjects do not say, ’I am a Frenchman because I am a Catholic,’ or ’I ​ am on Englishman because I am a Protestant.’ "Later on he even forbade foreigners to preach, tolerating them only as artisans. His own fate justified the sentiment he so often repeated—"First the missionaries, then the consuls, and then the soldiers!" Abyssinian territory is now interdicted to priests of foreign religions, and Europeans, like Schimpcr, dwelling in the country, have been obliged to adopt the national religion.
Till recently the Mussulman propagandists seem to have been more successful than the European missionaries. Nearly all the frontier peoples had embraced Islam, retaining but a vague recollection of their Christian faith, and even in the interior the Mussulmans threatened to acquire the ascendancy. According to some writers, they already formed a third of the nation, and in the towns they prevailed through their numbers, influence, and wealth, whilst all the trade was in their hands. In virtue of the fundamental law of the country, they failed to attain political power only because rulers must profess the Christian religion; but in the middle of the century the master of the country, Râs Ali, was seen to abjure Mohammedanism only with his lips, whilst distributing offices and the plunder of the churches to the disciples of Islam. The reaction against Mohammedanism was principally caused by the invasion of the Egyptian annies, when the hatred of foreign enemies reflected upon those of the interior. An order for a general conversion was issued, and all the Abyssinian Mussulmans were obliged apparently to conform to the established Church, and to wear, under pain of exile, the match, or "sky-blue" cord, the Christian budge. The Mohammedans who remained faithful to their religion fled to the frontier states, especially to Galabat, on the route to Khartum. Abyssinia, the refuge of Mohammed's disciples in the fifth year of j^ersecution, has not, therefore, justified the praise the Prophet awarded it in calling it "a country of uprightness, where no man falls a victim to injustice."
The abuna, that is "our father," head of the Abyssinian clergy, is not an Abyssinian, for since the reign of Lalibala, some seven centuries ago, this prelate has always been a foreigner. It was doubtless feared that he would acquire too much power in the country were he a native of royal descent ; hence a Coptic priest is sent them by the Patriarch of Alexandria in return for a considerable sum of money. Thus his precious life is most carefully guarded to save further expense to the State, and on the death of an abuna the pontifical chair has often remained empty for many years. The duties of this high priest consists in ordaining priests and deacons, in consecrating altars, and in excommunicating criminals and blasphemers. For these services he possesses an entire quarter of Gondar, and receives the revenues of numerous fiefs, besides perquisites, regulated by a strict tariff. Although highly venerated by the natives, his power is not equal to that of the vegus; and Theodore, when excommunicated by the abuna, was seen to coolly draw a pistol and cover the prelate, demanding a blessing, which it is needless to add "the holy father" hastened to grant him.
The abuna's power is held in check by the king's political spies, as well as by the echagheh, the national priest and a religious rival, his equal in dignity and power of excommunication, although he cannot confer orders; he also possesses a ​ quarter of Gondar. The echagheh governs the numerous convents of Abyssinia, and rules over the numerous dabtara, or "literati," who form the best instructed and most influential class of the country. They are laymen, but they usually possess more authority in the Church than the priest himself. The dabtara enjoys the usufruct of the ecclesiastical fiefs; he hires by the month, pays, reprimands, or dismisses the priest who celebrates mass, and often occupies the post of parish priest, which is quite a temporal office in Abyssinia. He composes the new hymns for each feast, and often introduces sarcastic remarks levelled against the bishops, and occasionally even warnings against the king.
Excepting the high dignitaries, the Abyssinian priests are not bound to celibacy, but are forbidden to make a second marriage. There are also numerous religious orders, comprising about 12,000 monks, without counting the nuns, who are mostly aged women driven by domestic troubles to retire from the world. Deposed princes, disgraced officials, and penniless soldiers also seek a home in the monasteries. A large part of the land belongs to the priests and monks, and would lie fallow were not the peasantry compelled to cultivate it.
The churches and convents are the schools of the country, and with the exception of those chosen from the dabtara class, all the teachers are priests or monks. They teach choral singing, grammar, poetry, and the recitation of the texts of their sacred books and commentaries, the classic lore of the Abyssinians being limited to these subjects. But although restricted, education is at least gratuitous, the teacher's duty being to give voluntarily to others the instruction imparted to him in the same way. It is also the duty of the ecclesiastics to give food and shelter to whomsoever asks it. Convents and even the ecclesiastical domains were formerly inviolable places of refuge; but degrees of sanctity have been gradually established in these refuges, and at present there are very few from which the sovereign cannot tear his victim and deliver him up to the executioner. Many convents which formerly attracted crowds of pilgrims are now no longer visited. A few, however, are still visited for the combined purpose of worship and trade, every place of pilgrimage being at the same time a "camp-meeting."
The Abyssinian theologians, more versed in the Old Testament than the New, are fond of justifying their surviving barbarous customs by the examples supplied by the lives of their pretended ancestors, David and Solomon. The bulk of the faithful, although far from zealous, and extremely ignorant of their tenets, rigidly observe the outward forms of their religion. They submit to the penances imposed by their confessors, purchase pardon for their sins by almsgiving to the Church, and observe the long fasts ordered them, unless indeed they can afford to pay for a substitute. They have two Lents, the most rigorous lasting forty-five days, besides two days of the week being set apart for the ordinary abstinence. As in Russia and Rumania, more than half of the year consists of days of feasts or fasts, apart from those set aside for the celebration of births, deaths, and marriages.
Every man has a baptismal and ordinary name, the former taken from their national saints, the latter composed of the first words spoken by his mother after his birth. The chiefs have a third name, consisting of their war-cry. Religious ​ marriage rites, which are also celebrated by communion and regarded an indissoluble, are of rare occurrence, not one in a hundred unions being solemnised by a priest. Legally the husband or wife can only be divorced three times, but in reality they dissolve the marriage as often as they please, and in this case the father takes the sons, the daughters remaining with the mother. In the case of a single child, if under seven he goes to the mother, but if older to the father. Of all their religious practices the most important are the funeral rites. The most upright man would be thought unworthy to enter heaven did his relations not pay for masses to be said for his soul and for a splendid funeral banquet. The poor people pinch themselves during lifetime to save enough to acquit this sacred duty of the "teskar." As in Christian P]urope, the enclosures surrounding the churches are used as cemeteries; and the conifer trees, such as the cedar, yew, and juniper, planted on the graves of the Abyssinians, are said to be also considered in the East as sepulchral trees. Government.
Administration of Justice.
As the Abyssinian sovereigns are theoretically autocrats, so the governors of provinces, landholders, and the shum or "chiefs" of each village, have also the right to do as they please, being responsible only to their superiors. Nevertheless there is a code of laws, the "King's Guide," attributed to Constantine, and which certainly dates from the period when Byzantine influence preponderated in the Eastern world. According to this code, which contains many ordinances of the Pentateuch and extracts from the laws of Justinian, the father has the right of life or death over his children, as the king has over his subjects. The rebellion of the son against the father, or of the vassal against his lord, is punished by blinding or death; the blasphemer or liar, taking the name of God or of the king in vain, is punished with the loss of his tongue; the thief loses his right hand; the assassin is delivered up to the family of the murdered man and killed in the same way as he disposed of his victim, but if the crime was involuntary, blood-money must be accepted. The amputated limbs of prisoners are always baked under their eyes and returned to them steeped in butter, so that they can preserve them to be buried with the rest of the body, and thus rise unmutilated on the last day. Smoking is forbidden, "because tobacco originated in the tomb of Arius," and fanatic chiefs have caused the lips of transgressors to be cut off. Chiefs rarely condemn anyone to prison, which consists of a chain with a strong ring at each end, one being fixed to the prisoner's right wrist, the other to the left hand of his gaoler, who thus becomes a captive himself; accordingly he strives promptly to get rid of his unwelcome companion either by a compromise or by an absolute judgment. When one Abyssinian wishes to complain of another, he attaches his toga to that of his adversary, who cannot get released without pleading guilty. He must follow his accuser before the judge, and, both uncovering the back and shoulders so as to await the blows which will fall upon one or the other, beg for the magistrate's decision. Each conducts his own defence, as it is thought disgraceful to employ a third person to plead, the title of lawyer being considered an insult. The Abyssinians of ten appeal to a child to judge between them: being himself innocent, the child is held as the best judge of good and evil. After having gravely listened to the suitors and the witnesses, he pronounces sentence, which all receive with the greatest deference, and which is occasionally accepted as a definite judgment between the parties.
Slavery.
Slavery still exists in Abyssinia, but it affects the blacks alone, who constitute but a small portion of the population. The master has not the right of life and death over his slave, and would even be liable to capital punishment by selling him. After some years' service the slave usually receives his liberty, together with sufficient implements and money necessary for his support. On becoming a freedman he increases the importance of his former master. Before their enforced conversion all the traffic in human flesh was carried on by the Mussulmans. Like ​ the American aliolitionists, but for an entirely different purpose, they had established a "subterranean route," that is to say, a series of secret deixJts underground or in the woods, stretching between Gondar and Metamneh. The convoys of slaves were carefully imprisoned all day in these depots, passing from one to the other only under cover of night.
Topography.
The natural centre of Abyssinia, which has also at various epochs been the seat of empire, is the fertile basin whose central depression contains the waters of Lake Tana. The mean height of this favoured region exceeds 6,600 feet ; it forms the voïna-dega zone, which corresponds to the temperate zone of Europe, although enjoying a more equable climate and a richer vegetation. Thanks to these happy conditions, the land yields the most abundant and varied crops in Abyssinia, and here have been built the most populous towns, which in this feudal region are elsewhere extremely rare. Another great advantage of this district is its relative facility of access. From Khartum to Lake Tuna the direct route rises gradually, crossing only one steep ridge, that of Wali-dabba, north-west of the great lake; but it would be difficult to follow the route made through the gorges of the Blue Nile, an immense semicircle described by the river beyond Abyssinia into the country of the Ilm-Ormas and Bertas.
Gondar.
One of the cities of the central Abyssinian basin is Gondar, or rather Girendar, usually designated as the capital, although it is merely the chief religious centre. Gondar is not of ancient origin, dating only from the beginning of the seventeenth century, although it has already more ruined buildings than houses in good condition. Most of the churches were destroyed by Theodore in a fit of rage, and on the rounded hill overlooking the town from the north are the remains of a gimp, or "stronghold," which, in spite of its dilapidated condition, is still the finest building in Abyssinia. Its reddish sandstone walls with basalt parapets, round towers, square keep, and lofty gateways in the Portuguese style, give it an imposing appearance; but it is being gradually overgrown by trees and shrubs, while entire portions have been systematically demolished. " Since we must no longer, build monuments," said a queen in the middle of this century, " why should we allow those of others to exist?" Seen from afar at the foot of its picturesque ruins, commanded by churches, and dotted with clumps of trees, Gondar presents the appearance of a picturesque European town, with its amphitheatre of hills, its silvery rivulets winding through the prairies of the Dembea, and the glittering surface of the neighbouring lake.
Gondar is situated at a height variously estimated at from 6,300 to 6,800 feet, on the southern and western sides of a gently sloping hill. Its houses are built, not in groups so as to form a town properly so-called, but in separate quarters, between which intervene heaps of rubbish and waste spaces, where leopards and ​panthers occasionally venture at night-time. Although it could easily accommodate some 10,000 families, its present population is estimated at only from 4,000 to 7,090 Christians and Jews, each occupying a special quarter. The houses of the rich citizens are mostly one-storied round towers, with conic roofs thatched with reeds; the domestic animals occupy the ground-floor, which also serves as a store for utensils and provisions. Being an ecclesiastical centre, Gondar has no foreign
Chelga—Amba-Mariam—Ifag.
Towards the north-western angle of the Derabea plain are the scattered hamlets forming the town of Chelga, which, though less famous than Gondar, is of more commercial importance. Lying near the water-parting between the Blue Nile and the Atbara, it is frequented by the Abyssinian merchants and the traders from Galahat and Gedaref, who reach it from Wohni the first station on the Abyssinian frontier. In the upper valley of the Goang, which flows to the Atbara, are beds of excellent coal, disposed in layers some two to three feet thick, and very easy to work. From the plateau which rises west of the town to a height of over 8,800 feet, a view is commanded of the vast circle of hills and valleys enclosing Lake Tana, the Tsana of the Tigré. At the foot of the basalt crag of Gorgora, rising near the north-western shore of the lake, stands the large village of Changar, which possesses a port serving as the outlet for Gondar, Chelga, and other towns of the province.
The only communication between the plain of Dembea and the riverain districts east of the lake is by a defile, in which stands the custom-house of Ferka-ber, much dreaded by travellers. Beyond this post the towns and villages belonging to this lacustrine region are built away from the banks at a considerable height above the bed of the streams. Amba-Mariam, or the "Fort of Mary," with its famous church, stands on a level and treeless table-land, at whose base the villages of the district of Emfran nestle amongst the tufted vegetation. Ifag, or Eifag, forms a group of villages encircling the foot of a barren volcanic rock some 1,600 feet high, which commands from the north the abrupt plateau of Beghemeder. Situated at the northern extremity of a fertile plain watered by the copious rivers Reb and Gumara, and commanding the narrow passages which wind round the base of the mountains at the north-eastern angle of the lake, Ifug is an important commercial emporium with a central custom-house. The caravans stop and reform at the town of Darita, farther east. The plains of Fogara, stretching southwards, are said to produce the finest tobacco in Abyssinia, while also yielding rich pasturages for the numerous herds. Like Koarata, farther south, Ifag was formerly celebrated throughout Abyssinia for the excellence of its wine, obtained from plants introduced by the Portuguese; but the vines, which generally grew to a gigantic size, nearly all perished in 1855 of oïdium, at the some time that the European vineyards were wasted by this destructive fungus.
Debra-Tabor.
South of the plains of Fogara stretches a ridge running east and west, and over-looked from the east by the cloud-capped cone of Mount Guna. This broad ridge, covered with a thick layer of black earth and furrowed by the rivulets floating from the marshy sides of Guna, is the plateau of Debra-Tabor, or "Mount Tabor," so-called from a church formerly a place of pilgrimage, but which, since the time of Theodore, has become the chief residence of the Abyssinian kings. From a ​strategical point of view the position has been admirably chosen. To the west stretch the riverain plains of Lake Tana, the most fertile in the kingdom. From the summit, exceeding 8,600 feet, on which his palace is perched, the sovereign overlooks the lands which furnish his army with supplies. From this point he can easily reach the Upper Takkazeh valley towards the east, or the valley of the Abai and the routes of Shoa to the south. The capital of a country engaged in perpetual warfare could not be more fortunately situated. But the royal camping-ground has often been shifted on the plateau of Debra-Tabor.
The village of Debra-Tabor, where the "king of kings" often resides during the rainy season, bears the name of Samara; some miles to the north-west is the village of Gafat, formerly inhabited by blacksmiths who were reputed sorcerers. Theodore had assigned it as a residence for a numerous colony of Protestant
missionaries, employed, not for the evangelisation of the inhabitants, but for the manufacture of harness, weapons, and materials for war. Gafat was at that time the arsenal of Abyssinia.
The watercourses of Debra-Tabor flow to Lake Tana through the Reb, which latter river, not far from Gafat, forms a superb cascade nearly 70 feet high. West of Debra-Tabor, on a lowland promontory of the plateau, are the ruins of the Castle of Arengo, the "Versailles of the Negus," built beneath some large trees, on the edge of a precipice over which falls a cascade, its waters disappearing in the virgin forest. below. Thermal springs from 100° to 107° F. abound in this region. The most frequented are those of Wanziglieh in the valley of southern Gumara. The neighbouring village is the only place in Abyssinia where vines have been introduced.
Mahdera-Mariam — Koarata.
The basin of the Gumara, like that of the Reb, has also a town famous in the local records. Mahdera-Mariam, or "Mary's Rest," stands between two affluents, ​of the Gumara on an enormous basalt rock, "grouping its garden-encircled houses around the clumps of junipers which mark the sites of churches." The town is surrounded on three sides by chasms, but connected with the neighbouring plateau on the fourth by a narrow isthmus which might be easily fortified. MahderaMariam is no longer a royal residence, but its two churches — those of the "Mother" and the "Son" — are still much frequented by pilgrims, and numerous merchants visit its fair. Two distinct quarters were till recently occupied by Mussulmans,
who differ from the other Abyssinians merely by their peaceful and business-like habits. The hot springs of Mahdera-Mariam are retailed by the priests, who also practise the medical art.
The most important commercial town on the eastern bank of Lake Tana is Koarata, situated about six miles north-east of the spot where the Abaï emerges from the lacustrine basin, and near the mouths of the Gumara and Reb. Were Abyssinia well provided with routes, this town would form the converging point for the routes of many river valleys. A rounded basalt hill stands in the middle of the plain, its western spur projecting into the lake. The town covers a ​considerable extent; the dwellings of the better classes are surrounded by large gardens; the streets form shady avenues, whence are perceived the conic roofs of the houses amidst the dense foliage of cedars, sycamores, and fruit trees. Koarata, "the pleasantest town in Abyssinia," was till recently the most populous. At the time of D'Abbadie's visit it numbered some 12,000 inhabitants, which in 1864 were reduced to 2,000 according to Raffray, and from 800 to 1,000 according to Stecker, whilst in 1881 all the Mussulmans were forcibly exiled. Nevertheless it is still the centre of a brisk trade, and the numerous faukuas hauled up on the beach attest a considerable movement between Koarata and the towns dotted round
Debra-Makiam—Ismala.
At the point where the lake narrows to escape through the rapid current of the Abai, two towns face each other—Debra-Manam, or "Mountain of Mary," on the east, Bahrdar to the west. Several villages, neater and more cleanly than those of the interior, follow in succession along the southern shore of the lake. The islet of Dek, some 16 square miles in extent, forms a low volcanic rock covered with tufted vegetation, and skirted by conic hills. Here the priests of Eoarata have deposited their treasures; hence few explorers have received permission to visit this island, whilst that of Dega, consecrated to St. Stephen, is holy soil, forbidden to all profane visitors. Mafraha, another holy island in Lake Tana, lies close to the north-eastern shore, and viewed from between branches of trees covered with the swinging nests of the weaver-bird, presents a most charming appearance. But the holiness of this island did not prevent Theodore from shutting up all its inhabitants in a monastery, which he then set on fire. To the south-east of Lake Tana, on one of its affluents, Ismala, the capital of Abshafer, is very much frequented for its hot springs and mineral waters.
Mota—Dima—Bishara.
Beyond the basin of Lake Tana the Abyssinian towns belonging to the watershed of the Abai or Blue Nile are mostly situated on the plateau or on the broad grassy terraces of the extensive plains bordering the right bank of the river, and affording pasturage for herds of large cattle and horses. Mota, one of the most important markets in the "kingdom" of Gojam, is situated on an elevation at the extremity of the plateaux which bound the northern base of the Talba Waha Mountains; its regularly built houses are, like those of Mahdera-Mariam, surrounded by leafy trees, while a large park with long symmetrical avenues encircles the church. Below the terraces of Mota are the ruins of a bridge, which spanned the Abai River with nine arches, of which the central arch, some 66 feet broad, has been broken; but the merchants have stretched a rope over the gap and manage to pass themselves and their commodities over this frail temporary substitute. Farther south, the village of Karamo and a few neighbouring hamlets are peopled with Fmucin, or Francs, that is to say, the descendants of the Portuguese soldiers who arrived in the sixteenth century with Christopher de Gama. Martola-Mariam, one of the local churches, the sculptures of whose interior are said by Beke to be of exquisite workmanship, is undoubtedly of Portuguese construction, although the people invest it with much greater antiquity.
Facing the eastern curve of the Abai follow in succession the two religious towns of Debra-Werk and Lima, celebrated the former for its seminary, and the latter for the curious paintings in its church of St. George. Debra-Werk, built in amphitheatral form on the side of a hill, possesses the highest and best-built houses of any other Abyssinian towns. Bishara, some miles south of Dima, is a ​ market-town greatly frequented by the Gallas. The surrounding district is the richest and best cultivated in Gojara, whilst its mixed Abyssinian and Galla population presents the most remarkable types of female beauty.
Ashfa—Gudara—Basso.
South of Mount Naba, highest peak of the Talba "Waha Mountains, Damhadsha is much frequented by Mohammedan caravans, and possesses a sanctuary like that of Dima. Close by to the south-east stands Monkorer, the fortified residence of the King of Gojam, whilst farther to the north-west are the towns of Mankusa, Buri, and Gudara, the last mentioned standing on a volcanic crag near an intermittent lake and the sources of the Abaï. Ashfa, situated west of Gudara, in the midst of picturesque valleys, groves, and pasture lands, is the capital of the province of Agaumeder, which is peopled with Agau emigrants from Lasta. These populations, still half pagans although each village has its church, are the bravest, and the only Abyssinians who succeeded in evading the razzias ordered by the ruthless Theodore; in no other region of Abyssinia are the people more distinguished for courage and honesty. South of Gojam, in the vicinity of the Liben Gallas, are situated in two tributary valleys of the Abaï, close to its southern bend, the two neighbouring commercial towns of Yejihheh and Basso, where Abyssinians and Ilm Ormas assemble to barter the products of their respective lands. The merchants of Damot and Kaffa bring a little gold-dust to Basso; hence the country where this precious metul is found is looked upon as a land of marvels by its covetous neighbours. Archbishop Bennudez, formerly the Catholic Abuna of Abyssinia, tells us that the El Dorado of Damot is also in the popular estimation a land of unicorns and griffins, where amazons contend with fabulous monsters, and the phoenix springs again from its ashes. At the end of 1883, a bridge was constructed by an Italian engineer over the Abai, between Gojam and Gudru.
Magdala.
East of the Abaï, on a promontory above the upper valley of the Beshilo, stands the famous fortress of Magdala, which was, like Debra-Tabor, one of Theodore's residences, where he preferred death at his own hands whilst still free, and defying his English assailants. The amba of Magdala, rising to a height of 9,100 feet, or 3,300 feet above the Beshilo, resembles the rock of Mahdera-Mariam, although higher, more difficult of access, and of a more imposing aspect. Apparently insurmountable, the basalt cliff terminates westwards in an almost vertical crescent-shaped wall sloping north-westwards, where it culminates in an isolated peak. The portion of the plateau on which the fortress is built is connected with the southern part, which is occupied by the Gallas of the Wollo tribe, merely by a narrow path, all the other approaches to Magdala being blocked by fortifications. The upper platform, some two square miles in extent, bears the arsenals, barracks, prisons, magazines for corn and other provisions, and blockhouses for the king's women ​and children; cisterns and wells sunk in the soil supply it with water, whilst the fertile neighbouring valleys furnish provisions in abundance. It was at Magdala that Theodore kept for two years the English prisoners, for whose rescue an Anglo-Indian Army was dispatched in 1868. The fortress of Magdula, destroyed by the English, and afterwards conquered by the King of Shoa from an independent chief, and ceded by him to his sovereign, the King of Abyssinia, has since been restored, on account of its great strategic importance. It forms an advanced outpost in the Galla country, which is traversed by the shortest route to the kingdom of Shoa. At the eastern base of the rocks of Magdala, in a gorge commanded eastwards by
other basalt promontories, stands the village of Tanta, or Tenta, peopled by merchants who supply the citadel with provisions.
Dobarik — Lalibala.
The Abyssinian towns standing on plateaux intersected by the gorges of the Takkazeh and its affluents are, like those of the banks of the Blue Nile, mostly of military or religious origin. Besides, they are few and far between, and some of them, after enjoying a long period of prosperity, have been abandoned and now contain more ruins than inhabited houses. The least populous region of this slope is that whose waters flow eastwards into the Takkazeh between the Beghemeder and Simen uplands. This province of Belessa has been traversed by few explorers on account of the lack of resources and the unhealthiness of the kwalla, which must be crossed amid the various sections of the plateau. But in Simen the chief towns of this mountainous province, Inshatkab the capital, Faras-Saber and Dobarik, near the Lamalmon Pass, have been frequently visited, thanks to their situation on ​ the route between Gondar and Massawah by way of Tigré. Dobarik is the place where Theodore caused two thousand persons to be massacred in cold blood in revenge for the death of his two English favourites, Bell and Plowden. North of Simen are scattered the villages of the province of Waldebba, one of the "holy lands" of Abyssinia, the personal property of the echaghe, and mainly peopled by monks.
Lalihala, east of and not far from the sources of the Takkazeh, is another acred region. This town stands on a basalt upland terrace, forming a spur of Mount Asheten, whose wooded slopes rise to the south-west. Seven irregularities in the soil serve as a pretext for its priests to boast that, like Rome and Byzantium, their city is built on seven hills; like Jerusalem, it has its Moimt of Olives, on which stand trees with huge trunks, brought from the Holy Land many centuries ago. The town and the churches are surrounded with trees which, together with the perpetual spring of this temperate region, combine to make this place a charming and salubrious residence. Still Lalibala is very sparsely populated; its old buildings are crumbling away amidst the rocks, while its underground galleries have no longer any outlets. The inhabitants consist almost exclusively of priests, monks, and their attendants. The churches of Lalibala are the most remarkable in Abyssinia, each being hewn out of a block of basalt, with altars, sculptures, and columns complete. Unfortunately the rock has been weathered in man}' places, and of the monolith peristyle of one of the finest churches nothing survives but four columns. The buildings of Lalibala evidently belong to various periods, but it seems certain that most of these monuments must be attributed to the king whose name is preserved by the city, the Abyssinian "St. Louis," who reigned at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The workmen who carved out these curious subterranean churches are traditionally stated to have been Christian refugees from Egypt.
Kobbo—Gura—Sokota.
East of Lalibala, the depressions of numerous passes, running over the Abyssinian border-chain into the Angot and Zebul countries, contain the waters of the picturesque lakes Ardibbo, Haïb, and Ashango. In this region of alternate forests and pasture-lands are several large villages wherein the sovereigns of Abyssinia have often resided. A convent, formerly one of the richest in Abyssinia, stands on the woody "Island of Thunder" in Lake Haïk. On the bank of this lake is the village of Debra-Mariam, chiefly occupied by the priests' wives, who are not allowed to visit their husbands in the monastery. The waters of the lake were inhabited by a solitary hippopotamus at the time of Lefebvre's visit, respected by the natives and dreaded by navigators. Lower down, on the eastern slope of the Red Sea, stand the large markets of Kohbo, Gura, and Waldia, frequented alike by Abyssinians and Gallas, and described by Lefebvre as veritable towns.
Sokota, capital of the province of Wag, stands at a height of 7,500 feet, north of the Lasta Mountains, on both banks of the River Bilbis, which flows to the Takkazeh through the Tsellari. Sokota is a commercial town, as till recently ​ attested by its Mohammedan settlers. The Agau, who form the basis of the local population, are not sufficiently energetic to trade or work tho coalfields in the neighbourhood. The market of Sokota, which lasts three days every week, is mostly visited by the merchants and dealers in salt which serves as the chief small currency of southern Abyssinia, whereas in northern Tigré bales of cloth are employed. The amolch, or salt money, shaped like French whetstones, is procured from the salt lake Alalbed. The mean weight of each block is a pound and a quarter, and it naturally increases in value as it penetrates farther into the interior. Whilst the Danakil quarries of the Taltal tribe supply over a hundred of these amoleh for a Maria-Theresa talari, they are occasionally sold on the western banks of Lake Tana at tenpence a-piece. When Sarzec and Raffray crossed this country in 1873, they were worth at Sokota about threepence half-penny; but eight years afterwards, at the time of Rohlfs' visit, their value had diminished by three-fourths. When the means of communication shall have become more easy, they will entirely lose their conventional value in the barter trade, and will be exclusively used as a condiment. The Abyssinian proverb, "He eats salt," applied to prodigals and spendthrifts, will then have lost its point. The packers are very careful to protect the salt bricks from moisture; they lay them in parallel rows on copper plates, made like cartridge boxes, which are placed in layers on the back of a mule and covered with an awning.
Sokota has recently been greatly impoverished; devastated by epidemic fevers, it has lost three-fourths of its population, which from 4,000 to 5,000 in 1868 had fallen to not more than 1,500 at the time of Rohlfs' visit in 1881. In the vicinity of Sokota a monolithic church, like those of Lasta, has been hewn in the granite; its crypt contains the mummies of several kings of the country. The roads are bordered with dolmens similar to those of Brittany. One of the neighbouring Agau tribes bears the name of Kani, or Ham, after whom D'Abbadie applies this term to the whole group of "Hamitic" languages, of which the Ham, or Hamtenga, is regarded as typical.
Adua.
From Sokota to the country of the Bogos another caravan route, passing about 60 miles to the west of the Abyssinian border-range, traverses Abbi-Addi, capital of the province of Tembien, on the route to Adua, present capital of the Tigré, and next to Gondar and Basso, the largest market in all Abyssinia. This town stands nearly in the middle of the region of plateaux separating the two large curves described by the Takkazeh and the Upper Mareb. The River Assam, a tributary of the Takkazeh, winding through the naked but fertile plain of Adua, flows southwards, whilst to the north of the hill on whose side the town is built (6,500 feet), stands the isolated and precipitous Mount Shelota, or Sholoda, 9,000 feet high. Eastwards, overtopping the other summits, stands the lofty Semayata, 10,300 feet high. Adua, with its steep winding streets lined with small stone houses thatched with straw and encircled by slate terraces, scarcely presents the ​appearance of a capital. Small churches surrounded by thickets stand here and there, and on the top of a hill a cathedral, a huge building with a conic roof like most of the civil residences, has been recently built by an Italian architect. In the gardens flourish numerous exotic plants imported from Egypt and Syria. Not far from Adua are the ruins of Fremona, the seminary of the Jesuits driven out of Abyssinia in the seventeenth century. These ruins are avoided by the peasantry, who believe them to be the abode of evil spirits. Near the town Prince Kassai gained the decisive battle which made him the present Emperor of Abyssinia.
Aksum.
Adua is heir to a city which was the seat of an Abyssinian empire at one time stretching from the banks of the Nile to Cape Guardafui. Aksum, although
be, this precious inscription, reproduced for the first time by the explorer Sat, is a proof of the ancient relations existing between Abyssinia and the Greek world. Another column, discovered by Ferret and Galinier, is engraven with Himyaritic characters, also nearly effaced by time. According to D'Abbadie's reading it perpetuates the memory of the valiant "Halen, king of Aksum and of Hamer," that is to say, of the country of the Himyarites. South-western Arabia and Ethiopia formerly constituted one empire. On the plateau of Aksum, near an enormous sycamore whose trunk is 50 feet in circumference, stands another curious monument, which has been appealed to in proof of an ancient Egyptian culture in Abyssinia. ​ It is a monolithic obelisk some 83 feet high, but of a style entirely different from that of the Egyptian obelisks. Its ornamentation consists of a nine-storied tower pierced with windows and surmounted with a small pyramid with fluted base, curved and spherical sides. About fifty other obelisks are scattered over the neighbouring space, some fallen down, others leaning against the trunks of the trees, with ancient altars still standing amidst these ruins. Not far off unfinished carvings are still to be seen in the trachytic quarry whence the workmen obtained the materials for these obelisks. Amongst its other buildings Aksum also possesses, in the enclosure of its gedem or sanctuary, a Portuguese church flanked by an embattled tower. An aqueduct is cut in the rock, and close to the town the side of a mountain is undermined by catacombs which are said to be the tombs of the kings, and the place where "the great serpent, the ancient King of Abyssinia, is concealed."
Antalo—Senafeh.
Autalo, the former capital of Tigre, is situated at a height of some 8,000 feet, on an amba surrounded by deep gorges, where rise the affluents of the Takkazeh. A higher plateau, crowned by the natural fortress of the Aradom amba, rises to the west, whilst to the south and east stretches the vast fertile plain on which the English established their head-quarters during the expedition of 1868. Antalo has since been abandoned, and its quarters, separated from each other by deep ravines, are nearly all in ruins; its inhabitants have migrated to Chalikut, about 6 miles to the north-east, one of the most charming towns in Abyssinia, its houses and churches surrounded by gardens and thick masses of trees.
Situated on the border-chain of eastern Abyssinia, at the very fringe of the terrace-lands sloping to the plain of the Danakils, Antalo and Chalikut are of some importance as depots for the salt merchants passing from the country of the Taltals to Sokota. Between this latter town and Chalikut the chief marts are Samreh, situated near the former lacustrine plain of Samra; then the lowland towns of Atsbi, or Absebidera, and Fisho. The new town of Makaleh has been built by the present negus on the very crest of the Abyssinian chain, and like Debra-Tabor, Adua, and Magdala, occasionally serves as a temporary capital of the kingdom. Here an Italian engineer has erected a palace in the "European" style of architecture. From this commanding site King Johannes overlooks a large portion of the still unreduced Danakil territory. He has even made some conquests in these lowlands, and on one of the four terraces, which fall in a series of gigantic steppes down to the plain, he has founded the market of Seket, much frequented by dealers in salt.
North of Antalo and Chalikut, and parallel to the border chain of Abyssinia, several other commercial towns follow at long intervals on the main road which connects the uplands with the forts of Zulla and Massawah. Some of these miserable collections of huts have acquired a certain importance in the history of Abyssinian exploration as the camping-grounds and places of observation of European travellers. One of the most populous of these villages is Haussen, situated on a ​plateau intersected by deep ravines. Farther on comes Addigrat (Add' Igrat) or Attegra, standing in a fertile valley about 8,000 feet above the level of the sea, and commanded west and south-west by heights rising to a still farther elevation of over 3,000 feet. To the west, on a sandstone amba whose terminal escarpment, some 100 feet high, can be sculed only by means of ropes, lies the monastery of Debra-Damo, one of the most celebrated in Abyssinia. Here
all the surrounding populations come to deposit their wealth on the least indication of war. The summit of this rock, covered with a vegetable soil and provided with one hundred and fifty perennial wells, although carefully cultivated, yields but an insufficient crop, so that the monks have to trust to the generosity of the faithful on the plains. Formerly the younger members of the reigning house were banished to this amba.
Senafeh, a town situated still farther north, occupies a sheltered Position at the foot of precipitous rocks. As the first mountain station un the route followed by the English army to rescue the prisoners in the hands of Theodore, the camp of Senafeh, during the campaign of 1868, was one of the greatest strategic importance. When the English carriage road, from Adulis Buy to Senafeh through the gorges of Kumaïli is repaired, this village will probably become a flourishing city. To the west Halaï, or the "ascent," which was till recently entirely Catholic, and Digsa (Digsan) are the first upland towns on either branch of the river Hadas, and have also gained a place in the history of Abyssinian exploration.
The capital of Tigré is connected with the Red Sea coast by two routes. Tho shortest runs north-east towards Senafeh; the other takes a northern direction, crossing the Mareb at an elevation of about 4,000 feet, and thence ascending the ​ valley of this river along the heights of the western slope. North of the point where the river is crossed the escarpments of the plateau are broken into basalt headlands, columns, and peaks of fantastic shape. On these detached crags are the scattered villages belonging to Gundet, a district famous in African history. Here began the series of military disasters which, combined with financial loans and extortions, crushed the power of Egypt, making the country the sport of bankers and European diplomatists. At this period (1875) the Khedive of Cairo was one of the great potentates of the world so far as regarded the extent of his dominions. His captains had penetrated up the Nile as far as Lake Albert Nyanza and the watershed of the Congo. Egyptian garrisons had been stationed at the ports on the west coast of the Red Sea, and even farther south had gained a firm footing in the Ilarrar district and Somaliland. The invaders had already enclosed Abyssinia on the south, and thought the time had come to take possession of the plateau; but they were utterly routed at the battle of Gudda-Guddi, or Gundet. Nearly the whole of the invading army perished, together with its two leaders, Arakel Bey and the Dane Arendrup. The invasion, which was to have once for all reduced Abyssinia, restored its political unity from Hamassen to Shoa, and revived Christianity throughout the whole of this upland region, which seemed already a prey to Islam. In 1876 a second army, commanded by Hassan, son of the Khedive, again scaled the Hamassen plateau and occupied the strong strategic position of Gura, east of the Upper Mareb. But the lower part of their camp being surrounded by enemies, the Egyptian troops were almost entirely exterminated. They left their cannons and small-arms on the battlefield, and Prince Hassan only succeeded in obtaining his liberty by paying a heavy ransom. According to a report, which appears however to have been groundless, circulated immediately after the battle, Hassan and all the other prisoners were tattooed on the arm with the sign of the cross, a symbol of victory over the crescent.
Debaroa—Kasen—Arkilo.
The most populous and commercial town on the route from Adua to Massawah, by way of the western slope of the Upper Mareb, is Kodo Felassi (Godo Felassich), capital of the province of Seraweh. As a trading station it has replaced the town of Deharon, farther to the north, which, although now of little importance, was formerly the residence of the Bahr-Nagash, or "Sea Kings," as the governors of the maritime provinces were called. Unlike the round houses of Central Abyssinia, with their stone walls and thatched roofs, those of Debaroa are partly subterranean, resembling the dwellings in many districts of Caucasia and Kurdistan. The slope of the mountain is cut into steps, and the rectangular space thus obtained is transformed into a house by means of a clay roof, which at the back rests on the ground, and in front is supported by pillars ; the smoke escapes by means of an aperture made in the roof, which is closed in rainy weather, excluding light and air, and converting the dwelling into a loathsome cavern. The houses of all the Hamassen villajres are constructed in this fashion. ​The camp of the ras, or chief, who governs the province of Tigré, is situated at Alsaga (9,460 feet), at the junction of the routes ascending from the coast at Massawah, and from the countries of the Bogos and Mensas. A short distance to the east stands the town of Asmara, present residence of a shum, or chief, who claims the title of "King of the Sea." Asmara lies on the extreme edge of the Abyssinian plateau, at the point where the route entering on the Red Sea watershed winds down to the plain.
Like Asmara, a few other hamlets serve as intermediary stations for the caravans on their arrival at the crest of the Tigré plateau. Kasen, standing on the last spur of the Hamassen uplands north-west of Asmara, also commands one of the routes leading to Massawah. This post is occasionally dimly visible at a distance of 45 miles in a straight line between the haze of the horizon and the marine vapours.
From Kasen another caravan route runs north-west to the Senhit uplands, and to Keren, capital of the Bogos territory. This place, surrounded by olive-groves, already lies in the kwalla zone at a height of 4,800 feet above the sea. A fortress named Senhit, like the country itself, has been built by the Egyptians at the side of the town; but in virtue of the treaty concluded with the English it is to be evacuated and surrendered to the King of Abyssinia. Keren was the centre of the Catholic missions in northern Abyssinia, and its large seminary supplied numerous native priests for the churches scattered throughout the provinces of the empire. Nearly all the inhabitants of the Bogos and Mensa territories have abandoned their Mahommedan practices to re-embrace the Christian religion as taught in its new form by the Lazarist missionaries.
The route descending from Asmara to the Red Sea, encircles on the north a group of projecting uplands, on one of which stands the famous monastery of Bijan ​ or Bizan, founded in the fourteenth century, and often mentioned by Portuguese authors under the name of the convent of the "Vision." It takes this name from a gilded cloud said to have been seen hovering in mid air by the traveller Poncet and other pilgrims in the year 1700. Nearly a thousand monks live in the convent and the adjacent buildings.
At the foot of the mountains, but separated from the littoral plain by a chain of hills, stands the village of Ailef, in a lonely valley which would amply repay cultivation. In the neighbourhood, three miles farther south, are hot springs (138° F.) sufficiently copious to form a stream ; the surrounding ground within a radius of 155 feet from the orifice is too hot to permit of its being traversed barefooted. When descending the plateau the Abyssinians are accustomed to plunge into the source of the river Ailet, and even occasionally to wash their sheep in it. A poisonous beetle lives in a part of the hot spring where the temperature cools down to 118° F. Northwards in the Samhar district are many ancient ruins, chiefly tombs, some of which resemble the megalithic monuments of France. An ancient town, now abandoned, at one time covered a space of several miles in circumference.
Massawah.
On the plain a few stations follow along the route to the coast at Massawah. Such are Saati, or the "Fens," so-called from the pools of water which are usually found in the beds of the dried- up watercourses during the dry season; M'Kulu, which the Europeans of Massawah have chosen as their health-resort, and have surrounded with groves of tamarinds and other trees; Hotumlu, headquarters of the Swedish missionaries and their schools. To the south, nestled amidst mimosa-trees, is the town of Arkiio, a kind of capital, where resides the naïb, a descendant of a dynasty of chiefs who, since the end of the sixteenth century, have negotiated all commercial transactions between Abyssinia and Massawah. The inhabitants of this territory owe a double allegiance to the traders of the neighbouring seaport and to the Abyssinians of the plateau, whose claim to the ownership of the lowlands has been maintained" from age to age, and annually renewed by raising winter crops in the district. The Turks, having conquered the uplands and the coast in 1557, attempted at first to govern the coast populations directly; but finding themselves powerless against nomads ever on the move, they surrendered their authority to the chief of the Belaus, a branch of the Hababs who roamed over the neighbouring plains. Even the garrison of Massawah, mainly composed of Bosniaks, was gradually absorbed with the Ilababs by marriage. Made naïb, or "lieutenant," of the viceroys of Ilejaz, the chief of the Belau received a regular subsidy from the Turkish Government conditionally on his protecting the Turkish or Abyssinian caravans against the attacks of the neighbouring tribes, remitting to the suzerain a portion of the taxes paid by the merchants, and supplying the island with the necessary water. Frequent quarrels arose between the naïb and the Massawah islanders; the aqueducts were often cut, and the naïb himself, driven from Arkiio, was often ​obliged to take refuge in the interior. It also happened that the Abyssinian sovereigns, in whose interests it is essential that the port of Massawah should remain open to the outer world, have wasted the country to retaliate on the slavedealers and corsairs. By virtue of recent treaties, the approach to Massawah, now an Italian port, although the Egyptian flag still flies on the walls, is to be made
completely free to the trade of Abyssinia. This port of the Red Sea is therefore, if not politically at least commercially, more than ever a natural dependency of Abyssinia, and its importance, already considerable, cannot fail to increase rapidly if peace is maintained on the plateaux. Detached forts command the approaches of the town and mark the limits of an intrenched camp in which the Egyptian governor formerly maintained a corps of 3,000 troops. ​ The town of Massawah, the Arabian Medsawa, or Mussawah, and the Abyssinian Mutogna, occupies a coral islet about 3,300 feet long from east to west, but scarcely more than 1,000 feet broad from north to south. Stone houses of Arab construction, and branch huts, are crowded together on this rock, which is connected by a dyke with the still smaller island of Taulud. Taulud itself is attached to the mainland by means of a pier about 5,000 feet long, over which is carried the pipe by which the cisterns of Massawah are supplied with water from M'Kulu. But both aqueduct and pier, like the barracks, fortifications, and other buildings built some twenty years ago under the direction of Munzinger Pacha, are in a very dilapidated condition. As in their own country, the Egyptians imderstand the art of constructing, but neglect the duty of repairing, their public buildings. The Abyssinian trade with the Greek, Banian, and other foreign merchants settled at Massawah is conducted by means of caravans. These caravans, laden chiefly with the valuable products of the Galla country—coffee, gold, and white wax—set out at the end of winter, so as to cross the Takkazeh before the floods. They take two or three months to accomplish the journey, and return at the end of the autumn, resuming their annual journey the following spring. In 1861 the value of the Abyssinian exchanges, including slaves, through the port of Massawah, was estimated at £40,000, and twenty years thereafter, in 1881, they had risen to £280,000. The chief exports are skins and butter for Arabia, and mother-o'-pearl; that of ivory has greatly fallen off. Mules of Abyssinian stock are also exported to the plantations of Mayotte and the Mascarenhas Islands. Early in the year 1885 Massawah and the surrounding district was occupied by the Italians, with the consent of the English and Egyptian Governments.
The Dahlak Islands.
The large coraline islands of Dahlak east of the Gulf of Massawah, the chief of which are Dahlak and Nora, have lost nearly all the commercial importance they enjoyed before the Turkish rule. At that time they were inhabited by a Christian population of Abyssinian origin, whose chapels are still to be seen, and whose dialect, although in a corrupt form, is still current in the archipelago. At present the people, all Mohammedans, number 1,500, whose only resource is the milk and flesh of their goats, and the products of their fisheries. The Persian and Indian traders make yearly voyages to these islands to purchase the pearl oysters from the fisheries of the surrounding bays; the depot stands on the eastern shore of the larger island, at the village of Domolo. Like the pearl-divers of Bahrein, those of Dahlak never commence operations till after the rains, as they say that the pearly secretion is formed by the mixing of the fresh with the salt water. The natives also fish for the turtle, but neglect the sponges with which the bed of the sea is here thickly covered. The people of Dahlak and the surrounding
Adulis—Zulla—Haxfila.
The long and narrow bay stretching from the north southwards some 30 miles inland, which the Disseh islanders call the "Gulf of Velvet" possibly on account of the calmness of its well-sheltered waters, is much nearer to the upland Abyssinian plateaux than Massawah, and the commercial exchanges have often taken this direction. This inlet of the seaboard, the Annesley Bay of the English, is more commonly known by the name of Adulis Bay, as it was called some two thousand years ago, when the fleets of the successors of Alexander rode at anchor in its waters. A Greek inscription, copied in the sixteenth century by the Egyptian monk Cosmas ludicopleustjs, celebrates the great king Ptolemy, son of Ptolemy and "Arsinoe." A second, which relates the glorious expeditions of the Abyssinian king " Eb Aguda," is of the highest geographical importance, as it contains a series of twenty-three Abyssinian names, the first elements of the comparative geography of the country. Mariette has proved, by identifying many of the names engraved on the gates of Kamac with those of the Adulis inscription, that Egypt had certainly established relations with Abyssinia as far back as the time of Thotmes III., in the eighteenth century of the old era. A few capitals cut in the lava, and marbles sculptured by the Byzantine artists, are all that has been brought to light of the buildings of the ancient city, which now stands more than three miles inland, a fact probably due to an upheaval of the coast, or else to the gradual increase of the alluvial deposits. Its ancient name still exists under the form of Zulla. To the south on the heights are the remains of a town, which was probably the sanitorium of Adulis. During the second half of this century Adulis has often been regarded as a future French colony, because the strip of land round
​The coast of the Red Sea, which is deflected in the direction of the south-east, is here and there indented by bays and creeks where sea-ports might be established. were the caravans unfortunately not compelled to traverse the burning and dangerous
Danakil territory before reaching the valleys of the Abyssinian watershed. The bay of Hawakil, explored by the English at the time of the Abyssinian expedition, is obstructed by volcanic cones surrounded by rocks and lavas very ​difficult to traverse. "Hanfili, which is supposed to be the ancient port of "Antiphyllus, is useless except for working the saline lake Alalbed and the neighbouring pearl fisheries. The little harbour of Edd, some 120 miles from the Abyssinian chain, is also surrounded, like Ilawakil Bay, by volcanoes and rugged rocks which render the country almost inaccessible. A trading company of Nantes had acquired possession of this port, but, being unable to derive any advantage from it, offered it to the French Government, which declined the costly present. The company ultimately ceded all its rights to the Khedive.
Administrative Divisions.
The political and administrative divisions of Abyssinia undergo endless changes according to the power of the vassals and the caprice of the sovereign. Certain chiefs rule over several provinces and even possess the title of king, like the râs of Gojam, who was crowned in 1881, whilst others are fain to rest satisfied with a simple canton. In 1882 the largest fiefs numbered twenty-four, of which four were governed by râs (chiefs) of the first rank, five by those of the second rank, and fifteen administered by chiefs bearing the title of shion. But in spite of the political vicissitudes, most of the Abyssinian districts have retained their names and their general contours, as indicated by the very relief and nature of the geological formations themselves. Without including the vassal realm of Shoa, the tributary states beyond the Abaï, the Galla districts and the northern territories recently annexed, the Ayssinian empire at present comprises the four governments of Amhara, Gojam, Lasta, and Tigré, which, with their several provinces, fluvial basins, and chief towns, will be found tabulated in the Appendix.