The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1896-04-15
THE ABYSSlNIANS.
They Are the Oldest Nation of
Christians in The World.
The Conquerors OF The Italians
Scalp The Slain.

years Of warfare, costing tho lives of
thousands Of men and millions of dol
lare, in only partial possession Of n
land once thought TO bo tho scene of
the ceaseless warfare between the lion
and the unicorn, land where the
rivers refused TO flow unless over beds
Of precious stones; whose mountains
were OF solid gold-tho home of the
queen of Shcba, who gathered from its
riches tho treasures which amazed
King Solomon, and finally the land
which. under the name of Ethiopia, has
n history as marvellous as that of
, Egypt, for whose throne, in fact, IL
actually furnished many monarcbs.
That is the Abyssinia of tradition.
In reality il is nothing to boast of.
Italy has acquired nothing but few
thousand miles of extra territory, peo-
pied by inhabitants who cat their
meat raw, who practice cruel tortures,
who cut mans head Off for debt, and
who, strangely enough, profess to be
the oldest body of Christians in the
world.
The typical Abyssiniau is tough
customer He would cast his father
into prison for small dobt chain his
mother-in-law to post for some
| slight infrnction of domestic disci-
plinc, and then calmly go to church to
worship with clear conscience. His
torians tell us that he was originally u
Caucasian. but he has welcomed
Egyptian, Hebrew, Arab, Greek and
Portuguese into his civilization
without restraint, aud as he stands
today he is literally all things to oil
men. There are probably half mil
lion OF him scattered over 130, 900
miles of territory, aud he has ached
to get chance at the Italians, who
profess to despise him, but who in
half a hundred battles and skirmishes
have had their hands full.
The Abyssinian has been fighting
against European supremacy for years.
Old king Theodore and then king
John, in the good old Days, used to
make prisoners of all embassies sent
out to them by foreign governments,
and then would fight the relief parties
sent out for their rescue. These ex-
changes of courtosios continued for n
quarter Of a century, but the willy
foreigner soon suppressed John.
There are some 200, 200 fighting
men in the kingdom, IS, 900 of whom
have become possessed of rifles The
Abyssinian fights mostly with sword
which has blade OF good steel two
feet long and n razor-like hook almost
as long. With this he can reach over
an enemy's shield and pound hole in
him before lie knows what has hurt
him. He is also fully armed with
spears, javelins aud other weapons,
aud when cloud of warriors, thou
sands strong, and thus armed, sudden :
ly appear in front of detached col.
umn OF European infantry, annihila.
ton generally follows. The practice
Of scalping, strangely enough, is part
of the Abyssinian warfare, and the
ghastly trophies thus gathered consti-
tute an Abyssinian's best claim to rec
ognition as a warrior.
But peace has its victories for this
strange people as we'll as war. Thus,
for killing an elephant single handed
he is permitted to wear q silver chain,
for a lion a similar ornament, etc.
When he has killed one foe his head
is shaved, with the exception of q
single plat; for two enemies he is al
lowed two plaits, and so on until five
adversaries have fallen before his
prowess, and then he is allowed to lie,
it grow at will.
Abyssinia has been governed for q
century past by kings who exercise q
limited authority. The warrior popu-
lation is too independent to submit to
tyranny, as more than one monarch
has found to his sorrow. Each dis.
trict submits to the quasi authority oi
a chief, and this has led to queer
administration Of the law. The Mo-
sale interpretations are carried out il
detail, and ian eye for an eye and a
tooth for tooth" is the basic princi
pie underlying the Abyssinian code.
The whole criminal code is merciles
in its infiiction of penalties. Thieve
are publicly whipped, and to heightel
the moral effect of the chastisemen
on the community the prisoner j