Evening star., 1935-12-22
BY LAURENCE STALLINGs.

HARAR, Ethiopia, November q (by
airmaiD There is something about q
great chief which, to these people of
the mountains, renders him immortal:
and when his death occurs, the grief
Is so mixed with aStonishment that
rage succeeds these emotions but
slowly. The death of the great Shoan
conqueror, Afwerk, needed 10 days for
a gathering spirit of revenge. AS one
who well-nigh fatally attended serv-
ices In his honor, this correspondent
can testify to the savage esteem. the
divine veneration, in which Afwerk
was held.
The man was the best of his class.
He stood about feet 10 inches, was
solidly muscled. and wore a complex
ion considerably blacker than most
Shoans, who possess God-knows-what
in the way of Hamitic and Semitic
racial strains. He was pointed out as
the Grazmaj of Shoa.
Where others among the Shoans
might boast loudly, meanwhile seeking
sinecures among the silver outlets of
the dynasty's favor, Afwerk sought
only battle. He was not fond of white
people and it was difficult to know
him intimately. He had come to Harar
three months ago, his fine spirit sup
ported by the new knowledge of forti-
fications which he had gained from
the Belgians at Adds Ababa.
Found Barbed Wire and Masks.
saw him first in the town square
here, where he was easily marked as
a great captain by his bearing. He
was standing amid 20 camions which
we're loading two commodities Of war
rare in this state of warriors. He had
found IL truckloads Of barbed wire
and of gas masks.
Afwerk did not return to Harar
when once he had embarked with his
wire and his masks. He preferred re-
naming at Gorahai, which he had
gladly sworn to defend. He did de-
fend it, and he died there; and if
Ethiopia wins to a new isolation
through military prowess, his name
will be enshrined, possibly canonized,
by his people.
Gorahai, which rises out of the
Schebeli darkness as the only high
ground dominating broad expanse
of plain, was to be sacrificial point.
Afwerk learned of his strategic mis-
sion early. He was to put the fear
of God into the Italian Somalis who
would be thrown against him. Later,
If feasible, he was to extricate his
forces and fall back upon Daggah
Bur. The latter plan was that little
sop of hope which every soldier is
given-men fight better in hopeless
situations if solaced with straw OF
falsity to which they may cling in
deSparing moments.
Retreat from Gorahai, once a force
was committed there, was very nearly
impossible from the start. The fort
was built of rock in a rectangle OF
roughly 400 yards front line and was
placed upon a granite escarpment
rising only slightly to an eminence
above its surroundings.
The GraZma1 AIWerK, down lnIC
Ogaden's miasmas from his high
lands, his plantations and his slaves
of Shoa, looked upon the fort which
he had created and saw that it. was
good. One can paraphrase scripture
in writing a panegyric of him; for to
his defenders he was god, and only
those who have seen the fealty paid
such a man can comprehend the alb
solute of such devotion. When SOL
diers, trained as regulars, saluted him
they still could not forbesr then to
bend low and kiss the ground at his
feet, their bayoneted rifles arching
dangerously toward his hard, black
face in that moment.
Afwerk worked these defenders fol
three months ere he had need of them