The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-10-14

" l VIM WV 90 t+AANe' NS%AfONN
them Ethiopics, and the
Hebrew word Kush became
Ethiopia.
The ancient, time-Worn Am
haric is the Ethiopian language
and Ethiopia, translated, is spelled
"Ityopya." To the Greek scholars
the world was vast place. Be-
yond the horizon lay another
horizon. They didn't know quite
how far they dared to go, before
they dropped off into space. But
beyond their immediate horizon,
they knew stretched many lands
inhabited by black people.
So Ethiopia to the Greek schol-
ars was an apt phrase which COW
cred plenty of territory. For its
English meaning is The Land Of
the Burnt Face People"
DUT where, the curious want TO
ID know, does AbySsinia come in
AbySsinia is synonymous with
Ethiopia. 1t is an Arabic word
meaning confusion has come to
man." The Ethiopians despise
the word To them it is an insult,
a term of contempt.
Yet Ethiopia, to the neighbour
ing Arabs, was the land of mon
grels" and the name AbysSlnla
came to be used with equal fire.
qucnce.
The Ethiopians insist they play
second fiddle to no man in the
matter of honorable and famous
forbearS. The biblical Sheoa,
they say, was their country. and
the Queen of Sheba, their queen.
From the love she bore King
Solomon, there came son, and
from the son descended in an I'M
broken line, a family, one of which
today sits upon this ancient throne
and defiies the powers and might
of a modern Caesar.
The latter often boasts to his
fellow countrymen the glories OF
the Roman past and shouts pas
Sionate eXhortationS that they re-
write this ancient history in mod
ern language. And when they
hear of this, the Philippians laugh.
For King Solomon and his
glorious queen lived 1000 years be
fore the coming of Christ, a time
when Rome was virgin ground of
forest and grass and mud, through
which a mighty river wound its
lazy way down to an ocean as yet
undiscovered by man. Antiquity?
GlorieS Of the past? Come again,
laugh the Ethiopians when they
hear the boasts of the modern
Caesar echoing across the banks
of the Tiber.
ME EthiopianS are a branch of
Il the Hamitic race-and the
HamiteS came from Egypt. Once
upon a time, when the deeds of
the Bible were in the making, the
Egyptians ruled the world.
They were a great race of SOL
diers, and sailors, farmers and
builders and, among other nations,
they conquered Ethiopia. The
Philippians paid them tribute in
gold. silver and copper, slaves,
frankincenSe and myrrh. But
taxes grew heavier and the con-
quering hand of the Pharoahs
grew more oppressive.
So the Ethiopians revolted and
threw off the yoke of the Egyp-
tians. They became free and
independent people once again and
from that day to this-no man,
black or white, has conquered
Ethiopia. Many have tried, but
all have failed.
MuSsolini talks Of avenging the
Italian defeat at Adowa in March
of l896-but that was not the first
time the shadow of Rome fell
athwart the children of King Sol
onion.
When the Romans marched into
the Holy Land, Jews fled right
and left When the Jews were
told to render unto Caesar the
tribute that is Caesars" many de-
cided that it was better to pack
up and get out. And great num-
bers of them fled into Ethiopia.
THEN down from the dry and
l. dusty plains of Arabia came
sweeping Moslem raiders. They
raced through Asia Minor, and
to the fringes of Ethiopia, burn
ing, pillaging and fighting. Then
AbySSinia disappeared from the
worlds ken for almost a thousand
years. 1t was, indeed, The For
gotten Country" And it's people
lived within themselves for a
thousand years.
And for thousand years the
rest of the world plodded along
the path of progress to new in
ventions, new discoveries, new So
cialiSmS.
Then came the Sixteenth Gen.
fury. The Egyptians, the Ro-
mans, the Greeks-they had all
fallen by the wayside of ever-ad-
vancing Time. Each had had his
day IN the sun. And each had
grown fat, lazy and decayed into
nothingness. And so in the Six
teenth Century, the Portuguese
and the Spaniards were the king
pins of the era. Both were great
sailor nations. But it fell to the
lot OF the Portuguese to redis-
cover Ethiopia.
IT was almost like the famous
Il fairy tale of the Sleeping
Pnontu uorn ,,of.1v,