95, 



ETHIOPIA. 



ETHIOPIA. 



958 



The population of Etampes manufacture soap, leather, woollen- 

 yarn, counterpanes, and hosiery ; and trade in wool, corn, flour, and 

 honey. There are more than forty mills of different kinds on the two 

 brooks which water Etampes. Sandstone is quarried in the neigh- 

 bourhood, and much garden-stuff is grown for the supply of Paris. The 

 corn-market of Etampes is a very important one ; it is held on Satur- 

 day in every week, and attracts the farmers of the Beauce and Gatinais 

 districts. A vast number of flour-mills in and about the town are 

 constantly at work for the supply of Paris. Geoffroy de St. Hilaire 

 was a native of Etampes. 



ETHIO'PIA (Aiflioiri'a) was the name given by the ancient geographers 

 to the countries south of Egypt. In a general and vague sense they 

 called all the inhabitants of the south part of Africa, from the Red 

 Sea to the Atlantic, Ethiopians. Herodotus (iv. 197) speaks of the 

 Ethiopians as inhabiting the whole of South Libya (Libya with him 

 being synonymous with our Africa), as distinguished from the Libyans 

 who inhabited the Mediterranean coast and the interior adjoining it. 

 He also speaks of the Ethiopian Troglodytes (iv. 183) who lived to 

 the south of the Garamantes, and tells strange stories of them ; but 

 these particular Ethiopians must be considered included under the 

 general name. Strabo places the Hesperian Ethiopians near the 

 Atlantic Sea, and south of the Pharusii and Negretes, who were 

 themselves south of the Mauri. In this general sense, Ethiopians 

 corresponded with the inhabitants of the countries south of the Great 

 Desert, of which the ancients knew very little. Herodotus (vii. 70) 

 also speaks of Asiatic Ethiopians, who formed part of the great army 

 of Xerxes, and of ong-lived Ethiopians (iii. 17), whom he places on 

 the shores >jt the southern sea ; but their localities are not easily deter- 

 mined. The historian however observes that the Asiatic Ethiopians 

 were black, like those of Libya,. but differed from them in language, 

 and had straight hair ; whereas those of Libya had very curly hair, 

 by which term some modern writers have somewhat hastily concluded 

 that the woolly hair of the negro is intended. But Eastern Ethiopia, 

 properly called Ethiopia above Egypt (Herodotus, vii. 69), and also 

 Ethiopia Orientalis, was a distinct and better-defined country. It 

 included those regions which we now call by the name of Nubia and 

 Sennaar, with parts of Kordofan and the northern part of Abyssinia : 

 it may be said to extend from the debateable ground sometimes called 

 Ethiopian Egypt on the north to the Abyssinian highlands on the 

 south, though on the south the limits were unknown or undefined ; 

 and from the desert on the west to the hilly and desert country between 

 the Nile and the Ked Sea on the east. Meroe, which lay above the 

 confluence of the Astaboras (Takkazzie) and the Nile, was the ancient 

 capital of Ethiopia, in the limited and more definite sense of Ethiopia 

 above Egypt, in which sense we shall now consider the term. The 

 Troglodyta bordered upon Ethiopia to the east, extending along the 

 coast of the Bed Sea. To the west of Ethiopia were the Blemmyes, 

 a barbarian tribe, of whom wonderful stories were told aa having no 

 heads, but eyes and a mouth fixed in the breast. 



The physical features of Ethiopia are described under NUBIA and 

 SRNNAAB ; ABTSSINI Aand KOKDOFAN may also be referred to. Here, a 

 few words must serve to point out the general character of the 

 country. Although Ethiopia was scarcely so strictly confined as 

 Egypt to the Valley of the Nile, the Nile was the great central feature 

 of the country, and along its banks the towns and cities were nearly 

 all placed ; the high civilisation of Ethiopia was confined to the 

 insular district of Meroe and the country known as Ethiopian Egypt. 

 The Ethiopian Nile is in many respects a very different river from 

 the Nile of Egypt. In the southern part of the country both the 

 White and Blue branches of the river receive numerous affluents. 

 The two streams join at Khartum, below which the Nile traverses a 

 gloomy defile for 14 or 15 miles, when it emerges as a broad majestic 

 river into " immense plains of herbage bounded only by the horizon." 

 Through these plains it flows past Meroe to Darner, where it receives 

 the Tiikkaxzie, or Atbara, the Astaboras of the ancients, and the last 

 affluent of any consequence which the Nile receives. At its junction 

 with the Nile the Takkazzie is said to be two-thirds of a mile wide ; 

 the Nile itself being from a mile and a half to two miles wide. A 

 little lower what is called the Fifth Cataract of the Nile is reached, 

 and thenceforward for more than 600 miles succeed alternate rapids 

 and cataracts, so that the river is of little service for navigation, 

 while high limestone banks restrain its annual overflow, the source of 

 so much prosperity to the Egyptian territory. The southern part of 

 Ethiopia is humid, owing to the proximity of the Abyssinian high- 

 lamls, and there is a good deal of fertile soil. Along the vast plains 

 of the island of Meroe, and the country on either side, periodical rains 

 are said to occur, and the land supports a luxuriant vegetation. 

 North of Meroo the climate becomes more and more dry, and the 

 soil (except where watered by the overflow of the Nile) more arid; 

 but the remains of rude canals prove that the ancient occupants of 

 the land render, d it available for agricultural purposes by means of 

 artificial irrigation. In the northern districts however there must 

 always have been much waste and desert land ; and both the east and 

 went was ft dry and thinly-peopled country, becoming at length a 

 sandy desert. As the land in the southern parts receded from the 

 river it appears to have- been devoted to pasture, the inhabitants being 

 chi.'fly lKT.lsm.-n ; beyond were jungles abounding with wild 

 tli pivy nf saviige trilieH who lived chiefly by hunting. Some of the 



border tribes, the Elephantophagi and Struthophagi, seem to have 

 depended chiefly on hunting elephants and ostriches. In the 

 northern hills were gold-mines, which yielded a considerable amount 

 of treasure. The Macrobii were workers in metal, and had attained 

 a high state of cultivation. 



Ethiopia was a country early reduced to a fixed social state. Its 

 religion and sacred language were the same, or nearly the same, as the 

 religion and language of Egypt. Its government was monarchical, but 

 the monarch was subordinate to an all-powerful hierarchy, more 

 absolute than that of Egypt. Diodorus (iii. 6) says, "In Ethiopia, 

 when the priests think proper, they send a message to the king with 

 orders for him to die, the gods having so communicated their pleasure, 

 which no mortal should dispute." 



It has been long a subject of discussion among the investigators of 

 antiquity whether the arts of civilised life descended from Ethiopia 

 to Egypt, or ascended from Egypt into Ethiopia. Here, as in many 

 other contested historical points, much discrimination is required; 

 but the balance of probability appears to be in favour of the tradition 

 that Ethiopia was the parent of Egyptian civilisation and religion. It 

 was a very ancient tradition, that at a very remote period religious 

 colonies came down from Meroe into Egypt. Herodotus (ii. 29) says, 

 " At Meroe, the great city of the Ethiopians, the people worship only 

 Zeus and Dionysus (Ammou and Osiris), and them they honour 

 greatly. They have an oracle of Zeus, and they make their expe- 

 ditions whenever and wherever the deity, by his oracular answers, 

 orders them." The probable explanation of this passage seems to be 

 that the priests of Meroe sent colonies into other countries, and 

 Egypt was naturally one of the first lands to which they would resort. 

 The procession of the Holy Ship, with the shrine of the ram-headed 

 Ammon (the Zeus or Jupiter of the Greeks and Romans), which took 

 place annually at Thebes, and which was carried across tbe Nile to 

 the Libyan side, aud brought back after a few days, was said to be in 

 commemoration of the first advent of the god from Ethiopia by the 

 river. This ceremony is sculptured on several Egyptian and Nubian 

 temples, aud especially on the great temple of Karuak. Homer 

 probably alludes to it when he speaks of Jupiter's visit to the 

 Ethiopians and his twelve days' absence.. Diodorus (iii. 3) saya that 

 "the people above Meroe worship Isis and Pan, and besides them 

 Hercules and Zeus, considering these deities as the chief benefactors 

 of the human race." Heads of Isis have been found by Cailliaud at 

 Naga, near Shendy (about 17 N. lat.), in Upper Nubia, the sculptures 

 bearing all the marks of an original style, though of a coarser art 

 than that displayed in the same figures in the Egyptian temples. The 

 head of Isis is placed above that of Typhon, as in some of the temples 

 of Egypt. These temples of Naga however may be supposed, from 

 their style and sculpture.-:, to be of a later data than those at El- 

 Mesaourah, which are also in the district of Shendy, in a valley in 

 the desert, at some distance from the Nile, and about 12 miles E. from 

 Naga ; they consist of eight temples of small dimensions, the largest, 

 which stands in the centre, being only 34 feet long, connected by 

 galleries and terraces, with a great number of small chambers, the 

 whole being surrounded by a double inclosure. There ai-e no tombs 

 nor remains of private habitations in the neighbourhood. Traces of 

 a large tank are seen, protected from the sand by mounds of earth all 

 round it, the water of which served probably for religious and other 

 purposes. No sculptures or hieroglyphics adorn the walls ; only on 

 the six pillars which form the portico of the larger temple are there 

 hieroglyphics and figures in the Egyptian style. This temple seems 

 to be of a much later date than the rest. (Cailliaud, ' Voyage a Meroe.') 

 It is supposed that this secluded inclosure may have been the sacred 

 city of Meroe, the college of its priests, and the original seat of the 

 oracle of Jupiter Ammon, whence issued those religious colonies 

 which carried religion and civilisation from Ethiopia as far as the 

 Delta and the Oasis of the Libyan Desert. According to the tradition 

 of the country the name of El-Mesaourah was that of the ancient 

 fakirs, or recluses, who inhabited these edifices. 



The ruins of Meroe itself are now believed to be those discovered 

 by Cailliaud at Asaour, above the confluence of the Takkazzie aud 

 the Nile, and its situation between the two rivers probably gave rise 

 to the appellation of the Island of Meroo. The extent of the ruins 

 is said to be more considerable than that of Napata, near Barkal, or 

 of any other place yet examined in Nubia ; they are also in general 

 more dilapidated, and vast mounds of rubbish appear heaped up 

 everywhere, as if formed by the ruins of private as well as public 

 buildings. The latter consist, as at Napata, of temples and pyramids. 

 Of the temples there is not one the remains of which can be traced 

 with any certainty ; the front wall of the largest appears to have been 

 25 feet thick. The pyramids, about 80 in number, stand in groups 

 on the borders of the desert. The largest is about 60 feet at the base, 

 but most of them are much smaller, and generally in a ruinous state. 

 Most of the pyramids have little exterior sanctuaries attached to 

 them, and in one of them Cailliaud found the roof arched with a key- 

 stone, as in those of Mount Barkal. 



The connection between Egypt aud Ethiopia was renewed at various 

 periods remote from each other, and under various circumstances. 

 Herodotus says that he saw in the records of the priests of Memphis 

 (ii. 100) 18 Ethiopian kings registered among the 330 successors of 

 Menus, who preceded Sesostris. Whatever we may think of this scroll 



