CHAPTER IX 



Topography of Adis Ababa — A circular tour — Situation of the embassies 

 and the chief pubhc buildings — The telephone station and post office 

 — The Custom-house- — The Gebi — Selassee Hill — The arsenal — Visit 

 to the Russian and French embassies — M. le due d'Entotto — A 

 triumph for British interests — Selassee Church — The Russian Medical 

 Mission — Weighing ivory — A religious marriage — Abyssinian marriage 

 customs. 



Before I proceed with the narrative of our doings at 

 Adis Ababa, it will be as well, for the sake of clearness, 

 if I preface it with a short sketch of the topography of that 

 capital. When I say that the British Agency is two miles 

 from the Gebi, that buildings extend quite that distance 

 on the other side of the latter, and yet that within that 

 area one finds stretches of half a mile with hardly a hut, 

 it will give some idea of the size and scattered nature 

 of the "city," which resembles a collection of villages 

 rather than what we understand by a town. The market- 

 place lies almost due west from the Agency, and, as the 

 road leading to it, and returning by the palace, passes 

 nearly every place of interest in the capital, I propose 

 to take the reader on a circular tour along its extent.^ 



' Wlien I use the word "road," it must be understood that I do not mean one 

 either paved or macadamised, but a rough track across a liilly country, and in tlie 

 same muddy state as an EngHsh field-path in winter time. 



80 



Jo " '^ V \ 



