304 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap, xxvii 



of the lower ones having been torn down by the Mahdists. 

 They are nearly all the work of two celebrated Ethiopian 

 artists, Alahar Ingidarand Alahar Far, and are decidedly 

 better drawn and coloured than those I saw either at 

 Adis Ababa or at Entotto. Among the most noticeable 

 are St. George and the Dragon, The Last Supper (with 

 a little blue devil sitting on Judas's head), a curious 

 representation of The Ship in the Tempest on the Lake 

 of Galilee ; a saint (who, according to local tradition, 

 was St. Michael) holding the scales of judgment, while 

 below him, amid piles of heads and limbs, squatted a 

 monster eating human flesh. 



On the other side of a narrow valley, separating it 

 from the church, stands the gimp or castle, a building 

 which recalls an English church, with a square tower 

 and a very short nave. The castle is two stories in 

 height, the square tower and nave having battlemented 

 walls, built of undressed stone and mortar over four feet 

 thick. A pair of round towers, with domed tops rising but 

 little above the roof of the main building, protect the two 

 corners furthest from the castellated square tower. An 

 outside staircase, strongly defended by a high wall, leads 

 to the top storey, where the principal rooms are situated. 

 A circular stair in one of the round towers gives access 

 to the roof, which, as well as the floors, is of concrete 

 laid over saw-cut beams. The windows and doorways 

 are arched and enriched by red-brown bricks, which are 

 as good now as the day they were put up. Except where 

 some of the beams have given way, and for the absence 

 of doors and windows, the castle is still as strong as ever. 

 The natives told me that a large amount of treasure and 



