ABYSSINIAN FRESCOES 



393 



On my return to camp, I found the Shum in charge 

 of the town waiting for me ; he informed me that he 

 could not let me cross the frontier till he had communi- 

 cated with the Dedjatch, who had gone to meet the 

 Ras, and that this would take four to six days. I 

 answered that I could not wait 

 so long, and that he must act 

 on the Emperor's letters, which 

 were explicit ; but he went away 

 shaking his head, and apparently 

 with no intention of letting me go 

 forward till he got a reply from 

 his immediate superiors. 



Next morning I returned to 

 the church of the Holy Trinity to 

 see the pictures ; among the most 

 interesting were several represent- 

 ing Abyssinian victories over 

 Egyptian troops, in which, while 



the few survivors of the enemy's forces were fieeing 

 for all they were worth, dripping with blood, not 

 a casualty was to be seen among the Abyssinians 

 — I thought of yEsop's fable of the lion and the 

 picture. An elephant-hunt, in which the intrepid 

 sportsman has just ridden up and plunged a spear 

 through the animal's shoulder, while a fox-terrier is 

 springing at the elephant in front, and an attendant, 

 with a beautifully placid countenance, is hugging a huge 

 blunderbuss a few paces in the rear, is one of the most 

 striking sporting pictures. Another work of art depicts 

 the Emperor John spearing lions on foot ; he is repre- 



Fragments of a Reredos. 



