414 A SrOA'VVA'u TRIP Ttl ROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



only disproved by every fact we know about them, but 

 stands in direct contradiction with his own remarks 

 about the broken obehsk built into the causeway. As 

 to the object of the erection of these splendid monu- 

 ments I will not venture to give an opinion, the more 

 so as the subject is fully discussed in the above- 

 mentioned work of Mr. Bent. A different and less 

 abstruse problem is the question of what led to their 

 overthrow. There appears to be a native tradition 

 that one at least, the largest, was purposely thrown 

 down by a certain Ethiopian queen, newly converted to 

 Christianity : it would be interesting to know how she 

 set about it, and why she spared the rest. The majority 

 of European travellers are agreed in attributing- this wide- 

 spread ruin to the agency of earthquakes, which are by 

 no means unknown in Abyssinia, though personally I 

 never experienced any but very slight shocks. But 

 here the same objection seems to occur : why should 

 some ha\'e been taken and others left ? I am inclined 

 to seek the cause — at least so far as the monoliths 

 of the upper valley are concerned — in a subsidence 

 of the soil undermined by the stream on whose bank 

 they stand ; but this again would not account for the 

 dowmfall of those in the main valley. 



I spent some time photographing, sketching, and 

 measuring the more important bits, and then went to 

 the house which had been prepared for my reception. It 

 was a good-sized tucul, and had been swept out and 

 garnished with carpets ; but they had forgotten the 

 fleas, which were awful. Half-way up the wall there 

 was a curious decoration consisting of sixty-two empty 



